Sherborne Missal
His son, Sir Humphrey, junior, who was known as "Humphrey Stafford with the Silver Hand" This was thought to be either because of his generosity or because he had an artificial hand plated in silver following an accident".
Lastly there was Humphrey the Earl of Devon. He married Margaret, the daughter of the Earl of Dorset (he was executed at the Battle of Hexham in 1464). Their son, Henry, became the Duke of Buckingham who married Katherine Woodville the sister of Elizabeth, the Queen to King Edward IV.
He was one who would overcome the restraints of the Statutes of Mortmain by the comparatively late foundation of a hospital in Sherborne. On the 11th July 1437, eleven years after its inception by King Henry VI, the king granted a licence to the Bishop of Salisbury, Humphrey Stafford and others to incorporate this house "of perpetual charity" to the honour of God, Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist for the reception of the "poor, sick and impotent" with a chaplain who should prey for the king, the brethren of the house and the benefactors while they lived.
In November 1453, his religious leanings were cast aside when he was at the centre of one of many rural revolts of the time. It was reported to Parliament on 17th November that:
"here are great and grievous riots done in the West Country as the City of Exeter, by the Earl of Devonshire, accompanied with many riotous persons, as it is said with 800 horsemen and 4000 footman, and they have robbed the Church of Exeter, and taken the canons of the church and put them to ransom, and taken the gentlemen in the country, and done and committed many other great and heinous injuries for unless the riots and inconveniences were resisted, it would cause the ruin of that land" |
It was proposed in Parliament that a protector should be found to defend Exeter. No suitable person was found and Parliament later called upon the Duke of York to quell the riots.
His presence at the Battle of Northampton in July 1460 was noted. Stafford was to become a leader of Yorkist forces in the Wars of the Roses
against the Lancastrians. After Hexham and the surrender of the Northumbrian castles it seemed as though the Lancastrian cause could never recover sufficiently to become a serious threat to Edward IV. Much Yorkist strength lay in the twin pillars of the King and the Earl of Warwick. Between 1465 and 1469 the King, by a series of foolish and underhand acts, estranged Warwick, who became his most embittered enemy.
This rift signalled a revival of Lancastrian activity. Warwick raised a considerable army with which he marched on London. The King was at Nottingham dealing with the Yorkshire rebellion, found himself between two hostile forces. He had some 15,000 men but the loyalty of many was suspect. The Earls of Devon and Pembroke came to his assistance with 6,000 and 14,000 archers respectively. Meanwhile the northern rebels, under Sir John Conyers, marched on Leicester and got between the King and the Earls. The forces of Devon and Pembroke met at Banbury, where the Earls quarreled. As a result, Devon drew off his men, leaving Pembroke face a vastly superior force yet the held their own. Eventually, lured down from their hillside position into the valley, and betrayed by the vanguard of the King's army under Sir Geoffrey Gate, who arrived late on the scene and then joined the enemy, the Welshmen broke. Pembroke and his brother were taken prisoner and summarily executed.
