Richard The Chird (29 page)

The Government of the Realm*

. . . a world of restless cares . . .

ICHARD moved at once to restore confidence in the govern-ment. Assembling all the lords spiritual and temporal and the city magistrates, he administered to them in a solemn public ceremony the oath of fealty to King Edward the Fifth. A thrill of joy ran through London. Men lost their fears, looked forward to a prosperous reign. Lord Howard sent home thirty of his servants, and no doubt other barons who had surrounded themselves with bristling retinues did likewise. 1

In this atmosphere of hope Richard summoned his first council. He ignored what was past; he did not exclude those who had most strongly supported the Woodvilles. The lords had taken the Great Seal away from Rotherham, but the Archbishop of York was called to the meeting. So was John Alcock, Bishop of Worcester, who had been president of the Prince's council at Ludlow and who had possibly accompanied young Edward to Stony Stratford. The men whom Richard welcomed to the council board were those who had served as the advisers and ministers of his brother. 2

They immediately caused Richard to be proclaimed Protector and Defensor of the Realm. It does not appear that they elected him to this office; rather, they registered and confirmed the rights which King Edward's will had given him. They then proceeded to define the dimensions of the Protector's authority, but since the will is no longer extant, it is impossible to tell whether they again only approved what the dead King had ordained or whether the document was couched in general terms on which they now stamped their own interpretation. "With the consent and goodwill of all the lords," reports the Croyland chronicler, "[Richard] was invested with power to order and forbid in every matter, just like another king. . . ." He was also given the "tutele and over-

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sight of the king's most royal person," As Regent of the kingdom and Governor of the Prince, he owned an authority most nearly like to that which the Duke of Somerset was to exercise three quarters of a century later during the minority of Edward VI. Though the royal council thus became an advisory body to the Protector, Richard well knew that his power depended upon the good will of the lords; and, as they doubtless had expected, he immediately promised that he would be guided in all things by their decisions. Writs and commands issued in the King's name soon began to bear the formula, "by thadvise of oure derest oncle the due of Gloucester, protectour and defensour of this our royalme during our yong age," to which was sometimes appended the phrase, "and by thadvise of the lordes of our counsaille." 3 *

Richard and the council quickly organized their government Rotherham was formally rebuked for having given the Great Seal to the Queen, and the chancellorship was bestowed, to everyone's entire satisfaction, upon John Russell, Bishop of Lincoln. He was, says More, "a wyse manne and a good and of muche experyence' and one of the beste learned menne undoubtedlye that England hadde in hys time"; and Mancini says, "a man of equally great learning and piety." One of the late king's most distinguished diplomats, Russell had been Keeper of the Privy Seal. This office was now conferred upon Master John Gunthorpe, Dean of Wells, who had likewise long served King Edward in council and on embassy and whose erudition was probably even more remarkable than Russell's. A number of minor appointments were made but no other noteworthy changes. John Wode, the former Speaker of the Commons and friend of Richard's, was appointed Treasurer; even here the Protector could scarcely be accused of favoritism since Wode had formerly served as undertreasurer. The judges, the barons of the Exchequer, were all confirmed in their offices. Richard sought to make the transition from the old regime to the new as unobtrusive as possible. 4

The council now turned their attention to the needs of their sovereign lord. It was felt by all that the Bishop of London's palace was no proper lodging for a King; no doubt its chambers called to mind the miserable weakness of Henry VI, who had

more than once sought refuge there. Some councilors proposed the Hospital of St. John as a suitable abode; one or two even suggested Westminster, though its proximity to the sanctuary certainly did not recommend it. The one new voice in the council, the Duke of Buckingham, made the obvious nomination: the Tower. This held at that time no such dark and bloody connotation as the reign of the Tudors conferred upon it. Previous kings had frequently used it as a residence; it was thought of as a secure fortress in time of trouble. After some discussion, Buckingham's proposal was unanimously approved. Sometime between the ninth and the nineteenth of May, King Edward was installed in the apartments of state at the Tower. With equal harmony Richard and his council discussed the question of the King's coronation. So quickly had the realm settled into quiet that it seemed safe to hold the ceremony within a few weeks; the date was tentatively set for Tuesday, June 24. Not long after, it was decided that Parliament should be assembled to confirm the establishment of the new reign. Summonses were dispatched on May 13 for a gathering of the Lords and Commons on June 25, and three days later the Archbishop of Canterbury was requested to assemble his clergy in convocation at St. Paul's.*

A matter of less importance, executing the provisions of the late king's will, had, however, proved impossible to manage. On May 7 the executors, meeting with the council at Baynard's Castle, near Paul's Wharf, the town residence of Richard's mother, had unanimously declined to administer the will. How, for example, could Edward's bequests to his children be honored while the Queen held them fast in sanctuary? The late king's goods were accordingly put under ecclesiastical sequestration by the Archbishop of Canterbury; on May 23 he appointed a commission to sell sufficient of them to pay the costs of the royal funeral, which had amounted to the resounding sum of £1,496 ijs. zd*

The Woodvilles, indeed, constituted the most pressing problem which confronted the new government. Honoring Hastings' promise, Richard had submitted to the council's scrutiny his action in arresting Rivers, Vaughan, and Grey. His temper had been much sharpened, however, since he had sent Earl Rivers a

dish from his table. There was some evidence that the Wood-villes had been preparing to use force against him; Sir Edward was even now defying the government with his powerful fleet; and the Marquess had managed to escape from sanctuary. It was thought that he had fled to his uncle Edward but he had actually gone into hiding, where, no one ever learned. Richard proposed that a charge of treason be brought against Rivers, Vaughan, and Grey. Buckingham, Hastings, and probably the rest of the barons heartily concurred. A number of the spiritual lords, however, demurred. Richard's swift action, they pointed out, had forestalled his adversaries. Even if it could be proved that the Woodvilles had prepared an ambush, it was highly doubtful that their conspiracy could be called treason since Richard had not yet been officially proclaimed Protector. At last the council agreed upon a compromise. No specific charges were brought, but all were of one mind that Rivers and his associates must be kept in prison. As for the Queen herself, she presented a problem concerning which there was no disagreement but only a very cloudy prospect of success. How could she be persuaded to abandon the role of foiled conspirator and assume the honorable, but powerless, office of Queen Dowager? Richard appointed a committee to negotiate with her; it made no headway but persisted in its efforts, exposing itself to throbbing scenes of scorn, tears, and indignation. 7 *

The fleet of Sir Edward Woodville was the most pressing danger, however; and here, on the familiar field of action, Richard, with the concurrence of the council, came swiftly and surely to grips with the problem. He was not long in London before he discovered that Sir Edward's navy was anchored in the Downs, that favorite rendezvous for ships situated between the Goodwin Sands and the east coast of Kent. Believing that a speedy offer of forgiveness would make force unnecessary, he decreed that all soldiers and sailors who deserted the Woodville fleet would be given full pardon; Sir Edward, the Marquess, and their staunch adherent Robert Ratcliff e were denounced as enemies of the state, and a price was put upon their heads. On May 9 Richard dispatched men to take command of fortifications on the Isle of Wight and at Portsmouth and to provide stores and armament

for the ships which were hastily being readied. Lord Cobham, a retainer of Lord Howard's, was sent with a small force to Dover and Sandwich to see that the ports were prepared to resist a surprise attack. On May 10 Richard ordered Sir Thomas Fulford and one Halwelle "to rig them to the sea in all haste and go to the Downs among Sir Edward and his company in that they may." Four days after, Edward Brampton, John Wellis, and Thomas Grey received writs "to go to the sea with ships to take Sir Edward Woodville." It was an audacious and ticklish venture—with only a few craft to approach close enough to Sir Edward's vessels to spread the news of the offer of pardon. Richard had been able, however, to find audacious men* Perhaps Lord Howard, who was well acquainted with both Fulford and Brampton, had suggested them to the Protector. 8

Thomas Fulford was the son of Sir Baldwin Fulford, that ill-fated Lancastrian knight from the West Country, who in the early spring of 1460 had sworn that, "on pain of losing his head, he would destroy the earl of Warwick and his navy, if the king would grant him his expenses." Warwick's navy never felt his steel, but he indeed lost his head; for after Towton it was cut off and sent to be hung up in the market place of Exeter. Though Thomas had sailed with his father, he dared two years later to thrust himself upon King Edward's attention by petitioning for permission to bury Sir Baldwin's head. Not long after, he thrust himself even more vigorously upon the attention of John Staple-hill, who had captured Sir Baldwin and been given some of his lands as a reward. With an armed company Thomas stormed one of these manors, plundered it of three hundred pounds 7 worth of goods, beat the servants, and "so menaced, affrayed, and disturbed" StaplehilTs wife that "she was ... in despair of her life," having been told plainly that if her husband "had there then been founden, there should no gold have redeemed him." Nothing came of StaplehilTs vehement complaint; Sir Thomas had, in fact, already received a pardon from the King. Edward found it difficult to dislike a bold man. Yet when Warwick reseated Henry VI briefly on the throne, Sir Thomas sallied forth for the old cause. Even after Tewkesbury had ended the last Lancastrian hope, he

broke out of sanctuary to go down to the West Country and stir up commotions. Again, though, he managed to make his peace with Edward, and in 1481 this hardy sea dog had commanded the fleet which threatened the west coast of Scotland. 9

On the east coast at this same time Edward Brampton held a command in the victorious navy of Lord Howard. Far from being the mere English that his name suggests, he was an exotic: a tough and swashbuckling Portuguese Jew, doubtless the same Brampton who had accompanied young Richard into Norfolk in the disastrous summer of 1469. There were few Jews in the England of this day and only a handful who at any one time accepted Christianity. Like these, Brampton had lived in the "House of Convertites," had been godfathered at his baptism by the King himself, and had taken the King's name; but unlike the rest, he had sallied forth, sword in hand, to do his godfather any kind of service that needed a hardy fellow. He had wielded a doughty blade at Barnet and Tewkesbury. When the attempt to dig the Earl of Oxford out of St. Michael's Mount had bogged down in December of 1473, King Edward sent Brampton and William Fetherston with four ships to assault the Mount by sea and cut off the Earl's supplies, and not much more than a month later Oxford was the King's prisoner. In Lord Howard's naval expedition of 1481 Brampton had commanded one of the largest warships, "the great carvel of Portingale," which carried 160 sailors and 240 soldiers. 10

Such were the men, Fulford and Brampton, whom Richard picked to send against the Woodville fleet. They brought the mission off as well as anyone could expect, with the aid of a couple of sea dogs as hardy and resourceful as themselves. After they had somehow managed to spread the offer of pardon through the fleet, Sir Edward Woodville in alarm planted a knot of trusted men in each of the ships whose masters or officers he doubted; he took special care to set a picked troop aboard two great Genoese carracks which he had chartered for his service. It was the Italian commanders, however, who, determined to avoid offending the government, ruined Sir Edward's hopes. Having first filled their guards with drink and then overpowered them

one by one, the Genoese captains blew up trumpets, broke out their colors, and declaring for the Protector and council, set sail for London. After a moment of confusion, all but two of the fleet followed suit. In these two vessels Sir Edward and a troop of his adherents fled to Brittany, bearing a portion of Edward the Fourth's treasure to line the future enterprises of one Henry Tudor, calling himself the Earl of Richmond. 11 *

While Richard was working to dispose of the Woodville fleet, he also moved to halt the undeclared war which the French were waging at sea. On May 11 he sent to the aggrieved Lord Cordes an envoy empowered to discuss a mutual restoration of ships and goods as prelude to a renewal of the truce, and he requested Lord Dynham, Hastings' deputy at Calais, to further the negotiations as best he could. Happily, Maximilian of Burgundy soon sent messages of friendship to the new government, to which Richard quickly replied, pledging a continuance of their old peace and amity. He also sent more ships to sea, one of which was commanded by John Davy, a servant of Lord Howard's. 12

Yet though Richard was moving quickly on a wide front of action in these first days of his protectorship, his measures reveal almost nothing about the political complexion of the council, about what was going on in the minds of the councilors who on May 5 had rushed with such happy unanimity to harness themselves to the chariot of the protectorship. Before May ended it began to appear that there had been some misunderstandings concerning who was driving and who was pulling.