The Plantagenet Vendetta (58 page)

Titulus Regius

Titulus Regius was the only Act of Parliament of Richard’s reign, dated 1484. In short, it allegedly confirms a marriage contract between Edward IV and Eleanor Butler, nee Talbot, prior to Edward’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, thus making the marriage invalid. It also speculates of Woodville’s use of witchcraft in luring Edward into marriage and also suggests Edward and George, Duke of Clarence, were themselves illegitimate and only Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was the true heir of Richard, 3rd Duke of York. The Act was repealed on the ascension of Henry VII and every copy ordered to be destroyed. Only one copy survived, transcribed into the Croyland Chronicle.

Its authenticity is purely dependent on the validity of the chronicle and the chronicler.

The Holbein Theory

The Hans Holbein connection was actually pointed out to me by a family friend, who once visited one of the nunneries in Belgium. From what I can gather from my research, researcher Jack Leslau first conceived the idea in the 1970s. Among other things, Leslau claimed that both Edward V and Richard, 1st Duke of York, survived and continued to live under the guises of one Sir Edward Guildford and one Dr John Clement.

Historically, there are far too many holes in this intriguing theory for it to hold water, but it is unquestionably a fascinating one. According to Leslau, Clement survived and entered the household of Thomas More and later married his foster daughter, Margaret Giggs.

The main problem here is age. Richard, 1st Duke of York, was about nine when he disappeared and would have been well into his fifties at the time the Holbein painting was done. The man in the painting, also mentioned in the novel, is far too young to be York. According to most biographies, albeit vague ones, Clement was born in 1500, and parts of his early years are documented, including his education at St Paul’s. Richard of Shrewsbury was himself born in August 1473, making him twenty-seven at the time of Clement’s alleged birth. While that alone should draw things to a conclusion, Clement’s death in 1572 equally stretches a point. Though technically he could have lived to ninety-nine, it seems doubtful for a man living at a time when life expectancy was around forty.

That said, there are interesting observations, the best of which I have picked up on in my novel. John the rightful heir is mentioned in the main painting, standing beneath a fleur-de-lis. He is also standing at the highest point. Intriguingly, his identity has never been satisfactorily explained. While I congratulate Mr Leslau on some interesting points, Clement is too young to be Richard, 1st Duke of York. If there is any truth in the theory, surely Clement was his son.

On a sounder historical note, the painting in question by the famous Hans Holbein the Younger was lost in a fire in the 1700s; the copies by Rowland Lockey that survive are therefore all the more important. They were completed around 1593 and now hang at both Nostell Priory in Yorkshire and the National Portrait Gallery. Suggestion in the novel that there are multiple copies in existence is false. The suggestion that Elizabeth I in some way tampered with the paintings is also made up.

Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick was the son of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, and hence grandson of Richard, 3rd Duke of York. As Richard’s grandson and a nephew of Edward IV, Edward himself had a claim to the throne and would have been next in line after Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury. Edward was made Earl of Warwick shortly after his father’s death in 1478 and was made a ward of Edward IV’s stepson, Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset. When Richard III died, the ten-year-old Warwick was taken to the Tower of London on Henry Tudor’s orders. Though he had no role in the Lambert Simnel rebellion – Simnel himself had claimed to be the real Warwick – he was alleged to have been involved in a plot with Perkin Warbeck, which led to him being sentenced to death.

When Edward was executed, the House of Plantagenet came to an end in the male line!

The Duchy of Lancaster

I’m guessing this will be new to a lot of people, yet its importance cannot be overstated. To this day, the Duchy of Lancaster remains, along with the Crown Estate, the main form of income for the monarch. Held in a trust, it comprises some 46,000 acres of land including everything from farmland to historic buildings. While the history of the duchy can technically be traced back to Henry III and his granting of the Earldom of Lancaster to his son Edmund, including the forfeited Leicester estates previously owned by Simon de Montfort, the creation occurred when the new Lancastrian king Henry IV declared land of the Duchy of Lancaster, of which his father John of Gaunt was the first inheritor, should remain separate from the Crown and be automatically passed down to his male heirs. Edward IV confirmed this on taking the throne in 1461. Due to this distinction, it remained the personal inherited property of the monarch rather than the Crown.

The duchy is controlled by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a minister without portfolio, and remains to this day in the same hands. The monarch is entitled to the revenues of the estate, but not the capital.

The Duchy of Lancaster remains the main source of income for the monarch. The House of Lancaster continues to reside on the throne of England.

In 2010 the Duchy was estimated to be worth approximately £348 million. In 2013 that figure had risen to £429 million.

Acknowledgements

Researching this book has been an enormous pleasure, and I am grateful for the kindness and assistance of many people who I have met along the way. In particular, thanks go to all who offered their expertise and advice on my visits to the various places mentioned throughout the UK. A special thank you must also go to Pauline Nolet for her work as copy-editor.

Thank you for reading. As for every author, readers are the lifeblood of our existence. I hope you enjoyed the book. If so, please look out for my other titles:

The Templar Agenda, 2011

The Larmenius Inheritance, 2013

Robin Hood: The Unknown Templar, Peter Owen 2009

Pity for the Guy – a biography of Guy Fawkes, Peter Owen 2010

The Gothic King – a biography of Henry III, Peter Owen 2013

For more on me, please check out my website,
www.theunknowntemplar.com
. There, you can also find a link to my blog.

If you have any questions or you would like to get in touch, you can email me at
[email protected]
. You can also follow me on Twitter at @unknown_templar

Further Reading

For those of you who wish to learn more, I recommend the following titles:

Andrew, Christopher,
Defend the Realm – The Authorized History of MI5
, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009

Ackroyd, Peter,
The History of England Volume 1 – Foundation
, London: Macmillan, 2011

Baldwin, David,
Richard III
, Stroud: Amberley Publishing, 2013

Carson, Annette,
Richard III: The Maligned King
, Stroud: The History Press, 2013

Carter, Alicia,
The Women of the Wars of the Roses: Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort & Elizabeth of York
, 2013

Castor, Helen,
Blood and Roses,
The Paston family and the Wars of the Roses
, London: Faber and Faber, 2005

Gristwood, Sarah,
Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses
, London: HarperCollins, 2013

Hancock, Peter. A.,
Richard III and the Murder in the Tower
, Stroud: The History Press, 2011

Innes, Arthur D.,
England under the Tudors
, London: Methuen, 1905

Jenkins, Simon,
A Short History of England
, London: Profile Books Ltd, 2012

Markham, Clements Robert,
Richard III: His life and character reviewed in the light of recent research
, London: Smith, Elder, and Co, 1906

Mortimer, Ian,
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England’s Self-Made King
, London: Vintage, 2008

The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation
, London: Vintage, 2008

Penn, Thomas,
Winter King – The Dawn of Tudor England
, London and New York: Penguin, 2012

Weir, Alison,
Elizabeth of York
, London: Jonathan Cape, 2013

Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses
, London: Vintage, 2009

The Princes in the Tower
, London: Pimlico, 1993