Sir John Talbot of Richard's Castle, Herefordshire, and widow of Sir Matthew de Gournay. By her he had no issue. By his second wife, Joyce, he had issue one son—John [q. v.], who succeeded as second Baron Tiptoft and was in 1449 created Earl of Worcester—and three daughters, who became coheiresses of their nephew Edward on his death in 1485: (1) Philippa, who married Thomas de Roos or Ros, tenth baron Roos or Ros by writ; from her descend in the female line the earls and dukes of Rutland and the barons De Ros; (2) Joan, who married Sir Edmund Ingoldsthorpe; (3) Joyce, who married Sir Edmund Sutton, eldest son of John (Sutton) Dudley, baron Dudley (1401?–1487) [q. v.]
[Full details of Tiptoft's early career, with references to original authorities, are collected in Wylie's History of the Reign of Henry IV, 4 vols. For his life subsequent to 1413 see Rotuli Parliamentorum, vols. iii–v. passim; Rymer's Fœdera, vols. ix. and x.; Hardy's Rotuli Normanniæ; Acts of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas, vols. iii–v.; Palgrave's Antient Kalendars and Inventories; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Hingeston-Randolph's Royal and Hist. Letters of Henry VI; Inquisit. post mortem 20 and 21 Henry VI; Dugdale's Baronage; Manning's Speakers of the House of Commons; Stubbs's Const. Hist. vol. iii.; Ramsay's Lancaster and York; Burke's Extinct and G. E. C[okayne]'s Peerages.]
TIPTOFT or TIBETOT, JOHN, Earl of Worcester (1427?–1470), son of John, baron Tiptoft [q.v.] , and his second wife Joyce, was born at Everton in Bedfordshire in or about 1427, for he is said to have been sixteen at his father's death in 1443 (Dugdale). He was educated, according to information received by Leland (ut ego accepi), at Balliol College, Oxford. On 27 Jan. 1443 he succeeded to his father's honours and large estates, being styled Lord Tiptoft and Powys, and on 1 July 1449 he was created Earl of Worcester by patent. He was appointed a commissioner for oyer and terminer for Surrey and other counties in 1451. Being one of the party of Richard, duke of York [q. v.], whose duchess, Cicely, was aunt of Tiptoft's first wife, Cicely, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury [q.v.] , and widow of Henry de Beauchamp, duke of Warwick [q. v.], he was on 15 April 1452, immediately after the pacification between the court and the Duke of York, appointed treasurer of the exchequer, and, as one of the privy council, on 24 Oct. 1453 signed the minutes for the attendance of York at the great council for the settlement of the regency. During York's protectorate, on 3 April 1454, Worcester was appointed a joint-commissioner to keep guard by sea for three years, the expenses of the commissioners being provided for from the receipts of tonnage and poundage (Rot. Parl. v. 244). In 1456–7 he was deputy of Ireland. On 5 Aug. 1457 he was nominated to carry the king's profession of obedience to Calixtus III (Fœdera, xi. 403), and in 1459 as ambassador to Pius II and to the council of Mantua (Acts of Privy Council, vi. 302). It seems probable that Worcester's journey to Jerusalem and his residence in Italy, noticed later, took place about this time. Of the embassy of 1457 no further notice has been found, and he does not appear to have visited Rome twice. No English embassy appeared at the council of Mantua, save two priests sent by Henry VI, bearing his excuses (Pius, Commentarii, p. 88). Worcester, however, did go to Rome, and made an oration before Pius II, then apparently pope, who was crowned on 3 Sept. 1458, and he was in Italy some time before the death of Guarino da Verona in 1460. This is contrary to the assertion of Vespasiano da Bisticci that the earl's tour, which is said to have lasted three years, took place after the cessation of the civil war in England, though the assertion would be fairly correct if Worcester did not return to England until the spring of 1461.
The accession of Edward IV opened Worcester's way to high offices. On 25 Nov. 1461 he was appointed chief justice for life of North Wales, a little later constable of the Tower of London, and on 7 Feb. 1462 constable of England, which office he held until 24 Aug. 1467. A few days after his appointment as constable he tried and sentenced to death in his court at Westminster John de Vere, earl of Oxford, his eldest son Aubrey, Sir Thomas Tuddenham, and others. Their sentences are said by Warkworth (p. 5) to have been ‘by law padowe,’ which seems an angry reference to the constable's late residence at Padua. He was rewarded by the Garter on 21 March, and was appointed treasurer on 14 April, which office he held for fourteen months. He accompanied the king on his expedition to the north in November, and was present at the sieges of Bamborough and Dunstanborough. In 1463 he was appointed lord steward of the king's household, and in August received a commission to keep guard by sea in order to prevent the escape of Queen Margaret, whom Edward designed to crush by a fresh campaign. The queen escaped, the money spent on Worcester's ships was wasted, and his operations are described as a lamentable failure (Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles,
