Name William Haute Role Politician | Died 1462 | |
William Haute (died 1462), of Bishopsbourne, Kent, was an English politician.
Contents
Early life
Haute was the eldest son of Sir Nicholas Haute, MP, of Wadden Hall in Waltham, Kent, and Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Couen or Cawne of Ightham Mote. William's mother having died in March 1400, his father remarried to Eleanor Flambard (daughter of Edmund Flambard of Shepreth, Cambridgeshire), formerly the wife of Walter Tyrrell of Avon (between Ringwood and Christchurch), Hampshire.
William Haute thus became stepbrother to Sir John Tyrrell of East Horndon, later to be Speaker of the House of Commons and Treasurer of the Royal Household. In 1415, for Henry V's expedition to France, both Sir Nicholas Haute and his son William were mustered to join the retinue of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. William chose to enlist not in his father's company but in that of Tyrrell his stepbrother. Nicholas is thought to have died, perhaps of wounds, within a year or so after his return to England: William had succeeded to him by 1417, and Eleanor died in 1422.
Two marriages
Haute was a Member of Parliament for the Shire of Kent in 1419, and before October of that year he married Margaret Berwyk, daughter of Sir Hugh Berwyk of Frilsham, Berkshire. She was the sister and heiress of Thomas Berwyk, and the widow of Ralph Butler of Gloucestershire. William and Margaret had one daughter. He was appointed Sheriff of Kent for the year of 1420-21, during which he supervised elections for the county to three parliaments. From 1424 Haute held commission of the peace in Kent. During the 1420s his relations with John and Edmund Tyrrell presumably encouraged his continuing allegiance to the Duke of Gloucester.
His second marriage, to Joan Wydeville, daughter of Richard Wydeville (1385-1441) (of Grafton, Northamptonshire and Maidstone, Kent) and his wife Joan (Bittellesgate), was arranged in the middle of 1429. At this time Wydeville was newly appointed Captain of Calais, and Haute was seeking to join the retinue of Sir John Stuard at Rysbanck Tower. Considerable endowments were agreed upon on both sides, those made by Haute involving the intention to frustrate his former wife's entail of her estates upon their daughter. He also acted as feoffee for estates of Sir John Passhele, his wife's brother-in-law. Late in 1429 Haute was again MP for Kent.
Wydeville associations
Haute developed a friendship with his father-in-law, and having served again for the Shire in 1432 supported Wydeville at his election in 1433. Together they attended the council of spring 1434 at which Gloucester, complaining of the progress of the French war, fell into dissent with John of Lancaster, who could expect Wydeville's loyalty as his chamberlain. Although his overseas service is not well understood, from the mid-1430s onwards Haute held numerous commissions for array, musters for France, tax assessments, royal loans, smuggling, etc.
The marriage of the younger Richard Wydeville (future 1st Earl Rivers) to Jacquetta of Luxembourg, widow of John of Lancaster, followed in c. 1435, and Elizabeth Woodville was born c. 1437. In 1441 Richard Wydeville senior appointed Haute executor of his will, and he retained a trusted position in his son's family circle. He represented Kent in Parliament a fourth time in 1450. He did not always occupy the same political stance as the younger Wydeville, however, and showed some favour to the cause of Jack Cade (perhaps misliking the growing power of James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele), receiving a pardon in that connection and retaining his commission for the peace until 1453.
Last years
His failure in two Chancery causes in the years following, concerning his trusteeships, were more damaging. It was apparently late in life that William Haute made a petition to Henry VI in consideration of his military service:
"Please it unto your highnesse of youre most habundant grace to considre the long good and contynuell service the whyche your full humble servant William Haute Squier hath doon to youre most noble ffader whom god assoill and to you soverain lorde in the werres of ffraunce bicause of whiche he is so broken and brused, and comen to so grete age that he may not nowe well labour nor travayle, to graunt him youre gracious lettres to be made after the forme and effect of a cedule herto annexed, and he shal pray to god for you and for youre most noble estate."
Having been entrusted in January 1461 with certain responsibilities in preparations to resist the army of Margaret of Anjou, Haute died at the end of September 1462. He therefore could not know of his niece Elizabeth's marriage and coronation as the queen consort of King Edward IV in 1464. His will reveals that he possessed a large collection of religious relics.
Children
William Haute and Joan Wydeville had four sons and five daughters. The family is represented among the Pedigrees of the Harleian Visitations for Kent, and William himself mentions several of them in his will.