POLITICAL HISTORY 



In 1454 he is said to have had two thousand Stafford Knots, 

 his badge of livery, made ' to what intent men may construe as their wits 

 will give them.' 178 His estates at this time stretched all over central England, 

 from Holderness to Brecknock, and from Stafford to Tonbridge. 17 ' 



The political state of Staffordshire in these wars is clearly shown by the 

 first commission of the peace, issued by Edward IV in 1461, in which 

 the only Staffordshire names are Sir John Sutton of Dudley, Sir Walter 

 Blount, John de Audeley, John Harpur, Thomas Everdon, Thomas Wolseley, 

 Thomas Asteley, Walter Wrottesley, and Nicholas Waryng. 180 



In the commission issued by Richard III the same policy can be traced, 

 for the only names of landowners of the county are John Sutton Lord 

 Dudley, John Blount of Mountjoy, John Gresley, Richard Wrottesley, 

 Humphry Persall, Nicholas Mountgomery, Ralph Wolseley, and John 

 Cawardyne. 181 



After the battle of St. Albans in 1455 there was no chance of peace, 

 and in September, 1459, York raised his standard on the Welsh border, and 

 it was to join him there that Salisbury, the father of the kingmaker, with 

 about 7,000 men, marched southward from Middleham Castle. Margaret 

 had collected 10,000 men at Market Drayton under two Staffordshire peers, 

 James Touchet (Lord Audley) and John Sutton (Lord Dudley), 183 the queen 

 herself being at Eccleshall with Prince Edward. 183 



To the queen, when at Eccleshall, Lord Stanley, who had been raising 

 men for the Lancastrians in Lancashire, promised to fight against the Earl of 

 Salisbury, and his failure to carry out this promise, although he was at New- 

 castle, within a few miles of the battlefield, was a chief cause of the 

 Lancastrian defeat at Blore Heath, for which treachery the Commons 

 impeached him. 18 * 



York had arrived at Ludlow, and the Lancastrian forces prevented Salis- 

 bury from joining him there. 



On 22 September Salisbury took up a strong position on Blore 

 Heath, three miles east of Market Drayton, his front protected by the 

 Hempmill Brook, a tributary of the Tern, ' not very broad but somewhat 

 deep.' ' In the early morning,' on the twenty-third, to quote Hall's 

 account : 185 



He caused his soldiers to shoot their flights towards the Lord Audeley's company, 

 which lay on the other side of the said water, and then he and all his company made a sign 

 of retreat. The Lord Audeley suddenly blew up his trumpet and passed the water. The 

 earl of Salisbury, who ' knew the sleights, stratagems, and policies of war, suddenly 

 returned ' and encountered Audeley when his forces were only partly across the water. 



' The fight was sore and dreadful,' but in the end ' the earl's army so eagerly fought 

 that they slew the Lord Audeley and all his captains, and discomfited all the remnant of 

 his people.' 



178 Paston Letters, \, 265 ; Dugdale, Baronage (ed. 1675), i, 165. m Diet. Nat. Biog. 'Stafford.' 



180 Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc. New Ser.), vi (2), 217. 1SI Ibid. 249. 



188 The peerage had practically originated in the writ summoning John Sutton to Parliament in 1440, 

 though a predecessor had been summoned as feudal baron of Dudley. He had been wounded at St. Albans 

 in 1455. He was a successful 'trimmer,' as, though a supporter of Henry, he gained Edward IV's 

 favour, and derived grants of land both from Richard III and Henry VII. Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), 

 ix (2), 68. 



183 Paston Letters, i, 282. 



184 Rot. Par!. (Rec. Com.), v, 369. 



185 Hall, Chnn. (ed. 1809), 240. Holinshed's account is identical. 



243 





