Villains - and one in particular!

The 15th century is not short of villains, but the interpretation of the word depends on whose side you were on. The Lancastrians looked on Richard, duke of York and his sons as villains; the Yorkists considered the weak king Henry VI, and especially his wife Margaret of Anjou as villains. Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, changed sides. So did Lord Hastings and the Duke of Buckingham. Then there was Margaret Beaufort and her son, Henry Tudor.

My top vote, however, goes to the Stanleys.

 

Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, (1435-1504) was a landed nobleman in the 15th century who somehow managed to stay on the winning side throughout the Wars of the Roses. Because of his immense power, both sides needed (and sometimes demanded, threatened or begged for) his support.

 

His father held important roles at the court of Henry VI and Stanley’s early loyalty was to the Lancastrian king. However, his marriage to Eleanor Neville, sister of Richard Neville, Earl ofWarwick, brought him into alliance with the Yorkists. In 1459,when his father-in-law, the Earl of Salisbury, was mobilising his forces against the royal forces, Stanley was ordered by the Queen to intercept him, but when the two forces met at Blore Heath in Staffordshire, Stanley kept his 2,000 forces out of the battle.

 

The following year, Stanley openly cooperated with the Yorkists, and joined with his brother-in-law, the Earl of Warwick in his campaigns with the Lancastrians. When Warwick rebelled against Edward IV, Stanley lent him armed support. However, on Edward IV’s defeat of Warwick in 1471, Stanley became a member of the royal council.

 

The death of his wife around this time ended his connection with the Nevilles. His second marriage was to have far greater consequences, as his new wife was Lady Margaret Beaufort, who had previously been married to Edmund Tudor. Her child by this marriage was, of course, Henry Tudor.

 

When Edward IV died unexpectedly in 1483, Stanley was one of the members of the royal council who tried to maintain a balance of power between Richard, Duke of Gloucester and the Woodville family. When Richard denounced the council, Stanley escaped the fate of Lord Hastings who was executed, but he was imprisoned for a time. However, when Richard became king, he found it more advisable to appease rather than alienate the Stanley family. Thus Stanley continued to act as steward of the royal household and bore the mace at Richard’s coronation.

 

He supported Richard in suppressing Buckingham’s revolt in the autumn of 1483, even though  it is highly likely he was actually involved in the conspiracy. Certainly his wife was one of the co-conspirators in the plot to dethrone Richard and put Henry Tudor on the throne. Stanley only escaped attainder by promising Richard that he would keep his wife in custody and end her intrigues.

 

In early 1485, Stanley asked permission to leave the court to attend to his northern estates. Richard was clearly aware of the threat from the Stanley family, and insisted that his son, Lord Strange, remained at court as a token for his father’s loyalty.

 

When Henry Tudor’s forces advanced through Wales in the summer of 1495, Richard ordered Stanley to join him, but Stanley made an excuse, saying he had the sweating sickness. By this time Richard had evidence of Stanley’s treachery since Lord Strange had confessed that his father and uncle William Stanley had conspired with Henry Tudor. Richard sent a message to Stanley saying that Lord Strange’s life depended on Stanley’s loyalty in the coming conflict. Apparently, Stanley’s reply was, “Sire, I have other sons.” Nice father, huh?

 

Stanley and his brother William led their forces south to the Midlands, but they took up a position separate from both Richard’s and Henry Tudor’s forces at Bosworth Field. The general consensus of historians is that he was waiting to see who was the likely winner before showing his hand. Only when Richard led his magnificent charge towards Tudor did the Stanleys act. William led his forces to Henry’s aid, and Richard was surrounded and killed.

 

Legend has it that, when the battle was over, Thomas Stanley discovered the coronet that had fallen from Richard’s head, and placed it on his stepson’s head, no doubt to show that Henry Tudor owed his victory to the Stanleys. Thomas was rewarded with the office of High Constable of England, together with other estates and offices, and was godfather to Henry’s oldest son Arthur in 1486.

 

In the Derby chapel at Ormskirk Church in Lancashire there are effigies thought to be those of Thomas Stanley and his first wife, Eleanor Neville. He was actually buried in the family chapel at nearby Burscough Priory and it is thought the effigies were  brought to Ormskirk Church when the priory was demolished when the monasteries were dissolved in 1536.

 

It’s worth considering for a moment that the treachery of the Stanleys at Bosworth changed the course of English history. Without their intervention, Richard would probably have killed Henry Tudor, thereby securing his throne. There would have been no Tudor dynasty, no Henry VIII, no break with Rome, no Elizabeth I – and maybe Shakespeare would have written a play about the despised Tudor would-be usurper and his traitorous Stanley acolytes!

Battle of Bosworth

Continuing the A-Z Challenge, the letter B is probably the most well-known battle of the Wars of the Roses

 

The Battle of Bosworth in August 1485 was the culmination (apart from a few later skirmishes) of the Wars of the Roses, when the Lancastrian Henry Tudor defeated and killed Richard III, and claimed the throne.

Tudor’s claim to the throne was tenuous, to say the least. It came through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, who was descended from John of Gaunt and his mistress, Katherine Swynford. Their children, all born illegitimately, were ‘legitimised’ later, but were barred from the succession. Nevertheless, the Lancastrians looked to Henry Tudor as the ‘rightful heir’, as did some disaffected Yorkists such as the Duke of Buckingham.

Tudor, after many years of exile in France, landed in Wales on August 7th with about 2,000 men. With no battle experience, he relied on his commanders, but his hopes of the Welsh flocking to his cause were disappointed. His force numbered about 5,000 as he marched across Wales and England to meet Richard’s army.

Richard had been aware since June of Henry’s impending invasion, and his forces (about 10,000 men) convened at Leicester, and then proceeded westward to Sutton Cheney, and a low ridge called Ambion Hill, about 12 miles west of Leicester.

The result of the battle, on August 22, should have been a foregone conclusion, considering the strength of Richard’s forces. However, one man held the key to Richard’s victory or defeat – Thomas Stanley. Well-known for changing allegiance during the wars, depending on which side was likely to win at any given time, Stanley played the same game at Bosworth, and held back his force of about 5-7,000 men.

There are differences in the accounts of what happened after the battle (mainly hand-to-hand combat) had been in progress for some time. One view is that Tudor, facing defeat, headed in the direction of Stanley’s forces to persuade them to enter the battle on his side. Another view is that the Stanley forces began to advance to side with Tudor.

Richard then led what was to be the last great cavalry charge of the medieval era, and thundered down directly towards Tudor himself, intending to kill him before the Stanley forces could enter the battle and change its course. In the ensuing melee, Richard was unhorsed, but continued fighting on foot until he was surrounded by Stanley’s men and killed.

The death of the king signalled the end of the battle, and Richard’s forces disintegrated.

Tradition says that Richard’s crown was retrieved from a hawthorn bush by Thomas Stanley (boo! hiss! I make no apologies for my allegiance to Richard III), who then placed it on Tudor’s head.

The actual site of the battle has been disputed by historians, but Leicester County Council has built an excellent battlefield centre near Ambion Hill, and laid out a sign-marked route around the battlefield. I will never forget my first sight of Richard’s standard flying on Ambion Hill!

This stone marks the traditional site of where Richard was killed. However, since I took this photo in 1999, this site has been disputed, and the stone has now been moved to the Battlefield Centre.

Thursday Tour of NW England - Ormskirk

Ormskirk is a small market town in West Lancashire, about half way between Liverpool and Preston. Its name is Old Norse from ‘Ormres kirkja’ meaning the church of Ormre. One source suggests that Ormre may have been a Viking who converted to Christianity and founded the church, but there is no archaeological evidence to support this.

There is no reference to Ormskirk in the Domesday Book of 1086, but about a century later the lord of Latham granted the church at Ormskirk to Burscough Priory. Ormskirk was at the junction of the main roads to Liverpool, Preston and Wigan, and by the 13th century, it had developed into a small town. Its market charter was granted by Edward I in 1286.

With its weekly markets, the town became a focal point for local farmers to trade their goods, and shops and inns also catered to the needs of the market visitors. Later, an engineering industry grew up, based on making and mending agricultural machinery.

The market is still held twice weekly, on Thursdays and Saturdays, in the now pedestrianised centre of the town.

The church of St. Peter and St. Paul is believed to be on the site of the original church. Its exact age is unknown but it does have some fragments of Norman architecture.

It has many links with the Stanley family who owned land in North West England (and became the Earls of Derby). Many family members are buried in the Derby Chapel, including Thomas Stanley, the first Earl, who betrayed King Richard III by changing sides during the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. He failed to bring his troops to support the royal forces and this, together with his brother William’s last minute intervention, led to the death of Richard and victory for Henry Tudor.

A later Earl, James Stanley, was beheaded during the 17th century Civil War. His body is buried in one coffin, and his head in a separate casket.

The church is unusual is that it has both a tower and a spire, and is unique in that both are at the same end of the building. Legend has it that Ormre had two sisters, one of whom wanted a tower, the other a spire. In fact, the steeple dates from the 15th century and the tower from the 16th century.

Photos of Ormskirk Market, Thomas Stanley, and Ormskirk Church all from Wikimedia Commons and released into public domain.