William Bagot

Also known as: Bagot / sir William Bagot · Family: England · Role: prolocutor · First appears: Richard II 67

Around 1397 at Westminster, William Bagot stood close to Richard II as a trusted court figure and ally of John Bushy and Thomas Greene. With them, he pressed for the revocation of the charters of pardon, and the assembled estates ultimately declared them void because they seemed to threaten the king’s security. He was also among Richard II’s privy council, while his tower received Henry IV when the duke came to take leave of the king.

By the crisis of 1399, William Bagot was aligned with Richard II and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, but opposed to John of Gaunt. In the secret counsel described by John Holland, Duke of Exeter, he was linked with Richard II and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk in a plan concerning John of Gaunt; his bill also disclosed Richard II’s secret malice toward the exiled Henry IV, intelligence that William Bagot had sent to him in France through Roger Smart and Piers Buckton.

Relationship record

Life events

• c. 1397 · The assembled estates revoked all charters of pardon as threats to the king’s security.(Richard II 67 · 📍 Westminster)
  • With: John Bushy Thomas Greene
  • “To conclude, at length all maner of charters of pardon were made void, for that the same séemed to impeach the suertie of the kings person.”
• c. 1399 · William Bagot's bill revealed Richard's secret malice against the exiled Henry IV.(Henry IV 3)
  • With: Richard II Henry IV Roger Smart Piers Buckton
  • “There was also conteined in that bill, what secret malice king Richard had conceiued against the duke of Hereford being in exile, whereof the same Bagot had sent intelligence vnto the duke into France, by one Rogert Smart, who certified it to him by Piers Buckton, and others, to the intent he should the better haue regard to himselfe.”

Richard II 67

• patron: Richard II “There were two other persons of great credit with the king, besides sir Iohn Bushie, that were, as before yee haue heard, verie earnest to haue those charters of pardon reuoked and made void, to wit, sir William Bagot, and sir Thomas Gréene.”
• allies with John Bushy “There were two other persons of great credit with the king, besides sir Iohn Bushie, that were, as before yee haue heard, verie earnest to haue those charters of pardon reuoked and made void, to wit, sir William Bagot, and sir Thomas Gréene.”
• allies with Thomas Greene “There were two other persons of great credit with the king, besides sir Iohn Bushie, that were, as before yee haue heard, verie earnest to haue those charters of pardon reuoked and made void, to wit, sir William Bagot, and sir Thomas Gréene.”

Richard II 71

• with Henry IV (Henry was lodged in a tower belonging to William Bagot.) “the duke of Hereford came to the king (being lodged about a quarter of a mile without the towne in a tower that belonged to sir William Bagot) to take his leaue of him”

Richard II 74

• sworn: Richard II “and other of the kings priuie councell, as Iohn Bushie, William Bagot, Henrie Greene, and Iohn Russell knights”

Henry IV 3

• with Henry IV (Bagot sent intelligence to Henry IV warning him of Richard II's malice.) “There was also conteined in that bill, what secret malice king Richard had conceiued against the duke of Hereford being in exile, whereof the same Bagot had sent intelligence vnto the duke into France, by one Rogert Smart, who certified it to him by Piers Buckton, and others, to the intent he should the better haue regard to himselfe.”
• enemies with John of Gaunt “the late king, the duke of Norfolke, and thou being at Woodstoke, made me to go with you into the chappell, and there the doore being shut, ye made me to sweare vpon the altar, to kéepe counsell in that ye had to say to me, and then ye rehearsed that we should neuer haue our purpose, so long as the duke of Lancaster liued, & therefore ye purposed to haue councell at Lichfield, & there you would arrest the duke of Lancaster, in such sort as by colour of his disobeieng the arrest, he should be dispatched out of life.”
• with John Holland, Duke of Exeter (interaction) “the late king, the duke of Norfolke, and thou being at Woodstoke, made me to go with you into the chappell, and there the doore being shut, ye made me to sweare vpon the altar, to kéepe counsell in that ye had to say to me”
• allies with Richard II “the late king, the duke of Norfolke, and thou being at Woodstoke, made me to go with you into the chappell, and there the doore being shut, ye made me to sweare vpon the altar, to kéepe counsell in that ye had to say to me”
• allies with Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk “the late king, the duke of Norfolke, and thou being at Woodstoke, made me to go with you into the chappell, and there the doore being shut, ye made me to sweare vpon the altar, to kéepe counsell in that ye had to say to me”

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Extracted from the original text of Holinshed's Chronicles — the reigns Shakespeare dramatized. Made with Rho MD.