The medieval history of Armitage and Handsacre, including the de Handsacre and de Rugeley families, Hawkesyard Hall, medieval landownership, warfare and the development of the local landscape.
In 1415, William de Handsacre marched to France with Henry V’s army and stood among the English men-at-arms at the Battle of Agincourt. This article follows his journey from the siege of Harfleur to one of England’s greatest military victories, before tracing the final chapter of the medieval family whose name has survived for centuries in the village of Handsacre.
Sir William de Handsacre fought in some of the most famous campaigns of the early Hundred Years’ War, serving under Ralph, Earl of Stafford, in Gascony before taking part in Edward III’s invasion of France. From the victories at Bergerac and Auberoche to the decisive Battle of Crécy and the long siege of Calais, his military career placed a Staffordshire knight at the heart of events that reshaped medieval Europe.
William de Handsacre chose the wrong side in one of medieval England’s greatest civil wars. After supporting Simon de Montfort against King Henry III, he lost his lands, fled to the rebel stronghold on the Isle of Axholme and became one of the “Disinherited”. Yet through royal reconciliation he eventually regained his estates and returned to public life, revealing how national events transformed the fortunes of the Lords of Handsacre.
In 1306, William de Handsacre travelled from his Staffordshire manor to Westminster to take part in one of the most spectacular ceremonies of medieval England. Knighted alongside more than 260 young squires at the famous Feast of Swans, he witnessed a royal oath, magnificent pageantry and the beginning of Edward I’s final campaign against Scotland—a remarkable connection between a small village and a defining moment in English history.
For more than two centuries, the de Handsacre family were the lords of the manor from which the village took its name. Their story reaches far beyond Staffordshire, encompassing civil war, royal service, the Hundred Years’ War, and even Crecy and Agincourt. Explore the lives and fortunes of a family whose history reflects the wider story of medieval England through a series of linked articles.
A murder committed inside the manorial chapel at Handsacre in 1386 sparked one of the most remarkable legal battles in the parish’s history. At the centre lay a disputed inheritance, child heiresses, kidnappings, rival marriage claims and a succession of lawsuits stretching over twenty years. This article follows the evidence to reconstruct how ambition, violence and royal influence reshaped the medieval Manor of Handsacre.
