Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/162

 (Rot. Parl. in. 4, 144, &c.) In 1387-8 he was one of the commissioners of the king before whom the appellant lords brought their charges against Robert deVere, Michael de la Pole, and Richard's other favourites (ib. 229). This committee had been appointed about Michaelmas 1386, and was originally only intended to continue till Christmas (Eulog. Hist. 360) for the purpose of regulating the royal court and finance. In 1397 he was impeached by the commons for having been a member of this commission, and was brought up for trial in January by the Duke of Lancaster, who prosecuted for the king. A detailed account of the process has been preserved. He pleaded that he had only served on the commission at the king's command; but was unable to meet the retort that he must have been well aware that the king's consent had been obtained by pressure. As regarded the execution of Sir Simon Burley [q. v.], he made a similar defence that it was carried out by those who were at that time rulers de facto 'par yceux q'adonques furent mestres.' Finally he was adjudged a traitor, and sentenced to be hung, drawn, and quartered, a penalty which, however, the King commuted for one of forfeiture and perpetual banishment to Jersey (Rot. Parl. iii. 382). There can be little doubt that Cobham's extreme age (he must have been between eighty and ninety at the time) had something to do with obtaining him so lenient a sentence. Walsingham describes him as 'vir grandsevus, simplex et rectus,' and speaks of the king as granting 'the old man' 'a life for which he did not care' (Ypod. Neustr. 379). It would seem that he had before his impeachment withdrawn from the world to a Carthusian monastery, whence he was removed for his trial (, Tripartite Chron. i. 433). The punishment of Cobham formed one of the charges brought against Richard II on his deposition (, De Ill. Henr. 103) ; and on the accession of Henry IV Cobham was recalled from banishment (Eulog. Hist. 385). He acted as one of the ' triers ' for England in 2 Henry IV, apparently for the last time. His name, however, is appended to the document of 1406 in which Henry IV regulates the succession to the crown (Rot. Parl. iii. 580). Shortly after this (10 Jan. 1408) he seems to have died, being probably not very far short of a hundred years old (Coll. Top. vii. 329). He married Margaret, daughter of Hugh Courtenay, earl of Devonshire, to whom he was perhaps betrothed, if not actually married, as early as 1331 (, with which cf. Top. Gen. vii. 323). His heiress was his granddaughter Joan, whose mother, bearing the same name, had married Sir John de la Pole (ib. 320: ; ). This younger Joan, at the time of her grandfather's death, was thirty years of age, and the widow of Sir Nicholas Hawberk. She is said to have been married five times (Coll. Top. 329 ; ). One of her husbands was Sir John Oldcastle [q. v.], who, in the right of his wife, was sometimes known as Lord Cobham (, Ypod. Neustr. 439). By another husband, Sir Gerard Braybrooke, Joan had a daughter, likewise called Joan, who married Sir Thomas Brooke of Somerset, and thus was ancestress of the Brookes of Cobham. Cobham's name is associated with several important occurrences in the reign of Richard II, besides those mentioned above, as, for example, the famous Scrope and Grosvenor case (, vii. 620), and the letter of remonstrance to the papal court in 1390 (ib. 675). In 1372 he is found transacting business with a certain John Gower, probably the poet (Excheq. Rolls, ii. 78). Ten years previously (1362) he founded the college, or chantry, of Cobham (, i. 503), and nearly ten years later (1370-1) received permission to crenellate his house at Cowling, where his inscription and coat of arms were still to be seen over the eastern gate in Hasted's time (Coll. Top. vii. 346 ;, i. 539). Through his granddaughter Joan this castle passed into the hands of Sir John Oldcastle, and is said to have been the place where he entertained and protected Lollard priests.