The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA (33 page)

  
5
. In December 1467, while staying in London (or more probably, at his house in Stepney), Sir John Howard purchased various paraphernalia for hawking, comprising a hawk's bag, two hawk's bells, and ‘a tabere [sic, tabard? = hood?] for the hawk'. On 19 December 1482, 20d. was paid ‘to Tymperleys man for brynging of a hawke'. On 16 February 1483 there was a payment of 12d. ‘to Seyncleres man for hawkynge': BL, Add. MS 46349, f. 153r;
HHB
, part 1, p. 431; Soc. Ant., MS 77, f. 26v;
HHB
, part 2, p. 328; Soc. Ant., MS 77, f. 43r;
HHB
, part 2, p. 360.

  
6
. According to the
Boke of St Albans
the choice of falcon was entirely hierarchical. Only the emperor should use an eagle. Kings employed gyrfalcons, princes and dukes had peregrines, and so on: Reeves,
Pleasures and Pastimes
, pp. 113–14.

  
7
. In 1368 Nicholas de Litlington, Abbot of Westminster, offered up prayers for the recovery of his sick hawk, accompanied by the presentation of a wax falcon as a votive offering: Reeves,
Pleasures and Pastimes
, p. 112.

  
8
. J. Ashdown-Hill, ‘Yesterday my Lord of Gloucester came to Colchester',
Essex Archaeology and History
, vol. 36 (2005), pp. 212–17.

  
9
. Pollard,
North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses: Lay Society
, War
and Politics 1450–1500
, p. 198; L. Woolley,
Medieval Life and Leisure in the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries
, London: V&A, 2002, p. 25.

10
. 
www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2008/09/18/robin_hood_and_bestwood_feature.shtml
(consulted December 2008).

11
. 
www.bw-bestwoodlodge.co.uk/HistoryoftheLodge.asp
(consulted December 2008).

12
. In England, these comprised the native red deer, the smaller fallow deer (introduced by the Normans), and the roe deer – which had the advantage that roebuck could be hunted all year round.

13
. Edward, Duke of York, considered hare the finest game: a swift and clever quarry which could be hunted all year round: C. Reeves,
Pleasures and Pastimes in Medieval England
, Stroud, 1995, p. 106.

14
. They were not eaten, though their fur was used to adorn clothing.

15
. Edward, Duke of York (d. 1415) translated into English, with additions of his own, the
Livre de Chasse
of Gaston III, Comte de Foix.

16
. The Duke of York had, however, commented on the fact that foxes could provide cunning quarry for hounds, and produced an attractive pelt.

17
. 
http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/Brown1896/arnold.htm
(consulted December 2008).

18
. The modern deer-stalking dates for Scotland are as follows: Red Deer (Hart): July–Oct; Red Deer (Hind): Oct–Feb; Fallow Deer (Buck): Aug–Apr; Fallow Deer (Doe): Nov–Apr:
www.woodmillshootings.com/holiday_packages.htm
(consulted November 2008).

19
. C.M. Woolgar, D. Sejeantson & T. Waldron,
Food in Medieval England – Diet & Nutrition
, Oxford, 2006, p. 178.

20
. Edward, Duke of York, called scent-hounds ‘harriers', ‘crachets' or ‘raches', and he preferred them to be tan in colour.

21
. Even the alaunt tended to be given the protection of leather armour for this task. Alaunts were notoriously uncertain in temperament, and often vicious. They were favoured for bear and bull baiting.

22
. So called because they originated in Spain.

23
. Ashdown-Hill, ‘Yesterday my Lord of Gloucester came to Colchester'.

24
. Harl. 433, 1, 155.

25
. Harl. 433, 2, 111.

26
. BL, Add. MS 46349, f. 146r; Arundel Castle, MS, f. 96 (actually numbered 92 in MS); Soc. Ant., MS 76, ff. 87r, 91v, 149r; MS 77, f. 4v;
HHB
, part 1, pp. 419, 558; part 2, pp. 109, 115, 216, 287.

27
. There appears to be no written source which recounts the exact details of the medieval Sudbury processions. This account is, therefore, based on local tradition.

28
. 
Beloved Cousyn
, pp. 105–6, 123.

29
. Nicolas, p. 3.

30
.  N. Davis, ed.,
Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century
, 2 vols, Oxford: Clarendon, 1971 and 1976, vol. 2, p. 444.

31
. It is true that the ‘sweating sickness' or ‘English Sweate' did first appear in England at about this time, and is mentioned in the Crowland Chronicle (pp. 168–69). The first known cases occurred early in August 1485, several weeks before the Battle of Bosworth. ‘The symptoms and signs as described by Caius and others were as follows: The disease began very suddenly with a sense of apprehension, followed by cold shivers (sometimes very violent), giddiness, headache and severe pains in the neck, shoulders and limbs, with great exhaustion. After the cold stage, which might last from half an hour to three hours, the hot and sweating stage followed. The characteristic sweat broke out suddenly without any obvious cause. Accompanying the sweat, or after that was poured out, was a sense of heat, headache, delirium, rapid pulse, and intense thirst. Palpitation and pain in the heart were frequent symptoms. No skin eruptions were noted by observers including Caius. In the final stages, there was either general exhaustion and collapse, or an irresistible urge to sleep, which was thought to be fatal if the patient was permitted to give way to it. One attack did not offer immunity.' See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweating_sickness
(consulted March 2009).

32
. 
Crowland
, pp. 178–79. This story could be part of the Stanleys' subsequent rewriting of their role in the events of 1485. The chronicler at Crowland Abbey could well have derived his account from Lord Stanley's wife (see below: chapter 7, n. 21).

33
. See
Beloved Cousyn
, appendix 4.

34
. 
Crowland
, pp. 178–79.

35
. Ellis/Vergil, p. 223.

36
. Contemporary sources suggest that this was a real crown, made of gold and set with jewels, and not a piece of gilt base-metal ‘costume jewellery': Jones,
Bosworth 1485
, p. 187. Jones suggests that it may have been the crown of St Edward (the coronation crown), but this seems inherently improbable. The
precious
crown of an English sovereign was usually his personal, state crown. Even today the modern ‘Imperial State Crown' is a far more valuable object than ‘St Edward's Crown'. Moreover, it is the former, and not the latter, which is worn on state occasions.

7. Crossing the River

  
1
. Most horses which appear to be white only have a white hair coat. Their underlying skin is dark in colour, as are their eyes. Such horses are, therefore, more accurately described as ‘grey'. Rarely, true white horses do occur, which have pink skin under their coats and usually blue eyes. It is impossible at this late date to establish whether ‘White Surrey' or ‘White Syrie' – if indeed he existed – was in reality white or grey.

  
2
. On ‘White Syrie', see J. Jowett, ed.,
The Tragedy of King Richard III
, Oxford, 2000, p. 336 and n. 43; also N. de Somogyi, ed.,
The Shakespeare Folios: Richard III
, London, 2002, p. 267, n. 90. For the list of Richard III's horses, see Harl. 433, vol. 1, pp. 4–5.

  
3
.  See Θ, on John Howard's stable, and Harl. 433, vol. 1, pp. 4–5. The list of Richard III's horses includes twenty named mounts, which were either grey (
liard, lyard
or
gray
) or white (
whit
). Amongst these was ‘the gret gray … being at Harmet at Nottingham'. There is no horse specifically named ‘White Syrie', but not all the horses are named, nor are all described in terms of their colour.

  
4
. See Θ.

  
5
. Speede's account is cited in J. Throsby,
The Memoirs of the Town and County of Leicester
, Leicester, 1777, p. 61, n. b.

  
6
. F. Roe,
Old Oak Furniture
, London, 1908, p. 286.

  
7
. S.E. Green,
Selected Legends of Leicestershire
, Leicester, 1971, 1982, p. 21. Green cites no source for this quotation.

  
8
. As we have seen (above), there is no actual evidence for any such change of name.

  
9
. Green,
Legends
, p. 21. Thomas Clarke was Mayor of Leicester in 1583 and again in 1598: H. Hartopp,
The Roll of the Mayors of the Borough and Lord Mayors of the City of Leicester 1209–1935
, Leicester, 1935, pp. 75–76, 80. The story of Clark(e)'s treasure was first written down in Sir Roger Twysden's ‘Commonplace Book' in about 1650, and published in Nichols'
History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester
(1815).

10
. Throsby,
Leicester
, pp. 14, 62, n. b. The feet, which were cut off in the mid-eighteenth century, measured 6 inches square and were 2 feet 6 inches in height.

11
. There are recent rumours of a ‘Richard III bed' at a farmhouse in Sheepy Magna (J.D. Austin,
Merevale and Atherstone 1485: Recent Bosworth Discoveries,
Friends of Atherstone Heritage, 2004, section 21). But an indication of the ease with which ‘Richard III beds' may be invented, is provided by the fact that the present author was told that a wooden bedstead at the Guildhall in Leicester had belonged to Richard III. Subsequent enquiries revealed that the bed in question is seventeenth century, was purchased for the Guildhall as part of a room display in the 1950s, and has absolutely no historic connection either with Leicester or with King Richard (I am grateful to Philip French, curator of Leicester City Museums, for this information). See also below, note 16.

12
. Speede,
History
, p. 725.

13
. See the case of Jeweyn Blakecote,
sortilega
, in J. Ashdown-Hill,
Mediaeval Colchester's Lost Landmarks
, Derby, 2009, p. 161. Regarding the Richard III Bow Bridge prophecy, the location, at a water crossing, may perhaps be significant. With the substitution of begging for washing, ‘there is a hint of the Irish / Scottish “Washer at the Ford” folk motif. The Washer at the Ford is an Otherworld woman whose task it is to wash the clothes of those who are about to die': personal communication from Marie Barnfield.

14
. 
Crowland, pp.
180–81.

15
. Ellis/Vergil, pp. 221–22.

16
. The chair at Coughton Court is said to be made from the bed in which Richard III slept the night before the Battle of Bosworth (thus 21/22 August). This must, therefore, have been his camp bed, and not the great royal bed, which had reportedly been left behind in Leicester. The tradition relating to this chair seems to be an old one, but lacks documentary evidence.

17
. ‘The malady was remarkably rapid in its course, being sometimes fatal even in two or three hours, and some patients died in less than that time. More commonly it was protracted to a period of twelve to twenty-four hours, beyond which it rarely lasted. Those who survived for twenty-four hours were considered safe.' It is said to have particularly attacked the rich and the idle:
www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/sweatingsickness.htm
(consulted March 2009).
    The exact cause of the disease remains unknown, but the symptoms did not include the rash or boils found in cases of typhus or plague. Some authorities consider
sudor anglicus
an early form of the Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome which struck parts of America during the summer of 1993: R. Putatunda, published 3/27/2008:
www.buzzle.com/articles/sweating-sickness.html
(consulted March 2009).

18
. The sweating sickness was a fever and its most obvious symptom was sweating. There was no visible rash associated with it. If patients were kept quiet, in an equal temperature, they often survived the disease.

19
. Ellis/Vergil, pp. 222–23, speaks of the royal army as a ‘multitude' which struck terror into the hearts of those who saw it, and says that the king's forces outnumbered those of Henry ‘Tudor' by two to one.

20
. On the other hand, if the king was indeed suffering from an attack of sweating sickness, he is unlikely to have mentioned that, since it would have given grounds for disquiet as to his physical fitness for the coming conflict.

21
. There has been much debate as to the identity of the Crowland chronicler, and the latest thinking is that he may not have been one single individual: A. Hanham, ‘The Mysterious Affair at Crowland Abbey', Ric. 18, pp. 1–20. Some of the information in the chronicle does appear to have come from someone who had attended the Yorkist court – but of course the Abbot of Crowland would himself have sat in Parliament. We may also note that Henry VII's mother was an oblate of Crowland Abbey, not to mention its direct neighbour (through her tenure of Deeping).

8. ‘He has now Departed from Amongst the Living'

  
1
. 
Iam enim è vivis abiit:
the words of the beautiful messenger who reported Richard III's death to the Infanta Joana of Portugal in a vision: P. Antonio Vasconcellio,
Anacephalaeoses, id est, summa capita actorum regum Lusitaniae
, Antwerp, 1621, p. 252.

  
2
. 
Crowland
, pp. 176–83; Ellis/Vergil, pp. 216–25. Pronay and Cox oppose the theory that Vergil saw and used the Crowland Chronicle as one of his sources:
Crowland
, p. 99.

  
3
. Ellis/Vergil, p. 221; see also Jones,
Bosworth 1485
, p. 166.

  
4
. 
Circa
1924: P.J. Foss,
The Field of Redemore
, Newtown Lindford, 1998, pp. 40, 63.