Edward of Middleham’s Birth

by Annette Carson and Marie Barnfield

(This article first appeared in The Ricardian Bulletin, September 2016)

A degree of certainty seems to be creeping in when referring to the age/date of birth of Richard III’s son, but this has long been subject to diverse views.

His year of birth used to be ascribed to 1473, and sometimes still is,¹ an assumption that derives, according to Peter Hammond, from later Tudor chronicles.² The first official reference to him is in a request on 10th April 1477 for prayers to be said for ‘the King and his consort and the King’s brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Anne his consort and Edward their son.’³ Considerably more useful is the entry in the Founders’ and Benefactors’ Book of Tewkesbury Abbey, in which is recorded the birth of a son to Richard of Gloucester at the castle of Middleham in 1476. Michael Hicks showed that a blank space had originally been left for the child’s name, but that in the earliest extant manuscript version, in the Bodleian Library,⁴ this space was later filled in with the name, ‘George’. This led him to speculate whether the entry referred to a second, otherwise unrecorded son (Edward having been born in the previously supposed birth year of 1473) or whether – as he thought more plausible – the child referred to was in reality Edward.⁵ Hicks further narrowed down the birth period in his biography of Anne Neville on the basis that the Tewkesbury Abbey book was referring to ‘an old style year that continued until 25th March 1477’ (i.e. beginning on Lady Day, 25th March 1476).⁶ While it is true that this was the normal English dating practice at the period, it appears from internal evidence that the Tewkesbury Abbey book used the Roman system of dating adhered to by the Vatican, changing the number of the year on 1st January as we do today.⁷

Further evidence for a birth year of 1476 was afterwards pointed out by Gordon Smith, who noticed that a published translation of John Rous’s Historia Regum Angliae describes Edward, at the time of his investiture as Prince of Wales on 8th September 1483, as ‘aged a little over seven’.⁸ This observation is quite correct; in Rous’s original Latin Edward is described, on this occasion, as aetatis septem annorum et parum ultra – aged seven and a bit, as we might say now.⁹ Smith’s support of a birth year of 1476 soon received additional support from Peter Hammond.¹⁰ It may also be observed that Rous and the Tewkesbury Abbey book are in agreement about the place as well as the time of birth, as in his roll-chronicle Rous records that Prince Edward was ‘borne yn the castell of midlam in the north cuntre.’¹¹ If, therefore, we may be guided jointly by Rous and the Founders’ Book of Tewkesbury Abbey, Edward’s birth date must be ascribed to some period in 1476 before 7th September when his mother was, or may have been, resident at Middleham.

In order to narrow the field still further, we need to look back at the periods when Edward might have been conceived. Assuming a birth within three weeks of the due date,¹² a child conceived before Richard’s departure for the French campaign and born in 1476 would have been conceived between late March and late May 1475, and would have been born before the last week of February 1476. Next, we move forward to Richard’s return from France after the Treaty of Picquigny. According to the Milanese ambassador at the court of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, because of the dissatisfaction with the treaty amongst the returning English army, ‘King Edward did not want his brothers to proceed to England before him, as he feared some disturbance, especially as the Duke of Clarence, on a previous occasion, aspired to make himself king.’¹³ Since Edward IV did not enter London until 28th September,¹⁴ Richard and Anne are unlikely to have been reunited before the beginning of October. A child conceived on Richard’s return, therefore, would on the same basis have been born no earlier than the middle of June.

We then need to look for evidence of Anne Neville’s movements during 1476. Although her activities as Duchess of Gloucester are not well documented, it does seem that she probably visited Durham by mid-February, as she was granted consorority by the Prior and Chapter of Durham Cathedral on the 14th of that month in thanks for her devotion to St Cuthbert and her benefactions to the monastery.¹⁵ According to child-bearing customs of this period, a lady would probably have avoided long journeys during late pregnancy, and would have been expected to take to her chamber about a month before the child was due and remain there for over a month afterwards. So it would seem that January and February 1476 can be ruled out for Edward’s birth after all.

Consequently, relying on the available evidence, it seems logical to narrow down Prince Edward’s birth at Middleham to the period between mid-June and early September 1476 which fits extremely well with Rous’s claim that the prince was ‘seven years and a little over’ on 8th September 1483. If this estimate is correct, then at the time of his death in April 1484 the prince would have been aged roughly seven years and three quarters.

References and Notes

1. The 1473 birth year has recently been repeated by Amy Licence in Anne Neville, Richard III’s Tragic Queen, Stroud, 2013, p 157.

2. P W Hammond, Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales, Kent, 1973, p 33 n 14.

3.Calendar of Patent Rolls 1476-85, p 34. cited by P W Hammond in ‘Edward of Middleham’ (Research Notes and Queries), The Ricardian, Vol 11, No 146, September 1999, pp 564-5.

4. Bodleian MS Top. Glouc. D2, f.40v.

5. M A Hicks, ‘One Prince or Two? The Family of Richard III’, The Ricardian Vol 9, No 122, September 1993, pp 467-8.

6. Anne Neville, Queen to Richard III, Stroud, 2006, p 152, The Feast of the Annunciation, 25th March, popularly known a Lady Day, was the official date of Jesus’ conception.

7. Cf. the birth date of Edward, Earl of Warwick, written in the Tewkesbury Abbey book as February 1475, whereas John Rous in his roll-chronicle (British Library version) writes it in the English style as February 1474: Bodl. MS Top. Glouc. D2, f 39r; John Rous, The Rous Roll, Gloucester, 1980, item 60. Note also that the Tewkesbury Abbey book uses dominical letters, another Roman ecclesiastical practice that relies on counting from 1st January. (Under this system each of the seven weekdays is given a letter, A to G, always starting with the letter ‘A’ on New Year’s Day; the dominical letter for that year is then derived from the letter on which falls the Lord’s Day, Sunday.)

8. G Smith, ‘One Prince or Two?’ (Research Notes and Queries), The Ricardian, Vol 11, No 144, p 467, referencing Alison Hanham’s Richard III and His Early Historians, 1483-1535, Oxford, 1975, p 122.

9. T Hearne, (ed), Joannis Rossi Antiquarii Warwicensis Historia Regum Angliae, 2nd edn, Oxford, 1745, p 217. Although historians are rightly wary of accepting much of the gossipy aspect of this Warwickshire priest’s writing, he took a special interest in the genealogy of his patrons the Beauchamp family and their Neville descendants.

10. In the above-noted article from The Ricardian, September 1999.

11. The Rous Roll, item 64.

12. This is the range for normal full-term delivery, any child born outside this range being classified as premature or postmature.

13. Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts in the Archives and Collections of Milan, 1385-1618 London, 1912, item 313 (British History Online).

14. British Library Cotton MS Vitellius A XVI in C L Kingsford (ed), Chronicles of London, Gloucester, 1977, pp 186-7.

15. Seldon Society, Historae Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, London and Edinburgh, 1839, pp ccivii-cciviii.