Richard The Chird (55 page)

Of this power none was more aware than Richard, as he was aware too that the power was wielded over a territory contiguous to Henry Tudor's homeland of Wales, that if the Tudor triumphed Stanley would become the stepfather of a King, that Stanley had made cause with Hastings against him in 1483 and remembered the scare Richard had given him in 1470, that Stanley would probably have betrayed him if Buckingham's rebellion had begun to prosper, and that the Stanleys had always tailored their allegiance to their advantage and their protestations of loyalty to the exigencies of the moment.

Had he not always known that Thomas, Lord Stanley, would request permission to depart when the time had ripened and was come to its fullness? Glancing at his stout Yeomen of the Crown, Richard realized that he had but to move his hand, and whatever course the House of Stanley might take, the enigma of

Lord Stanley himself would be solved by simply holding him in custody until the invasion had been mastered. No doubt John Kendall, Ratcliffe, Catesby, when they learned of Stanley's desire, begged him to refuse it. Would the King, having kept this cunningest of lords this long under his eye, permit him to depart in the very imminence of Henry Tudor's landing?

The King would. Lord Stanley must be allowed to ride away, in order that his allegiance be freely given, or in the critical hour Richard would be evading the test which he had set for himself and his rule. He had, in fact, boldly committed himself to his course six months before. On January 13 he had dispatched commands to the lords and gentry of Cheshire and Lancashire that when word came of the invasion they were to obey as their leaders Lord Stanley, his son Lord Strange, and his brother Sir William. Commander and captain though he was, Richard listened to another language than strategy and he was moved by a deeper compulsion than reason.

Yet, in the end, yielding to the demands of his councilors or unable to resist exposing to Stanley his awareness of Stanley's capacity for betrayal, he made a condition. Since decisive events were approaching and he needed men of experience about him, Thomas must send for Lord Strange to act as his deputy during his absence. Stanley gracefully acquiesced and sent for Strange, who promptly appeared. Then this accommodating lord, aware that his son had been demanded as a hostage and that Richard knew that he knew it, rode westward into his own country, where his wiliness was so much a byword that two centuries later it was still being alluded to. 18 *

Richard must have realized that he had blunted the pure edge of his test. Not much, but a little. It was a wedge of compromise that hardened him against allowing further compromises with his chosen destiny. Lord Strange he welcomed warmly, made an intimate. But Richard's friends saw to it that he was watched by able men.

July was slipping away now. Richard probably received word from his agents in France that Henry was about to sail, for on the twenty-fourth he wrote to his Chancellor asking him to

send the Great Seal at once by Thomas Barowe, Master of the Rolls. There is no reason to suppose that Richard had lost confidence in John Russell. He needed the Seal directly at hand; it was more fitting for the Bishop of Lincoln to remain at the head of the government in London than to be exposed to the rigors of the field. In the late afternoon of the first day of August, Thomas Barowe rode into Nottingham. At seven o'clock in the evening, in the chapel of the castle, he came before the King and there delivered up the Great Seal. Richard was attended by Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, his heir John, Earl of Lincoln, Lord Scrope of Upsale, Lord Strange, John Kendall, and others. 19

Now there was nothing to do but wait England was as tense and thundery as the summer weather. The long-continued, wearing threat of invasion had worked as an aid to the invasion itself. The realm had wearied of living with one hand upon the sword —but not the men of York. Merchants, artisans, 'prentices, they had left their occupations and their wives to accompany Richard into Scotland in 1482. In June of 1483 they had marched to London. Less than four months later they once more donned jacks and sallets * to follow the King all the way to Salisbury. Now they had again been commanded to hold themselves in readiness to march they knew not where in order to risk their necks in King Richard's quarrel. But the men of York were hardened to warfare, and they had long known Richard. Though there was plague in the city, they were alertly waiting to take up arms once more. The spirit of the men of York, however, did not animate all England. 20

Still the days passed. The haze of late summer blurred the hills which ring Nottingham. And high on his rock, alone within his thoughts, King Richard waited in the Castle of his Care or went hunting in Sherwood Forest. He had no army with him, only the Knights and Esquires of his Body and certain of his most intimate followers and their servants. Why did he wait thus, naked of arms? Perhaps pride compelled him so to affirm his disdain of Henry Tudor^s challenge. Perhaps he shrank as long as

* Tongh leather coats and helmets.

he could from testing the loyalty of his subjects, that loyalty which he had stubbornly made the aim of his policy and the criterion of his reign.

On July 31, at the sign of the Red Pale within the precincts of Westminster Abbey, William Caxton had finished printing a redaction of famous chivalric tales composed by an obscure knight. Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d? Arthur fell upon a world in arms. On August 11 a messenger lashed his horse through Sherwood Forest to Beskwood Lodge in order to bring King Richard the tidings that at last the foot of Henry Tudor was on Britain's shore. Setting sail from Harfleur on the day Richard had received the Great Seal, the rebel host had landed at Milford Haven in South Wales on Sunday, August y. 21 *

Invasion*

Take deep traitors for thy dearest friends

IN THE spring Henry Tudor had received a message from John Morgan, a Welsh lawyer, that Sir John Savage, who was a man of authority in South Wales, and Rhys ap Thomas, its leading chieftain, were sworn to his cause. If Henry had had doubts about where he should land, they were dispelled by these tidings. The Stanleys sent word—or it was reported of them— that they would support Lord Stanley's wife's son. More encouragement came from the Lady Margaret's indefatigable servant Reynold Bray; he had gathered a considerable sum of money and was keeping in touch with adherents throughout the country. Henry sent secret messages to his followers in England promising to pass over the sea as soon as they had reported how many men they could assemble for the cause. 1

He had left in Paris the Marquess Dorset and John Bourchier as pledges for the forty thousand livres which the government of King Charles had advanced. The French fleet of about fifteen ships, which was fitting at Harfleur, was to be commanded by Philippe de Shaunde. Now the court of France made its final contribution—a force of two thousand men, but not regular troops or even mercenaries. They were the sweepings of the jails of Normandy, men offered their release on the condition that they would embark with the English adventurer. One could not find, Commynes remarks, a more evil lot. 2 Henry's commanders were his uncle Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, and John, Earl of Oxford; the chief figures among the band of English exiles were, except for Sir Edward Woodville, those who had fled to Brittany after the collapse of Buckingham's rebellion: John Cheyney, William Brandon, Thomas Arundel, Richard Guildford, William Berkeley, and a few others.

410

INVASION

On the first of August Henry Tudor set sail from Harfieur with about 2,500 men to attempt the conquest of the English throne. It was a venture that certainly required courage, but Henry meant to be prudent in its expenditure, as he was to be prudent in expenditure of most kinds. He was probably spurred more by necessity than boldness; and his powerful ambition had perhaps persuaded him to believe, or to half believe, that he was indeed the heir of Cadwallader and the hope of England. More immediately pressing was his realization that this was the best, doubtless the last, opportunity he would ever have.

Weather sped the invaders. With a fair wind they sailed around Richard's fleet cruising off the southeastern ports, and on the afternoon of Sunday, August 7, they entered the great bay of Milford Haven at the tip of Pembrokeshire. Shortly before sunset they landed on the north shore of the bay near the village of Dale. 3 Henry knelt upon the sand and implored the favor of Heaven. "With meek countenance and pure devotion," says Fabyan, "[he] began this psalm: c judica me Deus, et discerne causam meam ...,*" after which he kissed the ground and made the sign of the cross. 4 The rebel host remained that night at Dale. Next day Henry marched ten miles eastward to Haver-fordwest, where he received some good, and some very bad, news. A delegation from Pembroke came in to promise that the town would serve Jasper Tudor, its "natural" lord. At the same time tidings arrived that, contrary to their oaths, Rhys ap Thomas and John Savage were in arms to uphold King Richard's cause. Sending out scouts, Henry cautiously marched northwestward toward Cardigan; after he had gone only five miles he halted to await news. Suddenly a rumor blazed through his army that Sir Walter Herbert, whose headquarters were at Carmarthen, some thirty miles due east, was about to fall upon them with a mighty host. Panic ran through the ranks; Henry's commanders hastily sent out fresh scouts to search the roads. With vast relief Henry learned that the rumor was baseless and that the road to Cardigan was clear. Shortly after his force once more resumed its march, he was cheered by the arrival of the lawyer, John Morgan, with a band of followers. The small gar-

risons he now began to encounter were quickly overwhelmed or persuaded to submit. Halting in or near Cardigan, Henry learned that, somewhere to the northeast, Rhys ap Thomas was indeed in arms but giving no indication of what party he meant to espouse. Quickly Henry sent him word that the lieutenant-ship of all Wales was his for life if he would come to the aid of his fellow Welshman. Meanwhile, the host pursued a northeast course through Cardiganshire in order to pick up all possible followers in Wales and to screen their movements from King Richard as long as they could. The Tudor was marching under the dragon banner of Cadwallader. Here and there in the Welsh valleys the harps of bards were thrumming his descent from Celtic kings or the coming again of Arthur—

Jasper will breed for us a Dragon— Of the fortunate blood of Brutus is he— A Bull of Anglesey to achieve; He is the hope of our race. 5

Onward he came, "a train of Welsh myth streaming behind him and proclamations shooting out before." 6 Only after he had crossed the mountains and was moving upon Newton did Rhys ap Thomas at last come in 'with his band of warriors.

Henry had in the meantime dispatched a stream of messages to his mother and Reynold Bray, to Sir William and Lord Stanley, to Sir Gilbert Talbot, to his kinsman John ap Meredith, and to others who had pledged their support, ordering them to join him at once with men and money and announcing that he meant to cross the Severn at Shrewsbury and march through Shropshire toward London. His letter to Meredith is headed "By the King"; Richard is branded as a usurper of his right; and Meredith is sharply commanded to appear with all available forces "as ye will avoid our grievous displeasure and answer it at your peril." 7 The imperious tone of this communication betrays the tension and terrible sense of insecurity under which Henry was laboring. Since he had neither experience nor interest in warfare, he was in the hands of his commanders—and his exile had taught him to dislike being in anybody's hands. By temperament he

distrusted the bloody chance of battle, and as he moved toward the fateful field, his risk showed no signs of diminishing. A number of Welshmen had swelled his ranks with their small bands of followers and the promise of the lieutenantship had clinched Rhys ap Thomas' allegiance. But the people of Wales had not swarmed to his banners as he had expected, or hoped; there had been no popular rising to greet the heir of Cadwallader. These strains and disappointments caused him to be the more poignantly aware of all the uncertainties over which he had no command.

The most dangerous uncertainty was the Stanleys, With every mile that he moved away from the rugged country of Wales toward the Severn valley, the enigma of the Stanleys grew more portentous. Encamping near Shrewsbury on August 12, he entered the city the next day—it being the policy of townsmen in the fifteenth century to open their gates to any army. Several of his messengers now returned, bearing money from Reynold Bray and promises from the Stanleys. Sir William was encamped some miles to the northeast of Shrewsbury; Lord Stanley lay somewhere to the east of the town. Each had a large force of men at his back. They gave ready assurances of support but they did not find it convenient to join the invaders, yet. They strongly counseled Henry to abandon his plan of striking toward London, advising him to march directly to encounter King Richard. They would move eastward before him. Lord Stanley explained that his son Strange was in Richard's grip and hence he could not immediately show his hand.

It was becoming doubtful if the rebels could count on any considerable aid except from the men who had committed themselves to Henry's cause. The help of the Stanleys was indispensable. Besides, Oxford and Jasper Tudor must have been aware that to turn their backs on King Richard and head for London was a hazardous undertaking. If he overtook them on the march, theirs would be an evil plight. There would be no possibility of retiring to Wales after a defeat; disaster would be absolute. Though Henry and his commanders recognized that the course the Stanleys urged would permit them, if fortune turned against the dragon banner, to come in on Richard's side,

there was nothing for it but to take their advice. Consequently, about August 14, the host advanced twenty miles eastward to Newport, w r here Sir Gilbert Talbot, uncle of the youthful Earl of Shrewsbury, brought in the following of his House, a contingent of four or five hundred men. The motive which prompted the Talbots to desert Richard for Henry was probably domestic and personal rather than political The young Earl was married to a daughter of Lord Hastings, and the revelation of King Edward's precontract had exposed to the world the shame of his kinswoman, the Lady Eleanor Butler. 8 *