All Categories - Meandering Through Time

Execution of James Tyrell

6/5/2019

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.

Elizabeth of York

22/4/2019

Elizabeth of York, later Duchess of Suffolk was born in Rouen in Normandy, the second daughter of Richard, Duke of York and Cecily Neville. She was the sister of both Richard III and Edward IV.

It is commonly thought that the date of her birth was the 22nd April in 1444 however, in the Annals of William Worcester the date of her baptism is quoted as being five months later on the 22nd September, and as it has quite rightly been pointed out it is unlikely that a child would be left unbaptised for such a long period. Therefore we can assume that Elisabeth was born on the 21st September in 1444 in France at the time when Henry VI was playing yo-yo with her father's career - the time between Henry appointing the Duke of York as Lieutenant of France and the death of John, Beaufort the Duke of Somerset in the May of that year.

Elizabeth marriage to John de la Pole was thought to have been arranged by de la Poles mother Alice, it took place three years after the first Battle of St Albans at a time that is often considered the beginning of the Wars of the Roses.

At the time of John de la Pole becoming Duke of Suffolk his family was one of the least wealthy titled families in the country - although if his marriage to Margaret Beaufort (John Beauforts daughter) had not been annulled John's life may have been a different one altogether. The fifteen-hundred pounds that Elizabeth brought to the marriage was not a patch on what Margaret would have brought, made little difference to his finances.

Although this marriage allied de la Pole to the Yorkist party he is noted as having not shown any true support for either side. However, in 1461 he had made his decision, fighting for the Yorkist at the second Battle of St Albans and at Towton.

Elizabeth assumed the title of Duchess of Suffolk in the May of 1450 when John became Duke of Suffolk following the murder of his father William de la Pole. Elizabeth gave birth to eleven children, she would outlive eight of them. The three son who did survive their mother were Edmund, William and Richard all would suffer due to the Yorkist blood that ran through their veins.

Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk died in 1503/4 and is buried at Wingfield Church in Suffolk, alongside her husband.

Death of Henry VII

21/4/2019

I remember reading many years ago that in the hours leading up to his death on the 21st April in 1509, King Henry VII was still concerned about the claim his family had to the crown of England. According to the future Henry VIII, he was instructed by his father on his death bed to fulfil the treaty between Spain and England and marry Catherine of Aragon, was this a sign Henry still considered the Tudor claim weak? According to the historian David Starkey, the claim that Henry was forced into the marriage was contradicted by two members of Henry VII’s council who insisted that the King told his son that he was “free to marry whom he chose”

King Henry VII died at Richmond Palace of tuberculosis. Sir Thomas Wriothesley was present and wrote a detailed account and it was he who drew the picture of the King on his deathbed. We can see William Fitzwilliam holding a staff of office as he closes the King’s eyes. Only Henry's must trusted courtiers attended his death. These men were, standing clockwise around the king were: Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, George, Lord Hastings, Richard Weston, Richard Clement, Matthew Baker, John Sharpe and William Tyler and Hugh Denys.

Henry death was kept secret for two days and only announced on the day before Henry VIII was proclaimed king. Surely another sign of how weak the Tudor claim was at the very beginning.

Like him or loathe him, Henry VII was a fascinating character, a forgotten king, eclipsed by later generations of his Tudor family.

Birth of John Clifford

8/4/2019

I was really surprised to discover that John Clifford, 9th Baron Clifford was just twenty-six when he was killed the day before the Battle of Towton, in my mind he was an older man.

John Clifford was born on the 8th April in 1435 to Thomas Clifford and Joan Dacre at Conisbrough Castle in Yorkshire and we hear little of him until he was eighteen when he is recorded as siding with the Percy's against the Neville's in their ongoing private wars. He is mentioned again in 1458 as arriving in London in the Percy's retinue as one of the 'yong lordes whoos fadres were sleyne at Seynt Albonys.' Full of energy and fuelled by vengeance Clifford took up the Lancastrian cause.

On the 31st of December 1460, Clifford was knighted by the Duke of Somerset before the Battle of Wakefield. It was following this battle that he saw an opportunity to avenge his father's death by murdering the seventeen year old son of the Duke of York. For this, and his 'cruelty in battle.' John Clifford is immortalised, forever remembered as The Butcher, however, this name was only attributed to him in the 16th century in the writings of John Leyland and a century later by William Dugdale.

Clifford's on death came when he was struck in the throat by a headless arrow at the Battle of Ferrybridge in the March of the following year and his body, it is said, was thrown into a common burial pit.

The Beaumont Brothers and the Battle of Towton

29/3/2019

When it comes to the anniversary of the Battle of Towton, fought on the 29th March in 1461, I always think of all those men, many of whose names we will never know, who faced each other on that bitterly cold Palm Sunday. However, researching my family history I have discovered the names of two of the men who lost their lives that day. These men were brothers John and Henry Beaumont who were two of the three sons of Thomas Beaumont and his wife Philippa Maureward and they were not yet twenty-five and if that is not sad enough I believe that these brothers were probably twins.

Their father had been a veteran of the Hundred Years War and had fought under Edmund of Norwich, Duke of York in France, and on their father's death, the family lands had been divided John, Henry and their brother Thomas.

Despite living in a country where a man could be called up for battle at any time these young men must have dreamt of peace, a time to spend in their newly acquired piece of England, but many a dream was shattered in the era that we know as the Wars of the Roses - regardless of which side you fought on. The Beaumonts of Leicestershire were staunchly Lancastrian and at the Battle of Towton, Henry VI's forces would be brought to their knees by Edward IV's Yorkist army.

So the Beaumont brothers found themselves on a battlefield in Yorkshire with an icy wind circling around the feet and sleet blowing in their faces. As the battle commenced many soldiers may have thought, judging by the number of men on the field, that Towton would be a decisive battle, but the wind blew harder and the snow increased and hand to hand combat turned into bloody slaughter - decisive it was indeed. By the end of that cold and wretched day, over twenty thousand men lost their lives.

I don't know yet of the fate of John and Henry Beaumont's bodies, maybe their battered faces were recognised among the dead and they were taken home but I doubt it. What is more likely is that they were both thrown into one of the many mass graves dug on the battlefield, to spend eternity with the thousands of other nameless poor souls.

My post makes grim reading, doesn't it? But what makes even grimmer reading is the shocking evidence of how exactly many of the soldiers at Towton died. One man on the battlefield that day is now known as Towton 25 he was called this because we don't know his name, but what we do know is that what remains of him is gruesome evidence of what he had to endure.

Towton 25's story can be found on my blog on my website - you can read it here.

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/wars-of-the-roses-blog/battle-of-towton-29th-march-14611

Edward IV arrives in England

14/3/2019

"It is a difficult matter to go out by the door and then try to enter by the windows. They think he will leave his skin there."
writes the Duke of Milan's ambassador to France on Edward IV's prospects of retaking England.

It was in the second week of March 1471 Richard Neville had received news that ships flying the Yorkist banner had been spotted off the coast of Norfolk, and on this day the 14th of March, Edward, William Hastings and Richard, Duke of Gloucester had arrived at Ravenspur on the east coast of England, the very port Henry IV had landed seventy years before to claim the English throne

Rene of Anjou

16/1/2019

On this day in 1409 the birth of Rene of Anjou at Angers Castle in Anjou. Rene was a French noble of the family of Valois and Anjou. Known as Good King Rene simply because he inherited the crowns of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem, he controlled large areas of land, he was therefore, an important figure during the last years of Hundred Years War.

Rene was the father of Margaret of Anjou Queen of Henry VI. Rene played his part in the negotiations with the English at Tours in 1444 and the marriage of Margaret to Henry - the fall out of which (the loss of French territories of Maine and Anjou, that had formed part of the marriage contract) as you will know, was far-reaching.

A wonderful description of Rene is given by Conn Iggulden in his book Stormbird, the first of his Wars of the Roses series (read it if you haven't already, its a must) The description comes from the mouth of the teenage Margaret.

"He was just a great white slug of a man. His face was unnaturally pale, perhaps from his years languishing in prison. His eyes were grey and cold, half hidden by heavy, unwrinkied lower lids, so that he always seemed to be peering over them. He had clearly not starved in prison."

I would not be surprised if Conn Iggulden took his inspiration from the Matheron Diptych that it is pictured here. The painting, by French artist Nicolas Froment was given to Jean Matheron, statesman and later a French ambassador, by Rene himself. He is depicted with his second wife Jeanne de Laval it is held in the Louvre in Paris.

A Blot on the Landscape

26/9/2018

Sadly, last evening Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council passed the application for planning permission to build a test track on Bosworth Field. I'm disappointed and angry. Those opposed were allowed one representative and three minutes to state their case. So much for democracy!

I'm saddened by this not only by the lack of regard for our countries heritage/history but the dangers, if it ever comes to fruition, of driverless cars on our roads.

https://www.economist.com/…/why-ubers-self-driving-car-kill…

This build is a blot on the landscape for more than one reason.

The next step, according to Matthew Lewis, author of the latest book on Richard III, would be to take it to a national level and ask the government to review the decision, a process he said that "allows the minister to take the decision out of the hands of the local council"

Berwick on Tweed

24/8/2018

The town of Berwick stands on the banks of the River Tweed in Northumberland. Historically, its position proved useful as it is situated on the border between England and Scotland, and because of this, it has seen its share of both war and peace. Because of its situation, its governance has been the responsibility of both countries on numerous occasions.

In 1357 a treaty was signed here, the first of five Treaties of Berwick, this particular treaty, between King Edward III of England and David II of Scotland, brought to an end Scotland's second attempt at independence.

In 1461 during the Wars of the Roses, when Henry VI's wife Margaret of Anjou had fled to Scotland she negotiated a deal with the recently widowed Mary of Guelders over the town in return for help with her Lancastrian cause. When all the papers are signed Berwick upon Tweed became part of Scotland, and it was not until the August of 1482 that Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III retook the town and returned it to England.

A second treaty, signed in 1526, was issued in order to keep the peace between warring factions on the English/Scottish border.

A third, signed on this day in 1560 saw the completion of yet another Treaty of Berwick. This treaty was Elizabeth I's efforts to give some protection to those who practiced Protestantism in Scotland. The document was signed for and on behalf of the queen by Thomas Howard the Duke of Norfolk. The agreement was in respect of an alliance with Scottish nobles who were opposed to the regency of Mary of Guise, the widow of James V of Scotland, who had retained a French army for her protection. The treaty allowed English forces to enter Scotland and expel these French troops and it would be the first time in history that the English and Scottish fought together against a common foe rather than against each another.

There would be two more signing of treaties at Berwick, one in 1586 following an agreement between Elizabeth I and Mary of Guise's grandson King James VI and another in 1639 that ended the First Bishops War.

Execution of Richard Woodville

12/8/2018

To the surprise of many, and disregarding the acknowledged rules of diplomacy King Edward IV had, in the May of 1464, made his own choice of a bride. The king's new wife was one Elizabeth Grey, the daughter of Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, a family of lowly stock from the County of Northampton.

There was, of course, a little more to the Woodvilles than the fact they were 'social climbers.' Richard Woodville had been in command of an army during the French wars. He had met Jacquetta, the young widow of the Duke of Bedford when he had accompanied her on the voyage home to England from Rouen. In 1433 Woodville married Jacquetta in secret. Their eldest child, the aforementioned Elizabeth, was born four years later.

Garter Stall Plate of Richard Woodville at St George’s Chapel, Windsor

Jacquetta was a member of Margaret of Anjou's court and Richard Woodville, as a loyal servant to Henry VI was eventually rewarded with a barony in 1448.

Edward, as we all know, fell instantly in lust when he came across Elizabeth. Richard Woodville's daughter was a strong-willed widow with two young sons and eight siblings to boot and Edward, as previously mentioned would undertake this marriage without the knowledge of one man who was so instrumental in bringing him to the throne - Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. This event was a turning point for Richard Neville and the first the nail in the coffin of Richard Woodville.

Richard Neville was angered by the fact that the Woodville men were placed in important administrative roles. Other events such as the king’s refusal to sanction the marriage of his daughter to George, Duke of Clarence and the influence of the Herbert family the Earls of Pembroke in the royal court just rubbed salt into his wounds. Richard Neville was about to jump from the Yorkist ship into Lancastrian waters.

Warwick’s rebellion would see off William Herbert and his brother Richard at Northampton on the 26th July in 1469 and on this day, just seventeen days later Richard Woodville and his son John would be beheaded as traitors.

To Richard Neville, revenge may have been sweet - but in the words of Martin Luther King Jr

"The old law of 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind."