Sir Lewis (spelled in various ways such as Lowys, Loys etc.) was a Knight of the Garter (KG) who fought as a knight under both Edward the Black Prince, and his brother John of Gaunt, in France, Brittany and Spain.[1] He worked in various other trusted roles for them and also for Edward's widow Joan of Kent, and his son King Richard II.[2] He was a close friend of the famous author Geoffrey Chaucer and Kittredge described him as "one of the best known of English gentlemen, under the degree of a lord, in the last quarter of the fourteenth century".[3]
He was one of the deponents who attested at the well-known Grosvenor versus Scrope heraldic inquest. Harris Nicholas (p.428) notes that in his deposition Sir Lewis said "he was more than fifty years old in 1386" implying birth before 1336.[4] However, as has been pointed out by modern historians, the chronicle writer Froissart admired Sir Lewis and believed he first saw action in the French campaign of 1342.[5] If we can trust Froissart, which is not certain, Sir Lewis must have been born well before 1330.[6] The Oxford National Biography for Sir Lewis suggests he was born in the early 1330s.[2]
According to Fleming's ODNB article, between 1370 and 1372 Sir Lewis "married Eleanor, daughter of John (II) Mowbray, Lord Mowbray of Axholme, and Joan of Lancaster, and widow of Roger, Lord de la Warr (1326–1370)".[2] Sir Lewis had two known children.
Despite his famous admirers and network he died in some shame because like some other knights in his time, he came to be associated with the Lollard movement, which was seen as heretical.
He wrote a repentant testament, which was nevertheless written mainly in English and reflected the style of wills by these early non-conformists. His actual opinions about Lollardy are uncertain.[8]
This testament mentions one daughter and no sons. It was made 17 September 1404, and according to Fleming, the "fact that probate of his will was granted on 12 December 1404 indicates that he had died soon after making it".[2] However, his will is generally reported to have been given probate on 5 December.[9]
Lewis's exact ancestry is uncertain, but he was brother to Hugh de Clifford. William Clifford, ancestor of the Cliffords of Chudleigh, and often called Sir Lewis Clifford's son, was actually his nephew. More precisely he was the son of Lewis's brother Hugh, as laid out in a legal case involving later generations.[10]
It is also known that Sir Lewis had an aunt (taunte, possibly Elizabeth Prideaux) who was living in Columbjohn in Devon in 1373, apparently as an elderly widow. G.L. Kittredge noted this more than 100 years ago in 1917.[7] The Duke issued instructions to protect her rights. This indicates that Sir Lewis was a descendant (probably a great grandson) of Giles de Clifford, who was a younger son of a Clifford baron from Herefordshire. He and his son Reginald had held Columbjohn. The manor was given in marriage about a generation later, when Sir John de Clifford gave it in marriage to the Prideaux family in 1332. The exact family tree of the Devon Cliffords is difficult or impossible to reconstruct, but Lewis would only be a distant cousin to the Lords Clifford.
Old proposals about his father. Modern historians since Kittredge say that no one actually knows whose son Lewis was, although there is a good lead to Devon. Older works made various attempts to connect him to one the Lords Clifford of his time, who were based in the north of England. These continue to influence genealogists. For example, the following are all wrong. BEWARE:
The Devon Cliffords had recently held lordship over Columbjohn, Combe-in-Teignhead and Godford in 1373, and were clearly already established in Devonshire in the 13th century, going back to Giles Clifford, and his son Reginald.[15] The new owners the Prideaux family, acquired Comlumbjohn by the marriage of Roger Prideaux with Elizabeth Clifford in about 1332.
In 1373, there might have been several widows with a Clifford connection who could have been alive and living in Columbjohn, which was now under Prideaux lordship:
The legal cases in Norfolk which are the reason we know about the connection between Lewis and the descendants of his brother Hugh are the subject of a 1982 thesis at Oxford by Anthony Robert Smith, who had access to documents held in Oxford.[19] The land involved was the manor of Hickling Netherhall, which Sir Lewis acquired in 1383. As part of a set of deals where he granted parts of this manor to different tenants, Hickling Priory also granted Clifford and his heirs £20 per annum if the rent fell into arrears. Fastolf bought the land 45 years later and claimed that he should also be able to claim the £20. The priory argued, for example in a latter published in the Paston letters, that "ehe condition of the obligation only extended to the heirs of Sir Hugh Clifford, and not to his assigns, and Sir John is only an assign".[20] Smith mentions (p.199) that in one of the legal arguments the prior "proved that owing to a dispute about Clifford's will Clifford's surviving feoffees, executors and surveyors, including Cheyne (l), decided in 1406 that the rent should descend to William Clifford (Lewis Clifford's nephew) and his heirs". Smith notes the existence of a "note of the October 1406 meeting at which Clifford's will was heard and a decision reached in William Clifford's favour".
See also:
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C > Clifford > Lewis Clifford KG
Categories: Knights Companion of the Garter, Richard II creation
So... Please take a look at this pair. I hope you'll agree that the profiles are intended to represent the same person and merge them.
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So... Please take a look at this pair. I hope you'll agree that the profiles are intended to represent the same person and merge them.
Thanks!