William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington (1442 – 30 December 1460) was an English

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

who was a loyal adherent of the

House of York The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York ...

during the dynastic conflict in England in the 15th century now known as the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...

. He was slain and left dead on the field during the Yorkist defeat at the

Battle of Wakefield The Battle of Wakefield took place in Sandal Magna near Wakefield in northern England, on 30 December 1460. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The opposing forces were an army led by nobles loyal to the captive King Henry VI o ...

, leaving his baby daughter,

Cecily Bonville Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington, 2nd Baroness Bonville (30 June 1460 – 12 May 1529) was an English peer, who was also Marchioness of Dorset by her first marriage to Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, and Countess of Wiltshire by her s ...

heiress to his barony.

Family

William was born in

Chewton Mendip Chewton Mendip is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated north of Wells, Somerset, Wells, south of Bath, Somerset, Bath and Bristol on the A39 road, A39 very close to the A37 road, A37. The ...

Somerset, England Somerset ( , ), archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to ...

to William Bonville and Elizabeth Harington. His paternal grandparents were

William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (12 or 31 August 1392 – 18 February 1461), was an English peerage, English nobleman and an important, powerful landowner in South West England, south-west England during the Late Middle Ages. Bonville's fa ...

and Margaret Grey. His maternal grandparents were William Harington, 5th Baron Harington of Aldingham (c. 1394 – 1458) and Margaret Hill daughter of Sir John Hill,

Justice of the King's Bench Justice of the King's Bench, or Justice of the Queen's Bench during the reign of a female monarch, was a puisne judicial position within the Court of King's Bench, under the Chief Justice. The King's Bench was a court of common law which modern ...

. In 1458, he succeeded his grandfather as the 6th

Baron Harington Baron Harington, of Aldingham, was a title in the Peerage of England. On 30 December 1324 John Harington was summoned to parliament. On the death of the 5th baron in 1458, the barony was inherited by the heir to the barony of Bonville, with wh ...

of Aldingham by right of his mother, who had died in her father's lifetime.

Marriage and death

The same year in which he gained his title, William married

Lady Katherine Neville Katherine Neville ( – late summer 1483) was a medieval English noblewoman, the eldest daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and his second wife Joan Beaufort. Through her mother, she was a granddaughter of John of Gaunt and a g ...

, a younger sister of military commander

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, 6th Earl of Salisbury (22 November 1428 – 14 April 1471), known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was an English nobleman, administrator, landowner of the House of Neville fortune and military c ...

, known as ''Warwick the Kingmaker''. They had one child,

. The Bonvilles were loyal adherents of the House of York. William Bonville, 6th Baron Harrington was among the many Yorkists who were slain and left dead on the field during the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460.Roskell. ''The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1386-1421''. Vol. 2, (1992): pp. 284–288 (biog. of Sir William Bonville II): "After witnessing the deaths of both his son and grandson at the débâcle at Wakefield on 30 Dec. (when York, too, was killed). . . .” His widow, Katherine married secondly

William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings (c. 1431 – 13 June 1483) was an English nobleman. A loyal follower of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses, he became a close friend and one of the most important courtiers of King Edward IV, ...

, another Yorkist nobleman, by whom she had six more children. Cecily succeeded to William's barony, becoming the 7th Baroness Harington of Aldingham ''suo jure'', on his death.

References

Bibliography

*Roskell, J.S. ''The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1386-1421''. Vol. 2. (Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1993). *Seward, Desmond. ''A Brief History of the Wars of the Roses''. (London: Constable and Robin, 2007). *Jones, Dan. ''The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors''. (London: Faber & Faber, 2014). {{DEFAULTSORT:Harington, William Bonville, 6th Baron 1442 births 1460 deaths

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

People of the Wars of the Roses Barons Harington