# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clifford, Thomas de (d.1391?)

1904 Errata appended.
​CLIFFORD, THOMAS de, tenth Lord Clifford, sixth Baron of Westmoreland (d. 1391?), was the eldest son and successor of Roger de Clifford (1333-1389) [q. v.] He is said to have been twenty-six years old at the time of his father's death, hut his name occurs nearly a quarter of a century earlier in the 'Escheat Rolls' for 1366. According to Dugdale, he was a knight of the king's chamber in 8 Richard II (1384-5). On 25 June 1386 Northampton, the herald, was allowed to carry a challenge from 'Thomas de Clifford, chivaler l'eisne Fitz-Rogeri, Sire de Clifford,' to Sir Bursigande, eldest son of 'le Sire Bursigande,' in France (Whitaker, 376; Escheat Rolls, ii. 271; Rymer, vii. 526). According to Dugdale (i. 341), Sir Thomas crossed the sea for this tournament in the following May. Rymer has preserved a document, dated 28 Jan. 1387, in which the king licenses 'our very dear and loyal knight, Sir Thomas Clifford, to perform all manner of feats of arms' (toutz maners pointz d'armes) on the Scotch borders. After he had succeeded to his father's barony (March 1390; falsely dated 9 March 1389 in Rymer), he and two other English knights challenged three French knights to a tourney in the marches between Boulogne and Calais; and on 20 June 1390 he procured a safe-conduct through England for William de Douglas, who was coming to the English court with forty knights to a wager of battle with Clifford with, reference to certain disputed lands (Rymer, vii. 552, 663, 666, 678).
Clifford's chivalric disposition, while it endeared its owner to the young king, seems to have provoked the anger of the baronial party, which in 1388 banished him from court, with the proviso that he was to appear before the next parliament (Walsingham, ii. 173). Yet on his father's death next year he had livery of his lands (6 Sept. 1389-90), and about the same time (11 Aug. 1389) was appointed a commissioner of peace on the Scotch marches, some four years after his life appointment as governor of the castle at Carlisle (8 Rich. II), and some three years after being made (11 July 1386) a guardian of the east marches. His name occurs in the council minutes for 28 April 1390; and according to Dugdale he received summonses to parliament in 1390-2 (Dugdale, i. 341; Whitaker, 316; Rymer, vii. 539, 640; Nicolas, Privy Council, i. 24). According to Nicolson and Burn he accompanied Thomas, duke of Gloucester, on his journey to 'Spruce in Germany against the infidels, where he was slain 4 Oct. 1493' (Hist. of Westmoreland, i. 281; cf. Whitaker, 31). Dugdale (p. 341) gives the date of his death 18 Aug. 1391 (cf. Escheat Rolls, 15 Richard II, iii. 135; Whitaker, 348).
Clifford married his kinswoman, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, lord Ross of Hamlake. She is said to have survived till March 1424 (Walsingham, Hist. Anglic, ii. 214; Whitaker, 316). By her Clifford had two children : (1) John, his son and heir (d. 13 March 1422), a warrior of some repute in Henry V's French wars, who, marrying Elizabeth Percy, Hotspur's daughter, became the father of Thomas, eighth baron Clifford [q. v.]; and (2) daughter Maud (d. 16 Oct. 1436), who married (a) Richard Plantagenet,. earl of Cambridge (executed August 1415), and (b) John Neville, lord Latimer (Whitaker, 316, &c.; Dugdale, i. 341; Deputy-Keeper's Report, Norman Rolls, xli. 698, xlii. 317).
T. A. A.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.70 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 77 | ii | 10 | Clifford, Thomas de, 6th Baron of Westmoreland: for 1493 read 1393 |