The Last White Rose (30 page)

Authors: Desmond Seward

BOOK: The Last White Rose

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Although Henry VIII prided himself on his piety and morality, he had no reservations about a murder, deciding that assassination – quick, discreet, final – was the best way in which to dispose of his rival. A small, folding crossbow (easily hidden in a cloak) should do the job, or a poisoned stiletto, or even a gun: only recently the ‘great’ Earl of Kildare had been killed in an ambush by a bullet from an arquebus. There was a slight problem however, which was finding a reliable assassin.

Sir Edward Poynings and the Earl of Worcester (Lord Chamberlain) were put in charge of the operation, reporting to Wolsey. That men of such high rank were given the task shows the importance Henry set on it. Sir Thomas Spinelly, English ambassador in Flanders, bribed a member of Richard’s household to spy on his master – the singing scribe, Petrus Alamire, who signed his reports with the musical notation ‘
La mi re
’.

Soon an assassin was hired, a petty Flemish nobleman called Percheval de Matte. Stalking his quarry, he sent in detailed reports on the White Rose’s activities: how he exercised his horses in the fields outside Metz with the local gentry, hunting the hare in all weathers, how he was nearly arrested over a huge debt to a German lord but rescued by a loan from a prince of Lorraine.
¹⁹Despite all this impressive intelligence work, Matte made no attempt to kill Richard so Poynings engaged another professional cuthroat, a soldier called Captain Symonde Francoyse, yet he, too, failed to deliver.
²⁰

In February 1516 the French authorities caught an English desperado, Robert Latimer, who confessed to being sent by King Henry to assassinate Richard. Widely reported, the incident did more than reveal Henry’s readiness to commit murder.
It showed all Europe how terrified he was of a rival whom in public he pretended to despise.

These attempts on the White Rose’s life should be seen against a background of growing hostility between France and England. In 1515 Francis I had won a stunning victory over the Swiss at Marignano, conquering the duchy of Milan which then became part of France. Although Maximilian and his grandson, the new Habsburg King of Spain (the future Emperor Charles V), were horrified, Henry VIII’s attempts to humble the French resulted in nothing but a waste of English money: he was betrayed or let down in turn by the Swiss and Charles V. The new situation enhanced Richard de la Pole’s standing as pretender.

Evidence of support for the Yorkist cause emerged at Tournai in February 1516 when a leader of the recent mutiny, John Packman, was brought back to England after being caught in Flanders. He had been with the White Rose or people close to him. Questioned by Lord Mountjoy, Packman said that Richard was in touch with East Anglian merchants – men from Suffolk and Norfolk, who remembered when the de la Poles were the region’s leading magnates. Packman added that Richard had gone to meet the Black Band, a regiment of German landsknechts in French service led by Robert de la Marck, known as the ‘Devil’, who was a kinsman of his old friend the Bishop of Liège. A few months later, Packman was duly hanged and gutted as a traitor – more for his Yorkism than for mutiny.
²¹

There were rumours early in 1516 that the White Rose was preparing to invade, with not only French backing but also Spanish, Scottish and Danish. (His agent Claus Bakker was at the court of the new King of Denmark, Christian II.) When Francis I came back from Italy in March he invited Richard to visit him. Derick van Reydt, Richard’s steward, told the banker Leonardo Frescobaldi, how warmly his master had been received by the French king and queen, and by Francis’s mother, Louise of Savoy – when Richard complained of his fate, Francis promised to help him regain his throne and gave
him money.
²²Reports of this sort made uncomfortable reading for King Henry.

In June 1516 Sir Thomas Spinelly paid sixty gold florins to Jacques de Eesebeke, for services ‘in the matter of
Blancherose
’. Jacques found lodgings overlooking Richard de la Pole’s mansion at Metz, and kept him under surveillance, sending reports to Sir Thomas that must have made Tudor hair stand on end when forwarded to the king. Eesebeke described Richard riding a mule, with Francis I riding pillion behind and swearing to help him gain the English throne, and how Francis had said that a ‘Marquis’ (the Margrave of Brandenburg?) was eager to aid the Yorkist cause. Four French thugs paid 4,000 gold crowns by ‘
Blancherose
’ were coming to England to set fire to Henry’s palace and murder him, said Eesbeke – he knew this from a man in Richard’s confidence. Also, Anthony Spynell, a ‘marvellous great enemy’ of the king, was receiving a salary from the French to spy on him.
²³As Sir Thomas Spinelly had a relative called Anthony – possibly the same person – this item may have embarrassed him.

No less sensational information was received by Wolsey in autumn 1516 from Alamire. He had been with Richard in Germany when his employer received a message from his steward Derick van Reydt, to say that King Francis wanted him to bring as many troops as he could find to France. Officially, these were reinforcements for the French garrison in Italy, but Alamire suspected they might be used to invade England, as Derick had confided in him at the Frankfurt fair, ‘Now is the time that [the] White Rose, Duke of Suffolk, has longed for’. Alamire claimed he had done his best to dissuade his employer from invading, saying they had insufficient money and recalling what had happened to Perkin and Lincoln. ‘Alamire, you tell me strange things,’ had been the reaction of Richard, who added that if he asked King Henry for a pardon, as Alamire suggested, not only was he unlikely to get one but the request would cost him King Francis’s friendship.
²⁴

In November the musician reported that Sir George Neville, his master’s ‘ancient friend … formerly Admiral of the English Sea’, had joined the White Rose at Metz and was travelling with him to France. Two unknown Yorkists had visited Metz and given money to Richard before going home. Alamire also said his employer was planning to ship troops to Scotland.
²⁵He did not mention that there was another English knight at Metz, in Richard’s household, Sir William Pounder.

It was hard for Henry’s spies to keep track of Richard as he was always on the move, secretly meeting King Francis in Paris, raising troops in Germany or Switzerland, visiting Italy, or staying with Robert de la Marck. Once again they tried to kill him. In February 1517 the Earl of Worcester arrived at Tournai to coordinate operations and in the same month, English agents persuaded Sir William Pounder to desert the White Rose. Coming to Tournai, he surrendered to Worcester, saying he had been imprisoned by Richard for refusing to join him. He told all he knew in return for a pardon. While he confirmed that the White Rose was visiting Paris for discussions with Francis I (always at night), revealed details of French troop movements and identified a French spy working in England, Sir William’s defection did little to alter the situation.
²⁶

In spring 1517 Alamire reported that Christian of Denmark had offered Richard 20,000 troops. He also said an Englishman had come with letters ‘from some lords in England’, but that de la Pole was suspicious and would not give him a written answer. The singer added that Thomas Stanley had been despatched to England to discover the truth about the letters, although he had not got much further than the coast.
²⁷This was a lie because Richard and Stanley had by now parted company, and Alamire was a double agent, who regularly sent in false information.

Angry at not being paid his wages as gentleman porter, the Bastard of Stanley had begun spying for Henry. One night Richard burst into his room with some servants, shouting, ‘Thou false traitor! Long hast thou been a spy in my company – thou
shalt before thou depart show who sent thee hither!’ The servants bound his two great toes together with a cord which they twisted, ordering him to confess. It broke and while they were looking for another cord he escaped, finding refuge in a nearby friary. Stanley then approached Dr Cuthbert Tunstall, who was at Bruges on a diplomatic mission, offering information about the White Rose in return for a pardon and a safe conduct home. He claimed that Robert Latimer, arrested after being sent to England by Richard to contact Yorkist sympathizers, had lied about his mission. (Latimer was the assassin hired by Henry in 1516.)

Despite spending so much money on spies and informers, it became abundantly clear that King Henry’s agents were unable to eliminate the White Rose. Wolsey, in overall charge of the operation, realized that he had failed dismally. He needed to find a means of placating his master, something that would distract him. Suddenly an opportunity presented itself.

18. 1513–21: A King over the Water

1
. Hall,
op. cit
., p. 495.

2
.
LP Hen VII
,
op. cit
., vol. I, p. 258.

3
.
Ibid
., pp. 273–5.

4
.
Ibid.
, p. 276.

5
.
Ibid
., p. 53.

6
.
CPR Hen VII
,
1494–1509,
op. cit
., p. 468.

7
.
LP Hen VII
, vol. I, p. 307.

8
.
Ibid
., pp. 315–20.

9
.
Ibid
., p. 321.

10
.
CSP Ven
,
op. cit
., vol. II, 172.

11
. It looks as though the date of Richard’s birth was earlier than has generally been assumed and that William, not Richard, was the youngest of the de la Pole brothers. Humphrey and Geoffrey, both clerics, died before 1513.