John Clifford, 9th Baron Clifford, 9th Lord of Skipton (8 April 1435 – 28 March 1461) was a Lancastrian military leader during the Wars of the Roses in England. The Clifford family was one of the most prominent families among the northern English nobility of the fifteenth century, and by the marriages of his sisters, John Clifford had links to some very important families of the time, including the earls of Devon. His father was slain by partisans of the House of York at the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of St Albans in 1455. It was probably as a result of his father's death there that Clifford became one of the strongest supporters of Queen Margaret, who ended up as the effective leader of the Lancastrian faction because of the illness of her husband, King Henry VI.
Clifford had already achieved prominence in the north where, as an ally of the son of the earl of Northumberland, he took part in a feud against the Neville family, the Percy's natural rivals in Yorkshire. This consisted of a series of armed raids, assaults and skirmishes, and included an ambush on one of the younger Nevilles' wedding parties in 1453. Historians have seen a direct connection between his involvement in the local feud in the north with the Nevilles, and his involvement in the national struggle against the duke of York, with whom the Nevilles were closely allied in the late 1450s. Although this was supposedly a period of temporary peace between the factions, Clifford and his allies appear to have made numerous attempts to ambush the Neville and Yorkist lords.
Armed conflict erupted again in 1459, and again Clifford was found on the side of King Henry and Queen Margaret. Clifford took part in the parliament that attainted the Yorkists – by now in exile – and he took a share of the profits from their lands, as well as being appointed to offices traditionally in their keeping. The Yorkist lords returned from exile in June 1460 and subsequently defeated a royal army at Northampton. As a result of the royalist defeat, Clifford was ordered to surrender such castles and offices as he had from the Nevilles back to them, although it is unlikely that he did so. In fact, he and his fellow northern Lancastrian lords merely commenced a campaign of destruction on Neville and Yorkist estates and tenantry, to such an extent that in December 1460, the duke of York and his close ally, the earl of Salisbury, raised an army and headed north to crush the Lancastrian rebellion. This winter campaign culminated in the Battle of Wakefield in the last days of the year, and was a decisive victory for the Lancastrian army, of which Clifford was by now an important commander. The battle resulted in the deaths of both York and Salisbury, but was probably most notorious for Clifford's slaying of Edmund, Earl of Rutland, York's seventeen-year-old second son and the younger brother of the future King Edward IV. This may have resulted in Clifford's being nicknamed 'Butcher Clifford', although historians disagree as to how widely used by contemporaries this term was.
Clifford accompanied the royal army on its march south early the next year, where, although wounded, he played a leading part in the second Battle of St Albans, and then afterwards with the Queen to the north. The Yorkist army, now under the command of Edward of York and Richard, Earl of Warwick, pursued the Lancastrians to Yorkshire and eventually defeated them at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461. Clifford though was not present; he had been slain in a skirmish with a Yorkist advance party the previous day. Following the coronation of the by-then victorious Edward IV, he was attainted and his lands confiscated by the Crown.
Background, youth, marriage and family
The Clifford family has been described as one of the greatest fifteenth-century families "never to receive an earldom."Given-Wilson, C., The English Nobility in the Late Middle Ages (Trowbridge, 1996), 64. John Clifford was born and baptised at Conisborough Castle on 8 April 1435,Cockayne, G.E. & V.E. Gibbs (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland and the United Kingdom Extant Extinct or Dormant III (2nd ed, London, 1913), 293. the son of Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford (1414–1455) by his wife Joan Dacre (bef. 1424 – bef. 1455). She was the daughter of Thomas de Dacre, 6th Baron Dacre of Gilsland, and Philippa de Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland. One of his godparents was his great-aunt Maud Clifford, Countess of Cambridge, whose dower house was Coningsburgh Castle. When she died in 1446, she left him numerous silver plate in her will. She had been the widow of Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, executed on 5 August 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot,Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families I, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 508. and she was said to have lived "in great estate" in the castle.Cokayne, G.E., Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant II, ed. V.Gibbs (2nd ed., London, 1912), 495 n.
Clifford had three younger brothers and five sisters.Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families I, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 508–9. Sir Roger Clifford, who married Joan Courtenay (born c. 1447), the eldest daughter of Thomas de Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon, by Margaret Beaufort, the daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset. She married secondly, Sir William Knyvet of Buckenham, Norfolk.Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families IV, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 41–2. Next was Sir Robert Clifford, who eventually involved himself in the Perkin Warbeck plot against Henry VII. John Clifford's youngest brother was Sir Thomas Clifford, and his nearest sister was Elizabeth. She married firstly, Sir William Plumpton (1435–1461),Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families IV, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 41. who was probably slain at the Battle of Towton in 1461, and secondly, John Hamerton. Another sister was Maud, who married firstly Sir John Harrington, and secondly, Sir Edmund Sutton. There was also Anne Clifford, who married firstly, Sir William Tempest, and secondly, William Conyers, esquire. John Clifford's youngest sisters were Joan (who married Sir Simon Musgrave) and Margaret (who married Robert Carr).
In 1454, John Clifford married Margaret Bromflete (1443 – 12 April 1493), who was the only daughter and heir of Sir Henry Bromflete, Baron Vessy, and his second wife Eleanor FitzHugh. With her, Clifford had two sons and a daughter;Cockayne, G.E. & V.E. Gibbs (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland and the United Kingdom Extant Extinct or Dormant III (2nd ed, London, 1913), 294.Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families IV, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 97–8. his heir, Henry, who would become 10th baron, a younger son Richard, and a daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth was later the wife of Sir Robert Aske (d. 21 February 1531) of Aughton, Yorkshire.Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families I, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 52, 509. Margaret Clifford survived her husband, and at some time before 14 May 1467 had remarried, to Sir Lancelot Threlkeld. Historian Henry Summerson has described his marriage, which gained the Cliffords estates, as he put it, "in parts of the north relatively free from Neville domination."
Early career Little is known of Clifford's early life or career until he appears on the records of 24 August 1453, as supporting the traditional allies of his family, the Percy family. The Percys were at that time engaged in a bitter feud – known as the Percy–Neville feud by historians – with their rivals for power in Yorkshire, the House of Neville. On this day Clifford joined Thomas Percy, Lord Egremont and Sir Richard Percy, sons of the earl of Northumberland, at Heworth Moor in their attempt to ambush the returning wedding party of Thomas Neville.
Clifford's career was transformed when, on 22 May 1455, his father was killed fighting Richard, Duke of York and York's Neville allies, the earls of Salisbury and Warwick at the first Battle of St Albans. John Clifford was still under age at the time, and was not able to prove his age in order to obtain livery of his lands until 16 June 1456. He entered into his inheritance less than a month later, and was appointed a Justice of the peace in Westmorland. Clifford inherited the barony of Clifford, the family seat at Skipton Castle and the hereditary office of High Sheriff of Westmorland. He was summoned to Parliament on 30 July 1460.Richardson, D., Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families I, eds Kimball G. Everingham (2nd ed., Salt Lake City, 2011), 509.
It is likely that for him, the death of his father personalised an already bitter struggle with the Nevilles. Michael Hicks, for example, has suggested that "the heirs of the dead lords... now wanted revenge for their fathers' deaths. They were not particular whether by constitutional trial or by assassination." Warwick especially was held accountable.Hicks, M.A., Warwick the Kingmaker (Oxford, 1998), 129. King Henry VI imposed a reconciliation between the warring factions of St Albans in early 1458, and commanded the various parties, including Clifford, to London. Clifford arrived there, a contemporary chronicler recorded, "with a grete power," and demanded compensation for his father's death. In this, he was accompanied by the other "yong lordes whoos fadres were sleyne at Seynt Albonys."Davies, J.S. (ed.) An English Chronicle of the Reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI Written Before the Year 1471 (Camden Society, London, 1856), 77. Jointly with Lord Egremont and the new earl of Northumberland, Clifford is believed to have had an army of around 1,500 men in London in early 1458 where, with Egremont and the duke of Exeter, he attempted to ambush Warwick and York on their way to Westminster.Cox, H., The Battle of Wakefield Revisited (York, 2010), 69.Johnson, P.A., Duke Richard of York (Oxford, 1988), 222. It is likely that they had organised armed gangs for the purpose of arresting the Yorkist lords, if not assassinating them.Goodwin, G., Fatal Colours: Towton 1461 (London, 2011), 92. The Mayor of London believed they came "agaynst the peas," and excluded them from the city. Thus, Clifford and the others were forced to lodge at Temple Bar, between the city and Westminster,Hicks, M.A., Warwick the Kingmaker (Oxford, 1998), 132. probably in a house of one of the various bishops that lined the route.Maurer, H.E., Margaret of Anjou: Queenship and Power in Late Medieval England (Woodbridge, 2003), 154. The king, as arbitrator, resided out of London, at Berkhamsted Castle, and Clifford visited him there on 1 March – "presumably to influence the result [but] probably unsuccessfully," says Hicks.Hicks, M.A., Warwick the Kingmaker (Oxford, 1998), 133. Clifford later participated in what was known ceremonially as the 'Loveday' on the 24th of the month, which saw the king arbitrate a settlement between the warring parties. As a result of this, and as part of a general compensation package between the families of the battle's victors and losers, Clifford was to be paid £666 by the earl of Warwick. This was to be shared between John and his siblings.