Category: Castles

Battle of Wakefield

30/11/2017

On this day in 1460, the death of one of my all-time heroes, Richard, Duke of York.

In the afternoon of the 30th December 1460, the Battle of Wakefield took place, this battle brought an end to the lives of Richard, Duke of York and his second eldest son Edmund, Earl of Rutland.

In the October of 1460, the Act of Accord acknowledged the Duke of York as the heir to Henry VI and effectively disinherited Henry's son Edward. It was hoped that this agreement would put an end to the political tension that had caused so much trouble in previous years, but it was not to be. The Act of Accord naturally left the Lancastrian's foaming at the mouth, many were angry that the act had swept the rules of primogeniture under the carpet, a rule that had protected the rights of the noble family for decades, without which there would be chaos.

Many Lancastrians rallied to the cause resulting in a number of revolts occurring in the country with Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou, at its helm. The first serious clash happened in Yorkshire, just over two months after the Act of Accord was signed. On the 9th of December, leaving his wife and younger children in London, Richard marched north with an army to waylay Margaret. The Duke of York, now heir apparent made his way towards Sandal Castle to meet the forces of the opposing army on the fields you see in the above images, even though York's force outnumbered the Lancastians by two to one the battle went the way of Lancaster.

Richard Duke of York died among his men that day at Wakefield, a noble but untimely death you could say, his second son, Edmund Earl of Rutland died that day too only his death was taken in vengeance.

David Hume in his History of England writes of York's death

"The Duke himself was killed and beheaded, and when his body was found among the slain, the head was cut off by Margaret's orders and fixed on the gates of York, with a paper crown upon it, in derision of his pretended title.'

As the country woke to welcome in the new year, the residence of the City of York rose to find the Duke of York’s head had been placed on a pike at the very top of Micklegate Bar. In a pitiless act of humiliation it was plain to see what Margaret of Anjou was saying when she ordered a paper crown placed on his head.

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Birth of Cecily Neville and Margaret of York

3/5/2017

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The third day in May, thirty-one years apart, saw the birth of two women who played their part in an era that was dominated by men. They were Cecily Neville and her daughter Margaret of York.

Cecily, the Rose of Raby was born in 1415 at Raby Castle in County Durham, the daughter of Ralph Neville and Joan Beaufort.

"Cecily Neville was at the very top of the social scale in late medieval England, and held the highest status a woman
could enjoy. She was the eighteenth child of her parents, and her marriage to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, was a
suitable match between two families of great status. Besides wielding considerable political power in an age when few
women did so, Cecily administered a large feudal estate, with all the interlocking duties and responsibilities which
that entailed."

My photograph of Raby Castle was taken at the end of April 2016. It is, as you can see, a perfect example of a medieval castle.

Margaret, Cecily's third daughter, was born to Richard, Duke of York in 1446 according the Annals of Worcester at Fotheringhay Castle, however, it is written in a psalter owned by her sister Anne, that she was born at Waltham Abbey. Following her marriage to Charles the Bold the Duke of Burgundy, she would be known as Margaret of Burgundy. Margaret was very much her father's daughter. She was a supporter of the Yorkist cause, a capable ruler and a massive thorn in the side of Henry VII.

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Henry Earl of Leicester and Lancaster

22/9/2016

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The 22nd of September 1345, saw the death of Henry, Earl of Leicester and Lancaster. Henry was the grandson of Henry III and the son Edmund Crouchback by his second wife Blanche of Artois.

Henry may have suffered from a condition known as Torticollis, where the muscles of the neck cause the head to twist to one side leading him to be nick-named Wryneck, the same name as a bird who can turn its head almost 180 degrees.

Seal of Henry of Lancaster from the Barons' Letter 1301,

In 1310, Henry was one of the Lords Ordainers, a body of twenty one men chosen to oppose King Edward II and force him to make changes to both his household and his kingdom. The nobles of the realm had become discontent with Edward and his reliance on favourites such as Piers Gaveston. Henry's brother Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, whose title Henry would later receive, was involved in another rebellion against King Edward in 1321, he was executed at Pontefract Castle in 1322. Henry received, along with the title, his brothers lands.

In 1330, at the age of fifty-nine, Henry became blind and spent the remainder of his life at Leicester Castle. It maybe due to his own medical afflictions and the reliance on his son and others that in 1331 he founded an infirmary for the poor of the City of Leicester.

The infirmary, known today as Trinity Hospital, was built as an extension of the castle bailey. It was here at Leicester Castle that Henry died in 1345 and where he was buried.

Henry's remains were later reinterred by his son, Henry of Grosmont, in his newly built Collegiate Church of the Annunciation
of Our Lady of the Newarke. If you remember, it was in this very church that the body of King Richard III would lay on show before being thrown into his grave at Grey Friars.

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Birth of Margaret Beaufort

11/5/2016

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On the 31st May 1443 Margaret Beaufort was born at Bletsoe Castle to Margaret Beauchamp and John Beaufort,
Duke of Somerset.

Margaret Beaufort's Funeral Effergy at Westminster Abbey by Pietro Torrigiani

In 1455, at the age of just twelve years old Margaret had married Edmund Tudor as her second husband.

Margaret was soon pregnant and gave birth to the future Henry VII a year later. The birth of Henry, while Margaret was just a child herself, did irreparable damage, and this could account for the fact that she never gave birth again. Thirty years later, Henry was aided at the Battle of Bosworth by Thomas Stanley, her fourth husband whose family famously stood and watched
the battle, deciding at the last moment to take the side of the Lancastrian's against Richard III's Yorkist forces.

Although Margaret never recognised it as a marriage she was firstly married to John de la Pole, the son of William de la
Pole and Alice Chaucer. This marriage was later annulled.

Margaret's third husband was Henry, son of Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, their marriage was said to be a happy one.

In Henry VII's court, Margaret liked to be referred to as 'My Lady the King's Mother' she intensely disliked the fact that
she was of a lower status than both Elizabeth of York, Henry's queen and her mother Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of
Edward IV. She also disliked the fact that she had to adhere to court protocol and walk behind the queen and was probably responsible for the banishment of Elizabeth Woodville in 1487. Henry was said to have been a devoted son, his death in
the April of 1509 was probably the beginning of the end for Margaret as she was dead only two months later.

Margaret Beaufort is famous as much for her piety and gifts to churches and collages as she is for being domineering,
pushy and intimidating, she was a force to be reckoned with, but her achievements prove that medieval women did not
always take the back seat to men.

Love her or hate her she was a very strong and determined woman.

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Richard III At Leicester Castle

16/4/2016

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18th August 1483

On the 18th August 1483 and just a few weeks after being crown king of England, Richard III stayed at Leicester Castle, a Norman creation being built just after the conquest of England.

In a letter dated that same day Richard writes:

“According to the right of the said truces. Upon which matter, in order that my said subjects and merchants be not deceived under the shadow of the same. I pray you that by my servant, this bearer, one of the grooms of my stable, you will let me know by writing your full intention, and at the same time if you desire anything that I can do for you, that I may do it with good will. And farewell, my lord my cousin."

Ending the letter he wrote

"Written in my castle of Leicester, the 18th day of August 1483”

The image above show part of the remains of Leicester Castle wall, along with cannon ball holes from the time of the civil wars taken on a trip to Leicester earlier this year. A seventeenth century building, with its bricked entrance conceals the twelfth century structure that Richard III would have known. The Great Hall, was built three hundred years before and was a large open space with timber aisle posts, sadly nothing of this can be seen. Standing next to the Great Hall is a vaulted cellar known as John of Gaunt´s cellar, seen below, it is believed that Parliament met here in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Apart from a visit from Richard III, the hall had received other royal guests such as Edward I, Edward II and Henry IV.

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“Vengeance is mine"

24/7/2015

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Behavioural scientists who have studied revenge scanned the brains of people who had been wronged, and the researchers gave these people a chance to punish the wrongdoers. As the victims considered revenge, it was noted that this action caused a notable amount of activity in what scientists call the Caudate Nucleus, an area in the brain that processes rewards, which the researchers equated to the same feeling we feel when we smoke or eat chocolate. Just as one piece of chocolate
doesn't satisfy our craving, the act of revenge doesn't deliver justice, it prolongs hostility and leads to other acts of vengeance,
creating an unending circle of retaliation.

Revenge is ages old, God himself wanted the monopoly on it, Shakespeare wrote of it and the leather clad Beatrix Kiddo practiced it, but vengeance comes at a cost, no more so than in the time of the Wars of the Roses. Deaths as the result of vengeance were frequent occurrences, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, Owen Tudor and Roger Vaughan are an example of this practice. Their deaths were linked, they died over a ten-year period, but despite this length of time and not surprisingly, the pain each felt never diminished, but what is surprising is that each of the condemned never expected it to happen to them and each pleaded for his life.

On the 25th of October 1460, the Act of Accord acknowledged Richard, Duke of York, as the heir to Henry VI and effectively disinherited Henry VI’s son Edward. It was hoped that this agreement would put an end to the political tension that had caused so much trouble in previous years, but it was not to be. The Act of Accord naturally left the Lancastrians foaming at the mouth, many were angry that the act had swept the rules of primogeniture under the carpet, a rule that had protected the rights of the noble family for decades, without which there would be chaos.

Many Lancastrians rallied to the cause resulting in a number of revolts occurring in the country with Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou, at its helm. The first serious clash happened in Yorkshire, just over two months after the Act of Accord was signed, as Margaret had headed to Wales, Richard, Duke of York, now heir apparent made his way towards Sandal Castle to meet the forces of the opposing army, even though York's force outnumbered the Lancastrian's by two to one the battle went the way of Lancaster. Richard, Duke of York died in battle that day at Wakefield. David Hume in his History of England writes of York's death

"The Duke himself was killed and beheaded, and when his body was found among the slain, the head was cut off by Margaret's orders and fixed on the gates of York, with a paper crown upon it, in derision of his pretended title.'

York died among his men, a noble death you could say, his second son, Edmund Earl of Rutland died that day too but his death was a cruel one at the hands of John Clifford. Clifford had a reputation for brutality on the battlefield, John Leland, wrote in 1540 that Clifford was

'for killing of men at the bataill was caullid the boucher.'

The most common story told is that Edmund was captured as he fled the battle field, but the quality of his armour was noticed by Clifford who asked him his name. At that point, it seems, Clifford was unaware who Rutland was and was possibly thinking along the lines of a ransom, but a priest going by the name of Aspell shouted "spare him for he is the Prince's son." And thus Rutland's fate was sealed. It was then that John Clifford saw an opportunity to avenge his father's death, his father Thomas Clifford died in the first battle of St Albans in 1455. For Clifford the

"sight of any of the House of York was fury to torment his soul"

It is John Leland, the 16th century antiquary, who first mentions that it was Clifford who murdered the seventeen-year-old Edmund, William of Worcester in his Annales Rerum Anglicarum writes "and in the flight after the battle, Lord Clifford killed Edmund Earl of Rutland, son of the Duke of York, on the bridge at Wakefield." but its Shakespeare who puts the following words into Clifford's mouth.

"Thy father slew mine; and so will I do thee and all thy kin"

Thus the seeds were set for bloody revenge, it was Owen Tudor who was the next to die on the order of another angry and grieving young man.

Edward had celebrated the Christmas of 1460 in Gloucester with John Tuchet, Walter Devereux, William and Richard Herbert and Roger Vaughan. These five Welsh men were, not only linked to one another by blood and marriage but were an important part of the Yorkist political connection, it was Roger Vaughan of Tretower, who in 1461, would be Edward's henchman.

Tudor, along with his son Jasper, had been recruiting men from Wales previous to the Battle of Mortimer's Cross and had made their way to Herefordshire by the beginning of February 1461. After the battle, the elderly Welsh leader was captured along with Henry Scudamore and John Throckmorton. On the news of Tudor's capture, Edward ordered Roger Vaughan to Usk Castle, where it is said Owen Tudor was held captive. Scudamore and Throckmorton may have escaped death but Tudor was summarily executed, beheaded in Hereford market square, the axe swung by Roger Vaughan.
The story of how Tudor met his death is much written about as are his final words

"That hede shalle ly on the stroke that was wonte to ly on Quene Kateryns lappe'

Even though Edward could be lenient if he wished, he had no intention of being so with Owen Tudor.

Tudor was executed not because he, along with his son Jasper, was making some attempt to free Henry VI from his captor, or that he had recruited troops in Wales or taken up Margaret of Anjou's cause or because of any treasonous act. Owen Tudor met his death because Edward was determined to avenge the death of his father and brother just as Clifford had. The Earl of March, as Edward IV, did not require that his men love him, but he certainly expected them to obey him.

Twenty three days after the Battle of Mortimer's Cross and the death of Owen Tudor, Jasper Tudor wrote to Roger Puleston, Governor of Denbigh Castle, of the defeat at Mortimer's Cross and how he would avenge the death of his father.

"Right trusty and well beloved cousins, and friends, we grete you well. And suppose that yee have well in you remembrance the great dishonour ahd rebuke that we and yee late have by traitor Marche, Harbert and Dunne, with their affinityes, as well in letting us fo our journey to the Kinge, as in putting my father your kinsman to the death, and their trayterously demeaning, we purpose with the might of our lord, and assistance of you and other our kinsman, men and friends, within a short time to avenge.
Written at our towne of Tenbye the xxvth of ffeur. J Penmroke"

Jasper Tudor would spend the next twenty five years as a man on the run, in those years he remained bitter, bitter about the Lancastrian's final defeat, bitter about the loss of land and power in Wales, but he never forgot the name of the man who decapitated his father, but it was ten long years before he would be face to face with him. During Tudor's exile, the Lancastrians made some attempt to drum up support in Brittany, France and Scotland, invasion plans were made and thwarted but eventually Jasper Tudor along with Richard Neville, and Edward's brother the Duke of Clarence arrived in England and landed in Dartmouth and headed for Wales picking up Henry, the future Henry VII on the way. Henry VI was restored to the throne of England on the 30th October 1470, it is Jasper Tudor who had played a significant role in the restored Lancastrian regime but it was, as we have seen, at a personal loss to himself. Is it any wonder then that he seized the opportunity when it did arrive, of unleashing all his pent-up anger on one man, Roger Vaughan.

The Vaughan's were a rich and influential Welsh family, who received the lands and castle of Tretower in the historical county of Brecknockshire via marriage to the daughter of John Bluet of Raglan. Roger Vaughan was active in the service of the Yorkist and as we know he was with Edward, Earl of March at Mortimer Cross. Whilst Jasper Tudor was effectively in exile, his Lancastrian supporters had not been inactive, Roger Puleston, Philip Mansel and Hopkin ap Rhys had been causing problems and it was Roger Vaughan who quashed an insurrection at Carmarthen. Vaughan did his job and captured all three men, but Edward decided to pardon all three, and Rhys and Mansel's land were forfeited and given to Roger Vaughan.

It was at Tewkesbury, in the May of 1471, that all the hopes of the Lancastrians were dashed, Edward, son and heir to Henry VI was dead. Roger Vaughan, it seems, did not fight at Tewkesbury, neither did Jasper Tudor, he was holed up at Chepstow Castle. Edward, as Edward Hall, the 16th century chronicler pointed out was

"not beynge out of feare for the Earl of Pembroke"

Edward ordered Vaughan and William Herbert to Chepstow to take Jasper Tudor, but unfortunately for Vaughan, Tudor knew he was coming, and his thoughts quickly turned to revenge. Vaughan, Hall continues was

"stronge of people and frendes, to the entendt of some gyle or sodaynly to trap and surprise the erle"

but it seems, Jasper Tudor wasn't without friends himself

"having intelligence of certayne frendes how that watche was privilie leyed for him, sodainly in the town took Roger Vaughan"

His father's executioner was captured. According to John Leland, who was writing during the time of Henry VIII, Roger Vaughan pleaded for his life, the words he received in reply were

"that he should have such favour as he shewid to Owene his Father'

Roger Vaughan, executioner of Owen Tudor, went to the block within the town walls of Chepstow, his death was the last in this chain of retaliatory acts. No one avenged his death, although one Guto'r Glyn, Welsh bard and poet and an adherent to the Yorkist's did call for vengeance on his behalf.

Interestingly, the word feud in English and in Latin means the threat to take revenge and these acts of vengeance were often the results of a long standing feud, and you will get no bigger than the ill feeling between York and Lancaster.
Vengeance, in whatever time period, is one of the worst of human traits, but it is an intriguing one nonetheless.

So, what is vengeance?

It is a word often used to explain and justify violence, and the violent actions of Jasper Tudor, Edward IV and John Clifford, were an act of personal vengeance. The actions of these three men were allowed to happen because medieval law permitted vengeance, and as long as this kind of action is sanctioned by the king and carried out by one of his nominated officers it was not murder.

Let me end with the words of Martin Luther King Jr

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

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Battle of Wakefield

Birth of Cecily Neville and Margaret of York

Henry Earl of Leicester and Lancaster

Birth of Margaret Beaufort

Richard III At Leicester Castle

18th August 1483

“Vengeance is mine"

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