Last Friday was the six hundredth anniversary of the death at his manor house at Methley in the West Riding of Yorkshire of Robert Waterton. His splendid tomb, together with that of his second wife, remains as one of the great treasures of the church at Methley.
The tomb of Robert and Cicely Waterton in Methley Church
Image: John Kirk on Find a Grave
Waterton, born sometime in the 1360s at Waterton in the north-west of Lincolnshire, was a member of a family whose lives and careers were shaped by service to the house of Lancaster. Although there is some uncertainty about the exact family relationships, and confusion in older works as to the number of Robert’s marriages, such that he has been identified as being both a father and a non-existent son, his life is otherwise well documented in the surviving records of the Crown and the Duchy of Lancaster.
He seems to have been especially close to the future King Henry IV and in July 1399, together with two hundred foresters, met the returning Duke of Lancaster at Spurn Point, thus participating from the very beginning in the rising which rapidly unseated King Richard II.
Following the accession of King Henry IV Waterton as Steward of the Honour of Pontefract was probably one of the few people who knew with certainty the fate of the former king in Pontefract Castle. He was to be prominent in King Henry’s suppression of revolts against him. and a trusted and close counsellor, serving as Master of the Horse. His effigy suggests he cultivated his beard to resemble that of his master.
Although credited by Shakespeare as being a knight in “Richard II” he never received the accolade and was never more than an esquire, despite his wide ranging influence and responsibilities.Having had custody at Pontefract of the captive boy King James I of Scots he was to serve King Henry V as the custodian, at various times in the next decade in the same castle or his own house at Methley of numerous prisoners taken at Agincourt. These included the most prestigious of all Charles Duke of Orleans, the Duke of Bourbon, Arthur of Richmond, later Constable of France and Duke of Brittany, and Marshal Boucicault, who died at Methley in 1421. Even though the King worried at times about their security he clearly trusted Waterton, and they maintained a correspondence that survives in part. The Waterton household appears to have been cultivated and affluent in these years, and based in Robert’s newly built Methley Hall. The social standing and cultured chivalric interests of his illustrious ‘guests’ must have made it an interesting community.
Waterton’s second wife, Cecily, was the sister of “my” Bishop Richard Fleming, whose earlier career Waterton clearly assisted.
In many ways I feel Robert Waterton has been a constant companion to me since I was a schoolboy forming an interest in the later medieval period. It was therefore a privilege to advocate his inclusion, and to write the entry for him in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography published in 2004.
If you have online access to the ONDB I would recommend you to read my article, although unfortunately it harder to be edited down from what I had originally submitted.
There is an excellent account of him also by Dr Sarah Rose which pay particular attention to his role as a custodian of French prisoners and also the child Richard Duke of York for King Henry V. That can be read at Robert Waterton and Henry V Summary The ... - Lancaster EPrints
Wikipedia has a biography of Waterton which is useful but it perpetuate the mistake but split him into two differentindividuals. It can be seen at Robert Waterton
The church at Methley deserves to be better known for its collection of tombs; in addition to that of Waterton and his wife that is that of their daughter and son-in-law Lord Welles, who by his second marriage was to become the stepfather of Lady Margaret Beaufort, as well as of the Savile family who have owned the estate since the late sixteenth century.
Robert Waterton is a quintessential example of a Lancastrian retainer from the time of John of Gaunt and King Henry IV. In succeeding generations his son-in-law. grandson and great grandson and at least one other relative died violent deaths in the service of the Lancastrian dynasty. Such was the bond of service the Lancastrians could command.
As the inscription on the tomb requests:
Pray for the soul of Robert Waterton & Cecily his wife,
That God will take to his kingdom their poor & endless life
