Sir Thomas Wensley (or Wendesley; died 1403) of Wensley in Derbyshire, served five times as a Member of Parliament for Derbyshire, in 1382, 1384, 1386, 1390 and 1394. [2] He was a follower of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and was killed on 21 July 1403, fighting at the Battle of Shrewsbury for the Lancastrian cause.
He was a son of Roger Wensley, about whom little is recorded. He served as Steward and Constable of the High Peak, Derbyshire, and for the Duchy of Lancaster. He was knighted between 1382–4.
He married a wife of unrecorded name, with legitimate issue unknown. He did however leave an illegitimate son:
He was killed on 21 July 1403, fighting at the Battle of Shrewsbury for the Lancastrian cause and was buried in Bakewell Church, Derbyshire (where he may have been a member of a guild within the church), 5 miles north-west of Wensley, where survives his effigy, dressed in full armour and wearing around his neck the Collar of Esses of the Lancastrian livery. [4] His helmet is inscribed IHC Nazaren ("Jesus of Nazareth").
Sir Henry Percy, nicknamed Hotspur or Harry Hotspur, was an English knight who fought in several campaigns against the Scots in the northern border and against the French during the Hundred Years' War. The nickname "Hotspur" was given to him by the Scots as a tribute to his speed in advance and readiness to attack. The heir to a leading noble family in northern England, Hotspur was one of the earliest and prime movers behind the deposition of King Richard II in favour of Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. He later fell out with the new regime and rebelled, and was slain at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 at the height of his fame.
The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. The first house was created when King Henry III of England created the Earldom of Lancaster—from which the house was named—for his second son Edmund Crouchback in 1267. Edmund had already been created Earl of Leicester in 1265 and was granted the lands and privileges of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, after de Montfort's death and attainder at the end of the Second Barons' War. When Edmund's son Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, inherited his father-in-law's estates and title of Earl of Lincoln he became at a stroke the most powerful nobleman in England, with lands throughout the kingdom and the ability to raise vast private armies to wield power at national and local levels. This brought him—and Henry, his younger brother—into conflict with their cousin King Edward II, leading to Thomas's execution. Henry inherited Thomas's titles and he and his son, who was also called Henry, gave loyal service to Edward's son King Edward III.
The Battle of Shrewsbury was a battle fought on 21 July 1403, waged between an army led by the Lancastrian King Henry IV and a rebel army led by Henry "Harry Hotspur" Percy from Northumberland. The battle, the first in which English archers fought each other on English soil, reaffirmed the effectiveness of the longbow and ended the Percy challenge to King Henry IV of England.
Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of WestmorlandEarl Marshal, was an English nobleman of the House of Neville.
Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick was an English medieval nobleman and military commander.
Sir John Stanley, KG of Lathom, near Ormskirk in Lancashire, was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and titular King of Mann, the first of that name. He married a wealthy heiress, Isabel Lathom, which, combined with his own great abilities, allowed him to rise above the usual status of a younger son.
John Talbot was the 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury, 2nd Earl of Waterford, 8th Baron Talbot, KG was an English nobleman and soldier and the son of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, 1st Earl of Waterford, 7th Baron Talbot, 10th Baron Strange of Blackmere, and Maud Neville, 6th Baroness Furnivall.
Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford and 1st Baron Audley, KG, KB was the son of Hugh de Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford, and his wife Philippa de Beauchamp.
Hugh de Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford, 3rd Baron Stafford, 3rd Baron Audley, KG was an English nobleman.
Edmund Stafford was Bishop of Exeter from 1395 to his death in 1419.
Wensley is a small village in South Darley parish in Derbyshire of limestone and gritstone properties mainly arranged along the single road which zig-zags through the village or around the square. The whole village, together with part of the adjacent Wensley Dale is a Conservation Area. Until fairly recently there was a Methodist Chapel, a village shop and two public houses, but these have all closed. The former school is now a village hall, Wensley Reading Room. Quite a few of the houses are holiday lets.
Sir Walter Beauchamp was an English lawyer who was Speaker of the House of Commons of England between March and May 1416.
Richard le Scrope was an English cleric who served as Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield and Archbishop of York and was executed in 1405 for his participation in the Northern Rising against King Henry IV.
Humphrey Dacre, 1st Baron Dacre of Gilsland, was an English soldier, Cumberland landowner and peer.
Sir Walter Blount, was a soldier and supporter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He later supported John's son and heir Henry Bolingbroke in his bid to become King Henry IV and in later battles against his enemies. At the Battle of Shrewsbury he served as the royal standard-bearer, was mistaken for the king and killed in combat.
The Battle of Burton Bridge was fought between Royalist and Parliamentarian forces at Burton upon Trent on 4 July 1643 during the First English Civil War. By the time of the battle, the town, which had at various times been held by both sides, was garrisoned by a Parliamentarian unit under the command of Captain Thomas Sanders and the town's military governor, Colonel Richard Houghton. The key river crossing at Burton was desired by Queen Henrietta Maria, who was proceeding southwards from Yorkshire with a convoy of supplies destined for King Charles I at Oxford. The Royalists, led by Colonel Thomas Tyldesley, launched a cavalry charge across the bridge which succeeded in defeating the Parliamentarians and capturing most of their officers, including Sanders and Houghton. The Queen's convoy proceeded on its way south to Oxford, with Tyldesley receiving a knighthood and a promotion in recognition of his victory. Burton changed hands several more times during the course of the war, before finally coming under Parliamentarian control in 1646.
The Holland family was a medieval-era English noble family. Many Hollands were Dukes, Earls, Knights and Barons in medieval England, and they played significant roles in the struggles for the crown in the fourteenth and fifteenth century.
Sir Godfrey de Foljambe was a prominent landowner and politician in fourteenth-century England, who was a Baron of the Exchequer and chief steward of the duchy of Lancaster. He went on to have a successful career as an Irish judge, including three years as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was initially a servant of Philippa of Hainault before becoming a prominent member of the affinity of her son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. His tomb can still be seen at All Saints Church, Bakewell.
Sir Hugh Waterton, was a trusted servant of the House of Lancaster.
Sir John Cockayne was an English soldier, politician and landowner whose wealth made him a major force in the affairs of Derbyshire under the House of Lancaster. After numerous acts of criminality in concert with other Midlands landowners, he became a member of the Lancastrian affinity centred on John of Gaunt and a supporter of Henry IV. He fought in two campaigns of the Hundred Years War but his violence and lawlessness continued and he was decidedly out of favour during the reign of Henry V. With power less concentrated in the early years of Henry VI, he was able to serve three terms as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests and to wield considerable power and influence. He represented Derbyshire no less than nine times and Warwickshire twice in the House of Commons of England.
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