The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville & the Age of Chivalry (3 page)

I am grateful for the help of a number of people and organizations, in 
particular Professor David Hook for Spanish translation and generous help
 
with Hispanic matters; Andrew Shaw for Latin translation; Michael Reynolds
 
for French translation; Professor Ralph Griffiths for his kindness in reading my
 
manuscript; and Malcolm Rifkind, Adrian Sykes and George Wadia for their
 
advice. I would also like to thank my editor, David Worthington, for his pains
taking work, Peter Wilkins for his help with the illustrations, the National
 
Archives at Kew, the Bodleian Library, the Morbihan Archives Départemen
tales and particularly the London Library, but most of all the help and support
 
of an adored wife.

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

The following is a select list of people, by family and group, who are
important to the story, which runs from the 1460s to 1488. Of
the 22 Englishmen listed, 15 suffered violent deaths and seven died
peacefully.

THE WOODVILLES (or Widville, Wydeville,
Wydevil, Vedevill ETC)

Edward Woodville
, knight. He was born in 1458 or 1459, appointed Knight
of the Garter in 1488 and killed later that year at the battle of St Aubin du
Cormier.

Richard Woodville
, Edward’s father, was knighted in 1426. He was a
captain under the Duke of Bedford in France and then married the Duke’s
young widow. He continued as a soldier and champion tournament fighter
and was said to be the handsomest man in England. He was a minister of the
king, made baron in 1448, Knight of the Garter in 1450 and 1st Earl Rivers
or Ryvers in 1466. He was executed, without trial, by the Earl of Warwick
in 1469.

Jacquetta
, Edward’s mother, beautiful and lively, daughter of Pierre de
Luxembourg who was Count of St Pol and Brienne and keeper of the Somme
towns. She first married John, Duke of Bedford and younger brother of King
Henry V, who died 1435. In 1436 she was appointed a ‘Lady of the Garter’
and secretly married Sir Richard Woodville. Her eldest brother, Count Louis,
certainly disapproved but her next brother, Jacques, brought the Burgundian
delegation to her daughter’s wedding to King Edward. (In the 1470s Count
Louis endeavoured to divide his loyalties between France and Burgundy, failed
and lost his head.) She died in 1472.

Elizabeth
, the Woodville’s eldest daughter and Edward’s sister, was probably
born in 1437. She inherited her parents’ good looks and was first married to
Sir John Grey, by whom she had two sons. Sir John was killed and she then
married King Edward IV in 1464, by whom she had ten children, Edward
Woodville’s nieces and nephews. These included the two little princes,
Edward and Richard, who were murdered in the Tower of London. She was
crowned queen in 1465, appointed a ‘Lady of the Garter’ in 1477 and much
enjoyed her position, but after her king died in 1483, she had a bleak time and
died in 1492.

Elizabeth (of York)
, Elizabeth Woodville’s eldest daughter and Edward’s
niece, was born in 1465. She was betrothed to Charles the Dauphin of France
from 1475 to 1483. In 1486 she became Henry (Tudor) VII’s queen. She was
mother of several children, amongst whom were Henry, later Henry VIII, and
Margaret, later Queen of Scotland. The latter is an ancestress of the present
British royal family, having married King James IV of Scotland, and so was
grandmother to Mary, Queen of Scots, whose son became King James VI of
Scotland and I of England. Elizabeth of York was noted as kind and beautiful
and died in 1503.

Anthony, Earl Rivers and Baron Scales
, Edward’s eldest brother, was
born around 1442. He became Lord Scales through his first wife, whom he
married in 1460, and then the second Earl Rivers when his father was killed in
1469. He was Champion of England (in tournament fighting), elegant, intel
lectual and one of the most powerful noblemen in the land. Governor of the
Prince of Wales, soldier and diplomat, he was also Caxton’s patron: the first
book printed in England was
The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers
, translated
and commissioned by Anthony. He was executed without trial in 1483 on the
orders of Duke Richard of Gloucester.

There were three other elder brothers: John, who was killed 1469, Lionel,
who was a bishop, and Richard, the last Earl Rivers, who died in bed. There
were at least six other sisters, Jacquetta, Margaret, Anne, Mary, Catherine
and Eleanor, all of whom married well. Catherine was closest in age to Edward
and appears several times in the story; her first marriage was to the Duke of
Buckingham.

Thomas and Richard Grey
, the children of Elizabeth and her first husband,
Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian who was killed at the second battle of St Albans in
1461. These were Edward’s nephews, though they were similar in age to him.
Thomas married the greatest heiress of the time, became Marquis of Dorset
but was reckoned a weak man. They were both drinking companions of the
King. Richard was executed without trial in 1483.

THE HOUSE OF YORK

Edward of March and then of York
became King Edward IV in 1461. He
was born in 1442 and married Elizabeth Woodville, Edward’s sister, in 1464.
He was the eldest son of Duke Richard of York and won the throne in battle at
the age of 19, was 6ft 4ins tall, a formidable fighter and an excellent general.
He was an efficient king who laid the financial and administrative founda
tions on which the Tudors built. He was also charming, lazy, ‘licentious in the
extreme’ and loved women. He overindulged, became fat and died in 1483.

George, Duke of Clarence
, born 1449, King Edward’s middle brother, was
seriously unreliable but possessed great charm. He was executed for treachery
in 1478 (probably) by being drowned in a butt of malmsey – the method of
execution was apparently his choice.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester
, born 1452, King Edward’s youngest brother,
was an able soldier and administrator who was loyal to his brother during his
life. After King Edward’s death he became ‘Protector’ to his nephews, then
took the crown as King Richard III and was killed at Bosworth in 1485.

Both George and Richard married daughters of the Earl of Warwick.

THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER

King Henry VI
, born in 1421 and inherited the throne in 1422. Head of
the House of Lancaster, he was the well meaning but slightly simple son of
King Henry V and Katherine (of France, born 1401). He married Margaret (of
Anjou), who was tough and determined to keep the throne. His son Edward,
Prince of Wales, was killed at Tewkesbury and he was murdered in the Tower
in 1471.

Margaret Beaufort
, born in 1441, was an heiress descended from Duke
John of Lancaster (John of Gaunt), Edward III’s third son, through his eldest
bastard son, John Beaufort. She married Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, in
1455 and when he died she married Henry Stafford, second son of the Duke of
Buckingham, then afterwards Lord Stanley. She was the mother of:

Henry Tudor
, Earl of Richmond, the grandson of Owen Tudor from his clan
destine marriage to Katherine, Henry V’s widow and daughter of the unstable
King Charles VI of France; Henry’s father was Edmund Tudor (1430?–56). He
was first cousin once removed of both King Louis of France and Duke Francis
of Brittany, but his claim to the English throne was through his mother. He
was born in 1457, took the throne in 1485 and died in 1509.

ENGLISH NOBLEMEN

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick
, usually referred to as the ‘Kingmaker’,
was a charismatic man who was an immensely rich and powerful magnet. Born
in 1428, he was killed at the battle of Barnet in 1471.

William, Lord Hastings
, ultra-loyal follower of King Edward who rewarded
him very generously. He was probably born in 1430 and was executed in 1483.

Lord Thomas de Scales
, hard man of the French wars and father of Eliza
beth de Scales, first wife of Anthony Woodville. He was probably born in 1399
and was killed in 1460.

Henry (Harry), Duke of Buckingham
, descended from Thomas of
Woodstock, Edward III’s youngest son. He was married to Catherine Wood
ville. He was probably born in 1454 and was executed in 1483.

John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester
, brilliant and a ruthless servant of the
king. He was a friend of Anthony Woodville and Caxton, who reported that
he ‘flowered in virtue and cunning’. He was probably born in 1427 and was
executed in 1470.

Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke
, born 1431(?), was totally loyal to his
half-brother King Henry VI, then guardian to his nephew, Henry Tudor. He
married Catherine Woodville, Buckingham’s widow, and died in bed in 1495.

John de Vere, Earl of Oxford
, a die-hard Lancastrian and able soldier.
Born in 1443, he spent 20 years in exile or prison but died in his bed in 1515.

Thomas, Lord Stanley
, politically astute magnate with power base in the
north-west, probably born in 1435 and died in 1504. In 1483 he married
Margaret Beaufort.

EUROPEAN RULERS

King Louis XI of France
was born in 1423, succeeded in 1461 and initially
had a difficult time but later established his absolute authority by clever politi
cal manoeuvring and manipulation. He died in August 1483.

Duke Francis of Brittany
, a generous man with intermittent mental prob
lems. He was a first cousin of Henry VI of England, Henry Tudor and Louis XI
of France. He succeeded to the dukedom in 1458 and died in 1488.

Duke Charles of Burgundy
, called ‘Le Téméraire’, i.e. ‘The Bold’ or
‘The Rash’ (he was given this nickname in the nineteenth century; some of
his contemporaries called him ‘Le Travaillant’). He was the richest prince of
his time, born in 1433, and Count of Charleroi until he succeeded his father in
1467. He was killed at Nancy in January 1477.

Duchess Mary
, his daughter, who married Maximilian of Austria. She died
from a fall from her horse in 1482.

Archduke Maximilian
, born in 1459, son of the Habsburg emperor, Fred
erick III of Austria. He was one of the most successful princes of the period
who made his fortune by his marriage. In 1486 he was elected King of the
Romans, succeeded as Emperor in 1493 and died in 1519.

Anne de Beaujeu
, born around 1462, became Regent of France on the death
of her father, Louis IX, in 1483, whose grasp of politics she inherited. She died
in 1522.

King Charles VIII
, the young King of France, brother of Anne and second
cousin of Henry Tudor. He was born in 1468, succeeded in 1483 and died in
1498.

King Ferdinand
(1452–1516) and
Queen Isabella the Catholic
(1451–
1504), monarchs of, respectively, Aragon and Castile.

King João (John) II of Portugal
, reigned 1481–95.

SOME OTHER IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Antoine
, ‘the Bastard of Burgundy’ (1421–1504), half-brother to Duke
Charles of Burgundy, a key member of the Burgundian establishment, soldier
and a knight of ‘great renown’.

William Caxton
(1422–91), merchant, diplomat, translator and publisher.
He introduced the printing press to England in 1477; Anthony Woodville was
his first patron.

Andrew Dymmock
, lawyer and confidential man of business to Anthony
Woodville.

Robert Poyntz
, friend and supporter of Anthony Woodville, his lieutenant
at Carisbrooke Castle and married to his (natural) daughter, Margaret. He
lived at Iron Acton, close to the Severn.

Louis de Bretelles
, Gascon knight, soldier and occasional diplomat in
English service, a friend and supporter of Anthony Woodville.

Dominic Mancini
, an Italian cleric who spent from the end of 1482 to July
1483 in London in the suite of the French ambassador. He reported to the
Archbishop of Vienne on English affairs.

Isabel and Anne Neville
, daughters of the Earl of Warwick. Isabel married
the Duke of Clarence and died in 1476. Anne was first married to Edward,
the Lancastrian Prince of Wales, and after his death in 1471 to Richard, Duke
of York, later Richard III. She had one son by Richard, Edward of Middleham,
who died in April 1484. She died in March 1485.