William de la Pole (Chief Baron of the Exchequer)

Sir William de la Pole (died 21 June 1366) was a wealthy wool merchant from Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire, England, who became a royal moneylender and briefly served as Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

[1][2] At the end of the 14th century he was described in the 'Chronicle of Melsa' as "second to no other merchant of England" (nulli Angligenae mercatori postea secundus fuit).

[13] Frost (1827) notes that the description of the father's status is subject to contradiction by historians; in some sources he is described as a merchant, in others as a knight.

[16] Circumstantial evidence for a more knightly and less mercantile background is provided by the brothers' tutelage under important merchants and subsequent rapid rise, which included close links to the crown.

[n 3] Both William and his brother Richard were already notable merchants by the late 1310s; by 1317 they were deputies of the Royal Chief Butler, and from 1321 to 1324 both were chamberlains of the town.

During the same period William had begun providing finance to Edward II relating to his conflict with the French over Gascony; loans of £1,800 and £1,000 are recorded in 1325.

[19] By 1329 the total loans exceeded £13,000, amounts comparable to those provided by the traditional royal financiers, the Bardi of Florence.

[30] The same year De la Pole achieved the rank of Knight Banneret, and on 26 September 1339 he was made Baron of the Exchequer.

[31][32]In 1350 he founded a hospital in Hull, named the Maison Dieu; shortly before his death he obtained a licence from Edward III for the foundation of a religious house, originally intended to be of the Order of Saint Clare.

His direct male descendants included: Media related to William de la Pole (d.1366) at Wikimedia Commons