Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon

The Staffords of Hooke in Dorset and Southwick in Wiltshire were a cadet branch of the Earls of Stafford and later Dukes of Buckingham. Stafford's grandfather was Sir Humphrey Stafford, called "of the silver hand" (d. 1442). His heir was a grandsonyet another Humphrey Staffordwho died childless in 1461. This left Stafford, the future Earl of Devon, heir to the family lands, the greatest part of which was in Dorset and the rest mostly in Somerset and Wiltshire (including Southwick Court). Stafford's father, William Stafford (d.1450), was already dead by this time, having fallen victim to Jack Cade's Rebellion on 18 June 1450. William's uncle, and Stafford's grand uncle, was John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury (1443–1452). The inheritance of these family lands made Stafford the greatest landowner in the county of Dorset. Through his mother Katherine, he was also heir to the possessions of her father John Chidiock, another major south-western landowner. At some pointdefinitely after 21 June 1450he married Isabel, daughter of Sir John Barre of Herefordshire. ==Service to the House of York==

the area of Stafford's dominance. In the late 1450s, Stafford might have been in the service of his distant relative John Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire, son of Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. His association with James Touchet, Baron Audleyone of Wiltshire's menimplies so. Later that same year, on 26 July, he received a summons to Parliament for the first time, as Lord Stafford of Southwick. In 1461 he was appointed steward of the Duchy of Cornwall and constable of Bristol, and in 1462 he received the greater part of the Devon estates of Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon, who had been captured at Towton and executed. However, the king himself took great interest in the trial against Courtenay, and it is more reasonable to see the decision as a result of Edward's need for a loyal agent in the region. ==Death and aftermath==

Stafford's quick rise did not go unnoticed among the established aristocracy. In 1468, the discontented Warwick named the Earl of Devon as a courtier with undue influence on King Edward. Warwick and Devon were later reconciled, but the next year Warwick repeated his accusations once more. In an act of rebellion by proxy, Warwick instigated an insurrection in Yorkshire led by a "Robin of Redesdale". At the same time Warwicktogether with George, Duke of Clarence, King Edward's brotherstaged an invasion of the country from Warwick's stronghold of Calais. Devon, together with William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, was ordered to gather troops to quell the rebellion. The royal army under Devon and Pembroke intercepted the northern rebelson their way south to meet up with Warwick and Clarenceby Banbury in Oxfordshire. The French chronicler Jean de Waurin, however, gives a different account. According to Waurin, Devon left the field of battle once he heard the news that Clarence was arriving with reinforcements. In either case, Pembroke was captured and executed on Warwick's order. Devon managed to escape, but was later captured by a mob at Bridgwater in Somerset, and executed on 17 August. Stafford was buried in Glastonbury Abbey, and a dispute over his lands followed between his cousins. At the same time, his skills as an administrator can hardly be doubted, as evidenced by King Edward's heavy reliance on him. He could also show a more human and sympathetic side. Michael Hicks describes his activity, from 1467 onwards, in adding codicils to his will "to right the wrongs that he was conscious of committing"the last of these he added as he faced his own execution. ==Notes==