General Notes

In a rare book at our State library it also states the following:  "Sir Michael de la Pole who in 28 Edward III had a grant of free warren in Bliburgh in Lincolnshire, Gresthorp in Notts. and Grafton.  In 1359 this Michael de la Pole with the king's permission acquired or had a confirmation of this manor in fee, from the Abbot and convent of Grestein and by line in  1383 settled it on
his younger sons William de la Pole, Richard de la Pole and Thomas de la Pole successively in tail male remainder to himself in fee (a) Cotton MSS Vesp. Exxij fol 96.

At this period he was Lord Chancellor of England and in 1385 he was created Earl of Suffolk, but the year following fled the charge of treason and was outlawed.  On an inquitision of his estates in 1388 the above fine was
recited, by which the manor was secured to his son William de la Pole

The eldest son, Michael de la Pole, had, in the lifetime of his father, a grant in reversion of £70 a year to himself and his heirs from Edward III in consideration of that opulent person;s services, whom the king denominated his "Beloved Merchant;" which annuity William, his father, and Richard, his uncle, had previously enjoyed. This Michael de la Pole, despite Walsingham's observation that, "as a merchant himself and the son of a merchant, he was better versed in merchandize than skilled in martial matters," was an eminent soldier and distinguished himself in the French wars at the close of Edward III's reign, when he served immediately under the Black Prince. In the 1st year of Richard II [1377], he accompanied John, Duke of Lancaster, then called King of Castile, in his voyage to sea, and the same year had the chief command of all the king's fleet to the northward, in which his own retinue were 140 men-at-arms, 140 archers, one banneret, eight knights and 130 esquires. In the next year he was employed upon a mission to the court of Rome, and in four years after was constituted chancellor and keeper of the great seal -- having had summons to parliament as a Baron since the 39th Edward III [1366]. In the 8th Richard II [1385], his lordship procured license to castellate his manor houses at Wyngfield, Skernefield, and Huntingfield, co. Suffolk, and to impart all his woods and lands in the vicinity. In the 9th of the same monarch, still being chancellor, he was created by letters patent dated 6 August, 1385, Earl of Suffolk, with a grant of 1,000 marks per annum to be received out of the king's exchequer. In the parliament held at this period, a dispute is recorded as having taken place between his lordship and Thomas Arundel, bishop of Ely, in consequence of the king's having restored, at the earnest solicitation of that prelate, the temporalities to the bishop of Norwich. The chancellor opposing the Restoration, thus interrogated the bishop, when he moved that measure: -- "What is this, my lord, that you desire? Is it a small matter to part with those temporalities which yield the king more than a thousand pounds per annum? The king hath no more need of such advisers to his loss." To which the bishop answered, "What is that you say, Michael? I desire nothing of the king which is his own, but that which belongs another, and which he unjustly detains, by thy wicked council, or such as thou art, which will never be for his advantage; I think if thou beest so much concerned for the king's profit, why hast thou covetously taken from him a thousand marks per annum since thou wast made an earl?"

After this, in the same year, we find the earl, notwithstanding his being lord chancellor, retained to serve the king, being a banneret in his Scottish wars for forty days and obtaining a grant in consequence to himself and his heirs male of £500 per annum, lands, part of the possessions of William de Ufford, late Earl of Suffolk, deceased, viz., the castle, town, manor, and honour of Eye. In this year, too, he marched troops from all quarters of London and its vicinity in order to resist a menaced invasion of the French. But he was soon afterwards impeached by the commons for divers misdemeanours and frauds, particularly for purchasing lands while chancellor, "in deception of the king," and being found guilty was sentenced to death and forfeiture. Upon the dissolution of parliament, however, he seems through the protection of the king, to have set his foes for the moment at defiance and to have relinquished the chancellorship only. But subsequently, the storm again gathering, he fled the kingdom with Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland, and repairing to Calais, approached the castle of which his brother, Edmund de la Pole, was captain, in the disguise of a Flemish poulteror, having shaved his head and beard, but it is said that Edmund refused him admission without the previous permission of William de Beauchamp, the governor. "Brother," said the captain of the castle, "you must know that I dare not be false to the king of England for the sake of any kindred whatsoever, nor admit you in without the privity of William de Beauchamp, governor of this town." Whether this be true or false, certain it is that the earl never afterwards came back to England but d. at Paris, an outlaw, in 1388, his dignities having previously fallen under the outlawry.

His lordship, who, amongst other honours, had the Garter, was, like all the great nobles of the period, a benefactor to the church, having founded a Carthusian monastery without the north gate at Kingston-upon-Hull, and endowed it with lands of great value. He m. Katherine, dau. and heiress of Sir John Wingfield, Knt., and had issue, Michael, Richard, d. s. p., and Anne, who m. Gerard, son of Warine, Lord L'Isle. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, pp. 440-1, Pole, Barons de la Pole, Earls of Suffolk, &c.]