Bastard Prince (18 page)

With other things on his mind Henry may well have been content to wait and see if the cardinal's initiative in Ireland was effective. Once Wolsey had fallen there was no one to argue for the plan's long-term implementation. On 22 June 1530 Henry fell back on more traditional means of enforcing control. Sir William Skeffington was appointed as Deputy Lieutenant to the Duke of Richmond and sent across the water with an armed retinue to govern in his name. The reason given in his patent for the appointment was that it was because of Richmond's youth. However, since the duke was at least a year older than he had been when the scheme was originally implemented, there must have been other reasons for a change of policy.

Skeffington's appointment was probably related as much to the situation in England as to the mood of Irish politics. The gathering storm clouds of the king's increasingly desperate efforts to secure an annulment of his first marriage threatened a breach with the papacy, which would make England vulnerable to attack and foreign invasion. Ireland was an obvious marshalling point for any such enterprise and a stronger government presence there must have seemed prudent. Certainly Skeffington was well equipped with troops and armaments in case of any disturbances.

There was also the question of Richmond's envisaged role in Ireland to be considered. While in practice the appointment of a deputy made no material difference to his power and authority as Lord Lieutenant, a return to the old policy subtly shifted power back to the authority of the king. Instructions from Henry addressed Skeffington as ‘our deputy', leaving no doubt that he was Henry's man. It is hard to say how far Henry VIII's increasing conviction that Anne Boleyn would bear him a son had any direct influence on Richmond's position at this stage. That Henry had been happy to use Richmond's personal authority in the summer of 1529, when he was convinced he was very close to taking Anne as his wife, tends to suggest that this was not Henry's primary motivation. Yet it might have made given him pause for thought. In the present circumstances, creating another independent kingdom on his own doorstep would not have been the wisest course.

Now that Richmond was back at court he was treated with every respect and the deference due to him as the most senior nobleman in England. On 9 August 1529 the king called the first parliament since Richmond's elevation. Despite being only ten years old Richmond was duly summoned to take his place among the peers. Dressed in his robes of crimson velvet, edged with ermine and laced with two flat, gold laces, with a matching kirtle and hood, topped with a large scarlet and ermine cap, this duke in miniature must have been an incongruous sight, sandwiched between the magnificent bulk of the king and the impressive physical specimens of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

As was the custom, the Lords processed to Westminster Abbey for a service, before returning to sit in the White Chamber of the Palace of Westminster. Traditionally, dukes occupied the inner bench, on the left hand side of the throne and were ranked according to the date of the creation of their title. A more public demonstration of Richmond's continuing political importance can hardly be imagined. Even more surprisingly, the child also attended when the parliament was actually in session. Since much of the business was not likely to appeal to the natural interests of a ten-year-old, this was probably intended to be educational. Richmond did infact have a personal interest in some of the proceedings, not least the Act 22 Henry VIII c.17, which confirmed on the duke all those lands and possessions which had been granted to him at the time of his elevation. Rather than seeking to diminish Richmond's continuing importance in the scheme of things such moves served to further secure his title.

However, in the climate of the time, Richmond did not attract a great deal of gossip or attention from the various ambassadors. If he attended the Christmas festivities at Greenwich in 1529, the ambassadors were too busy reporting that Anne Boleyn had been given precedence at table over the Duchess of Norfolk and the king's own sister to mention his presence. The king, however, did not forget his son, presenting Richmond with a two-handled gilt cup with a cover and engraving, decorated with serpents and flowers, a ‘great, flat standing cup', and two little gilt pots as his New Year gifts.

Sometimes the foreign observers were also a little confused by the embarrassment of riches Henry had heaped upon his son. In September 1529, the newly arrived Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, advised Margaret of Savoy that the Lord Admiral was one of those being considered to go as an envoy to the court of Charles V. In the climate of 1529 he is unlikely to have meant the king's ten-year-old illegitimate son. In a letter three days later writing to Charles himself, Chapuys mistakenly associated the former Lord Admiral, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, with that office, who would certainly have been a much more feasible candidate as an official ambassador.

Yet Richmond continued to be treated with every mark of respect by Henry's subjects. While he was in London attending the parliament, Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers, presented the duke with ‘a grey trotting nag'. A headboard of yellow and blue damask was ‘cut at the head, behind the bolster' when Sir William Courtney enjoyed Richmond's hospitality at the duke's Manor of Canford. Richmond also continued to spend a good deal of time with his father. In the spring of 1531 they were together at Hatfield, presumably for the hunting, since Richmond was given the present of yet another steed, this time ‘a proper roan trotting horse'. The following year Richmond was again ‘with the King's grace' at Grafton, which was one of a number of the king's properties that boasted the added diversion of a bowling alley.
⁷

For the moment, Richmond still spent most of his time at his studies. His formal education did not cease on his return from the north. George Folbury appears to have continued as his tutor until he was twelve. However, others were not so fortunate. On his return from Yorkshire the scale of Richmond's household was correspondingly reduced. The original 245 listed in 1525 had been whittled down to a body of 94 by his death in 1536, although the actual number of the household was probably closer to 150, if the duke's officers were allowed the same quota of personal servants which had boosted the total at Sheriff Hutton. In part, this reduction was a response to the fact that his household was no longer required to support the king's Council in the North, although some of his officers, notably Sir George Lawson, who remained in the north also continued to draw their fee as members of his household. Although it is easy to see this as an unsubtle downgrading of his princely magnificence, it was perhaps nothing more than an entirely sensible economy measure, one that Thomas Magnus, at least, would have wholeheartedly agreed was well overdue.

It may have been envisaged that Richmond would sometimes return to Sheriff Hutton. It remained as one of his principal residences and his council had already invested a significant amount of money in making the property habitable. Certainly, when the Duke of Norfolk went north to assume his duties as the king's representative in 1537 he found a good deal of baggage and ordnance left behind by Richmond's household, as well as something of a skeleton staff. Casting around for some gainful employment for them Norfolk suggested that they might be used to supervise an armoury at the castle since ‘the servants of my said Lord of Richmond I am sure will not go into the south with me, having their wives and livings here'. Whatever the original intention, there is nothing to suggest that Richmond ever again ventured any further north than Sheffield.

With Wolsey's fall from grace, Henry now needed some other man to oversee the general administration of Richmond's household. Norfolk immediately saw this as an opportunity he could use to his own advantage. His own son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was a most promising child and an excellent horseman, who later proved himself to be a fine soldier. Norfolk boasted to Chapuys of his ‘proficiency and advancement in letters', even producing an example, which the ambassador acknowledged was written in very good Latin. Norfolk then confided that he hoped Surrey ‘may in time become [Richmond's] preceptor and tutor that he may attain both knowledge and virtue'. Surrey was just old enough to provide Richmond with an example to emulate, although any hopes that this might encourage Richmond towards a broader love of learning may have been in vain. He is far more likely to have been impressed with Surrey's talents on the tennis court or in the joust, than his skill with a pen.

When Norfolk expressed the hope that the friendship between the two boys might prove to be ‘very strong and firm', he was no doubt thinking of the political advantage he might gain from their relationship. In agreeing to allow Norfolk's son to become Richmond's companion, Henry VIII perhaps hoped, as Richmond grew to manhood, to provide him with a more fitting influence than he had known at Sheriff Hutton. Born in 1517, the twelve-year-old earl was both of a suitable age and an appropriate rank, criteria that were not so easily met. The only real alternative would have been Richmond's cousin, Henry Brandon, Earl of Lincoln, who, at only seven years old, was a little young for a role model.

Richmond and Surrey's relationship seems to have blossomed into a warm and enduring friendship. They would spend much of the next six years in each other's company. The exact details of Norfolk's association with Richmond are less clear. Any comparison with the role played by Margaret, Countess of Salisbury as lady governess to Princess Mary is misleading. After his return from the north George Cotton served as Richmond's governor and Norfolk held no official position in his household. Yet his involvement in Richmond's affairs extended beyond his general care and education, into areas relating to his lands and servants.
⁸
In fact, all those matters which Wolsey had formerly handled.

At least Wolsey had been in the privileged position of being the child's godfather. Norfolk appears to owe his involvement in Richmond's life to Anne Boleyn's influence with the king.
⁹
Nor was this in any sense a traditional wardship, not least because Richmond's father was still very much alive, but also because Richmond was already an independent magnate in his own right. In every outward respect he was treated as if he was already of full age.

Even so, as Richmond approached his twelfth birthday, the year 1531 does seem to have been something of a watershed. If the grant of the canonry and prebend of North Newbald, Yorkshire, issued to George Folbury on 17 March 1531, was in reward for his services, then the duke's formal education must now have come to an end. As if to herald a new stage in his fortunes, Richmond's household seems to have made a particular effort to celebrate Christmas 1531 in appropriate splendour. Hugh Johns, the yeoman of his wardrobe, ordered new carpets to decorate the windows and cupboards, on which were displayed the gold and silver which was a visible symbol of his rank and wealth and his habitual New Year gift from his doting father. The Lord of Misrule, who would preside over the festivities, was also given two old cushions of crimson velvet ‘sore worn and almost spent' to trim his outfit and another cushion from which to fashion his doublet, so that he could conduct the entertainments in appropriate style.

This new stage in Richmond's life may also account for the timing of an inventory of his goods taken in June 1531. Such an extensive list of clothes, furnishings, household goods and personal belongings was most commonly used to ensure the proper distribution of assets after the subject's death.
¹⁰
However, it was now clear that a number of the items bought at Richmond's creation in 1525 were beginning to look decidedly shabby. After six years a great many of the tapestries that had decorated his chambers had frets and holes ‘very needful to be amended'. After many removals a number of the beds could ‘not be set up in no place to do service'. Many of the fabrics and furnishings were patched, frayed, or otherwise showing their age. Several items had been lost during the duke's various travels and his magnificent chair of estate was now ‘sore broken with carriage in divers places'. Of the twenty-five horses Richmond had acquired since his elevation, seven had been given away, three were ‘so sore worn' that they were only fit to draw the beer cart and six had already died, leaving just nine serviceable for use.

Hugh Johns had made valiant efforts to keep pace with the duke. No expense was spared on the lavish gowns, rich doublets, frocks, riding coats, hose, hats and bonnets that Richmond outgrew at an alarming rate. All of the best quality, his clothes were cut from silk, velvet, cloth of gold or silver and other rich fabrics, lined and decorated with expensive furs, trimmed with gold and silk, and embellished with elaborate embroidery. The attention to detail was stunning. His buttons of gold or enamel were shaped like roses, daisies, sundials or triangles with roses set in them, although even here, the overall impression of splendour was slightly misleading. It is doubtful that the twelveyear-old duke still got much use out of the robes of estate which had been made for his creation when he was six in 1525 and many of the other pieces were also now well worn or outgrown.

Some items, such as the covering of black velvet for Richmond's saddle (which had probably seen a good deal of use) had already been replaced ‘at his coming out from Yorkshire'. Four new geldings were purchased to carry his goods from Pontefract to London. However, it was obvious that a significant overhaul of his wardrobe and furnishings was well overdue. Some matters were handled by Hugh Johns himself, who bought a number of items, including new leather chairs and several new mattresses to replace worn goods. However, much of the responsibility seems to have been shouldered by Norfolk, who was heavily involved in organising the re-distribution of Richmond's cast-offs. Several pieces went to Richmond's half-brother George, Lord Tailbois, born in 1523. Norfolk also oversaw the repair of damaged articles and even dismissed several items as being beyond use.