Ludlow is a market town in Shropshire, near to the Welsh
border, an area known as the Welsh Marches.
The castle, on a high point above the River Teme, was first
built in the 11th century by one of the Marcher Lords, Roger de Lacy, and was an
important stronghold for the English control of the Marches. In the early 14th
century, it came through marriage into the possession of the Mortimer family,
and was enlarged in the 14th century by Roger Mortimer, one of the most
powerful nobles in the country.
The castle came into the possession of Richard, Duke of
York, in 1425, and it played a part in the Wars of the Roses on two occasions.
In 1459 the Lancastrian and Yorkist armies faced each other
at Ludford, across the river from Ludlow, preparing for battle. However, during
the night, one of the Yorkist lords, Anthony Trollope, defected to the
Lancastrians with his forces. Rather than face inevitable defeat, York and
Warwick fled.
The Yorkist troops disbanded, and the Lancastrian army
entered the town. York’s wife, Cecily Neville, was living at Ludlow at this
time with her two younger sons, George and Richard (aged 9 and 7 at the time) and her youngest daughter Margaret aged 13, and it’s said they were
standing near the market cross when the Lancastrians arrived. I always picture them standing forlornly there, the children especially shaking with fear as they wondered what on earth was going to happen to them now their father had fled. In fact they were
entrusted to the charge of Cecily’s sister, Anne, Duchess of Buckingham.
When Edward IV became king in 1461, Ludlow became a royal
palace, and about ten years later he sent his two sons to live there, under the
supervision of the queen’s brother, Anthony, Earl Rivers. The princes were
at Ludlow in 1483 when news came of Edward IV’s death. Rivers immediately
set off for London with the two boys, only to be intercepted near Northampton
by Richard of Gloucester, who forestalled the plans of the queen’s family to
seize control of London and rule the country. More of that in a later post this month! |
| Richard, Duke of York and Edward IV |
