James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele

Lord Saye and Sele brought before Jack Cade 4th July 1450, 19th-century painting by Charles Lucy

James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele (22 September 1395 – 4 July 1450) was an English soldier and politician. He was born at Herstmonceux, Sussex, the second son of Sir William Fiennes (1 August 1357 – 18 January 1402) and his wife Elizabeth Batisford (Wartling, Sussex, 1363 - Herstmonceux, 18 January 1405).

Fiennes fought in the Hundred Years' War and served as High Sheriff of Kent in 1436 and High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1438.[1] He was Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports from 1447 to 1450, and Lord High Treasurer of England from 1449 to 1450. Fiennes' tenure as Lord High Treasurer occurred during the Great Bullion Famine and the Great Slump in England.

He was summoned to Parliament from 1446 to 1449 and is said to have been created Baron Saye and Sele by letters patent in 1447. Saye and Sele was a supporter of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, the principal power behind the throne of Henry VI.

After Suffolk's deposition and murder in 1450, Fiennes was imprisoned in the Tower with his son-in-law William Cromer, deputy-sheriff of Kent.[2] Having been released from the tower and handed over to the rebels as a placatory gesture by the King, Baron Saye was brought to Guildhall for a sham trial. Upon being found guilty of treason, he was paraded through part of London and beheaded by a mob of the rebels in London under Jack Cade at the Standard in Cheapside on 4 July 1450.[3]

His son-in-law was also executed by the rebels outside the city walls on the same day. The heads of the two men were put on pikes and unceremoniously paraded through the streets of London while their bearers pushed them together so that they appeared to kiss.[4] Fiennes was subsequently buried in the Franciscan church at Newgate. Shortly after the burial, English settlers dispossessed from their property in Bayeux and Caen (who had recently arrived in London) removed his coat of arms from the pillar by his grave and reversed it - an act intended to dishonour the dead. [5].He was succeeded in the barony by his son William.

  1. ^ "Kent County History". The High Sheriffs Association of England and Wales. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
  2. ^ "Wars of the Roses". Michael D. Miller. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  3. ^ Harvey, I. M. W. (1991) Jack Cade's Rebellion of 1450. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 93.
  4. ^ Griffiths, Ralph A. (1981). The Reign of King Henry VI: The Exercise of Royal Authority, 1422–1461. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 618.
  5. ^ Sumption, Jonathan (2023). Triumph and Illusion (The Hundred Years War V). London: Faber & Faber Ltd. p. 711. ISBN 978-0-571-27457-4.