Richard III

by Chris Skidmore

  Other monarchs were also keen to make contact and establish diplomatic ties with the new king. On 16 August, James III of Scotland wrote to Richard proposing a truce for eight months, requesting that peace commissioners might meet on the border, or travel to England with an entourage of eighty persons.57 Richard took a month to respond, and, refusing to comment on the specifics, agreed that an embassy might be sent to England.58 If Richard’s interests in Scottish affairs seemed somewhat muted, for the moment his concerns lay elsewhere, towards the Channel, and his relationship with France and Brittany. He had already sent Thomas Hutton to deliver to Duke Francis II of Brittany a message of goodwill, explaining that since King Edward’s death ‘folks of simple disposition’ had taken to the Channel to commit acts of piracy that had caused ‘great trouble and hindrance’ in trade on both sides, though he hoped that ‘a full reformation of all attempts may well be had’ through a treaty that Richard hoped might be held in England in the near future. Hutton was also given instructions to ‘feel and understand the mind and disposition of the duke against Sir Edward Woodville and his retinue, practising by all means to him possible to ensearch and know if there be intended any enterprise out of land upon any part of this realm.’59

  On 26 August, Duke Francis sent his ambassador, George de Mainbier, with instructions to inform Richard that in spite of an increase in the number of English ships that have ‘put themselves in warlike array upon the sea, and have threatened to take and plunder the subjects of the duke’, which Francis requested Richard should do more to prevent, he was willing to conclude an alliance after the meeting of the country’s assembly in September, ‘for the great love and affection’ he wished to show Richard.

  Francis also had some important information to pass on to the king. Since Edward IV’s death, he revealed, Louis XI had on several occasions requested that he send Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, to the French court, making ‘great offers’. Nevertheless, Francis insisted he had ‘given him no inducement, fearing that the said King Louis would thereby create annoyance and injury to some of the friends and well-willers of the duke’. As a consequence, Louis had given ‘great menaces to the duke of making war upon him’. Without English aid, Francis surmised, he would be forced to hand over Henry Tudor to the French, ‘which he would be very loath for the injury which he knows the said king Louis would or might inflict upon the said king and kingdom of England’. The price for not handing over Henry, Francis bargained, would be 4,000 archers, ‘furnished with good captains and a good chief’, whose wages for six months would be paid for by the king, an arrangement already agreed by Edward IV. In addition to this, Richard should provide an additional two or three thousand archers, if the duke required, which would be paid for by the duke himself. ‘And so doing’, Francis indicated, he would be prepared to ‘await the fortune of war, as it shall please God to send him, rather than deliver into the hand of the said king Louis the said lord of Richmond, or do anything prejudicial’ to Richard and the English nation.60

  As the son of Margaret Beaufort – grand-daughter of John of Gaunt – and Edmund Tudor – half-brother of the Lancastrian king Henry VI – the twenty-six-year-old Henry Tudor had a claim to the throne, albeit a dubious one. Yet for those Lancastrian exiles still holding out for their cause, Henry Tudor remained their best and only hope: after the crushing defeat of the Lancastrian army at the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, Henry’s uncle, Jasper Tudor, had realised that he needed to save his nephew’s life, and flee the country together. Jasper had intended to set sail for France, presumably to seek refuge at the court of Louis XI. However, storms blew the ship off course, and after apparently landing briefly at Jersey, they landed at the small port of Le Conquet, on the westernmost point of the peninsula, in north-west Finistère, near Brest. Captured, Henry and Jasper were brought to the ducal palace of the Château de l’Hermine at Vannes, where Duke Francis II was residing. Jasper had ‘submitted himself and his nephew to his protection’. The duke knew that the Tudors would be valued pawns in the diplomatic games he played between France and England. He received his new guests ‘willingly, and with such honour, courtesy, and favour’. Treating them as if ‘they had been his brothers’, Francis pledged to protect both Jasper and Henry, allowing them to ‘pass at their pleasure to and fro without danger’.61 When Edward IV had heard the news of Jasper and Henry’s escape and safe landing in Brittany, and hearing that they had been ‘courteously received and entertained’ by Francis, he was furious, ‘which matter indeed he took very grievously, as though his mind gave him that some evil would come thereby’.62 He sent secret messengers to Francis, promising great reward if he would hand over the earls. The tactic seems to have backfired: when the duke realised the value of his captives, ‘that the earls were so rich a prey’, he was determined not to release them. Understanding the advantage that possession of the Tudors had brought him, Francis knew that he would need to prevent their escape. He ordered that Jasper’s English servants be removed, and his own men placed around the two earls, ‘to wait upon and guard them’.63 By October 1472, both Jasper and Henry had been taken to Suscinio, one of the duke’s country residences, near Sarzeau on the Gulf of Morbihan. In early 1474, Francis decided to separate Henry from his uncle, placing Jasper in the fortress of Josselin, twenty-five miles from Vannes, and removing Henry to the chateau of Largoët, with its 144-foot-high, seven-storey, octagonal tower, known as the Tour d’Elven, that had been rebuilt in the 1460s and remained unfinished, hidden deep within a forest. For the next nine years, Henry Tudor would remain a prisoner there. Henry later told the chronicler Philippe de Commynes that ‘since the age of five he had been guarded like a fugitive or kept in prison’, though Duke Francis laid aside for his household the princely sum of £2,000, compared to just £607 10s for his Uncle Jasper.

  Edward IV had done all he could to secure possession of Henry Tudor. Attempts to bargain for Tudor to be sent back to England in 1473 and 1476 both failed, though by 1482 it seemed that Henry’s mother, Margaret, was prepared to countenance a deal with the king, securing a pardon for her son if he returned to England. Her attempts to lobby on behalf of her son were to continue into Richard’s reign. On 5 July 1483, Margaret and her husband, Thomas Stanley, had met with Richard and his chief justice, William Hussey, at Westminster, where Richard gave his support to Margaret’s claim to a ransom debt that she was attempting to obtain from the Orléans family in the courts in Paris. The following day, Margaret had played a prominent part in the coronation ceremony of the new king, bearing Queen Anne’s train in the procession to Westminster Abbey and afterwards, alongside Katherine, duchess of Norfolk, acting as one of the servers at the banquet.64 According to the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall, Margaret approached the duke of Buckingham shortly after Richard’s accession, asking him to intercede with Richard on her behalf for Henry’s return to the English court. In order to aid the chances that the king might accept Henry’s return and subordination to the Yorkist regime, she proposed that Henry might take one of the Woodville daughters in marriage, the arrangement of which she would leave to the king, ‘without any thing to be taken or demanded for the same espousals but only the king’s favour’.65

  At the same time, Duke Francis seems to have no longer felt bound to keep Henry and Jasper under such a close guard. By February 1483, Henry had returned to Vannes, where he was staying at the duke’s residence of the Château de l’Hermine, though he was free to hear services at the local cathedral.66 By the summer, Francis had given Henry and Jasper the freedom to travel across his dukedom, the news of which must have made Richard nervous.

  Francis’s threat to return Henry Tudor to France and into Louis XI’s arms was somewhat muted by the sudden death of the French king on 25 August. John, Lord Dynham, wrote to inform Richard of the news. ‘What direction shall be taken thereupon his decease with the Dauphin and that Realm is not yet known’, Dynham reported back, though already he was concerned about the designs of Maximilian on the Burgundian towns
controlled by the French. Already at sea ‘the war is open between both realms’, Dynham reported, while at Calais he had ‘much to do to keep men still in peace here, for they would fain be in hand with the Frenchmen’, adding, ‘My lord it is thought here that the king should have a navy upon the sea to show himself as a king to rule and keep his streams betwixt this and Dover’ in order to reduce piracy.67 The death of the French king seemed to be a blessing; rather than follow Dynham’s advice, Richard decided to take the opportunity to scale down military operations at Calais.

  11

  ‘THE FACT OF AN ENTERPRISE’

  The royal progress continued to journey through the Midlands, resting at Coventry, at Leicester on 19 August, then at Nottingham Castle, where Edward IV had started a programme of remodelling the medieval castle with modern fifteenth-century quarters. It was to become one of Richard’s favoured residences: the king had begun to consider the need to reinforce the status of his own lineage and the Yorkist dynasty as it now appeared. Already he had named his son Edward of Middleham to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on 19 July; at Nottingham, on 24 August, Edward was created Prince of Wales and earl of Chester, though curiously the traditional appointment as duke of Cornwall was omitted. Richard wrote to the archbishops how he had performed the formal ceremony, ‘as the custom is by the girding of the sword, the handing over and setting of the garland on his head, and of the gold ring on his finger, and of the gold staff in his hand’.1 Richard explained in his letter how he had chosen to elevate his son, ‘having great care that, in the great anxieties which press upon us, those who are necessary to support us should not now seem to be lacking’.

  The creation of his son Edward as Prince of Wales at Nottingham would be the prelude to a far greater and impressive ceremony that Richard had planned for his homecoming into his heartland, the city of York. The Crowland chronicler wrote how Richard was ‘now desirous, with all speed, to show in the north, where in former years he had chiefly resided, the high and kingly station which he had acquired’. The day before Prince Edward’s creation, on 23 August, Richard’s secretary, John Kendall, had written ‘in haste’ from Nottingham to the mayor and aldermen at York, informing them that the king and queen had ‘in all their progress … been worshipfully received with pageants’. Throughout the journey, the king’s judges had sat ‘in every place, determining the complaints of poor folk with due punishment of offenders against his laws’. ‘I truly know the king’s mind and entire affection that his grace bears towards you and your worshipful city, for your many kind and loving deservings shown to his grace heretofore’, Kendall wrote, ‘which his grace will never forget, and intends therefore so to do unto you that all the kings that ever reigned over you did never so much.’ The city was advised, however, that it should plan to receive the king and queen, ‘as honourably as your wisdoms can imagine’, with pageants, ‘such good’ speeches, and ‘clothes of arras and tapestry work’ in the streets, ‘for there come many southern lords and men of worship with them which will mark greatly your recieving of their graces’.2

  On 29 August, the royal party – Richard, Queen Anne and Prince Edward – entered the city gates of York through Micklegate Bar, the gateway into the city upon which the head of Richard’s father, Richard, duke of York, had been impaled after his defeat and death at Wakefield nearly a quarter of a century before. The entry had been carefully timed, chiming with the feast of the Decollation of St John the Baptist.3 As the procession made its way through the city, the mayor, John Newton, made a speech welcoming the royal family and offered a gift to the king of 100 marks contained in a gold cup, and for the queen £100 in gold and precious plate, of which Miles Metcalfe, the city recorder and close acquaintance of Richard’s, personally gave £100.4

  The cathedral records at York tell how Richard entered the city, accompanied by the queen and the prince and ‘many other magnates’, including the earls of Northumberland, Surrey and Lincoln, Lord Lovell, Fitzhugh, Thomas, Lord Stanley, and his son George, Lord Strange, Lord Lisle and Lord Greystoke along with ‘many others’, including the bishops of Durham, Worcester, St Asaph, Carlisle and St David’s. After being received by the city authorities outside the walls, Richard and the procession passed ‘through displays and decorations’ until arriving at the Metropolitan church of St Peter. Richard was ‘honourably received’ at the west door by the Dean and Canons, each wearing blue silk copes and ‘sprinkled with holy water and censed’, before entering the church to hear mass. Once the ceremony had finished, the procession left the church to stay in the archbishop’s palace, where the royal family would reside for the rest of their visit.5

  Two days later, Richard sent an urgent message to Peter Curtys, the Keeper of the king’s Great Wardrobe, ordering that silks, satins, gowns and banners depicting not only the royal arms fashioned out of ‘fine gold’, but also St George, St Cuthbert, St Edward, the Trinity and Richard’s own standard of the boar be immediately sent to York for another procession. In addition, forty banners for trumpets and four standards depicting boars were ordered, along with 13,000 cognisances or badges made of fustian ‘with boars’.6 The formal investiture of Prince Edward was set for Monday, 8 September, with the week leading up to the event occupied with the ‘most gorgeous and sumptuous feasts and banquets’, the Crowland chronicler observed, though he believed this was merely ‘for the purpose of gaining the affections of the people’.7

  On 8 September, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Richard and Anne, ‘both crowned’, returned in procession to St Peter’s church, where in front of the lords and bishops, and with the high altar having been ‘ornamented with silver and gilt figures of the twelve apostles and many other relics given by the Lord King’, they heard mass with the bishop of Durham officiating, with the ceremony continuing until the evening. Returning to the bishop’s palace for dinner, Edward was once again created Prince of Wales by Richard, ‘in the presence of all’. For the Crowland chronicler, the occasion was nothing less than a second coronation. Prince Edward was created Prince of Wales, ‘with the insignia of the golden wand and the wreath’. Richard, Anne and Edward then sat, ‘so they say, crowned, for four hours’.8 During the day of investiture, Richard not only conferred the honour of knighthood upon his son, but also knighted his nephew Edward, earl of Warwick, his illegitimate son John of Gloucester, and even Gaufridius de Sasiola, the Spanish envoy sent by Queen Isabella of Castille.9 The Crowland chronicler was typically scathing about the entire display, accusing Richard of wasting money on nothing more than a vanity project. ‘He had arranged splendid and highly expensive feasts and entertainments to attract to himself the affection of many people. There was no shortage of treasure then to implement the aims of his so elevated mind since, as soon as he first thought about his intrusion to the kingship, he seized everything that his deceased brother … had collected.’ On the contrary, Richard’s magnificent spending belied the fact that his expensive progress was already causing him financial difficulty. Payments for the royal household’s expenses of £46 7s were taken from Elizabeth Woodville’s Northamptonshire estates, while Richard had to borrow £100 from Furness Abbey on 9 September. Another £10 was lent by Thomas Metcalfe on 29 September.10 For the moment, however, Richard was determined to enjoy his new-found status as king. Financial worries were certainly not reflected in the generosity of his progress. Thomas Langton, who had been consecrated as the bishop of St David’s in Wales on 21 May, had accompanied Richard on his progress, and is listed as staying in Magdalen College with the king. Writing to the prior of Christ Church Cathedral at Canterbury from York at some point during September, describing the progress to date, Langton wrote how Richard ‘contents the people where he goes best that ever did prince, for many a poor man that hath suffered wrong many days have been relieved and helped by him and his commands now in his progress. And in many great cities and towns were great sums of money give him, which all he hath refused. On my troth I liked never the conditions of any prince so well a
s his: God hath sent him to us for the weal of us all.’11 Langton chose to turn to Latin for his next observation: ‘Sensual pleasure holds sway to an increasing extent, but I do not consider that this detract from what I have said.’ Langton’s description of Richard as a generous and popular king is reflected by John Rous, who later wrote how ‘The money which was offered him by the peoples of London, Gloucester, and Worcester he declined with thanks, affirming that he would rather have their love than their treasure.’12 During July, Richard made an offering of 20s to our lady of Barking, and another offering of 6s 8d at Evesham, while £3 6s 8d was given ‘to poor folks at our lady of Rumsivalle’.13 While journeying through Doncaster, Richard ordered that a ‘wife’ alongside the road should be given 3s 4d. Only later would the Tudor writer Polydore Vergil cast aspersions on Richard’s motivation for pursuing good deeds and works to attempt to win popularity and distract from this treatment of King Edward V and his brother, Richard, yet, regardless of the reason, even Vergil admitted that ‘he repented his life of evil deeds and began then to show himself as another man, namely pious, just, gentle, polite, religious and generous, especially to the poor’.14 In his giving, image mattered as much as reality. At every stage of Richard’s progress, it seems that events were tightly orchestrated, as John Kendall’s letter to the citizens of York reveals, with careful planning going into every public display. The intention, as Kendall made clear, was to present Richard in the best possible light.