The Brothers York

by Thomas Penn

  2. Letter from the young Edward and his brother Edmund to their father Richard duke of York, dated Ludlow, ‘Saturday in Easter Week’ (probably 1454), asking him for ‘fine bonnets’ to go with the ‘green gowns’ he had sent them (ll. 9–10); complaining of the ‘odious rule and demeaning’ of two boys in their household (l. 13); and hoping that York would prevail against the ‘malice of your evilwillers’ (l. 6)

  3. Speculative list of Yorkist supporters (left hand column) and ‘newtri’, neutrals (right hand), drawn up in early 1461. Some names have been crossed out and moved from one column to another; the name of Thomas Lord Stanley appears in both columns

  4. Baynard’s Castle, London base of the house of York

  5. Working his opulent wardrobe – beneath a cloth-of-gold cloak, he wears a fashionable black doublet and strings of pearls with pendant jewels – Edward is depicted here in his pomp: ‘of visage lovely, of body mighty, strong and clean made’, but showing traces of his later corpulence

  6. Energetic in the business of government, Edward habitually used his monogram ‘R.E.’ (‘Rex Edwardus’) to authorize documents

  7. Edward orders two ‘tuns’ (252-gallon barrels) of ‘Gascon wine’ to be sent to his ‘most dear and entirely beloved brethren’ George and Richard, for the upcoming Christmas festivities, December 1463

  8. Edward IV’s great seal

  9. First minted in 1465, the gold ‘angel’ coin depicted St Michael the Archangel, who in Yorkist myth had prophesied Edward IV’s coming. Together with another new coin, the rose noble, its introduction made Edward a tidy profit

  10. The new reality and future of the house of York, c. 1465: Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville kneel before God, St George and St Margaret, patron saint of pregnancy and childbirth

  11. A hint of Richard’s passionate intensity: his motto ‘tant le desiéree’ (‘I have wanted it so much’), inscribed here in his copy of Ipomedon, ‘the worthiest knight in all the world’

  12 & 13. Bitter enemies: Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and Louis XI of France. Edward’s embrace of Charles and Burgundy, and his rejection of Louis, had an explosive impact on the house of York in the late 1460s

  14 & 15. Margaret of York. Her sensational wedding to Charles the Bold was bankrolled by, among others, Tommaso Portinari (below with his wife Maria), head of the Bruges branch of the Medici bank

  16. George duke of Clarence (centre) with his wife, Warwick’s daughter Isabel Neville. Clarence’s desperation to marry Isabel was the catalyst for his rebellion, together with Warwick, against Edward IV, who had forbidden the marriage

  17. In spring 1471 Edward returned from exile and, with Richard and the reconciled Clarence, all but exterminated the house of Lancaster. Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset (shown here with his head on the block) was among the Lancastrians executed after the battle of Tewkesbury

  18. In the 1470s, the vast landed inheritance of Richard Neville, earl of Warwick (top, with his wife Anne) was the subject of an increasingly violent quarrel between Clarence and Richard (centre right and left, with their wives, Warwick’s daughters Isabel and Anne), a fraternal conflict that Edward IV struggled to control

  19. Edward spent substantial sums on exquisitely illustrated Flemish manuscripts, their margins decorated with his badges and mottos. Here, his rose-en-soleil appears in a lozenge of murrey (mulberry) and blue, the Yorkist colours

  20. The first printed advert in English. Caxton’s 1476 flyer advertising his new edition of the ‘Sarum Pye’, the widely used service book. At its foot is the Latin phrase ‘Supplico stet cedula’: ‘Don’t take this leaflet’

  21. The Garter ‘stall plate’ of Edward’s close friend William Lord Hastings – indicating his seat in St George’s Chapel Windsor, the Garter’s spiritual home’ – depicts his coat of arms, the ‘maunch sable’, or ‘black sleeve’

  22. This page from the prescription book of the royal apothecary John Clark details two recipes for ‘ceruse’, skin whitener and clarifier: one made of wheat flour, one of roots. The recipes were supplied by – and/or for – Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, who spent his formative years at Edward’s court before helping Richard seize power in 1483

  23. Edward IV towards the end of his life. Decades of self-indulgence have clearly taken their toll

  24. One of Edward IV’s daughters, probably Elizabeth of York, at prayer

  25. The signatures of the boy king Edward V and, below it, the two figures who usurped his throne: Richard and Buckingham. Above his signature, Richard has written his motto ‘loyaute me lie’, ‘loyalty binds me’

  26. Richard III and family: his wife Anne Neville (left) and son Edward of Middleham (right). At the feet of Richard and his son lies his boar, Richard’s family badge; at Anne’s feet is the bear of Warwick

  27. Detail of a charter granted by Richard III to the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers, 1484. In the illuminated initial ‘R’, two of Richard’s boars (his personal emblem) support the royal coat of arms

  28. Rebellion, autumn 1483: A message from George Brown, one the Yorkist rebels, indicating his opposition to Richard III: ‘Loyalte a me’ (a variation on Richard’s motto), ‘it will never come out for me’.

  29. Richard orders the great seal to be sent him after receiving news of Buckingham’s rebellion. His scribbled note details his fury at the treachery of his right-hand man: ‘the most untrue creature living’

  30. Richard’s grant of a pension to the wife and son of the recently deceased Miles Forest, formerly wardrobe keeper at Barnard Castle, ‘for diverse causes and considerations us moving’ (line 1). Later, Thomas More identified Miles Forest as one of the two murderers of Edward IV’s sons

  31. Tudor rebels aimed to disrupt the workings of Richard’s government. In this case of fraud and identity theft, a ‘strange person’ sent by Tudor’s right-hand man Thomas Lovell assumes the identity of Griffith Lloyd, a royal official, causing ‘vexation and damages’ (ll. 5–6)

  32 & 33. Richard III (above) and, his battle standard (top) depicting the English cross of St George, the Yorkist white rose and sunburst, and his personal boar badge, against the Yorkist livery colours of murrey and blue

  Acknowledgements

  In the course of writing this book I have met with immense generosity from the community of fifteenth-century scholars: my debt to their work, and to the work of historians past, will be evident. I’ve benefited greatly from conversations and correspondence with Jim Bolton, Alex Brondarbit, Helen Castor, Linda Clark, Ralph Griffiths, Sam Harper and David Rundle. Rosemary Horrox, Joanna Laynesmith, Tony Pollard, Carole Rawcliffe and John Watts, equally generous with their time, have all read parts of the manuscript and offered invaluable and thought-provoking advice. So too have Sean Cunningham and James Ross, to whom I owe a particular debt: their insight and friendship have been a constant source of illumination.

  I’m grateful to Hugh Doherty for his enthusiasm and erudition; to Barrie Cook, in the British Museum’s Department of Coins and Medals, for talking me through Edward IV’s recoinages; and to Turi King for discussing with me her ground-breaking work on the genetic analysis of Richard III.

  Thanks are also due to the staff of the British Library, The National Archives, the Corporation of London Records Office, Cambridge University Library, the Bodleian Library, and the Archives du Nord in Lille. I want also to acknowledge three scholars, Cora Scofield, Charles Ross and, again, Rosemary Horrox, whose landmark studies of Edward IV and Richard III are crucial to an understanding of the two reigns spanned by this book.

  At Penguin Press, I’m especially grateful to Stefan McGrath, Stuart Proffitt, Pen Vogler, Rosie Glaisher, Ingrid Matts, Dahmicca Wright, Jim Stoddart, Jon Parker, Ellen Davies, Chloe Currens, Richard Duguid and Lou Willder. Rebecca Lee has been a model of calm. I’d also like to thank Charlotte Ridings for her eagle-eyed copyediting and Cecilia Mackay for her deft picture research. At Simon & Schuster US, Bob Bender has been encouraging, enthusiastic and exceptionally
forbearing. My agents Catherine Clarke and Anna Stein have been a constant source of clear-eyed advice and reassurance.

  I am deeply indebted to my editor and publisher Simon Winder, for his perspicacity and boundless patience, and for his uncanny ability to say the right thing at the right time.

  My sons Guy and Louis fill me with joy. They surprise and delight me every single day, and keep me going. And this book could not have been written without Kate, who inspires and guides me: I owe her everything.

  Finally, I want to thank my parents, who have given me so much. This book is for them.

  Notes

  Abbreviations

  ADN Archives du Nord, Lille

  BL British Library, London

  BN Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

  CC Crowland Chronicle

  CCR Calendar of Close Rolls

  CChR Calendar of Charter Rolls

  CLRO City of London Records Office

  CPL Calendar of Papal Letters

  CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls

  CSPM Calendar of State Papers, Milan

  CSPV Calendar of State Papers, Venice

  EETS Early English Text Society

  EHD English Historical Documents

  EHL English Historical Literature

  GC Great Chronicle of London

  HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission

  Household EIV The Household of Edward IV, ed. Myers

  JCC Journal of Common Council

  LMA London Metropolitan Archives

  LP RIII/HVII Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII

  LP WF Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Wars of the English in France

  LREF Life and Reign of Edward the Fourth, Scofield

  ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

  PL Paston Letters

  POPC Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England

  PROME Parliament Rolls of Medieval England

  RP Rotuli Parliamentorum

  STC Short Title Catalogue

  TNA The National Archives

  1. Three Suns

  1 Griffiths, ‘Sense of dynasty’, pp. 19–26; Allan, ‘Political Propaganda’, pp. 266 n. 2; Given-Wilson, ‘The chronicles of the Mortimer family’, pp. 67–86, 200–201.

  2 Bennett, ‘Memoir of a yeoman in the service of the house of York’, pp. 259–64.

  3 Ward, Livery Collar, pp. 60–71; Historical Poems, nos. 90, 92; Ormrod, Edward III, pp. 588–9; Wise, Medieval Heraldry, pp. 21–2 and fig. 56.

  4 Watts, ‘Pressure of the public’, passim; Starkey, ‘Which age of reform?’, pp. 14–16.

  5 ‘Bale’s Chronicle’, p. 135; BL Cotton MS Julius II 23, cit. Harvey, Jack Cade’s Rebellion, p. 191.

  6 John Watts, ‘Richard of York, third duke of York (1411–1460)’, ODNB; Johnson, Duke Richard of York, p. 226; Harriss, Shaping the Nation, p. 569.

  7 Laynesmith, Cecily Duchess of York, p. 44.

  8 John Watts, ‘Richard of York, third duke of York (1411–1460)’, ODNB; Laynesmith, Cecily Duchess of York, p. 56.

  9 Jones, ‘Somerset, York and the Wars of the Roses’, pp. 286–7; Watts, Henry VI, p. 269.

  10 PROME, XII, 1450 November, Introduction, p. 160; John Vale’s Book, p. 186; Griffiths, ‘Duke Richard of York’s intentions’, p. 189; Watts, Henry VI, pp. 271–3.

  11 PL Gairdner, nos. 142, 143; Watts, ‘“Common weal” and “Commonwealth”’, p. 148.

  12 PROME, XII, 1450 November, Introduction, p. 171; Annales, p. 770.

  13 ‘William Gregory’s Chronicle’, p. 196; ‘Short English Chronicle’, p. 69; Chronicles of London, p. 163; EHL, p. 373; Watts, Henry VI, pp. 276–9; Hicks, Warwick, p. 81; Virgoe, ‘Some Ancient Indictments’, pp. 258–9; Ross, Edward IV, pp. 7, 13–14.

  14 Laynesmith, Cecily Duchess of York, pp. 60–1.

  15 J. A. Giles, Incerti Auctoris Chronicon Angliae (London, 1848), pp. 43–4, cit. Ross, Henry VI, p. 65.

  16 PROME, XII, 1453 March, Introduction, p. 219; Griffiths, ‘Local rivalries and national politics’, p. 337.

  17 PL Gairdner, II, no. 235; Griffiths, ‘The King’s council’, pp. 309–17; Johnson, Duke Richard of York, p. 127.

  18 PROME, XII, 1453 March, Introduction, pp. 221–5, items 32, 33 (pp. 258–60), Appendix, item 20 (p. 323); Roskell, ‘Protector’, pp. 226–7; Hicks, Warwick, p. 95; Griffiths, ‘The King’s council’, p. 314.

  19 Original Letters, ed. Ellis, vol. 1, pp. 9–10; Kleineke, Edward IV, p. 30.

  20 ‘Bale’s Chronicle’, p. 141; PL Davis, II, no. 512; CSPM, no. 23.

  21 Watts, Henry VI, pp. 313–15; Goodman, Wars of the Roses, pp. 22–3.

  22 PL Gairdner, III, no. 283; Watts, Henry VI, pp. 316–17; Armstrong, ‘Politics and the Battle of St Albans, 1455’, passim.

  23 ‘William Gregory’s Chronicle’, p. 212.

  24 ‘William Gregory’s Chronicle’, p. 198; English Chronicle, ed. Davies, p. 72; John Vale’s Book, pp. 190–3.

  25 PROME, XII, 1455 July, items 23, 24 (p. 343); PL Gairdner, III, no. 299.

  26 PL Gairdner, III, no. 303; PROME, XII, 1455 July, items 31–9 (pp. 348–57).

  27 PROME, XII, 1455 July, Introduction, p. 329, item 47 (pp. 381–5); TNA KB 9/287, no. 53, cit. Ross, Henry VI, p. 73; Griffiths, Henry VI, pp. 751–3.

  28 PL Gairdner, III, no. 322; Watts, Henry VI, pp. 321–2.

  29 PL Gairdner, III, no. 334; Jones and Underwood, The King’s Mother, pp. 39–40.

  30 Griffiths, Henry VI, pp. 777–85; Harriss, ‘Struggle for Calais’, pp. 45–6.

  31 GC, p. 189; MS Gough London 10, in Six Town Chronicles, p. 160; Registrum … Whethamstede, I, p. 296; Bennett, ‘The Medieval Loveday’, p. 369; Watts, Henry VI, pp. 343–7; Griffiths, Henry VI, pp. 804–7; Hutton, Stations of the Sun, p. 173.

  32 Hicks, Warwick, pp. 138–47.

  33 ‘Bale’s Chronicle’, p. 147; Hicks, Warwick, pp. 146–51; Allmand and Keen, ‘William Worcester’, pp. 98–9.

  34 Chronicles of London, p. 169; Hicks, Warwick, pp. 152–6; Bolton, ‘City and the crown’, pp. 17–20.

  35 English Chronicle, ed. Davies, pp. 81–3; ‘John Benet’s Chronicle’, p. 223; PROME, XII, 1459 November, items 14, 15 (pp. 458–9); Watts, Henry VI, p. 350; Johnson, Duke Richard of York, pp. 185–6; Goodman, Wars of the Roses, pp. 26–8.

  36 Griffiths, Henry VI, pp. 821–2; Bellamy, Law of Treason, p. 200.

  37 ‘William Gregory’s Chronicle’, p. 205; PROME, XII, 1459 November, items 16–19 (pp. 459–60); Goodman, Wars of the Roses, pp. 30–1.

  38 Hicks, Warwick, p. 169; Scofield, LREF, I, p. 41.

  39 English Chronicle, ed. Davies, p. 83; ‘William Gregory’s Chronicle’, p. 207; Laynesmith, Cecily Duchess of York, p. 70.

  40 Gilson, ‘Defence of the proscription of the Yorkists’, passim; PROME, XII, 1459 November, items 7–22 (pp. 453–61).

  41 Wavrin, Anciennes Chroniques, V, p. 282; Hicks, Warwick, p. 174; Scofield, ‘The capture of Lord Rivers and Sir Antony Woodville’, pp. 253–5; Richmond, ‘English naval power’, pp. 4, 8–9; Jones, ‘Edward IV and the earl of Warwick’, p. 345.

  42 TNA DL 37/32/79, repr. in Jones, ‘Edward IV and the earl of Warwick’, p. 351; Barron, ‘London and the crown’, p. 95; Watts, Henry VI, pp. 349–54; Johnson, Duke Richard of York, pp. 199–200.

  43 Harvey, England, Rome and the Papacy, pp. 195–6; Lunt, Financial Relations, pp. 142–3; Head, ‘Pius II and the Wars of the Roses’, pp. 146–51.

  44 Hicks, Warwick, pp. 192–4; Original Letters, ed. Ellis, 3:1, pp. 83–8; English Chronicle, p. 94; Pius II, Commentaries, III, pp. 269–70, quoted in Head, ‘Pius II’, p. 152; CSPM, nos. 31, 32, 37; Watts, ‘Polemic and politics in the 1450s’, p. 30; Jones, ‘Edward IV and the earl of Warwick’, pp. 349–51; Thielemans, Bourgogne et Angleterre, p. 375.

  45 ‘A warning to King Henry’, ‘The Ballad set on the Gates of Canterbury’, in Historical Poems, pp. 208–11, 218–21; English Chronicle, pp. 91–2; ‘Articles o
f the commons of Kent at the coming of the Yorkist lords from Calais, 1460’, John Vale’s Book, pp. 210–11; Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, p. 73; Watts, ‘Polemic and politics in the 1450s’, p. 30; Harvey, Jack Cade’s Rebellion, pp. 183–4.

  46 Annales, p. 772; English Chronicle, pp. 91–4; Harvey, Jack Cade’s Rebellion, pp. 184–5; Grummitt, ‘Kent and national politics, 1399–1461’, p. 249; Scofield, LREF, I, pp. 65–9.

  47 English Chronicle, p. 94; Annales, p. 772; LMA Journal 6, ff. 237–9v; TNA E404/72/1/23; Bolton, ‘City and the crown’, p. 11; Barron, ‘London and the crown’, p. 97; Ross, Edward IV, pp. 26–7.

  48 English Chronicle, p. 96.

  49 ‘Battle of Northampton’, in Historical Poems, p. 212.

  50 LMA Journal 6, f. 257; ‘Battle of Northampton’, p. 212; Barron, ‘London and the crown’, pp. 97–8; ‘John Benet’s Chronicle’, p. 227; Scofield, LREF, I, pp. 92–3.

  51 CSPM, no. 38; Hicks, Warwick, pp. 184–5.

  52 Pius II, Commentaries, III, pp. 269–70, quoted in Head, ‘Pius II’, p. 152.

  53 More, History of King Richard III, p. 4; Mancini, Usurpation, pp. 79–80.

  54 ‘Battle of Northampton’, p. 215; Watts, ‘Polemic and politics’, pp. 31–2.

  55 PL Davis, II, no. 613; TNA E404/72/1/108.

  56 POPC, VI, p. 303; TNA C266/82/31, CHES 2/135 m. 3, cit. in Jones, ‘Edward IV and the earl of Warwick’, p. 347; ‘Private indentures for life service’, pp. 56, 164–5; McFarlane, ‘Wars of the Roses’, p. 237 n. 14; Johnson, Duke Richard of York, pp. 210–11.