Edward IV
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20 Charles Ross, Richard III (1981); L. C. Attreed, ‘An Indenture between Richard, Duke of Gloucester and the Scrope Family of Masham and Upsall [1476]’, Speculum, 58 (1983), 1018–25; M. A. Hicks, Richard III as Duke of Gloucester: A Study in Character (Borthwick Paper, 70, 1986), reprinted in his Richard III and his Rivals, ch. 13; Richard III and the North, ed. R. Horrox (Hull, 1986); A. J. Pollard, ‘St Cuthbert and the Hog: Richard III and the County Palatine of Durham, 1471–85’, in Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages, ed. Griffiths and Sherborne, ch. 6; R. B. Dobson, ‘Richard III and the Church of York’, ibid., ch. 7.
21 M. A. Hicks, ‘The Changing Role of the Wydevilles in Yorkist Politics to 1483’, in Patronage y Pedigree and Power in Later Medieval England, ed. C. D. Ross (Gloucester, 1979), 60–86, reprinted in his Richard III and his Rivals, ch. 11
22 D. E. Lowe, ‘Patronage and Politics: Edward IV, the Wydevills and the Council of the Prince of Wales, 1471–83’, Bull. Board of Celtic Studies, 29 (1981), 568–91; Mr. T. B. Pugh saw this paper through the press after Lowe’s death. See, in general, R. A. Griffiths, ‘The Crown and the Royal Family in Later Medieval England’, in Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages, ed. Griffiths and Sherborne, 15–26, reprinted in his King and Country: England and Wales in the Fifteenth Century (1991), ch. 1.
23 A. F. Sutton and L. Visser-Fuchs, ‘A “Most Benevolent Queen”: Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s Reputation, her Piety and her Books’, The Ricardian, 10/129 (1995), 214–45.
24 C. Rawcliffe, The Staffords, Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham, 1394–1521 (Cambridge, 1978).
25 M. M. N. Stansfield, ‘The Holland Family, Dukes of Exeter, Earls of Kent and Huntingdon, 1352–1475’ (unpublished University of Oxford DPhil thesis, 1987).
26 L. Clark (née Woodger), ‘Henry Bourgchier, Earl of Essex and his Family (1408–83)’ (unpublished University of Oxford DPhil thesis, 1974); idem, ‘The Benefits and Burdens of Office: Henry Bourgchier (1408–83), Viscount Bourgchier and Earl of Essex, and the Treasurership of the Exchequer’, in Profit, Piety and the Professions in Later Medieval England, ed. M. A. Hicks (Gloucester, 1990), ch. 9. For Edward’s brother-in-law, see J. A. F. Thomson, ‘John de la Pole, duke of Suffolk’, Speculum, 54 (1979), 528–42.
27 Above n. 17 and C. Kelly, ‘The Noble Steward and Late-Feudal Lordship’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 49 (1986), 133–48 (for Hastings); R. A. Griffiths and R. S. Thomas, The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (Gloucester, 1985) (for Herbert); and The Household Books of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, 1462–1471, 1481–1483, with an introduction by A. Crawford (Stroud, 1992), a reprint of earlier editions used by Ross, with additional documents; idem, ‘The Private Life of John Howard: A Study of a Yorkist Lord, his Family and Household’, in Richard III: Loyalty, Lordship and Law, ed. P. W. Hammond (1986), 6–24.
28 Lowe, Bull. Board of Celtic Studies, 29 (1981), 545–73, and idem, ‘The Council of the Prince of Wales and the decline of the Herbert Family during the Second Reign of Edward IV (1471–1483)’, ibid., 27 (1977), 278–97.
29 Hicks, Richard III as Duke of Gloucester (reprinted in his Richard III and his Rivals, ch. 13); D. Palliser, ‘Richard III and York’, in Richard III and the North, ed. Horrox, 51–81; R. Horrox, Richard III: A Study of Service (Cambridge, 1989); Pollard, North-eastern England, ch. 13; York House Books, 1461–1490, ed. L. C. Attreed, 2 vols (Stroud, 1991).
30 For an interesting pointer, C. E. Moreton, ‘A Local Dispute and the Politics of 1483: Roger Townshend, Earl Rivers and the Duke of Gloucester’, The Ricardian, 8/107 (1989), 305–7.
31 Pollard, North-eastern England, 235–44; Macdougall, James 111, 156 and n. 28; Lander, Government and Community, 304–5.
32 ‘Financial Memoranda of the Reign of Edward V: Longleat Miscellaneous Manuscript Book II’, ed. R. Horrox, in Camden Miscellany, Vol. XXIX (Camden Fourth Ser., 34, 1987);John Vale’s Book, ed. Kekewich et al., 71–2.
33 C. Weightman, Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, 1446–1503 (Gloucester, 1989); M. H. A. Ballard, ‘Anglo-Burgundian Relations, 1464–72’ (unpublished University of Oxford MPhil thesis, 1993); R. F. Green, ‘An Account of the Marriage of Margaret of York and Charles the Bold, 1468’, Notes and Queries, 233 (1988), 26–9.
34 T. H. Lloyd, England and the German Hanse, 1157–1611 (Cambridge, 1991), 207–13. See also idem, ‘A Reconsideration of Two Anglo-Hanseatic Treaties of the Fifteenth Century’, EHR, 102 (1987), 916–33; J. B. Fudge, Cargoes, Embargoes and Emissaries: The Commercial and Political Interaction of England and the German Hanse, 1450–1510 (Toronto, 1995), chs. 2, 3.
35 Lander, Government and Community, pp. 285–92; see also John Vale’s Book, ed. Kekewich et al., 67–72.
36 Lander, Government and Community, 301–5; Lloyd, England and the German Hanse, 235–6; and see C. F Richmond’s and M. L. Kekewich’s reassessment of Ross’s pessimistic view, in John Vale’s Book, ed. Kekewich et al., 71–2.
37 G. Kipling, The Triumph of Honour (Leiden, 1977); N. F. Blake, William Caxton and English Literary Culture (London, 1980); William Caxton: An Exhibition to commemorate the Quincentenary of the Introduction of Printing into England (1976); N. F. Blake, Caxton: England’s First Publisher (1976); G. D. Painter, William Caxton: A Quincentary Biography (1976).
38 F. Hepburn, Portraits of the Later Plantagenets (Woodbridge, 1986), ch. 4; S. Thurley, The Royal Palaces of Tudor England (1993), ch. 2. On Edward’s Burgundian friend, see M. G. A. Vale, ‘An Anglo-Burgundian Nobleman and art patron: Louis de Bruges, Lord of La Gruthuyse and Earl of Winchester’, in England and the Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages, ed. C. Barron and N. Saul (Stroud, 1995), 115–32.
39 J-J-G. Alexander, ‘Painting and Manuscript Illumination for Royal Patrons in the Later Middle Ages’, in English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages, ed. V. J. Scattergood and J. W. Sherborne (1983), 152–3; in general, see R. F. Green, Poets and Princepleasers: Literature and the English Court in the Late Middle Ages (Toronto, 1980). Edward’s ordinances for the education of his son (February 1483) were detailed yet traditional in character: N. Orme, ‘The Education of Edward V’, BIHR, 57 (1984).
40 J. Backhouse, ‘Founders of the Royal Library: Edward IV and Henry VII as Collectors of Illuminated Manuscripts’, in England in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Williams, 23–42; S. McKendrick, ‘The Romuleon and the Manuscripts of Edward IV’, in England in the Fifteenth Century, ed. N. Rogers (Stamford, 1994), 149–69, and ‘La Grande Histoire César and the Manuscripts of Edward IV’, in English Manuscript Studies, 1100–1700, Vol. 2 (1990), 109–38; A. F. Sutton and L. Visser-Fuchs, ‘Choosing a Book in Later Fifteenth-century England and Burgundy’, in England and the Low Countries, ed. Barron and Saul, 71–98; K. Harris, ‘Patrons, Buyers and Owners: the Evidence for Ownership, the Role of Book Owners in Book Production and the Book Trade’, in Book Production and Publishing in Britain, 1375–1475, ed. J. Griffiths and D. Pearsall (Cambridge, 1989), 163–200; C. Meale, ‘Patrons, Buyers and Owners: Book Production and Social Status’, ibid., 201–38.
41 C. D. Ross, ‘Rumour, Propaganda and Popular Opinion during the Wars of the Roses’, in Patronage, the Crown and the Provinces in Later Medieval England, ed. R. A. Griffiths (Gloucester, 1981), ch. 1. Cf. I. M. W. Harvey, ‘Was there Popular Politics in Fifteenth-century England?’, in The McFarlane Legacy, ed. R. H. Britnell and A. J. Pollard (Stroud, 1995), ch. 7.
42 A. Allan, ‘Political Propaganda employed by the House of York in England in the Mid-Fifteenth Century, 1450–1471’ (unpublished University of Wales PhD thesis, 1981); idem, ‘Yorkist Propaganda: Pedigree, Prophecy and the “British History” in the Reign of Edward IV’, in Patronage, Pedigree and Power in Later Medieval England, ed. Ross, 171–92; R. F. Green, ‘The Short Version of The Arrivall of Edward IV’, Speculum, 56 (1981), 324–36; L. Visser-Fuchs, ‘Edward IV’s “memoir on paper” to Charles, Duke of Burgundy: the so-called “Short Version” of The Arrivall’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 36 (1992), 167–227; A. F. Sutton, L. Visser-Fuchs
and P. W. Hammond, The Reburial of Richard, Duke of York, 21–30 July 1476 (1994). On communication, there are interesting suggestions in A. Allan, ‘Royal Propaganda and the Proclamations of Edward IV’, BIHR, 59 (1986), 146–54; I. Arthurson, ‘Espionage and Intelligence from the Wars of the Roses to the Reformation’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 35 (1991), 134–54.
43 K. Mertes, ‘The Liber Niger of Edward IV: a new Version’, BIHR, 54 (1981), 29–39; P. M. Barnes, ‘The Chancery Corpus cum Causa File, 10–11 Edward IV’, in Medieval Legal Records, ed. R. F. Hunnisett and J. B. Post (1978), 429–76, for Edward’s suggested pragmatic use of his council rather than government departments; The Coronation of Richard III: The Extant Documents, ed. A. F. Sutton and P. W. Hammond (Gloucester, 1983), ch. 3, for the great wardrobe under Edward IV.
44 R. A. Griffiths, ‘The Hazards of Civil War: The Mountford Family and the Wars of the Roses’, Midland Hist., 5 (1980), 1–19, reprinted in his King and Country, ch. 21; Wright, Derbyshire Gentry, Carpenter, Midland Hist., 11 (1986), 23–48; idem, Loyalty and Polity, especially chs. 13, 14; E. Acheson, A Gentry Community: Leicestershire in the Fifteenth Century (Cambridge, 1992); C. Kelly, Huntington Library Quarterly, 49 (1986), 133–48 (Hastings and the north Midlands). On the Edwardian peace commissions and JPs, see C. Arnold, ‘The Commission of the Peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire, 1437–1509’, in Property and Politics, ed. Pollard, ch. 6; J. R. Lander, English Justices of the Peace, 1461–1509 (Gloucester, 1989).
45 Myers, ‘Parliament, 1422–1509’, in English Parliament in the Middle Ages, ed. Davies and Denton, ch. 6.
46 N. Pronay, ‘The Chancellor, the Chancery, and the Council at the End of the Fifteenth Century’, in British Government and Administration: Studies presented to S. B Chrimes, ed. H. Hearder and H. R. Loyn (Cardiff, 1974), 87–103.
47 Revival of the concept of a ‘new monarchy’ under Edward IV and the early Tudors is premature on present evidence: et. A. E. Goodman, The New Monarchy: England, 1471–1534 (1988), and J. A. Guy, Tudor England (Oxford, 1988), 13–14 (or ‘refoundation’). For a critical comment, see A. J. Pollard, ‘New Monarchy renovated: England, 1461–1509’, Medieval Hist., 2/1 (1992), 78–82.
48 R. A. Griffiths, The Reign of King Henry VI (1981), 785–90; for hints of adminstrative continuity, see Clark, ‘Benefits and Burdens of Office’, in Profit, Piety and the Professions, ed. Hicks, ch. 9.
49 Financial Memoranda’, ed. Horrox, in Camden Miscellany, vol. XXIX. This report does not take into account Edward IV’s moveable wealth.
50 C. F. Richmond, ‘A Letter of 19 April 1483 from John Gigur to William Wainfleet’, Hist. Research, 65 (1992), 111–16 (at p. 116).
PREFACE
This book is essentially a study in the power-politics of late medieval England. It could hardly be otherwise. The reign of Edward IV began with his forcible seizure of the throne; it is punctuated in mid-term by his deposition, exile, and his subsequent recovery of the crown, again by force; and his premature death was the prelude to two further usurpations, the first removing his heir, the second extinguishing the Yorkist dynasty itself. Any student of the reign must, therefore, be primarily concerned to provide an explanation of these violent changes of political fortune. The ways and means of gaining and keeping power are central themes of this study. For the same reason, Edward’s relations with the English nobility, and especially his use of patronage, occupy a prominent place, since, as the late K. B. McFarlane once remarked, ‘no one but a fool would deny that the territorial power of the nobility was the supreme factor in later medieval society’. On this crucial aspect of the reign, however, much research remains to be done, and much, fortunately, is already in progress.
Edward IV is the only fifteenth-century king whose reputation stands substantially higher today than it did a half-century ago. This modern re-appraisal of his achievement has largely been the work of a number of scholars of the present generation, notably Professor J. R. Lander and Dr B. P. Wolffe. It rests firmly on a far more informed understanding of the practical problems of government in late medieval England, and of Edward’s considerable success in finding solutions, albeit highly personal solutions, to the more pressing difficulties confronting him. Yet there remains a paradox between his undoubted success in government and his serious failings as a politician, especially his failure to provide for the peaceful succession of his son-the prime duty of an hereditary king: and to this problem I have endeavoured to find some solution. Proper treatment of Edward’s diplomacy, so important throughout the reign, and particularly in his later years, presents great difficulties. Reasons of space alone would prevent any attempt to unravel in detail its immensely complex threads, in an age of Machiavellian international relations, but my attempt to isolate its principal motives has necessarily involved some foreshortening, and for details one must still refer to Miss C. L. Scofield’s elaborate if episodic account of Yorkist foreign policy. Finally, this is a highly personal reign, dominated by the forceful, worldly, and often contradictory character of the king. In trying to see things through Edward’s eyes, I have concentrated on matters such as finance and commercial affairs which much engaged his attention, and paid correspondingly little attention to those which did not interest Edward himself.
Fifteenth-century English is often obscure, through its spelling, syntax, and the use of unfamiliar words which require constant glossing. For the convenience of readers, therefore, I have rendered in modern English all quotations in the text from vernacular contemporary sources. In spite of rather pedantic objections that the term ‘The Wars of the Roses’ is unhistorical, I have preferred to follow the example of K. B. McFarlane and others in retaining its use as a convenient and by now established phrase.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe a great deal to the work of the many scholars whose works are cited in my footnotes. In particular I must pay tribute to the remarkable pioneer work of Miss C. L. Scofield. Her two-volume study, published as long ago as 1923, was a piece of sustained and meticulous scholarship, which provided an exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting) but indispensable narrative of the reign which is unlikely ever to be superseded. To Professor David Douglas, the General Editor of this series until 1981, my thanks are due for providing me with the opportunity and the encouragement to write this book, and for much kindness over the years. I am grateful also to the Librarian and staff of Bristol University Library for their willing assistance. Dr R. A. Griffiths kindly read the early chapters of the book and saved me from a number of errors. My colleagues in the University, especially Mr J. W. Sherborne and Dr A. V. Antonovics, have shown exemplary patience in listening to my problems, and have given generously of their scholarship. I have learnt much, perhaps more than they realized, from my students, past and present, in special-subject discussions, and my post-graduate students have been generous in allowing me to make use of some of the results of their research, especially Miss M. M. Condon of the Public Record Office. Their help, I hope, has been sufficiently acknowledged in the footnotes. This book has been long in the preparation, but it would have been longer still without the vigorous encouragement and patient advice of my wife, Anne, who has also helped greatly in preparing the bibliography and the index.
ABBREVIATIONS
The following abbreviations are used in the footnotes. Full details of the works cited below, and of other books and articles referred to by short titles, will be found in the Bibliography at the end of the book. Manuscript sources are separately identified in the footnotes, usually following P.R.O. or B.M.
Annates
‘Annales rerum anglicarum’ (formerly attributed to William Worcester)
Arrivall
‘Historie of the Arrivall of King Edward IV’ (ed. J. Bruce, Camden Society, 1838)
BIHR
Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research
B.M.
British Museum
CC
‘Croyland Chronicle’ (‘Historiae Croylandensis Continuatio’, bei
ng pp. 449–592 of Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores Veterum, ed. W. Fulman)
CCR
Calendar of Close Rolls
CChR
Calendar of Charter Rolls
CFR
Calendar of Fine Rolls
Commynes
Commynes, Philip de, Mémoires, ed. J. Calmette and G. Durville (except where other editions are indicated)
CP
The Complete Peerage
CPR
Calendar of Patent Rolls
CSP, Milan (Venice)
Calendar of State Papers, Milan (Venice)
DNB
Dictionary of National Biography
EconHR
Economic History Review
EHR
English Historical Review
Fifteenth-Century England
Fifteenth-Century England, 1399–1509: Studies in Politics and Society (ed. S. B. Chrimes, C. D. Ross and R. A. Griffiths, 1972)
GC
The Great Chronicle of London (ed. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley, 1938)
Gregory
‘Gregory’s Chronicle’ (in Collections of a London Citizen, ed. J. Gairdner)
Mancini
Dominic Mancini, The Usurpation of Richard III (ed. C. A. J. Armstrong, 2nd edn, 1969)
PL
The Paston Letters (1904 edn, ed. J. Gairdner, 6 vols) (except where other editions are indicated)
P.R.O.
Public Record Office
RP
Rotuli Parliamentorum
Rymer, Foedera
Thomas Rymer, Foedera etc. (1704–35 edn, 20 vols)
Scofield