Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford

Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford
Arms of Clifford: Chequy or and azure, a fess gules
Spouse(s)	Joan Dacre
Issue John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford Sir Roger Clifford Sir Robert Clifford Sir Thomas Clifford Elizabeth Clifford Maud Clifford Anne Clifford Joan Clifford Margaret Clifford
Noble family	Clifford
Father	John Clifford, 7th Baron de Clifford
Mother	Elizabeth Percy
Born	25 March 1414
Died	22 May 1455 First Battle of Saint Albans

Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, also 8th Lord of Skipton (25 March 1414 – 22 May 1455), was the elder son of John, 7th Baron de Clifford, and Elizabeth Percy, daughter of Henry "Hotspur" Percy and Elizabeth Mortimer.

Family

Thomas Clifford was born 25 March 1414, the elder son and heir of John, Lord de Clifford by Elizabeth Percy, daughter of Henry 'Hotspur' Percy and Elizabeth Mortimer, daughter of Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March. He had a younger brother, Henry Clifford, and two sisters, Mary and Blanche. The Clifford family was seated at Skipton from 1310 to 1676.

Career

Clifford inherited the barony and the title of High Sheriff of Westmorland at the age of seven upon his father's death at the Siege of Meaux on 13 March 1422. He made proof of age in 1435/6.

In 1435 Clifford campaigned with the Duke of Bedford in France, and about 1439 led the English forces which defended Pontoise against Charles VII of France. In 1450/51 he was sent as an embassy for King James III of Scotland.

Clifford was slain fighting on the Lancastrian side at the First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455, the first battle in the Wars of the Roses, and was buried at St Alban's Abbey. He was succeeded by his elder son, John, 9th Baron de Clifford.

Marriage and issue

After March 1424 Clifford married Joan Dacre, the daughter of Thomas, 6th Baron Dacre of Gilsland, by Philippa, daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, by whom he had four sons and five daughters:

• John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford, who married Margaret Bromflete, by whom he had two sons, Henry Clifford, 10th Baron de Clifford, and Richard Clifford, esquire, and a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Robert Aske. He was slain at Ferrybridge 24 March 1461 on the eve of the Battle of Towton.

• Sir Roger Clifford, who married Joan Courtenay (born c.1447), the eldest daughter of Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, by Margaret Beaufort, the daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset. Sir Roger Clifford was beheaded in 1485, and his widow married secondly, Sir William Knyvet of Buckenham, Norfolk.

• Sir Robert Clifford (d. 15 March 1508), who married Elizabeth (née Barley), widow of Sir Ralph Jocelyn (d. October 25, 1478), twice Lord Mayor of London, and daughter of William Barley of Aspenden, Hertfordshire by Elizabeth Darcy. Both Sir Robert Clifford and his father-in-law, William Barley, were supporters of the pretender to the Crown, Perkin Warbeck.

• Sir Thomas Clifford.

• Elizabeth Clifford, who married firstly, Sir William Plumpton of Knaresborough, Yorkshire, slain at the Battle of Towton, and secondly, John Hamerton.

• Maud Clifford, who married firstly Sir John Harrington of Hornby, Lancashire, slain at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, and secondly, Sir Edmund Sutton of Dudley, Staffordshire.

• Anne Clifford, who married firstly, Sir Richard Tempest, and secondly, William Conyers, esquire.

• Joan Clifford, who married Sir Simon Musgrave.

• Margaret Clifford, who married Robert Carre ( 12 April 1467)

Shakespeare and Thomas Clifford

According to Shakespeare's, Henry VI, Part 3 following Hall's Chronicle and Holinshed's Chronicles, it was Thomas Clifford's son and heir, John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford, who slew, in cold blood after the Battle of Wakefield, the young Edmund, Earl of Rutland, son of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, cutting off his head and sending it crowned with paper to Henry VI's wife, Margaret of Anjou, although later authorities state that Lord Rutland had been slain during the battle.

Ancestry

Family of Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford

16. Robert Clifford, 3rd Baron de Clifford               8. Roger Clifford, 5th Baron de Clifford                       17. Isabel de Berkeley               4. Thomas de Clifford, 6th Baron de Clifford                             18. Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick               9. Maud de Beauchamp                       19. Katherine Mortimer               2. John Clifford, 7th Baron de Clifford                                   20. William de Ros, 3rd Baron de Ros               10. Thomas de Ros, 4th Baron de Ros                       21. Margery De Badlesmere               5. Elizabeth de Ros                             22. Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford               11. Beatrice de Stafford                       23. Margaret de Audley               1. Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford                                         24. Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy               12. Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland                       25. Mary of Lancaster               6. Henry Hotspur Percy                             26. Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby               13. Lady Margaret Neville                       27. Lady Alice Audley               3. Lady Elizabeth Percy                                   28. Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March               14. Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March                       29. Lady Philippa Montagu               7. Lady Elizabeth Mortimer                             30. Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence               15. Philippa Plantagenet, 5th Countess of Ulster                       31. Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster

External links

• Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford at Find a Grave
• Cracroft's Peerage
• www.skiptoncastle.co.uk Skipton Castle Retrieved 13 June 2013
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Peerage of England
Preceded by John Clifford	Baron de Clifford 1422–1455	Succeeded by John Clifford