Richard The Chird (43 page)

It is ako absent from Thomas More's Richard I//, but More is much franker than Vergil about the conflicts and the dubious assertions in the sources of information available to him. He mentions the report that Buckingham and the King had quarreled over the Bohon property but rejects it as contrary to common sense. He rather vaguely indicates his belief that it was the Dtike's insatiate ambitioa which made him ripe far revolt and in a wonderfully comic scene sets about showing how the artful ministrations of John Morton, Bishop of Ely, tamed Buckingham iofco

RICHARD THE THIRD

a rebel Easily penetrating his captor's shallow mind, John Morton —says More— "found the mean to set this Duke in his top. [His] wisdom abused . . . [Buckingham's] pride to his own deliverance and the Duke's destruction.'* More breaks off his narrative, however, at the very moment when the wily Bishop is entangling Buckingham in his web. 6

It is the contemporary Croyland chronicler who provides the only trustworthy foundation on which to attempt a reconstruction of the course of Buckingham's rebellion. Unfortunately, he gives but a terse summary: "At last, it was determined by the people in the vicinity of the city of London, throughout the counties of Kent, Essex, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Somersetshire, Wiltshire, and Berkshire, as well as some others of the southern counties of the kingdom, to avenge their grievances before-stated [i.e., to rescue Edward's sons from captivity]; upon which, public proclamation was made, that Henry, Duke of Buckingham, who at this time was living at Brecknock in Wales, had repented of his former conduct, and would be the chief mover in this attempt, while a rumour was spread that the sons of King Edward before-named had died a violent death, but it was uncertain how. Accordingly, all those who had set on foot this insurrection, seeing that if they could find no one to take the lead in their designs, the ruin of all would speedily ensue, turned their thoughts to Henry, Earl of Richmond. . . . To him a message was, accordingly, sent, by the Duke of Buckingham, by the advice of the lord Bishop of Ely, who was then his prisoner at Brecknock, requesting him to hasten over to England as soon as he possibly could, for the purpose of marrying Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of the late King, and at the same time, together with her, taking possession of the throne." T

Though even this statement is by no means entirely clear, the outline of events which it gives is supported in general by the evidence of the parliamentary act of attainder, the family connections of the chief rebels, and a few letters and documents. The sum of this evidence, taken with what can be discovered of the intentions of the Duke of Buckingham, indicates that the Duke and John Morton, with the aid of die Countess of Richmond,

CONSPIRACY

impinged upon a conspiracy to free the Princes and by exploding its motive for action diverted it to the radically different purpose of overthrowing King Richard, in order to seat Henry Tudor on the throne.

The rumor of the Princes' death which was spread among the Woodville rebels played a decisive part in shaping the insurrection; the actual fate of the Princes, however, was immaterial to the movement and is not illuminated by it. In the view of the Lancastrians who were rousing themselves at the call of Morton and the Countess, it would not matter whether the Princes were discovered to be alive or dead, once Henry Tudor was seated on the throne. Polydore Vergil himself inadvertently reveals this attitude when he reports that after the Countess had heard of the Princes' death she "began to hope well of her son's fortune, supposing that that deed [the killing of the Princes] would without doubt prove for the profit of the commonwealth. . . ." 8 The Duke of Buckingham likewise had no interest in the Princes, beyond the use to which the rumor of their deaths could be put.

There are, roughly, three possibilities regarding the situation of Edward's two sons at the time that Buckingham, at Brecon, was beginning to take the Bishop of Ely into his confidence. They may have been alive, in which case they probably either were dwelling in the Tower or had been conveyed northward to take up a secret residence at Sheriff Hutton in the custody of the Earl of Lincoln. Should this conjecture be true, then Buckingham and Morton devised the report of the Princes' deaths, knowing that it would find ready credence and that if they accomplished their end, no one would be in a position to produce the Princes in any case. There is the second possibility, that Buckingham, for reasons unsuspected by the King, persuaded Richard to snuff out the lives of the two boys by convincing him that the deed was necessary to the safety of his throne. It is also possible that after Richard had begun his progress, Buckingham remained briefly in London in order to murder the Princes himself. Being Constable, he could open all doors and command what he would. Perhaps he justified his act under the color of solicitude for his sovereign's security or left Richard to learn of it as best he might, in either

case knowing that the King could do nothing except conceal what had happened.

Only thus far does the fate of the Princes enter the story of the rebellion. This thrice-perplexed mystery which stands at the heart of Richard's reign requires so extensive an analysis that in order to maintain the flow of Richard's life, I have been forced to remove it from the context of the biography.*

There remain to be traced the intentions of the proud and volatile Duke of Buckingham. Although Vergil plumps for the grotesque story that Henry Stafford rushed to abandon all that he had gained from King Richard for love of the gray eyes of an unknown young man in Brittany, Henry VIFs historian does give another version of Buckingham's motives, only to discount it in terms which suggest that it is indeed a true one. On at least two other occasions when Vergil is forced to make a choice between two different versions of an event—his accounts of Warwick's break with King Edward and of Friar Shaa's sermon on Sunday, June 22—he chooses the inaccurate version and dismisses the truth as being mere common rumor. Similarly he discounts as only vulgar report the information he has gathered "that the duke did the less dissuade King Richard from usurping the kingdom, by mean of so many mischievous deeds upon that intent that he afterward, being hated both of God and man, might be expelled from the same, and so himself called by the commons to that dignity, whereunto he aspired by all means possible, and that therefore he had at last stirred up war against King Richard." 9 All the available evidence which seems trustworthy supports precisely this explanation.

Portents of Buckingham's ambitious dreams had appeared years before. In 1474 he had sought and received permission to bear the arms of Thomas of Woodstock, spn of Edward III and his own great-great-grandfather, without any other arms to be quartered with them. He is also reported to have got in his possession an exemplification of the act of Richard IFs Parliament legitimating

* See Appendix I, p. 465. Some readers may wish to turn now to this mystery. Others may find more satisfaction in bringing to it the judgments they form as a res&k of following the whole course of Richard's life.

CONSPIRACY

the Beanforts, which did not contain the clause later inserted by Henry IV that barred them from the throne. 10 Thus did he cultivate the precious memory of his double descent from Edward the Third— through his Beaufort mother from John of Gaunt, in which doubtful lineage he was preceded by the Countess of Richmond and her son, but also from Edward's youngest son, Thomas, of whom he was the unchallenged heir and in which lineage there was no flaw. A step which Buckingham took while Richard was still Protector suggests the burgeoning of his secret ambitions in the sunlight of his suddenly achieved greatness. After Hastings' conspiracy was crushed, the Duke requested and was given the custody of the Bishop of Ely. Why should Buckingham wish to become John Morton's jailer except that he was already visioning the use to which he could put the mind of that master plotter?

It appears that when the Duke of Buckingham parted from his King at Gloucester, he was not only gorged with honors but dazzled by the heights to which he had so quickly and so f acilely climbed. Clearly, he had only to aspire in order to achieve, and a single leap would now waft him to the summit of his dreams, He had openly boasted that he would have as many Stafford knots as ever did Warwick have ragged staves. 11 Like the great Earl, he was a kingmaker; but unlike Warwick, he would not fail to be more. Once Warwick had deposed Edward IV, he could offer only a Clarence or a Henry VI, whereas the Duke of Buckingham could offer himself. "I have heard of some that say they saw it," reports More, "that when the crown was first set upon Kong Richard's head, the Duke of Buckingham could not abide the sight but ried his head another way," 12 To enthrone a King only to pluck him from the throne and seize his crown — that was a design whose grandeur might presume to express the imperial scope of Buckingham's character! The word "motive" is too weighty to express the mating of impulse and opportunity, the exuberant assumptions, the prompting of illusions and caprices which drove Duke Henry, as they had driven Clarence, to whatever lay at the end of the enchanting rainbow.

As soon as Buckingham reached Brecon, he sset about hungrily

to consume the convenient talents of his prisoner, the Bishop of Ely. In no time John Morton saw through him to the bottom, and the vague hopes he himself had nursed of a Lancastrian restoration now rapidly took form in his agile mind. When the Bishop applied a little flattery, Buckingham opened up like a flower in the morning sun. The grave, black-gowned prelate and the ebullient Duke went earnestly to work to uncrown King Richard. At Morton's suggestion, a messenger was dispatched to the Countess of Richmond, who at once sent to Wales her shrewd man of affairs Reynold Bray, From him Buckingham and Morton learned that an insurrection was already brewing in the southern counties and that the Countess had been in touch with a number of Lancastrian friends. In discussions of which the Duke was undoubtedly kept in ignorance, Bray and Morton developed their plans. Then, well aware of his host's ambitions, the Bishop of Ely exerted all the force of his mind to mold Buckingham to his own ends. Regretfully he pointed out that though Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, clearly deserved the crown, another seemed to have—not a better claim, oh certainly not!—but a better chance. Circumstances, alas, appeared to point to Henry Tudor, his cousin, as the man. For one thing, Henry Tudor was unmarried and was therefore free to marry, as a sop to the Yorkists and a bid for Woodville support, the eldest daughter of Queen Elizabeth and Ed\vard IV. For another, the Countess of Richmond could command a large Lancastrian following and had connections with some of the leaders of the plot which was already hatching. Obviously, however, everything depended upon that thrice-noble and all-powerful lord, the Duke of Buckingham. He could with a breath seat Henry on the throne, if he were willing. . . .

Buckingham's hopes must at first have been sadly jarred. Successively to bestow a crown, by the mere exercise of his fancy, upon two monarchs within a short span of months had some savor in it, but this was not the regal adventure he had dreamed, Yet he had committed himself so far, he realized, that he dared not recoil into the bosom of King Richard. The memory of his past success, however, soon gave him new heart. He signified his

assent to Morton's plans. He would indeed join with Henry Tudor, encourage him to invade the kingdom in order to support the assault upon the crown. But when Richard was crushed —that would be another matter. Then perhaps it would be the man with the greatest army at his back, then perhaps it would be Buckingham, the legitimate descendant of Thomas of Woodstock, rather than Henry Tudor, the illegitimate descendant of John of Gaunt, who would snatch the fruits of victory and assume the crown. This comedy of cross purposes entered its critical phase of double deception. Brecknock became a castle of visions within visions, humming with the counterpoint of common aims expressed aloud and secret thoughts buzzing in the brains of Morton and Buckingham.

As for the sons of Edward IV, either the Duke was able to give the Bishop assurances that they were out of the way, or else this pair of plotters now devised the rumor of their deaths as a means of capturing the rebellion already being fomented. Thus it was that the Countess of Richmond succeeded in winning the Queen Dowager's promise to give her eldest daughter to Henry Tudor, that the marvelous news came to the southern rebels of Buckingham's decision to lead them, and that, when these same rebels had been thrown into despair by the report, which quickly followed, of the death of the Princes, they soon after agreed to find their revenge in elevating Henry Tudor and Edward's daughter Elizabeth to the throne.

Buckingham was now secretly assembling his tenants and retainers; all the bailiffs and stewards of his Welsh lands had been straitly charged that at their master's call they must bring to the field every man they could lay hands on. Through Morton the Duke was in close communication with the Countess of Richmond, and a stream of messengers linked him with Richard Guild-ford, Sir John Cheyney, and Sir William Stonor, with the Marquess Dorset and the Courtenays at Exeter. By September 28 he was writing directly to Henry Tudor. Very early in October the grand design was finally forged. Insurrections would break out simultaneously in the southern counties from Maidstone and Guildford through Newbury and Salisbury to Exeter. The men

of Kent and Surrey would seize, or at least threaten, London, The men of Devon and Dorset would march eastward. Henry Tudor, with a stout force supplied by the Duke of Brittany, would land on the south coast. And the Duke of Buckingham would cross the Severn at the head of his host and advance southeastward to close a mighty vise upon the hapless King Richard. The date on which each of these multiple actions should begin was set for Saturday, October 18. 13

But the conspiracy was too big to remain a secret, and there were many men in the southern parts loyal to the Bong. Before the end of August, mutterings of revolt and mysterious disturbances had prompted the royal government to appoint commissions of oyer and terminer. And a good ten days before the agreed date, the Duke of Norfolk and the council at Westminster were apprised of the rebellion, when the impatient rebels of Kent rose prematurely, began an advance on London and proclaimed that the mighty Duke of Buckingham was the leader of their cause. 14