Heathcock Genealogy Database - Person Sheet
Heathcock Genealogy Database - Person Sheet
Death18 Oct 1471
MotherMaud De Camoys
Spouses
Birth30 Aug 1393, Shute Manor, Devonshire
Death18 Feb 1461, Executed the day aForter the Second Battle of St Albans3135 Age: 67
FatherJohn Bonville (1371-1396)
MotherElizabeth Fitzroger (1370-1414)
Marriage9 Oct 14273137
ChildrenJohn (-1491)
Notes for Lady Elizabeth Courteney
Lady Elizabeth Bonville is commemorated on a tomb in Portlock, Somerset.3135
Notes for William (Spouse 2)
He was invested as a knight sometime before 1417. In 1423, he was appointed High Sheriff of Devon; and from 7 January 1443 until January 1444, he held the post of Seneschal of Aquitaine. He was elected knight of the shire for Somerset in 1421 and for Devon in 1422, 1425 and 1427.
On 10 March 1449, he was created 1st Baron Bonville of Chewton, and was summoned to the House of Lords on 23 September of that same year. His principal residence was at the Manor of Chewton Mendip in Somerset. On 8 February 1461, Lord Bonville was made a Knight of the Garter.
William Bonville also held the Manorial Titles - Lord of the Manor of Sponton (or Spaunton) & Lord of the Manor of Hutton Bonville, both in the County of Yorkshire.3134
During the dynastic conflict between the Houses of Lancaster and York for the throne of England, known as the Wars of the Roses, Lord Bonville supported the Yorkist faction which was headed by Richard, Duke of York. On 30 December 1460, immediately after the Battle of Wakefield, Lord Bonville's son, William, and grandson, Lord Harington were both beheaded on the battlefield. The executions were carried out by the triumphant forces of Margaret of Anjou who led the Lancastrian faction. The Duke of York and his son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland were also dead, having both been killed in the battle.
Less than two months later, 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 brought in the train of the latter's army, but was abandoned on the battlefield. In return for their gallantry, the king promised the two men immunity. Queen Margaret, who was present at the battle, however, remembered that Lord Bonville was one of the men who had held King Henry in custody after the Battle of Northampton in July 1460, and wanted her revenge. Disregarding her husband's promise of immunity, she gave orders for the decapitation of Lord Bonville and Sir Thomas Kyriel, the next day which was 18 February 1461. It is alleged that she put the men on trial, and had her seven-year old son, Prince Edward preside as judge. "Fair son", Margaret inquired, "what death shall these knights die?" The boy allegedly replied that they were to have their heads cut off, an act which was swiftly carried out, despite the King's pleas for mercy.3134
See also "The strife of the Roses and the days of the Tudors in the West":3131
In Sir William Bonville, the eldest son of John Bonville and Elizabeth Fitz-Roger, we reach the most celebrated individual of his race, and practically the last male in the direct line, as his son and grandson died in his lifetime. His father having died in 1396, when he was quite a child, and his mother being married again to Richard Stuckley, it is probable the boy was in the custody of his grandfather at Shute up to his death in 1407, and subsequently in the guardianship of his step-grandmother the Lady Alice until his coming of age, and taking possession of his large property in 1414, which year his mother died, but his step-grandmother lived twelve years afterward, dying in 1426.
The particulars as to the birth and baptism of this wealthy and unfortunate man, as they were deposed to by the witnesses appearing before the escheator at the enquiry held to make proofs as to his coming of age, are very homely and interesting.3138 This was taken at Honiton on "Tuesday, All Hallow's Eve, in the first year of the reign of King Henry the Fifth after the Conquest, before Henry Foleford, the Lord the King's Escheator in the county of Devon." Numerous witnesses were examined, and John Cokesdene and two others deposed,—
"that William the son of John, is of the age of 21 years and upwards, having been born at Shute, on the last day of August in the 16th year of the reign of the Lord Richard, late King of England, the Second after the Conquest (1393), and baptized in the parish church of the same vill on the same day about the hour of vespers. And this they well know to be true, as they the said jurors were, on the said last day of August, together elected at Honiton, on a certain 'Love Day' to make 45 peace between two of their neighbours, and on that very day there came there a certain Lady Katharine, widow of Sir John Cobham, knight, and then wife of John Wyke of Nynhyde, an aunt of the said William the son of John, proposing to drive to Shute, thinking that she should be Godmother to the said infant, and met there a certain Edward Dygher, servant to the said Sir William Bonevile, who was reputed to be half-witted in consequence of his being loquacious and jocular, and who asked her whither she was going. Who answering quickly said: 'Fool, to Shute to see my nephew made a Christian,' to which the said Edward replied, with a grin, in his mother tongue, 'Kate, Kate, ther to by myn pate comystow to late,' meaning thereby that the baptism of the child was already over. Whereupon she mounted upon her horse in a passion, and rode home in deep anger, vowing that she would not see her sister, to wit the said child's mother, for the next six months, albeit she should be in extremis and die."
On 10 March 1449, he was created 1st Baron Bonville of Chewton, and was summoned to the House of Lords on 23 September of that same year. His principal residence was at the Manor of Chewton Mendip in Somerset. On 8 February 1461, Lord Bonville was made a Knight of the Garter.
William Bonville also held the Manorial Titles - Lord of the Manor of Sponton (or Spaunton) & Lord of the Manor of Hutton Bonville, both in the County of Yorkshire.3134
During the dynastic conflict between the Houses of Lancaster and York for the throne of England, known as the Wars of the Roses, Lord Bonville supported the Yorkist faction which was headed by Richard, Duke of York. On 30 December 1460, immediately after the Battle of Wakefield, Lord Bonville's son, William, and grandson, Lord Harington were both beheaded on the battlefield. The executions were carried out by the triumphant forces of Margaret of Anjou who led the Lancastrian faction. The Duke of York and his son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland were also dead, having both been killed in the battle.
Less than two months later, 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 brought in the train of the latter's army, but was abandoned on the battlefield. In return for their gallantry, the king promised the two men immunity. Queen Margaret, who was present at the battle, however, remembered that Lord Bonville was one of the men who had held King Henry in custody after the Battle of Northampton in July 1460, and wanted her revenge. Disregarding her husband's promise of immunity, she gave orders for the decapitation of Lord Bonville and Sir Thomas Kyriel, the next day which was 18 February 1461. It is alleged that she put the men on trial, and had her seven-year old son, Prince Edward preside as judge. "Fair son", Margaret inquired, "what death shall these knights die?" The boy allegedly replied that they were to have their heads cut off, an act which was swiftly carried out, despite the King's pleas for mercy.3134
See also "The strife of the Roses and the days of the Tudors in the West":3131
In Sir William Bonville, the eldest son of John Bonville and Elizabeth Fitz-Roger, we reach the most celebrated individual of his race, and practically the last male in the direct line, as his son and grandson died in his lifetime. His father having died in 1396, when he was quite a child, and his mother being married again to Richard Stuckley, it is probable the boy was in the custody of his grandfather at Shute up to his death in 1407, and subsequently in the guardianship of his step-grandmother the Lady Alice until his coming of age, and taking possession of his large property in 1414, which year his mother died, but his step-grandmother lived twelve years afterward, dying in 1426.
The particulars as to the birth and baptism of this wealthy and unfortunate man, as they were deposed to by the witnesses appearing before the escheator at the enquiry held to make proofs as to his coming of age, are very homely and interesting.3138 This was taken at Honiton on "Tuesday, All Hallow's Eve, in the first year of the reign of King Henry the Fifth after the Conquest, before Henry Foleford, the Lord the King's Escheator in the county of Devon." Numerous witnesses were examined, and John Cokesdene and two others deposed,—
"that William the son of John, is of the age of 21 years and upwards, having been born at Shute, on the last day of August in the 16th year of the reign of the Lord Richard, late King of England, the Second after the Conquest (1393), and baptized in the parish church of the same vill on the same day about the hour of vespers. And this they well know to be true, as they the said jurors were, on the said last day of August, together elected at Honiton, on a certain 'Love Day' to make 45 peace between two of their neighbours, and on that very day there came there a certain Lady Katharine, widow of Sir John Cobham, knight, and then wife of John Wyke of Nynhyde, an aunt of the said William the son of John, proposing to drive to Shute, thinking that she should be Godmother to the said infant, and met there a certain Edward Dygher, servant to the said Sir William Bonevile, who was reputed to be half-witted in consequence of his being loquacious and jocular, and who asked her whither she was going. Who answering quickly said: 'Fool, to Shute to see my nephew made a Christian,' to which the said Edward replied, with a grin, in his mother tongue, 'Kate, Kate, ther to by myn pate comystow to late,' meaning thereby that the baptism of the child was already over. Whereupon she mounted upon her horse in a passion, and rode home in deep anger, vowing that she would not see her sister, to wit the said child's mother, for the next six months, albeit she should be in extremis and die."