The Woodvilles: The Wars of the Roses and England's Most Infamous Family

by Higginbotham, Susan

  a powerful personality – a predatory magnate rather than a mere courtier or dilettante patron of the arts – exercising a personal authoritative supervision over the conduct of his officials and the management of his affairs, with a keen grasp of detail and jealous to maintain his rights, real or imagined, against others, and resolved to exploit his assets to their fullest advantage.39

  Anthony’s new responsibilities did not mean that he would spend the rest of the prince’s youth at Ludlow. In 1474, King Edward had made a pact with his brother-in-law, Charles, Duke of Burgundy, to invade France before 1 July 1475 – an essential undertaking for an English king. In April 1475, Anthony and Richard Martyn were sent on an embassy to Charles, who despite having agreed to aid in the invasion was preoccupied with the siege of Neuss as part of his attempt to gain control of Cologne. Their mission, to persuade Charles to give up his siege and turn his attention to the invasion, was unsuccessful. Having assembled a large force at enormous cost, Edward had no choice but to carry out his plan, Charles or no Charles.40

  The English nobility was very well represented on the expedition, and Anthony was no exception. He raised a force of two knights, forty men at arms, and two hundred archers. Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, brought ten knights and the same number of men at arms and archers. William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, likewise brought forty men at arms and two hundred archers, but no knights. The king’s brothers, the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, each raised a force of ten knights, one hundred men at arms, and a thousand archers. Also joining the expedition was Elizabeth’s eldest son by her first marriage, Thomas Grey, who had been made the Marquis of Dorset on 18 April 1475.41 Back on the home front, the young Prince of Wales was appointed ‘keeper of the realm’ and was brought to London to join the queen.

  Though Edward had prepared for the eventuality of being crowned King of France by having a suitable robe made, the expedition, which set off for Calais on 4 July 1475, ended anticlimactically, if profitably. Charles of Burgundy, having been forced to abandon Neuss by a French invasion of his own dominions, turned up to meet the English king. He was full of advice for Edward, but came without the expected army. Another would-be ally, Louis, Count of St Pol, Jacquetta Woodville’s brother, failed to keep his promise to deliver St Quentin to the English. Disgusted, Edward entered into negotiations with King Louis XI of France. On 29 August 1475, in what was known as the Treaty of Picquigny, the two nations made their peace. Among the treaty’s provisions was that Edward’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, or, in case of her death, her sister Mary, was to marry the Dauphin Charles of France. Louis was to pay 75,000 crowns to Edward, followed by a pension of 50,000 crowns per annum. William, Lord Hastings and other royal confidants were to receive pensions as well. Commyns claimed that the Marquis of Dorset was among the pensioners, but historians have not found corroboration of this in the records. Though the peace was unpopular with some hawkish Englishmen, notably Richard, Duke of Gloucester, it benefitted English trade and relieved Edward’s subjects of parliamentary taxation.42

  Anthony is not named among those receiving pensions, and what he thought of the treaty is unrecorded. His trip to France, however, seems to have reawakened his taste for foreign travel, for on 1 October 1475, Edward IV wrote a letter to Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, informing him that Rivers, ‘one of his chief confidants and the brother of his dear consort’, would be travelling to Rome and would like to visit Milan and other places belonging to the duke, as well as the duke himself if it were convenient.43

  Sadly, we do not have a detailed description of Anthony’s travels, or an account of whom he visited, but several years later, William Caxton, whose printing press Rivers patronised, recalled in his epilogue to The Cordyale (translated by Rivers) that Anthony had been on pilgrimage to Rome, to shrines in Naples, and to St Nicholas at Bari.44 In April 1476, Anthony obtained a papal indulgence for the Chapel of Our Lady of Pewe at Westminster, where Anthony hoped to be buried.45

  All did not go smoothly for the English traveller, however. On 7 March 1476, Francesco Pietrasancta, Milanese Ambassador to the Court of Savoy, reported to the Duke of Milan that all of Rivers’s money and valuables had been stolen at the Torre di Baccano and that Queen Elizabeth was sending a royal servant to Rome with letters of exchange for 4,000 ducats.46

  Anthony’s misadventures had also come to the attention of John Paston III, who wrote on 21 March 1476, that Lord Rivers ‘was at Rome right well and honorably’ and had travelled 12 miles outside the city when he was robbed of all of his jewels and plate, which were worth at least 1,000 marks.47

  The saga of Anthony’s jewels did not end there, however. On 10 May 1476, the Venetian Senate issued this sinister-sounding decree:

  That for the purpose of ascertaining the truth as to this theft, in the neighbourhood of Borne, of the precious jewels and plate belonging to Lord Anthony Angre Lord Scales, brother of the Queen of England, and for the discovery of the perpetrators and of the distribution made of the property, – Be the arrest of Nicholas Cerdo and Vitus Cerdo, Germans, Nicholas Cerdo, and Anthony, a German of Schleswick, dealer in ultramarine, (arrested by permission from the Signory,) ratified at the suit of the State attorneys; and as they would not tell the whole truth by fair means, be a committee formed, the majority of which to have liberty to examine and rack them all or each; and the committee shall, with the deposition thus obtained, come to this Council and do justice.48

  Three days later, the Senate issued another decree, showing that when travelling abroad, it was extremely helpful to have royal connections:

  Lord Scales, the brother-in-law of the King of England, has come to Venice on account of certain jewels of which he was robbed at Torre di Baccano, near Borne. Part of them having been brought hither and sold to certain citizens, he has earnestly requested the Signory to have said jewels restored to him, alleging in his favour civil statutes, enacting that stolen goods should be freely restored to their owner. As it is for the interest of the Signory to make every demonstration of love and good will towards his lordship on his own account, and especially out of regard for the King, his brother-in-law, – Put to the ballot, that the said jewels purchased in this city by Venetian subjects be restored gratuitously to the said lord; he being told that this is done out of deference for the King of England and for his lordship, without his incurring any cost.

  As the affair is committed to the State attorneys. – Be it carried that they be bound, together with the ordinary councils, to dispatch it within two months, and ascertain whether or not the purchasers of the jewels purchased them honestly. Should they have been bought unfairly, the purchasers to lose their money. While, if the contrary were the case, Toma Mocenigo, Nicolo de Ca de Besaro, and Marin Contarini shall be bound as they themselves volunteered to pay what was expended for the jewels, together with the costs, namely, 400 ducats. These moneys to be drawn for through a bill of exchange by these three noblemen on the consul in London, there to be paid by the consul and passed by him to the debit of the factory on account of goods loaded by Venetians in England on board the Flanders galleys (Ser Antonio Contarini, captain,) on their return to this city; and in like manner to the debit of the London factory here, on account of goods loaded on board the present Flanders galleys (Ser Andrea de Mosto, captain), bound to England, on their arrival in those parts. If the attorneys and the appointed councils fail to dispatch the matter as above, they shall be fined two ducats each; yet, on the expiration of the said term, the said three noblemen shall be bound to pay the moneys above mentioned.49

  Having recovered part of his jewels, Anthony resumed his travels. (As his stay had been an expensive one, it may be that the Venetians were not entirely sorry to see him on his way.) In June, he arrived at the camp of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, who was preparing to fight the Swiss. Giovanni Pietro Panigarola, the Milanese ambassador, reported on 9 June that Anthony planned to stay two or three days before returning to England. On 11 June however, he wrote:

>   M. de Scales, brother of the Queen of England, has been to see the duke and offered to take his place in the line of battle. But hearing the day before yesterday that the enemy were near at hand and they expected to meet them he asked leave to depart, saying he was sorry he could not stay, and so he took leave and went. This is esteemed great cowardice in him, and lack of spirit and honour. The duke laughed about it to me, saying, he has gone because he is afraid.50

  This was the only time Anthony shirked battle. Perhaps, recalling the Duke of Burgundy’s betrayal of the English of the year before, he had decided he owed the duke no favours; perhaps he had simply realised that this was not his fight. Whatever Anthony’s motives, his decision was a fortunate one, for at the Battle of Morat that ensued on 22 June, the duke lost thousands of men, and would lose his own life at the Battle of Nancy six months later. Anthony’s decision to avoid this one battle meant that he would return to England with his life, if not all of his goods, intact.

  Pomp and Printing

  While Anthony and his younger brother, Edward, were in Brittany, the Woodville family lost its matriarch. Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, wife to a duke and to a knight, mother of a queen, and an accused witch, died on 30 May 1472, bringing her full life to a quiet close.1 Neither the place of her death nor her burial spot is known, and her will has not survived. Her son Richard, along with one William Kerver, ‘citizen and mercer of London’, were still acting as the administrators of her goods and chattels in 1480.2 Jacquetta’s last years had been saddened by the murders of the husband she had married for love and of her son, John, but the restoration of her son-in-law to the throne and the birth of his heir must have cheered her in her final months. She had lived long enough to welcome yet another royal grandchild: Margaret, born at Windsor on 10 April 1472.3

  While the Woodvilles mourned the loss of the great lady who had brought them into the world, life went on at Edward’s court. During his exile, Edward IV had enjoyed the hospitality of Louis de Bruges, and in the autumn of 1472, the king repaid his host in high style.4 Two days after arriving at Westminster in late September or early October, Louis rode to Windsor, where the king and his family were in residence. Having greeted his guest, Edward IV led him to the queen’s chamber. Unlike the stately, silent post-churching feast that had overawed the Bohemian visitors in 1466, Louis saw the ‘full pleasant’ sight of Elizabeth and her ladies at play. The queen herself was playing at ‘morteaulx’, a game similar to bowls, while other ladies were amusing themselves with ‘closheys of ivory’ (ninepins) or dancing. Edward improved the occasion by dancing with his 7-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. The next morning, the infant prince, borne by his chamberlain, Thomas Vaughan, personally (if not very articulately) welcomed Louis. After a day of hunting, the queen hosted a banquet in her own chamber. There, the queen, the king, young Elizabeth, the king’s sister, Anne, Duchess of Exeter, Countess Rivers, and Louis shared the same mess. The other company at the table included the queen’s sister, Katherine, Duchess of Buckingham, her husband, the duke, and Lord Hastings.5 After supper, Elizabeth of York again showed off her dancing ability, this time with the 17-year-old Duke of Buckingham.

  At about nine o’clock, the king, the queen, and the queen’s attendants ushered Louis to his three chambers, which were carpeted and hung with white silk and linen. Louis was to sleep on a bed ‘as good down as could be thought’, with a counterpane of cloth of gold furred with ermine and with the testers and canopy of cloth of gold as well. The sheets and pillows were of the ‘queen’s own ordinance’. Another bed awaited in the next chamber, along with a couch with featherbeds, underneath a ‘tent knit like a net’. A bath, or perhaps two, were in the next chamber, also covered with tents of white cloth. The king and the women departed, leaving Louis with Lord Hastings, who shared a leisurely bath with him, after which the sparklingly clean pair dined on green ginger, syrups, comfits, and hippocras before retiring. Edward and Elizabeth had shown their Burgundian guest that they could entertain in high style. We can get an idea of the splendour of Edward’s court from an inventory of clothing purchased for his toddler son at around this time: two velvet doublets, three satin doublets, three satin gowns and two black velvet gowns, a bonnet of purple velvet and another of black velvet, each lined with satin, and a long gown of cloth of gold on damask.6

  At about ten o’clock on 13 October 1472, the king, clad in his Parliament robes, entered the Parliament chamber and listened to the Speaker of the Commons, William Allington, heap praise upon those who had been loyal to the king the previous year. Allington singled out the king’s brothers, the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, for their ‘knightly demeaning’ and commended Earl Rivers and Lord Hastings for their ‘constant faith’. Edward’s queen was praised for her ‘womanly behavior’ and ‘great constancy’ while the king was in exile, as well as for ‘the great joy and surety’ occasioned by the birth of the king’s son. Last, Allington praised the ‘great humanity and kindness’ of Louis de Bruges, upon which the king returned to his chambers to preside over the ceremony in which Louis de Bruges was created Earl of Winchester. It was the first time in nearly a hundred years that a foreigner had been granted an English earldom.7

  The year 1472 ended on a sad note for the king and queen. The latest addition to the family, Margaret, died on 11 December 1472 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.8 It was the first time Edward and Elizabeth had suffered the death of a child. Fortunately, it soon became apparent that there was another child on the way. Richard, Duke of York, was born at Shrewsbury on 17 August 1473.9

  For the Woodvilles, the next few years would be largely a series of ceremonies, most of them of the cheerful sort. In August 1472, the queen’s older son from her first marriage, Thomas Grey, was created Earl of Huntingdon.10 More honours followed on 18 April 1475, when, at St Edward’s Chamber at Westminster, Edward IV made his sons and others Knights of the Bath. Sharing in the honour with two princes were their half-brothers, Thomas and Richard Grey, and their uncle Edward Woodville. That same day after dinner, Thomas Grey exchanged his earldom for a higher rank: Marquis of Dorset.11

  As Edward IV headed off that summer for France, he made his will. It is a document that plainly shows his esteem for his queen. Edward appointed William Grey, Bishop of Ely, Thomas Rotherham, Bishop of Lincoln, John Alcock, Bishop of Rochester, William, Lord Hastings, Master John Russell, Sir Thomas Montgomery, Richard Fowler, Richard Pygot, and William Husee as his executors – after his queen, ‘our dearest Wife in whom we most singularly put our trust’, who headed the list. Elizabeth was to choose which of the king’s household goods she thought were ‘necessary and convenient’ for her and have the use of them for her life; she was also to enjoy her revenues from the duchy of Lancaster. Edward provided for prayers to be said for himself, the queen, their fathers, and other of their ancestors.12

  Interestingly, the king left no instructions in his will as to how his kingdom was to be run during his heir’s minority. Fortunately, on this occasion, his kingdom was not put to the test, for Edward returned both intact and richer, thanks to Louis XI’s pension. At the time of his departure, the queen had been expecting another child, who was born at Westminster on 2 November 1475.13 The latest arrival, Anne, shared her day of birth with her oldest brother, Edward, five years her senior.

  The following year, King Edward decided to honour the memory of his father, Richard, Duke of York, killed at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460, by moving his body and that of his son Edmund from Pontefract to Fotheringhay. The ceremonies began on 21 July 1476, when the bodies were exhumed, and ended with the reburial on 30 July 1476. The Woodvilles, who had supported the Lancastrian cause at the time of York’s death, dutifully played their part in the reburial. Anthony Woodville’s pursuivant was among the officers of arms who accompanied the bodies south. When the funeral cortege arrived at Fotheringhay on 29 July, the king, dressed in the blue mourning peculiar to royalty, was there to meet it. With him were his brothers and a number of ot
her noblemen, including Anthony Woodville and the Marquis of Dorset, along with the queen and two of her daughters, presumably the oldest two. At the requiem mass the next day, the queen and her daughters offered mass pennies – the queen ‘dressed all in blue without a high headdress’ and making ‘a great obeisance and reverence to the said body’. On both 29 and 30 July, the queen, through her chamberlain, offered to the body cloth of gold, which was arranged along with the other cloth offerings in the shape of a cross. Anthony himself, along with other earls, offered cloth of gold on 30 July.14

  It was probably sometime in 1477, as noted by Ralph Griffiths, when the king and queen’s third son, George, was born. He could have been named after Edward IV’s younger brother, George, Duke of Clarence, though any such tribute to Clarence would have taken place before George’s arrest in June 1477 (see Chapter 9); it may be that George’s naming, which might have been accompanied by asking Clarence to serve as his godfather, was the king’s last attempt to reconcile with his mercurial brother. Griffiths also suggests that George might have been named for Saint George, prompted by Edward IV’s rebuilding of St George’s Chapel at Windsor.15