George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny

{{Short description|English courtier (1469–1535)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable

| name = The Lord Bergavenny

| honorific-suffix = KG PC

| image = Portrait George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny – Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg

| image_size = 200px

| caption = George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny, by Hans Holbein the Younger (collection of the Earls of Pembroke)

| office = Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports

| term_start = 1534

| term_end = 1534

| predecessor = Sir Edward Poyning

| successor = Sir Edward Guilford

| spouse = Joan FitzAlan
Margaret Brent
Mary Stafford
Mary Brooke

| children = Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny
John Nevill
Thomas Nevill
Elizabeth Nevill
Jane Nevill
Mary Nevill
Katherine Nevill
Margaret Nevill
Dorothy Nevill
Ursula Nevill
daughter whose name is unknown

| father = George Nevill, 4th Baron Bergavenny

| mother = Margaret Fenn

| birth_date = c.1469

| death_date = June 1535{{cite ODNB|title = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|access-date = 16 March 2017|first = Alasdair|last = Hawkyard|article = Nevill, George, third Baron Bergavenny (c.1469–1535)|date = January 2008|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/19935|url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19935}} Subscription or UK public library membership needed (about 66)

| resting_place = Birling, Kent

}}

File:George Neville, Lord Abergavenny (miniature) by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg)]]

George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny (c.1469 – 1535), the family name often written Neville, was an English nobleman and courtier who held the office of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

Origins

He was the son of George Nevill, 4th Baron Bergavenny (died 20 September 1492) and his first wife, Margaret (died 28 September 1485), daughter of Hugh Fenn, Under-Treasurer of England.{{sfn|Burke|1832|pp=8–9}}

His younger brother Sir Thomas Nevill was a trusted councillor of King Henry VIII and Speaker of the House of Commons. His youngest brother, the courtier Sir Edward Nevill, was executed by Henry in 1538 for treason.

Career

As a second cousin of the new Queen, Anne Nevill, he attended the coronation of King Richard III in 1483 when, despite his young age, he was knighted. Having succeeded to his father's peerage and estates in 1492, he achieved prominence fighting against the Cornish rebels in 1497 at the Battle of Blackheath.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=31}} In 1497 he took his place in the House of Lords and became involved in national affairs, being appointed to the privy council and in regular attendance at court. However, in 1506 he fell into serious trouble for keeping an illegal private army, being fined the immense amount of £100,000 and subjected to a travel ban. When Henry VIII became king in 1509, the fine was cancelled and a pardon granted. By 1512, he was back on the council and in 1513 was elected to the Order of the Garter. In that year he served in the expedition to capture Tournai and then to relieve Guînes.

At the coronation of Henry VIII, he held the office of Chief LardererCharles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, page 17. and in 1512 he was granted the castle and lands of Abergavenny.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=32}} He was a keen jouster and accompanied both King Henry VII and King Henry VIII on state occasions, including the meetings in 1520 with King Francis I of France at the Field of Cloth of Gold and with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, at Gravelines.

The trial and execution in 1521 of his father-in-law Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, led to his own imprisonment for a year in the Tower of London. After admitting he had concealed the duke's treason, he was stripped of all his offices, fined 10,000 marks and had to sell his house to the king. He was then pardoned, being allowed to continue serving at court, in Parliament and in war, but regarded with suspicion. In 1530 he signed the petition asking Pope Clement VII to dissolve Henry VIII's marriage to Katherine of Aragon and was allowed to buy back his house. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533, he once again was Chief Larderer and was allowed to officiate.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=31}}

On 4 June 1535, he made his will at Eridge in Sussex and died on 13 or 14 June. He was buried at Birling, Kent,{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=33}} with his heart interred at Mereworth.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=33}}

Marriages and children

He first married Joan (died 14 November 1508), the daughter of Thomas FitzAlan, 17th Earl of Arundel, and his wife Margaret, the second daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers and younger sister of Queen Elizabeth, wife of King Edward IV. According to Hawkyard, the marriage was childless; however according to Cokayne, Richardson and Cracroft, there were one or two daughters:{{sfn|Hawkyard|2004}}{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=33}}{{sfn|Cokayne|1916|p=105}}{{sfn|Richardson I|2011|pp=37-8, 170}}{{citation|url = http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/abergavenny1450.htm|title = Cracroft|access-date = 16 March 2017|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120506184119/http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/online/content/Abergavenny1450.htm|archive-date = 6 May 2012}}

He married secondly, before 5 September 1513, Margaret, daughter of William Brent of Charing in Kent, without any children.{{sfn|Cokayne|1916|p=105}}

He married thirdly, about June 1519, Mary, youngest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, and his wife Eleanor Percy, with whom he had three sons and five daughters:{{sfn|Richardson I|2011|pp=170–1}}

Mary, Katherine, Margaret and Dorothy were married to heirs, whose wardships their father had acquired.{{cite web|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/e321d185-5efa-44ab-8b0e-0cba71280f9a|title=East Sussex Archive ABE/20T/1|access-date=15 January 2024}}

He married fourthly his mistress Mary Brooke, the aunt of his son-in-law William Brooke, who was pregnant at his death. with a daughter whose name is unknown.{{sfn|Richardson I|2011|p=170}} Mary was the daughter of Thomas Brooke, 8th Baron Cobham, and his first wife Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Heydon, of Baconsthorpe, and his wife Anne, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, of Hever. This made her a second cousin of Queen Anne Boleyn.

Arms

{{gallery

|width=400

|File:Coat of arms of Sir George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny, KG.png

|Arms of Sir George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny, KG, PC, as displayed on his stall plate in St. George's chapel - 1st, Nevill; 2nd, Warren; 3rd, quarterly Clare and Despencer; 4th, Beauchamp

|File:Arms of Neville, Marquess of Abergavenny.svg

|Arms of Nevill, Barons Bergavenny: Gules, a saltire argent charged with a rose of the field (barbed and seeded proper).Blazon per Debrett's Peerage, 1968, "Marquess of Abergavenny", with extra details of rose as stated for the Nevill Barons Braybrooke These are the ancient arms of Nevill differenced by a rose, the symbol of a 7th son, in reference to Sir Edward Nevill, 1st Baron Bergavenny (d.1476), husband of Elizabeth Beauchamp & 7th son of Ralph Nevill, 1st Earl of Westmorland. These arms have descended to the Nevill Marquesses of Abergavenny

}}

Ancestry

{{unreferenced section|date=March 2014 }}

{{ahnentafel

|collapsed=yes |align=center

|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;

|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;

|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;

|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;

|1= 1. George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny

|2= 2. George Nevill, 4th Baron Bergavenny

|3= 3. Margaret Fenn

|4= 4. Edward Nevill, 3rd Baron Bergavenny

|5= 5. Elizabeth Beauchamp

|6= 6. Hugh Fenn

|7= 7. Eleanor

|8= 8. Ralph Nevill, 1st Earl of Westmorland

|9= 9. Joan Beaufort

|10= 10. Richard de Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester

|11= 11. Isabel Despenser

|12= 12. Thomas Fenn

}}

Notes

{{Reflist}}

References

  • {{Cite book |last=Burke |first=John |year=1832 |title=A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire |location=London |publisher=Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley |volume=I |pages=8–9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cq8KAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA8 |access-date=23 May 2013 }}
  • {{Cite book |last=Cokayne |first=George Edward |year=1910 |title=The Complete Peerage, edited by Vicary Gibbs |location=London |publisher=St. Catherine Press |volume=I }}
  • {{Cite book |last=Cokayne |first=George Edward |year=1916 |title=The Complete Peerage, edited by the Honourable Vicary Gibbs |publisher=St. Catherine Press |location=London |volume=IV }}
  • {{cite ODNB |last=Hawkyard |first=Alasdair |year=2004 |title=Neville, George, third Baron Bergavenny (c.1469–1535) |id=19935}}
  • {{Cite book |last=McKeen |first=David |year=1986 |title=A Memory of Honour; The Life of William Brooke, Lord Cobham |location=Salzburg |publisher=Universitat Salzburg |volume=I |page=700 }}
  • {{Cite book |last=Richardson |first=Douglas |year=2011 |title=Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families |editor-first=Kimball G. |editor-last=Everingham |location=Salt Lake City |edition=2nd |volume=I |ref={{sfnref |Richardson I |2011}} |isbn=978-1449966379 }}
  • {{Cite book |last=Richardson |first=Douglas |year=2011 |title=Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families |editor-first=Kimball G. |editor-last=Everingham |location=Salt Lake City |edition=2nd |volume=III |ref={{sfnref |Richardson III |2011}} |isbn=978-1449966393 }}

{{s-start}}

{{s-hon}}

{{succession box |

before=Sir Edward Poyning |

title=Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports |

years=1534 |

after=Sir Edward Guilford

}}

{{s-reg|en}}

{{succession box | before=George Nevill | title=Baron Bergavenny | years=1492–1535 | after=Henry Nevill}}

{{s-end}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergavenny, George Nevill, 5th Baron}}

Category:1460s births

Category:1535 deaths

Category:Knights of the Garter

Category:Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports

Category:15th-century English nobility

Category:16th-century English nobility

George

Category:Barons Bergavenny (Peerage of England)

Category:People from Birling, Kent

Category:16th-century English knights