Following in the Footsteps of the Princes in the Tower by Andrew Beattie

Author:Andrew Beattie [Beattie, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Royalty, History, Europe, Great Britain, Norman Conquest to Late Medieval (1066-1485), Historical
ISBN: 9781526727862
Google: 4U4IEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2019-03-30T03:25:26+00:00

Edward Plantagenet’s Journeys from Ludlow: Coventry, Eltham and the Marches

Edward Plantagenet was a well-travelled prince. Though based at Ludlow from the age of 3 – his warrants were issued from there from 1474 onwards – his frequent trips away took him to various places in and around the Marches, the Midlands and South East England. Some of these trips took in the various estates and castles that had been gifted to him by his father; however, since these embraced holdings as far away as the remote west coast of Wales (the ‘Principality’) and Castle Rising in deepest Norfolk, it is highly unlikely the prince’s travels would ever have taken him anywhere near these places. In contrast he made frequent visits to major centres in the Midlands and the Marches that were nearer to Ludlow, including Chester, the great cathedral city of the northern Welsh borderlands, and Hereford, its counterpart in the southern borderlands. One visit to Hereford came shortly after the birth of Edward’s younger brother Richard, when records show that the two young princes, accompanied by their parents, travelled there from Shrewsbury via Ludlow, so that their father could attend judicial sessions concerning a spate of robberies. Prince Edward also visited Coventry on a number of occasions. In the Middle Ages this was the largest town in the Midlands, and Edward’s position as Earl of Chester meant he was one of the lords of the city, enjoying a special relationship with it. His first visit came on 28 April 1474, when he was welcomed at the Bablake Gate by the City Corporation who presented him with a gift of a 15 ounce gilt cup and then staged a pageant for him that featured locals dressed as ‘three kings of Cologne’, whose presence served to stress the antiquity of the House of Luxembourg, the royal house from which Edward’s mother was descended. ‘Welcome, full high and noble prince,’ the balladeers proclaimed,

to this your chamber, so called of antiquity! The presence of your noble person rejoices all our hearts. We must bless the time of your nativity. The right line of the royal line is now as it should be, wherefore God of his goodness preserve you in bodily health, to us and all your tenants here, perpetual joy, and wealth to all the land.

The mayor and the corporation then swore allegiance and Edward stood godfather to the mayor’s son. At a later time Prince Edward was involved in arbitrating disputes between some Coventry priors and dissident local figures, two of whom were imprisoned briefly in Ludlow castle.

London also featured regularly on the prince’s itinerary. In addition to the frequent formal visits to the Palace of Westminster, which have already been discussed, Christmas often saw Edward attend a family gathering in one of the royal residences just outside the capital, for instance Windsor Castle in 1481 and Eltham Palace the following year. The latter – in royal hands since 1305, when the Bishop of Durham had gifted it to Edward II

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