The Significance of Furness Abbey and its Benefactors
The Significance of Furness Abbey and its Benefactors
by Christopher Tinmouth
On 4th June 1487, an invasion force of about 8,000 men landed on the shores of Piel Island, a small island off the south-eastern coast of the Furness peninsula in the north-westernmost extremities of the kingdom of England.1 They were led by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, marching on behalf of a pretender to the throne of England, Lambert Simnel, who claimed to be Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, although he had latterly claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, one of the missing sons of Edward IV.2 This was a land dominated by Furness Abbey, the premier religious and political institution in Furness since its foundation at 1127, and valued at its dissolution in 1537 as the second wealthiest Cistercian monastery in England. 3
The Abbot of Furness, in addition to his significant local power, wielded national influence within the court of the English kings, and Furness Abbey had maintained a strong connection with the Yorkist kings, including Richard III.4 Local benefactors of the Abbey also played an important role on he Yorkist side in the Wars of the Roses, and this article will focus on two families who played a significant part in continuing Ricardian sympathies in Furness after 1485. The Simnel invasion that landed in Furness was able to proceed virtually unhindered across the lands of Furness Abbey and attracted direct or indirect support amongst key Yorkist sections of the local nobility.5
This article will therefore answer the question of why the 1487 invasion was capable of proceeding through Furness unopposed by drawing attention to the depth of Yorkist sympathy within Furness. It will illustrate the relationship between Furness Abbey and Richard III to demonstrate how the Abbey enabled Furness to act as a wellspring of Ricardian support by 1487. The relationship between the Huddlestons of Millon, key dynastic players in Furnesian politics and benefactors of Furness Abbey, and Richard III will then be chronicled in brief. Finally, the career of Furnesian knight Sir Thomas Broughton in connection with his involvement in the Simnel invasion will be investigated. It will conclude by contending that Furness Abbey and the local nobility displayed a significant degree of support for known Ricardian sympathisers in its locality even into the early reign of Henry VII and that its role in supporting the regime of Richard III should not be underestimated.
History of the Abbey
Furness Abbey was founded by Stephen, Count of Boulogne and Mortain, later King Stephen I, as the first English foundation of the Order of Savigny, a reformed monastic order based in Stephen’s county of Mortain.6 In 1147 the Order was merged with the Cistercian Order and Furness Abbey thus became associated with one of the most expansionary monastic orders in medieval Europe.7 Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Furness Abbey, in common with Cistercian monasteries across Europe, attracted donations of land, particularly waste land, for development into economically viable propositions, especially as profitable agricultural enterprises, as was the case in northern England.8 Because of its location in close proximity to the Irish Sea, Furness Abbey developed significant and close connections across the British Isles. It established daughter-houses, or dependencies, in the Isle of Man (Rushen, est 1134)9 and Ireland (Inch, est 1180).10 It patronised monks from Furness such as Jocelin of Furness, who wrote Scottish and Irish saints lives, particularly of St Kentigern11 and St Patrick.12 It even claimed the right to nominate appointments to the bishopric of Man and the Isles.13 By the early fourteenth century Furness Abbey had obtained political powers quite unusual among monastic establishments, including the right to appoint its own coroner from 1326 and the right to administer capital punishments at the abbatial court at Dalton-in-Furness.14
In 1411, the Abbey even lodged a petition to Parliament asking for the Abbot to be excused from personally attending the Wapentake courts relating to abbey estates in Yorkshire, on account of the frequent tidal shifts cutting off the Furness peninsula from the eastern shores of Morecombe Bay.15 Furness Abbey had clearly obtained a position of political pre-eminence by the fifteenth century, but it suffered the effects of socio-economic decline common to religious houses in Britain after the Black Death (1348-50).16 Its position in close proximity to Scotland resulted in a series of devastating Scottish raids upon the Abbey, particularly in 1316 and 1322.17 The effects of the 1322 Great Raid can be tracked in the decrease in local church contributions to the Peter’s Pence papal tax valuation compared to the Taxatio of 1292.18 For example, Dalton once gave £8, then it gave £2, while Urswick rendered nothing in 1322.19
As a result of these privations, Furness Abbey invested resources in augmenting displays of political authority over Furness. This can be seen by the fourteenth century construction of Dalton Castle as the seat of the abbey court,20 and in military fortifications to seek refuge in times of war, as witnessed in the construction of Piel Castle in 1327.21 Piel Castle in fact served as the maritime customs post for Furness Abbey, receiving grain supplies from its Irish estates that became especially critical to sustaining the Abbey by the early fifteenth century.22 In 1410, Henry IV confiscated Piel Castle from Furness Abbey because it had not maintained a sufficient garrison there and had been complicit in smuggling wool and corn from the island of Piel to Ireland and Flanders.23 After much litigation, the Abbot of Furness succeeded in regaining control of Piel Castle pending the payment of an encastellation licence,24 implying that the island retained strategic value for both parties. Henry IV recognised that maintaining the support of Furness Abbey was vital to preventing a hostile bridgehead from Ireland being established from which the realm could be destabilised, while the Abbey was keen to maintain good relations with the King to remain a force in national affairs.
Connections with Richard III
In c 1412 Abbot William Dalton of Furness commissioned the Furness Coucher Book,25 a cartulary documenting the history and properties of Furness Abbey that made especial reference to the importance of the English royal connection in the historical consciousness of the Abbey. The Duchy of Lancaster was the most conspicuous element in the extent of illumination and nature of material incorporated into the cartulary,26 and the Duchy connection was arguably the most consistent feature in the relationship between Furness Abbey and English royalty throughout the period of the Wars of the Roses.
As Duke of Lancaster, Richard III confirmed the royal protection over Furness Abbey that had been granted by his predecessors and trusted the Abbot of Furness to continue to exercise jurisdiction over Furness in the name of the Duchy. When Richard became King in June 1483, the Abbot of Furness attended the coronation ceremony and was present at York during his royal progress to the north in September 1483.27 Richard III requested a loan of £100 from Furness Abbey on 9th November 1483 to cover the expenses of his progress.28 The loan granted by Furness Abbey underwrote how much Richard III could count on the loyalty of the Abbey to his regime, as he secured the loyalty of religious houses across the north during his northern progress during July 148329 by grants and confirmations of privileges to monasteries. He could trust that the Abbey could muster the credit necessary to defray his northern expenses by obtaining the money from its tenants easily, and he sought to maintain a dependable relationship with the Abbey within territory which he knew personally.
In 1470 Edward IV appointed his brother, then Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as Warden of the West March,30 from which Richard developed an intensely personal association with the north-west of England, staying at Penrith Castle from 1474 after spending considerable sums on its restoration.31 It therefore seems reasonable to assume that he maintained contact with Furness Abbey during this time because of the close proximity of physical and political boundaries between Penrith and Furness Abbey lands in Cumbria.
In 1484, Richard III granted the Abbey a licence to keep the profits of its estates in Ireland,32 most of which were concentrated around Drogheda, in the area of influence of the Yorkist FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare.33 This demonstrates the importance to Furness Abbey of maintaining a consistent maritime connection between its British territories,34 and also illustrates the degree of interconnectedness between Furness and Ireland that prevailed in the late fifteenth century and was recognised as such by central government. This same connection could be exploited by its benefactors, fostering links between the bases of known Yorkist supporters in Ireland and Furness, as well as providing a ready-made infrastructure by which military and commercial traffic could be conducted.35 So far, no evidence has come to light of expenses paid by the Abbot of Furness for sending troops to Bosworth on the side of Richard III, but during the period of the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536-7) the Abbey could muster 1,000 men at arms,36 and a formidable local infrastructure was in place for mustering further troops that could assemble for the uprising from throughout Furness.37 It seems, therefore, that Furness Abbey played an important part in maintaining the authority of the Ricardian regime in the north-west of England, and extended its influence on a more national scale than has hitherto been appreciated.
Benefactors of the Abbey
The importance of the support given by local Furness Abbey benefactors to Richard III has already been highlighted. One such family, the Huddlestons of Millom, originally from Hutton in Yorkshire, came to Furness in 1270, when Sir John Huddleston I married Joan de Boyville, the last heiress of the Boyville lords of Millom.38 Soon after Sir John Hiddleston I became a benefactor of Furness Abbey when he confirmed to the Abbey the lands in Millom granted by his Boyville predecessors, and the Huddlestons remained witnesses to numerous grants and confirmations to the Abbey in the fourteenth century.39 The Huddlestons also intermarried among prominent Furness Abbey benefactors, including the Penningtons of Muncaster Castle (Lancastrians) and the Harringtons of Gleaston Castle (Yorkists) during the fourteenth century.40 During the Wars of the Roses, the Huddlestons consistently supported the Yorkists, and in 1464 Edward IV appointed Sir John Huddleston IV to treat with the Scottish commissioners on Border matters.41 Sir Richard Huddleston, son of Sir John Huddleston IV, married Margaret Neville, illegitimate daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the cousin of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and thus became second cousin of both Richard and of Edward IV.42 When Richard became King in 1483, Sir John Huddleston IV attended his coronation and his wife, Joan, was even granted three outfits from the Royal Wardrobe.43 He was made Sheriff of Cumberland for life, Steward of Penrith and Warden of the Western Marches.44 As a result, the Huddlestons were heavily invested in the Ricardian regime and they marched not only to Bosworth on the side of Richard III but within his personal retinue during the battle itself.45 After the defeat, Sir John Huddleston IV hid out in the Furness Fells (a mountainous region to the north of Furness itself) and was declared a rebel by act of attainder by Henry VII, but this attainder was reversed in 1486.46 Although the elder Huddleston had seemingly reconciled himself to the Henrican regime to save the family from ruin, one of his younger sons, Henry, joined the Lambert Simnel invasion in 1487 with considerable enthusiasm.47 He did not return alive from the Battle of Stoke (16th June 1487).
Just across the River Duddon from the Huddleston patrimony stood Broughton Tower, in Broughton-in-Furness, the home of one of the most interesting yet enigmatic participants in the 1487 invasion, Sir Thomas Broughton. The de Broughton family were among the most ancient benefactors of Furness Abbey, contributing land from the 1250s onwards, and claimed a descent going back to the Norman Conquest; their earliest benefactor to Furness Abbey was one Ailward de Broughton in 1167.48 There is ample evidence of the close connection between the Abbey and the Broughtons throughout the Middle Ages, but the Broughtons during the reign of Richard III are elusive.49 After Bosworth, Henry VII granted Thomas Broughton Witherslack Hall in Halecat on the Cartmel peninsula, within territory under the lordship of the Stanleys,50 as a means of buying his loyalty in an area of significant Ricardian sympathy by enabling him to maintain control over his own patrimony. Perhaps Henry VII was able to use the grant of Witherslack Hall, situated within Stanley territory, as effectively a de facto recognisance, insofar as the grant was conditional upon Thomas’s loyalty to Henry VII, with the oversight of the loyal Stanleys as surety against disloyal behaviour. Nevertheless, Thomas continued to harbour Yorkist rebels, particularly Francis Lovell.51 Lovell supposedly fled in disguise to Furness Abbey seeking sanctuary, but was recognised by a monk of the Abbey on account of a large mastiff which always accompanied him. 52 The monk told him that the Abbot of Furness acknowledged Henry VII as King and so he fled to Broughton Tower, the home of Thomas Broughton.53 There they began to plot in concert with Yorkist sympathisers within Furness, such as Sir Henry Huddleston of Millom Castle, and Lovell orchestrated a rebellion in 1486 in co-ordination with Sir Humphrey Stafford.54 After the failure of the 1486 rebellion, Henry VII issued pardons in February 1487 to those involved in the rebellion including Broughton, but failed to win him over.55 Instead, Thomas Broughton entangled himself in an even more serious Yorkist conspiracy, the Lambert Simnel invasion of 1487, when Richard Symonds, the Oxford priest who encouraged Lambert Simnel in his pretence, claimed that Broughton was with Lovell in Furness Fells.56
It is highly likely that Broughton played an important part in orchestrating the conspiracy from the beginning, after the initial flight of Francis Lovell to Broughton Tower, and the conspiracy was mooted there after the failed rebellion of 1486 and subsequent flight of Lovell to Flanders. Thomas Broughton may not have originated the idea of impersonation of one of the princes in the Tower, but he most likely envisaged his territories being used as a sympathetic base of operations for a Yorkist invasion via Ireland. Indeed, this was what came to pass when, following the coronation of Lambert Simnel as Edward VI in Dublin on 24th May 1487, his force landed in Furness on 4th June.57 Sir Thomas Broughton joined the invasion force and fought alongside the Irish contingent at the Battle of Stoke. Broughton was supposedly killed in action alongside Lovell, but there are reasons to suspect that he escaped the battle alive, as it is reported that he had been granted safe conduct to Scotland.58 From this point, Sir Thomas Broughton disappears from the historical record, largely owing to most of the de Broughton family records being incomplete. However, a nineteenth century poem, The Banner of Broughton Tower, claims that he remained at Witherslack Hall for the remainder of his life and was looked after by his retainers.59 This account bears similarities to the legend that Sir Francis Lovell remained in hiding for the rest of his life at his family home of Minster Lovell and was supposedly buried within its walls.60 Sir Daniel Fleming, a seventeenth century historian of Furness, recorded seeing the grave of Sir Thomas Broughton in the old churchyard of Witherslack Church. However, the grave appears to have been lost following the building of a new chapel at Witherslack in 1664 and it is no longer extant.61
Conclusions
From this initial investigation, the potential of Furness as a focus for research on families and institutions who were important players in the reign of Richard III is significant. Furness Abbey fostered a high degree of affinity with Richard III as a result of his close involvement in northern politics and recognised the value in a close relationship with the King to maintaining its position of prominence in Furness and further afield. The Furness area as a whole can be claimed to hold a position of British significance during the period 1483-7 from a Ricardian perspective, as one of the most accessible conduits between England and Ireland through which Yorkist sympathies could be channelled. Furness Abbey and its benefactors thus exercised a greater influence upon strategic considerations of security for the Ricardian and Henrician regimes than has hitherto been appreciated, and further research on the extent of Ricardian and Henrician sympathies on the Furness peninsula could reveal the dynamism of local loyalties and their relationship to national political situations across England, Scotland and Ireland during the late fifteenth century.
Acknowledgements
I wish to extend my sincerest thanks to all the members of the South Cumbria Group for their hard work and dedication in researching the importance of Cumbrian, and particularly Furnesian, families during the reign of Richard III. In particular, I would like to thank Isobel Sneesby, our Secretary, for her stalwart dedication to the Richard III Society and her contribution towards enabling a reassessment of Richard III to be possible. Finally, I wish to thank Philippa Langley for her association with the group and her input to our research.
Notes and References
1. Fred Barnes, Barrow and District (Barrow-in-Furness Corporation, 1968), p 36.
2. David Baldwin, Stoke Field: the last battle of the Wars of the Roses (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 2006), ch 2.
3. Christine Dade-Robertson, Furness Abbey: romance, scholarship & culture (Lancaster: Centre for North West Regional Studies, 2000); p xiii..
4. F Maurice Powicke, ‘Houses of Cistercian monks: the abbey of Furness’, in A History of the County of Lancaster Vol 2, ed by William Farrer and John Brownbill (London: Archibald Constable & Co Ltd, 1908),pp115-6.
5. Thomas Alcock Beck, Annales Furnesienses: history and antiquaries of the abbey of Furness (London, Payne & Moss,1844), p 283.
6. Alice Leach, A History of Furness Abbey (Ulverston: Furness Heritage Press, 1987), p 11.
7. Christopher Holdsworth, ‘The Affiliation of Savigny’, in M Dutton, D M LaCarte and P Lockey (eds), Truth as Gift: studies in honor of John R Sommerfeldt (Kalamazoo, 2004), p 45-8.
8. James Bond, Monastic Landscapes (Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2004), p 43; Dom David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, Vol II, The End of the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 1961), p 352.
9. Helen Birkett, The Saints’ Lives of Jocelin of Furness: hagiography, patronage and ecclesiastical politics (Woodbridge, 2010), p 167.
10.Sean Duffy, ‘The First Ulster Plantation: John de Courcy and the men of Cumbria’, in T B Barry, R Frame and K Simms (eds), Colony and Frontier in Medieval Ireland: essays presented to J F Lydon (London: The Hambleton Press, 1995), pp 8-9.
11. S Marshall, ‘Illegitimacy and Sanctity in the Twelfth Century Lives of St Kentigern’, in Clare Downham (ed), Jocelin of Furness: essays from the 2011 Conference (Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2013), pp 67-8.
12. Marie-Therese Flanagan, ‘Jocelin of Furness and the Cult of St Patrick in Twelfth Century Ulster’ in Downham, Jocelin of Furness pp 45-6.
13. ‘Charter of assent to the election by Furness Abbey of St Nicholas, Abbot of Rushen, to be Bishop of Man (1203-13), Duchy of Lancaster Deeds’, The National Archives (TNA), DL 25/545.
14.’The abbot of Furness to have a coroner and view of frankpledge in the abbey lands’ (1326), Chancery Court Inquisitions AD Quod Damnum (Henry III to Richard III), TNA, C/143/189/5.
15. ‘Furness Abbey 1411 Petition’, in Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504, Vol VIII, Henry IV, 1399-1413, ed by Chris Given-Wilson (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2005), p 537 (8 Henry IV).
16. Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, pp 8-13; Bond, Monastic Landscapes, pp 250-2.
17. Barnes, Barrow and District pp 31-2.
18. John Christopher Atkinson and John Brownbill (eds) The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, printed from the original preserved in the Record Office, London, Vol 1, Part III (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1888) folios 220-1, verso p 637.
19. Barnes, Barrow and District, p 32.
20. Ibid.
21. ‘The Abbot of Furness asks that, for his salvation and that of his monks and the country against the Scots, that he might have permission to enclose a messauge called Fowdray in Furness, and to fortify and crenellate it and to hold it without hindrance from anyone’ (26th September 1327), Special Collections: Ancient Petitions, TNA, SC 8/47/2333.
22. Powicke, ‘Houses of Cistercian monks: the abbey of Furness’ pp 115-16.
23. Barnes, Barrow and District, p 33.
24. Powicke, ‘Houses of Cistercian monks: the abbey of Furness’ p 118.
25. Beck, Annale Furnesienses, p 283.
26. See especially: The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, p 122: Robert Somerville, History of the Duchy of Lancaster, Vol 1 1265-1603 (London: The Chancellor and Council of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1953), pp 8-9.
27. Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p 298.
28. Ibid.
29. Rosemary Horrox, Richard III: a study in service (Cambridge University Press,1989) p 149.
30. Charles Ross, Richard III (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), p24.
31. William Whellan, The History and Topography of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland (Pontefract: W Whelan & Co 1860) p 587.
32. ‘Licence for Furness abbey to receive the profits of their lands in Ireland for 20 years (1484)’, Duchy of Lancaster Deeds, TNA, DL10/390.
33. Denough Bryan, The Great Earl of Kildare, Gerald Fitzgerald, 1456-1513 (Dublin: Phoenix, 1933), pp 63-7.
34. For a thirteenth century illustration of the economic importance of Drogheda to Furness Abbey, see Keith Stringer, The Reformed Church in Medieval Galloway and Cumbria: contrasts, connections and continuities (Whithorn: Friends of the Whithorn Trust, 2003), pp 31-4; T O’Neill, Merchants and Mariners in Medieval Ireland (Dublin: Irish Academy Press, 1987), pp 21, 120.
35. F Maurice Powicke, ‘The Abbey of Furness’, in Farrer and Brownbill, A History of the County of Lancaster, Vol 2, p128.
36. Barnes, Barrow and District,p 46.
37. Powicke, ‘The abbey of Furness’, p 130, see Barnes, Barrow and District, p 36 for details on instructions for the 1509 levy of tenants in Low Furness.
38. Whellan, Cumberland and Westmoreland, p 404.
39. John Brownbill, The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Vol II (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1916), fols. 211-2 verso and recto, pp 539-42; Vol II, Part II, fols 212-13, verso and recto pp 542-3.
40. A genealogy of the Huddlestons can be seen in H S Cowper, ‘Millom Castle and the Huddlestons’ in Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, vol 24 (1924), pp 200-1.
41. Whellan, Cumberland and Westmoreland, p 405.
42. Ibid.
43. Anne F Sutton and P W Hammond, The Coronation of Richard III: the extant documents (Gloucester: St Martin’s Press, 1984), pp 167-8, 360.
44. Whellan, Cumberland and Westmoreland, p 405.
45. David Hipshon, Richard III and the Death of Chivalry (Stroud: The History Press, 2009), pp 13, 150-1.
46. Baldwin, Stoke Field, ch 2.
47. Baldwin, Stoke Field, ch 2.
48. William Farrer, ‘Townships: Broughton’, in Farrer and Brownbill, A History of the County of Lancaster, Vol 8, (London, 1914), p 402.
49. Ibid.
50. J Richardson, Furness Past and Present: its history and antiquities (Barrow-in-Furness: J Richardsonm 1880), p 161.
51. Baldwin, Stoke Field, ch 2.
52. Richardson, Furness Past and Present, pp 167-8.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Baldwin, Stoke Field ch 2.
56. Monika E Simon, The Lovells of Titchmarsh: an English baronial family, 1297-148?, DPhil Thesis, University of York (1999), p 75, from White Rose E_Theses, http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/
57. Baldwin, Stoke Field, ch 2.
58. Richardson, Furness Past and Present, p 162.
59. Ibid, pp 163-4.
60. Simon, The Lovells of Titchmarsh, p 75.
61. Richardson, Furness Past and Present, p 162.
This article first appeared in The Ricardian Bulletin, March 2021.