Robert de Umfraville
Sir Robert de Umfraville KG, Lord of Redesdale (c. 1363 – 1437) was a knight in late-medieval England who took part in the later stages of the Hundred Years' War, particularly against Scotland.
Much of Sir Robert's career continued on the same path as his ancestors, being primarily focused on defending the border with Scotland, which had been in a state of near-permanent warfare since the late thirteenth century.
After Richard was deposed by Henry IV in 1399, de Umfraville loyally served the new Lancastrian regime, waging both offensive and defensive military operations against the Scots.
With the exception of Henry V's resumption of the Hundred Years' War in 1415—when de Umfraville travelled with the king to France, where he may have taken part in the Battle of Agincourt—all his military activity was on the Scottish border.
One campaign deep into Scottish territory resulted in his destroying Peebles and its market; he brought back so much booty that he was popularly nicknamed "Robin Mendmarket".
His family had been important in Anglo-Scottish relations and on the border since the twelfth century;[2] King Henry I had granted de Umfraville's ancestor and namesake major estates in Northumberland as a bulwark against the Scots.
In spite of the regime change, de Umfraville's duties continued in the same vein, and the "old truths remained: royal service, local administration and the defence of the realm", as the medievalist Gwilym Dodd puts it.
[9] De Umfraville was indentured[note 2] to join Henry IV's invasion of Scotland in 1400,[12] although in the event the campaign achieved little, neither gaining territory for the English nor inflicting heavy damage on the Scots.
[8] He continued his defence of the border through the next decade, and his expertise in local politics saw him appointed to advise the Warden of the Eastern March, the king's son, John, Duke of Bedford.
[20] In acknowledgement of the role he had played in defending the crown's interests, de Umfravile was made keeper of Warkworth Castle for life the same year,[8][21] and appointed Hardyng his constable.
In 1408, for example, they jointly led a raid into Teviotdale:[8] Hardyng describes how de Umfraville was like an "olde dogge [that] hath grete joy to bayte[note 3] his whelpe".
[28][30][note 4] Hardyng describes how de Umfraville, being determined that not all the glory should be earned solely by those fighting the French, "made the warre on Scottes to have a name" for himself.
[40] As Alexander Rose put it, while Henry V was "sacking Caen and advancing into undefended Bayeux and Lisieux... Sir Robert de Umfraville, his most ruthless lieutenant [had] free rein to tear south-eastern Scotland savagely apart for two years".
[45] The chapel, de Umfraville instructed, should be devoted to the souls of himself, his wife, Kings Henry IV and V, and to each past, present and future member of the Order of the Garter.
[51] This event, comments James Raine, "abounds with incident, characterising, at the same time, the pugnacious state of the borders [and] the total absence of everything in the shape of legal redress".
[43] On 3 April 1428, de Umfraville told Wessington that he would request Isabel's lawsuit in chancery be withdrawn if Manners would pay a surety of 400 marks[note 5] to Heron's widow.
[50] De Umfraville also demanded that Manners helped him redeem the Heron estates from royal custody, in return for which he would try and persuade the widow to reduce the amount of compensation she was claiming.
[54] On 23 April, Manners indentured himself to de Umfraville's "lytill and esy tretye",[55] as it was termed, to pay all Heron's debts and to establish chantries for those that died during the course of their dispute.
[50] A tripartite indenture was eventually agreed and delivered at Newcastle on 24 May 1431, which de Umfraville attended, and where he received the first instalment of the 250 marks compensation he and Heron's widow were now due from John Manners.
[57] This reflects a contemporary image of him as a fifteenth-century hero: in 1426 the royal council, on behalf of the then-four-year-old King Henry VI, wrote to him, thanking him for his "great and notable services… to your most renowned honour and praise and to the advantage of us and our whole realm".
[8] Hardyng called de Umfraville "a Jewell for a kynge, in wyse consayle and knyghtly dede of werre"[8] as well as a "vision of the ideal knight... brave and wise in war, generous and loyal to his followers, a lover of justice and protector of the common good".
While his manors around Redesdale covered over 25,000 acres (10,000 ha), the near-permanent state of war that existed in the region[15] makes it likely that these estates had been greatly ravaged, possibly to the point of worthlessness.
