Anne Neville: Richard III's Tragic Queen

by Licence, Amy

  The year of Clarence’s execution also saw Richard and Anne taking a step closer to realising their religious plans. The role of a leading local magnate and his wife had a crucial spiritual dimension, placing them at the forefront of local worship and as important observers of holy days of the Catholic calendar. The duke and duchess had a strong connection with their local church, the twelfth-century St Mary and Alkelda at Middleham, naming each of the stalls in turn after their favourite saints. Anne, no doubt, played a part in this and their choices may reveal something further about each of them, betraying a combination of military and domestic roles. As a seasoned commander of the recent wars, Richard would have been drawn to St George, England’s national saint and a prominent military figure who was traditionally invoked before battle. Also, St Barbara, the patron saint of artillerymen and explosives, along with St Catherine, was thought to protect against sudden, unplanned death.

  A more domestic note was struck by the inclusion of St Anthony, patron of lost articles, and St Ninian, a fourth-century Scottish saint associated with traditional healing miracles, including one where he healed a deformed boy after appearing to his parents in a dream. Richard’s connections with Durham may have led to the selection of St Cuthbert, endowed with healing and insight, as well as for his charm and generosity to the poor. In the early 1480s, the duke may have followed the long-standing tradition of carrying the saint’s banner into battle against the Scots. Also included was St Winifred, particularly associated with the Beauchamps, which Anne F. Sutton suggests was at the personal devotion and knowledge of Anne.16 During 1483–84, Caxton would publish a life of St Winifred, possibly under Anne’s patronage.

  The Gloucesters also chose St Catherine, a popular saint of the day; the Cambridge college bearing her name was founded 1473. A princess, she had a large female following and was considered an exemplar for intercession, the mediatory role that was desirable in medieval wives, duchesses and queens. Pisan and other contemporary writers held Catherine up as an example of wifely virtue and a role model for young women. Like two other women included in the Gloucester’s choices, she was esteemed for her virginity. St Mary the Virgin was another traditional choice, with probably the most powerful of all English saintly cults of the medieval period. She was also a sympathetic figure to mothers although, interestingly, the Gloucesters’ selection includes none of the other saints that were commonly associated with conception and pregnancy. Anne can hardly have given up hope of conceiving another child by 1478, at the age of only twenty-two. The latest estimates for the arrival of Edward place his birth only a year before this, so perhaps the spectre of infertility had not yet raised its head.

  Richard planned to establish chantry colleges at Middleham and Barnard Castle, where prayers would be said for the salvation of his kin and kind. In 1478, he received a grant to elevate St Mary and Alkelda to the status of college, with places for a dean and six secular priests. However, his premature death curtailed the development of these. Through the period of his marriage and into his reign, he was a regular visitor at Durham Cathedral which, in 1474–76 and 1478–79, recorded various lengths of cloth being required to furnish the table when he was fed. Anne would have accompanied him at that time, or when he made offerings, as king, on 16 May, leaving behind a gift of a robe of blue velvet, embroidered with large gold lions. In 1476, Anne became a lay sister of the eleventh-century Durham Priory. The priory’s library had been considerably developed under Prior John of Washington, who collected documents about the establishment’s history and also extended and repaired the buildings. Both the duke and duchess would also have been regulars at York Minster, whenever they visited the city, attending mass and making donations. Certainly Richard intended to be buried in York, for which purpose he intended to found a chantry chapel, where, customarily, Anne would lie beside him. When she predeceased him in 1485 though, those plans were forgotten or abandoned.

  Richard and Anne were staying at Sheriff Hutton in autumn 1480 when they received news that the Scots were planning an invasion in retaliation for a raiding party he had led across the border that summer. By November, Parliament had made the decision to invade and preparations were begun for a counter-attack, with Richard receiving £10,000 to provide wages for his men. As the newly appointed Lieutenant of the North, it would have fallen to Richard to lead the offensive but Edward toyed with the idea himself, prolonging the actual invasion. In the meanwhile, a number of small skirmishes continued along the borders, during one of which the English unsuccessfully besieged the town of Berwick. Richard took an active part in these conflicts, fighting alongside his childhood friends, Richard Ratcliffe and Francis Lovell, whom he knighted for their loyal services, near Berwick in 1482. When Edward finally relinquished the idea of fronting the army, control fell to Richard. Here, the duke had another opportunity to prove his military prowess as commander of a major campaign. The brother and rival of King James III, the Duke of Albany, fled to England in the spring of 1482 and signed a treaty at Fotheringhay that June, supporting the invasion. In return, he would replace his brother as a sympathetic Yorkist ruler. By mid-July, a force of 20,000 men, largely gathered from the North, crossed the border under Richard’s leadership. Berwick opened its gates, James III was taken prisoner and the English force occupied Edinburgh. At the point of success, Albany showed reluctance to assume the throne and Richard made him swear an oath of loyalty. The armies then returned to the border and disbanded. It was hardly an invasion that covered the duke in glory, even less successful than Edward’s 1475 French offensive. Richard would have stopped over at Middleham on the way back, before proceeding to Westminster, to give his account of events to the Parliament that met that autumn. Anne must have been relieved to see him home, safe and sound. Perhaps she travelled south with him, to spend Christmas 1482 in the capital.

  Some sources, like Croyland, claim the court was at Westminster for the festive season, while others place it at the extensively rebuilt Eltham Palace, where 2,000 people were fed daily by the new kitchens. According to Croyland, the forty-year-old portly Edward was still cutting a fine figure, ‘frequently appearing clad in a great variety of most costly garments, of quite a different cut to those which had been usually seen heitherto [sic] in our kingdom’. Always interested in fashion, the ‘full and hanging’ robe sleeves, ‘greatly resembling a monk’s frock’ and lined with fur, may have been the latest Burgundian look. The chronicler was not present, but it sounded as if he had spoken with someone who had been, who described the outfit as giving the ‘elegant’ king ‘a new and distinguished air’. The phrase ‘you might have seen, in those days’, reminds us this was written retrospectively, after Edward’s decease; in places there is a wistful nostalgia for the old regime, with ‘the royal court presenting no other appearance than such as fully befits a most mighty kingdom, filled with riches and with people of almost all nations’.

  Richard was in London for the session of Edward’s last Parliament, which commenced sitting on 20 January 1483, in order to discuss the wars against Scotland and France. Taxes were granted for the protection of the realm, making an invasion of some kind appear inevitable. Following the Scottish campaign, the young duke could anticipate leading it, perhaps at the head of the 4,000 archers that were offered to Brittany in defence against France. Richard left London towards the end of February and arrived at York on 6 March. Presumably he was back at Middleham with Anne for Easter, which fell three weeks later. As events transpired, there would be no offensive against the French or Scots. The conquest of the English throne would be achieved from within.

  10

  Crisis

  Summer 1483

  We largely shewed our trewe entente and mynde in al such thinges1

  Three months in the spring and early summer of 1483 were to propel Anne from her quiet Middleham estate back into the centre of national politics. While the events following the death of Edward IV and accession of his son, the twelve-year-old Edward V, have been well documente
d and analysed, Anne’s role in them is less clear. Historians are divided over her husband’s intentions and motivation but Anne’s understanding of the process which made her queen is just as mystifying. Perhaps, at the time, she was not required to understand. However, it remains that Anne did accept the throne, whether or not the exercise of personal choice lay within in her control. Some may see her as complicit in all that Richard did, while others may judge that she was carried along on the wave of his changes. Did she, for example, know what happened to the Princes in the Tower? Did she wonder about the death of William Hastings? How did she resolve such questions in her mind, or in discussion with Richard? Should she share any of the ‘guilt’ that tradition has ascribed to her husband?

  Anne was not in London for the months of April and May. She remained in Yorkshire after Richard had left and did not arrive until three weeks before he was proclaimed king and she, by extension, queen. Much had changed during that time, possibly including her husband’s goals. How did he explain to her that her position was about to alter so drastically? It is impossible to determine how she viewed his actions, without ascertaining exactly what those actions were. Many interpretations of that summer’s events assume that the steps Richard took were ‘wrong’, and that his acquisition of the throne was an act of ‘usurpation’. This cannot simply be accepted without further exploration. To state the obvious, while Richard’s behaviour may be analysed, his motivation can only be cause for speculation. His potential subterfuge makes it difficult to pinpoint the turning points of his ambition, yet secrecy had been expedient to the kingmaking activities of his mentor Warwick and those of both Richard’s elder brothers. Anointed monarchs and teenage princes had lost their lives in the dynastic struggle: enemies were executed without legal trial and brother turned against brother. Richard’s coup must be considered in the context of their struggles for control of the country: were any of his ‘crimes’ significantly worse than theirs?

  Ultimately, one question comes to dominate all others: was Richard motivated by personal ambition or a sense of genuine entitlement? Was he a ruthless opportunist who employed violence and exploited the weak in order to seize the throne? Or, with an unblemished record of loyalty to his brother, did his belief in his nephew’s illegitimacy dictate the changing course of his duty? His actions in 1483 appear to be out of character, unless he genuinely believed he was in danger from a Wydeville plot. Was he driven by the need to remove his enemies and prevent a return to the instability of civil war, or he had previously concealed his true nature? Even then, we cannot know how far the husband confided in his wife; how much was explicitly stated and how much was understood? Only one person knew the extent to which Richard shared his motives with Anne; that was Richard himself.

  For Anne, it all started on 16 April 1483. The spring flowers were already starting to brighten the surrounding fields and buds on the trees were bursting into bloom when a letter arrived at Middleham Castle. King Edward was dead. In fact, he had been dead for a week, soon to be buried in the splendid chapel he had left unfinished at Windsor. It was only Lord Hastings, veteran of so many battles at Richard’s side, who had chosen to write to him and break the news. Official word had still to come from Westminster, although arrangements were being discussed for the succession of Richard’s nephew, the twelve-year-old Edward. It has been suggested that the Gloucesters were surprised to learn that the king had died on 9 April, a week ago, yet word had not reached his son in Ludlow until 14 April. Considering that the distance from Ludlow to the capital is around 150 miles, in comparison with the 240 miles from Westminster to Middleham, the extra two days delay, for even the fastest of horseback riders, appears reasonable. There may have been no intention to exclude Richard. More unexpectedly, it transpired that, on his deathbed, Edward had named his brother as Protector. As the son of Elizabeth Wydeville, raised in Ludlow Castle by her brother Anthony, the young prince would automatically have come under the control of his Wydeville relations. In the days leading up to his death, knowing that his end was imminent, the king had attempted to bring about a reconciliation between his unpopular Wydeville in-laws and other members of his household, including his close friend Hastings. For Edward to have entrusted his son to Richard spoke volumes about his concerns regarding the influence of the queen’s family. As the final surviving son of that Yorkist generation, Richard would have at once risen to the challenge of defending the inheritance.

  The death of Edward IV had been unexpected. At forty-one, he was no longer the youthful, athletic figure who had dominated the battlefield and years of indulgence had significantly increased his girth. At some point in late March or early April, according to Mancini, the king had been fishing on the Thames, after which he had caught a cold. This was unremarkable in itself, as the river was the main thoroughfare of London and frequently used for travel by the royal family. When he returned home, though, the illness worsened and he took to his bed. A number of suggestions have been made regarding the causes of his decline and death. The French chronicler Thomas Basin stated that the king had upset his digestive system by eating a surfeit of fruits and vegetables. Commines believed it was due to Edward’s disappointment regarding the breakup of the intended marriage between his daughter Elizabeth and the Dauphin, but this had happened the previous year. Virgil described the illness as an ‘unknown disease’ and Dr John Rae, in 1913, suggested pneumonia because contemporaries say that Edward lay on his left side. Commines also said that Edward had a stroke. Whatever claimed his life, it set in motion a chain of extraordinary events.

  It is interesting that a false report of Edward’s death had already reached York on 6 April, ‘in so authentic a form that no doubt was entertained of its truth’.2 At this point, there were three days still to go before Edward actually died. According to the municipal records, the mayor received a message from the dean on a Sunday, inviting him and the aldermen to attend a dirge on Monday in the minster and a requiem service on Tuesday. However, a mistake in the dates or the translation must have occurred, as 9 April fell on a Monday that year, so if the message was dispatched on a Sunday, it must have been on Sunday 8 April. This is probably not as sinister as has been suggested and may have been an exaggerated report of his illness or else a result of the fifteenth century’s imperfect communication networks. On 10 April, Edward’s body was carried to the chapel of St Stephen for eight days of obsequies, after which it was taken to St George’s at Windsor and buried on 19 April. It was not until after this that Richard ordered a funeral mass to be performed in York Minster, on 21 April. The eighteenth-century Ricardian and Prime Minister, Horace Walpole, wondered whether Richard would have ‘loitered in York’ if he intended to seize the throne; in fact, Gloucester was already on his way south.

  Richard had only ‘loitered’ a little in the North, awaiting official instructions and planning his next move. Hastings’ letter probably informed him that Anthony Wydeville, Earl Rivers, had been instructed to bring the young Edward V to London by 1 May. Although it was essential to secure the safety of the new king, for Richard, this may have confirmed Edward’s last-minute concerns of Wydeville domination. The Coronation of Edward V was being treated as a matter of urgency, perhaps in order to minimise Gloucester’s power, which was commensurate only with the period of preparation. Once the crown had been placed on his nephew’s head, Richard would be marginalised, then no one would be able to challenge the Wydeville hegemony. Surely it is not unreasonable to speculate that, at this point, he and Anne discussed the matter and she had given her opinions on the clan which her father had so loathed. The Wydevilles had been one of the key reasons for the rift that had opened between Warwick and Edward IV, so Anne had little reason to love them. Still waiting at Middleham, Richard wrote letters of condolence to the London Council, to the queen and to her brother, Earl Rivers, who had been the boy’s guardian at Ludlow Castle. Then it was a matter of waiting for the reply. Hastings had urged him to travel south and ‘secure the person’ of the new
king but no official word had come from Westminster. The Gloucesters were both still in Yorkshire while the old king’s funeral went ahead, which is perhaps what prompted Richard to arrange a service in York, for 21 April, as a comment on his exclusion. Then another letter arrived, from the Duke of Buckingham, who also bore ill will to the Wydevilles, having been forced into a child marriage with the queen’s sister. Buckingham offered his troops and services, so Richard agreed to meet him on the march south to join with the king’s procession from Ludlow to London.

  First, though, Richard went to York for the ceremony. As his duchess, and Edward’s sister-in-law, Anne must have gone with him to pay her respects. Only ill health would have excused her from missing such an event. On 20 April they rode out from Middleham, accompanied by 300 men, and the following day Richard led the nobility of the region in swearing an oath of loyalty to Edward V. Anne would also have pledged her loyalty. Two days later, Richard left York for Nottingham, where he planned to meet Buckingham and travel south. Anne probably returned to Middleham, to pack up her household in advance of her journey to London. What exactly had Richard confided in her at this point? What exactly was there to confide? Based on his behaviour, purely on external appearances, she would have anticipated attending the imminent Coronation of her nephew, Edward V, not that of her husband and herself. Richard’s private intentions can only be a matter of speculation at this point. If he had already conceived any doubts concerning the future rule of Edward V, one indication of this may have been the size of the army he raised. Elizabeth Wydeville had agreed to the council’s suggestion that her son be accompanied to London by a minimal number of troops; by planning to intercept them with more men, Richard must have either considered this to be inadequate provision or already intended to overrule them. At Middleham, packing up the necessaries for her journey, how long did Anne anticipate remaining in London? By the time she arrived in the capital, on 5 June, her husband’s motives had already been called into question.