John de Welles, 5th Baron Welles

John de Welles, 5th Baron Welles (1352–1421) was an English soldier and noble. He married Eleanor de Mowbray, daughter of John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray, and Elizabeth de Segrave, 5th Baroness Segrave.^[1]

He was summoned to parliament between 20 January 1376 and 26 February 1421.^[2]

At a banquet in Edinburgh and presumably after too much alcohol he issued, as Champion of England, the following challenge to David Lindsay (later 1st Earl of Crawford): “Let words have no place; if ye know not the Chivalry and Valiant deeds of Englishmen; appoint me a day and a place where ye list, and ye shall have experience.”^[1] As a result of the challenge, on St George’s Day, 23 April 1390,^[3] he fought David Lindsay in mock combat on horseback on London Bridge, losing the match by falling from his horse in their third charge against each other.

He was the father of:

• Eudo de Welles (1387-1421), who predeceased his father. He married Maud Greystoke, daughter of Ralph de Greystoke, 3rd Baron Greystoke and Katherine Clifford.^[2] by whom he had a son and daughter:

• Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles.^[2]
• Sir William Welles, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, married to Anne Barnewall, daughter of Sir Christopher Barnewall, and had issue including Elizabeth, Lady Slane;

• Eleanor de Welles, who married Hugh de Poynings, son of Thomas Poynings, 3rd Baron Poynings and Joan ..., and had issue

Notes

1. See p. 700-709 of Ancient Ancestors with Modern Descendants, 7th Ed., by Ronald Wells
2. Sir Bernard Burke (1866). A Genealogical History of the Dormant: Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire. Harrison. p. 569.
3. See p. 400-409 of Ancient Ancestors with Modern Descendants, 7th Ed., by Ronald Wells

See also

• Crawford Castle for additional details of challenge