Richard III as a great magnate
by
Dr Livia Visser-Fuchs
In the next eight
years, up to the crisis of 1469-71, Edward IV granted his younger brother
a number of lands forfeited by his opponents, but he was much more generous
towards Rihcard’s elder brother, George of Clarence, who was until 1466
the heir presumptive. The lands granted to Richard during these years
were mostly returned to their former owners in due time, or even given
to Clarence. However, Richard was made Admiral of England, Ireland and
Aquitaine on 2 October 1462, an office he retained until he became king.
In 1469-71, and
especially after Edward’s successful regaining of his crown, Clarence’s
treason and Richard’s conspicuous loyalty meant that the latter’s star
really began to rise. On 17 October 1469 Richard was created Constable
of England and on 7 November Chief Justice of North Wales, receiving important
offices in South Wales at the same time. In addition, on 18 May 1471,
he became Great Chamberlain of England and on 4 July Chief Steward of
the Duchy of Lancaster in the north, offices formerly held by Warwick.
Richard also obtained Warwick lands, among them the lordships of Middleham,
Sheriff Hutton and Penrith; he was re-instated as Warden of the West March
and made Keeper of the Royal Forests north of Trent. He regained the forfeited
lands of the De Vere earls of Oxford which he lost before. All these and
many other grants, culminating in his being made a hereditary lord palatine
of the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland – together with any parts
of south-west Scotland that he might conquer(!) -- set Richard up as the
most influential man in the North. After Clarence’s death in 1478, which
finally resolved the running battle between the king’s brothers for the
vast Warwick inheritance, Richard became a greater landowner than any
brother of a king of England had ever been.
Richard’s ‘lordship
of the North’, his paramount authority in that area in particular, meant
that he more or less relinquished other possible power bases, such as
East Anglia and Wales. His influence in those regions was fragmented and
based on his position as the king’s brother, his role that of a ‘national’
rather than a ‘local’ figure. In the North he had been accepted as the
heir of the Nevilles, he was familiar with the area since childhood and
the patronage he could dispense was immense. His position in the North
enabled him and perhaps forced him to take the throne itself when
his brother’s death left it virtually vacant and also deprived him of
the support vital to maintaining his existing position.
How did Richard
obtain all this power and influence? Much has been written about the ruthlessness
he displayed in disinheriting aged widows – seen as presaging his taking
of the throne in 1483 – and there is no doubt that his methods were not
always strictly legal or even gentle. The collection of documents, now
BL MS Cotton Julius B xii, relating to his ownership of lands and offices,
past and present, actual and potential, has been adduced as evidence of
his unusual energy in acquiring what he wanted and of his ‘long memory’
as far as consolidating his estates was concerned. It can be said in his
defence that there was nothing unusual about his activities: what was
unusual was his position as the king’s (loyal) brother, which gave him
better opportunities, including getting the best legal minds available,
to still the ‘land hunger’ that all his peers suffered from.
More important
perhaps is the question: what did Richard do with his wealth and
power?
How did he use
them, apart from appropriately maintaining his own status and that of
his household? To take two examples: his use of some of the Oxford lands
and his patronage in the North. In 1471 Richard had been granted, for
the second time, the forfeited estates of John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford,
but in 1473, John’s mother Elizabeth Howard, under instructions from Edward
IV, also conveyed the lands she possessed in her own right, and which
were not legally forfeit, to Richard, who promised to pay her a substantial
annuity and promote the career of her son Richard, a student at Cambridge.
Of these lands the manor of Fowlmere in Cambridgeshire was granted to
Queens’ College, Cambridge; six manors were used to endow Middleham College,
and three for St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Whatever the manner of their
acquisition, at least the income of these lands was put to a more general
and commendable use.
The North, especially
the north-east and the city of York itself, looked for and successfully
obtained the ‘good lordship’ of the powerful duke of Gloucester. The citizens
of York were consistently supported by him in their plans for economic
development and this benefited the whole region; details of his welcome
intervention survive. He was also concerned to improve the administration
of local justice and, whatever his ulterior motives, he displayed a clear
desire to have justice done impartially. Most famous is his establishment,
when he was king, of the Council of the North, which created a precedent
of ‘impersonal’ control not dependent on an over-mighty local magnate
– such as he himself had been – that later kings were to follow.
Michael Hicks,
Richard III and His Rivals, ‘Richard III as Duke of Gloucester:
a study in character’, London 1991.
Rosemary Horrox,
Richard III. A Study in Service, Cambridge 1989, ch. 1, ‘The creation
of an affinity’.
A.J. Pollard, North-Eastern
England during the Wars of the Roses, Oxford 1990, ch. 13, ‘The hegemony
of Richard of Gloucester, 1471-1483’.
Charles
Ross, Richard III, London 1981, pt I, ‘The Duke of Gloucester’.