Sir Richard Edgcumbe or Edgecombe (c.1443 - 8 September 1489) was an English courtier and politician.

From 1467 to 1468, he was the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Tavistock

Tavistock (UK Parliament constituency)

Tavistock was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Devon between 1330 and 1974. Until 1885 it was a parliamentary borough, consisting solely of the town of Tavistock; it returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1868, when its...

. He was a Lancastrian

House of Lancaster

The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...

 and had his lands confiscated in 1471 by the Yorkist Edward IV

Edward IV of England

Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...

, although these were returned to him the next year.

Angered by Richard of Gloucester

Richard III of England

Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...

’s usurpation of the throne in 1483 and the rumours of the murder of Edward V and his brother in the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

, Edgcumbe joined the rebellion led by the Duke of Buckingham to dethrone the Yorkist Richard III

Richard III of England

Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...

 and replace him with the Lancastrian Henry Tudor

Henry VII of England

Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....

. When the rebellion collapsed and Henry’s ships fled, Edgcumbe’s arrest was ordered and a troop of soldiers commanded by the notoriously brutal Sir Henry Trenowth of Bodrugan were sent to arrest him. He hid himself on the wooded hillside of his Tamarside home, Cotehele, and when his hiding-place was discovered, threw his pursuers off the scent by filling his cap with stones and throwing it into the river, fooling his pursuers into thinking he had drowned and thus escaping certain death. After his escape he fled to Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

 and joined Henry Tudor with whom he returned to England in 1485. He was knighted after the Battle of Bosworth Field

Battle of Bosworth Field

The Battle of Bosworth Field was the penultimate battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York that raged across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 August 1485, the battle was won by the Lancastrians...

, where Henry Tudor and the Lancastrians were victorious.

He held important offices in the new reign: MP for Tavistock once again in 1485, Privy Councillor, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, Comptroller of the Royal Household, High Sheriff of Devonshire, 1487 and Ambassador to Scotland. He carried out a number of important assignments for the new king, including the administering of the oaths of allegiance in Ireland in 1488. During his last mission, a diplomatic one to negotiate a truce with Anne, duchess of Brittany, he died at Morlaix on September 8, 1489 and was buried there. His tomb was destroyed during the French Revolution.

He had married Joan Tremayne; they had five children: Piers (1472–1539), Anne, Jane, Elizabeth and Margaret (1481–1520).