WALTER HUNGERFORD AND CATHERINE PEVERELL

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Sir Walter (later Lord Walter) strongly supported the Lancastrian cause at the close of the reign of Richard II, last of the Plantagenet rulers. Unpon the accession of Henry IV in 1399, first of the Lancastrian kings, he was knighted and granted 100 pounds per year, to be taken out of the lands of Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk, in consideration of his eminent services. He was taken prisoner by rebels during the 1400 uprising against the new king, but was accused of disloyalty for allegedly stealing gold jewels and saddles from William Tanner. However, having proved his innocence and loyalty, he again became the King's Knight. In October 1406 he was appointed Chamberlain of the Princess Phillipa and accompanied her to Denmark when she was married to King Eric. He was with the English army in the wars with France (The Hundred Years War) and acquired great honor at Calais in 1406 where he bested a knight of France (or the King of France) in a duel. For his honors and expenses, he was granted 100 marks per year payable out of the town and castle of Marleborough in Wiltshire County, where he was appointed Sheriff.

In the 13th Henry IV (1412), at the death of his mother Joane, he inherited the manors of Heytesbury and Teffont-Evias, Wiltshire County, Farleigh and other in Somerset County.

In the 2nd Henry V (1414) he was appointed ambassador to Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary. Sigismund, successor to King Wenceslaus IV, crowned Vlad, Prince of Wallachia, whose family is now well known as that of Count Dracula.

The next year he was with Henry V with 20 men-at-arms and 60 house archers at Agincourt. It is reported that Sir Walter, not the Earl of Westmoreland, was the officer who expressed regret that the English did not have 10,000 archers, drawing the famous rebuke from the King recorded by Shakespeare (Henry V, Act IV, Scene iii):

"No, my fair cousin;
If we are marked to die, we are enough
To do our counrty loss; and if to live
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more."

In the 4th Henry V (1417), Sir Walter was appointed Admiral of the Fleet under John, Duke of Bedford. For the next few years he was steward of the King's household and entirely engaged in the Wars. He was in the King's service at the Siege of Roan, after which he obtained grant of the Barony of Homet in Normandy, formerly enjoyed by Sir William de Montney. For this honour, Lord Walter yearly rendered to the King and his heirs one lance with a fox-tail hanging thereat upon the feast day of the exhaultation of the Holy Cross, and provided ten men-at-arms and twenty archers to serve the King or his lieutenant in the wars. Continuing to acquire fresh laurels on French soil, this gallant soldier obtained as a further grant for his services, the castle of Neville and territory of Breant in Normandy, with diverse other lands which had been the possessions of Sir Robert de Breant. In the 8th Henry V (1421) he was installed as a Knight of the Garter.

In 1422, Lord Walter was an executor of the will of Henry V, and on the advice of Parliament, was appointed steward of the infant King Henry VI.

Sir Walter, Lord Homet, was installed in the House of Lords, the Upper House of Parliament in the 4th Henry VI as the first Baron Hungerford by Writ of Summons, 7 January 1426. The Parliament, held at Leicester, was known as the "Parliament of Bats", and during it Lord Hungerford was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord Walter became constable of Windsor Castle, and in the 6th of Henry VI, he gave diverse houses and shops in the parish of St. Anthony in London to the Free Royal Chapel of St. Stephen in the palace at Westminster. In consideration of this grant, they covenanted to make him partaker of all their masses and suffrages during his lifetime, and to celebrate his death annually with "Placebo", "Dirige", and a mass of "Requiem". At the mass they were to distribute certain allotments to each churchman. In the 9th Henry VI (1431) his Lordship had licence to transport 3000 marks for the ransom of his son Walter, then a prisoner in France. In the 24th Henry VI (1446) he was granted the town and manor of Hungerford. Lord Walter remained in Parliament until his death in the 27th Henry VI (1449).

Heytesbury is a Wiltshire village, which lies in the lovely Wylye Valley. The Hospital of St. John the Baptist and St. Katherine, the Hungerford Almshouse, was founded in 1449 by Sir Walter, first Lord Hungerford, and completed by his daughter-in-law Margaret Botreaux Hungerford. The original structure was burned in the great fire of 1765, which nearly destroyed the entire town of Heytesbury, and has been replaced by a modern hospital and apartments. The hospital continues to carry on the works assigned in the 15th century.

Sources:
New England Historical & Genealogical Society
Norline Thomas
The Hungerford Association
Richard Hungerford Jr.
www.geocities.com/heartland/5616/farimerc.htm

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