The Princes in the Tower, page 31
In 1482, Mary died in a riding accident. Her death plunged Burgundy into crisis. The nobility and powerful merchant cities in Flanders didn’t want to acknowledge Maximilian as their regent, and he was deposed in favour of his son, Philip the Handsome, a minor aged 4. A Regency Council then ruled in Philip’s name. The rebellion, however, was put down by Maximilian in 1485.
In 1486, Maximilian was crowned king and elected his father’s heir as emperor.
Signature of Maximilian I, 10 March 1497. (Redrawn: Philippa Langley)
In 1487, Maximilian backed Margaret of York in her support of Edward V of England. He and his court provided ships and weapons and a professional army of Zeeland soldiers and German ‘landsknechte’. In that same year, the Burgundian Netherlands were once again in turmoil when France attacked Brittany, Maximilian’s ally, requiring the second fleet for Edward V to be diverted.
On 16 December 1490, with the intention of encircling France, Maximilian married ‘by proxy’ the daughter of his old ally, Anne of Brittany. In 1491, Charles VIII of France, although betrothed to Maximilian’s daughter, Margaret of Austria, sent troops to Brittany. Anne surrendered and agreed to marry Charles who annulled his betrothal to Maximilian’s daughter.
Maximilian had been embarrassed both as a husband and father. A new war erupted, and Maximilian challenged the King of France to a duel. The Peace of Senlis in 1493 ended the war and Margaret was returned to the Netherlands. Maximilian fully supported Richard, Duke of York, in his plans to regain the throne of England. From 1493, York received extensive Burgundian recognition and support.
During his regency, Maximilian pursued an ambitious policy of expansion through wars and a clever marriage policy, of which the double marriage between his son, the Archduke Philip, and the Spanish Princess Juana (1496), and his daughter, Margaret, and the Spanish hereditary Prince Juan (1497), is the most famous. Due to a series of unexpected deaths in the Spanish line of succession, the inheritance of the Spanish Empire fell into the hands of the Habsburgs. The Habsburg dynasty became the most powerful in Europe.
Although some aspects of his life, especially his financial mismanagement, were cause for disapproval, he was one of the most popular Roman emperors. Maximilian was buried with honour in the Castle Chapel at Wiener Neustadt in Austria in the Cathedral of St George.
Margaret Plantagenet (of York and England), Duchess of Burgundy (1446–1503)
Margaret was the daughter of Richard, Duke of York, (1411–60) and Cecily Neville (1415–95); sister of Edward IV and Richard III; and the aunt and principal ally and indefatigable supporter of Edward V and Richard, Duke of York.
In 1468, she married the Burgundian duke and lord of the Netherlands, Charles the Bold, and became Duchess of Burgundy. When, in 1470, the Earl of Warwick’s restoration of Henry VI forced her brothers Edward and Richard to flee England, she acted as mediator between Duke Charles and King Edward during the latter’s exile in the Low Countries. She also regularly represented her husband in difficult negotiations regarding English matters.
In 1477, Duke Charles died at the Battle of Nancy, leaving his country in crisis. A childless Margaret devoted herself to supporting his successors. She also developed an excellent relationship with her stepdaughter, Mary of Burgundy, and played a decisive role as confidante of the young and inexperienced duchess.
Mary of Burgundy expressed appreciation for her stepmother by making a favourable arrangement for Margaret’s estate. She wrote:
Our very dear lady and stepmother … has always behaved towards our lord father with great prudence, obedience and special friendship, and towards our person and towards our lands and glories with such total and perfect love and benevolence that we will never be able to thank and acknowledge her enough for it.
In the summer of 1480, Margaret returned to England for about three months, staying with King Edward’s family at the royal palace of Greenwich and at Coldharbour House, near her mother’s home of Baynard’s Castle.145 It was during this visit that she met 7-year-old Richard, Duke of York; a meeting she would later recall in her letter to Queen Isabella of Spain.
After Mary’s death in 1482, Margaret took care of her young children, Philip the Handsome and Margaret of Austria. Margaret of York’s dowry included Malines (now Mechelen), where she settled and created a court.
As a widow, Margaret could act independently. With the consent and help of Maximilian, she actively supported both Yorkist rebellions. She was determined to install a rightful Yorkist heir on the English throne.
Signature of Margaret of York and Burgundy from 25 August 1493 at Dendermonde. (Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Redrawn: Philippa Langley)
Between 1493 and 1495, the 21-year-old Yorkist claimant, Richard of York, stayed regularly at Margaret’s court in Malines with Philip and his younger sister, Margaret. He also stayed at her home at Binche. One of its rooms below the chapel and which led out to the tennis court was renamed ‘Richard’s room’.146
During her life, Margaret showed a strong sense of duty. She was a passionate bibliophile, with a great love of religious (devotional) books and engaged in charitable work.
Olivier de la Marche, poet and chronicler at the Burgundian court, praised ‘the daughter of York’ as ‘that gentle, pleasant woman, beautiful on the outside and inside’.
Later Tudor chroniclers referred to her as the ‘diabolicall duches’, who was ‘lyke a dogge revertnge to her olde vomyte’.147
Margaret was buried with great honour in the choir of the Greyfriars Church at Mechelen (Malines).
Albert of Saxony (1443–1500)
See also Chapter 15 and Appendix 6.
Albert III, Duke of Saxony was the youngest son of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony148 and Margaret of Austria, sister of Frederick III, the Holy Roman Emperor.
Little is known about his youth, but he seems to have enjoyed tournaments and other games of knighthood where he showed considerable physical strength and courage from an early age.
On the night of 7–8 July 1455, when the young prince was around 12 years old, he and his 14-year-old brother Ernst were kidnapped. Several knights, who had felt cheated by the boys’ father, managed to penetrate the royal residence of the two young princes at Altenburg Castle, in eastern Germany. The princes were captured and taken towards the Bohemian border. However, the kidnapping failed and both boys were freed soon afterwards. This famous event is known in German history as Der Sächsische Prinzenraub (‘The Saxon Princes Abduction’).
In 1464, Albert married Sidonia, daughter of the King of Bohemia. In the same year, after the death of their father, Ernst and Albert ruled Saxony together. In order to receive their lands in fief (feudal service) from the emperor Frederick III, they went to his court. Here Albert stayed for several years, laying the foundation for his life-long loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty.
From 1488 Albert played an important role in the Habsburg Burgundian Netherlands. As a gifted military leader, he was immediately prepared to fight for Maximilian when the latter was imprisoned in Bruges due to the Flemish uprising. After release Maximilian appointed Albert ‘General Stadtholder’ (the king’s deputy), in the Burgundian Netherlands.149
In the following years Albert, Duke of Saxony reconquered the counties of Holland, Zeeland, Flanders and the Duchy of Brabant for Maximilian. He also subdued a number of rebellions in the Burgundian Netherlands.
Albert’s governorship was regularly extended by Maximilian and in 1491 he was given the great honour of being admitted to the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece. In September 1493, he took care of the young prince Richard of York, who had just arrived at Margaret of York’s court in Malines.
Albert seems to have been very committed to Richard’s cause and supported him financially. In a Charter of 4 October 1493 (see Plates 25 and 26), Richard of York promised to repay Albert for a loan of 30,000 florins (an enormous sum) as soon as he became King of England. The following month, Albert travelled with Prince Richard and his own son Henry to meet King Maximilian, who was in Vienna at the time.
They were often in each other’s company and Albert made great efforts to build up Richard’s army and fleet, with which ‘the new young king’, as he was called, would make a first attempt to regain his kingdom in July 1495. Although Albert was also busy with a planned campaign against Friesland, he apparently preferred the mission of the young heir to the English throne. According to a servant of the Duke of York, Albert said ‘that he would much rather march into England’.150
In 1498, for his dedicated service over many years, Maximilian made Albert governor of Friesland. Two years later, Duke Albert of Saxony, nicknamed ‘The Bold’, died at the age of 57. He is buried in the Cathedral at Meissen (Saxony).
The Irish Lords
Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare (c. 1456–1513)
Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, also known as ‘Garret the Great’, or ‘the Great Earl’, supported Edward V, the Yorkist claimant, in 1487. Kildare recruited 4,000 Gaelic Kerne (light-armed Irish foot soldiers) for Edward’s invasion of England. These were commanded by his brother, Thomas, and would reinforce the 2,000 Landsknechte supplied by Margaret of York and Burgundy.151 The Yorkist army was heavily defeated at Stoke Field, where the Irish suffered heavy casualties including the death of Kildare’s brother; Thomas is probably buried in one of its mass graves.
On 23 June 1488, Henry VII sent a commissioner, Sir Richard Edgecombe, to Ireland which had remained loyal to Edward V. On 12 July 1488, Edgecombe held a meeting with Kildare and gave the earl a private verbal message from the English king. Kildare stalled for five days in order to consult with the other members of the Irish Council. The following day, in Christ Church Cathedral, the Bishop of Meath was compelled by Edgecombe to read Pope Innocent VIII’s bull against the supporters of King Edward. He also preached a sermon in support of Henry VII’s claim to the throne.
On Wednesday, 30 July 1488, Kildare accepted a pardon and recognised Henry VII as King of England.152 The short reign of Edward V in Ireland was over. Kildare’s hesitant dealings with Henry’s commissioner, a year after Stoke, may suggest that Edward V survived the battle or, in Ireland at least, was thought to have survived. The content of Henry VII’s private verbal message to Kildare is not known.
It is also not known if Kildare was at Greenwich Palace in London in February 1489 when the Irish lords were served by Lambert Simnel but failed to recognise him as the king crowned in Ireland (see Chapter 12).153 It seems likely that Kildare was not present because in 1490 he evaded a summons to Henry’s court ‘with the excuse that he could not be spared from the defence of the land’.154
By 1491–92, Kildare was implicated in the activities of the second Yorkist claimant, Richard, Duke of York, who was supported in Ireland by Kildare’s cousin, the Earl of Desmond. After York left for France, Kildare was dismissed from office as Deputy of Ireland by Henry VII, along with the earl’s closest supporters.155 After refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to the Tudor king in 1493, Kildare was bound by 1,000 marks and summoned again to the English court.
Henry VII now sent a small force to Ireland headed by Sir Edward Poynings. In December 1494, on Henry’s orders, Poynings burnt all records in Ireland pertaining to King Edward’s coronation and Parliament. In February 1495, after the discovery of his secret communications with the Irish chiefs, Kildare was arrested, attainted by Poynings’ Parliament and sent to England, where he was imprisoned in the Tower. Kildare’s brother, James, rose in rebellion in Ireland, while his cousin, Desmond, rallied for Richard of York at Munster.156
Henry VII’s Irish loyalists, the Butlers (Earls of Ormond), helped lift Richard of York’s siege of Waterford and thereby broke the resistance. York fled to Scotland. The fight for Ireland had cost Henry VII £23,000.157
The English Parliament reversed Kildare’s attainder and he married Henry VII’s distant cousin, Elizabeth St John. Kildare returned to Ireland as Lord Deputy. Henry VII kept Kildare’s son and heir at the English court as surety for the earl’s conduct.
In 1504, Kildare returned to England to attend his son’s marriage. Father and son returned to Ireland. In 1513, Kildare was shot and wounded on campaign in Ireland. He was buried in his own chapel on the north side of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where twenty-six years earlier he had helped crown King Edward of England. Kildare’s chapel and tomb do not survive.
On 13 June 1482, Edward IV described Kildare as ‘our dearly beloved cousin Gerald Earl of Kildare, deputy of our beloved and very dear son Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, our lieutenant of our land of Ireland’.158 Richard III similarly appointed Kildare as deputy to his ‘first begotten son’ ‘Prince Edward’ from 19 July 1483, in recognition of Kildare’s ‘good fame and noble disposition’.159
On 21 August 1484, following the death of Richard’s son, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln and the king’s nephew, was made Lieutenant in Ireland, with Kildare confirmed as Lincoln’s deputy on 22 September.160 Following King Richard’s death, Kildare was again confirmed as deputy for Jasper Tudor, King Henry’s new Lieutenant in Ireland, after first becoming Chief Justice in March 1486.161
Kildare’s grandson, the 10th Earl, and his four sons by Elizabeth were executed for treason at Tyburn in London by Henry VIII on 3 February 1537.
Maurice Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Desmond (d. 1520)
For 6-year-old Richard of York’s visit to Ireland in December 1479 and probable meeting with Kildare (and Desmond), see Chapters 2 and 14.
Maurice was Kildare’s cousin. In December 1487, Maurice’s brother, James, 8th Earl (age 28), was murdered.
Maurice Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Desmond, supported Richard, Duke of York, raising troops on his behalf at Munster in Ireland in 1495. When York’s uprising failed, Desmond was taken prisoner but pardoned by Henry VII on 22 August 1497.162 Thereafter, he was in King Henry’s favour.
Desmond was buried at Tralee.
Persons of Interest with Likely Connections
Dr John Alcock, Bishop of Rochester, Worcester and Ely (1430–1500)
Alcock was born at Beverley, North Yorkshire, the son of a Hull merchant. He first came to royal prominence in April 1471 following the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Barnet. It seems likely that Alcock’s behaviour during the readeption earned him the favour of Edward IV. It is not known if Alcock joined King Edward and Gloucester in exile.
Alcock was made Keeper of the Rolls of Chancery by Edward IV and was involved in Anglo-Scottish diplomacy. On 8 January 1472, he was made Bishop of Rochester and from 20 September to 18 June 1473 was Keeper of the Great Seal. This was a singular mark of royal favour and trust. The Great Seal (in wax imprint) conferred royal authority. From 10 June to 29 September 1475, during Edward IV’s campaign in France, Alcock acted as Chancellor.163
From 1473 to 1483, as Bishop of Rochester (1472) and later Worcester (1476), Alcock was tutor to Edward, Prince of Wales (the future Edward V), and President of his Council. In 1481–82, he rebuilt the church of Little Malvern Priory in Worcestershire, installing a stained-glass window of Edward, Prince of Wales.
Following Edward IV’s death, Alcock served on the King’s Council during Richard III’s Protectorate and reign. He is recorded on the progress of 1483 at Magdalen College, Oxford (24–26 July), and seems to have travelled with the king to Worcester, Warwick, York and Grantham (19–20 October).164 London to Oxford is about 56 miles and approximately two days’ travel; it is not known when Alcock left London to join the court, or if he was present when the progress left the capital on 19 July. It is possible that Alcock joined the royal progress at Oxford following the failed abduction attempt at the Tower on 21 July. It is not known if Edward V accompanied him on the journey north to Oxford. In September 1484, Alcock helped negotiate a marriage alliance with Scotland at Nottingham.
Following King Richard’s death, Alcock opened Henry VII’s first Parliament on 7 November 1485, delivering a sermon as temporary Chancellor. On 6 October 1486, he was promoted to the wealthy see of Ely, when Dr John Morton, Henry VII’s closest advisor, became Archbishop of Canterbury. On 6 March 1487, during the Yorkist King Edward’s presence in Ireland, Alcock’s office of Keeper of the Great Seal was removed from him and awarded to Morton.165 Following this event, Alcock remained a Royal Councillor but confined his attention to writing, education and building works.
In 1496, Alcock founded Jesus College, Cambridge, having previously founded Hull Grammar School in 1479. He died of the plague at Wisbech Castle in Cambridgeshire and is buried at Ely Cathedral.166
Alcock served three kings faithfully. He was later recalled as ‘having devoted himself from childhood to learning and piety, made such a profi-ciency in virtue that no one in England had a greater reputation for sanctity’.167 At Leicester on 25 August, Alcock was named by William Catesby, prior to his execution, as an executor of his will.168
Sir Edward Brampton (c. 1440–1512)169
Born Duarte Brandão in Portugal, Sir Edward Brampton converted from Judaism to Christianity with the personal sponsorship of Edward IV as his godfather.170 In 1484, he was knighted by King Richard as the first man of Jewish origin to receive the honour. Brampton was a soldier, merchant, ship owner and master.
In 1472, Brampton was rewarded with property in London ‘for his good service to the king in many battles’. In the following year he was commissioned to raise mariners for service against King Edward’s enemies. In 1479, he was a Gentleman Usher of the King’s Chamber and by 1481 served under John Howard on the naval expedition against Scotland, commanding a Portuguese carvel. By 1482, he was an Esquire of the King’s Body and Captain and Governor of Guernsey in the Channel Islands.
