John Darras

Shropshire inquisitions post mortem taken during the plague outbreak show that land lay uncultivated and some landowners struggled to pay even very modest rents,[9] and some estates were considered worthless.

[11] This is the economic and agrarian background to John Darras's lifelong struggles to consolidate and extend his estates and to find additional sources of income, mainly through business and military service.

[4] This was a small patrimony and Darras fought legal battles, sometimes backed by force, at several points in his life to extend his holdings, although with limited success.

They won their suit but for reasons unknown the estates were both[17] soon in the hands of Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, one of the Lords Appellant, who was temporarily stripped of all his lands during Richard II's counter-coup of 1397.

[18] St Katherine's chapel served the Bishop's Palace,[19] so this exchange must have been of importance to John Gilbert, presumably earning Darras a modicum of episcopal favour.

Elizabeth's father was called to parliament by Edward II and served him as Seneschal of Gascony,[31] the head of the administration of the remaining Plantagenet possessions in France.

Joan brought a range of properties, acquired from her own family and her first husband, which must have greatly increased Darras's comfort and security while she was alive.

She had a considerable amount of jointure property from her first marriage – in Shropshire at Harley, Gretton, Willey and Kenley, and in Worcestershire part of a manor at Hampton Lovett,[1] known as Over Hall.

[1] Joan seems to have died around the turn of the century, with her properties largely leaving his control, prompting Darras to an active and fairly successful search for further sources of income in the years following.

[30] However, they were not of the first rank, and both they and Darras were increasingly to seek advancement through the affinity of the FitzAlans, the Earls of Arundel, who were supreme both economically and politically in Shropshire as well being among the greatest magnates in England.

As the eldest son, Thomas, predeceased his parents, the initial target had been to prevent the estates going to Elizabeth, his daughter, who had married Sir John Ipstones, a quarrelsome and sometimes violent man who served twice as MP for Staffordshire.

These lands at Yockleton, Shelve, Wentnor and Caus Forest, were all on the western side of Shropshire, close to the Welsh border and Joan and Harley leased them for the remainder of their lives to Sir Fulk for a rent of £60 a year.

[42] Writs in the same terms were issued to seven others, including Sir Roger Corbet and Malcolm de la Mare, Darras's business associate and recently MP for Herefordshire.

[46] The delay was accompanied by an order for Edward Acton, the Shropshire escheator personally to take the disputed estates into the king's hands, pending a resolution.

[48] It seems they were assigned to the Mawddwys, and later to their daughter Elizabeth, who married Hugh Burgh, a future MP for Shropshire and Lord High Treasurer of Ireland.

[1] While losing the case was a blow to prestige, leasing was actually the preferred option among Shropshire landowners like the Corbets, who had been renting out demesne lands to secure a regular income in uncertain times.

As a client of the earl, and in association with two other members of his affinity, John Burley and Fulk Sprenghose, Darras was made trustee of estates belonging to Richard, 4th Lord Talbot, who was married to Arundel's niece, Ankaret le Strange of Blackmere.

Earlier in the year, together with Edward Whitton, Henry Wynnesbury, and Fulk Pembridge, Darras was involved in some transaction that required each to pay £200 to Sir Walter Blount,[56] An important participant in John of Gaunt's military adventures abroad and his leading representative in the Midlands.

Darras seems to have good connections with both parts of the victorious coalition and from this point he contrived to remain in royal favour, albeit sometimes with difficulty.

He was made keeper for life of Morfe and Shirlet, areas of Royal forest on either side of the Severn in Shropshire, by letters patent of 4 November 1399.

[62] In April 1402 Darras was one of four local gentry who stood surety at Westminster for Cornwall that he would keep the peace,[63] an act that potentially created a conflict of interest.

When the case was moved to the Shrewsbury assizes by a writ of nisi prius it was claimed that Darras allowed Cornwall to select the jurors.

[1] Cornwall was a man of considerable prestige, claiming descent from King John,[61] but an unstable and dangerous associate, who was to attract constant accusations of violence and intimidation.

Darras could not entirely escape penalty when in 1406 he and Roger Willey bought two properties held in capita without obtaining royal approval: a quarter carucate of land at Worfield and a moiety of the forestership of Morfe.

The abbot of Shrewsbury, Thomas Prestbury, was a client of Archbishop Arundel, the earl's uncle, and had been imprisoned in 1399 for preaching against the government of Richard II.

[69] Later in the year Darras attended the election of knights of the shire, witnessing the return of Cornwall and David Holbache, a prominent lawyer and a close associate of Arundel.

The evidence for the date is a commission from the king, issued on 30 March, to four Shropshire gentry to investigate possible concealment of the deceased's goods,[71] which as a suicide, escheated to the Crown.

[72] His holdings would normally have reverted to their feudal overlords but the young Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March was the centre of plots against Henry IV and much of his property was temporarily or permanently forfeit.

[76] By August 1409 Whitehead had resigned and Talbot presented his nominee for a second time,[77] apparently triumphant in the struggle to take over Darras's lands and rights.

The same pattern is shown at Linley, which probably fell into his hands, as his widow, Margaret Beauchamp, Countess of Shrewsbury, held half the manor as a jointure property after his death.

Holy Trinity church at Sidbury, Shropshire . The nave was already old by the time of Darras, as it was built in the 12th century, although the whole building underwent restoration in 1881. [ 12 ]
St Leonard's church at Ribbesford. The manor was the focus of early attempts by Darras to enlarge his holdings. There has been a small church on the site since about 1100. It was enlarged from the early 15th century, with modifications including the present nave. [ 13 ] [ 14 ]
A medieval monk, depicted on a gravestone at Rock. The church was monastic property.
Remains of the medieval keep at Moreton Corbet Castle , with the curtain wall curving around to the gatehouse, restored in the mid-16th century on the right. On the right are remains of the Elizabethan house. The Corbets of Moreton Corbet were themselves powerful allies but also, like Darras, found further security in the Arundel affinity.
Richard II, who intervened in and profited from the Corbet property disputes.
The Lords Appellant confront Richard II. In this Victorian illustration, Arundel is portrayed on the left, wearing his arms of a gold rampant lion on a red ground.
Coronation of Henry IV.
Effigy of John Talbot, later Earl of Shrewsbury, in St Alkmund's Church, Whitchurch . A distinguished campaigner in the Hundred Years' War, Talbot seems to have gained control of Darras's estates.