The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville & the Age of Chivalry (34 page)

Introduction

1. W.H. Prescott,
The Art of War in Spain: The Conquest of Granada 1481–1492
, ed
A.D. McJoynt (Greenhill, 1995).

2. For a serious review of the chivalric ethic see Richard Barber,
The Knight and
Chivalry
(Boydell Press, 1995); Christina Hardyment’s
Malory: The Life and Times
of King Arthur’s Chronicler
(Collins, 2005) is an engaging biography of the greatest
exponent of the chivalric ideal.

3. According to D. Hay, translator of some of Polydore Vergil, ‘if Vergil offends it is
mainly in suppression of the truth’. He also observes that ‘the main participants
are still valued popularly as Vergil valued them’ and so it is hardly surprising that
those whom he did not value have been rather neglected.

Chapter 1. A Spanish Venture

1. Professor David Hook has kindly translated the relevant parts of Bernáldez,
Pulgar, de Valera and other contemporary records; he has also provided invaluable
advice. Otherwise the main sources for this chapter are
The History of the Reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic
by W.H. Prescott;
The Chronicle of the Conquest
of Granada
by Washington Irving;
Moorish Spain
by Richard Fletcher provides an
excellent commentary on the culture and history. The quotations used have been
taken either from Professor Hook’s translations or from Prescott, pp 337–407.
The Bernáldez is taken from
Memorias del reinado de los Reyes Católicos
, ed M.
Gómez-Moreno and J. de Mata Carrizo (Madrid, 1962), chapters LXXIX and
LXXX; the Pulgar is from
Crónica de los señores reyes católicos Don Fernando y Doña
Isabel de Castilla y de Aragon
, chapters LVI, LVIII, XCV; Diego de Valera,
Crónica
de los Reyes Católicos
, pp 200–20, and the
Itinerario de los Reyes Católicos
for 1486.

2. See W.H. Prescott,
The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic
(London: Gibbings & Co, 1894), vol. i, p 396.

3. Matthew Paris,
Chronica Majora
, ed H.R. Luard (Rolls Series, 1872–74), vol. ii,
pp 560–3.

4. Gibraltar (Jebil-el-Tarik) fell in 1462 after 718 years of Arab occupation. The
Spaniards had held it for 22 years in the fourteenth century, then for some 240
years this time round. The British have held it for rather longer, at some 300
years so far.

5. The letter from de Valera noted that the merchants on the ships were well known
in the city. Apparently the ships had a quick turn-round and sailed back up the
coast, presumably to find their cargoes for the home run. John Edwards,
The
Spain of the Catholic Monarchs 1474–1500
(Blackwell, 2001), pp 126–7.

6. Medieval command arrangements are not clear. The 800 men sent to Calais in
1483 included 25 ‘peti-captains’, i.e. 1–32 men. The traditional arrangements
dated from Edward I: archers were grouped into companies of 100 under a
‘centenar’ and then in sections of 20 under a ‘vintenar’ (the ‘vingtaine’ of 20
corresponded with the basic unit of the shire array). Now there are ‘captains’
(centenire) and peti-captains; the latter were paid 12 pence daily, twice the
archer’s rate. The rank of ‘petty officer’ is still used in the Royal Navy for a
non-commissioned officer.

7. A cloth yard was 36ins (91cm) long. Archers practised every day and could
fire six aimed arrows a minute, or ten unaimed; arrows could kill at 300 yards
and penetrate 1in (2.54cm) of oak at 200 yards. A number of war bows were
recovered from
The Mary Rose
which were between 6ft and 7ft (182–212cm)
long, 1.33ins to 1.46ins (34–37mm) wide and 1.2ins (31mm) deep. It has been
calculated they had a draw weight of between 135lbs and 160lbs (61–73kg) and
would fire an 3.5oz arrow about 300 yards and a 4.5oz arrow at least 240 yards
(220 metres). Few modern men can draw a 135lbs bow even half way.

8. Dominic Mancini,
The Usurpation of Richard III
, ed and trans C.A.J. Armstrong
(Oxford, 1936), p 121.

9. Codex 443 of the Colecção Pombalina, Biblioteca Nacional. Lisbon.

10. One of the foot soldiers sent to garrison Alhama was Garcia de Montalvo, the
author of
Amadis de Gaula
, a hugely popular novel of the sixteenth century.

11. Bernáldez,
Memorias del reinado de los Reyes Católicos
, vol. LXXIX, p 167.

12. British regiments have their own regimental bugle call so soldiers can identify
their unit; this call is then followed by a call of particular instruction. There
are several contemporary drawings of soldiers with trumpets. In Edward’s next
campaign, it is recorded that trumpet calls were used to instruct the cavalry.

13. There is no Spanish reference to their surcoat being quartered by the cross of
St George. However, Edward Woodville’s soldiers were wearing the cross in
Brittany two years later, which is the first recorded use of it as uniform; it is
also shown in the contemporary
Beauchamp Pageant
, ed Dillon and St John Hope
(London: British Museum, 1914). Archers often wore ‘uniform’, viz the ‘Flodden
window’ at Middleton (by Manchester) which shows the 17 kneeling archers
all dressed in blue courtmantles. Washington Irving,
Chronicle of the Conquest
of Granada
(London, 1902), p 155, tells us that the English soldiers shouted ‘St
George for England’, but it is not clear how he knew this.

14. Edward was probably wearing a morion, i.e. an open-faced helmet.

15. Alonso de Palencia,
Cronica de Enrique IV
(Madrid, 1975), p 163.

16. In von Eyb’s biography (1507) of Wilwot von Schaumberg (1446–1510) there is
the first (known) recorded understanding of the difference between a knight and
an infantry officer; Wilwot was both a knight and leader of
lansquenets
, German
infantry. See Fritz Redlich,
The German Military Enterpriser and His Work Force
(Wiesbaden, 1964), p 15, note 25.

17. The exchange was 375 maravedis to one gold ducat; the ducat was worth about
4s-3d in sterling, so 88,791 maravedis is 235 ducats which would convert to
about £47-7s-0d. P. Spufford,
Handbook of Medieval Exchange
(Royal Historical
Society, 1986), pp 157–8, covers the period 1480–97. Based on sources for
1480, 1480–86 and 1497, 1 Venetian ducat = 375 maravedis.

18. Joanot Martorell and M.J. de Galba,
Tirant Lo Blanc
, trans D.H. Rosenthal
(London: Macmillan, 1984), pp 234–5.

19. Lombards are heavy cannon about 12ft (3.65m) long that fire a stone or marble
ball of around 14ins (35.5cm) in diameter and weighing 175lbs (80kg).

20. Bernáldez,
Historia
, vol. LXXIX, p 168.

21. There is a description of Isabella with ‘auburn hair and clear blue eyes’ quoted
by Washington Irving in his
Christopher Columbus
(p 52) from Garibay’s
History of
España
11/xvii/1; portraits of her show a strong square jaw.

22. W.C. Metcalf,
A Book of Knights
(London, 1885), p 12.

23. It seems to have been the Queen who drove the campaign forward with single-
mindedness and determination. She stopped the King being distracted. In 1484
he wanted to capture Roussillon from the French but she would not allow it.
Later the nobles persuaded the King to finish campaigning early but the Queen
disapproved and shamed them all into returning to the original plan. The King
and Queen with their complementary skills made a remarkable team, she dealing
with logistics while he led the armies. The Queen, stationing herself close to the
scene of operations, received hourly intelligence of the war. She sent supplies to
the troops and had tents, known as ‘the Queen’s hospitals’, ready for the sick and
wounded, and provided them with attendants and medicines.

24. The army was reported to be 10,000–12,000 cavalry and 20,000–40,000 foot,
certainly an exaggeration. There was also ‘a body of Germans skilled in the
service of ordnance and the art of battering walls’.

25. C. Oman,
The Art of War in the Sixteenth Century
(London: Methuen, 1927), p 51.

26.
Punto de blanco
or ‘point-blank range’, the distance of the archer from the target
where he needed no elevation to hit the white spot at its centre, i.e. he pointed
straight at it. The expression was adapted to gunnery and meant the cannon was
horizontal with a short range. The heavy cannon were attached to their carriages
and incapable of either vertical or horizontal movement. Aim was by line along
the top of the barrel. Smaller cannon were more manoeuvrable and a good one
could put a 12lb ball through the hull of a ship at up to 300 yards.

27. Las Casas and Fernando Columbus agree that Christopher met the King and
Queen in Cordoba. The monarchs arrived there on 28 April; Ferdinand left on
14 May, Isabella was there until 9 June (
Itinerario de los Reyes Católicos, 1474–
1516
).

28. Ferdinand and Isabella arrived back in Cordoba on 29 June and stayed there until
17 July when they moved to Linares (
Itinerario de los Reyes Católicos, 1474–1516
).

29. Codex 443 of the Colecçao Pombalina in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, quoted
in Elaine Sanceau,
The Perfect Prince: A Biography of King Dom João
(Porto, 1959).

30. Loja was a critical victory in the build up to the end of the Reconquista and the
event seems to have stuck in the collective imagination of Spain. Unfortunately
no contemporary ballad about the siege and capture has survived. However,
there is a late, literary, chronicle-based composition: no. 1076 from ‘Coleccion
de Romances Castellanos’ (published in Madrid in 1851) and newly translated by
David Hook:
‘...took the foremost position
and with rage in his spirit
boldly daring the difficult
did so much with his sword
that he opened a way
through the thick of the Moors
without the densest squadron
being able to prevent it
striking to all sides
agile as a loose leopard,
followed by many
who saw so marvellous a deed;
to the city he then
laid the closest of sieges.’

Chapter 2. Passion

1. Grafton is on the road between Stony Stratford and Northampton, overlooking
the valley of the Tove. The Woodville family had lived there since the reign of
King John (1199–1216).

2. Hastings’s price was marriage between her eldest son, Thomas, and any future
daughter of either Hastings or his younger brother. If no daughter was born
within five years then Elizabeth would have to pay 500 marks (£333) to Hastings.

3. R. Fabyan,
New Chronicle of England and France
, ed H. Ellis (London, 1811), p 654.

4. His grandson, Henry VIII, was to do the same thing several times.

5. Jean de Waurin,
Anciennes Chroniques d’Engleterre
, ed Mlle Dupont (Paris, 1858–
63), vol. ii, p 326.

6.
Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, 1422–1441
, p 53;
Rotuli Parliamentorum
, ed J.
Strachey et al, vol. iv, p 498.

7. Sir Richard was selected as the English Champion to ‘deliver’ Pedro Vasque de
Saavedra, a Spanish jousting star who had come to London to ‘run a course with a
sharp spear for his sovereign lady’s sake’. Sir Richard came from the same mould
as the most celebrated tournament fighter of all time, William the Marshal, Earl
of Pembroke (1147–1219). The Marshal started as a penniless knight and made
his living from the ransoms of those he vanquished in the lists, and elsewhere.
His top score – in partnership with a Sir Roger de Gaugi – was 103 in one season
(the tally was kept by a kitchen clerk called Wigain). He was tutor and mentor
to three kings, married the heiress to the Earl of Pembroke and was confirmed
in that earldom. He became the leading English statesman of his time and is the
archetypal hero of chivalry.

8. Rivers or Ryvers. The origin of the name is uncertain: there was a parish of
‘Ryver’ by Dover Castle, but more likely is a link – real or imagined – to the
early Earls of Devon. Rivers was their family name in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries and their arms included the Griffin Sergeant which appears on the
Woodville arms.
Medieval Pageant: Writhe’s Garter Book
(Roxburghe, 1993), p 7.