Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles

Lionel Welles, 6th Baron Welles
Arms of Sir Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles, KG
Spouse(s)	Joan Waterton Margaret Beauchamp
Issue Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles Cecily Welles Margaret Welles Eleanor Welles Katherine Welles
Father	Eude Welles
Mother	Maud Greystoke
Born	c.1406
Died	29 March 1461 Towton, Yorkshire
Buried	Methley, Yorkshire

Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles, KG (c.1406 – 29 March 1461) was an English peer who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Joint Deputy of Calais. He was slain fighting on the Lancastrian side at the Battle of Towton, and was attainted on 21 December 1461. As a result of the attainder, his son, Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles, did not succeed him in the barony of Welles until the attainder was reversed by Parliament in June 1467.

Born about 1406, Lionel Welles was the son of Eudes Welles and Maud Greystoke. On his father's side, he was the grandson of John de Welles, 5th Baron Welles (d. 26 August 1421), and Eleanor Mowbray, and on his mother's side, the grandson of Ralph de Greystoke, 3rd Baron Greystoke and Katherine Clifford, daughter of Roger de Clifford, 5th Baron de Clifford. He had one brother, Sir William Welles, Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

Lionel Welles' father, Eudes Welles, died sometime before 26 July 1417, predeceasing his own father, the 5th Baron. At the death of the 5th Baron in 1421, Lionel Welles thus inherited the Welles barony and lands, but as he was underage, his wardship was granted to his future father-in-law, Robert Waterton (d.1425), a 'trusted retainer of John of Gaunt and the Lancastrian Kings'.

He was knighted at the Parliament at Leicester by the infant Henry VI on 19 May 1426, and had control of his lands on 5 December 1427. He accompanied Henry VI to France in 1430, was summoned to Parliament from 25 February 1432 to 30 July 1460 by writs directed Leoni de Welles, and was a privy councillor before 12 November 1434. In 1435 he was with Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in the expedition sent to relieve the siege of Calais. He was a member of Henry VI's household before February 1438. From 12 February 1438 he resided in Ireland as Lord Lieutenant; according to Hicks, he 'failed to control the contending factions and resigned prematurely in 1442'. Together with Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, he served as Joint Deputy of Calais for his brother-in-law, Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, who was Lieutenant of Calais from 1451 to 1455, and apparently remained at Calais until 20 April 1456, when Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, took over as Lieutenant. Despite these appointments, according to Hicks, Welles was 'essentially a Lincolnshire landowner'; he was a Justice of the Peace and served on other commissions in that county.