Beginnings of the Wars of the Roses

Problem of the King

McFarlane: Undermighty king (System was fine)

"Only an undermighty ruler had anything to fear from overmighty subjects; and if he were undermighty his personal lack of fitness was the cause, not the weakness of his office and its resources"

Dynastic issue = side issue

Watts: fundamental cause was constitutional

"The inability of monarchy, a means for the satisfaction of the public interest in the body of a single man, to adjust to one of the possible extremes of human frailty"

Worcester: Emphasised the need to recover English possessions lost in France through human failure and divided command

Needed a leader who could restore the monarchy to its historic glory through personal leadership

Cicero's Res publica

"The common good is the good of the people, the good of the country, the good of the community"

'Noblesse': positive contribution made towards the common welfare #

Fortescue: Concentrate upon necessary domestic changes

Resumption of royal lands

Principal emphasis: need to give greater power to the office of the crown through institutional and financial reform

King endowed with a protected income

Reform of the royal council

'Lancastrian Legacy'

Grummitt: Lancastrianism comprised of distinct principles

Public commitment to good governance

Dynastic loyalty built through strong records of service

Distinctive religious orthodoxy

International ambition pursued by war and diplomacy

Shaped the king, defined his reign, and left it open to a level of unparalleled scrutiny from contemporaries?

1450: HVI violated/abandoned the Lancastrian legacy

Opportunity for others to come forward as its true defenders

Objections

Presumes that contemporaries were both aware of the distinct pillars of the Lancastrian legacy, and that it was at the forefront of their minds when comprehending royal policy & served as a direct influence on response

Tensions & contractions: even an 'identity' at all?

HVI's failures came not from the legacy, but his own personal failings #

"Overmighty Subjects" #

English: Somerset "by whom at that tyme the kyng was principally gided and governed, as he had be before by the duk of Suffolk"

Watts: Subjects did everything they could to preserve, not frustrate, the power of the crown

"Stiryng the Kyng dayly and maliciously ageyns the forseyde duke of York"

"The reame of Englonde was oute of alle good governaunce, as it had be meny dayes before, for the king was simple and lad by covetous counseylle, and owed more than he was worth"

Cade: We sey that our soveraygne lorde may wele understand that he hath hadde fflase counsayle"

Queen?

English: "The queen with such as were of her affynyte rewled the reame as her lyked, gaderyng ryches innumerable"

Paston: Newsletter of John Stodeley: Queen "desireth to have the hole reule of this land"

Economics

From Black Death, for 150 years, the English economy shrank

Fewer people

Fewer settlements

Reductions in arable farming

Lower production

Falling prices & rents

Great Slump

Due to shortages of silver bullion

Acute deflation

Rent reductions

Unoccupied land

Reductions in entry and common fines

Hatcher

Unsaleable grain, stock, and wool

Falling prices & purchasing power

Medieval governments: did not purport to manage the economy

Nothing they could do about the weather, plagues, etc.

BUT people blamed economic problems on the government

Aggravating problems, e.g. war

Military Defeat

Henry V had been a national hero #

Enthusiasm for France = government had no flexibility in policy & strategy

Took English military prowess for granted

Defeat/French superiority inconceivable

War effort needed the leadership of a king #

Henry VI not a warlike King

Peace policy #

Blame it on the lords

English: "enemyes to the sayde commune wele, have to theyre owne vse, syffryng alle the olde possessyons that the kyng had in Fraunce....to be shamefully loste or solde"

Cade: "The kyngis landys in Fraunce beyn allyenyd and put a wey from the croune and his lordys and peple there dystroyed be untrewe menys of treson"

1449 Parliament: Suffolk arrested & impeached

King's bankruptcy

Cade: deplored that HVI lived so frugally

English: "he helde no householde ne meyntened no warres"

Contemporaries blamed extravagance, corruption, and incompetence of his ministers

English: "Alle the possessyons and lordeshyppes that perteyned to the croune the kyng had yeve awey"

1459 Warwick: "Soo unmesurable and outerageously spoiled and robbed from his lyvelodes"

"His estate shulde bee susteyned in as grete honour and mighte as his noble progenitours"

1449/50 Parliament: Act of Resumption

Local Rivalries

Trevelyan: "The Wars of the Roses were to a large extent a quarrel between Welsh Marcher Lords, who were also great English nobles, closely related to the English throne"

1459-61: 56 of the 70 noblemen took an active part in fighting

33 noblemen active Lancastrians

23 noblemen active Yorkists

Yorkshire: Percies vs. Nevilles

Wardenships of the east and west marches

24 August 1453: Heworth

Marriage of Sir Thomas Neville to Maud Stanhope

May 1454: Egemond & Exeter made open northern rebellion

London

Wales: Warwick vs. Somerset over Despenser lordship

Country Gentry

Mountford dispute in Warwickshire

Sir Henry Pierpoint supported the Yorkists after dispute with Lancastrian Plumptons

Ampthill Dispute: Cromwell vs. Exeter #