Warwick the Kingmaker (35 page)

27.
POPC
vi. 291–5. The following discussion of the Loveday is particularly indebted to Johnson,
York
, 180 ff.

28.
PL
iii. 125; Kingsford,
Lond. Chrons.
168;
Davies Chron.
77.

29. Whetehamstede, i. 295–7.

30.
Paston L & P
ii. 533.

31. Johnson,
York
, 182.

32. Bl Cotton Ch. xvi. 71; Whetehamstede, i. 298; Watts,
Henry
VI, 343n. For the assignments, see C 81/1468/46.

33.
Six Town Chronicles
, 160.

34. Johnson,
York
, 183.

35.
CCR 1454–61
, 292–3, 306.

36. Robbins,
Hist. Poems
, 194–6 at 194.

37. Ibid. 104.

38. E.g. Johnson,
York
, 184.

39. E.g.
Davies Chron.
77–8;
Gregory’s Chron.
203. Peace and reconciliation can never be criticized.

40. E.g. Griffiths,
Henry VI
, 807; Watts,
Henry VI
, 344.

41. Watts,
Henry VI
, 343; see also Griffiths,
Henry VI
, 805; Johnson,
York
, 179–80, 184–5; Gross,
Dissolution
, 46.

42. BL Cotton Ch. xvi, no. 71.

43.
CCR 1454–61
, 369.

44. Robbins,
Hist. Poems
, 194–5.

45. Robbins,
Hist. Poems
, 191–3. The dates 1458 old style and dominical letter G coincide in the first three months of 1459. It must precede the arrest of Exeter on 31 Jan. 1459.

46. M. G. A. Vale,
Charles VII
(1974), 60.

47. E.g.
Letters of the 15th and 16th Centuries from the Archives of Southampton
, ed. R. C. Anderson (Southampton Rec. Soc., xxii, 1921), 12–13.

48. J. R. Rainey, ‘The Defense of Calais 1436–77’ (PhD thesis, Rutgers Univ., 1987), 4–10.

49. Harriss, ‘Calais’, 41, 45–8; SC 8/28/1392.

50. E.g. BL MS Royal 17Bxlvii, f. 165v.

51. Harriss, ‘Calais’, 45, 49.

52. Ibid. 46; E 101/71/4/936.

53.
Six Town Chronicles
, 145; Warwicks. RO CR 1886/ EM2; BL Lansdowne Ch. 163.

54.
Brut
, 524; Anstis, i. 161.

55.
Paston L & P
ii. 172.

56. E 101/195/7; see also E 403/810 sub 14 May, 15 July.

57. Harriss, ‘Calais’, 47.

58. Ellis,
Original Letters
, ii (1), 125–6.

59.
CPR 1452–61
, 267, 330, 467.

60. Rainey, ‘Defense of Calais’, 115–16.

61. Ibid. 93–4n.

62. M. R. Thielemans,
Bourgogne et l’Angleterre
(Brussels, 1966), 368n, 369; G. Chastellain,
Oeuvres
, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove (8 vols, Brussels, 1863–5), ii. 338. It is not clear whether it was another Irish pony that Warwick reportedly gave Philip the Good also in 1457, R. Vaughan,
Philip the Good
(1970), 343.

63. G. V. Scammell, ‘Shipowning in England
c.
1450–1550’,
TRHS
5th ser. xii (1962), 111.

64.
The Brut
, 524;
Three 15th-Cent. Chrons.
71; C. Vallet de Viriville,
Histoire de
Charles VII
, iii (Paris, 1863), 392–3; for the next sentence see HMC
6th Rep.
521.

65. C. de la Roncière,
Histoire de la Marine Française
ii (Paris, 1900), 293; Vallet de Viriville,
Charles VII
, iii. 397;
Foedera
xi. 406;
CCR 1454–61
, 240;
CPR 1452–61
, 390, 413; E 403/812 m. 3; E 101/71/4/938; see also
CCR 1454–61
, 240. A copy of the indenture is BL Harl. Ch. 54C17. These are the sources of the next para.

66.
Great Red Book of Bristol
ii (Bristol Rec. Soc. viii, 1938), 76–7.

67.
CFR 1452–61
, 199, 217.

68.
POPC
vi. 294. On 1 Feb. Exeter, as Lord Admiral, was understandably displeased by Warwick’s commission; he was compensated with £1,000 about 15 Mar.,
Paston L & P
ii. 532;
PL
iii. 127.

69.
Paston L & P
ii. 340.

70.
CPR 1452–61
, 439, 494; R. C. Anderson, ‘The Grace de Dieu of 1446–86’,
HER
xxxiv (1919), 585.

71. HMC
6th. Rep.
522.

72. C 81/1472/19; C. L. Kingsford,
Prejudice and Promise in Fifteenth Century England
(1925), 82ff.

73.
CPR 1452–61
, 439.

74.
Southampton Letters
, 12–13.

75.
CPR 1452–61
, 494.

76. Ibid. 300.

77. Ibid. 103, 348, 436, 438, 441; Kingsford,
London Chrons.
168–9; E 159/233 Easter Recorda 35 Hen. VI rot. 12; Kendall,
Warwick
, 41–2; see also Rainey, ‘Defense of Calais’, 198n.

78.
PL & P
ii. 340; Roncière,
Marine Française
, ii. 294.

79.
Three 15th Cent. Chrons.
71; M. M. Postan and E. Power,
Studies in English Trade in
the Fifteenth Century
(1966), 130–2;
Hansisches Urkundenbuch
, ed. W. Stein, viii (Leipzig, 1899), 480, 486;
Six Town Chronicles
, 147; Whetehamstede, i. 330–1; see also
SouthamptonLetters
, 12.

80. P. Nightingale,
A Medieval Mercantile Community
(1995), 507–12; J. L. Bolton, ‘The City of London 1456–61’,
London Journal
xii (1986), 14, 17–20.

81. A. I. Dunlop,
Life and Times of James Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews
(1950), 172.

82. M. R. Thielemans,
Bourgogne et l’Angleterre
(Brussels, 1966), 371.

83. Vale,
Charles VII
, 125.

84. Scofield, i. 28n.

85.
Six Town Chronicles
, 146. On 15 May pursuant to a writ of 5 May he was paid £258 17
s
. 1
d
. cash as backpay from 1455 as a royal councillor, E 403/814 m. 2.

86.
Stone’s Chron.
, 73;
Foedera
v.i. 80;
Paston L & P
ii. 340; Chastellain,
Oeuvres
, iii. 428; Scofield, i. 24–5; Thielemans,
Bourgogne et l’Angleterre
, 371–2.

87.
CPR 1452–61
, 443;
Foedera
, v.i. 82.

88.
Southampton Letters
, 12–13;
POPC
vi. 297.

89. Ellis,
Original Letters
, ii (1), 125–6.

90. E 403/817 mm. 3, 4.

91.
The Brut
, 526;
Davies Chron.
78; Kingsford,
London Chrons.
169;
Paston L & P
ii. 214;
Six Town Chrons.
146, which states that ‘Warwyk should have be comyt to the law, but he wisely purveid a remedy therfor’; see also Waurin v. 272. In Dec. 1456 Sir John Neville had a tense confrontation with Somerset in London, Griffiths,
Henry VI
, 800.

92. Kendall,
Warwick
, 45–6; Griffiths,
Henry VI
, 816–17; Watts,
Henry VI
, 313–15. The basic source for all these is Stevenson, i. 361–77.

93. Roncière,
Marine Française
, ii. 294; G. Du Fresne de Beaucourt,
Histoire de Charles
VII
(Paris, 1881), vi. 263.

94. Stevenson, i. 367–8.

95.
POPC
vi. 298–9; E 403/817 mm. 7–8; see also C. Head, ‘Pius II and the Wars of the Roses’,
Archivum Historiae Pontificae
vii (1) (1970), 143–4; Whetehamstede, i. 335–6;
Foedera
v.ii. 84.

96. Stevenson, i. 368–9; Beaucourt,
Charles VII
, vi. 263.

97.
Davies Chron.
78–9; E 159/235 commissiones 37 Hen. VI;
Hansisches Urkundenbuch
, viii. 486.

98. T. D. Whittaker,
History & Antiquities of Richmondshire
, ii. 167, quoted e.g. in Pollard, ‘Northern retainers’, 52; idem,
North-Eastern England
, 269. There is no inquisition or will for Sir Thomas.

99.
CCR 1454–61
, 369;
CPR 1452–61
, 494; E 401/863, sub 9 Feb.; Scofield,
Edward IV
, i 30n; E 403/819 m. 4.

100. J. H. Flemming,
England under the Lancastrians
(1921), 128–9.

101. Stevenson, ii.ii 511;
Testamenta Eboracensia
ii. ed. J. Raine (Surtees Soc. xxx, 1855), 239–46.

102.
Benet’s Chron
. 223; E 403/819 mm. 5, 6 (7 July). Expenses for delivering most summonses to the great council at Coventry were attributed to 2 July, ibid. m. 5.

103.
The Coventry Leet Book
, ii, ed. M. D. Harris (EETS 102, 1908), 297–8; Wolffe,
Henry VI
, 310; Griffiths,
Henry VI
, 773–4, 801; Johnson,
York
, 179; J. R. Lander,
Government and Community: England 1450–1509
(1976), 199.

104.
CPR 1452–61
, 504;
POPC
v. 302. Note that on 25 July Salisbury was not included on an embassy to the Scots,
Foedera
v.ii. 85.

105.
RP
v. 347;
Vale’s Bk.
193–4.

106.
RP
v. 348–9. This was also the charge in 1460, C. L. Scofield, ‘The Capture of Lord Rivers and Sir Anthony Woodville, 19 January 1460’,
EHR
xxxvii (1922), 255.

107.
RP
v. 349. I have relied for the course of events on A. Goodman,
The Wars of the
Roses
(1981), 26–30.

108.
Vale’s Bk.
208–10.

109.
RP
v. 348.

110.
RP
v. 349.

111. KB 9/313/57. They repeatedly complained about such unjust treatment,
Davies
Chron.
83, 89.

112. J. P. Gilson, ‘A Defence of the Proscription of the Yorkists in 1459’,
EHR
xxvi (1911), 516.

113.
RP
v. 348.

114. Ibid.; cf.
Foedera
v.i. 97.

115.
Gregory’s Chron.
205.

116.
Davies Chron.
81–3.

117. Waurin, 275.

118. Whetehamstede, i. 339.

119. S. J. Payling, ‘The Coventry Parliament of 1459: a Privy Seal Writ concerning the Election of Knights of the Shire’,
HR
lx (1987), 349–52; see also Griffiths,
Henry VI
, 823; Watts,
Henry VI
, 352n.

120.
RP
, v. 350.

121. Whetehamstede, i. 339–41.

7.1
RECULER POUR MIEUX SAUTER

The rout at Ludford was one of the lowest points in Warwick’s career. It was succeeded with extraordinary speed by a peak. From defeat and disgrace the Yorkists bounced back. Within a year York was protector for a third time. Warwick was the principal architect of this achievement. By now he overshadowed his ageing father, the teenaged Earl of March, and even York himself. His command of Calais and mastery of the seas first secured Calais and then made it into a springboard for invasion; it was probably he who devised the strategy and prepared the propaganda for the Yorkist riposte; he who commanded the invasion of Kent and the attack on the king’s army at Northampton; and it was certainly he who was everywhere securing the new Yorkist regime. Warwick occurs planning, consulting, orating and persuading, pressing always for the bolder course and carrying it through to triumphant success. Warwick was a splendid military commander, a chivalric hero, and a statesman of international renown. He was worthy of the throne itself. Or so he seems. For Warwick’s new-found eminence, so modern historians have come to realize, owes much to the admiration and eulogies of Waurin.1 Whilst true, this is not entirely fair. Much of what Waurin says is supported by other sources. Rebel propaganda eulogized all the exiled lords. Other Yorkist chronicles also give Warwick the dominant role. Other witnesses wrote in just as exaggerated language at the time, not from hindsight: the papal legate, two anonymous correspondents, and Friar Brackley. If there was a time when Warwick was indeed ‘an overmighty subject’ and ‘an idol of the multitude’, it was in 1460.

Yet when the Yorkist lords fled so shamefully from Ludford, they did not attempt to hold out on any of their estates in England and Wales, as they could have done: several of their castles in Wales resisted after Ludford.2 Instead they fled overseas, where they were secure from capture and could perhaps recoup their military resources. Ireland, where York was lieutenant, the greatest landholder, and a former resident, was a logical destination. Warwick too may have intended going to Ireland. Was it mere accident that the two parties were separated and that Warwick’s mother went to Ireland whilst his father ended up in Calais? Calais was where Warwick arrived. York’s company was the larger. With him was his second son, the 16-year-old Edmund Earl of Rutland.3 Warwick was accompanied by his father, Wenlock, Colt, Sir James Pickering and York’s eldest son Edward Earl of March, the future Edward IV. That March was separated from York suggests that already it was considered essential to keep at large a representative of the house of York as an alternative claimant to the crown.