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Birth:          1367 Hunstanton Hall, Hunstanton, Norfolk, England
Death:          1417 Norfolk, England

Notes
familysearch.org
www.tudorplace.com.ar/STRANGE

Notes: Knighted before the summer of 1378, then being appointed to his first royal 
commission. This was to secure the arrest of Sir Robert Howard, who had been 
charged with the abduction of Margery Narford, grand daughter and heir to Alice, Lady 
Neville. Strange hold property at Hunstanton as a feudal tenant of Richard, earl of 
Arundel, to whom, moreover, he was distantly related. It was to John of Gaunt, 
however, that he remained most closely attached: he was described as his ‘bachelor’ 
in 1380 when ordered to bring before the ducal council in London evidences 
concerning Gaunt's dispute with the prior of Holy Trinity, Norwich; and on one 
occasion his lord granted him the goods of an outlaw, said to be worth as much as 
360 marks. He served under Lancaster not only on the military expedition which 
Richard II led into Scotland in 1385, but also on his campaigns to press his claim to 
the throne of Castile in 1386-7.

At that time Richard II's opponents, the Lords Appellant, were in firm control of the 
government, having recently dominated the Merciless Parliament, which Strange had 
attended as knight of the shire for Norfolk. Judging from his ‘reward’, but possibly also 
because of his links with the earl of Arundel, and with John of Gaunt's son Henry, earl 
of Derby, who had earlier responded sympathetically to a petition of his, it would 
appear that Strange was an active supporter of the Appellants; and in this connexion 
it may be noted that after Richard II regained power in May 1389 he did not ever 
again serve on a royal commission throughout the rest of the reign. Again in Jul 1388, 
although no political motivation need be read into this, Strange acted as mainpernor at 
the Exchequer for Sir William Fulthorpe, who was then busy doing what he could to 
recover, if only by lease, the estates forfeited by his father, one of the judges 
impeached and condemned for treason in the same Parliament. 

In Jun 1408 he was granted a life annuity of £40, and two years later he and his wife 
were given the manor of Westley (Suffolk) valued at £4 18s.4d. p.a. to hold for life in 
survivorship. Subsequently, in 1412, at Sir John's request, half of his annuity was 
bestowed on one of his sons, Christopher, who had recently entered the royal 
household as an esquire.

Strange's position at the court of Henry IV could be used to the advantage of other 
members of his family. Following the death of his kinsman John, 6th Lord Strange of 
Knockin, in 1397, and of the latter's widow in 1400, Sir John had taken an interest in 
the welfare of the young heir, Lord Richard. In Mar 1401 he stood surety for the boy's 
stepfather and guardian, the ‘King's knight’ Sir Nicholas Hauberk, in his dispute with 
John Kynaston, steward of the Strange estates; although four months later he and the 
heir's uncle, Sir Roger Strange, both appeared as mainpernors for Kynaston when he 
leased certain of the same properties at the Exchequer. Then, in Feb 1402 he, 
Hauberk and Sir William Hugford informed the council of the prince of Wales of the 
failure of the trustees appointed by Lord John to fulfil the obligations laid on them of 
paying his debts, supporting his sons and providing for the marriages of his daughters; 
accordingly, the prince granted them custody of some of the Strange estates for the 
duration of Lord Richard's minority, so that his father's will might be adequately 
performed.

It was during the period of Strange's service in Henry IV's household that he was 
summoned personally to attend the great councils of 1401 and 1403, that he was 
twice appointed escheator of Norfolk and Suffolk (on each occasion holding office for 
two consecutive terms), and that he sat as knight of the shire for Suffolk in three 
Parliaments running. There can be little doubt that his place close to the King's person 
was an important factor in securing his election to Parliament; and the local gentry 
must have been aware that his closest friends were of the circle of the influential Sir 
Thomas Erpingham, first chamberlain and then steward of the Household. Among 
those with whom he was connected were John Phelip, Erpingham's nephew, who was 
greatly favoured by Henry of Monmouth, and Sir Andrew Butler, the husband of 
Erpingham's niece. Furthermore, he had remained on good terms with Sir Thomas 
himself, whom he assisted in the purchase of ‘Berney's Inn’ in Norwich.

Strange's employment in the King's household ceased abruptly at Henry IV's death, 
and he was never again appointed to royal commissions. He died shortly before May 
1417, and would appear to have been buried at Hunstanton. Several years earlier he 
had given his manor in Tottington to one of Sir Thomas Felton's daughters, Mary, 
prioress of Campsey (d. 1394), to form part of the priory's possessions, and this gift 
was now confirmed by his eldest son, John, the heir to the bulk of his estates. Strange 
left two other sons, Christopher and Leonard, and when his widow, Eleanor, made her 
will on 13 Sep 1418 she gave the latter a house in Bury St. Edmunds as well as 
property in Thorpe Morieux. Eleanor was buried in the great abbey church at Bury. On 
her mother's side, Eleanor Walkefore was the next heir to her uncle Sir Thomas 
Morieux, constable of the Tower of London and son-in-law to John of Gaunt, duke of 
Lancaster. Following his death in 1388 on the duke's Castilian campaign, she inherited 
manors in Felsham and Thorpe Morieux in Suffolk, which were to have an estimated 
annual value of 40 marks at the time of the death of her son, John.


Parents
LE STRANGE Hamon (1310 - 1380)
DE CAMOYS Catherine (1340 - )

Siblings
LE STRANGE John (1367 - 1417)

Marriage To WALKEFARE Eleanor (1367 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
WALKEFARE Richard (1347 - )
MORIEUX Mary (1348 - )

Children by WALKEFARE Eleanor 1367 - 
LE STRANGE John (ABT 1387 - 26 Oct 1436)

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