Note 27c — Chapter II · THE FIELD OF THE BATTLE OF BLORE HEATH. [21]

John De Sutton Baron of Dudley (called in the act of Parliament of 38th of Henry VI. (1459) John Lord Dudley), being a firm adherent to the Lancastrian interest, and being surprised at Gloucester in the 29th year of Henry VI., by Richard Duke of York (upon his return at that time out of Ireland), was sent prisoner to the Castle of Ludlow. (Stow’s Annals; and Dugdale’s Baronage, vol. ii. p. 215.) He was wounded at the battle of Blore Heath. (Leland’s Itinerary, vol. vii. fo. 32.) The imprisonment of the Baron of Dudley in the Tower of London in 1455, is mentioned in Fenn’s collection of original letters (sometimes called the Paston Letters), vol. i. p. 107. It should seem, therefore, that he was twice imprisoned at the instance of the Duke of York. After the accession of Edward IV., Dudley was, however, reconciled to the House of York, and he does not appear to have ever afterwards assisted the opposite party. By his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Berkley of Beverstan in Gloucestershire, he had issue three sons: Edmund, who died in his father’s lifetime, leaving issue John, from whom the Earls of Warwick and Leicester derived their descent; and William Bishop of Durham; he had also a daughter, Margaret, married to George Longueville, of Little Billinge, Northamptonshire, Esq.