April 28, 1442: Birth of Edward IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland

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Duke of Clarence, Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Warwick, Elizabeth Woodville, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI, King Richard III, Lord of Ireland, Richard Neville, Wars of the Roses

Edward IV (April 28, 1442 – April 9, 1483) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from March 4, 1461 to October 3, 1470, then again from April 11, 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England fought between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions between 1455 and 1487.

Edward was born on April 28, 1442 at Rouen in Normandy, eldest surviving son of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville. Until his father’s death, he was known as the Earl of March. Both his parents were direct descendants of King Edward III, giving Edward a potential claim to the throne. This was strengthened in 1447, when York became heir to the childless King Henry VI on the death of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester was the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of England and his first wife Mary de Bohun. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester was the brother of Henry V, and the uncle of Henry VI. The Duke of Gloucester fought in the Hundred Years’ War and acted as Lord Protector of England during the minority of his nephew.

Allegations of illegitimacy toward Edward of York were discounted at the time as politically inspired, and by later historians. Edward and his siblings George, Duke of Clarence, and Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, were physically very similar, all three being tall and blonde, in contrast to Richard, 3rd Duke of York who was short and dark. His youngest brother, who later became King Richard III, closely resembled their father.

Edward inherited the Yorkist claim when his father, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, died at the Battle of Wakefield in December 1460. Yorkist armies went on defeating Lancastrian armies at Mortimer’s Cross and Towton in early 1461.

On February 2, 1461, Edward won a hard-fought victory at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross in Herefordshire. The battle was preceded by a meteorological phenomenon known as parhelion, or three suns, which he took as his emblem, the “Sun in splendour”. However, this was offset by Warwick’s defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans on February 17, the Lancastrians regaining custody of Henry VI.

On March 4, Edward, 4th Duke of York deposed King Henry VI and took the throne. Edward was hastily crowned as King Edward IV, before marching north, where the two sides met at the Battle of Towton. Fought on March 29, in the middle of a snowstorm, it was the bloodiest battle ever to take place on English soil, and ended in a decisive Yorkist victory.

Estimates of the dead range from 9,000 to 20,000; figures are uncertain, as most of the mass graves were emptied or moved over the centuries, while corpses were generally stripped of clothing or armour before burial.

Margaret fled to Scotland with Edward of Westminster, while the new king returned to London for his coronation. Henry VI remained at large for over a year, but was caught and imprisoned in the Tower of London. There was little point in killing him while his son remained alive, since this would have transferred the Lancastrian claim from a frail captive to one who was young and free.

Although Edward preferred Burgundy as an alliance partner, he allowed Warwick to negotiate a treaty with Louis XI of France, which included a suggested marriage between Edward and Anne of France or Bona of Savoy, respectively daughter and sister-in-law of the French king.

In October 1464, Richard Neville 16th Earl of Warwick known as the “Kingmaker” was enraged to discover that on May 1, Edward IV had secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, a widow with two sons, whose Lancastrian husband, John Grey of Groby, died at Towton.

If nothing else, it was a clear demonstration that Warwick was not in control of the king, despite suggestions to the contrary. Edward’s motives have been widely discussed by contemporaries and historians alike.

Although Elizabeth’s mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, came from the upper nobility, her father, Richard Woodville, was a middle ranking provincial knight. The Privy Council told Edward with unusual frankness that “she was no wife for a prince such as himself, for she was not the daughter of a Duke or an Earl.”

The marriage was certainly unwise and unusual, although not unheard of; Henry VI’s mother, Catherine of Valois, married her chamberlain, Owen Tudor, while Edward IV’s grandson Henry VIII created the Church of England to marry Anne Boleyn.

By all accounts, Elizabeth possessed considerable charm of person and intellect, while Edward was used to getting what he wanted.

Historians generally accept the marriage was an impulsive decision, but differ on whether it was also a “calculated political move”. One view is the low status of the Woodvilles was part of the attraction, since unlike the Nevilles, they were reliant on Edward and thus more likely to remain loyal.

Others argue if this was his purpose, there were far better options available; all agree it had significant political implications that impacted the rest of Edward’s reign.

In 1470, with the Earl of Warwick still an enemy of Edward IV, he led a revolt against the King along with Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence. After a failed plot to crown Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence as King and there by deposing his brother, Edward IV, Warwick instead restored Henry VI to the throne.

The triumph was short-lived. Edward IV fled to Flanders, where he gathered support and invaded England in March 1471. On April 14, 1471, Warwick was defeated by Edward IV at the Battle of Barnet in which Warwick was killed and Edward IV resumed the throne.

Edward IV entered London unopposed and took Henry VI prisoner. A second army defeated the Lancastrian army at Tewkesbury on May 4. 17-year-old Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales the heir to the throne and the only son of King Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou, was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Shortly afterwards, Henry VI was found dead in the Tower of London. Despite a continuing threat from Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII, the last Lancastrian claimant) Edward reigned in relative peace for the next twelve years.

However, The tumultuous relationship between Edward IV and his brother George, Duke of Clarence came to a head when Clarence was imprisoned in the Tower of London and put on trial for treason against his brother Edward IV. The accusations of Treason of George towards his brother are complex and will be the subject of a future blog entry.

Edward himself prosecuted his brother, and demanded that Parliament pass a bill of attainder against him declaring that he was guilty of “unnatural, loathly treasons.” Following his conviction and attainder, he was “privately executed” at the Bowyer Tower on February 18, 1478.

Edward IV died suddenly in April 1483, and was succeeded by his minor son as King Edward V, but Edward IV’s brother, the Duke of Gloucester, sized the throne as King Richard III citing that Edward V was illegitimate due to his parents marriage being unlawful.

February 11: Birth and Death Anniversary of Elizabeth of York, Queen of England (1466-1503).

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Edward V of England, Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry VII of England, House of Tudor, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VIII of England, Kings and Queens of England, Queen of England

Elizabeth of York (February 11, 1466 – February 11, 1503) was Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death. Elizabeth married Henry after his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which marked the end of the Wars of the Roses. Together, they had seven children.

Elizabeth’s younger brothers, the “Princes in the Tower”, mysteriously disappeared shortly after the death of her father, King Edward IV. Although the 1484 act of Parliament Titulus Regius declared the marriage of her parents, Edward and Elizabeth Woodville, invalid, she and her sisters were subsequently welcomed back to court by Edward’s brother, King Richard III. As a Yorkist princess, the final victory of the Lancastrian faction in the Wars of the Roses may have seemed a further disaster, but Henry Tudor knew the importance of Yorkist support for his invasion and promised to marry Elizabeth before he arrived in England. This may well have contributed to the haemorrhaging of Yorkist support for Richard.

Although Elizabeth seems to have played little part in politics, her marriage appears to have been a successful and happy one. Her eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales, died at age 15 in 1502, and three other children died young. Her second, and only surviving, son became King Henry VIII of England, while her daughters Mary and Margaret became queens of France and of Scotland, respectively; many modern royals, including Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom trace their line through Margaret.

In 1469, aged three, she was briefly betrothed to George Neville. His father John later supported George’s uncle, the Earl of Warwick, in rebellion against King Edward IV, and the betrothal was called off. In 1475, Louis XI agreed to the marriage of nine-year-old Elizabeth of York to his son Charles, the Dauphin of France. In 1482, however, Louis XI reneged on his promise. She was named a Lady of the Garter in 1477, at age eleven, along with her mother and her paternal aunt Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk.

Wife of the king

As the eldest daughter of Edward IV with no surviving brothers, Elizabeth of York had a strong claim to the throne in her own right, but she did not assume the throne as queen regnant. There was no queen regnant until 1553, when her granddaughter, Mary I, acceded to the throne; the last attempt a female had made at ruling in her own right resulted in disaster when the mother and first cousin once removed of Henry II of England fought bitterly for the throne in the 12th century. Though initially slow to keep his promise, Henry VII acknowledged the necessity of marrying Elizabeth of York to ensure the stability of his rule and weaken the claims of other surviving members of the House of York. It seems Henry wished to be seen as ruling in his own right, having claimed the throne by right of conquest and not by his marriage to the de facto heiress of the House of York. He had no intention of sharing power. He consequently chose to be crowned on 30 October 1485, before his marriage.

Henry VII had the Act of Titulus Regius repealed, thereby legitimising anew the children of Edward IV, and acknowledging Edward V as his predecessor. Though Richard III was regarded as a usurper, his reign was not ignored. Henry and Elizabeth required a papal dispensation to wed because of Canon Law frowning upon ‘affinity”: Both were descended from John of Gaunt or his older brother Lionel in the 4th degree, an issue that had caused much dispute and bloodshed as to which claim was superior. Two applications were sent, the first more locally, and the second one was slow in reaching Rome and slow to return with the response of the Pope. Ultimately, however, the marriage was approved by papal bull of Pope Innocent VIII dated March 1486 (one month after the wedding) stating that the Pope and his advisors “approveth confirmyth and stablishyth the matrimonye and coniuncion made betwene our sou[er]ayn lord King Henre the seuenth of the house of Lancastre of that one party And the noble Princesse Elyzabeth of the house of Yorke.

Because the journey to Rome and back took many months, and because Henry as king wanted to be certain that nobody could claim that his wedding to Elizabeth was unlawful or sinful, the more local application was obeyed first – it was sent to the papal legate for England and Scotland, which returned in January 1486. Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated at the wedding of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York on 18 January 1486 in Westminster Abbey. Their first son, Arthur, was born on 20 September 1486, eight months after their marriage. Elizabeth of York was crowned queen on 25 November 1487. She gave birth to several more children, but only four survived infancy: Arthur, Margaret, Henry and Mary.

Despite being a political arrangement at first, the marriage proved successful and both partners appear to have slowly fallen in love with each other. Thomas Penn, in his biography of Henry VII writes that “[t]hough founded on pragmatism, Henry and Elizabeth’s marriage had nevertheless blossomed throughout the uncertainty and upheaval of the previous eighteen years. This was a marriage of ‘faithful love’, of mutual attraction, affection and respect, from which the king seems to have drawn great strength.”

Death

In 1502, Elizabeth of York became pregnant once more and spent her confinement period in the Tower of London. On 2 February 1503, she gave birth to a daughter, Katherine, but the child died a few days afterwards. Succumbing to a post partum infection, Elizabeth of York died on 11 February, her 37th birthday. Her family seems to have been devastated by her death and mourned her deeply. According to one biographer, the death of Elizabeth “broke the heart” of her husband and “shattered him.” Another account says that Henry Tudor “privily departed to a solitary place and would no man should resort unto him.” This is notable considering that, shortly after Elizabeth’s death, records show he became deathly ill himself and would not allow any except his mother Margaret Beaufort near him, including doctors. For Henry Tudor to show his emotions, let alone any sign of infirmity, was highly unusual and alarming to members of his court. Within a little over two years, King Henry VII lost his oldest son, his wife, his baby daughter, and found himself having to honour the Treaty of Perpetual Peace.

Henry VII entertained thoughts of remarriage to renew the alliance with Spain — Joanna, Dowager Queen of Naples (daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples), Joanna, Queen of Castile (daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella), and Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Savoy (sister-in-law of Joanna of Castile), were all considered — but he died a widower in 1509. The specifications that Henry gave to his ambassadors outlining what he wanted in a second wife described Elizabeth. On each anniversary of her death, he decreed that a requiem mass be sung, the bells be tolled, and 100 candles be lit in her honour. Henry also continued to employ her minstrels each New Year.

The Tower of London was abandoned as a royal residence, as evidenced by the lack of records of its being used by the royal family after 1503. Royal births in the reign of Elizabeth’s son, Henry VIII, took place in various other palaces.

Henry VII’s reputation for miserliness became worse after Elizabeth’s death.

He was buried with Elizabeth of York under their effigies in his Westminster Abbey chapel. Her tomb was opened in the 19th century and the wood casing of her lead coffin was found to have been removed to create space for the interment of her great-great-grandson James VI-I of England and Scotland.

August 14, 1473: Birth of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury.

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Countess of Salisbury, Duke of Clarence, George Plantagenet, Henry VII of England, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VIII of England, Margaret Pole, Richard III of England, Richard Pole

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (August 14, 1473 – May 27 1541), was an English peeress and member of the English Royal Family and one of the last of the Plantagenets.

She was the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. Margaret was one of two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband. One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, she was executed in 1541 at the command of Henry VIII, who was the son of her first cousin Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on December 29, 1886.

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

Margaret was born at Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset, the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, and his wife Isabel Neville, who was the elder daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and his wife Anne de Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick. Her maternal grandfather was killed fighting against her uncle, Edward IV, at the Battle of Barnet.

Her father, already Duke of Clarence, was then created Earl of Salisbury and of Warwick. Edward IV declared that Margaret’s younger brother Edward should be known as Earl of Warwick as a courtesy title, but no peerage was ever created for him. Margaret would have had a claim to the Earldom of Warwick, but the earldom was forfeited on the attainder of her brother Edward.

Margaret’s mother died when she was three, and her father had two servants killed whom he thought had poisoned her. George plotted against Edward IV, and was attainted and executed for treason; his lands and titles were forfeited. Edward IV died when Margaret was ten, and her uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, declared that Edward’s marriage was invalid, his children illegitimate, and that Margaret and her brother Edward were debarred from the throne by their father’s attainder. Married to Anne Neville, younger sister to Margaret’s mother Isabel, Richard assumed the throne himself as Richard III.

Richard III sent the children to Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire. He was defeated and killed in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth by Henry Tudor, who succeeded him as Henry VII. The new king married Margaret’s cousin Elizabeth of York, Edward IV’s daughter, and Margaret and her brother were taken into their care.

In November 1487, Henry VII gave Margaret in marriage to his cousin, Sir Richard Pole, whose mother was half-sister of the king’s mother, Margaret Beaufort. Richard Pole held a variety of offices in Henry VII’s government, the highest being Chamberlain for Arthur, Prince of Wales, Henry’s elder son. When Arthur married Catherine of Aragon, Margaret became one of her ladies-in-waiting, but her entourage was dissolved when the teenaged Arthur died in 1502.

When her husband died in 1505, Margaret was a widow with five children, a limited amount of land inherited from her husband, no other income and no prospects. Henry VII paid for Richard’s funeral. To ease the situation, Margaret devoted her third son Reginald Pole to the Church, where he was to have an eventful career as a papal Legate and later Archbishop of Canterbury. Nonetheless, he was to resent her abandonment of him bitterly in later life.

When Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509, he married Catherine of Aragon himself. Margaret was again appointed one of her ladies-in-waiting. In 1512, an Act of Parliament restored to her some of her brother’s lands of the earldom of Salisbury (only), for which she paid 5000 marks (£2666.13s.4d). The same Act also restored to Margaret the Earldom of Salisbury.

Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland

Margaret’s own favour at Court varied. She had a dispute over land with Henry VIII in 1518; he awarded the contested lands to the Dukedom of Somerset, which had been held by his Beaufort great-grandfather—and were now in the possession of the Crown. In 1520, Margaret was appointed governess to Henry’s daughter Princess Mary; the next year, when her sons were mixed up with Buckingham, she was removed, but she was restored by 1525.

When Princess Mary was declared a bastard in 1533, Margaret refused to give Mary’s gold plate and jewels back to Henry. Mary’s household was broken up at the end of the year, and Margaret asked to serve Mary at her own cost, but was not permitted. The Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys suggested two years later that Mary be handed over to Margaret, but Henry refused, calling her “a fool, of no experience”. When Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, was arrested, and eventually executed, in 1536, Margaret was permitted to return to Court, albeit briefly.

In 1531, her son, Reginald Pole, warned of the dangers of the Boleyn marriage. He returned to Padua in 1532, and received a last English benefice in December of that year. Chapuys suggested to Emperor Charles V that Reginald marry Princess Mary and combine their dynastic claims.

Reginald also urged the princes of Europe to depose Henry immediately. Henry wrote to Margaret, who in turn wrote to her son a letter reproving him for his “folly”. In May 1536, Reginald finally and definitively broke with the king.
In 1537, Reginald (still not ordained) was created a Cardinal.

Pope Paul III put him in charge of organising assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace (and related movements), an effort to organise a march on London to install a conservative Catholic government instead of Henry’s increasingly Protestant-leaning one. Neither François I of France nor the Emperor supported this effort, and the English government tried to have him assassinated.

The Exeter Conspiracy of 1538 was a supposed attempt to overthrow Henry VIII, who had taken control of the Church of England away from the Pope, and replace him with Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, who was a first cousin of the King.

As part of the investigations into the so-called Exeter Conspiracy, Geoffrey Pole was arrested in August 1538; he had been corresponding with Reginald, and the investigation of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter (Henry VIII’s first cousin and Geoffrey’s second cousin) had turned up his name. Geoffrey had appealed to Thomas Cromwell, who had him arrested and interrogated. Under interrogation, Geoffrey said that his eldest brother, Lord Montagu, and the Marquess had been parties to his correspondence with Reginald. Montagu, Exeter, and Margaret were arrested in November 1538.

In January 1539, Geoffrey was pardoned, but Margaret’s son Henry, Baron Montagu (and cousin Exeter) were later executed for treason after trial. In May 1539, Henry, Margaret, Exeter and others were attainted, as Margaret’s father had been. This conviction meant they lost their titles and their lands—mostly in the South of England, conveniently located to assist any invasion.

Margaret Pole, as she now was styled, was held in the Tower of London for two and a half years. She, her grandson Henry (son of her own son Henry), and Exeter’s son were held together and supported by the king. She was attended by servants and received an extensive grant of clothing in March 1541. In 1540, Cromwell himself fell from favour and was attainted and executed.

On the morning of 27 May 1541, Margaret was told she was to die within the hour. She answered that no crime had been imputed to her. Nevertheless, she was taken from her cell to the place within the precincts of the Tower of London where a low wooden block had been prepared instead of the customary scaffold. As she was of noble birth, she was not executed before the populace.

Eye witness accounts state that, “at first, when the sentence of death was made known to her, she found the thing very strange, not knowing of what crime she was accused, nor how she had been sentenced” and that, because the main executioner had been sent north to deal with rebels, the execution was performed by “a wretched and blundering youth who literally hacked her head and shoulders to pieces in the most pitiful manner”.

Her son, Reginald Pole, said that he would “never fear to call himself the son of a martyr”. She was later regarded by Catholics as such and was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.

François II, Duke of Brittany, and the English Royal Family.

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Duchy of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, Francis II of Brittany, House of Lancaster, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, King Henry VII of England, Kingdom of England, Wars of the Roses

On June 30th I did a post on King Charles VIII of France who married Anne of Brittany. In my research I discovered that her father, François II, Duke of Brittany, had a strong connection to the English Royal Family.

François II of Brittany

François II of Brittany (June 23, 1433 – September 9, 1488) was Duke of Brittany from 1458 to his death. He was the grandson of Jean IV, Duke of Brittany.

François II was born to Richard of Brittany, Count of Étampes (1395–1438) and his wife, Margaret of Orléans, Countess of Vertus (1406–1466), the daughter of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and Valentina Visconti. Richard of Brittany was the youngest son of Duke Jean IV of Brittany. Richard’s older brothers, Jean V and Arthur III, both succeeded their father as duke, but upon Arthur’s death in 1458 (Jean V’s sons François I and Peter II died in 1450 and 1457 respectively, without sons), the only legitimate male heir was his nephew François II.

Relationship with English royalty

Coat of Arms of King Henry VI of England

Protector of the House of Lancaster

Duke François II unexpectedly became the protector of England’s House of Lancaster in exile from 1471–1484.

During the latter half of the 15th century, civil war existed in England (Known as the Wars of the Roses) as the House of York and House of Lancaster fought each other for the English throne. In 1471, the Yorkists defeated their rivals in the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. The Lancastrian king, Henry VI of England and his only son, Edward of Westminster, died in the aftermath of the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Their deaths left the House of Lancaster with no direct claimants to the throne. Subsequently, the Yorkist king, Edward IV of England, was in complete control of England. He attainted those who refused to submit to his rule, such as Jasper Tudor and his nephew Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (later King Henry VII of England), naming them as traitors and confiscating their lands.

The Tudors tried to flee to France but strong winds in the English Channel forced them to land at Le Conquet in Brittany, where they were taken into the custody of Duke François II. Henry Tudor, the only remaining Lancastrian noble with a trace of royal bloodline, had a weak claim to the throne, and King Edward IV regarded him as “a nobody”. However, François II viewed Henry as a valuable tool to bargain for England’s aid, when in conflicts with France, and therefore kept the Tudors under his protection.

François II housed Jasper Tudor, Henry Tudor, and the core of their group of exiled Lancastrians at the Château de Suscinio in Sarzeau, where they remained for 11 years. There, François II generously supported this group of exiled Englishmen against all the Plantagenet demands that he should surrender them.
In October 1483, Henry Tudor launched a failed invasion of England from Brittany. Duke François II supported this invasion by providing 40,000 gold crowns, 15,000 soldiers, and a fleet of transport ships. Henry’s fleet of 15 chartered vessels was scattered by a storm, and his ship reached the coast of England in company with only one other vessel.

Arms of Duke François II of Brittany

Henry realized that the soldiers on shore were the men of the new Yorkist king, Richard III of England, and so he decided to abandon the invasion and return to Brittany. As for Henry’s main conspirator in England, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, he was convicted of treason and beheaded on November 2, 1483, way before Henry’s ships landed in England. For Henry’s conspiracy against King Richard III had been unravelled, and without the Duke of Buckingham or Henry Tudor, the rebellion was easily crushed.

Survivors of the failed uprising then fled to Brittany, where they openly supported Henry Tudor’s claim to the throne. On Christmas Day in 1483 at the Rennes Cathedral, Henry swore an oath to marry King Edward IV’s daughter, Elizabeth of York, and thus unite the warring houses of York and Lancaster. Henry’s rising prominence made him a great threat to King Richard III, and the Yorkist king made several overtures to Duke Francis II to surrender the young Lancastrian.

François II refused, holding out for the possibility of better terms from the King. In mid-1484, François was incapacitated by one of his periods of illness, and while recuperating, his treasurer, Pierre Landais, took over the reins of government. Landais reached an agreement with King Richard III to send Henry and his uncle Jasper back to England in exchange for a pledge of 3,000 English archers to defend Brittany against a threatened French attack.

John Morton, a bishop of Flanders, learned of the scheme and warned the Tudors in time. The Tudors then managed to separately escape, hours ahead of Landais’ soldiers, across the nearby border into France. They were received at the court of King Charles VIII of France, who allowed them to stay and provided them with resources. Shortly afterwards, when François II had recovered, he offered the 400 remaining Lancastrians, still at and around the Château de Suscinio, safe-conduct into France and even paid for their expenses. For the French, the Tudors were useful pawns to ensure that King Richard III did not interfere with French plans to acquire Brittany. Thus, the loss of the Lancastrians seriously played against the interests of Francis II.

Titular Earl of Richmond

Circa 1136, King Stephen of England named Alan of Penthièvre of Brittany (also known as Alan the Black) the 1st Earl of Richmond. After Alan, the title and its possessions (the Honour of Richmond) were typically bestowed upon the Dukes of Brittany, with a few interruptions, through the ducal reign of Jean IV, which ended in 1399. After Jean IV, the English kings would bestow the title Earl of Richmond on nobles other than the Dukes of Brittany, including Edmund Tudor, Henry Tudor’s father. However the dukes of Brittany from Jean V through François II would continue to use the titulary Earl of Richmond.

It is possible that François willed whatever remained of his claims to the earldom and the Honour of Richmond to Henry Tudor. On successfully gaining the English crown after the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, Henry VII merged the earldom and its possessions into the crown.

June 28, 1491: Birth of Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland.

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Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Carlos I of Spain, Catherine Howard, Catherine of Aragon, Catherine Parr, Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry VII of England, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Jane Seymour, King Edward IV of England, King Edward VI of England, King François I of France, King Henry VIII of England, King James V of Scotland

Henry VIII (June 28, 1491 – January 28, 1547) was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, the eldest child of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville.

Henry is best known for his six marriages, and, in particular, his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is also known as “the father of the Royal Navy,” as he invested heavily in the navy, increasing its size from a few to more than 50 ships, and established the Navy Board.

Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland.

Domestically, Henry VIII is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings. He also greatly expanded royal power during his reign. He frequently used charges of treason and heresy to quell dissent, and those accused were often executed without a formal trial by means of bills of attainder.

King Henry VIII achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich, and Thomas Cranmer all figured prominently in his administration.

King Henry VIII was an extravagant spender, using the proceeds from the dissolution of the monasteries and acts of the Reformation Parliament. He also converted the money that was formerly paid to Rome into royal revenue. Despite the money from these sources, he was continually on the verge of financial ruin due to his personal extravagance, as well as his numerous costly and largely unsuccessful wars, particularly with King François I of France, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, James V of Scotland and the Scottish regency under the Earl of Arran and Mary of Guise.

King François I of France.

Charles V (Carlos I), Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.

James V, King of Scots.

At home, he oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, and he was the first English monarch to rule as King of Ireland following the Crown of Ireland Act 1542.

Henry’s contemporaries considered him an attractive, educated, and accomplished king. He has been described as “one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne”. He was an author and composer. As he aged, however, he became severely overweight and his health suffered, causing his death in 1547. He is frequently characterised in his later life as a lustful, egotistical, harsh and insecure king. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI.

On these dates in History: May 27.

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Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Countess of Salisbury, Duchess of Montpensier, Elizabeth-Charlotte, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor of Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, King Edward IV of England, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Madame de Montespan, Margaret Pole, Princess Palatine, Tsar Simeon I the Great

* 1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.

Malcolm IV (between April 23 and May 24, 1141 – December 9, 1165) was King of Scotland from 1153 until his death. He was the eldest son of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria (died 1152) and Ada de Warenne. He succeeded his grandfather David I, and shared David’s Anglo-Norman tastes.

* 1199 – John is crowned King of England.

John (December 24, 1166 – October 19, 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philippe II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John’s reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document sometimes considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom. John was the youngest of the four surviving sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.

* 1257 – Richard of Cornwall, and his wife, Sanchia of Provence, are crowned King and Queen of the Germans at Aachen Cathedral.

Richard (January 5, 1209 – April 2, 1272), second son of John, King of England, was the nominal Count of Poitou (1225–43), Earl of Cornwall (from 1225) and King of Germany (from 1257). He was one of the wealthiest men in Europe and joined the Barons’ Crusade, where he achieved success as a negotiator for the release of prisoners and assisted with the building of the citadel in Ascalon.

* 1703 – Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia founds the city of Saint Petersburg.

The city was founded by Emperor Peter I the Great on May 27, 1703, on the site of a captured Swedish fortress. It served as a capital of the Russian Tsardom and the subsequent Russian Empire from 1713 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period of time between 1728 and 1730). After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow.

Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia

* 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Emperor of Russia.

Alexander III (March 10, 1845 – November 1, 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 13, 1881 until his death on November 1, 1894. He was highly reactionary and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II. Under the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev (1827–1907) he opposed any reform that limited his autocratic rule. During his reign, Russia fought no major wars; he was therefore styled “The Peacemaker”

On March 13, 1881 Alexander’s father, Emperor Alexander II, was assassinated by members of the extremist organization Narodnaya Volya. As a result, he ascended to the Russian imperial throne in Nennal. Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark) were officially crowned and anointed at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on May 27, 1883. Alexander’s ascension to the throne was followed by an outbreak of anti-Jewish riots.

Births

* 1537 – Ludwig IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg (d. 1604)

Landgrave Ludwig IV of Hesse-Marburg (May 27, 1537 – October 9, 1604) was the son of Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse and his wife Christine of Saxony. After the death of his father in 1567, Hesse was divided among his sons and Louis received Hesse-Marburg (Upper Hesse) including Marburg and Giessen.

1626 – Willem II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)

Willem II, Prince of Orange

Willem II (May 27, 1626 – November 6, 1650) was sovereign Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel and Groningen in the United Provinces of the Netherlands from March 14, 1647 until his death three years later. His only child, William III, co-reigned as King of England, Ireland, and Scotland along with his wife Queen Mary II.

* 1627 – Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (d. 1693)

Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, (May 27, 1627 – April 5, 1693) known as La Grande Mademoiselle, was the only daughter of Gaston d’Orléans with his first wife Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier. Gaston d’Orléans the third son of King Henri IV of France and his wife Marie de’ Medici.

Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier

One of the greatest heiresses in history, she died unmarried and childless, leaving her vast fortune to her cousin, Philippe of France. After a string of proposals from various members of European ruling families, including Charles II of England, Afonso VI of Portugal, and Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy, she eventually fell in love with the courtier Antoine Nompar de Caumont and scandalised the court of France when she asked Louis XIV for permission to marry him, as such a union was viewed as a mésalliance. She is best remembered for her role in the Fronde, her role in bringing the famous composer Lully to the king’s court, and her Mémoires.

* 1652 – Elizabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine of Germany (d. 1722)

Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte (May 27, 1652 – December 8, 1722) was a German princess and, as Madame, the second wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV of France, and mother of France’s ruler during the Regency. Louis invoked her hereditary claim to the Palatinate as pretext to launch the Nine Years’ War in 1688. Her vast, frank correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV, for half a century, from the date of her marriage in 1672.

Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte was born in Heidelberg Castle, to Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte is directly related to several iconic European monarchs. Her grandmother Elizabeth Stuart was a Scottish and later English princess, daughter of James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland and granddaughter of Mary I, Queen of Scots. Her first cousin became George I, the first Hanover King of Great Britain.

* 1756 – Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (d. 1825)

Maximilian I Joseph (May 27, 1756 – October 13, 1825) was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1795 to 1799, prince-elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph) from 1799 to 1806, then King of Bavaria (as Maximilian I Joseph) from 1806 to 1825. He was a member of the House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach.

King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria

Maximilian-Joseph was the son of the Count Palatine Friedrich-Michael of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and Maria-Francisca of Sulzbach, was at Schwetzingen, between Heidelberg and Mannheim.

Deaths

* 866 – Ordoño I of Asturias (b. 831)

Ordoño I (c. 821 – May 27, 866) was King of Asturias from 850 until his death. He was probably raised in Lugo, capital of the province of Galicia, of which his father, Ramiro, had been named governor. There he was educated, including in the military arts.

On January 1, 850, Ordoño succeeded his father as king. As he was his father’s heir, he was the first king of Asturias to ascend the throne without election. Ordoño married Muniadona. He had six children, including his successor, Alfonso III.

Ordoño died in Oviedo and was succeeded by his eldest son.

* 927 – Simeon I of Bulgaria first Bulgarian Emperor (b. 864)

Tsar Simeon I the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon’s successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern and Southeast Europe. His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture.

* 1039 – Dirk III, Count of Holland (b. 981)

Dirk III (also called Dirik or Theodoric) was Count of Holland from 993 to 27 May 1039, until 1005 under regency of his mother. It is thought that Dirk III went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1030, hence his nickname of Hierosolymita (‘the Jerusalemite’ in Latin).

The area over which Dirk ruled was called Holland for the first time only in 1101 and was known as West Friesland at this time. The actual title of Count Dirk III was ‘Count in Friesland’. Western Frisia was very different from the area (North and South Holland) of today. Most of the territory was boggy and subject to constant flooding and hence very sparsely populated. The main areas of habitation were in the dunes at the coast and on heightened areas near the rivers.

* 1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)

Ludovico Maria Sforza (July 27, 1452 – May 27, 1508), was an Italian Renaissance prince who ruled as Duke of Milan from 1494, following the death of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza, until 1499. A member of the Sforza family, he was the fourth son of Francesco I Sforza. He was famed as a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists, and presided over the final and most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance. He is probably best known as the man who commissioned The Last Supper.

* 1541 – Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (b. 1473)

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (August 14, 1473 – May 27, 1541), was an English peeress. She was the daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III of England. Margaret was one of two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband. One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, she was executed in 1541 at the command of Henry VIII, who was the son of her first cousin Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on December 29, 1886.

* 1707 – Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1640)

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan (October 5, 1640 – May 27, 1707), better known as Madame de Montespan was the most celebrated maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, by whom she had seven children.

Born into one of the oldest noble families of France, the House of Rochechouart, Madame de Montespan was called by some the “true Queen of France”‘ during her romantic relationship with Louis XIV due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court during that time.

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan

Her so-called “reign” lasted from around 1667, when she first danced with Louis XIV at a ball hosted by the king’s younger brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, at the Louvre Palace, until her alleged involvement in the notorious Affaire des Poisons in the late 1670s to 1680s. Her immediate contemporary was Barbara Villiers, mistress of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1673, the couple’s three living illegitimate children were legitimated by Louis XIV and given the royal surname of de Bourbon. Their mother’s name, however, was not mentioned in the legitimization documents, as Madame de Montespan was still married to her husband. If their maternal parentage had been revealed, the marquis could have legally claimed Madame de Montespan’s illegitimate children with the king as his own.

The last years of Madame de Montespan’s life were given up to a very severe penance. Real sorrow over her death was felt by her three youngest children. She died on May 27, 1707 at the age of almost sixty-seven while taking the waters at Bourbon-l’Archambault in order to try to heal an illness. The king forbade her children to wear mourning for her.

She is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg.

April 21,1509: Death of Henry VII and his claim to the throne.

Tags

Battle of Bosworth Field, Claim to the English throne, Earl of Richmond, Elizabeth of York, House of Tudor, Isabella I of Castile, John II of Portugal, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VII of England, Richard III of England, Wars of the Roses

Today is the Anniversary of the death of King Henry VII of England, Lord of Ireland. Today I am examining Henry’s claims to the English throne.

Henry VII (January 28, 1457 – April 21, 1509) was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on August 22, 1485 to his death. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.

Henry attained the throne when his forces defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses. He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle. He cemented his claim by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Richard’s brother Edward IV.

Henry’s main claim to the English throne derived from his mother through the House of Beaufort. Henry’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was a great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster and fourth son of Edward III, and his third wife Katherine Swynford. Katherine was Gaunt’s mistress for about 25 years. When they married in 1396 they already had four children, including Henry’s great-grandfather John Beaufort. Thus, Henry’s claim was somewhat tenuous; it was from a woman, and by illegitimate descent.

In theory, the Portuguese and Castilian royal families had a better claim as descendants of Catherine of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt and his second wife Constance of Castile.

At the time of the Battle of Bosworth Field King João II of Portugal (1455-1495) a great-great grandson of John of Gaunt and his marriage to Constance of Castile had a better hereditary claim to the throne. Another descendant of the marriage John of Gaunt and Constance of Castile that had a better hereditary claim to the throne was Queen Isabella I of Castile (1451-1504).

Incidentally, and Ironically, her daughter, Catherine of Aragon had a better hereditary claim to the English throne than her husband, King Henry VIII!

John of Gaunt’s nephew King Richard II legitimised Gaunt’s children by Katherine Swynford by Letters Patent in 1397. In 1407, Henry IV, John of Gaunt’s son by his first wife, issued new Letters Patent confirming the legitimacy of his half-siblings, but also declaring them ineligible for the throne. Henry IV’s action was of doubtful legality, as the Beauforts were previously legitimised by an Act of Parliament, but it further weakened Henry’s claim.

Nonetheless, by 1483 Henry was the senior male Lancastrian claimant remaining after the deaths in battle, by murder or execution of Henry VI, his son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, and the other Beaufort line of descent through Lady Margaret’s uncle, the 2nd Duke of Somerset.

Also by 1483, Henry’s mother was actively promoting him as an alternative to Richard III, despite her being married to Lord Stanley, a Yorkist. At Rennes Cathedral on Christmas Day 1483, Henry pledged to marry Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, who was also Edward’s heir since the presumed death of her brothers, the Princes in the Tower, King Edward V and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York.

Henry devised a plan to seize the throne by engaging Richard quickly because Richard had reinforcements in Nottingham and Leicester. Though outnumbered, Henry’s Lancastrian forces decisively defeated Richard’s Yorkist army at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. Several of Richard’s key allies, such as the Earl of Northumberland and William and Thomas Stanley, crucially switched sides or left the battlefield. Richard III’s death at Bosworth Field effectively ended the Wars of the Roses.

To secure his hold on the throne, Henry declared himself king by right of conquest retroactively from August 21, 1485, the day before Bosworth Field. Thus, anyone who had fought for Richard against him would be guilty of treason and Henry could legally confiscate the lands and property of Richard III, while restoring his own.

Elizabeth of York

Henry spared Richard’s nephew and designated heir, John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln, and made Margaret Plantagenet, a Yorkist heiress, Countess of Salisbury suo jure. He took care not to address the baronage or summon Parliament until after his coronation, which took place in Westminster Abbey on October 30, 1485. After his coronation Henry issued an edict that any gentleman who swore fealty to him would, notwithstanding any previous attainder, be secure in his property and person.

Henry honoured his pledge of December 1483 to marry Elizabeth of York. They were third cousins, as both were great-great-grandchildren of John of Gaunt. Henry and Elizabeth were married on January 18, 1486 at Westminster Abbey. The marriage unified the warring houses and gave his children a strong claim to the throne. The unification of the houses of York and Lancaster by this marriage is symbolised by the heraldic emblem of the Tudor rose, a combination of the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster.

Henry VII had Parliament repeal Titulus Regius, the statute that declared Edward IV’s marriage invalid and his children illegitimate, thus legitimising his wife.

March 4, 1461: Edward IV of England deposed Henry VI of England

Tags

Charles VI of France, Duke of York, Earl of Warwick, House of Lancaster, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, Lords of Ireland, Richard Plantagenet

In October 1452, an English advance in Aquitaine retook Bordeaux from the French and was having some success, but by 1453 Bordeaux was lost again leaving Calais as England’s only remaining territory on the continent. Upon hearing of the final loss of Bordeaux in August 1453, Henry VI of England experienced a mental breakdown and became completely unresponsive to everything that was going on around him for more than a year. He even failed to respond to the birth of a son and heir, who was christened Edward.

Henry VI, King of England and Lord of Ireland

Henry may have inherited a psychiatric condition from Charles VI of France, his maternal grandfather, who was affected by intermittent periods of insanity during the last thirty years of his life. During his bout of insanity, Henry was attended by the surgeons Gilbert Kymer and John Marchall. Thomas Morstede had previously been appointed royal surgeon and died in 1450.

Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, (a leading English magnate, a great-grandson of King Edward III through his father, and a great-great-great-grandson of the same king through his mother) meanwhile, had gained a very important ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, one of the most influential magnates and possibly richer than York himself.

York was named regent as Protector of the Realm in 1454. The queen was excluded completely, and Edmund Beaufort was detained in the Tower of London, while many of York’s supporters spread rumours that Edward was not the king’s son, but Beaufort’s. Other than that, York’s months as regent were spent tackling the problem of government overspending.

Around Christmas Day 1454, King Henry VI regained his senses. Disaffected nobles who had grown in power during Henry’s reign, most importantly the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury, took matters into their own hands. They backed the claims of the rival House of York, first to the control of government, and then to the throne itself (from 1460), pointing to York’s better descent from Edward III. It was agreed that York would become Henry’s successor, despite York being older. In 1458, in an attempt to unite the warring factions, Henry staged The Love Day in London.

Thereafter followed a violent struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York. Henry VIII’s was defeated and captured at the Battle of Northampton on July 10, 1460. The Duke of York was killed by Margaret’s forces at the Battle of Wakefield on December 30, 1460, and Henry VI was rescued from imprisonment after the Second Battle of St Albans on February 17, 1461, allowing the Lancastrians to regain custody of Henry VI.

Edward IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland

The Earl of Warwick and the the new Duke of York, Edward, met in London, where Edward was hastily crowned as King Edward IV before leading his army north. By then, however, Henry VI was suffering such a bout of madness that he was apparently laughing and singing while the battle raged. Henry VI was finally defeated at the Battle of Towton on March 29, 1461 but Edward IV failed to capture Henry VI and his queen, Margaret of Anjou, who fled to Scotland. During the first period of Edward IV’s reign, Lancastrian resistance continued mainly under the leadership of Queen Margaret and the few nobles still loyal to her in the northern counties of England and Wales.

February 18, 1478: Execution of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence.

Tags

Bill of Attainder, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Duke of Clarence, George Plantagenet, House of Lancaster, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, King Richard III of England, Lord of Ireland, Mary of Burgundy, Wars of the Roses

George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (October 21, 1449 – February 18, 1478), was a son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of English kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the dynastic struggle between rival factions of the Plantagenets known as the Wars of the Roses.

Coat of Arms of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence

George’s father died in 1460. In 1461 his elder brother, Edward, became King of England as Edward IV. In that year George was made Duke of Clarence and invested as a Knight of the Garter, and in 1462 Clarence received the Honour of Richmond, a lifetime grant, but without the peerage title of Earl of Richmond.Despite his youth, he was appointed as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the same year.

Having been mentioned as a possible husband for Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Clarence came under the influence of his first cousin Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and in July 1469 was married in Église Notre-Dame de Calais to the earl’s elder daughter Isabel Neville.

Here is a side story to the connection of the House of Burgundy and the House of Plantagenet. In 1454, at the age of 21, Charles the Bold was looking to marry a second time. Charles the Bold’s first wife was Catherine of France (1428 – 13 July 1446) was a French princess and the fourth child and second daughter of Charles VII of France and Marie of Anjou. Catherine fell ill with violent coughing in 1446 and died with what was likely tuberculosis.

Mary, Duchess of Burgundy

For his second marriage, Charles the Bold wanted to marry Margaret of York, daughter of his distant cousin Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (a sister of Kings Edward IV and Richard III of England), but under terms of the Treaty of Arras of 1435, he was required to marry another French princess. His father, Philippe III the Good of Burgundy, chose Isabella of Bourbon, who was Charles the Bold’s first cousin being the daughter of his father’s sister, Agnes of Burgundy and Charles I, Duke of Bourbon. Agnes of Burgundy and Charles of Bourbon both were very distant cousins of Charles VII of France, the father of Charles the Bold’s first wife, Catherine. Charles the Bold and Isabella of Bourbon were the parents of Mary of Burgundy, potential bride of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence.

Isabella of Bourbon died September 25, 1465, and July 3, 1468 Charles the Bold finally married Margaret of York as his third wife. As Duchess of Burgundy Margaret acted as a protector of the duchy after the death of Charles the Bold in January 1477.

Now back to George, Duke of Clarence…

Though a member of the House of York, he switched sides to support the Lancastrians, before reverting to the Yorkists. Clarence had actively supported his elder brother’s claim to the throne, but when his father-in-law, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as “the Kingmaker,” deserted Edward IV to ally with Margaret of Anjou, consort of the deposed King Henry VI, Clarence supported him and was deprived of his office as Lord Lieutenant. Clarence joined Warwick in France, taking his pregnant wife. She gave birth to their first child, a girl, on April 16, 1470, in a ship off Calais. The child died shortly afterwards. Henry VI rewarded Clarence for his loyalty by making him next in line to the throne after his own son, justifying the exclusion of Edward IV either by attainder for his treason against Henry VI or on the grounds of his alleged illegitimacy. After a short time, Clarence realized that his loyalty to his father-in-law was misplaced.

George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence

In 1477 Clarence was again a suitor for the hand of Mary, who had just become Duchess of Burgundy in her own right. Edward IV objected to the match, and Clarence left the court.

The arrest and committal to the Tower of London of one of Clarence’s retainers, an Oxford astronomer named Dr John Stacey, which led to his confession under torture that he had “imagined and compassed” the death of the King, and also implicated Thomas Burdett and Thomas Blake, a chaplain at Stacey’s college (Merton College, Oxford). All three were tried for treason, convicted, and executed.

This was a clear warning to Clarence, which he chose to ignore. He appointed Dr John Goddard to burst into Parliament and regale the House of Commons with Burdett and Stacey’s declarations of innocence that they had made before their deaths. Goddard was a very unwise choice, as he was an ex-Lancastrian who had expounded Henry VI’s claim to the throne. Edward IV summoned Clarence to Windsor, severely upbraided him, accused him of treason, and ordered his immediate arrest and confinement.

Edward IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland

Clarence was imprisoned in the Tower of London and put on trial for treason against his brother Edward IV. Clarence was not present – Edward IV himself prosecuted his brother, and demanded that Parliament pass a Bill of Attainder* against his brother, declaring that he was guilty of “unnatural, loathly treasons” which were aggravated by the fact that Clarence was his brother, who, if anyone did, owed him loyalty and love.

Following his conviction and attainder, he was “privately executed” at the Tower on February 18, 1478, by tradition in the Bowyer Tower, and soon after the event, the unfounded rumor gained ground that he had been drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine.

Richard III biographer Paul Murray Kendall believes that the reason Edward was so harsh with his brother was that he had discovered from Bishop Robert Stillington of Bath and Wells that George had let slip the secret of Edward IV’s marriage precontract with Lady Eleanor Talbot, which would mean that Edward IV’s marriage with Elizabeth Woodville was null and void, making their children illegitimate. Although legend claims Richard III had brought about his brother’s death, the opposite may be true: he tried to prevent it.

* A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them, often without a trial.

This date in History. October 2, 1452: Birth of Richard III, King of England and Lord of Ireland.

Tags

Battle of Bosworth Field, Bishop of Bath Titulus Regis, Duke of York, Edward V of England House of Tudor, House of Anjou, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VII of England, King Richard III of England, Kings and Queens of England, Plantagenet Dynasty, Wars of the Roses

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Richard III, King of England and Lord of Ireland. The focus today of this blog entry is whether or not he was a usurper.

Richard III (October 2, 1452 – August 22, 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1483 until his death in 1485. Richard was born on October 2, 1452 at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, the eleventh of the twelve children of Richard, Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the youngest to survive infancy. Richard III was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. For those keeping track, the House of Anjou, AKA the Plantagenet Dynasty, ruled England and Ireland for 330 years, 8 months, 3 days beginning with the accession of Henry II on December 19, 1154 and ending with the defeat and death of Richard III on August 22, 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marking the end of the Middle Ages in England.

When Richard, Duke of York, brother Edward IV died in April 1483, Richard was named Lord Protector of the realm for Edward’s eldest son and successor, the 12-year-old Edward V. Arrangements were made for Edward’s coronation later that year on June 22, 1483.

Richard III, King of England and Lord of Ireland

However, before the king could be crowned, the marriage of King Edward V’s parents, Edward IV and Elisabeth Woodville was declared bigamous and therefore invalid. Therefore, now officially illegitimate, their children were barred from inheriting the throne. On June 25th, an assembly of lords and commoners endorsed a declaration to this effect and proclaimed Richard as the rightful king. He was crowned on July 6, 1483. The young princes, Edward and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, were not seen in public after August and accusations circulated that they had been murdered on Richard’s orders.

When I began studying English Royalty I believed that the claim that Edward IV’s marriage was illegal was the rationalization by Richard III and his party in order for Richard to justify usurping the throne. Was there a basis for such a claim? Indeed there was a basis for his claim and it was taken seriously at the time.

The basis for this claim was the evidence that prior to Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, Edward was already pre-contracted to marry a wealthy widow by the name of Lady Eleanor Butler. Lady Butler had passed away by the time Richard claimed the throne and therefore couldn’t corroborate this claim. Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, a stalwart supporter of Richard, was the chief witness to the pre-contract of marriage between Edward IV and Lady Butler. According to Roman Catholic Church Law at the time, a pre-contract was a solemn oath to marry in the presence of clerical witnesses and this pre-contract took precedence over any other form of marital arrangement. This contract was legal and binding and therefore had to be legally dismissed for the parties to be free to marry somebody else.

As stated elsewhere in this blog regarding the legality of the succession, no king, at least by this time period, could alter the succession to the crown by decree or declaration. Parliament was firmly the Legislative body of the Kingdom and all laws proposed needed to be passed by Parliament, even changes to the succession. View yesterday’s blog entry on the succession of Queen Mary I where her brother Edward IV tried to bypass his half-sisters but his Will was not approved by Parliament prior to his death, thus making an attempted alteration to the succession illegal.

Therefore in order to legally justify Richard III’s taking of the throne in June of 1483 an Act of Parliament was issued in January 1484 entitled “Titulus Regius (The Title of King)” The Act stated that Edward IV’s marriage had been bigamous and therefore invalid. In the nullification of the marriage it also rendered all the children of the marriage as illegitimate, namely the young King Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York.

An interesting note is that the Titulus Regius did not actually name Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath as the main clerical witness for the claim of the pre-marital contract of Edward IV and Lady Butler. Instead the Titulus Regius named a Burgundian chronicler, Phillipe de Commines, as the main witness to the contract. The source of Phillipe de Commines witnessing the event was written in his memoirs where he said he witnessed the signing of the pre-contract between Edward IV and Lady Butler.

Edward IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland

An another interesting point about the Act making Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville’s children illegitimate is that the taint of illegitimacy did not tarnish the desirability of their daughter Princess Elizabeth of York. In order to heal the rift in the family, and it seems to bolster Richard III’s hold up the throne, he sought the hand of his niece in marriage. Her mother, Queen Elizabeth (formerly Elizabeth Woodville) flatly refused his advances. Even after Richard was deposed the new king, Henry VII, successfully won the hand of Princess Elizabeth of York and United the warring branches of the English Royal Family. Elizabeth of York’s stain of illegitimacy didn’t bother Henry nor prevent her from becoming Queen Consort of England. She really had a better claim to be a Queen Regnant of England but that’s another story.

One of the first acts of Parliament convened by Henry VII after he became king was to repeal Titulus Regius. This restored the legitimacy of the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, and the legitimacy of their children, including Elizabeth of York. Henry honoured his pledge of December 1483 to marry Elizabeth of York. They were third cousins, as both were great-great-grandchildren of John of Gaunt. Henry and Elizabeth were married on 18 January 1486 at Westminster Abbey.

Today the vast majority of historians view the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville as legally valid. That’s not to say the pre-contract between Edward IV and Lady Butler didn’t occur, it vary well may have, there just isn’t enough evidence to determine, either for away, if the pre-contract was made.