The North

Richard's Relationship with the North

by Dr David Johnson

Although Richard III was not by birth a northerner, he is, remarkably, the only English medieval king to be closely associated with the region. He spent the greater part of his adult life ‘north of Trent’, and if he had not ascended the throne in 1483 he would certainly have lived out his days among the northern castles, abbeys, cathedrals and towns with which he was so familiar. Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s introduction to what was often perceived a far-flung, dangerous and lawless country first came in 1465, at the age of twelve, when he entered the household of his cousin, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. Warwick, better known to history as ‘The Kingmaker’, supervised Richard’s knightly training and introduced the young duke to the leading noble and gentry families of the region. Many of these loyal knights and squires would later serve Richard in his capacity as ‘Lord of the North’ and subsequently as King of England. In early 1469, at the age of sixteen, Richard left Warwick’s household and rejoined his elder brother, Edward IV. Over the next two years the rebellion of Warwick and Richard’s next brother, George, Duke of Clarence, forced Edward and Richard into exile, but once Edward regained the throne, and Warwick was slain, Richard was rewarded for his loyalty with major gains in the north.

Richard effectively stepped into Warwick’s shoes, becoming the pre-eminent nobleman in the north of England. In 1471 he was granted all the earl’s lands in Yorkshire and Cumberland, including Middleham Castle in Wensleydale, together with the Earl’s key offices in the region. In 1472 Richard married Warwick’s second daughter, Anne Neville, establishing a family home at Middleham, where, in 1476, their only surviving son, Edward, was born. Thereafter Richard gradually developed his northern estates, acquiring Barnard Castle in County Durham, the castle and lordship of Scarborough, Skipton and Marton in Craven in the West Riding, and further Yorkshire holdings including the castle of Richmond. Some of these were acquired in exchange for lands held in the midlands and the south. By 1478 Richard had consciously extended his presence in the north, sacrificing his southern possessions, and identifying himself with the region and its people. Contemporaries recognised that Richard’s authority in the north derived from his position as the king’s brother, but his devotion to the region and his reputation for justice and fair dealing brought to his administration a personal element which had nothing to do with royal backing. In 1477 Richard wrote from London to the mayor and aldermen of York describing his forthcoming journey north as his ‘next homecoming’.

As warden of the West March Richard became the leading figure in the war against Scotland. He was active in 1480 and 1481, but in 1482 Edward IV planned a major offensive aimed at overthrowing James III and replacing him on the Scots throne with his brother the Duke of Albany. Command of the campaign was handed to Richard who peacefully occupied Edinburgh and captured the strategic border fortress of Berwick-on-Tweed. However, the duplicitous Albany sabotaged Edward’s plans and came to terms with his brother. Nevertheless, in the parliament of January 1483 Edward signalled his intention of continuing the war with Scotland by rewarding Richard with a grant of palatine (independent) authority in any land he could capture in the Scottish dales along the west march. In addition he was granted the wardenship of the English West March by hereditary right, along with extensive lands and royal rights in Cumberland and control of Carlisle. Had Edward IV not died in April 1483 the Scottish war would have intensified: Richard commanding an English army consisting of the retinues of the northern nobles and knights who had entered his service during the 1470s. Such was Richard’s determination to subdue the Scots that by the time of the king’s death, only a matter of weeks after the award of the palatinate, Richard was already on the Scots border when news of his brother’s demise reached him.

The succession crisis of June 1483 resulted in the deposition of Edward V and the accession, as next in line, of Richard III. After the coronation on 6th July Richard embarked on an extensive royal progress which culminated in a triumphant state entry into York on 29th August. During the 1470s and early 1480s Richard established a special relationship with the city, particularly the mayor and aldermen of the corporation, and the dean and chapter of York Minster. Richard became York’s good lord in dealings with Edward IV and consistently protected the city’s interests and privileges. In return York responded promptly to Richard’s requests for armed men and presented him with gifts on his many visits to the city. As king he ceremonially invested his son, Edward, as Prince of Wales in the archbishop’s palace, and later in the reign established in York Minster a colossal foundation of 100 chantry priests, the surest indication of his intended place of burial. Although Richard was now king, and destined to spend a great deal of time at Westminster, he was determined to maintain his close links with the north. At first his son Edward was placed in nominal control of his former ducal council, overseeing the king’s affinity in the region, but after Edward’s death in April 1484 the council was replaced by a newly created organisation, the Council of the North, led by Richard’s nephew John, Earl of Lincoln.

News of Richard’s death at the battle of Bosworth in August 1485 was greeted with dismay by the authorities in York. The corporation minutes record the grief of the mayor and aldermen who state that Richard was ‘piteously slain and murdered to the great heaviness of this city.’ And in a later entry the same men commemorated their friend as ‘the most famous prince of blessed memory’. Indeed, remembrance of King Richard lingered long after his death, and one writer blamed the rising of 1489 on the fact that in the north ‘the memory of King Richard was so strong that it lay like lees in the bottom of men’s hearts, and if the vessel was but stirred it would come up.’ Richard’s career in the north certainly showed him capable of inspiring great loyalty, and it is undoubtedly the case that many of his political contemporaries regarded him as the king from the north. Indeed, in the twentieth century, a professor of history concluded that Richard’s affection and loyalty towards his northern supporters ‘went beyond, and cannot be simply explained solely in terms of, political necessity’.

Richard and the City of York

by Dr David Johnson

Lord and King of the North

King Richard III is York’s greatest royal patron and benefactor. Over a period of two decades from 1465 until his death in 1485, Richard, as Duke of Gloucester, and later King of England, forged lasting bonds of friendship with the mayor and aldermen of York Corporation and the dean and canons of York Minster. From 1471 until he succeeded to the throne in 1483, Richard ruled the north of England as Edward IV’s faithful lieutenant, dispensing justice and establishing a special relationship with York as the city’s benevolent good lord.

Although Richard was born in Northamptonshire, contemporaries regarded him as a king from the north. The Tudor chronicler Edward Hall declared that Richard III ‘more loved, more esteemed and regarded the Northernmen than any subjects within his realm’, and in return they ‘entirely loved and highly favoured him’. The seventeenth century historian Sir George Buck described Richard’s deep affection for ‘the goodly and ancient city of York a place much esteemed and beloved of him.’ And modern historians have not been slow to recognise that ‘Richard III is unique among medieval English kings in the extent of his connections with the north of England.’

Beginning a special relationship 1465-1469

In 1465 Edward IV sent his youngest brother, the twelve year old Richard, Duke of Gloucester to train as a knight in the northern household of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. Richard remained with Warwick until the age of sixteen, spending much of his time at the earl’s Yorkshire fortresses of Middleham in Wensleydale and Sheriff Hutton near York. It was during these years that the young duke first came into contact with the Corporation of York and the Chapter of York Minster.

In September 1465 Richard attended a magnificent banquet celebrating the promotion of Warwick’s brother, George Neville, to the archbishopric of York, an event also attended by Richard’s future duchess and queen, Anne Neville, younger of Warwick’s two daughters. In February 1467 Richard travelled to York to sit on an important commission empowered to try criminal cases, and in 1468 he and the Earl made a further visit and were welcomed by the city corporation with generous gifts of red wine.

Although York remained the second city in the kingdom and the wealthiest in the north, it was nevertheless experiencing a period of gradual economic decline, a problem Richard would do his utmost to address in the years ahead.

Lord of the North 1471-1483

In 1471, following the defeat of the Earl of Warwick’s rebellion, Edward IV once again despatched Richard northwards, this time as the king’s royal representative in the region. The minutes of York’s medieval corporation, the Archive of the Lord Mayor, provide good examples of Richard’s developing bond with the city during the 1470s and early 1480s:

In 1475 the mayor and aldermen presented Richard with gifts, and twelve months later, following serious disturbances in the city, Richard was given further presents by a grateful corporation for persuading Edward IV to maintain York’s rights and liberties. In 1477 Richard and his wife joined the Corpus Christi Guild of York, formally cementing their growing attachment to the city. In the same year Richard successfully petitioned Edward IV to clear illegal fish-garths from the river Ouse, which obstructed the passage of shipping vital to the city’s commercial trade. And in November 1477 Richard wrote from London to the Corporation of York, referring to his return north as ‘our next home coming‘. York’s grateful corporation agreed in March 1482 to formally thank Richard ‘for his good and benevolent lordship that he at all times have had unto this city.’

Justice and Law

As both duke and king Richard demonstrated a genuine concern for the impartial administration of the law. Richard’s ducal council in the north established a reputation for fair dealing and Richard worked hard to ensure that the wealthy and powerful did not oppress the poor and the weak. On the first day of his reign (26th June 1483) Richard ordered his justices and legal administrators to dispense justice without delay or favour. And shortly afterwards he formally appointed a clerk, John Harrington, to the court of requests which provided poor persons with free and swift access to the law.

Here are two York examples of Richard’s commitment to impartial justice. In April 1482 he sent one of his servants, Thomas Redhead, to York to face trial for an offence committed against a citizen of the city. Contemporaries would have expected Richard to take Redhead’s part, but Richard defied convention and ensured that justice was done. And in September 1484 Richard intervened twice in the case of ‘our poor subject Katherine Bassingbourne’, urging mayor and aldermen to consider her grievance in ‘due and mature examination’, ensuring the ‘administration of justice whereunto we be professed’.

Richard III and York Minster

During his brief reign (1483-85) Richard demonstrated a particular devotion to the wellbeing and prosperity of York Minster, the cathedral church of the Northern Province. To this end he committed the considerable resources and political power available only to a king.

Richard’s reign is unique as the only reign in medieval England in which the Northern Province escaped clerical taxation completely, while the more prosperous Southern Province continued to be taxed. He took the equally remarkable step of relieving for life the dean and residentiary canons of any personal obligation to pay taxes or subsidies to the crown. Furthermore, Richard endowed York Minster’s College of Vicars Choral with the revenues of the wealthy church of Cottingham in the East Riding of Yorkshire, providing, after many years of decline, a restoration of the full compliment of 36 vicars.

And in 1484 Richard established and endowed in York Minster a huge chantry of 100 priests, a foundation without equal in the history of medieval Christendom. Although Richard’s will, or any indication of its contents has failed to survive, the college of 100 chaplains is the clearest evidence that York Minster was his intended place of burial.

Richard III and the City of York

In the late summer of 1483, the newly crowned Richard III celebrated his special relationship with the city of York during a joyous three-week state visit. The king was accompanied by three earls, six barons, and six bishops. He stayed in the archbishop’s palace where, in a magnificent ceremony on 8th September 1483, he invested his son, Edward, as Prince of Wales. Polydore Vergil, Henry VII’s court historian, recorded that King Richard, Queen Anne and the young Prince of Wales processed through the streets, crowns upon their heads, while the citizens ‘in show of rejoicing extolled King Richard above the skies.’ Indeed, such were the splendours of the royal visit that one southern chronicler believed the king had held a second coronation in the city.

On 17th September Richard summoned the city councillors and many commoners to the Minster Chapter House, announcing, on account of the decay and poverty of the city, a substantial reduction in the annual tax paid to the crown. And it was in York that Bishop Thomas Langton famously praised Richard’s benevolent conduct on the royal progress, stating that ‘God has sent him to us for the welfare of us all.’

Richard III and the Council of the North

Richard formally established a Council of the North in July 1484 as an official arm of royal government. Originally it may have been intended as a council of Richard’s heir, Edward Prince of Wales, but the death of the prince in April 1484 resulted in the creation of a new institution under the presidency of Richard’s nephew, John de la Pole. The council was based at Sandal Castle near Wakefield and its quarterly session were held in York. Its principal duties included keeping the peace and punishing offenders. Articles regulating its work required councillors to act impartially as ‘the king’s laws and good conscience’ demanded and to ‘declare an interest’ in discussions where their own private concerns were involved.

It is a testament to Richard’s foresight that the council, which stood as tangible proof of his concern for the north, continued to operate until finally dissolved in 1641. And the enduring importance of Richard’s council may be gauged by the fact that the twenty-first century has witnessed calls for a reinstatement of a Council of the North to promote the interests of the region in an age increasingly dominated by Westminster politics.

Dissenting Voices

Like many public figures Richard was not immune to criticism, and there are cases in the York records of citizens brought before the council for impugning his good reputation. In June 1482, Roger Brere, a York saddler, was reported to have said ‘What may my lord of Gloucester do for us of the city? Nothing but grin at us’, an accusation later denied. In January 1483 Robert Rede was reported to have stated that if Richard would have alderman Thomas Wrangwysh as mayor, ‘the commons would not have him mayor’. Nine witnesses subsequently testified that Rede had actually remarked that Richard would be pleased with whoever the commons elected mayor. In 1491 William Burton, schoolmaster of St Leonard’s Hospital in York, alleged that ‘King Richard was a hypocrite a crouchback, and buried in a dyke like a dog’, but John Paynter accused Burton of lying and replied that Henry VII had buried Richard ‘like a noble gentleman’.

What in fact emerges from these cases is that Richard had his supporters and defenders in York, for without their testimony these ‘seditious words’ would not have been brought to the attention of the authorities.

Military Service and the Battle of Bosworth

The Corporation of York always responded positively to Richard’s requests for military assistance. On three occasions between 1480 and 1482 the city dispatched contingents of soldiers under Richard’s command to fight the Scots. In June 1483, following the death of Edward IV, Richard, as Protector of the Realm, summoned soldiers to London to combat the plotting of the queen and her family.

When news belatedly reached York of Henry Tudor’s invasion in August 1485, the corporation immediately sent messengers to Richard to ascertain his military needs. At short notice, and despite an outbreak of plague, 80 men journeyed south – but arrived too late to join the king’s army. However, John Spooner, one of York’s messengers, fought at Bosworth and rode through the night to bring news of the king’s death. The mayor and aldermen famously recorded their grief in the corporation minutes: ‘King Richard, late mercifully reigning upon us…was piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this city.’ Two months later the same men commemorated Richard as ‘the most famous prince of blessed memory.’ Even in Henry VII’s reign, Polydore Vergil described York as the city that ‘cherished the name of Richard’.