Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/182

  strelet's Chroniques, p. 366, ed. Buchon; Rolls of Parliament, iv. 54–6; Rymer's Fœdera, ix. 300–1; Forty-fourth Report of the Deputy-keeper, pp. 579–94; Ramsay's Lancaster and York; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 158; Doyle's Official Baronage, i. 294; other authorities quoted.]  RICHARD, (1411–1460), was the only son of Richard of Conisborough, earl of Cambridge (d. 1415) [q. v.], by his first wife, Anne Mortimer, sister of Edmund, earl of March. He was descended from Edward III by both parents; for his father was second son of Edmund of Langley, first duke of York [q. v.], Edward III's fifth son; while his mother was a daughter of Roger Mortimer (VI), fourth earl of March [q. v.], himself grandson of Lionel, duke of Clarence, Edward III's third son. Lionel's daughter and heiress, Philippa, married Edmund Mortimer (II), third earl of March. The latter's grandson, Edmund Mortimer (the uncle of the subject of this notice), succeeded to the earldom as fifth earl of March in due course, and would have succeeded to the crown after Richard II but for the usurpation of Henry IV. In 1425 he died childless, and his immense possessions and prospective claim to the crown descended to Richard, his sister's son [see, (1391–1425)].

By the inquisitions, taken on the lands of this Edmund, although there is some disagreement in the findings in different counties (Inquisitiones post mortem, 3 Hen. VI, No. 32), it would appear that Richard was born on St. Matthew's day (21 Sept.) 1411. Being still in his fourteenth year in 1425, when his uncle died, he was the king's ward. His uncle's lands lay in almost every county, from the English Channel to Yorkshire; and besides this great inheritance, notwithstanding his father's attainder, he could claim the entailed lands of the earldom of Cambridge, and had already succeeded to the dukedom of York, on the death of his father's brother Edward, who fell at Agincourt [see, second ]. Thus he was heir to vast estates through no fewer than three distinct lines. Nor was even this all; for the earldom of Ulster, which Lionel, duke of Clarence, had acquired by marriage, had descended, like that of March, to the house of Mortimer.

During his boyhood under Henry V, Richard was placed under the charge of Robert Waterton. In the early years of Henry VI's reign Ralph Neville, first earl of Westmorland [q. v.], obtained a grant of his wardship. On Whitsunday (19 May) 1426 he was knighted at Leicester by the young king Henry VI. In the spring of 1428 the duke received a summons to attend the royal household. In January 1430, though still a minor, he was appointed constable of England, in the Duke of Bedford's absence, for a trial by battle, which was to take place at Smithfield. On 23 April he accompanied Henry VI to France, with twelve lances and thirty-six bowmen in the king's wages. He was still with the king in France in August 1431, when six hundred marks were granted to him out of his own lands as a reward for one year's labour and expenses in the king's service. No doubt he returned with the king in February 1432. In the spring of that year he petitioned parliament for livery of his lands on the ground that, by some of the inquisitions taken on the death of the Earl of March, he was already of full age; and he was allowed to enter on possession of his estates on finding security that he would pay in five years 979l. 7s. 2¼d. to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, who had a lease of his Welsh lands from the crown, and one thousand marks to the king. On 20 Nov. following he procured a warrant from the privy council for a special livery of the jointure and other lands of his aunt, Anne, countess of March. Still there were the Irish estates to be looked after, and about two years after this he must have gone over to Ireland to take possession of them. In April and May 1434 he took part in a great council at Westminster. On 8 Aug. 1435 he received a pardon under the great seal of Ireland for intrusion without royal license on the lands of Edmund (late earl of March and Ulster), and those which Edmund's widow, the Countess Anne, had held in dower. In this document he is described as duke of York, earl of March and Ulster, and lord of Wigmore, Clare, Trim, and Connaught (Patent Roll, Ireland, 13 Hen. VI, No. 81). In January 1436 he was designated to supply the place in France of the regent Bedford, who had died at Rouen in September. He was to be called lieutenant-general and governor of the kingdom of France and duchy of Normandy. On 20 Feb. a grant was made to him under the great seal for ten years of the liberty of Trim in Ireland, which had belonged to Joan, wife of Roger Mortimer, the first earl of March [q. v.], and should have remained hers after his attainder in Edward III's reign, but had been confiscated with her husband's property (ib. 14 Hen. VI, pt. i. m. 6).

It was not till 24 May that Richard formally agreed by indenture to serve the king in France for one year, when the wages of the second quarter for himself and his retinue were paid to him in advance, his own being 13s. 4d. a day (, Issue Roll, pp. 428–9),