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Birth:          ABT 1341 
Death:          1413 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tuchet,_4th_Baron_Audley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Stafford_(died_1413)
Sir Humphrey Stafford, K.G. (c. 1341 – 1413), of Southwick, Wiltshire; Hooke, Dorset; 
and Bramshall, Staffordshire, was a member of the fifteenth-century English gentry. He 
held royal offices firstly in the county of his birth, and later in the west country, 
particularly Devon and Dorset,[1] and has been called 'one of the wealthiest 
commoners in England' of the period.[2]
Early life and career[edit]

Humphrey Stafford was born some time after 1341, the eldest son of Sir John Stafford 
of Amblecote and his second wife, Margaret Stafford (a daughter of Ralph, 1st Earl of 
Stafford, a distant relation).[1] Ralph Stafford (MP) was his brother.[3] His first official 
positions ranged from tax assessor for Wiltshire (1379), J.P. for the same county a 
year later, Sheriff of Staffordshire (1383–4), and Member of Parliament for 
Warwickshire during the October 1383 parliament.[4] Prior to his long parliamentary 
career, he was primarily a soldier of the crown, generally retained in the armies of the 
Earls of Stafford, campaigning in France (in 1359), Ireland (1361), and Flanders 
(1373).[1]

Family[edit]

Stafford married twice.[5] In 1365 he married Alice Greville (born c. 1345) of 
Southwick, Wiltshire, who at the time was a ward of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of 
Hereford, and brought Stafford estates in Warwickshire. His second marriage, around 
1387, to Elizabeth d'Aumarle (c. 1345 – 1413) gave him those lands in the south-west 
which formed his later power-base, and allowed him to stand for the Dorset 
parliamentary constituency for the subsequent twelve parliaments. His second wife 
also brought him Sir William Bonville of Shute (died 1408) as a brother-in-law.[1]

Later career[edit]

Main article: Lords Appellant

In 1388, Humphrey Stafford was eventually caught up in the crisis of the Lords 
Appellant, being required by them to take oaths of loyalty to the regime in Dorset. It 
was at this time – in a possibly related incident – that members of the Cornish gentry 
conspired to assassinate him, eventually managing to shoot him 'with a certain engine 
called a "gunne" so that his life was despaired of.'[1] However, since at the same time 
he loaned King Richard II 100 marks, and later received a royal appointment to assess 
the Appellants' forfeited lands there, the king clearly did not see Stafford as a major 
player in the rebellion locally.[1] Following Richard II's deposition by Henry 
Bollingbroke in 1399, Stafford does not seem to have lost royal favour by his previous 
support for the old king; indeed, within a few weeks of Henry's coronation he was 
referred to as a 'King's Knight' and was granted the royal manor of Seavington, 
Somerset.[1] By now Stafford was, in E.F. Jacob's words, 'a shire knight of standing 
and influence,'[6] and of all the gentry in the county, Humphrey was 'at their head for 
wealth.'[7] His estates valued in the 1412 tax assessment at around £570 per annum.
[8]

Death[edit]

Stafford died on 31 October 1413. In his will he left, among other things, his 
household servants one pound each; to his grooms, 6s.8d. apiece; and to his pages, 
half that amount. The majority of his bequests were to ecclesiastic institutions: Over 
£23 to Westminster Abbey, £20 to the Benedictine Abbey in Abbotsbury, and £8 for 
two-years' worth of masses for Stafford's soul. His wife had died two weeks 
previously.[1] His heir was Sir Humphrey Stafford (died 1442). Stafford also left an 
illegitimate son, John, by one Emma, of North Bradley; he was the subject of a Papal 
dispensation in 1408, rose through the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church, and 
eventually became Bishop of Bath and Wells, Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
Chancellor of England.[2]

Parents
STAFFORD John ()
DE STAFFORD Margaret ()

Siblings
STAFFORD Humphrey (ABT 1341 - 1413)

Marriage To GRENVILLE Alice (ABT 1345 - )
    m. 1365 

Notes


Children by GRENVILLE Alice ABT 1345 - 
STAFFORD Elizabeth (ABT 1372 - )

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