THE RIVAL ROSES
Henry the Fourth belongs partly to Cheshire, for a Duke of Lancaster had
married the heiress of the Lacys, who were descended from Nigel, Baron
of Halton and Constable of Chester. John of Gaunt, the king's father,
was a frequent visitor at Halton Castle, which he used as a
hunting-lodge.
The French wars broke out again in the reign of Henry the Fifth. Once
more the loyal Leghs and other Cheshire knights followed their king. In
fact the king's body-guard was composed of Cheshire men, among them
being Richard de Mobberley, Ranulf de Chelford, and William de Mere.
Piers Legh, the grandson of Perkin Legh, fell at Agincourt, as you may
read on the brass plate in Macclesfield Church. In the same church is
the altar-tomb of another hero of Agincourt, Sir John Savage, who was
knighted after the battle.
Henry was stricken down at the very moment of his triumph, and a baby
king succeeded to the throne of England. The royal uncles, who acted as
guardians, quarrelled with one another, and in a few years the English
were compelled to leave France. Foreign wars were followed by strife in
our own country. The Wars of the Roses lasted for the greater part of
the second half of the fifteenth century.
Queen Margaret, the 'outlandish woman' as her Yorkist enemies called
her, was in Chester in the year 1459. The king was ill, and the queen
conducted the wars herself, and summoned the fighting-men of Cheshire to
rally to her side. The people of Cheshire were not greatly excited over
the wars, which were mainly blood-feuds of powerful nobles. The trading
classes and the artisans of the towns took little part in the fighting,
but the sturdy Cheshire yeomen followed the squires, who ranged
themselves on the one side or the other. Members of the same family
often found themselves opposed to one another.
A sixteenth-century poet, describing the battle of Blore Heath, which
took place just over the southern border of Cheshire, says:
There Dutton Dutton kills, a Done doth kill a Done,
A Booth a Booth, and Legh by Legh is overthrown;
A Venables against a Venables doth stand,
A Troutbeck fighteth with a Troutbeck hand to hand.
The Red Rose was badly beaten in this battle, in which Lord Audley and
two thousand Cheshire men were killed.
One of the Booths who fought in the Wars of the Roses is buried beneath
the chancel floor of Wilmslow Church. Set in a marble slab which covers
the grave is a brass plate with figures of Sir Robert de Bothe and Douce
Venables his wife. Similar 'brasses' were common enough in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries on the monuments of those families
who could afford them. They represent, for the most part, knights and
priests. Few are left now, for numbers were stripped from their places
during the Great Rebellion. Portions of the brass at Wilmslow have been
destroyed or lost, for the figures were at one time set in a handsome
canopy of brass, and the whole surrounded by an inscription, only a
fragment of which remains.
[Illustration: BRASS OF ROBERT DE BOTHE AND DOUCE VENABLES]
The brass shows us the costume of a knight and lady of the fifteenth
century. The knight is in plate armour, which, since its first
appearance in the Edwardian wars, had become more and more elaborate and
highly ornamental. If you study this brass and the effigies on the
Savage monuments at Macclesfield you will be able to recognize in other
churches the warriors who fought in the battles of the fifteenth
century.
Douce Venables was only nine years of age when she was married by her
parents to the twelve-year-old husband whom they chose for her.
Throughout the Middle Ages child-marriages were frequently arranged in
order to make secure the estates which the children were to inherit, and
save them from the greediness of the kings. The sovereign claimed the
right of wardship over all heirs and heiresses who were left orphans in
early life, and took a large sum of money out of their estates when he
gave them away in marriage. If they did not then marry according to his
wishes they had to pay a further sum. We may be sure the kings made all
they could from this source, for wars were expensive and the kings were
always short of ready money.
The people of Cheshire were glad when the Wars of the Roses were over.
The Roses were united when Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, married
Elizabeth the heiress of Edward the Fourth and of the House of York. On
the porch of Gawsworth Church is a carved corbel consisting of a rose,
within whose petals appear two faces. This is the Tudor Rose, a symbol
of the union of the Houses of Lancaster and York. The porch was
therefore built shortly after the wars were ended.
The Cheshire Stanleys helped Henry Tudor to win the crown of Richard the
Third on the field of Bosworth, the last battle of the rival Roses. When
Richard saw the redcoats and the harts' heads of the Stanley followers
ranged on the side of his enemies, he knew that he was doomed.
The Stanley strokes they are so strong, there may no man their blows
abide.
It was Sir William Stanley who picked up the crown which had fallen from
King Richard's head when he was struck down, and taking Henry aside, set
it on his head.
Macclesfield suffered severely in this battle. Among the corporation
records of Macclesfield is preserved a letter to King Henry the Seventh,
praying that the town might not lose its charter because it could not
make up the necessary number of aldermen, owing to the heavy slaughter
of the townsmen at Bosworth.
Lord Derby, the head of the House of Stanley, arranged the new king's
marriage with the Lady Elizabeth, and Sir William Stanley was for a time
high in favour with the king. But one day he asked for too great a
reward--nothing less than the Earldom of Chester, and the suspicious
king chopped off his head. Thus were men often requited for their
services.
Notwithstanding the squabbles and jealousies of rival kings and princes,
the people as a whole were progressing along more peaceful ways. Trade
was flourishing, and the class of well-to-do merchants becoming yearly
more numerous and important. Wealthy aldermen imitated the good example
of King Henry the Sixth, founder of many schools and colleges. Edmund
Shaw, of Stockport, founded in 1487 a Free School at Stockport for the
children of the burgesses. The master of the school was to be a priest,
'a discrete man, and conning in grammer and able of connyng to teche
gramer.' The art of printing had just been discovered, and now that
books were likely to be within the reach of all, it was necessary first
of all to teach Cheshire boys how to read and understand their own
language.
The century, that opened with war and bloodshed, closed in peace such as
Cheshire had hardly ever before experienced.