Opposition to Henry Tudor after Bosworth
by W.E. Hampton

Although several historians maintain that England quickly accepted the verdict of Bosworth as that of trial by battle, there is in fact much evidence of unrest immediately after Bosworth, and continuing until, and after, Stoke Field. Let us briefly examine some of this evidence.

In September 1485, Robert Throckmorton was appointed Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire (Richard's Sheriff, Richard Boughton, having been killed on his way to Bosworth - either in resisting Henry's forward troops, or perhaps through treachery - an incident strangely ignored) and was replaced in November. He petitioned for a pardon of fines and arrears touching his office, 'which sheriffwik your said liege occupied but by space of one month or full little more, and in stablysshed' that he could not execute his office to the King's profit.¹

We have Henry's own testimony. On 17 October 1485, he wrote to Henry Vernon of Haddon (one of Richard's Esquires of the Body) telling of his 'knowledge that certeyne our rebelles and traitours being of litell honour or substance confedered with our auncient ennemyes the Scottes (against their allegiance, etc.) made insurreccion and assemblies in the north portions of our realme, taking Robin of Riddesdale, Jack St Thomalyn at Lath, and  Maister Mendall for their capteyns, entending if they be of power the fynall  and abversion ... of our realme'. Vernon was urged to come with his attendance and assistance in all haste, the letter being under the King's sign manual.² Such pseudonyms as 'Maister Mendall' and 'Robin of Redesdale' must have seemed to Henry ominously reminiscent of the forces which overthrew Edward in 1469-70. Was Sir John Conyers involved? Lathes, in the Cleveland district of the North Riding of Yorkshire, was held by Sir John's son, Henry. John Thomlynson (whose sister was married to Edmund, son of Miles Metcalfe) was a beneficiary in the will of Sir John's brother, Christopher, all of which could point to Sir John and his widely spread and influential family. On 25 September Sir John had been one of those ordered to array troops in the north to resist the Scots, with Lord Strange's forces available if required.

Until pardoned in August 1486, a group of Richard's supporters, escaped from Bosworth - Harringtons, Huddlestons, Middletons, Frankes - remained unsubdued on 'Furneys Fells'. Christopher Urswick was sent to James  Harrington and others in Hornby Castle, with letters under the Privy Seal, and Milo Childe was sent not only to Sir Richard Tunstall (who was early reconciled to the new order) but to Richard Duckett of Gilthwayterigg, Westmorland, father-in-Iaw of Ralph Brackenbury, Sir Robert's nephew and heir male.³ Several of the Furness Fell 'rebels' died at Stoke Field. Edward Franke survived and continued to work against Henry until1489, when he was reported to have been hanged - or beheaded, according to another report - on Tower Hill.⁴

 After Bosworth Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, was captured and imprisoned⁵. Soon after 6 December 1485, he was released, and immediately sent to the North by Henry Tudor, who was reluctantly forced to employ him there because of the inability of Lords Strange and Fitzhugh to subdue English rebels who had encouraged the King of Scots to besiege Berwick. Berwick was relieved, but resistance continued west of the Pennines.⁵

One would like to know if the death, on 28 March 1486, of Lovell's brother-in-law, Sir Brian Stapleton, was connected with these Spring insurrections, which culminated in an attempt by Lovell to seize Henry VII at  York. On that occasion Henry Percy is said to have personally saved the King's life, on St. George's Day.⁶ During the King's visit the earl of Lincoln was reported as wanting to go 'over the walls' to join Robin of Redesdale. Among those willing to assist Lincoln was Sir Thomas Mauleverer, a former retainer of Richard Ill, who had made him a knight banneret in Scotland in 1482. 

The rebellion of Humphrey Stafford, his brother Thomas and their adherents Giles and Christopher Wellesbourne, may have been less political than part of the struggle for the inheritance of Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon, and a continuation of the feud with the Harcourts. Giles had married the widow of John Harcourt, her daughter Margery being married to Humphrey Wellesbourne. Yet the Staffords were sheltered by John Sante, Abbot of Abingdon, friend of Lovell and of Edward Franke. In February 1486, Henry VII sent his uncle, Jasper Tudor, into Wales 'to se that country'.⁷ Not even in Wales was Henry's rule everywhere welcome. On 14 October 1486, the keeping of a warren and lands in Marcle 'alias Markeley', and property in Stretton, Herefordshire, were granted to Thomas Acton. These had been seized into the King's hands by reason of the rebellion of Thomas Hunteley 'and his adherence to the rebels of Wales'.⁸

A brief mention may also be made of Lords Scrope of Bolton and of Masham who in June 1487 made an attack on York. They were imprisoned until 1488 when they were required to remain within a twenty- mile radius of London. There was the Northumbrian, James Lilbourne, who was arrested but escaped early in 1487, and there was also Sir Henry Bodrugan who put up some resistance in Cornwall. All of these 'rebels', we may note, opposed Henry Tudor's regime in the eighteen months between Bosworth and Stoke Field. The resistance did not end there.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. William Campbell (ed), Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, Rolls Series, Vol 1, (London 1873), pp 282-3

2. Henry Kirke, Sir Henry Vernon of Haddon. Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol 42, 1920, p 12

3. Materials. .., vol. 2, (London 1877), p. 98, 100

4. Plumpton Correspondence, ed. T Stapleton, Camden Society, (London 1839), letter Ixxi, p 87, citing Collectanea Lelandi, vol 4.

5. MA Hicks, ‘Dynastic Change and Northern Society’, Northern History, vol 14, (1975), pp 92-3, 96-7 where Dr Hicks also examines the rebellions of 1485, 1486 and 1487, observing that Robin of Redesdale was also involved in Viscount Lovell's insurrections in the Ripon and Middleham areas in 1486

6. Edward Harrington Fonblanque, The Annals of the House of Percy, Vol I, (1887), p 300, citing Drake's Eboracum

7. Plumpton Correspondence, p. 50

8. Calendar of Fine Rolls 1485-1509, pp 60-1

FOOTNOTE

The above is probably not an exhaustive list of opposition to Tudor rule. In early May 1486 there were ‘riotous attempts to depose the king in London. The malcontents, armed with standards reminiscent of earlier days, met at Westminster on 5 May and then went to Highbury in the parish of Islington to attack lieges of the king.’ 

This article was first published in The Ricardian in December 1976 and re-published in Richard III: Crown & People edited by James Petre, Gloucester 1985.