Game of Thrones II – a rough Guide to the Wars of the Roses continued…
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A rough Guide to the Wars of the Roses –

Part II –  a culture of claim & counter-claim.

.000000000000000000Edward_III_of_England_(Order_of_the_Garter)Edward III: sire of princes & father of the Royal Dukes

In addition to the Black Prince, Edward (of Woodstock) Prince of Wales, Edward III had four other sons: Lionel (of Antwerp); John (of Ghent/Gaunt); Edmund (of Langley); and Thomas (of Woodstock). In line with his elevated notions of royal blood Edward III broke with precedent and, following the French custom and as his sons came of age or married, he created them Royal Dukes rather than mere Earls.

The Plantagenet family now literally lorded it over the rest of the nobility. Additionally these royal dukes had significant royal lands bestowed upon them – often landholdings located in the more distant reaches of the kingdom which had been largely in crown hands since the Norman confiscations – or as a consequence of successful waging of war – the far west of England – the north of England and along the Marches of Wales and within Wales. These royal dukes were also useful in providing marriageable sons into ancient noble houses like the Neville, Percy and Mortimer. They then were a natural focal point for crown-led local government and for regional administration organised in informal royal councils in Wales; in the North of England and all along its debatable Scots border; and in Devon and Cornwall.

A suitably heroic Victorian impression of the Black Prince....

A suitably heroic Victorian impression of the Black Prince….

So it was that the younger brothers of Edward Prince of Wales were all made dukes – Lionel (of Antwerp) was created Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt (i.e. Ghent) was created Duke of Lancaster; Edmund of Langley was created Duke of York. Edward III’s youngest son, Thomas (of Woodstock) – was as yet unmarried when his father died in 1377. On his accession Richard II continued his grandfather’s tradition by making his Uncle Thomas, the Duke of Gloucester. It turned out there was little gratitude in noble preferment. Gloucester of all the king’s paternal ducal uncles harboured a truly royal ambition.

These ducal titles have since been employed and reemployed for the same purpose of elevating in title Princes of the Blood above the nobility. It is therefore to Edward III that we owe the tradition of royal dukes and royal duchies.

.000000000000Richard-IIRichard II & the family rivalry begins:

Richard II was only 10 on his accession in 1377.

If previous Plantagenet minorities were a mixed bag at least both Henry III and Edward III  had survived the storms of faction to reign supreme. From those precedents Richard II could reasonably have hoped to survive his own minority even if it was to be one marked by the predations of his relatives. As matters turned out his minority rather was marked by regal authority mature for its years; and his majority by an equally immature imperious grandiosity.

All successful kingship rests heavily on the temperament of the king. In husbanding this vital quality the Plantagenet kings had owned a long if patchy history. King John had lost most of his family’s personal Angevin Empire leaving him England alone and he almost lost his English throne as well before timely death saved matters for his baby son, Henry III. Richard II’s great grandfather Edward II had lost not only his better judgement in affairs of the heart but he also lost his throne to his wife and his life itself at he hands her scheming lover Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March.

Richard II’s accession in 1377 was therefore met with some trepidation. Initially  it fell to Richard II’s uncles to provide him with sound support and wise advice. As by this time both Edward the Black Prince and Lionel, Duke of Clarence had gone to their graves that duty of care of the young king fell largely to Edward’s third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; and his fourth son, Edmund of Langley, Duke of York and the youngest, Thomas of Woodstock whom Richard as aforementioned had made Duke of Gloucester for his coronation.

As Richard was now sole heir of the Black Prince his marriage was the only means of continuing the senior Plantagenet line. His marriage to Anne of Bohemia was a personal success but from it, it was quickly apparent there was to be no heir apparent. The reason almost certainly rested with Anne rather than Richard but the failure to make legitimate issue created issues that would play out in bouts of repeated political unrest.

The second line to the throne descended via Lionel, Duke of Clarence. It was similarly perilous since Lionel had only one surviving child before his death – Phillipa of Clarence. She had married the 3rd Earl of March, Edmund Mortimer and she and March together had two sons – Roger Mortimer and Edmund Mortimer.

Whilst Richard II had no children these two Brothers Mortimer were nearest in line to the succession and in 1486 – his own marriage being without issue – Richard II informally named the elder cousin, Roger Mortimer to be his heir presumptive. Given that matrilineal descent from Empress Matilda had established the succession of the first Plantagenet king, Henry II, there was nothing out of the way in Richard II’s nomination of his cousin.

The family tree that led to a family at war with itself...

The family tree that led to a family at war with itself…

However, prudence was not always to be the hallmark of Richard II’s reign – like that of his great grandfather, Edward II – his reign was strewn with incident and adversity. When he was still only 13 he faced the most serious challenge to the post conquest English monarchy – in the form of a popular insurrection known as the Peasants’ Revolt. In 1381 it almost ended in a political disaster and also almost ended the Plantagenet dynasty. The rebellion had been stirred over the imposition of a Poll Tax to pay for continued wars in France. It was not his wise uncles on the royal council – led by John of Gaunt – but the inexperienced king himself who rode to the rescue of the monarchy and nobility. By his bold action he saved his throne and after Watt Tyler was butchered in a melee it was the king’s cry to the milling peasantry –  ‘I am your captain follow me’ –  that saved the day.

.0000000000000000spirit_richard_IIlargeAfterwards there were recriminations and tensions in the court. The king was wary of his family. That wariness was reinforced by repeated military failures in France which also inevitably brought about a cooling of relations between uncles and royal nephew. John of Gaunt withdrew first from the king’s Council and then from the kingdom – ostensibly to pursue his claim to the throne of Portugal.  Richard did not turn to his other uncles – York and Gloucester – but instead promoted his own men – primarily the de la Poles and the de Vere Earl of Oxford and his powerful regional affinity. The latter became a particular royal favourite and like all  medieval royal favourites de Vere became particularly detested. Richard ignored the clamour of the royal dukes and made his upstart friend Duke of Ireland. The upstart was now an equal; that was intolerable. The royal dukes were then cast aside from the royal council – that was not to be borne with.

Minor squabbles and major disagreements

The dukes and their sons –  led by Thomas (of Woodstock) whom Richard II had made Duke of Gloucester and Gaunt’s eldest son Henry (of Bolingbroke) –  were determined not to be so lightly set-aside by the king still nominally but a minor. They used their position to appeal matters in Parliament and thereby they hoped to force the king to set aside his new advisers. As a result of their appeal the royal and noble opposition became known collectively as the Lords Appellant. The lords however did not play straight with the king. As Richard II ‘s happy marriage to Anne of Bohemia had produced no children the Duke of Gloucester’s agents in Parliament – with their own axes to grind because of refused patronage – loudly whispered that there was something unnatural in the king’s relationship with de Vere. The accusation deliberately brought to mind the conduct of Edward II and thus caught light and spread like wild fire. Richard showed a regal disdain which although understandable was unhelpful to his cause.

The king, resentful,  parried and resisted but gradually he was forced to make concessions to the lords appellant whilst he secretly appealed to de Vere for assistance. The king’s ploy forced a confrontation and the so-called ‘lords appellant’ ambushed the king’s favourite de Vere at Radcot Bridge near Oxford. De Vere was heavily defeated and he and the de la Pole fled the country. Richard II’s victorious uncle, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester now forced the king to purge his chamber of his favourite chamber-knights and even forced the king to give up his old tutor Sir Simon de Burley. Gloucester then ensured – despite appeals form all sides including from his brother the Duke of York  – that they were all executed. Richard II was powerless to resist his uncle’s pretensions and bore the insult with an even countenance. Behind the shallow mask of manners there was another hidden – the face of revenge.

Restored to their monopoly of advice on council and at court the royal dukes gradually relented and everything returned to a sort of normal. Richard II, however, was biding his time. He never forgave Uncle Gloucester and he was now also as wary of his cousin Henry Bolingbroke – John of Gaunt’s eldest son – who had led the army which defeated de Vere at Radcot Bridge.

Thoughtfully, Richard recalled his senior uncle, John of Gaunt, from Spain. The old duke of Lancaster came back in a triumph and managed both the young king and the lords appellant and managed to restrain his own son from further confrontation with the king: family relations were mended and patched.  Richard II gradually asserted his own policy priorities over those of Gaunt – remaking English policy in France by seeking peace – and on the death of his first wife he cemented that policy by marrying the young French Princess Isabella. She, however, at the age of 7 was too young for child bearing.

Meanwhile, turning his attention to Ireland where rebellions had partly created the opportunity for the lords appellant to strike at his king’s friends through Parliament, Richard II raised an army 8000 strong of which he took personal command. He went on campaign in Ireland and quickly won a string of striking successes and his success raised his reputation back home in England.

Empowered, Richard suddenly struck down the unsuspecting appellant lords – arresting three of them whilst he had his Uncle Gloucester detained in Calais where he had him murdered. That murder of his own uncle in retrospect might be considered the moment when the so-called Wars of the Roses truly began. Richard also executed Arundel and Warwick and then set about breaking up their noble affinities in the localities – this time buying new friends on the way like the de Mowbray whom Richard cannily made up to duke of Norfolk. By this means he enhanced royal revenues and for the first time in his reign looked very much in control of politics. Old John of Gaunt and his son sided with Richard and as a reward Richard also made Gaunt’s son Henry Bolingbroke Duke of Hereford in his own right.

Later, a row flared up between Bolingbroke, newly created duke of Hereford and the newly created duke of Norfolk which Parliament declared had to be settled by single combat. The king over-ruled and banished both Norfolk and Henry – the former for life and the latter for ten years. Bolingbroke fled to France but the French king wanted no war with England and was not minded to do more than offer his English royal cousin much more than royal hospitality.

Heartbroken by his son’s sudden disgrace, the tottering colossus that was John of Gaunt stood with the king but the old man had not much time left on earth. He died in 1399.

Richard II then took a fatal decision – to disinherit Henry Bolingbroke. He extended Bolingbroke’s banishment to life and effectively annexed the duchy of Lancaster to the crown.

The Duchy of Lancaster:

.0Henry IVThe House of Lancaster as a cadet branch of the Plantagenet line had origins much further back than the reign of Edward III. Originally Henry III’s second son , Edmund “Crouchback” (Crossed Back i.e. a crusader knight) was made Earl of Leicester; and later Earl of Lancaster. He was endowed with very considerable lands in the north and midlands. Edmund’s son Thomas played a prominent part in the reign of Edward II for which he was richly rewarded adding Ferrers Earldom of Derby and the Earldom of Lincoln to the family honours. He fell out with his royal cousin’s (Edward II) lover Piers Gaveston and after the disastrous defeat of Edward II at Bannockburn Thomas became England’s virtual governor. His success was short-lived and when Edward II reasserted his control of the government he had Thomas was executed in 1322.

Thomas had no heir so titles and lands had passed to his younger brother Henry who became third Earl of Lancaster. It was his son, Henry of Grosmont (born in Grosmont castle) who famously served in the renewed wars with France and was credited with saving the life of the Black Prince and thus became a favourite at the court of Edward III. Edward III created him successively, first Earl of Salisbury and then first Duke of Lancaster. Most unusually, Edward III made the entire county into a Palatinate. (Palatinates are princely fiefdoms independent of the crown. They were common in Europe – particularly in the lands of the Holy Roman Empire. In England there were only three palatinates: the County of Durham (an ecclesiastical palatinate, belonging to the prince-bishop of Durham); the earldom of Chester (a crown palatinate); and the duchy of Lancaster.)

Henry, first Duke of Lancaster as it happened had no male heir and his only daughter Blanche of Lancaster was his heiress. Blanche married to Edward III’s third son, John of Gaunt (Ghent). On her father’s death Edward III created Blanche’s husband John of Gaunt, first Duke of Lancaster in the second creation. By then John of Gaunt was already Duke of Aquitaine and one of England’s richest nobles. He now inherited all the lands of Blanche and the royal palatinate remained part of his new royal duchy. By this marriage, therefore, the duke of Lancaster had considerably greater status than the other royal dukes.

The later dynastic claims of the House of Lancaster united Plantagenet descent both from cadet branch of Henry III with direct descent from Edward III’s third son, John of Gaunt.

John of Gaunt added a further footnote to this lineage of Lancaster in the form of bastard children. After the death of his first wife Blanche in 1469 Gaunt began an affair with Katherine Swynford – one of her privy chamber women. They had four children  – all given the family name Beaufort – John – later Duke of Somerset; Henry, later Cardinal and Bishop of Winchester; Thomas, later Duke of Exeter; Joan, later Countess of Westmoreland. After the death of his second wife in 1396, Gaunt married Katherine Swynford making her Duchess of Lancaster. Richard II – who had a soft spot both for Katherine and her children – made all their children legitimate by Act of Parliament – although the act itself provided the Beaufort could make no claim to the succession. At that time of course the House of Lancaster was replete with legitimate male claimants. The Beaufort were destined by fate to play a greater part in the future history of Lancaster.

The decision of Richard II to disinherit his cousin Bolingbroke was, therefore, more than simply a family affair. It struck at all the nobility. Henry Bolingbroke returned to England with an army ostensibly to reclaim his lands. He landed whilst Richard was in Ireland – on a mission to avenge the murder of his nominated heir Roger Mortimer who had been killed in a skirmish at Kells in County Meath. Whilst Richard was away Henry Bolingbroke easily won over his nervous fellow peers. Richard II returned and was quickly defeated and officially resigned his crown to Bolingbroke –  who was crowned Henry IV. Richard was murdered by agents of the new king.

.0000henryivdownload (1)Shortly thereafter Henry’s claim was tested by Richard’s legal heir the son of Roger Mortimer, Edmund, whose uncle, also confusingly an Edmund, at one stage was involved in a plot with Owen Glen-dower to remove the Lancastrian King Henry IV and divide the English kingdom into three parts – between himself and the two Mortimer branches of the Plantagenet line.

Henry IV held the Mortimer family in the Tower and other paces around London since they all possessed a senior claim over his own to the throne. Henry IV’s reign was marked by repeated challenges to the House of Lancaster as Henry IV tried to establish himself and his son firmly in the succession. Henry IV died in 1413 and shortly thereafter his son, Henry V renewed the war with France and reunited the nobility in a campaign that ended in the shock of a total and overwhelming English victory at Agincourt.  There were few English dead but amongst the few was Edmund Mortimer. It seemed at least the sun once again smiled on Plantagenet and the House of Lancaster now was secure as houses.

 

 

 

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