Biography of John Bussy -1399
John Bussy was born to William Bussy.
The Chronicle of Adam of Usk. 18 Sep 1397. On the Tuesday (18th September), sir John Bushy1 was by the commons presented to the king their speaker in parliament, he making first due declaration; and the king accepted him.
Then straightway spake he thus before the king: "In that, my lord the king, we are bound by your dread command to make known to your royal highness who they be who transgressed against your majesty and royalty, we say that Thomas, duke of Gloucester, and Richard, earl of Arundel, did, in the tenth year of your reign, traitorously force you, by means of him who is now archbishop of Canterbury2, and who was then chancellor, thereby doing you grievous wrongs, to grant to them a commission to govern your kingdom and to order its estate, to the prejudice of your majesty and royalty."
Also, the same day, that same commission was made of none effect, with all and every the acts thereon depending or thereby caused.
Also, a general pardon, granted after the great parliament by their means, and a special pardon granted to the earl of Arundel were recalled3. It was also prayed by the
Note 1. Bushy had been first elected speaker of the commons in 1394.
Note 2. Thomas Fitzalan, also called Arundel, was the third son of Richard, ninth earl of Arundel. He had been made bishop of Ely, in 1374, when in his twenty-second year, was translated to York in 1388, and to Canterbury in 1396. He was banished by the present parliament of 1397, and received from the pope translation to the see of St. Andrew’s in partibus infidelium, the same appointment which had been conferred upon Alexander Nevill, his predecessor at York. He was restored to Canterbury on Henry’s accession, and lived to the year 1413.
Note 3. This special pardon had been granted to the earl of Arundel on the 30th of April, 13894, and was the more binding on Richard as it was granted at a time when he was his own master and entirely free from coercion.
On 07 Jul 1399 Edmund of Langley 1st Duke York (age 58) appointed William Scrope 1st Earl Wiltshire (age 49), Henry Green (age 52) and John Bussy to protect Kent against invasion by Henry Bolingbroke Earl of Derby (age 32).
On 28 Jul 1399 William Scrope 1st Earl Wiltshire (age 49), Henry Green (age 52) and John Bussy were captured at Bristol Castle, Gloucestershire [Map].
On 29 Jul 1399 William Scrope 1st Earl Wiltshire (age 49), Henry Green (age 52) and John Bussy were beheaded at Bristol Castle, Gloucestershire [Map]. Earl Wiltshire forfeit.
Calendars. 7. Also, the following Tuesday [23 January 1397], the commons presented Sir John Bushy as their common speaker, with whom the king was well pleased. And then the said Sir John prayed of the king that he might make a protestation that if he should say anything through ignorance or otherwise which had not been agreed by his companions, etc., that he might be corrected by his said companions; to which the king agreed, as he should by right and reason. And on the same day the duke of Lancaster asked the king to do justice to Sir Thomas Talbot, etc.. And then the chancellor explained to the commons that although he had explained in general the reason for summoning the parliament, on the morrow following, at eight o'clock [24 January 1397], the officers would explain it more particularly, that the commons might be better informed; and they were ordered to make haste in the business of parliament. And later the chancellor, at the king's command, charged all the lords spiritual and temporal to be at parliament each day at nine o'clock at the latest, and that no lord should absent himself in any way without the special permission of the king himself.
Calendars. 15. Also, as to the fourth article, touching the expenses of the king's household and the presence of bishops and ladies in his company, the king took great offence and affront in that the commons who were his lieges should wrongly take upon themselves or presume any ordinance or governance of the kingking's person, or his household, or other persons of standing whom it should please him to have in his company. And it seemed to the king that the commons committed a great offence therein against his regality and his royal majesty, and the liberty of himself and his honourable progenitors, which he was bound and willed to maintain and sustain by the aid of God. Wherefor the king ordered the said lords spiritual and temporal that on the following Saturday morning [3 February 1397] they should explain and declare in full to the said commons the king's will in the matter. And further, the king understanding that the said commons had been influenced and informed by a bill delivered to them to present and explain the said last article, so he ordered the duke of Guyenne and of Lancaster to charge Sir John Bushy, speaker for the commons, on his allegiance to recount and tell him the name of whomsoever submitted the said bill to the said commons.
