James Strangeways

Sir James Strangeways (c. 1410—1480) was Speaker of the House of Commons of England between 1461–1462. and a close political ally of Edward IV's Yorkist faction. Life James was the son of Sir James Strangeways of Whorlton, Yorkshire appointed Chief Justice of North Wales. In London he was a King's Serjeant and then a justice of the common pleas in 1426 by his wife Joan, daughter of Nicholas Orrell. He was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1446, 1453, and 1469 and was returned for the county to the parliaments of 1449 and 1460 and 1461–2. A Yorkist, he fought at the 1st battle of St Albans in 1455, Blore Heath in 1459, and Wakefield in 1460. His career was informative during that year, at the start of which in March the Lancastrians confirmed his post as High Sheriff of the North Riding. His previous conduct might have hinted at other allegiances for in 1459 the king appointed a northern embassy to Scotland, but Strangeways refused to travel. That summer Edward, Earl of March, headed a Yorkist invasion force that marched into the Midlands. On 30 July 1460 they decisively defeated the King's army. But by that time the administration had already removed Strangeways from his post. The parliament of October 1460 was almost wholly Yorkist. Strangeways was returned for Yorkshire with his brother-in-law, the other 'knight of the shire', Sir Thomas Montford. Reappointed as a JP of the North Riding, he rode with the Yorkist nobles into southern Yorkshire to arrest and imprison the Lancastrian knights there. Strangeways made extensive use of an arbitrary piece of law Scandalum magnatum widely abused by the Yorkist regime. It enabled the arrest for just cause for uttering alleged falsehoods, and artisans who breached patent laws in manufacture. Its application was generalised by court officials. When Somerset's army defeated and killed the duke of York at Wakefield at the end of the year the earl of March was not present. It is likely Strangeways was captured but released by Edward when he was reported as killed at the Towton on 10 May 1461. He was immediately reinstated as JP for West Riding with his son as JP for North Riding. He was charged by the charismatic soldier-king to find and imprison leading Lancastrian rebels. Dr John Morton and Sir John Conyers were leading members of Henry VI's affinity. Morton was a former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a senior court official.