The King's Dogge (51 page)

⁴
     Curiously enough, Richard's words were truly prophetic. The following year an English army sailed to France to wage war there. There were no battles, since Louis XI elected to buy off the invading English rather than fight them. As such, there were no casualties. There was, however, one fatality; Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, disappeared mysteriously overboard on the return journey from France. It was never established whether he had fallen into the Channel or been pushed into it.

⁵
     Whereas there were supposed to be procedures on both sides of the borders to settle disputes, these appear to have been totally ignored by Richard of Gloucester and Lovell. There appear few, if any, records of meetings between representatives of the English and Scottish West March officials at this time.

⁶
     Dumfries was the capital of the Scottish West March.

⁷
     The lack of evidence that the Woodvilles worked directly against Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Anne Neville could possibly be explained by the subtlety and cunning of their plotting. So skilful were the Woodvilles that none of their attempts to destabilise Richard and Anne and encroach into the North have ever been proven. Although many historians freely concede that the Woodvilles were extremely ambitious elsewhere.

⁸
     Whereas the conventional war hammer of the period was a short weapon comprising a hammer and two spikes, Lovell's own war hammer was different. From his description it appears to have been a longer, two-handed bludgeoning weapon.

⁹
     Lovell's half armour probably comprised full armour for his upper body, with thick padded material to protect his upper legs.

¹⁰
   Broadly positioned where Belgium and a part of Holland is today, medieval Burgundy was a large and prosperous independent duchy.

¹¹
   The wool and cloth trade in 15
^th
century England employed a vast number of people. It was the country's largest export by far. A considerable number of different tradespeople were involved in the production, transport and treating of both wool and cloth.

¹²
   Now called Boulogne.

¹³
   At this time (early 1482) Berwick was in Scottish possession.

¹⁴
   The harvest in the preceding year had been particularly bad in England and the winter of 1481-2 was extremely severe.

¹⁵
   The Battle of Grandson (1476) resulted in a heavy defeat for Duke Charles.

¹⁶
   Lovell's account of the defeat of the Scots is interesting insofar as it was previously believed that the Scots only made one attempt to relieve Berwick and break the siege. This attempt resulted in the Battle of Hutton Field. While the details of Hutton Field are sparse, it was certainly not the action narrated here by Lovell.

¹⁷
   At that time the Order of the Garter was awarded for the highest chivalric achievement. It must be assumed that Lovell's admission to the Order was a reward for services over his military career, rather than solely for his efforts at Berwick. It might have been difficult to reconcile the concept of chivalry with the more ruthless tactics he employed at the Battle of Berwick.

¹⁸
   For political reasons, the Scottish Army declined to fight the invading English Army. The English under Richard, Duke of Gloucester entered Edinburgh unopposed and a peace treaty was arranged. The invasion gained none of its original objectives – the only prize being Berwick itself.

¹⁹
   In this Richard and his wife appear to have been remarkably successful. By a grant of parliament of 18 February 1483, Richard, Duke of Gloucester was awarded a number of crown posts and lands in the West March. Additionally, he was granted the hereditary wardenship of the West March. He was also granted whatever lands he could conquer in Scotland and the right to naturalise any Scots whom he subdued. This enormous bestowal of power and territory is sometimes referred to as Richard of Gloucester's Palatinate and it gave him more influence in the North of England than any man before or since. Despite not beating the Scots in battle, Richard of Gloucester emerged from the campaign with an enhanced military reputation and the titles and control of territory that Anne Neville sought for him.

²⁰
   Presumably so they were easily accessible. Lovell had his own property, a manor in Ivy Lane, whilst Ratcliffe lodged in Stepney.

²¹
   A firm commitment to marry rendering a further marriage bigamous, unless both parties agree to break off the plight-trothing first.

²²
   Lovell makes a mistake with the title here. Lord Howard was not made Duke of Norfolk until June 28. His eldest son was made Earl of Surrey the same day. Lovell predates Surrey's earldom by two or three weeks.

²³
   The eagerly awaited visit of Lord Stanley's bears apparently took place in the Michaelmas term of 1483. Their keepers are reported to have dined with the Fellows.

²⁴
   Technically it was not quite right to say Henry Tudor had no royal blood. While he had none from his paternal grandfather (Owen Tudor), who married the widow of Henry V, his mother (Margaret Beaufort, Lady Stanley) was descended from John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III. What little royal blood Henry Tudor did have came from the maternal side, but there were other people who had a better claim through birth to becoming King of England.

²⁵
   Yarrow was regarded as a particularly lucky plant and as such was sported by young girls hoping for a husband. It would have been more conventional to have discreetly worn only a single sprig of yarrow.

²⁶
   Leviticus (
Chapter 18
) expressly prohibits the marriage of a man to his aunt, but it does not specifically forbid the marriage of a man to his niece, despite detailing a fairly comprehensive list of family members who one should not marry. It is likely that Catesby would have claimed that the lack of this particular prohibition was sufficient grounds for the marriage to be legal, while Ratcliffe and Lovell's clerics would have argued that if it was wrong for a man to marry his aunt, it must, logically, be wrong for an uncle to marry his niece.

²⁷
   The meeting, as described by Lovell, must have occurred prior to 10 June 1485 since it was on that date that he conveyed his manors of Halse and Brackly to Nan. The transfer of only such a small part of his vast landownings can only be construed as a gesture of loyalty to Richard III.

²⁸
   Curiously enough, it was the largely pro-Tudor historian, William Shakespeare, who was the first to refer to the impersonation of Henry Tudor (or the Earl of Richmond as he was named until he became king). Shakespeare gives King Richard the lines: ‘I think there must be six Richmonds in the field/Five have I slain today instead of him.' (Richard III, Act V, Scene iv.)