Sir William Stanley - a Yorkist? by Richard P. McArthur
Sir William Stanley is the bete noir of the Stanleys to the Ricardian. He led, or at least commanded, the troops who attacked Richard as the latter came close to Tudor at Bosworth. Without this intervention, the Battle of Bosworth may well have had a different ending. This deed of William Stanley’s is often viewed, not only by Ricardians, as the climax of a life of treachery, coat-turning, trimming and time-serving. Desmond Seward, one of the more assertive anti-Richard historians, says of Sir William that he "…was even more treacherous than his brother and had a long record of changing sides."1 But an examination of William’s life and actions, from Blore Heath to his death, will refute that opinion. William Stanley, all his public life from 1459 to 1485, was a Yorkist, fighting only for York when he came to the field. Perhaps his tragedy, and Richard’s, was that the two didn’t agree, in 1485, on what the House of York was.
William Stanley was the younger brother of Thomas. However, since we don’t know their birthdates, we do not know how much younger William was. Seward suggests the two were twins2, but he doesn’t say where he got the idea. As a younger son, William had a longer row to hoe than Thomas had. William made good progress, becoming what some thought was the richest commoner in England, Lord Chamberlain of England, and holder of many rich properties.3
William’s first recorded participation in the War of the Roses is at Blore Heath, 1459, on the Yorkist side.4 This contrasts rather sharply with his brother Thomas’ action, which consisted of standing apart.
When Edward IV gained control of England, William was appointed Chamberlain of Chester, a position kept right up to 1495.5 In 1465, King Edward granted William the Castle and Lordship of Skipton,and other lands in Craven which were taken from the Cliffords, who had been on the Lancastrian side.6 In September 1469 he was appointed Steward of Denbigh, in North Wales, for life.7
The True Tragedy of William Shakespeare - Part One by John R. Sweeney
Shake-speare's play, The Tragedy of King Richard III1 is the dominant influence in depicting Richard III as evil incarnate. It is an icon of Tudor propaganda and has determined the mind set of millions who find the school years of blended English history and English drama a permanent blindfold. The poet Shake-speare, who was in reality Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was a descendant of the earl most responsible for defeating the Yorkists, and the de Vere family helped to perpetuate many of the false charges that Shake-speare used in his play. That family bias was an important influence on the play.
Shake-speare, with the hyphen, was used from the beginning as a nom de plume. There was no actual person by that name in those times. The source of the name is the arms of Lord Bulbeck, a title of de Vere's held as a youngster, which shows a lion brandishing a spear. As is historically correct, Shake-speare will be used to mean the playwright, whereas Shaksper or de Vere will be used for the two men who vie for honors. Shake-speare was first used in 1593 in a dedication to two long poems and from then on only intermittently as author of works. De Vere died suddenly of plague in 1604, leaving no will. Neither he nor his heirs, nor anyone else, ever claimed the pseudonym. Richard III was first published anonymously in 1597, then republished in 1598 and attributed to Shake-speare, using the hyphen. The First Folio collection of Shake-spear's works also includes Richard III, dumped unceremoniously into the ditch of histories despite its title.2
The 'traditional' view is that Gulielmus Shaksper of Stratford-upon-Avon was the poet. He was born fourteen years after de Vere and beyond a few birth-death records associated with him, a will, some court records and land purchases, he is an unknown quantity. He was apparently part of London theater, but this is uncertain. Confusion reigns because 'traditionalists' consciously translate every reference to the writer Shake-speare into a reference to Shaksper, an approach guaranteed to produce error. In addition, there are millions of words presented as 'facts' when they are known to be fiction, such as the invented boyhood and the assumed education. Any fair assessment of the facts could only rate Shaksper as an unlikely candidate for playwright. He would be discarded as a candidate early if the search were just beginning to tie a real name to the pseudonym Shake-speare.
Most Serene Prince by Jack Sweeney
Archibald Whitelaw, gave to Richard III at Nottingham in 1484. His speech was an eloquent, moving plea for peace in troubled times. Richard responded to his words and a truce was signed. The animosity along the border, which stretched back into the whispers of oral history, faded for a time as this new voice of harmony spoke:
"Most Serene Prince, it is the purpose of our embassy and mission that, with the Kings of England and Scotland joined in mutual love, affection, friendship and affinity, their subjects should enjoy the blessings and pleasures of peace and tranquility".1
Ambassador Whitelaw stood before Richard III, a man the Scots knew as a fierce border Lord, a man who had marched to Edinburgh a year ago, and who had conducted many raids against them successfully:
"It is an unnatural thing that war should be fought between us - we who are bound together within a small island in the western sea, and we who are linked by living in the same climate and in neighboring lands, sharing similarity of physique, language, appearance coloring and complexion".
Anne Beauchamp by Judi Dickson
Anne Beauchamp was born on 13 July, 1429, at Caversham, Oxfordshire, the youngest daughter of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and his second wife Isabel Despenser, widow of another Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester.
Little is known of her early years. In 1434, her father betrothed her and her brother Henry to Richard Neville, eldest son of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury and Cecily Neville, Richard’s eldest sister, respectively. The Earl of Salisbury threw in 4,700 marks to even the balance.1 Anne and Richard were married in 1436.
Richard Beauchamp died in Rouen, France in 1439 and was buried in St. Mary’s Church, Warwick, in the chapel that bears his name. The Earl’s three daughters from his first marriage to Elizabeth Berkeley, heiress to the Lisle estates, inherited their mother’s properties. His son Henry became the Duke of Warwick and he inherited all the lands that went with the title.
Upon her marriage to Richard Neville, Anne Beauchamp has brought with her a competent dowry, but nothing substantial. It was not expected that Anne was to become so important in the future.
Her brother Henry died suddenly in 1446, leaving his young daughter Anne a very wealthy heiress. Anne followed her father to the grave three years later.
Anne Beauchamp was now, due to the deaths of her brother and niece, the heiress of the Beauchamp-Despenser properties, which included Warwick Castle, hundreds of manors, lands stretching from Cornwall to Castle Barnard in Yorkshire, West Midlands, South Wales, most of southern England, and the manors of Tamworth and Wychwood.
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