Alice Knyvet

1420 (age 23)

Norfolk, United Kingdom

In 1460, Alice's husband and eldest son seized New Bokenham Castle in Norfolk following the death of its previous tenant. Their swift action flouted the finding of a royal inquisition, which had dismissed her husband's hereditary claim and ordered that the castle revert back to the English Crown. In September 1461 John Twyer was dispatched, along with a royal commission composed of local nobility, and charged by King Edward IV to take the stronghold into the custody of the Crown. They expected that Alice, holding the stronghold during her husband's absence, would immediately acquiesce to the royal order of eviction. When they passed through the outer ward, however, they were confounded to find the drawbridge of the inner keep raised and the battlements lined with fifty heavily armed men. Twyer demanded to be admitted and was bluntly refused by Knyvet. Faced by such determined opposition, the king's representatives were forced to withdraw. Knyvet and her husband were formally pardoned and granted possession of the castle in December 1461.

Alice Knyvet

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also known as Knevet, Knevett

defender Noblewoman

Background

Alice Knyvet was born in 1420 in Norfolk, United Kingdom. Her parents were William John Lynne and Alice Lynne Stokes. Little is known about her early life.

Career

In 1460, Alice's husband and eldest son seized New Bokenham Castle in Norfolk following the death of its previous tenant. Their swift action flouted the finding of a royal inquisition, which had dismissed her husband's hereditary claim and ordered that the castle revert back to the English Crown.

In September 1461 John Twyer was dispatched, along with a royal commission composed of local nobility, and charged by King Edward IV to take the stronghold into the custody of the Crown. They expected that Alice, holding the stronghold during her husband's absence, would immediately acquiesce to the royal order of eviction. When they passed through the outer ward, however, they were confounded to find the drawbridge of the inner keep raised and the battlements lined with fifty heavily armed men. Twyer demanded to be admitted and was bluntly refused by Knyvet. Faced by such determined opposition, the king's representatives were forced to withdraw. Knyvet and her husband were formally pardoned and granted possession of the castle in December 1461.

Achievements

Knyvet's deft handling of the royal commission demonstrates the confidence with which English gentry women could advance the interests of their families. It also shows how astute women could manipulate medieval notions of a wife's obligatory subservience to her husband in order to justify their defiance of a greater authority - in this case, that of the English king.

Views

Quotations: "Maister Twyer ye be a Justice of the Peace. I require you to keep the peace, for I will not leave possession of this castle to die therefor and if ye being to break the peace or make any war to get the place of me, I shall defend me, for liever I had in such wise to die than to be slain when my husband cometh home, for he charged me to keep it."

Connections

Alice married John Knyvet, a prominent Norfolk gentry man, around the year 1440.

Father:: William John Lynne
Mother:: Alice Lynne Stokes
husband:: John Knyvet

References

Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women
2003

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Alice Knyvet

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