Richard The Chird (21 page)

In the autumn of 1477 the city of York became very eager to do something about a weir in the river Aire called Goldale Garth, which belonged to the Crown lands of the Duchy of Lancaster. They applied first to the council of the Duchy and then to the

King himself, but it was in their good friend Richard that they put their hopes. "Right high and mighty prince," they wrote to him when he was at London, "and our full tender and especial good lord, we your humble servants . . . having a singular confidence in your high and noble lordship afore any other, be-seecheth . . . your high and good grace to be a mean to the King ... in these premises, and we, your said humble servants, shall evermore pray to the single 'almyfluent' god for your prosperous estate."

Burdened though he was, not only with councils of state but with thoughts of Clarence's impending doom, Richard replied, within a few days of receiving the letter, that he had mentioned the matter to the King, that the King had commanded him, at his next home-coming, to see that all illegal garths were pulled down, and that "any . . , thing that we may do to the weal of your . . . city we shall put us in our uttermost devoir and good will by God's grace, who keep you."

As soon as Richard had returned to Middleham after the execution of Clarence, a delegation from York rode to confer with him about fishgarths. Probably at Richard's suggestion, the party then called upon the Earl of Northumberland to discuss the same subject. An elaborate investigation was organized. Richard appointed three representatives—Sir William Redeman, Lord Hastings' brother Ralph, and the escheator of the chamber of York— and Northumberland appointed two, who, with the Mayor and Aldermen and twenty-four attendants, spent four days and nights surveying on horseback and by boat the fishgarths in the Ouse, the Aire, and the Wharfe. Though this outing cost the city .£19 45". 3^., it appears that by 1479 many fishgarths had been removed and public discontent much allayed. But the problem was perennial Five years later Richard was authorizing a commission to cast down all fishgarths in fresh waters within the county of York. 13

Richard was no less a good friend to the city in times of real crisis. Not many months after he had returned from the expedition to France, a spirit of restlessness developed in Yorkshire and there were disturbances in York itself, which probably stemmed

from the disbanding of the army that had fought no battle. In March of 1476, Richard and Northumberland arrived in the city with five thousand men to restore order and mete out justice. King Edward apparently desired severe measures to be taken, but Richard effectually interceded for his friends and persuaded his brother not to withdraw the city's charter. As soon as the grateful council learned that the Duke would visit York during Christmas of that year, they decided that "the Duke of Gloucester shall, for his great labour now late made unto the King's good grace for the confirmation of the liberties of this City be presented, at his coming to the City, with six swans and six pikes." When they found themselves entangled in a serious dispute over the mayoralty election of 1482, the men of York again turned to Richard. On St. Blaise's Day, January 3, those citizens eligible to vote had chosen between Richard York and Thomas Wrangwysh. As soon as the city government announced that Richard York had won the election, the supporters of Wrangwysh vehemently protested that their candidate was the victor. The quarrel began to assume alarming proportions. When the city magistrates went to the pains of sending a delegation of officials to carry to the King the certification of York's election, Wrangwysh's adherents promptly aired their grievances to the King also. On March 7, Alderman Tong, city Recorder Miles Metcalfe, and the rest of the delegation returned from London, bearing the King's command that, until the election had been investigated, York and Wrangwysh were to cease their strife and Robert Amyas was to continue in office as Mayor. Two weeks before, the magistrates had sought to strengthen their position by sending further certificates to the King, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chamberlain, and the Earl of Northumberland, and it was then that they had appealed to Richard of Gloucester to exert his influence in their behalf, in order to secure royal confirmation of York's election. Richard acted so promptly to win Edward's approval that on March 12 the Mayor and Aldermen received notice from Westminster that York was confirmed as Mayor. Two years later Wrangwysh was duly elected to the office. He was apparently the best soldier in the city. It was

known to all that he stood high in the favor of Richard of Gloucester. Richard's fondness for Wrangwysh had not deflected him from upholding the dignity and supporting what he must have considered to be the just case of the city government.

On Richard's next visit to York, its officials spared no pains to show their appreciation for what "the high and mighty prince the Duke of Gloucester have at all times done for the weal of this city." First the three chamberlains and the esquire to the Mace rode to the "Austin" friars and presented Richard with gifts of wine, fish, and demain bread. Then the Mayor and Aldermen in scarlet and the Council of the Twenty-four in "murry" (mulberry) led a procession of citizens to the friary in order to give their friend "a laud and a thank of his great labour good and benevolent lordship done before-time for the honour and common weal of this city."

Yet immediately after Richard left York, a disturbance of some sort occurred in which the alarm bell was rung. It may have sprung from the disputed election or a factional quarrel or have been a manifestation of the general restlessness which seemed to afflict England in the early spring of 1482. The offense committed at York was apparently slight, but on March 21 the city fathers sent a message to Richard explaining the disorder and asking what his pleasure was regarding the culprits whom they had clapped in jail. Richard replied a few days later that in his view they should be delivered from prison. This gentle solution of the problem so delighted the Mayor and his brethren that instantly they decided on Richard's next coming to the city to load his table with two dozen rabbits, six pheasants, a dozen partridges, wine, and demain bread.

Two weeks later Richard gave another demonstration of the respect he felt for the dignity and rights of York. Having learned that Thomas Rsdeheid, a servant of his treasurer, had bullied and insulted a citizen of York who was on a visit to Middleham Castle, Richard took the trouble to send Redeheid to the city in the custody of Sir Ralph Assheton so that he might be punished according to the judgment of the Mayor and Aldermen.

Shortly afterward, a tailor of the city named John Davyson,

who was bitterly at odds with Roger Brere, saddler, could think of no better way of getting his enemy into trouble than to spread the report that Brere had made a jibe against the Duke of Gloucester. The chief men of York were so much disturbed by this gossip that William Melrig, who was falsely alleged to have heard Brere's jibe, was summoned before the Mayor, sheriffs, chamberlains, and a concourse of citizens to make his emphatic denial.

That the language of affection and devotion which the men of York addressed to Richard sincerely reflected their feelings is eloquently demonstrated by the way in which they subsequently dared to brave and defy Henry the Seventh. They were proud of their right of self-government and not afraid to speak their minds. In January of 1483, for example, there occurred a spirited political conversation when a group of citizens were "sitting at the ale at Eden Berrys, in Gothyrngate."

The discussion was opened with a lively question: "Sirs, whom shall we have to our mayor this year?"

One Steven Hoghson answered, "Sirs, one thing and it please the commons I would we had Master Wrangwysh, for he is the man that my lord of Gloucester will do for."

Robert Rede, a "gyrdeler," was quick to retort, "That may not be, for the Mayor must be chosen by the commonalty, and not by no lord." It appears that he added, "My Lord of Gloucester will not be displeased whomsoever it pleases the commons to choose for their Mayor." 14

When the time came, in 1480, for Richard to lead the forces of England against the Scots, none served him with more devoted loyalty than the men of York.

Prop of the Throne

. . discipline in war, wisdom in peace . .

I*—T^HE conduct of the war against Scotland was the last of

I the many services which Richard performed for his royal

-*- brother.

Louis XI, eager to keep Edward occupied while he finished off Burgundy, had finally persuaded James III, in the winter of 1479-80, to violate his truce with England and rouse his country to arms. Weak in character as in authority, James was something of a Richard II, with his lowborn favorites, his penchant for the arts, and his disdain of an unruly nobility.

When the Scots began to indulge in large-scale border raiding in the early spring of 1480, King Edward perceived that they meant to make serious trouble and on May 12 appointed Richard as his Lieutenant General in the North, authorizing him to call up the men of the Marches and adjoining counties. This was a defensive measure; commissions of array for the northern shires only could nof produce an army capable of invading Scotland. Yet after the Earl of Angus had penetrated into Northumberland and burned Bamburgh, Richard determined on a limited offensive effort which might check the ardor of the Scots. Early in September he led across the borders a raiding party, which included a stout band from the faithful city of York; and so successful was this brief, sharp campaign that it not only put an end to Scottish incursions for this year but gave Edward an accomplishment of which he was quick to make use in his attempts to raise money for the war by asking for benevolences. 1

Before the middle of October, Richard had returned to Yorkshire and was at Sheriff Hutton. He was immediately confronted with a problem that threatened to disturb his relationship with the Earl of Northumberland, The Earl had apparently received

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word that the Scots might attempt retaliation. On October 13, Northumberland wrote to the magistrates of York from his manor of Wressell, charging them to prepare an armed force "to be ready to attend upon me ... as soon as ye have warning, without delay or tarrying, as you will answer at your peril" The men of the city liked neither the hard-handed peremptoriness of the tone nor the implication that they were at Northumberland's command. They sent an Alderman to Sheriff Hutton in order to seek the advice of the Duke of Gloucester. It appears that Richard was able to reassure the city without giving Northumberland cause for complaint. In the following April, King Edward upheld the citizens' desire to look to Richard as their leader by telling them to put their complete faith in his "entirely beloved brother." 2 * J

Meanwhile, Richard and Northumberland were working together in apparent harmony to prepare the great campaign which Edward and his council had determined to launch against the Scots in the summer of 1481, and which the King himself would command. During the winter Richard was overseeing the repair of the walls of Carlisle, recruiting a large body of men to reinforce the garrisons of the border strongholds, and, with Northumberland, conducting a military census to determine how many men the baronage, gentry, and towns of the North could bring to the field. Toward the end of March, Richard and a number of his councilors arrived in London to perfect the plans for the invasion. He was also concerned, as usual, with befriending the men of the North. When King Edward found the yield from benevolences insufficient to defray the enormous costs of raising an army by indenture, he took the unpopular step of exacting the payment of a parliamentary tax which he had remitted upon his return from France more than five years before. He agreed to exempt, however, the county and city of York because of what they had done the previous year and "this year trusted to be done." And because of his brother's plea that the citizens of York were making as great a military effort as their finances allowed, he agreed to be content with the contingent they promised of a captain and 120 archers. 3

The first blow of the campaign was struck at the beginning of the summer by the fleet, commanded by Lord Howard. Boldly he sailed into the Firth of Forth, captured eight large ships, destroyed many smaller ones, and burned Blackness. But the great attack by land which was to complement this brilliant victory was never launched. Everything waited upon the King's leading his army north to join Richard and his second-in-command, Northumberland, and the King did not come. His health and his energies were failing, and the restlessness of his realm made him reluctant to turn his back upon it. His system of extracting benevolences was resented by the well-to-do; his highhanded attempt to collect the parliamentary tax he had years before relinquished was resented by everybody. It was "adverse turmoil," he confessed in a letter to the Pope, which kept him in the south. 4

Very little is known of the campaign which Richard waged this summer. He possibly had under his command a few thousand men that the King had raised by indenture, but he was mainly dependent upon the forces of the border garrisons. James the Third, on the other hand, had raised a great army. That it failed to make a serious incursion into northern England indicates the success that Richard and Northumberland achieved in an irregular war of sudden sallies and defensive operations. 5 *

They had returned to Yorkshire when, early in September, there suddenly came word that three Scottish hosts were about to invade England simultaneously. On Friday, September 7, the Earl of Northumberland dispatched messages to his friends and retainers and to the city of York, bidding them hastily assemble men and meet him on the following Monday morning at North-allerton. Next day, while the men of York were busily arraying a force to answer Northumberland's call, they received a message from Richard of Gloucester informing them that the Scots were threatening all the Marches and requesting them to meet him with what forces they could muster on the following Thursday at Durham. Instead of setting forth early Monday morning to keep the rendezvous with the Earl, they delayed their departure until Tuesday in order to march as an independent contingent until

they put themselves under Richard's banner at Durham. Either the report of the Scots' invasion proved to be false or eke Richard's forces quickly repelled it; for nothing more is heard of trouble from the North for the remainder of this year. 6 *

In October Richard rode down to Nottingham to confer with King Edward, who had finally managed to journey that far north. Though the King insisted that in the coming year he would take personal command of an invasion of Scotland, Richard probably realized, even then, that he might have to manage that great effort himself. Upon returning to the North, he laid a foundation for the enterprise by establishing a dogged siege of Berwick, the frontier fortress on the sea which two decades before Margaret of Anjou had surrendered to the Scots. 7 *

As Richard labored in the first months of 1482 to prepare a powerful offensive he was plagued with difficulties that threatened to wreck the whole campaign. The harvest of the preceding fall had been the worst that England and Europe had known for many years, and the winter which followed had been unusually severe. With all his frontier garrisons running desperately short of food, Richard was forced in February to secure a license from the King permitting him to purchase grain and vegetables anywhere they might be found in England, Wales, or Ireland and at any price he had to pay. Though Wales and Ireland themselves were complaining of starvation, Richard apparently somehow found the means of victualing his forces and maintained his siege of Berwick.

Even more serious was the restlessness which afflicted the country in waves of disorder or discontent. Men with half-filled stomachs were the readier to show their dislike of the King's failure to support Burgundy, their anger against the King's persistence in extracting benevolences and in demanding the payment of the tax. When, late in the winter, disturbances broke out in Northumberland, Richard was empowered to offer the royal pardon to all persons in Tynedale who would duly make submission. Later, a commission of oyer and terminer was issued for the city of York itself; but since the commissioners were mostly drawn from the members of Richard's council, with a few from Northumberland's, it seems likely that the commission was