Person Page 176

Bencher of Gray's Inn.

Notes: in Feb 1449, James Luttrell obtained royal license to convey the castle and borough of Dunster, the manors of Minehead, Carhampton, and Kilton and the hundred of Carhampton to Feoffees, in order they they should be settled on himself and the heirs of his body, with remainder to his 'cousin', Richard Luttrell and the heirs of his body and ultimate remainder to his own heirs general. James Luttrell fought against the Duke of York at Wakefield at the end of Dec 1460, and was knighted by the Duke of Somerset on the field of battle. Seven weeks later, he again served under the victorious banner of Queen Margaret at the second battle of St. Albans, but he there received a wound of which he died on the fifth day. The triumph of the House of York was disastrous to the Luttrells, who had been attached to the House of Lancaster ever since the days of John of Gaunt. Within a week of his accession to the throne, Edward IV ordered the sheriff and escheator in Somerset and Dorset to seize all the possessions of the Dukes of Exeter and Somerset, the Earls of Devon, Wilts and Northumberland, Sir James Luttrell and Sir Alexander Hody, in those counties. Two months later, a somewhat wider commission was issued to Sir William Herbert, Thomas Herbert, John Herbert, and Hugh Huntley, to take possession of the lands of the Earls of Pembroke and Shrewsbury and Sir James Luttrell, who are specifically described as rebels. For some unknown reason, this commission was repeated in Aug. In the meanwhile, the King had granted to Sir William Bourchier the wardship and marriage of Alexander Luttrell, the infant heir, as if it had fallen to the Crown in the ordinary course. The Parliament, however, which sat in Nov 1461 passed a sweeping ordinance against all the chief supporters of Henry VI. Sir James Luttrell was therein named amongst those who 'with grete despite and curell violence, horrible and unmanly tyrannye' murdered the late Duke of York at Wakefield, and who were consequently to 'stand and be convycted and attainted of high treason, and forfett to the King and his heires all the castles, maners' and other lands of which they were or had been possessed. Lady Luttrell had, in the earlier months of her widowhood, been tacitly allowed to receive the issues of the lands settled on her in jointure, and when the king's officers took possession of these lands, she lodged a complaint against them, protesting that she was a loyal subject of the reigning monarch. A commission of enquiry was accordingly issued in Sep 1462, but it does not appear that she got much satisfaction.