Free The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville & the Age of Chivalry by Christopher Wilkins Page B

makes Edward squire to Anthony is circumstantial: Edward was squire to someone and his brother is the obvious candidate. It seems that they were together on expeditions to Brittany and Portugal when Edward was of squiring age; also Anthony’s later patronage and the will he wrote the night before he was executed (1483) demonstrate how close the relationship was. Edward’s squiring started around 1470 in a period of unpredictable politics, vividly described in the Paston letters as ‘a queasy world’.
    Although for the ordinary person England seems to have been a much better place to live than France, Sir John Fortescue, the earliest English constitutional lawyer, was in exile with Queen Margaret in the 1460s and wrote for the instruction of the young Prince Edward (of Lancaster):
    You remember, most admirable prince, you have seen how rich in fruits are the villages and towns of the Kingdom of France, whilst you were travelling there, but so burdened by the men-at-arms and their horses of the king that you could be entertained in scarcely any but the great towns. There you learned from the inhabitants that those men...pay absolutely nothing for the expenses...and what is worse they compelled the inhabitants...to supply them...with wines, meats etc...if any declined to do so, they were quickly compelled by cudgelling. Moreover the king does not suffer anyone to eat salt unless he buys it from the king himself at a price fixed by his pleasure....Furthermore all the inhabitants give to the king a fourth part of all wines…
    In addition each village maintains at least two archers...equipped to serve the king in his wars etc...in England, no one billets himself in another’s house...in public hostelries where he will pay in full...Nor does anyone take with impunity the goods of another…nor is anyone hindered from providing himself with salt or any goods whatever...The king may take necessaries at reasonable price...Because by those laws he cannot despoil any of his subjects...Nor does the king...impose tallages, subsidies or any other burdens whatever on his subjects, nor change their laws, nor make new ones, without concession or assent of his whole real expressed in his parliament.’ 24
    No wonder the Lancastrians were keen to return. It is hardly surprising that plotting and revolution continued. Warwick had been forgiven for his earlier revolt, but despite this he again intrigued and fostered rebellion. This time ‘the king prevailed’, so Warwick and Clarence were obliged to turn tail in mid-April. ‘They fled West to the coast, boarded ships there and went towards Southampton, where they were expecting one of Warwick’s great ships called the Trinity. However, Anthony, Lord Scales was sent there on the King’s order; he fought with the Duke and the Earl and captured their ships with many men on them. So the Duke and the Earl were forced to flee to France.’ 25
    Anthony, now Earl Rivers, and Edward must have taken great pleasure in chasing Warwick round Southampton Water and capturing 20 of his followers. The Earl of Worcester, who had been recalled from Ireland, was sent to deal with the prisoners. He tried and convicted them, had them executed and had their heads and trunks impaled on stakes and displayed at Southampton for three weeks as an example to others. It did not endear him to the locals, but Lord Worcester was not a man to court popularity; indeed he was indifferent to public opinion. He was an intellectual, a collector of books and manuscripts, translator of Cicero, Caesar and a novel by Buonaccorso. He had been a successful general, admiral and Treasurer of England, spent three years studying in Italy – 1458–61, which was a sensible time to be away – and visited Jerusalem, all before he was 30. Caxton tells us that ‘he flowered in virtue and cunning’. He was also a friend of Anthony’s who is credited with having Caxton eulogize him ten years later.26
    With the crisis far from over and