Prof to the rescue!

I'm back at Carlisle - well not literally, but back at the siege of 1461! Whilst looking for some info on another part of the battle for the North I came across this :

'The attackers were a force of Lancastrians and Scots, said to have been led by Queen Margaret, who had promised to surrender the city to the Scots if they would help her to capture it, and by northern Lancastrians such as Humphrey Dacre, Richard Tunstall and Henry Bellingham. Subsequent payments for repairs to the walls, damaged during 'le Sege', suggest that they had siege-engines, perhaps even some light guns. They ravaged the suburbs and exerted a pressure so tight that some of the citizens deserted to them - three years later it was decided that burgesses who had gone over to the enemy during 'le Segetyme' should be put out of the franchise. The siege probably began in May, and certainly continued into June, and it would appear that in the end the invaders broke into the city - in December 1461 Carlisle Priory was licensed to acquire lands worth £20 'on account of the devastation of their possessions in Carlisle by the rebels'. The situation was saved first by Sir Richard Salkeld,a Neville retainer, who was later said to have performed 'eminent services' which included 'rescuing the city and castle of Carlisle from the rebels', and then by Lord Montague (Sir John Neville - Warwick's brother), who brought up a relieving army large enough to challenge the queen's forces. The number of reported casualties may be doubted (the 6,000 reported in John Paston's letter), but there appears to have been a battle outside Carlisle.'

So I have my answer - there WAS a battle at Carlisle, and not an inconsiderable one - especially if we consider that according to the battlefields trust, at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross each side numbered around 3,000 men.

One problem solved and a battle to write!

Reference:

Summerson H (1996) Carlisle and the English West March in The North of England in the Age of Richard III pp 89-90. Ed by Prof A J Pollard. St Martin's Press New York.

Wise words

Whilst wrestling with my uncooperative historical timeline I came across these wise words on being an historical novelist from Bernard Cornwell!

Your job is not to educate readers on the finer points of Elizabethan diplomacy or Napoleonic warfare or villainous terrorist plots, your job is to divert and amuse people who have had a hard day at work. What will get you published? Not style, not research but story...your job is not to be an historian but to be a storyteller!

So the answer to my problem is? Concentrate on the story and the rest will fall into place! No excuses then!

When is a battle not a battle? – The Siege of Carlisle 1461

So - I haven't blogged in a while - due to lots of things; illness, accidents and just the sort of things life throws at you!


I do however have a new WIP. This features one of my fave characters from the BIG book (which is currently 'resting'). His name is Jack de Laverton and this WIP sees him ten years before his adventures with Elizabeth. I decided to try and discipline myself to write from one POV - Jack's - but already I've failed in that - it's just TOO restrictive for me and I couldn't resist getting back into Warwick's head ;-).

Anyway, Jack has landed himself at the Battle of Towton which from a research POV wasn't a problem; there are many books and as I am a member of the Towton Battlefield Society http://www.towton.org.uk/ there were plenty of people to ask, and as we re-enact the battle every Palm Sunday (Sunday 28th March 2010 if you want to come along) I could see how things were, including the lie of the land etc. But not so with Jack's next skirmish: The Siege of Carlisle.

After Towton the Lancastrians fled to Scotland to regroup their forces and to try and obtain help (men and money) from the Scots. As a bargaining tool Marguerite d'Anjou, King Henry VI's French wife, offered Berwick upon Tweed and Carlisle up to the Scots. Now Berwick might not have minded becoming Scottish and indeed changed hands several times until being finally liberated by Richard Duke of Gloucester in 1482, but Carlisle was not so keen. This left Marguerite no choice but to send in a force to leagure the city.

John Sadler writes: 'the resourceful Montagu (Sir John Neville, brother of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick) mustering local forces, soon dispersed the besiegers'. And Charles Ross agrees: 'Early in June a combined force of Scots and Lancastrian exiles raided Carlisle: this caused great alarm in the south (no comment!) but John Nevill, Lord Montagu had no difficulty in raising the siege.'

So - not much of a fight then for Jack to get stuck into?

John Gillingham gives it even less of a mention: '...news reached London - Carlisle had been relieved by Lord Montagu.'

As does Prof. Pollard: 'On the other side of the Pennines it was left to Lord Montagu to beat off an attempt on Carlisle.'

Maybe there's not much for Jack to do here then?

Philip Haigh makes it a little more interesting by having Marguerite herself leading the Scots and Lancastrian army (good conflict for the novel!): 'The citizens of Carlisle, however, were not as enthusiastic as Margaret to hand over the town, and she was obliged to lead a joint Scottish-Lancastrian army over the border in order to take it by force. Once Warwick learned of Margaret's advance he ordered Lord Montagu to march north and raise the siege on the town. Upon the arrival of Montagu's force the Scots withdrew across the border.'

But NO fight at all ?

So what is Jack going to do?

He'll have a lot more fighting if I listen to Cora L Scofield: 'But in a few days came the good news that Lord Montagu had raised the siege of Carlisle and killed six thousand Scots.'

What? He KILLED six thousand Scots? Well how many were there to start with? And how many men did John Neville have? - bearing in mind that he easily raised the siege! Or perhaps Sir John Neville was like Shakespeare's Hotspur and killed him some dozen Scots before a breakfast!

Prof. Hicks takes things even further: 'On 12th June an army of Lancastrians and Scots invaded the West March, burnt the suburbs of Carlisle, invested and took the city...Montagu allegedly killing 6,000 Scots.'

Hmmm - key word that - allegedly - but alleged by whom? Not one of these authors cites a reference for their 'facts' about the Siege of Carlisle - apart form Pollard who cites BOTH Ross and Scofield!

Just to put the killing of six thousand Scots into context. Estimates of the casualties at the Battle of Barnet - where Warwick was to die in 1471 - vary between one and half thousand and four thousand (Jones 2004) - and no one is denying Barnet was a battle! But Carlisle is just a siege isn't it? A siege that now has six thousand dead Scots plus no doubt some casualties amongst John Neville's men - no matter how easy it was - and Scots and Lancastrians burning and taking control of the city!

Maybe we should have a vote to decide?

Options:

1. Siege only.

2. Siege only but with Marguerite leading the Lancastrian army.

3. Siege and death of six thousand Scots.

4. Siege and death of six thousand Scots plus the taking and burning of the city.

References:

Gillingham J (1981) 'The Wars of the Roses. Peace and Conflict in 15th Century England.' p138. Phoenix Press, London.

Haigh PA (1995) 'The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses.' p70. Alan Sutton Publishing, Frome.

Hicks M A (1998) 'Warwick the Kingmaker.' p238. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.

Jones F (2004) 'The Battle of Barnet.' p9. Barnet and District Local Historical Society, London.

Pollard A J (1990) 'North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses. Lay Society, War and Politics 1450-1500.' p225. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Ross C (1984) 'Edward IV.' p46 Book Club Associates, London.

Sadler D J (2000) 'War in the North. The Wars of the Roses in the North-East of England 1461-1464.' p20. Stuart Press, London.

Scofield C L (1967) 'The Life and Reign of Edward the Fourth.' Vol 1. p180. Cass and co Ltd, London.
The Neville Family at Prayer from the Neville Book of Hours - maybe they want to know the answer too?

The Battle of Tewkesbury Part 1 - or are we nearly there yet?

The irony for Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick is that on the day he was killed fighting for the Lancastrian cause at the Battle of Barnet (14th April 1471) Queen Marguerite and Prince Edouard whom he had been expecting since he exiled Edward IV in September 1470 finally land at Weymouth.

What if... must have been the thought in his followers’ minds as Edward IV rested in London and Marguerite panicked at the death of Warwick and loss at Barnet and threatened to return to France. Somehow Somerset and Devon – who had deserted Warwick to ride to meet her – persuaded her that without Warwick they were in fact stronger (yeah, right!) and so she finally agreed to risk the life of Lancaster’s heir and stay and fight. (This is the presumed reason why she would not allow Prince Edouard to sail to England sooner).

Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke was still mustering men in Wales, something he had been doing since his commission of array of January 30th 1471 – another what if... for the Lancastrians to contemplate later.

The remaining Lancastrians began to muster as many men as they could against “Edwarde Earl of March the Kings greate Rebele our Enemy” as one surviving letter from Prince Edouard to John Daunt of Wotton-under-Edge Gloucestershire states. Marguerite and her party stayed in Exeter for about 2 weeks gathering men, a task made easier by Warwick’s previous efforts in Lancaster’s name. They then marched towards Glastonbury via Taunton and on to Wells. At Wells Marguerite’s army behaved badly (as she had allowed the Lancastrian army to do previously) and they sacked the Bishop’s Palace. The army then moved on to Bath which they reached on April 30th.

Edward IV meanwhile began to gather his forces too. He had already disbanded the men who had fought at Barnet, so had to begin almost from scratch. On April 19th he left London and went to Windsor – to keep the feast of St George (including the annual Garter ceremony) and muster his army. He stayed for almost a week, leaving on April 24th to play the cat-and-mouse game with the Lancastrians. Would they break for London via Salisbury, or would they head north to meet up with friends in Wales and then Lancashire and Cheshire?

Edward sent out spies to try and determine which course they would take; if they were to head for London he wanted to fight them as far away as possible from the city and if they were heading north he would naturally want to stop them joining up with either Tudor or their northern allies.
Marguerite sent out an advanced guard towards Shaftesbury and from there to Salisbury and another party from Wells to Bruton and Yeovil in order to try and convince Edward that the whole army was indeed heading for London.

But Edward’s spies seemed to know that these were feints and when Edward set out from Windsor he headed north through Abingdon to Cirencester. He arrived in Cirencester on April 29th and waited. Hearing no news of Marguerite’s approach he advanced to Malmesbury and sent out spies to look for the Lancastrians.

Marguerite had not come further east but had gone west to Bristol, probably because she knew she would be welcomed and indeed she received “money, men and artilarye” and enjoyed and official reception from the recorder of the city. The Lancastrians then let it be known that they would march out on May 2nd to Sodbury Hill, about 12 miles north-east of Bristol and would there give battle. Skirmishers were sent out as far as Sodbury Town where they met advanced patrols of Edward’s army. They duly reported back and Edward advanced to Sodbury Hill to give battle, but the Lancastrians seemed to have vanished! Marguerite had constructed another feint to buy her time, realising with horror just how close to Edward she was! Her army marched out but as soon as possible turned towards Gloucester – the first possible crossing point on the River Severn. The Lancastrians camped at least part of the night at Berkeley after a march of around 23 miles.

Edward was still waiting and it seemed that his spies were now unable to find the vanished enemy! At 3am on May 3rd Edward finally learned what had happened, he immediately called a council to decide how best to stop the Lancastrians crossing the Severn. He decided to send fast messengers to Richard Beauchamp (not THAT Richard Beauchamp) – this one was the son of Lord Beauchamp of Powick and Governor of the Town and Castle.

Edward warned him of the Lancastrian approach and ordered him to hold the town for the King, promising to come to his aid as soon as possible. The Lancastrians arrived about 10am having marched ~14 miles from Berkeley and found the gate barred to them. Marguerite threatened the town with assault but Beauchamp refused to let them in. Knowing how close Edward was they could not waste time on an assault and so had no choice but to head for the next crossing point on the Severn – Tewkesbury. Worse was to come however as Richard Beauchamp sallied out and assaulted the rear of her army capturing some of the guns she had risked going to Bristol to obtain.

From Gloucester the army took the lower road via Kingsholme, Sandhurst, Wainlode and Deerhurst to Lower Lode and up Lower Lode Lane. They reached Tewkesbury about 4pm on May 3rd There was a ferry at Lower Lode but there would not have been time for them to use this to cross before the arrival of the Yorkists. The river was probably only fordable at low water and could not have been at this time otherwise they would undoubtedly have crossed – the army was exhausted after having marched about 50 miles in the last 36 hours with only one short rest.
The Lancastrians camped south of the town. There has been much debate over exactly where this was and it seems that the most likely place is Gupshill – and this has led to the speculation that Marguerite spent the night at Gupshill Manor – now a pub.

Edward it is believed took the ‘upper road’ which corresponds roughly to the modern A38. At Cheltenham Edward received news that the Lancastrians had reached Tewkesbury and had stopped. His men had marched 31 miles that day and must have been exhausted, but Edward allowed them only a short rest before marching them a further 5 miles to the village of Tredington, just 3 miles from Tewkesbury and the Lancastrians – he had no intention of losing his quarry again.
I find the resilience and determination of the soldiers on both sides incredible. Think how you would feel if you had just marched 31 miles in hot weather in full kit only to be told to march another 5! Oh and by the way you’ll be fighting a battle in the morning!

References:

“The Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury” P W Hammond. Alan Sutton Gloucester 1990.

“Tewkesbury 1471 the last Yorkist victory” Chrisopher Gravett. Osprey Publishing 2003.

Tatton Park Mediaeval Fayre

This midsummer weekend brought as usual the Mediaeval Fayre at Tatton Park in Cheshire. There were over 300 on the field in the sunshine and plenty of mediaeval goodies to browse through at the market - some will be familiar faces to those of you who frequent Tewkesbury - such as Jim from Trinity Court Potteries http://www.trinitycourtpotteries.co.uk/

Mediaeval camps abounded...

Including that of William Lord Hastings! - the Black Maunch.

And Lord and Lady Conyers were present in the Great Hall!

A Conyers! A Conyers!

An excellent weekend at what is the biggest mediaeval bash in the North of England - put it in your diaries for next year!

EH Competition

As a break from planning/editing my WoTR stuff I have been working on a short story for the English Heritage 'Pure Inspiration' competition which is open to anybody who has been inspired to write by either the magnificent Whitby Abbey...

Or the art installation 'Lucky Spot' by Stella McCartney which is in residence at Belsay Castle in Northumberland.

I'll bet you can't guess which I've chosen?

English Heritage 'Pure Inspiration' competition is at: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.16357

Research: Jack's House 18.04.09

Okay so technically I haven't finished my first WoTR book yet...but I'm already researching my second!!! Today I've been to visit the house that Jack built or rather the house Jack wants. How easy do you think it's going to be for Jack de Laverton to get his inheritance?! Ooo I'm SO mean to him!

I've decided to base his family home on Haddon Hall in Derbyshire which is still pretty much a mediaeval manor house with a few Tudor trappings.

Hmm having been again today I can see why Jack is willing to do pretty much anything to get it...I think I'd fight for it too - pass me my longbow!

Haddon Hall stands on an outcrop of limestone overlooking the River Wye and its surrounding water meadows. The approach to Haddon Hall is dominated by the north west tower. You pass through this into the lower courtyard which is paved with local gritstone and rises to the Hall at the centre of the house. The courtyard is surrounded by 15th century lodgings and the older chapel, containing 15th century wall paintings (see below) and a Jacobean pulpit and pews. A 15th century porch is situated at the centre of the hall range with the service end to the east and the Hall to the right.

The Great Hall is lit by a traceried 14th century window beside the later chimneybreast (1450). The two-storey chamber block to the right of the hall has large mullioned windows dating from 1500 which light the downstairs Parlour and the Great Chamber above. The porch leads into the screens passage with three doors on the left which originally gave access to the pantry, buttery and kitchen.

This fantastic 15th century tapestry was reportedly given to the family by Henry VIII.

The Long Gallery dating from the early-17th century is 110 feet in length and occupies most of the south side of the upper court. The silver-grey wood panelling here has been lightened by an artificial grain painted on to the oak to make the most of the daylight. The diamond panes in the windows are all set at different angles which provide a marvellous effect from the outside and also maximize the light in the room.

The chapel, which once served the vanished village of Nether Haddon, dates from 1195 when Richard Vernon received permission to build a high wall around his house. The wall paintings are 15th century. This one is St Nicholas calming the storm.

Haddon is unusual in having two courtyards (see plan). The upper courtyard including the hall range was built in the 14th century, and in the 15th century the second, lower courtyard was built to provide more lodgings for the household

Pass me my falchion too while you're at it!