Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/266

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knighted at Dublin with Sarsfield, chief justice of the common pleas, on 24 March 1604, and was named with others in a commission to examine Sir Denis O'Roughan, a priest. On 19 July 1605 he was again named in a commission to survey, accept surrenders of, and re-grant lands in Ireland. By patent of 29 May 1606 he was raised to the bench of the common pleas as second puisne judge, in succession to Mr. Justice John Ady, the solicitor-general, Sir John Davis succeeding him as attorney-general. The promotion gratified him, but not the stipend, for as attorney-general his salary had been 159l. 6s. 8d.; as judge only one half of that sum. But Sir Arthur Chichester writes to the king that he will help him in other ways without charge to the crown, and he appears in 1611 to have been in receipt of 133l. 6s. 8d. from the crown, and the same in addition by concordatum during pleasure. He died 6 Jan. 1616.

There was published in London in 1635 ‘The Relation betweene the Lord of a Mannor and the Coppyholder his Tenant … Delivered in the learned readings of C[harles] C[althrope].’

[Hamilton's Irish State Papers; Russell and Prendergast's State Papers; Carew's State Papers; Smith's Law Officers of Ireland; Erck's Irish Patent Rolls, pp. 35, 156, 183.]

J. A. H.

CALVELEY, Sir HUGH (d. 1393), a distinguished soldier, was the son of David de Calvelegh, and his first wife Joan, of Lea in Cheshire, and was the brother, it is thought, of Sir Robert Knolles. Both are celebrated in the pages of Froissart. Calveley was one of the soldiers of fortune engaged in the war of succession between the partisans of the widow of Jean de Montfort and the wife of Charles de Blois, which lasted with varying fortune from 1341 to 1364. In 1351 Robert de Beaumanoir sallied from his garrison at Château Josselin to attack the town and castle of Ploërmel, which was held for Montfort by Sir Robert Bamborough, who is sometimes identified with Sir Richard Greenacre of Merley. He is called Brembo in the Breton Chronicles, and it may be noticed that there is a Bromborough in Cheshire, to which county two, at least, of his knightly followers belonged. As the garrison did not care to leave their stronghold, Beaumanoir proposed a joust of two or three with swords and spears. To this Bamborough replied by suggesting that each side should select twenty or thirty champions who should fight in earnest on the open plain. The bargain having been made, sixty warriors repaired to a level tract near a midway oak, and there fought the famous Bataille de Mi-Voie, which has since been chronicled both in prose and verse. Thirty knights on each side, having dismounted, fought until both sides were exhausted and a rest was called, when four French and two English knights lay dead upon the field. The fight was renewed with great ferocity, and when Beaumanoir, grievously wounded, was leaving the field to quench his thirst, he was recalled by the fierce exclamation, ‘Beaumanoir, drink thy blood, and thy thirst will go off.’ Despairing of breaking the solid phalanx of the English combatants, one of the French knights mounted his horse, and spurred his steed with great impetuosity against their ranks, which were thus broken. Sir Robert Bamborough was slain with eight of his men, while the others, including Calveley and Sir Robert Knolles, were taken prisoners to Josselin. A memorial cross was erected, which is engraved in the ‘Archæologia’ (vol. vi.). In 1362 he is named with Peter of Bunbury and others in a warrant of pardon for felonies committed in Chester. This pardon had already been commanded on 18 Jan., 27 Edward III, and letters of pardon were accordingly granted, 35 Edward III. In 1364 was fought the decisive battle of Auray, which ended the struggle for the duchy of Brittany. When asked to take command of the rearguard, Calveley begged that another post might be assigned to him. Sir John Chandos protested with tears that no other man was equal to the post. Calveley accepted, and by his steadiness of discipline kept the army firm during a desperate charge of the foe. At the conclusion of the Breton war he and some of his freelances enlisted in the service of Henry of Trastamare in his struggle with Pedro the Cruel of Castille; but the Prince of Wales having joined the opposite party, feudal loyalty, it may be surmised, led Calveley to change sides, and he is honourably mentioned by Froissart as fighting under Sir John Chandos at the battle of Navarete on 3 April 1367. We next hear of him as the leader of two thousand freebooters, making disastrous war in the territories of the Earl of Armagnac. He became deputy of Calais in 1377, and one of his exploits was a foray to Boulogne, where he burnt some of the ships in the harbour, destroyed part of the town, and returned with a rich booty. He also recovered the castle of Marke on the same day it was lost, and soon after the Christmas of 1378 ‘spoiled the towne of Estaples the same day the fair was kept there. The sellers had quick utterance, for that that might be carried awaie the Englishmen laid hands upon.’ In the following year, when he, with Sir Thomas Percye, as admi-