 | ||
John Nangle, 16th Baron of Navan (died before 1508)) was an Irish nobleman of the early Tudor era. He was renowned in his lifetime as a courageous soldier, who fought with distinction at the Battle of Knockdoe.
Contents
Family
He was the son of Thomas Nangle, 15th Baron of Navan: his mother was Ismay Welles, daughter of Sir William Welles, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and his wife Anne Barnewall. The Nangle (originally named de Angulo) family had come to Ireland around 1172 and became substantial landowners in County Meath, although it has been said that they played a "curiously obscure" role in Irish history. The Baron of Navan was a feudal baron: he was entitled to style himself a Baron but he was not a peer and did not have a seat in the Irish House of Lords. The date of Thomas's death is uncertain, but John had succeeded to the title by 1487.
Lambert Simnel
Like almost all of the Anglo-Irish nobility, Lord Navan appears to have followed without question the policies pursued by Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, who dominated Irish political life between 1477 and his death in 1513. Along with nealy all the Irish nobility, Lord Navan joined with Kildare in 1487 in declaring that the pretender Lambert Simnel was the rightful King of England. Simnel was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin and invaded England with an Irish army, but was crushed at the Battle of Stoke Field. The victorious King Henry VII showed remarkable clemency, pardoning almost all of the surviving rebels, including Navan, as well as Simnel himself, who was given a job in the royal household. In 1488 Sir Richard Edgcumbe accepted Navan's pledge of homage and fealty to King Henry.
Lambert Simnel in Ireland.
Battle of Knockdoe
Lord Navan remained a loyal supporter of the Earl of Kildare and fought under his command against the Burkes of Clanricarde at the Battle of Knockdoe in 1504. Navan was highly praised for his courage in the fight. According to the account of the battle in the Book of Howth:
MacSweeney struck Darcy such a blow that he put Darcy on his knee: that Nangle, Baron of Navan, being a lusty gentleman, that day gave MacSweeney such payment that he was satisfied ever after.
Marriage and issue
Navan's date of death is not recorded, but it must have been before 1508 when a deed refers to his widow as having remarried. She was Eleanor, daughter of Sir Thomas Dowdall of Newtown; her second husband was William Preston, 2nd Viscount Gormanston. She and Navan had at least 2 children: