Thomas Neville (died 1460)

Sir Thomas Neville
Thomas Neville as depicted in the contemporaneous 'Salisbury Roll of Arms' illuminated manuscript.
Born	c. 1429
Died	30 December 1460 (aged c. 31) Sandal Magna, Yorkshire, England
Buried	Bisham Abbey, Berkshire
Family	Neville
Spouse(s)	Maud Stanhope (1453–1460, widowed)
Father	Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury
Mother	Alice Montagu, 5th Countess of Salisbury

Sir Thomas Neville (c. 1429 – 1460) was a medieval English politician and soldier. The second son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, a major nobleman and magnate in the north of England, Sir Thomas played an active role in the violent disorder that wracked the north during the 1450s. He also took his father's side in the early years of the Wars of the Roses. Thomas was a younger brother of the more famous Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the 'Kingmaker'.

Thomas worked closely with them both in administering the region for the Crown and became a leading player in the turbulent regional politics of northern England in the early 1450s, especially in the Neville family's growing local rivalry with the House of Percy. In the armed feud between both houses, which broke out in 1453 and lasted two years, Thomas and his brother John launched a series of raids, ambushes and skirmishes across Yorkshire against the Percy family. Historians describe the feud as setting the stage for the Wars of the Roses, the dynastic struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, and Thomas played a large role in the Neville family's alliance with his uncle, Richard, Duke of York.

Thomas took part in his father's battles, being present at the Battle of Blore Heath in September 1459, where he was captured with his younger brother John by the Lancastrians. As a result, he was imprisoned and later attainted along with his father, brothers, and the Yorkists at the 1459 Parliament of Devils. Being imprisoned, he did not share Salisbury's and Warwick's exile in Calais. On their return the following year, he was released when Warwick and the future Edward IV together won the Battle of Northampton. When the Duke of York also returned from his exile and claimed the throne from Henry VI, it appears that it was Thomas who was personally responsible for informing the Duke of the Nevilles' collective disapproval of his plans.

Thomas joined his father Salisbury's and York's army, and travelled to Yorkshire in December 1460 with the purpose of suppressing Lancastrian-inspired disorder. There he fought in the disastrous Battle of Wakefield, where the Yorkists went down to a crushing defeat. Thomas was killed in the fighting, and his head, alongside those of his father and uncle, was impaled above one of the gates of the city of York.