Bastard Prince (10 page)

In the spring of 1523, Henry was still pursuing war with Scotland, rather than seeing to the state of the north. In between fighting the Scots the king's lieutenant, Thomas Howard, then Earl of Surrey, made some efforts to restore order in the north, sending a long and detailed report to Wolsey of what still needed to be done. In the end it was only the resistance to taxation that brought the danger sharply into focus, in particular the Amicable Grant of 1525. This demand for one sixth of lay income and one third of clerical income came hot on the heels of an especially heavy subsidy. The country's mood was far from generous and there was widespread opposition. Henry made as dignified a retreat as possible, claiming he ‘never knew of that demand' and leaving Wolsey to bear the brunt of the blame for this unpopular measure. It was clearly time for central government to exercise a firmer hand over the far reaches of the realm.

The decision to send Richmond to Sheriff Hutton was derived from a number of factors, which were not related to the succession. To hand such power to an established feudal magnate, such as the Earl of Northumberland, might invite as many problems as it solved. The region needed to be brought under the king's control, not establish a rival centre of patronage and power. The use of a lesser noble, like Lord Thomas Dacre, had already brought its own difficulties. In February 1525 he had been imprisoned in the Fleet for his inability to keep order as Warden of the East and Middle Marches. Since both the most powerful church posts, Archbishop of York and Bishop of Durham, were held by Wolsey that option was also lost. In the circumstances, the decision to use Henry's six-year-old illegitimate son was probably derived as much from practical necessity as concrete political policy. Despite the documents and instructions ‘signed with the gracious hand of the King's Highness' it is entirely possible that the original architect of this plan was Richmond's godfather, Wolsey.

The cardinal certainly seems to have had his own agenda for exploiting Richmond's usefulness. Many of Wolsey's political schemes and government initiatives would rely on Richmond, not necessarily for their success, but that they might be attempted at all. As the Duke's Council, headed by Brian Higdon, Dean of York, began to take shape, almost all of the senior officers had prior links to the cardinal. Only the treasurer, Sir Godfrey Foljambe, the vice-chamberlain, Richard Page, and the cofferer, Sir George Lawson, have been identified expressly as the king's men.
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Richmond perhaps expressed something more than pro forma respect when he wrote to Wolsey in March 1529:

to whose favour and goodness no creature living is more bound than I am. And like it hath pleased Almighty God and the king's Highness much part by the means and good favour of your Grace to prefer and advance me in honour.
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In fact, Wolsey was perhaps more beholden to Richmond, since this particular initiative in Tudor local government could not have been attempted without him.

However, Richmond was no John of Gaunt or Earl of Northumberland to rule over northern parts as a feudal lord. He had no existing power base or affinity in the north, and he was, after all, only six. Rather than his council being the executive arm of the duke's will, his youth allowed Wolsey to place the real business of the council in the hands of educated professionals, largely clerics and lawyers, who were accustomed to working at the centre of Tudor government. Wolsey's ‘new men' were by no means unsuited to their task. Many of them had firsthand experience of the unique difficulties of the north, having served under Wolsey in his capacity as Archbishop of York or Bishop of Durham. Between them they had a wealth of clerical and legal experience, including canon, civil, chancery and equity law, which allowed them to exercise the same function as the king's courts in London. Significantly, none of Richmond's officers were above the rank of knight. It remained to be seen whether this new initiative would be successful in controlling the established northern lords.
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From the outset there were indications that more might be asked of them than they could deliver. In a significant departure from previous models the authority of Richmond's council was not confined to Yorkshire but extended right across the border counties, though it was not a complete departure from the traditional feudal form. The council was still responsible for the administration of Richmond's lands and household. In January 1527 the surveyor and general receiver of his estates, Thomas Magnus, arranged ‘for divers great causes to meet with sundry my lord of Richmond's officers in Lincolnshire'. He then made a substantial detour through Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire, in order ‘to survey and see my lord's lands in those parts'. In a similar manner one of the council, William Franklyn, Archdeacon of Durham, was pressed into service to take a view of Richmond's lands in the north. In addition, all manner of domestic concerns, from the order in the kitchen to the arrangements for Christmas, were as much part of their duties as the government and security of the north.

It did not take long for these dual requirements to clash. Henry decided that Richmond should have a chapel at Sheriff Hutton ‘because the Lord Dacre and the Lord Latimer have chapels'. The council begged to be allowed to put this matter off until they had tackled the instructions they had already been given ‘for the good order as well of my said Lord's household, as of the north parts of this realm, which we esteem to be matters of no small importance'. The government of the north was bound to be a difficult and time-consuming task; and the administration of the large and complex community that was a ducal household was also a significant undertaking. If one was to be preferred to the other, then the envisaged model of justice and domesticity was going to suffer.

A second potential difficulty was the king's and Wolsey's evident inclination to use Richmond's patronage as if it were their own. The cardinal's role was by no means confined to setting up the establishment. In 1527 when the Duke of Norfolk wanted to place his servant in Richmond's household, he was required to ask Wolsey ‘to write a letter unto my lord of Richmond's council to admit him' as he had been advised that they would not do so ‘without your grace's letters to them directed for that purpose'. In his turn the cardinal, like any good lord, also assumed responsibility for promoting the welfare of Richmond's servants. When the duke's chamberlain, Sir William Parr, hoped to secure a grant of lands from the king, it was Wolsey who pressed his suit. While it was natural that Richmond's officers should consult Wolsey regarding their role as the king's Council of the North, their eagerness to defer to him over other matters was rather at odds with Richmond's role as an independent magnate.

The role of the king in his son's affairs was even more complex. The creation of a separate household, financed from his own lands, did not stop Henry from regarding his son's possessions as his to bestow. There was, of course, an element of royal prerogative in this, since even the most established magnate would be hard pressed to deny the express wish of the crown. When Henry VII had taken a liking to a manor-house at Woking, even his mother, despite her obvious reluctance, had deemed it wiser to relinquish the property.
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Richmond's position was much less secure; Henry was his father as well as his king. Despite his extensive possessions he was still a minor and his illegitimate status meant his reliance on Henry's favour was absolute. In March 1527, when a parsonage fell vacant in the manor of South Molton in Devon, Richmond's council meekly sent up a blank paper, already embossed with Richmond's seal, so that the king could chose the new incumbent. Yet if Henry truly wanted his son's authority as a representative of the crown to be effective, then it had to be seen to be respected, even by him.

While the child's existence may have been generally known in court circles, no one knew how the country at large would receive him. When the young duke began his journey northwards to take up his responsibilities at Sheriff Hutton, his council meticulously recorded how he had been greeted:

My Lord of Richmond departed from William Jekyll's house unto my Lady Parrs, where his grace was marvelously well intreated and had good cheer . . .
and from my Lady Parr's unto Huntingdon no person of all the Country met with my Lord's Grace saving only at Huntingdon
[author's italics], Dr Hall met his Grace without the town, and upon the bridge the bailiffs with the honest men of the town presented unto his grace, four great pikes and four tenches. And at Huntingdon the Abbot of Ramsey sent unto his Grace certain swans, cranes, and other wild fowl, in a present.
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Everything was done to ensure that Richmond's train would be an impressive sight as it wound its way across the country. His council, gentlemen and servants, were dressed in his livery of blue and yellow, crested with white. Each of them wore Richmond's badge, a demi-lion rampant, bursting out of a Tudor rose, bordered with gold embroidery. The horses were elaborately trapped in cloth of gold or silver or rich satins and velvets. Richmond himself rode in a lavish horse litter that Wolsey provided for the occasion. Padded with crimson velvet and cloth of gold, this was also embroidered with his arms. No casual observer was to remain ignorant of who had just passed by.

The sheer number of carts required to carry those things necessary to the state of a duke, including 120 sheaves of arrows, 20 gilt javelins in leather cases and 47 other javelins, must have added to the visual impact. The bill for carriage by land and water was over £90. Richmond's wardrobe alone consisted of numerous doublets, short coats, long coats, cloaks, shirts, hose, bonnets and eight pairs of shoes. For the household there were vestments and altar cloths for his clergy; pewter, board cloths and napkins for his table and for the kitchen more than forty types of pots and pans, which all cost £1,193.
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Since they were so encumbered with bags and baggage, expedience alone must have demanded a leisurely pace, which also provided a perfect opportunity to show the duke off to the country in an appropriately stately manner.

Following his investiture into the Order of the Garter, Richmond spent some time with his father at Hampton Court. Members of his household, including his tutor, John Palsgrave, and his Master of the Horse, Sir Edward Seymour, as well as a number of his councillors, had already begun to assemble. The child finally left from Sir William Jekyll's house at Stoke Newington in Middlesex on 26 July 1525. From there he went to Northampton, where Lady Maud Parr (the mother of Henry VIII's last wife, Katherine Parr), gave the young Duke ‘a grey ambling nag'. At this point the Duke of Norfolk and others, who were providing an honourable escort out of London, took their leave of Richmond, carrying messages from the duke and his company back to the king.

Leaving Northampton the following morning, Richmond travelled north in daily stages, passing through Buntingford, Shengay and Huntingdon, where there was a day's rest on the Sunday, until he reached Collyweston on 1 August. Once the favourite residence of Henry VIII's grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, this was one of the properties granted to Richmond at his elevation. In a letter of 2 August, his council assured Wolsey that the duke was not finding the journey at all arduous, being ‘in better case [condition] and more lusty of his body, than his grace was at the first taking of his journey'.

However, Wolsey's expensive new horse litter, no doubt also intended as a concession for a small child over such a long distance, was not a success with the six-year-old duke. As his council apologetically reported:

In all which journey my lord's grace rode not in his horse litter, but only from William Jekyll's house 3 or 4 miles, which riding in his said horse-litter his grace liked nothing; but ever since his grace hath ridden upon his hobby [pony], and hath been very well at ease.
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If the pony was the ‘little bay ambling' which Richmond was given by the Marquess of Dorset, then perhaps the excitement of the gift fuelled his determination to ride like the grown-ups. From the beginning Richmond showed every sign of being a lively and somewhat demanding charge, one not above exploiting his status in order to get his own way. It is perhaps as well to remember that while it was not unusual for royal children to be expected to perform in an adult manner this did not make them grown-up. Almost as if this was a minority government, the tension between the power and authority vested in the duke and the freedom of action actually allowed to the child would be an ongoing source of problems and dilemmas.

The party broke their journey at Collyweston for a week. Not for the last time Richmond benefited from the extensive programme of improvements that Margaret Beaufort had made to her possessions. Collyweston boasted the particular comforts of a gallery, library and chapel. The gardens had been laid out with planted ponds and summer-houses, with an adjacent park for hunting and other sports. Richmond also seems to have reaped the rewards of another of his great-grandmother's legacies. Margaret Beaufort had always been a popular local patron. Now, in his turn, local dignitaries warmly received Richmond when the Abbots of Peterborough and Crowland sent him ‘certain goodly presents of swans, crane and other wild fowl'.

If Richmond felt in any way overawed by recent events there is no sign of it. During his stay Davy Cecil, the Keeper of Cliff Park and Steward of Collyweston took him hunting. It was afterwards proudly recorded that the six-year-old had ‘killed a buck himself'. Still mindful of exactly how Richmond was being treated the council also happily reported that Cecil, at his own expense, had ‘made his Grace and all his folks right good cheer'. Given the size of the child's entourage this must have been quite a costly privilege for the steward.

On 7 August the party finally left Collyweston on their next leg towards York. Now, news of Richmond's impending arrival had begun to travel before him. Sir John Husse was eager to pay his respects and despite an affliction which left him barely able to ride, he expressed his intention of attending upon the duke when he passed through Grantham in Lincolnshire. The party continued on via Marton Abbey, near Stillington, until on 17 August the duke and his company at last arrived in York. They remained there until 28 August when Richmond was escorted from the city by his officers and members of the local gentry, who ‘attended on his grace and brought him on his way towards Sheriff Hutton' to officially take up his new duties as the head of the king's Council of the North.