Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk, 1st Baron de la Pole, (c. 13305 September 1389) of Wingfield Castle in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

, was an English

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

and

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. T ...

of England. His contemporary Froissart portrays de la Pole as a devious and ineffectual counsellor who dissuaded King Richard II from pursuing a certain victory against French and Scottish forces in Cumberland and fomented undue suspicion of that king's uncle

John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edwar ...

Origins

He was the eldest son of Sir

William de la Pole William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

(died 1366), Chief Baron of the Exchequer, a wool merchant from

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from ...

who after the collapse of the Florentine banker families of Bardi and Peruzzi emerged as the chief financier of King

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

. His younger brother was Edmund de la Pole.

Career

Michael enjoyed even greater popularity at court than his father, becoming one of the most trusted and intimate friends of Edward's successor,

Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father d ...

. He was appointed

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

in 1383, Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde ''Handbook of British Chronology'' 2nd ed. London: Royal Historical Society 1961 p. 85 and created

Earl of Suffolk Earl of Suffolk is a title which has been created four times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, in tandem with the creation of the title of Earl of Norfolk, came before 1069 in favour of Ralph the Staller; but the title was forf ...

in 1385, the first of his family to hold any such title (the earldom had become extinct in 1382 on the death of

William de Ufford William Ufford, 2nd Earl of Suffolk (30 May 1338 – 15 February 1382) was an English nobleman in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II. He was the son of Robert Ufford, who was created Earl of Suffolk by Edward III in 1337. William had thre ...

). However, in the late 1380s his fortunes radically altered, in step with those of the king. During the Wonderful Parliament of 1386 he was impeached on charges of embezzlement and negligence, a victim of increasing tensions between Parliament and Richard. He was the first official in English history to be removed from office by the process of impeachment. Even after this disgrace, he remained in royal favour, although soon fell foul of the

Lords Appellant The Lords Appellant were a group of nobles in the reign of King Richard II, who, in 1388, sought to impeach some five of the King's favourites in order to restrain what was seen as tyrannical and capricious rule. The word ''appellant'' — still ...

. He was one of a number of Richard's associates accused of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

by the Appellants in November 1387.

Exile and death

After the Appellants' victory at Radcot Bridge (December 1387) and before the Merciless Parliament met in February 1388, de la Pole shrewdly fled to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

, thus escaping the fate of Sir Nicholas Brembre and Chief Justice Robert Tresilian. He remained in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

for the remainder of his life. Sentenced in his absence, his title and estates were stripped from him.

Marriage and children

He married Katherine Wingfield (1340–1386) daughter and heiress of Sir

John de Wingfield {{no footnotes, date=August 2019 Sir John de Wingfield (died c. 1361) of Wingfield Castle in Suffolk was chief administrator to Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376). He and both his brothers fought at Crécy in 1346. He fought in the Normandy cam ...

(d. circa 1361) of Wingfield Castle in

, chief administrator to Edward the Black Prince (father of King Richard II), by whom he had eight children: * Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk (1361–1415), a supporter of Henry IV and opponent of Richard. He regained his father's title on Henry's accession in 1399, and died at the Siege of Harfleur. *Thomas de la Pole (1363–1415), *William de la Pole (born 1365), *Richard de la Pole (c. 13671402), ancestor of Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500–1558), *John de la Pole (c. 13691415), *Anne de la Pole (born c. 1373), widow of Sir Gerard de Lisle. Anne married secondly Robert Thorley, Esq. and their daughter, Margaret Thorley, married Reginald West, 6th Baron De La Warr. Thus, De la Pole was ancestor to

Richard West, 7th Baron De La Warr Richard West, 7th Baron De La Warr and 4th Baron West (28 October 1430 – 10 March 1476) was the son of Reginald West, 6th Baron De La Warr, by his first wife, Margaret Thorley, daughter of Robert Thorley, esquire, of Tybesta, Cornwall, and ...

who fought on the Lancastrian side in the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought be ...

and his son Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr (c. 145711 October 1525), a courtier and military commander during the reigns of Henry VII and

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...

. *Elizabeth de la Pole (born c. 1377) *Margaret de la Pole (born c. 1386)

Notes

External links