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Back to Basics: A Series for Newer Members
Issue 5 -- June 1993
Royal
Bastardy in Medieval England
| Anne Mowbray | The Church
Monuments Society | Abbreviations for Local Societies
| Back to Index
Royal bastardy
is a perennially interesting subject, and one which brings to mind the
subject of the Princes and the question of their bastardy, as well as
that of the bastardy and legitimation of the Beauforts. Both of these
topics will be dealt with in future issues of 'Back to Basics'. In this
issue we will touch only briefly on the question of the undoubted illegitimate
children of reigning monarchs, except for those of Richard III, which
will be dealt with later.
Bastardy, the result
of illicit, possibly adulterous union, was frowned on by the Church
in the Middle Ages, certainly after the marriage law was clarified by
the eleventh century or so. Adultery and the question of the possible
succession to estates of someone not the lawful heir was also of importance
to civil law. This last was not usually a matter of concern in cases
of royal bastardy though. Royal bastards were usually known to be such,
and were indeed given such 'titles' as 'Bastard of Burgundy' or even
the 'Great Bastard' (son of Phillip II, Duke of Savoy). They were frequently
given lands and titles of nobility, although in the case of English
kings, not titles, in our period at least. The Tudors resumed giving
royal bastards titles; Henry VIII created his illegitimate son, Henry
Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and indeed possibly prepared him for the succession
to the crown.
In the fifteenth
century the Lancastrian kings of England were unusually (for the period)
abstemious in their sexual habits and do not appear to have been repsonsible
for any bastards, none have been attributed to them at least, apart
from a rather doubtful one to Henry IV, one John Labourde, (see Chris
Given-Wilson and Alice Curteis, The Royal Bastards of Medieval
England, 1984, p. 142). This book contains an excellent
series of chapters on marriage law and illegitmacy but on the actual
bastards is much stronger for the early mediaeval period than the fifteenth
century.
It is when we come
to the Yorkist kings that royal bastards again come to be mentioned
in documents. Edward IV was given by the chroniclers a reputation for
extreme licentiousness. Mancini in his report written after Edward's
death more specifically accused him of the seduction of many women,
a comment echoed by More (Dominic Mancini, Usurpation of
Richard III, 1969, p. 67; Thomas More, Richard
III, edited by Richard Sylvester, 1967, p. 72). Commines,
the Burgundian writer, also mentions Edward's sensual appetites as does
the Crowland Chronicler. (see Charles Ross, Edward IV,
1974, pp. 86, 415). It seems likely that this reputation may have been
somewhat exaggerated as we only know of three bastards of Edward's,
although since Edward himself did not bring them into the limelight
by giving them offices or grants there may well have been others.
The three bastards
that we know of are firstly Arthur 'Waite', later created Viscount Lisle
for life by Henry VII, following his marriage to the Lisle heiress.
Arthur was proabably the child of Elizabeth Lucy (Lucy was her married
name). Edward may also have had a daughter by Elizabeth Lucy, said by
Leland (in the first reference to her) to have married a Lumley. This
was probably Thomas, son of George second lord Lumley, who died in the
lifetime of his father. The daughter may have been born about the time
of Edward's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. By the time of Sandford
she is called Elizabeth, (Leland gives no name) and confidently said
to be the child of Elizabeth Lucy. Muriel St. Clare Byrne, The
Lisle Letters, (one volume abridgement, 1985) contains
much information on Arthur Lisle in the Introduction. For Elizabeth,
John Leland, Itinerary, ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith,
vol. 4, 1964, p. 118; Francis Sandford, Genealogical History,
1707, pp. 421, 422; Cora Scofield, Edward IV,
vol. 2, 1923, p. 161; Complete Peerage, vol
8, p. 274. The third illegitmate child of Edward IV was also a daughter,
Grace, the sole reference to whom is that she was present at the death
of Elizabeth Woodville in 1492, (Ross, Edward IV,
pp. 316-317). Grace may therefore have been brought up in the Queen's
household.
As a matter of
interest Henry VII has been credited (if that is the correct word) with
fathering a bastard child, Sir Roland de Veleville, while in Brittany.
Sir Roland was appointed Constable of Beaumaris Castle by Henry VIII,
and as 'kings servant' was given a small grant of 40 marks by Henry
VII, but it seems unlikely that he was a child of the latter, (S.B.
Chrimes, Henry VII, 1972, p. 67)
All of the books
mentioned, except Leland and Sandford are available for loan from the
Society Library. -- PWH
In this issue we
explain the names of four local societies where the name does not indicate
what they do or what exactly they publish. Their publications all frequently
appear in references.
Chetham
Society: Humphrey Chetham was a prominent philanthropist
of Manchester, much interested in education, he founded the Chetham
Library in that city. The society named after him publishes 'remains
historical and literary connected with the palatine counties of Lancaster
and Chester'.
Thoroton
Society: this society was founded in the name of Robert
Thoroton, an antiquary of Nottingham. It publishes both Transactions
and a Record Series containing documents and articles on Nottingham,
the county, town and district.
Thoresby
Society: Ralph Thoresby was an eighteenth century antiquary
of Leeds. This society thus publishes volumes of records relating to
Leeds and district.
Surtees
Society: this society was founded in 1833 to publish documents
relating to the history of the north eastern counties. Robert Surtees
was an antiquary and topographer who devoted his life to the study of
the records of County Durham.
Continuing our
series on 15th century people let us look at the life of a child; normally
we should not be able to find out anything except the general outlines
of upbringing and education that are described in such fascinating studies
as Shulamith Shahar's Childhood in the Middle Ages
(1990) or Nicholas Orme's From Childhood to Chivlary
(1984), but this was a very important little girl, the only child of
John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and therefore the heir to his wealth
and estates. As one of the most influential families in the area the
doings of the Duke and Duchess are often mentioned in the letters of
the Paston family and in a letter written on 18th December 1472 Sir
John Paston describes how little Anne was christened by William Wayneflete,
the Bishop of WInchester, at Framlingham when she was only a few days
old.
She then disappears
from the records until the next major event in her life, her marriage
to Richard Duke of York when she was five years old and the groom was
four. By then her father had died, leaving her as a most eligible heiress,
whom Edward IV secured as a bride for his younger son after protracted
negotiations with her mother, cannily writing into the contract the
proviso that should Anne predecease her husband without leaving any
children her Norfolk estates and titles should be retained by her husband.
The splendid ceremony and the feast and jousting which followed it are
descriibed in 'A Narrative of the Marriage of Richard Duke of York and
Anne of Norfolk' taken from Illustrations of Ancient State
and Chivalry from Manuscripts preserved in the Ashmolean Museum
(edited by W.H. Black, 1840). To complete the progression from cradle
to grave our last record is the payment to Piers
Curteys, the Keeper of the Great Wardrobe (the government department
responsible among other things for providing everything necessary for
state occasions), of the sum of £215. 16 s. 10 d. for the expenses
of her funeral and burial in Westminster Abbey. She had died at Greenwich
in November 1481 just before her ninth birthday. Later her coffin was
moved to the church of the Poor Clares in Stepney when Henry VII demolished
the chapel of St. Erasmus to make his new royal chapel in the Abbey.
That would have
been the last anyone heard of Anne Mowbray had it not been for the sharp
eyes of a workman on a building site in Stepney in December 1964 who
spotted a small lead coffin among the debris of demolition. It was taken
to the local police station and later collected by an official of the
London Museum. A press release issued by the Museum describes what happened
next - the inscription attached to the coffin was deciphered giving
Anne's name, titles and date of death; a specially equiped laboratory
was set up at the Museum which was then based at Kensington Palace,
and the coffin was opened and found to contain the remains of a child.
A detailed scientific and medical examination of the contents of the
coffin was to be carried out over the next few months in an archaeological
journal. In May 1965 Anne's body was reinterred in Westminster Abbey,
near her original burial place.
Unfortunately the
detailed report promised in the press release has never materialised,
but two articles on specific aspects of the examination have been published:
'The Teeth of Anne Mowbray' by Martin A. Rushton in the British
Dental Journal, (Vol. 119, No. 8, 19th October 1965) and
'Anne Mowbray: skeletal remains of a medieval child' by Roger Warwick
in the London Archaeologist, (Vol. 5, No.
7, Summer 1986).
The information
we have on Anne Mowbray is well summarised in two articles in The
Ricardian both entitled 'Anne Mowbray': by J.M. Meluish
(Vol. 1, No. 12, May 1965) and by Philomena Jones (Vol. 4, No. 61, June
1978) and in an illustrated article 'The World of Anne Mowbray' by P.M.
Kendall in the Observer Colour Magazine of
23rd May 1965.
All the books and
articles mentioned above are available for loan from the Society's Library.
-- HCH
Organisations
of interest to members
The Church Monuments
Society was founded in 1978. It grew from a Symposium on monumental
effigies held at the Tower of London in that year. Membership has grown
over the intervening years and now stands at just over 500. The Society
exists 'to promote, for the pulic benefit, the study, care and conservation
of funeral monuments of historic, artistic or educational importance
and related art, of all periods and countries.'
To this end the
Society organises a bi-annual symposium at venues throughout the country.
It arranges excursions and publishes a twice yearly Newsletter
and an annual, finely printed and illustrated journal, Church
Monuments. This is now in its eighth year of publication
and as far as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are concerned has
published significant articles on such topics as 'The Fifteenth Century
Polychromed Limestone Effigies of the Fitzalans of Arundel' (1986),
'The Armoured Effigy of Prince John of Eltham' (1987), 'The Cadaver
Tomb in England' (1990) and 'The Conington Effigy' (1991). Continental
matters are also covered, shown by an article in the current issue on
'Medieval Effigial Monuments' in the Netherlands.
It is hardly necessary
to tell members of the Richard III Society of the cultural heritage
embodied in our church monuments; they are of the greatest importance
in the history of sculpture. They also reveal a rich body of evidence
on a wide range of topics including costume, armour, heraldry, religious
mores etc. The Society also maintains links with relevant conservation
bodies and diocesan authorities within whose care many of the monuments
lie.
For further information
about membership write to the Hon. Membership Secretary, Dr. John Lord,
13 Wragby Road, Lincoln LN2 5SH. -- RK
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