John Savage, KG

John Savage, KG (–1492), was a major Cheshire landowner and supporter successively of Edward IV and Henry VII.

Background

The Savages had been established in Cheshire since his great-great-grandfather John Savage (–1386) married Margaret Danyers, heiress of Clifton and other lands around what became called Rocksavage. His mother was Katherine Stanley, sister of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, and his father John Savage (c. 1424–1495).

Career

Savage fought with the Yorkists at the Battle of Tewkesbury and became close to Edward IV, whom he served as royal carver and knight of the body. Edward appointed him constable of Hanley Castle, and he was a pallbearer at the king's funeral. Under Richard III, Savage and his father fell under suspicion but remained at liberty, John being made a freeman of Chester in 1484, when his father was mayor of the city.

Support for Henry Tudor

According to Polydore Vergil, Savage was one of the prominent men who "invited" Henry Tudor to invade. His brother, Thomas Savage, later Archbishop of York, may have been then living abroad and acting as the English Savages' direct link to the future Henry VII. When Henry landed, Savage at once declared for him, and raised a considerable body of troops to fight at the Battle of Bosworth, wearing the Savage family's distinctive livery of white hoods, as described in the poem Bosworth Feilde:

Sir John Savage, that hardy Knight,

deathes dentes he delt that day

with many a white hood in fight,

that sad men were at assay.

After the battle, in which he commanded the left wing,^[1] he received extensive grants of land confiscated from Richard's supporters, including from John, Lord Zouche, and Francis, Lord Lovell. On 16 November 1488 he was appointed a Knight of the Garter.^[2] He was killed at the siege of Boulogne in October 1492.^[3]

Family

Savage married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Ralph Vernon of Haddon Hall. They had a son, John (–1527), ancestor of John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers, and of subsequent Savage Earl Rivers, and four daughters.^[4]

References

1. Daniel Lysons: Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain volume II, p755
2. List of Knights of the Garter on heraldica.org
3. Richard Turpyn: The Chronicles of Calais in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII to the year 1540, p3, footnote f
4. John Savage's memorial at St Michael's & All Angels, Macclesfield, Cheshire

• Stephens, Henry Morse; Thornton, Tim (reviewer) (May 2008) [2004]. "Savage family". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)