A Companion & Guide to the Wars of the Roses by Bramley Peter

Author:Bramley, Peter.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752496917
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2013-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Gipping church – heraldry of Sir James Tyrell. He is ‘everywhere’ in this building.

Son and heir of William Tyrell, James was knighted after the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. He became a retainer of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Tyrell became highly valued by Richard, often being given sensitive duties, e.g. escorting the Dowager Countess of Warwick to Richard’s castle at Middleham, Yorkshire in 1476. During Richard’s Second Coup in June 1483, Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York and a Woodville supporter, was committed to Tyrell’s keeping for a time. Once Richard was installed on the throne, Tyrell was showered with rewards – knight of the body, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, Master of the Horse and Henchman. He received enough lands from attainders to boost his income to the level of a lord. He used this wealth to build this church, and which almost shouts ‘James Tyrell’ at you – his knot is everywhere, and even his name.

Pevsner, perhaps being uncharacteristically mischievous, puts the date of construction at ‘c. 1483’. So the suggestion is raised that this church is built with money gained from the foulest of political murders, which shocked even contemporaries. The church guidebook takes a different approach, suggesting that most of the church was started from 1474.

No evidence has ever been put forward to implicate Tyrell in the murders. Henry VII never made Tyrell’s confession public and no copy has survived, but contemporary chroniclers quickly latched on to Tyrell. He had certainly made an unusually smooth transition to Henry’s rule in the mid-1480s for a former member of Richard III’s inner circle. He continued to be knight of the body and Captain of Guisnes Castle, a position given to him in early 1485 by Richard (he thus missed Bosworth later that year). His background as Richard’s ‘odd job’ man does make him a very credible suspect and most historians stick with Tyrell having done the deed. He could even have done the deed later for Henry himself. Certainly, this is a beautiful location and lovely church to ponder such hideous events. Gipping Hall was directly east of the church but only a moat survives. It was believed that the two Princes may have been hidden there.

HINXWORTH, St Nicholas Church **

South-east edge of village on Ashwell road. 2 miles north of Baldock, 2 miles north-east of A1. Turn off A1 1 mile north of Baldock services.

This delightful church houses brasses of John Lambert (d. 1487), his wife Anne (d. 1489) and their six children. John was a prosperous moneylender who dealt with both Henry VI and Edward IV. He was sheriff of the City of London. However, our main interest is in the eldest of his daughters, Elizabeth, who is known to history as Jane Shore, mistress of Edward IV, Lord Hastings and, probably, Edward’s brother-in-law, the Marquis of Dorset. Elizabeth married William Shore. By 1476 she was petitioning the pope for annulment of her marriage on the grounds of non-consummation so that she could have children. Jane features in Shakespeare’s Richard III and Sir Thomas More’s works.

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