The Last White Rose (3 page)

Undoubtedly, Henry possessed one or two excellent ministers in Sir Reginald Bray, Cardinal Morton and Bishop Richard
Fox – ‘vigilant men, and secret, and such as kept watch with him almost upon all men’.
⁹
There was also his Lord Chamberlain, Sir William Stanley, who had won Bosworth and the crown for him by changing sides, and numerous less able, if dependable, figures such as the newly honoured Lord Daubeney.

But many of his apparent supporters could not be relied upon. Discontented Yorkists, they had only fought for him because they hated the late king. At the same time, his victory meant that a large group of Ricardian loyalists were deprived of lucrative posts or forced to hand back estates, such as all the Northerners whom Richard had rewarded with lands and offices in the South. Soon they began to show their hand in Yorkshire under assumed names – Robin of Redesdale, Jack Straw, Tom a’ Linn, Master Amend-All – stirring up riots in collusion with Scots raiders. Even when the riots were put down, the disaffection remained. Throughout England, especially in the northern counties, there were people who, if not yet ready to revolt, felt much the same as the Yorkshiremen.

1. Autumn 1485: ‘this woeful season’

1
. Sir F. Bacon,
The History of the Reign of King Henry VII and
Selected Works
, Cambridge, 1998, p. 23. Bacon may not have known of material that has since come to light, but he had read Vergil, Fabyan and Robert André, besides several manuscript sources, and is often a remarkably shrewd interpreter.

2
. R. Davies,
Municipal Records of the City of York during the
Reigns of
Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III
, London, 1843, p. 218.

3
.
The Paston Letters
, Gloucester, Alan Sutton, 1986, 1001.

4
.
Memorials of King Henry the Seventh
, Rolls Series, London, 1858, 1, 4–5.

5
. Vergil,
op. cit
., p. 8.

6
.
Rotoli Parliamentorum (1278–1504)
, London,1767–77, vol. VI, 268–70.

7
. Vergil,
op. cit
., p. 144.

8
. S. Cunningham,
Henry VII
, London, Routledge, 2007, p. 98.

9
. Bacon,
op. cit
., p. 19.

2

Easter 1486: Lord Lovell and the Stafford Brothers

‘[T]he old humour of those countries, where the memory of King Richard was so strong, that it lay like lees at the bottom of men’s hearts; and if the vessel was but stirred, it would come up.’

Sir Francis Bacon,
The History of the Reign of King Henry VII
¹

Living, walking monuments to Henry VII’s sense of insecurity still exist, the Yeomen of the Guard. First raised in October 1485 as fifty archers to protect him at his coronation, these were soon transformed into men-at-arms and their strength increased to two hundred. Crack troops recruited from veterans who had been with the King in France and fought for him at Bosworth, their principal job was to mount guard every day and deter assassins – the traditional Knights and Squires of the Body being thought insufficient for the task – although in the absence of a
standing army the Yeomen also fought as an elite unit. It quickly became apparent that Henry needed them.

In a letter dated 18 December, just after Parliament had risen, Thomas Betanson informed Sir Robert Plumpton that there was an uneasy mood in London. A number of Yorkist lords and gentlemen, Richard’s committed followers, had just been attainted by an Act that outlawed them, together with their families, confiscating their estates – men such as the Earl of Surrey, Lord Lovell and Lord Zouche. Although several MPs opposed the Act, the king insisted on it. There was talk in the city of war breaking out again: no one could say who was going to start it, but on the whole people thought it would be either the Northerners or the Welsh. Betanson adds, ‘There is much running among the lords, but no man wot [knows] what it is: it is said it is not well among them.’
²

Henry’s most dangerous opponent was Francis, Viscount Lovell, who had been among his predecessor’s staunchest supporters. At first believed to have fallen at Bosworth, according to a letter written by Henry soon after the battle, he had managed to escape and find sanctuary. A boyhood companion of the young Duke of Gloucester, during Richard’s reign he had been chamberlain of the royal household and virtually the second most important man in the kingdom. Until now he had been a magnate not just of high standing and ancient blood – he was the seventh Lord Lovell as well as the second viscount – but one of enormous wealth, even before receiving lavish rewards from Richard. Some idea of how rich he was can be gained by walking around the ruins of his beautiful house at Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire, in woodland on the banks of the River Windrush, where he had been visited by his late master on at least one occasion.

After Bosworth, Lovell had made for East Anglia, hoping to go abroad. Failing to find a boat, he took sanctuary in the Benedictine abbey at Colchester. ‘Sanctuary rights’ gave a fugitive immunity from arrest for forty days, after which he must leave the kingdom. During the recent wars many had saved their
lives in this way, although sometimes they were dragged out and executed, as happened to the Lancastrian leaders after their defeat at Tewkesbury in 1471. Remembering the widespread disgust caused by this vicious breach of legality, in which several of his cousins lost their lives, even when the forty days had elapsed King Henry made no attempt to remove Lovell from the abbey.

Also in sanctuary at the abbey were two more of the late king’s supporters who had fought at Bosworth, Sir Humphrey Stafford and his younger brother Thomas. Well known in his county, Humphrey, who was to be attainted with Lord Lovell in December 1485
³
, owned the valuable manor of Grafton in Worcestershire (near Tewkesbury and the River Severn), besides other big estates, including Blatherwycke in Northamptonshire. Fifty-nine but still hale and hearty, he had been MP for Worcestershire and high sheriff, as well as MP for Warwickshire. For most of his life he had shown himself not so much a Yorkist as an enemy of the Harcourts, a powerful Lancastrian family who were his neighbours in Northamptonshire. Sir Richard Harcourt had murdered Humphrey’s father in 1448, to be murdered in turn, during an affray, by Humphrey’s half-brother, the Bastard of Grafton. But in 1483, during the Duke of Buckingham’s rebellion, Sir Humphrey had held the fords of the rain-swollen Severn against Buckingham’s followers, earning King Richard’s gratitude.

Locally, Humphrey had a name as a ruthless thug who was always ready to break the law. In a petition presented during the Parliament of November 1485 some Stafford cousins complained how, with ‘great might and strength’ (meaning a large body of armed men), he had seized their estates and kept possession of them because he was ‘in such favour and conceit with Richard, late in deed and not of right, king of England’. Henry granted their petition, that the manors should not be included among those forfeited in Sir Humphrey’s attainder.
⁴

The three fugitives knew their one chance of rebuilding their fortunes was to replace Henry with the Earl of Warwick. They
decided that in the spring of 1486, shortly before the king visited York, Lovell should break out of sanctuary, assemble a small force and kill Henry – helpers would be easy enough to find in a city where Richard had been so popular. Lovell would then proclaim Warwick king, and raise all Yorkshire in support. Meanwhile, the Stafford brothers were to rally the Yorkists of the West Midlands, where Warwick owned large estates, and then bring troops north to reinforce Lovell. While everything depended on liquidating Henry, the plan did at least have the advantage of surprise – no one expected a
coup d’état
from three men who were cooped up in sanctuary.
⁵

Towards the middle of March Henry VII left London, riding north by way of Waltham, Cambridge, Huntingdon and Lincoln. He kept Holy Week at Lincoln – washing the feet of twenty-nine poor men in the cathedral, as he was twenty-nine years of age – where Sir Reginald Bray warned him that Lovell was going to leave sanctuary and was planning serious mischief. Henry immediately summoned Bray’s informant, a Hugh Conway who had fought for him at Bosworth, but did not believe the story. ‘I affirmed all to be true, as my said friend had showed, and the king said that it could not be so,’ recalled Conway.
⁶
He grew angry when Conway refused to reveal the name of his friend, were he ‘to be drawn with wild horses’. While they were still at Lincoln, news came that Lovell and the Staffords had escaped from Colchester and no one knew where they had gone. However, for the moment Henry remained unconcerned, riding on to Nottingham.

But when the king reached York he heard rumours of a revolt in the North Riding. Under the name of ‘Robin of Redesdale’, an unidentified Yorkist was raising support in an area around Ripon and Middleham that had been closely associated with Richard III. The rumours were confirmed, followed by a report that Lord Lovell was marching on York. Vergil says Henry was horrified – ‘struck with great fear’ – as he had neither an army nor weapons for his retinue, while it seemed unlikely he would
be able to raise an adequate force in a city so well known for its devotion to King Richard.

Aware that he must act quickly, before Lovell’s army grew any larger, Henry sent his ill-equipped retinue against the enemy, including the Knights of the Body and the Yeomen of the Guard, under his uncle Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford. According to Vergil, most of them ‘armoured themselves in leather’, meaning they bought padded deerskin jerkins (the poor man’s armour) from the locals. He also sent heralds, promsing a pardon to any rebel, except for the leaders, who laid down his arms. The heralds won over so many men that Lovell lost his nerve and fled during the night.
⁷
However, still hoping for a chance to ambush the king, he took a band of reliable followers with him.

Meanwhile, reports that King Henry was in danger spread all over Yorkshire, with the result that local landowners came to York to offer their services. Somewhat improbably, in view of its former fervent loyalty to Richard, he is said to have been received in the northern capital with great enthusiasm and elaborate pageants, the crowds shouting, ‘King Henry! King Henry! God preserve that sweet and well-savoured face’.

Even so, Lord Lovell regained his nerve. On 23 April, St George’s Day, he very nearly succeeded in killing the king at York when he was celebrating the feast of St George. Although no proper account survives, the attack was made either at High Mass in the Minster, or afterwards when Henry was dining in state in the Archbishop’s Great Hall with his court, including the earls of Lincoln, Rivers and Wiltshire. It looks as if he had a narrow escape. According to one source, the Earl of Northumberland personally saved Henry’s life, which means that someone tried to assassinate him.
⁸
More than one man was involved, since the earl caught several people whom he hanged on the spot.
⁹
This had been the first attempt on Henry’s life since Bosworth.