Was He A Usurper? King Richard III. Part III

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Bishop of Bath, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Bishop Robert Stillington, Eleanor Butler, Elizabeth Woodville, King Edward V of England, King Richard III of England, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lord Protector of England, Titulus Regis

Shortly after the death of King Edward IV, Bishop Robert Stillington, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, is said to have informed Richard that Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid because of Edward’s earlier union with Eleanor Butler, making Edward V and his siblings illegitimate.

Bishop Stillington asserted Eleanor Butler had had a legal precontract of marriage to Edward, which invalidated the king’s later marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. According to Richard Duke of Gloucester, this meant that he, rather than Edward’s sons, was the true heir to the throne.

A precontract is a legal contract that precedes another; in particular it can refer to an existing promise of marriage with another. Such a precontract would legally nullify any later marriages into which either party entered. The practice was common in the Middle Ages, and the allegation of a precontract was the most common means of dissolving a marriage by the medieval ecclesiastical courts.

The identity of Stillington was known only through the memoirs of French diplomat Philippe de Commines. On June 22, a sermon was preached outside Old St. Paul’s Cathedral by Ralph Shaa, declaring Edward IV’s children bastards and Richard the rightful king. Shortly after, the citizens of London, both nobles and commons, convened and drew up a petition asking Richard to assume the throne.

Richard accepted the throne on June 26 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey on July 6. Richard then persuaded Parliament to pass an act, Titulus Regius, which debarred Edward V from the throne and proclaimed him as King Richard III. The Titulus Regius was confirmed by Parliament in January. Also at a meeting held on January 23, 1484 the former king’s marriage was declared illegal.

The princes, who were still lodged in the royal residence of the Tower of London at the time of Richard’s coronation, disappeared from sight after the summer of 1483. Although after his death Richard III was accused of having Edward and his brother killed, notably by More and in Shakespeare’s play, the facts surrounding their disappearance remain unknown. Other culprits have been suggested, including Buckingham and even Henry VII, although Richard remains a suspect.

After the coronation ceremony, Richard and Anne set out on a royal progress to meet their subjects. During this journey through the country, the king and queen endowed King’s College and Queens’ College at Cambridge University, and made grants to the church. Still feeling a strong bond with his northern estates, Richard later planned the establishment of a large chantry chapel in York Minster with over 100 priests. He also founded the College of Arms.

The History of the Title, Duke of Northumberland. Part I.

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1st Duke of Northumberland., 1st Duke of Somerset, Edward Seymour, House of Tudor, John Dudley, King Edward VI of England and Ireland, King Henry VIII of England and Ireland, Lord Protector of England

From The Emperor’s Desk: In this first entry I will go into some detail concerning the first Duke of Northumberland. However, in subsequent entries I may not cover each Duke of Northumberland with such detail. John Dudley is a fascinating subject as the first Duke, during the most interesting period in English history, namely, the Tudor period.

The title Dukedom of Northumberland, is not to be confused with the title Earl of Northumberland which deserves its own blog entry.

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Duke of Northumberland is a noble title that has been created three times in English and British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain. The current holder of this title is Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland.

Coat of Arms of the Dukedom of Northumberland

1551 Creation

John Dudley was the eldest of three sons of Edmund Dudley, a councillor of King Henry VII, and his second wife Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Lisle. His father was attainted and executed for high treason in 1510, having been arrested immediately after Henry VIII’s accession because the new king needed scapegoats for his predecessor’s (Henry VII) unpopular financial policies.

In January 1537, Dudley was made Vice-Admiral and began to apply himself to naval matters. He was Master of the Horse to Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard, and in 1542 returned to the House of Commons as MP for Staffordshire but was soon promoted to the House of Lords following 12 March 1542, when he became Viscount Lisle after the death of his stepfather Arthur Plantagenet and “by the right of his mother”. Being now a peer, Dudley became Lord Admiral and a Knight of the Garter in 1543; he was also admitted to the Privy Council.

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, KG (died March 3, 1542) was an illegitimate son of King Edward IV of England, half-brother-in-law of Henry VII, and an uncle of Henry VIII, at whose court he was a prominent figure and by whom he was appointed Lord Deputy of Calais (1533–40). The survival of a large collection of his correspondence in the Lisle Letters makes his life one of the best documented of his era.

John Dudley, popularly fêted and highly regarded by King Henry as a general, became a royal intimate who played cards with the ailing monarch. Next to Edward Seymour, Prince Edward’s maternal uncle, Dudley was one of the leaders of the Reformed party at court, and both their wives were among the friends of Anne Askew, the Protestant martyr destroyed by Bishop Stephen Gardiner in July 1546.

Upon the death of King Henry VIII in January 1547 the 16 executors of Henry VIII’s will also embodied the Regency Council that had been appointed to rule collectively during King Edward VI’s minority. The new Council agreed on making Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford Lord Protector with full powers, which in effect were those of a prince.

Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (1500 – January 22, 1552) (also 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp), was the eldest surviving brother of Queen Jane Seymour (d. 1537), the third wife of King Henry VIII. He was Lord Protector of England from 1547 to 1549 during the minority of his nephew King Edward VI (1547–1553). Despite his popularity with the common people, his policies often angered the gentry.

Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector of England

At the same time the Council awarded themselves a round of promotions based on Henry VIII’s wishes; the Earl of Hertford became the Duke of Somerset and John Dudley was created Earl of Warwick. The new Earl had to pass on his post of Lord Admiral to Somerset’s brother, Thomas Seymour, but advanced to Lord Great Chamberlain.

The new Earl of Warwick was perceived as the most important man next the Lord Protector, he was on friendly terms with Somerset, who soon reopened the war with Scotland. Dudley accompanied him as second-in-command with a taste for personal combat.

Dudley consolidated his power through institutional manoeuvres and by January 1550 was in effect the new regent. On February 2, 1550 he became Lord President of the Council, with the capacity to debar councillors from the body and appoint new ones.

Dudley excluded the Duke of Southampton and other conservatives, but arranged Somerset’s release and his return to the Privy Council and Privy Chamber. In June 1550 Dudley’s heir John married Somerset’s daughter Anne as a mark of reconciliation.

Yet Somerset soon attracted political sympathizers and hoped to re-establish his power by removing Dudley from the scene, “contemplating”, as he later admitted, the Lord President’s arrest and execution. Relying on his popularity with the masses, he campaigned against and tried to obstruct Dudley’s policies.

Dudley’s elevation as Duke of Northumberland came on October 11, 1551 with the Duke of Somerset participating in the ceremony. Five days later Somerset was arrested, while rumours about supposed plots of his circulated. He was accused of having planned a “banquet massacre”, in which the council were to be assaulted and Dudley killed.

Somerset was acquitted of treason, but convicted of felony for raising a contingent of armed men without a licence. He was executed on January 22, 1552. While technically lawful, these events contributed much to Northumberland’s growing unpopularity.

King Edward VI of England and Ireland

Dudley himself, according to a French eyewitness, confessed before his own end that “nothing had pressed so injuriously upon his conscience as the fraudulent scheme against the Duke of Somerset”.

The 15-year-old King Edward VI fell ill in early 1553 and excluded his half-sisters, Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth, whom he regarded as illegitimate, from the succession, designating non-existent, hypothetical male heirs. As his death approached, King Edward VI changed his will so that his Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey, Northumberland’s daughter-in-law, could inherit the Crown.

To what extent the Duke influenced this scheme is uncertain. The traditional view is that it was Northumberland’s plot to maintain his power by placing his family on the throne.

Many historians see the project as genuinely Edward VI’s, enforced by Dudley after the King’s death. The Duke did not prepare well for this occasion. Having marched to East Anglia to capture Mary, he surrendered on hearing that the Privy Council had changed sides and proclaimed Lady Mary as queen.

Convicted of high treason, Northumberland returned to Catholicism and abjured the Protestant faith before his execution. Having secured the contempt of both religious camps, popularly hated, and a natural scapegoat, he became the “wicked Duke” — in contrast to his predecessor Somerset, the “good Duke”.

Over a century later, An illegitimate son of one of his younger sons, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Sir Robert Dudley, claimed the dukedom when in exile in Italy. On March 9, 1620 the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II officially recognised the title, an act which infuriated James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Only since the 1970s has John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, has also been seen as a Tudor Crown servant: self-serving, inherently loyal to the incumbent monarch, and an able statesman in difficult times.

History of Male British Consorts Part II

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1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, 1st Duke of Somerset, Edward Seymour, Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII. Catherine Parr, Lord Protector of England, Thomas Seymour

It may seem odd to include Queen Elizabeth I of England in this series given the fact that she he never married and no husband ever became consort. However, I would like to examine the possibilities of why she never married because the role of a male consort may have played a part why she chose not to marry.

Eizabeth I ( September 7, 1533 – March 24, 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from November 17, 1558 until her death in 1603. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor.

Whom she would marry occupied the many politicians when she was in her youth. As she grew older, Elizabeth became celebrated for her virginity. A cult of personality grew around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, and literature of the day. Elizabeth’s reign became known as the Elizabethan era.

Henry VIII died in 1547 and Elizabeth’s half-brother, Edward VI, became king at age nine. Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s widow, soon married Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley.

Thomas Seymour was a brother of Lady Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII and therefore an uncle to the young king Edward VI. Thomas Seymour was also brother of the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. The former Queen Catherine and her husband took Elizabeth into their household at Chelsea.

While living there Elizabeth experienced sexual harassment and a an emotional crisis that some historians believe affected her for the rest of her life. Thomas Seymour, aged about 39 years at the time, engaged in romps and horseplay with the 14-year-old Elizabeth, including entering her bedroom in his nightgown, tickling her, and slapping her on the buttocks.

Elizabeth rose early and surrounded herself with maids to avoid his unwelcome morning visits. Catherine Parr, rather than confront her husband over his inappropriate activities, joined in. Twice she accompanied him in tickling Elizabeth, and once held her while he cut her black gown “into a thousand pieces”. However, after Catherine Parr discovered the pair in an intimate embrace, she ended this state of affairs. In May 1548, Elizabeth was sent away.

However, Thomas Seymour continued scheming to control the royal family and tried to have himself appointed the governor of the King’s person. When Catherinr Parr died after childbirth on September 5, 1548, he renewed his attentions towards Elizabeth, intent on marrying her.

Mistress Kat Ashley, who was fond of Thomas Seymour, sought to convince Elizabeth to take him as her husband. She tried to convince Elizabeth to write to Thomas and “comfort him in his sorrow”, but Elizabeth claimed that Thomas was not so saddened by her stepmother’s death as to need comfort.

In January 1549, Thomas was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower on suspicion of conspiring to depose his brither, the Dukr of Somerset as the Protector, and marry Lady Jane Grey to King Edward VI, and take Elizabeth as his own wife.

Elizabeth, living at Hatfield House, would admit nothing. Her stubbornness exasperated her interrogator, Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, who reported, “I do see it in her face that she is guilty”. Seymour was beheaded on March 20, 1549.