William Ferrers, 5th Baron Ferrers of Groby

He was also active at a national level and earlier in his career he took part in some of the crises in the reigns of both King Richard II and Henry IV.

However, he supported the Lancastrian regime under Henry V and acted as a councillor to that King's baby son when the latter inherited the throne at the age of six months.

[3] (n.(''f'') Although he had shown loyalty to the King in his early years, says the Ferrers family's most recent biographer, William's "political affiliations were flexible.

Two years later— after the usurpation of Henry IV —he was a member of the House of Lords that gave its assent to the secret imprisonment of the by-then deposed King Richard.

[4] Five years later, Ferrers also sealed the exemplifications of the Acts which settled the royal succession, in July and December 1406.

Ferrers' appointment, says Ralph Griffiths, "provided an injection of youth into discussions hitherto conducted by a rather elderly group"; in any case, it made the regency council "more fully and representatively attended.

At the age of sixteen, a few months after the death of his father, the right to dictate his marriage was conferred upon Roger, Lord Clifford.

As a result, the family caput honoris of Groby[11] and its barony passed not to Thomas but to William Ferrers' granddaughter—and Henry's heiress—Elizabeth (1419–1483).