Biography of Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford 1301-1372

Before 1298 [his father] Edmund Stafford 1st Baron Stafford [aged 25] and [his mother] Margaret Basset [aged 17] were married.

On 24th September 1301 Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford was born to Edmund Stafford 1st Baron Stafford [aged 29] and Margaret Basset [aged 21].

On 26th August 1308 [his father] Edmund Stafford 1st Baron Stafford [aged 36] died. His son Ralph [aged 6] succeeded 2nd Baron Stafford.

Around 1326 Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 24] and Katherine Hastings Baroness Stafford [aged 22] were married. She by marriage Baroness Stafford. She the daughter of John Hastings 2nd Baron Hastings 14th Baron Abergavenny and Juliana Leybourne Countess Huntingdon [aged 23]. They were fifth cousins.

In 1331 [his daughter] Margaret Stafford was born to Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 29] and [his wife] Katherine Hastings Baroness Stafford [aged 27] at Sandon Stone, Staffordshire. She married before 1343 her second cousin once removed John Stafford and had issue.

Around 1336 [his son] Hugh Stafford 2nd Earl Stafford was born to Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 34] and [his future wife] Margaret Audley Countess Stafford [aged 18] at Staffordshire. He a great x 2 grandson of King Edward I of England. He married before 1st March 1350 his second cousin once removed Philippa Beauchamp Countess Stafford, daughter of Thomas Beauchamp 11th Earl Warwick and Katherine Mortimer Countess Warwick, and had issue.

Before 6th July 1336 Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 34] abducted [his wife] Margaret Audley Countess Stafford [aged 18]. She being the heir of the very wealthy [his father-in-law] Hugh Audley 1st Earl Gloucester [aged 45]; considerably more wealthy than Ralph. King Edward III of England [aged 23] was sympathetic despite the complaint of her father since Ralph had been one of King Edward III's key supporters during the plot to arrest Roger Mortimer 1st Earl March. Margaret's father was subsequently created Earl as a quid pro quo.

Before 6th July 1336 Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 34] and Margaret Audley Countess Stafford [aged 18] were married. She by marriage Baroness Stafford. She the daughter of Hugh Audley 1st Earl Gloucester [aged 45] and Margaret Clare Countess Gloucester. They were fifth cousins. She a great granddaughter of King Edward I of England.

On 6th July 1336 [his wife] Katherine Hastings Baroness Stafford [aged 32] died at Stafford, Staffordshire [Map].

On 17th March 1337 [his mother] Margaret Basset [aged 57] died at Drayton Bassett, Staffordshire [Map].

Around 1340 [his daughter] Elizabeth Stafford Baroness Cobham, Ferrers and Strange was born to Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 38] and [his wife] Margaret Audley Countess Stafford [aged 22] at Staffordshire. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Edward I of England. She married (1) before 30th August 1349 her fourth cousin Fulk Strange 3rd Baron Strange Blackmere, son of John Strange 2nd Baron Strange Blackmere and Ankaret Boteler Baroness Strange Blackmere (2) before 1358 her fourth cousin once removed John Ferrers 4th Baron Ferrers of Chartley, son of Robert Ferrers 3rd Baron Ferrers of Chartley and Margaret Unknown Baroness Ferrers Chartley, and had issue (3) 1368 her third cousin Reginald Cobham 2nd Baron Cobham, son of Reginald Cobham 1st Baron Cobham and Joan Berkeley Baroness Cobham Sternborough.

In 1341 [his daughter] Beatrice Stafford Countess Desmond was born to Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 39] and [his wife] Margaret Audley Countess Stafford [aged 23] at Staffordshire. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Edward I of England. She married (1) her sixth cousin Maurice Fitzgerald 2nd Earl Desmond, son of Maurice Fitzgerald 1st Earl Desmond and Catherine Burgh (2) 12th April 1363 her third cousin Thomas Ros 4th Baron Ros Helmsley, son of William Ros 2nd Baron Ros Helmsley and Margery Badlesmere Baroness Ros of Helmsley, and had issue.

Before 1343 [his son-in-law] John Stafford [aged 40] and Margaret Stafford [aged 11] were married. The difference in their ages was 29 years. She the daughter of Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 41] and Katherine Hastings Baroness Stafford. They were second cousin once removed.

In 1344 [his daughter] Joan Stafford Baroness Cherleton and Talbot was born to Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 42] and [his wife] Margaret Audley Countess Stafford [aged 26] at Staffordshire. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Edward I of England. She married (1) her fourth cousin Gilbert Talbot 3rd Baron Talbot, son of Richard Talbot 2nd Baron Talbot and Elizabeth Comyn Baroness Talbot (2) her second cousin once removed John Charleton 3rd Baron Cherleton, son of John Charleton 2nd Baron Cherleton and Maud Mortimer, and had issue.

In 1344 Ralph Stafford and Maud Plantagenet Duchess Lower Bavaria [aged 3] were married. She the daughter of Henry of Grosmont 1st Duke Lancaster [aged 34] and Isabel Beaumont Duchess Lancaster [aged 24]. He the son of Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 42] and Margaret Audley Countess Stafford [aged 26]. They were third cousin once removed. He a great x 2 grandson of King Edward I of England. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Henry III of England.

In 1347 [his son] Ralph Stafford died.

Around 1348 [his daughter] Katherine Stafford Baroness Sutton Dudley was born to Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 46] and [his wife] Margaret Audley Countess Stafford [aged 30] at Staffordshire. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Edward I of England. She married 25th December 1357 her half third cousin once removed John Sutton 2nd Baron Sutton, son of John Sutton 1st Baron Sutton and Isabella Charleton Baroness Sutton Dudley.

Around 1349 [his wife] Margaret Audley Countess Stafford [aged 31] died.

Before 30th August 1349 [his son-in-law] Fulk Strange 3rd Baron Strange Blackmere [aged 17] and Elizabeth Stafford Baroness Cobham, Ferrers and Strange [aged 9] were married. She by marriage Baroness Strange Blackmere. She the daughter of Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 47] and Margaret Audley Countess Stafford. They were fourth cousins. He a great x 4 grandson of King John of England. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Edward I of England.

Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. In the same year, the Earl of Lancaster,¹ the Barons of Stafford [aged 48] and Greystoke [aged 28], along with the heirs of the Lords Percy [aged 28] and Neville [aged 12], as well as Lord Furnival and Bartholomew de Burghersh [aged 62], together with many others, crossed over to Gascony around the Feast of All Saints [1st November 1349], to oppose the ravaging campaigns of John of Valois, son of the tyrant of the French, who was heavily harassing that duchy.

Eodem anno comes Lancastrie et barones Staffordie et de Greistoke, item heredes dominorum de Percy et de Neville atque dominus de Fornival et Bartholomeus de Burghasshe, cum multis aliis, circa festum Omnium Sanctorum transfretaverant in Vasconiam, posituri resistenciam debacacioni Iohannis de Valesio, filii tiranni Francorum, qui ducatum illum nimis infestavit.

Note 1. The earl of Lancaster was appointed lieutenant of Poitou on the 18th October 1349. Rymer's Fœdera 3.190. Knighton. William, lord Greystock, succeeded in 1323 and died in 1358. The heirs of Percy and Nevill were Henry, afterwards 3rd lord Percy, 1352-1368, who had fought at Crécy, and was brother-in-law of Lancaster; and John Nevill, who had been present with his father at Nevile's Cross, married Percy's sister, and became 3rd lord Nevill, 1367-1388. Thomas, lord Furnival, had also fought at Crécy, and died about 1364. Both Bartholomew, lord Burghersh, and his son [aged 21], of the same name, served in this campaign.

Before 1st March 1350 Hugh Stafford 2nd Earl Stafford [aged 14] and Philippa Beauchamp Countess Stafford [aged 16] were married. She the daughter of Thomas Beauchamp 11th Earl Warwick [aged 37] and Katherine Mortimer Countess Warwick [aged 36]. He the son of Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 48] and Margaret Audley Countess Stafford. They were second cousin once removed. He a great x 2 grandson of King Edward I of England. She a great x 5 granddaughter of King John of England.

Issue of the Exchequer. 22nd May [1353]. To Ralph, Earl of Stafford [aged 51], by a tally raised this day from the fifteenths granted to the clergy in the twenty-fifth year, containing £1000, granted to the said Earl of the King's gift for lately capturing Burseald [aged 43], a French knight, in the war in Gascony. By writ of privy seal amongst the mandates of this term, £1000.

On 25th December 1357 [his son-in-law] John Sutton 2nd Baron Sutton [aged 18] and Katherine Stafford Baroness Sutton Dudley [aged 9] were married. She by marriage Baroness Sutton of Dudley. She the daughter of Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 56] and Margaret Audley Countess Stafford. They were half third cousin once removed. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Edward I of England.

Before 1358 [his son-in-law] John Ferrers 4th Baron Ferrers of Chartley [aged 26] and Elizabeth Stafford Baroness Cobham, Ferrers and Strange [aged 17] were married. She by marriage Baroness Ferrers of Chartley. She the daughter of Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 56] and Margaret Audley Countess Stafford. They were fourth cousin once removed. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Edward I of England.

In December 1361 [his daughter] Katherine Stafford Baroness Sutton Dudley [aged 13] died.

On 12th April 1363 [his son-in-law] Thomas Ros 4th Baron Ros Helmsley [aged 28] and Beatrice Stafford Countess Desmond [aged 22] were married. She the daughter of Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 61] and Margaret Audley Countess Stafford. They were third cousins. He a great x 5 grandson of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Edward I of England.

In 1368 [his son-in-law] Reginald Cobham 2nd Baron Cobham [aged 19] and Elizabeth Stafford Baroness Cobham, Ferrers and Strange [aged 28] were married at Lingfield, Surrey. She by marriage Baroness Cobham. She the daughter of Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 66] and Margaret Audley Countess Stafford. They were third cousins. He a great x 5 grandson of King John of England. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Edward I of England.

On 31st August 1372 Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford [aged 70] died. His son Hugh [aged 36] succeeded 2nd Earl Stafford, 3rd Baron Stafford. Philippa Beauchamp Countess Stafford [aged 38] by marriage Countess Stafford.

Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Likewise, the Earl of Stafford¹ entered Gascony, where he encountered a large French army, which had come out from the fortress of Dax. He defeated, captured, and put them to flight, around the time of the Nativity of the Glorious Virgin [8th September 1352] Among those captured was the famous knight, a wise commander and a man of great arrogance, called Brusegaudus, along with seven knights of the Company of the Star. Not long afterward, by natural death, there died in the same place John d'Odingsells² and Thomas Wale, knights of great valour.

Item, comes Staffordie Vasconiam intravit, ubi obvius Gallicorum magno exercitui, qui a municione Dagent fuerant egressi, hostes fudit, cepit et fugavit, circa Nativitatem Virginis gloriose. Ibi fuerunt capti famosus ille miles, ductor providus atque vir magne presumpcionis, vocatus Brusegaudus, et VIJ milites comitive de Stella. Nec multum postea communi morte obierunt ibidem Iohannes Dodianseles et Thomas Wale, milites magne probitatis.

Note 1. Stafford was appointed lieutenant of Aquitaine on the 6th March 1352. Rymer's Fœdera 3.239. Nothing is known of the battle here mentioned as fought early in September with French forces from Agen. 'Brusegaudus' is Jean le Meingre, called Boucicaut, whom Froissart includes among the prisoners taken at the battle of Saintes in the previous year. Froissart 4.106 and Froissart 332.

The earl of Stafford received on the 22nd May 1353, the sum of £1000 for his capture. Issues of the Exchequer, 159.

Note 2. Sir John de Odingsells, of Odingsells or Pirton Doddingsells, Hertforshire, had been outlawed in the previous year. He died seised of a moiety of the manor of Pirton, and of lands in Staffordshire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, and Oxfordshire. Clutterbuck, Hist. Herts, 3.122; Calendar Inquisitions Post Mortem, 2.182. Sir Thomas Wale, one of the Founders of the Garter, died 26th October 1352. Beltz, Memorials of the Order of the Garter, 63.

[his son] Ralph Stafford was born to Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford and Margaret Audley Countess Stafford. He a great x 2 grandson of King Edward I of England. He married 1344 his third cousin once removed Maud Plantagenet Duchess Lower Bavaria, daughter of Henry of Grosmont 1st Duke Lancaster and Isabel Beaumont Duchess Lancaster.

[his daughter] Joan Stafford was born to Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford and Katherine Hastings Baroness Stafford.

Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. In the nineteenth year of the king's reign, Henry, Earl of Derby,¹ later created Duke of Lancaster, and the Earls of Devon and Pembroke, as well as Lord Ralph Stafford; not yet Earl of Stafford but still a baron, and Lord Walter de Mauny, were sent to Gascony. There, having conquered walled towns and castles, they won many glorious battles with great bravery. The town of Aiguillon,² which they captured by assault, was placed under the guardianship of Ralph of Stafford. Afterward, they moved against other towns, such as Bergerac, which due to its strength was called "the chamber of the French," and also Saint-Jean, La Réole, and many other large, strong, and well-fortified places, which they captured through great effort and perilous assaults. In these campaigns, the Duke of Lancaster fought in underground tunnels, which were being dug to undermine the towers and walls, and suffered fierce attacks from the valiant defenders, fighting hand-to-hand against the besieged. And, something unheard of before, he knighted both Gascon and English soldiers in those very tunnels. Indeed, by conquering towns, cities, castles, and fortresses numbering two hundred and fifty, he marched across a large part of Gascony and advanced as far as Toulouse. There, he invited the ladies of Toulouse and noble maidens, through letters, to dine with him, his fellow nobles, and Lord Bernard de Libreto,³ a loyal Gascon. But, with God's protection, he did no harm to the city or its inhabitants, except for instilling in them unbearable terror, as those who had been besieged later told me. The terror was such that even mendicant friars took up arms, and the Prior of the Carmelite order of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Toulouse, bearing a silver banner with a golden image of the Virgin, led the citizens of his quarter from the walls. He raised his banner in defence,⁴ and by this display, he stirred pious devotion in the duke and many in the army, though some mocked him as well.

Anno Domini MCCCXLV, regis XIX, Henricus comes Derbie, postea dux Lancastrie creatus, et comes Devonie et comes Pembrochie et dominus Radulfus, nondum comes Staffordie set baro, et dominus Walterus de Magne Vasconiam destinantur; ubi, conquisitis villis muratis et castris, multa gloriosa certamina fortiter vicerunt. Villam Daguiloun per insultum adquisitam deputabant custodie Radulphi Staffordie. Postea diverterunt se ad alias villas, ut Brigerak, vocatam pre sua fortitudine 'cameram Francorum,' et ad villam sancti Iohannis et de la Ruele et alias multas grandes et fortes et bene munitas, quas magnis laboribus et insultibus periculosis adquisierunt. Ibi dux Lancastrie, militans in fossatis subterraneis que pro diruendis turribus et muris effodiebantur, graves a virilibus defensoribus insultus paciebatur, et manualiter contra obsessos dimicavit, et, quod antea fuit inauditum, in eiisdem fossatis milites tam Vascones quam Anglicos effecit. Quippe villas, civitates, castra et fortalicia ducentas l. conquirendo, magnam partem Vasconie et usque Tolosam transequitavit, ubi dominas Tolosanas et virgines nobiles per suas literas ad convivandum secum et suis comitibus et domino Bernardo de Libreto, Aquitannico fideli, invitavit. Set, civitatem Deo conservante, nihil eius incolis malefecit, nisi quod terrorem intollerabilem, ut obsessi mihi retulerunt, eiis intulit; ita quod, religiosis mendicis ad arma compulsis, prior Carmelitarum beate Marie Tolose, sub vexillo argenteo ymaginem auream beate Virginis habente, de quarterio sui incolatus civibus prefectus, ostendens suum vexillum ad muros, per armorum errancias descriptum ducem ad devocionem piam et quam plures de exercitu, atque nonnullos ad derisionem, provocavit.

Note 1. Henry of Grosmont succeeded as earl of Lancaster, 22nd September 1345, and was created duke on the 6th March 1352. Hugh Courtenay succeeded as earl of Devon in 1341; died in 1377. Laurence de Hastings was created earl of Pembroke, 12th October 1339; died in 1348. Ralph de Stafford succeeded as baron Stafford in 1308, and was created earl on the 5th March 1351; died in 1372.

Baker is very confused as to the capture of the different places. Bergerac was first taken on the 24th August 1345, Aiguillon, early in December, La Réole, in January 1346. The Saint-Jean-d'Angely was not taken till September 1346. Derby did not go near Toulouse, although it is not impossible that some incursion was made thither. Baker says that he had his information from persons who were besieged there; but he was quite capable of confusing events, and he is most probably referring to the expedition of 1349.

Note 2. Aiguillon, is located at the confluence of Rivers Lot and Garonne. Bergerac is on the River Dordogne. La Réole and Saint-Jean-d'Angely are both on the Garonne downstream of Aiguillon.

Note 3. Bernard, sire d'Albret; died 1358.

Note 4. This seems to mean: by the procession of his banner, on which the picture of the Virgin stood for his armorial device.