# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ogle, Robert (d.1469)

​OGLE, ROBERT, first Baron Ogle (d. 1469), was son of Sir Robert Ogle of Ogle, near Morpeth in Northumberland, and great-great-grandson of the Sir Robert de Ogle [q. v.] who fought at Neville's Cross. His mother, according to Dugdale, was Maud, daughter of Sir Robert Grey of Horton, near Ogle; but others make her a daughter of Sir Thomas Grey of Horton, near Wooler, and a granddaughter of the first Earl of Westmorland (Gregson, Portfolio of Fragments relating to the County of Lancaster, p. 183).
Ogle's father, who had been much employed in negotiations with Scotland, died in 1436 or 1437, and the Sir Robert Ogle who was commissioned, along with Sir John Bertram, in April of the later year to settle some disputed questions with the Soottish ​representatives, may have been the son (Fœdera, x. 696). One matter still in dispute in 1438 was the question of the compensation due to Ogle on account of his having been seized and held to ransom by the Scots in time of truce between 1426 and 1435 (Rot. Parl. v. 44; Ordinances of the Privy Council, v. 93, 162, 167). It was agreed that Ogle should be indemnified with a Scottish ship which had been seized at Newcastle; but this was found to have been sold by the admiral or his lieutenant, and Ogle was involved in a dispute with the latter, which was not ended until 1442.
In 1438 Ogle was sheriff of Northumberland, and in diarge of the east march of Scotland until a warden was appointed (ib. v. 100; Dugddale, ii. 262). Little is then heard of him until 1452, when he was bailiff and lieutenant of Tyndale (Ord. Privy Council, v. 126). Three years later Ogle sided with the Yorkists when they took up arms, and brought six hundred men from the marches to the first battle of St. Albans. He probably came in the train of the Earl of Warwick, who was warden of the west march; and one account of the battle gives to Ogle the credit of the movement by which the Yorkists broke into the town, but this feat is ascribed in other versions to Warwick (Pastan Letters, i. 332). Ogle was one of the commissioners appointed by the victorious party to raise money for the defence of Calais (Ord. Privy Council, v. 244). Shortly after Towton he and Sir John Conyers were reported to be besieging Henry VI in a place in Yorkshire 'called Coroumbr; such a name it hath, or much like ' (Paston Letters, ii. 7).
His services to the Yorkist cause did not go unrewarded. Edward IV on 26 July 1461 summoned him to his first parliament as Baron Ogle, and invested him (8 Aug.) with the wardenship of the east marches, lately held by his great Lancastrian neighbour, the Earl of Northumberland, who was killed at Towton. With the wardenship went the offices of steward and constable of the forfeited Percy castles and many of the earls lordships (Dugdale).
In November he was entrusted with the negotiations for a truce with Scotland, and in the January following received a further grant of the lordship of Redesdale and castle of Harbottle in mid-Northumberland, forfeited by Sir William Tallboys of Kyme in Lincolnshire, afterwards called Earl of Kyme, who was executed after the battle of Hexham in 1464 (Dugdale, i. 263; Warkworth, p. 7; Rot. Parl. v. 477), To these were added other forfeited lands in Northumberland. In October 1462 Ogle distinguished himself in the dash upon Holy Island, which resulted in the capture of all the French leaders who had come over with Margaret of Anjou, except De Brezé (Historians of Hexham, Surtees Soc. i. cix.) During the operations against the Northumbrian strongholds in the winter Ogle assisted John Neville, lord Montagu [q. v.], in the siege of Bamborough, which surrendered on Christmas-eve (Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles, pp. 157-59 ; Worcester, ii. 780; Paston Letters, ii. 121). It was betrayed to the Lancastrians again in the following year, but finally reduced in June 1464, and entrusted to Ogle as constable for life. Just a year later he was commissioned with Montagu, now earl of Northumberland, and others, to negotiate for peace with Scotland, and for a marriage between James III and an English subject (Fœdera, xi. 646).
Ogle died on 1 Nov. 1469. He married Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir Alexander Kirkby of Kirkby Ireleth in Furness, by whom he had. a son Owen, who is separately noticed, and a daughter Isabella, married first to Sir John Heron of Chipchase, and afterwards to Sir John Wedrington (Dugdale, Baronage; Archæologia Æliana, xiv. 287; Hexham Priory, Surtees Soc. p. lxix).
[Rotuli Parliamentorum; Calendarium Inquisitionum post mortem; Rymer's Foedera, original ed.; Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas; William of Worcester in Stevenson's Wars in France, vol. ii., Rolls Ser.; Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles and Warkworth's Chronicle, published by the Camden Society; Dugdale's Baronage; Archæologia Æliana; other authorities in the text.]
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