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IX. A Letter from certain Officers at Calais to the King

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2010

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Type
Letters during the Regins of Henry V. and Henry VI
Information
Camden Old Series , Volume 86: Letters of Queen Margaret of Anjou and Bishop Beckington and others. Written in the reigns of Henry V. and Henry VI. , December 1863 , pp. 21 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1863

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References

page 21 note a Richard Wydyile, Widvil, or Woodville, was one of the bravest, and, according to Miss Strickland (Lives of the Queens, vol. iii. p. 308), handsomest men of his day. He was of a Northamptonshire family of note, and, in 7 Hen. IV., was sheriff of that county, and governor of Northampton Castle. He served with distinction under Henry the Fifth, and was one of the esquires of his body. In 3 Hen. VI. (1425) he was made constable of the Tower; and, on Whit-Monday, 1426, received the honour of knighthood, at Leicester, from the King, who, being then of the age of four years, had himself been knighted the same day by his uncle the Duke of Bedford. In 15 Hen. VI. (1437) he was fined one thousand pounds for marrying Jaquetta Duchess of Bedford, without licence from the Crown. For his valiant conduct in France, he was created Baron Rivers in 26 Hen. VI. (1448). Lord Rivers remained firm in his allegiance to the House of Lancaster until the accession of Edward IV. Soon after this, however, his daughter Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Grey, having captivated the King, he was taken into favour, and great honours and trusts were conferred on him. He was made Treasurer of the Exchequer, Lord High Constable of England, and advanced to the rank of an Earl. After a brilliant career, the common story is that, in 9 Edw. IV. he was seized in his house at Grafton near Towcester, by Sir William Conyers a Lancastrian partisan, who, under the name of Robin of Ridsdale, raised an insurrection against the Yorkist government; that he was hurried to Northampton, and there beheaded. (Dugd. Bar. vol. ii. p. 230; Warkworth's Chronicle, p. 6.)