Richard of Gloucester and the French campaign of 1475
by Dr Livia Visser-Fuchs

To Edward IV himself his military expedition into France and its auspicious outcome in the shape of peace and marriage treaties, together with a large lifelong annual tribute from the king of France, may have been the most successful and satisfactory undertaking of his life. When he had to select a theme for the misericord on his own royal seat in the new choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where the sumptuous chapters of his beloved order of the Garter were to be held, he chose to have a carving of himself and Louis XI conversing on the bridge of Picquigny, surrounded by their soldiers. The misericord hidden underneath the king’s seat was unlikely to be seen by many people and the scene could never have much ‘propaganda value’, but this was the episode in his life that Edward himself wished to be reminded of while praying in the chapel he founded – until the peace was broken by Louis XI at the end of 1482, a disaster that had a profound effect on Edward, perhaps even impairing his health.              

Ever since he returned from exile and regained his crown in 1471 Edward had been planning a French campaign to be organised jointly with his brother-in-law Charles, Duke of Burgundy, and intended to carve up the kingdom of France and share it between them. In the end the preparations took until the summer of 1475. All possible friends and enemies had to be alerted, neutralised or paid compensation for past injuries: Scotland, Brittany, the Hanse, Naples, Urbino, Hungary, Spain and Denmark. Parliament and individuals had to be asked for money, ships had to be commandeered at home and hired abroad. Soldiers, particularly archers, and craftsmen had to be found and impressed, and weapons of all kinds collected: in the end Edward’s artillery train was said to be more impressive than even the duke of Burgundy’s. The exact size of the army that crossed the sea in June 1475 is not known, but the high nobility and the royal household were well represented. The duke of Clarence, for example, brought 120 men-at-arms and a thousand archers, the duke of Gloucester promised 110 men-at-arms and a thousand archers, but in the end brought more, lesser lords were accompanied by a dozen or so men-at-arms and several dozen archers; the total of participants was at least 13,000.          

This huge army crossed to Calais, where it waited for Duke Charles, the one ally on whose military support depended the success of the expedition, to arrive with his troops. The duke had other priorities, however: he was besieging the town of Neuss as part of his efforts to spread his influence eastward into the German empire. He turned up with only a small retinue, full of praise for the English army and various promises and suggestions. In the end the king and his army marched slowly into France, the duke accompanying them for part of the way, but clearly not intending to give major support. As soon Charles had ridden back to Neuss Edward started negotiations with Louis XI, who was keeping his troops in readiness but much preferred to come to an amicable agreement. Edward and most English lords were of the same mind. The duke of Gloucester and a few others are said by continental chroniclers to have disagreed, but how much truth there is in this claim cannot be established. Louis offered Edward 75,000 crowns immediately and 25,000 annually for as long as they both lived, plus the marriage of his eldest son to one of Edward’s daughters. A speedy conclusion was reached when the two kings met on 29 August on a specially constructed bridge at the town of Picquigny, just west of Amiens, each followed by his army in battle array as far as Amiens to satisfy the honour of both. Clarence was one of those who accompanied Edward on the bridge. Richard did what one would expect from a commander having a few hours of free time: he went to have a look at the opposing army: the admiral of France, Louis, Bastard of Bourbon, showed off the army of the king of France, which was drawn up in the field to ‘the duke of Gloucester and other lords’, and Bourbon in his turn visited the English army.

A different slant must be given to the story that the king of France was able to bribe the war-mongering duke of Gloucester into compliance, with gifts of horses and costly tableware, as many commentators since Philippe de Commines have asserted. The fact is that Richard and George of Clarence, who is not said to have objected to the peace, went to visit Louis XI together: a German eyewitness recorded that ‘on the Thursday, 31 August, the two brothers of the king of England came to Amiens and dined with the king in the morning’. Their visit was in fact no more than a polite gesture and part of the general comings and goings at Amiens, shortly before the English left for home the same day.

At the time and ever since, commentators have objected to the way Edward allowed his invasion to be brought to a bloodless and inglorious end and it has been asked whether he ever meant to fight any battle. The unwarlike ending of the great campaign appeared not to be sufficiently ‘honourable’ and it is indeed possible that Richard of Gloucester thought so. But he was not the king and it has also been suggested that there is a difference between a king and his knights. Edward had had his share of battles to gain and regain his crown and once he was king the demands of government and diplomacy shaped his attitude to war, as they were to shape Richard’s own, who, after a period of successful military activity in his brother’s service, once he had become king naturally turned to peace himself. As said above, it is undeniable that Edward was excessively pleased with the outcome of his ‘great enterprise’ and we will never know whether he planned it like this. It must also be remembered that two of the surviving poems lamenting Edward’s death regarded the French campaign as a great victory, emphasising that France had to pay ‘tribute’, and that it was such a clean victory, ‘without a stroke, and afterward came home’.

Sources:

F.P. Barnard, Edward IV’s French Expedition of 1475. The Leaders and their Badges, Oxford 1925, repr. Dursley 1975.

J.R. Lander, ’The Hundred Years War and Edward IV’s 1475 campaign in France’, in Tudor Men and Institutions, ed. A.J. Slavin, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1972, pp. 70-100

Charles Ross, Edward IV, London 1974, pt III, 9, ‘The King’s Great Enterprise, 1472-1475’.

Cora L. Scofield, The Life and Reign of Edward the Fourth, 2 vols, London 1923, vol. 2, bk IV, ‘England and France’.

Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, ‘Chivalry and the Yorkist kings’, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in the Fifteenth Century, ed. C. Richmond and E. Scarff, Windsor 2001, pp. 107-33.