Family and Education

m. by Mar. 1398, Margaret, wid. of Sir John Hauley (d. Aug. 1386) of Malberthorpe, Lincs., 1s. 1da. poss. 1s. illegit. Kntd. by Mar. 1403.1

Offices Held

Commr. of array, Yorks. (E. Riding) Sept., Aug. 1403, July 1410, Northumb. Apr. 1418; to make arrests, generally May 1407; of inquiry, Yorks. Nov. 1407, Feb. 1408 (concealments); oyer and terminer July 1412 (poaching at Walkington); to commandeer ships for the victualling of Bamburgh castle, Northumb. June 1416.

Collector of a tax, Yorks. (W. Riding) Dec. 1406.

Escheator, Yorks. 2 Nov. 1407-9 Dec. 1408.2

Constable, Bamburgh castle, Northumb. 29 May 1415-14 Feb. 1419.

J.p. Northumb. 27 Jan. 1418-Feb. 1422.

Biography

This MP was almost certainly related to Sir Alexander Cave, a prominent Yorkshire landowner, who represented the county in the Parliament of 1318 as well as serving on various local commissions. On his death without issue in 1340, Sir Alexander’s estates in South Cave, Riplingham, Hotham and Kipling Cotes passed to his sister, Margaret; and we can be reasonably sure that their next owners, the Lounds, acquired them by marriage. Although his immediate ancestry remains a matter of conjecture, it seems likely that the subject of this biography was Margaret’s grandson and heir, being perhaps the son of the Alexander Lound who served under the banner of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, during the late 1370s. The precise date of his marriage to Margaret, the widow of Sir John Hauley, is not now known, although Hauley died in August 1386 while campaigning with Gaunt in Spain. A sizeable share of his property in Ingleton (Yorkshire), Malberthorpe, Riby and Aylesby (Lincolnshire) was then still in the hands of his widowed mother, but she did not long survive him, and by 1390 Margaret had obtained a full assignment of dower. Since her son, Robert Hauley, was then only a child, the rest of the Hauley estates were farmed out by the Crown at a rent of 69 marks p.a. to Sir Philip Tilney*. Such an unsatisfactory arrangement would probably not have been made after they became husband and wife, yet Alexander Lound and Margaret had evidently been married for some time when, in March 1398, they received a papal indult allowing them to make use of a portable altar. Despite his presence in the army which Richard II led to Ireland in the following year, Alexander followed family tradition in supporting the Lancastrian cause during the turbulent summer of 1399. His loyalty was promptly recognized, for the newly crowned Henry IV not only made him an esquire of the royal body, but also pardoned him and his wife for abducting the young Beatrice Hauley and disposing of her marriage without a licence. The death of her brother, Robert, had by then left Beatrice sole heir to a valuable patrimony, and it is thus hardly surprising that her mother and stepfather wished to exploit the situation to their own advantage.3

Further preferment soon came Lound’s way, and on 6 Mar. 1403 he was promoted to the rank of King’s knight, with an annual allowance of two tuns of red wine yearly from the port of Hull for life. The rebellion of the Percys and their supporters in the north gave him another opportunity to show his commitment to the new regime. During the following summer and autumn he helped to suppress the insurgents; and when, in the spring of 1405, Archbishop Scrope and Thomas Mowbray, the earl Marshal, also took to the field against Henry IV, he again armed himself on behalf of the King. He was duly rewarded on 30 June with a grant of the estates, marriage and person of the young John Dayvell of Cave, who had previously been one of the earl’s wards. John died within the year, but his brother was then entrusted by Henry IV to Sir Alexander with the renewed promise of revenues to the value of 20 marks a year until the boy came of age. Lound had for some time been trying to recover property in South Cave which had been leased by one of his ancestors to a local man named William Cliff. The latter persistently refused to vacate the land, and since the relevant documents had been lost, it was difficult for Sir Alexander to proceed at law. Cliff’s forfeiture for treason in 1405 at last gave him a chance to assert his title, however, and thanks to King Henry’s continued favour he was able to regain possession. Naturally enough, in view of his growing influence, Sir Alexander was returned by the electors of Yorkshire to the Gloucester Parliament of 1407, during which, on 2 Nov., he was made escheator of the county. He was still in office when the earl of Northumberland and his adherents staged another insurrection in the north, attempting to incite the populace through an appeal against oppressive taxation. The rebel army reached Grimbald Bridge near Knaresborough in February 1408, but the sheriff and a contingent of neighbouring landowners, including Sir Alexander, held the crossing and the earl was forced to retreat. Those responsible for the rebels’ defeat and Northumberland’s death at the ensuing battle of Bramham Moor were naturally rewarded by a grateful monarch; and the annuity of 40 marks assigned to Sir Alexander for life a few months later made specific reference to his ‘good service, especially in resisting the malice of ... the earl’. Chronic over-assignment of resources at the Exchequer meant that the fee soon fell into arrears, although steps were taken in 1412 to ensure prompter payment.4

Recognizing Sir Alexander’s value to the Lancastrian regime, Henry V lost no time in confirming him as a pensioner of the Crown. He was, indeed, a Member of the first Parliament of the new reign,serving again for the third and last time at Leicester in April 1414. His part in the suppression of the three northern rebellions of the early 15th century clearly qualified him for further employment by the government; and in May 1415 he began a four-year term as constable of the important royal castle of Bamburgh in Northumberland. Henry V’s plans for a renewal of the war against France made it essential that the Scottish march should be well defended against possible invasion, although Sir Alexander did not remain in personal command for long. Together with a modest retinue of two men-at-arms and six archers, he sailed with the army which King Henry led to France in the following summer; and it seems likely that he actually bore arms at the battle of Agincourt in October. So far as we can tell, he did not return to France, choosing instead to remain in the north, since his duties as both constable of Bamburgh and j.p. for Northumberland preoccupied him for the next few years.5

Sir Alexander Lound retired from public life early in 1422, and lived quietly on his estates until his death, nine years later. He left at least two children, Alexander, his next heir, and Margaret, the wife of Sir John Dawney (d.1424) of Escrick. He was perhaps also the father of John Lound, a bachelor of canon and civil law, who managed, despite his illegitimacy, to accumulate a number of extremely lucrative benefices, eventually rising to become chancellor to Robert Neville, bishop of Durham. On 16 Nov. 1428 John and Alexander were together awarded papal indults permitting them to use a portable altar so they may well have been half-brothers.6

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

• 1. CIPM, xvi. no. 497; CPL, v. 138; CPR, 1401-5, p. 208; Test. Ebor. ii. 193-5.
• 2. PRO, List ‘Escheators’, 191. Although the reference here is to Alexander Lound, esquire, other sources clearly specify that the escheator was a knight (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. lix. 77; CCR, 1409-13, p. 30).
• 3. Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. xci. 46-48; CCR, 1339-41, pp. 470-1; Rot. Gasc. et Franc. ed. Carte, ii. 124; CPL, v. 138; CPR, 1396-9, p. 559; 1399-1401, p. 35; CIPM, xvi. nos. 497, 860-1; CFR, x. 313.
• 4. CPR, 1401-5, p. 208; 1405-8, pp. 29, 89, 437; E404/27/423; St. Albans Chron. ed. Galbraith, 28.
• 5. E404/29/43, 31/242; N.H. Nicolas, Agincourt, 381; CPR, 1413-16, p. 106.
• 6. Test. Ebor. ii. 193-5; CPL, viii. 35; Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. xci. 171-2; Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxf. ed. Emden, ii. 1164-5.