Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon

Sir Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon, 1st Baron Stafford of Southwick (ca. 143917 August 1469) was a dominant magnate in South West England in the mid-15th century, and a participant in the Wars of the Roses. A distant relative of the Earls of Stafford, Humphrey Stafford became the greatest landowner in the county of Dorset through fortunes of inheritance. Later, Stafford was one of several men promoted rapidly through the nobility by King Edward IV, to fill the power vacuum left by dead or forfeit Lancastrians. In the West Country it was particularly the forfeitures of the Lancastrian Courtenay family that benefited Stafford. In 1469 he received the Courtenay title of Earl of Devon.

Stafford held the comital title for only three months. In July he was sent north to quell a rebellion instigated by the discontented Earl of Warwick. Even though he escaped the disastrous Battle of Edgcote, he was lynched by a mob at Bridgwater on 17 August 1469. William's uncle, and Stafford's grand uncle, was John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury (1443–1452).

The inheritance of these family lands made Stafford the greatest landowner in the county of Dorset. Through his mother Katherine, he was also heir to the possessions of her father John Chidiock, another major south-western landowner. Later that same year, on 26 July, he received a summons to Parliament for the first time, as Lord Stafford of Southwick. In 1461 he was appointed steward of the Duchy of Cornwall and constable of Bristol, and in 1462 he received the greater part of the Devon estates of Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon, who had been captured at Towton and executed. However, the king himself took great interest in the trial against Courtenay, and it is more reasonable to see the decision as a result of Edward's need for a loyal agent in the region.

Death and aftermath Stafford's quick rise did not go unnoticed among the established aristocracy. In 1468, the discontented Warwick named the Earl of Devon as a courtier with undue influence on King Edward. Warwick and Devon were later reconciled, but the next year Warwick repeated his accusations once more. In an act of rebellion by proxy, Warwick instigated an insurrection in Yorkshire led by a "Robin of Redesdale". At the same time Warwicktogether with George, Duke of Clarence, King Edward's brotherstaged an invasion of the country from Warwick's stronghold of Calais. Devon, together with William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, was ordered to gather troops to quell the rebellion.

The royal army under Devon and Pembroke intercepted the northern rebelson their way south to meet up with Warwick and Clarenceby Banbury in Oxfordshire. The French chronicler Jean de Waurin, however, gives a different account. According to Waurin, Devon left the field of battle once he heard the news that Clarence was arriving with reinforcements. In either case, Pembroke was captured and executed on Warwick's order. Devon managed to escape, but was later captured by a mob at Bridgwater in Somerset, and executed on 17 August. Stafford was buried in Glastonbury Abbey, and a dispute over his lands followed between his cousins. At the same time, his skills as an administrator can hardly be doubted, as evidenced by King Edward's heavy reliance on him. He could also show a more human and sympathetic side. Michael Hicks describes his activity, from 1467 onwards, in adding codicils to his will "to right the wrongs that he was conscious of committing"the last of these he added as he faced his own execution.

c. "Robin of Redesdale" was an alias; the rebellion was actually led by Warwick's northern retainers.