Birth of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.

In the Wars of the Roses both his father and grandfather fought and died on the Lancastrian side.  He was made a ward of Edward IV’s queen Elizabeth Woodville and was married to her sister Katherine Woodville (1458 – 1497), when both were still children.

He was initially the major supporter of Richard III, but soon turned against him, possibly under the influence of John Morton.  He was related to the Plantagenets and could have hoped to further his own hopes to the throne.  He is also one of the suspects for the murder of the “Princes in the Tower”, if indeed they were murdered at all.  He was convicted of treason and executed following the 1483 rebellion.

Tags: Buckingham

Death of Louis XI from a stroke.  He was succeeded by his son Charles VIII, who was only 13 at the time.  Charles’ eldest sister Anne acted as regent.

Louis XI had suffered from a series of strokes that had left him partially paralysed since 1480 and a further stroke in August of 1483 was the final one. He died a few days later. Louis had two daughters and a son. Before his death, Louis had declared that Charles, his son, should be the next King of France but because Charles was in poor health and had been given a poor education Louis specified that Anne, his eldest daughter, should act a regent until Charles was able to rule unaided.

Tags: France

Treaty of Picquigny between Louis XI of France and Edward IV, Edward IV and many of his nobles were paid a ‘pension’ to return to England and not to take up arms against France again in his claim to the French throne.  Richard Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) is said to have opposed the treaty and refused the pension.

Tags: Edward IV, France, Richard III

Richard III was buried in the choir of the church of the Grey Friars in Leicester. Polydore Vergil states that the burial was “without any pompe or solemn funeral”. This is often – mistakenly – seen to indicate that there were no religious rites. However, as John Ashdown-Hill explains, “solemnity” in the religious context refers to certain aspects of a service, which were not essential. It basically means that the service was a private ceremony by the friars, especially as a choir of their church would not have been open to the public.

To the day 527 years later, on 25 August 2012, on the first day of the archaeological dig in Leicester to find out where the church of the Grey Friars actually had been and hopefully to find Richard’s remains, parts of a human leg bone were unearthed. These wre later identified as being part of the remains of Richard III.

Sources:

John Ashdown Hill, The Last Days of Richard III. The History Press, 2010, pp.91-96

Mathew Morris & Richard Buckley, Richard III:  The King under the Car Park.  University of Leicester Archaeological Services, 2013, pp.22 + 36-45

Mike Pitts, Digging for Richard: How Archaeology Found the King. Thames & Hudson, 2014, pp.99-105

Tags: Church, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III

Execution of William Catesby by Henry Tudor.  Catesby was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Richard III and Speaker of the House of Commons of the Parliament of 1484.  He fought for Richard at the Battle of Bosworth and was one of very few men of note who were executed afterwards.  It has been suggested that he expected a different treatment from the Stanleys because in his will he asks them “to pray for my soul as ye have not for my body, as I trusted in you.”

Tags: Battles, Contemporaries

Death of Margaret of Anjou at Anjou, France

Tags: France, Margaret of Anjou

Richard III’s son Edward is created prince of Wales.

Source: ODNB on Edward, prince of Wales

Tags: Richard III

The first Gutenberg Bible is printed.

Tags: Books

Remember before God

Richard III

King of England

and those who fell at Bosworth Field

having kept faith.

22 August 1485

Loyaulte me lie.

(Text:  Richard III memorial plaque in the Church of St James, Sutton Cheney

Illustration on the left:  King Richard III,  © Andrew Jamieson, http://www.jamiesongallery.com/

On the right:  The Church of St James, Sutton Cheney, where the Richard III Society commemorates King Richard III in its annual memorial service in August. It is said that Richard III heard his last Mass at this church.)

Tags: Battles, Bosworth, Henry Tudor, Richard III