See also

Family of Thomas + LEWKNOR and Elizabeth + of ECHINGHAM

Husband: Thomas + LEWKNOR (1392-1452)
Wife: Elizabeth + of ECHINGHAM (1394-1491)
Children: John + LEWKNOR (1422-1471)
Marriage 1422 Etchingham, Sussex, England

Husband: Thomas + LEWKNOR

Name: Thomas + LEWKNOR
Sex: Male
Father: Roger + LEWKNOR (1369-1405)
Mother: Elizabeth + CAREW (1372-1410)
Birth 1392 Broadhurst, Horsted Keynes, Sussex, England
Occupation Knight
Title Sir
Death 22 Jun 1452 (age 59-60) Goring By, East Preston, Sussex, England

Wife: Elizabeth + of ECHINGHAM

Name: Elizabeth + of ECHINGHAM
Sex: Female
Father: -
Mother: -
Birth 1394 Etchingham, Sussex, England
Death 20 Sep 1491 (age 96-97) Lutton Hoo, Bedfordshire, England

Child 1: John + LEWKNOR

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John + LEWKNOR

Name: John + LEWKNOR
Sex: Male
Spouse: Johanna + HALSHAM (1422-1495)
Birth 1422 Horsted Keynes, Sussex, England
Death 4 May 1471 (age 48-49) Tewkesbury, Wiltshire, England

Note on Husband: Thomas + LEWKNOR

Thomas Lewknor, of Bradhurst, Sussex County, England was found to be the heir, through his grandmother Joane D'Oyly, to the extensive estates of the Tregoze family at Goring, Sussex, and elsewhere in that county, on the death of John Tregoze of Goring, son of Sir Henry Tregoze, Knight. A jury returned that "Thomas Lewknor was the cousin and heir of the deceased (being the son of Roger, the son of Joan, the daughter of Margaret D'Oyly, sister of Sir Henry Tregoze) and that the said Thomas was 12 years of age." Sir Thomas acquired many estates in Sussex, moved his seat to Goring, was Knight of the Shire for Sussex in 1423, and was married three times. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Carew of Beddington, county of Surrey. She died Sept 1410 and was buried in Beddington church He then married Philippa, who by death of her brother Richard Dalyngrigge, became sole heiress of Bodiam Castle (See Philippa for info on Bodiam Castle). Thomas also fought in the Battle of Agincourt.

 

THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT, OCTOBER 25, 1415

 

The English victory at the Battle of Agincourt gave birth to a legend that was immortalized in William Shakespeare's King Henry V. The battle took place in a muddy farmer's field in northern France on October 25, 1415 and was one in a series of encounters between France and England that has become known as the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453).

 

The story begins two months before the battle. Henry and his army had landed in France on August 14 near the mouth of the Seine River. The objective was to regain English territory lost to France over a period of centuries. The first task was to besiege and conquer a nearby town. Henry was successful, but the time-consuming effort took over a month. It was now early October. Henry realized that his reduced force and the limited time left in the campaigning season, meant that he would not be able to press his attack on the French. Instead, he lead his army north in a "show of force" that would end at the English port of Calais and embarkation back to England.

 

As the English army marched north, it was dogged by a French force intent on bringing Henry to battle. The French were able to slip ahead of Henry and block his path to the sea at Agincourt. On the morning of October 25, the two armies faced one another on a recently plowed field muddied by an overnight rain and constricted by woodlands on either side. The majority of Henry's army was made up of archers; the remainder consisted of armored knights who fought on foot. His opponent's force consisted primarily of knights who fought on foot and on horseback, supported by archers. Although estimates of the relative strength of the two armies vary, there is no argument that the English were vastly outnumbered.

 

The two enemies faced one another, exchanging taunts designed to provoke an attack. Henry marched his force close enough to allow his archers to unleash a hail of arrows upon the French. The French knights charged forward only to be caught in a slippery quagmire of mud. To make matters worse, the French attackers were unable to effectively swing their broadswords because of the tight quarters of the battlefield and the continuing forward rush of their comrades behind them. Henry's archers fired lethal storms of arrows into this dense mass of humanity until the French began to retreat. The archers then dropped their bows, picked up what weapons they could find and joined the English knights in slaying their foe. The setting sun left a battlefield heaped with the bodies of thousands of French knights and the cream of France's ruling class. The English had dealt their enemy a disastrous blow.

 

KNIGHT OF THE SHIRE

 

In English and British politics from medieval times until the Representation of the People Act 1884, Knights of the Shire were representatives of counties sent to advise the government of the day.The precursor to the English parliamentary system was a council of advisors to the King, consisting of noblemen and members of the aristocracy, and Knights of the Shire. This council evolved into the Model Parliament of 1295 which also consisted of representatives from the boroughs (burgesses) and had legislative powers. Two Knights of the Shire were sent from each county. In the reign of Edward III parliament split into its current day format of two houses—the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Knights of the Shire, as well as representatives from the boroughs formed the former House. From then until the Great Reform Act of 1832, each county continued to send two Knights. How these knights were chosen varied from one county to the next and evolved over time. The 1832 Act increased the number of Knights sent by some populous counties to as many as six. The term became obsolete in the later Reform Act of 1884, but is still used in a colloquial sense to refer to Members whose distinguishing feature may be a county background and innate conservatism rather than a radical approach