EARL OF

See also:

• JOHN
• JOHN (1167–1216)
• JOHN (1290-c. 1320)
• JOHN (1296-1346)
• JOHN (1371–1419)
• JOHN (1468-1532)
• JOHN (1801-1873)
• JOHN (Heb. llni')
• JOHN (ZAPOLYA) (1487-1540)
• JOHN, 4TH MARQUESS OF TWEEDDALE (c. 1695-1762)
• JOHN, DON (1545-1578)
• JOHN, DON (1629–1679)
• JOHN, GOSPEL OF ST
• JOHN, THE APOSTLE
• JOHN, THE EPISTLES OF
• JOHN, or HAYS (1513–1571)

JOHN TIPTOFT

See also:

• WORCESTER
• WORCESTER, EARLS AND MARQUESSES OF
• EARL OF JOHN TIPTOFT WORCESTER (1427—1470)
• WORCESTER, WILLIAM (c. 1415-c. 1482)

WORCESTER (1427—1470)  , was son of John Tiptoft (1375-1443), who was Speaker of the House of Commons in 1406, much employed in diplomacy by Henry V., a member of the council during the minority of Henry VI., and created Baron Tiptoft in 1426 . The younger Tiptoft was educated at Oxford, where John Rous says that he was one of his fellow-students; he is stated to have been a member of Balliol College . He married Cicely, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, and widow of Henry Beauchamp (d . 1445), duke of Warwick . In 1449 he was created earl of Worcester . His wife died in 1450, but he continued the association with the Yorkist party . During York's protectorate he was treasurer of the exchequer, and in 1456–1457 deputy of Ireland . In 1457 and again in 1459 he was sent on embassies to the pope . He was abroad three years, during. which he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; the rest of the time he spent in Italy, at Padua, where he studied law and Latin; at Ferrara, where he made the acquaintance of Guarino of Verona; and at Florence, where be heard the lectures of John Argyropoulos, the teacher of Greek . He returned to England early in the reign of Edward IV., and on the 7th of February 1462 was made constable of England . In this office he had at once to try the earl of Oxford, and judged him by " lawe padoue " (sc. of Padua; Warkworth, 5) . In 1463 he commanded at sea, without success .

In the following

year as constable he tried and condemned Sir Ralph Grey and other Lancastrians . In 1467 he was again appointed deputy of Ireland . During a year's office there he had the earl of Desmond attainted, and cruelly put to death the earl's two infant sons . In 1470, as constable, he condemned twenty of Warwick's adherents, and had them impaled, " for which ever afterwards the earl was greatly hated among the people, for their disordinate death that he used contrary to the law of the land " (Warkworth, 9) . On the Lancastrian restoration Worcester fled into hiding, but was discovered and tried before the earl of Oxford, son of the man whom he had condemned in 1462 . He was executed on Tower Hill on the 18th of October 1470 . Worcester was detested for his brutality and abuse of the law, and was called " the butcher of England " (Fabyan, 659) More than any of his contemporaries in this country he represents the combination of culture and cruelty that was distinctive of the Italians of the Renaissance . Apart from his moral character he was an accomplished scholar, and a great purchaser of books in Italy, many of which he presented to the university of Oxford . He translated Cicero's De amicitia and Buonaccorso's Declaration of Nobleness, which were printed by Caxton in 1481 . Caxton in his epilogue eulogized Worcester as superior to all the temporal lords of the kingdom in moral virtue as well as in science . Worcester is also credited with a translation of Caesar's Commentaries printed in 1530 . His " ordinances for justes and triumphes," made as constable in 1466, are printed in Harrington's Nugae antiquae .

Worcester was a

patron of the early English humanist John Free, and his Italian friends included, besides those already mentioned, Lodovico Carbo of Ferrara, and the famous Florentine bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci .