Thomas Stanley, Baron Stanley, Earl of Derby (c.1435-1504) [Wars of the Roses]

THOMAS STANLEY, 1ST EARL OF DERBY AND 2ND BARON STANLEY, was a nobleman who played a prominent part during the reigns of Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII.

He married Warwick's sister Eleanor, and gained Edward IV's favour. In Edward's pretended war upon France (1475), in support of Charles the Bold, Stanley was the ready recipient of the bribes of the French king [Louis XI], and it was in a great measure in consequence of his counsel thus inspired that Edward IV became a party to the Treaty of Pecquigny, Sept. 13, 1475.

During the brief reign of Edward V Lord Stanley figured as a loyal upholder of the rights of his young sovereign, and was one of the nobles arrested at the council board in Richard of Gloucester's coup d'état of the 13th June, 1483. Gloucester, however, not only forbore proceeding to extremities with him, but sought to secure his service by conferring upon him the high office of Constable of England.

On the death of his first wife, Eleanor Neville, Lord Stanley married Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. On the landing of Henry Tudor at Milford Haven, Lord Stanley, on a plea of illness, refused to join Richard, and was only kept from following the example of his brother, Sir William Stanley, who had openly united with the invader, by the fact of his son, Lord Strange, being detained in Richard's hands as a security for his father's good faith. He still, however, kept in the neighbourhood of the invaders with a force of some 5,000 men, and it was his sudden support of Richmond in the heat of the battle that decided the day [cf. The Battle of Bosworth Field].

At the coronation of his step-son, Henry VII, at which he officiated as High Constable, he was raised to the dignity of Earl of Derby; and apparently continued in friendly relations with Henry VII to his death.

The Dictionary of English History. Sidney J. Low and F. S. Pulling, eds.
London: Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1910. 368.

Other Local Resources:

Books for further study:

Coward, Barry. The Stanleys, Lords Stanley and Earls of Derby, 1385-1672.
           Manchester University Press, 1983.

More, Sir Thomas. History of King Richard III.
           Hesperus Press, 2005.

Rowse, A. L. Bosworth Field & the Wars of the Roses.
           Wordsworth Military Library; New Ed., 1999.

Shakespeare, William. Richard III.
           Folger Shakespeare Library, 2004.

Weir, Alison. The Wars of the Roses.
           Ballantine Books, 1996.

Thomas, Lord Stanley on the Web:

Thomas Stanley - Richard P. McArthur

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