On 16 March, Queen Anne died at Westminster, her death in the morning occurring ominously, as was noted by the Crowland chronicler, ‘on the day when the great eclipse of the sun took place’.10 There is no record of what grief Richard suffered, though surviving records reveal that the king, in the final days of the queen’s life, seems to have taken to hunting with hawks, a distraction from the realities of life and the burden of his office. On 8 March, John Mountguy, Sergeant of the King’s Hawks, was ordered to ‘purvey and take at price reasonable in any place’ within the realm falcons and hawks ‘as by him shall be thought convenient for the king’s disports’.11 Three days later, John Gaynes was granted a passport ‘to go into the parties beyond the sea with four persons in his company to purvey hawks for the king’, while, on 27 March, Walter Bothnam was sent into Wales and the marches, again with a mission to ‘provide and take at price reasonable … all manner other hawks such as he shall think necessary for the king’s disports’.12
Queen Anne’s illness and death seem to have prompted Richard to contemplate his own mortality, in spite of the fact that he was only thirty-two, with his thoughts returning to the establishment of foundations in his name. In particular, at his planned foundation at York, the costs of the wages of a hundred priests remained unpaid. On 2 March 1485, Richard wrote ordering that ‘wherefore we not willing our said priests to be unpaid of their wages, seeing by their prayers we trust to be made more acceptable to God and his saints, will and straightly charge you that ye do content and pay’ to the church officials at York ‘all and any sum of money which hath grown or hereafter shall grow’.13 The following day, in a letter to the Exchequer, two weeks before Anne’s death, payments were made ‘to the household of our most dear wife the Queen’.14 Still, Richard saw fit only to bury Anne at Westminster Abbey, ‘by the south door that led to St Edward’s Chapel’, rather than at any of her Neville family mausoleums at Bisham, Warwick or Tewkesbury or her own colleges of Barnard Castle, Middleham and York, with a funeral costing only a few hundred pounds, though the Crowland chronicler described how Anne had been buried ‘with honours no less than befitted the burial of a queen’.15
Richard had already begun marriage negotiations for a new bride across the seas. While the negotiations remained secret, allowing rumours surrounding his relationship with Elizabeth of York to murmur on, they demonstrate that Richard, no doubt anxious to secure his own dynasty with a male heir, was clearly looking elsewhere for a bride. On 22 March, Richard wrote from Westminster how ‘we have at this time by the advise of our council advised and appointed our trusty and right wellbeloved Sir Edward Brampton … to pass out of this our realm unto the parts of Portugal’, where he was to be sent on ambassadorial duties, ‘to do as we have commanded him on our behalf’. For his journey, Brampton was given 100 marks.16 His mission was to negotiate a marriage for the king; Richard’s intended bride was Joanna of Portugal, the daughter of King Alfonso of Portugal. The Portuguese Council of State recommended that the king’s sister accept the projected English marriage, in particular ‘for the concord in the same kingdom of England that will follow from her marriage and union with the king’s party, greatly serving God and bringing honour to herself by uniting as one the party of Lancaster, and York, which are the two parties of that kingdom out of which the divisions and evils over the succession are born’.17 It would later be reported that the Portuguese council had been anxious to accept the marriage suit as soon as possible, for they openly feared that otherwise Richard ‘could marry the Infanta Dona Isabel of Castile, and make alliance with those kings. If the marriage to the Infanta Joanna was not progressed swiftly enough, they warned, ‘the sovereigns of Castile may give him their eldest daughter as his wife’, noting with some alarm that ‘it suits the king of England to marry straight away’. It would later be reported how King John ‘bullied and brow beat’ Joanna into submission, employing her aunt, Philippa, ‘to try more feminine means of persuasion’.18
In fact, Brampton had not just come to negotiate a marriage for the king; he arrived with letters proposing a double marriage. Not only would Richard marry Joanna, to act as a sweetener for the Portuguese, but Brampton also offered Elizabeth of York’s hand to John II’s cousin, Manuel, duke of Beja. The contemporary observer Alvaro Lopes de Chaves wrote three years later how this was sold as a ‘marriage between the daughter of King Edward of England … and the Duke of Beja’, while Brampton had arrived ‘to swear the betrothals and commit the Princess Joanna in marriage’.19
Meanwhile in London it was reported that there was ‘much simple communication among the people by evil disposed persons contrived and sown to the very great displeasure of the King showing that the queen as by consent and will of the King was poisoned for and to the attend that he might then marry and have to wife lady Elizabeth’.20 According to the Great Chronicle of London, ‘after Easter’ there was ‘much whispering among the people that the king had put the children of King Edward to death, and also that he had poisoned the queen his wife, and intended with a licence purchased to have married the elder daughter of King Edward. Which rumours and sayings with other things have caused him to fall in much hatred of his subjects as well as men of good behaviour as of others. But how so the queen were dealt with, were it by his means of the visitation of God, she died shortly after … which was a woman of gracious fame.’21
Richard called a meeting of the council, where he was forced to ‘make his excuses at length, saying that such a thing never entered his mind’. Some were not convinced, the Crowland chronicler observed, especially those ‘at that council who knew well enough that the contrary was true’. They included Richard Ratcliffe and William Catesby, to ‘whose opinions the king hardly ever dared offer any opposition’. Both remained resolute that the marriage would not take place, not least for their own self-interest. ‘It was supposed by many, that these men, together with others like them, threw so many impediments in the way, for fear lest, if the said Elizabeth should attain the rank of queen, it might at some time be in her power to avenge upon them the death of her uncle, Earl Anthony, and her brother Richard, they having been the king’s especial advisers in those matters.’ Ratcliffe and Catesby confronted Richard at the meeting and ‘to his face’ told him that the ‘people of the North’ would rise in rebellion if he were to marry Elizabeth. To emphasise their point, they brought with them ‘more than twelve’ doctors of divinity to tell him that the pope would not grant a dispensation to such a close blood relative.22
Richard needed to take action to dispel rumours of his marriage from spreading any further. On 30 March, in the great hall of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, in front of the mayor and aldermen of the city, and ‘many of his lords and of much other people’, Richard gave an outright denial of the accusations. His ‘grief and displeasure’ clearly evident, according to the account given in the minutes of the city’s Acts of Court, the king declared that ‘it never came in his thought or mind to marry in such manner wise nor willing or glad of the death of his queen but as sorry and in heart as man might be, with much more in the premises spoken’. Richard then ‘admonished and charged every person to cease of such untrue talking on parcel of his indignation’. Any person caught spreading ‘any of this foresaid untrue surmised talking’ was to be arrested and punished by the mayor. According to the Crowland chronicler, the king spoke in ‘a clear, loud voice’ and ‘carried out fully the advice to make a denial of this kind – as many people believed, more by the will of these councillors than by his own’.23 Richard decided to take further action against the rumours, sending letters to be read out across the country. A letter written by the king on 5 April was read to the council at York two weeks later, describing how ‘divers and seditious and evil disposed persons both in our city of London and elsewhere within this our realm’ had daily sown ‘seed of noise … against our person and against many of the lords and estates of our land … some by setting up of bills, some by messages and sending forth of false and abom
inable language and lies some by bold and presumptuous open speech and communication one with another’.24
Whether the rumours surrounding Richard’s plans to marry his niece were true or not, what matters is that they were believed, even by close members of his council such as Richard Ratcliffe and William Catesby, to the extent that the king, extraordinarily, had been forced to publicly deny them. The fact that Richard had been forced to make such a submission not only demonstrates the remarkable sway that Catesby and Ratcliffe had on his own judgement, but also the striking dependence that Richard placed on his Neville connection.
Rumours of Richard’s plan to marry his niece Elizabeth soon reached the continent, where news of Queen Anne’s death had already added to the suspicions. During the spring of 1485, Henry Tudor had departed for Rouen, before arriving at Harfleur, where, at the mouth of the River Seine, he began to prepare his invasion fleet. Believing the rumours to be true, Henry, ‘suddenly seized with anxiety’, communicated his fears to the earl of Oxford that ‘if Richard were to marry the eldest daughter of Edward he would not be able with honour to take any other of the sisters and however if he did not do so he feared that all Edward’s friends would abandon him’. Oxford agreed; instead both men decided that another marriage alliance should be investigated, ‘as a way of having honour which could be a protection in such a crisis’.25
Henry looked to reach out to old friends. In particular he remembered those connections that he had fostered at an early age while he had grown up in the household of William Herbert, earl of Pembroke. Henry remembered the earl’s daughter, ‘of marriageable age whom Henry, nurtured in the earl’s hall, knew well and loved’. Henry now sought to make a separate alliance with Walter Herbert and Henry, earl of Northumberland, who was married to another one of the Herbert sisters. Vergil related how ‘as soon as he could he sent Christopher Urswick to Scotland, pretending that he meant him to go another way, by means of trusted messengers, to treat for a new marriage alliance with Henry earl of Northumberland to whom one of Walter’s sister was married’. Yet Urswick’s mission was to prove a failure. ‘When Christopher set off he found no-one in Scotland to whom he would dare give the order to the earl’ and he was forced to return to Henry ‘with his mission unaccomplished’.26
‘While everything was uncertain’, Henry also took into his confidence Richard Fox, ‘a man distinguished both for good character and good ability’, to discuss the invasion plans should any proposed marriage alliance fail to materialise. Both men agreed that ‘it would for the good of all to hurry things along’.27 Henry had decided to return to his ships on the Seine, when he received a message from John Morgan that if he arrived in Wales, he would be welcomed by Rhys ap Thomas, John Savage and ‘a not inconsiderable sum of money’ that had been gathered by Reginald Bray.28
Good news was also forthcoming from the French government. Under pressure from what seemed a growing threat of the build-up of the English navy in the Channel, Charles VIII and his advisers resolved to give final backing to Henry Tudor to launch an invasion upon England. On 4 May an ordonnance was presented to the Estates, seeking further financial assistance in order to help Henry Tudor.29 Shortly afterwards, Henry would receive an additional 40,000 livres tournois – around £4,400 – to support his invasion. Yet only a first instalment of 10,000 livres was to be paid immediately. There is no evidence that the rest of the money ever arrived, as the Beaujeu regime had intended to provide Henry with enough money to start his preparations for an invasion, but no more. Eventually, a further 30,000 livres were obtained in a loan taken out at Paris on 13 July, though Henry was forced to leave Thomas, marquess of Dorset, and John Bourchier, Lord Fitzwarin, behind as hostages as surety for the loan. The choice of Dorset and Fitzwarin as pledges was an entirely deliberate ploy on the part of the French; for if Henry’s invasion attempt failed, the possession of the only two Yorkist lords in his army represented their best chance of getting their money back.30 Meanwhile, Henry Tudor continued to gather together an army of men, mainly mercenaries from the disbanded military camp of the Pont-de-l’Arche that had been established by Philippe de Crèvecoeur, Seigneur d’Esquerdes. There is no evidence that Esquerdes ever joined Tudor’s army himself; instead it would be the professional soldier of fortune, Philibert de Chandée, who had no connection to the Beaujeu government, who would be entrusted with leading Henry’s mercenaries. It was hardly promising; Commynes summed up the French support as ‘a little money from the king, and some three thousand of the most unruly men that could be found and enlisted in Normandy’.31
Throughout all this, Richard’s preparations for the defence of his realm had been intensifying. On 13 January, Richard’s loyal henchman, Sir James Tyrell, having been sent to Flanders during the winter to seek out assistance from Maximilian of Austria and Burgundy, had been appointed to take command of Guisnes Castle, while preparations were made to ship a force from Dover to Calais. The same day, a commission was sent to all knights, squires and gentlemen in Cheshire, ‘showing that the king hath deputed the lord Stanley, the lord Strange and Sir William Stanley to have the rule and leading of all persons appointed to do the king service when they be warned against the king’s rebels’. The men were to be ready to assist the Stanleys, with ‘all the power that they can make … if any rebels arrive in those parts’.32 On 15 January, £140 6s was spent on over 3,000 bowstaves, to be sent to Southampton, while orders were sent out for the purchase of several ships for the king’s fleet.33
Richard was still struggling to deal with the situation at the Hammes garrison, whose men had now pledged their loyalty to Henry Tudor. Early in the New Year, Richard ordered that the garrison be placed under siege with ‘war machines’ sent from Calais; however, when those inside the castle discovered the king’s men approaching, messages were sent to Tudor’s camp with requests for military support. Soon the earl of Oxford along with Thomas Brandon and ‘many other warriors’ returned to Hammes to assist the beleaguered garrison. Positioning themselves not far from the castle, Brandon and thirty men managed to enter the castle via a nearby swamp, and once within its walls were able to drive their attackers away, while the earl of Oxford ‘was no less energetic as he attacked from behind’.34 The earl’s assault proved enough for those inside the castle, led by Thomas Blount’s wife, to be able to escape the siege from Richard’s forces. Vergil wrote how many, ‘leaving the castle, returned with his company safe to Paris and Henry’.
Even those who had not rebelled were to find themselves blamed for the debacle. The Essex knight Thomas Montgomery, an established supporter of the Yorkist household, had been rewarded with land in Essex valued at £412 in February 1484, at the same time as being appointed Master Forester and Steward of the King’s Forests.35 During the illness of Lord Mountjoy, the lieutenant of the Guisnes garrison, Montgomery, had been deputising as lieutenant; it seems that Richard held Montgomery partly to blame for what had happened over the debacle of Oxford’s defection, for shortly afterwards Montgomery was removed from his post while the Essex lands he had been granted were instead transferred to an endowment for Richard’s projected royal chapel of St Mary in the London church of All Hallows by the Tower.36 The loyalty of Lord Mountjoy, the elder brother of Thomas Blount, was also in question, despite the fact that he was already seriously ill. On 22 January, Mountjoy was replaced by Sir James Tyrell. Tyrell already had important responsibilities keeping order and maintaining royal influence in Wales, yet now he was to be immediately sent to Guisnes, with officials in Glamorgan being ordered simply to ‘accept [him] as their governor and leader as he hath been heretofore, notwithstanding that the king sendeth him to Guisnes’.37 As for a replacement for Blount at Hammes, it would not be until mid-May 1485 that Thomas Wortley, a Yorkshire knight of the body to whom Richard had previously entrusted responsibility for forfeited Stafford estates in the north Midlands, would be sent to command the garrison there.38
But it was at Calais that Richard envisaged the greatest need to change
leadership. Its governor, John, Lord Dynham, like James Blount, had been appointed under the previous regime by William, Lord Hastings; while Dynham had been prepared to accept Richard’s accession, his letter to the king in late June 1483, querying the validity of the oaths the garrison had sworn to Edward V, had hardly endeared him to the king.39 Dynham had taken an active role in besieging Hammes against Oxford, paid out of his own funds, though this was not enough to win back Richard’s confidence, with the king possibly blaming failure of the siege on Dynham personally. Richard realised that he could not remove Dynham altogether, without the fear of recrimination and further defections from a garrison still loyal to the memory of Lord Hastings; instead he chose to create a level of command above him.
On 4 March, Richard appointed John of Gloucester, his illegitimate son, captain of Calais. Described in many surviving records as simply ‘the Lord Bastard’, in the patent detailing his appointment Richard described him as ‘the most notable our dear bastard son … whose disposition and natural vigour, agility of body and inclination to all good customs, promises us by the Grace of God great and certain hope of future service’.40 Payments were also authorised on 3 March for the ‘costs and expenses of all those that shall be assigned by our commission … to resist or subdue our rebels or enemies’, while the Master of the Ordnance was to be paid ‘for all manner habiliments of war by sea and by land for the defence of this our realm and for the resistance of our rebels and enemies’.41
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