Gilbert Debenham

Sir Gilbert Debenham (junior) (1432–1500) was an English knight, politician and soldier who served briefly as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Although, like his father before him, he had a notorious reputation for lawlessness, he flourished in the reign of King Edward IV, due in part to his loyalty to Edward during the great political crisis of the years 1469–71. Under Henry VII he was attainted for treason and spent his last years in prison. He figures prominently in the Paston Letters. Background and reputation He was born at Little Wenham in Suffolk, son of Sir Gilbert Debenham senior (c.1404–1481) who was justice of the peace, High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk for 1427, Member of Parliament and steward to the Mowbray Dukes of Norfolk. He was the fourth of four successive Gilbert Debenhams. He was the grandson of Gilbert Debenham, MP who died in 1417. Historians in general have little good to say of either of the Debenhams, father or son. They have been called a "pair of thorough-going villains", with a reputation for "violent and thuggish behaviour", although the son's reputation was perhaps somewhat better than that of his father, who was accused of corrupting the town governments of Ipswich and Colchester for his own profit. Edward IV's biographer notes that there were many similar characters in fifteenth-century England, and that in return for their support the King was prepared to tolerate a degree of lawless conduct on their part. Only when the younger Gilbert crossed the line into overt treason did a later King, Henry VII, bring him down.