Thomas of Woodstock

I mentioned yesterday that Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, married Mary de Bohun, through whom he inherited the title Earl of Hereford, but that it almost didn't happen. That uncertainty was due to the machinations of Henry's uncle, Thomas of Woodstock.

The last time we saw Thomas of Woodstock in this blog he was one of the Lords Appellant, working to curtail the administration of his nephew, Edward the Black prince's son King Richard II. In this he was opposing his older brothers, John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and Edmund Langley Duke of York.

Thomas was the youngest child of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. He was born 7 January 1355 at Woodstock Palace (hence his surname). He was the second Thomas: there had been a son named Thomas earlier who did not survive long after childbirth. At 19 in 1374 he was married to Eleanor de Bohun, 11 years younger than he and the daughter of the 7th Earl of Hereford. Eleanor and her younger sister, Mary, were co-heiresses of their father.

The sisters' father had died in 1373, and Thomas and Eleanor were given the responsibility to raise Mary, who at that point was only about four years old.  Thomas decided that Mary's upbringing should be dominated by religious instruction: he was pressuring her to become a nun so that she would not inherit anything from her father and all would go to Eleanor and (by extension) Thomas. Thomas kept Mary at his castle in Essex, Pleshey, which had come to him via marriage (Pleshey had been in the Bohun family since 1227).

Thomas' older brother, John of Gaunt, also had his eye on the Hereford estates, and decided Mary would be a good match for his son, Henry. Henry was very literate, his father was a patron of poets (like Geoffrey Chaucer), and the Bohun family had an extensive library and was one of the foremost publishers of books in England at the time. (I'm not saying that was the reason for the match, but it certainly was an enhancement to her status in Gaunt's eyes.) John of Gaunt and Mary's aunt managed to sneak Mary out of Pleshey and out of Essex, where she was able to marry Henry Bolingbroke (in 1381).

Thomas had plenty of titles without becoming Earl of Hereford. He was Duke of Aumale, Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Buckingham, and Earl of Essex. We may come back to him some day, but for now let's return to Henry Bolingbroke and his bride.

The Merciless Parliament, Part 2

After the Merciless Parliament in 1388 had eliminated the five specific advisors to Richard II that they considered the most corrupt, the Lords Appellant decided to sweep through the rest of the administration.

First came the judges that had approved all of Richard's actions. There were seven of them, and they were allowed to have trials before the House of Lords, in which they pleaded for leniency. Leniency was not to be offered, however, and they were all condemned and executed.

The Parliament wanted to eliminate anyone who would be considered a "bad advisor" to the king, and this meant almost anyone with whom Richard had contact. Chamber knights and servants did not escape.

Sir Simon Burley (c.1336 – 5 May 1388) had been the tutor of Richard, and a "friend of the family" for longer. He had grown up alongside Richard's father, Edward the Black Prince. Now he was Richard's vice-Chamberlain, and therefore considered too influential on the king.

An honorable man whom many had known their whole lives and fought alongside, his condemnation was not universal. Lords argued for mercy. Two of Richard's uncles argued openly. Edmund Langley, Duke of York, defended Burley. Thomas of Woodstock rose to condemn Burley. Richard spoke up to argue with his uncle Thomas and was told to stop defending his friends if he wanted to keep the crown.

Queen Anne of Bohemia reportedly went down on her knees for three hours and begged him to be spared. (see illustration) She was told to pray for him. A letter from the population of Kent threatened an uprising if Burley were not executed. In the end, he was allowed a swift death by the axe instead of the traitor's death by hanging.

The king's steward, Sir John Beauchamp, was impeached for exerting undue influence on the king. He was imprisoned in the Tower and then executed. Dozens of other members of the king's household were executed.

The king's household had been reduced by half, and men were put in place to oversee its functioning. The five Lords Appellant were allowed £20,000 for their expenses.

The future of the Lords Appellant became uncertain, however, when John of Gaunt returned from campaigning in Spain a year after the Merciless Parliament. Let me tell you tomorrow what happened then.

Richard II and the Lords Appellant

Although the Wonderful Parliament in 1386 tried to curtail the excesses of King Richard II, it was the Merciless Parliament in 1388 that truly forced the king to accept that Magna Carta was no joke and the king did not have supreme authority in the kingdom and was answerable to the parliament. The parliament was requested by a small group called the Lords Appellant, and we should understand their role during this part of Richard's reign before we go on.

The Hundred Years War was still going on in 1386, and England had had two decades of losses. The Wonderful Parliament held Richard's favorites responsible for these military failures and for the egregious taxation used to fund the war. A group of trusted nobles was chosen to take over the management of the kingdom and the king, the Lords Appellant.

The Lords Appellant were:

• Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; Richard's uncle, who forced him to attend the Wonderful Parliament
• Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel
• Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick
• Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby (another nephew of Woodstock, being John of Gaunt's son)
• Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham

They began their task right after the Wonderful Parliament ended, and the following year (1387) felt it necessary to launch an armed rebellion against Richard because one of his favorites, Robert de Vere, had raised an army for the king. (The illustration shows the Lords Appellant throwing their gauntlets down in front of Richard, but I cannot find an anecdote that explains this Victorian picture.)

In February 1388, the Merciless Parliament met to deal with Richard's favorites, de Vere and Michael de la Pole, Nicholas Brembre (who had been mayor of London several times), Chief Justice Robert Tresilian, and Alexander Neville (Archbishop of York). They were all accused of vice and swaying the king wrongly and lining their own pockets. As a prelate, Neville was only exiled after losing his position and all his estates and possessions, but everyone else was executed.

The executions did not stop there: dozens of members of the royal administration were purged. Finally they came to Simon Burley, who had been the king's father's advisor and was one of the king's regents when he was young. Burley was defended by Edmund Langley, the Duke of York, who was also a son of Edward III and therefore also Richard's uncle. Langley's brother, Thomas of Woodstock, rose to condemn Burley. Richard, who was in attendance of course, spoke up for the first time, and argued with his uncle Woodstock. Woodstock finally told him that he needed to stop defending his friends if he wanted to keep his crown. That made Richard sit back down.

One of the complaints about Richard was that he was a failure at the war with France, and was trying to negotiate a peace. Parliament (and the Lords) preferred military successes over a truce. Although Richard became effectively a puppet under the Lords Appellant, he managed to get revenge on the Lords and Parliament by the Truce of Leulinghem, but that's a story for tomorrow.

Richard II and the Wonderful Parliament

From October to November 1386, the Wonderful Parliament took place in Westminster Abbey. Its initial purpose was to discuss King Richard II's request for money (his uncle, John of Gaunt, was pushing for war with France as part of the Hundred Years War). In fact, a French fleet had been massing across the Channel in Flanders all summer, and the rumor of invasion was credible. Money had been spent to have 10,000 soldiers surround London for protection, and more was requested to prepare for war with France. The king's request would have brought a sum of £155,000—this would have been the largest tax in England's history, and Parliament was alarmed.

Other issues arose as well. Richard's marriage to Anne of Bohemia was supposed to bring her father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, onto the English side. There did not seem to be much support from Charles, however, and the man who negotiated the marriage, Michael de la Pole, had been made chancellor a few years before and more recently made Earl of Suffolk. Also, Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, had just been made Duke of Ireland. Richard's elevation of his favorites to such positions was very concerning to Parliament, who considered these men and others close to Richard to be out for themselves and inappropriate royal advisors.

Richard was going to absent himself from Parliament—he did not like being told what he could and could not do—but his uncle Thomas of Woodstock, the Duke of Gloucester, threatened him with being deposed if he did not attend.

Parliament considered de la Pole a bad chancellor and wanted him impeached. Richard was forced to get rid of his chancellor and deal in the future only with advisors approved by Parliament. He left Westminster and spent a year traveling the country, ignoring the advice of Parliament's approved advisors and trying to gather support for himself.

As for the French fleet, England got lucky: a rebellion in Ghent took their attention, and there was no invasion of England that season. Also in 1386, Gaunt left England to attempt his dream of succeeding to the throne of Castile. Parliament had never trusted him, assuming that he wanted the English throne himself. Richard was upset with him as well: Gaunt was the chief military leader, and the promise of claiming France did not materialize fast enough. Gaunt's wealth had often supported Richard's desires, but with Gaunt in Spain fighting his own battles, Richard had lost a source of support and felt deserted.

The rest of Richard's reign was going to be one long argument with Parliament about the extent of his power and autonomy. The Wonderful Parliament was considered even more damaging to him that the Merciless Parliament in 1388. That is our next stop on this brief tour of the life of Richard II.