62
Hall, p.472.
63
Bacon, p.142.
64
Warbeck asked James IV to ‘benignly bend’ his ears to ‘hear the tragedy of a young man that by right ought to hold in his hand the ball of a kingdom but by fortune is made himself a ball, tossed from misery to misery and place to place’ (see Bacon, p.148).
65
During the border wars between England and Scotland during the Middle Ages, Berwick had changed hands thirteen times. It had been recaptured by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, in 1482.
66
After crossing the border, Warbeck issued a proclamation promising the people of England that he did not ‘intend their hurt and damage or to make war upon them, otherwise to deliver our self and them from tyranny and oppression. For, Our mortal enemy Henry Tudor, a false usurper of the crown of England (which to Us by natural and lineal right appertaineth) … has not only deprived Us of Our kingdom, but likewise by all foul and wicked means sought to betray Us and bereave Us of Our life’ (Bacon, pp.154 – 60).
67
Warbeck complained passionately to James IV about his soldiers’ destruction of property in Northumberland and their return ‘heavy and laden with spoil’, declaring that ‘no crown was so dear to his mind as that he desired to purchase it with the blood and ruin of his country’. The Scottish king, an old campaigner, replied skittishly that he doubted if ‘he was careful for that which was not his and that he [would not] be too good a steward for his enemy’ (Bacon, p.160).
68
LP Henry VII, vol. 2, p.57.
69
A fabric woven from goats’ hair and silk.
70
Hayward, p.90.
71
TNA E. 404/82 – warrant for the payment of funeral expenses, 26 October 1495. There is a description of the funeral in BL Egerton MS 2,642, f.185v.
72
The monument had a brass inscription around the edge of the cover-stone and another rectangular one beneath the feet of the effigy. These are now lost – probably torn off during the ‘cleansing’ of Westminster Abbey in 1548 under religious reforms introduced by the government of Elizabeth’s nephew, Edward VI.
73
CPR Henry VII, vol. 2, p.72.
74
Scarisbrick, Henry VIII, p.4.
75
Hall, p.479.
76
Hall, ibid. Joseph, of St Keverne, was sentenced to death for his part in the insurrection and while he was being drawn on a sheep hurdle to the place of execution, ‘he said that for this mischievous and facinorous [extremely wicked] act, he should have a name perpetual and the same permanent and immortal’. Today, of course, people go on television talent shows in the same hope.
77
Bacon, p.182.
78
Bentley, p.114.
79
Walsingham has been a place of pilgrimage since 1061 when a Saxon noblewoman, Richeldis de Faverchies, wife of the local lord of the manor, had three visions of the Virgin Mary who requested the replication of the holy house of the Annunciation in Nazareth in this Norfolk village. The medieval shrine was destroyed during the reign of Henry VIII in 1538. An Anglican shrine was re-established in the village of Little Walsingham in 1931 and is today visited annually by more than 300,000 pilgrims, 10,000 of them residential. There is also a Catholic shrine, founded in 1934.
80
Warbeck was arrested by John Godfrey, Mayor of Southampton, and his henchmen. He was paid the large sum of £482 16s 8d for expenses and rewards ‘for business concerning Piers Osbeck’ (Wroe, p.317).
81
Hall, p.485. She was treated generously by Elizabeth of York and remarried three times during the reign of Henry VIII: first to James Strangeways, a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber; then to Matthew Craddock; and finally in 1531 to Christopher Ashton. Catherine died in 1537 and was buried at Fyfield, Berkshire. Henry paid out £7 13s 4d to Robert Southwell for horses, saddles ‘and other necessaries bought for the conveying of my lady Catherine Huntley’ (Bentley, p.115).
82
Hall, p.486.
83
CSP Spain, vol. 1, p.185.
84
Polydore Vergil asks why this ‘unhappy boy should have been committed to prison, not for any fault of his own but only because of his family’s offences; why he was retained so long in prison and what, lastly, the worthy youth could have done in prison which could merit his death – all these things could obviously not be comprehended by many’. But the answer was tragically clear: ‘Truly the wretched lot of the Yorkist house was such that Earl Edward had to perish in this fashion in order that there should be no surviving male heir to his family’(see Vergil, p.119).
85
Arthurson, p.209.
86
Also involved in the brawl were Suffolk’s Yorkist companions, William Courtenay, Sir Thomas Neville and William Brandon. Henry VII had halted the common-law proceedings against Suffolk to win some political advantage over these vulnerable Yorkist supporters (Cunningham, ODNB, vol. 44, p.697).
87
CSP Spain, vol. 1, p.206.
88
As a foreigner he could not be accused of treason and therefore was not hanged, drawn and quartered – the penalty for traitors. The site of the scaffold at Tyburn is today’s Marble Arch in London and the location is named after the Tyburn Stream, which flows into the River Thames near Vauxhall Bridge. Executions there ended in 1783.
89
‘Greyfriars Chronicle’, p.26. Henry paid a total of £12 18s 2d for Warwick’s burial at Bisham Abbey in Berkshire.
90
CSP Spain, vol. 1, p.213.
91
CSP Milan, p.322.
92
He was baptised in the Greyfriars Church at Greenwich on 24 February. John Davy was paid 6s 8d to ride to Canterbury to collect the special silver font and the prior given a £2 reward for supplying it (Bentley, p.120).
CHAPTER 2 : THE SPARE HEIR
1
Nichols, Epistles of Erasmus, vol. 1, p.201.
2
RCIN 73197. It has been variously described in catalogues as ‘head of a laughing child’ and ‘bust of a German dwarf’.
3
Attributed in 1925 by the art historian Sir Lionel Cust (1859 – 1929), when Surveyor of the King’s Pictures and Works of Art. By 1494, Henry VII began to plan his tomb, originally intended to be erected in the Lady chapel of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, but four years later his planned burial site was switched to Westminster; see Condon, ‘God Save the King’ in Tatton-Brown & Mortimer, Westminster Abbey, p.60.
4
Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p.105.
5
Starkey, Henry – Virtuous Prince, pp.118 – 19.
6
Herbert, Life and Raigne of King Henry the eighth, p.2.
7
Corpus Christi College MS 432. See Doran, Man and Monarch . . ., pp.30 – 1. It is now known as the Récits d’un ménestrel de Reims, and was presented to Henry by Skelton in 1511.
8
Nelson, John Skelton . . ., p.15 and Gunn and Monkton, Arthur Tudor, p.8. Some of Arthur’s books were in English, including a translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, published in 1498 by William Caxton and dedicated to ‘my coming natural and sovereign lord’. See: W. J. B. Crotch (ed.), The Prologues and Epilogues of William Caxton, EETS original publication 176 (London, 1928), p.110.
9
Now held by Emmanuel College, Cambridge; MS 5.3.11. The picture of Arthur is at f.1. See Carley, Books of Henry VIII …, p.49. The illuminated initial is illustrated on p.51.
10
A mountain in Greece, formerly sacred to the Muses, which was often confused by sixteenth-century writers with the springs of Aganippe and Hippocrene which rose in it.
11
Scattergood (ed.), John Skelton …, p.132.
12
Salter, ‘Skel
ton’s Speculum Principis, pp.25 – 37. The surviving copy of this moral treatise, which dates from Henry’s accession, is in BL Add. MS 26,787 as a small octavo book, with some text lost at the beginning. It was formerly in the library of Lincoln Cathedral.
13
Pollard, Henry VII, p.15.
14
More was called to the bar and admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1496. He became a barrister in 1501.
15
Nichols, Epistles of Erasmus, vol. 1, p.26 and pp.201 – 2, originally contained in Erasmus’ Catalogue of Lucubrations, an account of his early attempts at poetry. Henry’s note to Erasmus has not survived.
16
It was printed and published in 1500 with a dedication to Henry.
17
BL Egerton MS 1,651, f.1.
18
Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p.116.
19
Hayward, Dress at the Court of Henry VIII, p.90.
20
TNA E 36/219 f.8v and 12v. In 1498 – 9, Henry VII spent a total of £134 8s 61/2d on clothing for the royal children. See Hayward, p.90.
21
A recent study of the 1505 portrait of Henry VII suggests that the traditional view that it represents a mean and crafty king results ‘from a misinterpretation of the artist’s intentions’. See Frederick Hepburn, ‘The 1505 Portrait of Henry VII’, Antiquaries Jnl, vol. 88 (2008), pp.245 – 6.
22
Vergil, Anglica Historia, p.145.
23
Pollard, Reign of Henry VII, vol. 1, p.204.
24
Edmund died at the bishop of Ely’s house at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. His body was brought to London on 22 June and ‘conveyed honourably through Fleet Street with many noble personages, the Duke of Buckingham [one of his godfathers] being the chief mourner’ for burial that day in Westminster Abbey; Pollard, Henry VII, vol. 1, pp.215 – 16. Edmund’s funeral bill was £242 11s 8d.
25
CSP Spain, vol. 1, pp.177 – 8. The old English nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence is traditionally supposed to portray Henry and his queen, Elizabeth of York: ‘The king was in his counting house / ‘Counting out his money / ‘The queen was in the parlour / ‘Eating bread and honey … /’
26
TNA E 101/413/2/3, ff.1 – 4.
27
Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, 26 March 1499; CSP Spain, vol. 1, pp.206 – 7.
28
Horowitz, ‘Henry Tudor’s Treasure’ HR, vol. 82 (2009), pp.562 – 3. This was not a one-off payment: on 25 February that year, another payment in 240,000 pennies was made, with a loan, paid in 480,000 pennies, made two days later. See Horowitz, ibid., fn. p.563.
29
Attainder involved forfeiture of estate and/or deprivation of rank or title for treason.
30
See J. R. Lander, ‘Bonds, coercion and fear’, p. 339.
31
He was threatened with fines of £5 per retainer – totalling £70,500 – for illegally maintaining liveried servants and supporters. Henry VII tried to curb the ‘private armies’ of retainers held by the nobility, outlawing them by laws of 1487 and 1504, although the latter legislation introduced a form of licensing system. See A. Cameron, ‘Giving of Livery and Retaining in Henry VII’s Reign’, Culture, Theory and Critique, vol. 18 (1974), pp.17 – 35.
32
Chrimes, Henry VII, fn. p.215. Grey was a spendthrift and ended up heavily in debt, mainly through gambling. He was forced to alienate his property, much of which ended up in Henry VII’s possession.
33
A groat was worth four pennies.
34
Vergil, Anglica Historia, pp.127 – 9. Dudley and Empson received a percentage for the cash they collected as a ‘success fee’.
35
See: G. R. Elton, ‘Henry VII: Rapacity and Remorse’, HJ, vol. 1 (1958) pp.21 – 39; and the contra-argument proposed by J. R. Cooper, ‘Henry VII’s Last Years Reconsidered’, ibid., vol. 2 (1959), pp.103 – 29 and Elton, ‘Henry VII; A Restatement’, ibid., vol. 4 (1961), pp.1 – 29.
36
See C. J. Harrison, ‘Petition of Edmund Dudley’ HR, vol. 87 (1972), pp.82 – 99 and Chrimes, Henry VII, pp.309 – 11. Recognisances owed to Henry VII averaged one hundred and one per year in the period 1501 – 9, sixteen times higher than in Edward IV’s reign and five times more than under Richard III (Horowitz, ‘Henry Tudor’s Treasure’ op. cit., p.574).
37
Bacon, p.230.
38
Horowitz, ‘Henry Tudor’s Treasure’, op. cit., p.577.
39
‘Greyfriars Chronicle’, pp.26 – 7. There had been two royal residences on the site before Henry’s rebuilding. The first was demolished by Richard II in 1395 and the second was built by Henry V, beginning in 1414 and completed by Henry VI. Richmond Palace fell into decay in the seventeenth century and large portions were demolished. The remains were divided into tenements around 1720. Little remains above ground today other than the fifteenth-century ‘Old Gate’; the eighteenth-century ‘Old Gate House’; the Trumpeters’ House (previously the guard house and now a private residence), built 1708; the Wardrobe (formerly the stables, and now private homes) of the early eighteenth century, but incorporating re-used Tudor brick; and finally ‘The Old Palace’, again eighteenth-century and another private residence.
40
Thomas & Thornley, Great Chronicle, p.286. Henry VII paid £20 ‘for rewards given to them that found the king’s jewels’ after the fire. Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p.115.
41
Jones & Underwood, The King’s Mother, p.76. A visitor in 1501 described the new three-storey palace buildings: ‘On the walls and sides of the hall between the windows be pictures of the noble kings of this realm in their harness [armour] and robes of gold … On the right side of the chapel is a goodly … privy closet for the king … on the other side … the like closets for the queen’s grace and the princes, my lady the king’s mother with other estates and gentlewomen.’ See: G. Kipling (ed.), Receyt of the Ladie Kateryne, pp.71 – 3.
42
Baynard’s Castle was originally built by William the Conqueror to guard London’s river approach from the west. It was destroyed by fire in 1423 but rebuilt by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and became a royal palace. It was almost completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London in September 1666, save for one tower which remained in use until 1720. The rest of the palace site was given over to buildings and wharves. Archaeological excavations in 1972 – 4 discovered foundations of walls and one tower.
43
Greenwich was the favourite palace of Elizabeth of York and she took a major role in planning the new buildings. Robert Vertue, who controlled construction work from 1499 to 1504, was paid for the ‘new platt [plans] of Greenwich which was devised by the queen’ (BL Add. MS 59,899, f.24). See: Thurley, Royal Palaces, p.35.
44
Bacon, op. cit., p.243. See also S. Gunn, ‘Courtiers’, p.24. The animal, of the Ateles family of monkeys, must have come from central America and was probably a gift from the Spanish.
45
Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p.98.
46
CSP Milan, vol. 1, p.375.
47
CSP Spain, vol. 1, p.439.
48
TNA E 101/414/6 f.25v. In a letter to his mother, Henry VII refers to his deteriorating eyesight: ‘Verily madam my sight is nothing so perfect as it has been. I know well it will impair daily. Wherefore I trust that you will not be displeased though I write not so often with my own hand, for on my faith I have been three days [before] I could make an end to this letter’; Ellis, Original Letters … vol. 1, 1st ser, p.46.
49
Bentley, Excerpta Historica, pp.102 and 133.
50
TNA E 404/86/1 f.28. See also S. Gunn, ‘Courtiers’, p.26.
51
BL Add. MS 7,099, f.129. Keyley was a witness to a notarial instrument at Lichfield, Staff
ordshire, on 17 March 1495. See BL Stowe Charters 625. See also R. Edwards, ‘King Richard’s tomb at Leicester’ The Ricardian, vol. 3 (1975), pp.8 – 9.
52
Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p.105. The tomb was destroyed after the Greyfriars surrendered on 10 November 1538 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The body of Richard III was removed and local tradition suggests that it was thrown into the nearby River Soar. There is no evidence to support this legend, but in 1862, a skeleton was found on the bed of the river near Bow Bridge. The cranium was damaged by what looked like sword blows, and it was immediately assumed the remains were that of the deposed king. The skull was taken into the safe-keeping of the Goddard family of Newton Harcourt, Leicestershire, where it remains.
53
For example, in 1495, fourteen shillings was paid on 8 March to Hugh Dennis, Groom of the Close Stool, ‘for the king’s loss at tennis’ and twelve days later ‘£1 to my lord marquis [probably Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset] at [the archery] buttes’. Bentley, Excerpta Historica, pp. 101 – 2.
54
Wroe, p.155.
55
This game, described as ‘cleke’ in the accounts, was popular from the sixteenth century through to the eighteenth.
56
Anglo, ‘Court Festivals’, p.14.
57
Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p.126.
58
The house at Collyweston was largely demolished in 1720, although a description of 1741 talks of the shattered remains of the great hall, a tower, a dungeon [sic] and the kitchen (Associated Architectural Societies’ Reports and Papers, vol. 28 (1905), pp. 569 – 74). The site today (National Monuments Record SX 90 SE 6) is marked by a range of earthworks, still over eleven feet (3.5 m.) high, garden terraces, two fishponds fed by natural springs and low fragmentary boundary banks to what was the park (Map grid reference: SK 9945 0287).
59
Jones & Underwood, The King’s Mother, p.154. By 1506, the house had its own chapel and vestry, a library, great hall, parlour and Margaret’s own rooms, including a chamber of presence and accommodation for her household. It had its own jewel house and even its own prison.
60
Jones & Underwood, The King’s Mother, p.81.
Young Henry: The Rise of Henry VIII Page 34