The Fateful Day
Then, on 13 June, Catesby revealed the pre-contract to Richard, about which Hastings has previously sworn Catesby to silence. However, it was not too late to prevent the coronation and the assumption of the throne by a ‘bastard slip’. Catesby acted at this crucial moment almost completely for reasons of his own. The timing was indeed critical; only a few more days and the course of events would have been unalterably fixed. The revelation left Richard in a terrible quandary. I do not believe Richard would have taken Catesby solely at his word, but Catesby had documentary proof, saved from the time when he knew Eleanor Talbot very well indeed.2 It may have even been during this fateful hour that Richard solicited Stillington either to confirm or deny the validity of this pre-contract. In confirming what Catesby had revealed, Stillington became the living evidence of the pre-contract and subsequently the public face of its validity. Now events moved very quickly. Perhaps Buckingham was summoned and apprised of the situation; perhaps he was already present; but something had now to be done. Richard was livid with Hastings, and a party of armed guards was assembled. Richard must have also wanted to know who else was party to this information, who else had known? Catesby now moved to have some of his rivals removed or neutralised; primarily John Forster was arrested and others were implicated, including individuals Richard knew that he could not trust.
After this fateful hour, the Protector returned to the council chamber. What should happen to those whose actions would cause the death of the Protector? Unaware of his danger, since his act was one of omission, Hastings was the only one to speak up and declare that they who countenanced such an action deserved death. In Richard’s eyes, he condemned himself out of his own mouth. No wonder Richard was so incensed. This was a man he had fought alongside, a man who was his brother’s best friend and ally, a man he trusted to the utmost and now his pejorative silence concerning the pre-contract had put Richard in peril of his very life. Richard’s anger was palpable; so much so that he called for Hastings’ immediate execution – a hasty, and eventually ill-advised, act. The other ‘conspirators’ were rounded up. Despite a blow being aimed at Stanley during the melée and indeed finding its mark, he was not seriously injured and Catesby spoke up for him. Catesby’s reassurance returned Stanley to favour and three weeks and two days later he would attend Richard’s coronation. Ever suspicious of Morton, Richard had him removed and imprisoned, but he was much less harsh with Rotherham than the other cleric suspected of betrayal. As well as Foster and Oliver King, Richard’s anger fell upon Jane Shore, an intimate of the now-dead king, and the now-dead Lord Hastings as well. She was another thought to be cognisant of the pre-contract and its implications and her own silence was deserving of some punishment. However, calm again quickly reasserted itself and her guilt was palliated but not dismissed. Richard was now king by right of succession, but not by acclamation or by general recognition. Somehow, his legitimacy must be established in the mind of the nobility, the public and its most influential members. The coming weekend must have been one of great thought and of strategy as to how to achieve this. Of course, regime change would not be easy.
On Monday 16th, Richard looked to secure the young Duke of York from Westminster Abbey. What was important was the control of all of the critical pieces on the political chess-board, and the young boy in the Abbey was the key element currently beyond Richard’s influence. Having achieved this, his first aim, Richard must now have planned his steps carefully. Revealing the evidence of the pre-contract to the Council was only one step. Many individuals were already very aware of Edward IV’s propensity for the ladies and his pattern of behaviour in seducing women must have been generally known. The testimony of Stillington must have been very influential, but as to exactly how and when this testimony was rendered is still unclear. Perhaps the vacillations over the stating of Richard’s various rights to the crown are evidence of the uncertainty at this time, although by January 1484 the reason was clearly stated. However, it is evident that by late June, Richard and those of his persuasion had begun to convince the greater public of the veracity of his claim. Worried by a minority rule, it was not unlikely that this news was acceptable to many who feared the instability that a child king would create. Others must have been wary of a Woodville-dominated administration and so favoured Richard accordingly. Indeed, Richard was much more of a known quantity. A proven leader in peace and in war with a reputation for fair government, he must have looked a fairly appealing candidate to a neutral observer, especially the good burghers of the capital, ever-mindful of their profits. It was thus unsurprising that the blandishments of Shaa and Buckingham met with somewhat receptive ears and at least tacit if not acclaimed acceptance.
The degree of subsequent acquiescence is reflected in the attendance at Richard’s splendid coronation on 6 July, by which time the whole transition had been accomplished. Richard himself lived by his motto and, with the notable exception of his brother Clarence, he seems to have found it very hard to forgive any form of direct betrayal. Hastings was dispatched because of his implicit betrayal. Rivers, Grey and Vaughan paid a similar price for a similar but more active offence; this when Richard realised that their treachery at Northampton had been against their rightful king and not just the Protector (although they owed their allegiance to Richard as Protector in any case). It is indeed sad then that two years later, in the moments of his critical need at Bosworth, he was in the hands of men like Stanley, for whom the idea of loyalty was ever servant to expediency; word and oath always being sacrificed to benefit and gain. The impression of Richard with which we are left with is a man in whom trust and loyalty were very strong motive forces. That he was undone by men of lesser integrity remains one of the tragedies of history.
A Final Conclusion
When one looks to distill any pattern or causal sequence in history, it is inevitable that one features the actions, motivations and inferred intentions of some individuals while at the same time minimising the role, influence and effect of others, even if only by omission of detail and emphasis.3 In what I have presented here, I have certainly featured a small group of people while not emphasising the role of significant others such as Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, Lord Stanley, Bishop Morton, Elizabeth Woodvillle, Edward V and Archbishop Rotherham, all of whom were key players, and whose actions I have recorded but not brought to the fore. Of course, this means that the actual tapestry of events is somewhat distorted, since, for the individuals noted above, their own motivations and concerns were to the fore of their own consciousness and they would have reacted according to these different lights.4 Thus, I ask the reader to see my account as an embedded one and whose primary observations are still immersed in the panoply of life as lived during the tumult of the summer of 1483.
Richard’s brother, and arguably the centre of his loyalty and allegiance, died in early April 1483. Less than three months later, Richard himself wore the crown of England. During that time, a named king had been deposed, four influential lords had been executed and prominent individuals arrested, imprisoned and removed from the centres of power. Yet no battles had been fought and no major uprising had occurred in this spectacular transfer of power. Was Richard thus the ultimate in cunning and heartless ambition? Or, was he a man of his times, reacting to the uncertainties of events which faced him from April to early July? The eventual answer will always belong to history, but I see him in the latter light, a basically loyal and honourable man caught in the Realpolitik of his times. From this vantage point his actions are logical and, for him, reasonable. History should render on him, if not a favourable, at least a fair judgment.
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