The King's Ward: The true story of a 400-year-old scandal which shocked the nation by George Edwardson

Author:George Edwardson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2017-03-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Hunmanby Hall was peaceful in the late October sun when Richard Osbaldeston returned home with his leash of long dogs after a morning hunting hares down on the Carrs.

Almost the moment that he had handed over the greyhounds to his groom at the stables, he heard the clatter of hooves up the drive to the Hall.

Squinting into the sun, he was surprised to see his brother-in-law’s servant Bartholomew Towers jump from his panting horse.

The man was out of breath and covered in dust from the ride and his breeches wet with the sweat of the horse. He was almost incoherent.

Eleanor Osbaldeston, hearing the commotion outside, emerged at the same time as her husband was about to walk into the house. Towers bent over to catch his breath and then, addressing the pair, unfolded a story so bizarre as to be almost unbelievable.

The lawyer was initially lost for words. What Towers told them was inconceivable under law. Until a King’s Ward achieved his majority at 21 years of age, he could only marry with the written permission of the Privy Council and he could not dispose of or sell property without its approval. How then could an Ecclesiastical Court rule that a marriage was lawful and binding when even his guardian – Richard – had no knowledge of such a liaison? He neither knew nor approved of any marriage and was sure that the Privy Council did not either. Reports of a fine and maintenance payments were also impossible under the statute of Wardship.

Something had gone very wrong or, more likely, Thomas had been the victim of a monstrous plot by people, presumably the Bradley’s, who had not heard and did not know that the boy was a King’s Ward.

His wife, who had known Bart Towers for most of her life, was so distressed by the servant’s revelation that she looked as though she might faint.

‘Oh Richard,’ she cried through streaming tears, ‘what are we to do? Poor Tom. Surely, there must be some mistake? They must have Tom confused with some other boy. You must go to York today and get the ruling reversed. Even if Bart’s story is true, how could the Privy Council have allowed such a thing?’

Speaking for the first time Osbaldeston replied ‘I doubt that they have any knowledge of this matter. They will, as soon as I have seen the President of the Council, Lord Sheffield, in York and secured Thomas’s freedom. But there is a difficulty, I believe. The Privy Council is still cautious about crossing swords with the Church and this seems to me to be an Ecclesiastical ruling, if Towers has the story correct. Whatever, I must go immediately to York and may have to ride to London to see the Attorney General Sir Henry Yelverton. Yes, he is our man’.

All was bustle at Hunmanby as Eleanor instructed Bart Towers to go to the stables and talk to their groom about saddling her husband’s horse and choosing another to act as a pack animal.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.