Botetourt was one of the most important of the household bannerets in the later years of the reign, being the only one to become a member of the council on a reasonably permanent basis, and summoned to parliament in that capacity in 1305. [124]

A curious genealogical table in a chronicle suggests that he was an illegitimate son of Edward I. However, this evidence is suspect and there is nothing to support it in any other source. [125]

He first appears as a squire of the household in the course of the second Welsh war, and by Christmas 1284 had been knighted.
In 1298 he was promoted to the rank of a banneret. [126]

Besides his loyal service in Edward’s wars, he was employed as a justice, being on a commission of gaol delivery in 1293 and serving on the Trailbaston enquiry of 1305. [127]

Not a rich man in his own right, probably a younger son, he became lord of Mendlesham in Suffolk by marriage, [128] but plainly owed his prestige and power to the appointments he received from the crown.
His loyalty was to Edward I, and not to the crown: his hostility to Edward II was indicated as early as 1308, and he was one of those involved in the capture and death of the unsavoury Piers Gaveston. [129]