Ralph Shirley was only a young man when his father was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury defending King Henry IV. He was tenth in a line of male descendants of an English family known to exist as far back as 1086. As the only son of Sir Hugh Shirley he inherited all of his property in Shirley in Derbyshire, Ettington in Warwickshire and other lands in Nottinghamshire and Suffolk.; In 1411 he married Joan Basset, daughter of Thomas Basset Esquire, of Brailsford in Derbyshire and thereby added this manor to his growing collection of estates. Ralph Shirley was retained to serve the Kings army for one year in 1415/16. King Henry V was having trouble raising money for his expedition to France so he pawned some crown possessions to his men in lieu of wages Ralph Shirley was given a paxbrede of gold, enameled white, and a crucifix, with an image of the blessed Mary, and John the Evangelist, weight 5 oz, all valued at 6 pounds, 6 shillings and 8 pence. Shirley brought with him to France six men at arms (lances), including himself, and 18 archers and was one of the Kings soldiers at the siege of Harfleur in Normandy. Henry V army landed at Chef-en-Caux in the Seine estuary and attacked Harfleur with 2000 men of arms and 6000 bowmen. Two veteran knights, who arrived with 300 men at arms, reinforced the original French garrison of 100 men The siege lasted one month and included the use of cannon by both sides. The English made an attack on the southwest bastion causing a fire that burned for three days. The French made a sortie but it was beaten off. Another English attempt to storm a break in the walls was resisted with boiling oil and water, fire-arrows, quicklime and sulfur powder. Harfleur finally yielded on 22 Sep 1415. The English army had been hit hard by dysentery during the siege. Two thousand died and many had to return to England to recuperate.

In Shakespeare the siege of Harfleur is noted by the famous lines:;Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead.

The Battle of Agincourt took place 25 Oct 1415. Some sources indicate that Ralph Shirley was one of the chief commanders at this battle, but records show that the king had given him and 2 of his men at arms license to return to England from Harfleur on 5 October, two days before the king began his march towards Agincourt. It is likely that he was ill from the disease that was afflicting the army. Eight of Shirleys archers were also permitted to return to England at this time Unless Ralph Shirley changed his mind over these two days, he could not have been present at the Battle of Agincourt. The remainder of Shirleys men were probably present at Agincourt, including men at arms named John Waryn, Ralph Fowne and John Gloucester (Hunter p. 40; At Agincourt the English, primarily because of their superior longbow, defeated a much larger French army. The English formed their line between two patches of forest to secure their flanks. The French knights bravely but rashly decided to assault the English first on horse and then on foot across a muddy field.  The French lost 7,000 knights and gentlemen and 120 great lords.  English losses were not over 1500 and included only a small number of knights.  The six-foot longbow was the finest weapon of its day.  It could penetrate the armor and kill a knight at a distance of 200 yards.  It was this weapon that caused most of the French causalities. Shakespeare immortalized the Battle of Agincourt in his play “Henry V.”  
    One of the French nobles taken prisoner at Agincourt was the John Duke of Bourbon.  He was captured by Ralph Fowne, one of the men at arms in the retinue of Ralph Shirley.  The Duke was turned over to King Henry V and was held prisoner for 19 years at Melbourne, England.  He was among 1-2 thousand French prisoners returned to England.  
    The date on which Ralph Shirley’s knighthood was granted is not certain, but he was so titled in 1420 and 1421, and it may have been as early as his French service in 1415-1417.
    In 1416-1417, Sir Ralph Shirley again served with the King in the French wars, bringing 8 men at arms and 16 archers. The campaign of 1417 involved an English landing at what is now Deauville and the quick capture of nearby towns.  The main objective was the Normandy town of Caen.  The town had twelve great gates, 32 towers and ditches filled with water on three sides.  One assault failed because the siege ladders were too short, but eventually King Henry and his brother attacked from opposite sides of the town and broke in, killing 2000 French in the Market Square.  Henry then proceeded to capture Argentan in 1417 and Falaise and Cherbourg in 1418.  Direct evidence of the involvement of Sir Ralph Shirley in this campaign has not been found, but he was known to have been in the service of the King during this period.
    Under the terms of his will (about 1389) of his father’s maternal uncle Ralph, Lord Basset of Drayton, his father Sir Hugh Shirley was to receive the Basset inheritance.  In 1424 the last remaining feoffee of Ralph Lord Basset, of Drayton, released to him his interest in the manors of Colston-Basset and Ratcliff (Radcliff)-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, Rakdale Willows, Ratcliff-on-Wreak, Barrow-on-Soar, Dunton and Watton in Leicestershire, and Westhall and Easthall in Sheldon in Warwickshire.  Sir Ralph Shirley must have had de facto tenure of these manors before 1424 because he was appointed to Leicestershire’s bench of Justices of the Peace between 1415 and 1422 and served on two Leicestershire commissions, including a commission of array in 1419. He was elected First Knight of the shire for the county in November 1420, a few days after being picked as sheriff for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.  Sir Ralph Shirley’s principal residence became his manor at Radcliff-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire.  In 1441 he was constable of Melbourne Castle.  One report indicates that he died in France “at his government station” and that his body was shipped back to England to be buried in the Collegiate Church of the Newark, at Leicester.
    Alice, the widow of Sir Ralph Shirley, by deed, leased the original family Manor of Eatington (Ettington) to Thomas Porter, in 1455.  Porter’s only daughter married John Underhill.  This lease was the origin of the settlement of the Underhill family at Eatington.  In 1509 Eatington was again leased by John and Agnes Underhill, by another Sir Ralph Shirley, for a term of 80 years. This was later renewed for 100 years.  Confusion about the terms resulted in a long series of lawsuits between the Underhills and the Shirleys that was not settled until 1641 when the Shirleys regained control of Eatington.
    Beatrice, a daughter of Sir Ralph Shirley married, about 1431, John Brome, Esquire, Lord of the Manor of Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire, England. Sir Ralph's son Ralph Shirley, Esquire, was born about 1413 and died in 1466.  He was buried at Brailsford, Sussex, England.  He married Margaret Staunton, daughter and sole heir of John de Staunton of Staunton Harold in Leicestershire and thus inherited that manor.  This continued the Shirley families tradition of marrying wealthy heiresses.  He married second Elizabeth Blount, daughter of Sir John Blount, Knight and sister of Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoy.  He married third, Lucia Ashton, daughter of Sir John Aston, of Atherton, widow of Sir John Bryon and of Sir Barton Entwissel.  This Ralph Shirley moved his principal residence to Staunton Herald. When his mother's sister-in-law Margaret W. Braose, widow of Sir John de Braose died in 1449, he inherited considerable estates in Sussex County.  He had one son John who was his only heir. 

Bibliography

Acheson, Eric, A Gentry Community, Leicestershire in the Fifteenth Century, c. 1422-c.1485, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life & Thought, 2003, pp. 247-248

Brydges, Sir Egerton, K.J., “ Shirley Earl Ferrers, “ Collins’s Peerage of England, Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical, volume 4, London, 1812. pp. 85-92.

Burke, John, Esquire, Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, fourth edition, volume 1, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1832. p. 465-466.

Hawes, James William, A. M., Edmund Hawes of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, An Emigrant to America in 1635, His Ancestors, Including the Allied Families of Brome, Colles, Greswold, Porter, Rody, Shirley and Whitfield and Some of his Descendants, The Lyons Genealogical Company, New York, 1914.

Hunter, Joseph, The English Host in King Henry the Fifth’s Expedition to France, in the Third Year of His Reign, John Russell Smith, London, 1850, p. 40.

Salzman. L. F., editor, “Parishes: Ettington,” A History of the County of Warwick, volume 5: Kington Hundred, 1949, pp. 77-84.

Shirley, Evelyn Philip, Lower Eatington, Its Manor House and Church, Chiswick Press by Whittingham and Wilkins, London, 1869.

“Shirleys of Ettington,” Shirley Family Association, Genealogical Research Website, www.shirleyassociation.com/NewShirleySite/index2.html, 2009