[40a] Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, was of the blood royal of England, being a son of William Lord Bourchier, (Earl of Ewe in Normandy) and Anne his wife, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester (sixth son of Edward III.), and Eleanor his wife, daughter of Humphry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Constable of England, and widow of Edmund Earl of Stafford. He was a brother of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Ewe, afterwards of Essex, and became Bishop of Ely, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1454, and retained that see until he died, very aged, in 1486, having held it thirty-two years, and in the reigns of five kings. He was also Lord Chancellor and a cardinal.
[40b] Called “Lord Cobham” by Hall and Holinshed; and by Sandford, p. 296; and “Edward Broke Lord Cobham” by Dugdale, in his Baronage, vol. ii. p. 159. But see Dugdale’s Baronage, vol. iii p. 281, where he is called “Sir Edward Brooke, Knight, called Sir Edward Brooke of Cobham,” the son of Sir Thomas Brooke and Joan his wife. According to Dugdale, he favoured the title of the Duke of York, upon his return out of Ireland, in the 29th year of Henry VI.; took part with the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, on purpose to raise an army, which, under the pretence of removing evil counsellors from the King, might advance the duke to the throne. He fought against the Lancastrians at the first battle of St. Alban’s, in 1455; and, after the accession to the throne of Edward IV., attended him into the North, when the Lancastrians were endeavouring to make head again, and had got possession of some strong places in Northumberland, in 1462. He died in the fourth year of Edward IV., and was succeeded by John Brooke, his son and heir, who had first summons to Parliament by the title of Lord Cobham, in the twelfth year of Edward IV.; consequently, although the son was ennobled, there does not appear to be any good authority for Hall’s and Holinshed’s designating the father as Lord Cobham. “Now, as they passed through Kent, there came to them the Lord Cobham, John Gilford, William Pech, Robert Horne, and manie other gentlemen.”—Holinshed’s Chronicles, vol. i. fo. 653.
[40c] Thomas Lord Scales, of Nucels, in Herefordshire, was a commander of celebrity in the French wars. After being compelled to surrender the Tower of London, subsequently to the battle of Northampton, in 1460, he endeavoured to escape by water; but, being discovered by some of the Earl of Warwick’s men, was captured and put to death by them. His daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, was married, first, to Henry Bourchier, second son of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex; and afterwards to Anthony Wideville or Wodeville, eldest son of Richard Wideville or Wodeville, Earl Rivers, by Jaquette his wife, daughter of Peter of Luxembourg, Earl of St. Paul, and widow of John Duke of Bedford, Regent of France and third son of King Henry IV., who succeeded to the earldom of Rivers after his father’s death. Anthony Wodeville became, in right of his wife Elizabeth (daughter of Thomas Lord Scales), Lord Scales, and afterwards Earl Rivers. He was brother of Elizabeth, Queen of Edward IV. (See Fenn’s Collection of Original Letters, vol. i. p. 139, note 3; Dugdale’s Baronage, vol. i. p. 618, vol. iii. pp. 231–233; Catalogue of Nobility, by Ralph Brooke, pp. 193, 194.) He was, when Earl Rivers, beheaded at Pontefract, by order of the Council, during the Protectorate, and, as is believed, at the instigation of Richard Duke of Gloucester, without any trial, on the 13th of June, 1483. Lord Richard Grey (son of the Queen Dowager Elizabeth, by her first husband, Sir John Grey of Groby, son of Edward Grey, Lord Ferrers, of Groby) and Sir Thomas Vaughan were executed there at the same time. The Wodevilles were originally of the Lancastrian party; and Sir John Grey of Groby, the first husband of Elizabeth, lost his life fighting for that party, at the first battle of St. Alban’s, in 1455; but, after Elizabeth’s charms had made a conquest of the heart of Edward, and he had married her, the Wodevilles became staunch Yorkists.
[41a] William Neville, Lord Falconberg, afterwards Earl of Kent, was a younger son of Ralph Neville, first Earl of Westmoreland, by Joan his second wife, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and was an uncle of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, called the King-Maker. He was a decided Yorkist, distinguished himself at the battle of Towton, and was created Earl of Kent in the first year of Edward IV., and died in the second year of that king’s reign.
[41b] John Clinton, Lord Clinton, served in more than one expedition into France, was originally a Lancastrian, but forsook that party in the thirty-eighth year of Henry VI. for that of the Duke of York, for which he was attainted, and his lands declared confiscated by the Parliament of Coventry, in the thirty-eighth year of Henry VI., 1459; but all the acts and proceedings of that Parliament were declared void by an act of Parliament of 39th Henry VI. (See Rot. Parl. 39 Henry VI. (1460), vol. v. p. 374.) His estates and honours were restored on the accession of Edward IV.
[41c] Henry Bourchier, originally Earl of Ewe in Normandy, afterwards Lord Bourchier, son and heir of William Lord Bourchier, Earl of Ewe, by Anne, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, sixth son of Edward III., was brother of Thomas Bourchier, Bishop of Ely, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, was created Viscount Bourchier in the twenty-fifth year of Henry VI., and was also created Earl of Essex in the first year of Edward IV., and died in 1483.
[41d] George Neville was consecrated Bishop of Exeter in 1455, became Lord Chancellor in 1460, and was afterwards Archbishop of York, in 1466. He was the fourth son of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and brother of Richard Neville, the great Earl of Warwick. He was Bishop of Exeter before he was twenty-five years old, and Lord Chancellor in 1460, before he had completed his thirtieth year, and died in 1476.
[42a] Hall, Holinshed, Stow.
[42b] Hall, fo. 176; Holinshed, vol. i. fo. 654. “Then the Earles of March and Warwike, with the Lords Fauconbrige, Clinton, Bourcher called the Earle of Ewe, the Pryor of Saint John’s, Audley, Burgavenny, Say, and Scrope, the Archbishop, the Pope’s Legate, the Bishops of Excester, Ely, Salisbury, and Rochester, addressed them forth to the King at Northampton, leaving the Earle of Salisbury to be governour of the citie in their absence. The Lord Scales and Hungerford, that before the comming of the Earles were in the citie of London, and would have had the governance thereof, went to the Tower of London, and with them the Lords Vessy, Lovell, Delaware, Kendale a Gascoigne; Knights, Sir Edmond Hampden, Thomas Brune Sherife of Kent, John Bruin of Kent, Gervais Clifton Treasurer of the King’s House, Thomas Tyrell, the Dutches of Excester, and many other. Then was the Tower of London besieged both by water and land, that no victualls might come to them. And they that were within the Tower cast wild fire into the city, and shot many small gunnes, whereby they brent and slew men, women, and children, in the streetes; also they of the city layd great guns on the further side of the Thames against the Tower, and brake the walls in divers places.”—Stow’s Annals, pp. 408 and 409.
[42c] Margaret, usually called Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI., was the daughter of Renè, Duke of Anjou; was married to Henry VI. at Southwick, in Hampshire, on the 22nd of April, 1445, and was crowned at Westminster on the 30th of May following. On the 13th of October, 1453, Edward, the only child of the marriage, was born. After the defeat of the Lancastrians at the battle of Tewkesbury, and his murder, on the 4th of May, 1471, Margaret fled, and took sanctuary in a poor religious house, and was brought from thence prisoner to London, and Henry died in the Tower very soon after the battle. A considerable time afterwards she was sent home to her father, Duke Renè, having been ransomed by Louis XI. King of France for 50,000 crowns; and nothing more, connected with England, occurred respecting her, during the remainder of her life, which was passed in retirement, and she died in France, in 1482.