Anne FitzHugh Archives - The History JarThe History Jar

By Rs-nourse – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29264615

I’m still indexing – have I mentioned how much I dislike the task? Probably several times but never mind. Today we’re shifting away from medieval Colchester – and for those of you who spotted the missing sentence in the last post relating to the start of the Anarchy, which was promptly amended, thank you…I really must stop trying to do two things at once.

I have elected to skip the whole of the Wars of the Roses in terms of Colchester’s history. The town had strong associations with John Howard, a supporter of Richard III, but my intention is to concentrate on the late summer and autumn of1485.

St John’s Abbey hosted various supporters of the House of York including Francis Lovell 1st Viscount Lovell, Richard III’s friend and Chamberlain. It’s not totally certain where Lovell was in August 1485. He might have seen the battle unfold and the disastrous consequences of William Stanley’s betrayal or there’s another theory that he might have been in Suffolk, potentially near Gipping Hall the family home of the Tyrells, on clandestine business – yes it is Princes in the Tower related and relies on the theory that one or more of the princes was alive and well in Suffolk! Immediately after the Battle of Bosworth, it was thought that Lovell was dead. Suffice it to say Lovell, who was very much alive, and Sir James Tyrell turned up in Colchester and claimed sanctuary in St John’s Abbey. It was a long way to go to claim sanctuary if he started his journey on the other side of Leicester but much closer if he came from Suffolk…make of it what you will. With Lovell in sanctuary were members of the Stafford family who seem to have travelled there with him. Altogether they remained in Colchester for six months.

One of the advantages of Colchester was that its hythe, or port, had good trading links with the Low Countries and with Burgundy where Edward IV and Richard III’s sister, Margaret, was duchess. Colchester held a potential escape route to safety- although it begs the question why the party didn’t ride straight to the coast in order to make their escape. Polydore Vergil described the town as being by the ‘seaside’ which is perhaps pushing it a bit.

Technically sanctuary seekers had 40 days before they were forced to abjure the realm but Henry VI had granted St John’s extended rights of sanctuary. Henry VII made no attempt to remove the Yorkists from the abbey even though Hugh Conway told him that Lovell was plotting against him and intended to escape. Perhaps Henry VII, who didn’t immediately declare everyone a traitor although he dates his reign to the day before the Battle of Bosworth, hoped for some reconciliation – although that is impossible to know. Certainly at the time of Henry’s first parliament in November, Lovell was attained. It would appear that, rather than contemplate peace, love and harmony, Lovell did indeed use his time in sanctuary to make contact with discontented supporters of the House of York. Early in 1486 he escaped the confines of the abbey to ferment rebellion in the north against the new regime.

It wasn’t the end of the matter for Colchester. In the summer of 1486 a royal messenger was sent to the town with a secret letter (see Lewis). In 1487 Lovell was seen escaping from the Battle of Stoke Field. It was the last time he was officially sighted – his last days or years remain the subject of speculation, some of which fits nicely into my current research about the county of Nottingham. Two years later, Anne Fitzhugh, Lovell’s wife and the Kingmaker’s niece, was granted a royal stipend of £20 a year. It is not clear when she died, although she was still alive in 1495.

In 1497 Abbot Walter Stansted of St John’s Abbey who is likely to have known what Lovell was up to at the end of 1485 also died.

There are several books about Francis Lovell including Schindler’s Lovell Our Dogge and Stephen David’s Last Champion of York which are both non-fiction. For those of you who enjoy a time slip novel in which Lovell features somewhat unexpectedly – Nichola Cornick’s Last Daughter of York is worth a read.

Lewis, Matthew, The Survival of the Princes in the Tower, covers the theory that at least one of Richard’s nephews found a home at Gipping.

And given my new drive to find some of the ‘history’ themed items available on a well known Internet shopping site, all I can say is fancy a flag? In the interests of fairness I also looked for Henry Tudor’s red dragon standard but nothing was forthcoming. I’m not sure how “He who is occasionally obeyed” would feel if I start littering the house with flags and standards, especially as having watched Stacey Solomon’s Sort Your Life Out on the BBC earlier this year (and I’m addicted to the programme) I’m having a decluttering campaign…so far removing non-fiction books has not gone well…I need another bookcase sooner rather than later.

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Alice was one of Richard Neville’s sisters – so she was Anne Neville’s aunt. Her father married her to one of the sons of his northern affinity – Henry FitzHugh of Ravensworth. FitzHugh would become the 5th baron. In time Alice gave her husband a clutch of sons and at least five daughters. FitzHugh was able to. marry them off to improve his own standing and the Neville family, headed by the Earl of Warwick, benefitted as well. Anne FitzHugh found herself married to Francis Lovell who would become Richard of Gloucester’s friend and Lord Chamberlain. It could have been that King Edward thought that Warwick would marry the boy to one of his own daughters but the earl had his sights set on greater things.

Inevitably the family found them selves bound up with Robin of Redesdale’s revolt in 1469 but the family together with Francis Lovell were pardoned their part in Warwick’s rebellion. Alice’s husband died in 1472 and does not seem to have been present in his brother-in-law’s army at Barnet. Nor does he seem to have taken part in the Battle of Tewkesbury. Fortunately he and Alice had founded a chantry at Ravensworth so that masses could be said for their souls to speed them through purgatory.

Life changed for Alice and her children. There would be no more grand marriages now that Warwick was gone. Alice remained a widow but she seems to have been on good terms with her brother’s replacement, Richard Duke of Gloucester. The family changed its affinity from Neville to Plantagenet and Alice is likely to have been welcome at Middleham, especially when her niece, Anne, gave birth to her son Edward of Middleham. She was the only one of Anne’s aunts to attend her coronation in 1483. With her was her daughter Elizabeth married to Sir William Parr. All the ladies who attended Anne received new gowns of blue velvet.

Alice would mourn the death of Anne and perhaps, more quietly, the end of Richard. She and her sisters Katherine, the widow of Lord Hastings executed by Richard, and Margaret were still alive when Henry Tudor claimed the throne. Margaret who had lived a life of poverty because of her husband’s Lancastrian credentials was now welcome at court. Anne Lovell lost her home at Minster Lovell which fell to Jasper Tudor although there is no indication he ever lived there. After Lovell’s disappearance in 1487 she received an annuity from the king but like her mother chose not to marry again. Instead she may have lived with her mother in the FitzHugh dower house at West Tanfield. Alice took an active role in arranging the marriages of her grandchildren and administering her dower estate. Her life was perhaps the most untroubled of the Neville sisters’ experience of marriage and life in general.

Despite providing her husband with six sons the FitzHugh barony was divided between co-heiresses within a generation. Her eldest son, Richard, suggesting that he was named after his maternal grandfather, died while his son George was still a minor and Alice’s grandson was dead by 1513. Her other sons had no legitimate male heirs of their own.

And the advent theme for today? Tricky – I’m going with the gift of blue velvet. The cloth was imported at great expense from Italy. The centres of production were Venice and Genoa. I’m not sure what colour it was but I seem to recall that Henry VIII – ever a modest and economical man- had a toilet seat covered in velvet.

Baldwin, David, The Kingmaker’s Sisters