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A medieval soldier who fought in the armies of Richard II and Henry V We few, we happy few, we band of brothers … |
Richard Farendale c1357 to 20 December 1435
FAR00044
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Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
Headlines are in brown.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Context and local history are in purple.
1357
Richard Farendale,
son of William and Juliana Farendale (FAR00036),
may have been born Sheriff Hutton
in about 1357 (See the Will of William (FAR00036)).
If he was 78 when he died
then he may have been born in about 1357 which makes sense with his father’s
will.
1380
We
know from his will in 1435, that Richard Farendale
bequeathed a grey horse with saddle and reins and his armour, comprising a
bascinet, a breast plate, a pair of vembraces and a
pair of rerebraces with leg harness. He appears to
have been impressively armed for military service when he died, so it seems
likely that he pursued a military career.
A
bascinet was a medieval combat helmet:
Vembraces
or vambraces were armoured forearm guards:
A
rerebrace was a piece of armour designed to protect
the upper arms (above the elbow):
So he was well
armoured by the time he died in 1435.
There was a Richard Farnham or Farneham, listed in records of medieval
soldiers, who joined an expedition to France as an archer on 28 June 1380
under the captaincy of Sir William Windsor, and the command of Thomas of
Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester. It is not certain that this was him, because the
spelling of the surname is different, but this was a time of fluidity in
surname spellings. Given his military equipment listed in his will, 55 years
later, it seems likely that Richard would have started a military career at
about this time. He would have been about 23 at this time. Whilst we cannot be
certain, it is possible, perhaps even quite likely, that this was Richard in
his early military exploits in France.
Before the Hundred Years
War, warfare was rooted to the principles of chivalry, with which commoners
were not participants. By the 1320s experienced soldiers fought on foot
alongside commoners. Ideas of feudal service were replaced by professional
soldiers, who undertook operations contrary to the chivalric code including
ambush, siege, raids, looting, burning, rape. The archers were the prime
example of new commoner forces, firing arrows which could easily penetrate
knights’ armour. The commoners were given opportunities to accumulate
significant wealth through war booty, and ransoms, as well as their pay.
1380 was in the midst of a crisis in the French Wars in the time of
Richard II. The Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 arose due to high taxes required to
fund the French Wars. Richard II was not a popular King, and the cost of these
French wars were not welcomed at home.
Richard’s commander, Thomas of Woodstock had been in command of a large
campaign in northern France that followed the War of the Breton Succession of
1343–1364. During this campaign John IV, Duke of Brittany had tried to secure
control of the Duchy of Brittany against his rival Charles of Blois.
John returned to Brittany
in 1379, supported by Breton barons who feared the annexation of Brittany by
France. An English army was sent under Woodstock to support his position. Due
to concerns about the safety of a longer shipping route to Brittany itself, the
army was ferried instead to the English continental stronghold of Calais in
July 1380.
As Woodstock marched his 5,200
men east of Paris, they were confronted by the army of Philip the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy, at Troyes, but the French had learned from the Battle of Crécy in 1346 and the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 not to
offer a pitched battle to the English. Eventually, the two armies simply
marched away. French defensive operations were then thrown into disarray by the
death of King Charles V of France on 16 September 1380. Woodstock's chevauchée continued westwards largely unopposed, and in
November 1380 he laid siege to Nantes and its vital bridge over the Loire
towards Aquitaine.
However, he found himself
unable to form an effective stranglehold, and urgent plans were put in place
for Sir Thomas Felton to bring 2,000 reinforcements from England. By January,
though, it had become apparent that the Duke of Brittany was reconciled to the
new French king Charles VI, and with the alliance collapsing and dysentery
ravaging his men, Woodstock abandoned the siege.
1397
Seventeen years after the French campaign in which
Richard Farndale likely took part, Ralph Neville,
John Neville’s son, supported Richard II's proceedings against Richard’s
former commander Thomas of Woodstock and the Lords
Appellant, and by way of reward was created Earl of Westmorland on 29 September
1397. Richard Farndale was an inhabitant of Sheriff Hutton in the lands
of Ralph Neville.
Joint administration of his father’s Will was granted on 13 March 1397 or 1398,
so he may have been about 40 then, as the eldest of three siblings.
Sheriff
Hutton (Shyrefhoton)
1400
Given the likely ages of his children,
perhaps he married in about 1400. There is no mention of his wife who may have
pre-deceased him.
There was a Richard Farendon
who was archer and man at arms in a Scottish Expeditionary Force who appeared
in Retinue Lists on 24
June 1400. This could have been Richard. By this time
he would have been in his early forties. He held his horse and armour until his
death in 1435, so it seems likely that he became an experienced soldier who may
have joined the many armies of this time, when called upon to do so. The
Nevilles were key players in national affairs, so it seems likely that he would
have been encouraged to join national armies when called to do so.
The English invasion of
Scotland of August 1400 was the first military campaign undertaken by Henry IV
of England after deposing the previous king, his cousin Richard II. Henry IV
urgently wanted to defend the Anglo-Scottish border, and to overcome his predecessor's
legacy of failed military campaigns. A large army was assembled
slowly and marched into Scotland. Not only was no pitched battle ever
attempted, but the king did not try and besiege Scotland's capital, Edinburgh.
Henry's army left at the end of the summer after only a brief stay, mostly
camped near Leith (near Edinburgh) where it could maintain contact with its
supply fleet. The campaign ultimately accomplished little except to further
deplete the king's coffers, and is historically
notable only for being the last one led by an English king on Scottish soil.
Although Henry had
announced his plans at the November 1399 parliament, he did not attempt a
winter campaign, but continued to hold quasi-negotiations 'in which he must
have felt the Scots were profoundly irritating.' At the same time, it
appears that the House of Commons was not keen on the forthcoming war, and,
since extravagance had been a major complaint against Henry's predecessor,
Henry was probably constrained in requesting a subsidy. At this point, parliament
was clearly still opposed to a Scottish war, and may even have believed a
possible French invasion the imperative issue. In June 1400, the king summoned
his Duchy of Lancaster retainers to muster at York, and they in turn brought
their personal feudal retinues. At this point, with the invasion being obvious
to all, the Scots attempted to re-open negotiations. Although Scottish
ambassadors arrived at York to meet the king
around 26 June, they returned to Scotland within two weeks.
Although the army was
summoned to assemble at York on 24 June, it did not approach Scotland until
mid-August. This was due to the gradual arrival of army supplies (in some
cases, with much delay — the King's own tents, for example, were not dispatched
from Westminster until halfway through July). Brown suggests that Henry was well aware of the delays these preparations would cause the
campaign. At some point before the army left for Scotland, the muster was met
by the Constable of England, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and the Earl
Marshal, Ralph Neville,
Earl of Westmorland. Individual leaders of each
retinue present were then paid a lump sum to later distribute in wages to their
troops: Men-at-arms received one shilling a day, archers half that, but
captains and leaders do not appear to have been paid at a higher rate.
Richard Farendale
of Shyrefhoton came from Sheriff Hutton in the lands of Ralph
Neville, so there is strong evidence that this was the same person as Richard Farendon who joined these Scottish Wars..
The army left York on 25
July 1400 and reached Newcastle-upon-Tyne four days later; it was plagued by
shortages of supplies, particularly food, of which more had had to be requested
before even leaving York. As the campaign progressed, bad weather exacerbated
the problem of food shortages, and Brown has speculated that this was an
important consideration in the short duration of the expedition.
It has been estimated that
Henry's army was around 13,000 men, of which 800 men-at-arms and 2000
archers came directly from the Royal Household This was "one of the
largest raised in late medieval England;" Brown notes that whilst it
was smaller than the massive army assembled in 1345 (that would fight the
Battle of Crécy), it was larger than most that were
mustered for French service. The English fleet also patrolled the east coast of
Scotland in order to besiege Scottish trade and to
resupply the army when required. At least three convoys were sent from London
and the Humber, the first of which delivered 100 tonnes of flour and ten tonnes
of sea salt to Henry's army in Scotland.
Henry crossed the border
in mid-August. Given-Wilson has noted the care Henry took not to ravage or
pillage the countryside on their march through Berwickshire and Lothian. This
was in marked contrast to previous expeditions, and
Given-Wilson compares it specifically to the 'devastation wreacked' in last such campaign, by Richard II in 1385.
This he puts this down to the presence in the English army of the earl of
Dunbar, whose lands they were. Brown has suggested the king envisaged ... a
punitive expedition' with either a confrontation or such a chevauchée
that the Scots would be eager to negotiate. In the event, they offered no
resistance as the English army marched through Haddington.
Common during the Hundred
Years War, the chevauchée was an armed raid into
enemy territory. With the aim of destruction, pillage, and demoralization, chevauchées were generally conducted against civilian
populations.
However, Henry's army
never progressed further than Leith; there the army could keep in physical
contact with the supporting fleet. Henry took a personal interest in his
convoys, at one point even verbally instructing that two Scottish fishermen
fishing in the Firth of Forth were to be paid £2 for their (unspecified)
assistance. However, Henry never besieged Edinburgh Castle where the Duke of
Rothsay was ensconced. By now, Brown says, Henry's campaign had been reduced to
a 'war of words.'
By 29 August, the English
army had returned to the other side of the border.
1402
Although the 1400 campaign
ended the Wars directly into Scotland, the Scvottish Wars continued with
encounters south of the Border. Shakespeare’s play Henry IV Part 1 opens with
word brought to the King in about 1402, a few years in to
the new Lancastrian dynasty of Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, then
Henry IV, of the Wars with Wales and Scotland.
The Battle of Holmedon Hill was a battle between English and Scottish
armies on 14 September 1402 in Northumberland. The battle was recounted in
Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1.
Here is a dear, a
true-industrious friend,
Sir Walter Blunt, new
lighted from his horse,
Stained with the variation
of each soil
Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours,
And he hath brought us
smooth and welcome news.
The Earl of Douglas is discomfited;
Ten thousand bold Scots,
two-and-twenty knights,
Balked in their own blood,
did Sir Walter see
On Holmedon’s
plains. Of prisoners Hotspur took
Mordake, Earl of Fife and
eldest son
To beaten Douglas, and the
Earl of Atholl,
Of Murray, Angus, and
Menteith.
And is not this an honorable spoil?
A gallant prize? Ha,
cousin, is it not?
(Henry IV Part 1,
Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 1)
We don’t know whether
Richard was still part of the army at this stage, but we get a Shakespearean
flavour of these times.
1415
It
is possible that, as a veteran soldier, Richard might have later fought in
Henry V’s Agincourt campaign.
I haven’t yet found him in the list of
known soldiers at Agincourt.
Sir Nicholas Harreis’ History
of the battle of Agincourt, and of the expedition of Henry the Fifth into
France, in 1415; with The roll of the men at arms, in the English army,
1832 includes a Roll of the men at arms at
Agincourt, p394. There is no Richard Farendale listed, unless he was Richard Fulshull
(p336), a Lancer in the retinue of the Earl of Marche, or Richard Fythian (p344). It doesn’t seem likely that these were the
same man.
But to these lists of named
individuals were unnamed lists of lances and archers, so he could have been
amongst these ordinary unlisted soldiers. And if he wasn’t at Agincourt, he may
have been in the other battles in those French campaigns. Living firmly within
the Neville lands, it seems likely that he would have fought in the King’s
battles with France. The family also originated from the lands of the wife of
the Black Prince and the lands of the Stutevilles
and the Mowbrays.
Background to
Agincourt
After the Norman
Conquest, a subject of the King of France was also King of England. The Dukes
of Normandy were frequently in dispute with their neighbours, including the
Dukes of Brittany. By the thirteenth century, the French noble lines were eager
to drive out the English from their Norman lands. During John’s reign, the
English lost their Norman lands, and from the reign of Henry III, there was a
desire to win back the Norman lands. Edward III died in 1377 having failed to
do so, his son the Black Prince having died in 1376, leaving Richard II as
King, to be overthrown by Henry IV of the Lancastrian line., who reign was
marred by constant civil war.
When Henry V became
King in 1413, his ambitions to restore English interests in France would also
serve to unite the warring factions at home.
The Agincourt
campaign
In 1415, the 29 year old Henry V launched his invasion of Normandy. He
landed not on the wider French lands, but in Normandy, reinforcing his ambitions
to restore the lands which the English believed to be theirs. He landed with a
huge army of 12,000 men.
A quarter of those
were men at arms, who wore heavy armour and had a horse. Men at arms were paid
1s to 2s a day, depending on their status.
Three quarters of the
force were archers, paid only 6d a day. They were cheaper,
and acted as a force multiplier. They were armed with the longbow. They could should a rapid rates (12 to even 20 arrows a minute),
accurately over long distances.
Henry’s army
initially besieged the town of Harfleur, which is modern day Le Havre, at the
mouth of the Seine, the launch site of previous Viking raids on Paris. There
was a long siege at Harfleur, and Henry V directed the siege himself, using artillery
effectively against the walls. The inhabitants of Harfleur eventually
surrendered.
The siege of Harfleur
ended in September as the campaigning season was coming to an end. However Henry V decided to march home through Normandy via
Calais, perhaps to demonstrate his new hold on Normandy. He challenged the
rather pacific and lazy Dauphin to single combat, which was declined. Henry
left perhaps 1,200 men to garrison Harfleur and had lost perhaps 2,000, so he
had perhaps 8,000 left.
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Once
more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or
close the wall up with our English dead! In
peace there’s nothing so becomes a man As
modest stillness and humility, But
when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then
imitate the action of the tiger: Stiffen
the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise
fair nature with hard-favored rage, |
Then
lend the eye a terrible aspect, Let
it pry through the portage of the head Like
the brass cannon, let the brow o’erwhelm it As
fearfully as doth a gallèd rock O’erhang and jutty his confounded
base Swilled
with the wild and wasteful ocean. Now
set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide, Hold
hard the breath, and bend up every spirit |
To
his full height. On, on, you noblest English, Whose
blood is fet from fathers of war-proof, Fathers
that, like so many Alexanders, Have
in these parts from morn till even fought, And
sheathed their swords for lack of argument. Dishonor not your mothers. Now
attest That
those whom you called fathers did beget you. Be
copy now to men of grosser blood |
And
teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen, Whose
limbs were made in England, show us here The
mettle of your pasture. Let us swear That
you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not, For
there is none of you so mean and base That
hath not noble luster in your eyes. |
I
see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining
upon the start. The game’s afoot. Follow
your spirit, and upon this charge Cry
“God for Harry, England, and Saint George!” |
(Henry
V, Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 1, The Gates of Harfleur)
The French army blocked
the English advance on the Somme, but the English crossed. The armies
eventually met around 45 miles south of Calais, at Agincourt. Henry placed his bowmen in a V shape on either flank. The l,ongbowmen were a known threat to
the French. A tradition evolved after the battle that the French threatened to
cut off the middle two fingers of any bowmen captured to stop them firing
again, and the archers responded to the French with the defiant V sign. The French
planned to take the archers with their cavalry, but Henry ordered his archers
to take the initiative to advance until they were in range and then fire into
the French horses and soldiers, depriving them of the opportunity.
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We
would not die in that man’s company That
fears his fellowship to die with us. This
day is called the feast of Crispian. He
that outlives this day and comes safe home Will
stand o’ tiptoe when this day is named |
And
rouse him at the name of Crispian. He
that shall see this day, and live old age, Will
yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors And
say “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.” Then
will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. |
Old
men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But
he’ll remember with advantages What
feats he did that day. Then shall our names, Familiar
in his mouth as household words, Harry
the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick
and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be
in their flowing cups freshly remembered. |
This
story shall the good man teach his son, And
Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, From
this day to the ending of the world, But
we in it shall be rememberèd— We
few, we happy few, we band of brothers; |
For
he today that sheds his blood with me Shall
be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This
day shall gentle his condition; And
gentlemen in England now abed Shall
think themselves accursed they were not here, And
hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That
fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day. |
The French lost
perhaps 10,000 whilst the English were said to have lost only 100 to 200.
Amongst the dead was Richard Duke of York, father of Richard of York who would
become to nemesis of the Lancastrians, but at this stage the Yorkists were
loyal to the King.
After the victory,
Henry marched to Calais and besieged the city until it fell soon afterwards,
and the king returned in triumph to England in November and received a hero's
welcome. The brewing nationalistic sentiment among the English people was so
great that contemporary writers described first hand
how Henry was welcomed with triumphal pageantry into London upon his return.
These accounts also describe how Henry was greeted by elaborate displays and
with choirs following his passage to St. Paul's Cathedral.
Henry V returned to
London in triumph
and paraded like a Roman Emperor. Support for the King mean that Parliament
eagerly voted new taxes to fund further campaigns against the French. Agincourt
also fomented support for the new Lancastrian dynasty.
1417
The 1417 campaign
The victorious
conclusion of Agincourt, from the English viewpoint, was only the first step in
the campaign to recover the French possessions that Henry felt belonged to the
English crown. Agincourt also held out the promise that Henry's pretensions to
the French throne might be realized. Henry V returned to France in 1417 to
establish his reconquest of Normandy.
Richard Farndale was descended from
the poachers of Pickering Forest
only a hundred years previously. It was such men who certainly inspired the stories of Robin Hood
and whose archery skills would foresee the bowmen of ordinary folk who would
one day fight at Agincourt.
Richard might have been about 58
years old by this stage, so if he was part of a medieval army, he would have
been an old soldier. However if it was he who had
fought in France in 1380 and in Scotland in 1400, it is likely that this old
soldier had become a campaign warrior. His impressive armoury which he left at
his death suggests an old campaigner who had risen to possess the armoury of a
man at arms. He seems to have alternated between being an archer and a man at
arms.
There is a separate page which
explores possible candidates for Farndale
ancestors amongst medieval armies.
There
was a Richard Farndon who was an archer mustered in the Garrison at Harfleur
under Thomas Beaufort, Earl of Dorset and Duke of Exeter in 1417. The Siege
of Harfleur from 17 August to 22 September 1415 had preceded the Battle
of Agincourt on 25 October 1415. So the town would
have been garrisoned in the following years. It was at the gates of Harfleur
that Henry V had delivered his inspiring speech in 1415:
Could
Richard Farndale of Sheriff Hutton have been inspired by Henry’s words? It is
tempting to think that Richard might have participated in the wider campaign
from 1415 to 1421. If he was indeed a semi professional
soldier, this seems likely. On the other hand, he may have joined the post
Agincourt campaign in 1417. It might be that after the losses sustained during
the 1415 campaign, older veteran soldiers were called upon to fill gaps in the
ranks, which might make sense of Richard forming part of the post Agincourt
garrison at Harfleur.
The
1417 record of Richard Farndon at Harfleur might indicate that Richard
Farndale, who we know from his will was a military man, was an old veteran
fighting in those campaigns, either part
of the 1415 Agincourt campaign and continuing in the wars that followed, or
joining the English force after Agincourt in their subsequent campaign up to
1421.
The
principal consolidated source for participation in the Agincourt campaign is
the University of Southampton databases on the
English Army in 1415 in their data on the Soldier in Medieval England.
1419
The victory at Agincourt inspired and boosted the English
morale, while it caused a heavy blow to the French as it further aided the
English in their conquest of Normandy and much of northern France by 1419. The
French, especially the nobility, who by this stage were weakened and exhausted
by the disaster, began quarrelling and fighting among themselves. This
quarrelling also led to a division in the French aristocracy and caused a rift
in the French royal family, leading to infighting.
Margorie Farndale
(executor to Richard’s will) might have been born in
about 1419 (FAR00049). Her birth date is estimated, so whilst she could have
been conceived during some home leave if Richard was engaged throughout the
Agincourt campaign, or her year of birth might have been different if Richard
was campaigning throughout.
1420
By 1420, a treaty was signed between Henry V and Charles VI of
France, known as the Treaty of Troyes, which acknowledged Henry as regent and
heir to the French throne and also married Henry to
Charles's daughter Catherine of Valois.
1421
Agnes Farndale, Richard’s second daughter, might have been
born in about 1421 (FAR00050).
Richard
Farendon or Farndon appeared again in the list of medieval soldiers,
as part of a Standing Force in France as a foot soldier (Man at arms) and as an
archer, under Richard Woodville the elder (1385 to 1441) and Richard Baurchamp,
Earl of Warwick.
1421
was the year of the Battle
of Bauge, the defeat of the Duke of Clarence and his English army by the
Scots and French army of the Dauphin of France. The battle took place on 22
March 1421 during the Hundred Years War. The Duke of Clarence, King Henry V’s
younger brother commanded the English army. The Earl of Buchan commanded the
Franco-Scottish army. The English army numbered around
4,000 men, of whom only around 2,500 men took part in the battle. The
Franco-Scottish army comprised 5,000 to 6,000 men.
On
the other hand Richard Woodville (or Wydeville) (later the First Lord Rivers and father of
Elizabeth Woodville later wife of the Yorkist Edward IV), under whom Richard Farendon served, was granted various domains, lordships and
bailiwicks in Normandy in 1419 and 1420, culminating in 1421 with appointment
as Seneschal of the province of Normandy.
Richard
Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick held high
command at sieges of French towns between 1420 and 1422, at the sieges of Melun
in 1420, and of Mantes, to the west of Paris, in 1421-22. The more significant
siege was of Meux to the east of Paris.
In 1420 the town of Melun in France surrender to King Henry V.
The siege had rumbled on since June and had been fairly
dramatic at times, with close combat taking place literally beneath the
walls as the besiegers and the garrison dug mines and countermines in an
attempt to bring the siege to an end. James I of Scotland was present at the
siege, brought to France in 1420 to be Henry's trump card against the Scots
serving on the Continent.
Siege of Melun from a late 14th century manuscript
The siege of Meaux was fought from October 1421 to May 1422
between the English and the French during the Hundred Years' War. Paris was threatened
by French forces, based at Dreux, Meaux, and Joigny.
The king besieged and captured Dreux quite easily, and then went south,
capturing Vendôme and Beaugency
before marching on Orléans. Henry then marched on Meaux with an army of more
than 20,000 men. The town's defence was led by the Bastard of Vaurus, by all accounts cruel and evil, but a brave
commander all the same. The siege commenced on 6 October 1421, mining and
bombardment soon brought down the walls. Many allies of King Henry were there
to help him in the siege. Arthur III, Duke of Brittany, recently released from
an English prison, came there to swear allegiance to the King of England and
serve with his Breton troops. Duke Philip III of Burgundy was also there, but
many of his men were fighting in other areas: In Picardy, Jean de Luxembourg
and Hugues de Lannoy, master of archers, accompanied
by an Anglo-Burgundian army attacked, in late March 1422 and conquered several
places in Ponthieu and Vimeu despite the efforts of
troops of Joachim Rouhault Jean Poton
de Xaintrailles and Jean d'Harcourt
while in Champagne, Count Vaudemont was defeated in
battle by La Hire. Casualties began to mount in the English army, including
John Clifford, 7th Baron de Clifford who had been at the siege of Harfleur, the
Battle of Agincourt, and received the surrender of Cherbourg. Also killed in
the siege was 17-year-old John Cornwall, only son of famous nobleman John
Cornwall, 1st Baron Fanhope. He died next to his
father, who witnessed his son’s head being blown off by a gun-stone. The
English also began to fall sick rather early into the siege, and it is
estimated that one sixteenth of the besiegers died from dysentery and smallpox
while thousands died thanks to the courageous defence of the men-at-arms inside
the city. As the siege continued, Henry himself grew sick, although he refused
to leave until the siege was finished. Good news reached him from England that
on 6 December, Queen Catherine had borne him a son and heir at Windsor. On 9
May 1422, the town of Meaux surrendered, although the garrison held out. Under
continued bombardment, the garrison gave in as well on 10 May, following a
siege of seven months. The Bastard of Vaurus was
decapitated, as was a trumpeter named Orace, who had once mocked Henry. John
Fortescue was then installed as English captain of Meaux Castle.
It
seems likely that Richard Farndale took part in some or all
of these siege campaigns around Paris in 1421.
If
these records are indeed Richard Farndale of Sheriff Hutton, then he appears to
have been an old soldier who campaigned with Henry V, and perhaps built up his
small wealth on campaign.
1422
Henry V died in 1422
and left a nine month old baby son, Henry
VI. The inter noble rivalry would soon pick up again.
Henry VI had no father
to guide him to Kingship and he relied on his advisors. He became timid and
passive and focused on religion. At this point in history, the nobility needed
strong leadership to control their ambitions. After the expensive battles in
France, financial resources were depleted. The young king was easily controlled
by the rival noble families.
This unpopularity
would ferment displeasure with the Lancastrian dynasty, which under Henry V had
been so popular, and would give stir up a Yorkist uprising.
The Yorkist cause was
most strongly supported by the Nevilles of Sheriff Hutton. Cecily Neville
married Richard, Duke of York, the main protagonist of the Yorkist cause. Their
son, Edward IV would found the Yorkist dynasty in
1461. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the King Maker, was the main political
strategist to the Yorkist cause, at least in the early stages of the Wars of
the Roses.
Richard
was about 65 by this time, too old perhaps to take an active role himself. However he lived in Sherif Hutton, at the heart of the
cauldron that started to bubble amongst the Yorkists. As a proud old soldier of
Henry V he was likely to have been appalled at the
failures of Henry VI, stirred on no doubt by his landlords, the Nevilles. In
the last dozen years of his life, we can imagine Richard over dinner with his
daughters spitting with rage at where things had got to under Henry VI, and
yearning for the new glamour of the Yorkist cause. In an old chest in his
bedroom perhaps, his armour of bascinet, breastplate and arm and leg fittings
must have lain. His grey horse rested in the stables. He probably would have
put them on and rode out with the Nevilles if he had been asked to do so.
However at this stage Henry VI
was just a young King, not yet a hopeless adult one and the Wars of the Roses
did not kick off until 1455, twenty years after Richard’s death. He would leave
his three daughters to live through the years of Yorkist and Lancastrian
rivalry. We only know their names. Perhaps they were passive witnesses to the
events which would follow. Perhaps their husbands and their sons engaged in
those Wars. We don’t know.
Richard’s
armour was bequeathed to the church, to pay for his funeral. Perhaps when the
civil war kicked off, they were taken by some other man at arms who likely
fought with the Yorkists, under the Neville banner.
1423
Alice Farndale, his third daughter, might have been born in
about 1423 (FAR00051).
1435
The Will of Richard Farendale, proved at Sherifhoton 21 Dec
1435.
‘In the name
of God Amen, 8th December 1435. I Richard Farndell being of sound mind make my
will in this manner. Firstly, I bequeath and Commend my soul to God Almighty,
My Creator, and my body to be buried in my said Parish Church.
Item. I bequeath a grey horse with saddle and
reins and my armour, viz: a bascinet, a breast plate, a pair of vembraces and a
pair of rerebraces with leg harness as my mortuary payment. And I bequeath 3
lbs of wax to be burned around my body on the day of my burial.
Item. I bequeath to the Vicar of my Parish Church
6s 8d and to every chaplain taking part in my burial service Mass, 4d.
And I
bequeath 26s 8d for mending a service book for the use of the parish church.
And to the
fabric of the Cathedral Church of St Peter York, 12d.
And I
bequeath to my daughter Margorie at her marriage 10 marks, if she live to be
marriageable age. And if she die before she arrives at her years of discretion,
I wish the said 10 marks to be divided equally between my daughters Agnes and
Alice.
And I
bequeath to Joan Brantyng 40s and a bed.
And to the
four orders of friars mendicant of York 20s and two quarters of corn to be
divided in equal portions.
And to John
Pyper 2s.
And as
regards the rest of my funeral expenses, I wish them to be paid at the
discretion of my executors.
The rest of
my goods, not bequeathed above, my debts having been paid, I bequeath to the
said Margorie, my daughter, to be divided among them in equal parts.
And I make
the said Thomas Robynson and John Couper and Margorie my daughter, my
executors, faithfully to implement the terms of my will.
Witnesses; Robert, Vicar of the Church of Hoton,
William Huby of the same, John Burdley of the same and many others.’
Administration granted to Thomas and John on 21st December
1435 with rights reserved for similar administration to be granted to Margorie.
(Translated from Latin text of Will held at York. Prob. Reg.
3/441).
Richard Farndale therefore died between 8 and 21 December
1435.
York Prerogative & Exchequer Courts, Will;
Language: Latin; Will date: 8 Dec 1435; Probate date: 21 Dec 1435; Reference code: ProbReg 3; Folio: 441r, York Medieval Probate
Index, 1267-1500
(York Wills)
Richard’s Armour and horse:
His grey Horse
His bascinet His
breastplate His
vambraces
His rerebraces
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