Sir Walter Hungerford

Sir Walter Hungerford (d. 1516), youngest son of Robert and Eleanor, was M.P. for Wiltshire in 1477, and, as a partisan in earlier days of the house of Lancaster, obtained a general pardon from Richard III on his accession in 1483. He was, nevertheless, arrested by Richard on the landing of the Earl of Richmond in 1485, but escaped from custody, and joined Richmond’s army. At the battle of Bosworth he slew, in hand-to-hand combat, Sir Robert Brackenbury, lieutenant of the Tower, under whose command he had previously served, and was knighted by Henry VII on the battlefield. Farleigh Castle and some other of the forfeited family estates, though not the family honours, were restored to him, and he was made a member of the privy council. In February 1487 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Rome, and executed a will before his departure (Materials for the Reign of Henry VII, Rolls Ser. ii. 122-4). In 1497 he assisted in quelling Perkin Warbeck’s rising. In 1503 he went in the retinue of Henry VII’s queen to attend the marriage of the Princess Margaret with the king of Scotland. After the accession of Henry VIII he continued a member of the privy council, and, dying in 1516, was buried at Farleigh. His wife was Jane, daughter of Sir William Bulstrode, and his only son Edward was father of Walter, lord Hungerford (1503-1540) [q. v.] [Dugdale’s Baronage; Hoare’s Hungerfordiana; Letters, &c., of Henry VIII; Materials for the Reign of Henry VII (Rolls Ser.); Paston Letters, passim, ed. Gairdner; Hoare’s Mod. Wiltshire, Heytesbury Hundred; Collinson’s Somerset, iii. 355.]

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 28
Hungerford, Robert by Sidney Lee