Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/139

 Moleyns was accused of docking their wages, and is said to have spoken haughtily. The sailors cried out that he was a traitor, and had sold Normandy to the French, fell upon him, and ill-used him so severely that he died on 9 Jan. 1450. When attacked he is reported to have said something that was held to seriously reflect on Suffolk, who when on his trial laid the blame of the actual delivery of Le Mans on the murdered bishop (, ii. 118 ; Rolls of Parl. v. 176, 180).

Some declared that Moleyns owed his death to his covetousness, others ascribed it, though without ground, to the procurement of the Duke of York (, p. 189;, Annals, p. 387), and Æneas Sylvius believed that his head was cut off (, Opp. p. 443). He bequeathed some handsome church, ornaments to his cathedral. Moleyns seems to have been a capable and diligent politician of the second rank, a useful agent for carrying out the designs of greater men. The charge that he in any way betrayed the interests of England is untrue. Suffolk's policy, of which after his elevation he was doubtless something more than the agent, proved unsuccessful, and its failure excited popular indignation against him. This indignation is recorded in a contemporary poem (Political Songs, ii. 234, where the editor wrongly attributes the reference to Robert, lord Molines, and Hungerford [q. v.] ; cf. Sir F. Madden in Archæologia} vol. xxix.) He was greedy of gain, though probably to no greater degree than most other politicians of his time. He evidently had a share in the revival of letters, and was a man of learning and culture ; for he was a friend of 'Vincent Clement' (, Correspondence, ii. 115), and corresponded with and was esteemed by Æneas Sylvius, who commended his literary style (, Epp. 80, 186 : De Europa, p. 443). An epitaph written for him commemorates his prudence in affairs and his desire for peace (Chronicon Henrici VI, p. 38).  MOLYNEUX, EDMUND (d. 1552), judge, was eldest son of Sir Thomas Molyneux of Haughton, Nottinghamshire, by his second wife, Catherine, daughter of John Cotton of Hamstall Ridware, Staffordshire, relict of Thomas Poutrell of Hallam, Derbyshire. He graduated B.A. at Oxford on 1 July 1510, and about the same time entered Gray's Inn, where he was made an ancient in 1528, and elected Lent reader in 1532 and 1536. On 20 Nov. 1542 he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law, and on the coronation of Edward VI was made a knight of the Bath (20 Feb. 1546-7). He appears as one of the witnesses to the patent of 24 Dec. 1547, by which the powers of the protector Somerset were at once amplified and made terminable at the pleasure of the king, signified under the great seal. In 1549 he was placed on the council of the north, and on 22 Oct. 1550 was created a justice of the common pleas. He appears to have been a sound lawyer. He died in 1552.

Molyneux was lord of the manor of Thorpe, near Newark, and of lands adjoining which had belonged to the Knights Hospitallers of the Preceptory of Eagle. By his wife Jane, daughter of John Cheyney of Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, he had issue four sons one of whom, Edmund, is noticed below and four daughters.  MOLYNEUX, EDMUND (fl. 1587), biographer, was third son of Sir Edmund Molyneux [q. v.] by Jane, daughter of John Cheney of Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire (, Memoir of the Moltneux Family, p. 30). Tanner, citing 'Cabala,' ed. 1663, p. 140, identifies him with 'one Moleneux,' who, after being in the employ of Sir William Cecil and misusing' him, sought in August 1567 the post of secretary 