Introduction: THE BLACK LEGEND
1 According to Ross, something has been written about Richard III in every single generation since his death five hundred years ago (Richard III, p. xix). Smetana even composed a peculiarly dreary tone poem about him.
2 This sinister parallel was noted by at least one contemporary, the Croyland writer, who commented, ‘A similar death of a King of England, slain in a pitched battle in his own kingdom, has never been heard of since the time of King Harold, who was an usurper.’
3 In History Today, iv (1954).
4 Kendall, Richard III: The Great Debate, p. 27.
5 Nevertheless, Lander acknowledges that More ‘is more careful in sifting a rumour from truth than is generally admitted (Government and Community, p. 371).
6 For instance Mancini’s eyewitness account of Richard’s usurpation; the entry in the records of the Mercers’ Company noting Richard’s extraordinary public denial of being glad at his wife’s death and of intending to marry his niece; and the almost certain identification of the Croyland writer with Richard’s Lord Chancellor.
7 ‘car estant en plus grand orgueil que ne, fut cent ans avoit, roy d’Angleterre’ (Commynes, Mémoires, II, p. 233).
8 See Hanham, Richard III and his Early Historians, Ch. 4: ‘The “Second Continuation” of the Croyland Chronicle: A Monastic Mystery’.
9 As Gairdner observes, ‘More is not a writer who would have glossed over a fact to please the court’ (History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third, p. 124).
Chapter One: THE DIFFICULT BIRTH
2 See Lander, ‘Marriage and Politics in the Fifteenth Century: The Nevilles and the Wydevilles’, in Crown and Nobility.
3 See Wolffe, Henry VI.
4 See Storey, The End of the House of Lancaster, p. 136.
5 See Leland, Itinerary in England and Wales.
6 See Bonney, Historical Notices in Reference to Fotheringay.
7 For Fastolf Place, see M. Carlin, in the Ricardian, V, 72 (1981), p. 311.
Chapter Two: ‘OUR BROTHER OF GLOUCESTER’
1 In contrast to Kendall, who believes that Richard joined Warwick’s household in 1461 (Richard the Third, p. 45), Ross shows convincingly that he did not do so until late in 1465 at earliest (Richard III, p. 7).
2 For Middleham, see Peers, Middleham Castle.
3 ‘Another prolific family which greatly improved its hitherto very modest fortunes in Richard’s employ was that of Metcalfe of Nappa, five miles up the dale from Middleham’ (Ross, Richard III, pp. 50–51).
4 The most extensive study of the Earl is Kendall’s Warwick the Kingmaker but, like his Richard the Third, it relies too much on a vivid and romantic imagination.
5 See Armstrong, ‘The Piety of Cecily, Duchess of York’.
6 For Lord Lovell, see ‘Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell’, in Dictionary of National Biography and Complete Peerage, VIII, pp. 223–6.
7 For the Nevill feast, see Scofield, The Life and Reign of Edward the Fourth, I, pp. 399–400.
8 Mancini was writing in 1483, but this lurid story was circulating as early as 1468, according to the Milanese poet Antonio Cornazzano in De mulieribus admirandis (see English Historical Review, 1 xxvi (1961), pp. 660–72).
9 See Wavrin, Anchiennes Cronicques d’Engleterre, pp. 458–9.
10 Commynes, who had seen both the King and Richard in the flesh, attests to Edward IV’s striking good looks – ‘fort beau prince’ (Mémoires, I, p. 197).
Chapter Three: WARWICK TRIES TO UNMAKE A KING
1 No one really knows why Clarence turned against Edward – ‘George, Duke of Clarence, was for some secret, I cannot tell what cause, alienated in mind from his brother King Edward,’ says Vergil (Anglica Historia, p. 120).
2 For Desmond, see ‘Thomas FitzGerald, eighth [sic] Earl of Desmond’, in Dictionary of National Biography, Complete Peerage, IV, pp. 247–8 and Richard’s letter in Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, I, pp. 67–8.
Chapter Four: THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
1 See Myers, ‘The Outbreak of War between England and Burgundy in February 1471’, pp. 114–15.
2 ‘lequel [Montagu] estoit très vaillant chevalier’ – ‘who was a very valiant knight’ (Commynes, Mémoires, I, p. 214).
3 According to a later tradition. No contemporary account – including Historie of the Arrivall of Edward IV in England or a letter from Margaret of York – makes any mention of Richard commanding the van at Barnet, despite Kendall’s claims for his contribution to the victory.
4 Hutton, in The Battle of Bosworth Field, p. xxxiii, says that two of his squires – John Milwater and Thomas à Par – were killed at his side but does not cite any contemporary authority.
5 For a report of Richard being wounded at Barnet, see Adair, ‘The Newsletter of Gerhard von Wesel, 17 April 1471’.
6 See Blyth, ‘The Battle of Tewkesbury’.
7 At Tewkesbury Richard was undoubtedly in at least nominal command of the right, according to Historie of the Arrivall.
Chapter Five: THE END OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER
1 As Constable, Richard had the right to condemn men to death out of hand for treason, without jury or witnesses. See Keen, ‘Treason Trials under the Law of Arms’.
2 For Fra’ John Langstrother, see Dictionary of National Biography and King and Luke, The Knights of St John in the British Realm.
3 History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third, p. 14.
4 Richard the Third and his Early Historians, p. 116.
5 ‘hereunto King Edward gave no answer, only thrusting the young man from him with his hand, whom forthwith those that were present [which] were George, Duke of Clarence, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and William, Lord Hastings, cruelly murdered’ (Vergil,Anglica Historia, p. 152). Neither Ross nor Lander accepts this ‘later story’.
6 ‘he took it to so great despite, ire and indignation, that, of pure displeasure and melancholy, he died’ (Historie of the Arrivall, p. 38).
7 ‘tua de sa main ou feit tuer, en sa présence, en quelque lieu à part ce bon homme le roy Henry’ (Commynes, Mémoires, I, p. 216). In September 1486, in verses addressed to Henry VII, Pietro Carmeliano accused Richard of having murdered Henry VI (Memorials of King Henry the Seventh, p. lvii). Writing about the same time, Bernard André says that he did so on Edward IV’s orders (Memorials …, p. 23). However, Ross agrees that Richard ‘may have been the agent, not the director, of King Henry’s murder’ (Richard III, p. 22).
8 ‘The continual report is that Richard, Duke of Gloucester, killed him with a sword, whereby his brother might be delivered from all fear of hostility’ (Vergil, Anglica Historia, p. 156).
9 See Richmond, ‘Fauconberg’s Kentish Rising of May 1471’.
Chapter Six: THE RIVALRY WITH CLARENCE
1 For Richard’s illegitimate children, see P. Hammond in the Ricardian, V, 66 (1979), pp. 92–6, and 72 (1981), p. 319.
2 For the persecution and despoliation of Lady Oxford, see Hicks, ‘The Last Days of Elizabeth, Countess of Oxford’.
3 For the heraldic significance of the boar, see Guillim, Displays of Heraldrie, p. 188.
4 ‘très beaulx présens, comme de vaisselles et de chevaulx bien accoustrez’ (Commynes, Mémoires, II, p. 67).
5 However, some authorities believe that Richard’s son was not born until 1476. See Hammond, Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales, pp. 35–6.
6 For Edward IV to have permitted such a marriage between Clarence and the heiress of Burgundy would have meant certain involvement in a potentially ruinous continental war with France and the Habsburgs.
7 For the drowning in malmsey, see Mancini: ‘in dolium mollissimi falerni mersus vitam cum morte commutaret’ – ‘and exchanged life for death by getting immersed in a cask of sweet Falernian’ (De Occupatione Regni Anglie, p. 62); and Commynes: ‘Le roy Edward fist mourir son frère, duc de Clarence, en une pippe de malvoisye’ – ‘King Edward made his brother, the Duke of Clarence, die in a pipe of malmsey’ (Mémoires, I, p. 533).
8 Commynes, however, heard that it was because Clarence ‘se vouloit faire roy, comme l’on disoit’ – ‘wanted to make himself King, so people said’ (Mémoires, I, p. 533).
9 Hicks, in False, Fleeting, Perjur’d Clarence – surprisingly favourable to Duke George – argues that no one benefited more from his death than Richard, who had plainly sold out to the Woodvilles. Even the cautious Ross admits that ‘it seems quite inconsistent with what we know of Richard’s character, and of his past relations with Clarence, that he had not condoned – to say the least – the carefully orchestrated overthrow of his brother in 1478’ (Richard III, p. 34).
Chapter Seven: RICHARD IN THE NORTH
1 See Complete Peerage, V, p. 740. See also Victoria County History, Cumberland, II. p. 343.
2 Richard maintained his own group of actors and minstrels who seem to have travelled all over England. ‘In 1478 and 1480 the Duke of Gloucester’s players have been traced in places as far apart as Canterbury and New Romney in Kent and Selby Abbey in Yorkshire’ (Lander, Government and Community, p. 164).
3 See ‘Thomas Stanley, first Earl of Derby’, in Dictionary of National Biography and Complete Peerage, IV, pp. 205–7.
4 See ‘Scrope of Bolton’, in Complete Peerage, XI, pp. 544–6.
5 See Documents Relating to the Foundations and Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of Middleham.
6 Commynes had a good opinion of him too: ‘le seigneur de Hastingues, homme de grand sens et de grande auctorité’ – ‘Lord Hastings, a man of great wisdom and of great authority’ (Mémoires, II, p. 240).
7 For the war with Scotland, see Nicholson, Scotland: The Later Middle Ages.
8 See ‘John Howard, first Duke of Norfolk’, in Dictionary of National Biography and Complete Peerage, IX, pp. 610–12.
9 For Assheton, see Dictionary of National Biography, and Wedgwood, History of Parliament, p. 26.
10 Uncharacteristically Edward decided not to lead the army himself, probably because of illness; it is known that rumours about the King’s serious ill health were definitely circulating in 1481 or 1482 (Ross, Edward IV, pp. 287–8). By this date Richard had therefore clear warning that his brother might die prematurely – and was able to lay plans.
11 ‘tam elevatae mentis’.
12 Bacon, most plausibly, describes Richard ‘as having an expectation and a kind of divination, that the King, by reason of his many disorders, could not be of long life’ (The History of the Reign of King Henry VII, p. 6).
Chapter Eight: ‘PROTECTOR AND DEFENDER’
1 Mancini is unequivocal: ‘Nonnulli tamen qui eius ambicionem et artem non ignorarent, semper dubitarunt quorsum eius conatus evaderent’ – ‘Indeed there were those who were not unaware of his ambition and cunning, and who had always had misgivings about where they would lead’ (De Occupatione Regni Anglie, p. 82).
2 For Buckingham, see Rawcliffe, The Staffords, Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham, pp. 28–35.
3 Hanham comments, ‘It is sometimes forgotten now that the capacities of a twelve-year-old youth were much more highly rated, and extended, in medieval times’ (Richard III and his Early Historians, p. 4).
4 For George Nevill’s death, see Hicks, ‘Richard III as Duke of Gloucester: A Study in Character’, p. 249.
5 See Roskell, ‘William Catesby, Counsellor to Richard III’ and Tudor-Craig, Richard III.
6 Mancini pays a terser tribute to Hastings which may well reflect the impression he made on ordinary Londoners: ‘comes fidus et miles strenuus fuerat’ – ‘he had been a loyal comrade and valiant soldier’ (De Occupatione Regni Anglie, p. 88).
7 For Jane Shore, see Barker and Birley, ‘The Story of Jane Shore’. Elizabeth Lambert – Jane’s maiden name – was the daughter of a rich London mercer and alderman. Ironically she married Richard’s solicitor, Thomas Lynom, at the end of 1483.
8 Mancini does not seem to appreciate that in England the King wore purple only when in full mourning, but this significance would not have been lost on English spectators (De Occupatione Regni Anglie, p. 94).
9 The Croyland writer’s actual words are ‘in cathedram marmoream intrusit’.
10 For Sir John Fogge, see Archaeologia Cantiana, v (1863), p. 125 and Wedgwood, History of Parliament, pp. 339–40.
Chapter Nine: ‘RICHARD THE THIRD’
1 Even if Stillington’s story was true, Eleanor Butler had died in 1468, and by the time the boys were born, their parents’ marriage was publicly accepted by both the ecclesiastical authorities and the English people as a whole – an acceptance quite sufficient to make it perfectly valid by the canon law of the period.
2 ‘appert et prompt aux danses et aux esbat’. But the testimony of Molinet, a bad poet and even worse chronicler, is hardly strengthened by giving York’s name as ‘Georges’ instead of Richard – perhaps confusing him with a younger brother of that name who had died in infancy (Chroniques, II, p. 402).
3 Writing of his Coronation, just after the reign, the Croyland writer says: ‘From this day forward, as long as he lived, this man was called King Richard the Third’ – ‘homo iste’ is amusingly but not inaccurately translated by Gairdner as ‘this fellow’.
4 Buck is incorrect in stating that Cardinal Bourchier attended the Coronation banquet – his traditional place on the King’s right, as Archbishop of Canterbury, was filled instead by the Bishop of Durham.
5 For Richard Ratcliff, see Dictionary of National Biography.
6 See Ross, Richard III, p. 59 and Pollard, ‘The Tyranny of Richard III’.
7 For Dr Argentine’s career, see Rhodes, ‘The Princes in the Tower and their Doctor’ and, by the same author, John Argentine, Provost of King’s: His Life and Library.
8 ‘le duc of Bouciquignant qui avoit faict mourir les deux enfans’ (Mémoires, II, p. 306).
9 ‘Et fait mourir ses deux nepveux’ (Mémoires, II, p. 233).
10 ‘receüt lettres du duc de Clocestre qui s’estoit fait roy d’Angleterre, et se signoit Richard, lequel avoit faict mourir les deulx filz du roy Edouard, son frère. Ledict roy Richard requeroit l’amytié du roy et croy qu’il eust bien voulu avoir cest pension dessusdicte, mais le roy ne voulut respondre à ses lettres ne oyr les messaige et l’estima très cruel et mauvais: car après le trespas dudit roy Edouart, ledict duc de Clocestre avoit faict hommage à son nepveu comme à son roy et souverain seigneur; et incontinent commis ce cas’ – ‘received a letter from the Duke of Gloucester, who had made himself King of England, and signed himself “Richard”, who had killed the two sons of King Edward his brother. The said King Richard sought the [French] King’s friendship, and was most anxious to receive the aforesaid pension [paid to Edward IV], but the King did not wish to reply to his letters nor hear his message, and thought him very cruel and wicked: for after the death of the said King Edward, the Duke of Gloucester had paid homage to his nephew as his king and sovereign lord’ (Mémoires, II, p. 305).
11 ‘Aspicite, quaeso, quidnam post mortem regis Eduardi in ea terra contigerit, eius scilicet jam adultos, et egregios liberos impune trucidari, et regni diadema in horum extinctorum populis faventibus, delatum’ (Journal des Etats généraux de France tenus à Tours en 1484).
12 ‘le duc de Boucquinghen, lequel fut mecreu d’avoir estainct et occis lesdits enfants, à cause qu’il prétendoit avoir droict à la couronne’ – ‘the Duke of Buckingham, who was thought to have done away with and killed the said children, because he claimed to have a right to the crown’ (Molinet, Chroniques, II, p. 403).
13 The theory that Norfolk was the real murderer of the Princes in the Tower was recently revived by Tucker in The Life of Thomas Howard, 1443–1524. It was definitely disposed of by Crawford in ‘John Howard, Duke of Norfolk: A Possible Murderer of the Princes’.
14 For Sir James Tyrell, see Dictionary of National Biography and Wedgwood, History of Parliament, p. 889.
15 For Sir Robert Brackenbury, see Dictionary of National Biography.
16 The highly partisan Kendall has to admit that the Wardrobe accounts reveal that at about this date Tyrell rode from London to York and perhaps from York to London as well (Richard III, p. 479).
17 See Hammond, Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales.
Chapter Ten: ‘HIM THAT HAD BEST CAUSE TO BE TRUE’
1 Author of the chronicle usually referred to as Vitellius A XVI. See Chronicles of London, p. 191.
2 ‘a man possessed of great qualities for the crooked times in which he lived’ (History of the Life and Death of Richard the Third, p. 108).
3 For the origins of the Tudors, see Chrimes, Henry VII, pp. 1–15.
4 For Henry Tudor’s earliest link with Elizabeth of York, see Jones and Underwood, The King’s Mother, pp. 60–61.
5 For Buckingham’s tenure of Penshurst, see Victoria County History, Kent.
6 Conway, ‘The Maidstone Sector of Buckingham’s Rebellion, October 18th, 1483’, is often cited as the authoritative study of the rising, but is in fact ill-informed and inadequate; the author does not even appreciate that Buckingham owned Penshurst.
7 ‘Nothing can explain the language of this proclamation except a kind of cynical hypocrisy’ is Gairdner’s view (History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third, p. 146). Lander discerns ‘an obsession with sexual morality and a morbid sense of persecution. Again and again he struck a shrill note of moral indignation … in accusations against the Marquess of Dorset and Henry Tudor’ (Government and Community, p. 329).
8 For the siege of Bodiam in 1484, see Victoria County History, Sussex, IX, p. 551.
9 For Sir Henry Wyatt, see ‘Sir Thomas Wyatt’ in the Dictionary of National Biography and Chrimes, Henry VII, pp. 127–62. The story of his imprisonment comes from a statement by his son during Henry VIII’s reign, the fanciful tale of the cat from J. Bruce inGentleman’s Magazine, II, xxiv (1850), pp. 235–6.
10 For Sir Marmaduke Constable, see Wedgwood, History of Parliament, p. 212.
11 For the Parliament of 1484, see Wedgwood, Register, pp. 475–93.
12 For the text of ‘Titulus Regius’, see Rotuli Parliamentorum, pp. 240–42.
13 For a detailed account of the King’s redistribution of southern lands, see Ross, Richard III, pp. 119–24. Pollard in ‘The Tyranny of Richard III’ argues – unconvincingly in my opinion – that in consequence a black legend of Richard grew in the South, leaving a white legend in the North; his principal evidence for the latter is Sir George Buck!
14 The oath is printed in Gairdner, History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third, pp. 165–6.
15 Richard III was the first English King to use character assassination as a deliberate instrument of policy – see Ross, Richard III, p. 138.
16 For Sir Gervase Clifton, see Thoroton, The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, pp. 106–7.
Chapter Eleven: THE DEATH OF RICHARD’S SON
1 The tomb’s identity has not been established beyond all doubt. See Routh and Knowles, The Sheriff Hutton Alabaster: A Reassessment.
2 For Henry Tudor’s companions in exile, see Chrimes, Henry VII, Appendix B, p. 327 and Vergil, Anglica Historia, p. 200.
3 For Dr Urswick, see Dictionary of National Biography. He was later to be Henry VII’s confessor and court almoner, and was almost certainly one of Polydore Vergil’s oral informants – and possibly one of More’s as well, since he lived until 1527.
4 For Richard and Scarborough, see Victoria County History, Yorkshire (North Riding), II, p. 551. For his naval activities, see Richmond, ‘English Naval Power in the Fifteenth Century’, p. 14.
5 Whitelaw’s actual words are: ‘Numquam tantum animum Natura minori corpore, nec tantas visa est includere vires’.
6 In Poppelau’s words, ‘König Richard drei Finger länger, doch ein wenig schlanker und nicht so dik als er, auch gar viel dürrer, hatte ganz subtile Arme und Schenkel, auch ein grosses Herz’ (Scriptores Rerum Silesiacarum, III, p. 365).
7 The letter to Desmond is in Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, I, pp. 67–8.
8 Lord Lovell’s crest of a dog is on his garter plate, still at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. See Hope, The Stall Plates of the Knights of the Garter.
9 Richard’s letter to his mother is printed in Gairdner, History of the Life and Death of Richard the Third, pp. 189–90.
10 For John Risley – significantly a former Esquire of the Body to Edward IV – see Wedgwood, History of Parliament, p. 171.
11 The rumours that Richard had murdered his wife even reached Commynes in France: ‘Aucuns dient qu’il la feït mourir’ (Mémoires, II, p. 234).
Chapter Twelve: ‘OUR GREAT HEAVINESS’
1 Molinet, Chroniques, ii, pp. 404-5
2 The wooden panel on which the portrait is painted has been tree-ring dated to about 1516. The portrait seems to have been in the possession of the Pastons – the letter-writing family.
3 Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company, pp. 173–4. Molinet had heard a garbled version of Richard’s sensational public denial. ‘Il fut accusé et déclaré par les portaux des églises avoir faict mourir la reine sa femme, pour ce qu’elle estoit grosse, et d’avoir desfloré la petite fille sa niepce’ (Chroniques, II, p. 403).
4 For contemporary criticism of Richard’s inefficiency in matters of administration, see Somerville, History of the Duchy of Lancaster, I, p. 420.
5 Lander, Government and Community, pp. 329–30. For the text of Richard’s prayer, see Tudor-Craig, Richard III, pp. 96–7. For cults of St Julian, see Acta Bollandista, 1945. (I am indebted to Dom Sylvester Houédard for this last reference.)
6 For Henry’s letter to his supporters, see Halsted, Richard III, II, p. 556.
7 ‘avec peu d’argent du roy [Charles VIII] et quelque trois mil hommes prins en Normandie et des plus meschantz que l’on peüst trouver’ (Mémoires, II, p. 306).
8 ‘une bonne somme d’argent et quelques pièces d’artillerie’ (Mémoires, II, p. 234).
9 See Conway, Henry VII’s Relations with Scotland and Ireland, 1485–1498, p. 6.
Chapter Thirteen: ‘THE KING’S ENEMIES BE A-LAND’
1 Molinet testifies to the numbing fear inspired by Richard: ‘et n’y avoit prince en Angleterre qui osast susciter guerre ni prendre armes contre lui’ – ‘and there was no prince in England who dared to make war or take up arms against him’ (Chroniques, II, p. 405).
2 For Sir William Stanley, see Dictionary of National Biography.
3 None the less, Ross regards his handling of his nobility as almost ‘a model exercise of patronage’ (Richard III, p. 158). For a precisely opposite interpretation, see Pugh, ‘The Magnates, Knights and Gentry’, p. 114.
4 For the Stourton family, see Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton, The History of the Noble House of Stourton.
5 For Northumberland’s treachery, see ‘A Castilian Report on English Affairs 1486’, pp. 92–9.
6 This strange story about a third bastard is only to be found in Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, pp. 249–51.
7 The best account is still Gairdner’s ‘The Battle of Bosworth’. Also valuable is Williams’s The Battle of Bosworth, although it contains certain errors. The account in Burne’s Battlefields of England is similarly patchy. That in Chrimes’s Henry VII is too reliant on Polydore Vergil (whose own reconstruction – only fifteen years after the battle – has a number of serious mistakes).
8 Molinet, Chroniques, ii p. 409.
9 No doubt this was Blanche Sanglier. He was probably called Robert Watkyns, since a herald-at-arms of this name was attainted in the first Parliament of Henry VII. See Wedgwood, Register, pp. 493 and 496.