Richard’s Military Career
by Wendy E.A. Moorhen

'Such was his renown in warfare'

In January 1483 the Rolls of Parliament recorded that the King, Lords and Commons ‘understand and consider that the Duke [of Gloucester], being Warden of the West Marches, by his diligent labours … has subdued a great part of the west borders of Scotland, adjoining England, by the space of thirty miles and more … and has [secured] divers parts thereof to be under the obedience of [the King] to the great surety and ease of the north parts of England’.  This statement demonstrates the regard in which Richard was held at the close of the reign of his brother King Edward IV.  Nevertheless, Richard’s military reputation, despite contemporary enthusiasm, has been challenged by historians beginning with the Crowland Chronicler and in recent years by Desmond Seward who pointed out the obvious – that Richard only commanded an army at one pitched battle – and Michael Hicks who wrote that his ‘military reputation was unearned’ and ‘inflated’. The reality was very different. Warfare has many facets, of which, it could be argued, the pinnacle is to lead an army into full battle.  Before reaching such heights, however, much has to be achieved in practical terms – diplomacy explored, castles and towns fortified, musters raised, artillery sourced, victuals provided, intelligence organised as well as participation in smaller scale events such as raids and skirmishes.  Throughout his adult life Richard was involved in such matters, hardly surprising in view of the internecine strife that blighted England in the second half of the fifteenth century coupled with the invasion of England’s old enemies, France and Scotland.


First Steps

Much has been written about the main campaigns that Richard was involved in, the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, the invasion of Scotland and of course, Bosworth and I do not propose to cover these in any detail as members will probably be familiar with these landmark events.  What I am going to do is to describe briefly Richard’s wide experience in warfare outside these major events.

Richard’s training in the art of warfare began at an early age under the tutelage of the earl of Warwick and would have been the same as that experienced by all young noblemen. He would have read the conventional texts about warfare and in due course he possessed a copy of the hands-on military textbook – Vegetius’ De re militari.  Richard’s first experience of campaigning was during the period when the relationship between King Edward and Warwick began to founder and the latter tempted Clarence, the king’s middle brother, to join his cause.  In 1469, there was a series of disturbances in the north led by the ‘Robins of Redesdale and Holderness’ and the uprising in Lancashire was sufficiently serious to bring the king north to deal with it.  Edward took his youngest brother along and the royal party made a leisurely progress via East Anglia.  A letter written by John Paston recounts how the duke of Gloucester recruited four men to take arms under his banner. When the royal party reached Newark, the situation became quite ugly, as ‘Robin of Redesdale’ with a force larger than that of the king, was moving rapidly south.  The king and Richard fled to the safety of Nottingham Castle.  ‘Redesdale’ continued his march and defeated the loyalist Welsh  forces, under the command of the earl of Pembroke, near Banbury, leaving the way clear for Warwick to move against King Edward who by 2 August was his captive in Coventry.  Warwick’s success was short-lived and by October Edward was in London accompanied by Richard.  Kendall conjectured that it was due to Richard’s active support during the previous few weeks and his endeavours in raising loyal troops that Edward now rewarded and promoted his brother who had just turned seventeen.  Richard received grants for estates and lands, he was appointed Constable of England, received commissions to array men in Shropshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire and was appointed Chief Justice of North Wales. There was trouble stirring in Wales and King Edward decided that Richard was the person to sort it out.  A grant dated 16 December gave Richard his ‘first independent military command’ (Kendall, p. 79) when he was given full power and authority to ‘reduce and subdue’ the castles of Carmarthen and Cardigan in south Wales and to deal with the local rebels.  After a brief return to England, he was again sent to Wales leading a commission of oyer and terminer [a commission to hold and pass judgment in specified cases] and the following month was appointed Chief Justice and Chamberlain of South Wales, making him the ‘virtual Viceroy of the principality’ (Kendall, p.79). 

Meanwhile King Edward faced new difficulties with a rising in Lincolnshire led by Sir Robert Welles, who was the agent of Warwick and Clarence.  The king successfully defeated the rebels at Empingham in the action known as the battle of ‘Lose-coat’ Field and a few days later Warwick and Clarence were proclaimed traitors.  Edward pursued the rebels but had to give up the chase due to the lack of provisions for his soldiers.  Warwick and Clarence fled to Chesterfield and intended to move westwards to join Warwick’s brother-in-law, Lord Stanley, in Manchester. Richard does not appear to be with the king during this period and it can be supposed he was still on active service in Wales.  The only clue to Richard’s activities during March is in a proclamation made in York by Edward. Reference was made to a ‘matter of variance’ between Richard and Lord Stanley. Kendall has suggested that Richard decided to leave Wales to assist Edward but had a run-in with some supporters of Stanley and warned the king of Stanley’s disloyalty. Stanley, the consummate trimmer, assessed the situation and abandoned Warwick. The day after the York proclamation, 26 March, Richard was commissioned to array the men of Gloucester and Hereford and, on 17 April, the men of Devon and Cornwall. The last appointment was perhaps too late as the same month Warwick and Clarence escaped to France from the west country.

King Edward was aware that the return of Warwick was imminent and the summer was spent in preparing for an invasion.  In June Richard headed commissions of array for Gloucester, Somerset and Hereford, he was sent to Lincoln in July on a commission of oyer and terminer and the following month joined Edward on a march to Yorkshire to assist the earl of Northumberland to put down a rebellion. Warwick landed in England in September.  Edward and Richard marched south but when they reached Doncaster the hitherto loyal brother of Warwick, John, Marquess of Montagu, threw in his hand with the traitors.  The king, his brother and followers were forced to flee and on 2 October set sail for Burgundy. Their exile lasted for a little under six months and the royal brothers returned to England in March 1471. Details of Richard’s involvement in King Edward’s campaign to regain his throne are found in Peter Hammond’s authoritative The Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury but may be briefly summarised by describing how on 14 April, Easter Sunday, Richard was entrusted with right wing of the royal host at the Battle of Barnet, where he was slightly wounded, and within three weeks he again led the vanguard at the Battle of Tewkesbury.  In both engagements, Richard acquitted himself well.  King Edward re-established his authority although there was still some scattered unrest, Warwick, Montagu and Edward of Wales were dead and for the next twelve years, there was a respite from the civil conflict. 

Warden of the West Marches

King Edward now began his ‘second reign’. The events of the past two years had seen losses within the mighty baronial families and some ‘territorial re-ordering’ was required (Ross, p. 334).  One such territory was the north of England where Warwick had been pre-eminent and where Richard was now established by the king.  He had been created Warden of the West Marches towards Scotland in August 1470 and he now relinquished his great office as Chief Justice and Chamberlain of South Wales to concentrate on his new role in the north that included the policing of the borders and the care and repair of fortifications. Kendall writes that Richard immediately ‘set forth on a campaign against the Scots’ (p. 107) but does not cite any evidence for this and it is unlikely that England would take an aggressive role at this stage following the recent upheavals in England.  In all likelihood just the opposite was the case as on 7 August a warrant was issued for the safe conduct of Scottish ambassadors to ‘treat with the English’ and authority was granted to the English commissioners on the 26th ‘to redress March offences’.  Despite meetings between England and Scotland (September 1471 in Alnwick, May 1472 in Newcastle and a schedule for ‘March meetings by the Wardens to redress complaints’) there were frequent raids by both sides on land and at sea as the existing truce crumbled. In April 1474, a Scottish proclamation was made summoning the lieges to muster at Lauder under the duke of Albany to resist a raid to be led by Richard who also harried the Scots at sea and his ship the Mayflower captured James III’s Yellow Carvel. King Edward had to make reparation to the Scots in February 1475 for this incident following a truce negotiated late in 1474. Life on the marches, therefore, appeared to be lively with forays and skirmishes and with the Wardens being generally in a state of high alert.

Involvement in a more substantial military campaign brought Richard south in 1475 when he joined his brother and almost the entire nobility of England for King Edward’s ‘Great Expedition’ – the invasion of France. Richard’s contribution of men was the greatest from any peer.  He was indented to provide 120 men at arms and 1,000 archers but in the event brought an additional 300 men, much to his brother’s delight. Richard no doubt regarded the war as justifiable and only reluctantly accepted the negotiated settlement made by his brother with Louis XI.

Richard returned to his northern domain where the breaches of the truce with Scotland were becoming more frequent. By 1479 the region was in crisis, and war became inevitable.  Border raids by the Scots began on a large scale in the spring of 1480 and on 12 May King Edward responded by appointing Richard Lieutenant-General of the North, charged to lead an army against the Scots. He led commissions of array for the three Yorkshire ridings, Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland.  The Scots made a pre-emptive strike in the summer led by the earl of Angus who penetrated into England as far as Bamborough which he fired.  Richard, supported by a contingent of men from York, swiftly retaliated and it appears he was successful enough to keep the Scots on their side of the border for the time being.  The duke then visited Sheriff Hutton and proceeded to make repairs to the defences of the major fortress on the western march - Carlisle.

Scottish Campaigns

In 1481 there was an escalation in preparations for an invasion to be led by the king in the summer and to prepare the way. John ,Lord Howard, sailed into the Firth of Forth in late spring destroying and capturing Scottish ships and burning Blackness.  Richard had in the meantime recruited men to the border garrisons and worked closely with the earl of Northumberland to establish how many men could be called upon for the invasion.  Richard, along with the Scottish renegade earl of Douglas, was also given the task of suborning key Scottish lords to weaken King James’s support but this covert activity met with little success. In March Richard had visited London to discuss the invasion plans but was no doubt dismayed later in the year to learn that the king had decided not to undertake the campaign himself because of ‘adverse turmoil’ and left Richard and Northumberland ‘to wage a vigorous war against the Scots’ (Scofield II, p. 321).  King Edward did travel as far as Nottingham where he arrived on 1 October and stayed until the 20th.  Richard met with the king where it was no doubt agreed that it was too late in the season for the full invasion to take place that year.  In Richard’s absence from the immediate vicinity of the war Northumberland may have appealed to the citizens of York for men in a letter dated 13 October when he reported the Scots were already in his eponymous county.  The year of the letter is uncertain (Kendall attributed it to 1480) but the incident may well be the one recorded by the Scottish historian John Lesley (p. 45) that the ‘borderers invaded the marches of England and took away many preys of goods and destroyed many towns and led many persons in Scotland’.  Following the fresh news of Scottish incursions into England Richard returned to the front, laid siege to the town and citadel of Berwick, which he failed to take, and was no doubt involved in the ‘intermittent warfare [that] continued all along the border during the winter’ (Ross, p. 282).  

The new year brought a new campaigning season and on 21 February Richard received a commission to obtain the necessary victuals for his army and with leave to find them anywhere in England, Wales and Ireland.  The harvest had been poor, hence the permission to find grain and crops wherever they were available.  On 22 May Richard led an attack into southwest Scotland and reached Dumfries which he burned amongst other towns.  Events now took an unexpected turn when the brother of King James III, the duke of Albany, arrived in England from France where he had been living since fleeing Scotland in 1479. King Edward welcomed the Scottish traitor and during a stay at Fotheringhay, where they were joined by Richard, a treaty was agreed on 11 June when the English king recognized Albany’s claim to the throne of Scotland.  The following day Richard was confirmed as Lieutenant-General of the North and with Albany set out on the invasion of Scotland.  He had authority to raise an army of around 20,000 men and sufficient funds to pay them for four weeks.  The muster was complete by mid-July and the army crossed the border. The English host was large enough to terrify Berwick and the town fell to Richard without further delay, although the citadel held out.  Lord Stanley was left to continue the siege whilst Richard moved north, devastating Roxburghshire and Berwickshire, all the while expecting to meet the Scottish army.  He was to be disappointed.  On 22 July King James’s dissatisfied subjects had taken their king prisoner at Lauder, executed his favourites and returned with their royal prisoner to Edinburgh.  As Richard moved towards the capital the rebels moved to Haddington, situated fifteen miles to the east, and awaited developments. Richard found himself entering an undefended Scottish capital. He controlled his army and the city was not molested. The king’s captors were prepared to negotiate with Richard.  Albany immediately abandoned his hope of becoming king and settled for the restoration of his lands and position. The Scots asked for a peace treaty and that the proposed marriage between the Scottish heir and princess Cecily take place. Richard demanded the return of Berwick Castle and the dowry paid for the princess.  The settlement was that the marriage would go ahead if it were Edward’s wish, otherwise the dowry would be repaid. Richard left Edinburgh, disbanded most of his army at Berwick on 11 August, and continued with the siege.  The castle fell on 24 August.  The Crowland Chronicler was dismissive of the campaign – that it cost too much for too little gain and that King Edward was grieved at the ‘frivolous expenditure’.  It is, however, difficult to see what other outcome there could have been.  Richard, on the ground, would have appreciated the mood of the Scots and that it would not be possible to establish Albany on the throne, although the situation might have been different if the Scottish army had been vanquished.  In any event, this was not one of the original aims of the war. Richard himself was also keenly aware of the cost of the army and that he could not afford to prolong the negotiations or his stay in Scotland.  In modern parlance, he had achieved his objective and completed the project on schedule and within budget.

Richard’s penultimate military campaign was the preparation to meet the threat of the Buckingham rebellion in the autumn of 1483.  He was ably supported by Norfolk, who was close to one of the front lines, and the entire incident clearly demonstrated Richard’s military acumen as he swiftly and easily suppressed the disparate uprisings without personally becoming involved in even a skirmish.

Bosworth

Finally, we come to Bosworth, where at last Richard commanded his own army and a battle was joined but with disastrous results for king. Battles are always uncertain events and the outcome can never be foretold with any certainty.  This was the battle, however, that should have been won by the king but the vicissitudes of men’s loyalties snatched victory from a man who throughout his short life was intimate with all things martial. Was there to be another king of England who was so hands-on? Certainly no Tudor. Possibly a Stuart or two?  Richard as duke and king never shirked his duty to pursue war, be it in preparation or actuality, skirmish or battle.  He may have had little interest in the courtly posturing of the joust, so beloved of his brother Edward and his great nephew, Henry VIII, but Richard embraced the art of warfare as a true chivalric prince who, if he had successfully survived Bosworth, might have gone on to fight a holy war against the Turks.  Those who challenge his prowess and generalship need perhaps to look more deeply into his military career, and though the sources are scant, the effort is worthwhile. Richard, Duke of Gloucester was highly rated by his contemporaries and it is difficult to see how this reputation, in hindsight, can be easily dismissed even allowing for some degree of propaganda by the Yorkist government about his exploits in Scotland. 

What was written five hundred years ago cannot be unwritten and I will close with a few of those observations.  The first of these is a political song written to commemorate the Battle of Tewkesbury:

(re-printed in both Richard III: The Road to Bosworth and Richard III’s Books.  The editors of the latter commented that ‘Although the likening to Hector was standard panegyric, it was no mean compliment and Richard is the only character compared to a named hero.’)

Next we have a letter of June 1482 appointing Richard as Commander of the army against the Scots: ‘King Edward to all to whom these matters appertain. We therefore meaning to oppose his [James III’s] malice and such great injury, trusting with full powers our illustrious brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, in whom not only for his nearness and fidelity of relationship, but for his proved skill in military matters and his other virtues ...’ followed by a letter from Edward to Pope Sixtus, dated 25 August 1482. ‘Thank God, the giver of all good gifts, for the support received from our most loving brother, whose success is so proven that he alone would suffice to chastise the whole kingdom of Scotland.’ (Both quotations are from Richard III: The Road to Bosworth Field pp. 83 and 86.)

From Dominic Mancini (not known as an admirer of Richard) in his Usurpation of Richard III ‘Such was his renown in warfare that, whenever a difficult and dangerous policy had to be undertaken, it would be entrusted to his discretion and his generalship’ (p. 65).

And finally, perhaps the most surprising of all, in a letter written by Lord Dacre, Warden of the Western Marches in 1513.  The letter, referred to in Paul Murray Kendall’s endnotes, was summarised in the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. Dacre seemed to feel intimidated by the reputations of Richard and Northumberland resulting from a raid they had made into Tevydale and which he was expected to repeat.  Nine years later, he is still concerned at their exploits in a letter to Wolsey who responds ‘as they took effectual measures to punish and repress offenders, hopes Dacre will obey his wholesome and friendly admonition and acquire, as good a character as they did’.

Sources:

Printed primary sources:

Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland 1357-1509, ed. J. Bain, London 1888 Calendar of Patent Rolls: Edward IV 1468-76, London 1899
Calendar of Patent Rolls: Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III (1476-15), London 1901
Hall’s Chronicle, reprinted London 1809
Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, eds. J.S. Brewer, James Gairdner and R.H. Brodie, 21 vols, London 1862-1932. Vol. 1 Part 2 and Vol. 4 Part 1.
The Crowland Chronicle Continuations 1459-1486 edited by Nicholas Pronay and John Cox, London 1986
The Usurpation of Richard III by Dominic Mancini, Gloucester 1984
York House Books 1461-1490 edited by Lorraine Attreed, 2 vols, Stroud 1991

Further reading:

Edward IV: by Charles Ross, London 1974
James III: A Political Study by Norman Macdougall, Edinburgh 1982
Richard III: by Paul Murray Kendall, London 1955
Richard III: by Charles Ross, London 1981
Richard III: England’s Black Legend by Desmond Seward, London 1983
Richard III: The road to Bosworth Field by P W Hammond and Anne F Sutton, London 1985
Richard III: The Man behind the Myth by Michael Hicks, London 1991 and republished as   Richard III, Stroud 2000
Richard III: A Source Book by Keith Dockray, Gloucester 1997
Richard III’s Books by Anne F Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Stroud 1997
Scotland: The Later Middle Ages by Ranald Nicholson, Edinburgh 1974
The Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury by P W Hammond, Gloucester 1990
The Life and Reign of Edward the Fourth by Cora L Schofield, 2 vols, London 1924, reprinted 1967

First published in the Ricardian  Bulletin Spring 2004