Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wingfield, Richard (1469?-1525)
WINGFIELD, Sir RICHARD (1469?–1525), soldier and diplomatist, born about 1469, is variously given as the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth son of Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham, Suffolk, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John FitzLewis of West Horndon, Essex [see Wingfield, Sir Humphrey]. Sir Robert Wingfield [q. v.] was his elder brother. Cooper states that he was educated at the university of Cambridge, though at what college does not appear. A passage in a letter of 10 July 1516 suggests that he afterwards proceeded to the university of Ferrara. After the university he probably studied law at Gray's Inn, in the windows of which hall his arms were in Dugdale's time twice blazoned (Orig. Jurid. pp. 300, 307). According to Polydore Vergil he was one of the commanders against the Cornish rebels in 1497. He was an esquire of the body at the meeting of Henry VII with the Archduke Philip in 1500. On 10 March 1505 he arrived at Rome on a pilgrimage, accompanied by an illegitimate brother, Richard Urry (Collect. Top. v. 66). Before 14 Nov. 1511 he was a knight, being on that date appointed marshal of Calais, i.e. apparently of the castle there. His first appointment as a diplomatist was on 20 Dec. 1512 as junior commissioner, with Sir Edward Poynings, John Yonge, master of the rolls, and Sir Thomas Boleyn, to arrange a holy league between the pope, England, Arragon and Castille, Maximilian, Prince Charles, and Margaret of Savoy. Wingfield with Poynings was despatched to the Netherlands [see Poynings, Sir Edward]. From February to April 1513 he resided at Malines, keeping Wolsey informed from time to time of the state of the military preparations. The treaty providing for a joint invasion of France was signed by the four commissioners at Malines on 5 April 1513.
Wingfield then returned to his post at Calais, and was appointed knight-marshal there. On 16 May he was at Brussels, to which place he was probably despatched to further the suit of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk [q. v.], for the hand of Margaret of Savoy (cf. Cotton. MS. Titus, B. 1; Chron. of Calais, pp. 68–76). From Brussels he hastened back to report his mission to Henry.
He was again at Brussels on 4 June, when he left for Antwerp to arrange for the passage of German mercenaries to Calais. These arrived on 18 June, probably under his command (Chron. of Calais, p. 12). His services were recognised by his promotion to be joint-deputy, or, as it had formerly been styled, captain of Calais, with Sir Gilbert Talbot on 6 Aug. 1513 (ib. p. xxxviii; cf. art. Wingfield, Sir Robert). The pay of the deputyship was 204l. per annum, and the deputy exercised general military jurisdiction except over the castle. On 19 Feb. 1514 he was one of the commissioners appointed ‘to levy men for the king's army in the dominions of the emperor and the Prince of Castille.’ But he was soon entrusted with a more delicate mission, being sent in June to Margaret of Savoy with the ostensible object of concluding arrangements for the marriage of the king's sister Mary with Prince Charles (afterwards Charles V). Overtures for the hand of the English princess had, however, already been made by Louis XII. By 27 June the rumour had reached the Netherlands. On 11 Sept. Henry sent his excuses, but Margaret's vexation made Wingfield's situation intolerable, and he sent urgent requests for recall. His desire was not granted until on 14 Jan. 1515 he was accredited with the Duke of Suffolk and Nicholas West [q. v.] on a special embassy to France to congratulate Francis I on his accession. It was on this occasion that Suffolk married the French queen (widow of Louis XII), but that step was known to neither of his brother envoys.
Wingfield accompanied Mary of France from Calais to England on 2 May (Letters and Papers, iii. 4406; Chron. of Calais, p. 17), perhaps to press his claim to exemption from the act just passed resuming royal grants. The claim was not allowed, but he remained at Calais, apparently discharging his former duties, and appears to have been the ‘master deputy’ instructed to report on the French naval preparations in August 1515. About the same time he was instructed by Henry, in a despatch addressed to him as ‘deputy of Calais,’ to proceed on a fresh mission to Francis I. He was directed among other matters to advance the project of an interview between the two sovereigns, and to pave the way for overtures for the surrender of Tournay. He was back at Calais in September. He was by no means a subservient official, for he more than once refused to execute orders he judged prejudicial to Calais until after reconsideration by the king.
In June 1516 Wingfield, with Cuthbert Tunstall [q. v.], was again accredited to the court of Brussels. Charles had on 23 Jan. succeeded to the crown of Castille, and Henry was anxious to secure his friendship. Wingfield was commissioned to invite him to visit England on his way from the Netherlands to Spain, and to offer him a loan of 20,000 marks (13,333l. 6s. 8d.) towards his expenses. The offer was declined, and on 1 Sept. Wingfield returned to Calais, resuming his functions as deputy and as continental intelligencer to Wolsey. On 26 Aug. he was appointed commissioner to sit at Calais on 1 Sept. 1517 and adjudicate the disputes between English and French merchants. On 5 May and again on 5 Nov. 1518 Wingfield was nominated, together with the treasurer and secretary of Calais, to receive payment of instalments of 50,000 francs each due to Henry under the convention with Louis XII on his marriage with the Princess Mary. On 4 March 1519 Wingfield received a grant in tail male of the reversion of the manors of Donyngton, Cretyngham, Clopton Halle, and Ilkettyshall, Suffolk, upon the death of Elizabeth, countess of Oxford. Before 15 May he resigned his post as deputy of Calais, receiving a grant of 200l. a year for life. On the 25th he left Calais ‘most honourably spoken of by all there,’ amid the ‘weeping eyes’ of the inhabitants. He proceeded to Montreuil, probably to confer with the French commissioners as to the meeting of the two kings. On his return to England he was one of the four ‘sad and ancient knights’ placed by the council in the king's privy chamber with the duty of checking his extravagance (Hall, p. 598). He was also appointed, with Sir Edward Belknap and Sir John Cutte, an inspector of ordnance.
Wingfield's high favour with the king, who designated him one of his ‘trusty and near familiars,’ led to his appointment early in 1520 as successor to Sir Thomas Boleyn, the English ambassador at the court of France. His salary was fixed at 1l. a day. He left England on 4 Feb. His despatch to Wolsey, giving an account of his reception by Francis I at Cognac, is dated 8 March. The arrangements for the projected interview between Henry and Francis were incorporated in a treaty which Wingfield negotiated by means of constant personal interviews with Francis. At the Field of the Cloth of Gold (7 June) Wingfield rode as a knight of the king's chamber. When Francis grew suspicious of the purport of the subsequent interview between Henry and the emperor at Gravelines (5 July), Wingfield employed all his diplomacy to keep him in good humour, protesting on his knees by his bedside for an hour at a time the devotion of Henry and Wolsey to his person and his interest. Francis, who had vainly hoped to be admitted to participate in the meeting, rivalled Wingfield in the extravagance of his assurances. In August Wingfield received permission to return home on private affairs, but before doing so was instructed, together with Jerningham, his successor, to communicate to Francis Henry's version of the overtures made by Chièvres at Gravelines to detach him from the French alliance. He was now employed, as before, in the inspection of military stores. On 10 Jan. 1521 he and Sir Weston Browne reported on the armament of the king's great ship, the Henry Grace à Dieu.
In the spring of 1521 Wingfield was selected to act as Henry VIII's representative in mediating between Francis and Charles V. His instructions were to urge on Charles the impolicy of war and the advantages of England's mediation. Wingfield arrived at Worms at the close of May, and obtained the emperor's consent to Henry's mediation. But on 1 June he wrote from Mayence that Charles had just heard of the invasion of Navarre by the French, and demanded ‘such aid as was secured by the treaties between’ Henry and himself. At the end of a fortnight Charles's passion on account of the French invasion had had time to cool, and on 15 June Wingfield wrote from Brussels that Charles would accept mediation provided restitution were made. On 22 June the emperor requested Wingfield to return to England and present to Henry a memorial of his case against Francis. It is apparent from the emperor's language that Wingfield had ingratiated himself with him as successfully as he had done with Francis I and Louise of France. He left Brussels on 22 June. But a few days after his return to England two envoys from the emperor arrived with the intelligence that Charles had reverted to his first mind and claimed Henry's aid in active hostilities against the French. Wolsey remarked that ‘Wingfield's despatch disagreed with their charge,’ and resolved to send Wingfield back again to persuade Charles to a more pacific temper. Wingfield arrived at Antwerp on 10 July 1521, accompanied by the emperor's two envoys, and found Charles still bent on an invasion of France, and still insisting on the active aid of England. By 22 July Wingfield seems to have become aware that Wolsey's secret intention was to cajole Francis, and prepare to act with the emperor. Towards the end of October Wolsey sent Sir Thomas Boleyn and Sir Thomas Docwra to Charles to solicit him to enter into a truce with France; they were instructed to take Wingfield's advice on the method of executing their mission. The three ambassadors followed the emperor to Courtrai on 24 Oct. In the same month Knight was appointed to succeed Wingfield, but the latter still remained at Oudenarde with his two colleagues, wrestling with the emperor's obstinate refusals of truce, and writing almost daily despatches to Wolsey, who was determined not to let him go until some conclusion was brought to the negotiations. About 16 Dec. Wingfield and Spinelly, who acted as his colleague after the departure of Boleyn and Docwra on 17 Nov., accompanied the emperor to Ghent. At last, on 8 Jan. 1522, the emperor himself requested Wingfield to leave at once for England upon a diplomatic mission. Wingfield replied, as he had done on the similar occasion in the previous June, that for him to leave his post without Henry's permission would be a breach of rule; but, as before, he consented, Charles explaining to Henry the circumstances of the case. Charles further requested Wolsey to bestow the Garter upon Wingfield, and announced his intention of pensioning him. Wingfield's promotion to the Garter took place in the following year (Anstis, ii. 232). He returned to Antwerp on 4 May 1522, with instructions to persuade the emperor to accept Wolsey's offer of mediation. He was also to arrange for the emperor's visit to England on his way to Spain. Wingfield probably accompanied Charles, who reached Dover on 26 May 1522. His services were now employed by Henry upon a commission under the Earl of Surrey, lord high admiral, for recruiting the royal navy by impressing ships of the merchant service and certain Venetian vessels to act as convoy for the emperor's voyage to Spain. He also accompanied the fleet which burnt Morlaix and the English army on its incursion into France. At the end of 1523 Wingfield probably returned to England with Suffolk and the principal military commanders.
Wingfield utilised the opportunity of his return to claim and receive rewards for his services. On 20 Nov. 1522 he was granted the castle and manor of Kimbolton, and on 1 Sept. 1523 the neighbouring manor of Swyneshede, lands in Swyneshede and Tylbrook, Huntingdonshire, the manor of Hardewyke, and lands in Hardewyke, Overdene, and Netherdene, Bedfordshire, also forming part of the late Duke of Buckingham's forfeited estates. At Kimbolton he built ‘new fair lodgings and galleries’ (Leland, Itin. v. 2). On 14 April 1524 he was made chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. In the course of the years 1523–4 he was nominated upon the commission of the peace for no fewer than twenty-five southern and midland counties. Wingfield had, according to his friend Hugh Latimer, ‘a regard for literary men.’ On the death (25 May 1524) of Sir Thomas Lovell [q. v.], high steward of the university of Cambridge, Wingfield solicited Henry's influence to procure him the post. The university had promised it to Sir Thomas More, but at the king's instance More withdrew his candidature and Wingfield was appointed. ‘Who,’ wrote Latimer to Dr. Grene, master of St. Catharine's, ‘has more influence with the king than Wingfield?’
On 24 Feb. 1525 Francis I was defeated and captured at the battle of Pavia. At the end of March Wingfield and Tunstall were despatched by Henry to Spain [see under Tunstall, Cuthbert]. During this embassy Wingfield died at Toledo on 22 July 1525 (Inq. post mortem), and was buried by his own request at the church of the friars observants, San Juan de los Reyes.
Wingfield married, as her third husband, Katherine, daughter of Richard Woodvile, earl Rivers [q. v.], widow of Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham [q. v.], and afterwards of Jasper Tudor, duke of Bedford [q. v.] This double connection with the king accounts for the confidence reposed in him. The marriage also supported his claims to share in the forfeited Buckingham estates. The duchess died some time before 1513. Wingfield's second wife was Bridget, daughter and heiress of Sir John Wiltshire, comptroller of Calais. He had no children by the duchess; by his second wife he left four sons and four daughters. The 'Inquisitiones post mortem' found that at the time of Sir Richard's death his eldest son Charles was twelve years old; he obtained livery of his lands on 14 July 1535. Sir Richard's will is preserved in the prerogative court of Canterbury, and is dated 5 April 1525. His coat of arms is engraved in Anstis (ii. 235). At the time of his death he must have been at least fifty-six years of age (see Hall, Chron. p. 599). His widow married Sir Nicholas Hervey (Collins, ed. Brydges, iv. 145).
[State Papers (11 vols. 1830-52), vols. i. vi.; Brewer's Cal. of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, vols, i-iv. ; Gairdner's Letters and Papers of Richard III and Henry VII, 1863, 2 vols. (Rolls Ser.); Anstis's Register of the Garter, 1724, ii. 230-5; Hall's Chron. 1809; Visitation of Huntingdonshire (Camd. Soc.), 1849; Metcalfe's Visitations of Suffolk, 1882; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, ed. Archdall, 1789 vol. v.; Rutland Papers (Camd. Soc.), 1842; Chron. of Calais (Camd. Soc.), 1846; Polydore Vargil, Basle, 1570; Ellis's Original Letters, 1825; Fiddes's Life of Cardinal Wolsey, 1726; Morant's Hist. of Essex, 1768 ; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrigienses; Hasted's Kent, vol. i.; Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, 1680; Powerscourt's Wingfield Muniments.]