5115. John de Washington
JOHN WASHINGTON, of Lonesdale, Co. Lancaster, first son of JOHN
WASHINGTON of Kerneford, was born there A. D. 1334. He was living
at Lonesdale 26 Edward III. (1352), and 10 Richard II. (1386), and
4 Henry IV. (1402). By wife Johanna he had son.
[The Pedigree and History of the Washington Family, xiv]
5121. Sir Ralph de Neville , 1st Earl of Westmoreland, KG
Ralph Nevill, son of Maud Percy, 4th Baron, Lord of Raby, Governor of Carlisle 1386, Warden of the Forests north of Trent 1389. Constable of the Tower of London 1398. Created in full Parliament to dignity of Earl of Westmoreland December 21, 1398, by Richard II. He was summoned to Parliament 1389-1396. This nobleman took an active and leading part in the political drama of his day and sustained it with more than ordinary ability. His lordship was of the privy council to King Richard and had much favour from that monarch, yet he was one of the most active in raising Henry of Lancaster to the throne as Henry IV, and was rewarded by the new King in the first of his reign, with a grant of the county and honour of Richmond for life and with the great office of Earl Marshal of England. Soon after this he stoutly resisted the Earl of Northumberland in his rebellion and forced the Percies (who were Earls of Northumberland), who had advanced as far as Durham to fall back upon Prudhoe when the Battle of Shrewsbury ensued, in which the gallant Hotspur (Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland) and his mother's nephew) was killed, sustained so signal a defeat and closed his impetuous career. The only rival of the Nevills in the north were the Percies, whose power was thus broken at Shrewsbury. Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmoreland, married 1st Margaret, daughter of Hugh Stafford, 2nd Joane de Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, son of Edward III. Joane was half sister to King Henry IV.
[see Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, 834]
5144. James II Stewart , King of Scotland
James II (1437-60)
Born at Holyrood on 16 October 1430, James II was only six years old when his father was murdered at Perth. James II was crowned in Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh in 1437, the first king not to be enthroned at Scone since Kenneth MacAlpin (843-58). James' minority was dominated by the struggles of rival families for power in the realm and control of the king.
Known as 'James of the Fiery Face' because of a birthmark, he began to rule for himself when he was 18, soon after his marriage in July 1449 to Mary of Gueldres, a devout and cultivated Burgundian lady. Throughout most of his reign, the powerful Douglas family posed a threat to his throne. When he was ten, his advisers had the young 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother murdered at 'The Black Dinner' in 1440 at Edinburgh Castle. In 1452 James himself stabbed the 8th Earl to death during a violent quarrel in Stirling Castle, and later defeated the Douglases at Arkinholm. Three years later, the 9th Earl and his relatives were forfeited for treason and in 1458 his Parliament congratulated James on suppressing dangerous law-breakers.
© 2001, Saul M. Montes-Bradley. All Rights Reserved