John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont (c. 1409 – 10 July 1460), was an English nobleman and magnate from Folkingham, Lincolnshire. He was a councillor to King Henry VI and was rewarded for his services, becoming a leading member of the East Anglian nobility. Beaumont held numerous offices for the crown, and was promoted up the peerage to become the first man with the rank of viscount. He also amassed immense personal wealth, acquired through inheritance, marriage, and royal patronage.

Beaumont was present for some of the most notable events of Henry VI's reign. He was present at the arrest of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester in 1447, helped defend the king against Jack Cade's Rebellion in 1450, and helped suppress the rebellion of Richard, Duke of York in 1452. While York and his allies ended up fighting against the king, Beaumont remained loyal to the Lancastrian crown during the 1450s, which saw the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. His personal loyalty to Henry VI eventually cost him his life – he was killed, bodyguarding the king, at the Battle of Northampton in 1460. Beaumont's son, William Beaumont, continued the struggle against the Yorkists.

Early life Born at Folkingham Castle, the eldest son of Henry Beaumont, 5th Baron Beaumont, and orphaned by the age of four,Cockayne, G.E., The Complete Peerage II, ed. H.E. Doubleday (London, 1912), 62. Beaumont became Henry V's ward, who quickly put him in the custody of Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. On 24 July 1425 his marriage rights were granted by the council to Sir John Radcliffe as part-payment for debts owed him by the crown.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981) He was first summoned to parliament as Lord Beaumont in 1431, and at some point between 1425 and 1436 he married Elizabeth Phelip. She was the daughter and heiress of Sir William Phelip, a knight of the Garter who was recognised as sixth Lord Bardolf. On his death in 1441, Phelip's large East Anglian estates went to his daughter, and so to Viscount Beaumont. This made him a leading figure in the region. Combined with his own inheritance in Leicestershire, he was a figure worthy of the association of William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk (died 1450), and from there entered the household of King Henry VI.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), 190. In 1429 Beaumont was knighted by the seven-year-old king on the eve of his coronationGrummitt, D., Henry VI (Oxford, 2013), 75. and was in France with Henry the following year.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 279 Dr. John Watts has suggested that, as a royal ward, he may have been brought up in the king's household as a young man, and that his later generous treatment was a consequence of this. Watts noted that a council act of 1425 brought wards of his status 'permanently about the king.'

Royal service

His first major activity on the king's behalf was in France with the king's uncle, the duke of Gloucester in June–July 1436, which had the goal of relieving Calais, in a short, sharp campaign; albeit using the largest English army seen on French soil since Henry V's campaign. He briefly reinforced the Duke of York in Normandy, but all returned to England in late July 1437.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 204–5 For this service he was granted the county of Boulogne in reward; he was not, however, to ever return, even though the earl of Warwick had named him as one of the preferred nobles to accompany him back to France that year to relieve York.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 455 On 5 January the following year (by now a 'prominent Household servant,' according to Ralph Griffiths)Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 238 he was made steward of the Duchy of Lancaster and steward of Leicester, Castle Donington, and Higham Ferrers.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 233 In 1439 he was sworn onto the king's council, which was effectively running the country during the king's minority,Castor, H., The King, the Crown, and the Duchy of Lancaster: Public Authority and Private Power, 1399–1461 (Oxford, 2000), p. 140 and in 1446 he was 'intimately involved' in peace negotiations with the French.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 493 In 1445, he was appointed Lord High Constable, an envoy to France that same year beginning those negotiations, and five years later, to the Scots.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 762 n. 69

In June 1457 he was personally responsible for intervening in the activities of Bishop Pecock, a virulent anti-Lollard. However, his virulence led to suspicions of heresy, which resulted in Beaumont's instigation of a formal examination into the bishop's sermons and writings; Peckock agreed to recant and abjured his heresy in November 1457, resigning his bishopric a year later.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 796–7

Royal favour By 1440 he was firmly in the king's favour, being made in succession the first ever English viscount as Viscount Beaumont (1440),Goodwin, page 65 possibly because by then Boulogne was effectively lost to himGriffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 356 and then granted royal lands in East Anglia, further official positions in royal castles, Lord Great Chamberlain, appointed a Knight of the Garter and the feudal Viscountcy of Beaumont in France. In 1445 he was made premier viscount, and granted precedence over any other- as-yet unmade- viscounts.Hicks, M.A., English Political Culture in the Fifteenth Century (London, 2002), p. 55 These consistent promotions and favouritism have been the subject of some speculation by historians; John Watts has questioned why he 'attracted such an extraordinary heap of honours and perquisites from the crown in these years.' He suggests that as a major noble in East Anglia- with all the territorial and regional significance that meant- was enough to make him worthy of promotion. Beaumont commissioned a contemporary manuscript on chivalry, Knyghthode and Bataile, an adaption of Vegetius for presentation to the king,Harriss, G.L., Shaping the Nation: England 1360–1461 (Oxford, 2005), p. 118 and was also a major benefactor of Queens' College, Cambridge, which the king had granted by charter to his wife Queen Margaret in 1448.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 271 n. 135

Second marriage Elizabeth Phelip, Beaumont's first wife, died by October 1441, and within two years he married Katherine Neville, the dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Katherine Neville was noble in her own right, being sister of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York. Thus, this marriage would have been considered a great marital prize, bringing him further territorial and financial augmentation.

Political career Beaumont was fully involved in the political crises that punctuated the reign of Henry VI: Griffiths has labelled him one of 'a small group of like-minded men, led by Suffolk' who could work for the king whether in council or on royal progress,Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 282 although his attendance at council seems to have become more sporadic by 1443.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 292 n. 30 As Steward of England,Harriss, G.L., Shaping the Nation: England 1360–1461 (Oxford, 2005), p. 613 he personally- although accompanied by, for example, other lords such as Buckingham and the earl of SalisburyJacob, E.F., The Fifteenth Century, (Oxford, 1993), 483- arrested Humphrey, duke of Gloucester for treason, in Bury St Edmunds 18 February 1447. Throughout the subsequent period of foreign catastrophe which, to contemporaries, came to symbolise the failure of Suffolk's government in the late 1440s, Beaumont not only supported the duke's policy but backed him during his impeachment.Harriss, G.L., Shaping the Nation: England 1360–1461 (Oxford, 2005), p. 611 With Suffolk's fall in 1450, it has been described as 'rather surprising' that Beaumont did not fall with him, having 'been involved in some of the regime's most unpopular activities.' For instance, he was a close associate and a 'protector'Jacob, E.F., The Fifteenth Century, (Oxford, 1993), 494 of the 'headstrong' Sir William Tailboys (whom Griffiths also called 'knave-in-chief')Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 580 when Tailboys attempted to assassinate Lord Cromwell in broad daylight in November 1449.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 286 He had also suffered a minor assault on his Boston manor the previous year, but it is likely that he was seen as more impartial at the time than he has seen since. Indeed, far from suffering from his patron's fall, he was appointed to Suffolk's old position of Lord Chamberlain of England, although only for three weeks.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 288

At the outbreak of Jack Cade's Rebellion, he was commissioned on 10 June 1450 to reinforce London,Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 611 and accompanied Henry VI back to the capital in July.Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI (Berkeley, 1981), p. 623 Later, with the duke of Buckingham negotiated with the rebels at Blackheath, offering them royal pardons.Harriss, G.L., Shaping the Nation: England 1360–1461 (Oxford, 2005), p. 620