Chronicle sources for the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and the colourful language of the legal records themselves paint a tempting picture for the unwary eye: the English upper classes were, it might appear, indefatigable protagonists in a ceaseless round of land disputes, trampling roughshod over the finer principles of the common law. The cost of litigation, the protracted delays once a case reached the courts, and the importance of powerful connexions naturally worked to the rich man's advantage, although wealth, rank and influence could seldom be guaranteed to hasten the cumbersome process of judgement. It is surprising to discover exactly how often the last Duke of Buckingham withdrew quite important suits from the Court of Common Pleas simply because of evasive tactics on the part of his adversaries. If he, the most powerful – and almost certainly the most litigious – magnate of his day, could but rarely manipulate the law to his own satisfaction, the effects of clientage cannot have been so bad. Indeed, both he and his contemporaries were mostly concerned with cases of debt and trespass which for the lawyers in their service amounted to little more than routine paperwork. A good deal of secret diplomacy must inevitably have gone on behind the scenes, but there are few signs of overt corruption.

From the time of his coming of age in March 1498 until his death twenty-three years later, Duke Edward began at least 128 separate actions in the Courts of the King's Bench and Common Pleas.