I have recently been looking into the turbulent life of Sir Thomas Molyneux of Cuerdale, whose hall by the River Ribble has featured in one of my articles. He was not a quiet soul, and had a terrible end at the Battle of Radcot Bridge in 1387 when surrendering to a Mortimer. The latter pulled off Thomas’s helmet and stabbed him in the head as Thomas was climbing out of the River Thames to give himself up. Not very chivalrous. Thomas was almost the only man to be killed at the actual battle.
Anyway, it’s the earlier activities of Thomas Molyneux that concern me now. He belonged to a prominent Lancashire family, from the senior branch of which the present Earls of Sefton descend. The same family gave its name to Molineux, Wolverhampton.
Well, Thomas was not a man to take injustice lying down…unless he was the one being unjust, of course. He was one of John of Gaunt’s feudal tenants and had a number of responsibilities and duties to carry out. He was always very efficient and in Gaunt’s good books. Until, that is, he (Thomas) took exception to Gaunt’s bailiff in Lancashire, one Henry Chaderton, who seems to have invented the word corrupt.
There was nothing Chaderton would not do if he felt like it, and he got away with it because he “had Gaunt’s ear”. No one could approach the duke without going through Chaderton, so making complaints about Chaderton’s corruption was out of the question. But he stirred up trouble for himself when he was behind the murder of one Richard Molyneux who was, yes, Thomas’s kinsman. Thomas decided to take the law into his own hands, and was aided by a number of others who felt equally as excluded from the law. And so a vicious, long-running feud broke out, with Thomas and a band of ruffianly followers pursuing Chaderton here, there and everywhere, injuring but not killing him. Chaderton complained to Gaunt, denying having had anything to do with Richard Molyneux’s demise, and the duke look his side. (Later on Gaunt did wake up to Chaderton, but it took a very long time.)
Unfortunately for Thomas, he’d been guilty of a few things himself, including maintenance on an apparently grand scale, of which crime you can read more here. Gaunt caught up with Thomas in 1380, found him guilty, fined him £200 and banned him “….from his court and presence for life….”
Did this bring Thomas to heel? No. He promptly took himself and his admittedly efficient services across the county border into Cheshire, which was held by Gaunt’s nephew, King Richard II, with whom the duke seldom got on well. Cheshire was also in the charge of the king’s favourite, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford and Duke of Ireland. Thomas could evidently sell himself expertly because he was taken on. He soon became constable of Chester Castle, vice-justice of Chester and then justice of Flint, seldom missing an opportunity to take a pop at Gaunt’s officers. But serving Richard II and Robert de Vere is how Thomas came to be on the losing side at Radcot Bridge and lost his life at Mortimer’s hands.
It was my original intention to confine this article to Thomas Molyneux and his crime of maintenance, but in the course of ferreting around for information, I came upon….guess who? Yes, the dear old Stanleys! They too were prominent in Lancashire at that time, and they too had a long-running feud with the Molyneux family, albeit mainly later than my Thomas Molyneux. You can read about the feud and the two families’ history here. The link also contains the curious story of how a number of pubs came to be named the “Eagle and Child”.
In the same Stanley and Molyneux link I was rather bemused to read the following: “….To secure the crown for himself, it is rumoured that Richard [III] had Thomas Stanley murder the young Princes….” Well, that’s a new one. Thomas Stanley murdered the boys in the Tower. But at Richard’s command, of course. Oh, of course.
If you go to this link you’ll find a “cartoon” version of the families’ history. The image of Thomas Stanley above is taken from it.
Would you trust him? No, nor me. I’d have been on the Molyneux side of the scrap!
murreyandblue 