Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bagot, William (fl.1397)

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682255Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 02 — Bagot, William (fl.1397)1885John Horace Round

BAGOT, Sir WILLIAM (fl. 1397), minister of Richard II, appears early in his reign with Sir John Bussy and Sir Thomas Green as a member of his council (Proceedings of Council, i. pp. xxi, 77-8); and, having been appointed a proxy for the Earl of Nottingham, 3 Oct. 1396 (Fœdera, vii. 844), sat in the obsequious parliament of September 1397, acted with Bussy and Green on behalf of Richard, and headed with them the demand for the repeal of the pardons to the appellants (Wals. ii. 224). At this crisis he was among the 'præcipui de consilio' (Trokelowe, 209, 223), and it was at his house, near Coventry, that Richard took up his abode for the great combat of Hereford and Norfolk in September 1398 (Chronicque, p. 17). On Richard's departure for Ireland (29 May 1399), Bagot, Bassy, Green, and Scrope were left in charge of the kingdom as 'souuerains conseillers' (ib. p. 24), and the subsidies given them to farm (Faryan). On the landing of Henry (4 July) he attended, with his fellows, the council at St. Albans, and accompanied the Duke of York's forces to Bristol, which he aided in seizing (Wals. ii. 232). On the capture of the council there, he alone escaped, and fled by Chester to Ireland (ib. ii. 233), securing for himself, meanwhile, grants from the crown—3 July and 20 Sept. Richard resigned 29 Sept. 1399, and on 16 Oct. Bagot, who had been lodged in Newgate (Ickham), was brought up, at the request of the commons, for trial, and at once charged by the Duke of Aumâle with instigating Richard's crimes. He was instantly challenged to combat by Aumâle, Surrey, and Exeter (Trokelowe, 304-5), and after subsequent examinations was finally committed to the Tower (ib. 308), where he last appears, 5 April 1400 (Claus. 1 H. IV).

[Chronicque de la Traison (Eng. Hist. Soc), 1846; Trokelowe and Thomas of Walsingham (Rolls Series); Stubbs's Const. History (1878), iii. 19.]

J. H. R.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.12
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

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400 ii 14 Bagot, Sir William: after (Claus. 1 H. IV) insert He was M.P. for Warwickshire in eleven parliaments, from Feb. 1387-8 till his death