William Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby de Eresby
Arms of Sir William de Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby d'Eresby,KG
Born	c.1370
Died	4 December 1409 Newcastle upon Tyne
Noble family	Willoughby de Eresby
Spouses	Hon. Lucy le Strange LadyJoan Holland
Issue	Robert Willoughby, 6th Baron Willoughby de Eresby Sir Thomas Willoughby Elizabeth Willoughby, Baroness Beaumont Margery Willoughby, Baroness FitzHugh Margaret Willoughby, Lady Skipwith
Father	Robert Willoughby, 4th Baron Willoughby de Eresby
Mother	Alice de Skipwith

William Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby de EresbyKG (c.1370 – 4 December 1409) was an Englishbaron.

William Willoughby was the son ofRobert Willoughby, 4th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, by his first wife, Alice de Skipwith, daughter ofSir William de Skipwith, Chief Baron of the Exchequer.^[2] He had four half-brothers by his father's second wife, Margery la Zouche: Robert, Thomas, John and Brian.^[3]

After the death of Margery la Zouche (d. 18 October 1391), his father married thirdly Elizabeth le Latimer (d. 5 November 1395),suo jure 5th Baroness Latimer, daughter ofWilliam Latimer, 4th Baron Latimer, and widow ofJohn Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby. By this marriage, William had a half-sister, Margaret Willoughby, who died unmarried. By her first marriage Elizabeth Latimer had a son, John Neville, 6th Baron Latimer (c.1382 – 10 December 1430), and a daughter, Elizabeth Neville, who married her step-brother, Sir Thomas Willoughby (died c. 20 August 1417).^[4]

The 4th Baron died on 9 August 1396, and Willoughby inherited the title as 5th Baron. He was givenseisin of his lands on 27 September.^[5]

Hicks notes that the Willoughby family had a tradition of military service, but that the 5th Baron 'lived during an intermission in foreign war and served principally against the Welsh and northern rebels ofHenry IV'.^[6] Willoughby joined Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV, soon after his landing atRavenspur, was present at theabdication ofRichard II in theTower on 29 September 1399, and was one of the peers who consented to King Richard's imprisonment. In the following year he is said to have taken part in Henry IV's expedition to Scotland.^[7]

In 1401 he was admitted to theOrder of the Garter, and on 13 October 1402 was among those appointed to negotiate with the Welsh rebel,Owain Glyndŵr. When Henry IV's former allies the Percy Family rebelled in 1403, Willoughby remained loyal to the King. In the July of that year, he was granted lands that had been in the custody ofHenry Percy, who had been killed at theBattle of Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403. Willoughby was appointed to the King's council in March 1404. On 21 February 1404 he was among the commissioners appointed to expel aliens from England.^[8]

In 1405 Hotspur's father,Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, again took up arms against the King, joined byLord Bardolf, and on 27 MayRichard Scrope,Archbishop of York, perhaps in conjunction with Northumberland's rebellion, assembled a force of some 8,000 men onShipton Moor. Scrope was tricked into disbanding his army on 29 May, and he and his allies were arrested. Henry IV denied them trial by their peers, and Willoughby was among the commissioners^[9] who sat in judgment on Scrope in his own hall at his manor of Bishopthorpe, some three miles south ofYork. The Chief Justice, SirWilliam Gascoigne, refused to participate in such irregular proceedings and to pronounce judgment on a prelate, and it was thus left to the lawyer Sir William Fulthorpe to condemn Scrope to death for treason. Scrope was beheaded under the walls of York before a great crowd on 8 June 1405, 'the first English prelate to suffer judicial execution'.^[10] On 12 July 1405 Willoughby was granted lands forfeited by the rebel Earl of Northumberland.^[11]

In 1406 Willoughby was again appointed to the Council. On 7 June and 22 December of that year he was among the lords who sealed the settlement of the crown.^[12]

Willoughby married twice:

• Firstly, soon after 3 January 1383, Lucy le Strange, daughter of Roger le Strange, 5thBaron Strange of Knockin, by Aline, daughter ofEdmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, by whom he had two sons and three daughters:^[13]
  • Robert Willoughby, 6th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, who married firstly, Elizabeth Montagu, and, secondly, Maud Stanhope.
  • Sir Thomas Willoughby, who married Joan Arundel, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Richard Arundel by his wife, Alice. Their descendants, who includeCatherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, eventually inherited thebarony. Catherine became the 12th baroness and the title descended through her children by her second husband,Richard Bertie.
  • Elizabeth Willoughby, who married Henry Beaumont, 5thBaron Beaumont (d.1413).
  • Margery Willoughby, who marriedWilliam FitzHugh, 4th Baron FitzHugh. Their son, the 5th Baron, would marry LadyAlice Neville, sister ofWarwick the Kingmaker. Alice was a grandniece of Willoughby's second wife, LadyJoan Holland. The 5th baron and his wife Alice were great-grandparents to queen consortCatherine Parr.
  • Margaret Willoughby, who married Sir Thomas Skipwith.
• Secondly, to LadyJoan Holland (d. 12 April 1434), widow ofEdmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, and daughter ofThomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, byLady Alice FitzAlan, daughter ofRichard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, by whom he had no issue.^[14] After Willoughby's death his widow married, thirdly,Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham, who was beheaded on 5 August 1415 after the discovery of theSouthampton Plot on the eve ofKing Henry V's invasion of France. She married, fourthly, SirHenry Bromflete, Baron Vessy (d. 16 January 1469).^[15]

Willoughby died atEdgefield, Norfolk on 4 December 1409 and was buried in the Church of St James inSpilsby, Lincolnshire, with his first wife.^[16] A chapel in the church at Spilsby still contains the monuments and brasses of several early members of the Willoughby family, including the 5th baron and his first wife.^[17]

• Cokayne, George Edward (1936).The Complete Peerage, edited by H.A Doubleday and Lord Howard de Walden. Vol. IX. London: St. Catherine Press.
• Cokayne, G.E. (1959).The Complete Peerage, edited by Geoffrey H. White. Vol. XII (Part II). London: St. Catherine Press.
• Harriss, G.L. (2004)."Willoughby, Robert (III), sixth Baron Willoughby (1385–1452)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50229. Retrieved5 December 2012. (Subscription,Wikipedia Library access orUK public library membership required.)(subscription required)
• Hicks, Michael (2004)."Willoughby family (per. c.1300–1523)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52801. Retrieved6 December 2012. (Subscription,Wikipedia Library access orUK public library membership required.)(subscription required)
• Holmes, George (2004)."Latimer, William, fourth Baron Latimer (1330–1381)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16103. Retrieved6 December 2012. (Subscription,Wikipedia Library access orUK public library membership required.)(subscription required)
• McNiven, Peter (2004)."Scrope, Richard (c.1350–1405)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24964. Retrieved7 December 2012. (Subscription,Wikipedia Library access orUK public library membership required.)(subscription required)
• Richardson, Douglas (2011).Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)ISBN 1449966373
• Richardson, Douglas (2011).Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. III (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)ISBN 144996639X
• Richardson, Douglas (2011).Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)ISBN 1460992709

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