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Plantagenet Of York |
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Richard III
1483-85
Parentage and Early Life
The last of England's line of Plantagenet kings, Richard III was born at Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire on 2nd October, 1452, the eleventh child in a large family and fourth surviving son of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, (premier descendant of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III) and Cecily Neville. Cecily was the daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland and Joan Beaufort, Joan herself was the illegitimate daughter of John of Gaunt. Click for Plantagenet genealogy.
His was a difficult birth, his mother was at a precarious age for childbearing in the middle ages and the child was a breech. As an infant Richard was weak and sickly and not expected to survive the perils of childhood in the late middle ages.
Richard's appearance
Richard was said to ressemble his father. Unlike his brothers Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence, both tall and well built, Richard was short, slight and dark. His supposed hunchback is likely to be the product of Tudor propaganda, there is no contemporary record of his being so deformed.
He did have a withered arm, Shakespeares 'blasted sapling', probably the result of his mother's reportedly difficult confinement.
Signature of Richard, Duke of Gloucester
The young Richard grew up amidst the violent civil strife of the Wars of the Roses, it formed and moulded him and he was very much the product of that turbulent age. His father, Richard , Duke of York, challenged the Lancastrian King Henry VI's right to the throne. After a prolonged struggle for possession of England's crown, both his father and his brother, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, were killed by Lancastrian forces under Margaret of Anjou at Sandal Castle, at Christmas, 1460, their heads, York's crowned with a paper coronet in derision, were struck on the walls of York. The Yorkist claim to the throne passed to his eldest brother, Edward, a competent general, he defeated the Lancastrians, deposed Henry VI and was crowned King Edward IV in 1461. The young Richard received his education in the household of his influential maternal cousin, Richard Neville, later known to history as 'Warwick the Kingmaker', at Middleham Castle, Yorkshire.
He was created Duke of Gloucester on the accession of his brother, Edward IV. The title was traditionally a royal one, previous holders included Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III and Humphrey, son of Henry IV. Richard adopted the white boar as his personal badge, along with the motto 'Loyaulte me lie' (Loyalty binds me.)
Richard, Duke of Gloucester
On the death of the mighty Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet, Richard married his recently widowed younger daughter, Anne Neville. Anne had previously been the wife of Edward, the Lancastrian Prince of Wales, who had been killed during or after the decisive Yorkist victory at Tewkesbury. Contemporary accounts vary as to how Anne's first husband actually met his death, some state he was killed in battle, others that he was murdered during its aftermath by Edward IV, Richard and Lord Hastings. Through this marriage, Richard received a share of Warwick's vast estates along with his brother George, Duke of Clarence, who had been previously married to Anne's elder sister, Isabel Neville.
The marriage produced one child, Edward of Middleham, although Richard is known to have at least two illegitimate children, a son, John of Gloucester (who was later executed by Henry VII) and a daughter, Katherine, who was married to the Earl of Huntingdon.
Penrith Castle, where Richard was often based when acting as his brother's lieutenant in the North, he built the gatehouse and added to the castle's lodgings
Richard made his power base in the north, where he now owned vast estates and acted as his brother's lieutenant in the region. Disliking the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville and her upstart and grasping relations, he stayed away from court as much as was practically possible, living mainly at Middleham in Yorkshire.
Reign
On the death of his brother Edward in April, 1483, Richard interrupted the progress of the new King, his nephew, Edward V, to London at Stony Stratford. Woodville, Grey and others of the king's escort were sent to Richard's power base in the north. Anthony Woodville and Richard Grey, despite reassurals to the contrary, were later executed on Richard of Gloucester's orders. The young King, now in the custody of his uncle Richard and the Duke of Buckingham, continued on his progress to London. News of the dramatic occurrences at Stony Stratford raced ahead of them, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, in a state of agitation, fled to Westminster Abbey with her daughters and her younger son, Richard, Duke of York. Avaricious as ever, she took all her possessions into sanctuary with her.
Gloucester and Buckingham entered London with the young king and a large body of armed men from the north. Panic spread, most people had been taken by surprise and astonishment was rife at the speed of events. An unmistakable atmosphere of coup-de-etat gripped the city. While the grasping Woodvilles had been unpopular, King Edward IV had been much loved by the people, and therefore most were loyal to his son. Richard of Gloucester eased apprehension by explaining he was only countering a Woodville conspiracy aimed at himself and "the old nobility of the realm". This explaination was generally accepted and the fears which had gripped the city were calmed.
The young King Edward V was lodged in the Tower of London ostensibly awaiting his coronation. There was nothing sinister detected in this at the time when the Tower was a royal residence as well as a prison. On the pretext that his brother required his company and the Queen was being foolish, the ten year old Richard, Duke of York, was removed from the safety of sanctuary at Westminster and taken to join him in the Tower.
At a meeting of the council at the Tower on the thirteenth of June, ostensibly to discuss Edward V's coronation, Gloucester, the Lord Protector, had William, Lord Hastings suddenly and unexpectedly arrested on a charge of treason. Hastings, while he detested the Woodvilles, had been a close friend of Edward IV and would never have countenanced the disinheriting of his children. He was executed, without trial, the same day on a block of wood.
The legitimacy of the young Edward V then began to be actively questioned, and the old claim of Edward IV not being the true son of Richard, Duke of York was resurrected by Buckingham, who stated that the late King's true father had been an archer named Blackburn, who was supposed to have had an adulterous affair with Cecily, Duchess of York. The two young princes had been seen playing in the Tower gardens at various times until then. Gradually, they began to appear less frequently. The last person to see them alive was Edward V's physician, Dr. Argentine, who had attended him at the Tower and found him in a state of abject melancholy.
It remains debatable as to whether Richard had Edward and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York, murdered in the Tower, revisionists claim that his ally the Duke of Buckingham, or his successor, Henry Tudor had just as much cause to remove them from his path to the throne as did Richard. Opinion about his role in his nephew's disappearance has oscillated between two extremes, one is the picture painted by Shakespeare of a murderous monster who ruthlessly liquidated all who stood in his path to power, the other is of a much maligned and concientious ruler.
Much evidence to support both claims has been raised. At a distance of more than five hundred years it is impossible to state with certainty who was responsible for ordering the murder of Edward V and his young brother, all that can be said with certainty is that rumour was rife at this time that they had been done away with and that they were never seen alive again. (For an account of the mysterious disappearance of the two Princes in the Tower, see our section on Edward V) Richard's coronation took place on 6th July 1483, Buckingham was created Constable and great
Chamberlain of England and magnificently clad, held the King's train at
the ceremony.
King Richard III then set out on a royal progress. When he reached the city of York, where he was popular, England's only north country King was well received. His son, Edward of Middleham, was created Prince of Wales in a magnificent ceremony at York Minster.
Richard III sat uneasily on his throne in 1483, the deep distrust of the nobility had been engendered by the manner of Lord Hastings demise and the apparent disappearance of the Edward V and his brother. At Lincoln, on 11th October Richard received the disconcerting news that his greatest ally, the Duke of Buckingham, had deserted his cause and risen against him. Buckingham's reasons remain obscure, he was said to regret his former conduct, but it may have been that he did not feel himself rewarded richly enough for it. It has been suggested that, as he was directly descended from Edward III's youngest son himself, his earlier support of Richard was part of a design to clear his own path to the throne.
In conspiracy with the Woodvilles and the Lancastrian pretender, Henry Tudor, he rose simultaneously with them. The Duke of Norfolk, who remained loyal to the king, blocked their way to London. Buckingham's army began to desert. Morton, who had probably incited the rebellion himself, fled to Flanders. Buckingham then abandoned the remnants of his army but was captured and his requests for an audience with the king refused, he was beheaded on Richard's orders.
Parliament passed the Act of Titulus Regius, ratifying Richard's claim to the throne and bastardising Edward IV's children. To acquire a trusted ally, Richard married his illegitimate daughter, Katherine, to the Earl of Huntingdon and promoted him to high office in Wales. The King relied in the north on the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, and Lord Stanley, an unwise action, since the latter was married to Henry Tudor's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort.
Tragically, in April, Richard's only son, Edward of Middleham, a delicate child, died, possibly of tuberculosis. He was buried at Sherrif Hutton, in Yorkshire. Both Richard and his wife Anne Neville were said to be distracted with grief. Many in that superstitious age saw it as divine retribution for his treatment of his brother's sons. Clarence had left a son Edward, Earl of Warwick, but he still remained under his father's attainder and Richard decided to appoint his sister Elizabeth's son, John, Earl of Lincoln, as his heir.
Elizabeth Woodville's daughters were received at court and Elizabeth of York, the eldest of them, evoking much gossip, was provided with dresses similar to the Queen's. In March 1485, when Queen Anne Neville died of tuberculosis, her husband was said to be unwilling to visit her in her quarters. After Anne's death rumours arose that he had poisoned her, though ungrounded in fact, they amply illustrate Richard's subjects suspicions of him. He was forced to make an humiliating public denial of the rumours, stating that he was not glad at her death "but as sorry and as heavy in heart as a man can be" and to deny that he harboured plans for an incestuous marriage with his niece.
By the spring of 1485 the King was aware that Henry Tudor planned a further invasion. He waited at Nottingham for news, to ensure the loyalty of Lord Stanley, he kept his eldest son, George, Lord Strange, hostage by his side.
The house in Shrewsbury where Henry Tudor is said to have lodged on his march to Bosworth
Henry Tudor embarked from Harfleur and landed at Milford Haven in South Wales on 7 Aug, then celebrated as the Feast of the Transfiguration. He was accompanied by his Lancastrian supporters and around 2,000 French mercenaries. Reinforcements were gathered on the march through Wales, he proceeded to progress through Shrewsbury, Stafford and Atherstone