Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon

For other people with similar names, see Earl of Devon and Humphrey Stafford (disambiguation).
Coat of Arms of Stafford of Hook and Southwick: Or, a chevron gules a bordure engrailed sable, first adopted by Sir Humphrey Stafford (d.1413)[1] being the arms of their ancestor William de Stafford of Bramshall near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, a younger son of Millicent de Stafford (sister and heiress of Robert III de Stafford (d.1193/4) of Stafford Castle, feudal baron of Stafford) by her husband Harvey I Bagot (d.1214)

Sir Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon, 1st Baron Stafford of Southwick (ca. 1439[a] – 17 August 1469)[2] was a dominant magnate in South West England in the mid-15th century, and a participant in the Wars of the Roses. A distant relative of the Earls of Stafford, Humphrey Stafford became the greatest landowner in the county of Dorset through fortunes of inheritance. Later, Stafford was one of several men promoted rapidly through the nobility by King Edward IV, to fill the power vacuum left by dead or forfeit Lancastrians. In the West Country it was particularly the forfeitures of the Lancastrian Courtenay family that benefited Stafford. In 1469 he received the Courtenay title of Earl of Devon.

Stafford held the comital title for only three months. In July he was sent north to quell a rebellion instigated by the discontented Earl of Warwick. Even though he escaped the disastrous Battle of Edgcote, he was lynched by a mob at Bridgwater on 17 August 1469.[2] Considered an overambitious man by many, Stafford was nevertheless a capable administrator, who enjoyed the absolute confidence of the king.

  1. ^ William Henry Hamilton Rogers, The Strife of the Roses & Days of the Tudors in the West, Exeter, 1890., Chapter 5: "With the Silver Hand",Stafford of Suthwyke, Archbishop and Earl [1]
  2. ^ a b Michael Hicks, ‘Stafford, Humphrey, earl of Devon (c.1439–1469)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008.