Queen By Right

by Anne Easter Smith

  Little Henry, having been born in February, died at some point before Richard and Cecily arrived in Normandy in 1441. P. A. Johnson (one of Richard’s biographers) suggested that perhaps Richard dallied so long before setting sail because of the death of their first son. Richard cited “personal” reasons to the council for the delay. I have no idea where or when Henry died, and so I chose Dorking in Surrey because that is where my family lived when I was growing up. I have taken many walks in the bluebell woods around Box Hill, and writing about it brought back fond memories.

  Next I will confess that there is no evidence Cecily and Jeanne d’Arc ever met. However, as I describe, Cecily was in Rouen at the time and was in the same castle where Jeanne was imprisoned. I just could not resist having young, impressionable Cecily be fascinated by this astonishing young woman and find a way to speak to Jeanne. I hope you agree the scene is powerful. What staggered me when I began to research Jeanne’s trial is the amount of transcription that still exists. It took me a whole day to read it all. All my descriptions about Jeanne’s time at Rouen are accurate except for her meeting with Cecily. I have to confess that as a loyal Englishwoman, I have always looked on Jeanne as a ninny and a nuisance for my countrymen, but by the time I had finished the research and writing of those scenes, I was as convinced as Cecily that she was telling the truth about the voices in her head.

  Another dramatic moment that I first learned of from Paul Murray Kendall in his Richard III, was the scene with Cecily all alone at the Ludlow market cross with her two little sons. I believe Professor Kendall took license with that scene, but it is not at all implausible, because Cecily was indeed left at Ludlow with her three youngest when Richard fled in the night, and the castle was sacked along with the town. But whether or not she took the walk to the market cross is subject to debate. Again, it was too powerful an image not to include in a novel, and I am convinced the Cecily I got to know over eighteen months of research and writing would have had the courage to do something like that!

  I have left the most important of the “did it or did it not happen” instances to last. The rumor that Edward was not Richard’s son but the offspring of an archer named Blaybourne or Blackburn in Normandy came back to haunt the York family twice in the twenty-five years following Edward’s crowning. The first time was in 1476, when Cecily’s son, George, was finally imprisoned by Edward for conspiring to take the crown one too many times, and he put it about that Edward was a bastard and shouldn’t be king. Then, in 1483, when Edward died suddenly and his twelve-year-old son was proclaimed king, two counts of bastardy were cited upon the poor boy by the preacher Dr. Shaw, who was defending the right of Richard III (Dickon) to be crowned instead. Shaw told the crowds gathered at Paul’s Cross that not only was Edward already married when he had wed his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, but that Edward himself was Cecily’s bastard by an archer of Rouen. Ann Wroe in her excellent book Perkin or The Perfect Prince says: “This seemed preposterous, but George, duke of Clarence, Edward’s wayward brother, was also said to have put such a story about; and Charles the Bold of Burgundy (Meg’s future husband)* . . . often called Edward ‘Blaybourne,’ in fits of rage, long before Dr. Shaw preached his sermon.”

  And most interesting of all, Cecily herself was said to have flown “into such a frenzy,” when she heard of the marriage between her son and Elizabeth Woodville in 1464 “that she offered to submit to a public inquiry, and asserted that Edward was not the offspring of her husband the duke of York, but was conceived in adultery, and therefore in no wise worthy of the honour of kingship.” However, these lines are attributed to a visiting Italian in 1483 named Dominic Mancini, who we think was a spy for King Louis of France. He was certainly not hobnobbing with royalty, so could not have heard this from Cecily or her son, Dickon (Richard III), who was about to take the throne. Conjecture has it that his informant was Dr. Argentine, a court physician who had cared for Edward’s young sons but who became a trusted servant at Henry Tudor’s court. So although the rumor exists, I chose to take it with a large pinch of salt; the Cecily I came to know would have disdained such an affair with an archer, no matter how attractive.

  However, Cecily did show her contempt for Elizabeth Woodville by insisting on being styled Cecily, the king’s mother, and late wife unto Richard, in right king of England and of France and lord of Ireland. In other words: queen by right.

  Jacquetta Woodville was a fascinating character, said to have been involved in magic and witchcraft. She has been accused of using love potions on the young King Edward to help him fall in love with her beautiful widowed daughter Elizabeth. I don’t think Edward needed potions; he was a strong-minded young man who loved the opposite sex, and the idea of a secret marriage between him and Elizabeth is perfectly plausible, especially when the story was revealed after his death that he may have been secretly married to another woman before Elizabeth. Jacquetta and Cecily were certainly together in Rouen, and I could not resist the delicious irony of creating friction between these two beautiful and strong-willed women who would one day be in-laws.

  I love it when I find out details that can add to the authenticity of my books. England really did have a terrible summer in 1460, with floods, washed-out bridges and ruined crops causing great hardship for the people. “Forsooth and forsooth” and “by St. John” were Henry VI’s favorite oaths; and the extant letters between Richard and his teenage sons at Ludlow meant that I had to mention them. It showed me that, in the midst of all the political upheaval, Richard still took the time to parent. I also used actual wording of other letters in some instances, as well as the oath Henry and Richard swore in front of Parliament at Westminster in October 1460.

  Cecily of York chose to disappear from public life not long after Edward’s disastrous—according to his mother—marriage to Elizabeth, Jacquetta’s beautiful daughter, preferring to lead a life of quiet piety with her ladies at her palace of Berkhampsted. She was present, however, at some great occasions during Edward’s reign, including a dinner in 1480 given in Meg’s honor when she, as duchess of Burgundy, returned to England for the first time following her marriage to Charles the Bold in 1468. Cecily also pleaded with Edward to spare her charming but perfidious son George’s life in 1477, to no avail, although it is thought it was Cecily who persuaded Edward to allow George to be executed quietly in his prison cell. She was not there when her youngest son, Dickon, was crowned in 1483 as Richard III, but contrary to some conjecture that she refused to attend because of the slanderous statements of Dr. Shaw, she and Richard exchanged some warm correspondence when he was king, and he visited her to ask her advice on at least one occasion.

  Cecily of York lived just past her eightieth birthday to May 31, 1495, long enough to see Jeanne’s (fictitious) prediction come true in another generation: her granddaughter, Edward’s eldest child Elizabeth of York, married Henry VII, the first Tudor king, and was thus crowned queen of England. Their son was Henry VIII, and his daughter another Queen Elizabeth, and so on down to our own Queen Elizabeth today. Cecily Neville, duchess of York, was the ancestor of them all. Only Meg and Bess outlived their mother, and not by much. Her daughter Anne died in childbirth in 1474, after remarriage to one Thomas St. Leger, a gentleman of no particular distinction except perhaps that Anne finally found love with him. Ned died at 41 and Dickon was killed at age 32 at the Battle of Bosworth on August 22, 1485.

  No one has ever questioned the love match that Richard’s and Cecily’s arranged marriage turned out to be; it was a rare feat in the lives of the nobility in medieval times. It has been my privilege and pleasure to tell their story.

  Anne Easter Smith

  Newburyport, 2010

  Below is a selection of the sources I used in researching Queen by Right.

  Books

  Crawford, Anne. The Yorkists. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007.

  Curtis, Edmund. A History of Medieval Ireland. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1923.

  Gilbert, J. T. History of the Vicer
oys of Ireland. Dublin: James Duffer, 1865.

  Green, V. H. H. The Later Plantagenets. London: Edward Arnold Ltd., 1955.

  Griffiths, Ralph. Reign of Henry VI. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

  Johnson, P. A. Richard, Duke of York. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.

  Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard III. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1955.

  ———. Warwick the Kingmaker. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1957.

  Lowell, Francis Cabot. Joan of Arc. New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1896.

  Maurer, Helen. Margaret of Anjou. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2003.

  Mortimer, Ian. Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England. London: The Bodley Head, 2008.

  Norris, Herbert. Medieval Costume and Fashion. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1927.

  Otway-Ruthven, A. J. A History of Medieval Ireland. London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1968.

  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. London: Oxford University Press.

  Ross, Charles. Edward IV. London: Methuen, Ltd., 1983.

  Scofield, Cora L. The Life and Reign of Edward IV (2 vols.). London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1967.

  Shoesmith, Ron, and Andy Johnson. Ludlow Castle: Its History & Buildings. Almeley, England: Logaston Press, 2006.

  Warkworth, John. The Chronicles of the White Rose of York. J. A. Giles, ed. London: James Bohn, 1843.

  Articles

  Davis, Marion. “Sheep, Cattle and Sword; Some Thoughts About Richard, Duke of York, 1411–1460.” Ricardian Register, Journal of Richard III Society, American Branch XXXVI, no. 4 (winter 2006).

  Griffiths, Ralph. “Richard of York and the Royal Household in Wales 1449–1450.” Welsh History Review VIII (1976).

  Hardcastle, M. S. “The Rose of Raby.” The Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend (January 1890).

  Noble, Mark. “Some Observations upon the Life of Cecily, Duchess of York.” Archaeologia 13, 2nd edition (1807).

  Postlethwaite, Ian. “Richard, Third Duke of York.” The Journal of the Yorkshire Branch of the Richard III Society, Leeds (1974).

  Rawcliffe, Carole. “Richard, Duke of York, the King’s ‘Obeisant Liegeman.’” The Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 60, no. 142 (June 1987).

  Glossary

  acton—quilted jacket worn under chainmail.

  arras—tapestry or wall hanging.

  attainted—imputed with dishonor or treason. Estates of attainted lords are often forfeited to the crown.

  aumbrey—cupboard.

  avise—to look closely, to study a person.

  bailey—outer wall of a castle.

  baldachin—a canopy over a throne or held over processing royalty.

  bascinet—a helmet.

  basse danse—slow, stately dance.

  braies—medieval men’s underwear, which were not unlike the loin cloths worn in India today. Short ones of fine lawn were worn under hose, and longer, heavier ones were worn by peasants as breeches.

  butt—barrel for wine.

  butts—archery targets.

  caravel—medieval sailing ship.

  carol—medieval circle dance.

  caul—mesh hair covering, often jeweled or decorated, encasing braids wound on either side of the head.

  chaperon—a felt hat.

  chausses—tight leggings of mail.

  churching—first communion given to a woman following the period of seclusion after giving birth.

  claymore—Scottish broadsword.

  cog—medieval ship used for transporting soldiers or horses.

  cognizance—a badge of a noble house.

  coif—scarf tied around the head.

  conduit—drinking fountain in a town or city with piped-in water.

  cote or cotehardie—long gown worn by men and women.

  crenellation—indentation at top of battlement wall.

  donjon—keep or main tower of a castle.

  ewerer—water pourer and holder of hand-washing bowls at table.

  exedra—low, grass-covered wall that could be used as a seat in a garden.

  fetterlock—a padlock for a shackle; a heraldic device.

  fewterer—hunting-dog handler.

  flampayne—an egg pie with meat, like a quiche.

  fox and geese—medieval board game.

  frumenty—soupy mixture of hulled wheat in boiled milk with sugar and spices.

  galingale—aromatic root of the ginger family.

  garderobe—inside privy where clothes were often stored.

  gemshorn—musical instrument of polished, hollowed goat’s horn.

  gipon—close-fitting padded tunic.

  gittern—plucked, gut-stringed instrument similar to a guitar.

  gong farmer—man who removes waste from privies and carts it outside city.

  groat—silver coin worth about fourpence.

  grosgrain—ribbed worsted wool often mixed with silk.

  hanap—wine cup.

  heir apparent—the next in line to the throne, today often called the crown prince.

  heir presumptive—the next in line to the throne in the absence of an immediate heir, but who could be bumped by events.

  hennin—tall conical headdress from which hangs a veil. Steepled hennins were as much as two feet high; butterfly hennins sat on the head like wings with the veil draped over a wire frame.

  hippocras—a honeyed wine.

  hobby horse—fast, light breed of Irish horses said to be the ancestor of Irish racehorses today.

  houppelande—full-length or knee-length tunic or gown with full sleeves and train.

  jennet—saddle horse often used by women.

  jupon—see gipon.

  kersey—coarse woollen cloth.

  kirtle—woman’s gown or outer petticoat.

  lanner—falcon.

  malmsey—kind of wine.

  marshalsea—stables of a castle, overseen by the marshal.

  meinie—group of attendants on a lord.

  merels—game similar to tic-tac-toe.

  mess—platter of food shared by a group of people.

  motte—artificial mound on which to build the keep of a castle.

  murrey—heraldic term for purple-red (plum).

  oyer and terminer—commission to act as a circuit judge in the king’s name. The Pale—an area roughly 20 by 30 miles with Dublin at its center controlled by the Anglo-Irish.

  palfrey—small saddle horse.

  patten—wooden platform strapped to the sole of a shoe.

  pavane—slow stately dance.

  pibcorn—hornpipe.

  pillion—pad placed at the back of a saddle for a second rider.

  pinnace—small ship used for communicating between larger vessels.

  pipkin—earthenware or metal pot.

  plastron—gauzy material tucked for modesty into the bodice of a gown.

  points—lacing with silver tips used to attach hose to undershirt or gipon.

  poppet—doll.

  psaltery—stringed instrument like a dulcimer plucked with a feather.

  puling—whining, crying in a high, weak voice.

  rebec—three-stringed instrument played with a bow.

  rouncy—pack horse used by travelers or men-at-arms.

  sackbut—early form of trombone.

  saltire—diagonal cross on a coat of arms.

  sanctuary—place of protection for fugitives; safe haven (perhaps in an abbey), usually for noblewomen and their children, who pay to stay.

  sarcenet—fine, soft silk fabric.

  scarlet—high-quality broadcloth usually dyed red with expensive kermes, dried bodies of an insect found on the Kermes oak.

  seneschal—steward of a large household.

  sennight—a week (seven nights).

  settle—high-backed sofa.

  shawm—wind instrument that makes a loud, penetrating sound, and was often used on castle battlements.

  shout—sailing barge carrying grain, b
uilding stone, and timbers common on the Thames.

  solar—living room often doubling as a bedroom.

  sparviter’s pie—two or three partridges, surrounded by a ring of quails, surrounded by a ring of larks cooked in wine sauce (verjuice) in a rough pastry case. A Yorkshire delicacy.

  squint—small window in the wall between a room and a chapel. Often women would participate in a service through it.

  staple town—center of trade in a specified commodity (e.g., Calais for wool).

  stews—brothel district.

  stewpond—private pond stocked with fish for household use.

  subtlety—dessert made of hard, spun colored sugar formed into objects or scenes.

  surcote—loose outer garment of rich material, often worn over armor.

  suzerain—feudal overlord.

  tabard—short tunic with high-yoked neck, sometimes belted or pleated, and open-sided. A simplified version was often worn over chain mail bearing the coat of arms of a knight.

  tabbied—moiré effect on grosgrain taffeta.

  tabor—small drum.

  tiring woman—noblewoman’s dresser or “attirer.”

  trencher—stale bread used as a plate.

  tun—barrel.

  tussie-mussie—aromatic pomander.

  verjuice—sour fruit juice used for cooking and medicines.

  viol—stringed instrument that is the ancestor of the viola da gamba.

  voide—final course of a feast, usually hippocras wine and wafers or comfits.

  waits—bands of musicians singing and playing instruments in the streets.

  worsted—spun from long fleece, a smooth, lightweight wool for summer.

  TOUCHSTONE READING GROUP GUIDE

  Queen By Right

  Anne Easter Smith

  Introduction

  The Hundred Years War between England and France is still raging when Cecily Neville is born at Raby Castle. Dubbed “the Rose of Raby,” Cecily is the twenty-second and youngest child of Ralph Neville, the powerful earl of Westmorland, and also cousin to the King Henry VI. Cecily’s fate becomes entwined with the king’s when she is betrothed to Richard Plantagenet, the orphaned duke of York, whose claim to the throne is arguably stronger than young Henry’s.