INTRODUCTION
1. T. Smith, De Republica Anglorum, ed., M. Dewar (Cambridge, 1982), p. 88.
2. D. Starkey, ‘Henry VI’s Old Blue Gown’, The Court Historian 4 (1999), pp. 1–28.
3. Reproduced, for example, in D. Starkey, Crown and Country (2010).
4. What follows is a summary of the argument of Crown and Country.
5. R. L. Storey, The End of the House of Lancaster (1966), p. 6; E. Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustr[ious] Families of Lancaster and York (1809) and Scolar Press reprint of edition of 1550 (1970).
6. M. P. Siddons, Heraldic Badges in England and Wales, 3 vols. (Woodbridge, 2009)II i, pp. 211–26; N. Pronay and J. Cox, eds., The Crowland Chronicle Continuations, 1459–1486 (1986), p. 185.
7. W. Campbell, ed., Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, 2 vols., Rolls Series 60 (1873)I, pp. 392–8; P. L. Hughes and J. E. Larkin, eds., Tudor Royal Proclamations, 3 vols. (New Haven and London, 1964–9) I, pp. 6–7.
8. C. G. Bayne and W. H. Dunham, eds., Select Cases in the Council of Henry VII, Selden Society 75 (1958), p. 8; A. B. Emden, ed., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1959)III, 1609–11.
9. What follows is a summary of the argument about the relationship of bastard feudalism and politics that first developed in ‘The Age of the Household’ in S. Medcalf, ed., The Later Middle Ages (1981), pp. 26–86.
10. ODNB sub ‘Fortescue’ and ‘Morton’. The radical changes brought about by Henry VII in the last decade or so of his reign are well discussed in M. R. Horowitz, ed., ‘Who was Henry VII?’, Historical Research 217.
PROLOGUE
1. Ross, The Wars of the Roses (1976), p. 138.
2. Hinde, England’s Population (2003), pp. 71–2.
3. www.1911census.org.uk/
4. Ross, The Wars of the Roses, p. 136 & p. 138. This figure is extrapolated from his estimation on p. 136 that 25% of the population would have been of fighting age, and from the 75,000 figure on p. 138. With an estimate of 3 million for the overall population, 750,000 would have been males of fighting age. 75,000 at the battle = 10% of the 16–60 yrs population.
1. A STEP TOO FAR
1. John Milton, ‘On his Blindness’.
2. Armstrong, ‘Politics and the Battle of St Albans, 1455’, BIHR 33 (1960), p. 23. Here referred to as a town as it did not become a city until the Royal Charter of 1877 as per ‘The city of St Albans: The borough’, A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 2(1908), pp. 477–83. www.british-history.ac.uk
3. Gairdner (ed.), Paston Letters (1910), No. 238, p. 325.
4. Ibid, p. 326.
5. Ibid, No. 239, pp. 328–9.
6. Armstrong, BIHR 33, p. 26, n.6.
7. Cornwell, Harlequin (2000), ‘Historical Note’, p. 484. Bernard Cornwell cites Benjamin Franklin, the US Founding Father and inventor of genius, as one such: Franklin believed that the American Colonists would have won the war far more speedily had they been practised longbowmen. Cornwell himself, who, through his rigorous research for his novels on the medieval and Napoleonic periods is in an excellent position to compare and judge, is in no doubt, believing ‘it is quite certain that a battalion of archers could have outshot and beaten, easily, a battalion of Wellington’s veterans armed with smoothbore muskets.’
8. See Chapter 9, note 7.
9. Courtesy of the St Albans tourist office.
10. Gregory’s Chronicle: The Historical Collections of a Citizen of London in the fifteenth century, ed. Gairdner (1876). The author of the Chronicle was one Gregory Skinner (meaning William Gregory of the Skinners’ Company) who was Mayor of London in 1451. The Chronicle begins with the accession of Richard the Lionheart in 1189 and ends in 1469, with the last two or so years covered by a ‘continuer’ as Gregory himself died in 1466 or 1467. It is a remarkable document for the years where Gregory was a contemporary witness, including the Battles of St Albans and Cade’s rebellion in 1450 (when Gregory would already have been a senior figure in the City of London). Often sparkling with wit, it also gives a serious insight into the attitudes of London’s mercantile elite. Gregory’s Chronicle is also available on British History Online www.british-history.ac.uk
11. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1451–60, pp. 196–210.
12. Gairdner, Paston Letters, Vol. I, No. 239, p. 331.
13. Armstrong, BIHR 33, p. 46 & Dijon Relation infra p. 64.
14. Ibid., pp. 49–50.
15. Myers, English Historical Documents (1969), p. 277 (‘The Dijon Relation’, Dijon, Archives de la Côte-d’Or, B.11942, No. 258, French, printed by Armstrong, BIHR 33, pp. 63–5).
16. Maurer, Margaret of Anjou (2003), p. 91, n. 67.
17. C. Oman, The Political History of England 1377–1485 (1920), p. 367, also quoted in Lander, The Wars of the Roses (1990), p. 9.
18. Armstrong, BIHR 33, p 7.
2. A GREAT MAN’S LEGACY – MINORITY
1. Barker, Agincourt (2006), p. 301.
2. Barker, Conquest (2009), p. 8 & p. 39.
3. ODNB, C. T. Allmand, ‘Henry V (1386/7–1422)’ – doi:10.1093/ref: odnb/12952.
4. Ibid.
5. Quoted by Malcolm Vale, BBC Radio 4, ‘“In Our Time” – The Siege of Orleans’ (broadcast on 24 May 2007).
6. Barker, Conquest, pp. 28–9.
7. This includes William II, Richard I, Edward II – all of whom had violent deaths – and Richard II, who also had an untimely one. Exclude them and the average goes up to almost 60.
8. ODNB, C. T. Allmand, ‘Henry V (1386/7–1422)’ – doi:10.1093/ref: odnb/12952.
9. ODNB, Jenny Stratford, ‘John, duke of Bedford (1389–1435)’ – doi:10.1093/ ref:odnb/14844.
10. Wolffe, Henry VI (2001), p. 53.
11. Fabyan, Great Chronicle of London (1938), ed. Thomas & Thornley, p. 137.
12. Ibid., p. 138.
13. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1420–26, pp. 128–61.
14. Fabyan, Great Chronicle of London, p. 139.
15. Ibid.
16. Nicolas (ed.), Proceedings of the Privy Council (PPC), III (1834), p. 238.
17. Mortimer, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England (2009), p. 21. Westminster Abbey is arguably still ‘unfinished’ and there are plans to give it a more complete architectural harmony, as per Westminster Abbey’s A Strategy for 2020 and beyond seewww.westminster-abbey.org
18. www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/royals/coronations/guide-to-the-coronation-service
19. Strong, Coronation (2006), p. 141.
20. ‘A History of Legal Dress in Europe’ by W. N. Hargreaves-Mawdsley. (Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1963. xii, 116) for statement that judicial scarlet probably derives from the livery of the House of Lancaster.
21. Strong, Coronation, p. 84. The day before the coronation as per item 4 of the Liber Regalis.
22. Editions Magnificat, Lives of the Saints, www.magnificat.ca/cal/engl/11–06.htm
23. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1427–34, pp. 161–77.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 59, n. 38 (citing M. R. Powicke, ‘Lancastrian Captains’ in Essays in Medieval History presented to Bertie Wilkinson (1969), pp. 371–82).
27. ODNB, Christine Carpenter, ‘Beauchamp, Richard, thirteenth earl of Warwick (1382–1439)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1838.
28. PPC, III, pp. 296–300.
29. Hallam, The Chronicles of the Wars of the Roses (1988), p. 174, trans. of Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris sous le règne de Charles VII.
30. Ibid., p. 173, from Waurin, Recueil Des Croniques, eds. W. E. Hardy and E. Hardy (1864), Vol. V, Book. 4, p. 240.
31. Barker, Conquest, pp. 107–9.
32. Barker, Conquest, p. 125, n. 1 (p. 419 citing PPC, III, pp. 330–8).
33. Beauchamp, a key figure in the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, was not involved at all in Joan’s trial.
34. See note 26 immediately above.
35. Barker, Conquest, p. 150 & n. 24 (p. 421 citing Curry, ‘The “Coronation Expedition”‘, pp. 36–8 & pp. 40–1 in The Lancastrian Court, ed. Jenny Stratford (2003).
36. ODNB, Jenny Stratford, ‘John, duke of Bedford (1389–1435)’ – doi:10.1093/ ref:odnb/14844.
37. Barker, Conquest, p. 176.
3. AN ABSENCE OF KINGSHIP – MAJORITY
1. PPC, IV, p. xlv & p. 134.
2. Watts, Henry VI and the Politics of Kingship (1999), pp. 119–20.
3. Ibid., p. 121.
4. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 87.
5. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century (1913), p. 147.
6. ODNB, G. L. Harriss, ‘Beaufort, Henry (1375?–1447)’ – doi:10.1093/ ref:odnb/1859. ODNB, G. L. Harriss, ‘Humphrey, duke of Gloucester (1390– 1447)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14155.
7. Harriss, Cardinal Beaufort (1988), p. 309.
8. ODNB, E. B. Fryde, ‘Pole, Sir William de la (d. 1366)’ – doi:10.1093/ ref:odnb/22460.
9. Barker, Conquest, p. 121.
10. ODNB, John Watts, ‘Pole, William de la, first duke of Suffolk (1396–1450)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22461.
11. ODNB, G. L. Harriss, ‘Humphrey, duke of Gloucester (1390–1447)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14155. Wolffe, Henry VI, pp. 126–8. Davies, An English Chronicle (1856), pp. 57–8.
12. Ross, The Wars of the Roses, p. 26.
13. Within a few years, see later in this chapter, he was to be accused – somewhat fantastically – of trying to put himself closer to the English throne than René was to the French one.
14. J. Chartier, Chronique française du roi de France Charles VII, ed. Vallet de Viriville, II, 1858, p. 235, French. See Myers Eng. Hist. Docs., p. 262.
15. Davies, An English Chronicle, p. 63.
16. ODNB, G. L. Harriss, ‘Humphrey, duke of Gloucester (1390–1447)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14155.
17. Fabyan, Great Chronicle of London, p. 179.
18. Barker, Conquest, pp. 395–6.
19. Virgoe, ‘The death of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk’ in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Vol. 47 (1965), pp. 489–502 and espec. pp. 499–502.
20. Gairdner, Paston Letters, Vol. I, No. 93, p. 125.
21. Castor, Blood & Roses (2005), p. 58.
22. ‘The later Middle Ages: Economy and industrial prosperity’, in A History of the County of York: the City of York (1961), pp. 84–91. www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=36333&strquery=population
23. Barron, ‘London & the Crown 1451–61’, eds. Highfield and Jeffs, The Crown and Local Communities: In England and France in the Fifteenth Century (1981), p. 89.
24. Kaufman, The Historical Literature of the Jack Cade Rebellion (2009), pp. 98–9, citing Hutton, The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year 1400–1700, p. 89.
25. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 220.
26. ODNB, Joseph A. Nigota, ‘Fiennes, James, first Baron Saye and Sele (c. 1390–1450)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9411.
27. A. J. Pollard, Warwick the Kingmaker (2007), p. 154.
28. ‘Stow’s Memorandum’ in Gairdner (ed.), Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles (1880). Also quoted in Dockray, Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou and the Wars of the Roses – A Source Book (2000), pp. 48–50.
29. Gillingham, The Wars of the Roses (2001), p. 63.
30. In Summer of Blood (2009), the dramatic new book on the Peasants Revolt, its author Dan Jones points out the greater political coherence of the stated initial principles of Cade’s rebellion (see p. 208).
31. Hinde, England’s Population, p. 26.
32. Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850–1520 (2009), p. 276.
33. Anderson, British population history: from the Black Death to the present day (1996), p. 23.
34. See Gummer, The Scourging Angel: the Black Death in the British Isles (2009), Appendix 1, ‘The Epidemiology of the Black Death: An Overview’, pp. 417–20, for an excellent summary of the debate.
35. Some authors have even higher percentage figures for mortality rates for bubonic and pneumonic plague;e.g. Ziegler, The Black Death (1969), pp. 27–8, has 60–90 per cent for bubonic plague;Gottfried, The black death: natural and human disaster in medieval Europe (1983), p. 2, has 95–100 per cent for pneumonic plague.
36. Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages, p. 272.
37. Gillingham, The Wars of the Roses, p. 8.
38. Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages, Chapter 10, pp. 330–62.
39. Ibid.
40. ODNB, I. M. W. Harvey, ‘Cade, John (d. 1450)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4292.
41. Griffiths, The Reign of King Henry VI (1998), p. 644.
42. Davies, An English Chronicle (1856), p. 64.
43. Benet’s Chronicle, Camden Miscellany 24 (1972), p. 164.
44. ODNB, Joseph A. Nigota, ‘Fiennes, James, first Baron Saye and Sele (c.1390– 1450)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9411.
45. Benet’s Chronicle, Camden Miscellany 24, p. 165.
46. Gairdner (ed.), ‘Short English Chronicle’ in Three fifteenth-century chronicles (1880), pp. 58–78.
47. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1451–1460, pp. 196–210.
4. AN ABSENT-MINDED KING
1. Wolffe, Henry VI, pp. 14–15 (citing BL, Cotton MS, Cleopatra A xiii reprinted by Jean-Philippe Genet in Four English Political Tracts of the Later Middle Ages, Camden Soc., 1977).
2. Capgrave, The Book of the Illustrious Henries (1858). See also Wolffe, Henry VI, pp. 15–16 and n. 18.
3. Wolffe, Henry VI, pp. 138–9.
4. Watts, Henry VI, p. 169 & n. 187.
5. John Ayto (ed.), Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (2005), p. 405.
6. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 145.
7. Strong, Coronation, p. 169.
8. Modern historians do see similarities between the two rulers, for instance, Henry VI is described as ‘the greatest single disaster in saintly royalty since Edward the Confessor’ in J. W. McKenna, ‘Piety and Propaganda: the Cult of Henry VI’ in Chaucer and Middle English Studies in Honor of R. H. Robbins (Kent, Ohio, 1974), p. 79, quoted in Keith Dockray, Henry VI – A Source Book, pp. xxv and xliii.
9. Curry (contrib. ed.), Given-Wilson (gen. ed.), The Parliament Rolls Of Medieval England (2005), ‘Henry VI: November 1450’, Introduction.
10. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 138.
11. A slight paraphrase of his statements summarizing Henry VI’s capabilities e.g.: ‘a baby who grew up an imbecile’ (McFarlane, England in the Fifteenth Century, 1981, p. 42); ‘inanity’ (ibid., p. 240);and ‘second childhood succeeded first without the usual interval’ (quoted in Dockray,Henry VI – A Source Book, p. xxv, attrib. to McFarlane in 1938).
12. Griffiths, Henry VI, p. 241. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 21.
13. Watts, Henry VI and the Politics of Kingship, throughout.
14. ‘Schizophrenia as a permanent problem: some aspects of historical evidence’, History of Psychiatry, 1992 Dec.;3(12): pp. 413–29.
15. ‘Did schizophrenia change the course of English history? The mental illness of Henry VI’, Medical Hypotheses, 59, no. 4 (2002): pp. 416–21.
16. Whethamstede (ed. Riley), Registrum (1872) I, p. 163, cited by Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 272.
17. Curry (contrib. ed.), Given-Wilson (gen ed.), Parliament Rolls, ‘Henry VI: March 1453’, section 32.
18. Findings of a study based on three UK birth cohorts – 1946, 1958 and 1970 – with, to date, detailed examination of the first two. See, firstly: P. Jones, B. Rodgers, R. Murray, M. Marmot, ‘Child development risk factors for adult schizophrenia in the British 1946 birth cohort’. Lancet. (1994); 344(8934): pp. 1398–402. See, additionally, Peter Jones and D. John Done, ‘From Birth to Onset: A developmental perspective of schizophrenia in two national birth cohorts’, pp. 119–36, in Matcheri S. Keshavan and Robin Murray (eds.), Neurodevelopment & adult psychopathology(1997). And also D.J. Done, T.J. Crow, E. C. Johnstone, A. Sacker, ‘Childhood antecedents of schizophrenia and affective illness: social adjustment at ages 7 and 11’ – British Medical Journal (1994); 309: pp. 699–703.
19. E. Walker and R. J. Lewine, ‘Prediction of adult-onset schizophrenia from childhood home movies of the patients’, American Journal of Psychiatry, 147 (1990), pp. 1052–56.
20. The word ‘mania’ used to have a specific psychiatric meaning, but this has been eroded through general use. With thanks to Dr Trevor Turner for this clarification.
21. Blacman, Henry VI, ed. M. R. James (1919).
22. ODNB, Jonathan Hughes, ‘Blacman, John (1407/8–1485?)’ – doi:10.1093/ ref:odnb/2599.
23. Ibid.
24. Lovatt, ‘A Collector of Apocryphal Anecdotes: John Blacman Revisited’, in Property and politics: essays in later medieval English history, ed. A. J. Pollard (1984), p. 173.
25. ODNB, Jonathan Hughes, ‘Rolle, Richard (1305x10–1349)’ – doi:10.1093/ ref:odnb/24024.
26. See E. H. Allen, Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle (1927); and especially Rolle, The Melos amoris, ed. E. J. F. Arnould (1957) pp. 144–5 cited by Jonathan Hughes above.
27. Rolle, op.cit pp. 44–5 cited by Hughes.
28. Blacman, Henry VI, p. 38.
29. Watts, Henry VI, p. 104 & n. 13.
30. Griffiths, Henry VI, p. 254.
31. Blacman, Henry VI, p. 26.
32. Ibid., p. 42.
33. Ibid., p. 35.
34. Ibid., p. 36.
35. Ibid., p. 27.
36. Wolffe, Henry VI, pp. 370–1, as per Itinerary of Henry’s movements. The last time Henry VI was at Eltham before his breakdown was in early February 1453. He did not return there, and then only briefly until 1460 (long after Blacman’s retreat into monasticism).
37. Blacman, Henry VI, pp. 37–8.
38. Ibid., p. 42.
39. Griffiths, Henry VI, p. 242, quoting Whethamstede, Registrum I, pp. 248–61).
40. Whethamstede Registrum I, p. 415 cited by Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 19.
41. Storey, The End of the House of Lancaster (1999), p. 35, citing KB.9.260, no. 40a – from the Public Record Office, now the National Archives.
42. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 17.
5. A QUESTION OF HONOUR
1. ODNB, John Watts, ‘Richard of York, third duke of York (1411–1460)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23503.
2. Ross, The Wars of the Roses, p. 31.
3. See Chapter 2, for Gloucester’s denunciations of Beaufort stretching back to the reign of Henry IV.
4. Maurer, Margaret of Anjou, p. 41, n. 21.
5. ODNB on Catherine de Valois: Michael Jones, ‘Catherine (1401–1437)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4890.
6. ODNB, Colin Richmond, ‘Beaufort, Edmund, first duke of Somerset (c.1406–1455)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1855.
7. ODNB, John Watts, ‘Richard of York, third duke of York (1411–1460)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23503.
8. ODNB, G. L. Harriss, ‘Beaufort, John, duke of Somerset (1404–1444)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1862.
9. ODNB, Colin Richmond, ‘Beaufort, Edmund, first duke of Somerset (c.1406–1455)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1855.
10. Ibid.
11. As witnessed by York’s attitude to Somerset.
12. Men from the West of Kent are traditionally referred to as Kentish Men. Those from the East are called Men of Kent. As those resisting Fiennes and later supporting Warwick were from both parts, it was decided, for local harmony, to use the neutral, if still descriptive ‘Men from Kent’.
13. M. K. Jones, ‘Somerset, York and the Wars of the Roses’, English Historical Review 104, no. 411 (1989), pp. 285–307.
14. This was an extraordinary promotion for someone without royal blood.
15. McFarlane, ‘The Wars of the Roses’, Raleigh Lecture on History, Proceedings of the British Academy, L (1964), reprinted in England in the Fifteenth Century, pp. 238–40, cited by Keith Dockray in ‘The Origins of the Wars of the Roses’, p. 75, in A.J. Pollard (ed.), The Wars of the Roses(1995).
16. Excellently demonstrated by the English Heritage information boards. Ref: www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/middleham-castle
17. Keen, English Society in the Later Middle Ages, 1348–1500 (1990), p. 160.
18. Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages, p. 322.
19. Woolgar, ‘Meat and Dairy Products in Late Medieval England’, eds. Woolgar, Serjeantson and Waldron, Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition (2006), pp. 99–100.
20. Dyer, ‘Seasonal Patterns in Food Consumption in the Later Middle Ages’, p. 203, and Woolgar, ‘Group Diets in Late Medieval England’, p. 197 and p. 200, in ibid.
21. Woolgar, ‘Meat and Dairy Products in Late Medieval England’, pp. 91–2, in ibid. Woolgar, ‘Fast and Feast: Conspicuous Consumption and the Diet of the Nobility in the Fifteenth Century’ in Revolution and Consumption in late medieval England (2001), ed. Hicks, pp. 15–17.
22. Dyer, ‘Changes in Diet in the Late Middle Ages: The Case of Harvest Workers’ in Everyday Life in Medieval England (1994), pp. 77–101.
23. Woolgar, ‘Group Diets in Late Medieval England’, Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition, p. 199, citing Prestwich, Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages, pp. 247–8.
24. ODNB, Michael Hicks, ‘Holland, Henry, second duke of Exeter (1430–1475)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/54462.
25. Storey, The End of the House of Lancaster, p. 25.
26. ODNB on Grey of Ruthin, Rosemary Horrox, ‘Grey, Edmund, first earl of Kent (1416–1490)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11529.
27. Castor, Blood & Roses, throughout.
28. Fabyan, Great Chronicle of London, ed. Thomas & Thornley, p. 207.
29. ODNB, R. G. Davies, ‘Kemp, John (1380/81–1454)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15328.
30. Barker, Conquest, pp. 343–4.
31. Watts, Henry VI, p. 274.
32. Ibid., p. 272.
33. Ellis (ed.), Original letters, illustrative of English history (1824), Series I, Vol. I, letter VI, pp. 11–13.
34. Griffiths, Henry VI, p. 697.
35. Johnson, Duke Richard of York, 1411–1460 (1988), p. 119.
36. Griffiths, Henry VI, p. 698.
37. Clifton-Taylor, Six More English Towns (1981), p. 30.
38. Jenkins, England’s thousand best churches (2000), p. 713.
39. ODNB, Christine Carpenter, ‘Beauchamp, Richard, thirteenth earl of Warwick (1382–1439)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1838.
40. Pollard, Warwick the Kingmaker, pp. 17–23.
41. Hicks, Warwick the Kingmaker (1998), pp. 84–5.
42. Pollard, Warwick the Kingmaker, p. 25.
43. The short-lived Henry, Richard Beauchamp’s son and immediate heir, was made a duke by his childhood friend the King. On his death, the dukedom became extinct but his baby daughter inherited the earldom and was thus styled 15th Countess of Warwick. The Kingmaker, inheriting by right of his wife, thus became the 16th Earl.
44. ODNB, A. J. Pollard, ‘Neville, William, earl of Kent (1401?–1463)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19967.
45. Castor, Blood & Roses, p. 97.
46. ODNB, R. A. Griffiths, ‘Percy, Thomas, first Baron Egremont (1422–1460)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50235.
47. Pollard, Warwick the Kingmaker, pp. 26–7.
6. A QUEEN TRANSFORMED
1. 1 marc was equal to £2/3 (13s 4d).
2. From Transactions of the Devonshire Association, xxxv (1903), modern translation Arthur Goodwin.
3. Ref. ibid.
4. Maurer, Margaret of Anjou, pp. 136–7.
5. Hallam (ed.), The Chronicles of the Wars of the Roses, p. 216 citing Hardyng’s Chronicle. See The Chronicle of John Hardyng (1812).
6. On Malory: Hardyment, Malory (2005), p. 315; Ross, The Wars of the Roses, pp. 164–5; & ODNB, P. J. C. Field, ‘Malory, Sir Thomas (1415x18–1471)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17899. And, for lawyers, Keen, English Society in the later Middle Ages, pp. 145–6.
7. McGlynn, By Sword and Fire (2008), p. 75.
8. Keen, Chivalry (1984), p. 239.
9. John Gillingham, The English in the 12th Century (2000), pp. 209–10, quoted in McGlynn, By Sword and Fire, p. 75.
10. Popular Astronomy, June/July 1908.
11. Pollard, Warwick the Kingmaker, p. 1, citing Gairdner (ed.), Paston Letters, Vol. III, No. 322, pp. 73–5 (6 Vols. 1904 edition). Unless stated, other citations are from 4 Volume edition (1910).
12. Horrox (contrib. ed.), Given-Wilson (gen. ed.), The Parliament Rolls Of Medieval England (2005), ‘Henry VI: July 1455’, Introduction.
13. Watts, Henry VI, p. 322 & p. 333.
14. Ibid., p. 335.
15. As a starting point for this discussion, see Watts, Henry VI, p. 266, n. 15.
16. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 306.
17. Exter Cathedral, MS. 3498/223. See Myers (ed.), English Political Documents, p. 280.
18. ODNB, Virginia Davis, ‘Waynflete, William (c.1400–1486)’ – doi:10.1093/ ref:odnb/28907.
19. ODNB, Michael K.Jones, ‘Beaufort, Henry, second duke of Somerset (1436–1464)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1860.
20. Griffiths, Henry VI, pp. 806–7.
21. Pollard, Warwick, p. 35.
22. Ibid., pp. 37–8. Fabyan, Great Chronicle of London, p. 190.
23. Griffiths, Henry VI, p. 807.
24. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1451–1460, pp. 196–210.
25. Ibid.
26. Davies, An English Chronicle, p. 83.
27. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1451–1460, pp. 196–210. In Gregory’s words, Duchess Cecily ‘was kept fulle strayte and many a grete rebuke’.
7. ‘A WARWICK’
1. Pollard, Warwick, pp. 127–8.
2. The finest of all came from the March of Shropshire and Leominster, very much the area of the Duke of York’s power. See Hallam (ed.), The Chronicles of the Wars of the Roses, pp. 202–3.
3. Harriss, ‘The Struggle for Calais: An Aspect of the Rivalry between Lancaster and York’, English Historical Review, Vol. 75, Issue 294, pp. 45–6.
4. Fabyan, The New Chronicles of England and France, (ed.) Ellis (1811), p. 635, cited in Kendall, Warwick the Kingmaker (2002), p. 62.
5. Armstrong, BIHR 33, p. 30.
6. Harriss, ‘The Struggle for Calais’ (op. cit.), pp. 30–53.
7. Ross, Edward IV (1974), p. 86, for general characterizations of his licentiousness.
8. Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: The Soldiers’ Experience (2005), p. 198.
9. See Lander, The Wars of the Roses, p. 12, for a pithy explanation of how the ‘insincerity, chicanery and ruthlessness’ of the diplomacy of the French- and Italian-speaking states would make such an extraordinary new alliance a feasibility and thus something to be planned against.
10. Pius II later repudiated Coppini, saying he had proceeded without authority. This seems unlikely (see Richard G. Davies, ‘The Church and the Wars of the Roses’, in Pollard (ed.), The Wars of the Roses, pp. 157–9.
11. Davies, An English Chronicle, pp. 91–4.
12. Gillingham, Wars of the Roses, p. 111.
13. Ibid., p. 112.
14. Pollard, Warwick, pp. 151–2.
15. Hicks, Warwick, p. 191.
16. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1451–1460, pp. 196–210.
17. Pollard, Warwick, p. 156.
18. Dyer, ‘The political life of the fifteenth-century English village’, in Carpenter & Clark (eds.), Political culture in late Medieval Britain, pp. 148–57.
19. Pollard, Warwick, p. 158.
20. Davies, An English Chronicle, pp. 86–90. See Dockray, Henry VI Source Book, pp. 35–6.
21. Davies, op cit., p. 89.
22. Kendall, Warwick, p. 71.
23. Hinds, CSP Milan, 1460, item 37.
24. Warner, British Battlefields (2002), p. 81.
25. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1451–1460, pp. 196–210.
26. Davies, An English Chronicle, p. 97.
27. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1451–1460, pp. 196–210.
28. Gillingham, Wars of the Roses, p. 113. And ODNB, Rosemary Horrox, ‘Grey, Edmund, first earl of Kent (1416–1490)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11529.
29. Gillingham, Wars of the Roses, p. 115.
30. Davies, An English Chronicle, p. 98.
31. Whethamstede (ed. Riley), Registrum I, pp. 376–8.
32. See Watts, Henry VI, p. 358, n. 413.
33. Griffiths, Henry VI, p. 868.
34. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 20.
35. Ibid., p. 324.
36. Horrox (contrib. ed.), Given-Wilson (gen. ed.), Parl. Rolls, ’Henry VI: October 1460’, section 16.
37. Wolffe, Henry VI, p. 21. See Constance Head, Archivum Historiae Pontificae VIII (1970), citing Florence Alden Gragg (trans.), The Commentaries of Pius II (1937–57).
38. Hinds, CSP Milan, 1461, item 78.
39. Horrox (contrib. ed.), Given-Wilson (gen. ed.), Parl. Rolls, ‘Henry VI: October 1460’, section 29.
8. THE SUN IN SPLENDOUR
1. Wolffe, Henry VI, pp. 20–1, citing Constance Head, op cit.
2. Dockray, Henry VI Source Book, p. xxviii.
3. British Library: ref. BL. Harleian MS 543, fol. 147. See Crawford, The Letters of the Queens of England, 1066–1547 (1994), p. 129.
4. Horrox (contrib. ed.), Given-Wilson (gen. ed.), Parl. Rolls, ‘Henry VI: October 1460’, section 32.
5. Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452–97 (1981), p. 42.
6. Boardman, Towton (2009), p. 25.
7. Cox, The Battle of Wakefield Revisited (2010), pp. 48–52.
8. Pollard, Warwick the Kingmaker, p. 43.
9. See Haigh, From Wakefield to Towton (2002), pp. 29–30.
10. Hinds, CSP Milan, 1461, no. 52, cited by Goodman, The Wars of the Roses, p. 43.
11. Surely it cannot be for the crass reason that Abbot Whethamstede ascribed to him, that he sought better lodgings for Christmas: ref. Whethamstede, Registrum I, p. 381.
12. Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity, p. 52.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., p. 43.
15. Ibid.
16. Maurer, Margaret of Anjou, p. 191.
17. Haigh, From Wakefield to Towton, p. 37. Cox, The Battle of Wakefield Revisited, p. 61.
18. Davies, An English Chronicle, p. 106. Haigh, From Wakefield to Towton, p. 33.
19. Cox, The Battle of Wakefield Revisited, pp. 83–6.
20. Davies, An English Chronicle, p. 107.
21. Stevenson (ed.), ‘Annales Rerum Anglicarum’, within Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Wars of the English in France During the Reign of Henry the Sixth, King of England (1861–64), Vol. II, part ii, p. 775.
22. Gairdner, Paston Letters, Vol. II, No. 384, pp. 3–4.
23. H. T. Riley (ed.), Crowland Chronicle (1854), p. 531.
24. Gairdner, Paston Letters, Vol. I, No. 367, p. 541.
25. Hinds, CSP Milan, 1461, no. 52.
26. Ibid., no. 54.
27. Ibid., no. 56.
28. Ibid., no. 76. See Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: The Soldiers’ Experience, pp. 198–200.
29. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1461–1469, pp. 210–39.
30. Ibid.
31. Whethamstede Registra, (ed.) Riley, pp. 388–92.
32. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1461–1469, pp. 210–39.
33. Ibid.
34. Davies, An English Chronicle, p. 108.
35. Stevenson (ed.), Annales Rerum Anglicarum, Vol. II, part ii, p. 777.
36. Ross, Edward IV, p. 13.
37. Kleineke, Edward IV (2009), p. 29. Charles VII during the protracted and ill-fated peace negotiations was more than happy for the infant Prince Edward to be betrothed to one of this daughters. This would not have happened if there had been any shadow of illegitimacy.
38. ODNB, Christopher Harper-Bill, ‘Cecily, duchess of York (1415–1495)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50231.
39. Kleineke, Edward IV, p. 30.
40. Warner, British Battlefields, pp. 89–94.
41. ODNB, John Watts, ‘Butler, James, first earl of Wiltshire and fifth earl of Ormond (1420–1461)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4188.
42. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1461–1469, pp. 210–39.
43. Fabyan, Great Chronicle of London, p. 195.
44. Stevenson (ed.), Annales Rerum Anglicarum, Vol. II, part ii, p. 777.
45. Strong, Coronation, p. 131.
46. Hinds, CSP Milan, 1461, no. 76.
47. Ibid.
48. Barron, ‘London and the Crown 1451–61’ in Highfield and Jeffs (eds.), The Crown and Local Communities, p. 97.
49. Bird and Ledward (eds.), Calendar of the Close Rolls, 1461–8 (1949), pp. 50–8. Offered online as part of the subscription to The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (see Introduction to these notes).
50. The words themselves are in modern English from its 1940s translation by Messrs. W. H. B. Bird and K. H. Ledward.
51. Stevenson (ed.), Annales Rerum Anglicarum, Vol. II, part ii, p. 777.
9. A COUNTRY AT WAR – NORTH VS SOUTH
1. Hardy, Longbow (1992), p. 83.
2. Strickland and Hardy, The Great Warbow (2005), p. 42.
3. Hardy, Longbow, p. 83.
4. Strickland and Hardy, The Great Warbow, p. 42, quoting Ascham, Toxophilus, ed. J. E. B. Mayor (1863).
5. Strickland and Hardy, The Great Warbow, p. 26.
6. The author is extremely grateful for the great assistance given by Stuart Ivinson of the Royal Armouries in terms of the nature and performance of arms and armour – please see Acknowledgements.
7. Tests conducted by the Royal Armouries Museum in 1998 (written up in Royal Armouries Museum Yearbook 3, 1998) on a replica Mary Rose-type longbow of 90lbs draw weight, shooting a bodkin arrow, gave an average velocity of 97.45 miles per hour (or 43.47 metres per second), and a maximum velocity of 44.30 metres per second. With thanks to Stuart Ivinson of the Royal Armouries Museum for this information.
8. Waller (contrib.), ‘Archery’, in Fiorato & Boylston & Knüsel (eds.), Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461 (2007), p. 133, fig. 11.3.
9. Strickland and Hardy, The Great Warbow, p. 286.
10. www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Tetanus/Pages/Symptoms.aspx.
11. Gillingham, Wars of the Roses, pp. 35–6.
12. English armour was well established in 1461 and the Livery Company that represented Armourers remains to this day: ‘The Armourers’ Company was founded in 1322 and has occupied the same site in the City of London since 1346. The Company is now one of the leading charities in the UK supporting metallurgy and materials science education from primary school to postgraduate levels.’ (From www.armourersandbrasiers.co.uk, the official website of The Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers.)
13. Sir John Savile’s Household (Members of the Wars of the Roses Federation) www.savilehousehold.co.uk/html/the_savile_s.html.
14. See p. 232 for further details of the Towton Battlefield Society.
15. John Howard, the slightly later Duke of Norfolk who may have led the Mowbray Duke of Norfolk’s troops at Towton, as per Anne Crawford, ‘Howard, John, first duke of Norfolk’ (d. 1485) – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13921.
16. Re the Archer’s coat, see The household books of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, 1462–1471, 1481–1483 (1992), Introd. Anne Crawford.
17. See David Santiuste’s Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses (2010), pp. 2–3, for an extremely concise and clear explanation of recruitment based on the works of: Anthony Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity, pp. 119–52; Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: The Soldiers’ Experience, pp. 78–125; Michael Hicks, ‘Bastard Feudalism, Overmighty Subjects and Idols of the Multitude during the Wars of the Roses’, History, 85. (2000), esp. 389–91; and Rosemary Horrox, ‘Service’, in Fifteenth-Century Attitudes: Perception of Society in late medieval England(1994), pp. 61–78.
18. E.g. Charles Plummer in his Introduction to Sir John Fortescue’s The Governance of England (1885 and William Denton, author of England in the Fifteenth Century (1888), cited by A.J. Pollard in his Wars of the Roses (2001), in the ‘British History in Perspective’ series.
19. K.Mertes, The English Noble’s Household, 1250–1600 (1988) quoted in Maurice Keen, English Society in the Later Middle Ages, p. 166.
20. As Michael Hicks in The Wars of the Roses (2010) describes it: ‘all, but the indispensable laundress, male’.
21. Boardman, The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses (1998), p. 64.
22. Gillingham, Wars of the Roses, p. 33.
23. Ibid.
24. Boardman, The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses, p. 78.
25. Keen, English Society in the Later Middle Ages, p. 227; & Kleineke, Edward IV, p. 31.
26. Gillingham, The Wars of the Roses, p. 49.
27. Vegetius, Epitome of Military Science (1993), ed. N. P. Milner, p. 65.
28. De Pisan, The Book of Fayttes of Arms and of Chivalry (1932), ed. Byles.
29. Ibid., p. xi.
30. Ibid., pp. xi–xiii.
31. Ibid., p. 79. Those advantages being ‘high ground, sun and wind’.
32. Hinds, CSP Milan, 1461, no. 71.
33. Quoted in Gillingham, Wars of the Roses, p. 28.
34. Vegetius, Knyghthode and Bataile (1935), ed. Dyboski and Arend, p. 41. Quoted in Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity, p. 154.
35. The all-encompassing name is generally accepted and the number of Wars – three – by historians. But within that there is disagreement: for instance Pollard dates the ‘First War of the Roses’ from 1459–1464, with it ending with the capture of the northern fortresses (see his Wars of the Roses: Problems in Focus, p. 2); whilst Hicks states 1459–1461, i.e. from Blore Heath to the ‘annihilation’ at Towton (his Wars of the Roses, p. 5). This author agrees with Hicks on the end date, but believes that the significance of 1st St Albans and the divisions that followed should not be underestimated, so that he would date it 1455–1461.
36. As one of the Queen’s Beasts, it can be seen, in stone form in Kew Gardens.
37. See Ross, Wars of the Roses, pp. 10–15.
38. Bosworth was a much smaller and shorter battle than Towton. It was also distinguished by a large number of troops deliberately not being committed by their noble commanders until late in the battle. The loss of life, lands and position by less fortunate predecessors at previous Wars of the Roses battles was taken into account by these nobles. For information on recent archaeological work at Bosworth see www.battlefieldstrust.com
39. Archaeologia Aeliana, 29 (1824), pp. 343–7.
40. Candlemas – forty days after Christmas.
41. For a clear, concise statement of the argument of the importance of economic slump and financial Dislocation, see Professor Michael Hicks’s new book, The Wars of the Roses, espec. pp. 49–55.
42. J. Fortescue, De laudibus legum Angliae (1917), trans. F. Grigor, p. 60; also quoted in Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity, p. 153. For the lasting constitutional importance of Sir John Fortescue see Starkey, Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity (2007), pp. 10–13 & p. 22.
43. Waurin, Recueil Des Croniques, ed. Hardy, Vol. 6 (1891), Book 3, Chapt. 46, p. 335.
44. Ross, Edward IV, p. 35.
45. Gairdner (ed.), Paston Letters (1910), Vol. II, No. 384, p. 3.
46. Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity, p. 50.
47. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1461–1469, pp. 210–39.
48. Prestwich, Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages, p. 190.
49. For discussion of numbers, see Introduction (incl. note 4) and Chapter 10, p. 171 (& note 24) of this work.
50. Ross, Wars of the Roses, p. 144.
51. Tim Sutherland, the battlefield archaeologist and Project Director of the Towton Battlefield Archaeological Survey Project, has a compelling new theory to explain why Lancastrian troops were not defending Castleford. See Tim Sutherland, ‘Killing Time: Challenging the Common Perceptions of Three Medieval Conflicts – Ferrybridge, Dintingdale and Towton’, Journal of Conflict Archaeology, Vol. 5 (2009), pp. 1–25.
52. Waurin, Recueil Des Croniques, Vol. VI, Book 3, p. 325.
53. See also Gravett, Towton (2003), pp. 31–9 for discussion of the Battle of Ferrybridge.
54. Sutherland, ‘Killing Time’, Journal of Conflict Archaeology, pp. 1–25.
55. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1461–1469, pp. 210–39.
10. TOWTON – PALM SUNDAY 1461
1. See Gravett, Towton, p. 38 for discussion of this point.
2. Boardman, Towton, p. 96.
3. Waurin, Recueil Des Croniques, Vol. VI, Book 3, Chapt. 47, p. 325.
4. As with the previous chapter, the author wishes to express his thanks to Stuart Ivinson of the Royal Armouries for his assistance.
5. Waller, ‘Combat Techniques’, in Fiorato et al, Blood Red Roses, p. 150.
6. Rimer, ‘Weapons’ in ibid., p. 126.
7. Waller, ‘Combat Techniques’, in ibid., pp. 150–1.
8. Barker, Agincourt, p. 89.
9. Rimer, ‘Weapons’ in op cit., pp. 128–9.
10. Gillingham, Wars of the Roses, p. 20.
11. Waurin, Recueil Des Croniques, eds. W. E. Hardy and E. Hardy, Vol. V, Book 4, p. 158.
12. De Pisan, The Book of Fayttes of Arms and of Chivalry, ed. Byles, p. 64.
13. Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: The Soldiers’ Experience, p. 138.
14. Hall, Chronicle (1809), p. 255.
15. Vergil, Three books of Polydore Vergil’s English history (1844), ed. Ellis, Book II, p. 110.
16. Information courtesy of Church House. It also remains the custom that clergymen should be buried the opposite way – from the intention that they should face their congregations at the Resurrection.
17. This is an important part of the work of the Towton Battlefield Archaeological Survey Project, www.towtonbattle.com.
18. The printing of indulgences was to be a major factor of Caxton’s commercial success, www.bl.uk/treasures/caxton/pardoners.html.
19. Those who were armigerous, i.e. entitled to bear heraldic arms.
20. With thanks to Roger Protz, the world’s leading writer on beer, www.beerpages.com/.
21. Benet’s Chronicle, Camden Miscellany 24 (1972), p. 162 & p. 164.
22. Boardman, Towton, pp. 102–3.
23. The Towton Battlefield Society have an ongoing database of known participants at the battle. See also Graham Darbyshire’s The Gentry & Peerage of Towton, Vol. I (2008), with Vol. II in preparation.
24. See ‘Introductory Chapter’. In The Battlefields of England, first published in 1950, Alfred H. Burne also put forward the possibility of 75,000 (pp. 104–5 of 1996 edition), but on the basis of an estimation of: i. a population of three and half million;ii. a fighting age of 15 to 40; iii. 15% of the potential soldiers being at the battlefield. As per note 4 for the Introductory Chapter above, this author believes that a 75,000 figure should be based on a lower population, but also on a much wider range of fighting ages, which would thus represent 10% of potential soldiers. In this he takes his lead from Professor Charles Ross, one of the greatest historians of this period. See also pp. 100–3 of Boardman’s Towton for a discussion of combatant numbers. This author agrees with Burne’s rejection of higher figures based on chronicler exaggeration and the inclusion of non-combatants: such as servants, traders, scavengers and general camp followers. Burne estimated these at 25% of a 100,000 figure he attributes to Edmund Hall – the latter slightly incorrect as on pp. 254–5 of his Chronicle, Hall gives 60,000 for the Lancastrians and a more exact figure of 48,660 for the Yorkists (on the basis of ‘they that knew it and paid the wages’). Burne’s assertion, on p. 103, that those for the Yorkists were pay-roll figures seems ludicrous. But in the end, as Boardman agrees (on his p. 103)it is ‘very dangerous’ to get bogged down in figures and this author believes it is not just in terms of pure numbers that Towton was important. This lies in its brutality and lasting historical significance (see ‘Introduction’ and ‘In Memoriam’ of this book).
25. ODNB, Michael Hicks, ‘Holland, Henry, second duke of Exeter (1430– 1475)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50223.
26. Davies, An English Chronicle, pp. 107–8. Waurin, Chroniques, Vol.VI, Book 3, Chapt. 45, pp. 328–9 & p. 334. Though it should be remembered that Warwick was a master of self-serving propaganda.
27. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1461–1469, pp. 210–39.
28. ODNB, A. J. Pollard, ‘Neville, William, earl of Kent (1401?–1463) – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19967.
29. Boardman, Towton, p. 63.
30. See map in Gravett, Towton, p. 42.
31. See Darbyshire, The Gentry & Peerage of Towton, insert between pp. 28–9.
32. McGill, The Battle of Towton (1992), p. 40.
33. Sources are divided as to whether it was snow or sleet. It is likely, given the time of the year and the severity of the conditions, that it was both. The Met Office confirms that it is perfectly possible for both to alternate during the course of a day.
34. Hall, Chronicle (1809), p. 255. For conditions, see also ‘Hearne’s fragment’ in Giles (ed.), Chronicles of the White Rose of York (1843), p. 9; and the Crowland Chronicle, p. 426.
35. The required rate for an archer to be recruited was twelve per minute. The figure of ten takes into consideration the particular difficulty of the conditions. With thanks to Stuart Ivinson of the Royal Armouries Museum for this insight.
36. The Towton Battlefield Archaeological Survey Project’s recent discoveries of arrow heads give a far clearer indication of the starting point of the battle lines.
37. Waurin, Chroniques, Vol. VI, Book 3, Chapt. 48, pp. 339–40 speaks of a cavalry action. With this spur, Andrew Boardman presents the argument that the Lancastrian commanders, Somerset and Trollope, mounted a surprise ambush based on Castle Hill Wood to the left of the Yorkist position and that this would have assisted in the skewing of the battle lines. Skewing could also have occurred through the initial engagement of troops, as well as through Norfolk’s intervention. Such a cavalry encounter at a fixed battle would have been highly singular during the 1st War of the Roses, innovative though the Lancastrian commanders undoubtedly were. Waurin was capable of being as factually inventive as Warwick the Kingmaker, whom he met personally,* and even he does not mention an ambush. Allowing for the fact that the wood may have been larger in 1461, it would, however, have been managed and the condition of the wood itself and general topography and distance would have made it unlikely that the Lancastrian ‘cavalry’ would have been undetected for sufficient time, either within the wood or charging out of it. Finally, no archaeological evidence has, as yet, been found, either by the Towton Battlefield Archaeological Survey Project or by a special archaeological investigation of the battlefield by English Heritage in 2010.
38. For these, see Santiuste, Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses, pp. 56–7.
39. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1461–1469, pp. 210–39.
40. Darbyshire, The Gentry & Peerage of Towton, p. 30.
41. Boardman, Towton, p. 128.
42. It is thought with some evidence that he was buried with his horse. See Boardman, Towton, pp. 87–8.
43. Gregory’s Chronicle, 1461–1469, pp. 210–39.
44. Commynes, Memoirs, ed. Scoble, Vol. I, Book 3, Chapt. V, p. 192. Modern updating of translation with reference to Michael C. E.Jones trans. of (1972), p. 187; and Isabelle Cazeaux trans. of 1969.
45. Starkey, Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity, p. 6.
46. Brief Notes in Gairdner (ed.), Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles, p. 151. Also cited by Armstrong, ‘Politics and the Battle of St Albans, 1455’, BIHR 33, p. 27.
47. Hall, Chronicle, p. 255. Also cited in Humphrys, Clash of Arms (2006), p. 83.
48. Hinds, CSP Milan, 1461, item 78.
49. Fabyan, Great Chronicle of London, ed. Thomas & Thornley, p. 197.
50. Ibid.
51. ODNB, John Watts, ‘Butler, James, first earl of Wiltshire and fifth earl of Ormond (1420–1461)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4188.
52. See Boardman, Towton, p. x.
53. Sutherland, ‘Recording the Grave’ in Fiorato et al, Blood Red Roses, p. 46. This figure includes the unattached feet of a man – thus some give the figure as thirty-seven.
54. Boardman, Towton, pp. 156–9.
55. See Blood Red Roses, Fiorato et al, in its entirety.
56. Boylston, Holst & Coughlan, ‘Physical Anthropology’, ibid., p. 48.
57. See especially, Part II, Chapters 5–9, of ibid., pp. 45–118.
58. Gundula Müldner and Michael P. Richards, ‘Fast or feast: reconstructing diet in later medieval England by stable isotope analysis’, Journal of Archaeological Science, 32 (2005), pp. 39–48. The analysis of the bone collagen from the skeletons in the Towton mass grave broadly conforms to other examples of the Medieval period. Examination of the Towton skeletons strongly points to changes most likely brought about by physical stress through continual use of the longbow over many years, see Knüsel ‘Activity-Related Skeletal Change’, in Blood Red Roses, p. 116.
59. Even as late as A. L. Rowse. See Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses (1966).
11. IN MEMORIAM
1. De Pisan, The Book of Fayttes of Arms and of Chivalry, ed. Byles, p. 79.
2. Hinds, CSP Milan, 1461, item 79.
3. Ibid., item 79.
4. Ibid., item 83.
5. Ibid., item 91.
6. Ibid., item 89.
7. Gairdner (ed.), Paston Letters, Vol. II, No. 385, pp. 4–6.
8. ODNB, Rosemary Horrox, ‘Edward V (1470–1483)’ – doi:10.1093/ ref:odnb/8521.
9. The general areas of reburial are thought to include Saxton churchyard and the Memorial Chapel. A careful archaeological examination of the pits would still reveal important evidence.
10. As a tribute to McFarlane’s importance, see ODNB, G. L. Harriss, ‘McFarlane, (Kenneth) Bruce (1903–1966)’ – doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/41133.
11. See Starkey, presenter, ‘Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant’ DVD, 2009.
12. Firth and Rait (eds.), Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642–1660 (1911), pp. 1253–5.