Richard Guildford
English naval commander and courtier (c. 1450 – 1506)
Sir Richard Guildford (about 1450 – 1506) was an English courtier, administrator, politician and military leader who held important positions under King Henry VII.
Origins
Guildford was the son of John Guildford (died 1493) and his first wife, Alice Waller.
Career
Guildford was relied on as a counsellor by Reginald Bray, who chose him as one of the four persons to whom he first communicated the plot behind Buckingham's rebellion against Richard III in 1483. Both father and son raised forces that year for the Earl of Richmond (the future Henry VII) in Kent, and were attainted in consequence. The son, who thereby forfeited some lands in Cranbrook, fled to Richmond in Brittany, and returned with him two years later, landing along with him at Milford Haven, where he is said to have been knighted. It is presumed he was with Henry at the Battle of Bosworth. Little more than a month later, on 29 September 1485, the new king appointed him one of the chamberlains of the receipt of exchequer, Master of the Ordnance and of the Armouries, with houses on Tower Wharf, and keeper of the royal manor of Kennington, where the king took up his abode before his coronation.
When Henry's first parliament met, Guildford's attainder was reversed. As master of the armoury he had to prepare the 'justes' for the king's coronation. The king also made him a privy councillor and granted him various lands and some wardships which fell vacant. Among the former was the manor of Higham in Sussex.
“Richard Guildford” enters the record as english naval commander and courtier (c. 1450 – 1506). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Richard, Guildford and English can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7326109. VIAF identifies the subject as 32345808. The Library of Congress control number is nr93019510. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1450, 1506, 1493 and 1483.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Guildford” 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.