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Beginnings of the Wars of the Roses (Local Rivalries (Yorkshire: Percies…
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
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"
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Noblesse
': positive contribution made towards the common welfare
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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"
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
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"Overmighty Subjects"
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English
: Somerset "by whom at that tyme the kyng was principally gided and governed, as he had be before by the duk of Suffolk"
"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"
Watts
: Subjects did everything they could to preserve, not frustrate, the power of the crown
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
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
Military Defeat
Henry V had been a national hero
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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
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Henry VI not a warlike King
Peace policy
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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
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
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