Act 10
Medieval Warfare
Fourteenth and Fifteenth century
Archers and Men and Arms
The story of our soldier ancestors
who joined the armies of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V
Scene 1 – The Wars under Richard II
Domestic
tensions meet open hostility with France and Scotland
When Edward,
the Black Prince, died at Westminster on 8 June 1376, after long illness, he
left his widow, Joan the Fair Maid of Kent, descendant of House Stuteville, the
Farndale overlords, to protect their young son Richard, second in line to the
throne and still only nine years old. When Edward III died a year later on 21 June 1377, Joan was left to manoeuvre through
complex interests, to ensure her son’s coronation as Richard II on 16 July
1377.
Edward had
left an inheritance of rivalry amongst the proud Plantagenet houses - the royal
house of Richard, protected by Joan; the House of York; and the powerful House
of Lancaster, whose patriarch was John of Gaunt. An uneasy truce during Richard
II’s minority ensued.
The Hundred
Years War had become embedded in the national psyche as permanent struggle with
France and their ally Scotland, since 1337, but after Crecy and Poitiers, the
Treaty of Bretigny of 1360 had marked an end to the
first phase of the struggle.
In 1369, on
the pretext that Edward III had failed to observe the terms of the treaty, the
king of France declared war once again. By the time of the death of the Black
Prince in 1376 and the death of Edward III in 1377, English forces had been
pushed back into their territories in the southwest, around Bordeaux.
By 1383,
tensions between Richard II and John of Gaunt had been increasing over the
approach to the war in France. While the King and his court preferred
negotiation, Gaunt and Buckingham urged a large scale
campaign to protect English possessions. However
Richard II chose to send a so-called crusade led by Henry le
Despenser, Bishop of Norwich, which failed miserably. Faced with this setback
on the continent, Richard turned his attention instead towards France's ally,
the Kingdom of Scotland.
The last
round of hostilities with Scotland had ended in 1357, with an agreement that
the English would occupy significant portions of southern Scotland, known as
the English 'pale'. However by the time of Edward III's deteriorating health and
English military reverses in France in the late 1370s, the Scots had begun to
gradually recover much of this territory. The Scottish government's standard
diplomatic line was that this was the work of over-mighty magnates who were not
under control of the Scottish Crown. In reality the
Scottish Crown were probably coordinating attacks on English-held territory. By
the early 1380s the 'over-mighty magnates' excuse was wearing increasingly
thin, and in 1384 the Scots, whose confidence had been boosted by a decade and
a half of small scale successes, turned to open war
with England.
In February
1384, a Scottish force led by Archibald Douglas 'the Grim', Lord of Galloway,
and supported by his cousin William, Earl of Douglas, and George Dunbar, Earl
of March, captured Lochmaben Castle, Annandale stronghold of the House Brus. With Lochmaben,
the English lost Annandale, the seat of the Scottish line of the Bruce family,
their last remaining possession in the west of Scotland.
This
Scottish military activity could no longer go unanswered and an expedition by
John of Gaunt was hurriedly organised.
Farndale
soldiers in the Scottish Wars
On 3 April
1384, an English army entered into Scotland under the
command of John of Gaunt, in direct response the fall of Lochmaben
Castle. On the retinue roll on 18 January and 1 February 1384 was John Farndale, of
the line of Farndales who had settled
in York. He served under John of Gaunt’s overall command, and under the
captaincy of Henry Percy, Sir William Fulthorpe and
Walter FitzWalter.
John of
Gaunt (1340 to 1399) was the Lancastrian patriarch, whose son Henry Bolingbroke
later seized the throne from Richard II in 1399 after landing with a small
force at Spurn near Humber in 1399 and marching to his Pickering Castle,
rallying supporters including the Nevilles from Sheriff Hutton and
Kirkbymoorside. In the 1380s, he was still loyal to the Crown. He was the
King’s uncle, and he felt responsibility for success of his nephew after his
brother, the Black Prince’s premature death. Yet he was growing increasingly
frustrated at everything his nephew did and tensions were growing between John
of Gaunt and the King.
Henry Percy
(1364 to 1403), known as Harry Hostpur was an English
knight who fought in several campaigns against the Scots in the northern border
and against the French during the Hundred Years' War. The nickname Haatspore or "Hotspur" was given to
him by the Scots as a tribute to his speed in advance and readiness to attack.
The heir to the leading Percy family in northern England (rivals to the Nevilles of Sheriff Hutton),
Hotspur was to be one of the earliest and primary movers behind the deposition
of King Richard II in favour of Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. He gave his nickname
to Tottenham Hotspur FC.
Walter
FitzWalter (1368 to 1406) came from the noble FitzWalter family, with estates
in Essex and elsewhere.
John Farndale was
therefore part of John of Gaunt's army as it marched up the east coast, burning
Haddington and then Leith. The Scots had become adept at a scorched earth
policy whenever the English invaded, and John of Gaunt's men seem to have
struggled to find ways to overcome the Scots in any meaningful way. John of
Gaunt himself seems to have shown some reticence in causing damage. He is known
to have spared the abbeys of Melrose and Holyrood from destruction. In 1381
John of Gaunt had briefly fled to Scotland to escape the Peasants' Revolt, and
this might have given him some sympathies within Scotland. During this time,
John of Gaunt seems to have resided mostly at Holyrood, hosted by John, Earl of
Carrick, the future Robert III of Scotland.
John of
Gaunt extracted a hefty sum of money from the citizens of Edinburgh to spare
the town from harm, and this agreement may have included Holyrood as well. John
of Gaunt had also been considered as a possible successor to David II of
Scotland back in the 1360s, and in 1384 he may still have harboured vain hopes
of some day pressing his claim to be King of Scots.
In all, the
English spent less than three weeks in Scotland, and by 23 April 1384 Gaunt was
in Durham handing responsibility for the defence of the marches to his rival
Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland.
Later in
1384, the Scots resumed their aggressive policy towards England, this time with
the Earl of Douglas bringing Teviotdale back under Scottish control.
In 1385, the King himself led a punitive expedition to the north. John Farndale was probably a soldier in this second expedition, probably directly under Harry Hotspur’s command. The English King had only recently come of age, and it was expected that he would play a martial role just as his father, Edward the Black Prince, and grandfather Edward III had done.
On 8 July 1385 a force of French knights had marched south from Edinburgh wearing black surcoats with white St Andrew's crosses sewn on, alongside 3,000 Scottish soldiers. However the Scots hosts were not so cooperative with the French and relations deteriorated between them. The threat was repulsed by a counterattack from Henry Hotspur. John might have been involved in that counter attack.
On 11 August
1385 the English army entered Edinburgh, which was deserted by then. Three days
earlier Richard had received news from London that his mother, Joan, Countess
of Kent, his principal mentor, had died the previous day. Most of Edinburgh was
set alight, including St Giles' Kirk. According to the contemporary chronicler Andrew
of Wyntoun in his Cronykil
of Scotland, the English army was given free and uninterrupted play for
slaughter, rapine and fire-raising all along a six-mile front. However there was indecision amongst the English military command whether to
proceed or withdraw and the campaign came to nothing. The army had to return
without ever engaging the Scots in battle.
From the Cronykill of Scotland
Meantime the
French threatened an invasion of southern England.
John of
Gaunt remained in the north after the King returned to England to oversee the
new truce with Scotland, but the relationship between the Lancastrian John of
Gaunt and Richard II was worse than it had ever been. In 1386 John of Gaunt
left for the Continent to pursue his claim to the throne of Castile, which
efforts would come to nothing.
Two years
later, in 1388, Richard II was aged 21 and starting to establish some authority
when the north of England fell victim to another Scottish incursion. The
Battle of Otterburn took place on 5 August 1388 as part of the continuing
border skirmishes between the Scots and English. A Scottish attack on Carlisle
Castle was timed to take advantage of divisions on the English side between Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland
and Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland who had just taken over defence of
the border and partly in revenge for King Richard II's invasion of Scotland of
1385.
Henry Percy
Senior, First Earl of Northumberland (1341 to 1408), again sent his sons Harry
Hotspur and Sir Ralph Percy to engage with the Scots, while he stayed at
Alnwick to cut off the Scottish retreat. Despite Percy's force having an estimated three to one
advantage over the Scots, Froissart records 1,040 English were captured and
1,860 killed whereas 200 Scots were captured and 100 were killed. The
Westminster Chronicle estimates Scottish casualties at around 500. Hotspur's
rashness and eagerness to engage the Scots might have added to the exhaustion
of the English army after its long march north.
The Scottish
ballad, the Battle of Otterburn mocked:
It fell
about the Lammas tide,
When the
muir-men win their hay,
The
doughty Earl of Douglas rode
Into
England, to catch a prey.
The English Ballad of
Chevy Chase told of Percy’s hunting party or Chase in the Cheviot hills, as
an allegory to his chevauchée into Scotland.
John of
Gaunt returned to England in 1389 and settled his differences with the King,
after which the old statesman acted as a moderating influence on English
politics. Richard
assumed full control of the government on 3 May 1389, claiming that the
difficulties of the past years had been due solely to bad councillors. He
promised to lessen the burden of taxation on the people significantly. Richard
ruled peacefully for the next eight years, having reconciled with his former
adversaries.
John Farndale
with his two brothers, Henry Farndale
and William
Farndale had another venture into Scotland in June 1389 when they served
under Thomas Mowbray. The Mowbrays
were still feudal overlords of the lands of Kirkbymoorside and Farndale, John’s
ancestral home, though effective control of those lands had long passed to the House Stuteville.
Thomas Mowbray had been with Richard II during the
Scottish invasion of 1385, but his friendship with the young King was waning.
Richard had a new favourite, Robert de Vere, and Mowbray became increasingly
close to Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel. The King already distrusted
Arundel, and Mowbray's new circle included the equally estranged Thomas of
Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester. Together they plotted against the King's
chancellor, the Duke of Suffolk who was impeached, and a council was appointed
to oversee the king’s increasingly distrusted administration. However Mowbray gradually became disillusioned with his
comrades and by 1389, he was back in the king's favour.
In early
1389 Mowbray’s estates were restored to him by the King
and he was pardoned for having married without the King's licence.
In March
1389, Thomas Mowbray was
appointed warden of the East March and castellan of Berwick Castle, receiving
wages of £6,000 in peacetime and twice that in time of war. This was the
context wherein John, Henry and William Farndale were part of the standing
force in the East March of Scotland.
However
Thomas Mowbray’s appointment was not a success and he fell out with the
traditional lord of the north, Henry Percy. Mowbray held no lands in the north
and had few contacts among the gentry, upon whom he needed to rely to raise his army. Mowbray's tenure in the East March
was effectively doomed from the start.
His
ineffectiveness became obvious in June 1389, when a Scottish incursion ravaged
the north of England and, with little opposition, went as far south as
Tynemouth. Mowbray, the Westminster Chronicle reports, refused the Scottish
offer of a pitched battle and retreated to Berwick Castle.
Thomas Mowbray was later banished by
Richard II after his rivalry with Henry Bolingbroke, in 1399, but died soon
afterwards in Venice.
Richard
Farndale and War with France during the reign of Richard II
Richard Farndale was
the son of William
and Juliana Farendale and was probably born at Sheriff Hutton in about
1357, assuming that he was about 78 when he died and 40 when he was an executor
and beneficiary of his father’s will.
When he died
in 1435, he left his own will. His first bequest was that his impressive
collection of military equipment was to be used as his mortuary payment.
This
military bequest included 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.
His grey
Horse
His bascinet
His breastplate
His vambraces His
rerebraces
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)
Richard was
impressively armed for military service when he died, so it seems likely that
he pursued a military career.
The Hundred
Years War with France lasted from 1337 to 1453. Before the Hundred Years War,
warfare was rooted to the principles of chivalry, which focused the exploits of
the nobility. 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
commoners’ 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.
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.
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 from 1343 to
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 opposed the risk
of annexation of Brittany by France. An English army was sent under Thomas
Woodstock to support the Duke of Brittany. 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 Thomas
Woodstock marched his 5,200 men east of Paris, they were confronted by the army
of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, at Troyes. However
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
army engaged in a chevauchée, a practice
common during the Hundred Years War, comprising an armed raid into enemy
territory leading to destruction, pillage, and demoralization, generally
conducted against civilian populations. The English army chevauchéed
westwards largely unopposed, and in November 1380 the army laid siege to Nantes
and its vital bridge over the Loire towards Aquitaine. However, the army did not succeed in establishing 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.
A
possible Irish campaign
There was a
Richard Farnworth or Farnysworth who served in a
standing force in Ireland under Sir John Stanley and mustered on 21 October
1389, and it is very probable that this was the veteran soldier of the French
Wars. Richard II had assumed full control of the government on 3 May 1389, and
this was a period of fragile peace. Sir John Stanley KG (c 1350 to 1414) of Lathom, near
Ormskirk in Lancashire, was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and titular King of
Mann, the first of that name. John Stanley had been appointed as deputy to Robert de Vere, Duke of
Ireland in 1386 after an insurrection created by friction between Sir Philip
Courtenay, the English Lieutenant of Ireland, and his appointed governor James
Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond. Stanley led an expedition to Ireland on behalf of
de Vere and King Richard II to quell it. He was accompanied by Bishop Alexander
de Balscot of Meath and Sir Robert Crull. Butler
joined them upon their arrival in Ireland. Because of the success of the
expedition, Stanley was appointed to the position of Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, Alexander to Chancellor, Crull to Treasurer, and Butler to his old
position as Governor. In 1389 Richard II appointed Stanley as Justiciar of
Ireland, a post he held until 1391. He was heavily involved in Richard's first
expedition to Ireland in 1394 to 1395. It is possible that Richard was involved
in these campaigns in Ireland.
First
signs of the peril of Richard II’s dynasty
Seventeen
years after the French campaign in which Richard Farndale likely took part, Ralph Neville, Lord of Sheriff Hutton,
supported Richard II's proceedings against Richard’s former commander Thomas of
Woodstock in an early sign that the King’s rule was unsafe. By way of reward
Ralph Neville was created Earl of Westmorland on 29 September 1397. However Ralph had married the daughter of the Lancastrian
John of Gaunt, and by the end of the century the Nevilles had switched to
oppose Richard II and to support a new Lancastrian dynasty.
The soldier,
Richard Farndale was also an inhabitant of Sheriff Hutton in the lands of Ralph
Neville, and he and his family were witnesses to the dynastic duels about to
unfold.
Richard’s
father, William
Farndale died in 1398 and Richard was an executor with his mother, Juliana and
beneficiary of his father’s will made on 23 February 1398. He received a legacy
of £4 and, with his mother and sister Helen, the residue of his father’s
estate. He was probably about 40 years old. It might have been with these
inherited funds that he bolstered his military armoury.
Richard must
have married at about this time, perhaps in about 1400. We don’t know the name
of his wife, as she is not mentioned in his will and might have died before he
did. Mysteriously Richard bequeathed a substantial sum of 40s and his bed to a
lady called Joan Brantyng in his will in 1435. It
might be possible that Joan was his wife and later remarried. Perhaps this was
a more recent acquaintance after his wife had died. We can read whatever we like into Richard’s
relationship with the mysterious Joan Branting.
Richard had
three daughters, Margorie
perhaps born in about 1409, Agnes
born in about 1411 and Alice
born in about 1413. They would each witness the Wars of the Roses from the
heart of the Neville lands.
Scene 2 – Fighting under the
Lancastrians
Regime
Change
The
relationship between Henry Bolingbroke and Richard II came to a crisis in 1398.
A remark about Richard's rule by Thomas
de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, was interpreted as treason by John of
Gaunt’s son, Henry Bolingbroke, who reported it to the king. The two dukes
agreed to undergo a duel of honour at Gosford Green near Caludon
Castle, Mowbray's home in Coventry. However before the
duel could take place, Richard II decided to banish Henry from the kingdom to
avoid further bloodshed. It was claimed that this was with the approval of
Henry's father, John of Gaunt. It is not known where he spent his exile.
Mowbray was also exiled for life, and died soon
afterwards in Venice.
In William
Shakespeare play of Richard II, Act 1, Scene 3, Henry Bolingbroke mourned his
sentence of exile: How long a time lies in one little word! Four lagging
winters and four wanton springs End in a word; such is the breath of kings.
The breath
of Kings would now rock the lands of England, and particularly the ancestral
Neville lands, and the lives of the Farndale family, for generations.
Richard II’s
rule was increasingly arbitrary and unpopular. In Shakespeare’s depiction, as
the Lancastrian John of Gaunt lay dying in 1399, he mourned where Richard had
taken his Kingdom.
Methinks
I am a prophet new inspired And thus expiring do foretell of
him: His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last, For violent fires soon burn out themselves; Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes; With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder; Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. |
This royal throne of kings, this sceptered
isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier
lands, This blessèd plot, this earth,
this realm, this England, |
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, Feared by their breed and famous by their birth, Renownèd for their deeds as far from home For Christian service and true chivalry As is the sepulcher in stubborn
Jewry Of the world’s ransom, blessèd
Mary’s son, This land of such dear souls, this dear dear
land, Dear for her reputation through the world, Is now leased out—I die pronouncing it— Like to a tenement or pelting farm. |
England, bound in with the triumphant sea, Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege Of wat’ry Neptune, is now bound
in with shame, With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds. That England that was wont to conquer others Hath made a shameful conquest of itself. Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life, How happy then were my ensuing death! |
(Richard II,
William Shakespeare, Act 2, Scene 1)
The tension
came to a head when Richard II was campaigning in Ireland, perhaps with Richard
Farndale in his army. His banished cousin, son of the recently dead John of
Gaunt, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, seized the throne and became Henry
IV, to start a new dynasty of the House of Lancaster.
Henry Bolingbroke’s
return from exile and his seizure of the Crown in 1399 was a bold power grab,
an invasion from France in a struggle for the Crown, unseen since the invasion
of William the Conqueror in a succession struggle between Normans and Godwinsons. Henry Bolingbroke landed at Ravenspur
near Hull, ostensibly to reclaim his lands and uphold the rules of succession.
Richard II was soon captured and taken to Pontefract castle. This was within
the geographical ambit of the
Farndales of Doncaster, who had there home there
at this time.
The Epiphany
Rising was an attempt to seize Henry IV during a tournament, kill him, and
restore Richard II to the throne, but it failed. The rebellion convinced Henry
IV of the threat posed by Richard while deposed and imprisoned but still alive.
Richard would come to his death by means unknown in Pontefract Castle by
17 February 1400.
In
Shakespeare’s version of the story, Richard II was left to tell sad stories of
the death of Kings.
No
matter where. Of comfort no man speak. Let’s
talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs, Make
dust our paper, and with rainy eyes Write
sorrow on the bosom of the earth. Let’s
choose executors and talk of wills. And yet
not so, for what can we bequeath Save
our deposèd bodies to the ground? Our
lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke’s, And
nothing can we call our own but death And
that small model of the barren earth Which
serves as paste and cover to our bones. |
For
God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground And
tell sad stories of the death of kings— How
some have been deposed, some slain in war, Some
haunted by the ghosts they have deposed, Some
poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed, All
murdered. For within the hollow crown That
rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps
Death his court, and there the antic sits, |
Scoffing
his state and grinning at his pomp, Allowing
him a breath, a little scene, To
monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks, Infusing
him with self and vain conceit, As if
this flesh which walls about our life Were
brass impregnable; and humored thus, Comes
at the last and with a little pin Bores
through his castle wall, and farewell, king! |
Cover
your heads, and mock not flesh and blood With
solemn reverence. Throw away respect, Tradition,
form, and ceremonious duty, For you
have but mistook me all this while. I live
with bread like you, feel want, Taste
grief, need friends. Subjected thus, How can
you say to me I am a king? |
(Richard II,
William Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare
depicted the scene of Edmund Duke of York handing the Crown to Henry, Great
Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee, From plume-plucked
Richard, who with willing soul Adopts thee heir, and
his high sceptre yields To the possession of thy royal hand. Richard II had
given up the Plantagenet Dynasty, With mine
own tears I wash away my balm, With mine own hands I give away my crown.
This assault
on the stability of the rules of succession which protected the nation from
chaos, was a concern to the elite classes. Henry Bolingbroke’s seizure of the
throne was precarious from the start. Uneasy lies the head that wears a
Crown (Henry IV, Part II). However Richard had
become too problematic as King, and by then was controlling the nation as a tyrant.
The nobility therefore reluctantly supported Henry.
The main support
for Henry came from the great northern family, the Percys.
The Percys
and the Nevilles, the elite
families of the lands of our Farndale ancestors, were rivals and key players in
the nation’s story of the fifteenth century.
In order to
cement support for his new dynasty, Henry IV was forced to make concessions, and
at least impliedly to curb the heavy taxation which
was a strong element of Richard II’s unpopularity, as well as to uphold
property rights and respect the peoples’ will. He delivered his claim to the
throne in London in English, to be understood by all. His claim had to be
rooted in public support because his claim under the traditional rules of
succession was open to challenge. That would prove a millstone for Henry IV, as
a modern political party bound by its manifesto promises.
As Henry IV’s
reign became increasingly threatened, particularly by the challenges of Owen Glyndwr and Gwilym ap
Tudur in Wales and by the Earl of Douglas
in Scotland, his rule was not easy, but his strength of character was
sufficient to find a route to somehow keep things together and his iconic
heroic son Henry V was then able to bind the nation together after his
successes in France.
The depiction
of the young Prince Hal enjoying the taverns of London with Falstaff, while
Harry Hotspur of the Percy family gallantly protected the nation from their
foes made a fun side plot for Shakespeare.
Yea,
there thou makest me sad and makest
me sin In envy that my Lord Northumberland Should be the father to so blest a
son, A son who is the theme of honour's tongue; Amongst a grove, the very
straightest plant; Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride: Whilst I, by
looking on the praise of him, See riot and dishonour stain the brow Of my young
Harry. O that it could be proved That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged In cradle-clothes our children where they lay, And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet! Then would I have his
Harry, and he mine.
(Henry IV Part
1, Act 1, Scene 1)
It was not
historic reality however, not least because the future Henry V was still a
young teenager and would soon be active in the Wars in Wales, whilst Henry
Percy (1364 to 1403) was in his thirties, a contemporary of Henry IV, not his
son, and would soon turn against the Lancastrian dynasty.
Nevertheless,
at this point Harry Hotspur was the heroic knight. In their Rest
is History Podcast, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook jest that He’d
love rugby. He’d love going to rugby, and cheering on
England at Murrayfield. He’s a brilliant fighter against the Scots, and
it’s actually the Scots who were the first to call him
hotspur.
Jamie
Farndale, descendant of the medieval soldiers of the English armies of Henry IV,
fighting for the Scots six hundred years later
The
Lancastrian dynasty had thus begun and the Percys and Nevilles had supported
its rise. The Farndales were soon dragged in to the fortunes of the new
dynasty. The winds from the breath of Kings was
felt by our ancestors as they tried to find their own paths.
Henry IV’s
military focus was in his struggles against the
freedom fighters of Wales led by Owen Glyndwr, and the flurries into England from
Scotland, particularly as the English armies came under threat from both Wales
and Scotland. Wales had been subject to an apartheid of the native Welsh since
Draconian laws by Edward I, and this was a point when that cauldron bubbled
over. Owen Glyndwyr claimed to be the Prince of Wales
in direct challenge to Prince Hal’s title.
Another
flurry into Scotland under the new dynasty of Henry IV
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. It seems likely that this was Richard Farndale’s
next military exploit, perhaps freshly armed with funds from his father’s will.
By this time he would have been in his early forties.
It seems likely that he became an experienced soldier who may have joined a
series of campaigns. 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.
Although
Henry had announced his plans at the November 1399 parliament, he did not
attempt a winter campaign, but continued with negotiations though became
increasingly frustrated by the Scottish response. Parliament 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 tax
subsidy. The general feeling was that a French invasion might be a more
imminent threat.
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. There
were supply delays. The King's own tents, for example, were not dispatched from
Westminster until mid July. Henry must have realised
how these logistical delays would impact on his 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
continued to suffer 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.
It has been
estimated that Henry's army was around 13,000 men, of which 800 men-at-arms and
2,000 archers came directly from the Royal Household. This was one of the
largest raised in late medieval England. 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 service in France. 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. Henry took care to
prevent his army from ravaging the countryside on their march through
Berwickshire and Lothian in contrast to previous campaigns when for instance
Richard II had devastation wreacked in the
campaign of 1385. This may well have been the lands they marched through
belonged to the Earl of Dunbar, who had joined the army.
Even so, the
King probably envisaged some 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.
However,
Henry's army never progressed further than Leith. Not only was no pitched
battle ever attempted, but the king did not try and besiege Scotland's capital,
Edinburgh nor its castle where the Duke of Rothsay was ensconced. 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. 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.
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.
By 29 August
1400, the English army had returned south of the border.
Although the
1400 campaign ended the Wars directly into Scotland, the Scottish 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 into the new
Lancastrian dynasty 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. A picture of that
battle was painted by Shakespeare. 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?
We don’t
know whether Richard
Farndale was still part of the army at this stage, but it seems likely that
that he continued to fight in these campaigns and we get a Shakespearean
flavour of these campaigns.
A later
Shakespearean legend painted the death of Harry Hotspur in 1403, at the hands
of the young Prince Hal, future Henry V after the Percy rebellion against Henry
IV. He was wrongly portrayed as the same age as his rival, Prince Hal, by whom
he was slain in single combat. O Harry, thou hast robb’d
me of my youth! I better broke the loss of brittle life than these proud titles
thou hast won of me; They wound my thoughts worse than sword my flesh.
Scene 3 – Fighting with Henry V
Richard
the veteran soldier in the armies of Henry V, the soldier King
Henry V was
crowned in 1413.
Richard Farndale appears
in the military records again in 1417, after the Agincourt campaign, but it is
possible that, as a veteran soldier, Richard might also have fought in Henry
V’s Agincourt campaign of 1415. By this time he was in
his late fifties.
I haven’t
yet found him in the list
of known soldiers at Agincourt. In a Roll
of the men at arms at Agincourt, there is no Richard Farndale listed.
But to these lists of named individuals were unnamed lists of lances and
archers, so he could have been amongst these ordinary unlisted soldiers. 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 Joan of Kent, wife of the Black
Prince and the lands of the
Stutevilles and the Mowbrays.
Therefore,
it is possible that he also participated in the main Agincourt campaign, as
archer or man at arms. It is also possible though that, as an old veteran, he
was recruited after the Agincourt campaign, when reinforcements were required
from the older ranks.
After the
Norman Conquest, the Dukes of Normandy, subjects of the King of France were
also King of England. That was tricky. 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 King 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, whose reign was marred by constant civil
war.
When Henry V
became King in 1413, his ambitions were to restore English interests in France,
which would in turn unite the warring factions at home.
In 1415, the
29 year old Henry V launched his invasion of Normandy.
He landed 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 fire
at rapid rates, from 12 to even 20 arrows a minute, accurately over long
distances.
Richard Farndale might
have been an archer or a man at arms within that army, but we can’t be sure.
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.
It was at
the Gates of Harfleur that Shakespeare depicted Henry V’s rally.
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)
Might Richard Farndale have been witness to such a speech?
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 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.
The French
army blocked the English advance on the Somme, but the English crossed.
Having
already portended the D Day invasion of 1944, the Agincourt campaign next found
itself in the battlefields of 1916.
The armies
eventually met around 45 miles south of Calais, at Agincourt
on 25 October 1415. Henry placed his bowmen in a V shape on either flank. The
longbowmen 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.
Did Richard
Farndale flick the V sign to the French?
Shakespeare
imagined Henry V’s next stirring speech before Agincourt.
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. |
Could
Richard Farndale have been amongst the happy few, the band of brothers? If he
was not, he must have known those who were.
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.
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.
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. In this second campaign,
Richard Farndale does appear back in the records.
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.
What we do
know is that Richard
Farndale was part of Henry V’s army by 1417.
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’s own father had partaken in
a poaching expedition to take fish, deer, hares, partridges and pheasants from
Pickering Forest in 1367, for which Thomas Mowbray’s father, John Mowbray had
brought him to justice.
Outlawry and
military heroism were not so far apart.
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.
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.
Amongst the 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. After the
Siege of Harfleur from 17 August to 22 September 1415, 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.
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 victory
at Agincourt inspired and boosted 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.
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.
In 1421,
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 surrendered 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 (1397 to 1437 crowned 1424) was present at the siege, brought
to France in 1420 as 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. 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. The siege began on 6 October
1421. Mining and bombardment soon brought down the walls.
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.
News reached
Henry 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 also surendered
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.
Richard
Farndale of Sheriff Hutton appears to have been an old soldier who campaigned
with Henry V, and perhaps built up his small wealth on campaign.
Henry V died
in 1422 and left a nine month old baby son, Henry VI.
The inter noble rivalry would soon pick up again.
Scene IV – The Wars of the Roses
The Wars
of the Roses loom
Henry VI had
no father to guide him to Kingship and he relied on his advisors. He became
timid and passive. 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.
In time the
Yorkist cause came to be 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 Kingmaker, was the main
political strategist to the Yorkist cause, in the early stages of the Wars of
the Roses.
Richard
Farndale 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
Farndale’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.
Richard
Farndale died in 1435, exhausted from his life of adventure and chevauchée. His will was 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.
The History of Sheriff Hutton
picks up the story of the Wars of the Roses, seen through the prism of the town
of the Sheriff Hutton line of the Farndale family
When Duke of
Gloucester, Richard later Richard III, murderer of his nephew princes in the
tower of London, married Lady Anne Neville of Middleham and Sheriff Hutton,
they had a son, Edward Prince of Wales who died aged only 11 in 1484 in
Middleham and his tomb effigy lies in the church of Sheriff Hutton. Richard’s
Council of the North held court in Sheriff Hutton. Richard Farndale’s daughters
lived within the events of the Wars of the Roses in the lands of Richard
III.
How do
the medieval warrior Farndales relate to the modern family? It is not
possible to be accurate about the early family tree,
before the recording of births, marriages and deaths in parish records, but
we do have a lot of medieval material including important clues on
relationships between individuals. The matrix of the family before about 1550
is the most probable structure based on the available evidence. If it is
accurate, Richard Farndale was related to the thirteenth century ancestors of
the modern Farndale family, and was part of the Sheriff Hutton Line.
He was related to the original family who lived in the dale and then left for
new lands. He was possibly a second cousin of the Doncastrian
Farndales, from whom the modern family probably descends. John,
Henry and William Farndale were part of the York Line of Farndales. Their
father, Johannis
de Farndell, was probably the brother of William and Nicholas Farndale of
Doncaster, from whom the modern family probably descend. |
or
Go Straight to Act 11 – The
Vicar of Doncaster
Or
Read the History of Sheriff
Hutton
Get to
know the medieval soldiers John, Henry and
William Farndale and Richard Farndale
Explore the genealogy
behind the Wars of the Roses
Meet House Neville
Explore Sheriff Hutton and its
church