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And I, — like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns,
Seeking a way and straying from the way;
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out, —
Torment myself to catch the English crown:
And from that torment I will free myself,
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe
King Richard charges Tudor's standard at Bosworth Field, 22 August 1485
Regardless of the lurid embellishments of later Ricardian chroniclers, most historians agree that Richard III did indeed kill Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field. In a brazen charge, the King had punched through the right of the Lancastrian lines, striking for the pretender himself. Tudor was seen retiring from the body of his army to parley with the Stanleys, whose troops remained apart from the battle, uncommitted to either side. Perhaps sensing treachery in the making and wishing to deliver a coup de main, Richard reached Henry and his small retinue near the marshes beneath Ambion Hill. Pressing into the enemy, the King’s vanguard itself became isolated as pikemen rushed to the pretender’s rescue.
The knights of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, exploited Richard’s breakthrough and counter-charged, turning the tide of the battle[1]. Tudor, having dismounted behind his bodyguards to avoid detection, was spotted as he attempted to flee the field over boggy ground. Richard caught him, landing a hammer blow to the skull, as his closest retainers were cut down around him. John de Vere, Earl of Oxford and commander of the Lancastrian centre was killed by a lance as the Yorkist cavalry wheeled round his flank. Only now did the Stanleys move in support of Richard, the battle all but over. Word of Henry Tudor’s death caused the buckling rebel lines to collapse. Thousands fell, crushed between Yorkist men-at-arms and Stanley’s halberdiers. As fighting petered out, Richard III, his armour dented and stained in blood, addressed his victorious army from Ambion Hill.
Sitting astride his third horse of the day, he clutched the torn Tudor banner and threw it to the ground, declaring God’s judgement had befallen the traitors and his holy right to the English crown proven in single combat. He promised a renewal of peace; that the damage of decades of civil war would be washed away “as ‘twere so much blood”, alluding to his own gory appearance. The bloodletting had not abated however. Dusk approached and Richard’s knights and nobles gathered in his personal tent to receive gifts for service on the field.
Baron Thomas Stanley, along with his brother Sir William, and younger sons Edward and James, had come to collect his eldest, Lord Strange, who the King had taken hostage to ensure the family fought for him at Bosworth. Thomas had refused to confirm his support, retorting before the battle, “I have more sons”. Richard’s spies had informed him of Stanley’s entreaties with the Tudors for weeks and his late, reluctant charge did his family no good. All were seized and executed save James, a young priest soon exiled. Baron Stanley’s severed head would be publicly displayed on London Bridge, alongside those of Tudor and Oxford, as a warning to all.
Traitor's View
The English nobility had been decimated by the Wars of the Roses. Great families like the Woodvilles, Beauforts and Nevilles lay ruined by decades of violence and intrigue. The Staffords, de Veres and Stanleys had all betrayed the King and been destroyed. Now with Henry Tudor and his uncle Jasper killed in battle, the House of Lancaster’s dwindling flame was finally snuffed. Many prominent clergy, including the bishops of Ely and Worcester, had rallied to the red rose and were now forced to flee abroad. Some lesser nobles and gentry joined them but most accepted clemency in return for a renewed oath of loyalty and the payment of fines. A few refused to yield like the Welsh commander Rhys ap Thomas, who returned to Carmarthenshire to lead a guerilla campaign against the Marcher Lords.
Those who had remained loyal to Richard reaped the spoils of war. Richard Ratcliffe, a prominent landowner and long-time confidante was made Earl of Devon. Francis Lovell, his Lord Chamberlain and personal advisor, became Earl of Derby, taking many of the historic lands and titles of the Stanley family. Scandalously the Barony of Strange was reserved for Sir John Harrington, the King’s bodyguard, who it was rumoured had slit his predecessor’s throat. Thomas Howard, now Duke of Norfolk after his father fell in battle, received a handsome pension and new lands for his part in holding the Yorkist lines that day. Howard was a devoted servant and skilled solider, valuable traits to a King in testing times. He was appointed to the Privy Council as Lord High Constable, commander of the royal armies.
The King’s most questionable ally, and one of the more powerful, was Henry Percy. He had arguably saved Richard’s reckless charge at Bosworth Field and was keen to be rewarded. Lands and royal sinecures were presented, and his earldom raised to a duchy. Percy however desired leadership of the Council of the North and with it primacy over the region. The position was held by John de la Pole, the Earl of Lincoln and Richard’s nephew, who fiercely protested any such handover. The King too was unsure; in de la Pole's hands it was an extension of his will, while Percy could well turn the Council into an independent power base. The usually decisive Richard would let the matter linger, distracted by more pressing affairs.
Joanna "the Blessed" of Portugal
Important most of all was the royal succession. Richard had lost his young son Edward of Middleham in 1484 and his wife Anne Neville shortly thereafter. Despite his intense grief, to the point Lovell had feared for his sanity, the duties of kingship remained. Richard soon began correspondence with John II of Portugal for the hand of his older sister, Joanna. The princess was known for her intelligence but more so her piety, having attempted to join a nunnery on several occasions, only to be rebuked by her father Afonso V. Efforts to wed her to various suitors, including the young Charles VIII of France had been scuppered by Joanna’s claims of holy chastity. Her decision to finally marry, and to Richard III, is much debated.
Legend claims she received a vision of his victory at Bosworth Field and took it as a sign from God[2]. As the princess sailed for England in the spring of 1486, Elizabeth of York, sailed for Portugal. Elizabeth was Richard’s niece and had been Henry Tudor’s intended bride to unify their two houses. Scurrilous rumours flew about that Richard himself planned to marry Elizabeth. To remove her from the dynastic politics of England and distance himself from charges of incest, her hand was given to Manuel, Duke of Beja. Richard and Joanna were married in Westminster Abbey on 3 April, Saint Richard’s Day. A month later, marking the centenary of the Treaty of Windsor, the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance was officially renewed.
The pact gave England an ally and the King international legitimacy at a time when they were most needed. The “Blessed Joanna” herself proved a good match for Richard. She was devout, educated and shrewd, well versed in courtly politics. The new couple bonded over discussions of faith and Richard came to appreciate her counsel in more worldly affairs. She was comfortable with official duties, having been regent during her father’s African campaigns and took an active role in the Royal Household. The London poor soon came to know her charity and Richard encouraged it, keen to present the image of a true Christian king. It was a harmonious union, with Lovell writing of them as one soul rejoined. Concerns of Joanna’s chastity were quickly silenced in the new year when it was confirmed she was with child. On 10 November 1487 the Queen gave birth to a boy, christened Richard. Across the country church bells rang and cannons fired in jubilation. The King addressed his court in rare boisterous spirits. A sense of relief and new beginnings in the air he declared, “winter is made summer by this son of York!".
Richard III of England (r. 1483-1502)
[1] There's debate whether Percy failed to support Richard's charge because of betrayal, incompetence, or simply bad terrain. Here his knights are in position and he has decided he can get more from the King than Tudor. Given his grisly fate IOTL, he's probably right.
[2] Joanna did agree to marry Richard before Bosworth. However the OTL legend claims she had a vision of his defeat and accepted knowing it would not be consumated.
Thomas Langton; Archbishop, Cardinal and Lord Chancellor
The royal wedding and coronation of Queen Joanna were conducted by Thomas Langton, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Much of the Church leadership had already turned on Richard III by the time of Tudor’s invasion. Prominent figures like Cardinal John Morton had fled to Rome, telling tales of Richard’s sinful depravity. Many who remained were feckless yes men like the Archbishop of York Thomas Rotherham, who Richard had dismissed as Lord Chancellor for incompetence only to reappoint him shortly after for lack of alternatives. The previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier, had been only a begrudging servant of the King, with his concern for the "Princes in the Tower" well documented.
Bourchier’s death in January 1486 gave Richard an opportunity to appoint a loyal man to the great See. Langton was provost of Queen’s College, Oxford and former royal chaplain to Edward IV but had only held a bishopric for three years at the time of his appointment. He had however been a prominent diplomat under the Yorkist kings, travelling widely through Western Europe to royal courts and papal conclaves. His reputation in Rome gained approval from Innocent VIII, despite the howling of Morton.
Langton oversaw the major Iberian treaties of 1486 and 1488
The Archbishop was confirmed a Cardinal and by early 1487 had replaced the ineffectual Rotherham as Lord Chancellor. The position made Langton the right-hand of the King, with great power in religious and legal matters. The Chancery also dealt with foreign affairs. He had orchestrated the Portuguese treaties while still Bishop of Salisbury and complimented them in the new year with a Spanish pact, sealed by the union of John de la Pole and Elvira de Cordoba, cousin of Queen Isabella. Castile-Aragon and England allied primarily to counter the rising power of France, their mutual rival.
In the decades following her victory in the Hundred Years’ War, France had been reinvigorated under the rule of the arch-schemer Louis XI, known throughout Europe as “the Spider”. He had righted the nation’s finances, brought his kingdom’s rebellious lords to heel and divided the spoils of Burgundy with Austria. The latter had been achieved thanks in-part to the buying off of Charles the Bold’s ally Edward IV at the Treaty of Picquigny in 1475. The agreement infuriated English hawks like his brother Richard, who refused to attend the signing.
Louis XI and Edward IV meeting on the bridge at Picquigny, August 1475
Richard’s perceived desire for war had led Princess Anne, regent of France since her father’s death in 1483, to harbour and supply Lancastrian exiles like Henry Tudor. Now that the King stood victorious, relations were understandably strained. Anne’s strategy had been controversial in the royal court, with the teenage Charles VIII dissenting openly. Fast approaching his majority and eager to rule, Charles saw the Habsburgs as France’s greatest threat and the Tudor adventure as an embarrassment.
Richard certainly aspired to take the throne of France. He had once claimed he would “lead a crusade against the world”! In the lean years following Bosworth Field however, the King was forced to focus inwards. Cardinal Langton in turn sought détente, with his lieutenant, the gifted diplomat William Warham, overseeing the effort. Charles officially took power in 1489 and proved receptive, handing over several Lancastrian exiles as a gift to the English monarch.
In return Warham offered a far greater gift; Brittany. The Bretons, once close allies of England, had been more supportive of the Lancastrians than even the French and he promised no English ire were the duchy to be invaded. Annexation had long been a goal of Paris and by the 1480s Brittany was in the cross-hairs of the Habsburgs. Surprisingly, it would be the King of Scotland to first lay claim to Brittany, with a military pact signed in 1487 and promise of a future marriage between the Duchess Anna to his then infant son. Richard and his diplomats saw an opportunity to split the Auld Alliance. They were helped by James III himself, whose ever-changing grand plans were matched only by his incompetence. His dreams of creating an empire to rival the Plantagenets did little to impress Charles VIII.
Ireland 1489
Such pretensions had recently led James to invade Ireland, conquering the earldom of Ulster in 1488 amid dubious claims of lineage. Not since Edward Bruce in 1315 had the Scots challenged England’s position on the island. This position had gradually weakened in the previous century, with Richard as Lord of Ireland only holding direct control over the Pale, centred around Dublin. The rest of the island was ruled by Gaelic kings and Old English earls, descendants of 12th century Norman settlers. Most prominent was Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare and Richard’s Lord Deputy in Ireland. Fitzgerald had proven a loyal Yorkist, scuppering several Lancastrian schemes and maintaining the crown’s dominance, however tenuous, over the patchwork of states during the Wars of the Roses.
Scotland now provided an alternative patron for the Irish. Fitzgerald found himself in a diplomatic cold war for their allegiance, with the kings of Leinster, Sligo and others soon being courted by the Scots. Before James could take further action in Ireland, the French invaded Brittany in March 1490. Buoyed by his victory in Ulster, he answered his allies’ call and declared war on Charles VIII. It proved a costly endeavour for Scotland. An expeditionary force to support the Bretons was intercepted in the English Channel and destroyed. In November Nantes surrendered, the duchy made personal property of the French king. The stubborn James would not relent, leading hostilities to drag on for another year. The second phase of the war saw several bloody naval engagements in the North Sea and French raids along the Scottish coast, including the sack of Dundee in February. Scotland’s navy and merchant fleets were ravaged, crippling trade. Fears of a French landing on the Firth of Forth led to growing opposition from Scottish lords. The pressure forced James to accept peace in October 1491. He conceded to paying a large indemnity and renouncing all claims on the Duchy of Brittany.
English plans for an opportunistic invasion of Scotland had been halted by domestic religious unrest but forces in Ireland were able to take advantage of the war. Fitzgerald invaded the earldom of Ormond, controlled by James Ó Gallchobhair, a prominent Scottish collaborator, in July 1491. The Lord Deputy’s forces were supported by several thousand Englishmen, led by the Duke of Norfolk. Ormond’s small army was quickly pushed aside but the capital at Clonmel proved resilient, enduring over six months of siege before its final surrender. Diplomatically, the English were able to secure the loyalty of Tyrconnell in the far north. Her king, Aodh Ruadh was more concerned with Scotland as an aggressor than as a protector from the distant English. Einri II of Tyrone, formerly a supporter of James III, allied himself with King Richard in the aftermath of the Scottish defeat.
The calamitous war with France greatly undermined James III of Scotland, at home and abroad
In April 1493 Richard crossed the Irish Sea and met Fitzgerald in Dublin at the head of 8,000 men. His targets were the kingdoms of Leinster and Offaly, both actively opposed to English influence and courting Scottish protection. Scotland was still recovering from the war with France, with James III struggling to hold onto power, meaning little chance of aid. The forces of Tyrone and Kildare united under Fitzgerald’s command, attacking Offaly, while Richard marched south into Leinster.
He met the army of Murchad IV on the open fields near Bunclody on 21 May. The Irish held the English infantry for a time before numerical advantage and heavy cavalry took their toll, scattering the defenders. The battle was most notable for the large scale deployment of cannons by Richard, a major increase from the limited numbers used at Bosworth. Records from the Office of Ordnance showed the King’s growing interest in gunpowder weaponry, with orders for the creation of well-supplied artillery “traynes” to support his armies.
The guns were used again in the siege of Wexford, whose inhabitants resisted fiercely, repelling several assaults even as the city’s walls crumbled under bombardment. A fierce winter effected both armies, with thousands dying. It would not be until January 1494 that the English successfully breached Wexford’s defences, overpowering the malnourished garrison and ending the war. Leinster would become part of the English Pale, while the lands of Offaly were granted to their conqueror, the Earl of Kildare.
The Battle of Bunclody, 21 May 1493
This chapter focuses on foreign events, with domestic affairs being more prominent next time
Richard III is often remembered by history as a man of blood and intrigue, and not without cause. Yet it is as an administrator and reformer that he left his greatest mark. He considered himself a warrior-king but the needs of the realm and later waning health led him to spend little time on the march, much to his annoyance. That is not to say Richard was disinterested in the business of governing. His demand for decisiveness on the field extended to the political realm and he channelled his martial drive into domestic affairs. The King would spend days answering petitions, scrutinising legislation and attending even the most perfunctory government meetings, often to the despair of his sleep-deprived advisors.
One of the King’s first acts following his ascension was to have the laws of the land made more accessible, translating them from Latin and French into English. This was combined with the ending of restrictions on printing presses, allowing not only Common Law but a growing range of books and pamphlets to be produced and read by the English public. In 1484 he established the Court of Requests, granting affordable legal access to the poor, much to the annoyance of local judges who were soon inundated with cases. At the opposite end of the social hierarchy, the Star Chamber, a tribunal overseen by the Privy Council and intended to try cases involving the highest in the land, was formally established in 1485. Evolving from the legal elements of the Norman curia regis, the Chamber had existed in some form since the 1390s and wielded tremendous power, able to pass any sentence bar death and convict persons for “misdeeds” that broke no law. The Star Chamber was championed as a great legal equaliser but the scope for abuse was plain. The official establishment of the court came only months after Bosworth Field and saw a flurry of convictions against Lancastrian sympathisers and others deemed disloyal. Few suffered imprisonment, instead being subjected to stringent fines and the confiscation of land and property by the Crown.
Guilds likes the Merchant Staplers thrived during the reign of Richard III
Many of these cases were overseen not by the Chancery but the Treasury. A key figure and one of the rising new men of Richard’s regime was Idwal "John" Gough. Born of rural gentry stock in Gwynedd, Gough had come to the King’s attention for his skilful handling of property seizures in the Welsh Marches. He was brought to London, where he became a prominent royal advisor and voice in the Treasury. His nationality and modest background saw him struggle to cement himself in the upper echelons of power; being knighted in 1486 and raised to the Barony of Harlech in 1488, many nobles still disparaged him as a “Welch sheep-hook”. Nonetheless his economic nous and the King’s favour ultimately saw him attain the position of Lord Treasurer and a seat on the Privy Council in 1489. Alongside the seizure of wealth in the Star Chamber, Gough reformed the English tax system, little altered since the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Royal investment in a growing state bureaucracy gave the Treasury greater ability to assess and collect taxes across the country. The new Board of Tax and Duties established regional offices and worked closely with the Church in tithe collection. Gough reaffirmed Calais as England’s sole staple port for the sale of valuable commodities like wool, cloth, tin and salt onto the continent. During the Wars of the Roses trade had shifted towards the Flemish ports of Bruges and Antwerp, denying the Crown valuable export duties.
The move was supported by trade companies like the Merchant Staplers, England’s oldest and largest such organisation with offices across Northern Europe. Richard III made an effort to court the wealthy mercers and burghers of London and elsewhere. City rights and guild privileges were defended and charters granted for new markets and mills. The country’s share of trade revenue in the Channel, North Sea and Baltic all increased markedly into the following decades, with English textiles coming to dominate the market across much of Northern Europe. Appreciation for the King’s efforts was highlighted with the death of Calais wool magnate Albert Proctor in 1493, who bequeathed his substantial fortune to the Crown. Richard sought not only to raise money but secure the support of an influential section of society. While the King had loyal servants in the commanding heights of the nobility and clergy, many beneath remained indifferent or opposed to his rule, even if they lacked the means to challenge it. This certainly influenced Richard’s efforts to promote talented commoners and strengthen the bureaucracy. Aided by William Catesby, Speaker of the House of Commons and member of the his inner circle, the King also courted MPs, many of them prominent merchants in their own right, to approve increased funding for the civil service and building projects.
Like the burghers, Richard won the support of Parliament to help secure his rule
The trading boom of the 1490s was made possible by a growing merchant fleet. Many ships were constructed in new dockyards created by order of the King and approved by an amiable Parliament. The yards, particularly the revolutionary dry dock opened at Deptford on the Thames, saw a major expansion of the navy. England already maintained one of Europe’s largest fleets but it was challenged by those of local rivals like France, Scotland and Denmark, the latter increasingly agitated by English mercantile expansion. During the reign of Richard III a dozen fast barques were laid down and the number of heavy carracks doubled. Ships like the 35-gun 500 ton Richard Gallant built in 1490 and 50-gun 600 ton Sovereign completed in 1494 had few equals in Northern Europe to match their size and firepower.
The army saw investment, with the King’s interest in gunpowder leading to hundreds of new, lighter limbered cannons and mortars being cast. Firearms also became more prevalent. Primitive hand-cannons had been in use since the time of Edward III but the matchlock arquebus provided a comparatively mobile and reliable weapon, with greater accuracy and reloading times. The Yeomen of the Crown had wielded matchlocks since 1476 and increasingly it was common soldiers being trained as arquebusiers. Nonetheless, longbowmen remained the backbone of English armies for some time. Richard increased recruitment from the newly acquired Crown lands, seemingly in an effort to reduce his reliance on noble retinues and strengthen his hand were civil war to return. Adam Howard, brother of the Duke of Norfolk and a respected commander in his own right, oversaw the raising of these part-time royal militias, or trained bands, instilling uniform standards of drill across the country. Though far from the professional standing formations that would develop in following centuries, Howard improved the overall quality and resilience of the King’s common soldiers.
Seventeen new warships were constructed during Richard's reign, including the navy's new flagship Sovereign
Such reforms were not merely for economic and political reasons. By the summer of 1491, Richard was preparing for an invasion of Scotland. The war with France had not only distracted, but gravely wounded the Scots. Richard now intended to end James III’s interference in Ireland and hobble his kingdom. Then on 17 June, while mustering troops outside York, the King received word of an uprising in Lancashire; they had already taken Preston and were moving into neighbouring towns and villages, finding growing support. The rebels were not led by a new pretender but a lay preacher, John Hood. He belonged to the Lollards, a long persecuted sect of religious heretics. Founded in the 1380s by John Wycliffe, translator of the Vulgate Bible into English, they opposed the temporal power of the Church and decried its rituals and icons as blasphemous. After a period of relative toleration under the protection of prominent nobles, the Church forced Henry IV to act, with Parliament passing De heretico comburendo in 1401, making heresy punishable by burning at the stake. Translation of the Bible into English itself became a heretical offence and over the next thirty years hundreds burned, with many more imprisoned or forced into exile. What little remained of the movement had gone to ground, surviving as a secret network of believers.
The exact nature of the Lollard revival is still debated. The King’s repeal of printing restrictions in 1483 had led to an increasing number of texts criticising Catholic dogma. One published anonymously in Oxford in 1486 denied the Virgin Mary’s divinity and likened transubstantiation to cannibalism. The following year a Norfolk lawyer narrowly avoided the pyre after being arrested for authorship of a polemic against indulgences. While new editions of the (still illegal) Wycliffe Bible remained rare, copies of the 1395 Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards, a tract attacking the Church’s worldly and spiritual failings, soon spread. The Conclusions had a critical, political tone that still resonated a century later, notably in Lancashire, far from the traditional heartlands of Lollardy.
The county had seethed in the years after Henry Tudor’s defeat, with many of its ancient privileges revoked and lands divided between the hated King and his favourites. With the Lancaster cause dead but anti-York sentiment remaining, some found solace in the populist message of John Hood. The son of a Derbyshire blacksmith, Hood was raised in a Lollard family and eventually took to secretly proselytising his creed. He travelled north sometime in the late 1480s, circulating the Conclusions as he went. Playing on the political grievances of the region, his increasingly popular sermons evolved into attacks on the King and his “familiar” Cardinal Langton, who was held up as a symbol of Church corruption. Hood’s growing support did not go unnoticed by the local authorities, whose intervention would ultimately trigger the Lollard Rebellion of 1491.
Wycliffe's English Bible was the font of the Lollard heresy
On 14 June in the village of Fulwood, a Justice of the Peace, Howard de Lacey, attempted to arrest the preacher on grounds of treason and heresy. De Lacey underestimated Hood’s support and instead triggered a riot, ending in the death of the Justice and two soldiers. Having murdered the King’s servants and now a wanted man, Hood gathered his supporters and marched on nearby Preston. The rebels, mostly poorly armed peasants and little more than a mob, were able to enter through the city gates unmolested. Waving red rose banners and proclaiming “Death to the King!”, they found a receptive audience and word of the uprising spread. The preacher marched east to Blackburn, where the townsfolk turned on the garrison and welcomed the rebels. Reports from across the county told of attacks on royal officials and clergy, with several instances of chuch burnings. Hundreds and soon thousands joined the rebellion, many veterans of the Wars of the Roses. The spontaneous uprising's success surprised even Hood. Unsure of his goals but buoyed on by his multiplying followers, he proclaimed a crusade that would march on London to overthrow the House of York and the Catholic Church.
Perhaps expecting a similar reception to Preston and Blackburn, the Lollards instead found Bolton fortified and secure under the command of Baron William la Zouche, a Yorkist linked to the royal dynasty by marriage. Lacking proper siege equipment and peppered by arrows from the town ramparts, a Lollard assault was handily defeated. However Hood’s army now numbered ten thousand and several attempts by la Zouche to sally out were repulsed. The siege was broken on 11 August with the arrival Richard III. Outnumbered for the first time, Hood attempted to retreat to the safety of Blackburn. The King and la Zouche quickly followed, forcing the Lollards to stand at Eccleshill. The rebels formed a defensive perimeter and proved surprisingly resilient, the zealous peasants supplemented by experienced soldiers and light cavalry.
The King’s troops ground Hood’s crusaders down. Their lines finally buckled and the rebels fled, most back to their villages, the cause lost. Hood returned to Blackburn but the townsfolk by now had lost their enthusiasm for heresy and hearing of Richard’s approach, arrested the preacher themselves. Preston stayed true but lacking an organised defence was stormed by la Zouche and promptly sacked. Stories of priests being killed by Hood’s mobs led to anti-Lollard riots in Chester, with suspected heretics beaten in the street and printing presses smashed. The King rolled back some of his earlier reforms, cracking down on blasphemous texts. Hood and sixty others, deemed “prominent conspirators” were tried in Bolton that winter. Most recanted their Lollard faith, receiving imprisonment or hanging. The rest, including Hood, were burned alive. Similar trials were carried out in other parts of the country, with dozens more sent to the stake in the coming months.
Battle of Eccleshill, 13 August 1491; John Hood's execution, 8 February 1492
King James III of Scotland had a singular talent. Considered vain and rash by contemporary chroniclers, he was nonetheless adept at survival. He had become king at the age of eight, spending a lifetime in the thick of courtly politics. James had launched a coup against his overbearing regents, the Boyd family, in 1469, before suffering a coup at the hands of his brother Alexander, Duke of Albany in 1482. The latter had been supported by the English, with Richard III, then Duke of Gloucester, leading an army to the walls of Edinburgh Castle. This caused the Scottish nobles to imprison James, granting Albany the title of Lieutenant-General and control of the kingdom. Narrowly avoiding execution, James succeeded in deposing his brother from inside his cell, thanks to sustained bribery.
The affair had little effect on the King’s conduct as he continued to ruffle feathers and alienate Scotland’s friends on the continent. His victory in Ulster had earned him respect from his lords, only for the disastrous war with France to leave the kingdom destitute, its coffers stripped for reparations. In its wake, James narrowly defeated another coup, requiring a difficult Highland campaign to finally subdue the rebels in 1493. His continental pretensions decisively foiled, James turned his gaze back to Ireland. In the intervening years, his allies in Offaly, Ormond and Leinster had all fallen to the English and their viceroy, the Earl of Kildare, leaving the Scots without friends on the island. Sligo and Connacht were little interested in going against Dublin, their indirect relationship with the Lord Deputy acceptable and certainly preferable to the fate suffered by their neighbours. Instead, Tyrone would prove the focal point of Anglo-Scottish tensions.
The wealthiest and strongest of the Gaelic kingdoms, Tír Eoghain had dominated northern Ireland for centuries under the rule of the O’Neill clan. Her current king, Einri II had initially welcomed Scottish support as a counter to the English. The results of the French war weakened Einri’s confidence in James and he soon reconciled with Kildare and Richard. The King of Tyrone proved a diligent ally, sending troops to the siege of Wexford in 1493 and crushing a peasant revolt at Clonmel the following year. Einri repeatedly petitioned for a marriage between the houses of O’Neill and York. Richard III dismissed such entreaties, seeing the Irish clansman too far beneath the station of English royalty.
Northern Ireland, 1495
Gaelic kingdoms of Sligo(1), Tyrconnell(2) and Tyrone(3); Scots Ulster(4); The English Pale(5); Earldom of Kildare(6)
Frustrated by Richard’s supposed ingratitude, Einri found his old friend happy to oblige. The Scottish king’s first wife Margaret of Denmark had died in 1489. An arranged marriage, it had been a cold, unhappy union; their son James had been much closer to his mother, something the King resented and her death saw the prince ostracised from court. Intent on reasserting his influence in Ireland, James accepted the hand of Liadain, sister of the Gaelic king in October 1495. The marriage took England completely by surprise, as Tyrone severed her ties with Dublin and entered into a full alliance with the Scots. The move infuriated Richard, made worse by a series of raids along the border that winter. James brazenly resurrected claims to Cumberland, territory that had not been held by a Scottish king in over three hundred years.
Come the spring thaw, Richard began preparing his armies. The Scots and O’Neills did likewise, war by now inevitable. The often disgruntled Scottish lords proved eager, and welcomed their king’s bullish approach to the English. James’ past efforts to reach an understanding with Edward IV had frustrated parliament and angered the nobility; England was the old enemy. There was similar enthusiasm south of the border. An English invasion of Scotland had been aborted several times in recent years, thanks to events like the 1491 Lollard Rebellion and 1494 Franco-Castilian war scare (which saw Richard spend much of the campaign season encamped near Dover). Northern marcher lords like Northumberland and Westmorland had already raised troops in response to the cross-border raids, the Prince-Bishop of Durham personally leading patrols against the Scottish interlopers. In April 1496, King Richard arrived at Berwick Castle at the head of 12,000 men. 7,000 men commanded by John de la Pole, now Duke of Suffolk, were mustering in Carlisle. Meanwhile the Duke of Norfolk had landed at Dublin with 4,000 men.
Scottish troops retreating at the Battle of Middleton, 21 June 1496
After a perfunctory declaration of war, Richard III crossed the frontier on 3 May. He stormed the border town of Roxburgh, its once impressive defences demolished by the Scots in 1460. The English king advanced steadily northwards. On 21 June, near the village of Middleton, Richard finally met James III, blocking the Edinburgh road at the head of 6,000 men. James initially bested Northumberland’s vanguard before English numbers began to tell. After several hours the Scots withdrew, each side having suffered around a thousand casualties. Something of a tactical draw, the battle nonetheless cleared the way for Richard’s army. James fled Edinburgh only hours before the English reached the city, intending to join Lord Selkirk in Perth.
As Richard began the envelopment of Edinburgh in the east, to the west the Duke of Suffolk was already weeks into a protracted siege. His uncle had tasked him with seizing Ayr, Scotland’s key port in the Irish Sea, as a means of isolating their forces in Ulster. His advance quickly halted at Castle Caerlaverock, near Dumfries. Overlooking the River Nith and Solway Firth, the fortress had frustrated invaders since the days of Edward Longshanks, barring the western coastal road. It’s double moat made direct assault all but impossible while the surrounding marshland hindered the construction of siegeworks. Trenches quickly collapsed and filled with water. Living in sodden conditions, many soldiers became ill, with hundreds dying as disease spread through the camp. More than half of English casualties suffered during the campaign would be to the punishing attrition of the siege lines. Richard III had hoped by threatening James’ capital, he could force a decisive battle in the field. Instead the Scottish king gathered his army to the north, happy to let the defenders of Caerlaverock and Edinburgh wear down the invaders.
In Ireland, the war took on an altogether different pace. Low-level fighting had been ongoing since the new year, with cross-border raids primarily between the Gaelic kingdoms. Sligo, a regular victim of Einri II’s belligerence, sided with the English. So too did Aodh Ruadh, King of Tyrconnell and chief of the O’Donnell clan, who sought most of all to crush the rival O’Neills. Norfolk and his opposite the governor of Scots Ulster, Lord Dunbar, relied on Irish allies to supplement their relatively small forces.
Gaelic warriors c.1500
The English were reinforced in June by the Earl of Kildare. In July, the now 8,000-strong army marched north. Dunbar’s own 8,000, more than half Tyrone Gaels, met them at the Battle of Iveagh on 15 July. Einri’s contingent was made up mostly of kerns, clan skirmishers. They proved initially effective, harassing the English flanks with hales of javelins. The Scottish centre however was slowly pushed back under sustained arrow fire. The buckling pikemen allowed the Duke to lead a decisive cavalry charge deep into the enemy lines. The lightly-armed and armoured kerns suffered the brunt of the onslaught, thousands falling.
Einri retreated to Dungannon. Now not only the English but the O’Donnells threatened his clan’s ancient seat. Iveagh had emboldened Aodh Ruadh to directly attack the now wounded Tyrone, uniting his forces with Kildare. Einri II could muster only 3,000 clansmen for a last stand at Tallyhogue on 10 August. Heavily outnumbered, they were soon encircled and slaughtered. Aodh Ruadh was not satisfied with Einri’s corpse and proceeded to sack Dungannon, before setting it alight. Norfolk meanwhile pursued Lord Dunbar. James III’s efforts to evacuate the survivors by sea were scuppered with the destruction of his rescue fleet at the Battle of Kilbrannan Sound, off the Ayrshire coast on 28 July. Completely cut off, Dunbar and his remaining Scottish troops surrendered at Downpatrick, leaving Ulster to English occupation.
Following the sudden conclusion of the Irish campaign, the English would not see further progress until October. By the autumn Suffolk had received artillery reinforcements, and after weeks of sustained bombardment, the beleaguered garrison of Castle Caerlaverock finally surrendered. The king’s nephew advanced north with speed, taking Dumfries and finally reaching Ayr in December. Edinburgh held out through a bitter winter. Both sides made extensive use of cannons, with the Scots’ 20-inch bombard Mons Meg becoming infamous amongst the English besiegers.
Mons Meg
In the new year, their king still cautious of battle on land, the Scottish fleet was ordered out from Aberdeen to relieve and resupply the capital. Led by Logan Erskine, they attempted to break the English blockade in the Firth of Forth on 9 February 1497. Erskine’s flagship was Yellow Carvel, one of three heavy carracks, along with four barques, followed by a string of supply ships. The English were commanded by Charles Gilbert, victor of Kilbrannan Sound, at the head of a similar fleet. Rough seas hampered the attackers, with violent winds causing the Scottish line to break up, smashing several ships against the shore. Gilbert exploited and defeated his opponents piecemeal, sinking or seizing the bulk of Erskine’s force. Yellow Carvel succumbed to the broadsides of Sovereign and Loyal London, taking her captain and hundreds more with it.
The action on the Firth of Forth not only failed to relieve Edinburgh but the sight of the Royal Scots Navy being obliterated from the city’s walls no doubt helped hasten its surrender on 19 February. Richard marched out, joining up with Suffolk’s army near Stirling in March. Together they headed for Perth. Unable to delay any further, and with reports of Norfolk’s army preparing to cross the Irish Sea, James III too marched out, accompanied by Lord Selkirk. The Scottish king had mustered a force on par with Richard III, and hoped the exhaustion of the winter sieges would benefit his own untested troops. The two met on 1 April at the field of Glenogle. Fatefully, James had ordered the Duke of Montrose west into Ayrshire to delay Norfolk, taking 3,000 men with him.
Battle of Glenogle, 1 April 1497
On the day, Richard’s 20,000 men would face 16,000 Scots, in the largest battle of the war. Heavy rains hampered archers and artillery on both sides, while turning the field to mud. It would be decided by a grinding, brutal melee, remembered by popular history as the battle of “bill and pike”. The famed Scottish schiltrons were most effective in tight, defensive formations and soon the poor terrain caused the advancing pikemen to loose cohesion. This allowed the English infantry, many armed with bills, a (comparatively) short polearm, to break the schiltrons, the pikes providing limited defence in close-quarter combat. Efforts by the Scottish centre to retreat were hampered only further by the muddy ground.
James ordered his substantial cavalry forward to attack the English infantry’s flanks. Hoping to smash the billmen with a decisive charge, the Scottish knights instead became literally bogged down, with many forced to advance on foot. The delay allowed Richard to reposition his superior numbers and the knights, hindered by heavy armour and struggling steeds, were cut down in their thousands as the battle turned into a rout. Only now were the English cavalry deployed, to harry the fleeing remnants of James’ army. The bloody Battle of Glenogle left 11,000 casualties, 8,000 of them Scottish.
The war would continue for six weeks before James finally relented. A peacy treaty was signed by the two kings at Drummond Castle in Perthshire on 17 May 1497. Scotland would concede the border shires of Dumfries and Roxburgh. The Pale was expanded to include Ulster and the former lands of the O’Neills, reasserting England’s primacy in Ireland. Richard was hailed a conquering hero on his return to London, his armies victorious across the British Isles. James would finally see his luck run out. In January 1499, battling his lords to disinherit Prince James for the infant son of Liadain, the king was poisoned. The assassination would lead to years of civil unrest in Scotland between supporters of the newly-crowned James IV and those of his half-brother Robert.
“Hurrahs for Good King Dickon!” cried the London crowds, as Richard III returned home from Scotland victorious in June 1497. He was at the height of his popularity and power. In November the marriage by proxy of Richard, Prince of Wales and Catherine of Aragon took place[1]. Ten and eleven respectively, their union had been agreed to as early as the Anglo-Spanish treaties of 1488. The Spanish ambassador, Don Pedro de Ayala, was present for the English side of the ceremony, held in the chapel of the newly completed Gloucester Palace. Built upstream from Westminster along the south bank of the Thames, it replaced the dilapidated Sheen Palace, destroyed by fire in 1495. On top of the medieval foundation was built a Renaissance manor, with the king overseeing the entire project. The new royal residence, built of brick with octagonal towers, had large bay windows throughout, many stained glass, depicting the glories of God, England and the House of York. It contained art galleries and gardens radiating out from a large courtyard. A private park containing deer, boars, swans and many other animals was created. Gloucester soon replaced Westminster Palace as primary seat of the royal court[2].
The move is marked by some historians as a symbolic break with the so-called “bastard feudalism” of late medieval England. The Wars of the Roses had seen the nobility gain substantial power and independence at the expense of the monarchy. Lower-class individuals, primarily from the gentry, flocked to support those who could pay in gold or political favour. The personal retinues of prominent lords grew to the size of private armies. Even at court, large bodies of retainers, more often mercenaries, were present, marked by the colours of rival lords. Richard III had slowly wrestled power back to the centre since 1483, through administrative reforms, the expansion of crown lands and cultivating support elsewhere, such as with the financiers of London. In 1494, Justices of the Peace had been officially established in every county and city to maintain the king’s law.
While unpopular with the lords, in practice many areas remained under the firm control of noble families. George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, went so far as to have his illegitimate son Henry FitzGeorge appointed the local Justice in 1496. Richard tolerated such behaviour on the understanding Shrewsbury and others maintained order, and above all, paid their taxes. Far more controversial was the 1497 royal decree on the “maintenance and livery” of personal retainers. The numbers and armament of such servants were drastically curtailed, as was the wearing of a liege’s colours at court. Several lords with particularly large retinues were immediately fined in the Star Chamber, as an example (and to help fill Treasury coffers after an expensive war). Most prominent was Henry Algernon Percy, Duke of Northumberland. Son of Richard’s saviour at Bosworth Field, tensions had existed between his family and the Yorks for decades, the Percys former supporters of the Lancastrian cause.
Richard III's continuing reforms garnered power, but also enemies
The previous duke had demanded more political power, in London and the north, for his service. Compensation in gold soothed the elder Henry but left his successor frustrated. Richard, intentionally or not, had discriminated against the Percys in land and titles. Leadership of the Council of the North was denied to them once more in 1496, in favour of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland. Little of the Scottish land gained at the Treaty of Drummond was rewarded to the duke, with the Nevilles and the increasingly influential Scrope family taking the lion’s share[3]. The stringent fines over retainers was seen as only the latest slight against the duke’s great house and soon Northumberland began to plot against the king.
In spring 1498, Richard III issued letters patent to the Genoese navigator John Cabot for a transatlantic expedition. Following Columbus’ historic voyage in 1492, England and many other European nations looked to the horizon and sought to emulate his discoveries. Cabot had heard stories of Cornish sailors travelling deep into the Atlantic as early as the 1470s, in search of the mythical Hy-Brasil. Cabot cajoled Venetian bankers in London, the Merchant Adventurers of Bristol and most importantly the crown to finance and supply an expedition. He proposed that by travelling at higher latitudes than their Spanish and Portuguese contemporaries, journeys across the Atlantic could be significantly shortened. The geography of the Western Hemisphere still all but a mystery, the navigator believed he could bypass the West Indies and soon reach China beyond. He set off on 3 May aboard the Matthew, accompanied by a crew of eighteen.
Cabot didn’t reach the Far East but instead North America. Surveying the coast of Newfoundland before returning home, Cabot became the first European to visit the continent in five hundred years. Save a small group of Italian associates, including his son Sebastian and the Augustinian friar Giovanni de Carbonariis, Cabot’s crews were composed primarily of experienced Cornish and Bristol sailors. Several merchants with maritime experience, all investors, joined the second voyage in 1499, which consisted of three ships and over one hundred crew. Amongst them was a young Edgar Drake, who would become a famed explorer in his own right in the next century. Cabot’s death before a planned third voyage in 1500 saw the Merchant Adventurers of Bristol take over the venture entirely. England’s greatest living sailor, Sir Charles Gilbert, made an admiral after the Battle of the Forth, took command and would lead multiple expeditions to the New World.
John Cabot departs Bristol, May 1498
Despite remaining active in government, by 1498 the king’s health was in decline. His scoliosis, which garnered him the epithet “Crookback” amongst detractors, had limited impact on his daily life[4]. Instead arthetica; arthritis effecting both the upper and lower limbs, took its toll on the once athletic king[5]. Joint issues had plagued Richard since his early thirties and now approaching fifty were often debilitating. During his great victory at Glenogle the king was forced to command from the royal tent, unable to ride due to searing leg pains. Medicinal relief for arthritic pain was often provided by ingestion of common rue, the foul-tasting “sour herb of grace”. Richard used rue regularly in his later years, the long term side effects of liver and kidney damage being poorly understood by medieval apothecaries.
In April, Francis Lovell, Earl of Derby, died in a riding accident. Lovell had been the king’s closest confidante and a childhood friend. The news devastated Richard. He was known for maintaining a small inner circle, all having served him for years, if not decades. Lovell’s death was followed by that of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Langton, in June. While his talented deputy William Warham assumed the role, Richard considered Langton and Lovell irreplaceable voices on the privy council.
Warham was to prove his worth in the new year, when his spies on the continent informed him of a conspiracy and planned invasion, led by a royal pretender. By 1499, such a proposition seemed ridiculous. The death of Henry Tudor, his own claim to the crown contentious, had ended the Lancastrian line in 1485. The only noteworthy effort to take Richard’s throne since had been the farcical adventure of the Flemish conman Perkin Warbeck in 1495. Warbeck’s claim to be “Henry of Pembroke”, an unknown son of the fallen Tudor, convinced few would-be backers and his 200 mercenaries were quickly routed after landing in Kent that autumn. Warbeck was found hiding in a barn and, after writing a confession to his ruse, hanged at Tyburn[6].
Last of the Lancasters: Lady Margaret Beaufort
To the surprise of many, the new pretender was Edward Stafford. His father, the Duke of Buckingham, had been an ally of Richard, only to rebel against him in 1483. The duke was executed and his lands and titles made forfeit. The 5 year-old Edward was taken into hiding to avoid the king’s wrath, before later being smuggled across the Channel. The self-styled 3rd Duke of Buckingham had grown up primarily in Burgundy, under the protection of Lady Margaret Beaufort. Mother of Henry Tudor, Lady Margaret had remained in exile, matriarch of what little remained of the her family’s cause. Stafford was a matrilineal descendent of John of Gaunt and a cousin of Richard III, arguably a stronger claim than Tudor. However in the immediate aftermath of Bosworth Field, few wished to back a child pretender.
By the late 1490s, Stafford had reached adulthood and through Lady Margaret’s connections found tentative financial support from the Duke of Burgundy and King of France[7]. Albert Rodney, a dedicated Lancastrian turned condottiere, accepted command, gathering the few exiles still loyal to the cause and hiring several thousand German and Flemish mercenaries for the expedition. New exiles joined them in May 1499. Stafford had been in contact with the disgruntled Northumberland for over a year before Warham’s spies alerted Richard. Plans to raise a simultaneous rebellion in the north were aborted as Northumberland and his closest retainers fled for France[8].
Unwilling to wait any longer, Stafford launched his invasion, landing in Devon on 13 June. Traditionally an area of Lancastrian support, thousands rallied to the pretender’s flag as they advanced north through Salisbury, though not in the numbers hoped. After a decade of relative peace and prosperity, Stafford’s tenuous claim to the throne failed to stir the hearts of many, while some remembered his father simply as a traitor[9]. Richard III, recently bedridden, began mustering troops in London on word of Stafford’s landing. The speed of the invading army’s advance surprised the king, who hurried to meet them outside the capital on 14 July.
Battle of Colnbrook Bridge, 14 July 1499
Fighting was focused around the small hamlet of Colnbrook and its bridge over the River Wraysbury. Richard took the initiative and attempted to force a crossing in the early hours of the morning. Rodney’s experienced Flemish companies were able to hold the western end of the bridge for several hours at great cost to the attackers. The tide of the battle turning, the rebels pushed Richard’s infantry back across the river. Stafford took his cavalry forward to lead the charge, hoping to roll up the demoralised royalist lines. However the bridge acted as a bottleneck, slowing the rebel advance. Mounting his horse in great pain, the king rallied his forces for a counter-attack. Stafford, Percy and nearly half of their army became pinned against the river, now heavily outnumbered. The pretender’s standard was taken and his vanguard destroyed as the bridge became choked with fleeing soldiers. Hundreds drowned, including the Duke of Northumberland, held under by a fallen horse. Rumour of Stafford’s death reached the rearguard, causing what remained of the rebel army to scatter. Albert Rodney escaped and returned to his profession on the continent, dying at the Battle of Ferrara in 1506.
Stafford had in fact been captured, though he would not live long. In August, the would-be Edward VI was beheaded at Tower Hill, along with his remaining co-conspirators, the Earl of Arundel and William Percy, brother of the dead duke. The Percy family’s lands and titles were forfeited and divided between the crown and the northern lords. The Nevilles took half of Cumberland and swathes of Northumbrian farmland. The biggest beneficiary would be the Baron Scrope of Bolton. A veteran marcher lord, he had been awarded much of the eastern Scottish Borders in 1497, including Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, a major point of contention for Northumberland. Scrope had refused to join his brother-in-law, Duke Henry, in rebellion. As reward, the baron was raised to Earl of Berwick, taking most of the remaining Percy lands, including their ancestral home, Alnwick Castle.
Victory would soon be followed again by mourning, with the death of Queen Joanna. The royal couple’s once close relationship had become increasingly strained, in part due to the queen’s ‘failure’ to produce more male heirs and, in Richard’s eyes, secure the House of York. Only two of their five offspring had lived past infancy, their first Prince Richard, born in 1487 and their last Princess Anne, born in 1492. Several sources claim the queen had been rendered infertile due to a miscarriage in 1493. Most point simply to the effects of ageing, Joanna having been 39 at the time of Anne’s birth. Dissident propaganda claimed the king sought to leave the “barryn” queen for a younger bride, though for as devout a Catholic as the king, divorce would have been unthinkable. Others claimed Joanna, increasingly drawn back to the piety of her youth, sought to escape dynastic politics for the tranquillity, and chastity, of a monastic life. This was not unheard of for royal widows of the period but was something else altogether for a reigning queen.
"Get thee to a nunnery!"
While it is doubtful Joanna intended to take up the habit, she was a devoted patron and frequent visitor of Towcester Priory in Northamptonshire. It was home to a Cistercian nunnery, where the queen stayed on multiple occasions. The queen’s growing isolation in prayer angered the king. The queen in turn was angered by Richard’s treatment of his nephew, the Earl of Warwick. After the discovery of the Stafford-Percy conspiracy, the king’s agents had arrested dozens of suspected colluders. Controversially Warwick had been amongst them at express order of the king, despite no clear connection to the rebels. However as son of Richard’s older brother the Duke of Clarence, Warwick’s superior claim to the throne was held back only by an act of parliament. It is unclear if Richard was truly paranoid about another pretender or simply took the opportunity to pre-empt one. Nevertheless the king’s intention to execute Warwick horrified Joanna.
Tensions between the couple boiled over at the royal court, with Joanna publicly demanding Warwick’s release, to the fury of Richard. The king’s mocking command, “get thee to a nunnery!”, had echoed through Gloucester Palace as Joanna left London for Towcester once last time. Less than two weeks later, the queen died suddenly on 14 November 1499, victim of an outbreak of sweating sickness at the priory[10]. Her death caused intense feelings of grief and guilt in the king. Richard’s mood was darkened further by rumours spreading that he had ordered the murder of the “Blessed Joanna”. This is easily disproven but earned credence from the king’s blood-stained past. Some dared whisper of the Two Princes. If Richard had killed his young wards, could he not kill a belligerent wife? The affair effected the king’s international standing. Supposedly only the testimony of the Cistercians truly satisfied the Portuguese ambassador, Dom Henrique de Almada. He wrote to John II, assuring him that his sister had passed peacefully, with “Christ in her heart”.
The wretched affair, following on from the loss of Lovell and Langton, and combined with his waning health, saw Richard retirefrom day-to-day affairs. He spent his final summer at Middleham Castle, his childhood home. In 1501, the teenage Prince of Wales joined the privy council, overseen in practice by the Lord Chancellor. Then on 18th December 1502 the king, suffering from severe gout, died aged 49 at Gloucester Palace. His eighteen year reign had seen the nation re-emerge from the destructive Wars of the Roses as an economic, political and military power. The crown’s authority had been restored, often at the tip of a sword. His reforms, sponsorship of the navy and sea exploration, and dynastic alliances all set the stage for England’s rise in the 16th century. Yet the intrigue and death that surrounded Richard III haunt his legacy, most of all the lost "Princes in the Tower". In the words of the 18th century historian Isaac Stepney, "there was a shadow cast upon his crown”.
Deathbed of Richard III, December 1502
[1] Owing to their similar ages and the Anglo-Spanish alliance, Catherine of Aragon remains the prime marriage candidate for an English prince, be he York or Tudor.
[2] OTL’s Richmond Palace. The design was in line with styles during Edward IV and Richard III’s reign plus some Renaissance flourishes. Sheen Palace that it replaced was a 200 year-old death trap, with fires and collapsing ceilings nearly killing Henry VII and others on several occasions.
[3] The Scropes were a minor noble family who always seemed to bet on a loser during the political unrest of 15th and 16th century England. They supported Richard in 1485 and ITTL they chose wisely. Also they have a funny name.
[4] Chroniclers who actually met Richard III claim his “deformity” was only apparent in his right shoulder being higher than his left, something he masked with specially tailored garments. The study of his remains seem to confirm this and while his scoliosis appears quite dramatic when viewing his skeleton, it’s impact on his day-to-day would have been minor.
[5] Far more surprising were signs of onset arthritis in many of Richard’s joints. He was only 32 when he died and a few more decades of active kingship, particularly being on campaign, wouldn’t have done his condition much good I imagine.
[6] If I’m writing about late medieval English pretenders I can’t leave out Perkin Warbeck, one of history’s great chancers.
[7] Even after France supported Henry Tudor in 1485, the various pretenders of his reign found ready backing on the continent.
[8] Percy’s OTL grandson Thomas made a similar flight from royal justice.
[9] Edward Stafford was eventually executed IOTL by Henry VIII due to his possible claim to the throne.
[10] The deadly “English sweats” was a mysterious, fast acting disease that almost exclusively effected the British Isles between the 1480s and 1550s.
