Read Online The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville & the Age of Chivalry by Christopher Wilkins - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Christopher Wilkins
Tags: nonfiction, History, Biography & Autobiography, Medieval, England/Great Britain, 15th Century, Military & Fighting
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although Olivier de la Marche says that his youth and good looks were the reason. The reports of the banquets show them to have been gargantuan and amazing: one had 30 courses and another had the dishes served in 30 little ships, each of which was a 7ft (213cm) model of a three-masted carrack, floating on a silver lake. And so it went on.12
William Caxton was the headman of the English colony in Bruges who formally welcomed Margaret. It is clear from Caxton’s own account that he later advised her on a number of matters and they also discussed politics and trade (she was an active dabbler in the cloth trade). More importantly she commissioned him to undertake the translation of the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy . There is an engraving that shows Caxton presenting a book to her.13
That autumn the new alliance was to be put to the test when Brittany and France started skirmishing along their border. King Edward appointed Anthony, now aged 26, to be ‘Captain of the King’s armed power proceeding to sea and elsewhere for the resistance of the King’s enemies’. The commission was for five knights, 55 men-at-arms, 24 shipmasters, 1,076 sailors and 2,945 archers for three months.14 Anthony probably took his brother, Edward, as his page, who would then have been ten or 11. This would be logical and the start of the naval experience that would have him commanding the fleet 15 years later.
Faced with an allied front King Louis ostensibly came to terms with Duke Francis of Brittany, but this did not deter Anthony, who took his fleet to sea in October. He cruised the Channel in appalling weather and recaptured Jersey, which had been in French hands for the last six years. Anthony and his fleet were back at the Isle of Wight a month later. But it was unsatisfactory for King Edward: all he had for about £18,000 of expenditure was the reconquest of Jersey, while Duke Charles of Burgundy had proved a most unsatisfactory ally; he had made a private settlement with King Louis (the Treaty of Peronne, October 1468) by which he had undertaken not to aid the English if they invaded France.
Meanwhile Edward’s sister, Queen Elizabeth, was very active around the court. She had been given lands worth 4,000 marks a year.15 and was now busy arranging suitable marriages for her family. Four of her sisters were married to the richest available nobles,16 while Thomas, her eldest son by her first husband, had married the King’s niece, the only child and heiress of the Lancastrian and recently attainted Duke of Exeter. Her second brother, 20-year-old John, had married Warwick’s aunt, the immensely rich Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Some people disapproved, as she was 65 and had already survived three husbands (and would outlive John). Presumably she liked them young.17
All in all, it meant that the King had effectively arranged for his wife’s family to be raised to a suitable status without funding it himself. These activities irritated much of the establishment, who disliked being upstaged, to say nothing of the upstart Woodvilles having the best available heirs and heiresses. In the fifteenth century marriage was a business aimed at finding suitably rich spouses while love was reserved for dreamy ideals, courtly or adulterous affairs. But apart from marriages, the family gained little direct financial benefit from their royal connection, particularly when compared to noblemen such as the Lords Hastings and Herbert or Warwick’s family, the Nevilles, all of whom received far more than the Woodvilles in titles, lands, offices and money.
However, the Woodvilles did make the best use of their easy access to the King and so became powerful lobbyists. Influence was hugely important, and while Warwick, ‘the over mighty subject’, resented the family and their increasing importance, his real problem was his own declining influence.
Apart from finding his in-laws useful, it seems the King also liked them and certainly supported them. For
William Caxton was the headman of the English colony in Bruges who formally welcomed Margaret. It is clear from Caxton’s own account that he later advised her on a number of matters and they also discussed politics and trade (she was an active dabbler in the cloth trade). More importantly she commissioned him to undertake the translation of the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy . There is an engraving that shows Caxton presenting a book to her.13
That autumn the new alliance was to be put to the test when Brittany and France started skirmishing along their border. King Edward appointed Anthony, now aged 26, to be ‘Captain of the King’s armed power proceeding to sea and elsewhere for the resistance of the King’s enemies’. The commission was for five knights, 55 men-at-arms, 24 shipmasters, 1,076 sailors and 2,945 archers for three months.14 Anthony probably took his brother, Edward, as his page, who would then have been ten or 11. This would be logical and the start of the naval experience that would have him commanding the fleet 15 years later.
Faced with an allied front King Louis ostensibly came to terms with Duke Francis of Brittany, but this did not deter Anthony, who took his fleet to sea in October. He cruised the Channel in appalling weather and recaptured Jersey, which had been in French hands for the last six years. Anthony and his fleet were back at the Isle of Wight a month later. But it was unsatisfactory for King Edward: all he had for about £18,000 of expenditure was the reconquest of Jersey, while Duke Charles of Burgundy had proved a most unsatisfactory ally; he had made a private settlement with King Louis (the Treaty of Peronne, October 1468) by which he had undertaken not to aid the English if they invaded France.
Meanwhile Edward’s sister, Queen Elizabeth, was very active around the court. She had been given lands worth 4,000 marks a year.15 and was now busy arranging suitable marriages for her family. Four of her sisters were married to the richest available nobles,16 while Thomas, her eldest son by her first husband, had married the King’s niece, the only child and heiress of the Lancastrian and recently attainted Duke of Exeter. Her second brother, 20-year-old John, had married Warwick’s aunt, the immensely rich Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Some people disapproved, as she was 65 and had already survived three husbands (and would outlive John). Presumably she liked them young.17
All in all, it meant that the King had effectively arranged for his wife’s family to be raised to a suitable status without funding it himself. These activities irritated much of the establishment, who disliked being upstaged, to say nothing of the upstart Woodvilles having the best available heirs and heiresses. In the fifteenth century marriage was a business aimed at finding suitably rich spouses while love was reserved for dreamy ideals, courtly or adulterous affairs. But apart from marriages, the family gained little direct financial benefit from their royal connection, particularly when compared to noblemen such as the Lords Hastings and Herbert or Warwick’s family, the Nevilles, all of whom received far more than the Woodvilles in titles, lands, offices and money.
However, the Woodvilles did make the best use of their easy access to the King and so became powerful lobbyists. Influence was hugely important, and while Warwick, ‘the over mighty subject’, resented the family and their increasing importance, his real problem was his own declining influence.
Apart from finding his in-laws useful, it seems the King also liked them and certainly supported them. For
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