The first signs of treason
Posted August 11th, 2012 at 12:39 PM by Crystal Rainbow
King Richard III
XVI
Henry Tudor, was a shrewd man, he had played his cards close to his chest. He had spent most of his life living in exile and he knew how to bring people on side. He was quick to see, when others had seen through his agenda. He knew that his cause in the court of Brittany was lost, and the Duke of Brittany had realised that he had been financing a fugitive that was a pretender. He knew that he had no easy time ahead in France as the country was divided between two families which was the house of Valois and the Bourbon’s. The old King Louis XI had died in the summer of 1483 and the young King Charles VIII had just turned 13 when he inherited the throne. His health was described as poor and his contemporaries as of pleasant disposition but foolish and unsuited for running affairs and the business of the state. King Louis last wishes were that Charles elder sister; Anne was granted the regency of the kingdom. Anne was an intelligent and shrewd and her father had described her as “the least insane woman in France”. She was known as Anne of France and she was also had been referred to as Madame la Grand. She had married Peter of Bourbon, but it was widely known that she was the more dominating out of the relationship. Although she was quite young, she was fast becoming a very formidable and powerful person in the late fifteenth century.
Henry had realised that Anne had come from the House of Valois, the same House that his grandmother had come from. Although the marriage had never been recognised between his Grandparents a Squire Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, the widow Queen of Henry V. It seemed to impress the regent that there was Valois blood coursing through his veins. Commynes had mentioned that, Henry could speak so movingly of his ‘wrongs’ and so persuasively of his ‘rights’ that Commynes was much impressed. Henry Tudor had added more fuel on Richard’s intentions towards France and that Richard had made friendships with European leaders and added that Richard III, was becoming a formidable person and England could be a threat to France. He had also impressed on Anne that to remember her of Edward IV dealings with her father. Henry had started to get her ear as she had seen; Henry Tudor was not interested in England’s prosperity. It was clear to Anne that Henry was interested in plundering its country of its wealth and power. She had started to think having Henry Tudor on the throne in England, would not be such a bad thing. As she thought that her country would be safe from invasion.
Just after his arrival in the court of France, Henry was pleased that the Earl of Oxford had made his escape and he thought that fortune had smiled on him. He did not take the news of the Marquess of Dorset attempt to go back to England. This had clearly worried him as he wondered if anyone else would desert him. Henry was a highly suspicious person and after his years in exile he had found it hard to trust no one. It seemed that Henry Tudor had spent most of his time worrying on how he long can sustain the faithfulness of his followers in England and his band of exiles with his promises of what he will do for them once he had taken the Throne. Henry had reached the point where he had to go ahead and invade or just vanished into obscurity. He had managed to convince the French court a promise of money, ships, and some troops. He had started to set his headquarters at Rouen in the spring of 1485, when he had heard the rumours of Richard’s marriage plans to the lady Elizabeth.
Richard had been kept aware and well informed of Henry Tudor’s preparations by his agents, he knew that the French Court were backing Henry Tudor. It seemed Richard had taken into account what he must do to protect his land against invasion. There had been no time for Richard to mourn for his wife when he had recently just buried his wife at Westminster Abbey, next door to the Confessors Chapel. Richard had openly wept at her funeral. He seemed to undergoing a lot of stress due to those nasty rumours about marrying the lady Elizabeth.
Richard and his advisors had to take into account the amount of money was used in suppressing the Buckingham’s rebellion and the military operations on land and sea during the last year, not to mention how much that the Woodvilles had plundered from the treasury. The security against invasion had seriously depleted his treasury. It had become hard to find ready money that he needed for the defence of the realm and he had to resort to loans.
He made it clear that these requests were not the benevolence, which his Parliament had outlawed. For the loans which he floated among the merchants of London he provided, as he had done the year before, ‘good and sufficient pledges’, and the invitations to subscribe money which the royal commissioners-carefully coached in the courteous language they were to use-delivered to the wealthy gentlemen and abbots of the shires, bore a specific promise of repayment in two instalments spread over a little less than a year and a half. Only a few loans of as much as £200 were asked; most were from £40 to £100 or 100 marks. A number of the ‘charters’ were issued bearing the names of men to be approached; other were to be filled in at the discretion of the commissioners. The solicitation lasted from late February until 1st of April, Good Friday, and seems to have brought in about £20,000-a heartening amount, considering that the customary parliamentary tax of a Fifteenth and a Tenth netted only some £31,000 (after a deduction of £6, 000 for the relief of decayed towns). It had seemed not only was Richard was having to finance the security of the realm, but pay for the damage that had been done by the rebels. People were getting fed up with paying those benevolences, with no news of any lasting peace.
The weather had started to improve and Richard had learned that Henry Tudor’s fleet was at Harfleur and the government of Charles VIII had provided men and money as well as ships. The problem seemed that Richard could not find out any information about where Tudor starts his invasion. Richard had known the Earl of Northumberland had been in contact with Henry Tudor and Northumberland, was not forth coming with any information that would be some help to him. The only thing that Richard could do is having him closely watched. Over the years Richard had trouble with as a neighbour as Northumberland had resented Richard’s power in the North. It had seemed Henry had been promising him the post of Lord of the North.
Richard and his advisors had known that the north or East Anglia was loyal to the crown, they were more concerned for the Southwest coast of England, Wales and North West Coast. This was April, when Richard had dispatched Sir George Neville to sea with a fleet to watch the channel and guard the harbours of Kent. Viscount Francis Lovell had strengthened the coast defences and raising men to his banner in the southern counties. London had been well protected with its tower and the Duke of Norfolk had stayed in East Anglia to guard the approaches to the city. Richard had left the authority west country to his northern friend, John, Lord Scrope of Bolton. Richard had remembered that the Woodvilles had fled from the West Country and it had been known that they were Lancasterian sympathies.
Henry Tudor was half Welsh, which had boasted that the Tudors were descended from Kings since King Arthur. His uncle, Jasper Tudor, had styled himself the Earl of Pembroke and had been a great lord of the land. In the 1460’s he had held Harlech castle for the Lancasterians for a long time, even when the rest of the country was run under the reign of Edward IV. During the first part of Richards’s reign, the Duke of Buckingham had control of Wales but since his execution officers and native chieftains governed Wales, Rhys ap Thomas, James Tyrell, Knight of the Body and one of Richard’s most trusted servants. Tyrell had governed Glamorgan and Morgannok, but he had been sent to be the governor at Calais at Guisnes castle to find out about Tudor’s movements.
Richard had known some of the lords in his brief experience of governing the Marches and since he had become King he had shown favour to the Welsh. Giving them appointments rewarded that favour had paid off during the Buckingham rebellion. Welshmen Morgan Kidway had become Attorney General.
Rhys ap Thomas had showed Richard loyalty during the Buckingham rebellion and Richard had rewarded him by appointing his principal lieutenant in South Wales and granted him an annuity of 40 marks for life. Richard had asked for the services of his son, Gruffydd ap to his court in Nottingham, but Rhys did not allow his son go to court. He issued a statement that nothing could bind him to his duty more strongly than his conscience as he had taken his oath. He had issued the famous over my dead body oath. “Whoever ill-affected to the state, shall dare to land in those partes of Wales, where I have anie employment under your majestie, must resolve with himself to make his entrance and irruption over my bellie” . This still did not Rhys stop from corresponding with Henry Tudor, Rhys had planed the invasion to start in Wales.
http://www.castlewales.com/rhysap.html
William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon, was loyal to Richard. He received the post of Chief Justice of South Wales in 1483, which belonged to the Duke of Buckingham. He had married Richard’s natural born daughter Katherine in 1484. The Earl of Huntington had received 600 pounds a year, Richard knew that he would pretty sure of his loyalty.
In the Northwest of England, was under the power of the Stanley’s, and Sir William had owned most of East Debighshire and Shropshire. He had been appointed the chief Justice of North Wales in 1483. Richard had never forgotten past loyalties on the battlefield and he rewarded William Stanley for his loyal services for his achievements at Tewkesbury in 1471. His brother Lord Thomas Stanley and his son, Lord Strange had great influence in Cheshire and Lancashire. Over the years that he had known Thomas Stanley, Richard could never trust him. He was a landed magnate of power, particularly in the Northwest of England and he carried the title of the King of Mann. He had boasted much of his lineal descendant of King Edward I of England. Thomas Stanley had married Henry Tudor’s Mother, Margaret Beaufort. She was a woman that Richard had found a rather ambitious and cold calculating personality that was behind the Buckingham Rebellion and was responsible for that Marriage pact between her son Henry Tudor to marry the lady Elizabeth.
Thomas Stanley’s behaviour had started lack the respect towards Richard; he started to think of himself above Richard and became more aloof towards him. Thomas Stanley had made his loyalties with his wife and had been communicating with the exiled Henry Tudor for some time and had known about Tudor’s plans to land in Wales and head east though his land. Richard had tried his best to remain on friendly terms with him as “in preparing the ground for the ground for the usurpation and in consolidating his position, Richard found it more expedient to appease than to alienate the house of Stanley.” Due to the downfall of the Woodvilles Stanley had done well in supporting Richard in their downfall as did a lot of lords and Earls who had Supported Richard in taking the crown. Stanley had flourished and he was given more prestige as he bore the great mace at Richard and Anne’s coronation, while his wife had carried the new queen’s train. He had also had been appointed to the Order of the Garter, which was the stall that was vacated by the executed Lord Hastings. During Richard’s reign and when Thomas Stanley and his brother William Supported Richard during the Buckingham Rebellion they were well rewarded from Buckingham’s downfall and were given the position of Lord High Constable of England. One might wonder if Thomas Stanley’s wife Margaret Beaufort was behind the Buckingham rebellion as Buckingham was considered a closer claim to the throne than her son, Henry. It was dawning on Richard that Stanley’s loyalty could not be relied on any more, even after his exalting his position, he could not trust him. When Stanley had sought permission to leave the court and return to his estates in the North West, Richard had insisted that his son, George Stanley, Lord Strange to take his place at court as a token for his father’s good behaviour, during the Summer of 1485. It was only then had Richard had first learned of Thomas Stanley’s treachery from his son before the battle of Bosworth.
By the middle of May Richard was still in London, still mourning for his wife had finally had to leave London to go to Windsor. Negotiations had begun between Richard’s advisors and the King Alfonso of Portugal. His advisors had told Richard that it was important to bring a marriage, which union would be of benefit to peace and they had found the perfect match, which was Joanna of Portugal. She was descended from John of Gaunt. She was beautiful and a pious princess and she shown that she were capable of serving her country as a regent when her father had gone on an expedition. Much importance was placed upon Richard’s shoulders as his advisors had told him that he had to distance himself from the rumours of marrying the Lady Elizabeth. There was just as much importance was attached that Richard should give the country an son and heir as he was the princess was only 8 months older than Richard and was still in her child bearing years. His Knights and Esquires of the Royal household along with Thomas Stanley accompanied him Windsor. Followed by John Kendall are chief secretary and his chief and trusted advisors. Even though Richard had just lost the wife and women that he loved so much, he knew he could not feel comfortable with his councillors talking about the prospects of Richard having a new wife when his wife Anne’s body not even cold in her grave.
XVI
Henry Tudor, was a shrewd man, he had played his cards close to his chest. He had spent most of his life living in exile and he knew how to bring people on side. He was quick to see, when others had seen through his agenda. He knew that his cause in the court of Brittany was lost, and the Duke of Brittany had realised that he had been financing a fugitive that was a pretender. He knew that he had no easy time ahead in France as the country was divided between two families which was the house of Valois and the Bourbon’s. The old King Louis XI had died in the summer of 1483 and the young King Charles VIII had just turned 13 when he inherited the throne. His health was described as poor and his contemporaries as of pleasant disposition but foolish and unsuited for running affairs and the business of the state. King Louis last wishes were that Charles elder sister; Anne was granted the regency of the kingdom. Anne was an intelligent and shrewd and her father had described her as “the least insane woman in France”. She was known as Anne of France and she was also had been referred to as Madame la Grand. She had married Peter of Bourbon, but it was widely known that she was the more dominating out of the relationship. Although she was quite young, she was fast becoming a very formidable and powerful person in the late fifteenth century.
Henry had realised that Anne had come from the House of Valois, the same House that his grandmother had come from. Although the marriage had never been recognised between his Grandparents a Squire Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, the widow Queen of Henry V. It seemed to impress the regent that there was Valois blood coursing through his veins. Commynes had mentioned that, Henry could speak so movingly of his ‘wrongs’ and so persuasively of his ‘rights’ that Commynes was much impressed. Henry Tudor had added more fuel on Richard’s intentions towards France and that Richard had made friendships with European leaders and added that Richard III, was becoming a formidable person and England could be a threat to France. He had also impressed on Anne that to remember her of Edward IV dealings with her father. Henry had started to get her ear as she had seen; Henry Tudor was not interested in England’s prosperity. It was clear to Anne that Henry was interested in plundering its country of its wealth and power. She had started to think having Henry Tudor on the throne in England, would not be such a bad thing. As she thought that her country would be safe from invasion.
Just after his arrival in the court of France, Henry was pleased that the Earl of Oxford had made his escape and he thought that fortune had smiled on him. He did not take the news of the Marquess of Dorset attempt to go back to England. This had clearly worried him as he wondered if anyone else would desert him. Henry was a highly suspicious person and after his years in exile he had found it hard to trust no one. It seemed that Henry Tudor had spent most of his time worrying on how he long can sustain the faithfulness of his followers in England and his band of exiles with his promises of what he will do for them once he had taken the Throne. Henry had reached the point where he had to go ahead and invade or just vanished into obscurity. He had managed to convince the French court a promise of money, ships, and some troops. He had started to set his headquarters at Rouen in the spring of 1485, when he had heard the rumours of Richard’s marriage plans to the lady Elizabeth.
Richard had been kept aware and well informed of Henry Tudor’s preparations by his agents, he knew that the French Court were backing Henry Tudor. It seemed Richard had taken into account what he must do to protect his land against invasion. There had been no time for Richard to mourn for his wife when he had recently just buried his wife at Westminster Abbey, next door to the Confessors Chapel. Richard had openly wept at her funeral. He seemed to undergoing a lot of stress due to those nasty rumours about marrying the lady Elizabeth.
Richard and his advisors had to take into account the amount of money was used in suppressing the Buckingham’s rebellion and the military operations on land and sea during the last year, not to mention how much that the Woodvilles had plundered from the treasury. The security against invasion had seriously depleted his treasury. It had become hard to find ready money that he needed for the defence of the realm and he had to resort to loans.
He made it clear that these requests were not the benevolence, which his Parliament had outlawed. For the loans which he floated among the merchants of London he provided, as he had done the year before, ‘good and sufficient pledges’, and the invitations to subscribe money which the royal commissioners-carefully coached in the courteous language they were to use-delivered to the wealthy gentlemen and abbots of the shires, bore a specific promise of repayment in two instalments spread over a little less than a year and a half. Only a few loans of as much as £200 were asked; most were from £40 to £100 or 100 marks. A number of the ‘charters’ were issued bearing the names of men to be approached; other were to be filled in at the discretion of the commissioners. The solicitation lasted from late February until 1st of April, Good Friday, and seems to have brought in about £20,000-a heartening amount, considering that the customary parliamentary tax of a Fifteenth and a Tenth netted only some £31,000 (after a deduction of £6, 000 for the relief of decayed towns). It had seemed not only was Richard was having to finance the security of the realm, but pay for the damage that had been done by the rebels. People were getting fed up with paying those benevolences, with no news of any lasting peace.
The weather had started to improve and Richard had learned that Henry Tudor’s fleet was at Harfleur and the government of Charles VIII had provided men and money as well as ships. The problem seemed that Richard could not find out any information about where Tudor starts his invasion. Richard had known the Earl of Northumberland had been in contact with Henry Tudor and Northumberland, was not forth coming with any information that would be some help to him. The only thing that Richard could do is having him closely watched. Over the years Richard had trouble with as a neighbour as Northumberland had resented Richard’s power in the North. It had seemed Henry had been promising him the post of Lord of the North.
Richard and his advisors had known that the north or East Anglia was loyal to the crown, they were more concerned for the Southwest coast of England, Wales and North West Coast. This was April, when Richard had dispatched Sir George Neville to sea with a fleet to watch the channel and guard the harbours of Kent. Viscount Francis Lovell had strengthened the coast defences and raising men to his banner in the southern counties. London had been well protected with its tower and the Duke of Norfolk had stayed in East Anglia to guard the approaches to the city. Richard had left the authority west country to his northern friend, John, Lord Scrope of Bolton. Richard had remembered that the Woodvilles had fled from the West Country and it had been known that they were Lancasterian sympathies.
Henry Tudor was half Welsh, which had boasted that the Tudors were descended from Kings since King Arthur. His uncle, Jasper Tudor, had styled himself the Earl of Pembroke and had been a great lord of the land. In the 1460’s he had held Harlech castle for the Lancasterians for a long time, even when the rest of the country was run under the reign of Edward IV. During the first part of Richards’s reign, the Duke of Buckingham had control of Wales but since his execution officers and native chieftains governed Wales, Rhys ap Thomas, James Tyrell, Knight of the Body and one of Richard’s most trusted servants. Tyrell had governed Glamorgan and Morgannok, but he had been sent to be the governor at Calais at Guisnes castle to find out about Tudor’s movements.
Richard had known some of the lords in his brief experience of governing the Marches and since he had become King he had shown favour to the Welsh. Giving them appointments rewarded that favour had paid off during the Buckingham rebellion. Welshmen Morgan Kidway had become Attorney General.
Rhys ap Thomas had showed Richard loyalty during the Buckingham rebellion and Richard had rewarded him by appointing his principal lieutenant in South Wales and granted him an annuity of 40 marks for life. Richard had asked for the services of his son, Gruffydd ap to his court in Nottingham, but Rhys did not allow his son go to court. He issued a statement that nothing could bind him to his duty more strongly than his conscience as he had taken his oath. He had issued the famous over my dead body oath. “Whoever ill-affected to the state, shall dare to land in those partes of Wales, where I have anie employment under your majestie, must resolve with himself to make his entrance and irruption over my bellie” . This still did not Rhys stop from corresponding with Henry Tudor, Rhys had planed the invasion to start in Wales.
http://www.castlewales.com/rhysap.html
William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon, was loyal to Richard. He received the post of Chief Justice of South Wales in 1483, which belonged to the Duke of Buckingham. He had married Richard’s natural born daughter Katherine in 1484. The Earl of Huntington had received 600 pounds a year, Richard knew that he would pretty sure of his loyalty.
In the Northwest of England, was under the power of the Stanley’s, and Sir William had owned most of East Debighshire and Shropshire. He had been appointed the chief Justice of North Wales in 1483. Richard had never forgotten past loyalties on the battlefield and he rewarded William Stanley for his loyal services for his achievements at Tewkesbury in 1471. His brother Lord Thomas Stanley and his son, Lord Strange had great influence in Cheshire and Lancashire. Over the years that he had known Thomas Stanley, Richard could never trust him. He was a landed magnate of power, particularly in the Northwest of England and he carried the title of the King of Mann. He had boasted much of his lineal descendant of King Edward I of England. Thomas Stanley had married Henry Tudor’s Mother, Margaret Beaufort. She was a woman that Richard had found a rather ambitious and cold calculating personality that was behind the Buckingham Rebellion and was responsible for that Marriage pact between her son Henry Tudor to marry the lady Elizabeth.
Thomas Stanley’s behaviour had started lack the respect towards Richard; he started to think of himself above Richard and became more aloof towards him. Thomas Stanley had made his loyalties with his wife and had been communicating with the exiled Henry Tudor for some time and had known about Tudor’s plans to land in Wales and head east though his land. Richard had tried his best to remain on friendly terms with him as “in preparing the ground for the ground for the usurpation and in consolidating his position, Richard found it more expedient to appease than to alienate the house of Stanley.” Due to the downfall of the Woodvilles Stanley had done well in supporting Richard in their downfall as did a lot of lords and Earls who had Supported Richard in taking the crown. Stanley had flourished and he was given more prestige as he bore the great mace at Richard and Anne’s coronation, while his wife had carried the new queen’s train. He had also had been appointed to the Order of the Garter, which was the stall that was vacated by the executed Lord Hastings. During Richard’s reign and when Thomas Stanley and his brother William Supported Richard during the Buckingham Rebellion they were well rewarded from Buckingham’s downfall and were given the position of Lord High Constable of England. One might wonder if Thomas Stanley’s wife Margaret Beaufort was behind the Buckingham rebellion as Buckingham was considered a closer claim to the throne than her son, Henry. It was dawning on Richard that Stanley’s loyalty could not be relied on any more, even after his exalting his position, he could not trust him. When Stanley had sought permission to leave the court and return to his estates in the North West, Richard had insisted that his son, George Stanley, Lord Strange to take his place at court as a token for his father’s good behaviour, during the Summer of 1485. It was only then had Richard had first learned of Thomas Stanley’s treachery from his son before the battle of Bosworth.
By the middle of May Richard was still in London, still mourning for his wife had finally had to leave London to go to Windsor. Negotiations had begun between Richard’s advisors and the King Alfonso of Portugal. His advisors had told Richard that it was important to bring a marriage, which union would be of benefit to peace and they had found the perfect match, which was Joanna of Portugal. She was descended from John of Gaunt. She was beautiful and a pious princess and she shown that she were capable of serving her country as a regent when her father had gone on an expedition. Much importance was placed upon Richard’s shoulders as his advisors had told him that he had to distance himself from the rumours of marrying the Lady Elizabeth. There was just as much importance was attached that Richard should give the country an son and heir as he was the princess was only 8 months older than Richard and was still in her child bearing years. His Knights and Esquires of the Royal household along with Thomas Stanley accompanied him Windsor. Followed by John Kendall are chief secretary and his chief and trusted advisors. Even though Richard had just lost the wife and women that he loved so much, he knew he could not feel comfortable with his councillors talking about the prospects of Richard having a new wife when his wife Anne’s body not even cold in her grave.
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