For Eleanor and her brothers and sister growing up in the Talbot household, life would have been peripatetic. The Talbot family had a chain of estates ‘from Marbury in South Cheshire through Whitchurch in North Shropshire, Corfham near Ludlow in South Shropshire, Credenhill near Hereford and Goodrich on the Wye in South Herefordshire to Painswick on the Cotswolds’ edge in South Gloucestershire’.1
It is difficult to know whether the household moved around these estates in accordance with a regular set pattern, but there is evidence that on at least one occasion, in the course of twelve months they spent October and November in London, January at Eccleswall, February and March in the region of Shrewsbury and Chester, which presumably took in Blakemere, April at Painswick, August at Painswick and Blakemere, and September at Goodrich.2 This gives an indication of their movements, but the pattern is incomplete and is unlikely to have been rigidly followed. On one occasion Margaret Beauchamp is known to have spent Christmas at Blakemere, for she was entertained there on Twelfth Night by two actors from Shrewsbury, who presented an ‘interlude’ for her entertainment. The Blakemere household accounts for 1424–25 record a gift to these two men of half a gold noble (3s 4d).3
The houses and estates which the family and household inhabited as they moved from Gloucestershire to Cheshire were varied in style and size. Goodrich Castle was probably the most magnificent, although in the 1440s not perhaps the most convenient and up-to-date. The castle’s substantial ruins reveal clearly the outline appearance of its great hall and of the solar block, where the members of the Talbot family would have lived, when in residence at the castle.
At Blakemere, nothing of their house survives. It is, nevertheless, possible to form a good impression of the building and its estate from surviving records, helped by a comparison with surviving structures elsewhere. Stokesay Castle, for example, in southern Shropshire, which also stands beside a small lake, gives some idea of the possible appearance of Blakemere. The park at Blakemere was enclosed by palings to keep in the deer, and it contained a watermill and a windmill. In the early 1390s a new garden, with a lawn of green turf, had been laid out. Such gardens were normally enclosed, to exclude the deer which wandered in the park, and to create a private space. An impression of the Blakemere garden’s possible appearance may be gained from surviving instructions for the design of another fourteenth-century garden:
Care must be taken that the lawn is of such size that about it in a square may be planted every sweet-smelling herb such as rue and sage and basil, and likewise all sorts of flowers, as violet, columbine, lily, rose, iris and the like. Between these herbs and the turf, at the edge of the lawn, set square, let there be a higher bench of turf, flowering and lovely; and somewhere in the middle, provide seats …Upon the lawn, too, against the heat of the sun, trees should be planted, or vines trained … grapevines, pears, apples, pomegranates, sweet bays, cypresses and such like. [But] … there should not be any trees in the middle of the lawn … If the midst of the lawn were to have trees planted on it, spiders webs would entangle the faces of passers-by! If possible, a clean fountain of water in a stone basin should be in the midst.4
It seems likely that the garden at Blakemere will also have contained daisies (marguerites), the flowers emblematic of the first Countess of Shrewsbury’s name. Margaret used paintings of them to decorate margins in her personal Book of Hours,5 while her daughter Eleanor, at the age of 17, had a signet ring engraved with a daisy, which may have been a present from her mother (see plate 23). Eleanor used this ring to seal a letter of attorney on 10 May 1453.6 Perhaps the garden also contained borage, the little blue flowers of which may later have been adopted by Elizabeth Talbot as her badge.7 The garden at Blakemere may have made some impression on the Talbot children, for later, Elizabeth is said to have had a new private garden laid out for her pleasure in her park at Framlingham Castle, accessible by means of a cutting through the wall of the old great hall and a new footbridge across the moat.
The walls of the house at Blakemere were of freestone, and it was roofed with wooden shingles, although the gatehouse was roofed in lead, and the outbuildings were thatched with reeds from the mere. Only the kitchen block had a roof of red tiles (to minimise the risk of fire). The outbuildings included a ‘long stable’ and also a ‘great stable’. The latter was outside the gate, beyond the area enclosed by the moat. There was a kennel for the dogs – perhaps the white Talbot hounds which bore the family name. This breed is now extinct, but the dogs resembled the bloodhound except for the fact that they were pure white. The surviving Spanish Hound (Sabueso Español) is said to be descended from the Talbot, although it is not normally pure white, but has some red or black patches.8 A new wardrobe was put up at Blakemere in 1401. This was a free-standing building for the safekeeping of valuables. A new malthouse was built in 1403, and a new dovecote in 1408–09.
Within the house there was a great hall, a great chamber with a stone chimney that had a reredos plastered with lime, and a chapel leading off from the great chamber. The chapel and some of the other rooms had glazed windows. There was a ‘middle room’ and an ‘inner room’, and a ‘Lady’s room’, which had its own small chapel. The Lady’s room had wooden panelling. Possibly some of the rooms were hung with tapestries. The so-called ‘Devonshire Hunting Tapestries’, which are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and which were probably woven in the southern Netherlands,9 may have been made for the first Earl of Shrewsbury.10 There was a ‘men-at-arms’ room’ and another room adjoining it; a ‘knights’ room’, a ‘seneschal’s room’ and a chaplain’s room. There was an oriel, or gallery, a garret above the gate, and latrines either in or under the men-at-arms’ room.11
The surviving buildings at Stokesay Castle give some idea of the former appearance of Blakemere. The area enclosed by the moat at Blakemere, which comprised the main dwellings and certain of the outbuildings, was about 48m by 52m.12 This was a little larger than Stokesay Castle, which is irregularly shaped, but averages about 40m by 35m. Some household pottery has been recovered from the Blakemere site,13 together with nails and everyday metal objects such as buckles and at least one pewter plate.14 The whole estate at Blakemere comprised 32,000 acres, embracing the town of Whitchurch. This estate, a favourite with Lord and Lady Shrewsbury, must have been very familiar to Eleanor as a girl.
The Talbot household at Blakemere supplied much of its own produce, but also bought in goods from outside. A total of 751 gallons of ale were brewed annually on the premises. In addition, nearly twice this amount was bought in every year from Whitchurch and other neighbouring towns. Some cloth was woven on the estate, but a great deal more, especially the green fabric needed for the Talbot livery, was purchased in Coventry and London. Pepper, saffron, cloves, mace, cinnamon and other spices could not be home-produced, and were purchased in great quantities from John Glover in Shrewsbury. Salt came from Wyck, together with poultry.
Fishermen were brought in annually to fish the meres, but both freshwater and saltwater fish were also purchased in large amounts . In the medieval context this is strong evidence of a religious household, which would have regularly avoided the eating of meat not only during Lent, but also every week on Fridays, on Wednesdays and possibly on certain other days such as Saturdays. The Talbots and their household ate cod, salmon, sprats, conger, plaice, whiting, halibut, whelks, shrimps, crabs, oysters and mussels, and also bream, pike, roach, dace, flounder and trout. As for meat, the warren at Blakemere produced rabbits, and the dovecote, pigeons. There was game from the park, although oxen, sheep and calves were also consumed. Most vegetables seem to have been home-produced, but occasionally something more exotic was bought in, such as oranges.15 Such a luxury item as this imported fruit must have delighted the children.
The Talbot household normally lacked the presence of its head, whom Humphrey, Eleanor and Elizabeth can have seen only rarely. As we have noted, for most of Eleanor’s early life Lord Shrewsbury was absent, mainly in France. The children’s life was therefore centred on their mother, Margaret. For girls of Eleanor’s and Elizabeth’s class this was, in any case, not unusual.16
Noble children, particularly sons, were often brought up away from their parents’ home, in other aristocratic households. In the case of the Talbots, however, it is clear that the children were, at least sometimes, with their mother, whose household regulations took account of their presence. It is recorded that ‘to the honour of God [she] made decree in her house, not her own children out set,17 that whatever person blasphemed our Lord by unlawful swearing he should lack that day all wine and chochyn [cooked food?] and only have but bread and water’.18
Direct responsibility for the children’s education was presumably in the hands of one or more of the priests in their parents’ service, and – in the case of the girls – of female attendants of their mother. What exactly they were taught, we cannot know, but Eleanor, Humphrey and Elizabeth, as well as Louis, were all certainly literate in later life. Also, these four young Talbots all later exhibited, in different ways, evidence of a strong and orthodox Catholic faith. Some writers have suggested that their father, in his youth, may have been slightly tainted with Lollardy, but there is no real evidence of heretical tendencies in the earl.19 In any case, his frequent absences abroad mean that he can have had only a limited influence on his younger children.
As we have already seen, the little girls were certainly taught to read and write in English, and possibly also in French.20 It was not normal to teach girls Latin, and there is no particular reason to suppose that either Eleanor or Elizabeth had more than a rote knowledge of that language, sufficient to enable them to recite liturgical texts such as those found in a Book of Hours. Religious and moral instruction was of course very important. Two generations later, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, daughter of Eleanor’s cousin, Isabel Neville, was exhorted by Henry VIII to place special emphasis in training his daughter, Mary, ‘in all virtuous demeanour. That is to say, at due times to serve God.’21 Lady Salisbury’s education of the future Queen Mary I was, in this respect, a notable success, and it seems that the same could be said of Lady Shrewsbury’s training of Eleanor and Elizabeth Talbot.
In addition to moral and practical instruction, aspects of the children’s general cultural development will also have received attention. In the case of the girls, some appreciation of literature may have featured in their education, and it seems certain that an interest in music was cultivated. Elizabeth Talbot maintained a range of musicians in her household later, as Duchess of Norfolk.
Because the household accounts for Blakemere for the early fifteenth century have, in part, survived, we know more about this residence than about the other Talbot houses. One very important feature of the household at Blakemere, as of all noble households at this time, was the people who composed it and who served the family. Often this service was hereditary. The Talbot children must have been familiar with the many members of the household: such names as Richard Kenleye, John Wylym, Robert Daykin and Richard Cholmely (whose father, Thomas, had also served the household at Blakemere in the 1390s). All of these men were important in the Talbot household, at least in the 1420s.
Later evidence clearly shows that one of the people that Elizabeth, Eleanor and Humphrey knew from their childhood was John Wenlock. Born, probably, near the end of the fourteenth century, he would have been about 20 years old and was already the household steward in 1419, when, following the murder of Henry Bykeley, he was appointed receiver at Blakemere. Subsequently he served both as receiver and as steward on further occasions, and was clearly a trusted administrator, well-known to the Talbot family, from whom he received an annual annuity of 48s for life. After the death of the Earl of Shrewsbury, John Wenlock was to continue to serve the dowager Countess Margaret until his own death, early in 1463. His land in Whitchurch was inherited by his son (another John), who was also in Margaret’s service.
When the dowager Countess of Shrewsbury died, in 1467, John Wenlock the younger transferred to the household of her son, Humphrey. He also maintained links with Eleanor, as we shall see later. When he himself died, in London, in 1477, John asked to be buried near Margaret Beauchamp’s tomb, and he left money for masses to be offered for the repose of the Countess’ soul. Like the Cholmelys, the Wenlocks provide an example of the loyal household members who served the Talbot family and their Lestrange ancestors for generations.22 The testimony of John Wenlock’s devotion proves that Margaret, Countess of Shrewsbury, who often comes over as a formidable and rather fearsome lady, could also inspire affection. Thanks to him, alongside the Amazon who fought the Berkeleys tooth and nail, we are also able to glimpse the devoted mother whom all her children seem to have loved and respected.
Not only men but also women served the Talbots. The children must have known their mother’s women servants. The names of those who were serving her in the 1440s are not recorded, but twenty years earlier Maud Over and Eleanor Camvyle, both of whose husbands were also in the affinity, were mentioned in the accounts, as were also Margery Colchester and Margaret Lighbury. A woman called Alice worked in the dairy.23
The Countess of Shrewsbury cannot always have been with her children. She had many other duties and responsibilities. Early in 1445, when Elizabeth was 2 years old, Margaret journeyed to France where, with her husband, she participated in the ceremonies that surrounded the bringing to England of Margaret of Anjou, the chosen bride of Henry VI.24 It is possible that some of the children, even perhaps Eleanor, then nearly 9 years old, might have been taken with their parents on this trip. However, the baby Elizabeth almost certainly remained at home in the nursery. If Eleanor went to France with her mother, she might possibly have encountered the young children of the Duke and Duchess of York who were living in Rouen. The eldest of these children would have been the 5½-year-old Anne of York, but such an encounter might possibly have included Eleanor’s first meeting with the royal duke’s 3-year-old son and heir, Edward, Earl of March – who later became King Edward IV. Perhaps Eleanor was also allowed to see her father’s precious and magnificent gift to the new queen: a very beautiful illuminated volume in French, which is now in the British Library (Royal Ms. 15 E vi).25 This book begins with dedicatory verses naming the donor, and probably composed by the earl himself:
Princesse tres excellente
Ce livre cy vous presente
De Schrosbery le conte.26
At the end of this dedication, a coda sums up the loyalty of Eleanor’s father to the king he served:
Mon seul desir
au Roy et vous
est bien servir
jusqua au mourir
ce sachant tout
mon seul desir
au Roy et vous.27
If little Eleanor did not meet Edward, Earl of March, in France in 1445, could she nevertheless have encountered him at some later stage during her childhood? In October 1445 the York family returned from France to England, and in 1452 it seems that the 9-year-old Edward, Earl of March, was established by his father in a household of his own at the Duke of York’s castle of Ludlow. As we saw at the start of this chapter, the estates of the Talbot family were close to the Welsh border, so that Edward’s residence at Ludlow suggests that he had become a kind of Talbot neighbour.
However, medieval childhood was a relatively short affair. Even if they did not accompany their parents to France in 1445, by the time they were in their early teens the Talbot boys were probably campaigning abroad with their father. As for the girls, they had to be married. ‘The arranged marriage was the norm across medieval Europe.’28 Thus, plans for Eleanor’s marriage may well have been made while she was still a baby. The husband selected for her was Thomas Boteler, only son and heir of Ralph, Lord Sudeley.
At the time of the marriage Lord Shrewsbury was a prisoner of the French king, waiting to be ransomed, so the leading role in Eleanor’s marriage negotiations may have been taken by her mother. It is, of course, conceivable that the initial negotiations took place in France between Lords Shrewsbury and Sudeley. Lord Sudeley was certainly in France in the 1440s. However, the fact that Lord Shrewsbury was a prisoner of the French makes this channel of communication somewhat problematic.
Eleanor’s marriage was concluded in 144929 – about three years before Edward, Earl of March took up residence at Ludlow and became a Talbot neighbour. Thus, in 1449 the 13-year-old Eleanor made her departure from her birth family, bidding farewell to her 7-year-old sister, Elizabeth. However, Eleanor’s new home would initially have been Sudeley Castle – in Gloucestershire – and not a million miles from the Welsh border.
At the time of Eleanor’s wedding, the marriage negotiations of her younger sister, Elizabeth, were also under way. Indeed, by Eleanor’s wedding day, Elizabeth may already have been betrothed.30 The precise date of Elizabeth’s marriage is not known, but her father’s will, written in 1452, refers to his youngest daughter not by her christian name but by her new title. This indicates that her marriage must have taken place by the time that will was written, even though Elizabeth was then only 9 years old. Her new husband, who was about a year younger than she was, was quite a splendid prize. John Mowbray, Lord Warenne, was the son and heir of the Duke of Norfolk.31