By all surviving evidence we have, Francis`s father, John Lovell, was not an easy man. Disliked if not downright hated by his immediate family, deeply in debt by the time he was around 30, what little we know of him does not speak in his favour. There is not much to go on to make guesses as to why he ended up as he did, what caused the dislike towards him; how he ended up in debt; not even what caused his early and apparently sudden death.
Nor do we know if his actions for Henry VI in the early stages of the series of conflicts now known as the Wars of the Roses gained him respect, or if he was simply endured but never liked. There is little indication about any of his relationships but the apparently dysfunctional ones with his immediate family.
The only piece of evidence that still survives to shed some light on his connections to people other than his immediate family is a letter to his father-in-law John, Viscount Beaumont, written between 1455, when he became Lord Lovell upon his father`s death, and 1460, when Viscount Beaumont died. It is mostly a very formal missive:
"Right worshipful, and my most best-beloved lord father, I recommend me unto your good lordship; please it you to weet, I have conceived your writing right well, and forasmuch as ye desire the stewardship of Baggeworth for your well-beloved Thomas Everingham, which I trow verily be right a good and a faithful gentleman. Howbeit, my lord, your desire shall be had in all that is in me; and at the instance of your lordship; I, by the advice of my council, shall give it him in writing, under such form as shall please you; wherein I would be glad to do that that might please your good lordship, praying you right heartily ye would be mine especial good lord and father in all such as ye can think should grow to my worship or profit in any wise, as my singular trust is most in you, and I always ready to do you service with God`s grace, who have you, my right worshipful and my most best-beloved lord father, ever in his blessed keeping. Written at Rotherfield Gray, the 24th day of July.
Furthermore, my lord, and it like you, my lady my mother recommended her unto your good lordship, in whom her most faith and trust is in, praying you ye will be good brother unto her, for she hath taken you for her chief counsel. John Lord Lovell."
Obviously, John writes in response to a letter he received from John Beaumont, asking him to give the stewardship of the manor of Bagworth to one Thomas Everingham - Viscount Beaumont`s second cousin. John agrees to this, couching his letter in conventionally deferential language. There is nothing surprising or unexpected about this, but it is notable that he almost presents himself as the supplicant. The plea to his father-in-law to remember him and do all he can for his "worship or profit" supports this impression.
Notably, so does the last part of the letter, perhaps the most unusual and personal part. Whereas John humbling himself to his father-in-law in the letter is slightly overdone but in itself hardly unheard of, the inclusion of a plea for a good relationship between John Beaumont and Alice Deincourt is more unexpected in a letter like this. Given the tone of the entire missive, it seems that John is very eager to either establish or maintain a friendly relationship with his father-in-law, yet not entirely certain how this overture will be received. Unlike all other relationships we know John had, that to John Beaumont does not appear to have been hostile, but nor does it seem to have been anything approaching a friendship or anything but a formal connection.
Since this is the only letter from John we have, there is no saying if their relationship changed at some point to something less formal and more friendly or, conversely, a more hostile one. Nor do we even know for how long they had been working together at the time the letter was written, for the year it was penned is not known, though the fact that Alice Deincourt does not appear to have been at court at the time of writing, despite being Edward of Lancaster`s nurse, indicates it was in 1455, a month after her husband`s death. This could be supported by John`s statement that his mother had taken Viscount Beaumont "for her chief counsel" - just after her husband`s death - but naturally, it is guesswork.
All in all, the letter indicates that John Lovell was eager for a cordial relationship with his father-in-law, perhaps for profit, perhaps for other reasons. There is no indication John Beaumont regarded him with the same dislike his father did or his son and oldest daughter later would, but also none of any affection or trust. All that can be said is that they apparently could work together without obvious trouble, and that John and his mother wished for a good relationship with him.
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