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1436 - 1447
Richard of York attended Henry on the trip to France as the Constable of England in charge of all of its defenses. The following year, when Richard became twenty-one he was named the Earl of March, Ulster and Cambridge as his hereditary right. However, because of his father’s attainder he had to purchase the right back from the Crown and was given five years to do so. When Bedford died Richard was sent to replace him. A move designed by the Council to distance him from the throne because of his legitimacy to it. Because of his youth he was far from successful in this position; beside which, Parliament expected him to pay for his campaign. The best thing York got out of the deal was military experience. (Young men of the peerage were given positions of great authority. A case in point, the Black Prince led his first battle at aged twelve.) When Henry declared his own majority, at age sixteen, he sent his old guardian, Warwick, to replace Richard. A few years later Richard was returned to the post and did a credible job of holding on to England’s interests in France. He was still supporting his own campaign and when he asked for funds from the crown Parliament ignored him. However, funds were always sent to the Duke of Somerset in Gascony who was failing miserably in his career there. This rankled York deeply because at the same time Somerset was being compensated for his personal expenses as well; so the more Somerset was compensated the angrier York became. It finally came to the point where York was forced to sell some of his important jewelry, notably a gold collar heavily jeweled and enameled with the white roses of York and featuring a huge spear shaped diamond. It was the most expensive item of jewelry in England next to the crown at that time.
Considering his upbringing, Henry was far from the strong monarch his father or his grandfather had been. He had little care for pomp or show of wealth yet he squandered money on his courtiers, pardons and the Church. He was pious and would become more so as he got older however he could fly into a rage over nothing. To cap it all off he was simple, not mentally retarded but gullible, and would believe anything anyone told him, which was sometimes too bad for the tellers of tales when they were found out. Personal faults aside, Henry was the most eligible and desirable candidate for any royal woman in Europe and his totally diffused Council still held enough sway to bring about matrimony. Who they found was a headstrong and beautiful but totally penniless princess; Margaret of Anjou. She sent a miniature of herself to the king and, of course, Henry fell madly in love with it. He sent William de la Pole, the Duke of Suffolk, as his Ambassador to France to parlay the marriage. Henry was determined to have this marriage so Suffolk was under pressure to give in to her father’s demands. Ultimately, in order to marry Margaret, Henry had to waive her dowry, pay for the wedding out of his personal treasury and sign the Treaty of Tours, a treaty of betrothal. Suffolk, unlike the Council, was in favor of peace with France; so he put a secret clause in the treaty that required the return of Maine and Anjou to the French Crown, which he knew full well, would not sit well with the English people. The treaty was signed on the 22nd, of May 1444. Two days later the betrothal was formalized with great pomp and circumstance and with Suffolk standing in proxy for the King.
In England John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset died suddenly on the 27th of May. He left an infant daughter Margaret, whose life, in the future, would tie the Tudors to the throne. Note: Little is being said about the Beauforts in this piece in order to keep the telling of it as simple as possible. However, it is helpful to know they were descended from John of Gaunt and his long time mistress, Katherine Swynford. Gaunt married her after the death of his second wife (Constance of Castile) and legitimized her children. His Lancastrian son Henry IV, who no doubt felt some animosity toward them (Kathryn’s oldest being four years younger than he), drafted letters patent on all of his half-brothers and sisters so they could never take the throne. So, Somerset died. His brother Edmund Beaufort named Marques of Dorset in 1443 would succeed him as Duke of Somerset.
Suffolk returned to England with great fanfare in June of 1444. He had gained much favor with the King and very quickly fell into the habit of filling the King’s ears with tidbits of goings on at court in the way of infractions and the like; true and untrue. (He would be responsible for the much-beleaguered Gloucester’s final downfall.) Suffolk then went back to France in November with a glittering entourage that included his wife, Alice Chaucer, for Margaret’s proxy marriage in Nancy, where he stood again, for the King. The Duke of York met the wedding party in Paris with an honor guard of six hundred archers and took them to his home in Normandy to rest before the passage to England. He entertained them well and cordially. There was no sign of the bitter rivalry that was to come. Suffolk had been concentrating a good deal of time on Margaret, counseling her in English manners and customs. When she became sick during the very rough channel crossing he saw to her care and upon landing in England he carried her to a nearby home to recover. She was well enough the next day to take a barge to Southampton where the King made a charming gesture. He was so eager to see her he dressed himself as a squire and on his knees, presented her with a letter he said was from the King. She took the letter and was so engrossed in reading it she never really looked at him. After he had left Suffolk asked her what she thought of the King and she had to say she hadn’t noticed. The party went on to London after another illness and in April of 1445 the King and Margaret were formally married in a quiet ceremony at an abbey in Hampshire. In May Margaret was crowned at Westminster.
Later, that summer, Henry recalled York from Normandy. It was the end of York’s term; however, that the new Earl of Somerset should replace him was a terrible blow. To his further degradation, he was accused in front of Parliament of misappropriating funds and illegal activities in Normandy that supposedly benefited him monetarily. He was acquitted of all the charges but he was totally embarrassed and defeated. He blamed Suffolk, Somerset and the Queen for his downfall; and, they were responsible. Because of the lack of support of Parliament while he served in Normandy he had no support from the people of England. He felt, and rightly so, that he had served his country well but he had only the friendship of those who served with him. In December 1446 an apprentice to York’s armourer, John Davies, told someone that he overheard Davies say York was the true heir the throne. Davies was arrested and York, who was unaware of such a statement, (undoubtedly, Davies was also unaware) had Davies arrested. Both the apprentice and Davies stood trial and were forced to fight each other. The apprentice won and Davies was put to death; since medieval law sided with the victor as being the innocent party. The incident further deepened York’s woes at court. Margaret and Henry were poles apart. His growing piety, lack of common sense and lackadaisical regard for appearances were offset by her growing ambitions. She had a sense about court life that allowed her to seek out those who would further her own interests. Mentored, as she was, by Suffolk there was no doubt she would soon have control over her King and his Parliament. She and Suffolk kept pressure on Henry to honor the Treaty of Tours but he procrastinated so much there was an extension granted until April 1446. Circumstances would have it that Henry would then get an extension until January 1448.
The aging Gloucester, ever the vitriolic critic of everything at court and fanatic Francophobe, found out that Suffolk had secretly given Maine and Anjou back to King Charles VII in the Treaty of Tours. His wrath was monumental. He ranted and raved to Parliament and to all else who would listen, endlessly. The Queen eagerly took his behavior as an excuse to get rid of him, forever. She, Suffolk, Somerset and Cardinal Beaufort pressured the King into having him arrested. He was summoned to Parliament in February 1447 as usual and was told King would see him. He arrived in Henry’s presence to find the four conspirators there as well. At that time he was accused, by Suffolk, of treason and of spreading the rumor that Suffolk, and the Queen were having an affair. The King sent him home until he could decide what to do with him. On the way there peers deputized by the Queen overtook him and placed him under house arrest. He died twelve days later probably of a stroke, however, Suffolk was suspected of killing him by some people. Gloucester was heir presumptive to the throne; his death left none other than Richard of York as next in line should Henry never have children. York now had to become the upholder of the ideals Henrys IV and V had established and which Henry V’s brother was ever at odds about with Cardinal Beaufort. York wisely chose to show his stance by faithfulness to the King rather than by bickering with the factions around him. When Cardinal Beaufort died in April 1447 Edmund Somerset became the head of the Beaufort clan. He wanted Parliament to nullify the decree against his family (see previous note:) and name him heir presumptive. He and Suffolk, with the Queen’s alliance, now had the complete power of the court. The citizenry was furious with Suffolk. They blamed him for the wool embargos that Burgundy imposed, the Queen who had no money and the loss of English holdings in France, which were all causing the downward spiral of the economy. All of which he managed to explain away to Henry. The court was none to happy with the Queen at this point in either. She examined all court papers and backed up letters from the King with those of her own. She was kept informed of all political matters and forever pressed the cause of Maine and Anjou. No one could act without her approval, even Somerset and Suffolk.
Procrastination was a great political tool in medieval times. At this particular juncture, Henry was still holding off the return of Maine and Anjou and York was holding off the Queen. Richard of York had served the crown well and at his own expense for several years. He never raised the issue that he was the rightful heir to the throne yet; he was the enemy. Every conceivable infraction, real or imagined, was used against him. The Queen and her henchmen were determined get rid of him. They had to be careful in light of their handling of the Gloucester downfall so they convinced the King to banish him. Henry, ever the indecisive one, appointed him the King’s Lieutenant in Ireland. He was to serve in this capacity for ten years and he was to leave immediately. York managed to delay the departure for two years. It was during this time he began to worry that Somerset would press his own campaign to have the letters patent on his family overturned and have himself declared heir to the throne. So Richard started using the family surname, Plantagenet, which had not been used since the time of Henry II whose father was Count Geoffrey (Plantagenet) of Anjou. To the Queen the gauntlet had been thrown. She and her courtiers let rumors fly that York was plotting treason by assuming his old family name and therefore trying to seize the throne. York was exiled to Ireland.
The assignment in Ireland was mainly to keep peace between the settlers and the native Irish who were still feudalistic. He must have had some success there as the Irish developed strong ties to the House of York that lasted for many years. The family had traveled with Richard to all of his former assignments so were prepared to live out the exile until the King should call Richard back to England. York’s marriage was an exceedingly happy one for the age. Richard had been sent to Raby Castle to live with Ralph Neville, the Earl of Westmoreland, when he was about twelve. He lived there for the rest of his minority and was trained in government by Westmoreland who was a loyal Lancastrian. Richard was married to Cecily, Westmoreland’s youngest daughter, when he was twelve or thirteen and she just eight or nine as was the custom of the court. Her father having ransomed Richard’s ward-ship from the king so they could marry. Also, according to custom, the marriage was officially consummated when Richard came of age, which was probably around the time of his first assignment to Normandy. In any case, eventually they would have thirteen children together, seven of whom survived. Four boys and three girls, the boys would change the course of history in their time.
Chapter 2 | Chapter 4
