Shakespeare's Kings (110 page)

For
his
own
troubled
spirit,
however,
there
was
to
be
no
rest.
His only
son,
Edward
of
Middleham,
had
died
on
9
April
at
the
age
often: once
again,
the
King
found
himself
without
an
heir.
And
wherever
he looked,
he
saw
enemies.
For
a
surprisingly
long
time
he
had
continued to
ignore
the
most
dangerous
of
them:
in
the
general
proclamation
that he
had
issued
on
23
October
1483
after
Buckingham's
abortive
rising, the
name
of
Henry
of
Richmond
was
conspicuous
by
its
absence
from the
list
of
the
leading
insurgents.
It
was
to
be
several
more
months before
he
would
begin
to
take
Henry
seriously.
He
had
no
delusions,
on the
other
hand,
about
the
general
insecurity
of
his
position.
Throughout 1484
he
did
everything
possible
to
improve
his
image
-
making
progresses
through
the
country,
performing
ostentatious
acts
of
generosity, publishing
high-minded
and
sanctimonious
declarations
of
intent, bestowing
privileges,
distributing
offices
and
estates
with
a
lavish
hand; but
it
was
useless.
Already
by
the
spring
of
1484
the
truth
about
the Princes
was
known
throughout
the
kingdom.
The
people
could
not
-and
would
not
—
forget.

Now,
and
only
now,
did
Richard
begin
to
see
the
Earl
of
Richmond as
a
force
to
be
reckoned
with.
Henry's
supporters
were
increasing
fast. Dorset
was
not
the
only
powerful
magnate
to
have
joined
him;
by
this time
there
were
also
his
uncle
Jasper
Tudor,
Earl
of
Pembroke;
Edward Courtenay,
Earl
of
Devon;
Richard
Lord
Rivers,
eager
to
avenge
his brother's
execution
the
previous
year;
the
Bishop
of
Exeter
and
the future
Bishop
of
Winchester
Richard
Fox;
and
a
large
number
of
less distinguished
knights
and
gendemen—perhaps
as
many
as
500
altogether. Morton,
though
remaining
in
Flanders,
was
in
constant
touch.
It
was probably
some
time
in
April
that
the
King
first
approached
Duke
Francis of
Brittany
to
suggest
some
arrangement
whereby
the
Earl
of
Richmond might
be
prevented
from
making
any
more
trouble;
we
know
that
in May
1484
the
agents
of
the
Duke's
chief
minister,
the
deeply
corrupt Pierre
Landois,
came
to
England
to
negotiate.
The
result
was
a
treaty with
several
secret
clauses,
signed
on
8
June
at
Pontefract,
by
the
terms of
which
the
King
agreed
to
pay
a
very
considerable
sum
-
including all
the
revenues
of
the
earldom
of
Richmond
-
in
return
for
an undertaking
that
Henry
Tudor
would
be
kept
in
strict
confinement until
further
notice.

Since
Duke
Francis
was
by
now
suffering
periodic
fits
of
insanity, we
can
be
fairly
sure
that
the
money
paid
went
into
Landois's
own pocket;
for
a
small
additional
sum
the
minister
might
even
have
agreed to
surrender
Henry
into
Richard's
hands.
Fortunately,
however,
he never
had
a
chance
to
do
so.
According
to
Polydore
Vergil,
Bishop Morton
-
who
had
spies
everywhere
-
got
wind
of
the
treaty
and warned
Henry
in
the
nick
of
time,
simultaneously
arranging
for
him to
be
received
in
France.
Some
time
in
the
late
summer
Henry
succeeded in
escaping
across
the
border
into
Anjou,
just
an
hour
ahead
of
the troops
sent
by
Landois
to
arrest
him.

He
was
lucky,
too,
in
that
relations
between
France
and
Brittany were
at
that
moment
particularly
strained.
Duke
Francis
had
no
son
to succeed
him,
and
it
was
generally
believed
(with
good
reason)
that
on his
death
the
French
King
would
attempt
to
annex
his
duchy
-
a
move which
the
King
of
England
in
his
turn
would
do
his
best
to
prevent. In
such
circumstances
Henry
of
Richmond
might
be
a
useful
ally;
the thirteen-year-old
Charles
VIII
and
his
elder
sister
Anne
de
Beaujeu
— who
effectively
ruled
in
her
brother's
place
-
accordingly
gave
him
a warm
reception,
promising
to
help
him
financially
when
the
need
arose. By
yet
another
stroke
of
good
fortune,
Henry
was
joined
soon
after
his arrival
in
France
by
one
of
the
doughtiest
champions
of
the
Lancastrian cause,
John
de
Vere,
Earl
of
Oxford.
With
his
friend
Lord
Beaumont,

Oxford
had
captured
St
Michael's
Mount
in
Cornwall
in
1473
¹
and
held it
for
over
four
months;
but
it
had
been
a
quixotic
enterprise
at
best,
and he
had
spent
the
next
ten
years
a
prisoner
in
the
castle
of
Hammes
near Calais
until,
a
week
or
two
before
Henry's
escape
from
Brittany,
he
had persuaded
the
captain,
James
Blount,
to
release
him
and
accompany
him to
join
the
exiles
at
the
French
court.
A
former
Lord
High
Constable
of England,
he
was
a
fine
commander
who
had
shown
outstanding
courage in
battle.
Not
surprisingly,
Henry
welcomed
him
and
Blount
with
open arms,
the
more
so
when
he
heard
that
the
latter
had
left
his
wife
in
command
of the
garrison
of
Hammes,
with
orders
to
hold
it
against
Richard. She
did
so,
magnificently,
throughout
an
ensuing
siege
by
royalist
troops, surrendering
at
the
end
of
January
1485
only
after
the
promise
of
free pardons
for
herself,
her
husband
and
the
entire
garrison.