The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville & the Age of Chivalry (32 page)

In the Lord Mayor’s chapel in Bristol, originally St Mark’s, there is the Poyntz family chapel with wonderful fan vaulting and a Spanish tiled floor, the largest such tiled area of the period outside Spain. In the chapel are escutcheons with Robert and Margaret’s combined coats of arms: Rivers and Scales on the bottom half with the silver scallops on the left. On the upper half, the Poyntz arms incorporates the stars and stripes of their forebears, the Ameryks.3

Edward and his family contributed a huge amount to the colour and politics of their day, but it is difficult to judge the value of that. Anthony was a particularly civilized and intelligent man whose patronage of Caxton was crucial to the development of printing in England. They contributed to literature, architecture and, indeed, the art of war, but most of the evidence is lost in the fog of history. But the energy and ambition of the family are well documented.

We can do little more than speculate about Edward. However, what is beyond doubt is the importance of Edward’s role in putting Henry Tudor on the throne of England and his contribution to the excitement of the time. Woodville blood still flows in the royal veins and a lot of other veins as well.4

Records (
Financial Memoranda of the Reign of Edward V
, Camden Society, 1987)
show that in early 1483 Edward Woodville had responsibility for assembling
a seaborne expeditionary force. The probable assembly point was Porchester
where Edward was ‘Captain’. However, it is not clear from the records who
would actually command, or where the expedition would go. Dr Horrox has
suggested the objective was Brittany.

The recorded costs were:

NB. It shows the cost of paying and feeding the private soldiers of the expeditionary force was 8d per day per man.

As part of the operation, Lord Dorset had arranged for 1,000 men to watch
and guard the West Country coast until ‘Michaelmasse’ (29 September) at a
cost of 1,200 marks (£800), i.e. about 2d per day per man.

Men were sent to Calais and paid 6d per day, with the ‘peti-captains’ paid
12d per day. Their pay was made up to 12 June. The cost of shipping the additional 300 men was £15 and their jackets cost £20.

The accounts also dealt with pay to ‘therls of Northumberland for the
wagis of sondiours kepying...Berwick’ until 10 May: £175.

The cost of producing ‘fresh accounts’ for the royal household (£230) and
the funeral expenses of ‘the right noble and famous prince King Edward IIII
late our sovereign Lord who god hath taken to his mercy’: £1,886.

All this expenditure had drained the coffers and there was not enough cash
to pay the funeral expenses so silver plate had to be sold to cover the costs.

Dr Horrox estimates that the records were written between 16 May and
9 June. The dates for most of the events are not recorded but some certainly
go back well into April and probably March. To commission an expeditionary
force of 2,000 men would need royal authority and so King Edward must have
been arranging this before he fell ill on 31 March. Also the accounts record
that Lord Rivers was paid his butler’s fee from Sandwich (£33-5s-8d), so that
was certainly before his arrest on 29 April.

At the time the navy had 15 ships but not all were available – some were
on convoy duty and others patrolling the coast of Scotland. Mancini thought
there were 20 ships in Edward Woodville’s fleet, which would be about right
for the 2,000 men of the original expeditionary force, but that seems too
many for this operation. It is more likely to have been cut back by the Council
to a squadron with perhaps 400–500 soldiers, probably in four to six ships. A
squadron of this size was sent to Scotland with a similar role in May 1480.

The two Tower ships are in the records:
The Falcon
was originally a Spanish
ship that King Edward bought for £450 in 1475; her weight is not recorded
but may have been in the 100-ton range. (
The Kateryn Plesaunce
was 100 tons,
built in 1518 and cost £324.) The building of
The Trinity
had been authorized by
Henry VI nearly 40 years before. The captain of
The Trinity
in 1470 was John
Porter and in 1478 William Comersal (or Combersale). The latter became
‘Clerk of the Ships’ – the controller of naval organization – in 1488.
The Trinity
was 350 tons and there is an indication of the men and munitions for fighting
ships in a 1513 state paper. Further confirmation of a sort is in the company of
the 200 or so soldiers who arrived in Brittany with Edward; if the tonnages are
correct then the distribution would have been around 150 on
The Trinity
and
60 on
The Falcon
, using the 1513 scale.

These warships were painted bright red with various other colours for
decoration and their sides were lined with
pavasses
(wooden shields). On the
sterns there were effigies of saints, with shields bearing the King’s arms within
a collar of gold and the arms of St George, within the garter.1 Both vessels
were still in royal service in 1503.

At the time merchant ships were chartered for one shilling per ton per
month.2

A typical merchant ship, such as Cabot’s
The Matthew
of Bristol, was solid
and built to bob along rather than slice through the waves. She would have
a crew of about 50 and would be around 85ft long, 30ft wide, with about a

100-ton displacement with the same burden, i.e. able to carry that many tons
(a ton is a barrel of wine). There were four sails on three masts; the mainsail
which weighed half a ton or more, took ten men to raise, as there were no
winches. The ship was steered by a heavy rudder, moved by a massive tiller,
12–15ft long.

A replica of
The Matthew
was recently built and a journalist wrote of sailing
her down the Channel in a Force 5 with the sea running at angles behind him,
every wave slamming the rudder and making half a ton of tiller hammer into
his ribs. He declared it very hard work.

The Genoese carracks that Edward chartered would have been substantially
larger than English merchant ships such as
The Matthew
. There was ‘the great
carvel of Portingale’ in Lord Howard’s naval expedition of 1481 which carried
160 sailors and 240 soldiers and
La Calanta
, which Anthony had commanded
for the invasion of 1471 and which carried 200 soldiers.

‘This indenture made the xiiij day of may the furst yere of the kyng oure sover
ayne lord Edward the V, kyng of England and of Fraunce and lord of Irlond etc.
betwixt Sir Edward Wydevile kynghte, unckle unto oure seid soverayne lord
and grete capetayne of his navy onthat one partye and [blank] patron of the grete
carake then lying at Hamton Watre on that othir partye. Witnessethe that the
seid Sir Edward hathe receyved and taken out of the seid carake xMCCI li of
golde in Englisshe kune on this condicion, that if it kan be proved not forfeted
unto the kyng oure seid soverayne lord that then the seid Sir Edward and his
frendes in England shalle content and repaye unto the seid patron the valure
of the seid money in Englisshe merchaundise within iij monthes next after he
shalbe so requyred,and if that kan be proved by the lawe of Englond the seid
money to be forfeture, than the seid Sir Edward to be answerying to the kyng
oure seid soverayne lord and not to the seid patron. In wittnesse wherof to
thise present indentures as well the seid Sir Edward as the seid patron have
putte theire seales & signe manuelle the day and yere aboveseid.’

Published by the Camden Society, Fourth Series 34, 1987. Folio 4 (p 216),
Financial Memoranda of Reign of Edward V
, ed Rosemary Horrox.

‘By a roll of Her Highness, signed and entered, dated 15 July 1486, 88,791
maravedis, that she spent in the said year, in this manner:

One hundred and two yards of holland cloth, 90 yards for four mattresses
and twelve for eight pillow covers, that cost 110 maravedis per yard, and 14½
quarter-hundredweight1 of wool, to stuff them, at 385 maravedis per quarter-
hundredweight, and to Alonso, the harness-maker, to pay for the carding of
the wool, for the making-up, and the thread, 806 maravedis, which gives a
total of 16,883 and a half maravedis.

Thirty-one yards of holland cloth, for two sheets, that cost 150 maravedis
per yard, 60 yards of black and white ribbons to put on them, at 25 maravedis,
and an ounce of twist to sew them, 110 maravedis, which are in total 6,250
maravedis.

Nine yards of scarlet cloth, for a bed-cloth, that cost 1,200 maravedis per
yard, and for trimming it and making it up 124 maravedis, which are in total
10,924 maravedis.

One and two-thirds yards of smooth green and brown brocade, to make
the valance of a bed-canopy, cost, at fifteen doblas per yard, 15 doblas, which
adds up, at 365 maravedis each, to 9.125 maravedis, and another yard and two-
third of white damask, to line the said brocade, that cost 700 maravedis per
yard, which are a total of 10,291 and a half maravedis.

To Alvaro de Carrion, ribbon-maker, for eight and three-quarters ounces
of gold thread at 375 maravedis each, and for a further 19 and four-eighths
ounces of twist at 110 maravedis, which are 6,551 maravedis, and for the
making-up of some fringe trimmings from the said gold, and silk, and from
another eleven and one-eighth ounces of gold, that was given to Her High
ness’s camber, 1,315 maravedis, which are in total 7,866 maravedis.

For a rectangular armorial hanging, embroidered with red and white, five
yards of scarlet cloth, that cost 900 maravedis per yard, and another five yards
of white london cloth at 450 maravedis, and four buckrams to line it, at 186
maravedis, and for making the said armorial hanging 730 maravedis, and for
trimming the cloth 100 maravedis, which is in total 8,324 maravedis.

A thick silk cord, with silver endpieces, to sew a scarlet mattress-carrying
bag, for which the silk cost 318 maravedis, and the silver ends 300 maravedis,
which are iin total 618 maravedis.

Two canvas-covered chests, 1800 maravedis.

All of which was delivered to Martin Cuello, to present to the Count of
Scale, the Englishman.’

Cuenta de Gonzalo de Baeza, tesorero de Isabel la Católica
(The Accounts of Gonzalo
de Baeza, Treasurer of Isabel la Católica), ed Antonio de la Torre and E.A. de
la Torre, trans David Hook (Madrid: CSIC, 1955), vol. i, p 125.

Ferdinand issued letters of commendation on behalf of Petrus Alamanç of
Bruges, who came to Spain with Lord Scales (Sir Edward Woodville) to fight
in the Granada war, and having fallen prisoner was liberated through his
friendship with his master’s daughter, whom he took to Castile, converted
Christianity, and married.