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An Unknown Conspiracy against King Henry VII
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
The following paper is to be found in the Record Office, being No. 24 of the Star Chamber Proceedings of the time of Henry VII. It is not, however, a Star Chamber Proceeding in the accepted sense of the term. It forms no part of a litigation, neither is it a proceeding of the Statutory Court of the Star Chamber in virtue of its statutory or other jurisdiction. It probably found its way among the Star Chamber Proceedings proper by accident. It is evidently a fragment of depositions in a political case heard by the Privy Council. It may be that the Council, as was not unusual sat in the Star Chamber for convenience; or that a member of the Council, leaving the Council Chamber for the Star Chamber, took it with him and mixed it with his judicial papers. Possibly Robert Rydon, who acted both as clerk of the Council and of the Star Chamber, and who took these depositions, was the agent of the confusion. The depositions relate the movements of certain conspirators in a mysterious plot against Henry VII. the exact nature of which can only be guessed. In the year 1503, to which these events relate, the centre of political intrigue against the new dynasty was Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. His life is set out in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography,’ and it will only be necessary to recall here so much as will serve to elucidate the story. Edmund de la Pole was the second son of John de la Pole, second Duke of Suffolk, by Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and sister of Edward IV.
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References
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page 135 note 1 E. Coke, 3 Inst. 26.
page 135 note 2 Tyrrell was arrested in May, 1502, after a siege of Guisnes by the whole army of Calais, and afterwards executed (see Dict. Nat. Biog. and Gairdner, J., Letters and Papers of Richard III. and Henry VII., i. p. xliGoogle Scholar.
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page 146 note 10 21 Hen. VIII., c. 23. Statutes of the Realm, iii. 312.
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page 149 note 2 Ibid. 67.
page 149 note 3 Calendar of State Papers (Spanish), ed. Bergenroth, G. A. (1862), i. p. 50Google Scholar.
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page 150 note 3 Ibid. 326.
page 150 note 4 Ibid. 374.
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page 150 note 6 See p. 154, n. 3, infra; also next page, n. I.
page 151 note 1 Grafton, speaking of the pretender Raufe Wilford in 1499, who was instructed in his part by ‘a frier Augustin on the border of Suffolke called Patricke,’ says, ‘They went both together into Kent, which countie in auncient tyme hath not been dull in settyng foorth of newe phantasticall phantasyes,’ &c. Chron. (1809), ii. 219Google Scholar.
page 151 note 2 Edmund de la Pole and ‘the lady luse.’
page 151 note 3 Flamank's Confession in Gairdner's, Letters and Papers, i. 237Google Scholar.
page 151 note 4 Ibid. 235.
page 152 note 1 1503.
page 152 note 2 ‘been belonging,’ i.e. been a dependent of Cf. Coverdale (1535), Esther, viii. I:—‘Hester tolde how that he (Mordecai) belonged to her’—Mordecai being her first cousin, but inferior in station to her as queen. The word does not therefore connote ‘in bondage to’ (see J. A. H. Murray, Engl. Dict., s. v. ‘Belong’).
page 152 note 3 King Edward IV. died on April 9, 1483.
page 152 note 4 Easter Day, 1503, fell on April 16 (Bond, J. J., Handy-book of Dates [4th ed. 1889], p. 393)Google Scholar.
page 152 note 5 ‘A slice, or narrow portion’ (Halliwell, J. O., Dict. of Archaic Words [1850], s.v.)Google Scholar.
page 152 note 6 Over twenty years.
page 152 note 7 Rogation Sunday is the fifth Sunday after Easter Day, and therefore fell in 1503 on May 21. The Rogation Days are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday following. The date would probably be marked in the witness's mind by the public processions and litanies which took place on those days (see W. Smith and S. Cheetham, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, sub ‘Rogation Days’).
page 153 note 1 Renewed.
page 153 note 2 Aachen. De la Pole had escaped from England, together with his brother Richard, in July 1501 (Busch, W., König Heinrich VII. p. 178)Google Scholar. He was with the Emperor Maximilian in the Tyrol in August. He appears to have reached Aachen in October. On November 7, 1501, he, Sir Robert Curzon, and five others were publicly ‘accursed’ at Paul's Cross as traitors. He remained at Aachen till about the middle of 1503 (Dict. Nat. Biog.).
page 153 note 3 Whit Sunday, 1503, was June 4 (Bond, p. 145).
page 154 note 1 Two nobles of 6s. 8d. made one mark.
page 154 note 2 Twenty silver groats made one noble.
page 154 note 3 This must refer to villages in England, for the witness was presumably unacquainted with Flemish. His shortest route would be to make for Rye, and then travel by the coast road through Folkestone to Dover. But whether he followed this road or that by Ashford and then via Canterbury or Folkestone to Dover, it does not appear that he would pass by any of the lands of either the Earl or the Duke. It follows that the witness must have struck northwards into Essex, thence into Suffolk, and perhaps to Norfolk and Lincolnshire, in which case he would most likely have taken ship at Boston. That the population of these estates were disaffected may be inferred from a patent of October 10, 17 Hen. VII. (1501), m. 7, d, commissioning John Earl of Oxford and William Lord Willoughby to take ‘security for the allegiance of Edmund de la Pole's adherents in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Essex’ (Letters and Papers of Richard III. and Henry VII. ii. 378).
page 154 note 4 This interesting document is lost.
page 154 note 5 Perhaps de la Pole's chaplain, known as ‘Sir Walter,’ frequently mentioned in the correspondence in Gairdner's Letters and Papers, whose surname appears from the pardon of Sir George Nevell of 1501 to have been Blasset.
page 155 note 1 Qy. Arnemuiden, in the island of Walcheren, at the mouth of the Scheld.
page 155 note 2 Sir Richard Guldford was at this time high in favour with Henry VII., being a privy councillor, master of the ordnance, and a trustee of the King's will. He had been despatched in 1499 after Edmund de la Pole's first flight from England to persuade him to return, in which mission he had been successful. As a friend of Roberts, therefore, he was a very natural person to whom to disclose the plot.
page 156 note 1 Robert Rydon, clerk of the Council. He was probably a member of Lincoln's Inn in 1505 (see Black Books of Lincoln's Inn [1897], i. 137). Under Edward IV., in 1482, he had been official prosecutor for lèse-majesté in the courts of the Constable and Admiral of England, with a salary of twenty marks (£13 6s. 8d.)(Pat. Rolls, 22 Edw. IV., p.343). Richard III. made him a commissioner of the Admiralty on April 8, 1484 (Pat. Rolls, Ric. III. pp. 391–2). He retained favour under Henry VII., being nominated with Richard Mayowe, or Mayew, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, joint envoy to Spain on September 15, 1490 (Campbell, W., Materials, ii. 508)Google Scholar. From this document it appears that he was clerk of the Council as early as August 1503. He died in 1509 (S. P. Dom., Hen. VIII., i. 588).
page 156 note 2 Brian Samford, Sampford, Sandford, or Sandeford was descended from an ancient knightly family settled at Tickhill, S.E. Yorks, in the fourteenth century, towards the close of which it is believed to have acquired by marriage the manor of Thorpe Salvin, about ten miles to the south-west of Tickhill (Hunter, J., Deanery of Doncaster, 1828, i. 309)Google Scholar. This place they made their principal seat, and a view of their mansion house is engraved by Hunter (p. 310). It may be taken that their politics were Lancastrian, for a Brian Sandford is described as ‘late of Maltby in le Marssh, esquire, late escheator of the late king in the county of Lincoln’ in a pardon for offences committed in the execution of his office, dated November 24, 13 Edw. IV. (1473); Pat. Rolls, Edw. IV., p. 412. It is probable that this was the Lieutenant of the Tower's father, for whereas we know that the Lieutenant was knighted in 1497, Sir Bryan Sandford is mentioned by Hall (Chron. p. 413) as one of three knights of importance who deserted to Richmond on August 19, three days before the battle of Bosworth (cf. Polydore Vergil, ed. Sir H. Ellis, Camd. Soc., 1844, p. 221; Hutton, W., Battle of Bosworth Field, 1788, p. 51)Google Scholar. Further evidence distinguishing the two Sir Brians is the nomination of Brian Sampford, knight, upon the commission of the peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire on June 4, 1489 (Campbell, , Materials, ii. 479)Google Scholar.
The services of the father appear to have been rewarded by grants to the son. On Nov. 30, 1485, a grant for life was made to Brian Sandeford of the offices of steward and general receiver of the lordship of Castre in the parts of Lyndesey and of the offices of steward of the lordship of Knesall, Notts, and parker of the park there, during the minority of Henry (Stafford), late Duke of Buckingham (ibid. i. 189). On February 23, 1486, the King, by the advice of his council of his Duchy of Lancaster, leased to Brian Sandford for seven years the fishery of Waynflete, Lincolnshire, with the market-place and windmill, together with the courts of the market and port, with the fishery within the port, at a rental of £21 and 20d. of improved rent (ibid. 308). Hunter prints (i. 309) a warrant addressed by Henry VII. to Sir Thomas FitzWilliam, keeper of the royal park at Cunesburgh Howe, Yorks, ordering him to deliver ‘twelve quick does’ from the park to ‘our trusty and well-biloved squier for our body Bryan Sandeford, which (does) we have geven unto hym towards the storing of his pare at Thorp.’ The warrant is dated from Westminster November 2, 7 Hen. VII. (1491). It proves that Sir Brian the father was dead, and that the son was pushing his way at Court. In 1497 he distinguished himself at the battle of Blackheath, and was one of three knights ‘dubbed at the bridge foote at the kinge's entringe into London’ (Metcalfe, W. C., Book of Knights, p. 29)Google Scholar. This document shows that he was already Lieutenant of the Tower in 1503. In June 1509 Sir Richard Cholmeley appears to have been Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower (S. P. Dom., Hen. VIII., ii. p. 1441), which suggests that Sandford was incapacitated. In 1512 Cholmeley is paid for the diets of the prisoners (ibid. p. 1458), but he was still only Deputy Lieutenant in June 1513 (ibid. p. 1461), and in 1520 (ibid. iii. p. 408), although Hall, in giving an account of Evil May Day, speaks of him as ‘lieu-tenant of the Tower’ (Chron. p. 589), the guns of which he fired into the city.
page 157 note 1 July 25, but this must be a mistake as to the saint whose day it was. See Sir B. Sandford's memorandum on next page, unless xxth is there a mistake for xxxth.
page 157 note 2 Two miles and a half N. of Crayford.
page 158 note 1 £26 13s 4d.
page 158 note 2 Zealand.
page 158 note 3 Thanet.
page 158 note 4 1503.
page 158 note 5 Both documents in the same hand, with the exception of the endorsements.