Ralph Stafford (knight)

Sir Ralph Stafford, (c.1367-1385) was the eldest son and heir of Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford and Philippa de Beauchamp, daughter of Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick. As a youth he gew up in the household of Queen Anne. One modern historian has suggested that Ralph was the closest friend the young King Richard II had at court; they were the same age and Ralph appears to have been "a bright and promising" courtier.

A knight of the Royal household, he accompanied the royal army on the Scottish campaign of 1385. In July, he was murdered between York and Bishopsthorpe by Richard II's half-brother, the John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter. It is possible that Huntingdon was acting in revenge for death of one of his squires, whom, it has been suggested had themselves been killed by an archer in Ralph's own retinue; it may even be that a scuffle had taken place and caused the deaths of two of the earl's more "intemperate" members of his retinue. Huntingdon may have killed Ralph in a case of mistaken identity whilst trying to find the archer, not realising who Ralph was; although it could also have occurred after an exchange of insults. This affair, wrote the historian Carol Rawcliffe, "threatened to disrupt the entire campaign" and drew much commentary from political observers of the time.

Ralph Stafford had never married, and died childless, so the earldom passed to his younger brother, Thomas. The king, incensed with rage at Ralph's death had promised not to pardon Huntingdon; Richard broke this promise, however in February 1386. Ralph's father, "embittered" at the king's failure to impose justice on the killer, embarked the same year on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and died on the return journey in 1386. Ralph Stafford was interred in Langley, Hertfordshire. The king, it has been said, lost one of the most important colleagues he had ever had; Ralph Stafford was "not only a close friend... [but also] a potential ally and courtier magnate".

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