Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, by an unknown artist, 1520, at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, KG (3 February 1478 – 17 May 1521) was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and the former Lady Catherine Woodville, daughter of the 1st Earl Rivers and sister-in-law of King Edward IV.

Early life

Stafford was born at Brecknock Castle in Wales. His father was attainted and executed for rebelling against King Richard III in 1483, when Stafford was five. Two years later, when King Henry VII ascended the throne, the attainder was reversed and the wardship of the young Duke of Buckingham, along with all his lands, was given to the King's mother, the Countess of Richmond and Derby. (A possible reason for the reversal of the attainder is that Buckingham was a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth, the King's wife.)

Family

In December 1489 Henry VII accepted £4000 from the estate of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland for Buckingham's hand for the earl's eldest daughter, Lady Alianore (Eleanor) Percy. They had four children:

1. Mary, (born c. 1494), who married the 5th Baron Bergavenny; parents of Mary Nevill, Baroness Dacre
2. Elizabeth Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, (1497 – 30 November 1558), who married the 3rd Duke of Norfolk
3. Catherine, (c. 1499 – 14 May 1555) who married Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland.
4. Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford (18 September 1501 – 30 April 1563).

Edward was also said to have had two illegitimate children

1. Margaret (c. 1511 – 25 May 1537), One source says she was married firstly to William Cheney and secondly to John Bulmer. A second says she married his ward Thomas Fitzgerald, the son of the 9th Earl of Kildare.
2. Henry

One of their main residences was Thornbury, which had been in the family since 1087. In 1508, Edward was granted permission to castellate the manor, work that was not completed due to his execution. In 1511, he was subsequently granted a further 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) of land in the area by Henry VIII

Life at Court

As a young man, Buckingham was made a Knight of the Garter (1495), and had various ceremonial roles at the Royal Court of Henry VII. He garnered even further honours following the accession of King Henry VIII: Buckingham was Lord High Steward at the King's coronation in 1509, where he also carried the King's crown, and in 1514 he became Lord High Constable.

Buckingham fell out dramatically with the King in 1510, when he discovered that the King was having an affair with the Countess of Huntingdon, the Duke's sister and wife of the 1st Earl of Huntingdon. She was taken to a convent sixty miles away. There are some suggestions that the affair continued until 1513. However, he returned to the King's graces, being present at the marriage of Henry's sister, served in Parliament and being present at negotiations with Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

Betrayal and Execution

Buckingham, with his Plantagenet blood and numerous connections by descent or marriage with the rest of the aristocracy, became an object of Henry's suspicion. During 1520, Buckingham became suspected of potentially treasonous actions and Henry VIII authorised an investigation. The King personally examined witnesses against him, gathering enough evidence for a trial. The Duke was finally summoned to Court in April 1521 and arrested and placed in the Tower. He was tried before a panel of 17 peers, being accused of listening to prophecies of the King's death and intending to kill the King; however, the King's mind appeared to be decided and conviction was certain. He was executed on Tower Hill on 17 May. He was posthumously attainted by Act of Parliament on 31 July 1523.

Guy (1988) concludes this was one of the few executions of high personages under Henry VIII in which the accused was "almost certainly guilty." However Sir Thomas More complained that the key evidence from servants was hearsay.

In fiction

• Buckingham is played by Charles Dance in the 2003 two part drama Henry VIII starring Ray Winstone and Helena Bonham Carter. His character was a minor one, killed off in the first 15 minutes.
• Buckingham is a character in the first two episodes of the first season of the drama series The Tudors. Portrayed by Steven Waddington, Buckingham's intrigues are fictionalized, with several key facts omitted.
• The accusation and condemnation of Buckingham is depicted in the Shakespeare play Henry VIII.