James TOUCHET

(4th B. Audley of Heleigh)

Born: 1468/9, Heleigh, Staffordshire, England

Died: 28 Jun 1497, London, England

Father: John TOUCHET (3º B. Audley of Heleigh)

Mother: Anne ECHINGHAM (B. Audley of Heleigh)

Married 1: Margaret DARREL (dau. of Richard Darrell and Margaret Beaufort, C. Stafford) BEF 1483, Lillington Dayrell, Buckinghamshire, England

Children:

1. John TOUCHET (5º B. Audley of Heleigh)

Married 2: Joan BOURCHIER (B. Audley of Heleigh) ABT 1488

Made K.B. at the creation of Prince Edward as Prince of Wales in 1475. He succeeded his father in the barony on 26 Sep 1491, and was summoded to parliament from 12 Aug 1492 to 16 Jan 1496/97. He was in France with Henry VII on the expedition of 1492, and possibly may have there got into debt, and consequently became dissatified. One account makes him a petitioner for peace, but that was but a device of Henry to have an excuse for the peace of Etaples. In consequence of the Scottish war occasioned by Perkin Warbeck fresh taxation was necessary, and though it ought not to have pressed hardly on the poor, they seem to have been roused by agitators to resistance. The outbreak of the Blackheath Rebellion began in the early part of 1497 in cornwall. The rebels, marching towards London, reached Well, and they were joined by James Touchet B. Audley of Heleigh, who at once assumed the leadership. On 16 Jun 1497 Blackheath was reached, and on 17 Jun the rebels were decisively defeated by the Earl of Oxford and Lord Daubeney. Audley was taken prisoner, brought before the King and council on 19 Jun and condemned. On the 28 he was led, clothed in a paper coat, from Newgate to Tower Hill, and there beheaded. His head was stuck on London Bridge. His body was buried at the Blackfriars church.

He married, first, Margaret daughter of Richard Dayrell of Lillingston Dayrell, Buckinghamshire, by whom he have a son John, who was restaured in blood in 1512, and was ancestor of James Touchet, Baron Audley ans Earl of Catlehaven, secondly, Joan, daughter of Fulke, lord Fitzwarine, who long survived him.

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