John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford

John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford, also 9th Lord of Skipton (8 April 1435 – 28 March 1461), was a Lancastrian military leader during the Wars of the Roses. For a time he was one of the strongest supporters of King Henry VI's Queen, Margaret of Anjou.

Family
John Clifford was born at Conisborough Castle on 8 April 1435, the son of Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford, and Joan Dacre, the daughter of Thomas, 6th Baron Dacre of Gilsland, by Philippa, daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland. He had three younger brothers and five sisters:
 * Sir Roger Clifford, who married Joan Courtenay (born c. 1447), the eldest daughter of Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, by Margaret Beaufort, the daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset. She married secondly, Sir William Knyvet of Buckenham, Norfolk.


 * Sir Robert Clifford, executed 2 May 1485, Tower Hill.


 * Sir Thomas Clifford.


 * Elizabeth Clifford, who married firstly, Sir William Plumpton (1435-1461), slain at the Battle of Towton,, and secondly, John Hamerton.


 * Maud Clifford, who married firstly Sir John Harrington, and secondly, Sir Edmund Sutton.


 * Anne Clifford, who married firstly, Sir William Tempest, and secondly, William Conyers, esquire.


 * Joan Clifford, who married Sir Simon Musgrave.


 * Margaret Clifford, who married Robert Carr.

Clifford was a beneficiary under the will, dated 15 August 1446, of his godmother and great-aunt, Maud Clifford, the widow of Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, executed on 5 August 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot.

Career
Clifford inherited the barony, the family seat at Skipton Castle, Yorkshire, and the hereditary office of High Sheriff of Westmorland at the age of twenty after his father's death at the First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455. Clifford proved his age in order to obtain livery of his lands on 16 June 1456, and in February 1458 'with a grete power' demanded compensation for his father's death. He was summoned to Parliament on 30 July 1460.

Perhaps motivated by a desire to avenge his father, Clifford was in the forefront of the Lancastrian cause. He led the Lancastrian right wing at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460, and was knighted on 31 December. The battle was a surprise attack on the Yorkist stronghold of Sandal Castle, and was a complete Lancastrian victory. The Yorkists were routed, and their leader, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, slain. York's son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, and York's brother-in-law, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, were captured and killed.

Clifford's name is notorious for the slaying of Rutland following the battle, an act contemporary chroniclers attribute to Clifford personally. Captured sons of noblemen were usually ransomed at the time. Rutland was only 17, was the second son rather than his father's heir, was militarily inexperienced, and was wounded and defenceless when he was killed. His death was thus viewed as murder by the Yorkists, and looked upon with disfavour by his fellow Lancastrian leaders, although Clifford defended the killing as a just execution no different from the beheading of Rutland's uncle, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, following the battle. The slaying of Rutland infuriated his elder brother, the future King Edward IV, who was in Wales at the time of the battle, and vowed vengeance. It may have been Edward IV who gave Clifford his nickname,'the Butcher'.

Clifford was killed at Ferrybridge on 28 March 1461, struck by an arrow in the throat after having carelessly removed his gorget. He is said to have been buried in a pit, along with others slain there. On 4 November 1461 he was attainted, meaning that his title and estates were forfeited. When Edward IV became King the widowed Lady Clifford, fearing her son, Henry Clifford, 10th Baron Clifford, would be slain in retaliation, is said to have sent him into hiding. The Lancastrian victory at Bosworth on 22 August 1485 ended the Wars of the Roses, and on 9 November 1485 the attainder was reversed, and the family estates restored.

Marriage and issue
Clifford married Margaret Bromflete (1443 – 12 April 1493), the daughter and heiress of Henry Bromflete, Lord Vescy by his second wife, Eleanor Fitz Hugh, by whom he had two sons and a daughter:


 * Henry Clifford, 10th Baron Clifford.


 * Richard Clifford, esquire.


 * Elizabeth Clifford, who married Sir Robert Aske (d. 21 February 1531) of Aughton, Yorkshire.

Clifford's widow, Margaret, married, before 14 May 1467, Sir Lancelot Threlkeld, by whom she had three sons and four daughters.

Shakespeare and John Clifford
According to Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, following Hall's Chronicle and Holinshed's Chronicles, John Clifford, after the Battle of Wakefield, slew in cold blood the young Edmund, Earl of Rutland, son of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, cutting off his head, crowning it with a paper crown, and sending it to Henry VI's Queen, Margaret of Anjou, although later authorities state that Rutland was slain during the battle.