Robert Waterton
Robert Waterton (c. 1360 – 17 January 1425) was a trusted servant of the House of Lancaster under three monarchs, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. As Constable of Pontefract Castle, he had custody of Richard II after that king was deposed. Family Robert Waterton, likely born circa 1360, was the son of John Waterton of Waterton, Lincolnshire and Joan, daughter of Peter de Mauley, 2nd Baron Mauley. He had a brother, John Waterton, and was a nephew of Sir Hugh Waterton. Career Like his uncle Sir Hugh Waterton, he entered the service of Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV. In 1391 he was appointed Master Forester at Pontefract Castle, and in that year accompanied Bolingbroke to the siege of Vilnius. He was with Bolingbroke when he returned to Vilnius in the following year. From 1392 he received a yearly fee from Bolingbroke of £6 13s 4d, and in 1398 Bolingbroke granted him an additional annuity of 10 marks. In 1399 he was Steward and Constable at Pontefract, as well as Constable at Tickhill Castle and Castle Donington, positions which 'made him a dominant figure in the West Riding of Yorkshire and in north Nottinghamshire'. He remained in these posts despite Richard II's confiscation of Bolingbroke's estates after the death of John of Gaunt in 1399. In June of that year Waterton was among the first of Bolingbroke's retainers to join him at Ravenspur, where he arrived with two hundred foresters, although according to a speech by the Earl of Northumberland in Shakespeare's Richard II (Act II, scene i), Waterton was among those who sailed with Bolingbroke from the continent: Then thus: I have from Port le Blanc, a bay In Brittany, received intelligence That Harry Duke of Hereford, Rainold Lord Cobham, That late broke from the Duke of Exeter, His brother, Archbishop late of Canterbury, Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston, Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton and Francis Quoint, All these well furnish'd by the Duke of Bretagne With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war, Are making hither with all due expedience And shortly mean to touch our northern shore. Bolingbroke was crowned as Henry IV on 13 October 1399, and on 20 November Waterton was appointed his Master of Horse. In 1401–2 he was sent on embassies to Germany and Denmark. On 28 November 1399 he was granted the manor of Doubledyke in Gosberton, Lincolnshire which had been forfeited by Sir John Bushy or Bussy. In January 1400 Waterton was one of those given custody of the former King, Richard II, at Pontefract. In 1404 he openly in Parliament rejected claims that Richard was still alive. With the outbreak of civil war in 1403, Waterton was instrumental in preventing the forces of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, from joining those of his son, Henry Percy (Hotspur). Waterton then marched with Henry IV's army against Northumberland at Newcastle upon Tyne, and was later sent to arrest both Hotspur's widow and son. He was rewarded