Richard has long be held to be the wickedest of human beings, let alone kings. Many say his reputation is more the work of Tudor propagandists, even though his sister-in-law, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, was his enemy and plotted against him. Now that his body, abandoned after his defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth, has been found in what ended up as a car park in Leicester and has been reburied in the local Cathedral, maybe his remains as well as his reputation can be laid to rest.
In 1460, Richard’s father was killed at the Battle of Wakefield but in 1461, his eldest brother, Edward, defeated the Lancastrians at the battle of Towton. became Edward IV and appointed Richard Duke of Gloucester. Unlike his unreliable sibling, George, Duke of Clarence, whose machinations would see him executed in 1478, Richard appears the very model of a loyal younger brother. Living up to his motto of ‘Loyauté me Lie‘ (Loyalty Binds Me), he joined Edward in exile after Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick had restored Henry VI to the throne in 1470. The following year, they returned to England and Richard contributed to the Yorkist victories at Barnet (where Warwick was killed) and Tewkesbury where he led Edward’s vanguard. Richard was also created Lord High Admiral of England on 1st November 1471, which he held until 1475. |
His Arms as Duke of Gloucester show a Label of three Points, each ermine (generally three Ermine Spots) plus a red Canton (a diminutive of a Quarter usually placed in the top left corner). This was previously the Label of Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, second son of King Henry IV. And there is talk of a Crest with a gold Lion on top of Chapeau (the basic form of English Royal Crest at the time) with the Label round the Lion's neck. The only contemporary evidence would, however, appear to be Richard's seal as Lord High Admiral, c. 1462 (shown here). It features his Arms on the sail of a Ship, but the detail is so small as to be of negligible assistance. |
Richard’s importance was national as well as regional; in 1471, he was appointed both Constable as well as Lord High Admiral of England and, in 1482, he was entrusted to command the invasion of Scotland which led to the recapture of Berwick and the brief occupation of Edinburgh. Yet his position was not as secure as it might appear. The lucrative offices he held were dependent on the will of the monarch, while the act of parliament which gave him the Neville lands that had formerly belonged to Warwick’s brother, Montagu, added to his insecurity.
His brother's unexpected death in April 1483 changed everything.
After transporting his prisoners to Pontefract Castle, Richard brought Edward to the capital and housed him in the Tower of London, where he was later joined by his brother, Richard, Duke of York. The Tower was customarily utilised by English monarchs prior to their coronations, therefore there was nothing conspicuous about this turn of events. Richard's actions seemed to have been approved by other members of the late king's household, particularly the Duke of Buckingham, who had assisted him at Stony Stratford, and Edward IV’s old friend William Hastings. Despite subsequent Tudor writers' allegations, there is no proof that Richard's activities up to this point were part of a conspiracy to usurp the Crown, and preparations for Edward’s coronation went ahead.
Richard suddenly announced that there was another conspiracy against him during a Council meeting at the Tower of London on Friday 13th June. He had three councillors arrested, and had Hastings, who was strongly loyal to young Edward, swiftly beheaded with no respect for due process of law. The official justification was that the Woodville marriage was invalid since Edward IV had been precontracted to another lady (eventually identified as Eleanor Butler) before marrying Elizabeth Woodville, and so Edward V and his siblings were illegitimate. The son of the late Duke of Clarence was technically next in line, but he was prevented from succeeding because his father had been attainted for treason. As a result, the next legitimate candidate was Richard himself.
Following his Coronation, Richard embarked on a tour of his kingdom. While he was away, news of a failed attempt to rescue the Princes from the Tower reached him. It has been speculated that this prompted Richard to order their deaths, as the two boys were never seen again after August. Rumours began to circulate that they had been murdered, and Richard's failure to show them added fuel to the fire. The second insurrection against him, which intended to install Lancastrian exile Henry Tudor on the Throne, implied they were dead. Many of the participants in Buckingham's insurrection were former members of Edward IV's household who were startled by what they considered as Richard's usurpation, and it is unlikely that they would have fought for Tudor if they thought Edward V or his brother were still alive. Also, the fact that they were willing to back a Lancastrian exile with a remote claim to the Throne against Edward IV's brother demonstrates how deeply Richard's actions had splintered the Yorkist cause. Following the suppression of the insurrection, Richard attempted to bolster his position by distributing property and offices to a small group of his faithful servants, many of whom were from the north, but this only added to his unpopularity. Richard had formerly resisted the Woodville clique, but now he ruled through his own clique.
Although little went well for Richard personally – his sole legitimate son died in 1484 and his wife died in March 1485 – there were traces of the strong governance that had marked his rule in the North. Early in 1484, his first parliament met, and the statutes it passed contained changes to the legal system, laws to safeguard English merchants from unfair foreign competition, the prohibition of benevolences (royal financial requests without parliamentary approval) and the founding of the College of Arms. In spite of later Tudor writers' attempt to paint him in a negative light, it is obvious that Richard was no more dictatorial than other rulers of his day.
Henry Tudor landed at Milford Haven with a small force of French mercenaries, former Yorkists, and adamant Lancastrians on 7th August 1485. He had increased his appeal to disgruntled Yorkists nineteen months before by pledging to marry Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth if he were to secure the Crown. News of the landing was said to make Richard quite happy; the defeat of Tudor would not only remove a thorny source of opposition from his life, but would also signify devine acceptance of his own reign. Richard met Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire on 22nd August. Richard possessed the greater army, but a third force lurked in the wings, led by William and Thomas Stanley, two erstwhile stalwarts of Edward IV's government. They had been Richard's rivals for authority in the north, and Thomas was married to Henry Tudor's mother Margaret Beaufort. Richard sought to secure their allegiance by kidnapping Thomas's son, but when they finally entered the conflict in Henry's favour, it proved pivotal. Instead of fleeing, Richard led a mounted charge in a last-ditch attempt to kill Henry Tudor. It came close to succeeding, but Richard was unhorsed and cut down. Richard was never accused of cowardice, even by his most ardent Tudor enemies.
Subsequent studies suggest that wounds to Richard’s skull show that he not only lost his Crown (which, by tradition, was found by Henry under a bush) but also lost his helmet in the last moments of his life. Folklore has it that the late King’s dead body was displayed naked before being buried at Greyfriars Church in Leicester, which, after over 400 years, turned out to be a car park. Archaeological investigations in 2012 finally revealed Richard’s body and he was interred under a simple tomb in Leicester Cathedral.
Coats of Arms were still more functional in those days than for graphic display. The Boar was a known Badge of Richard's (as can be seen on his Pennant above) but may have simply developed as a Supporter from the arrangement of his Badge or Badges in general to fill in spaces on his Seal. Richard's choice of the Badge was no doubt personal, but according to a slightly later document the Boar had been a Badge of the royal possession the "Honour of Windsor". Another suggestion is that the Boar was a pun on "Ebor", a contraction of Eboracum, the Latin name for York; Richard was known as "Richard of York" before being created Duke of Gloucester.
Anne Neville
Anne Neville (11th June 1456 – 16th March 1485) was the younger of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (the "Kingmaker"). As a member of the powerful House of Neville, she played a critical part in the Wars of the Roses. Her father Warwick betrothed her as a girl to Edward, Prince of Wales, the son of Henry VI. The marriage was to seal an alliance with the House of Lancaster and halt the civil war between the two houses of Lancaster and York. Edward IV was forced into exile and Henry VI returned to the Throne. However, her father soon overreached himself by declaring war on Burgundy, whose ruler responded by giving Edward IV the assistance he needed to win back the Throne by force. Edward returned to England in early 1471 and killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. The Yorkists won a final decisive victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4th May 1471, where Henry VI's son Edward, Prince of Wales and Anne’s husband, was killed. Anne then married Richard, Duke of Gloucester, younger brother of King Edward IV and of George, Duke of Clarence, the husband of Anne's elder sister Isabel Neville. She became Queen when her second husband ascended the throne as Richard III in June 1483, following the declaration that Edward IV's children by Elizabeth Woodville were illegitimate. |
Quarterly, 1st and 4th, France modern, 2nd and 3rd England, impaled with the full achievement of Anne Neville's father; of seven, 1st, Gules, a Fess between six Crosses Crosslet or (Beauchamp), 2nd, Chequy or and azure, a Chevron ermine (Newburgh), 3rd, Argent, three Lozenges conjoined in fess gules (Montacute), 4th, Or, an Eagle displayed vert (Monthermer), 5th, Gules a Saltire argent, a Label of three Points gobony argent and azure (Neville), 6th, Or, three Chevrons gules (Clare), 7th, Quarterly, argent and gules, a Fret or, overall a Bendlett sable (Despencer).
The white and blue Label on the Neville Quarter comes from Joan Beaufort, a legitimised daughter of John of Gaunt who married into the Neville family and was Richard III's maternal grandmother. Richard's mother Cecily Neville ("Proud Cis") is also known to have dropped the Label. Strangely, though, this Label does crop up elsewhere. Namely, as that carried by Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, who just happened to be the nephew of both Richard III and Anne as he was the son of Richard's brother George, Duke of Clarence AND Anne's elder sister and co-heiress Isabel Neville. |
Edward, Earl of Warwick was a potential threat to Henry VII as the last of the male Plantagenet line and imprisoned. In 1499 he was involved in a plot (willingly or unwillingly is uncertain) for which he was tried and executed.