Gairdner J. History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third: To which is Added the Story of Perkin Warbeck from Original Documents

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22O LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

pretext of guarding the coasts he began to have secret inter-

views with Arnold Butler and other chieftains, to bring them

over to his own views. Rhymes were disseminated against

King Richard and afterwards prohibited, which caused them

to be repeated and divulged still more. The people were

generally disquieted and ready for revolt. Hugh Conway

returned from Brittany with letters from the Earl of Richmond

to various persons in England and Wales, and among others

to Rice Ap Thomas. The original of this letter our author

had not seen, but he had been informed by Sir Thomas Lake,

Secretary of State, that it was in the Signet Office when he

was clerk there, having been included among other papers

used as evidence in some suit by a grandson of Rice. Un-

luckily it was lost when the Banqueting House at Whitehall

was burned; but according to Sir Thomas Lake's report it

was written in the Earl of Richmond's own hand. Rice

received it by the hands of Morgan of Kidwelly, and Morgan

himself was greatly animated by letters he received at the

same time from his near kinsman Evan Morgan, the head

of a powerful house in Monmouthshire, then sharing Rich-

mond's exile

Morgan of Kidwelly again crossed the Channel, bearing

Rice's answer to the Earl of Richmond in France. The earl

was so much encouraged by his promise of support that he

determined not to dance attendance much longer on the

French Court in seeking aid for his enterprise. Rice mean-

while stood on the tiptoe of expectation, and was indignant

that the French king should keep the earl so long waiting

for what he could so easily afford to grant him. In great

anxiety he consulted his prophet Robert of the Dale whether

the earl would fulfil his project and come to Milford. Re-

ceiving good assurance on this point, he assembled his friends

and retainers, and gentlemen came even out of North Wales

Camb. Register, 96.

A.D.

1485. STORY OF RICE AP THOMAS. 221

to join him. News was then received of the approach of

Richmond's fleet. Rice set forth to the Dale near Milford,

met the earl at his landing, and, according to the plan devised

by his spiritual adviser to avoid violating his oath, laid him-

self down before him on the ground, allowing Henry to step

over him'.

A council of war was then held by Henry, Rice, and the

Earls of Oxford and Pembroke, when it was agreed that

Henry should go by Cardigan and Rice by Carmarthen to

prevent quarrels arising between the Frenchmen and the

Welsh. It was agreed also that their rendezvous should be

at Shrewsbury. Rice ordered all the beacons to be lighted,

and his friends came flocking to meet him on his way. Even

at Carmarthen his numbers had much increased, but he con-

tinued still to gather strength as he went on. At Brecknock

he was joined by several of the Vaughans and Gams; and

one of the latter, a valiant, witty man, who had lost a leg

in fighting, insisted on going with him, because, as he said,

the service required such as would abide by it as well as those

who could run away. By this time Rice's train was so long

as to be cumbersome. He rejoined Henry on the way to

Shrewsbury

This is the Welsh account of the circumstances of Henry's

entry; and though founded on traditions which have received

no small colouring from family pride, it does not appear

in the main incredible. Nor does it present such discrepancies

with the story preserved by Polydore and Hall as to make it

difficult to bring the two into tolerable harmony. We may

no doubt suspect that the author puts the best face he can

upon Rice's double-dealing, insinuating that Henry at least

had no cause to look upon him as an uncertain friend; but

there is no doubt that Rice's family always claimed for him

Camb. Register, 97-99.

Id., 103-107.

222 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

the credit of having brought Henry into England

. It is

quite possible that, as our author declares, the rumours that

Rice would attack the earl on his march through Wales were

spread by Rice himself after he had parted with Henry, only

to throw Richard off his guard, and that he had given the

invader notice of his intention that he might not be alarmed.

As to the curious incident of his laying himself down that

Henry might step over him, there is no good reason to sup-

pose even of this that it is a fantastic addition to history

The same tale, however, it must be observed, is reported of

Thomas Mitton, bailiff of Shrewsbury, who having at first

denied Henry entrance into the town with the expression

attributed to Rice, admitted him afterwards without resist-

ance

And as to Rice there is another tradition of the mode

in which he saved his vow—that it was by going under

Molloch bridge near Dale, while Henry passed over above,

thus literally passing over his body

Various other stories and incidents of Henry's progress

through Wales are preserved by local tradition. Welsh feeling

was deeply stirred in his

behalf.

Welsh bards and minstrels

sang his praises, and Welsh prophets, of course, encouraged

him in the expedition. Who could do anything in Wales

The ballad of the Lady Bessy also makes Rice a confederate with the

Stanleys against Richard before the Earl of Richmond's landing. See

Appendix, Note VI.

In a portrait of Henry VII. attributed, though no doubt erroneously,

to Mabuse, it has been said that the fact is depicted in a button on the

king's hat

(Retrospective

Review, xi. 267 note). But it may be suspected

that the writer who made this statement has drawn somewhat on his

imagination. The late Sir George

Scharf,

whose acquaintance with his-

torical portraits was, beyond doubt, more extensive than that of any other

man in England, told me that he did not remember any portrait of

Henry VII. with ornamentation so elaborate and minute.

Hutton's Battle of Bosworth, 35-38. Owen and Blakeway's Hist, of

Shrewsbury, i. 246, 247.

Cambrian Register, 99 note.

Retrospective

Review, 267.

A.D.

1485. RICHMOND IN WALES. 223

without a prophecy

Henry was of the blood of Cadwallader,

sprung from the ancient British kings, and was it not foretold

that one day a Welshman descended of that royal line would

at last recover the throne of which they had been so long

deprived

The standard of Cadwallader with its red fiery

dragon accompanied him on his march

. Yet the sooth-

sayers, it seems, were not universally confident. Near Ma-

chynlleth he lodged at the house of David Llwyd, an eminent

seer, who of course was expected to declare by his art what

fortune would attend the enterprise. David was doubtful what

to say, and promised an answer next morning. His wife,

however, solved the difficulty for him in a way which, it

is said, has given rise to a Welsh proverb still in use. ' Can

you doubt,' she said to her husband, 'what to reply? Tell

him that the event will be successful and glorious. If your

prediction be verified you will receive honours and rewards;

if it fails, he will never return to reproach you

Before taking leave of our Welsh history we must briefly

notice a misapprehension which it enables us to correct.

Among the many who betrayed the cause of

Richard

Richard III., it has been hitherto supposed that

not

betrayed

his own Attorney-General, Morgan Kidwelly, in- Attorney

, ... , . , General.

tngued against him: nor is the mistake unnatural,

seeing that Hall distinctly tells us that messages were sent

to Henry in France by ' Morgan Kidwelly, learned in the

temporal law.' The biographer of Rice Ap Thomas, however,

gives the name of this agent as Morgan of Kidwelly, who,

though he happened to be 'learned in the temporal law,'

must have been quite a different person from Morgan Kid-

welly the Attorney-General; for it appears that he not only

sent messages to the Earl of Richmond in France, but went

It was one of the three standards he offered up at St Paul's after

the victory—'a red

fiery

dragon beaten upon white and green sarcenet.'

Hall, 423.

Owen and Blakeway's Shrewsbury, i. 244.

224

LIFE 0F

RICHARD

III. CH. VI.

to France himself—a thing which Richard's Attorney-General

could not very well have done, especially as, besides his

ordinary official duties, we find that he had periodical com-

missions from the king twice in each year as justice of assize

for the northern circuit

. Moreover if Richard's Attorney-

General was at this time so zealous in behalf of the Earl of

Richmond, he had certainly been quite otherwise on a former

occasion, for he had received from the king a large grant

of lands in Dorsetshire for services against the rebels

; and

if in spite of Richard's liberality he changed sides, we should

have expected to find him high in the favour of Henry VII.

soon after his accession. The fact, however, is that he lost

his position as Attorney-General and sank into comparative

obscurity, very little mention being found of him on the patent

rolls of Henry's reign

. The Morgan Kidwelly, or rather

Morgan of Kidwelly, who sent messages to the Earl of Rich-

mond, was quite a different person. Morgan, in fact, was

his surname, not his Christian name, and though he is called

by Hall ' Morgan Kidwelly, learned in the temporal law,'

Polydore Vergil, from whose history Hall's narrative is in

this place a mere translation, calls him 'Joannes Morganus,

jurisconsultusV This harmonises completely with what is said

Patents n Feb. i Richard III. (1484), p. i, No. 13 (in dorso)-

29 Jan., p. 3, No. 161 ; 5 July, 2 Richard III. p. 1, No. 12 (in

dorso)-*

9 Feb. (1485), p. 2, No. 15 (d); 8 July, 3 Richard III. No. 5 (d).

Patent 13 May, 1 Richard III. (1484), p. 5, No. 117.

He left a widow named Joan in 1506, who received a special pardon

from the king for her husband's liabilities to the crown as the king's butler

in the port of Weymouth. About the year 1498 we find him accused,

whether justly or not, of malpractice as a justice of the peace in suppressing

a complaint to the king's council.—Letters, &°c, Richard III. and

Henry VII. ii. 83.

Pol. Vergil, 559. After Henry's accession, indeed, Polydore calls

him ' Morganus Kyduellus' (p. 567), stating that the king made him one of

his council; but it is clear this should be Morgan of Kidwelly, not Morgan

Kidwelly.

A.D.

1485. RICHMOND AT SHREWSBURY. 225

of him by the biographer of Rice Ap Thomas, who de-

clares him to have been of the same family as some other

Morgans, the head of his house being Evan Morgan of

Tredegar, who shared the Earl of Richmond's exile

Henry had sent messages to his mother the Lady Mar-

garet, to Lord Stanley and his brother Sir William, to Sir

Gilbert Talbot and others of his adherents, notifying his

arrival, and naming Shrewsbury as the point at which he

intended to cross the Severn, that all his friends might join

him as soon as possible on the march to London. At that

place the messengers returned to him laden with great rewards

from those to whom they had been accredited, and bringing

promises of large assistance. The support he received from

every quarter round about may well have convinced Thomas

Mitton, bailiff of Shrewsbury, that it was useless attempting

persistently to deny him entrance into the town. Two years

before Mitton had been sheriff of Shropshire, and in that

capacity the hapless Buckingham had been delivered up to

him; but things wore a very different aspect now. Henry

was welcomed into the town amid general acclamations, and

enlisted new soldiers for his enterprise at the town's expense

The king, meanwhile, seems to have received notice, even

before the embarkation of Richmond, that he had a fleet at

the mouth of the Seine ready to set sail. He took care this

time not to be taken by surprise, as at the outbreak of Buck-

ingham's rebellion, but to have the means at hand of issuing

all necessary commissions. On the 24th July he

The kin

wrote to his Chancellor to send him the Great

sends for

Seal by Thomas Barowe, the Master of the Rolls, s

Great

and on the 29th the Chancellor delivered it to

Barowe 'at 8 o'clock, in the Old Temple, in a certain low

oratory near the chapel,' enclosed in a bag under his signet

Cambrian

96.

Owen and Blakeway's

Shrewsbury,

i. 246, 247.

G. 15

226 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

with the figure of an eagle'. So the record of its delivery, as

usual, minutely specifies. Barowe hastened with the seal to

Nottingham, where he delivered it to the king on the nth of

August in the oratory under the chapel in Nottingham Castle,

in the presence of the Archbishop of York and certain other

persons; and the king immediately redelivered it to Barowe,

appointing him keeper of the seal then and there, till further

orders

It was on that very day, the nth August, that the king

seems to have heard of the actual landing of his enemies.

The news must have been brought to him at 'Beskwood

Lodge' (now called Bestwood), a few miles north of Not-

tingham, on the borders of Sherwood forest, and he wrote

at once to Henry Vernon ' squire for his body' and others,

requiring them to come to him 'in all haste' with a number

of armed men

horsed and harnessed' which they had already

promised

. He either was or feigned to be delighted, writing

to his friends that the decisive day was now at hand, and

that there could be no doubt of an easy triumph over such

a slender invading force. It seems that he really under-

estimated his own danger, for he relied on the fidelity of

Sir Walter Herbert and Rice Ap Thomas to oppose Henry's

march in Wales. His posts, too, either were not laid this year

as last, or they must have failed him in the hour of need, for

he seems to have heard nothing of the earl's arrival until

tne

atter na

^ reached Shrewsbury. He sent im-

R" h

summons mediately to the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of

Northumberland, the Earl of Surrey, and other

noblemen, to join him with all their powers. He also wrote

to Brackenbury, the Lieutenant of the Tower, to come and

Rymer, xii. 271.

Rymer, xii. 272.

Catalogue of the Duke of Rutland's MSS. vol. i. p. 7 (Historical

MSS.

Commission).

A.D.

1485. LORD STANLEY. 227

bring with him Sir Thomas Bourchier and Sir Walter Hun-

gerford, at the head of whatever forces they could collect;

and he sent urgent messages to every county, threatening death

and confiscation to all who did not come at once to aid the

king in the field

Of all his nobles Richard had most reason to suspect the

fidelity of Lord Stanley, on account of his marriage D

lstr

ust

to the Earl of Richmond's mother. Nothing had

of Lord

1 • ,- , Stanley.

occasioned greater surprise than the fact that the

king reposed any confidence in him at all, after the part his

wife had taken in promoting Buckingham's rebellion. But

the king affected to despise a woman's intrigues. Her husband

had proved his innocence to Richard's satisfaction, and had

received orders to keep her 'in some secret place at home,

without having any servant or company,' so that she should

be able to send no more messages. Stanley obeyed the king's

command, and was therefore reputed loyal

. He was steward

of the king's household, and it did not suit either the king

or himself to show distrust of the other prematurely. Some

time before the landing of Richmond he had obtained leave

of the king to go home into Lancashire to see his family. In

January he would seem to have been there, and, so far was

Richard from showing distrust of him at that time, that he

sent orders into Lancashire and Cheshire intimating that Lord

Stanley, Lord Strange, and Sir William Stanley were to have

the rule and leading of all persons sent against the rebels

If the invader were expected to land in Wales, and the Stanleys

were to be trusted, they could hardly be more useful any-

where than in Lancashire and Cheshire. But the king now

took a different view of the matter. Lord Stanley's continued

absence was inconvenient if not suspicious; and notice was

sent to him that if he did not come himself he must send

Cont. Croyl. 573. Polydore Vergil, 561. Hall, 412.

Hall, 398.

MS. Harl. 433, f. «» *.

15—2

228 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

his eldest son, George Lord Strange, to Nottingham in his

stead. This he accordingly did. News then arrived of Henry's

landing and progress through Wales. Lord Stanley's brother

Sir William was Chamberlain of North Wales, and though

Henry had landed in the southern part of the principality, he

took an indirect course which led through the confines of

Sir William Stanley's jurisdiction. The king was now seriously

alarmed, and sent another summons to Lord Stanley requiring

his own immediate presence; to which he replied by sending

an excuse that he was ill of the sweating sickness. His son

Lord Strange at the same time attempted to escape from

Court, but being taken was obliged to confess that he and

his uncle Sir William, and Sir John Savage, were all in the

confidence of the enemy. His father apparently he attempted

to shield; at least, throwing himself on the king's mercy, he

undertook that he would very shortly come to the king's

assistance with all the forces at his command. And thereupon

he wrote to his father explaining the danger in which he stood

and entreating him to make good the promise he had given

on his

behalf.

Sir William Stanley and Sir John Savage were at once

proclaimed traitors at Coventry and other places. The latter

was a knight of the royal body, and had hitherto stood high

in the king's confidence. He had been commissioned to take

oaths of allegiance in Kent

, and, like both the Stanleys

had tasted largely of Richard's bounty

. His name appears

on the commission of the peace as late as the 2nd August",

so that apparently his loyalty was unsuspected up to the time

Cont. Croyl. 573. Hall, 408.

MS. Harl. 433, No. 1666.

See grants to Lords Stanley and Strange by Patent, 17 Sept., 2

Richard III. p. 1, No. 113; to Sir William Stanley 10 Dec, 2 Richard III.

2, No. 180.

MS. Harl. 433, Nos. 165, 1606. The former grant is enrolled on.

Patent, 1 Richard III. p. 3, No. 115.

Patent, 3 Richard III. No. 2, in dorso.

A.D.

1485. HENRY'S PROGRESS. 229

of Lord Strange's confession. Of Sir Thomas More's remark

that Richard with large gifts procured for himself unsteadfast

friendships, the Stanleys and Sir John Savage were certainly

remarkable instances.

The enemy advanced steadily night and day towards the

centre of the kingdom where Richard was. But the energetic

measures taken by the king brought together a very large

army—a larger one, in the Croyland writer's opinion, than

had ever before been mustered in England under one banner.

They had not, however, completely assembled, when, to inter-

cept the invaders, Richard felt it necessary to remove from

Nottingham

. Yet even now he either undervalued the danger,

not knowing how near the enemy had already come, or else,

influenced by superstitious motives, he lost some time in his

movements. He would have begun his march on Monday,

the 15th August, but, as it was the feast of the Assumption

of Our Lady, he delayed his departure till next day. Such

was declared to be his intention in a letter written, perhaps,

on the Saturday before, and it would seem that nothing more

had been heard of the invaders than the fact that they had

landed

. Henry, however, had passed through Wales and

was probably by this time at Shrewsbury. He pushed on

from Shrewsbury to Newport, where he was joined by Sir

Gilbert Talbot, uncle and guardian to the young Earl of

Shrewsbury, who brought with him an accession to his forces

of over 500 men

. At Stafford he had an interview with Sir

William Stanley, who no doubt informed him how his brother,

Lord Stanley, was deterred from joining him openly by the

fact that his son was a hostage with King Richard. Lord

Stanley with a body of nearly

5,000

men was at that time,

or just before, within twenty miles of him; for he evacuated

Cont. Cray!. 573.

Paston Letters, iii. 320.

Hall says to the number of 2000 men; but Polydore only says over

500 (cum quingentis et amplim armatis). The tendency to exaggerate

numbers is so great that Polydore's reckoning is probably nearer the truth.