The Power of the Plantagenets - by Alison Weir.
Here we go - a Timeline I've been planning for about a week now. Also a little surprise timeline for @FalconHonour.
An excerpt from The Power of the Plantagenets - Published June 6, 1999, by Alison Weir.
Many historians look at the execution of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in July 1483 as a coup-d'etat. As Edward IV, the late dead King, had appointed his brother as Regent for his son and Lord Protector of the Realm, technically, by all standards, it was. But what most historians - myself included - notice more is how quickly Elizabeth Woodville struck down on him: within hours of King Edward's death, she had sent her brother from Ludlow... but it was not to bring the new King - it was to take the head of the Duke of Gloucester.
Though he would, indeed, fight valiantly, Richard, Duke of Gloucester would be taken into captivity by the Earl Rivers, as would his wife and son, on the twenty third of April[1]. It was not at all what the Dowager Queen had wanted - she wanted him dead. Her brother managed - through means unknown to us, even to this day - to convince her to allow the Duke of Gloucester to stand trial for attempted Regicide and Usurpation of the throne. Now, in a normal court, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, would have been found innocent - it was not, most historians believe, his intention to seize the throne but merely to remove the King from the influence of his numerous Woodville relatives. However, while Anthony Rivers had, indeed, managed to convince the Dowager Queen to let Richard stand trial, he had said nothing about not packing the court with their allies: Richard was found unanimously guilty by a jury of his peers and sentenced to death - a true and proper Kangaroo Court if there ever was one.
Now assured of her son's safety, she sent her brother rushing to collect him from Ludlow - her younger son, the Duke of York, would remain with her. The New King Edward, fifth of his name, arrived in London on the nineteenth of May for his coronation. With Anthony's return to London, both Bishop Stillington and Ralph Shaa, making grumblings about the validity of the late King Edward's marriage to the Dowager Queen, were silenced permanently - taken to the Tower, from whence they never again emerged.
The Dowager Queen's next move, even by the standards of the time, was seen as a unjust one - one meant purely for revenge and not justice, for the Queen had not forgotten the late Earl of Warwick's traitorous actions: Anne Neville, Duchess of Gloucester, was tried for conspiracy, sedition and witchcraft and, like her husband, was found unanimously guilty. Richard, who must have already been in sheer terror, had to witness an unspeakable act - his wife being burned alive at the stake for witchcraft. Their young son, Edward, aged almost ten, did not, thankfully, have to watch his mother's death for he chose to die instead. Never in the greatest of health, his confinement in the tower with his mother and father led to him dying of consumption on the first of August, two days before his mother's burning.
Elizabeth Woodville had her revenge and, for her at least, it must have felt utterly glorious - Warwick's family were all but extinguished: with Anne dead, George's two living children - Lady Margaret and Lord Edward - fell under her wardship. No more treachery would come from that family - of that, she was determined to ensure. And to prove it, when her mother-in-law, the almost seventy year old Dowager Duchess of York, protested, she, too, found herself in the Tower. Fortunately for the Duchess, her grandson was fond of her and ordered she be released for his coronation a mere eight weeks later - but Cecily had learned: keep silent or be silenced, by death if necessary.
With her enemies curtailed and her son safely in London, the Queen Dowager's attention turned to something a little more pleasurable - her son's coronation, scheduled by the Council for the twenty second of June. A glorious affair, King Edward V would be crowned on a blisteringly hot summer's day. No written documents remain to inform us as to the splendour of the coronation - all documents on the coronation were destroyed when Sheen Palace, now known as Richmond Palace, caught fire. The effects of that fire will be covered in another chapter in this book.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester would die, with the Dowager Queen watching, on the morning of the first of September - reportedly a cold, wet day with torrential storms. The Dowager Queen did not care: she wanted him dead, and dead he would be. It was a sorry affair - due to being encouraged to drink, by the Dowager Queen's two non-royal sons, the executioner could barely stand. To add insult to injury the axe provided to separate Richard's head from his neck was, conveniently, blunt. It would, due to the weather and the drunkenness of the executioner, take twelve strokes of the axe to finish him off. Just where the remains of the Duke of Gloucester ended up remains unknown to this day: one rumour says that The Duke and Duchess and their dead son were all buried under the Tower of London; another says they were thrown in the Thames and left to dissolve; a third says they're in unmarked graves somewhere in Leicester.
In the next chapter, I shall move on to the marital successes and failures of the King and his siblings.
[1] Historically, this was the date Richard, Duke of Gloucester, left York to meet Edward V at Northampton. Here, however, Baron Hastings did not convince him to act and, thus, he's still in Yorkshire at the time.
An excerpt from The Power of the Plantagenets - Published June 6, 1999, by Alison Weir.
Many historians look at the execution of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in July 1483 as a coup-d'etat. As Edward IV, the late dead King, had appointed his brother as Regent for his son and Lord Protector of the Realm, technically, by all standards, it was. But what most historians - myself included - notice more is how quickly Elizabeth Woodville struck down on him: within hours of King Edward's death, she had sent her brother from Ludlow... but it was not to bring the new King - it was to take the head of the Duke of Gloucester.
Though he would, indeed, fight valiantly, Richard, Duke of Gloucester would be taken into captivity by the Earl Rivers, as would his wife and son, on the twenty third of April[1]. It was not at all what the Dowager Queen had wanted - she wanted him dead. Her brother managed - through means unknown to us, even to this day - to convince her to allow the Duke of Gloucester to stand trial for attempted Regicide and Usurpation of the throne. Now, in a normal court, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, would have been found innocent - it was not, most historians believe, his intention to seize the throne but merely to remove the King from the influence of his numerous Woodville relatives. However, while Anthony Rivers had, indeed, managed to convince the Dowager Queen to let Richard stand trial, he had said nothing about not packing the court with their allies: Richard was found unanimously guilty by a jury of his peers and sentenced to death - a true and proper Kangaroo Court if there ever was one.
Now assured of her son's safety, she sent her brother rushing to collect him from Ludlow - her younger son, the Duke of York, would remain with her. The New King Edward, fifth of his name, arrived in London on the nineteenth of May for his coronation. With Anthony's return to London, both Bishop Stillington and Ralph Shaa, making grumblings about the validity of the late King Edward's marriage to the Dowager Queen, were silenced permanently - taken to the Tower, from whence they never again emerged.
The Dowager Queen's next move, even by the standards of the time, was seen as a unjust one - one meant purely for revenge and not justice, for the Queen had not forgotten the late Earl of Warwick's traitorous actions: Anne Neville, Duchess of Gloucester, was tried for conspiracy, sedition and witchcraft and, like her husband, was found unanimously guilty. Richard, who must have already been in sheer terror, had to witness an unspeakable act - his wife being burned alive at the stake for witchcraft. Their young son, Edward, aged almost ten, did not, thankfully, have to watch his mother's death for he chose to die instead. Never in the greatest of health, his confinement in the tower with his mother and father led to him dying of consumption on the first of August, two days before his mother's burning.
Elizabeth Woodville had her revenge and, for her at least, it must have felt utterly glorious - Warwick's family were all but extinguished: with Anne dead, George's two living children - Lady Margaret and Lord Edward - fell under her wardship. No more treachery would come from that family - of that, she was determined to ensure. And to prove it, when her mother-in-law, the almost seventy year old Dowager Duchess of York, protested, she, too, found herself in the Tower. Fortunately for the Duchess, her grandson was fond of her and ordered she be released for his coronation a mere eight weeks later - but Cecily had learned: keep silent or be silenced, by death if necessary.
With her enemies curtailed and her son safely in London, the Queen Dowager's attention turned to something a little more pleasurable - her son's coronation, scheduled by the Council for the twenty second of June. A glorious affair, King Edward V would be crowned on a blisteringly hot summer's day. No written documents remain to inform us as to the splendour of the coronation - all documents on the coronation were destroyed when Sheen Palace, now known as Richmond Palace, caught fire. The effects of that fire will be covered in another chapter in this book.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester would die, with the Dowager Queen watching, on the morning of the first of September - reportedly a cold, wet day with torrential storms. The Dowager Queen did not care: she wanted him dead, and dead he would be. It was a sorry affair - due to being encouraged to drink, by the Dowager Queen's two non-royal sons, the executioner could barely stand. To add insult to injury the axe provided to separate Richard's head from his neck was, conveniently, blunt. It would, due to the weather and the drunkenness of the executioner, take twelve strokes of the axe to finish him off. Just where the remains of the Duke of Gloucester ended up remains unknown to this day: one rumour says that The Duke and Duchess and their dead son were all buried under the Tower of London; another says they were thrown in the Thames and left to dissolve; a third says they're in unmarked graves somewhere in Leicester.
In the next chapter, I shall move on to the marital successes and failures of the King and his siblings.
[1] Historically, this was the date Richard, Duke of Gloucester, left York to meet Edward V at Northampton. Here, however, Baron Hastings did not convince him to act and, thus, he's still in Yorkshire at the time.
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