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Birth:          22 Jun 1378 of Farleigh-Hungerford, Somersetshire, England
Death:          9 Jun 1449 
Burial:         Cathedral, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Hungerford,_1st_Baron_Hungerford
Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford KG (1378–9 August 1449) was an English 
knight and landowner, from 1400 to 1414 Member of the House of Commons, of which 
he became Speaker, then was an Admiral and peer.

He won renown in the Hundred Years' War, fighting in many engagements, including 
the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He was an English envoy at the Council of Constance 
in 1415. In 1417 he was made admiral of the fleet. On the death of Henry V he was an 
executor of Henry's will and a member of Protector Gloucester's council. He attended 
the conference at Arras in 1435, and was a Member of the House of Lords sitting as 
Baron Hungerford from January 1436 until his death in 1449. For some years he was 
Treasurer of England.
Origins[edit]

He was the only surviving son and heir of Sir Thomas Hungerford (died 1398) of 
Farleigh Castle in Wiltshire,[3] the first person to be recorded in the rolls of the 
Parliament of England as holding the office of Speaker of the House of Commons.[4] 
His mother was his father's second wife, Joan Hussey (died 1412), daughter and 
heiress of Sir Edmund Hussey of Holbrook.[3]

Career[edit]

His father had been strongly attached to the Lancastrian cause at the close of the 
reign of King Richard II (1377–1399), having been steward in the household of John of 
Gaunt. On the accession of King Henry IV in 1399, Walter was knighted and was 
granted an annuity of £40 out of the lands of Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk.[3] He 
served as Member of Parliament for Wiltshire in October 1400, in 1404, 1407, 1413, 
and in January 1413–14, and served as Member of Parliament for Somerset in 1409. 
He served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 29 January 1413/14, the last 
parliament in which he served as an MP.[5]

He was appointed Sheriff of Wiltshire for 1405, during which term he pronounced his 
own selection as MP for Wiltshire, and as Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset for 1414.[6]

Hungerford won renown as a warrior. In 1401 he was with the English army in France, 
and is said to have defeated the French king in a duel outside Calais. He 
distinguished himself in battle and tournament, and received substantial rewards. In 
consideration of his services he was granted in 1403 one hundred marks per annum, 
payable by the town and castle of Marlborough in Wiltshire, and was appointed Sheriff 
of Wiltshire. On 22 July 1414 he was nominated ambassador to treat for a league with 
Sigismund, King of the Romans,[7] and as the English envoy attended the Council of 
Constance in 1414-15.[8]

In the autumn of 1415, with twenty men-at-arms and sixty horse archers, Hungerford 
accompanied King Henry V to France.[9] He can probably be identified correctly as 
the officer who on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt expressed regret that the English 
had not ten thousand archers, which drew a famous rebuke from the king. In 
Shakespeare's Henry V, however, this officer is the Earl of Westmoreland.[10] He 
fought bravely at the Battle of Agincourt, but the legend that he took Charles, Duke of 
Orléans prisoner is not substantiated. He was employed in May 1416 in diplomatic 
negotiations with ambassadors of Theodoric, Archbishop of Cologne[11] and in 
November 1417 with envoys from France.[12]

In 1417 he was made Admiral of the Fleet under John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of 
Bedford, and in 1418 was with King Henry V at the Siege of Rouen. In November 1418 
he was designated Steward of the King's Household,[13] and was granted the barony 
of Hommet in Normandy (today Le Hommet). He took part in the peace negotiations of 
1419 and on 3 May 1421 was installed as a Knight of the Garter.[14]

Hungerford was an executor of the will of King Henry V, and in 1422 became a 
member of the council of the Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the Lord Protector. In 
1424 he was made Steward of the Household of the infant King Henry VI, and on 7 
January 1425/6 was summoned by writ to Parliament as Baron Hungerford. The 
summons was continued to him until his death. Hungerford became Treasurer of 
England in succession to Bishop Stafford, when Bishop Beaufort's resignation of the 
Great Seal in March 1426-7 placed Gloucester in supreme power. He acted as Carver 
at Henry VI's coronation in Paris in December 1430,[15] but on the change of ministry 
which followed Henry VI's return from France in February 1431-2, he ceased to be 
Treasurer. He attended the conference at Arras in 1435.[16]

Marriages and progeny[edit]


 


 Arms of Peverell of Sampford Peverell, Devon: Azure, three garbs argent a chief or
[17]

 


 The marriage of Sir Walter Hungerford to Catherine Peverell is symbolised in a 
heraldic badge showing the Hungerford knot uniting the Hungerford sickle and the 
Peverell garb, the latter a badge of the ancient Peverel family, feudal barons of 
Peverel (or of "the Peak") in Derbyshire
Hungerford married twice:
Firstly to Catherine (or Eleanor) Peverell, daughter of Sir Thomas Peverell, MP, of 
Parke and Hamatethy, Cornwall[6] (a cadet branch of Peverell of Sampford Peverell in 
Devon[18]) by his wife Margaret Courtenay (1355–1422[citation needed]) one of the 
two daughters and eventual sole heiresses of Sir Thomas Courtenay (died 1356)[19] of 
Wootton Courtenay in Somerset and of Woodhuish, Devon,[6] by whom he had three 
sons and at least one daughter: Walter Hungerford, eldest son and heir apparent, who 
was made a prisoner of war in France in 1425, was ransomed by his father for three 
thousand marks, was in the retinue of John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford in 
France in 1435, and predeceased his father without issue.[20]
Robert Hungerford, 2nd Baron Hungerford, eldest surviving son and heir.[20]
Edmund Hungerford, who was knighted by Henry VI after the Battle of Verneuil on 
Whit-Sunday 1426,[21] and married Margaret Burnell, daughter and co-heiress of 
Edward Burnell, by whom he had two sons: Thomas Hungerford, ancestor of the 
Hungerfords of Down Ampney in Gloucestershire, of the Hungerfords of Windrush, 
Oxfordshire and of the Hungerfords of Black Bourton, Oxfordshire.[20]
Edward Hungerford, ancestor of the Hungerfords of Cadenham, Wiltshire.[20] 

 


 Arms of Bishop Peter Courtenay (d.1492), showing the arms of the See of Exeter 
impaling Courtenay of Powderham, incorporating heraldic badges of dolphins of 
Courtenay of Powderham and in the spandrels, Hungerford sickles and Peverell garbs. 
Detail from the Courtenay Mantelpiece, Bishop's Palace, Exeter

Elizabeth Hungerford (died 14 December 1476), who married Sir Philip Courtenay 
(1404–1463) of Powderham, Devon.[22] On her marriage she took to her husband as 
her marriage portion the manor of Molland in North Devon, which she gave to her 
second son Sir Philip Courtenay of Molland (died 1488), who founded a junior branch 
of the Courtenay family there.[23] A fragment of an ancient chest tomb in Molland 
Church displays heraldic motifs of two interlaced Hungerford sickles and a dolphin of 
Courtenay of Powderham. Her third son was Peter Courtenay (c.1432–1492) Bishop of 
Exeter and Bishop of Winchester, whose splendid surviving mantlepiece in the 
Bishop's Palace, Exeter displays much heraldry including Hungerford sickles and 
Peverell garbs.[24]

Secondly he married Eleanor Berkeley (died 1 August 1455), daughter of Sir John 
Berkeley of Beverstone Castle, Gloucestershire,[20] (by his second wife, Elizabeth 
Betteshorne). Eleanor Berkeley was a widow successively of John FitzAlan, 6th Earl of 
Arundel (died 1421) and of Sir Richard Poynings (died 1429)[25][26]). Walter 
Hungerford and Eleanor de Berkeley were without progeny.[20]

Death and burial[edit]

Hungerford died on 9 August 1449 and was buried beside his first wife in Salisbury 
Cathedral, where two beautiful mortuary chapels erected by the Hungerford family 
stood until removed and destroyed by the restorations of James Wyatt in 1790. William 
Hamilton Rogers (1877) wrote as follows concerning the monument:[27][28]
"He was buried with his wife in the Hungerford Chapel in the nave, a beautiful 
structure composed chiefly of iron and which has since been removed to the choir. 
Their tombs, joined together and despoiled of their brass effigies, remain in the nave. 
The matrices exhibit the proportions of a knight on the one and of a lady on the other, 
both stones were powdered over with sickles and a ledger line outside all. The whole 
has now disappeared, except the stones in which the brasses were set. Forty shields 
of arms, according to Hutchins (who minutely describes these chapels previous to 
their removal) were set round outside exhibiting the various alliances of the family. 
Among these were Hungerford impaling Strange and Mohun, Peverell, Courtenay, St 
John, Mules, etc".[a]
Benefactions[edit]

By his marriages and royal grants Hungerford added largely to the family estates. He 
built chantries at Heytesbury and Chippenham, and made bequests to Salisbury 
Cathedral and to Bath Cathedral. In 1428 he presented valuable estates to the Royal 
Chapel in the Palace of Westminster.[30] He founded an almshouse in 1442[31] at 
Heytesbury for twelve poor men and one woman, with a schoolmaster's residence; 
after being re-endowed by Margaret de Botreaux, widow of his son Robert, and then 
rebuilt in 1769 after a fire, the charity continues today as the Hospital of St John.[32]
[33]

In his will he left to his daughter-in-law, Margaret de Botreaux (wife of Sir Robert 
Hungerford, 2nd Baron), his "best legend of the Lives of the Saints" and to John, 
Viscount Beaumont he bequeathed a cup formerly used by John of Gaunt.[34]

In 1407 Hungerford donated the advowson of the church at his manor of Rushall in 
Wiltshire to the canons of Longleat Priory, who were struggling to support themselves 
financially.[35]

Parents
DE HUNGERFORD Thomas (ABT 1330 - 3 Dec 1397)
HUSSEY Joan (ABT 1335 - 1 Mar 1412)

Siblings
HUNGERFORD Walter (22 Jun 1378 - 9 Jun 1449)

Marriage To PEVERELL Eleanor (Katherine) (ABT 1380 - AFT 14 Jun 1426)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
PEVERELL Thomas (ABT 1335 - 1422)
COURTENAY Margaret (ABT 1336 - BEF 8 Dec 1422)

Children by PEVERELL Eleanor (Katherine) ABT 1380 - AFT 14 Jun 1426
HUNGERFORD Elizabeth (ABT 1400 - 14 Dec 1476)

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