Noble family Bonville Parents Sir John Bonville Name William 1st | Mother Elizabeth FitzRoger Father Sir John Bonville | |
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Died February 18, 1461, St Albans, United Kingdom Spouse Margaret Grey de Ruthyn (m. 1414) Similar People Margaret of Anjou, Richard Neville - 16th Earl, Rene of Anjou, Henry VI of England, Isabella - Duchess of Lorraine | ||
William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (c. 1392/3 – 18 February 1461), KG, of Shute, Devon, was an English nobleman, soldier, and administrator. He was a staunch Yorkist during the Wars of the Roses, and was executed following the Lancastrian victory at the Second Battle of St Albans by order of King Henry VI's Queen Consort, Margaret of Anjou.
Contents
- Origins
- Inheritances
- Career
- Battle of Clyst Heath
- Wars of the Roses
- Death
- Succession
- Marriages and children
- Residences and landholdings
- References
Origins
From an old West Country family, he was born at Shute in Devon, the elder son of Sir John Bonville (c. 1371 – 21 October 1396) and his wife Elizabeth FitzRoger (15 August 1370 – 15 April 1414). His date of birth is uncertain: in 1413 he was said to be baptised on 31 August 1392 shortly after birth, but in 1414 this was changed to 12 August 1391. Various documents indicate he was four years of age in 1397, 16 years of age in 1408, and 21 years of age in 1414. He had a younger brother Thomas and one sister, Isabel. After his father's death in 1396, his mother married Richard Stucley (died 1441), of Ridgewell in Essex, Member of Parliament for Sussex, with whom she had two sons, Roger and Hugh.
Inheritances
As Bonville's father, Sir John Bonville, had predeceased his own father, Bonville was heir to his grandfather, Sir William Bonville, when the latter died on 14 February 1408. He was also heir to his mother, Elizabeth FitzRoger, at her death.
Career
Bonville was knighted before 1417 during the campaigns in France of King Henry V. He was Knight of the Shire for Somerset in 1421, and for Devon in 1422, 1425 and 1427. In 1423 he was appointed by the king as Sheriff of Devon. He was Seneschal of Aquitaine at various times from 1442 to 1453, and Governor of Exeter Castle from 1453 to 1461. In 1443 Bonville was retained to serve King Henry VI for a one-year term and in 1449 was retained to serve the King at sea. He was summoned to Parliament from 10 March 1449 to 30 July 1460 by writs directed, for the most part, Willelmo Bonville domino Bonville et de Chuton ("To William Bonville, lord of Bonville and Chewton"), by which he is held to have become Baron Bonville. On 8 February 1461 he was nominated to the Order of the Garter.
Battle of Clyst Heath
In 1441 riots resulted from a dispute over the Duchy of Cornwall between Bonville and Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, and on 14 December 1455 the two sides fought the Battle of Clyst Heath near Exeter, which resulted in the defeat of Bonville, the sacking of Shute and injury to a number of persons.
Wars of the Roses
According to Richardson, Bonville was to all outward appearances loyal to King Henry VI during the Wars of the Roses until he joined the Yorkist side at the Battle of Northampton in July 1460. Both his son, William Bonville, and his grandson, William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington, were slain at the Battle of Wakefield on 31 December 1460.
Death
Less than two months later in February 1461 the Yorkists suffered another defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans, where Lord Bonville and another Yorkist, Sir Thomas Kyriel, were taken prisoner by the victorious Lancastrians. The two men had kept guard over King Henry VI during the battle to see that he came to no harm. The King had been held in captivity by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and transported in the train of the latter's army, but had been abandoned on the battlefield. In return for their gallantry the King promised the two men immunity. However Queen Margaret, who was present at the battle, remembered that Lord Bonville had been one of the men who had held King Henry in custody after the Battle of Northampton in July 1460, and wanted revenge. Disregarding the King's promise of immunity, she gave orders for the beheading of Lord Bonville and Sir Thomas Kyriel the next day, 18 February 1461. It is alleged that she put the men on trial and appointed as presiding judge her seven-year-old son, Prince Edward. "Fair son", Margaret is said to have inquired, "what death shall these knights die?" The young prince replied that they were to have their heads cut off, an act which was swiftly carried out, despite the King's pleas for mercy.
Succession
Bonville was not attainted, as within three weeks of his death the Yorkist King Edward IV came to the throne. Bonville's widow, Elizabeth, was assigned a substantial dower in recognition of his services to the Yorkist cause. The Barony passed suo jure to his great-granddaughter, Cecily Bonville, the seven-and-a-half-month-old daughter of his grandson, William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington, who had already succeeded suo jure to the Barony of Harington following the death of her father at Wakefield in December 1460. In the space of little more than six weeks Cecily Bonville thus became the wealthiest heiress in England, having inherited the vast Bonville and Harington estates. She became a royal ward and on 18 July 1474, by order of King Edward IV, she was married to Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, the eldest son of Elizabeth Woodville, then the king's wife, by her first marriage to Sir John Grey of Groby.
Marriages and children
Bonville married twice:
With a mistress Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Kirkby and his wife Isabel Tunstall, he had an illegitimate son John (died 12 May 1491), who married Alice, daughter of William Dennys and his wife Joan St Aubyn, and had a son and six daughters, including Cecily, who married first Thomas Wivell, of Crediton, and secondly Maurice Moore of Moorehayes in Cullompton.
Residences and landholdings
Bonville's principal residence was at the manor of Chewton Mendip, Somerset. He was also lord of the manors of Sponton (or Spaunton) and Hutton Bonville in Yorkshire.