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 

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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:

 

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Vembraces or vambraces were armoured forearm guards:

 

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A rerebrace was a piece of armour designed to protect the upper arms (above the elbow):

 

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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.

 

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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 HarreisHistory 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.

 

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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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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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)

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Richard’s Armour and horse:

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His grey Horse                                                               His bascinet                                       His breastplate                                         His vambraces                                          His rerebraces

 

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