Richard is made justiciar of north Wales for life by his brother, Edward IV

Tags: Edward IV, Richard III

Birth of John Plantagenet – son  of Richard, duke of York, and Cecily Neville.  He died young.

Tags: Family

Coronation of Henry VI

Tags: Henry VI

Henry Stafford, second duke of Buckingham, was executed in Salisbury on Sunday, 2 Nov. 1483.  Initially, he had been Richard of Gloucester most trusted ally in the summer of 1483.  It was probably Bishop John Morton, who was Buckingham’s prisoner at Brecon who persuaded him to become involved in the uprising against Richard III.  His part in the rebellion was spectacularly unsuccessful due to atrocious rain, the flooding of the rivers and large-scale desertion of his followers.  He was betrayed and executed without trial.  In a letter of 12 Oct. 1483, which Richard III dictated to his chancellor, Bishop John Russell, he refers to Buckingham as “the most untrue creature living”

Read more:  http://www.r3.org/on-line-library-text-essays/back-to-basics-for-newcomers/henry-stafford-second-duke-of-buckingham/

Tags: Buckingham, Richard III

Richard, Duke of York (stained glass at St Laurence, Ludlow, © Worcestershire Branch, Richard III Society)

Act of Accord

After unsuccessfully claiming his right to the crown in parliament on 10 October 1460, Richard, duke of York, had to accept the Act of Accord on 25 October 1460, which stipulated that he would be the heir to the throne after King Henry VI’s death, instead of the king’s son, Edward of Lancaster.

His claim was that while on his father’s side he was descended from Edward III’s fourth son, on his mother’s side he was descended from Edward III’s son.  The Lancastrian Kings including Henry VI, however, were descendents of the third son of Edward III.

While the Duke of York’s claim ultimately failed, it was the basis for his son Edward IV to succeed to the crown.

More on the Act of Accord here.

Tags: Edward IV, Henry VI, Parliament, Richard Duke of York

Birth of Edward of Lancaster, only son of King Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou, at Westminster.  He was the Lancastrian Prince of Wales.  He was baptised on 14 October by William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester.

On 13 December 1470 he was married to Anne Neville, who was 14 at the time, as part of an agreement between his mother, Margaret of Anjou, and Anne’s father, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (“The Kingmaker”) to return Henry VI to the throne.    Edward fell at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471.

The picture shows the Palace of Westminster, how it supposedly looked in the 16th century.

Tags: Edward of Lancaster, Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou

Statue of Christopher Columbus in Barcelona (D. Preis)

Replica of the Santa Maria (D. Preis)

Christopher Columbus arrives in America, or, more exactly, one of the islands in the Bahamas.  A group of three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Niña, left Spain on 3 August.  They first sailed to the Canary Islands.  From there, the journey across the Atlantic took 5 weeks.

In October 1977, I visited a replica of the Santa Maria, the largest of  the three ships, in Barcelona – and was amazed how small it was.  In the photo on the right you can see Columbus pointing the way over my head.

Dorothea Preis

Tags: New World, Spain

Ludford Bridge (© Mr M Evison and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)

Battle of Ludford Bridge/Ludlow, Shropshire, won by the Lancastrians.

Warwick’s re-inforcements from the garrison of Calais under Andrew Trollope defected to the Lancastrians.  The Yorkist leaders fled, York and Rutland to Ireland, and Edward, Earl of March (York’s eldest son), Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and his son Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, to Calais.  After the battle Cecily, Duchess of York, and her three youngest children George, Margaret and Richard, were taken prisoner by the Lancastrians and placed into the care of Cecily’s older sister Anne, Duchess of Buckingham.

A short description of the various battles of the Wars of the Roses can be found on the website of the Richard III Society.

Tags: Battles, Edward IV, Family, Henry VI, Richard III

Richard III hears of an uprising in Kent, followed the next day with the news that Henry Stafford, second duke of Buckingham, had turned against him.  Buckingham’s rebellion mainly failed due to lack of support for him and bad weather.

Reference:

4. S. L. Davies, ‘Stafford, Henry, second duke of Buckingham (1455–1483)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. [accessed online 3 Feb. 2011]

Tags: Buckingham, Richard III