MARRIED LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF RICHARD DUKE OF GLOUCESTER
While the King was engaged at Tewkesbury, the bastard of his uncle,
Lord Fauconberg, made an attack on London Bridge, and when he was
repulsed, he retreated to Sandwich. This disturbance hastened the
return of Edward IV., who reached the Tower on May 21. To the Duke of
Gloucester was entrusted the duty of following up the bastard, and
early next morning he started for Kent. Arriving by forced marches at
Sandwich, the rebel was taken by surprise and surrendered on the 26th.
He was a first cousin of the King and of the Duke of Gloucester, though
illegitimate; son of the general to whom, next to Edward, the victory
of Towton was due. Richard took him to Middleham, and treated him
kindly as a prisoner at large. But he escaped, was taken at
Southampton, tried for his original treason, and beheaded.
Peace was once more restored to the land, and the Duke of Gloucester's
great services were recognised by the country. The King and Parliament
were soon afterwards occupied with Richard's marriage.
The estates of the Earl and Countess of Warwick were forfeited, and the
Duke of Clarence, who had married the elder daughter, Isabella, desired
to obtain the whole for himself. The Countess of Warwick, {81} when
she returned from France with her daughter, Anne, and received the news
of her husband's death, took sanctuary in Beaulieu Abbey on the
Southampton Water. After Tewkesbury, Clarence claimed the wardship of
Anne, and tried to get her into his power.
The Duke of Clarence was grasping and selfish. He had no stability of
character, was vacillating, and easily influenced by bad advisers. It
is not clear how his sister-in-law escaped from his clutches; but his
object was to prevent her from marrying and to seize her share of her
parents' property, as well as that of his wife. It is certain that
Anne left her mother at Beaulieu and placed herself under the
protection of her uncle, George Nevill, Archbishop of York. But the
circumstances are unrecorded. There is mention of a disguise as a
cookmaid. The Archbishop placed her in sanctuary at St.
Martin's-le-Grand: where her inclinations and wishes could in no way be
influenced or overridden.
The young Duke of Gloucester sought the hand of his cousin Anne. They
had been playfellows as children, and now the cousins formed an
attachment which endured until death, Richard only surviving his wife
for four months. Anne accepted the proposal of Richard, and his suit
was approved by the King and by the Archbishop, the guardians of the
two lovers. But Clarence made unreasonable difficulties about the
settlement. From the 'Paston Letters' we learn that 'the King
entreateth my Lord Clarence for my Lord Gloucester, and he answereth
that he may well have my lady, his sister-in-law, but they shall part
no livelihood.'
At length the marriage settlements were arranged by Parliament.
Middleham was included in Gloucester's share of the Warwick
inheritance. In 1472, Richard {82} and Anne were happily married in
Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of York. His age was nineteen,
that of his wife sixteen.
[Sidenote: Middleham Castle]
Their home was at Middleham, in beautiful Wensleydale, and Anne's
mother, the Countess of Warwick, was taken from her sanctuary at
Beaulieu, to live with them. Here the Duke and Duchess passed several
years, winning golden opinions from the people of the north, and
acquiring great popularity in Yorkshire.
In 1475, the Duke of Gloucester was called from his home to accompany
the King when he invaded France. Louis XI. offered a large sum of
money if Edward IV. would abandon his ally, the Duke of Burgundy, and
make peace. He also bribed Dr. Morton and Edward's principal
courtiers. Under the evil influence of Morton and the Woodville
faction, the King of England, after an interview with Louis, acceded to
the disgraceful bargain. But the Duke of Gloucester also had an
interview with King Louis and was not to be corrupted. He objected to
the arrangement, and would have no part in it. His conduct was
honourable and consistent. He maintained that faith ought to be kept
with England's ally.
Richard Duke of Gloucester lived at Middleham Castle, with his wife and
child, for ten years, from 1472 to 1482, from his twentieth to his
thirtieth year. Here he had passed his early youth, had formed his
most enduring friendships, and had first seen his cousin Anne. The ten
years of peaceful married residence at Middleham was no doubt the
happiest period of Richard's short but eventful life.
[Illustration: SEIZE QUARTIERS OF ANNE NEVILL]
The ruins of the grand old pile, with the village and the church at
their feet, still form a conspicuous object on the southern slope of
Wensleydale. Middleham {83} is about a mile and a half above the
junction of the Ure and the Cover. In rear of the castle are the
breezy downs, and in front the river Ure flows through rich pastures,
with the town of Leybourne on the opposite slope. The castle consisted
of a lofty Norman keep surrounded by an enceinte eighty yards long by
sixty-five wide. The keep, which was built by Robert FitzRanulph in
1190, was fifty feet high, with walls nine feet thick, strengthened at
the angles by buttresses rising into rectangular turrets. It was
divided into two large rooms on each floor, the great hall having a
lofty arched window, due to the taste of the Duke of Gloucester. In
the north-east angle there was a curious mural chamber, twelve feet
long by nine, opening on to the hall, and the east face of the keep was
one side of the chapel. The outer walls were thirty feet high with
square towers at the angles, and a gatehouse on the north face. The
residential buildings stood against three sides of the _enceinte_, and
seem to have communicated with the great hall in the keep by a covered
passage.
The nearest neighbours of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were the
Monks of Jervaux and Coverham, their cousin the Lord Scrope of
Bolton,[1] and the Metcalfes of Nappa Hall.[2]
The manuscript volume No. 433 of the Harleian collection in the British
Museum supplies a few {84} glimpses of the home life at Middleham. We
read of a pack of hounds and of the wages of a jester. There is the
election of a king of rush bearing, and of a king of Middleham,
evidently games for the amusement of the Duke's little son Edward, who
was born about 1473.[3] The child's tutor was Richard Bernall, and the
cost is recorded of his primer and psalter, and of satin to cover them.
There are also payments for green cloth for my lord prince, and for a
feather for my lord prince.
[Sidenote: Richard's able administration]
Though Middleham was Richard's home, his official residence, as Chief
Seneschal of the Duchy of Lancaster in the north parts, was at Pomfret
Castle. He also stayed occasionally at Sheriff Hutton, Skipton, and
Barnard Castle. He was regarded as a trusted friend by his neighbours,
and in September 1481 we find Lady Latimer showing her confidence in
his integrity by appointing him supervisor of her will. She was a
sister of his mother-in-law, the Countess of Warwick. The Duke of
Gloucester bestowed great benefits on the city of York, where he was
much beloved. During his frequent visits he was usually the guest of
the Augustine friars,[4] and in their monastery he conferred with the
authorities touching their local affairs. He was actively engaged in
administrative work, and in giving his time to settle the affairs of
his neighbours from 1472. In that year we find him writing about a
robbery of cattle at Spofforth. In 1482 he was an arbitrator in the
dispute between Robert Plumpton and his heirs-general.[5] He improved
and beautified {85} several Yorkshire churches, building an additional
chapel at Sheriff Hutton, founding colleges at Middleham[6] and Barnard
Castle, and a memorial chapel near the battlefield of Towton. Crosby
Place, in Bishopsgate, became the town residence of the Duke and
Duchess of Gloucester, after the death of its wealthy founder, Sir John
Crosby, in 1475.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had been created Great Chamberlain and
Admiral of England by his brother, and he was Lord Warden of the Cinque
Ports. His little son Edward became Earl of Salisbury in 1478.[7] In
1480, when Richard had attained the age of twenty-eight, he was
appointed Lieutenant-General of the North and Warden of the Marches.
By his skill and energy he subdued part of the western border of
Scotland for an extent of more than thirty miles, bringing portions
under obedience to the King of England, 'to the great rest and ease of
the inhabitants of the west marches.'[8] His administration was so
able that it was remembered long after as a very model of
efficiency.[9] In 1482 he received command of an army for the invasion
of Scotland. In the summer of that year he entered Edinburgh, where he
was received by the malcontent nobles rather as a {86} friend than as
an enemy. He reconciled King James III. with his brother, enforced all
the English demands, and captured the town and castle of Berwick after
an obstinate resistance. This was a great achievement, and gave
England an important advantage in case of future hostilities.
Richard's services were cordially recognised by the Parliament which
met in January, and no man stood in higher honour throughout the
kingdom.
[Sidenote: Children of Edward IV.]
King Edward IV. died at Westminster on April 9, 1483, and was buried at
Windsor. He had gone through a marriage ceremony with Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir Richard Woodville of Grafton, and widow of Sir John
Grey of Groby, on May 1, 1464. Besides the priest and his assistant,
the only witnesses were Lady Grey's mother and two unnamed gentlewomen.
Edward IV. had three sons and seven daughters by Lady Grey, of whom two
sons and five daughters survived him.[10] He also had one son and one
daughter {87} by Elizabeth Lucy.[11] The Duke of Clarence had left a
son Edward and a daughter[12] by Isabella, daughter of the Earl of
Warwick.
[1] Lord Scrope was faithful to the end. His sister Agnes was married
to Sir Richard Ratcliffe, one of the most loyal of Richard's friends.
[2] James Metcalfe of Nappa, near Aysgarth, served at the battle of
Agincourt. He had two sons, Miles and Thomas. Immediately after his
accession Richard III. appointed Miles Metcalfe one of the Judges of
the County Palatine of Lancaster, and Thomas Metcalfe Chancellor of the
Duchy (_York Records_, p. 58 _n_).
[3] According to Rous he was seven and a half in 1483, when he was made
Prince of Wales. But the date in the text is more probable. See
Sandford, p. 410.
[4] _York Records_, p. 125 _n._
[5] _Plumpton Correspondence_.
[6] See the _History of the Collegiate Church of Middleham_, by the
Rev. Wm. Atthill (Camden Society, 1847). The licence for erecting the
church into a college was granted to the Duke of Gloucester on February
21, 1478, and he issued the Statutes on July 18, 1478. Miss Halsted,
the laborious and conscientious biographer of Richard III., had a
romantic attachment for Middleham, as the scene of the ill-fated young
King's happy married life. She eventually married the Rector, and was
buried in Middleham Church.
[7] _Rot. Parl._ 17 Ed. iv. p. 2, m. 16.
[8] _Rot. Parl._ vi. 204.
[9] Gairdner, p. 48, quoting Brewer's _Letters and Papers of Henry
VIII._, vol. i. nos. 4518-5090, and vol. iv. no. 133.
[10] Elizabeth, born at Westminster on February 11, 1465. (Sandford
says 1466, but Nicolas gives good reason for 1465 being the year.)
Cicely. The date of her birth is not recorded; but she came next to
Elizabeth. Henry Tudor married her to his old uncle, Lord Welles, some
time before December 1487. On his death in 1499, she married one Kyme
of Lincolnshire. She died in about 1503.
Edward was born in sanctuary on November 14, 1470. On July 26, 1471,
he was created Prince of Wales, and on June 20, 1475, Duke of Cornwall
and Earl of Chester. He was also created Earl of March and Pembroke.
Richard was born at Shrewsbury in 1473, and was created Duke of York on
May 28, 1474, Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Warren and Nottingham on Feb.
7, 1477. On January 15, 1478, he was married to Anne, daughter and
heiress of John Mowbray Duke of Norfolk, she being then aged six. She
died soon afterwards.
Anne was born in 1475, and in 1495 she married Thomas Howard Earl of
Surrey; but no children survived infancy. She died before 1515.
Katherine, probably born in 1479, and in about 1495 she married William
Courtenay Earl of Devon, and died in 1527.
Bridget, the youngest child, was born at Eltham on November 10, 1480.
She became a nun at Dartford, where she died in 1517.
[11] Edward IV. had two children by Elizabeth Lucy. Arthur, who was
created Viscount Lisle in 1524, and died in 1540; and Elizabeth,
married to Lord Lumley.
[12] George Duke of Clarence, by his wife Isabella, daughter of Richard
Nevill, Earl of Warwick, left two children:
Edward, born at Warwick Castle on February 21, 1475, and created Earl
of Warwick by his uncle Edward IV., after his father's execution, in
1478.
Margaret, born at Farley Castle near Bath in 1473, created Countess of
Salisbury in 1514, and married to a Tudor partisan named Richard Pole.
She was murdered by Henry VIII. on May 27, 1541.
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