Lancastrian prominent in the Hundred Years' War in France and the Wars of the Roses in England.

He became 6th Earl of Stafford when only a year old, his father having died in battle. He was knighted by Henry V in 1421 and then, under Henry VI, served several years in France in various military, administrative, and emissarial roles; he was created Count de Perche (of Normandy) in 1431, inherited the earldom of Buckingham from his mother in 1438, and was created Duke of Buckingham in 1444. A zealous Lancastrian, he added to his own vast estates the estates of dispossessed Yorkists, becoming perhaps the greatest landowner in all England. He was slain by Yorkists at the Battle of Northampton. His eldest son having been killed in an earlier battle, he was succeeded in his titles by his four-year-old grandson.