Gruffudd Vychan - A Knight Banneret at Agincourt ?

A Knight Banneret At Agincourt ?

There is a persistent tradition that Gruffudd Vychan was in the band of Welshmen who are said to have saved the life of King Henry V when he rushed to rescue his brother, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415. The belief grew that he, like Dafydd Gam, Roger Vaughan, and others, were knighted on the field. These knights are not recorded in Shaw's Knights of England. If Gruffudd Vychan was of age he could well have been at Agincourt, for two of his territorial lords, John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville, son-in-law of Sir Edward de Cherleton, Lord of Powis, and Sir Hugh Stafford, Lord of Caus, were in that campaign, in the retinue of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. The view that he was the ‘Griffin Fordet’ of a French chronicle of Agincourt must be rejected.

A Welsh poet, Llywelyn ap Moel y Pantri perhaps, in a cywydd states that Gruffudd Vaughan was made an esquire in London and knighted in a town beyond Rouen in France. It may be gathered that his promotion was largely due to the patronage of Duke Humphrey after Sir John Grey fell at the Battle of Baugé in March 1421, and Sir Gruffydd arranged for the body to be returned to Welshpool for an impressive funeral. He was styled knight in the poem and was probably knighted by Henry VI after the death of Henry V in 1422, in recognition of his valour as a leading captain in the King's service at home in Powis, in England and in the field in France - maybe after Pontoise fell in 1441.