The Princes in the Tower, page 51
12 From a close contemporary copy of the proclamation, Griffith Collection, National Library of Wales, Carreglwyd Estate Archive, Series 1/695 (1496). Located/transcribed for TMPP by Dr Judith Ford (5.6.2021), who notes that many of his papers came ‘into [Griffith’s] hands during his residence in the Earl of Northampton’s household [and] remained in [them] after [the earl’s] death’: Historical Manuscripts Commission, 5th Report, 1876, p. 406. Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton (d. 1614), was the great-grandson of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (d. 1524); the family possibly obtained copies of the proclamation through Thomas Howard’s tenure in the north for Henry VII at the time (Judith Ford, ‘Richard of England’s Proclamation’, Bulletin, March 2022, pp. 46–51). See Appendix 9.
13 For example, Buc, Kleyn (as above), Horace Walpole, Sir Clements Markham, Bertram Fields, Matthew Lewis, et al.
14 Trans. Nathalie Nijman-Bliekendaal, November 2020.
15 K.J.W. Peeneman, Rijksarchief in Gelderland (Gelderland Archive), 0510, various charters, various acquisitions: www.archieven.nl/nl/zoeken?mivast=0&mizig=210&miadt=37&micode=0510&milang=nl&miview=inv2#inv3t1. The Gelderland manuscript was added to the collection ‘Various Acquisitions’ of the former State Archive, Gelderland, which comprises acquisitions outside existing categories that are not substantial enough to be archived individually.
16 BL, Egerton MS. 616, f.003r. Trans. Dr Betty Knott (6.1.2019), see Appendix 4.
17 At first glance, the language of the narrative resembles Middle Low German, the written language of the Hanseatic merchants (1300–1500) then spoken in northern Germany and eastern Netherlands. Interestingly, the Gelderland manuscript is kept in Arnhem, one of the twenty-two Dutch Hanseatic cities in the eastern Netherlands area.
18 See Howard Books, Vol. 2, p. 426 for retrospective payments on 11 August detailing four outfits for humble children of the stables: ‘The Stabill: Item to Rychard Thaylor for makyng of iiij chylder of the stabylles gownes, ij.s.’ See note 59.
19 ‘Boene’ is the northern French coastal town Boulogne-sur-Mer. The old (middle) Dutch name was Bonen/Beunen, derived from Latin Bononia.
20 ‘Bergen’ is Bergen op Zoom, a small Dutch city near Antwerp, which belonged to the Duchy of Brabant during the Burgundian and Habsburg-Netherlands period. From the mid-fourteenth century it held two annual fairs where English cloth and wool were traded.
21 Horrox, ODNB. For Brampton being awarded £350 by King Richard on 25 July 1483, see Beloved Cousyn, pp. 98, 167 n. 83; CPR 1476–85, p. 366 (granted from customs and subsidies of the Port of London, Sandwich and Southampton). This vast sum was awarded to Brampton on the same day that Howard was made Admiral of England with ‘certain specified powers’, see note 56. See Howard Books, Vol. 2, p. 246 for Edward Brampton being indented with Howard on 26 February 1481 to the king’s service (Scottish campaign) by sea with the English fleet into Scotland. £350 = £320,000 today: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/#currency-result.
22 See note 24.
23 Maurice Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Desmond (d. 1520) supported Perkin Warbeck/Richard, Duke of York. He was imprisoned afterwards but pardoned by Henry VII on 22 August 1497. See ‘The Earls of Desmond (continued)’, Kerry Archaeological Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 17, Oct. 1916, p. 56; also Wikipedia.
24 Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare (c. 1456–1513), S.G. Ellis, ODNB. Aka ‘Garret the Great’ or ‘the Great Earl’, he openly supported the Yorkist claimant in 1487, and was later suspected of supporting Richard, Duke of York, as heir to the English throne. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower in November 1494, and returned to Ireland as Lord Deputy upon being freed in 1496.
25 Charles VIII (1470–98) was King of France from 1483 (age 13).
26 BNF, Fonds Espagnol 318, f.83, line 69. TMPP translation by Maria Leotta and Dr Betty Knott, 11.3.2020 and 10.2.2021: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52503046g/f326.item. The letter from Margaret of England, Duchess of Burgundy, etc., to the Queen of Spain, written in Dendermonde on 25 August 1493, in which she describes why she is convinced of the true identity of her royal nephew, Richard. See Appendix 4.
27 From mid-1493, Maximilian I, King of the Romans, took care of Richard, Duke of York, ‘whom he firmly believed to be the son of King Edward IV of England’. Venice, 1496: Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Vol. 1, 1202–1509, ed. Rawdon Brown (1864), nr 665. Letter of the Venetian Ambassador Zacharia Contarini, written at the court of Maximilian, Nordlingen, Germany, on 6 January 1496. His conviction is evident in that ‘Richard of England’ was the only person allowed to escort Maximilian during his festive ride to church upon the blessing of his marriage on 16 March 1494 (Wroe, p. 152); Regesta Imperii online, RI XIV, 1, nr 478. Richard, Duke of York, also frequently stayed at the court of Margaret of York in Malines, 1493–94, spending a great deal of time with Maximilian’s son and heir, Philip the Handsome.
28 For Albert, Duke of Saxony, see Chapters 15 and 17.
29 Engelbert II of Nassau (1451–1504), Count of Nassau and Vianden, Lord of Breda, Chamberlain to Maximilian and (later) his son, Philip the Handsome. A leading military leader, Engelbert was made President of the Grand Council (1494) and Stadtholder General (1496, 1501–03).
30 Two highly respected noblemen at the courts of Maximilian and Philip lent enormous sums to Richard of England: (1) Albert of Saxony, Charter ‘Dat 4 die Octobris 1493’, signed by ‘Richard of England’ and bearing his royal seal and monogram, also signed by ‘Rb Clyfford’ and ‘Wyllelm Barley’, with their respective seals (SHA (Dresden), 10001, Altere Urkunden, Nr 9005, see: Appendix 6, images 13a, 13b); (2) Engelbert II of Nassau: Charter dated 9 March 1494 (1495, New Style), signed by ‘Richard d’Engleterre, Duc de York’ (HHSA, 3036, Koninklijk Huis Archief [Royal House Archive], Inv. A2, Nr. 468). Note that Engelbert’s loan has previously been attributed incorrectly as a payment to Richard III instead of ‘Richard of England’, Duke of York. Special thanks to Zoë Maula. See also Steven Thiry, ‘Counterfeited Jewels Make the True Mistruste’, De constructie van een “vorstelijk imago”: Perkin Warbeck in de Nederlanden en het Heilige Roomse Rijk’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 124e jaargang, 2011, p. 165 n. 47.
31 Divisie Chronicle, f.416r. On ‘The White Rose’ traversing Holland, April–May– June 1495, see Chapter 15; also Mythology, pp. 133–34.
32 Divisie Chronicle, f.427r: ‘daer hi int openbaer gerecht wert mitten swaerde [where he was publicly justiced with the sword]’. In England, this term could mean ‘killed deliberately’.
33 Royal Funerals, pp. 16, 35; also Harley 433, Vol. 1, pp. xxiii n. 99, xliv (for Edward IV); Harley 433, Vol. 3, p. 9 (for Edward V).
34 CPR 1476–85, pp. 159, 342. Also p. 540 for Tyrwhite as Esquire of the Body to Richard III; Heralds’ Memoir, p. 120, for Tyrwhite being knighted on 16 June 1487 after Stoke Field.
35 André, in Gairdner (ed.), Memorials of King Henry the Seventh (1858, repr. 1966), pp. 65, 66. For the cited text (trans. from Latin), see Ian Arthurson, The Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy, 1491–1499 (1994), p. 59.
36 Mancini, pp. 65, 108 n. 144.
37 GC, p. 234.
38 Beloved Cousyn, pp. 98 and 167 n. 88. From TNA, C81/1392 No.1: Catalogue for the NPG Exhibition 1973, p. 98. Also see Road to Bosworth, p. 125 n. 99 and Maligned King, pp. 153–55.
39 CPR 1476–85, p. 122; Coronation, p. 371. For Halneth Mauleverer (Malyverer) as Esquire of the Body to Richard III, see CPR 1476–85, pp. 502, 503.
40 Kingsford/Vitellius A XVI, 1495, p. 206; also GC, p. 259. For the Mauleverer family, see Chapter 17.
41 André, p. 62. Also see note 138.
42 GC, p. 260.
43 TNA, PRO B 11 11 381, transcription thanks to Heather Falvey, Surtees Society, Vol. 53, p. 182; Robert Waters, Genealogical Memoirs of the Extinct Family of Chester of Chicheley their Ancestors and Descendants (1878), Vol. 1, p. 205. For William as uncle to Halneth and Thomas, see ‘Visitations of the North c. 1480–1500’, Surtees Society, III, 1930, pp. 71–72, Ashmole 831, f.39r, v. For William Mauleverer and Richard III, see Keith Dockray, ‘Richard III and the Yorkshire Gentry’, Richard III: Loyalty, Lordship and Law (1986), pp. 46–68 (p. 61).
44 Harley 433, Vol. 1, p. 153; also, CPR 1476–85, p. 386. For Poche as ‘Yoman … of the parish of St. Mary, Berking (Barking), London’, see CFR 1471–85, p. 310. William Poche of Barking, London, is not to be confused with Sir William Pecche of Kent (d. 1488): CFR 1485–1509, p. 310.
45 Poche being ‘keeper of the beds and other harness within the Tower of London’ may explain the princes allegedly ‘smothered between two feather beds’: T.F. Dibdin (ed.), The Pastime of People, Or, The Chronicles of Divers Realms, and Most Especially of the Realm of England (1529) by John Rastell (d. 1536) (1811), p. 292, revealingrichardiii.com/tyrells-confession.html. Also see More, p. 88, and Buc, p. 138. For the earliest account of the smothering between two quilts/beds, see Molinet, Vol. 2, pp. 402, 403.
46 Thornton, ‘More on a Murder’, see note 4. The findings were used to accuse Forest as undoubted murderer (owing to presence of Forest’s two sons at Henry VIII’s court under Wolsey), but actually indicate the exact opposite, with key investigative enquiry questions unaddressed: see Chapter 17.
47 Johan Huizinga, Erasmus, 12th edn (2017), pp. 35, 36.
48 Henry of Glymes (1449–1502) was son of John II of Glymes (1417–94), Lord of Bergen op Zoom and older brother of John III of Glymes. Henry was Bishop of Cambrai 1480–1502. In 1479, Margaret of York appointed him Court Chaplain. See Cools, Mannen met Macht, op. cit., p. 308, and this book, Chapters 12 and 13.
49 Desiderius Erasmus, The Correspondence of Erasmus, Letters 1–141, Vol. 1, Letters 33, 37, 39, 41, 42.
50 Huizinga, pp. 47–56. Erasmus’ first stay in England was early summer 1499 to early January 1500. On 23 November 1499, Perkin Warbeck was executed at Tyburn, London. At his execution, ‘Warbeck’s’ former written confession was ‘shewid’ (shown) to the crowd: GC, p. 291. It is usually asserted that he ‘spoke’ his confession, so there is an important distinction to be made here: Middle English ‘schewin’ is ‘to look, look at, exhibit, display’. ‘Shew’ was still in use in the early twentieth century.
51 CPR 1461–67, p. 47, and CPR 1476–85, pp. 365, 460. Keeper of the Lions and Leopards at the Tower was Sir Ralph Hastings, which was granted under Edward IV and confirmed by Richard III on 10 August 1483. For his general pardon on 18 August 1483, see CPR 1476–85, p. 365. A similar role, ‘Keeper of the Lions, Lionesses and Leopards’, was granted for life to Robert Brackenbury on 10 March 1484. See CPR 1476–85, p. 405 (likely due to Ralph being located at Guînes Castle, Calais). For Hastings’ connection to support for Richard of England, see Wroe, pp. 189, 252.
52 Beloved Cousyn, pp. 100 and 168 n. 99. Were the four men deliberately executed on 5 August at Tower Hill (rather than Tyburn) as a clear warning to those working within the Tower against further plots? And does the place of execution also imply both boys had now left the Tower? In the Gelderland Manuscript, Richard, Duke of York, mentions no executions.
53 See H.M Office of Works, Tower of London Plan: (2747), 105NN/14 I (c. 1937–38), thanks to Matt Oliver. At this time, Howard’s London home was located in Stepney, at the riverside hamlet of Ratcliffe, now Limehouse. See Howard Books, p. xxii (thanks to Jean Clare-Tigue). For Howard and a house called La Toure (the Tower) in London, see Anne Crawford, Yorkist Lord (2010), pp. 111–12, also Chapter 6. Howard may also have had access to the previous (Mowbray) Duke of Norfolk’s home on the Thames at Broken Wharf, though Crawford states that Howard did not change his London address when he became a peer (p. xxii).
54 Anne Crawford, The Career of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk 1420–1485: core. ac.uk/download/pdf/78865333.pdf. Also, Howard Books, pp. xxvi–xxix.
55 See note 38.
56 CPR 1476–85, p. 363. See note 21.
57 Howard Books, Vol. 2, p. 423.
58 For Howard’s letter to his son Thomas, Earl of Surrey, on 7 August: Howard Books, Vol. 2, p. 420. See note 107.
59 ‘Outfits for humble children’, see Howard Books and note 18.
60 Searches for Henry and Thomas Percy have yielded no results in the archives of Alnwick Castle or Petworth House and the Leconfield Estate, also Arundel Castle and Castle Howard: thanks to Ralph Percy, Duke of Northumberland, Christopher Hunwick, Max Percy, Lord Egremont, and Alison McCann, who also assisted with searches for Peter Percy (see note 69). Thanks also to Diana Percy, Craig Irving, John Martin Robinson, Christopher Ridgway; and to Gabriel Damaszk for the search of the Raby Castle archives.
61 Howard Books, Vol. 2, p. 471. For more on the brothers see Howard Books, pp. xv, xvii, xxi, xxiv and xl.
62 W.E. Hampton, ‘Sir Robert Percy and Joyce his wife’, Crown and People, pp. 184–94 (family tree on pp. 190–91).
63 For example, Anne Percy (Fitzallen) was companion for ten years to Katherine Gordon, Richard of York’s wife. See Wendy E.A. Moorhen, ‘Four Weddings and a Conspiracy: The Life and Times and Loves of Lady Katherine Gordon, Part 2’, Ricardian, Vol. 12, No. 157, June 2002, p. 459.
64 Thanks to Marie Barnfield for the Percy of Scotton pedigree: ‘Visitations of the North’ c. 1485, p. 68; MS Ashmole 831, f.38r; MS Dodsworth 81, p. 159. Sir Robert Percy may have had uncles named Richard and Thomas (Thomas is described as a ‘Presbiter’, priest); or perhaps they were Robert’s younger brothers. No one in his family named Henry can be located for this period. See also note 60. Thanks to genealogist Carol Ann Kerry-Green for searches of Northallerton, Leeds, Beverley and Hull archives, also Nick Dexter at Kew.
65 Francis Lovell became Lord of Bedale, North Yorkshire, in 1474, upon the death of his paternal grandmother, Alice Lovell (Deincourt): Ross, Richard III, p. 49. For the Barony of Bedale, see IPM of Alice Lovell (Deincourt) in John Caley (ed.), Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem Sive Escaetarum (1828), Vol. IV, p. 365 (thanks to Marie Barnfield). Also: archive.org/details/dli.granth.74587/page/374/mode/2up.
66 Philippa Langley, TMPP Research Report, 7.7.2021. The pedigree of the Peirse family of Bedale (Bedall) is from The Visitation of London (1634), p. 149: freepages.rootsweb.com/~enzedders/history/peirselondon.jpg. Thomas’ father is recorded as ‘Peter Peirse Standart Bearer to King Richard the third at Bosworth field where he lost a legge but liued many yeres after’. Beneath this is Peter’s son, ‘Thomas Peirse of Bedall’, and beneath this is Thomas’ son, ‘Marmaduke Peirse of Bedall in Com. York and of Clineland [Cleveland]’. It seems that by the mid-eighteenth century the name was pronounced ‘Pierce’, see Durham County Record Office, Ref. D/X 487/1/165 (1759), records transferred from Darlington Library (part 3).
67 NYCRO, ZBA 17/1/1 f.3, Bedale, Court of Francis Lovell, 15 April 1483: ‘Eidem arabiliem eadem iii acram? //Thome/Henricus Peirs ibidem//Reddendo pro acram 30s 4d //sua soluit pro Martinmas [The same arable land of three acres of the aforesaid Thomas/Henry Peirs. Rent for the acres at 30s 4d he pays for Martinmas].’ N.B. f.3r also mentions ‘Pactus inter Pearsy et R(ichar)di //Qui Ed(wardi?)’ – an agreement between a ‘Pearsy’ (Percy) and ‘Richard’, ‘who Edward(?) … [MS damaged] … 16d’ [the ‘16d’ reference appears immediately above the name ‘Pearsy’]; seems to form the first part of Folio 3.’ Thanks to Dr Christopher Tinmouth for translation and transcription, TMPP Research Report, 20.12.2021.
68 For the ducal coronet in the Peirse family pedigree, see Visitation of London, p. 149; John William Clay, Dugdale’s Visitation of Yorkshire, with Additions (1666) (1899), Vol. 3, p. 35. For Marmaduke’s eldest son, see Peirse family pedigree for Hutton Bonville Parish, Allertonshire, North Yorkshire in Topographer and Genealogist (1846), Vol. 1, pp. 509–11 (p. 510): Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG), Ref. No.: S-1618.
69 For Peter Percy: acknowledgements as note 60; also, thanks to Christopher Hunwick for raising Picot Percy of Bolton Percy, North Yorkshire. Picot seems to have had descendants in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries named Peter Percy (of Bolton Percy): Charles Travis Clay (ed.), Early Yorkshire Charters (1963), Vol. 11, ‘The Percy Fee’, pp. 7–8, 104–18. Related searches have revealed a fourteenth-century Peter Percy of Dunsley, North Yorkshire. Thanks to NYCRO for the genealogical archive papers of the Beresford-Peirse family of Bedale, including ZBA 5, 17, 20.
70 The name Marmaduke, particularly common in Yorkshire in the Middle Ages, means ‘servant/devotee’ of Madoc. It may refer to the Irish St Madoc, or alternatively, the legendary Welsh (bastard) Prince Madoc. The earliest textual reference to his legend attributes the discovery of America to Madoc in 1170 and stems from late-fifteenth-century England in a poem written by Meredudd Ap Rhys (c. 1420–c. 1485), a well-known poet in his lifetime: biography.wales/article/s-MERE-APR-1450. There seems to be evidence that the discovery of America (by Welshmen) must have come in the year 1477, during the reign of Edward IV, fifteen years before Columbus: Arthur Davies, ‘Prince Madoc and the Discovery of America in 1477’, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 150, No. 3, November 1984, pp. 363–72. Presumably, ‘the legend of Madoc’ gained popularity owing to onset of the era of great overseas voyages and discoveries, quite probably the (Welsh) Tudors used the Madoc story as propaganda, challenging Spanish/Portuguese claims to the New World. Revival of the name Marmaduke may have resulted. See www.bangor.ac.uk/oceansciences/about/facilities/madog/prince_madog.php.en. For the story of Madoc, see en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc. For the name Marmaduke associated with Madoc from Saint Máedóc, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1ed%C3%B3c_of_Ferns.
71 Family Search website: www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q. anyDate.from=1471&q.anyPlace=Lazenby&q.surname=Peirse.
72 Sir Walter Besant, Medieval London (1906), Chapter 20, ‘St Katherine’s By The Tower’, pp. 334–41; thanks to Jean Clare-Tighe.
