Towards the end of August preparations were under way for Warwick’s return to England in the Lancastrian cause. However, his troops were unhappy about the earl’s new plans and he had some problems controlling them. On Sunday 9 September Warwick, accompanied by the Admiral of France, by the ‘Earl of Pembroke’ (Jasper Tudor) and by the Earl of Oxford, embarked for his homeland. Naturally, George, Duke of Clarence also sailed with them, and it would be particularly interesting to know how he got on with Jasper, the uncle, and future supporter and guide, of Henry VII. Jasper was about eighteen years older than Clarence, but had been living in exile (in Scotland and then in France) for most of the reign of Edward IV. As a youth, at the court of Henry VI, he may have met Richard, Duke of York, but he had probably never previously encountered any of York’s sons. Certainly neither he nor his nephew, the future Henry VII, ever had any opportunity to get to know personally Richard Duke of Gloucester (the future Richard III).
However, Jasper was the mentor of Henry VII both before and after his usurpation of the throne. It is intriguing, therefore, to note that the ‘Tudor’ propaganda image of Richard III appears to contain certain features which more accurately reflect the character and attributes of the Duke of Clarence than those of the real Richard III. For example, George appears to have been sometimes quick-tempered and manipulative. Unlike Richard, he clearly felt no sense of loyalty to Edward IV, and he may well have felt a personal resentment towards Edward’s Woodville offspring. George also seems to have been ambitious, arrogant and given to plotting in the interests of his own advancement. He may also have felt a sense of inadequacy and resentment over his physique (in respect of his height). None of these characteristics is recorded as associated with the real Richard III, yet all of them became part of Richard’s ‘Tudor’ propaganda image. Could Jasper, Earl of Pembroke – who never met Richard, but who for nearly a year (from the summer of 1470 until the spring of 1471) knew and worked with the Duke of Clarence – have been the source for such characteristics of George, which were later imported by ‘Tudor’ writers into descriptions of his brother, Richard III?
On the night of Thursday 13 September the invaders landed unopposed in the West Country. A joint proclamation was issued in the name of the four English lords, naming Henry VI as king. As they marched northwards and eastwards Lord Stanley and the Earl of Shrewsbury came to join them.
Edward IV was in the north. Marching south from York, he summoned John Neville, Marquess of Montague, the Earl of Warwick’s brother. The marquess dutifully set out, but then halted his men and declared to them that Edward IV had treated him badly by taking from him the earldom of Northumberland. He proclaimed his allegiance to his brother, Warwick, and most of his soldiers followed him. Panic-stricken, Edward IV fled to safety with his brother Gloucester, his brother-in-law, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and a small band of loyal supporters. He made for the north coast of East Anglia, and sailed from Bishop’s [King’s] Lynn to the Low Countries. In London, Elizabeth Woodville, who was eight months pregnant, took sanctuary with her mother and children at Westminster Abbey. It seems to have been Archbishop George Neville who freed a rather grubby Henry VI from the Tower of London and led him to the royal apartments, but Philippe de Commynes gave the credit to Warwick, who reached the capital on Saturday 6 October:
When the earl [of Warwick] arrived in London he went to the Tower and released King Henry from where he had imprisoned him on another occasion a long time before, proclaiming before him that he was a traitor and guilty of treason. Yet at this moment he called him king and led him to his palace at Westminster where he restored all his royal prerogatives in the presence of the duke of Clarence, who was not at all pleased by this.17
George, Duke of Clarence was given the Erber, a former home of the Earl of Warwick’s father, as his London residence.18 However, in reality, he had no role to play in the Readeption. Fortunately, Margaret of Anjou was still in France, as was her son, Edward of Westminster (now George’s brother-in-law). Nevertheless, his relationship with the Lancastrian royal family and with its supporters was far from easy.
It was the women of the House of York – George’s sisters and his mother – who reportedly finally won him back to the side of Edward IV when the latter returned to recapture his crown:
George’s sister, Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, receiving a book from William Caxton (redrawn by the author from an engraving of 1475).
In the meantime the Duke of Clarence, King Edward’s brother, was quietly reconciled with the king through the mediation of his sisters, the duchesses of Burgundy and Exeter. The former, from without the kingdom, had been encouraging the king, and the latter, from within the kingdom, the duke to make peace. The duke then came to the king’s assistance with a large army from the western parts of the realm; the number of the royal forces increased daily so that the earls in Coventry did not dare either to challenge the king to fight or to take up his challenge to them on the field of battle.19
The expedition led by Edward IV and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who had been in exile in the Low Countries since October 1470,20 set sail back to England on 10 March 1470/71, landing first at Cromer in Norfolk. By 18 March, Edward was in the city of York, and on 25 March he was approaching Coventry, into which Warwick withdrew, fortifying himself. Unable to bring the earl to battle, Edward IV established himself at the town of Warwick, and on about 28 March a meeting was arranged between the king and the Duke of Clarence just outside the town: ‘His brother the duke of Clarence … came with a fair company of men to surrender himself according to previous arrangements between them, and they made their peace there in the field with their banners displayed.’21 Early in April 1471, James Gresham, writing to Sir John Paston, informed him:
As for tydyngges here in þis cuntre be many tales and non accorth with other. It is tolde me by the undirshireve that my lord of Clarence is goon to his brother, late Kyng; in so meche that his men have the gorget on their breestes and þe rose over it. And it is seid that þe Lord Howard hath proclaimed Kyng E. Kyng of Inglond in Suffolk, &c.22
Early in April Edward made his way south-east to London, where he took possession both of the Tower, and of the person of King Henry VI. However:
Edward only spent two days in the city because on Easter Saturday [13 April 1471] he left with the troops he had been able to gather and marched out to meet the earl of Warwick, whom he encountered next morning, that is on Easter day [at Barnet]. When they found themselves face to face, the duke of Clarence, King Edward’s brother, deserted to him with more than twelve thousand troops, which greatly distressed the earl of Warwick and greatly reinforced the king who had few men.23
At the Battle of Barnet (14 April 1471) George was injured, fighting on the side of his brother, Edward IV.24 Precise details of the injury are not recorded, but Gerhard von Wesel noted that, of those who took part in the battle, many ‘were wounded, mostly in the face or the lower half of the body’.25 It is intriguing, therefore, to note that the male skull now preserved in the Clarence vault at Tewkesbury belongs to a man who had suffered a cut towards the front of the left side of his head several years before his death. This sword(?) cut had penetrated the surface of the cranium, but the bone structure had subsequently healed successfully (see plate 28). More will be said on this point later. Von Wesel also records that George’s brother, the Duke of Gloucester, was slightly injured in the fighting.26 As for George’s father-in-law, the Earl of Warwick was killed in the battle, together with ‘the marquis his brother and many knights, squires and other people who strongly fought against the king for the space of three hours’.27
NOTES
1. P. M. Kendall, Warwick the Kingmaker (London, 1957, 1973), p.256.
2. Davis 2, p.432.
3. ‘The King camme to Grantham and þere tarried Thoresday all day … and upon þe Monday next after þat att Dancastre … þe King hadde warde þat þe Duk of Clarence and þe Erle of Warwik was ate Esterfeld xx mile from Dancastre; and up
on þe Tewesday att ix of þe bell þe King toke þe feld and mustered his people … And þan þe Duk of Clarence and þe Erle of Warwik harde þat þe King was commyng to þem warde, incontinent þey departed and wente to Manchestre in Lancasshire hopyng to have hadde helpe and socoure of þe Lord Stanley; but in conclucion þer þey hadde litill favour’ (Davis 2, p.432).
4. Commynes, pp.181–2.
5. John, Lord Wenlock (c. 1390–1471).
6. Commynes, p.182.
7. Kendall assumes that the child was stillborn, but since it was evidently baptised this must be an error (Warwick the Kingmaker, p.260).
8. Eleanor, p.46.
9. Davis 1, p.431.
10. Commynes, pp.183.
11. Crowland, p.121. They were married at Anger Cathedral on (?)13 December 1470. Anne Neville may have already been betrothed previously to Richard, Duke of Gloucester (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Neville – consulted November 2012).
12. Kendall, Warwick the Kingmaker, p.269.
13. Commynes, p.184.
14. See above, Chapter 1.
15. Commynes, pp. 184–5.
16. Elizabeth de Braybrook (1401–91), in her own right Baroness de St Amand, whose first husband was William Beauchamp, first cousin of the 1st Lord Beauchamp of Powick, and whose second husband was Sir Roger Tocotes – names that are significant later in George’s story.
17. Commynes, p.190.
18. Today the site of Cannon Street Station.
19. Crowland, p.125.
20. They arrived at Lynn in Norfolk on Sunday 30 September ‘tarried there until Tuesday [2 October] and then took ship overseas’. See L. Visser-Fuchs ‘Richard in Holland, 1470–1’, Ric. 6 (September 1983), p.221, citing W. I. Haward, ‘Economic Aspects of the Wars of the Roses in East Anglia’, English Historical Review 41 (1926), p.179.
21. L. Visser-Fuchs, Edward IV’s Memoir on Paper to Charles, Duke of Burgundy: The So-Called ‘Short Version of the Arrivall’ (Nottingham: Nottingham Medieval Studies, 1992), reprinted from Nottingham Medieval Studies 36 (1992), p.221.
22. Davis 2, pp.405–6.
23. Commynes, pp.194–5.
24. ODNB, Clarence; Scofield vol. 2, p.8, citing a contemporary letter to the Duke of Milan, CSPM, 1, pp.153–4 [AC].
25. J. Adair, ‘The Newsletter of Gerhard von Wesel, 17 April 1471’, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research (1968), p.68.
26. Ibid.
27. Visser-Fuchs, Edward IV’s Memoir on Paper, p.222.
MATRIMONIAL PROBLEMS,
PART 3
In September 1470, when Warwick and Clarence sailed back to England, the ladies of their family remained in France. Anne Neville was betrothed to Edward of Westminster, and was awaiting a papal dispensation so that she could be married to him. She thus had to stay in France. Her mother and her elder sister the Duchess of Clarence remained with her. The Countess of Warwick was required to take care of her younger daughter. It seems certain that Isabel also remained in France. No other ladies of their families formed part of the expedition to England. Moreover, Isabel did not conceive her next child until 1472, suggesting that she and her husband spent some time apart from one another.
The Warwick ladies joined Margaret of Anjou and her son in Normandy. There, at Bayeux, on about 13 December 1470, Anne and Edward were married.1 The following spring they all embarked for England, but the royal Lancastrian party travelled in one ship, while the Countess of Warwick – probably accompanied by her daughter, the Duchess of Clarence – travelled in another. The weather was bad when they set off, and the winds were against them. It took them two weeks to beat their way across the Channel. The vessel carrying the Countess of Warwick reached England first, landing at Portsmouth in Hampshire.2 Margaret, her son, and his bride, landed somewhat later. As originally planned, apparently, this second group docked further west, at Weymouth in Dorset, where they arrived on the evening of Easter Sunday (14 April).3 That very morning the Earl of Warwick had been killed at the Battle of Barnet. Margaret of Anjou, her son and her daughter-in-law were accommodated at the Benedictine abbey of Cerne. It was there that Edmund Beaufort, titular 4th Duke of Somerset,4 brought them the news of the disaster at Barnet the following day.
Meanwhile, the Countess of Warwick’s party had set off from Portsmouth soon after landing, travelling north-westwards to Southampton. Their aim was to regroup with Margaret of Anjou’s contingent. At Southampton, however, the Countess also received the shocking news of her husband’s death. Immediately she abandoned any further thought of seeking Margaret. Instead, she hastily travelled the 6 miles (9.5km) from Southampton to the Cistercian abbey of Beaulieu, where she took sanctuary. She was to remain at Beaulieu Abbey for the next two years.
Meanwhile, Edward of Westminster encouraged his mother to keep fighting. He aimed to join his Lancastrian forces with those of his ‘Tudor’ relations, so he and Margaret pressed on towards Wales, taking with them Edward’s young wife, Anne Neville. Prevented from crossing the River Severn at Gloucester, they headed instead for Tewkesbury, closely pursued by Edward IV and his army, who cornered them and forced them to make a stand outside the town. Margaret of Anjou wished to avoid battle, but the Duke of Somerset (son of her former lover) and her own son, both urged her to fight. The result was the disastrous Battle of Tewkesbury. ‘Somerset’ and Edward of Westminster both died as a result. ‘Somerset’, captured, was executed. Accounts of the fate of Edward of Westminster vary. Philippe de Commynes wrote that ‘the prince of Wales was killed on the battlefield, together with several other great lords and a very large number of ordinary soldiers. The Duke of Somerset was captured; next day he was beheaded.’5 Commynes’ contemporary and countryman, Jean de Roye, also reported that ‘there died, and was killed the said Prince of Wales, which was a great shame, for he was a handsome young prince.’6 Although later versions of the story suggest that the prince was put to death after the fighting, and that George was one of those who took a hand in killing him, there is no reason to credit these accounts, since a letter survives written by George himself, in which he states clearly that ‘Edward, late called Prince … [was] slain in plain battle.’7 Margaret of Anjou sought refuge in a convent, where she was discovered three days later.
Precisely how Isabel travelled from France, and with whom – and what she did following her arrival in England – is unclear. It seems likely that she travelled with her mother, landed at Portsmouth, and subsequently took sanctuary with the countess at Beaulieu Abbey. The other possibility is that she travelled with Margaret of Anjou, Edward of Westminster, and her sister Anne. When and where Isabel rejoined her husband is not recorded. He may have sent to Beaulieu, summoning her to come to him. Alternatively, it may have been at Tewkesbury, in the aftermath of the battle, that the Duke of Clarence found her. Either way, the Countess of Warwick and her younger daughter, Anne, were now both widows – and widows of traitors. Isabel Neville, on the other hand, was the wife of the king’s brother. It is understandable, therefore, that Isabel – and her husband – should have been in a better position than her mother and her younger sister to claim possessions formerly held by her mother’s family. It is also understandable that George, who had inherited no estates of his own, should have been deeply concerned to maximise his and his wife’s tenure of such property.
One consequence was that George and Isabel took the widowed Anne Neville into their care (or charge). George felt considerable concern over any question of Anne’s remarriage, given that under the law she was Isabel’s co-heir. He was particularly unhappy about the fact that a relationship pre-dating Anne’s arranged marriage to Edward of Westminster apparently existed between her and his own younger brother, Richard. As the Crowland chronicler puts it:
After King Henry’s son (to whom the earl of Warwick’s younger daughter, the lady Anne, was married) had fallen at the battle of Tewkesbury … Richard, duke of Gloucester sought to make the same Anne his wife; this desire did not suit the plans of his brother, the d
uke of Clarence … who therefore had the girl hidden away so that his brother would not know where she was, since he feared a division of the inheritance … The Duke of Gloucester, however, was so much the more astute, that having discovered the girl dressed as a kitchen-maid in London, he had her moved into sanctuary at St Martin’s.8
Not surprisingly, the outcome of all this was a quarrel between George and Richard. On Tuesday 17 February 1472, Sir John Paston II reported to his brother, John Paston III, that:
Yisterdaye the Kynge, the Qween, my lordes off Claraunce and Gloucester went to Scheen to pardon, men sey nott alle in cheryté. What wyll falle men can nott seye. The Kynge entretyth my lorde off Clarance for my lorde off Glowcester, and as itt is seyde he answerythe that he maye well have my ladye hys suster in lawe, butt they schall parte no lyvelod, as he seythe; so what wyll falle can I nott seye.9
Following George’s agreement, Richard, Duke of Gloucester is thought to have married Anne Neville in May or June 1472.10 However, disputes over aspects of the Warwick inheritance continued long after the wedding, as the Paston correspondence shows:
There are many of the king’s men and of the Duke of Clarence’s men in London. There are rumours of a forthcoming war with the Scots.
The Third Plantagenet: George, Duke of Clarence, Richard III's Brother Page 16