Profile - Richard Duke of York. Part 3 1456-1460

Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, was arguably one of the most influential figures in 15th Century England.

UNDER SUSPICION

In August 1456, the Queen of England, Margaret of Anjou, persuaded her husband, King Henry VI, to move the royal court to her heartland of Coventry. Margaret of Anjou was suspicious of Richard Duke of York due to him threatening the succession of her son, negotiating the possible marriage of his son Edward into the rival Burgundian family and was a key supporter of the Neville family. The Neville/Percy feud in the north was disturbing the peace and the king looked to reconcile the families through peace talks which culminated in Loveday summit on 24 March 1458.

Margaret of Anjou

Later that year, the queen unsuccessfully tried to convict Warwick of piracy in the English Channel and the invitation to attend the Great Council in Coventry in June 1459 was seen by York, Salisbury and Warwick as a ruse to arrest them. The three men rallied their troops and met at Worcester after Salisbury's advance was slowed in the Battle of Blore Heath.

York tried to move his men south on 11 October 1459 but was forced to head to Ludlow and met the king's troops in Ludford, Shropshire. The Battle of Ludford Bridge on 12 October 1459 saw Warwick's men from Calais refuse to fight against the king. 

RETREAT

York, Salisbury and Warwick left the battlefield field for what appeared a night at Ludlow but they never returned and abandoned their troops. York, with his second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland, fled to Ireland via Wales. Salisbury, Warwick and York's eldest son Edward, Earl of March, fled to Calais.

Ludford Bridge

The leaderless Yorkist troops knelt in submission before Henry VI at dawn the next day and were pardoned. York had left behind not only his troops but his wife Cecily, his two younger sons, George and Richard, and his youngest daughter Margaret. The Duchess of York and her young children were found standing at the Ludlow Market Cross and were placed in the care of Cecily's sister Anne, the wife of Margaret of Anjou supporter, Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham. 

York and Warwick were able to build on the military and financial support of Ireland and Calais and the royal couple responded by forfeiting York's, Salisbury's and Warwick's lands, titles and inheritance in an act of attainder in December 1459. 

York was in the same position as Henry Bolingbroke 60 years earlier and planned for an invasion. Warwick, Salisbury and Edward landed in Sandwich, England on 26 June 1460. The men of Kent rose to join them and London opened its gates to York's commanders on 2 July. Their growing army marched north into the Midlands, and defeated the royal forces at the Battle of Northampton on 10 July. Henry was once again captured by the Nevilles and taken back to London. 

CLAIMANT

York arrived in England on 9 September to take the throne. He marched to London under the banner of his great-great-grandfather Lionel of Antwerp, third son of Edward III, and displayed the Coat of Arms of England as he approached the capital.

York arrived in London on 10 October and took residence in the royal palace. Entering Parliament with his sword raised above him, York made for the empty throne and placed his hand upon it. York expected the assembled peers to acclaim him as King but they remained silent. Thomas Bourchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, asked whether York wished to see the King and he replied, "I know of no person in this realm that owes not to wait on me, rather than I of him." This high-handed reply did not impress the court.

York advanced his claim to the crown by hereditary right the next day but his narrow support among his peers let him down. The best that York could achieve after weeks of negotiation was the Act of Accord. This recognised York and his heirs as Henry's successors and York was once again made Protector of the Realm on 31 October 1460.

Lancastrian forces began to build in the north and Margaret of Anjou met with the new Scottish King, James III, to gain his support. York reacted by moving north with Salisbury and Rutland on December 9. They would meet the Lancastrian army, and their deaths, three weeks later at the Battle of Wakefield. 

The decapitated heads of York, Salisbury and Rutland were put on spikes on top of Micklegate Bar in York. York suffered the indignity of the Lancastrians by having a paper crown put upon his head with a sign hanging from his spike stating: "Let York overlook the town of York."

Duke of York and his paper crown

York's remains were buried in Pontefract but were later moved to Church of St Mary and All Saints in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire.

Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, was never able to sit upon the throne but his cause was quickly taken up by his son who would be crowned Edward IV a few months later. York would have been proclaimed King Richard III if he had ruled England and this title was taken up by his son, and namesake, in 1483.