Anne of Warwick The Last Plantagenet Queen

by Paula Simonds Zabka

  ANNE OF WARWICK

  The Last Plantagenet Queen

  by

  Paula Simonds Zabka

  Bosworth Publishing Company

  San Diego, California

  Copyright 2002 as Desire the Kingdom

  Revised 2012

  By George G. and Alisa E. Zabka

  All rights reserved

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Synopsis

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Tribute

  Characters

  Map of England

  Prologue

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Part II

  II. Chapter One

  The Battle of Barnet

  II. Chapter Two

  II. Chapter Three

  II. Chapter Four

  The Battle of Tewkesbury

  II. Chapter Five

  II. Chapter Six

  II. Chapter Seven

  II. Chapter Eight

  II. Chapter Nine

  II. Chapter Ten

  II. Chapter Eleven

  II. Chapter Twelve

  II. Chapter Thirteen

  II. Chapter Fourteen

  II. Chapter Fifteen

  II. Chapter Sixteen

  II. Chapter Seventeen

  II. Chapter Eighteen

  II. Chapter Nineteen

  II. Chapter Twenty

  II. Chapter Twenty One

  Richard III and Anne Neville

  Part III

  III. Chapter One

  III. Chapter Two

  III. Chapter Three

  III. Chapter Four

  III. Chapter Five

  III. Chapter Six

  III. Chapter Seven

  III. Chapter Eight

  III. Chapter Nine

  III. Chapter Ten

  III. Chapter Eleven

  III. Chapter Twelve

  III. Chapter Thirteen

  III. Chapter Fourteen

  III. Chapter Fifteen

  III. Chapter Sixteen

  III. Chapter Seventeen

  III. Chapter Eighteen

  III. Chapter Nineteen

  III. Chapter Twenty

  III. Chapter Twenty One

  III. Chapter Twenty Two

  Part IV

  IV. Chapter One

  IV. Chapter Two

  IV. Chapter Three

  IV. Chapter Four

  IV. Chapter Five

  IV. Chapter Six

  IV, Chapter Seven

  IV. Chapter Eight

  IV. Chapter Nine

  IV. Chapter Ten

  IV. Chapter Eleven

  Middleham Castle

  IV. Chapter Twelve

  IV. Chapter Thirteen

  IV. Chapter Fourteen

  IV. Chapter Fifteen

  Bosworth Field

  IV. Chapter Sixteen

  Richard III

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  SYNOPSIS

  Anne of Warwick is an historical novel based on the lives of the last Plantagenet king and queen of England who stood at the center of treason, turmoil and tragedy.

  For the Queen, Anne Neville, daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker, and wife to Richard III, life became one of survival. As she struggles in her love for Richard, she becomes caught up in the desire of others to claim the throne of England by treachery, deceit and murder in the war between the Houses of York and Lancaster.

  Richard III, whose name is synonymous with villainy as depicted by Shakespeare, is presented here in a different light. Holding to high principles of loyalty, he strives to support his king as he pursues his love for Anne. While confronting betrayals, insurrections and family strife, he continually struggles with his conscience after taking the throne, following the death of his brother and King, Edward IV.

  With a certain inevitability, the tale races from the usurpation of the throne, the coronation of Richard III, the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower, Anne’s death on the day of a total solar eclipse, to Richard’s battle at Bosworth Field that changed English history and initiated the Age of the Tudors.

  The story teems with people who are integral to the drama, and legends in their own right: Flamboyant characters include Edward IV, the Golden King; Warwick the Kingmaker, pursuing his own desire for power; George, Duke of Clarence, conniving for the crown himself; Louis XI, the Spider King; Thomas Mallory, author of Le Mort d’ Arthur; Elizabeth Woodville, who destroyed a king; and Margaret of Anjou, who almost destroyed a kingdom.

  ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

  Sources of historical reference include The Last Plantagenet by Thomas Costain, Warwick the Kingmaker and Richard III by Paul Murray Kendall, A History of the English People by Frederick George Marsham and The Field of Bosworth by Ken Wright. Appreciation is extended to Ms. Pat Obenchain who reviewed the manuscript. The map of England and battlefield maps for Barnet and Tewkesbury are adapted from Richard III by Paul Murray Kendall. Thanks is also given to Mr. Ken Wright for contributing artwork for the logos, the Tribute to Paula and the battle map for Bosworth Field adapted from the Field of Bosworth. Appreciation is also given to Joe Ann Ricca of the Richard III Foundation for the cover image.

  DEDICATION

  This Revised Edition is Dedicated to the Memory of Paula

  With Love

  If I should die,

  Think only this of me

  That there is some corner

  of a foreign field

  That is forever England.

  Rupert Brooke

  TRIBUTE

  LOYAULTE ME LIE

  To Paula Simonds Zabka, England was the land of her dreams. This book is a tribute to her work and her devotion to place on record that part of England’s story called, for all time, “The Wars of the Roses”, a time that claimed her enthusiasm and for which her love never tired. Her story weaves one more thread into the banner of England’s history.

  Ken Wright, England, August 2001

  Bosworth Field Guide, 1974-85

  CHARACTERS

  House of Lancaster

  (Heraldic Symbol of the Red Rose)

  Henry VI - disposed King of England, imprisoned in the Tower.

  Margaret of Anjou - Henry’s wife and Queen.

  Edward, Prince of Lancaster - son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou.

  Duke René of Anjou - father of Margaret of Anjou.

  Margaret Beaufort - Countess of Richmond; mother of Henry Tudor.

  Edmund Tudor - Earl of Richmond; first husband of Margaret Beaufort; father of Henry Tudor.

  Henry Tudor - Henry VII; son of Margaret Beaufort and Edmund Tudor.

  Edmund Beaufort - Duke of Somerset; cousin of Margaret Beaufort; referred to as Somerset.

  House of York

  (Heraldic Symbol of the White Rose)

  Richard, Duke of York - Father of Edward IV and Richard III.

  Cicely, Duchess of York - mother of Edward IV and Richard III.

  Edward IV - King of England-son of the Duke and Duchess of York.

  George, Duke of Clarence - brother of Edward IV; refer
red to as George or Clarence.

  Richard III - Duke of Gloucester; brother of Edward IV; referred to as Richard or Gloucester.

  Elizabeth - sister of Edward IV; Duchess of Suffolk.

  Margaret - sister of Edward IV; Duchess of Burgundy.

  Elizabeth of York - daughter of Edward IV.

  Edward V - son of Edward IV.

  The Nevilles

  Richard Neville - Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker; referred to as Warwick.

  Anne Beauchamp Neville - Countess of Warwick.

  Anne Neville - daughter of Richard Neville and Anne Beauchamp Neville; later Queen of England.

  Isabel Neville - daughter of Richard Neville and Anne Beauchamp Neville.

  George Neville - Archbishop of York; brother of Richard Neville.

  Other Main Characters

  Elizabeth Woodville - wife of Edward IV; Queen of England.

  Anthony Woodville - Earl Rivers, brother of Elizabeth Woodville.

  Louis XI - King of France.

  Charlotte of Savoy - wife of Louis XI; Queen of France.

  Charles the Bold; Charles the Rash - Duke of Burgundy.

  Francis - Duke of Brittany, France.

  Henry Stafford - the second Duke of Buckingham; husband of Katherine Woodville.

  Lord Thomas Stanley - brother of William Stanley; third husband of Margaret Beaufort.

  Henry Percy - Earl of Northumberland.

  John de la Pole - Duke of Suffolk; husband of Elizabeth, sister of Richard III.

  John Howard - Duke of Norfolk; referred to as Norfolk.

  John Morton - Bishop of Ely.

  William Hastings - Edward’s Lord Chamberlain.

  John de Vere - Earl of Oxford; referred to as Oxford; married to Warwick’s sister, Margaret.

  MAP OF ENGLAND

  PROLOGUE

  For England the 1400’s began with turmoil in the succession to the throne. Although Henry V (Monmouth Harry) sparked the fading English kingdom with a number of victories over the French, his son and successor, the enfeebled King Henry VI, nullified his gains. Without his leadership, civil harmony began to unravel. The year of 1450 opened poorly with continued defeats in France and discontent throughout the realm. After the marriage of Margaret of Anjou, niece of King Louis XI of France, to Henry VI, rivalries broke out between the Lancastrians led by the Queen Margaret of Anjou, and Yorkists led by Richard the Duke of York.

  For the next few years, there was a constant struggle between Lancaster and York as they jostled for power. In 1453, the political warfare was compounded by the sudden madness of King Henry and all authority passed to the Royal Council who then appointed Richard, the Duke of York, as Protector of the Realm. However, Henry recovered his wits by 1854 and regained his rule further confusing the succession to the crown.

  1455 marked the year that started the outbreak of what became to be known as The War of the Roses (white rose for the House of York; red rose for the House of Lancaster). The Duke of York and the Earl of Warwick (to become known as The Kingmaker) attacked and took possession of the King. The following year the Queen managed to regain control of her husband but had to abandon London. The Yorkist Lords also retired to their strongholds in England and Warwick to Calais, France, of which he was appointed Captain. From these strongholds, the Duke of York and the Queen maneuvered for advantage over each other while London became virtually ungovernable. The fabric of order in the Kingdom had come apart.

  By the summer of 1459, the Queen felt strong enough to attack the Yorkists in their stronghold at Ludlow Castle. Although aided by the return of Warwick from Calais, the Yorkists were driven from England. The tables were turned again the following year when Warwick and the Duke of York’s son, the Earl of March (Edward IV) returned to England and routed the King’s army. Henry was taken prisoner. The Duke of York now returned from Ireland. He was proclaimed heir to the throne by the Lords in Parliament and then immediately left London to encounter the Queen’s army.

  The following months became a series of victories and defeats for the Yorkists. One fateful battle at Wakefield resulted in the death of the Duke of York himself and that of Warwick’s father. As a consequence, the Duke’s son, Edward of York, now became heir to the throne. In 1461, he successfully entered the city of London and was acclaimed as King Edward IV. From here, he and Warwick pursued the Lancastrians and their Queen, Margaret of Anjou. What followed was one of the longest, fiercest and most decisive engagements on English soil in the War of the Roses. At a place south of York called Towton, soldiers from both camps hacked at each other relentlessly in fierce weather for hours. Although vastly outnumbered, the Yorkists prevailed under Warwick and their new King, Edward IV.

  The Kingdom was now to enjoy eight years of peace and prosperity. King Edward and Warwick struggled to right the abuses that marked he House of Lancaster. The Queen was eventually forced to retire to France. King Henry was captured wandering helplessly in Lancaster. Warwick and the House of Neville still shadowed the royal government of Edward IV, however. George Neville became Bishop of Exeter and later Archbishop of York and Chancellor of the Realm; his brother, John, Earl of Northumberland and later Marques Montague, ruled in the North; and the Earl of Warwick himself managed Edward’s foreign policy among other duties

  But the Earl was not content with his role and desperately wanted to wield exclusive authority over the realm. He and the King moved steadily against each other to determine who was to control England in the decade of the 1460’s. To this end the Earl turned against the King with the collusion of Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence. Thus they both became traitors of the realm. The further involvement of the King’s other brother, the fiercely loyal Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III), would bring into play another scenario that would enfold between Lancaster and York firing anew the obsessive desire for the crown of the Kingdom.

  While the characters are real, their personalities, actions and events in which they appear are as interpreted by the author.

  Part I

  1470-1471

  The Daemon Lover

  “O what hills are yon, yon pleasant hills,

  That the sun shines sweetly on?”

  “O yon are the hills of heaven,” he said,

  “Where you will never win.”

  “O whaten a mountain is yon,” she said,

  “All so dreary wi frost and snow?”

  “O yon is the mountain of hell,” he cried,

  “Where you and I will go.”

  CHAPTER 1

  Childhood ended. Serenity shattered. Fear became the sum of Anne’s being and her small body ached with a consuming terror that bore as deeply as the icy winds of the April dawn. She had never known fear and it puzzled her that such an emotion could invade the great walls of Warwick Castle and destroy her world. Almost fifteen, a proud young woman, she was determined that her lips not quiver, nor her eyes weep.

  Isabel, her sister, wept. Anne Beauchamp, their mother, prayed in the ancestral chapel. The Earl of Warwick, her father, was shouting orders to his men at arms. She watched him, knowing she was a traitor’s daughter. Her father, in collusion with Isabel’s husband, George, Duke of Clarence, had betrayed the King, Edward IV. Once the king’s friend and mentor, her father was seeking to replace him on the throne of England with the King’s brother, George of Clarence, and lost. Everything gone in a whisper. Now life and land were forfeit, and they fled the King’s angry justice as fugitives.

  Treason. No one said the word. Yet, to Anne the bitter wind swirled it from gatehouse to curtain wall and about her father, ominously reminding them that the punishment for treason was death. The small army of retainers abandoning the crowded Clock Tower rooms, the emptying of the bridges and wall walks, the rattle of steel----this could not be happening. Not at Warwick. Not to her father, Richard Neville, The Kingmaker.

  Anne reached for him as he moved among the men and he brushed her away. If only he would admit that it was all a misunderstanding between h
im and the King, everything would yet be well and she would be free to pursue her love for Richard, the King’s youngest brother. She yearned to cry out, grab hold of his mailed arm, and seek words of assurance. She could not. Silently she stood in the doorway of Guy’s Tower, out of the way, and waited.

  A carriage swayed and lurched into the courtyard. Isabel could not ride horseback; she was eight months pregnant. So Anne would travel in the carriage with her sister, mother, and their servant, Ankarette Twynho, while Warwick and Clarence rode ahead on horseback with the vanguard. A few fur wrappings were hastily thrown in the vehicle. The women scurried aboard. Her mother, the Countess, clutched her rosary. Anne wondered at her mother’s rapid aging in an hour’s time. Anne looked over at her father again. Fatigue and anguish streaked his face, reflected in his mud-spattered armor.

  If she had cried, it would have been for her father. She loved him. He had achieved glorious victories and led mighty campaigns. But to her he was simply a parent who once held her gently in his lap; taught her to ride horseback. He had given her a lute and listened with obvious pleasure to her first, simple efforts. Often, he had told stories of the Danes and a time when their part of the world was wild, pagan Northumbria. She would listen enraptured for hours, as long as he could stay. It was such a little while ago, and now her eyes ached with uncried tears. Dread clutched coldly at her heart as they rode away. The double portcullises crashed down behind them. Caesar's and Guy's Towers became a blur in the dawn and then were lost in an early gray mist. The great Clock Tower was visible for a few seconds longer before their home, Warwick Castle, became a memory.

  They raced for the distant seaport of Exeter on the channel coast, pursued by Edward and Richard. The carriage was a dark, unpadded, jolting cave; it’s hooped ceiling wrinkled and dingy with age. They rested briefly at Cheltenham, for Isabel suffered greatly. Anne moved towards her father who was pacing with anxiety and impatience, hoping to somehow to calm and console him. Instead, he responded with rage.

  “I had wide support you know, daughter.”

  Anne nodded warily.

  “Lord Stanley had vowed to aid me at Manchester.”