At some point Richard III may have considered Edward Plantagenet his heir and had him placed at Sheriff Hutton in North Yorkshire for his own protection, but it may be that he considered him a threat to his throne, but on Richards death in 1485 the new Lancastrian regime quickly had him removed and placed under heavy guard at the Tower of London. Despite being ten years old, Henry also considered him a threat and needed him watched to prevent Yorkists organising his escape and using him as a reason to rebel. Henry used Edward two years later when he paraded him in London after Lambert Simnel's challenge to his throne. In 1499 Warbeck entered the scene and it was he whose actions were the beginning of the end for Edward. It was alleged that Edward had plotted with and was involved in Warbeck's attempt to overthrow the king. Warbeck confessed to the plot, under torture, but I cannot say if Edward did. Either way, Edward went to his death Tower Hill a week after Warbeck execution.
November 1499, saw the death of the grandson of the Richard, Duke of York and Cecily Neville. Edward Plantagenet, was the son of George, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV and Richard III who death is recorded as the 28th of this month. Edwards life was abysmal, his mother died when he was just a year old and he was only three when his father was executed, his wardship was granted in 1480 to Thomas Grey, the son of Elizabeth Woodville by her first husband. It has been said that Edward suffered from some sort of mental illness, but I imagine it was more to do with anxiety and lack of care and/or the fact that he received little or no education. By the time he was twenty-four he had spent sixteen years in confinement, away from court, away from influences and activities of Yorkist sympathisers and he would have known little of what was going on in Henry's new kingdom. Bearing this in mind and the fact that he was heavily guarded it is hard to believe that he was in cahoots with Perkin Warbeck and knew of the plans to overthrow Henry VII, it is more than likely that Henry VII used this opportunity to rid himself of a man with better claim to the throne than his.
At some point Richard III may have considered Edward Plantagenet his heir and had him placed at Sheriff Hutton in North Yorkshire for his own protection, but it may be that he considered him a threat to his throne, but on Richards death in 1485 the new Lancastrian regime quickly had him removed and placed under heavy guard at the Tower of London. Despite being ten years old, Henry also considered him a threat and needed him watched to prevent Yorkists organising his escape and using him as a reason to rebel. Henry used Edward two years later when he paraded him in London after Lambert Simnel's challenge to his throne. In 1499 Warbeck entered the scene and it was he whose actions were the beginning of the end for Edward. It was alleged that Edward had plotted with and was involved in Warbeck's attempt to overthrow the king. Warbeck confessed to the plot, under torture, but I cannot say if Edward did. Either way, Edward went to his death Tower Hill a week after Warbeck execution.
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On the 22nd November in 1392 Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, a favourite of Richard II, died near Louvain in Belgium. He had received the Earldom of Oxford when he was nine years old, was knighted along with the king, Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock and Henry of Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV. Robert de Vere benefited greatly from his friendship with the king, he was given his own rooms in Richard's castles, granted estates, gifts and other nobles' inheritances. He was also given the title Marquess of Dublin, yet he never set foot in Ireland. However, he is mostly remembered for his opposition to the Lords Appellant, a group of nobles who sort to bring the king to task over his reliance on his favourites, at Radcote Bridge.
Robert de Veres forces were soon surrounded and after a short clash of weapons, de Vere was quick to realise the danger of his position and abandoned his men, leaving many of them to the mercy of their enemy and made his cowardly escape by crossing the river, supposedly in disguise, and headed to the Netherlands. A year later, in what has come to be known as the Merciless Parliament he was found guilty of treason and a death sentence was passed in his absence. Robert de Vere spent the rest of his life in exile, thus avoiding the executioner's blade. His death left Richard II bereft. Three years later, on the anniversary of his death, the king had de Vere's embalmed body brought back to England for burial in the Priory at Earl's Colne, in Essex. Killed on the 23rd September in 1459 at the Battle of Blore Heath, James Tuchet, Baron Audley who was hacked to death at the hand of Roger Kynaston, who, it has been said, sought out Audley on the battlefield. The place where Audley met his end is marked by a stone cross. In the 13th century, the Audley family appear in my maternal family history with another James Audley. James Audley had as his mistress my ancestor Alice Mohun, by whom he had a son, he also he had five sons and a daughter with his wife before falling from a horse and breaking his neck. Audley's four son's followed him to the grave in quick succession and by 1299 his estates and that of his maternal great grandmother Ela Longspree, Countess of Salisbury, passed to Nicholas, the ancestor of John Tuchet of Blore Heath fame. Part of the Audley estate passed to his youngest son Hugh Audley, who was born in 1267. The Audley bloodline continued through Hugh's son and heir, also Hugh, through to the Stafford family who would later become the Dukes of Buckingham - Henry Stafford the treacherous leader of the rebellion against Richard III. Also, the Audley bloodline runs through his daughter Alice who married Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville of Raby and this makes Hugh the 4x great grandfather of Richard Neville, famously known as the Kingmaker, the 3x great grandfather of Cecily Neville, and the 4th great grandfather of Richard III, Edward IV, and George, Duke of Clarence. What a tangled web we (well the Audleys at least) weave! In the first image, you can see a painting called Audley's Charge by Robert Sim, and in the second what is traditionally thought to be the effigy of Hugh Audley (1267) although it now appears that the clothing worn by Audley and his wife is from a later date.
This is a print of an engraving by John Raffe of Micklegate Bar in York from a painting by English artist William Westall. Westall is most famous for the work he produced in Australia. In 1800 he was asked by Joseph Banks to serve as a landscape and figure painter aboard HMS Investigator, under Lincolnshire born Matthew Flinders. By 1829 Westall was back in England working for publisher Rudolf Ackermann. Westall’s illustrations were used in educational publications and he also produced over a hundred drawing for Great Britain Illustrated from where I believe this print originates.
I will be definitely keeping it and having it framed despite the fact it was the place where Richard Duke of York’s head was placed following the Battle of Wakefield. The twelve years of King Edward's reign that followed Henry VI's death, were relatively stable, the city saw the redevelopment of St George's Chapel and a new great hall at Eltham Palace. Edward patronised the new invention of printing, the Recuyell of the Histoyes of Troye was the first book to be printed in England. Charles Ross, described Edwards court as "the most splendid in all Christendom." Edward developed a love of art much of seen in Bruges, at the home of his friend Louis of Gruthuyse. Stability in his kingdom lead to Edward making peace with France. In the summer of 1475, on a bridge at Picquigny with a wooden barrier between them Edward and Louis XI came to an agreement. On the 29th of August 1475, the Treaty of Picquigny was signed.
A seven year truce and a marriage between the dauphin and Edward's daughter Elizabeth of York were two of the items agreed upon. Edward may have been pleased with his actions, but it was a move that greatly angered the Duke of Gloucester, his outrage is one of the first times we see the future Richard III vocally objecting to a decision made by his brother. The 17th August 1473 is the date of birth of Richard of Shrewsbury, the second son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. Richard of Shrewsbury is, of course, was one of the Princes in the Tower. What we know of Richard can be viewed through the titles that were bestowed upon him and the dates and events that made up his life. His birth, as his name suggests, was at Shrewsbury, his marriage, at just four years old was to Anne Mowbray. We do not even know what he looked like but this doe's not stop writers, artists and film/television producers portraying him as an innocent, as angelic, a pure almost saintly child. Shakespeare has John Dighton calling Richard and his brother Edward ‘gentle babes.' They are emotive words that were intended to describe Richard's character - a foil to Shakespeare's protagonist, his uncle Richard of Gloucester in his play Richard III. Shakespeare's portrayal of the young prince would be used again and again over the years by artists, the most famous by Paul Delaroche and John Everett Millais, even the horror movie genre gets in on the act - John Herbert-Bond's young prince to Basil Rathbones Duke of Gloucester. Despite the fact that there is no evidence either way as to what happened to the princes, the tale of Richard's disappearance is the one event that defines this little boys life.
On the 26th July in 1469, the Battle of Edgecote took place on Danes Moor in Northamptonshire at a crossing of a tributary of the River Cherwell between a royal army and well-supported rebels from the north of England. Despite his victory at Towton in 1461, Edward IV was still concerned with Lancastrian plots, however, he had not understood the gravity of his betrayal of Richard, Earl of Warwick and how much he wished to be avenged. By 1468 Edward's popularity in England was reduced and this gave Warwick his opportunity to take back control of England. Rebellion in the north began in the spring of 1469, it gathered under the banner of a man going by the name of Robin of Holderness. Another man going by the name of Robin, whose true identity has never been identified only suspected, appeared again in the summer of 1469, he was known as Robin of Redesdale (he would later appear again, under this guise at the Battle of Luscote Field in the March of the following year.) Pulling the strings, or at least stirring the pot was Richard Neville and the sly old fox was clever enough not to be seen to be involved in any plotting of the downfall of the House of York. Edward was at Newark in Nottinghamshire when he heard of the Redesdale rebellion and by the night of the 25th July, the forces of the king under the command of William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke and Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon and a rebel army under the aforementioned Robin of Redesdale arrived at a moor not too far from Banbury in Oxfordshire. The battle began on the morning of the following day took place on the east side of the River Cherwell, but the exact battleground has never been identified. This battle has been written about by two chroniclers, Jean de Wavrin and John Warkworth both were living and writing at the time of these events. Both note that the royal army was in trouble from the start, an argument in the ranks took place at some point before the fighting took place, but they disagree as to the reason, whatever went on the Earl of Devon withdrew his troops.
In the first part of the battle, the royal forces were successful but with the arrival of the army of Richard Neville, the Battle of Edgecote went the way of the rebels. This battle saw the executions of a number of high ranking members of the Yorkist party and the king himself captured and placed under arrest. Robin of Redesdale, as we have seen, (may) have lived to fight another day. With the Earl of Warwick now in control the question should be asked could he run the country? 4th June 1487 Following Lambert Simnel’s coronation in Dublin in May of 1487 the Yorkist rebel army landed at Piel Island, Furness in Lancashire on this day. As they made their was south east, they gathered English soldiers and Irish and German mercenaries before coming face to face with the forces of Henry Tudor on Stoke battlefield on the 16th of June 7th June 1487 Making their way to the final battle of the Wars of the Roses the Yorkist rebels, under the command of Francis Lovell and John de la Pole, make camp at Jervaulx Abbey in Yorkshire on this day in 1487. 8th June 1487 The forces of Francis Lovell and John de la Pole reach the Yorkshire village of Masham. From here a request is sent to enter the city of York, but it is denied. The rebels are told that the city would "withstand them with their bodies." My photos were taken at Masham last year, we stayed in the village pub, you can see one of the views that the Yorkist's forces would have seen when they camped in the village. 10th June 1487 Henry VII reaches Leicester and is joined by Jasper Tudor, John de Vere, George Talbot and Edward Courtenay. Meanwhile..... At midday, Henry Clifford, departs from York with 400 men and heads towards Tadcaster to take on the forces of Francis Lovell. He returns, not only defeated but poorer, having lost all their money to the victorious Yorkists. 12th June 1487 Henry Clifford leaves the City of York (again) this time in the company of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, however they are soon informed that Thomas, Lord Scrope of Masham, with John, Lord Scrope of Bolton were besieging York at Bootham Bar. Meanwhile... The forces of Henry VII cross the Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire boarder and armies of John de la Pole and Francis Lovell join forces. 13th June 1487 After staying at Masham on the 8th, the Yorkist rebels advance to Nottinghamshire is not well documented but it was via Branham Moor in Yorkshire. It has been stated that they passed the village of Southwell and Averham via Pontefract, Doncaster and Worksop as they made their was towards the River Trent at East Stoke. 16th June 1487 The Battle of Stoke, which took place on the morning of the 16th June 1487, saw off the last of the Plantagenets and gave the Tudors a foundation on which to build their new dynasty, was an attempt by Yorkist loyalists to take the crown from the head of Henry VII and place it on the head of Yorkist figurehead Lambert Simnel, a claimant to the English throne, posing as Edward, Earl of Warwick. You can read my blog on the last battle of the Wars of the Roses here
meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/wars-of-the-roses-blog/battle-of-stoke-the-battlefield-site It was on this day in 1420 that the Treaty of Troyes was ratified. King Henry V had worked hard to bring the French to the negotiation table, he quickly followed this by marrying Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI of France and the sister of the Dauphin. With the treaty signed Henry V was declared heir and regent to the Charles VI of France, this meant that on Charles's death France and England would be ruled by one king. However, things did not go as expected, in the December of 1421, the hero of Agincourt lay dying from dysentery at the Chateau de Vincennes in France.
His death left his nine-month-old son, Henry King of England and within a year the boy would be king of France On the 6th of May in 1502, Sir James Tyrell was executed for treason, his crime, contrary to what most people think and what the chronicles of history tell us, was not the murder of the Princes in the Tower but his support of the Yorkist cause. His downfall you might say was in 1501, when he sheltered Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk and let him escape to France. Tyrell never confessed to harming the Princes, his name wasn't mentioned in reference to their disappearance until ten years after his death. The most famous account, of course, was written by Thomas More in his History of Richard III, he states "...very truth it is and well known that at such time as Sir James Tyrell was in the Tower, for treason committed against the most famous prince King Henry the Seventh, both Dighton and he were examined, and confessed the murder in manner above-written, but whither the bodies were removed they could nothing tell." James Tyrell was beheaded outside the Tower of London, the usual place for a traitor. His body was interred in the Church of the Austin Friars in London.
The only images available to illustrate this post are of Tyrell doing away with the princes and that won't do! Instead, I've chosen to place an image of Thomas More writing his lies, and ensuring that Tyrell is seen as a villain for eternity. |
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