{"id":19593,"date":"2026-02-05T08:08:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/?p=19593"},"modified":"2026-01-26T09:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T09:14:23","slug":"career-of-sir-gilbert-talbot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2026\/02\/05\/career-of-sir-gilbert-talbot\/","title":{"rendered":"Bosworth and other battles: the illustrious career of Sir Gilbert Talbot (d.1517) of Grafton, KG"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Simon Payling<\/a> of our Commons 1461-1504<\/a> project explores the career of the early Tudor figure Sir Gilbert Talbot, who in service of Henry VII was rewarded with a commissioned painting from Raphael… <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Tudor antiquarian, John Leland, visited the Shropshire church of Whitchurch in the 1530s, he saw the tomb of Sir Gilbert Talbot, a \u2018knight of fame\u2019, and noted, with apparent approval, that Talbot had brought the bones of his grandfather, the great soldier, John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, from Castillon, where he had fallen in 1453, for reinternment in the church. Sir Gilbert did not have a career to compare with that of his famous ancestor; none the less, despite the disadvantage of being a younger son, he was a notable servant, as soldier, administrator, and diplomat, of three Kings, Edward IV<\/a> and the first two Tudors. Such future success had appeared improbable in his boyhood. His father, John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, had fallen in the Lancastrian cause in the battle of Northampton in July 1460, when Gilbert was about nine years old. Fortunately for the family, however, the new Yorkist King, Edward IV, was content for their lands to pass to Gilbert\u2019s elder brother, another John, and, in the early 1470s, both brothers found places in Edward\u2019s service, with the young Gilbert becoming one of the King\u2019s cupbearers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Gilbert\u2019s career began in earnest with his elder brother\u2019s death in June 1473 \u2013 in the mysterious words of Leland, \u2018not without suspicion of poison\u2019 \u2013 leaving as his heir a son, George, only five years old. This made Gilbert the effective head of the family during a long minority. As such, he led a retinue in the invasion of France in 1475, his first known military experience in what was to prove a long military career. He also advanced himself materially by marriage to a wealthy widow, as younger sons of leading families often did. In 1477 he married Elizabeth, widow of Thomas, Lord Scrope of Masham, and daughter of Ralph, Lord Greystoke, lord of the extensive lordship of Wem, about nine miles from the Talbot manor of Whitchurch.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Elizabeth Talbot tomb, St John the Baptist Church, Bromsgrove; \u00a9GentryGraves<\/a> (2009); CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>

Sir Gilbert had his first wife, Elizabeth Greystoke, who died in 1489, commemorated by a fine monument, still extant, in the church of Bromsgrove (Worcestershire), in which parish Grafton lay. Her own association with the place had been very brief, little more than two years, and her husband\u2019s decision to commemorate her there suggests that he already intended Grafton, which he held by royal grant, to be his family\u2019s long-term home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Talbot\u2019s prosperity was threatened by the deposition of Edward V<\/a>.  He and the new King, Richard III<\/a>, clearly distrusted each other. There was one obvious point of tension between them. Talbot\u2019s stepson, Thomas, the new Lord Scrope of Masham, had been brought up in Richard\u2019s household, and Talbot had every reason to consider this personal connexion a threat to his own wife\u2019s interest in the Scrope lands. Probably more significant, however, was a more nebulous consideration. In constructing his title to the throne, the new King relied on the story of Edward IV\u2019s alleged pre-contract with Gilbert\u2019s paternal aunt, Eleanor, widow of Sir Thomas Butler of Sudeley (Gloucestershire). She had died in 1468, when Gilbert was only in his late teens, but there can be little doubt that the Talbots knew the truth (or otherwise) of the story. In this context, Gilbert can only have interpreted his removal from the Shropshire bench and the loss of his stewardship of the Talbot lordships of Blackmere and Whitchurch as evidence of the King\u2019s hostility.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His response was to return to his family\u2019s earlier Lancastrian allegiance and enter communications with Henry Tudor. According to an admittedly rather doubtful source, The Song of Lady Bess<\/em>, an early-modern narrative poem, there was a crucial meeting on 3 May 1485 at which he, alongside Tudor\u2019s stepfather, Thomas, Lord Stanley, and others, firmly committed themselves to supporting Tudor. This story may be wrong in detail, but Talbot was certainly one of the first men of substance to join Henry after he landed at Milford Haven on the following 7 August. According to the Tudor chronicler, Polydore Vergil, he brought 500 men to Henry at Newport, about seven miles from the Talbot manor of Shifnal. He then went on to command the vanward of Henry\u2019s army at the battle of Bosworth, where he was knighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Gilbert\u2019s reward was a place in the new King\u2019s household, and, much more importantly, a grant of an inheritable estate in the valuable Worcestershire manor of Grafton.\u00a0 These rewards were justified by further military service, both at home and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He fought for Henry at the battle of Stoke on 16 June 1487 and was there created a knight  banneret.  In June 1489 he was one of the commanders of the army, under the lieutenant of Calais, Giles Daubeney, Lord Daubeney, which repelled a Franco-Flemish force besieging the town of Diksmuide, some 50 miles to the east of the English garrison; and, in 1492, he joined with much of the political nation in the bloodless invasion of France. His military distinction was recognised in 1495 when he was admitted to the Order of the Garter, and he was again in arms in the autumn of 1497 to resist the unthreatening landing of Perkin Warbeck<\/a> in Cornwall.  Later his status as soldier and courtier brought him an ambassadorial role. In February 1504 the King sent him to Rome to offer congratulations to the new Pope, Julius II, and to invest Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, with the Garter. The duke rewarded this service by commissioning Raphael, a native of Urbino, to paint an image of St. George adorned with the Garter, for presentation to his fellow Garter knight.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Saint George and the Dragon, Raphael (c. 1506), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C<\/a>.

The saint bears the blue garter on his leg with the word \u2018Honi\u2019 , the first word of the Order\u2019s motto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Not long after Sir Gilbert\u2019s return from Rome, he was appointed as deputy-lieutenant of Calais, where he remained, on and off, for the remainder of his life.\u00a0 As such, he took part in the 1513 invasion of France, commanded by his nephew, George, earl of Shrewsbury. A tantalising reference suggests that his service came at great personal cost. On 11 July it was reported that, during the siege of Th\u00e9rouanne, some 30 miles south of Calais, the French artillery had done \u2018great hurt\u2019 to the besieging English camp. Talbot is said to have lost a leg and the chamberlain of the royal household, then Charles Somerset, Lord Herbert, to have been killed. In respect of Somerset\u2019s death, the report was wrong, but it is possible that Talbot, who relinquished his Calais office soon afterwards, was severely injured.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Bust of Sir Gilbert Talbot, Pietro Torrigiano (d<\/u>.1528) \u00a9 Victoria and Albert Museum, London<\/a>

Modelled either when he was in Rome in 1504 or when the sculptor was in England in the 1510s.  It remained at his manor house at Grafton, at least until 1710 when much of the house was lost to fire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On his death in August 1517, Sir Gilbert had an elaborate funeral, costing about \u00a3175, equivalent to the annual income of a substantial gentry family, before internment at Whitchurch (his tomb was lost when the church collapsed in 1711, rather ironically the year after his manor house at Grafton burnt down). He died a very wealthy man, in part because of the rewards of royal service but also because of his own entrepreneurial spirit.  His second wife, the widow of a London alderman and mercer, Richard Gardener, gave him an entr\u00e9e into an \u00e9lite commercial world, and he became a major wool merchant.  In the inventory taken on his death, his most valuable possession single possession was the store of wool he had at Calais, appraised at as much as \u00a31850. In the longer context of the history of the comital family of Talbot, his successful career and his consequent establishment of a robust junior branch had great significance.  In 1618 his great-great-grandson, George, succeeded his childless fourth cousin, Edward Talbot<\/a>, as earl of Shrewsbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SJP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Simon Payling of our Commons 1461-1504 project explores the career of the early Tudor figure Sir Gilbert Talbot, who in service of Henry VII was rewarded with a commissioned painting from Raphael… When the Tudor antiquarian, John Leland, visited the Shropshire church of Whitchurch in the 1530s, he saw the tomb of Sir Gilbert Talbot, a \u2018knight of fame\u2019, and noted, with apparent approval, … Continue reading Bosworth and other battles: the illustrious career of Sir Gilbert Talbot (d.1517) of Grafton, KG<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255143695,"featured_media":19608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[774275741,189179080,103464271,3737,774275695,687860035,774275534],"tags":[35890,774276220,435590,774275549],"class_list":["post-19593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parliamentary-life","category-15th-century-history","category-16th-century-history","category-material-culture","category-henry-vii","category-the-commons-in-the-wars-of-the-roses","category-tudor","tag-featured","tag-raphael","tag-shropshire","tag-sir-gilbert-talbot"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/saint_george_and_the_dragon_1937.1.26-1.jpg?fit=3129%2C1568&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QYNW-561","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13956,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2024\/09\/17\/battle-of-bosworth-election\/","url_meta":{"origin":19593,"position":0},"title":"A disputed election in the wake of the battle of Bosworth: the Shropshire election of 1485","author":"Simon Payling","date":"September 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Following the battle of Bosworth and Henry Tudor's accession to the English throne, the country's gentry who had sided with Henry seemed destined to be elected to Parliament uncontested. However, as Dr Simon Payling of our Commons 1461-1504 project explores, this was not always the case... Election disputes were rare\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Commons in the Wars of the Roses"","block_context":{"text":"The Commons in the Wars of the Roses","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/sections\/the-commons-in-the-wars-of-the-roses\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sir-gilbert-talbot.jpg?fit=452%2C354&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":753,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2014\/08\/22\/battle-of-bosworth\/","url_meta":{"origin":19593,"position":1},"title":"The battle of Bosworth: consequences for winners and losers","author":"History of Parliament","date":"August 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The battle of Bosworth took place on this day in 1485. Dr Charles Moreton, senior research fellow of the Commons 1422-1504 project, discusses the contrasting consequences for parliamentarians on both sides of the battle\u2026 At the battle of Bosworth the last Plantagenet King, Richard III, met his death. For some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Commons in the Wars of the Roses"","block_context":{"text":"The Commons in the Wars of the Roses","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/sections\/the-commons-in-the-wars-of-the-roses\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2543,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2018\/10\/09\/sir-christopher-talbot\/","url_meta":{"origin":19593,"position":2},"title":"Medieval MP of the Month: Sir Christopher Talbot","author":"Simon Payling","date":"October 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the next installment in our series \u2018Medieval MP of the Month\u2019. Today we here from Senior Research Fellow, Dr Simon Payling about the suspicious\u00a0circumstances surrounding the death of Sir Christopher Talbot... THE HISTORY OF PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 1422-1461, edited by Linda Clark, is out now. For further\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Medieval"","block_context":{"text":"Medieval","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/periods\/medieval-history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5466,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2020\/09\/22\/representing-glamorgan-1832-85-christopher-rice-mansel-talbot-and-his-colleagues\/","url_meta":{"origin":19593,"position":3},"title":"Representing Glamorgan, 1832-85: Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot and his colleagues","author":"Kathryn Rix","date":"September 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing our Local History focus on Glamorgan, Dr. Kathryn Rix, Assistant Editor of our House of Commons, 1832-68 project looks at the constituency\u2019s elections after the 1832 Reform Act, when the long-serving MP, Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, exerted a strong influence over the county. 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Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot In January 1890 Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-90), the Father of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Victorian Commons"","block_context":{"text":"Victorian Commons","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/sections\/victorian-commons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lynx-image-credit-city-county-of-swansea-museum-collection.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lynx-image-credit-city-county-of-swansea-museum-collection.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lynx-image-credit-city-county-of-swansea-museum-collection.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lynx-image-credit-city-county-of-swansea-museum-collection.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5497,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2020\/09\/17\/a-few-slight-alterations-would-make-it-picturesque-glamorgan-and-monmouthshire-in-the-18th-century\/","url_meta":{"origin":19593,"position":5},"title":"\u2018A few slight alterations would make it picturesque\u2019: Glamorgan and Monmouthshire in the 18th century","author":"Robin Eagles","date":"September 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In our latest blog we return to Glamorgan and Monmouthshire as part of our local history blog series. 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