Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/406

 390 BUCKINGHAM lasted but a few months, and, joining in the plot to place the Earl of Rich- mond on the throne, he was beheaded (without any legal trial) at Salisbury, 2 Nov. following, and attainted. He m. Katharine (sister to Elizabeth, Queen Consort of Edward IV), da. of Richard (Wydville), Earl Rivers, by Jacqueline, da. of Pierre de Luxembourg, Count of St. Pol and Brienne. He d. as afsd., 2 Nov. 1483, and was bur. at the Grey Friars, aged 28. His widow w., before Nov. 1485, Jasper (Tudor), Duke of Bed- ford, who d. s.p. legit., 21 Dec. 1495. ^^^ ^"-i Z^'^^Y') ^^ ^^^ ^^^ wife. Sir Richard Wingfield, K.G., who a. 22 July 1525. DUKEDOM. III. EARLDOM. VII. 3 and 4. Edward (Stafford), Duke of 1485 Buckingham [1444], Earl of Stafford to [i35i]> Earl of Buckingham [1377.] and 1521. Baron Stafford [1298], also Co««/o/'Pfrf//f i« Normandy, s. and .,b. 3 Feb. 1477/8, at Breck- nock Castle. K.B. (as Duke of Buckingham) 29 Oct. 1485, though not formally restored to his honours till Nov. 1485 by Act of Parl.() K.G. circa 1499. He was appointed to act at the coronation of Henry VIII, in 1509 (for the day only), as Lord High Constable, to which office he laid claim, as his hereditary right, in I5i4.('') He also officiated at the coronation as Lord High Steward of England and Bearer of the Crown. P.C., 1509. He had lie. to castellate his manor of Thornbury 9 July 1 5 10. He held a command in the right wing at Therouenne in 1 5 13. In right of his representation of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester and Earl of Buckingham abovenamed (the 6th and yst. s. of Edward III), he appears to have entertained some notions of his possible right to the Crown, and having incurred the enmity of Cardinal Wolsey, then Chief Minister, was accused and found guilty, on very flimsy grounds, of (*) For these restorations see note sub Edward, Earl of Devon [1485]. Q") He claimed the Lord High Constableship as heir of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, who, it was stated, " held the manors of Harlefield, Newnam, and Whytenhurst [Haresfield, Newnham, and Wheatenhurst], in the county of Glouces- ter of the King by the service of being Constable of England." The judges decided that the office should "have continuance in the Duke notwithstanding that one of the three manors has come to the hands of our Lord the King; for otherwise it will ensue that the Duke will have the two other manors without doing any service for them, and so the Duke is compellable at the pleasure of the King to do and exercise the office." For an account of the confusion into which the judges were led by their misconception of the nature of the tenure of this office, which was not /«yi7i/ attached to the manors but was an office held in fee; and of the confusion worse confounded in which Law Lords and Counsel in modern peerage cases have been involved owing to their blind acceptance of the decision in this case, see J. H. Round's Peerage and Pedigree (vol. i, pp. 147-166), where an amusing exposure of legal methods is given in the article termed " The Muddle of the Law." See also Appendix D in this volume. V.G.