The Last of the Barons — Complete
Page 97
NOTES.
I. The badge of the Bear and Ragged Staff was so celebrated in thefifteenth century, that the following extract from a letter addressedby Mr. Courthope, Rouge Croix, to the author, will no doubt interestthe reader, and the author is happy in the opportunity afforded ofexpressing his acknowledgments for the courteous attention with whichMr. Courthope has honoured his inquiries:--
"COLLEGE OF ARMS. As regards the badge of Richard Nevile, Earl ofWarwick,--namely, the Bear and Staff,--I agree with you, certainly, asto the probability of his having sometimes used the whole badge, andsometimes the Staff only, which accords precisely with the way in whichthe Bear and Staff are set forth in the Rous Roll to the early earls(Warwick) before the Conquest. We there find them figured with the Staffupon their shields and the Bear at their feet, and the Staff alone isintroduced as a quartering upon their shields.
"The story of the origin of these badges is as follows:
"Arth, or Arthgal, is reputed to have been the first Earl of Warwick,and being one of the knights of King Arthur's Round Table, it behoovedhim to have a cognizance; and Arth or Narth signifying in Britishthe same as Ursus in Latin, he took the Bear for such cognizance. Hissuccessor, Morvidus, Earl of Warwick, in single combat, overcame amighty giant (who had encountered him with a tree pulled up from theroot, the boughs of which had been torn from it), and in token of hissuccess assumed the Ragged Staff. You will thus see that the originsof the two were different, which would render the bearing of themseparately not unlikely, and you will likewise infer that both camethrough the Beauchamps. I do not find the Ragged Staff ever attributedto the Neviles before the match with Beauchamp.
"As regards the crest or cognizance of Nevile, the Pied Bull has beenthe cognizance of that family from a very early time, and the Bull'shead, its crest, and both the one and the other may have been used bythe king-maker, and by his brother, the Marquis Montagu; the said Bullappears at the feet of Richard Nevile in the Rous Roll, accompanied bythe Eagle of Monthermer; the crests on either side of him are those ofMontagu and Nevile. Besides these two crests, both of which the MarquisMontagu may have used, he certainly did use the Gryphon, issuant outof a ducal coronet, as this appears alone for his crest, on his garterplate, as a crest for Montagu, he having given the arms of that familyprecedence over his paternal coat of Nevile; the king-maker, likewise,upon his seal, gives the precedence to Montagu and Monthermer, and theyalone appear upon his shield."
II. Hume, Rapin, and Carte, all dismiss the story of Edward's actualimprisonment at Middleham, while Lingard, Sharon Turner, and others,adopt it implicitly. And yet, though Lingard has successfully grappledwith some of Hume's objections, he has left others wholly unanswered.Hume states that no such fact is mentioned in Edward's subsequentproclamation against Clarence and Warwick. Lingard answers, aftercorrecting an immaterial error in Hume's dates, "that the proclamationought not to have mentioned it, because it was confined to theenumeration of offences only committed after the general amnesty in1469;" and then, surely with some inconsistency, quotes the attainderof Clarence many years afterwards, in which the king enumerates it amonghis offences, "as jeopardyng the king's royal estate, person, andlife, in strait warde, putting him thereby from all his libertyeafter procuring great commotions." But it is clear that if the amnestyhindered Edward from charging Warwick with this imprisonment onlyone year after it was granted, it would, a fortiori, hinder him fromcharging Clarence with it nine years after. Most probable is it thatthis article of accusation does not refer to any imprisonment, real orsupposed, at Middleham, in 1469, but to Clarence's invasion of Englandin 1470, when Edward's state, person, and life were jeopardized by hisnarrow escape from the fortified house, where he might fairly be called"in straite warde;" especially as the words, "after procuring greatcommotions," could not apply to the date of the supposed detention inMiddleham, when, instead of procuring commotions, Clarence had helpedWarwick to allay them, but do properly apply to his subsequent rebellionin 1470. Finally, Edward's charges against his brother, as Lingardhimself has observed elsewhere, are not proofs, and that king neverscrupled at any falsehood to serve his turn. Nothing, in short, canbe more improbable than this tale of Edward's captivity,--there was noobject in it. At the very time it is said to have taken place, Warwickis absolutely engaged in warfare against the king's foes. The momentEdward leaves Middleham, instead of escaping to London, he goescarelessly and openly to York, to judge and execute the very captain ofthe rebels whom Warwick has subdued, and in the very midst of Warwick'sarmies! Far from appearing to harbour the natural resentment sovindictive a king must have felt (had so great an indignity been offeredto him), almost immediately after he leaves York, he takes the Nevilefamily into greater power than ever, confers new dignities upon Warwick,and betroths his eldest daughter to Warwick's nephew. On the whole,then, perhaps some such view of the king's visit to Middleham which hasbeen taken in this narrative, may be considered not the least probablecompromise of the disputed and contradictory evidence on the subject.
THE END.