Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell

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Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell (1454 – 1487?), was a supporter of King Richard III of England. He most likely knew Richard from a young age, and was to become a life-long friend and staunch ally of the future king.

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[edit] Family

Francis was the son of John Lovell, 8th Baron Lovell and Joan Beaumont, daughter of John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont. From his father he also inherited the titles of Baron Lovell and Baron Holland.

Lovell was about the age of nine when his father died. He became a ward of Edward IV of England, who gave him into the charge of the Earl of Warwick,[1] in whose household Richard also spent some time. It was there that the two young men first formed their close association.[2]

[edit] Marriage

In 1466 he married Anne Fitzhugh, daughter of Henry, Lord Fitzhugh and niece of his guardian the Earl of Warwick. She was thus a first cousin of Anne Neville, the future Queen consort of Richard III. In 1470 his father-in-law rebelled against Edward IV. As the pardon issued to Henry, Lord Fitzhugh includes Francis Lovell it can be assumed that Francis lived with his father-in-law at this time.[3] When Edward IV had re-established his rule in 1471, he granted the wardship of Francis Lovell, who was still underage, to his sister Elizabeth and her husband John de la Pole.[4]

Upon the death of his paternal grandmother Alice Deincourt in 1474 he inherited a large estate, including the lands of the baronies of Deincourt, Grey of Rotherfield, and the feudal barony of Bedale. He was now one of the wealthiest barons in England not holding an earldom or dukedom.[2]

[edit] Accession of King Richard

He served as a young man under Richard in the expedition to Scotland in 1480, and was knighted by Richard for it, the same year. After the death of Edward IV on 9 April 1483 he became one of his patron’s strongest supporters. He had been created a viscount on 4 January 1483, and while still Lord Protector Richard made him Chief Butler and constable of Wallingford Castle.[5]

With the accession of Richard to the throne (26 June 1483) Lovell rose into a position of power. At the coronation of Richard III on 6 July 1483 Francis Lovell bore the third sword of state.[6] Lovell was promoted to the office of Lord Chamberlain, replacing William Hastings,[7] and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1483.[8] Lovell helped in the suppression of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham’s rebellion (1483), and as one of Richard’s most trusted ministers was gibbeted in Collingbourne’s couplet with William Catesby and Richard Ratcliffe:

The catte, the ratte and Louell our dogge
Rulyth all England under a hogge.
The whiche was ment, that Catisby, Ratclyffe and the lorde Louell, ruled the land vnder the kynge, which bare the whyte bore for his conysaunce.

(The 'dogge' here refers to a Lovell family heraldic symbol.)[9]

In June 1485 Lovell was appointed to guard the south coast to prevent the landing of Henry Tudor.[10] However, Henry Tudor landed near Milford Haven avoiding the stronger defenses of the English south coast. While no chronicle account of the battle mentions Lovell, it seems certain that he fought for Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field (22 August 1485). Two reports written in the immediate aftermath of the battle list him as among the fallen.[11] After the battle Lovell fled to sanctuary at Colchester. From there, he escaped the following year to organise a revolt in Yorkshire that attempted to seize Henry VII. After the dismal failure of this plot, Lovell first joined fellow 'rebels' at Furness Falls and later fled to Margaret of York in Flanders.[12]

As a chief leader of the Yorkist party, Lovell took a prominent part in Lambert Simnel’s enterprise. With John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, he accompanied the pretender to Ireland and fought for him at the Battle of Stoke Field on 16 June 1487. He was seen escaping from the battle and seems to have eventually fled to Scotland, where on 19 June 1488 James IV issued a safe conduct to him.[13] There is no further information about Lovell's fate.

Francis Bacon relates that according to one report he lived long after in a cave or vault (History of Henry VII, p. 37, ed. Joseph Rawson Lumby). More than 200 years later, in 1708, the skeleton of a man was found in a secret chamber in the family mansion at Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire and it was supposed that Lovell had hidden himself there and died of starvation.[14] While this story is very picturesque, it seems unlikely to be true. Francis Lovell had hardly spent any time at Minster Lovell and would not have a faithful servant there who would hide him for years. Additionally, the manor had been granted to Jasper Tudor, Henry Tudor's uncle,[15] and was therefore hardly an appropriate hiding place for Francis Lovell.

Francis Lovell's wife, Anne Fitzhugh was granted an annuity of £20 in 1489.[16] She was still alive in 1495, the date of her death is not known.[17]

[edit] Notes

The question of whether or not Francis Lovell was present at the battle of Bosworth is discussed under 'discussion'.

  1. ^ Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1467-1477, p. 51
  2. ^ a b Ross, p. 49
  3. ^ A.J. Pollard, ‘Lord FitzHugh’s Rising in 1470’, BIHR 53 (1979), pp. 170-71.
  4. ^ Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1467-1477, pp. 261, 312.
  5. ^ R. Horrox and P. Hammond (eds.), British Library Manuscript. 433 (Gloucester, 1983), vol. iii, pp. 3-4.
  6. ^ Anne F. Sutton and P.W. Hammond (eds.), The Coronation of Richard III. The Extant Documents (Gloucester, 1983), p. 37.
  7. ^ Rosemary Horrox, Richard III, p. 249.
  8. ^ Complete Peerage, vol. ii, Appendix B.
  9. ^ Robert Fabyan, The New Chronicles of England and France in to Parts (London, 1811), p. 672.
  10. ^ R. Horrox, 'Francis, Viscount Lovell (b. c. 1457, d. in or after 1488)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 (http://www.oxforddnb.com/17058, accessed 30 Oct 2008) - subscribers only.
  11. ^ M. Bennett, The Battle of Bosworth (Stroud, 1993), p. 155.
  12. ^ J. Williams, 'The Political Career of Francis Viscount Lovell. 1456-?', The Ricardian 8 (1990), pp. 393-94.
  13. ^ R. Horrox, 'Francis Viscount Lovell'
  14. ^ For the discovery at Minster Lovell see Notes and Queries, 2nd series i. and 5th series x; F. Peck, Memoirs of Oliver Cromwell, p. 87, cited after A.J. Taylor, Minster Lovell Hall. Oxfordshire (English Heritage)(1958), p. 19.
  15. ^ Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1485-1494, p. 64.
  16. ^ J.G. Gairdner (ed.), Letters and Papers of the Reign of Richard III and Henry VII, RS 24 (London, 1861), vol. ii, p. 71.
  17. ^ J. Williams, p. 397.

A plaque to Francis Lovell exists at Mottram in Longendale

[edit] References

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