The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA

by John Ashdown-Hill

  On Wednesday 22 June instructions were sent out to the commissioners of array for every county in the realm:

  For asmoche as certain informacion is made unto us that oure Rebelles and traytors associate with oure auncyent ennemyes of Fraunce and other straungiers entende hastely to invade this oure Royaulme purposing the distruccion of us, the subversion of this oure Royaulme and disheriting of al oure true subgiettes We therefore wol and straitly commaunde you that in alle haste possible after the Receipt hereof ye doo put oure Commission heretofore directed unto you for the mustering and ordering of oure subgiettes in new execucion according to oure instruccions whiche we sende unto you at this tyme with thise oure lettres. And that this be doon with alle diligence. As ye tender oure suertie the wele of youre self and of alle this oure Royaulme.12

  The specific instructions appended to this letter were that the commissioners of array should first pass on to the king’s subjects his thanks for their past services in resisting traitors and rebels, urging them to renew their efforts now. Second, they were to check that all men already mustered were properly equipped, and that their wages had been paid up to date. Third, they were to notify all knights, esquires and gentlemen to appear in person at the king’s array, assigning each of them to the command of suitable captains. Fourth, all men were to be warned to be ready to serve the king at an hour’s notice, and last, all lords, noblemen and captains likewise were commanded to present themselves, ready to serve the king, and setting aside any private quarrels.

  Despite this last injunction, on or about Friday 24 June Richard’s Chamberlain, and Constable of England, Thomas, Lord Stanley requested leave of absence from the court and from attendance upon his sovereign. In May, Lord Stanley had ridden out of London to Windsor Castle at Richard’s side, and he had been in continuous attendance on the king throughout the following weeks. Nevertheless, his overall record was equivocal. At various times during the succession disputes, Stanley had supported both York and Lancaster. Although, in the immediate aftermath of Edward IV’s death, he seems to have sided with Lords Howard and Hastings, supporting Richard as Lord Protector and opposing the ambitions of the Woodville family, like Lord Hastings he seems to have baulked at the notion of disinheriting Edward IV’s children.13 When Hastings was executed, Stanley had briefly been imprisoned. His already somewhat equivocal loyalty was unquestionably further complicated by the fact that he had married as his second wife Lady Margaret Beaufort. As a result of this marriage he had become the exiled Henry ‘Tudor’’s stepfather. Despite all this, Richard III had been willing to employ him, and to entrust him with responsible posts in his household and government. Now, however, Stanley asked ‘leave to retire for a time to his estates, from which he had been long absent, in order to rest and refresh himself. Should the invasion occur during this interval, he was quick to point out, he would be the better able, at home, to rally his men to the king’s cause.’14

  It is surely a measure of Richard III’s character that, instead of refusing, dismissing Stanley from his posts, or imprisoning him as a suspected traitor, he simply acceded to the request. Ironically (given the popular picture which has been painted of him since the sixteenth century), one key feature of Richard’s character was apparently a lack of ruthlessness. Time and again his behaviour proved too kind, too generous, too trusting. Thus Bishop John Morton and others survived to betray him. And now, in the penultimate week of June 1485, Richard repeated his mistake, and allowed Lord Stanley to depart. The king was in the strongly fortified castle of Nottingham, surrounded by his yeomen. ‘He had but to move his hand and, whatever course the house of Stanley might take, the enigma of Lord Stanley himself would be solved by simply holding him in custody until the invasion had been mastered. No doubt John Kendall, Ratcliffe, Catesby, when they learned of Stanley’s desire, begged him [Richard] to refuse it.’15 Yet Richard III granted Lord Stanley his leave of absence, and Stanley rode off into the west.

  On Richard III’s previous visit to Nottingham Castle, the year before, he had been accompanied by his wife. And although their son, Edward of Middleham, had not been with them in Nottingham, the boy had still been alive at the time of the royal couple’s arrival there. By contrast, on his visit in 1485 Richard III was alone as far as his immediate family was concerned, even though he had trusted friends and supporters with him. Possibly one of his distractions at this time was music: an art in which the king had a great interest. In 1484 a foreign visitor to Richard’s court had been most impressed by the quality of the music at the royal mass.16 It is also on record that:

  as king Richard issued a warrant to one of the gentlemen of his chapel ‘to seize for the king all singing men as he can find in all the palaces, cathedrals, colleges, chapels, houses of religion and all other places except Windsor royal chapel’, and some of his musicians were identifiable composers.17

  Like many of the aristocracy Richard employed his own performers, and in the years before he ascended the throne we find mention of his trumpeters, his minstrels, and his shawm players.18 The shawm was a robust and lively instrument from which the rather more genteel modern oboe and clarinet are descended. As Duke of Gloucester, Richard also had his own ‘players’, and there were more than four of these in his troupe.19 The players in question were probably actors rather than musicians, though the English word could have either meaning.20 We know that within a year of Richard’s death, Henry VII was maintaining a company of four actors who were called lusores regis (‘the King’s Players’), and there is no reason to suppose that this was an innovation at court. ‘Since these men were specialists in the presentation of stage-plays they needed both a repertoire of scripted plays and certain minimum physical conveniences for their performance.’21 Although medieval plays are best known today from religious contexts, this is largely an accident due to the survival of texts of miracle and mystery plays. Secular dramas certainly existed too, though little trace of them has survived.22

  During his stay at Nottingham Castle, Richard III also had time to remember his interest in the University of Cambridge, and specifically in Queens’ College, which he and Queen Anne had already conspicuously patronised. In July 1485 the king granted to the president of the college – his friend, Master Andrew Dockett – a selection of lands in Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Suffolk and Berkshire, the combined value of which, in terms of yearly income, amounted to £329 3s. 8d.23

  Yet even amongst his varied interests and activities in the summer of 1485, Richard could not completely forget the threat posed by Henry ‘Tudor’, the self-styled ‘earl of Richmond’, whose French-financed expedition was now poised at Harfleur for the invasion of England. On Sunday 24 July the king sent to his Chancellor in London asking for the Great Seal. It was not that Bishop Russell was being dismissed from his post, merely that the king was aware he might need rapid personal access to the seal during the coming days and weeks. It was on Friday 29 July, at the Old Temple, that Chancellor Russell surrendered this solemn object into the hands of the royal messenger. Two days later, across the Channel in Harfleur, Henry ‘Tudor’ embarked his expedition and set sail. He landed at Milford Haven in Wales a week later (Sunday 7 August). His first intention was said to be to make straight for London. It took just four days for the news of his landing to be brought to the king at Nottingham. Richard III at once summoned his array. The king was seen to be publicly rejoicing at the news of ‘Tudor’’s landing, since he fully expected to defeat him.24

  He then did something which may now, in retrospect, seem quite extraordinary, but which nevertheless tells us a great deal about his mood at the time, and which also speaks volumes as to his opinion of the ‘Tudor’ invasion force. Having summoned his array, the king left Nottingham Castle with some of his close friends. This little company then rode a few miles into nearby Sherwood Forest.25 There, at the royal hunting lodge in the deer park of Bestwood, the king planned to give himself a short holiday.26 Most previous writers have painted a dramatic picture of a Rich
ard III obsessively preoccupied at this time by pessimistic thoughts of the coming fight for the throne. Yet, as we have seen already, contemporary sources contradict this, telling us that Richard rejoiced at Henry ‘Tudor’’s coming because he was confident that he would defeat him. The medieval nobility certainly considered hunting a very suitable preparation for war, but Richard III’s hunting holiday also appears to confirm that at this juncture the king felt optimistic and completely in control of the situation.

  6

  Bucks at Bestwood

  While the queen had lain dying at the Palace of Westminster, and also in the miserable period following her death, King Richard had sought some small distraction from his grief in making plans for the traditional royal sport of hunting.1 As has already been indicated, on 8 March a commission was issued to John Montyguy [Montigue?], Sergeant of the Hawkes, to purchase ‘at price reasonable in any place within this Royaulme fawcons, laverettes, goshaukes, tircelles and almaner othere haukes as by him shalbe thoughte convenient for the kinges disportes’.2 On 11 March a similar commission was given to John Gaynes, who was to travel abroad with four companions in quest of more hawks for the king.3 On 27 March Waltier Bothnam [sic] was charged with the same commission in respect of Wales and the Marches.4

  Hawking was a costly sport of middle-eastern origin, restricted to the elite by the expense involved. It was certainly indulged in by the upper ranks of fifteenth-century society, and evidence of expenditure on hawking is to be found in the surviving accounts of Richard III’s great friend and supporter, John Howard, Duke of Norfolk.5 The birds of prey used for this purpose were of various kinds, ranging from the large peregrine falcon, used by men, to the little merlin, a lady’s hawk.6 Hawks were highly prized,7 and their prey was very varied, including larger birds: mallard, partridge, woodcock, heron; and small song-birds such as blackbirds, starling and larks. Hare were also hunted in this way. However, one wonders whether, in the short time left to him, King Richard ever had the opportunity to enjoy riding out with any of his newly acquired birds to try out their prowess in the field. Training a hawk was a long and slow process, and even if the commissions of March 1485 did succeed in producing new stock for the royal mews, the hawks may not have been ready for the king’s use before he was obliged to take the field for another purpose entirely.

  Hawking was only one form of hunting, an activity which Richard III (in common with others of his period and social background) had enjoyed in all its forms from the days of his youth. On his first independent excursion as a teenaged royal duke to the eastern counties, as the guest of Sir John Howard (as he then was), Richard had almost certainly been taken hunting at the Earl of Oxford’s park at Lavenham.8 Hunting was the universal pastime of the aristocracy, and since ancient times the hunt had been regarded as reflecting the prowess required in military service. Although the fifteenth century had seen a reduction in the proportion of English land reserved for deer, both in open forest and in enclosed parks, large tracts of forest were still set aside as hunting parks for the enjoyment of this elite activity, and they were vigorously protected. Fifteenth-century commentators continued to see hunting both as an important training for war and as a genteel activity.9

  The royal hunting park to which, in the second week of August 1485, Richard now made his way, accompanied by a few friends, was that of Bestwood, a little to the north of Nottingham, in Sherwood Forest. This park comprised some 3,000 acres, centred around a royal hunting lodge. It had been a royal hunting preserve since at least the twelfth century, ‘where King John and his brother Richard stayed to get away from Nottingham … Bestwood Country Park was [then] a royal deer park – one of the best parks in Sherwood Forest. It was very strongly guarded and kept very well stocked.’10

  The building in which Richard III stayed, however, did not date back to the days of the earliest Plantagenet kings of England. It was of rather more recent construction, having been built by his ancestor, Edward III. ‘Prior to his visit to Nottingham in 1363 King Edward III sent instruction to Robert Maule of Linby, the custodian of Bestwood to fell sufficient timber to enclose the park in order to build a suitable lodge on the most attractive part of the enclosure, somewhere for the King to stay whenever he wished.’11 Subsequent English monarchs, including Richard’s brother, the late King Edward IV, had likewise stayed at Bestwood Lodge and hunted the deer in the park. When Bestwood Lodge was repaired, just over a hundred years after Richard’s visit, in 1593, it was described as a timber-framed building of lath and plaster construction, with a tiled roof. At that time it seems to have contained thirty-eight rooms, and it had outbuildings comprising cottages and barns.

  One of the closest approximations to such a medieval royal hunting lodge to survive today is perhaps ‘Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge’ in Epping Forest, near London. Despite its popular name, this structure was actually built in 1543 for King Henry VIII, and was originally known as ‘The Great Standing’. In fact, it was built in part to function as a grandstand from which guests could both view the royal hunt, and also participate by shooting at the game with bows and arrows as beaters drove the animals past the lodge. However, this building, like the royal hunting lodge at Bestwood, also contained extensive kitchens, together with facilities for entertaining visitors. Like the hunting lodge at Bestwood park, ‘Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge’ is a timber-framed building with laths and plaster and a tiled roof. But the lodge at Bestwood was probably a somewhat more extensive building, albeit one which probably lacked the ‘grandstand facility’ of the lodge in Epping Forest, being designed rather for the overnight accommodation of royal hunting parties than as an actual venue for the hunt itself.

  Beneath its ceremonial trappings, hunting served two practical functions: the provision of meat, and the control of animals regarded as vermin. In fifteenth-century England possible quarry included deer,12 boar, hare and game birds (as sources of meat).13 Otter were hunted as vermin.14 Heron were both a kind of vermin (as a threat to the fish ponds) and also a source of meat. Bear were still hunted on the European mainland, but wild bear – once a native species – had finally become extinct in England during the fourteenth century. Richard III’s great uncle, Edward, Duke of York, who wrote an English hunting text based upon a French treatise, also refers to wolf-hunting, but wolves were certainly very rare in England by the fifteenth century, if not already extinct. In fact, wolves may have figured in the Duke of York’s text merely because he was working from a French original.15 York had also referred to hunting foxes. Foxes and wolves were classified as vermin, hence they were certainly destroyed as and when occasion arose. They could be killed with traps, snares and poison. The supposedly ‘traditional’ English ‘sport’ of foxhunting with horses and hounds is a much more recent invention which in Richard III’s day had yet to be thought of. In the fifteenth century the fox was considered an unsuitable quarry for a gentleman, and far beneath the notice of aristocratic huntsmen.16 The Duke of York also utterly despised the hunting of rabbits, an unspeakably plebeian activity, which was carried out with nets and ferrets.

  Richard III’s quarry at Bestwood was that favourite quarry of aristocratic fifteenth-century English huntsmen: the deer. Both red deer and fallow deer lived in the park at Bestwood. The former were a native species, whereas the latter had been introduced to England by the Norman kings. However, by the fifteenth century fallow deer were naturalised in England and had become quite numerous. Later, in 1607, a survey was undertaken, and at that time the deer stock at Bestwood was reported to consist mainly of fallow deer: ‘We find that there are in the park at least three hundred fallow-deer, and four-and-twenty red deer.’17 The respective numbers in the fifteenth century are not on record.

  Whether he was hunting red deer, fallow deer, or both, during the month of August, Richard III’s quarry can only have been the male animals of these species.18

  Deer were best hunted on a seasonal basis. Males were at their best in summer when they were ‘in grease’, that
is, had built up fat in preparation for the rut. The fattest harts and bucks were to be caught in the relatively brief period between mid-June and early September, though they were often hunted earlier. By Michaelmas, the season was over. Hinds and does, conversely, were best hunted in autumn and winter, their season lasting until February or Lent. Fresh venison could be obtained for much of the year.19

  Both horses and dogs were employed in hunting. During the fifteenth century the main role of horses was as transport. In pursuing animals such as boar, otter and the slower-moving game birds, once the huntsmen had reached the hunting site they dismounted and proceeded on foot. However, the hunting of swift-moving prey, such as deer and some birds, was pursued on horseback. ‘Scent-hounds’, such as the famous (and now extinct) white Talbot breed, were used to track prey by smell,20 while swift ‘sight-hounds’, such as greyhounds, were for the pursuit of deer. The large and powerful alaunt was a hunting dog which resembled the greyhound, but was both bigger and endowed with a broader head and wider jaws. It was employed for tackling the dangerous wild boar.21 Smaller dogs, such as terriers and spaniels,22 were for flushing out prey for the hawks, while retrievers and other spaniels were of assistance in collecting the birds once the hawks had brought them down.