This list is a refinement of a provisional list supplied by Dr Malcolm Vale and Dr Guilhem Pépin. Those names shown in bold have been confirmed from the Gascon Rolls or other sources.

No complete list of the individuals who held this office exists. A listing from the reign of Henry III to the reign of Richard II is produced in Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England, vol. VI (1933), pp. 68-71. A detailed list for the beginning of the period is owed to J.-P. Trabut-Cussac, L’administration anglaise en Gascogne sous Henri III et Édouard I de 1254 à1307), pp. 376-8. A list of those constables for the first part of the reign of Edward II was produced in RG IV, pp. xxii-xxiii. For a detailed article of the constables during the reign of Edward III, see Lodge, E.C., ‘The Constables of Bordeaux in the reign of Edward III’, English Historical Review, 50, no. 198 (Apr. 1935), 225-41. The constables for the Lancastrian period are listed in Vale, M., English Gascony, 1399-1453, 247.

 

Ramon de Taleyson, king’s clerk (mentioned on 5 February 1274 - c.24 September 1274)

Johan de Labère, king’s clerk (12 November 1274 - 5 June 1276)

Adam of Norfolk (9 June 1276-30 September 1280)

Ramon du Mirail, burgess of La Réole (mentioned on 28 March 1281- 31 August 1283)

Peter de Lek, king’s clerk (31 August 1283, never acted)

Ramon du Mirail (from 1283 to March-October 1287), second appointment

Itier Bochard or Bouchard d’Angoulême, clerk (10 June 1289 – 13 July 1293)

Robert of Leysseth, king’s clerk (13 July 1293- 22 March 1294)

Pey Caillau, burgess of Bordeaux (15 January 1303 - 5 August 1303)

Pey Aymeric, king’s clerk (5 August 1303-22 September 1305)

Richard de Havering, king’s clerk (appointed 24 March 1305, take office 22 September 1305–7 April 1306)

Master Jordan Maurand (22 August 1306-6 October 1306)

Richard de Havering, king’s clerk (6 October 1306 – 10 May 1308), second appointment.

Master Jordan Maurand, king’s clerk (15 March 1308-6 April 1309)

The second appointment of Maurand was made on 15 March 1308 (RG IV, entry 60, p. 35).

Amerigo Frescobaldi (6 April 1309-12 October 1311)

Frescobaldi was appointed on 6 April 1309 (RG IV, entry 222, p. 75). He does not seem to have acted in the office in person, but through his representative, Ugolino Ugolini, though Ugolini was given as constable in later references (C 61/33 m.9).

Master Johan Guitard and Master Aubert Mège (12 October 1311-1 December 1311)

The office was taken into the king’s hands on 12 October 1311, and Guitard and Mège were assigned to control the office during this time (RG IV, entries 552-555, pp. 158-9). Mège was described as lieutenant constable in November 1313 (RG IV, entry 1148, p. 317), and as late lieutenant in 1314, while Guitard was controller of the castle of Bordeaux (RG IV, entry 1245, p. 349).

Master Jordan Maurand, king’s clerk (1 December 1311-c. May 1313)

The third appointment of Maurand was made on 1 December 1311 (RG IV, entry 574, p. 168).

Master Pey Fouchier (alias Ros, Ruphus or Ruphi) (2 and 13 October 1313-4 March 1314)

Not recorded in the Gascon Rolls acting in the office, but apparently fulfilling the office, if not possessing the title (RG IV, p. xxiii).

Master Aiquart Barbe (before 4 March 1314 – 1318)

No appointment for Barbe seems to have survived. A reference survives for Barbe as constable on 4 March 1314, so that he must have already been in office before this time (The Gascon Calendar,ed. by Cuttino, entry 2085, p. 165). He was also recorded in the Gascon rolls in office on 2 August 1316 (RG IV, entry 1413, pp. 404-5).

Richard de Elsfield, king's clerk (6 December 1318 – c. 20 July 1320)

Elsfield was appointed on 6 December 1318 (entry 360 in C 61/32). The appointment of Amaury III de Craon as seneschal of Gascony on 20 July 1320, was accompanied with the grant of power to him to appoint the constable of Bordeaux and other officers. The order to Elsfield to appear at the exchequer at Westminster on 26 July to render account, seems to mark the end of his tenure of the office of constable (entry 233 in C 61/33).

Jean Hoquet (c. 20 July 1320 - c. 24 April 1322)

Hoquet was a member of the entourage of Amaury III de Craon, and presumably was relieved of the office of constable with the replacement of his master.

Adam de Limber, king's clerk, (24 April 1322 – 1 April 1324)

The first appointment of Limber, was made while Amaury III, de Craon was still seneschal of Gascony, Craon having been granted the power to appoint the constable (entry 74 in C 61/35). It would seem that, Craon was also soon to be replaced.

Master John Travers, king's clerk (1 April 1324 – 1 October 1324)

Appointed on 1 April 1324 (entry 307 in C 61/35).

Adam de Limber, king's clerk (1 October 1324 – 12 March 1326)

The second appointment of Limber was made on 1 October 1324 (entry 78 in C 61/36).

Master Aubert Mège (12 March 1326 – 7 February 1327)

Mège was appointed on 12 March 1326 (entry 57 in C 61/38).

John de Weston, clerk (7 February 1327 – 3 September 1329)

Weston was appointed on 7 February (entry 8 in C 61/39; Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 231-2).

Master Pey de Galician, king's clerk (3 September 1329 – 29 June 1331)

Galician served in several offices before this appointment on 3 September 1329 (entry 126 in C 61/41). Galician received a further grant of the office on 8 February 1331 (entry 45 in C 61/43). Galician was clearly an experienced clerk, and enjoyed preferments in the Church in Rouen, Chichester and Agen, no mean achievement in those disturbed times (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 232).

John Travers, clerk (29 June 1331 – 1334)

Travers' second appointment was made on 29 June 1331 (entry 198 in C 61/43). However, Travers appears to have died in office, and was clearly dead well before December 1334 when entries can be found about the auditing of his account, and his successor was appointed. Earlier entries in 1334 refer to an individual having the governance of the office, and it would seem by a reference in December 1334, that this was Thomas de Greysouthen, who was also Travers’ executor (entry 100 and entry 101 in C 61/46).

Thomas de Greysouthen (1334)

Greysouthen, it would seem, had the governance of the office of constable, following John Travers' death in office, by the order of Oliver de Ingham, then seneschal of Gascony (entry 101 in C 61/46; Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 232-3). It is possible that Greysouthern, who acted as Travers executor, had also been his lieutenant.

Niccolo Usodimare (16 December 1334 – 22 September 1343)

Appointed on 16 December by a letter of the king (entry 91 in C 61/46). Lodge described him as ‘a Genoese merchant seaman’. He remained in office until at least 1340. However, he never seems to have acted in the office in person, and his brother Antonio, acting as his lieutenant, executed the office for the entire duration of his tenure of the office (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 230-1).

Master John Wawayn, king's clerk (22 September 1343 – 28 April 1348)

Wawayn was appointed on 23 September 1343 (C 61/54, m. 3). On 9 May 1347 Walter de Weston was appointed as Wawayn's lieutenant (entry 18 in C 61/59). Wawayn was to die in office, but was able to return to England before death overtook him. Walter de Weston acted as his lieutenant (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 233-4).

Master John Streatley, king's clerk (28 April 1348 – 13 September 1350)

The first appointment of Streatley was made on 28 April 1348 (C 61/60, m. 30). A doctor of canon law, Lodge described him as ‘one of the more distinguished of these officials’. He appears to have stayed in Aquitaine after he was replaced following his second term as constable, apparently serving as a king’s councillor there, and subsequently as chancellor for Edward of Woodstock. He was dean of Lincoln, and seems to have returned to that city when he came back to England (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 235).

John Charnels, king's clerk (13 September 1350 – 18 January 1353)

Charnels was appointed on 13 September 1350 (C 61/62, m. 3). Charnels was unfortunate in being captured during military service by the French at Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, and a regens had to be appointed for the period of several months in which he remained in captivity. William Stel acted as his lieutenant. During his captivity the seneschal appointed William de la Pomeray, canon of Salisbury and Exeter, to act in his place, and there were initially problems over Pomeray’s accounting for his brief tenure (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 233, 239-40).

In February 1351, Charnels issued letters by which it is clear that he was acting as lieutenant of John de Chiverston, kt, then seneschal of Aquitaine (entry 42 in C 61/99).

Master John de Streatley, king's clerk (18 January 1354 – 1 July 1361)

The second appointment of Streatley was made on 18 January 1354 (entry 52 in C 61/65). It would appear that he owed his appointment to Edward of Woodstock, prince of Wales, for he was his clerk, and the tenure of the initial part of his office roughly coincided with Woodstock’s lieutenancy in the duchy (Register of the Black Prince, IV, 541). William Grantham served as Streatley’s lieutenant from 1357 (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 240).

William de Farley (1 July 1361 – 19 July 1362)

He was appointed on 1 July 1361, at the same time as the new seneschal, Richard de Stafford (entry 48 in C 61/74). Unlike Stafford, he actually took up the office. However, Farley died in office in 1362, for Bernat de Brocas, clerk, was given power to fulfil his role in December 1362, the king being apparently very eager to have the accounts of his officers audited, and all monies that were owing to him, paid up until the point of the grant of the principality to Edward of Woodstock, his son (entry 119 in C 61/75).

Roger Fulcandi (September 1362 – December 1362)

On the appointment of Master John Harewell, Fulcandi was described as ‘lieutenant of the constable’, and was ordered to deliver the office to Harewell, together with its records (Register of the Black Prince, IV, 479). However, it would seem that he was acting as a kind of regens in the office of constable following William de Farley’s death, and had apparently been his lieutenant. Presumably the seneschal and council authorised this temporary state of affairs as had happened on the death of John Travers in 1334. For a brief discussion of this situation see Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 235.

Bernard de Brocas, clerk (9 December 1362 – ?)

Brocas was appointed not to the office, but to act as constable without the formal title (entry 119 in C 61/75). He was already controller of Bordeaux, and it is unclear when his appointment terminated for it was Roger Fulcandi who, as lieutenant constable, handed the office to Master John Harewell. It would seem that his appointment was to put the financial situation in order following the death of William de Farley earlier in the year, and to ensure that all revenue due to the king up to the point of the transfer of the duchy to the king’s son was recovered (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 235). It must be considered that Lodges identification of Brocas as constable is incorrect.

Master John Harewell (c. 11 November 1362 – 1366)

Harewell was appointed on or about 11 November 1362 when Roger Fulcandi, the then lieutenant of the constable, was notified of his appointment, and ordered to deliver the office and its records to him (Register of the Black Prince, IV, 479). He received very many religious preferments prior to his appointments in Aquitaine, and was raised to the bishopric of Bath and Wells whilst he was still in the prince’s service in Aquitaine (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 235-6)

Alexander Dalby (November 1366 – 1368)

Dalby died in office in 1368, and was succeeded by a series of treasurers who occasionally were termed constable. It was not until the principality was transferred back to the king in 1373 that a new constable was appointed (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 235).

Alan Stokes (in office in 1369), (as ‘treasurer’ of Aquitaine).

John de Carleton (1371-1372)

Carleton was serving in office in 1371-2, but also as treasurer of Aquitaine.

John Ludham (25 April 1372 – 20 August 1373)

Serving as treasurer of Aquitaine.

Master Robert de Wickford, king's clerk, doctor of both laws (acting by 24 November 1372 –July 1375)

No appointment of Wickford is recorded in the Gascon rolls prior to his appointment by the king on 7 March 1373 (entry 14 in C 61/86), but he was being addressed as constable on 24 November 1372 (entry 75 in C 61/85). Wickford was a member of the Sussex gentry family resident at Wickford Hall, and was clearly a learned clerk and lawyer. His tenure as constable seems to have come to an abrupt ending with his major promotion to the office of archbishop of Dublin in October 1375 (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 236).

Master Richard Rotour (16 April 1375 – 15 September 1379)

Rotour was appointed on 16 April 1375 (entry 33 in C 61/88). Rotour appears to have brought his lieutenant with him – John Fareday (Lodge, Constables of Bordeaux, 240).

William Loring, licentiate of civil law (15 September 1379 – 5 October 1381)

A king's clerk, Loring was appointed on 15 September (entry 53 in C 61/93). He was the brother of the prominent knight - Nigel Loring.

John de Stratton, lord of Landiras (26 August 1381 – 26 December 1386)

Stratton received an appointment that was cancelled on 26 August 1381 (entry 3 in C 61/95). Another appointment was made on the same date but later in the roll (entry 23 in C 61/95).

Stratton was a Cheshire squire who appears to have gone to Aquitaine with the prince in 1355. He married the heiress Isabe de Saint-Symphorien in 1358, and obtained by this marriage the lordship of Landiras and other  estates in the Bordelais. Having married, Stratton became one of a number of Englishmen at this time who settled in Aquitaine. He received grants of lands and property of rebels, and was continually active in the defence of the principality and duchy in the last years of the reign of Edward III and the reign of Richard II.

Stratton's daughter married into the Preissac family, the Soudans de La Trau so preserving his line in that of that loyal Gascon family. Stratton died in 1397 having served in Aquitaine continually for over forty years (Labarge, M.W., Gascony: England's First Colony 1204-1453 (London, 1980), p. 178; Morgan, P.J., War and Society in Medieval Cheshire 1277-1403, Chetham Society, vol. XXXIV, Third Ser., 1987, p. 158; Sumption, J., The Hundred Years War: Divided Houses, vol. III (London, 2009), p. 737).

John Gedney, king’s clerk (26 December 1386 – September 1390)

Gedney was appointed on 26 December 1386 (entry 23 in C 61/99). He received a further grant of the office for three years on 12 August 1387 (entry 29 in C 61/100).

William Langbrook (October 1390 – c. September 1396)

Langbrook received a protection to go to Aquitaine to take up his office on 19 October 1390 (entry 94 in C 61/101).

Master Henry Bowet, king's clerk (before 11 July 1396, renewed 23 July 1398 – April 1399)

Bowet was a master and doctor of laws, and was also archdeacon of Lincoln. He was evidently appointed to the office of constable of Bordeaux by John of Gaunt, while Gaunt was duke, for no record of the actual appointment appears to survive, but he was certainly being styled 'constable' by 11 July 1396. This appointment was confirmed by Richard II on 23 July 1398 with a grant of the office of constable  - perhaps a recognition of the waining of Gaunt's power in the last months of his life (entry 23 in C 61/105). He was appointed as a judge of the king's court of sovereignty in Aquitaine on 19 July 1397 (entry 3 in C 61/105).

Bowet, who hitherto had been distinctly loyal to Richard II, even earning the emnity of the leading appellants in 1388, leading to his being stripped of the deanery of Dublin, and the archdeaconry of Lincoln, followed Henry Bollingbroke into exile in 1398, and was condemned by Richard II in committee of the parliament held at Shrewsbury. Declared a traitor, he was again stripped of ecclesiastical preferments and offices such as the constabulary of Bordeaux. He was restored only with the usurpation of Henry IV, and served ably shoring up support for the Lancastrian regime in Aquitaine. For further details see T. F. Tout, ‘Bowet, Henry (d. 1423)’, rev. J. J. N. Palmer, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008.

William Langbrook (22 April 1399 – September 1399) (second appointment)

Langbrook was appointed for the second time for a short period in the last months of Richard II's reign, following the removal of Bowet, who had accompanied Henry of Bolingbroke in his exile, and subsequently been condemned as a traitor (entry 98 in C 61/105). The appointment did not long survive Richard's effective deposition, for Henry Bowet was restored to the office by Henry IV.

Master Henry Bowet, clerk (14 October 1399-1401)

Bowet was appointed on 14 October 1399, though the appointment is only recorded in the Gascon Rolls in a subsequent order to the seneschal and other officials to aid him (entry 40 in C 61/107). Bowet was provided to the bishopric of Bath and Wells on 19 October 1401, which appointment drew his tenure of the office of constable to a close, as it had done for Master John Harewell some 35 years previously. For further details see T. F. Tout, ‘Bowet, Henry (d. 1423)’, rev. J. J. N. Palmer, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008.

William de Farringdon, kt (1 May 1401-16 November 1413)

Farringdon was appointed to the office for life on 1 May 1401 (entry 62 in C 61/108).

William Clifford, kt (23 March 1413-27 March 1418)

Appointed on 23 March 1413 (entry 1 in C 61/114). He had left England on 3 July 1413 (Wylie, Henry V, i, 122). He acted through– John Fastolf – his deputy constable until November 1413 (E 101/185/6, no.2, and 186/2, no.117). He died in office on 27 March 1418 (E 101/187/1). Clifford was appointed captain and constable of the castle of Fronsac on 19 July 1413, an office he held concurrently with the constabulary of Bordeaux (entry 32 in C 61/114).

Robert Holme, esquire (27 March 1418 – 16 May 1419)

Holme was appointed governor and administrator of the office by the seneschal on 27 March 1418 (E 101/55/37).

John Radcliffe, kt (16 May 1419- 18 May 1423)

Radcliffe was appointed on 16 May 1419 (C 61/118, m.9)

Thomas Barneby, clerk (18 May 1423-28 March 1427)

Barneby was appointed on 18 May 1423 (C 61/119, m.17). He died in office on 28 March 1427 (E 364/63 and 67).

Bernat Angevin (or Angebin), esquire (28 March 1427- 28 June 1431)

Angevin began acting on 28 March 1427, and was appointed officially by the seneschal as regent and governor on 17 April 1427 (E 364/67). He was absent in England on 28 March 1429- 28 October 1429 (E 101/189/12, fo. 107v), and again on 11 November 1432 – 1 August 1433 (ibid.).

Walter Colles, clerk (28 June 1431 – 24 March 1439)

Colles was appointed on 29 June 1431 (C 61/124, m.14).

Robert Clifton, kt (24 March 1439-22 September 1442)

Clifton was appointed on 24 March 1439 (C 61/129, m.22). Clifton died in office on on 22 September 1442 (Beckington, Journal, 203).

Edward Hull, kt (17 September 1442-1451;1452-7 July 1453)

Hull was appointed by the council at Bordeaux on 17 September 1442 (E 364/84). This was confirmed by Henry VI on 3 June 1443 (C 61/132, m.9). From the 24 June 1451 until 20 October 1452, Bordeaux was in the hands of the French, so that the English had been forced to evacuate the duchy. However, on the recovery of the city, he again resumed acting as constable. He died at the battle of Castillon on 17 July 1453. His widow and executrix, Eleanor Hull, accounted for her late husband for the period up until the loss of Bordeaux in October 1453 (E 362/92 and E 101/193/14, no.51).