Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stanley, Edward (1460?-1523)
STANLEY, EDWARD, first Baron Monteagle (1460?–1523), born probably about 1460, was fifth son of Thomas Stanley, first earl of Derby [q. v.], by his first wife Eleanor, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury (1400–1460) [q. v.], and sister of the ‘king-maker.’ He was knighted during Edward IV's reign, and on 17 April 1483 officiated as one of the pall-bearers at that king's funeral. His father's marriage with Henry of Richmond's mother and services at Bosworth secured Henry's favour for the family when he became king. Edward became sheriff of Lancashire in the autumn of 1485; on 15 Oct. he was directed to provide for the safety of the shire against Scottish attacks, and on 1 Dec. he was granted the office of keeper of New Park, Langley; he also became knight of the body to the king. On 4 March 1488–9 he was granted the manors of Farleton in Lonsdale, Farleton in Westmoreland, and Brierley in Yorkshire. He took part in the ceremonies at the creation of Prince Henry as Duke of York in November 1494, and at the reception of Catherine of Arragon in October 1501. On 5 Nov. 1509 he was granted a license to import seventy tuns of Burgundy wine, and in 1511 he served as commissioner of array in Yorkshire and Westmoreland. He received further grants of land in June 1513, and on 9 Sept. following he took a prominent part in the battle of Flodden Field. Popular ballads (see Flodden Field, ed. Weber, pp. 37–40, 50–9 et seq.) represent the English army as begging Surrey to put Stanley in command of the van; Surrey, out of jealousy, placed him in the rear, where nevertheless he greatly distinguished himself, forcing the Scots to evacuate their position of vantage on the hill, and killing James IV of Scotland with his own hand (his name occurs in the well-known line of Scott's ‘Marmion,’ ‘Charge, Chester, charge—on, Stanley, on’). These details receive no confirmation from the official version (Letters and Papers, i. 1441); but Thomas Ruthall [q. v.], bishop of Durham, reported that Stanley behaved well, and recommended his elevation to the peerage for his services. On 8 May 1514 he was installed K.G., and six days later he is said to have landed at Calais with Sir Thomas Lovell [q. v.] Various deeds of valour during the French war are assigned to him by the peerage historians. On 9 Oct. in the same year he was present at the marriage of the princess Mary to Louis XII of France, and on 23 Nov. he was summoned to the House of Lords as Baron Monteagle (cf. ib. ii. 1464). He was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in June 1520. He died on 6 April 1523, and was buried at Hornby, Lancashire, where he had commenced a religious foundation in commemoration of his success at Flodden (cf. Letters and Papers, iii. 2834). Monteagle married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Vaughan of Tretower, Brecknockshire, and widow of John, lord Grey de Wilton, by whom he had no issue; and secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir John Harrington, by whom he had apparently two sons, both named Thomas. The elder succeeded to the peerage, and died in 1560; his son William, third baron Monteagle, died without male issue in 1581, leaving a daughter Elizabeth, who married Edward Parker, tenth baron Morley, and was mother of William Parker [q. v.], who succeeded as fourth baron Monteagle and eleventh baron Morley.
Thomas Stanley (d. 1570), bishop of Sodor and Man, the first lord Monteagle's second son, was educated at Oxford, and then became rector of Winwick and Wigan, Lancashire, and Bardsworth, Yorkshire. In 1530 he was appointed bishop of Sodor and Man, but was deprived by Henry VIII in 1545. He was restored by Queen Mary in 1556, and died in 1570. He was author of a metrical chronicle of the Stanleys of Lathom, several copies of which are extant in manuscript (cf. Stanley Papers, i. 16–17). It was printed in Halliwell's ‘Palatine Anthology’ [1850], but is of little authority (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ii. 807; Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 326).
[Campbell's Materials for the Reign of Henry VII, and Gairdner's Letters and Papers of Henry VII (Rolls Ser.); Brewer's Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vols. i–iii.; Stanley Papers (Chetham Soc.), vol. i.; Stanley's Metrical Chron. in Halliwell's Palatine Anthology; Weber's Flodden Field, pp. 2, 5, 37–40, 50–7, 72, 112, 116, 118, 132–3, 263–4; La Rotta de Scocese (Roxburghe Club); Seacome's Mem. of the Stanleys, ed. 1840, pp. 93–4; Pollard's Stanleys of Knowsley, pp. 31–2; Baines's Lancashire; Gregson's Portfolio of Fragments; Peerages by Collins, Burke (Extinct), and G. E. C.]