Sir Walter Wrottesley (died 1473), was a

Captain of Calais The town of Calais, now part of France, was in English hands from 1347 to 1558, and this page lists the commanders of Calais, holding office from the English Crown, called at different times Captain of Calais, King's Lieutenant of Calais (Castle ...

. He was eldest son of Hugh Wrottesley (d 1464) and his wife Thomasine, daughter of Sir John Gresley of Drakelaw. The family, whose name seems originally to have been Verdon, had been settled at Wrottesley in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

for many centuries, the first to adopt the name Wrottesley being William de Verdon, who succeeded to the manor in 1199, and died in 1242. Walter, the

High Sheriff of Staffordshire This is a list of the sheriffs and high sheriffs of Staffordshire. The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. The sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities ass ...

for 1460-61, was a firm adherent of Warwick "the king-maker". On 26 January 1461–2, styled a ‘king's knight’, he was granted the manors of Ramsham and Penpole, Dorset, formerly belonging to

William Neville, 1st Earl of Kent William Neville, Earl of Kent KG (c. 14059 January 1463) and '' jure uxoris'' 6th Baron Fauconberg, was an English nobleman and soldier. He fought during the latter part of the Hundred Years War, and during the English dynastic Wars of the Ros ...

. Grants of the manors of Clynte, Hondesworth, and Mere in Staffordshire, formerly belonging to the Lancastrian

James Butler, Earl of Wiltshire James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, Earl of Wiltshire (24 November 1420 – 1 May 1461) was an Old English (Ireland), Anglo-Irish nobleman and soldier. Butler was a staunch House of Lancaster, Lancastrian and supporter of List of English consorts, ...

, soon followed, and on 14 June 1463 Wrottesley was one of those to whom Warwick was allowed to alienate manors and castles, although their reversion might belong to the crown. Wrottesley joined Warwick in his attempt to overthrow the Woodvilles, and when in 1471 the king-maker restored Henry VI, Wrottesley was put in command of Calais, a stronghold of the Nevilles. After Warwick's defeat and death at Barnet on 14 April, Wrottesley surrendered Calais to Edward IV in exchange for a free pardon. He died in 1473 and is said to have been buried in Greyfriars Church, London. By his wife Jane, daughter of William Baron of Reading, he left two sons — Richard, who succeeded him, and was Sheriff of Staffordshire for 1492–3, and William — and three daughters. His descendant, Sir Walter Wrottesley (d. 1659), was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in 1642, and the seventh baronet, Sir Richard Wrottesley (d. 1769), Dean of Worcester, was grandfather of John, first Baron Wrottesley.

References

*Albert Frederick Pollard, " Wrottesley, Walter (1900)", ''Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 63'', *The history of the Wrottesley family in the Genealogist only extends (1900) to the fourteenth century. *Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. App. pp. 339, 341 *Black's Cat. Ashmolean MSS. *Addit. MSS. 5524 f. 223 b, 29995 f. 164 b *Cal. Patent Rolls Edward IV, vol. i. passim *Warkworth's Chron. (Camden Soc.), p. 19 *Paston Letters, ii. 37 *Lists of Sheriffs, 1898 *Fabyan's Chron. *Shaw's Staffordshire, ii. 205 *Simms's Bibl. Staffordiensis *Oman's Warwick the Kingmaker *"Wrottesley" in Bernard Burke, ''Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire'', Publisher Harrison, 1865
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrottesley, Walter 1473 deaths Year of birth unknown High Sheriffs of Staffordshire