Wars of the Roses: Thomas de Clifford, Eighth Baron Clifford (1414-1455)

Thomas de Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford (1414-1455)

THOMAS DE CLIFFORD, 8TH BARON CLIFFORD, was the son of John, seventh baron Clifford, by his wife Elizabeth, who, according to Dugdale, was the daughter of Harry Hotspur.¹ He was born on 25 March 1414, and succeeded to his father's estates on 13 March 1422 (10 Hen. V, sic), before he was quite eight years old.² He appears to have been under the guardianship of his mother and grandmother, to whom the right of 'maritagium' was granted in 1423.³

His summons to parliament dates from December 1436.⁴ In 13 Hen. VI (1434-5) he was joined in commission with the Earl of Northumberland to array the northern counties against the Scots, who then threatened Berwick, and next year had livery of his lands on making proof of his age.5 Some fifteen years later (1449) he appears as a conservator of the truce then being arranged between England and Scotland, and occupied a similar position in 1451.⁶

In 1452 he was called upon to muster men and ships from the northern counties for the relief of Calais; and again in 1454. About the same time he was sheriff of Westmoreland, and in this capacity was bidden to lend assistance to the Duke of York.⁷ Several years previously (1435) his name occurs as being a member of the Duke of Bedford's retinue in France,⁸ and again (c.1439) as defending Pontoise against the French king.⁹

He was slain in the battle of St. Albans (1455), where his body was afterwards buried in the Virgin's chapel by the abbot.¹⁰ His wife, according to Dugdale, was a daughter of Thomas, lord Dacres of Gillesland; by her he had four sons—John, his successor; Sir Roger Clifford; Sir Thomas Clifford (one of Henry VIII's councillors); and Robert Clifford, who was concerned in Perkin Warbeck's rebellion.¹¹ He had also five daughters.

1 Baronage, i. 342; Nicolas's Acts of the Privy Council, iii. 36.
2 Dugdale.
3 Privy Council Acts, iii. 36.
4 Report Dignity of a Peer, iii. 896.
5 Dugdale.
6 Rymer, xi. 253, 299.
7 Privy Council Acts, vi. 119, 177.
8 William Worcester.
9 Polydore Vergil.
10 Register of J. Whethamstede, i. 176.
11 Dugdale.

      Excerpted from:

      Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. XI. Sidney Lee, ed.
      New York: The Macmillan Co., 1887. 77-78.

Other Local Resources:

Books for further study:

Hicks, Michael. The Wars of the Roses 1455-1485.
New York: Routledge, 2003.

Weir, Alison. The Wars of the Roses.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.

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