Category: Richard Neville

The King Maker

19/11/2017

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, Earl of Warwick proposed to the 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, Edward IV made a surprise announcement during a discussion of this subject, and to the amazement of many, Edward indicated that the idea of marriage 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 IV in the Plea Rolls c 1463

Edward 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 Richard Neville, the one man who was so instrumental in bringing him to the throne.

For Warwick Edward’s news was shattering, he had already pledged Edward in marriage to the sister of the queen of France. Edward's irresponsible behaviour humiliated Warwick and ruined his plans, his prestige both at 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. By 1469 he had turned his coat and had gone over to the Lancastrians, by 1470 he had restored Henry VI to the throne.

The Beauchamp bear and ragged staff combined were used by Warwick and used as his families insignia.

Richard Neville was born on the 22nd November in 1428 into a world that shaped him. It was full of powerful characters, in his early life there was his father Richard Neville and uncle Richard, Duke of York and later there were Charles, the Duke of Burgundy, and Louis XI King of France. At some point in his life, Warwick had decided to either to outshine or eclipse them all, but in doing so he became overly ambitious, and somewhat erratic and yet he was quite remarkable - he was a kingmaker! Author Michael Hicks calls him "the very model of medieval nobility" however Paul Kendall calls him a "gigantic failure."

Has history been unfair to Warwick? The mind boggles at the thought of what might have been if he had stayed onside in 1469, certainly the Lancastrian cause would have been weaker without him. Did he really think he could rule without a crown? I believe Richard Neville did consider that there was nothing that was beyond his grasp, nothing that could not be overcome yet for someone so brilliant he never considered a failure, he never saw himself teetering at the top of a slippery slope that leads to an abyss.

Richard Neville in the 15th century Rous Roll.

Richard Neville should not bare the total weight of responsibility for the events of 1464 to 1469 Edward's behaviour was reprehensible and unforgivable! Yes, Edward IV was a popular king, he was affable, intelligent, and an outstanding military leader, but he was a fool, he was also ruthless, vengeful, and totally irresponsible. With one swish of the bed sheets, (two as it turns out) Edward undermined everything his father had worked so hard to achieve, not only shortening the life of his brother but that of the Plantagenet dynasty itself.

To end, the words of Philippe de Commynes apply quite nicely here, I think.

Now you see the deaths of so many great men in so little time, men who have worked so hard to grow great and to win glory
and have suffered so much from passions and cares and shortened their lives, and perchance their souls will pay for it.

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Battle of Blore Heath

17/9/2017

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The events of the years between 1450 and 1459 can be equated to a giant roller coaster ride, with both sides at differing times, riding the front car.

It comes as no surprise that such a high state of tension would eventually come to blows, and it did at St Albans in the May of 1455. St Albans is considered by some to be the first battle of a civil war that has come to be known as the Wars of the Roses.

In a battle that lasted just one hour, a number of notable Lancastrian nobles including, Henry Percy, Thomas Clifford, and Edmund Beaufort were killed. After the battle Henry VI was captured, Richard, Duke of York assured Henry of his loyalty and along with the Earl of Warwick accompanied the king to London. Just under two months later, at the beginning of July, the king opened Parliament and following that, Henry, along with his Margaret of Anjou and their son were moved to Hertford Castle. That November saw the Duke of York appointed as Protector for a second time, and just like the first protectorate it was short, it ended in the last week of February 1456, but York remained an important member of the Royal Council. However, three very troubled years ensued, and at the end of which the Duke of York, with Richard Neville as his enforcer, would make his play for the crown of England.

In those intervening years, two battles took place The Battle of Ludford Bridge in the October of 1459 and the Battle of Blore Heath on the 23rd September 1459, where Margaret of Anjou is said to have watched from the tower of a local church.

Following the Yorkist victory at St Alban's and with the king's health unpredictable Margaret had been determined to rid the country of any Yorkist who she considered was a threat to her and who would take her husband's crown. At the same time, the Duke of York had decided it was time action was taken and had given an order that his forces and that of Richard Neville, the Earl of Salisbury should assemble at Ludlow. It was while Salisbury's forces were marching south from Middleham, that they were intercepted by a Lancastrian force under James Tuchet, Baron Audley, and John Sutton, Baron Dudley.

The geography of Blore Heath battlefield featured a large wood but was mainly open heath with Hempmill Brook running along the bottom of the battlefield. Archaeological work suggests that the brook may have been dammed at the time and this would have made the terrain wet and soft. The battlefield straddles what is now the A53, a road that runs southwest across the country. In 1459 the layout of the land favoured the Lancastrian's for they outnumbered the Yorkist forces by at least two to one, however, in the first attack the Lancastrian forces lost men when they were forced out from their position by a planned retreat by the Earl of Salisbury whose force doubled back ensnaring the enemy. In the second attack, Audley's men successfully crossed the brook on whose muddy banks many of the Lancastrian force had perished in the previous attack, it was in this second attack that Audley lost his life.

Audley's Charge by Robert Sims

Edward Halls writes:

The Earl of Salisbury, which knew the sleights, strategies and policies of warlike affairs, suddenly returned, and shortly encountered with the Lord Audley and his chief captains, ere the residue of his army could pass the water. The fight was sore and dreadful. The earl desiring the saving of his life, and his adversaries coveting his destruction, fought sore for the obtaining of their purpose, but in conclusion, the earl's army, as men desperate of aid and succour, so eagerly fought, that they slew the Lord Audley, and all his captains, and discomfited all the remnant of his people...

Following Audley's death, John Sutton took command and the battle continued for the rest of the day, eventually, the Lancastrian assault collapsed and many on the losing side would flee through the water and mud, pursued and then slain.

On the slope of Hempmill Brook stands Audley's Cross, the very spot where James Tuchet lost his life

The total combined forces at Blore Heath have been estimated at between eleven and nineteen thousand. The Yorkist losses were few, however, the Lancastrian's deaths numbered about two thousand.

Three months later the wheel of fortune would turn again this time favouring Henry VI's forces. On the 12th October, the Yorkists regrouped at Ludford Bridge but discouraged by the size of the Lancastrian army they retreated when they found themselves opposite their enemy across the River Teme. During the night many of York's army deserted, and this was followed by a retreat the next morning, the Duke of York and his son Edmund of Rutland headed for Ireland, Richard Neville, his father and York’s eldest son Edward, later Edward IV fled to Calais.

Following Blore Heath John Sutton, Audley's commander was captured but later released and eventually made Treasure of Henry VI's household. He was a survivor of the Wars of the Roses, in later years he was pardoned by both Edward IV and Henry VII.

The Yorkist leader, the Earl of Salisbury, would lose his life just over a year later at the Battle of Wakefield.

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Plotting the death of a King

29/6/2016

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‪It was on the 4th July 1459 that Thomas Vaughan, Alice, wife of Richard of Salisbury and William Oldhall, according the the November Parliament heard in Coventry, imagined and compassed the death of Henry VI.

"And forasmoch as Aleyse the wyf of the seid Richard erle of Salesbury, the first day of August, the yere of youre moost
noble reigne .xxxvij. th , at Middelham in youre shire of York, and William Oldhall knyght, and Thomas Vaghan late of
London squier, at London, in the parissh of Seint Jame at Garlikhithe, in the warde of Quenehithe, the fourth day of Jule, the same yere, falsely and traiterously ymagyned and compassed the deth and fynall destruccion of you, soverayne lord;
and in accomplisshment and executyng therof, the seid Aleise, at Middelham aforeseid the seid first day of August,
and the seid William Oldhall and Thomas Vaghan, at London, in the seid parissh and warde, the seid fourth day of
Jule,[col. b] traiterously labored, abetted, procured, stered and provoked the seid duc of York, and the seid erles of
Warrewyk and Salesbury, to doo the seid tresons, rebellions, gaderynges, ridynges and reryng of werre ayenst youre
moost roiall persone, at the seid toune of Blore and Ludeford: to ordeyne and establissh, by the seid auctorite, that the
same Aleise, William Oldhall and Thomas Vaghan for the same be reputed, taken, demed, adjugged and
atteinted of high treson."

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Battle of Barnet: 14th April 1471

11/4/2016

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On the 11th of April 1471 Edward IV entered London unopposed, supplied his troops with arms and left again heading north, and on the 13th he arrived at Monken Hadley, two days later.

The Yorkist forces made their camp next to the village church on a hill that overlooked the town of Barnet, that night he
placed his troops in their battle positions, the following morning he would find that they were very close to Warwick’s lines.

Edwards force at Barnet, according to the unknown writer of The Arrivall, numbered nine thousand, but it is thought there were far more than this, Edward himself landed with about two thousand, six thousand men joined his army at Nottingham, three thousand at Leicester, the Duke of Clarence, who had now switched his allegiance again, brought around seven thousand, but Warwick commanded many more.

Easter morning dawned grey and foggy, Edward instructed that no fires be lit and no noise be made so not to give their position away but eventually the noise of the clash of sword on sword could be heard.

The Battle of Barnet had begun and it ended with it the death of Richard Neville, the man who was said to be the
second most powerful man in England. Of the battle the Arrivall states that Edward fought

‘manly and vigorously assailed in the midst and strongest of their battle, where he,
with great violence, beat and bore down afore him all that stood in his way … ..nothing might stand in the sight of him
and the well assured fellowship that attended truly upon him’.

The Yorkist did not have it all their way, the Lancastiran army came very close to victory, however the weather was on the Edwards side, for Warwick's soldiers, unable to see clearly through the fog, could not differentiate between their own forces and that of their enemy and attacked their own men in error confusing the Earl of Oxford's badge of the star with Edward’s emblem of the sun. According to English chronicler John Warkworth, who wrote of the battle at the time, Oxford’s soldiers considered themselves betrayed and fled, crying ‘Treason! Treason!’.

Eventually the battle went the way of the Yorkists, their leaders watched as the Lancastrian army disappeared into the mist.
It is estimated that both sides lost over one thousand men, among the nobility were Sir Humphrey Bourchier and William Fiennes fighting under Edward and under the Lancastrian flag Sir William Tyrrell and John Neville, the King Maker's younger brother. Of Richard Neville Charles Oman in his book “Warwick” writes:

“He (Warwick) began to draw back towards the line of thickets and hedges which had lairn behind his army. But there the fate met him that had befallen so many of his enemies, at St Albans, and Northampton, at Towton and Hexham. His heavy armour made rapid flight impossible; and in the edge of Wrotham Wood he was surrounded by the pursuing enemy, wounded, beaten down and slain.”

There are a number of different versions regarding the death of Richard Neville. Philippe de Commines suggests that it was his brother's fault that Warwick died that day. Montagu had persuaded Warwick to dismount his horse and fight at ground level, he subsequently died at the hands of the Yorkist infantry. Another version says he was killed while fleeing.

The battlefield monument at the at Monken Hadley.

With the plunge of a Yorkist sword Edward had dealt with Warwick, he also had suppressed a number of important Lancastrian nobles. However, John de Vere, the formidable Earl of Oxford, was out but not down, but the two most important members were still at large. Margaret of Anjou and her son had set foot in England the very same day its soil ran red with Warwick’s blood. Within three weeks, the Lancastrian forces under Edmund Beaufort had taken up arms, but they would, once again be defeated.

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Battle of Ferrybridge

12/3/2016

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28th March 1461

In the early months of 1461, Edward IV captured the hearts of the people of London, but the city wasn’t England and to win the counties hearts he would have to defeat the Lancastrians once and for all, and at Towton Edward would show no mercy.

Battle of Ferrybridge by Graham Turner. http://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/medieval_prints.html

Edward had left London and had reached the Yorkshire town of Pontefract fourteen days later. At this point in time the main Lancastrian army was probably at York, this meant that they were separated by two rivers, the Wharf in the north and more importantly, the Aire in the south.

The crossing on the river Aire at Ferrybridge was to play host to an event that would eventually lead to the more famous Battle of Towton a day later. By the time dusk had arrived on the 27th, Richard Earl of Warwick, had reached Ferrybridge and found the Lancastrian forces on the Aires other bank had made a good job of destroying the bridge, this had the effect of cutting off Warwick’s vanguard. A small Yorkist force had left while Warwick’s men had made another ‘bridge’ out of planks of wood. Edward was still south of the river had recently received word of the arrival of a large number of Lancastrian soldiers under the command of the Duke of Somerset who had set up camp between the villages of Towton and Saxton.

The morning of the 28th of March saw Warwick’s army taken by surprise by Lancastrian soldiers and in the confusion and panic many of Warwick's troops lost their lives, and it was at this point, that Richard Neville had been hit in the leg by an archers arrow. Edward Hall, the fifteenth century chronicler, does write of Warwick’s leg wound, but has him heroically riding to inform the king of the battle and then has him nobly cutting the throat of his horse to prove his commitment. It is unlikely that Warwick did such a thing, but it does show how committed these men were to a cause.

Edwards forces succeeded in taking possession of the bridge, and once this was done the king moved his army across the river and prepared to take on the Lancastrian forces the following day.

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The Earl of Warwick’s Vow Previous to The Battle of Towton.

14/7/2015

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The Earl of Warwick's Vow Previous to the Battle of Towton 1797 Henry Tresham

In this rather dramatic image we can Richard Neville cutting the throat of his horse after informing Edward IV of the events of the Battle of Ferrybridge on the 28th March 1461.

Richard Neville looks towards the heavens as he makes his vow. Those who look upon him clearly see him as divine, with his exaggerated arm movements and his nakedness (despite Tresham painting his body grey as if he wears armour) he is truly god's representative on earth.

Henry Tresham's painting is not unlike the work of Henry Fuseli (much of whose work is similar to William Blake's) whose themes are often religious, violent and unclear. In this art work Tresham has chosen to illustrate Warwick's actions from William Shakespeare Henry VI Part Three: Act II. Scene V.

RICHARD
Ah, Warwick, why hast thou withdrawn thyself?
Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk,
Broach'd with the steely point of Clifford's lance;
And in the very pangs of death he cried,
Like to a dismal clangour heard from far,
'Warwick, revenge! brother, revenge my death!'
So, underneath the belly of their steeds,
That stain'd their fetlocks in his smoking blood,
The noble gentleman gave up the ghost

WARWICK
Then let the earth be drunken with our blood:
I'll kill my horse, because I will not fly.
Why stand we like soft-hearted women here,
Wailing our losses, whiles the foe doth rage;
And look upon, as if the tragedy
Were play'd in jest by counterfeiting actors?
Here on my knee I vow to God above,
I'll never pause again, never stand still,
Till either death hath closed these eyes of mine
Or fortune given me measure of revenge.

EDWARD
O Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine;
And in this vow do chain my soul to thine!
And, ere my knee rise from the earth's cold face,
I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to thee,
Thou setter up and plucker down of kings,
Beseeching thee, if with they will it stands
That to my foes this body must be prey,
Yet that thy brazen gates of heaven may ope,
And give sweet passage to my sinful soul!
Now, lords, take leave until we meet again,
Where'er it be, in heaven or in earth.

Far too melodramatic for my taste, this tale of Warwick slaughtering his own horse is as untrue as Tresham's image is strange - is it any wonder we get the wrong idea of great characters in history.

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The King Maker

Battle of Blore Heath

Plotting the death of a King

Battle of Barnet: 14th April 1471

Battle of Ferrybridge

28th March 1461

The Earl of Warwick’s Vow Previous to The Battle of Towton.

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