49 Facts About Thomas Erpingham

Bolingbroke rewarded Thomas Erpingham by appointing him as constable of Dover Castle and warden of the Cinque Ports, and after ascending the throne as Henry IV he made him chamberlain of the royal household.

Thomas Erpingham was a member of the Privy Council, acting at one point as marshal of England.

Thomas Erpingham attempted to have Henry le Despenser, the anti-Lancastrian bishop of Norwich, impeached as a rebel.

In 1415 Thomas Erpingham was indentured to serve as a knight banneret, and joined Henry's campaign to recover his lost ancestral lands in France and Normandy.

Thomas Erpingham was a benefactor to the city of Norwich, where he had built the main cathedral gate which bears his name.

Thomas Erpingham was born in about 1357, the son of Sir John de Erpingham of Erpingham and Wickmere in Norfolk, England.

In 1350, Sir Robert and his son Sir John de Thomas Erpingham both witnessed a deed of feoffment by Nicholas de Snyterle, rector of "Matelask", to Philip Tynker and Maud his wife of a messuage there.

Thomas Erpingham, who would have known the house, was possibly born there.

The identity of Thomas Erpingham's mother is not mentioned by his biographers.

Thomas Erpingham was buried near the south door of Erpingham church.

Thomas Erpingham was buried in the church at Erpingham in the east end of the south isle.

Thomas Erpingham served under William Ufford, 2nd Earl of Suffolk in 1372 and was with Suffolk in France the following year.

The year Thomas Erpingham was knighted is unknown, but he is likely to have been at least 21.

Thomas Erpingham was with Lancaster during the English invasion of Scotland in 1385.

In 1388, Thomas Erpingham participated before Charles VI of France in a jousting tournament at Montereau, his adversary being Sir John de Barres.

Thomas Erpingham was sent back to England to watch over Lancaster's son Henry Bolingbroke and went into his service.

Thomas Erpingham rose to become the most important of Lancaster's retainers in the region.

Thomas Erpingham was appointed to a commission of peace, and given powers to preserve order in Norfolk in the aftermath of the Peasants' Revolt in the summer of 1381.

Thomas Erpingham had a part in supervising the defence of Norfolk in 1385, when a French invasion seemed imminent.

Thomas Erpingham was one of 17 named companions who volunteered to accompany Henry Bolingbroke into exile.

Thomas Erpingham entrusted his lands and property to Sir Robert Berney and others.

Shortly afterwards, Thomas Erpingham arrested Henry le Despenser, bishop of Norwich and one of the few remaining supporters of Richard prepared to resist Bolingbroke.

Thomas Erpingham was given two important positions at court by Bolingbroke.

Thomas Erpingham was one of 11 men who petitioned Henry in person to have Richard killed.

Supposedly, Thomas Erpingham was spared from persecution by the Church because he was favoured by Henry IV, and so merely paid a fine, which financed the construction of the Thomas Erpingham Gate.

The historian Veronica Sekules considers it unlikely that Thomas Erpingham supported Wycliffe, and suggests that if he had such a dispute with the Church, it was more likely over Thomas Erpingham's arrest of Despenser.

Sir Thomas Erpingham was one of Henry IVs closest associates, and after 1399, influence in Norfolk shifted from Despenser to Erpingham and his friends.

Gentry from East Anglia who were associated with Thomas Erpingham benefited from his powerful position at court: Sir John Strange of Hunstanton became controller of the royal household in 1408; Sir Robert Gurney of Gunton became Thomas Erpingham's deputy at Dover Castle in 1400; and John Winter of Barningham became controller of Prince Henry's household in 1403.

At Despenser's hearing in London, Thomas Erpingham was publicly congratulated by the King for his loyalty to the Crown.

Thomas Erpingham was one of the middle-aged English commanders on the field at Agincourt, and at 60 was one of the oldest men present.

Thomas Erpingham is not mentioned in any contemporaneous English versions of the battle, but three French chroniclers, Jean de Wavrin, Enguerrand de Monstrelet and Jean Le Fevre, all give detailed descriptions of his role in the battle.

Thomas Erpingham then dismounted and moved with his banner to join the King, where he remained during the rest of the battle.

Curry lists over 40 manors he held during his life, some permanently: three were inherited from his father, such as the manor at Thomas Erpingham; seven came to him during the 1370s and 1380s; eight manors were given to him in 1399 by Henry IV and a further seven were acquired that year by other means; another seven were acquired during the 1400s; and he purchased twelve manors from 1410 to 1421.

In 1407 Berney helped Thomas Erpingham to buy the manor at Blickling.

Thomas Erpingham's family sold Blickling to the soldier Sir John Fastolf in 1431.

Thomas Erpingham married Joan Clopton, the daughter of Sir William Clopton of Clopton, Suffolk, sometime before 1389; Thomas Erpingham was widowed in 1404.

Evidence that Thomas Erpingham was twice married comes in part from a window opposite the chantry of Norwich Cathedral, which once displayed him and his two wives, as well as church records, which state he was buried with both of his wives.

Thomas Erpingham had a profound influence on the careers of the two sons of his sister Julian, who married Sir William Phelip of Dennington.

William and Thomas Erpingham were often recorded as co-feoffees of estates in East Anglia, and William stood surety for his uncle at the Exchequer.

Thomas Erpingham's brother was knighted on the eve of the coronation and later fought at Agincourt.

Thomas Erpingham specified that "all my armour and the harness of my person to be delivered up to the Holy Trinity [Cathedral] in Norwich".

Thomas Erpingham funded the rebuilding of the Church of the Blackfriars in Norwich after a fire in the city caused serious damage to the original friary complex in 1413.

The west tower of St Mary's Church, in the village of Thomas Erpingham, was paid for by him.

In 1419, Thomas Erpingham paid for the east chancel window of the church of St Austin's Friary in Norwich to be glazed.

Sir Thomas Erpingham appears twice in Act IV of William Shakespeare's play Henry V, first printed in 1600, and is mentioned in Act II of Richard II.

Just after the beginning of Scene 1, Thomas Erpingham enters and is acknowledged by the King.

Thomas Erpingham is a counterpart to the character of John Falstaff, his brief appearance in the Henriad contrasting with the much larger part given to Falstaff.

In film depictions of the play, Thomas Erpingham's part is largely silent, as in Laurence Olivier's film of 1944.

Thomas Erpingham first appears near the end of the film, during the night before the battle of Agincourt.