The boy's father Owain ap Marededd ap Tudur’s origins are somewhat vague, he is said to have arrived at the court of Henry V in 1415, but at some point, he was under the command of the Welsh warrior Dafydd Gam, the maternal grandfather of the Vaughan's of Tretower and a staunch opponent of Owain Glyndwr. Tudor’s affair with Catherine of Valois had been conducted away from court and resulted in a number of other children. The twenty or so years that covered their adolescence under the control of the aforementioned Katherine de la Pole appear to have been unremarkable and prior to them being formally recognised as Henry VI’s legitimate uterine brothers in 1452, and their ennoblement as Earls of Richmond and Pembroke, their ‘Welshness’ can be called into question, Edmund, it seems, had no connection with the Welsh until after his marriage to the teenage Margaret Beaufort in 1452, and neither did Jasper until he moved into Pembroke Castle and took up Lancaster's cause.
3rd November 1456 Edmund and his brother Jasper had arrived at the court of their half-brother Henry VI in 1446, four years earlier, following the death of their mother, Catherine of Valois, the two boys had been placed under the care of Abbess of Barking Katherine de la Pole, the abbey was paid an allowance of £52 12s for their care. It was Katherine who introduced and encouraged the relationship with Henry VI, this was more to do with lack of money for her to continue their support, rather than noticing that they were a couple of likely candidates for the ‘Wales Got Talent’ contest. Henry accepted them into his court, it may have been for dynastic reasons or personal reasons, no one really knows, although it must have been of some comfort to a quiet and retiring king to have brothers on whom he thought he could rely. The boy's father Owain ap Marededd ap Tudur’s origins are somewhat vague, he is said to have arrived at the court of Henry V in 1415, but at some point, he was under the command of the Welsh warrior Dafydd Gam, the maternal grandfather of the Vaughan's of Tretower and a staunch opponent of Owain Glyndwr. Tudor’s affair with Catherine of Valois had been conducted away from court and resulted in a number of other children. The twenty or so years that covered their adolescence under the control of the aforementioned Katherine de la Pole appear to have been unremarkable and prior to them being formally recognised as Henry VI’s legitimate uterine brothers in 1452, and their ennoblement as Earls of Richmond and Pembroke, their ‘Welshness’ can be called into question, Edmund, it seems, had no connection with the Welsh until after his marriage to the teenage Margaret Beaufort in 1452, and neither did Jasper until he moved into Pembroke Castle and took up Lancaster's cause. In 1455 as mentioned he had married the twelve years old Margaret Beaufort and wasted little time getting her pregnant, the poor child gave birth to the future Henry VII a year later. However, Tudor was not destined to see his only child, he was dead of the plague by the end of this day in 1456. Tudor was buried at Greyfriars in Carmarthen where his tomb lay undisturbed until the Reformation when it was removed to the choir of St David's Cathedral, where it can still be found today.
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For a number of years, depending on who was on the throne at the time, England had been on good terms with either France or Burgundy, using this to his advantage Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick proposed to the September council that a peace treaty be signed with Louis XI of France. Also some members of the council had agreed with Warwick’s suggestion that it was high time Edward IV was married. Louis thought so too, an English alliance with France was far better for him than a Burgundian alliance, eventually Warwick succumbed to a bit of flattery and bribery and put it to Edward that Bona of Savoy would be a perfect match. In the September of 1464, during a discussion of this subject, and to the surprise of many, Edward indicated that the idea of marriages was indeed a good one, he never batted an eyelid at the suggestion of a French bride, even though he himself favoured Burgundy. After a long silence, he finally relayed the fact that he had already made his choice and in fact he had already married one Elizabeth Grey, a member of the lowly Woodville family of Northamptonshire. Edward, as Paul Murray Kendall quite rightly points out, had succumbed to lust and not with a weak, mild mannered virgin either, but with a strong willed widow with two young sons, and with eight siblings to boot! Edward had undertaken all this without the knowledge of one man who was so instrumental in bringing him to the throne - Richard ‘the Kingmaker’ Neville.
Edward’s news was shattering, Warwick had pledged Edward in marriage to the sister of the queen of France. Edwards irresponsible behaviour humiliated Warwick and ruined his plans, his prestige both home and abroad was in tatters, and to say that Warwick was enraged would be an understatement, the dagger of betrayal had cut too deep and it was a wound that would never heal. On this day in 1482 the death of the 'She Wolf' Margaret of Anjou age fifty-two. Margaret had been a pawn in her father's grand scheme, married at the age of fifteen to the ineffectual Henry VI, and she added fuel to the fire that was the Wars of the Roses.
She was one scary lady. However in the years after Tewkesbury Margaret had been a prisoner in England, she returned to France in the February of 1476 where she lived in poverty in Anjou dependent on a pension from Louis XI. Margaret was buried at Angers Cathedral. As Henry Tudor arrived at Crown Hill in the village of Stoke Golding he left the bodies of the dead and dying of both sides on the battle field of Bosworth but not Richard's. The mortal remains of the last monarch to be killed in battle was brought back to city of Leicester, crossing Bow Bridge as he had on his journey the day before. The kings naked and mutilated body was taken through Newark Gateway into the precinct of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary where it lay for two days to prove to the country that he was dead.
A description of this states “they browght kynge Richard thethar that nyght, as naked as evar he was borne, and in the New Warke was he layd, that many a man might see”. Historians tell us that this was not an act of vindictiveness by Henry Tudor, it was an attempt to quash all rumours that the crowned monarch could still be alive somewhere and might return to claim his throne. The Church of the Annunciation contained the tombs of some of Tudor´s ancestors, therefore it would be inappropriate the Richards body lay there too. On Henry orders Richard's body was removed by the Franciscan friars of Leicester and given a simple Christian burial in the choir of their church where he lay until September 2012. King Richard III's story, within the context of Leicester, came to an end in March of 2015 when he was finally be laid to rest in the city's Cathedral. In my images from a trip to Leicester we can see the spot where Sir Reynold Bray is thought to have found Richard's crown, Newark Gate, under which Richard III body was brought from Bosworth and the Church of the Annunciation (images five and six) would have been on the left of image five. In the August of 1485 Richard III spent three days at the royal hunting lodge in Bescwood in Nottinghamshire. A grant by Henry I to the Priory of Lenton, gave permission for the gathering of wood from the royal forest. Henry's grandson increased the collection to two cartloads a day and added to his grant the right of the Priory to gather as much as they needed for themselves. The collection of wood from the forest for the kings use continued into the reign of Edward III, when in 1363, he ordered the felling of a number of trees from Bescwood to build a lodge in which he could stay when hunting in the forest. A hunting lodge can be found within Bescwood throughout the reigns of subsequent kings. Edward IV, whilst staying at Nottingham Castle in the October of 1469, hunted in the forest and may have stayed a number of days in the lodge itself. Richard III was defiantly in the lodge in the August of 1483, he was here from the 13th to the 16th when he left for Leicester, where he stayed for five days before that fateful day at Bosworth Field on the 22nd of August 1485. As the 16th century was drawing to a close we can find a warrant, granted to Thomas Markham from Elizabeth I's treasurer, to fell eighty-six trees from Bestwood Park: ‘for ye repair of Bestwood Lodge’ which was built of "wood and plaster, covered with slate and tiles and contained 38 rooms with several cottages, farmhouses and barns." The lodge was still in use by royalty in the late 17th century were it was frequented by Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans, the illegitimate son of Charles II. At some point in time Bescwood became Bestwood, The reasons for the name change I am unsure, I can only hope it occurred naturally over time, the result of errors in transcribing and not by Best Western, the owners of the chain of hotels who presently run the establishment, using it to their advantage, however, today the area where this royal hunting lodge once stood, is another Bestwood Lodge. The present impressive red brick building has been the home to the founder Raleigh Bicycle Company, a Ministry of Defense headquarters, and now a hotel. It was built in 1863, following the demolition of the original house three years earlier.
Sunday, 22nd June 1483 was the date originally set for Edward V’s coronation. Ralph Shaa preached at St Paul’s Cross on the theme that “bastard slips shall not take root”. I found the following among my paper on Richard III. I don't know who wrote it (I am sure it wasn't me) but it's rather brilliant.
"Last night I dreamt that I was directing a Hollywood movie about Richard’s life, starring George Peppard. We were shooting one of my favourite scenes. The one where our hero emerges from the throng, walks towards the camera, winks conspiratorially to the viewers, smiles knowingly, chomps on his nine inch Havana and utters that immortal line “I love it when a plan comes together. ” It seems that, as usual, the ‘A-Team’s ’plan was working perfectly. The bad guys had been outwitted effortlessly; all that was needed now was for Richard to be crowned and to live happily ever after. When I awoke from my cheerful slumbers, it was to the grim reality of history. This Sunday in 1483 was a pivotal moment in Richard’s life and in English history. Things would never be the same again for him or the realm. On Sunday 22 June 1483, Dr Ralph Shaa addressed a gathering of good and the great at St Paul's Cross to hear his sermon. His chosen theme was both controversial and regime changing: ‘Bastard slips shall not take root’. St Paul’s Cross was the usual venue for important official announcements, and they don’t come much more important that this one. We can be sure that Dr Shaa was acting on Richard’s behalf. His purpose was to put forward Richards claim to the crown. Given the importance of the occasion it is particularly disappointing that we don’t have any documentary evidence, or an eyewitness account of what the learned doctor actually said. Notwithstanding their proclivity for reporting every piece of royal tittle-tattle, the near-contemporary chronicles’ are unable to give a first-hand account of this meeting. All we have are the second-hand accounts of Mancini, More and Vergil et al. The problem with these is that they are hearsay and in Mancini’s case we are not even sure he understood what he was told. The Tudor writers such as More and Vergil were even further removed from these events and cannot be trusted to be objective. The controversy that has arisen concerns Richard’s true title to the crown. Mancini and Vergil maintain that his claim was on the basis of his brother’s bastardy. There is no mention of the pre-contract with Eleanor Butler being alleged at this meeting. The Great Chronicler declared the Richard’s claim was due to the fact that Edward’s children “were not the rightful inheritors of the crown” and that Edward was illegitimate. Croyland is quite clear: Richard alleged that a pre-contract between his brother and Eleanor Butler disqualified Edward’s children from succeeding to the crown. It is difficult at this distance of time and in the absence of reliable reports to be sure exactly what was said. However, on the balance of probabilities I personally believe that the pre-contract was raised at this meeting. It seems inconceivable to me that Richard would not base his claim to the throne on it at this meeting. It was a problem he had agonised over for two weeks, he had executed a former comrade in arms because of it and he had prepared for it. Why would he not put it forward as a reason now? (NB: To mention the subsequent role of Parliament and Titular Regius now is to anticipate the future, which I want to avoid doing.) The allegation of Edward’s illegitimacy is an old one. However, it is not an issue that Richard had ever raised before; indeed, we don’t even know that he believed the rumours. For me to accept that this was his only grounds for assuming the crown, would be to acknowledge that he did indeed usurp the crown. Richard’s reaction to the Woodville coup in April, his actions as Lord Protector during May and early June are not indicative of a man intent on usurping the crown. In fact, his actions support the opposite: Richard intended to see his young nephew crowned as king by right of succession. He had behaved impeccably according to the law." NB If I ever find out who did write this I will most certainly give you a slap on the back and place your name here. The 11th June 1456, the birth of Anne Neville, daughter of Richard, Earl of Warwick and Anne Beauchamp and sister of Isabel. On the death of their father at the Battle of Barnet in 1471 they would become heiresses, not only of the Neville inheritance, but of the vast Beauchamp estates.
Despite their childhood friendship and their affection for each other you cannot dismiss the fact that this inheritance played a big part in the marriage arrangements of Richard Duke of Gloucester to Anne and his brother George Duke of Clarence to Isabel. 25th April 1464: Death of Lancastrian Ralph Percy, grandson of Henry Hotspur at Hedgeley Moor. A Yorkist army, under the command of John Neville, where intercepted by a Lancastrian army led by the Duke of Somerset whilst they were heading north to attend meetings with Scottish envoys in Newcastle. "As his aristocratic colleagues fled the field in the midst of their ignominious defeat, Percy carved a name for himself in history by refusing to join them. He and his men fought to the death in a brave show of loyalty to the Lancastrian cause. Surrounded, his horse stumbled and he was overpowered by the enemy. His last words were said to have been...." “I have saved the bird in my bosom." Richard III and his son Edward of Middleham can be seen below praying in this lovely window of St Mary & St Alkelda Church Middleham in Yorkshire. We can imagine that Richard used the church as a place for contemplation and to give thanks for being blessed with a son. Edward was born at Middleham's Castle, but within ten years the poor child would die there, an event that it is often thought to have occurred on the 9th of April 1484 - a strange date since it was the exact date of the death of his paternal uncle Edward IV the year before, and a date you might consider Richard's troubles began. In 1485 it was written in the Crowland Chronicles ‘In the following April, on a day not far off King Edward’s anniversary, this only son, on whom ... all hope of the royal succession rested, died in Middleham castle after a short illness’. History tells us it was in the second week of April that his parents received the tragic news, while they were in Nottingham, that Edward had died.
Sadly, there is no reference to where Richard had his son laid to rest. I am always a little sad when it comes round to the 16th March, and the anniversary of the death of Anne Neville. This is because it is so difficult to find facts about her other than she was the wife of Richard III, daughter of the King Maker, an heiress to a vast estate and dead at twenty-eight under a solar eclipse so the story goes. If I cannot find the real Anne Neville in words, then I can find her in art, and Edwin Austin Abbey's 1896 painting Richard Duke of Gloucester and Lady Anne does just that. I really love this painting. I love it even though it depicts Richard as the hunchbacked villain we know he wasn't. For me, this painting is all about Anne, see how beautifully she is drawn. Anne looks confident and determined, she is striding and moving fast in a effort to keep her distance from Gloucester, just look at how her black mourning veil covers the whole of her colourful, ermine edged dress. But what I find most interesting is, at first glance it appears that it is Anne who holds the halberd, when it is in fact the guard behind her, she is holding it as if she will do away with Gloucester with one stab of its blade. We know that Anne didn't hate Richard, that was Shakespeare's take on their story. We also know that Richard and Anne were acquainted in childhood, they were two people who were comfortable with one another whose marriage, had it continued, might have been a successful and happy one. In this one moment, perhaps we can see the real Anne Neville, not the mouse of a women we are lead to believe she was. Anne had been married, at just fourteen, to the heir to the throne of England, the son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou for just five months and widowed in the May of 1471. She soon married Richard, Duke of Gloucester and their son Edward, born in the December of 1473 was dead by the age of ten. Like a lot of medieval women, Anne's private life has passed undocumented, only the facts that linked her to the main events of the time are written of, leaving very little of her for us to get to know. At not yet twenty nine, Anne died on the 16th March 1485. According to Oppolzer's Canon of Eclipses on the 16th March 1485, the whole of southern Europe experienced a total solar eclipse. If Anne's death, wasn't devastating enough for Richard, then the blackening of the sun must have filled him with extreme foreboding, after all, the phenomenon of three suns, known as a Parhelion, that appeared at the battle of Mortimer's Cross in 1461 had been an inspiration to the troops and seen by his brother, the future Edward IV, as a good omen on his future reign. How very significant this eclipse must have been for poor Richard.
Anne died probably of tuberculous and is buried at Westminster Abbey by the High Altar, no doubt Richard intended a grand monument in her honour, but because of his tragic death at Bosworth five months later her grave was left unmarked, it was ignored by the new Tudor king, possibly in an effort to wipe her from history as he did with Richard III. |
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