Sir Andrew Trollope

Sir Andrew Trollope was a career soldier who was based in Calais as the Wars of the Roses broke out. Appointed as a sergeant-porter of Calais in the early 1450’s, his loyalties had seemed to lay with the Earl of Warwick and the Yorkist Lords, who he accompanied to England in 1459. Sir Andrew Trollope and Sir James Blount were sergeants of the men of the Calais Garrison present at Ludford in October 1459, and it was the defection of this pair, along with their men, during the night of 12th October 1459 that led to their being a rout at Ludford.

Following his defection, Sir Andrew remained on the side of the Lancastrian faction. Following the attainders issued at the Coventry Parliament and appointment of the Duke of Somerset as Captain of Calais, it is thought that Trollope participated in attempts to wrestle the fortified port from the hands of the Yorkist Lords.

If this was the case, Sir Andrew Trollope may have influenced the decision to attack via Newham Bridge in April 1460, the failure of which led to the Lancastrian force returning to England. What is clearer is that Sir Andrew Trollope had influence on the events of late 1460 and early 1461. It is thought that he formulated the strategy that led to the defeat and death of Richard 3rd Duke of York in the Battle of Wakefield. As the Lancastrian army swarmed south towards London, it was his command that won the day in the Second Battle of St. Albans, a feat for which he was knighted immediately after the battle.

Sir Andrew and his contingent from Calais remained in the Lancastrian army as it returned to the north. He fought, and was killed, in the Battle of Towton.

Sir Andrew Trollope, biography from the Dictionary of National Biography

Note: the Dictionary of National Biography is Public Domain in the United Kingdom. A more recent version is available that takes into account research from the past hundred years. It can be found here.

TROLLOPE, Sir ANDREW (d. 1461), soldier, is said by Waurin to have been of lowly origin. He fought long in the French wars of Henry VI’s day, and acquired a great reputation for courage and skill, but was generally on the losing side. He was in command of Gavray under Lord Scales when it was captured on 11 Oct. 1449. In March 1450 he had to give up Fronay, partly as a ransom for Osbert Mundeford [q. v.], and after the surrender of Falaise in 1450 he went to England. He returned to France, and held the appointment of sergeant-porter of Calais, and was concerned in 1453–4 in the conspiracy of Alençon. When in 1459 Warwick came to England, Trollope was with him, and accompanied him as a Yorkist to Ludlow. He is said to have been won over to the Lancastrian side by Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset; on the other hand, he may well, as has been said, have never intended to serve against the king. In any case, on the night of 12 Oct. 1459 he and Sir James Blount went over to the Lancastrian camp, and the Yorkist leaders dispersed. He seems to have been with Somerset when he went over as lieutenant of Calais in November, but they could only get possession of Guisnes, and in April 1460 Somerset was badly defeated at Newham Bridge. Soon afterwards he returned to England. He arranged the plan of the battle of Wakefield (31 Dec. 1460), and one of his servants captured Richard, duke of York. He was the commander of the Lancastrian horde that marched south and won the second battle of St. Albans (7 Feb. 1460–61). After that fight he was knighted; he was suffering at the time from a ‘calletrappe’ in his foot, and jokingly said that he did not deserve the honour done him as he had killed but fifteen Yorkists. He retired north with the army, and was killed at Towton on 29 March following. He was attainted in the same year. Polydore Vergil describes him as ‘vir summæ belli scientiæ et fidei.’ He is mentioned in a poem of Lewis Glyn Cothi.

[Ramsay’s Lancaster and York, ii. 104, 215, 244, 272; Rot. Parl. v. 477–9; Wars of the English in France, ed. Stevenson (Rolls Ser.), ii. 626, 775; Blondel’s Reductio Normanniæ (Rolls Ser.), pp. 103, 105, 106, 107, 156, 329, 364; Waurin’s Chronicles, ed. Lumby (Rolls Ser.), 1447–71, pp. 160, 273, 276, 279–80, 306, 322, 325–7, 336, 340–1, or ed. Dupont, ii. 194, &c.; Chron. Mathieu d’Escouchy, ed. Beaucourt, i. 204; Basin’s Hist. des règnes de Charles VII et Louis XI, i. 299; Cosneau’s Arthur de Richemont, p. 402; De Beaucourt’s Hist. de Charles VII, vi. 45, 270; Collections of a London Citizen (Camd. Soc.), p. 205; Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles (Camd. Soc.), pp. 154–5, 161; Chron. Cont. Croyl. (Fell and Fulman), p. 581; Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, ii. 5, 6; Gwaith Lewis Glyn Cothi, ed. 1837, xii. 82; Polydore Vergil’s Hist. Angl., ed. 1546, pp. 507, 511.]

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 57
Trollope, Andrew by William Arthur Jobson Archbold