Part 1: The Chief Justice

Sir John Fortescue, as he must be called from 1442 since he was knighted in the course of the year, had become a person of consequence in both the political and legal world.1 He had accumulated a decent amount of property during the two previous decades, he knew a number of the most powerful men at the King's court and he was a loyal supporter of the house of Lancaster. During the next two decades, before that loyalty caused his dismissal in early 1461, did he become influential as well as prominent? The first part of this chapter seeks to answer that question through an examination of his record as Chief Justice of the King's Bench and participant in the business of government.

By the 1440s the political importance of Lord Hungerford, Fortescue's patron, had diminished. He was ageing and had ceased attending the council regularly; moreover he was closely associated with the martial feats of the early century which did not appeal to Henry VI. Lord Cromwell was still a councillor although he remained his own man, not closely linked with any group at court. Henry had assumed direct control after his long minority and the political momentum had to a large extent passed to members of his household and others close to the young, impressionable King and they exercised considerable influence over him. The conflict between Cardinal Beaufort and the duke of Gloucester had been effectively resolved in favour of the former and his policy of making a settlement with France which Henry wanted. The formation of rival factions concentrated on Henry, his household and the Beauforts on the one hand and on the duke of York and the Nevilles on the other, was to be a phenomenon of the 1450s rather than the 1440s. For the time being there was no serious conflict between Fortescue's role as the servant of the Crown and his loyalty to past and present patrons such as Thomas, earl of Devon, the Hungerfords and Lord Cromwell.

Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou in 1445 as part of the predominant party's policy of making peace with France. This was largely instigated by Henry's favourite councillor, the earl of Suffolk, and Adam Moleyns, bishop of Chichester, Keeper of the Privy Seal, who had taken over Cardinal Beaufort's role as leaders of the peace faction.