Robert de Ufford

• General Notes
  • Robert de Ufford, second Baron, was Knight of the Garter, and was summoned to Parliament 27 Jan., 1332, to 14 Jan., 1337. This nobleman was in the wars of Gascony in the reign of Edward II, in requittal of his eminent services, a grant for life of the Town of Orford, County Suffolk, and soon afterward further considerable possessions, also by grant from the crown in consideration of the personal danger he had incurred in arresting, by the king's command, Mortimer and some of his adherents in the Castle of Nottingham. (This Mortimer was the favorite of Isabel, Queen of Edward II. She was the daughter of the King of France and through her Edward III claimed the French throne. E. E. W.) His lordship was solemnly advanced in the Parliament to the dignity of Earl of Suffolk, 16 March, 1336, "habendum sibi et haere bibus suis," whereupon he was associated with William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, and John Darcy, Stewart of the King's household, to treat with David Bruce of Scotland, touching a league of peace and amity, and the same year going beyond the sea on the King's service had an assignment of 300 œ out of the Exchequer towards his expenses in that employment, which was in the wars of France for it appears that he then accompanied the Earl of Derby (this was William Ferrers, 7th Earl of Derby, whose 2nd son, William Ferrers, of Groby, married Margaret, daughter this Robert Ufford. E. E. W.), being with him at the Battle of Cagant, after which time he was seldom out of some distinguished action. In the 12th of Edward III, 1338, being in the expedition into Flanders, he was the next year one of the marshals when King Edward beseiged Cambrai, and his lordship, within a few years, subsequently was actively engaged in the wars in Brittany. In the 17th of this reign the Earl of Suffolk (Robert de Ufford) was deputed to the Court of Rome, there to treat in the presence of his holiness, touching an amicable peace and accord between the English monarch and Philip of Valois of France. He marched the same year with Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Derby, the relief of Loughmaben Castle, then beseiged by the Scots. Soon after this he was made admiral of the king's whole fleet northward. For several years subsequently his lordship was with King Edward in France and he was one of the persons presented by that monarch with harness and other accoutrements for the tournament at Canterbury in 22nd of that reign. In seven years afterwards we find the Earl again in France with the Black Prince, and at the celebrated Battle of Poictiers fought and so gloriously won in the following year his lordship achieved the highest military renown by his skill as a leader and his personal courage at the head of his troops. He was later elected a Knight of the Garter. He married Margaret, sister of Sir John Norwich (there is a line in some of the books that runs from the Norwich family to the Magna Carta Baron de Huntingfield, but it is disproved in Browning's Magna Carta Barons and Their Descendants), and had issue Robert, dvpsp, William, Cecilie, Catherine and Margaret. The Earl's last testament bears date 1368 and he died the following year. Amongst other bequests he leaves to his son William "the sword wherein the king girt him when he created him an earl, and also his bed, with the eagle entire, and his summer vestment, powdered with leopards. He was succeeded by his son William, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, Knight of the Garter, who died sine prole, and the barony fell into abeyance between his sisters.
    (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 825-826)