GOUGH (GOCH), MATHEW (MATHAU) (c. 1390 - died 1450), soldier

He was born c. 1390. A native of Maelor, in the lower valley of the Dee. His father was Owen Gough, bailiff of the manor of Hanmer; his mother was a daughter of David Hanmer, the nurse of John, lord Talbot, afterwards earl of Shrewsbury. Of the many Welshmen who fought in France during the latter part of the hundred years' war none won greater distinction than Mathew Gough. His name appears in the list of those who took part in the battles of Cravant (1423) and Verneuil (1424). He was subsequently in command of various towns and fortresses, including Laval, S. Denis, Le Mans, Bellême, and Bayeux. In 1432 he was taken prisoner at S. Denis, an event which caused much solicitude amongst the Welsh bards, and an appeal for funds for his ransom. Guto'r Glyn's voice is typical - 'Bu ar glêr bryder a braw/ Ban ddaliwyd, beunydd wylaw' (anxious and alarmed, the bards wept daily when he was captured). His mainly was the responsibility for carrying out the surrender of Anjou and Maine to the French, a distasteful task in which he resorted to many 'subterfuges, pretences, and dissimulations' (1447). After the English defeat at Formigny (1449), and the subsequent loss of Normandy, he returned to England, and was put in joint command of the Tower of London. He was killed on London bridge, 5 July 1450, defending the city against Jack Cade's rebels, and he was buried in the choir of S. Mary's of the Carmelite Friars in London. His death, according to William of Worcester, caused universal grief in Wales. There could be no greater tribute to his fame than the prominence given to him in contemporary French chronicles. For many years afterwards the name ' Matago ' was fondly cherished by the inhabitants of Bellême. To him was given the honour of addressing the English troops on the eve of Formigny. It was his defeat that was the occasion for the chronicler's greatest rejoicing.

Author

• Howell Thomas Evans, (1878 - 1950)

Sources

• Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Wars of the English in France (1861–4)
• Recueil des Croniques et Anchiennes Istories de la Grant Bretaigne … Par Jehan de Waurin (1864–91)
• Chronicle containing the History of England from Henry IV to Henry VIII (1809)
• Anglica Historia, A.D. 1485-1537
• The Paston letters, 1422-1509 A.D (1874)
• De Reductione Normanniae (1863)
• Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England (Record Commission London 1834-37)
• Letters of Queen Margaret of Anjou and Bishop Beckington and others written in the reigns of Henry V and Henry VI (1863)
• Rymer, Foedera conventiones, litteræ, et cujuscunque generis acta publica, inter reges Angliæ et alios quosuis imperatores, reges, pontifices, principes, vel communitates, ab ingressu Gulielmi I. in Angliam, A.D. 1066, ad nostra usque tempora habita aut tractata ex autographis, infra secretiores archivorum regiorum thesaurarias, asservatis, aliisque summæ vetustatis instrumentis, ad historiam anglicanam spectantibus, fideliter exscripta (1816-1830, 1869)
• Record Reports William of Worcester
• William of Worcester, Annales Rerum Anglicarum (1861–4)
• Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches between the years 1586 and 1613, under the authority of Clarencieux and Norroy, two kings at arms (Llandovery 1846)
• The poetical works of Lewis Glyn Cothi (Oxford 1837)
• Gwaith Guto'r Glyn (1939)
• Casgliad o waith Ieuan Deulwyn o wahanol ysgriflyfrau (Bangor 1909)
• Howell T. Evans, Wales and the Wars of the Roses (Cambridge 1915)
• Ynyr Probert, 'Matthew Gough 1390-1450', The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion 1961, Pt. II, 34-44

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q18440082

Published date: 1959

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