The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA (30 page)

The Epitaph of Catherine of France (widow of Henry V)
³⁷

This epitaph is comparable in date, metre and length to that of Richard III. Note the use of direct address in line 2, and the use of the word
Britanna
in lines 7 and 16.

One of the epitaphs from the tomb of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York:
³⁸

Notes

Introduction

  
1
. For Henry VII's surname see below, and also J. Ashdown-Hill,
Royal Marriage Secrets
, Stroud 2013 (forthcoming), chapter 5.

1. ‘Your Beloved Consort'

  
1
. Letter of condolence to Richard III from the Doge and Senate of Venice:
Calendar of State Papers – Venetian, vol 1, 1202–1509
, p. 154.

  
2
. The precise nature of Queen Anne Neville's fatal illness is nowhere recorded, but it was probably tuberculosis (consumption):
Road
, p. 196. Myers/Buck, p. 44, describes her as ‘languishing in weaknesse and extremity of sorrow' following the death of her son. My description of her likely symptoms is based on the account of tuberculosis in R. Porter,
The Greatest Benefit to Mankind
, London 1997, pp. 309–10.

  
3
. ‘Suger candy', ‘wyne' and ‘water of honysoclys' were listed together with additional unspecified ‘medesyns' supplied to the sick Lady Howard in 1465, though details of her symptoms are not recorded: BL, Add. MS 46349, f. 87r;
HHB
, part 1, p. 304.

  
4
. 
vanisque mutatoriis vestium Annae, reginae, atque Dominae Elizabeth, primogentiae defuncti regis eisdem colore et forma distributis: Crowland
, p. 174. However, I take issue with the translation of this passage given by Pronay and Cox, and a different translation is offered here. See also L. Visser-Fuchs, ‘A Commentary on the Continuation',
Ric.
7 (1985–87), p. 521, and also
www.r3.org/bookcase/croyland/index.html
(consulted June 2009).

  
5
. In terms of the medieval English calendar, Anne Neville and her son died in the
same
year (1484). This is because in England the medieval calendar year began not on 1 January, but on Lady Day (25 March). Edward of Middleham died in April 1484, and Anne Neville eleven months later, on 16 March, eight days before the end of 1484 according to the medieval reckoning.

  
6
. 
Crowland
, p. 175 – see
R3MK
, pp. 250 and 309, n. 2.

  
7
. For the date, the solar eclipse and anne's death see
Crowland
, p. 175.

  
8
. Collop Monday (which fell on 14 February in 1484/5) was the day for using up the last scraps of meat before Lent. Ash Wednesday (16 February 1484/5) is the first day of Lent and a fast day. It is so called because a cross of ashes is traced on the foreheads of the faithful at mass that day.

  
9
. See above, note 5.

10
. The time was recorded at Augsburg, where the eclipse was total:
http://ls.kuleuven.ac.be/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0103&L=vvs&P=1445
, citing Achilli Pirmini Gassari:
Annales Augustburgenses.

11
. The central duration of the eclipse was 4 minutes 53 seconds:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEsaros/SEsaros121.html
.

12
. 
Crowland
, p. 175.

13
. C.A. Halsted,
Richard III
, London, 1844, vol. 2, p. 399, citing BL, Cotton MS Faustina, c. Iii. 405 and Cooper's
Annals of Cambridge
, p. 229.

14
. There were, of course, fifteenth-century reports suggesting that Cecily Neville was unfaithful to her husband on at least one occasion, leading to the supposed bastardy of Edward IV. However, these rumours were very firmly countered by Cecily herself in her last months of life, as the words of her will clearly demonstrate. In that document she insisted on the fact that Edward IV was the son of her husband: J. Nicholls and J. Bruce, eds,
Wills from Doctors' Commons. A selection of Wills of eminent persons proved in the PCC 1495–1695
, Camden old series, vol. 83, London, 1863, p. 1.

15
. Based upon no real evidence, two other bastard sons have been imputed to Richard by some writers. However, the dates of birth of these children are also unknown.

16
. Both Anne and her sister, Isabel, Duchess of Clarence, died comparatively young, and Isabel was survived by only two children. Moreover, Eleanor and Elizabeth Talbot, who were first cousins of Anne and Isabel Neville, also seem to have had difficulty in producing children. See Ashdown-Hill, ‘Norfolk Requiem',
Ric.
12, pp. 198–217 (pp. 198–203).

17
. See, for example, A.F. Sutton and L. Visser-Fuchs,
The Hours of Richard
III, Stroud, 1990; and J. Hughes,
The Religious Life of Richard III
, Stroud, 1997.

18
. See Introduction.

19
. For details of the funeral arrangements for Edward IV, see
Beloved Cousyn
, pp. 83–84.

20
. ‘Quene Anne deseyd thys same yere at Westmynster that Thomas Hylle was mayor the xvj day of Marche and bered the ix day after ate Westmynster. God have merci on her soulle.' BL, Harl. MS 541, f. 217v, as quoted in J. Gairdner,
History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third
, Cambridge, 1898, p. 205, n. 1.

21
. 
Sepulta est … non cum minore honore quam sicut reginam decuit sepeliri, Crowland,
pp. 174–75. Such a specific statement from a rather variable source, often hostile to Richard III, makes it quite certain that Queen Anne Neville was buried with the full panoply of late medieval royal honours.

22
. English kings at this period did not openly attend funerals of members of the royal family, though they were sometimes present semi-secretly, in a screened ‘closet': A.F. Sutton, and L. Visser-Fuchs with R. A. Griffiths,
The Royal Funerals of the House of York at Windsor
, London, 2005, p. 50.

23
. The Stuart sovereigns seem to have especially favoured Holy Week and Michaelmas for this ceremony (though it could be performed at any time). French sovereigns also regularly favoured Easter for ‘touching'.

24
. M. Bloch (trans. J.E. Anderson),
The Royal Touch, Sacred Monarch and Scrofula in England and France
, London, 1973, p. 224. To take Holy Communion at or around Easter was and is the minimum requirement for a practising Catholic.

25
. Bloch,
Royal Touch
, p. 22.

26
. Edward III is reported to have challenged his rival, Philippe VI, to compete with him in a ‘touching' ceremony to establish which of them was rightful King of France: Bloch,
Royal Touch
, pp. 1–2. See also
ibid.
, pp. 65, 220. Subsequently, the ritual was particularly promoted by the incoming ‘Tudor' dynasty – the legitimacy of whose claim was more than a little suspect. Later still, the exiled legitimist Stuart claimants to the throne would continue to ‘touch' in exile until the death of the dynasty's last direct descendant in 1807. The Hanoverian kings, however, never attempted to perform this rite, despite receiving requests to do so.

27
. Bloch,
Royal Touch
, p. 54.

28
. 
Ibid.
, p. 249.

29
. 
Ibid.
, p. 65. Fortescue was later reconciled to the Yorkist regime, and retracted his comments. See also N. Woolf,
The Sovereign Remedy, Touch Pieces and the King's Evil
, British Association of Numismatic Societies, 1990, pp. 6–7.

30
. Bloch,
Royal Touch
, pp. 181–82.

31
. By the ‘Tudor' period, the ‘touch pieces' presented to the sick who had received the royal touch were undoubtedly gold ‘angels'. Prior to the Yorkist period each person touched by the king had subsequently been given a silver penny by the royal almoner, but the gold angel was introduced by Edward IV, and Bloch has suggested that this may have been with the deliberate intention of encouraging the sick to come to him for healing (thereby gaining 80 pence rather than a single silver penny): Bloch,
Royal Touch
, pp. 66, 182; Woolf,
The Sovereign Remedy
, p. 6.

32
. The gatehouse, and parts of the church, of the Priory of the Knights Hospitaller at Clerkenwell survive, and are now in the hands of the so-called ‘Venerable Order of St John of Jerusalem', a Victorian Protestant English ‘recreation' of the Order of Knights Hospitaller. The original Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem still survives as an order of the Catholic Church, based nowadays in Rome.

33
. The first antiphon begins:
Mandatum novum do vobis
(‘a new commandment I give unto you'). The word ‘Maundy' is a corruption of the Latin
mandatum.

34
. E.E. Ratcliffe and P.A. Wright,
The Royal Maundy, a brief outline of its history and ceremonial
(The Royal Almonry, Buckingham Palace, seventh edition, 1960), pp. 6–9, citing a manuscript account in the College of Arms describing the practice in the early ‘Tudor' period. The sovereign continued to perform the annual foot-washing ceremony in person until the deposition of James II.

35
. Bloch,
Royal Touch
, p. 92.

36
. 
Ibid.
, p. 93.

37
. 
Ibid.
, p. 251.

38
. 
Ibid.
, p. 100. No Good Friday fell within the very short reign of Edward V, who therefore never made this offering as king.

39
. 
Tenebrae
[‘Darkness'] was the traditional name given to the office of Matins during Holy Week.

2. ‘It Suits the King of England to Marry Straight Away'

  
1
. See below, note 15.

  
2
. J. Ashdown-Hill, ‘“Yesterday my Lord of Gloucester came to Colchester …”',
Essex Archaeology & History
36, 2005, pp. 212–17. There is some evidence that Howard condoned the sexual experimentation of young men. He financed a trip by his young cousin John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk to a brothel, and Howard's own eldest son seems to have had an illegitimate son. Θ, subsection 5.8.10 and
Beloved Cousyn
, chapter 4. For the name ‘John de Pountfreit' (John of Pontefract), see Harl. 433, vol. 1, p. 271.

  
3
. 
Beloved Cousyn
, chapter 4, n. 19. The surname ‘de Pountfreit' appears to imply that John may have been either born or brought up at Pontefract.

  
4
. 
Road
, p. 202.

  
5
. On the legitimist stance of the Yorkists in general, and Richard III personally, see
Eleanor
, pp. 10–12.

  
6
. See below: Elizabeth of York's letter to the Duke of Norfolk.

  
7
. From Edward I to Henry VI all the kings of England had married foreign ladies as their queens consort (though Henry IV's first wife, married before his accession, was from the English aristocracy). Edward IV had broken this traditional marriage pattern, arguably with disastrous results.

  
8
. Or possibly ‘… greatly serving God and honouring Him …' The Portuguese possessive adjective
sua
could refer to either sex. Its intended application in this sentence is therefore ambiguous. It might refer either to the princess or to the Deity. I am grateful to Carolina Barbara for drawing my attention to this point.

  
9
. 
pela concordia que no mesmo Reyno de Ingraterra com seu casamento e ajuntamento com a parte del Rey se segue, de tanto seruiço de Deos e honra sua por se unir em hum a parte de Alencastro e Jorca que são as duas partes daquelle Reyno, de que nascem as divisiões e males sobre a socessão:
A.J. Salgado,
Álvaro Lopes de Chaves, Livro de Apontamentos (1438–1489), Códice 443 da Colecção Pombalina da B.N.L.
, Lisboa, 1983, p. 256; also quoted in D.M. Gomes dos Santos,
O Mosteiro de Jesus de Aveiro
, 3 vols, Lisboa, 1963, vol. 1, p. 93. The council meeting was held in Alcobaça in 1485, but the precise date is not recorded;
Conselho que se teue em Alcobaça na era de 1485 sobre o casamento da Ifante Dona Joana com el Rej de Ingrayerra Richarte que foj Duque de Gronsetra e jrmão del Rej Duarte do ditto Rejno:
Salgado,
Álvaro Lopes de Chaves
, p. 254.

10
. She is frequently referred to in English as
Isabella
, but there is no good reason for this. Her name in Spanish was
Isabel
and that form of the name also exists in English.

11
.  J. Ashdown-Hill, ‘The Lancastrian Claim to the Throne',
Ric.
13 (2003), pp. 27–38.