The War of the Roses (36 page)

Read The War of the Roses Online

Authors: Timothy Venning

BOOK: The War of the Roses
11.17Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Chapter 6
1

Ross,
Richard III
, pp. 158–9 on the question of whether Lincoln was ever formally named as heir.

2

Desmond Seward,
The Last White Rose
(Constable 2010) p. 13.

3

Ross, pp. 222–3.

4

Seward, pp. 27–32.

5

See Michael Jones and Malcolm Underwood,
The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby
(Cambridge UP 1992) pp. 19–20 and 24–6.

6

Margaret allowing herself to be superseded in 1485 was first noted by Horace Walpole in his
Royal and Noble Authors of England
in 1796. It was explained as due to practical politics by John Britton in his unpublished biographical notice of Margaret in the 1830s, now in the Cambridge University Library.

7

See
Chronicles of the Revolution 1399–1403
, ed. C. Given-Wilson, (Manchester UP 1993) pp. 166–7 and
Archaeologia
, vol xx (1824) p. 203 (transcript of French ambassador Creton's ‘Metrical History') for the method of Henry's accession in Parliament in September 1399. Significantly, it appears that Edmund Mortimer–underage and nearest heir to Richard II by female descent–was not put forward by Henry's ‘cheerleaders' in Parliament as an alternative candidate when they asked for approval–only Henry's adult and genealogically junior rivals from the House of York, who had backed the deposed Richard.

8

Chrimes,
Henry VII
(Methuen 1972) pp. 50–1.

9

Ibid, pp. 65–6.

10

Ibid, pp. 59–60.

11

Rotuli Parliamentarum
, vol vi, pp. 275–8.

12

Fields, pp. 190–1.

13

Ibid, pp. 191–2.

14

Seward, pp. 13–18.

15

See Chapter 5, note 63.

16

Letters and Papers of Henry VII
, vol I, p. 234.

17

E H Fonblanque,
The Annals of the House of Percy
, 2 vols (London 1887) vol I p. 300.

18

C H Williams, ‘The rebellion of Sir Humphrey Stafford in 1486' in
E H R
, vol xliii (1928).

19

Seward, p. 18.

20

Ibid, pp. 19, 38.

21

See David Baldwin,
The Lost Prince: the Survival of Richard of York
(History Press 2008) especially chapters 1, 6, and 8. The story of Richard Plantagenet of Eastwell, Kent, first appeared in a local memoir of the estate's owners, the Earls of Winchelsea, in 1735 and was publicized by Arthur Mee in his 1930s guidebooks,
The King's England
; it formed the basis of the plot for the children's novelist Barbara Willard's book
The Sprig of Broom
. The anonymous ‘lord' who Richard claimed took him to see his father King Richard on the eve of Bosworth may have been Lord Lovell.

22

See P W Hammond, ‘The Illegitimate Children of Richard III' in J Petre (ed.),
Richard III: Crown and People
(Sutton 1985).

23

See M. Bennett,
Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke
(Sutton 1987).

24

Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts
, 6 vols (London 1867) vol v, pp. 188–9.

25

Seward, p. 28.

26

Chrimes pp. 75–6.

27

Seward, p. 31.

28

Ibid, pp. 31–2.

29

Ibid, p. 27.

30

Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII
, ed. W Campbell (Rolls Series 1873) vol ii p. 148.

31

D Baldwin,
Elizabeth Woodville
, (Sutton 2004) pp. 112–13.

32

Wolffe,
Henry VI
, pp. 6-7.

33

Baldwin, pp. 113–14.

34

Fields, pp. 203–4.

35

See Gordon Smith's article in
The Ricardian
, December 1996.

36

Polydore Vergil, pp. 12 ff.

37

Ibid, p. 23.

38

Vergil, p. 20 ff.

39

Seward, pp. 38–40.

40

The Great Chronicle of London
, p. 241.

41

Ibid, pp. 241–2.

42

Seward, p. 41.

43

Hall, p. 434.

44

Polydore Vergil, pp. 12–26.

45

J M Thompson, J Paul et al. (eds),
Registrum Magni Sigilli Regnum Scotorum:Register of the Great Seal of Scotland
(Scottish Record Society Edinburgh, 1882–1914) vol ii, p. 370.

46

D Baldwin, ‘What Happened to Lord Lovell?' in
The Ricardian
, vol 89 (June 1985).

47

As n. 45.

48

Polydore Vergil, p. 24.

49

Quotation from the
Calendar of the Carew Mss: The Book of Howth
. See also the
New Dictionary of National Biography
article on Simnel, vol 50, p. 630.

50

Chrimes, pp. 259–61.

51

Wroe, p. 82.

52

See D Roberts,
The Battle of Stoke Field
(Newark and Sherwood District Council 1987).

53

As n. 45.

54

PRO 53rd Report, appendix ii, pp. 30–6;
Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records
(1842), appendix ii, pp. 216–18.

55

Desmond Seward,
The Last White Rose
(Constable and Robinson 2010) pp. 223–4.

56

Henry's letter to Charles VIII, autumn 1494: in
Letters and Papers of Henry VII
, vol ii, pp. 292–7.

57

A F Pollard,
The Reign of Henry VII from Contemporary Sources
: Volume One, Narrative Extracts (Longmans, Green 1913) pp. 82–3.

58

D Luckett, ‘The Thames Valley Conspiracies Against Henry VII' in
BIHR
, vol lxviii (1995) pp. 164–72;
The Plumpton Correspondence
, letter lxxi.

59

Francis Bacon,
History of the Reign of Henry VII and Selected Works
, ed. B Vickers (Cambridge UP 1998) p. 105.

60

Wroe, pp. 141–3 and 153–60.

61

Ibid, pp. 141 and 153–8.

62

Ibid, pp. 165–6.

63

As Chapter 5 n. 48.

64

Hall, p. 465; John Stow,
Annales
, p. 478.

65

Polydore Vergil, p. 77.

66

Ibid, pp. 88 and n, 89; and Ellis,
Letters
, vol I pp. 24, 29.

67

See Chapter 5 note 34.

68

See Fields, p. 143 for the emergence of this story–known to More's son-in-law Rastell by the time of his 1550s edition of More's (c. 1510) work. Also see
Great Chronicle
, pp. 209, 212 and 213 and Hammond and White, ‘The Sons of Edward IV' p. 108 for other rumours.

69

See Chapter 5, note 47.

70

See Wroe, pp. 87–8 and 516-17 on the mysterious ‘Jean Le Sage', adopted ‘son' of Duchess Margaret, living near her court around 1480.

71

See Wroe on Brampton: pp. 17–22, 73, 91, 105, 109.

72

Fields, pp. 230–7 and 242–3.

73

See Chapter 5 note 34.

74

See Wroe pp. 527–8 on the testimony of a Portuguese Herald, Tanjar, on this in 1496.

75

Rotuli Parliamentarum
vol vi p. 94.

76

Wroe, pp. 16–17, 526–7.

77

‘Warbeck' himself said vaguely in his letter to Isabella of Castile in 1493 that he had been ‘about nine' at the time of the Tower episode in summer 1483; in fact the Prince's tenth birthday was in August 1483. By modern standards his lack of knowledge should count against his claim–but medieval accuracy about dates for junior royals was limited. Fabyan thought the Prince was seven in 1483, Mancini eight.

78

Wroe, pp. 379–81, and pp. 400–07 on Henry's search for the ‘truth' before 1497.

79

Ibid, pp. 381–93.

80

Ibid, p. 383.

81

Ibid, pp. 414–18.

82

Ibid, pp. 417–18.

83

According to More's account–but why had Henry VII not used this man as a convenient scapegoat and forced him to ‘confess', blaming Tyrrell, in 1502?

84

Molinet,
Chroniques
vol v, pp. 49–50.

85

W A J Archbold, ‘Sir William Stanley and Perkin Warbeck' in
E H R
, vol xxix (1899) p. 533.

86

Polydore Vergil, p. 65.

87

Wroe, pp. 176–91; W Hampton, ‘The White Rose under the first Tudors' in
The Ricardian
, vol vii, no. 97 (June 1987) pp. 414–17.

88

Seward, p. 66.

89

Wroe, p. 141.

90

Seward, p. 74.

91

Bacon, p. 202; Polydore Vergil, pp. 71–4; Molinet, vol v pp. 47–8.

92

Wroe, pp. 222–5; and pp. 186–8 on Kendall's bizarre poisoning plot. See also
Letters and Papers of Henry VII
, vol ii pp. 318–23 (deposition by de Vignolles).

93

Wroe, pp. 222–5.

94

Ian Arthurson,
The Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy
(Sutton 1994), pp. 187–91 and Polydore Vergil,
Anglia Historia
, p. 67.

95

Wroe, pp. 182–4.

96

See n. 55.

97

PRO E/404/81/2.

98

PRO DL 28/2/2, and Molinet, vol v, pp. 47–8.

99

Polydore Vergil, pp. 73–4.

100

Excerpta Historia
, ed. Samuel Bentley (London 1831) pp. 100 and 101.

101

Rotuli Parliamentarum
, vol vi, p. 504.

102

Molinet, vol v, pp. 50–1;
Memorials of Henry VII
, ed. James Gairdner (Rolls Series vol x, 1858): the
Historia Regis Henrici Septimi
of Bernard Andre, pp. 66–7.

103

See Vergil p. 84 on the locals' apparent hesitation as the rebels arrived. There were, however, no prominent local Yorkists to give a ‘lead' in taking a risk to welcome the rebels; if the latter had sailed to Great Yarmouth as was rumoured they would have had more support. But such initial setbacks had met other, successful invaders e.g. Edward IV in 1471.

104

Wroe, pp. 243–5.

105

Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts: Book of Howth
, p. 472; Rymer,
Foedera
, vol xii, p. 567.

106

Polydore Vergil, pp. 87–9.

107

J Arthurson, ‘The Rising of 1497' in J Rosenthal and C Richmond (eds),
People, Politics and Community in the Later Middle Ages
(Sutton 1987) pp. 1–18; Chrimes, p. 90.

108

Seward, pp. 100–01.

109

See
Letters and Papers of Henry VII
, vol I, pp. 231–40 for the 1504 Calais discussions where the incident was remembered. Governor Sir Richard Nanfan said Henry had been furious with Daubeny for delaying his arrival.

110

As n. 108.

111

PRO King's Bench: 9/441/2.

112

Wroe, pp. 308–10, 323–4.

113

Rotuli Parliamentarum
, vol vi, pp. 544–5.

114

Polydore Vergil, pp. 104–6;
Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Relating to Milan
, ed. Allen B Hindes (HMSO 1912) vol I pp. 325–7.

115

Wroe, p. 328.

116

Letters and Papers of Henry VII
, vol I, p. 112; Ellis,
Letters
, vol I, pp. 32–3.

117

Polydore Vergil, pp. 105–7; Wroe, pp. 333–7.

118

Pollard,
The Reign of Henry VII
, vol I, pp. 167–8.

119

Calendar of State Papers Venetian
, ed. R Brown, vol I (HMSO 1864) pp. 263, 265.

120

Polydore Vergil,
Three Books
, p.227; also
Calendar of State Papers Milan
, p. 328.

121

Wroe, pp. 341–2.

122

Pollard, vol I, pp. 173–6;
Calendar of State Papers Milan
, p. 329;
Chronicles of London
, ed. Kingsford, p. 218; PRO E 101/14/16 and 90v, E 36/426, f. 37v.

123

Polydore Vergil, pp. 142–4; CSP Milan p. 329; Bernard Andre, pp. 72–3; Wroe, pp. 365–70 (Warbeck at Taunton) and 373–9 (Katherine at Taunton).

124

Warbeck's 1496 proclamation attacking Henry's ministers:
BL Harleian Mss
. 283, f.

Other books

Rebel Nation by Shaunta Grimes
The White Mountain by David Wingrove
Elegidas by Kristina Ohlsson
Eglantine by Catherine Jinks
Knowing You by Maureen Child
Eight for Eternity by Mary Reed, Eric Mayer
The Russian's Ultimatum by Michelle Smart
A Fool for a Client by David Kessler