224 



HEREDITARY GOVERNORS. 



Henry VI., which first assembled on July the 9th, 1455, when 

 Richard, Duke of York, was appointed Protector of the 

 kingdom. The Isles then reverted to the sole charge of the 

 Earl of Warwick. In spite of the revocation of his appoint- 

 ment we find John Nanfan still styled Governor-General 

 of the Isles in several Letters Patent of 1455 and 1456, so it is 

 probable that he continued to act as Governor under the Earl. 

 We also find him appointed by the king, on the 16th August, 

 1456, as collector and receiver of customs and subsidies in the 

 Channel Islands, and again on the 24th September, 1457, he 

 was re-appointed Governor-General of the Isles for a term of 

 ten years. How far this appointment interfered with the rights 

 of the Earl is most difficult to determine, owing to the disturbed 

 condition of affairs at this period. The dissensions between the 

 rival houses of York and Lancaster soon led to a renewal of 

 the civil war, and on the disastrous defeat of the Yorkist party 

 at the battle of St. Albans in 1459, the Earl of Warwick 

 and Edward, Earl of March (afterwards Edward IV.) fled 

 and after many adventures succeeded in reaching Guernsey 

 and from thence took refuge in Calais. Immediately after 

 his flight the Earl of Warwick was attainted and all 

 his honours and estates were declared forfeited, including 

 " insulam nostram de Gersey cum omnibus aliis Insulis." 

 John Nanfan was for the third time appointed Governor on 

 the 12th May, 1460. The triumph of the Lancastrians was 

 short-lived, as Edward IV. and the Earl of Warwick soon 

 returned, and the fatal battle of Towton saw the destruction 

 of their hopes. 



Whether there is any truth in the story that Margaret 

 of Anjou sold the Channel Islands to Louis XL, as the 

 price of his support to the fallen Lancastrian cause, is un- 

 certain ; anyway, in the summer of 1461 the French under 

 Surdeval invaded the Channel Islands, captured Mont Orgueil 

 Castle and nearly the whole island of Jersey, and even 

 attacked Castle Cornet. History accuses John Nanfan, the 

 Lancastrian Governor, of having betrayed Mont Orgueil 

 Castle to the French, and the support which De Breze, 

 the French Governor, received from many of the leading 

 families of Jersey, notably the members of the de Saint 

 Martin family, gives colour to the idea that there must 

 have been a considerable French or Lancastrian party in 

 that island. 



Up to the present all those who have written on our 

 Governors have considered John Nanfan to be the last Gover- 

 nor of all the Channel Islands. This view is, however, now 



