Robert Ufford, 1st Earl of Suffolk

He was knighted and received some official employments, being occupied, for example, in 1326 in levying ships for the royal use in Suffolk, and serving in November 1327 on a commission of the peace in the eastern counties under the statute of Winchester.

[7] In opening moves of the Edwardian War, Suffolk was sent on 3 October 1337, with Henry Burghersh, the Earl of Northampton, and Sir John Darcy, to treat for peace or a truce with the French.

Further powers were given them to deal with Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor and other allies, and on 7 October they were also commissioned to treat with David Bruce, then staying in France, and were accredited to the two cardinals sent by the pope to make an Anglo-French reconciliation.

Next year, on 1 July, Suffolk was associated with John de Stratford and others on an embassy to France, and left England along with the two cardinals sent to treat for peace.

He attended the king in Brabant, serving in September 1339 in the expedition that besieged Cambrai, and in the army that prepared to fight a major battle at Buironfosse that came to nothing, where he and the Earl of Derby held a joint command.

The truce of 25 September 1340 provided for the release of all prisoners, but it was only after a heavy ransom, to which Edward III contributed, that Suffolk was freed.

On the retreat northwards, a day after the passage of the River Seine, Suffolk and Sir Hugh le Despenser defeated a French force.

Suffolk was one of those who advised Edward to select the field of Crécy as his battle-ground; in the English victory he fought in on the left wing.

Next morning, 27 August, he took part in the Earl of Northampton's reconnaissance that resulted in a sharp fight with the unbroken remnant of the French army.

Between October and December he was on the prince's raid through Languedoc to Narbonne, where he commanded the rear-guard, William de Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, serving with him.

After that he was employed only in embassies, the last of those on which he served being that commissioned on 8 February 1362 to negotiate the proposed marriage of Edmund of Langley to the daughter of the Count of Flanders.

[7] By his will he requested burial beneath the arch between the chapel of St Nicholas and the high altar of the church of Campsey Priory, where his wife was also buried.