Ralph Stafford (died 1385)
English noble (1354-1385)
Sir Ralph Stafford (c. 1367 – July 1385) was a knight of the royal household of King Richard II of England. He was murdered in 1385 by the king's half-brother, John Holland. One modern historian has suggested that Ralph was the closest friend the young King Richard II had at court; they were the same age and Ralph appears to have been "a bright and promising" courtier.
Biography
Ralph was the eldest son and heir of Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford, and Philippa de Beauchamp, daughter of Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick. As a youth he grew up in the household of Queen Anne of Bohemia. One of the king's household knights, he accompanied the royal army on the 1385 invasion of Scotland. In July, he was murdered between York and Bishopsthorpe by Richard II's half-brother, John Holland. It is possible that Holland was acting in revenge for death of one of his squires, whom, it has been suggested had themselves been killed by an archer in Ralph's own retinue; it may even be that a scuffle had taken place and caused the deaths of two of the earl's more "intemperate" members of his retinue. Holland may have killed Ralph in a case of mistaken identity whilst trying to find the archer, not realising who Ralph was; although it could also have occurred after an exchange of insults.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ralph Stafford (died 1385)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.