Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Trollope, Andrew
TROLLOPE, Sir ANDREW (d. 1461), soldier, is said by Waurin to have been of lowly origin. He fought long in the French wars of Henry VI's day, and acquired a great reputation for courage and skill, but was generally on the losing side. He was in command of Gavray under Lord Scales when it was captured on 11 Oct. 1449. In March 1450 he had to give up Fronay, partly as a ransom for Osbert Mundeford [q. v.], and after the surrender of Falaise in 1450 he went to England. He returned to France, and held the appointment of sergeant-porter of Calais, and was concerned in 1453–4 in the conspiracy of Alençon. When in 1459 Warwick came to England, Trollope was with him, and accompanied him as a Yorkist to Ludlow. He is said to have been won over to the Lancastrian side by Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset; on the other hand, he may well, as has been said, have never intended to serve against the king. In any case, on the night of 12 Oct. 1459 he and Sir James Blount went over to the Lancastrian camp, and the Yorkist leaders dispersed. He seems to have been with Somerset when he went over as lieutenant of Calais in November, but they could only get possession of Guisnes, and in April 1460 Somerset was badly defeated at Newham Bridge. Soon afterwards he returned to England. He arranged the plan of the battle of Wakefield (31 Dec. 1460), and one of his servants captured Richard, duke of York. He was the commander of the Lancastrian horde that marched south and won the second battle of St. Albans (7 Feb. 1460–61). After that fight he was knighted; he was suffering at the time from a ‘calletrappe’ in his foot, and jokingly said that he did not deserve the honour done him as he had killed but fifteen Yorkists. He retired north with the army, and was killed at Towton on 29 March following. He was attainted in the same year. Polydore Vergil describes him as ‘vir summæ belli scientiæ et fidei.’ He is mentioned in a poem of Lewis Glyn Cothi.
[Ramsay's Lancaster and York, ii. 104, 215, 244, 272; Rot. Parl. v. 477–9; Wars of the English in France, ed. Stevenson (Rolls Ser.), ii. 626, 775; Blondel's Reductio Normanniæ (Rolls Ser.), pp. 103, 105, 106, 107, 156, 329, 364; Waurin's Chronicles, ed. Lumby (Rolls Ser.), 1447–71, pp. 160, 273, 276, 279–80, 306, 322, 325–7, 336, 340–1, or ed. Dupont, ii. 194, &c.; Chron. Mathieu d'Escouchy, ed. Beaucourt, i. 204; Basin's Hist. des règnes de Charles VII et Louis XI, i. 299; Cosneau's Arthur de Richemont, p. 402; De Beaucourt's Hist. de Charles VII, vi. 45, 270; Collections of a London Citizen (Camd. Soc.), p. 205; Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles (Camd. Soc.), pp. 154–5, 161; Chron. Cont. Croyl. (Fell and Fulman), p. 581; Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, ii. 5, 6; Gwaith Lewis Glyn Cothi, ed. 1837, xii. 82; Polydore Vergil's Hist. Angl., ed. 1546, pp. 507, 511.]