General Notes

BARONY OF FITZHUGH (III, 4)

HENRY (FITZHUGH), LORD FITZHUGH, son and heir, aged about 28 at his father's death. On 6 November 1386 the King took his fealty for the manor of Kingston in Carlton, and he had livery thereof, and obtained possession of the rest of his inheritance in cos. Notts, York, Northumberland, and Cambridge. On 3 November 1388 Queen Anne leased to him, for 12 years from the preceding Michaelmas, her castles of Richmond and Bowes, and all her manors and lands in Richmondshire, with the liberties, franchises, and profits, formerly held by John, Duke of Brittany, as fully as they had been assigned to her, except knights' fees, advowsons, wardships, &c., at a rent of 650 marks a year: on 1 October 1395, after the death of the Queen, he surrendered his interests in the premises for the remainder of the term to Ralph, Lord of Neville. He was summoned to Parliament from 17 December 1387 to I September 1423, by writs directed Henrico fitz Hugh'. He was one of the Lords who gave their assent in Parliament, 23 October 1399, to the secret imprisonment of Richard II. The King, Henry IV, having retained his services for life, granted him 100 marks a year, 19 Noember 1399, for life. ) He was ordered to raise forces to accompany the King against the Earl of Northumberland, 22 July 1403. On 23 September 1404 and 5 March 1404/5 he was appointed a commissioner to treat of peace with Scotland, and on 26 July 1406 a proxy to treat concerning the dowry of Philippe, the King's daughter, about to be married to Erik, King of Denmark. He was one of the Lords who sealed the exemplifications of the Acts settling the succession to the Crown, 7 June and 22 December 1406. Nominated K.G. about 1409. He was appointed a commissioner to treat of peace with Scotland, 4 April 1410. On the accession of Henry V he was commissioned, 2 April 1413, to perform the office of Constable of England at the Coronatioll, and was soon afterwards appointed Chamberlain to the King: he held the latter office throughout the reign of Henry V. On 24 July 1414 he was granted, as from Tuesday after Epiphany last past [9 January], £100 a year, for Iife. He was appointed an envoy to the Council of Constance, 20 October 1414. On 6 August 1415 the King granted him all the manors (viz., Masham and 12 others) in the franchise of Richmond lately---5 August---forfeited by Henry Lescrope of Masham, to hold as long as they were in the King's hand; and 8 August following, the inn by Paul's wharf, also forfeited by Henry Lescrope, to hold for life. These manors were afterwards granted to him, 22 November 1415, for life, and, 10 June 1417, in tail male: and the inn was granted to him, 20 November 1416, in fee. He accompanied the King to France in August 1415, was at the siege of Harfleur, August to September 1415, at the battle of Agincourt 25 October following, and at the relief of Harfleur by the Duke of Bedford in August 1416. He accompanied the King to France in July 1417, and was at the siege of Rouen, July 1418 to Jan. 1418/9,(,) being one of commissioners appointed, 3 January, to treat for the surrender of that town: was at the siege of Melun, July to November 1420, and at that of Meaux, October 1421 to May 1422. He was Treasurer of the Exchequer, 1417 to 1421. Captain of Falaise, March and April 1422. An executor of Henry V, who appointed him a guardian of his infant son. To meet the wishes of the King (as expressed when on his death bed), he offered to surrender to Sir John Lescrope the manors in Yorkshire which had been forfeited by the latter's brother, Henry, in 1415. He was appointed a member of the Council of the Duke of Gloucester, Protector of the Realm, in December 1422, and was reappointed in the next Parliament.

He married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir Robert GREY, by Lora, younger daughter and coheir of Sir Herbert DE ST. QUINTIN, of Brandesburton in Holderness, Stanton St. Quintin, Wilts, Frome St. Quintin, Dorset, &c. She was also heir of her uncle, Sir John Marmion (formerly Grey), of West Tanfield in Richmondshire, Winteringham, co. Lincoln, Berwick, Sussex, Quinton, co. Gloucester, &c., and, eventually, heir both of her mother, Lora, and of her aunt, Elizabeth, wife of the said John, and elder daughter of Sir Herbert de St. Quintin. He died at Ravensworth, 11 January 1424/5, aged 66, and was buried in Jervaulx Abbey. His widow died 12, 13, or 14 December 1427 and was buried with him: wills dated 24 Sep 1427 and, at Witton, 10 Dec 1427, probated at Bishop's Auckland, 29 Dec 1427 (c).  [Complete Peerage V:421-5, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

(c) "I Elizabeth Lady of Rauenswath late ye wyf of ye Lord FitzHugh . . . my body aftir my dethe in all ye goodely hast yat hit may be caried to Jeraux and ye to bee biryed afore the hegh auter beside my lords body": she mentions her sons, William, Geoffrey, and Robert, and her daughters, Marjory, [Alianore] Darcy, Malde, Eure, Elizabeth, and Lore, and Elizabeth FitzHugh, her god-daughter: 24 Sep 1427.  Second will: "Ego Elizabetha FitzHugh 'domina de Ravenswath' . . . corpus meum sepliendum in Abbathis Jorovall": 10 Dec 1427.

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Henry Fitz-Hugh, 4th baron, summoned to parliament from 17 December, 1387, to 1 September, 1423. This nobleman attained great eminence in the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V. In the beginning of the former, we find his lordship included in a commission to negotiated a truce with Scotland, and afterwards to accomplish a league of amity between the two crowns (of England and Scotland). In the 8th Henry IV [1407], he was accredited upon an important mission to Denmark, and in five years afterwards he was again a commissioner upon the affairs of Scotland. On the coronation of King Henry V [1413], Lord Fitz-Hugh was appointed constable of England for that solemnity, and the next year he obtained a grant from the crown of £100 per annum. He was afterwards lord chamberlain of the king's household and assisted at the council of Constance, for which, and his other eminent services, he had a grant of all the lands which had belonged to the attainted Henry, Lord Scrope, of Masham, lying in Richmondshire, to hold during the term that those lands should continue in the king;s hands, and upon the surrender of that grant in the same year, he had another grant for life of the manors of Masham, Clifton, Burton-Constable, and ten others, likewise part of the possessions of the aforesaid Lord Scrope. From the 5th to the 9th Henry V [1418-1422], his lordship was uninterruptedly engaged in the French wars, during which period he was at the siege of Roan with the Duke of Exeter.

It is further reported of Lord Fitz-Hugh that he travelled more than once to Jerusalem, and beyond that celebrated city, to Grand Cairo, where the souldan had his residence, and that on his return he fought with the Saracens and Turks. It is also stated that by the help of the knights of Rhodes, he built a castle there, called St. Peter's Castle. His lordship m. Elizabeth, dau. and heir of Sir Robert Grey, Knt., son of John, Lord Grey of Rotherfield, by Avice, sister and co-heir of Robert, Lord Marmion, by whom he had, with other issue, Henry, drowned; John, d. young; William, his successor; Geffrey; Robert, in hold orders, bishop of London; Ralph, d. in France; Herbert; Richard, d. young; Joane, m. to Sir Robert Willoughby, Lord Willoughby de Eresby; Eleanor, m. 1st to Philip D'Arcy, and 2ndly, to Thomas Tunstal; Maud, m. to Sir William Eure, ancestor of the Lords Eure; Laura, m. to Sir Maurice Berkeley, Knit., of Beverstone; Lucy; and Elizabeth, m. to Sir Ralph Grey, Knt., of Northumberland.

Henry, Lord Fitz-Hugh, K.G., d. 11 January, 1424, and was s. by his eldest surviving son, Sir William Fitz-Hugh, 4th baron. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 207, FitzHugh, Barons FitzHugh]