Aigueblanche, Peter d' [Peter de Aqua Blanca] (d. 1268), bishop of Hereford and royal councillor, was descended from the family of Briançon, holders of the lordship of Aigueblanche (Savoie) in the Tarentaise or valley of the upper Isère, dependants of the counts of Savoy...
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Nicholas Vincent
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Peter d' Aigueblanche (d. 1268) tomb effigy by permission of the Dean and Chapter of Hereford Cathedral
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Ashburnham, John (1602/3–1671), courtier and politician, was the eldest son of Sir John Ashburnham (1570/71–1620) and Elizabeth (1577–1651), daughter of Sir Thomas Beaumont. William Ashburnham, army officer and politician, was his younger brother. He was educated at Gray's Inn and Peterhouse, Cambridge. His father died in 1620, having wasted his estate and leaving his family in penury. But within two years his heir had so far repaired their broken fortune, that (says the epitaph in ...
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Ashton, John (c. 1653–1691), official in the royal household and Jacobite conspirator, was the son of Andrew Ashton (d. 1679), of Liverpool, and his wife, Alice. His father was apparently a parliamentarian army officer, though from the royalist family of Ashton of ...
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Aubigny, Philip d' [Philip Daubeney] (d. 1236), knight and royal councillor, was a member of a junior branch of the family of d'Aubigny, native to St Aubin-d'Aubigné (Ille-et-Vilaine), north of Rennes in Brittany, whose senior branch had acquired the English honour of Belvoir...
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John Gore
revised by K. D. Reynolds
Baring, Rowland Thomas, second earl of Cromer (1877–1953), courtier, was born on 29 November 1877 at Cairo. He was the elder son of Evelyn Baring, later first earl of Cromer (1841–1917), diplomat, and his first wife, Ethel Stanley (d. 1898), second daughter of ...
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Barking, Richard of (d. 1246), abbot of Westminster and royal councillor, was presumably a native of Barking in Essex. His mother, Lucy, was commemorated by an obit celebration at Westminster, and can probably be identified as Lucy, widow of Richard of Barking, who gave the abbey land at ...
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Beaumont, John, first Viscount Beaumont (1409
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Edmund King
Benedict [Benedict of Peterborough] (c. 1135–1193), abbot of Peterborough and royal councillor, is first recorded at the event that shaped his life, as an eyewitness to the murder of Thomas Becket in his cathedral church at Canterbury on 29 December 1170. A monk of ...
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Andrew C. Thompson
Bernstorff, Andreas Gottlieb von, Baron Bernstorff in the nobility of the Holy Roman empire (1649–1726), politician and diplomat, was born on 2 March 1649 ns in Ratzeburg, then in the duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, in northern Germany, the second son of Andreas von Bernstorff (1604–1655)...
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Bigod, Roger, fourth earl of Norfolk (c. 1212–1270), magnate and courtier, was the eldest son of Hugh (II) Bigod, earl of Norfolk, and his wife, Matilda Marshal (c.1192–1248). Hugh (III) Bigod was his brother. Roger was a minor when his father died in 1225; his wardship went first to ...
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Mountjoy Blount, first earl of Newport (c. 1597–1666) by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, c. 1637–8 Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
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Blount, Mountjoy, first earl of Newport (c. 1597–1666), courtier and politician, was the eldest of three illegitimate sons of Charles Blount, earl of Devonshire (1563–1606), and Lady Penelope Rich (1563–1607), daughter of Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex; his parents were eventually to marry, contrary to canon law, in 1605. He was the half-brother of ...
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Bohun, Humphrey de (b. before 1144, d. 1181), constable to Henry II, was the son and heir of Humphrey (II) de Bohun [see below] and his wife, Margaret de Bohun (c. 1121–1196/7), the eldest child of Miles of Gloucester, earl of Hereford...
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Boleyn, George, Viscount Rochford (c. 1504–1536), courtier and diplomat, was the only son of Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire (1476/7–1539), and Elizabeth Howard (d. 1538), eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey and later second duke of Norfolk (1443–1524). He first appears in the public record participating in the Christmas revels of 1514, and he signalled his father's success when he became a royal page in 1516. His earliest recorded grants resulted from his father's service to the crown and his sister ...
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Boscawen, Hugh, first Viscount Falmouth (c. 1680–1734), politician and courtier, was the eldest surviving son of Edward Boscawen (1628–1685), a wealthy Turkey merchant and MP, and his wife, Jael (d. 1730), the daughter of Sir Francis Godolphin. Both parents were of prominent Cornish landed families, and their connections at the very heart of politics ensured the future path of ...
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Andrew C. Thompson
Bothmer, Hans Kaspar [Johann] von, Count Bothmer in the nobility of the Holy Roman empire (1656–1732), courtier and diplomat, was born on 10 April 1656 ns in Lauenbrück, in the Celle portion of the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, northern Germany, the eldest son of ...
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Bradeston, Thomas, Lord Bradeston (d. 1360), soldier and royal councillor, was probably the son of Robert de Bradeston, a minor landowner of Breadstone, Gloucestershire. The Bradestons were close allies of the Berkeleys of Berkeley Castle, their near neighbours, and Thomas probably began his career in the ...
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Brandon, Charles, first duke of Suffolk (c. 1484–1545), magnate, courtier, and soldier, was the second but only surviving son of Sir William Brandon (d. 1485) and his wife, Elizabeth Bruyn (d. 1494) of South Ockendon. The manner of Sir William's death, killed at ...
