Alan Buxhull

Sir Alan Buxhull[note 1] [lower-alpha 1] K.G. (died 2 November 1381) was an English soldier and nobleman.

Biography
Arms of Alan Buxhull, as shown on his garter plate.

Knight of the Garter, Constable of the Tower of London and Captain of St Saveur Le Viscomte Castle in Normandy during the 100 Years War.

Alan married Maud Francis, who was the richest woman in England. Maud Francis, Countess of Salisbury They had a son, also called Sir Alan Buxhull. His father died in 1325, when Alan was only 2 years old. (Maud Francis became the foster mother of the future Henry V and her future descendants include Anne Boleyn). The younger Sir Alan was the half brother of Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury and fought alongside him at the Battle of Verneuil.

Buxhill was chamberlain of the Royal household from around 1369 to 1370[2] and a knight of the chamber.[3]

Buxhull was a deputy in Robert Knolles army during the Hundred Years War,[4] although there is evidence to suggest that this was a shared command.[5] He took command of the fortified abbey of St Maur in 1370 and fought in the Battle of Pontvallain the same year. He was sufficiently important among Knolles's captains that the historian Jonathan Sumption has suggested that Buxhill's departure was the spark that led to the disintegration of Knolles's army.[4] He was later placed in command of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte in Normandy, where he later claimed to have expended a large sum—more than he could account for—on paying ransoms of English prisoners. He subsequently complained that he had to spend over 3,000 francs on "the payment of the ransoms of several bankrupt prisoners who had been captured by the French on different occasions".[6][note 2] He was created a Knight of the Garter in 1372.

He took part in the naval expedition to France in 1374.[8]

Buxhull was described by Froissart as "right valiant Knight" and an "uncommonly able man".

King Edward III became ill in his later years, and the historian G. L. Harriss has argued that it was men such as Buxhull—of the household and physically close to the King—who "manipulated his authority" by regulating who was allowed to see him, and thus controlled the royal patronage.[9]

Marriage and issue

He married firstly a woman with the surname of Bigwood, they are known to had the following issue.

  • Elizabeth Buxhull, married Roger Lynde, had issue.
  • Amice Buxhull, married firstly John Beverley and secondly to Robert Bardolf, had issue for both marriages.

His second marriage was to Maud Francis,[10] the widow of John Aubrey, she was a daughter of Adam Francis and Agnes Chaumpneys. Maud was the richest woman in England. A son Alan was born posthumously in 1382 and would later grow up to knighted in turn and the half brother of Thomas Earl of Montague. After her husband's death Maud became the wife of the Earl of Montague, and the foster mother of Henry V.

The second Sir Alan therefore became the brother of Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury, and also was the uncle of Alice Montacute, 5th Countess of Salisbury (d. 1463), the wife of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury (d. 1460) and the mother of Warwick the Kingmaker.

Notes
  1. The medievalist T. F. Tout notes that the family name "is generally spelt Buxhill in records, but it represents a place now called Bugshill in Sussex, near Robertabridge, which Alan inherited".[1]
  2. Much information exists, in the form of accounts and receipts, of Buxhull's tenure Saint-Sauveur.[7]
  1. Surname also shown as Boxhulle, Boxhul, Boxhull, Boxhill, Boxhall and Bokeshull

Citations
  1. Tout, T. F. (1967). The Wardrobe, the Chamber and the Small Seals (repr. ed.). New York: Manchester University Press. OCLC 797661038.
  2. Tout, T. F. (1967). The Wardrobe, the Chamber and the Small Seals (repr. ed.). New York: Manchester University Press. OCLC 797661038.
  3. James Sherborne (1 July 1994). War, Politics and Culture in 14th-Century England. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-8264-3273-5.
  4. Sumption 2009, p. 88.
  5. James Sherborne (1 July 1994). War, Politics and Culture in 14th-Century England. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-0-8264-3273-5.
  6. Anne Curry; Andy King; David Simpkin (2011). The Soldier Experience in the Fourteenth Century. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. pp. 192–. ISBN 978-1-84383-674-2.
  7. Chris Given-Wilson (2010). Fourteenth Century England. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-530-1.
  8. James Sherborne (1 July 1994). War, Politics and Culture in 14th-Century England. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-8264-3273-5.
  9. G. L. Harriss; Gerald Harriss (2005). Shaping the Nation: England 1360-1461. Clarendon Press. pp. 433–. ISBN 978-0-19-822816-5.
  10. A. R. Myers (15 July 2009). Chaucer's London: Everyday Life in London 1342-1400. Amberley Publishing Limited. pp. 58–. ISBN 978-1-4456-1222-5.

References
  • Sumption, J. (2009). The Hundred Years' War: Divided Houses. Vol. III (paperback ed.). London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0571240128.

Further reading
  • Buxhull, Alan (DNB00)
  • Beltz, George Frederick. Memorials of the Order of the Garter: From Its Foundation to the Present Time; with Biographical Notices of the Knights in the Reigns of Edward III and Richard II. William Pickering, 1841.
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