FORTESCUE, Sir JOHN, an eminent judge and writer on English law, descended from a Devonshire family, was the son of sir Henry Fortescue, lord chief-justice of Ireland, and was born sometime in the reign of Henry VI. Educated at Exeter college, Oxford, he was called to the bar at Lincoln's inn, and in 1441 was made sergeant-at-law. The following year, he was appointed lord chief-justice of the court of king's bench. In the struggle for the crown between the houses of York and Lancaster, he steadily adhered to the latter, and is supposed to have been for a time lord high chancellor of England. Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Lord Chancellors (vol. i. p. 367), under date Feb. 17, 1461, says: "If sir John Fortescue ever was de facto chancellor, and in the exercise of the duties of the office, it must have been now, after the second battle of St. Albans, and at the very conclusion of the reign of Henry VI." In Mar. of that year, he fought at the battle of Towton for that monarch, and was attainted by the parliament under Edward IV. He accompanied the queen Margaret of Anjou, and her young son, prince Edward, on their flight into Scotland, and while there wrote a treatise in support. of the claim of the house Of Lancaster to the English crown. In 1463, he embarked,
with the queen and her son for Holland, where he remained for several years, intrusted. with the education of the young prince. During his exile, he wrote his celebrated work, De LaudOus Legum Anglice, for the instruction of his royal pupil. In the introduction, and throughout the dialogue, he designates himself " Cancellarius." It was when he was in Scotland that the title of chancellor of England is said by some to have been conferred upon him by the dethroned monarch. He probably had the titular office of chancellor in partibus during his exile, but never exercised the functions in England. In 1471, he returned with queen Margaret and her son; but ou the final defeat of the Lan castrian party at the battle of Tewkesbury, where he is said to have been taken prisoner, finding that parliament and the nation had recognized the title of Edward IV., lie sub mitted to that monarch, and, as a condition of his pardon, wrote a treatise in favor of the claim of the house of York. He was allowed to retire to his seat of Ebrington, Gloucestershire, where he died in his 90th year. His male representative was, in 1789, created earl Fortescue and viscount Ebrington in the peerage of Great Britain.