Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/33

 (Gesta, p. 32). During the famous retreat northwards he shared with Sir John Cornwall the command of the van, and on 18 Oct. first effected the dangerous passage over the Somme (ib. p. 43). He fought well at Agincourt, where the ransom of two prisoners fell to his share (, Battle of Agincourt, p. lxi, App.) In 1416 he was again fighting at Calais under Warwick (Gesta, p. 96).

In the Norman campaign of 1417 Umfraville was captain of fifty-four lances (ib. p. 271), and one hundred and twenty-five archers. On 20 Aug. power was given to him and to Gilbert Talbot to take possession of all castles and towns in Normandy (Fœdera, ix. 486), and on 30 Sept. he was made captain of Caen, and afterwards of Gournay. On 25 March 1418 he was justice in the diocese of Bayeux. He received very liberal grants of forfeited Norman estates, which included, among other places, Amfreville, the cradle of his race. He was with Warwick at the siege of Neuilly l'Évêque (, ii. 328). He was at the siege of Rouen in 1418–19, being stationed, under John Holland, earl of Huntingdon, on the left bank of the Seine (, i. 344;, Siège de Rouen, p. 86). On the besieged opening negotiations, Umfraville was sent by Huntingdon to treat with them on 1 Jan. 1419. The Rouennais welcomed him as of an ancient Norman stock, and persuaded him to intervene on their behalf through the Duke of Clarence with the king (details in in Memorials of Henry V, pp. 53–6, but much more elaborate particulars in the English poem, ‘The Sege of Roan,’ printed in Archæologia, vols. xxi. and xxii., and translated by, pp. 235–72, and pp. 162–3). Afterwards he was one of the commission of sixteen who drew up the terms of the capitulation of the city. In February 1419 he was appointed in rapid succession captain of Pontoise, Eu, and Neufchâtel. He also took part in the long siege of Château Gaillard (, i. 368–9;, iii. 338).

On 28 March 1419 Umfraville was made member of an embassy accredited to the French king, and on 8 May was put on the commission empowered to negotiate for the marriage of Henry V with Catharine, and to arrange for an interview between the two kings (Fœdera, ix. 747–50). The negotiations at first were hollow, and on their way to Provins, where Charles VI was, the ambassadors were attacked by Tanneguy Duchâtel, the Armagnac, at Chaumes in Brie (, iii. 313;, i. 359). After the murder of the Duke of Burgundy at Montereau, Umfraville helped to arrange the Anglo-Burgundian alliance. On 24 Oct. he was authorised to declare that Henry would accept the hand of Catharine with the reversion of the French crown as the price of his alliance. He accompanied Henry on his march to Troyes in the spring of 1420 (, iii. 388;, i. 130). He took a conspicuous part in the great tournaments with which Henry celebrated Christmas in 1420 at Paris (ib. p. 380). On Henry's return to England Umfraville remained in France, being constituted captain of Melun by the king (, p. 379;, ii. 27, 379). In January 1421 he was made marshal of France (ib. p. 383). He joined the expedition of Clarence to Anjou against his old enemies, the Scots, accompanied, if Hardyng can be trusted, with ten men only. Hardyng (pp. 384–5) tells a long story how Umfraville, seeing that the army was not ready, urged Clarence to delay fighting until holy week was over; and how Clarence, who envied his fame, reproached him with cloaking cowardice under religious scruples. Against his advice Clarence fought at Baugé on 22 March (Easter Eve), but the Scotto-Armagnac host was two to one, and he suffered a complete defeat. Umfraville, like Clarence, fell on the field. His body was recovered and taken to England to be buried (, p. 385).

Umfraville is described by his panegyrist, Hardyng, as of ‘goodly port, full gentle,’ while the Burgundian Chastellain calls him ‘vaillant chevalier et bien à douter’ (i. 225). He married Anne Neville, seventh child of his old protector, Ralph Neville, first earl of Westmorland (, Durham, iv. 159;, Complete Peerage, i. 95, says that he died unmarried). He left no issue, so that while his uncle Robert succeeded under the entail to Harbottle and Redesdale—and also apparently to Kyme—his personal representatives were his five sisters, between whose descendants the Umfraville barony, according to later legal doctrine, would still remain in abeyance.

(d. 1436) now became lord of Redesdale and Kyme. Apart from his possible share in the 1415 campaign, he remained under Henry V, as under Henry IV, mainly occupied on Scottish affairs. The Scots called him Robin Mendmarket, because of his burning Peebles on market day (, p. 366). He was sheriff of Northumberland, vice-admiral of the north, chamberlain of Berwick, warden of Roxburgh Castle, and finally of Berwick; and in 1417 helped in checking the Scots while Henry fought the French (cf. ,