Later, Stafford was one of several men promoted rapidly through the nobility by King Edward IV, to fill the power vacuum left by dead or forfeit Lancastrians.

[2] Considered an overambitious man by many, Stafford was nevertheless a capable administrator, who enjoyed the absolute confidence of the king.

This left Stafford, the future Earl of Devon, heir to the family lands, the greatest part of which was in Dorset and the rest mostly in Somerset and Wiltshire (including Southwick Court).

Bad weather forced them into the harbour of Calais, which was held by the Yorkist leader Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick.

[4] Stafford took part in the Battle of Mortimer's Cross, where the Yorkist forces under Edward, Earl of March, won a major victory on 2 February 1461.

[4] Stafford repaid the king's generosity by serving him faithfully as a local commissioner, in a part of the country that had up until that point been fiercely Lancastrian.

[4] His activities were not limited to legal commissions; in 1461–2 he performed military service against the Scots, and in 1468 he conducted diplomacy with Brittany.

[5] According to the chronicler John Warkworth, Henry's downfall was due to the machinations of Stafford, who was rewarded with further land and created Earl of Devon on 17 May 1469.

[7] However, the king himself took great interest in the trial against Courtenay, and it is more reasonable to see the decision as a result of Edward's need for a loyal agent in the region.

[5] The royal army under Devon and Pembroke intercepted the northern rebels – on their way south to meet up with Warwick and Clarence – by Banbury in Oxfordshire.

This can be seen both by Warkworth implicating him in the downfall of Henry Courtenay, and Warwick targeting him as one of King Edward's evil councillors.

This thread has also been picked up by modern historians; Charles Ross calls him a "greedy and ambitious man".

^ While it is possible that this Humphrey had a prosthetic hand made of, or plated in silver, it is more likely that he earned this moniker from a reputed generosity.