The Princes in the Tower, page 44
22 Robert Ruff (Russe), Sergeant of the Mace, London, who ‘has suffered for treason’ and ‘who was put to death for treason’: TNA, C 1/64/124 (1483–85), ‘Lucasse vs The Mayor of London. The mayor and sheriffs of London for a Bond to John Mathewe and William White, sheriffs, as surety for Robert Ruff [Russe], their sergeant of the mace, who has suffered for treason’ (research by Hilary Jones, Richard III Forum, 2016: thanks to Dr A.J. Hibbard). See also TNA, C 1/64/35 (1483–85): ‘Action brought by John Mathew, mercer, and William White, draper, late sheriffs of London, on a bond of complainants as surety for Robert Ruffe, sergeant to the said late sheriffs, who was put to death for treason.’ The documented (but undated) Lucasse case mentioning Ruff/Russe is important since it confirms his existence and office, also that he was accused of treason at the relevant time (thanks to Terri-Kate Lee, 25.5.2022).
23 Early Historians, p. 122. John Rous, Warwickshire priest and Neville family retainer, writes of Richard’s royal progress: ‘And then he went to Worcester and finally Warwick where the Queen joined him from Windsor.’ Her departure from London is calculated using general travel times for a 76-mile journey from Windsor to Warwick. Richard was in Warwick from around 8–14 August (Itinerary, pp. 5–6).
24 Beloved Cousyn, pp. 105–06.
25 Harley 433, Vol. 3, p. 24. Sasiola joined the royal party on 8 August at Warwick. For the knightings, see Harley 433, Vol. 1, p. 2; Early Historians, p. 122; For Edward of Middleham, see Hammond, The Children of Richard III (2018), op. cit., p. 33, also The Rous Roll (1980), p. 60.
26 Hammond, op. cit., pp. 32–34, 81–82.
27 BRO, Ref. No.CC/2/2, ‘The Maire of Bristowe I’s Kalendar’, ff.129r, 129v, 130r (f.129v), appreciation to Bristol Archives, 7.8.2018; Lucy Toulmin Smith, The Maire of Bristowe I’s Kalendar by Robert Ricart Town Clerk of Bristol 18 Edward IV (1872), p. 46. For the mayoral year, see Evan Jones, The Smugglers City (Bristol University, 2004) www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/History/Maritime/Sources/1480ricart.htm.
28 Crowland, p. 163: ‘people round about the city of London and in Kent, Essex, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire and Berkshire.’
29 Itinerary, p. 10.
30 CPR 1476–85, p. 378; for whether to pay Giles off or for tutelage to continue in the north at Royal Nurseries (Sandal/Sheriff Hutton), see note 9 and Langley & Schneider-Coutandin, op. cit.
31 GC, p. 234. Mayor Edmund Shaa left office on 28 October 1483.
32 Some seventeen years later, around 1500, Burgundian chronicler Jean Molinet, Ch. 100, p. 402, wrote: ‘Pierre’ and ‘George’ (meaning Edward and Richard) ‘… were prisoners for about five weeks; and through the Captain of the Tower, the Duke Richard had them secretly killed and made to disappear’ (trans. thanks to Isabelle Lloyd, 5.9.2019). Five weeks from 16 June is 21 July. See Chapter 5.
33 The suggested timeline for disappearance excludes a full analysis of Ricart’s Kalendar (see Chapter 5).
5. The Sources: Missing, Murdered, Maintained
1 For the Cely note as a rumour in March 1483, see Mythology, Chapter 13, pp. 75–78. The ‘Lord Prince’ (‘troubled’) was previously identified as Richard, Duke of York (Hanham, Cely Letters 1472–1488 (1975), p. 286). Ashdown-Hill clarifies that this title is reserved for the Prince of Wales, while York is referred to as duke, see for example GC, p. 231; note 89; Historical Notes, p. 588; note 94. (Mancini, p. 107 n. 135, agrees with Hanham, pointing out the note was far from being a carefully considered document.)
2 Philippa Langley, ‘The Accession of Richard III (Part One)’, Bulletin, March 2019, pp. 39–43 (p. 40).
3 The letter is undated but the contents suggest it was written around mid-September: J.B. Sheppard (ed.), ‘Christ Church Letters’ (1877), Camden Society, p. 100. For a date after 12 September, see A.F. Sutton and L. Visser-Fuchs, ‘Thomas Langton’s Letter to William Selling, 15 September 1483’, Ricardian, Vol. 31 (2021), pp. 46–72 (p. 58).
4 D.P. Wright, ODNB.
5 Matthew Lewis, Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me (2018), pp. 311–12, 435.
6 Sutton & Visser-Fuchs, op. cit., p. 50.
7 Mancini, p. 14.
8 Ibid., p. 15.
9 Household Ordinances: Edward V had a physician and surgeon at all times, see Orme, pp. 123, 129.
10 Bertram Fields, Royal Blood (1998), pp. 10, 130; Matthew Lewis, The Survival of the Princes in the Tower (2017), pp. 41–42. Mancini, p. 95, describes Argentine as medicus. A.B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to 1500 (1963), pp. 15–16, suggests his M.D. was received at Padua, Italy by 1485. Like Mancini, Argentine spoke Italian as well as Latin. Unrecorded in England under Richard III, Emden, p. 16 has him in Henrician England on 6 October 1485. Thanks to Marie Barnfield for the Argentine Papers (Dennis E. Rhodes, 1967) and Francisca Icaza for the Emden copy, Damian Riehal Leader (1988, 1994) and Rhodes, Provost Argentine of King’s and his Books (1956). Loss/destruction of the records has negated searches for alumni of possible universities including Padua. Fifteenth-century scientific tracts belonging to Argentine are currently at Gloucester Cathedral (including Johann Mueller, Calendarium. Venice: Erhardus Ratdolt, 9 August 1482) and were printed near Padua 1482–85. This may suggest Argentine was at Padua (school of medicine) during that time (see Emden). Argentine searches, with thanks to Francisca Icaza.
11 Mancini, pp. 17, 41. Mancini warns, ‘You should not expect from me the names of individuals and places, nor that this account is complete in all particulars.’
12 Ibid., p. 65. Contrary to the inaccuracy in Armstrong’s translation, Mancini did not write that Richard ‘destroyed Edward’s children and then claimed for himself the throne’, which contradicts Mancini’s inability to ascertain their fate.
13 Former Spanish Ambassador Diego de Valera reports to Ferdinand and Isabella on 1 January 1486, ‘three thousand Englishmen’ fled to France following the October 1483 uprising. Figures may be somewhat exaggerated, but his account confirms that English rebels were in France at that time: Elizabeth Nokes and Geoffrey Wheeler, ‘A Spanish Account of the Battle of Bosworth’, Ricardian, No. 36, March 1972, pp. 1–5 (p. 2).
14 Mythology, p. 24.
15 J. Masselin (ed.), Journal des Etats-généraux de France tenus à Tours en 1484 (Paris, 1835); Alan Harding, Medieval Law and the Foundations of the State (OUP, 2002), p. 284. Rochefort’s speech was ‘Reported in great detail by Jean Masselin, a deputy from the bailliage of Rouen who played a leading part in the proceedings’.
16 Harding, Medieval Law, p. 284, translates faventibus as ‘by approval’.
17 The exclamation mark has been removed as it was not present in Masselin’s original account (Masselin, Etats-généraux, p. 38).
18 Samaran (ed./trans.), Basin: History of Louis XI (1963), Vol. 3, p. 234.
19 Livia Visser-Fuchs, ‘English Events in Caspar Weinreich’s Danzig Chronicle, 1461–1495’, Ricardian, Vol. 7, No. 95, December 1986, pp. 310–20 (p. 316).
20 Harley 433, Vol. 3, p. 190.
21 Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Niclas von Popplau: Lost in Translation? (Part Two)’, Bulletin, March 2021, pp. 39–47 (pp. 39, 46) www.revealingrichardiii.com/niclas-von-popplau.html.
22 Crowland, p. 171.
23 Itinerary, pp. 15–16.
24 Hammond, The Children of Richard III, p. 82, translates this as ‘servants’. Cooper had mistranslated it as ‘minstrels’ (see note 25).
25 C.H. Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, Volume 1 (1842), p. 230.
26 The York/Warwick age difference was a relatively small eighteen months. For this source in relation to Niclas von Popplau, see Philippa Langley and Doris Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Niclas von Popplau: Lost in Translation? (Part One)’, Bulletin, December 2020, pp. 46–53, www.revealingrichardiii.com/niclas-vonpopplau.html.
27 Mythology, pp. 102–03. Ashdown-Hill interprets Latin nuper, as regards Edward the ‘bastard’, as meaning ‘late’ rather than ‘former/recently’, and presents this source as confirming the death of Edward V. The word ‘bastard’ was later scratched out.
28 CPR, p. 375.
29 Harley 433, Vol. 2, p. 70.
30 Sean Cunningham, Richard III: A Royal Enigma (2003), pp. 50–51, for tax collection for Trinity Term, first year of Richard III (his regnal years began on 26 June). Since Trinity Term ran from early June to the end of July, this gives the document’s end date as 25 June 1484.
31 CCR, p. 396 (thanks to Ian Rogers, 30.6.2018).
32 Gordon McKelvie, ‘The Bastardy of Edward V in 1484: New Evidence of its Reception in the Inquisitions Post Mortem of William, Lord Hastings’, Royal Studies Journal, 3, No. 1, 2016, pp. 71–79 (p. 74).
33 McKelvie, ‘The Bastardy of Edward V’, pp. 71, 72, 74.
34 Peter Hammond and Anne F. Sutton, ‘Research Notes and Queries’, Ricardian, Vol. 5, No. 72, March 1981, p. 319: Chamberlains Accounts, City of Canterbury, Michaelmas 1484–Michaelmas 1485, f.26.
35 Harley 433, Vol. 2, p. 211; John Bayley, The History and Antiquities of the Tower of London (1830), p. 343.
36 Sir Clements Markham, Richard III: His Life and Character (1906, repr. 1968), p. 237; Rymer’s Foedera, XII, p. 265, ‘Pro filio bastardo regis’ … Dilecti Filii nostril Bastardi, Johannis de Gloucestria (thanks to John Dike, Coldridge Research Group).
37 As a bastard, John could inherit nothing, i.e., it would only have been by his father’s creation that he might have held any title, which had not (yet) been done. Members of the nobility were sometimes referred to as ‘lord’ or ‘prince’ as a courtesy title, but not in official crown documents.
38 For Henry Davy as Richard III’s tailor, see Coronation, p. 333.
39 Ibid.; Archaeologia, 1, p. 367. Also, Coronation, pp. 171–72: ‘To Lorde Edward, son of late Kyng Edward the Fourthe, for his apparaill and array’ and ‘To the henxemen [henchmen] of the said Lord Edward for theire apparaill and array’. It is possible that Edward V attended the coronation of his uncle, or certainly it was planned for (Lewis, The Survival of the Prices in the Tower, p. 54). For delivery of clothing and dating, note 125.
40 Dr A.J. Hibbard, TMPP Research Report, 22.11.2020. Also, John Dike, ‘Coldridge’: one-name.org/name_profile/godsland.
41 Horrox, ‘Henry Tudor’s Letters to England During Richard III’s Reign’, Ricardian, Vol. 6, No. 80, March 1983, pp. 155–58 (p. 155); Caroline Halsted, Richard III (1844, reprint 1980), Vol. 2, pp. 424, 566, Appendix NN; BL, Harleian MS 787, f.2. The letter is undated but has been attributed to around November 1484–Spring 1485.
42 Nokes and Wheeler, ‘A Spanish Account’, p. 2.
43 Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Lost in Translation? (Part Two)’, pp. 39–40.
44 The highlighted text reads in German: ‘Darauf der König seinen Schatz und alle grosse Herren, als des Königes Kinder und der Fürsten Söhne verwahret werden, welche den Gefangenen gleich gehallten werden.’ Taken from a 1712 copy of Popplau’s manuscript (Piotr Radzikowski [ed.], Reisebeschreibung Niclas Von Popplau, Ritters, bürtig von Breslau, Trans-Krak [1998], p. 53). Adapted from translations for TMPP by Doris Schneider-Coutandin; Annette Carson; Dr Eleoma Bodammer, Senior Lecturer in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German literature, Edinburgh University; Professor Henrike Lähnemann, Chair of Medieval German Literature & Linguistics, St Edmund Hall, Oxford University. For full discussion, see Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Lost in Translation? Part One’.
45 Hammond, The Children of Richard III, p. 50; Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ibid., n. 18.
46 Radzikowski, op. cit., p. 53 n. 155: ‘Pontefract Castle was the prison and place of execution of many representatives of great dynasties.’ (Trans. thanks to Bodammer and Lähnemann.)
47 Reputedly a favourite residence of Henry Bolingbroke (before he usurped the throne), but his children were born elsewhere.
48 Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Niclas von Popplau: Timeline’, p. 2: www.revealingrichardiii.com/niclas-von-popplau.html.
49 Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Popplau: Timeline’, p. 6.
50 Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Lost in Translation? (Part One)’, p. 6.
51 Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Lost in Translation? (Part Two)’, pp. 39, 40, 42.
52 Mythology, pp. 109–11, records a Papal Requiem Mass for King Edward at the Sistine Chapel on 23 September 1483. Ashdown-Hill suggests this may have been for Edward V, but corroboration has not been found. Such a significant public Requiem would have been remarked in England and on the continent. It seems likely the Papacy was observing the twenty-four weeks’ mind of Edward IV’s death, which some accounts record as 8 April (e.g., Bristol and Colchester, Mythology, p. 42; BRO, Ref. No. CC/2/2, ‘The Maire of Bristowe I’s Kalendar’, f.129r). Bristol as a port is significant. For the London account, see Historical Notes, p. 588; Early Historians, p. 108; Lyell (ed.), Acts of Court, p. 146.
53 In the north, Popplau visited only Doncaster and York, see Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Popplau: Timeline’. For the possible detour to view Pontefract Castle on the way to York, see Langley and Schneider-Coutandin, ‘Lost in Translation? (Part One)’, p. 50.
54 For locations with traditions concerning the princes, see Chapter 9.
55 Andrew Breeze, ‘A Welsh Poem of 1485 on Richard III’, Ricardian, Vol. 18, 2008, pp. 46–53 (p. 52).
56 Horrox, ‘Henry Tudor’s Letters’, p. 157.
57 Breeze, ‘Welsh Poem’, p. 47.
58 Maligned King, pp. 318–19: ‘unnaturall, mischievous and grete Perjuries, Treasons, Homicides and Murdres, in shedding of Infants blood, with manie other Wronges, odious Offences and abominacions ayenst God and Man and in espall oure said Soveraigne Lord’; Rolls of Parliament, vi, pp. 275–78.
59 Michael Hicks, ‘The Second Anonymous Continuation of the Crowland Abbey Chronicle 1459–86 Revisited’, EHR, Vol. 122, No. 496, April 2007, pp. 349–70.
60 Crowland, p. 163.
61 Langport further reflected the words of Henry’s Parliament but used them regarding Rivers, Grey and Vaughan, who he incorrectly asserted were ‘beheaded without any form of trial’, the ‘second shedding of innocent blood’ (after Hastings) (Crowland, p. 161).
62 Some writers have assigned this note to either 1483 or 1484 but this is inaccurate. The earliest date for this to be recorded as the marginal note would be upon completion of the following mayoral year of September 1484– September 1485, so the earliest it could have been written was September 1485, following Bosworth. Ricart’s employment as Clerk of Bristol before 1489 means it could have been added anytime up to this point or when Ricart’s handwriting apparently ends in 1506 (see note 86 for 1502–03). Later dating is supported by Ricart’s entry for 1484 recording Buckingham’s execution (2 November 1483), which was within the new mayoral year so is recorded correctly. The place to have noted the rumour of the princes’ death in 1483 within the main text was before, or directly after, Buckingham’s execution. For the marginal note added after Richard’s death, see Peter Fleming, ‘The Maire of Bristowe I’s Kalendar’, Bristol Record Society, Vol. 67, 2015, pp. 1–74 (p. 25). Fleming believes the main Kalendar entry for King Richard was also written after his death but information in the main text does not suggest this. For Ricart’s handwriting, see Evan Jones, The Smugglers City (University of Bristol, 2004) www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/History/Maritime/Sources/1480ricart.htm.
63 BRO, Ref. No. CC/2/2 ‘Kalendar’, ff.129r, 129v, 130r (f.129v), thanks to Bristol Archives, 7.8.2018. See also Toulmin Smith, The Maire of Bristowe I’s Kalendar by Robert Ricart, p. 46.
64 D. Mario Penna, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Vol. 1, ‘Prosistas Castellaños del XV siglo’ (Madrid, 1959). Trans. thanks to Marie Barnfield (23.7.2018). See also Nokes & Wheeler, ‘A Spanish Account’, p. 2.
65 David Johnson, ‘Ardent Suitor or Reluctant Groom? Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Part Two: Reluctant Groom’, Bulletin, March 2020, pp. 37–41 (pp. 37, 39). The second session of Henry’s Parliament sat on 23 January 1486: www.revealingrichardiii.com/the-pre-contract.html.
66 Carlson, English Humanist Books, p. 58. Carmeliano presented his new work (Suasoria Laeticiae) to Henry VII on or shortly after the birth of Prince Arthur, Henry’s heir (b. 19 September 1486) and received Henry’s first pension on 27 September (Henry married Elizabeth of York on 18 January).
67 J.B Trapp, ODNB.
68 Mancini, p. 22; Carlson, op. cit., pp. 45, 58, is incorrect that Carmeliano received no patronage from King Richard. Carmeliano’s praise of Richard prefaces work on St Katherine dedicated to him, with copy gifted to Brackenbury which survives (Carlson, pp. 38, 42–45).
69 Carlson, pp. 37, 58, 195, 203.
70 Ibid., pp. 48–49, 52. Carmeliano (speaking as the spirit of Henry VI) rhetorically accuses Richard of putting the princes ‘to the sword’ himself, and with that act, piercing Henry’s wailing ghost equally (lines 91–92), trans. thanks to Annette Carson; see p. 49 for Carlson’s erroneous assertion that Carmeliano meant (literally) that Richard deployed the sword ‘with his own hand’. For Carmeliano’s connection to John Morton and the Morton family, see Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, ‘Richard III’s Books XIV: Pietro Carmeliano’s Early Publications’, Ricardian, Vol. 10, No.132, March 1996, pp. 346–86 (pp. 347, 350, 360, 369–72).
71 António S. Marques, ‘A Little Known Portuguese Source for the Murder of the Princes’, Bulletin, Spring 2007, pp. 31–32 (p. 32). Although this source is placed in 1488, it is not known when the notes were written, likely for a memoir. Notes exist today as sixteenth and seventeenth-century copies. Álvaro Lopes de Chaves died after 1 January 1490. Thanks to António Marques.
72 Visser-Fuchs, ‘English Events in Caspar Weinreich’s Danzig Chronicle, 1461–1495’, p. 320 n. 28.
73 Annette Carson (in personal correspondence) challenges the date of 1486 that is generally assumed for Rous’ Historia Regum Angliae, preferring around 1490. Internal evidence indicates that when writing the date of Bosworth he left the last digit blank – ‘148*’ – returning later to insert ‘5’. It seems inconceivable that within months he could have forgotten the year of Henry’s accession. Further, it is unlikely he could have completed this major chronicle immediately on the heels of his two Rous Rolls (see note 74).
