The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors (39 page)
Above the hubbub of a late Elizabethan theatre, the nuances of political history could be lost. But the mere sight of actors dressed as aristocrats teaming off according to their choice of rose was designed to be instantly understood.
Henry VI Part I
eventually became part of the cycle of Shakespeare’s two historical tetralogies: eight plays that run, if arranged by their historical
chronology, from
Richard II
to
Richard III
, and which portray the whole course of pre-Tudor fifteenth-century history.
6
The message that had been concocted by Henry VII nearly one hundred years previously had become entrenched in public consciousness. And there it has remained, more or less, ever since.
*
As we have seen, the wars of the roses and the destruction of the house of Plantagenet did not really come about because two factions divided by blood were destined to atone through war for the sin of deposing Richard II. All the evil of the fifteenth century was not embodied in a villainous Richard III, any more than the marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York provided instant salvation. Rather, this was a vicious and at times barely comprehensible period of deep political instability, which stemmed ultimately from a collapse in royal authority and English rule in France under Henry VI. In a system in which law, order, justice and peace flowed so heavily from the person of the king and the office of the crown, Henry VI’s reign (and his afterlife between deposition in 1461 and his death ten years later) was a disaster. The English system of government was robust in the 1420s and 1430s – robust enough to deal with a minority of nearly two decades. But it was not robust enough to deal with an adult king who simply would not perform his role. For a time under Henry VII there was an attempt to rehabilitate his memory, with the old king proposed as a candidate for sainthood who had performed wonderful miracles, including healing a man who had been run over by a wagon, or a young boy who had been injured during a football game.
7
Under Henry VIII, however, this was quietly dropped in favour of reverence for the more obviously inspiring example of Henry V. It was difficult to sustain much interest in a man whose doleful and agonisingly protracted rule wreaked long-term damage on the English crown that took decades to repair.
Edward IV undid a great deal of the appalling harm that had been caused by Henry VI, repairing much of the fabric of royal government and taking to kingship with extraordinary brio and competence; but he made two bad mistakes. The first was to marry Elizabeth Woodville, whose large family could not be easily assimilated into a political system that had just endured such a rough shaking. The second was to die in April 1483 – not a matter about which he had much choice in the short term, although it is possible to argue that his physical decline in his later years was self-inflicted by his fondness for gorging and idleness. All the same, the combination of a child heir and a Woodville faction that could not or would not be accommodated was too much for a fragile and weatherbeaten political system to bear. That said, Richard III’s ruthless usurpation of the crown was not and could not have been foreseen by anyone, and it unleashed a period of bloody desperation in which the crown was all but up for grabs to anyone who could show a strain of royal blood and raise a foreign army. It was this battle, fought ‘hot’ between 1483 and 1487 and ‘cold’ between 1487 and 1525, that was won by the Tudors, not the ‘wars of the roses’ as a whole. Nevertheless, the fact is that the Tudors did win. And like all historical winners, they reserved the right to tell their story: a story that has endured to this day.
| ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES | |
| | |
| CCR | Calendar of Close Rolls |
| CPR | Calendar of Patent Rolls |
| CSP Milan | Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts in the Archives and Collections of Milan 1385–1618 |
| CSP Spain | Calendar of State Papers, Spain |
| CSP Venice | Calendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs in the Archives of Venice |
| EHD | English Historical Documents |
| EHR | English Historical Review |
| L&P | Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII (online edition) |
| POPC | Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council |
| PROME | Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (online edition) |
1
The French ambassador to England, Charles de Marillac, thought Margaret ‘above eighty years old’; Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial ambassador, reckoned her ‘nearly ninety’. L&P XVI 868; CSP Spain, 1538–42, 166
2
For this and below see H. Pierce,
The Life, Career and Political Significance of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury 1473–1541
(University of Wales, Bangor, 1996), chapter 8 passim
3
CSP Spain, 1538–42, 166
4
D. Seward,
The Last White Rose: Dynasty, Rebellion and Treason – The Secret Wars against the Tudors
(London, 2010), 291
5
CSP Venice, V (1534–54) 104–6
6
Ibid., 108
7
M. Callcott,
Little Arthur’s History of England
(London, 1835), 112. For further historical uses and development of the phrase, see OED ‘Rose’, 6a. Eng. Hist.
8
W. A. Rebhorn (ed. and trans.),
The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio
( London/New York, 2013), 351 n. 3
9
See for example BL Arundel 66 f. 1v; BL Egerton 1147 f. 71; BL Royal 16 f. 173v
10
Notably the D’Arcy family. See H. Gough and J. Parker,
A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry
(London, 1894), 500–1
11
Robbins, R. H. (ed.),
Historical Poems of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
(New York, 1959), 215–18
12
B. Williams,
Chronique de la traison et mort de Richart Deux roy Dengleterre
(London, 1846), 151; see below, n. 24 to chapter 18
13
H. Riley (ed.),
Ingulph’s Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland with the Continuations of Peter of Blois and Anonymous Writers
(London, 1908) (hereafter
Croyland Continuations
), 506
14
A good example is BL 16 F II, especially f. 137: this book, commissioned under Edward IV, was unfinished on the king’s death and completed under Henry VII, whose artists liberally plastered it with red roses and other Lancastrian-Tudor insignia.
1 : KING OF ALL THE WORLD
1
T. Johnes (ed.),
The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet
, I 439
2
T. Rymer,
Foedera, conventiones, literae, et cujuscunque generis acta publica, inter reges Angliae, et alios quosuis imperatores, reges, … ab anno 1101, ad nostra usque tempora, habita aut tractata; … In lucem missa de mandato Reginae
(London, 1735), IX 907
3
Charles’s murdered friend was the constable of France, Olivier de Clisson.
4
For a comprehensive discussion of Charles’s illness, see R. C. Gibbons,
The Active Queenship of Isabeau of Bavaria, 1392–1417: Voluptuary, Virago or Villainess
(University of Reading, 1997), 27–40
5
Henrici Quinti Angliae Regis Gratia
, quoted in
EHD
IV 211–18
6
Ibid.
7
For a succinct account of Henry’s conquests following Agincourt, see J. Barker,
Conquest: The English Kingdom of France 1417–1450
(London, 2009), 1–45
8
In return for this Queen Isabeau in particular has never been popularly rehabilitated in French history. She is regularly slandered as the greatest whore and traitor of her age, whose numerous sexual misdeeds included an affair with Duke Philip and the bastard birth of the dauphin. For a sensitive rehabilitation see T. Adams,
The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria
(Baltimore, 2010) and Gibbons,
Active Queenship
and ‘Isabeau of Bavaria’ in
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
6 (1996)
9
Speed quoted in A. Strickland,
Lives of the Queens of England, from the Norman Conquest: With Anecdotes of their Courts
(12 vols, London, 1840–8), III 97
10
Ibid., III 98
11
J. Shirley (trans. and ed.),
A Parisian Journal 1405–1449
(Oxford, 1968), 151
12
Rymer,
Foedera
, IX 920
13
J. Watts,
Henry VI and the Politics of Kingship
(Cambridge, 1996), 113
14
Ibid., 439
15
Gower, quoted in G. L. Harriss,
Shaping the Nation: England 1360–1461
(Oxford, 2005), 588
16
Ibid., 588–94
17
The ‘Agincourt Carol’ is printed in
EHD
IV 214–15
18
Quoted in Strickland,
Queens of England
, III 101
19
D. Preest (trans.), and J. G. Clark (intro.),
The Chronica Majora of Thomas Walsingham (1376–1422)
(Woodbridge, 2005), 438
20
C. L. Kingsford,
Chronicles of London
(Oxford, 1905), 162–5
21
Strecche in
EHD
IV 229
22
Shirley (ed.),
Parisian Journal
, 356 n. 1
23
B. Wolffe,
Henry VI
(2nd edn, London, 2001), 28
24
For a discussion of all the royal minorities of medieval England, see C. Beem (ed.),
The Royal Minorities of Medieval and Early Modern England
(New York, 2008), passim
25
Ecclesiastes 10:16
1
R. A. Griffiths,
The Reign of King Henry VI
(Stroud, 1981), 51–7; Wolffe,
Henry VI,
29–38
2
For more on the history of the residence, see R. Brook,
The Story of Eltham Palace
(London, 1960), passim
3
H. M. Colvin,
History of the King’s Works
(London, 1963), II 934–5
4
For the best explanation of the conceptual framework and reality of government in the early fifteenth century, see Watts,
Henry VI
, 13–101
5
The regency of France was in fact first bequeathed by Henry’s will to Philip the Good of Burgundy, with a stipulation that if he declined the task then rule should fall to Bedford; on Charles VI’s death this is precisely what happened.
6
Kingsford,
Chronicles of London
, 279–80
7
Ibid., 281
8
CCR Henry VI 1422–9, 46
9
CCR Henry VI 1422–9, 54
10
POPC III 233
11
POPC III 86–7
12
PROME 1428
13
J. Gairdner (ed.),
The Historical Collections of a Citizen of London in the Fifteenth Century (‘Gregory’s Chronicle’)
(1876), 159. For a detailed summary of the Gloucester–Beaufort dispute, see Griffiths,
Henry VI
, 73–81; G. L. Harriss,
Cardinal Beaufort: A Study of Lancastrian Ascendancy and Decline
(Oxford, 1988), 134–49; and L. Rhymer, ‘Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, and the City of London’ in L. Clark (ed.),
The Fifteenth Century
8, 47–58
14
Ibid.
15
Pedro, duke of Coimbra was the second son of Philippa of Lancaster and her husband John I. His maternal grandfather was John of Gaunt and he was, therefore, a first cousin, once removed, of Henry VI. He was famous for his extensive travels about Europe, and would return to England later in the 1420s for Henry VI’s coronation.
16
Kingsford,
Chronicles of London
, 84
1
The best analysis of the battle of Verneuil is M. K. Jones, ‘The Battle of Verneuil (17 August 1424): Towards a History of Courage’ in
War in History
9 (2002), which this account follows.
2
Shirley (ed.),
Parisian Journal
, 198; Jones, ‘Battle of Verneuil’, 398
3
‘Book of Noblesse’, quoted in ibid., 407. ‘Worship’ was a medieval concept perhaps best translated as ‘honourable respect and gentility’.
4
Shirley (ed.),
Parisian Journal
, 200
5
BL Add. MS 18850 f. 256v
6
Jean de Wavrin, quoted in J. Stratford,
The Bedford Inventories: The Worldly Goods of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France (1389–1435)
(London, 1993), 108 n. 15
7
Barker,
Conquest
, 74. The French text of Bedford’s 1423 ordinances may be found transcribed as an appendix to B. J. H. Rowe, ‘Discipline in the Norman Garrisons under Bedford, 1422–35’ in
EHR
46 (1931) 200–6
8
Barker,
Conquest
, 67–9
9
B. J. H. Rowe, ‘King Henry VI’s Claim to France in Picture and Poem’ in
The Library
s4, 13 (1932), 82
10
BL MS Royal 15 E VI, reprinted in part in S. McKendrick, J. Lowden and K. Doyle,
Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination
(London, 2011), 379 and available in full online at bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts
11
Although Bedford did not realise it, this propaganda strategy would be the model – or at least the archetype – for rival kings on both sides of the Channel for the century that followed. See pp. 224–5.
12
Rowe, ‘King Henry VI’s Claim’, 78
13
F. W. D. Brie,
The Brut: or, The Chronicles of England
(London, 1908), II 454. For the siege of Orléans and the role of Joan of Arc in its relief, see Barker,
Conquest
, 95–124.
14
For the latest biography of Joan, see Helen Castor’s forthcoming
Joan of Arc
(London, 2014), which the account here follows in several places.
15
POPC III 340
16
See n. 15 to chapter 2. For details here included of the ceremony see
Brut
, II 454;
Gregory’s Chronicle
, 161–77; the traditional order of
service for English coronations in the fifteenth century, known as the
Forma et Modus
, is printed and translated in L. G. Wickham Legg (ed.),
English Coronation Records
(London, 1901), 172–90
17
Gregory’s Chronicle
18
Brut
, II 460
19
Shirley (ed.),
Parisian Journal,
271
20
Ibid., 272. Parisian snobbery about the culinary efforts of other races seems to be a timeless trait.
21
H. N. MacCracken,
Minor Poems of John Lydgate
(Oxford, 1961–2), II 630–1; J. G. Nichols,
Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London
(Camden Society, v53, 1852), 16
1
F. Palgrave,
Antient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury of His Majesty’s Exchequer
(London, 1836), II 172–5
2
POPC V 46–7
3
For the lives of Owen Tudor’s ancestors, see R. A. Griffiths and R. S. Thomas,
The Making of the Tudor Dynasty
(Gloucester, 1985), 5–24, and R. L. Thomas,
The Political Career, Estates and ‘Connection’ of Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke and Duke of Bedford (d.1495)
(PhD thesis, University of Wales, Swansea, 1971), chapter 1, 1–29
4
Letter of Catherine de Valois quoted in
DNB
, ‘Catherine de Valois’
5
J. A. Giles (ed.),
Incerti scriptoris chronicon Angliae de regnis trium regum Lancastriensium Henrici IV, Henrici V et Henrici VI
(London 1848), 17
6
Catherine’s own family history told her this: her eldest sister Isabella had been the child bride of another king of England, Richard II, and following Richard’s deposition and death she had returned to France to marry Charles duke of Orléans.
7
PROME February 1426, item 34
8
Sir John Wynn of Gwydir, quoted in Thomas,
Jasper Tudor
, 13
9
PROME September 1402, items 88–102
10
Harriss,
Cardinal Beaufort
, 178–9 n. 34, has speculated that Edmund Tudor may indeed have been the son of Catherine and Edmund Beaufort, in which case the later house of Tudor would have had Beaufort roots on both sides. It seems more probable to me that if
Edmund Beaufort had any relationship to Edmund Tudor then it was that of godfather, rather than biological father.
11
See Thomas,
Jasper Tudor,
19–20
12
National Archives SC 8/124/6186
13
Excavations in the cemetery on the site at Bermondsey Abbey found a high incidence of bodily trauma, particularly of healed fractures among those buried there. Report by the Centre for Bioarchaeology, museumoflondon.org.
14
Brut
, II 470–1
15
The account of Owen Tudor’s arrest as given to the privy council, quoted here, is in POPC V 46–50
16
Ibid., 49–50. The article accompanying the council minute detailing Owen’s arrest appears to be preparatory notes for a speech to the king himself, explaining what Owen had done, and rehearsing all the reasons why Henry ought to be outraged by his stepfather’s ‘malicious purpos and ymaginacion’.
17
See M. Bassett, ‘Newgate Prison in the Middle Ages’ in
Speculum
18 (1943), passim
18
Robin Ddu quoted and translated in H. Evans,
Wales and the Wars of the Roses
(Cambridge, 1915), 70 n. 3
19
Priests were necessary to celebrate mass – then as now a rite which women were forbidden to perform. The most complete guide to medieval life at Barking Abbey can be found in T. Barnes,
A Nun’s Life: Barking Abbey in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods
(MA thesis, Portland State University, 2004).
20
Rymer,
Foedera
, X 828
21
Thomas,
Jasper Tudor,
26; Rymer,
Foedera,
X 828