Oliver Ingham

Who was Oliver Ingham?

Oliver Ingham was an English commander and administrator in Aquitaine during the War of Saint-Sardos and early Hundred Years War.

He was born in 1287 at Ellesmere, Shropshire to Oliver de Ingham and Margery. He became Sheriff of Cheshire.

Ingham was jailed at Winchester for his involvement in the civil wars of Edward II of England, but was released in 1324 to serve under Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent in the Duchy of Aquitaine during the short War of Saint-Sardos against France. The war was a disaster for the English; the defences were poorly prepared and most towns attacked by the French surrendered immediately. The western part of the Duchy, the Agenais, was lost in a few weeks. After arranging a truce, the Earl of Kent departed for England in 1325. In 1326 Ingham was appointed Seneschal of Gascony, the highest post in what remained in English possession. He managed to raise an army of mercenaries and capture a number of strongholds in Agenais and Saintonge. However the political climate at home had changed. Edward II had been deposed and replaced by his son Edward III under the regency of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer.