John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu (c. 1431 – 14 April 1471) was a major magnate of fifteenth-century England. He was a younger son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and the younger brother of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the "Kingmaker".
From an early age, he was involved in fighting for his House, particularly in the feud that sprang up in the 1450s with the Neville family's major regional rivals, the Percy family. John Neville was personally responsible for much of the violence until, with his brothers, they defeated and imprisoned their enemies. This was taking place against the backdrop of a crisis in central government. The king, Henry VI, already known to be a weak ruler, suffered a mental collapse which led to a protectorate headed by John's uncle, Richard, Duke of York. Within two years an armed conflict had broken out, with York openly in rebellion against the king, and his Neville cousins supporting him. John fought with his father and Warwick against the king at the first Battle of St Albans, at which they had the victory.
Following a few years of uneasy peace, the Yorkists' rebellion erupted once again, and John Neville fought alongside his father and elder brother Thomas at the Battle of Blore Heath in September 1459. Although the Earl of Salisbury fought off the Lancastrians, both his sons were captured, and John, with Thomas, spent the next year imprisoned. Following his release in 1460, he took part in the Yorkist government. His father and brother died in battle just after Christmas 1460, and in February the next year, John – now promoted to the peerage as Lord Montagu – and Warwick fought the Lancastrians again at St Albans. John was once again captured and not released until his cousin Edward, York's son, won a decisive victory at Towton in March 1461, and became King Edward IV.
John Neville soon emerged, with Warwick, as representatives of the king's power in the north, which was still politically turbulent, as there were still a large number of Lancastrians on the loose attempting to raise a rebellion against the new regime. As his brother Warwick became more involved in national politics and central government, it devolved to John to finally defeat the last remnants of Lancastrians in 1464. Following these victories, Montagu, in what has been described as a high point for his House, was created Earl of Northumberland. At around the same time, however, his brother Warwick became increasingly dissatisfied with his relationship with the king, and began instigating rebellions against Edward IV in the north, finally capturing him in July 1469. At first, Montagu helped suppress this discontent, and also encouraged Warwick to release Edward. Eventually, however, his brother went into French exile with the king's brother George, Duke of Clarence, in March 1470.
During Warwick's exile, King Edward stripped Montagu of the Earldom of Northumberland, making him Marquis of Montagu instead. John Neville appears to have seen this as a reduction in rank, and accepted it with poor grace. He seems particularly to have complained about the lack of landed estate that his new marquisate brought with it, calling it a "pie's nest". When the Earl of Warwick and Clarence returned, they distracted Edward with a rebellion in the north, which the king ordered Montagu to raise troops to repress in the king's name. Montagu, however, having raised a small army, turned against Edward, almost capturing him at Olney, Buckinghamshire; the king, with his other brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, fled into exile in Burgundy.
While in exile, Warwick had allied with the old king, Henry VI and his Queen, Margaret of Anjou, Henry was restored to the throne, and Warwick now effectively ruled the kingdom, This return to Lancastrianism did not, however, last long; within the year, Edward and Gloucester had returned. Landing only a few miles from Montagu in Yorkshire – who did nothing to stop them – the Yorkists marched south, raising an army. Montagu followed them, and, meeting up with his brother at Coventry, they confronted Edward over a battlefield at Barnet. John Neville was cut down in the fighting, Warwick died soon after, and within a month Edward had reclaimed his throne and Henry VI and his line was extinguished.
Youth and early career Montagu was the third son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and Alice Montacute, 5th Countess of Salisbury, and a younger brother of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, "the Kingmaker."
John Neville's upbringing and career was entwined with that of the north of England and specifically, the marcher areas, the eastern and western borders between Scotland and England, controlled from Berwick and Carlisle respectively. His early activity there consisted of diplomatic meetings with the Scots, at which he acted as a witness, between 1449 and 1451. He was also one of three men who were instructed, in a letter of 3 February 1449, to not attend the forthcoming parliament and remain in the north guarding the border. He was knighted by King Henry VI at Greenwich on 5 January 1453, alongside Edmund and Jasper Tudor, his brother Thomas Neville, William Herbert, Roger Lewknor, and William Catesby.
Feud with the Percys
Sir John Neville was from the branch of the Neville family based at Middleham Castle in Yorkshire, rather than that of Westmorland. It has been claimed that he, as a "landless younger son" was partially to blame for his family's long-running feud with the Lancastrian Percy family of Northumberland. The first outburst of violence that took place was a result of the 1 May 1453 royal licence for John Neville's brother, Thomas Neville to marry Maud Stanhope being issued. News of this must have reached the north within the fortnight, for by the twelfth, one of the Earl of Northumberland's younger sons, Thomas Percy, Lord Egremont, began recruiting men. In August 1453, John Neville raided the Percy castle of Topcliffe, possibly with the intention of seizing Egremont. Failing to find him, Neville resorted to threatening the Percy tenantry who were in residence. He and Egremont were subsequently summoned to appear before the Royal Council, a summons which was ignored by both. Feuding continued through summer 1453, and even though they had been instructed to keep the peace, by 27 July, the council was issuing letters to Northumberland and Salisbury regarding their sons. This was followed by more letters to the sons. In Knaresborough, the locals generally aligned themselves with John Neville due to the unpopularity of Sir William Plumpton (the king's man), from whom they began stealing with impunity, which resulted in severe injuries when the Neville brothers demonstrated a "show of force" in January 1454.
John Neville was with his brother's wedding party when Egremont ambushed them on the return from Tattershall Castle. This took place on Heworth Moor on 24 August 1453. The next month, John took a raiding party and ransacked Egremont's Catton manor, "breaking windows and shattering tiles." With his brothers, Thomas and Richard, as well as the Earl of Salisbury, they faced the Earl of Northumberland and his sons at Topcliffe on 20 October 1453, although a peace was then negotiated. The feud continued for much of the next year, and only came to a halt with a battle at Salisbury's manor of Stamford Bridge, near York on 31 October 1454. Thomas and John confronted, and decisively beat, Egremont and Richard Percy, whom the Nevilles captured.
Marriage
John Neville married Isabel Ingoldsthorpe (c.1441 – 20 May 1476), of Burrough Green and Sawston, Cambridgeshire, on 25 April 1457; Archbishop Thomas Bourchier officiated the marriage at Canterbury Cathedral. Isabel was not only the heiress of her father, Sir Edmund Ingoldsthorpe (who had died on 2 September 1456), but also the heiress of her maternal uncle, John Tiptoft and his Earldom of Worcester. It may have been that Earl of Worcester had engineered the match. A letter to John Paston on 1 May 1457 described how "the Erle [of Warwick's] yonger broþere maryed to Ser Edmund Ynglthorp's doughter upon Seynt Markes Day; the Erle of Worcestre broght aboute the maryage." She was a greater heiress than might have been expected for a youngest son like John. John was granted seven southern manors by his father and mother, the Earl and Countess of Salisbury, for his part.
John Neville's marriage caused a dispute with Queen Margaret: even though Isabel was over fourteen years old (and therefore of legal age), the Queen claimed that Isabel was still her ward. As a result, Queen Margaret insisted that John pay her a fine for his marriage to Isabel: he was bound to pay her £1,000 in ten instalments.
Wars of the Roses
The king had become incapacitated in August 1453, which had led to the Duke of York being appointed protector and controlling the government. By Christmas of 1454, however, King Henry had recovered from his illness, which removed the basis for York's authority. Having reconvened the court at Westminster by mid-April 1455, Henry and a select council of nobles decided to hold a great council at Leicester. York and the Nevilles anticipated that Somerset would bring charges against them at this assembly. John Neville included, they gathered an armed retinue and marched to stop the royal party from reaching Leicester, intercepting them at St Albans.
Although only a small affray, it resulted in the deaths of some important people; viz. the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and Lord Clifford. It has been suggested that, while Somerset might have been targeted by York, the latter too might have been intentionally slain by the Neville brothers. It was John who, after the battle, appears to have been responsible for the victorious Duke of York removing Sir William Skipwith from the household offices the latter held of the Duke. Neville was said to have achieved this by pointing out how Skipwith failed to join York in battle; John Neville subsequently shared in the profits of York's redistribution of Skipwith's ex-offices.
In December 1456, the new Duke of Somerset tried to attack John Neville in London's Cheapside; Somerset had already attempted something similar to John's brother Warwick the previous month. John's encounter, reported contemporary chroniclers, would have become a "skirmish" if the mayor had not intervened. As it had been John who had "spearheaded" the Neville retaliation to the Percies during their feud, Salisbury entered into a bond for Thomas and John's behaviour on 23 March 1458. John, however, continued to receive commissions from the government. He was part of a delegation of twenty-two Ambassadors nominated to discuss breaches of the Truce with Burgundy on 14 May that year, and two months later he was investigating the murder of a royal serjeant. In 1459, he was appointed steward of the Honour of Pontefract.
Reconciliation between the crown and the sons of the dead lords of St Albans on the one half and of York and his Neville allies did not last, however. In mid-September 1459, the Earl of Salisbury, intending to meet York at the latter's castle at Ludlow, marched south from Middleham Castle with his household, retainers, and a force of around five-thousand men. John and Thomas were with him. Salisbury's force was engaged by a much larger royal army under the command of Lord Audley on 23 September at Blore Heath, near Mucklestone, Staffordshire. Even though he had numerical superiority the result was a defeat for Audley, who was killed. However at some point John Neville – along with his brother Thomas and their father's retainer James Harrington were captured. This might have occurred in their pursuit of fleeing Lancastrians the next day or alternatively they may have been injured in battle and had been sent home. Either way, captured at Acton Bridge near Tarporley, Cheshire, the four were imprisoned in Chester Castle.