William de la Pole (of Hull)

William de la Pole of Hull (d. 1366) was a wealthy merchant in Kingston upon Hull, a royal moneylender, a baron of the Exchequer, and ultimately a baron.

Career

Sir William and his (probably older) brother Sir Richard de la Pole (died 1345) were merchants at Hull by 1317, importing Gascon wines. From 1317, they were deputies of the Royal Chief Butler. From 1321, they were collectors of customs and chamberlains of the town. With the accession of Edward III (then under the tutelage of Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella), war with Scotland was resumed. They loaned the pair large sums of money in 1327, and in return Richard received the appointment of Chief Butler of England. When the Bardi, Edward's Florentine bankers were unable to lend the king money to pay his troops, the Pole brothers did so. They were owed £13,482 by February 1329.

Contrary to earlier suggestions, they did not lose power with Mortimer's fall, but their wealth meant they could not be totally excluded from the government of Edward III. Richard continued to attend court at a time when Mortimer's supporters were absent. In July 1331, the brothers divided their assets. Richard was again Chief Butler of England from 1333 to 1338. He was an alderman of London from 1330 to 1340 (when he was knighted), but died in 1345. His son William is principally known as a Northamptonshire landowner.

In 1331 Sir William persuaded the king to make Hull into an autonomous borough, instead of having a royal warden. On the death of the last warden in 1333, the brothers took over the royal property there and Sir William became Mayor of Hull, a post which he filled for the next 4 years. He also represented the city of Hull in five sessions of Parliament (March 1332, September 1334, May 1335, September 1336, and February 1338).

He continued financing Edward's Scottish wars but also bought much property in Yorkshire and Durham. His trading activities included the large scale export of wool to Dortrecht, but he and his partners abused the right of compulsory purchase that they were granted, smuggling wool, and thus ruined the financing of the king's campaigns in the Netherlands in 1338–40.

As a result of this, he and his associates were arrested after the king's return in November 1340, and deprived of the property. However, he was released in May 1342 and the proceedings were quashed, probably because the king needed his help financially. He organised a new company, which managed the Customs and lent vast sums to the king, also buying up royal debts at a large discount. He withdrew from the company in 1345. The company continued, and financed the Crécy campaign and the Siege of Calais, but were ruined as a result of the Black Death. He escaped liability for the debts of the now bankrupt company. However, the prosecution of 1341 was revived, and Sir William only escaped by renouncing all debts due from the crown. This, however, still left him a wealthy man. He died in May 1366, five months after his son Michael was summoned to Parliament as a peer.

Family

The origins of Sir William are obscure. His father's name is not certainly known but may have been William. His mother Elena remarried John Rotenheryng. Some genealogical tables [http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/DeLaPOLE.htm#William%20De%20La%20POLE%20(Sir)3] indicate Sir William was related to the old ruling house of Powys Wenwynwyn. However, there is no concrete evidence whatever of this alleged relationship, though those princes' descendants used the surname de la Pole (i.e. "of the Pool", referring to their case to Welshpool). [GEC , "Complete Peerage" XII(1). ] This surname was no doubt not exceptional.

Sir William had three sons:
* Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk
* Sir Edmund de la Pole
* Sir Thomas de la Pole

De la Pole Avenue, located in the west of Kingston upon Hull, is named after Sir William.

References

E. B. Fryde, ‘Pole, Sir William de la (d. 1366)’, "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22460, accessed 12 April 2008]