Biography

"first earl of Derby (c.1433–1504), magnate, was the eldest son of Thomas Stanley, first Baron Stanley (1406–1459), and Joan, daughter of Sir Robert Goushill.
First engagements in politics
Little is known about Thomas Stanley's early life. Family tradition has him winning his spurs avenging a Scots raid on the Isle of Man, presumably that of 1456. His father's lands and offices in Cheshire and Lancashire, and on the Isle of Man, gave him ample opportunity to gain experience in the leadership of men; his father's prominence in the king's household likewise provided him with an early introduction to court. He is named among the squires of Henry VI in 1454. The Stanleys had connections, too, with nobles outside court circles. In the late 1450s Thomas married Eleanor, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, and sister of Richard Neville, earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker). Among their children was James Stanley, bishop of Ely. On his father's death in February 1459, he found himself heir to a formidable inheritance but in a position fraught with danger.

In 1459 the accord between the Lancastrian and the Yorkist lords broke down, and the conflict came to the borders of the Stanley sphere of influence. Queen Margaret held court at Lichfield, appealing on behalf of the prince of Wales for the loyalty of the men of the palatinate of Chester. With the earl of Salisbury mobilizing in Yorkshire, and heading south-west to join the duke of York at Ludlow, the queen ordered Lord Stanley to raise forces to intercept him. Salisbury, too, was in communication with his son-in-law. The two armies met at Bloreheath in August 1459. Though no more than a few miles away, Stanley kept his 2000 men out of the fight. It was alleged that he both prevented some Cheshire levies joining the queen, and secretly committed troops to Salisbury. His brother, William Stanley, was certainly in the rebel host, and subsequently attainted. On the morning after the battle, Thomas sent the queen his excuses and ‘departed home again’, while writing to congratulate Salisbury on his escape. The parliament that met at Coventry later in the year petitioned for Thomas Stanley's attainder. The queen thought it wise to overlook his conduct, and pardoned him.
Supporter of York
In the summer of 1460 Lord Stanley again disappointed the queen. After Henry VI's capture at the battle of Northampton, he began to co-operate with the Yorkist lords who had possession of the king and ruled in his name. In October he participated in the settlement by which Richard, duke of York, was made heir to the throne, and in November he was serving, alongside his Neville affines, in the council. While York and Salisbury rode north against the queen's forces in December, and were defeated and slain at Wakefield, he may have remained with the younger Yorkist lords in London. Given the lack of firm evidence as to his participation in the acclamation of Edward IV and the Yorkist victory at Towton, it is probable that over the winter of 1460–61 he returned to the relative security of his own regional power base. Still, Stanley rapidly consolidated his association with the Yorkist regime. In the early 1460s he joined his brother-in-law, the earl of Warwick, in the sieges and campaigns that drove the Lancastrian forces across the Scottish border. Stanley was not one of Edward's inner circle, but was confirmed in his fees and offices. The new king needed Stanley to secure the north-west, with its traditions of loyalty to the royal household. With Lancastrian forces holding out in Wales and in the north, the region had obvious strategic importance. In 1464 there was a Lancastrian rising in the area, and in the following year Henry VI sought refuge in north Lancashire, where he was finally taken captive. When in 1465 Lord Stanley took honours in the tournament held to celebrate the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, it might have seemed as if he had ridden out the storm.

In the late 1460s, however, instability returned. The coalition that had brought Edward IV to the throne was breaking apart, and Stanley found his loyalties divided between the king and his Neville in-laws. The dramatic shifts in political fortune between 1469 and 1471, and their impact on the tangled networks of affinity and allegiance, are hard to unravel. When the earl of Warwick, fleeing before Edward IV in 1470, made his way to Manchester in the hope of support, Stanley held aloof, but on Warwick's return he lent him armed support in the restoration of Henry VI. For Lord Stanley, alongside the main game, there was an important sideshow. In 1468 he had been granted the wardship of the heiresses of the Harringtons of Hornby in north Lancashire. His bid to take over their estates was resisted by the male heir, who remained loyal to Edward IV. Stanley's siege of Hornby Castle was his main contribution to the fighting of this time. This struggle involved conflict with Richard, duke of Gloucester, the king's brother, who backed the Harringtons and was based for a time at Hornby. Lord Stanley stood his ground in the north-west, and, given his profile and Neville connections, did well to avoid the bloodbath at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, which followed the return of Edward IV in the spring of 1471. Sir William Stanley was among the first to rally to Edward, and he may have brought his brother's good wishes with him.

Lord Stanley was soon forgiven for his disloyalty. Appointed steward of the king's household late in 1471, he was thenceforward a regular member of the royal council. The death of his first wife some time before 1471 severed his connection with the Nevilles and made possible, some time early in 1472, a marriage even more distinguished and politically significant. Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond, his new wife, was the mother of Henry Tudor and potentially heir-general of the house of Lancaster. Yet the marriage was probably blessed by Edward IV, and strengthened rather than weakened Stanley's position at court, where a match between Elizabeth of York and Henry Tudor was mooted. At the same time, while Edward's reservations about Stanley's loyalty may have led to the advancement of the king's brother in the region, their respective spheres of influence had been redrawn in Stanley's favour by 1475. Stanley led a retinue of 40 lances and 300 archers in the king's expedition to France in 1475, during which he found an opportunity to commend himself to the favour of Louis XI. In 1482 he served with a large company in Gloucester's campaign in Scotland, and played a key role in the capture of Berwick.
Dominance in the north-west
In the mean time Lord Stanley consolidated and extended his hegemony in the north-west. The changes of regime never really weakened his family's grip on the key offices in the palatinates of Chester and Lancaster. Stanley was a man of considerable acumen, and probably the most successful power-broker of his age. Like most effective affinities, his retinue was held together not by grants of annuities but by the less brittle bonds of good lordship. Given his office holding both regionally and at court, Stanley did not need to draw ruinously on his own reserves to dispense patronage on a grand scale. His active role in the arbitration of local disputes is well documented. The royal council and the council of the duchy of Lancaster regularly referred matters to him. He in turn delegated business to his counsellors, kinsmen and wives. On occasion Eleanor, Lady Stanley, took the initiative as facilitator and peacemaker. In the mid-1460s she wrote to Peter Warburton on a client's behalf, making clear what was required to ‘cause me to be your good lady’, and in 1466 she took the sting out of a dispute between two Lancashire squires (JRL, Arley Charter 30/2; Lancs. RO, DDF 600).

Yet ‘good lordship’ had its brutal face. The Stanleys were disinclined to brook any opposition or tolerate any rivals in the north-west. If the vicissitudes of the time encouraged some Lancashire families, like the Butlers, barons of Warrington, to assert themselves, they were soon put in their place. Early in 1464 Sir John Butler was slain, prompting the king to summon Lord Stanley before him. According to ballad tradition, which adds lurid detail to the sparse record, Butler was murdered by Stanley's servants. Indeed the ballad takes amoral delight in the king's reluctance to discipline Stanley. In defending and extending their hegemony the Stanleys were prepared to go head-to-head with the mightiest in the land. In 1469 the king appointed his brother to a number of duchy of Lancaster offices previously held by Stanley. In defiance of royal orders, Stanley made it impossible for Gloucester to assume his responsibilities. This rivalry, with the struggle over Hornby another focus, led briefly to open warfare. According to the Stanley legend, Gloucester assembled an army at Preston intending to attack and burn Lathom, but was put to flight by the Stanleys at Ribble Bridge. Gloucester's banner was taken by Jack Morris of Wigan and was kept as a trophy at Wigan church for some forty years.

After the accession of Edward V, Stanley was prominent among the lords and prelates who sought to maintain a balance of power between the young king's uncle, Richard of Gloucester, and his maternal kinsmen, the Woodvilles. When Gloucester attacked this group at a council meeting on 13 June, Stanley was wounded and placed under arrest, but was spared summary execution, the fate of Lord Hastings. According to Polydore Vergil, Gloucester feared that Stanley's son would raise Lancashire and Cheshire against him. On 24 June Gloucester had Edward V and his brother declared illegitimate, and two days later he took the throne as Richard III. In preparing the ground for the usurpation and in consolidating his position, Richard found it more expedient to appease than to alienate the house of Stanley. Lord Stanley, who continued as steward of the household, was soon at liberty and seemingly implicated in the new order. He bore the great mace at Richard's coronation, and his wife waited on the new queen. He was elected to the Order of the Garter, taking the stall vacated by Lord Hastings.
Richard III and Bosworth
To all appearances, Stanley was a pillar of the Ricardian regime. After the coronation he joined the royal progress westwards to Gloucester and then northwards to York. His commitment to the new regime paid dividends in the autumn of 1483, when a series of plots against the king coalesced in a major rising in southern and western England under the leadership of the duke of Buckingham. A key feature of the rebellion was the link forged between men loyal to Edward IV, who, assuming his sons had perished in the Tower of London, shifted their allegiance to his daughter, Elizabeth of York, and the die-hard Lancastrians who espoused the cause of Henry Tudor. When Richard returned from the north to suppress the rebellion, Stanley and his brother were at the king's side and were richly rewarded from the forfeited estates of the rebels. In place of Buckingham, Richard appointed Stanley as constable of England, first in an acting capacity and then, on 18 December, formally. Yet it is conceivable that Stanley might himself have become involved in the rising. His wife, Margaret Beaufort, was a key conspirator, and brokered the alliance between Elizabeth of York and her son Henry Tudor. Stanley, who seems to have been with the king when he heard news of the rebellion, may have had no other option than to act as his loyal lieutenant. Indeed it was only by making a solemn undertaking to keep his wife in custody and to put an end to her intrigues that Stanley saved her from attainder.

Richard cannot wholly have trusted Stanley. When in the summer of 1485 the latter took leave to return to Lathom the king asked that his son, George Stanley, Lord Strange, take his place at court. The Stanleys had been in communication with Henry Tudor and the Lancastrian exiles for some time. Henry Tudor's strategy of landing in Wales and crossing to Shrewsbury depended on the support of Sir William Stanley, the chamberlain of Chester and north Wales, and presumably on that of Stanley himself. Once informed of the invasion, the king ordered the two brothers to raise the men of the region in readiness to take the field against the pretender. On hearing that Henry Tudor was marching unopposed through Wales, Richard ordered Lord Stanley to join him at once. According to the continuator of the Crowland chronicle, Stanley excused himself on the grounds of illness. By this stage the king had firm evidence of Stanley complicity. After an abortive bid to escape from the court, Lord Strange confessed that he, his uncle Sir William Stanley, and his cousin Sir John Savage (d. 1492) [see under Savage family] were in league with Henry Tudor. The king proclaimed the two knights traitors, and let it be known that Strange was hostage for his father's loyalty in the coming conflict.

Henry Tudor led his army into the heart of the kingdom, making contact with Sir William Stanley at Stone in Staffordshire. Three armies followed each other into the midlands: Lord Stanley and his forces; then Sir William Stanley; and finally Henry Tudor and the rebel host. It cannot have been entirely clear whether the Stanleyites were falling back before the rebels or shielding them from the royal host. After his evacuation of Lichfield, Lord Stanley may have had a secret meeting with Henry at Atherstone on 20 August, but when the Stanleyites arrived south of Market Bosworth they took up a position independent of both the royal host and the rebel army. The two brothers played similar roles to those they had played at Bloreheath over a quarter of a century earlier. Lord Stanley took no part in the action, hanging between the two armies, and it was Sir William's intervention that gave Henry the victory. It was presumably the elder brother, if anyone, who placed Richard's coronet on Henry Tudor's head.

Henry VII showed his gratitude to his ‘right dearly beloved father’ on 27 October 1485 by creating him earl of Derby. Early in 1486 he confirmed him as constable of England and high steward of the duchy of Lancaster, and granted him other offices and estates. Even so, at the time of the Lambert Simnel rising of 1487, there may have been concern that the Stanleys were again hedging their bets, and there was relief in the royal host when the Stanleyites came in at Nottingham. The victory at Stoke (16 June 1487) brought further rewards for Stanley, notably lands forfeited by Viscount Lovell, Sir Thomas Pilkington, and Sir Thomas Broughton in Lancashire and elsewhere. In 1489 the Stanleys again made a notable contribution to the army raised by the king to suppress a rising in Yorkshire. It may be that Sir William Stanley, now chamberlain of the household, felt that he deserved greater reward. In 1495 he rashly entered into an intrigue with the supporters of Perkin Warbeck. Henry VII felt confident enough to strike him down, and then to undertake a state visit to Lancashire, where he stayed with his stepfather and mother at their manors of Lathom and Knowsley.
Last years and death
In 1504 the earl of Derby could look back on a career of forty-five years of remarkable political success. His closeness to the royal family, his tenure of high office nationally, and his territorial holdings, which stretched from the Isle of Man deep into the midlands, made him a figure of great power and influence. Under his adroit leadership the north-west escaped the worst horrors of civil strife, while most of its leading families consistently found themselves on the winning side. The deeds of the Stanleys were celebrated in ballads composed in the region, while the hangings from King Richard's tent and other trophies were displayed at Lathom and elsewhere. At the same time Stanley and his wives helped bring a degree of cultivation and refinement to the north-west. Their patronage underpinned the careers of a number of young Lancashire men, like William Smith, Hugh Oldham, and Christopher Urswick, who later won distinction in the church and world of learning.

Still, Derby's last years may not have been entirely happy. There are signs that he had overextended himself. Spending more time in the capital, he found it hard to resolve the disputes that arose in his sphere of influence and maintain control over unruly members of his affinity. A property dispute at Mellor on the Cheshire and Derbyshire border festered in the 1490s as both sides found support from within the old Stanley connection, and as appeals to Derby's ‘good lordship’ prompted fitful, rather than focused, intervention. Henry VII showed himself less willing to accommodate the aggrandizement of the Stanleys. In 1495 he had Sir William Stanley executed on charges of treason, and over the next few years clipped the wings of a number of other family members.

Henry VII's visit to Lancashire in the summer of 1495 marked a watershed of sorts. Early in 1499 Margaret Beaufort left Lathom for good, establishing an independent household at Collyweston and taking a vow of chastity. Derby visited her from time to time as he moved between Lathom and the capital, where he continued to serve as a member of the king's council and constable of England. He presided in this latter capacity at a state trial at Westminster in May 1502. His eldest son, George, Lord Strange, died after a banquet in London in December 1503. Derby fell ill at Lathom the following summer. In his will of 28 July 1504 he ordained masses for the souls of himself, his wives, parents, ancestors, children, siblings, and, ever the good lord, ‘them that have died in the service of my lord my father or of me’ (TNA: PRO, PROB 11/14, fols. 148r–149v). He died at Lathom the following day, and was buried with his ancestors at Burscough Priory."