With the banks of the River Nene to the south and surrounded by extensive lands which included two large deer parks, Fotheringhay Castle was perched atop a small hill with beautiful views across the Northamptonshire countryside and nearby Rockingham hunting forest. A typical motte and bailey castle, it had come into the possession of Edmund Langley, the 1st Duke of York, in 1377 and he had spent much time and money enlarging the castle, rebuilding the keep and adding a great pond, which would have been used by the castle occupants for the provision of fresh fish. Ownership of the castle transferred to Richard of York as part of his inheritance, and Fotheringhay would very quickly become Richard and Cecily’s favoured property after their marriage and the place they would make their primary residence. Many years later, Cecily’s will would demonstrate her attachment to Fotheringhay throughout her life; she left books, ecclesiastical vestments and a great canopy of state made of crimson cloth of gold to the collegiate church of St Mary and All Saints, just a stone’s throw from the castle.1
The castle had begun life as a single stone tower, with two chapels, a great hall, chambers and the kitchen all situated within the bailey. Access was via a drawbridge across a moat. In a later century, well after the Yorks had left the safety of its walls, Fotheringhay would become most famous as the prison of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was held here from 1586–87, until her execution in the great hall. By the time it was demolished in 1625, the castle had changed considerably, each of its occupants making their own additions to the once simple tower. The very last description of the castle in its glory tells us of a double moat that had been constructed, using water from the River Nene and the brook on the eastern side. A set of stairs just past the drawbridge led up to some ‘fair lodgings’ and then rose again to the wardrobe.
The great hall, which bore witness to many scenes of the House of York over the years and that would also be the last place Mary Queen of Scots would ever gaze upon on this earth, was described as ‘wonderful spacious’. Other rooms that merited a mention included the chapel, goodly lodgings, a great dining room and a large room ‘well garnished with pictures’. Outside the main dwellings was a buttery, large brewhouses and bakehouses, and ‘houses convenient for offices’.2
But the Fotheringhay that Richard and Cecily first came to know would have been a much simpler construction and it was here that on Monday, 10 August 1439, they were joined by the first new member of the York family when Cecily gave birth to a baby girl. They named her Anne.
With infant death a common occurrence, babies were baptised as soon as possible after birth. Anne, within days of her arrival into the world, would have been christened in one of the two chapels contained within the inner bailey of the castle, or perhaps in the nearby church of St Mary and All Saints.
If the christening happened at the latter, she would have been carried by her godparents and accompanied by other family members out of the castle grounds through the main gatehouse on the north-west side. They would have continued in procession across to the parish church which had been rebuilt by the first two dukes and then, as now, contained the mausoleum of the House of York. Anne’s mother, Cecily, would not have been part of the christening party as she would be completing her lying-in period. As custom dictated, she would remain in her confinement room until approximately a month after the birth, when she would have then been churched and allowed to return to normal life.
The collegiate church of St Mary and All Saints stood between the River Nene and the Willow Brook, and also offered idyllic views across the countryside. The church was built by King Edward III, who also built a college on the south side of the building. Construction work had begun again in 1434 when Richard, Duke of York, commissioned a parish church to be built on the western side, which may have still been in progress at the time of Anne’s christening. Arriving at the church, the gathered guests would have been greeted by Richard Wancourt, clergyman of the parish since 1437, who would have conducted the christening service. After the ceremony, if the returning party had glanced up at the castle’s grey keep as they approached the drawbridge, they would have seen the York family badge of the falcon and fetterlock proudly displayed above them.3 This was the York family heartlands and on this day in August 1439, the family of York were blessing their first child and giving thanks for her safe arrival into the world.
By the time Anne of York was born, Richard and Cecily had been married for over a decade, but it seems that thus far they had not been blessed with a child. There is a possibility that Anne was not their first child, and suggestions that the couple had borne another earlier daughter, whom they had named Joan, cannot be proved or denied. If Joan had existed, she was most likely named after Cecily’s mother, but her birth is unsubstantiated and she certainly did not survive. Indeed, there may have also been other miscarriages or stillbirths that went unrecorded. Or Anne may simply have been their first child; christened with a name that was surely in tribute to Richard’s mother, Anne Mortimer.
Friar Osberne Bokenham of the Augustinian priory of Clare, in his poem which details the children born to Cecily and Richard, seems to concur that Anne was their firstborn:
Sir aftir the tyme of longe bareynesse
God first sent Anne, which signyfieth grace,
In token that al her hertis hevynesse
He as for bareynesse wold fro hem chace
Harry, Edward and Edmonde, eche in his place
Succedid; and after tweyn daughters came
Elizabeth and Margarete, and afterward William.
John aftir William next borne was,
Which bothe be passed to goddis grace:
George was next, and after Thomas
Borne was, which sone aftir did pace
By the pathe of dethe to the hevenly place
Richard liveth yet: but last of alle
Was Ursula, to him whom God list calle.4
Speculation as to why it took the couple so long to bear children from this distance of time is perhaps a fruitless task. Not all couples conceive immediately, they may have spent long amounts of time apart in the early years of their marriage, there could have been an underlying medical issue with one or both of them, and any number of other reasons. Cecily may even have suffered a chain of unrecorded miscarriages that befell many women during a time when medical expertise on pregnancy and childbirth was scant. Whatever the reason, baby Anne arrived safe and sound in the summer of 1439 giving her parents reason to rejoice.
The infant Anne’s care would have involved many childhood rituals that we would simply find peculiar in the twenty-first century. Common advice for midwives and new mothers was that newborns should be covered in roses ground with salt, and that from birth their limbs should be swaddled to prevent them growing crooked. Two or three times a day they should be unbound and washed with a silk or linen cloth; in the winter with hot water and in the summer with lukewarm. If bathed, they should be anointed, using an oil with myrtle or roses, before being re-swaddled.5
When Anne was tiring, it would have been recommended that she was put to sleep in a dark place until her sight was ‘gathered and joined’ … ‘too bright a light will hurt and divide the sight and may give [babies] a squint’. The position of her cradle was also important and ‘should be positioned in such a place that neither the beams of the sun by day neither of the moon by night come in on the infant’.6
To encourage babies to feed, advice was given for the nurse or mother to rub the roof of the baby’s mouth and its gums with a finger covered in honey to cleanse and comfort the inner part of the mouth and also to excite appetite. Families of a higher status such as Anne’s would have employed a wet nurse to feed their babies. Wanting the best for their children, they would look to employ a woman who was well presented with a good diet for it was believed that any ailment that affected the child would come from the milk. Advice to avoid ‘evil milk’ was common and if the child did sicken, medicine was given to the nurse and not the child.7
Anne’s first few years would have been spent in the nursery at Fotheringhay or at one of the other numerous properties owned by the Yorks. It was usual for the medieval household to be peripatetic and that didn’t just include people; household goods would be loaded up onto carts to be moved on to another residence. This afforded families the luxury of being able to travel around the country, and also allowed thorough cleaning of the properties whilst the lord and lady were absent. Servants would also travel with the household, with a few remaining behind to clear and maintain the house, and older children would accompany their parents on horseback whilst younger children would be carried in litters. The duke’s duties at court and on his many estates meant he travelled often during Anne’s younger years. Depending on his intended length of absence, she would have either travelled with her parents or been left behind at Fotheringhay with her nurse whilst her parents attended their business.
Anne was not to remain an only child for long. Whatever the reason for her parents’ long period of childlessness was seemingly no longer an issue as just under two years after her birth, Anne was joined by a younger brother. Henry Plantagenet, undoubtedly a much longed-for first son, was born at Hatfield on 10 February 1441. Why Cecily was at Hatfield is unclear – it was not a York property and at that time, the manor of Hatfield was one of the residences of the Bishop of Ely. In 1441 Cecily would have stayed at the old manor house; it would be another four decades before Cardinal John Morton (Bishop of Ely 1479–86) would begin work on building the present Hatfield Old Palace. The most likely explanation for Henry’s birth at Hatfield was that Cecily was mid-journey. She may have been travelling to or from London when her labour pains arrived earlier than she had expected, causing her to seek the nearest place of refuge for her to give birth.
This first York son was named Henry after the king and recognising the compliment, King Henry sent jewels to Cecily to celebrate the new arrival. But baby Henry did not live long; whether it was days, weeks or months went unrecorded, but he had certainly died before 14458 and it’s probable he did not even reach his first birthday. Anne, at just 18 months old, may never even have met this new baby brother whose life on earth was so short.
If Anne had been at Fotheringhay during her mother’s unexpected stay at Hatfield, she would soon be joining her parents on a journey that would take her much further afield. Her father had just been offered the position of Lieutenant General of France, a post that was to last five years. Given the length of absence, both Cecily and Anne would travel with him across the English Channel.
By 1441, Henry VI, now a 20-year-old man, had been independently in charge of the country for the previous four years, assuming the reins of government in 1437 when he reached the age of 16. His uncle, John, Duke of Bedford, who had been responsible for English interests in France for much of Henry’s minority had died in 1435, and Henry’s trusted advisor, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who had held the post of Lieutenant of France and Normandy since 1473, had died in 1439. The king therefore needed someone reliable and capable to oversee the English territory across the sea.
Tensions between the French and English Crowns had existed for centuries. The king’s father, Henry V, the great warrior, had earned a legendary reputation as a hero during his lifetime and to later generations, due to his unwavering zeal to reclaim French territory and bring it back under English control. Although not fully successful, his quest had culminated in the mighty Battle of Agincourt in 1415 that saw a small English army of an estimated 6,000 troops defeat a French army of around 60,000. In the subsequent Treaty of Troyes struck with the French king, Charles VI, Henry V had taken Charles’ daughter, Catherine of Valois, as his bride, and had himself named heir apparent to the French throne. Henry died in August 1422, just a couple of months before he could claim that inheritance and when King Charles himself died in October that year, his son, disinherited by the treaty, immediately had himself crowned in Reims to become Charles VII.
But England’s present king, Henry VI, was his father’s antithesis in almost every way. Instead of being a strong and influential leader, it seems that Henry saw himself fulfilling the role of a kind father to his subjects, their mentor rather than their champion. A contemporary of Henry’s, John Blacman, who served for a while as his chaplain and later became his biographer, described him as ‘a simple man, without any crook of craft or untruth as is plain to all. With none did he deal craftily, nor ever would say an untrue word to any, but framed his speech always to speak the truth’.9 The passion that his father had shown in invading France was not echoed by his son, although he recognised the need to protect the English-controlled territories across the sea. And who better to send to do that than his trusted kin, the Duke of York.
The York family’s move to France had been somewhat delayed by Cecily’s necessary stay at Hatfield, but once she had completed her lying-in period, they were ready to make the long journey down to the south coast and across the sea to their new home. On 6 May 1441 they began their journey, heading to Portsdown in Hampshire, where they would then set sail across the English Channel to the French port of Honfleur. Approaching the age of 2, toddler Anne had many aunts to fuss over her on the voyage, as the Yorks were accompanied by the Countesses of Oxford and Eu, as well as the Duchess of Bedford and her husband, better known to history as Jacquetta Woodville and her husband Richard Woodville. The Woodvilles were returning to France, having previously lived there during Jacquetta’s first marriage to the king’s uncle, the Duke of Bedford. As an English duchess, after Bedford’s death the gift of her marriage had belonged to the king. But Jacquetta had fallen in love with Woodville, a young soldier in her husband’s retinue, and they had married in secret, returning to England to a heavy fine from Henry VI but eventually receiving his forgiveness.
Arriving in Portsdown on 16 May, the Yorks and their travelling party now had to make their way across the unpredictable strip of water that separated England from the continent. Their large entourage, which was also made up of some 30 knights, around 900 men at arms and 2,700 archers,10 must have caused quite a commotion as they awaited the arrival of the ships that would transport them across the sea. No doubt the hustle and bustle caused by such a large amount of people must have provided a young Anne with a constant distraction to keep her occupied. The Yorks and their retinue remained in Portsdown for over a month, eventually setting sail around 25 June,11 and landing in Normandy in late June 1441. Once on French shores, they began the last part of their journey to their final destination, the majestically beautiful town of Rouen and its castle on the banks of the River Seine.
Anne may have been too young to ever remember her arrival into Rouen, but those travelling with her may never have forgotten their first impression of the beautiful old town, essentially described as a river city. A later nineteenth century-visitor entering Rouen for the first time wrote:
The effect which is produced upon the stranger who, for the first time, walks through the streets of Rouen is described by all travellers as remarkable and peculiar. The general arrangement of the city, the character of its architecture … all serve to convince him that he is decidedly in one of the most picturesque, though may not be in one of the most elegant, cities that he has ever seen.12
About 70 miles to the north-west of Paris, Rouen is situated in a beautiful valley, encircled to the north by lofty hills and the south by the river. The best viewpoint, according to these late Georgian travellers, was from St Catherine’s Hill with its magnificent views across the whole town. By the early nineteenth century, it was no longer a walled city; its walls and castles were levelled to the ground many years before ‘and peaceful boulevards are now to be seen where formerly bristling ramparts frowned’. But in Anne’s time the city would have been well defended by stone walls.
Once Anne and her family reached Rouen itself, they headed to the castle which was to be their home for the next five years. Today only the tower of Rouen Castle survives, but when the York family lived there, it was a large and comfortable residence furnished with royal apartments that Cecily and Richard would have occupied, alongside a nursery for Anne and any future siblings that she could expect to join her.13 The castle itself was built by Philip Augustus in 1205. Circular in shape, it had six towers and two thick curtain walls. During his governance of France, the Duke of Bedford had also lived at the castle. Just a decade before the arrival of Anne and her family, it had been the prison of Joan of Arc, the young French heroine whose ‘visions’ of a French victory in the Anglo-French wars brought her to the attention of the English authorities and eventually led to her being burnt at the stake. After her death, Joan’s ashes were cast into the River Seine. Rumours of her saintliness and miracles attributed to her, as well as her heroism in the face of the English army, led to her canonisation by the Roman Catholic church in 1920.
Within the defensive walls of this castle in the capital town of Normandy, the York family set up home in style. As they settled into life in Rouen, Anne’s father was often away on military business and Anne would have spent much time in the company of her mother and the other women who had travelled with their husbands, who no doubt kept themselves entertained within the castle and town. Her mother, Cecily, was supposedly so extravagant that during their time in France, an officer of the household had to keep an eye on her expenditure. Their residence was so luxurious that it even boasted a cushioned privy. One of Cecily’s purchases, that of lavishly jewelled dresses, may perhaps even have included clothes for the young Anne.14
Anne would spend the first ten months in Rouen as an only child, but after losing their first son in 1441, Cecily had quickly fallen pregnant again. In April 1442, Anne was joined by a new sibling when Cecily gave birth to her second baby boy. This new brother for Anne was born on Saturday 28 April 1442 in the royal quarters of the castle. He was named Edward.
Shortly after his birth, Edward was christened in the castle chapel, with Lady Saye acting as his godmother and Thomas, Lord Scales and an unidentified second man acting as his godfathers.15 A local woman named Anne de Caux was brought in as his nurse and Edward would clearly become fond of her. Many years later, in 1474, this little boy, who no-one at the time could have predicted would go on to be King Edward IV, awarded her an annual pension of £20. This award was also continued by Richard III, illustrating perhaps how much of an integral part she would play in the lives of the York children.16
This first year in their Rouen life would later come back to haunt the whole family when, many years later, Edward’s paternity would be called into question. Within weeks of arriving in Rouen at the end of June, the Duke of York had set out with the English army to Pontoise. He did not return until late August. There was, of course, no imagination rich enough in 1441/42 to predict that Edward would ever become king, and certainly no-one could have predicted that a son who had not even been born yet would make the accusations. But, in 1483, a York son, Richard, would claim that his brother, Edward, had been a bastard son, a product of his mother’s relations with an archer named Blaybourne. Rumours that had apparently been in circulation before he ever dared utter them officially.
That this wasn’t immediately discredited in 1483 is perhaps because the circumstances of the Yorks’ first few months in Rouen meant that it could indeed have been a possibility. Edward’s birth date of April 1442 would, working on a typical gestation period, indicate a conception date of late July or early August 1441. Having arrived in Rouen in late June, and York’s subsequent departure just a couple of weeks later, it is indeed possible to argue that York could not have been with Cecily at the time of her supposed conception as he left in early July and did not arrive back until 20 August. To further demonstrate the argument, it is claimed that Edward’s christening, which took place in a quiet ceremony in the castle chapel, unlike his later siblings born in France who would receive a cathedral christening, was done so to draw attention away from Cecily’s indiscretion. Taking that into account, the rumours about Edward’s parentage could indeed have been true. What these arguments don’t consider is that a pregnancy term can, and does, of course, vary, and what is termed a ‘normal’ pregnancy can include the birth occurring a couple of weeks over or under a due date. If Edward was born two weeks late or two weeks premature, then he could, of course, have been conceived either before York’s departure or soon after his return. The Duke of York always acknowledged Edward as his son and, having already lost a son at Hatfield, the small no-fuss christening in the castle chapel could just have been a desire to see Edward baptised quickly; no doubt the loss of their first son was at the forefront of their minds. He may even have been a sickly baby, giving them even more cause for worry and making the need for a hastily arranged christening even more urgent.
Sickly or not, Edward survived and thrived, and he and 4-year-old Anne were joined a year later by another brother, Edmund, born on 17 May 1443. Then just over a year after Edmund’s birth, Anne was joined by her first female sibling when on Monday, 21 September 1444, Cecily gave birth to her second daughter, whom they would name Elizabeth.
Edmund and Elizabeth’s christenings were much larger and more lavish affairs with both being held in the nearby Rouen Cathedral; within the chapter book of the cathedral, there are records for the reception of Edmund’s christening on 18 May 1443 and Elizabeth’s on 22 September 1444.17
The beautiful old cathedral in Rouen stood majestically in the town and was described by our later Georgian visitors as ‘a magnificent structure, of great extent, and highly ornamented’.18 The cathedral and castle residents seemingly enjoyed a good relationship; another entry in the cathedral chapter book dated 30 October 1442 gives permission for the Duke of York to use ornaments and vestments from the cathedral to decorate the chapel of Rouen Castle in celebration of the feast of All Saints.19 It seems the cathedral was also held in great esteem by a past resident of the castle, the Duke of Bedford, who left the chapterhouse a golden chalice garnished with gems, a pair of golden censers and a silver-gilt crucifix as gifts in his will. The duke was buried in the choir of the cathedral, and the canons reportedly took diligent care of his tomb, which was sadly destroyed in 1562, although his coffin was found in 1866 in its original position on the right side of the altar.
With just five years between Anne and Elizabeth, they likely formed a close relationship as they grew up. Their two male siblings, Edward and Edmund, would invariably have been brought up differently to their sisters, highlighting the different directions that their lives would be expected to go in. During their time in France, the Duke of York began looking into securing French estates for his second youngest son, Edmund, who, of course, was only an infant at this point. But the aim was to set him up in the future as a wealthy Norman landowner. For Edward, as York’s eldest son and heir, he would, of course, inherit all of York’s English estates and, during their time in France, York also initiated discussions with King Charles of France for a potential marriage between Edward and one of Charles’ younger daughters. But for Anne and Elizabeth, their future would involve a good marriage, to whichever man their father chose for them; the expectation that they would become good wives and mothers, and bear sons to carry on another family name.
As the sisters grew up in Rouen, they would have enjoyed a typical medieval lifestyle similar to their English counterparts, albeit infused perhaps with the sophistication of the French culture. Although Elizabeth was probably too young to have any memories of their time in France, Anne, as a young child, may have loved this hustling, bustling town on the banks of the river that was their home for five years. Perhaps she remembered trips to the river itself which, much like the Thames, would have been a scene of great activity, with boats steered by watermen carrying their passengers back and forth as they went about their daily lives. Maybe Anne and her siblings were taken to the harbour, which would have been full of apprentices, local tradesmen and townspeople spilling out into the riverside streets from the local inns. Or perhaps they promenaded along the bank on the far side, the fashionable walkway of all the ladies of the town.20
Feasts and saints’ days would also have been celebrated and, along with All Saints in October for which the castle was decorated with items from the cathedral, Anne and her siblings may also have celebrated Epiphany and eaten the French Galette des Rois (‘king cake’) – a traditionally French dessert served in French households on 6 January. Recipes for the Galette varied over the years, but the idea was that dividing up the cake would ‘draw the kings’ to the Epiphany. The interior of the Galette contained a single charm, la fève, which was traditionally a broad bean, and whoever found the charm would become king or queen for the day. In celebration of the feast of Epiphany, the ships in the harbour would have been all lit up and the tradesman in the town would have sent gifts to their customers.21
What must have been a memorable event for the York siblings took place in early 1445 when a future queen of England came to stay. As part of the peace talks which had taken place between England and France, a marriage had been agreed between King Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, a daughter of René, Duke of Anjou, a favourite of Charles VII. Temporarily resting during her journey towards her new life in England, Margaret spent two weeks at Rouen Castle over Easter. The York children would surely have met their new queen and although Elizabeth was not even a year old, Anne may certainly have remembered such an auspicious occasion. When Margaret was rested and ready to travel again, the Duke of York accompanied her on her onward journey to Honfleur, where she would make the sea crossing to England.
And it was a journey that Anne, Elizabeth and their siblings would soon be making themselves when York’s tenure in Rouen ended in September 1445. The whole family, including their French nurse, Madame De Caux, arrived back in England by Christmas. During the journey back to England, Cecily would have been in the early stages of another pregnancy and on Tuesday, 3 May 1446, Anne and Elizabeth welcomed another sister when their mother gave birth to a baby girl. She was christened Margaret, almost certainly in honour of their recent house guest, the new English queen, Margaret of Anjou.
Although the family were now back in England, Margaret’s actual birthplace is unknown. The most obvious location would be their main home at Fotheringhay, but some reports note that baby Margaret was baptised at Waltham Abbey.22 The Duke of York would often travel into London and although he would later be gifted Baynard’s Castle to use as his London base, it is likely that before then he would have stayed at various guest houses along his route into the capital, such as that at Waltham Abbey.23 It is therefore quite possible that Cecily was travelling with her husband and gave birth to Margaret at the Abbey.
As well as gaining a new sister, 1446 was to be a momentous year for Anne for another reason. Just a few short months before the birth of Margaret, Anne had been married to her cousin, Henry Holland, fulfilling the marriage contract that had been agreed between the two families in August 1445. The Hollands were not a significantly rich family, but they were another of the king’s closest relatives. Henry was the son of John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon and Duke of Exeter, and his first wife, Anne Stafford. Henry’s grandfather, also named John, was a half-brother of Richard II. He had married Elizabeth of Lancaster, a daughter of John of Gaunt and sister to Henry IV. With these ancestral credentials, Anne and Henry were a good match, and their marriage agreement benefited both parties.
The majority of the Holland estates were in Devon, with the family seat at Dartington Hall. However, a series of land disputes going back many years had left the family cash-poor and Henry’s father, John, had become dependent on court favour, spending much of his time either in London or with the English army in France. In 1426, he had married Anne Stafford, a marriage that was concluded without a royal licence and incurred the couple a fine of 1,200 marks which they had to pay the following year. Anne was the widow of Edmund Mortimer, the last Earl of March, and she brought with her into the marriage a good proportion of income from estates in the Welsh Marches. Henry Holland, their only son, was born in 1430. When Anne Stafford died two years after his birth, in September 1432, John went on to marry Beatrice of Portugal, the widowed countess of Arundel. They were married for seven years and she travelled with him on one of his postings to Gascony, dying there in 1439. In 1442 John married his third wife, Anne Montagu, and in recognition of his service to the Crown, he was restored to the dukedom of Exeter on 6 January 1444. The title also brought him a £40 annuity from the county of Devon.24
Anne and Henry’s wedding ceremony took place on 30 January 1446 at the Bishop of Ely’s chapel at Hatfield. Anne was just 6 years old, Henry around 16. As part of the marriage contract, Henry’s father, John, was to enfeoff 400 marks worth of lands to go to Henry and Anne and was to retain wardship rights over them until Henry became of age. Provisions were also made if either partner were to die early, or if Anne left the marriage before she was 14. The Duke of York agreed to pay a dowry of £1,500 on the wedding day and 1,000 marks annually thereafter, and he also paid for the wedding itself, although John Holland purchased the wedding outfit for his son.25 John also agreed to maintain the couple until Henry’s twentieth birthday when he would come into his own inheritance.
Marriage at such a young age is so alien to us in the twenty-first century that we can only imagine how Anne would have felt about it. As a mere 6-year-old, was she excited about the new dress she was to wear, nervous about being the centre of attention, resolved to do her duty which no doubt would have been explained to her by her parents? Alliances between families were often sealed by the joining of their children in matrimony and although 6 years old was very young even in those days, it was not extraordinary.
Guests invited to the winter ceremony that day, wrapped up in their finery against the cold January weather, would have watched as Anne and Henry pledged themselves to each other in a service officiated by Richard Caudray. As Anne recited the words, ‘Here I take you for my weddyd husbond and alle other forsake and oonly you take terme of my lyfe [sic]’, perhaps at her tender age she wouldn’t quite have appreciated that her union to this man, chosen for her by her parents, would shape the direction of her life as she grew up into a young woman, wife and mother. The reading of the banns provided a small disruption to the formalities when one Thomas Mannyng objected to their marriage on grounds of consanguinity, but the objection was quickly denied as a bull of dispensation had already been obtained and a copy was produced as proof by a man named John de Obizis.26
The couple would not, of course, be expected to consummate the marriage until Anne was much older. But it was customary for young brides to live with their husband’s family after the wedding and John Holland had agreed to support them until they were old enough to run their own household. Prior to the ceremony, Anne’s mother must have sat her down and explained what her marriage would entail and how she would have to leave the family unit. Even though Anne would have understood what was expected of her, it must still have been hard for her to know that she would be leaving her parents and siblings and the life that she had known. Like his father, Henry lived mainly in London, either at the Tower of London, where John Holland was Constable of the Tower, or in their London house at Coldharbour. A beautiful riverside mansion overlooking the Thames, it was originally called Cold Harbrogh. During the reign of Edward III, the house came into the possession of Sir John Poulteney, a draper and four times Mayor of London. This led to it becoming known as Poulteney’s Inn. Described by Stow as ‘a right fair and stately house’, it eventually came into the possession of the Holland family.27 It is most likely that it was to here that the young Anne went to live in 1446, probably into the care of Henry’s stepmother, Anne Montagu.
With a decade in age between Anne and her husband, she may not have been much in Henry’s company in the early years of their marriage. Henry Holland was already showing signs of the impetuous man he would become and likely had little interest in his 6-year-old bride. A learned young man who had spent some time studying at King’s Hall in Cambridge, between 1439 and 1442,28 Henry was keen to make his mark in the world and it seems that the king had some regard for him. In February 1446 he was granted the position of Admiral and Constable of the Tower alongside his father; a role that would be reconfirmed the following year. But his own father had seemingly also recognised signs of rashness in his son as, in July 1446, he made detailed instructions, putting his estates into the care of trusted friends and advisors with further instructions issued in February and March 1447 that the estates should only be released to his son when they felt he was responsible enough to run them.
With Anne now living away from the family home, it would be down to 2-year-old Elizabeth to become a playmate for her newborn baby sister, Margaret. Upon their return from France, their father would spend much of 1446 and 1447 administering his estates, and Elizabeth and Margaret would spend those years in the nursery at Fotheringhay, alongside their brothers, Edward and Edmund. A now ever-expanding family, a further son, William, would briefly join them on 17 July 1447, but sadly, like Henry five years before, William did not survive. Then just ten days after his son’s birth, York was given the post of Lieutenant of Ireland, news that meant the entire family would soon be packing up and departing England’s shores once more.
By 1447, King Henry VI had been married to Margaret of Anjou for two years and she was proving to be a strong-willed and often contentious queen, not afraid of letting her opinions be known. Showing favour to those men she felt she could trust, her closest friends and advisors were William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and Edmund Beaufort, Earl of Somerset. In February 1447, a few months before York’s Irish appointment, the council had made a shocking move when it summoned the king’s uncle, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, before Parliament on charges of treason; a move that many believed was initiated by the queen. Gloucester had held the reins of power in England during Henry’s minority. Approaching his fifty-seventh birthday, the summons was in the name of the king, but it was no secret that Margaret did not consider him a friend and many believed she had influenced the king in this matter. Gloucester’s arrest was a huge blow to the Duke of York, who, like Gloucester, was one of the old guard and even more so because Gloucester had been a mentor to the duke when he was a young man. Taken into custody, Gloucester unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) died before any charges could be brought against him. With Gloucester out of the picture, York himself began to feel pushed more and more out of the king’s confidence, and it could be considered that his sudden appointment to Lieutenant of Ireland was, in effect, more of a banishment that a promotion, dispatching him to faraway shores and away from the king’s ear. Whether York was of this opinion or not we cannot know, but he accepted the office which came with a remuneration of 4,000 marks for the first year and 2,000 for each succeeding year.29
The York family already had connections to Ireland. Lionel, Duke of Clarence, had married Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter of the Earl of Ulster, and Lionel himself had been Governor of Ireland. He also became Earl of Ulster when his father-in-law died, and part of the Mortimer inheritance included estates in Ireland. The Earldom of Ulster and Lordships of Trim and Leith had also passed down to York through the Mortimers. In addition, as a separate part of his inheritance, York had acquired the Earldom of Cork, which was passed down from the 2nd Duke of York.30
Having accepted the post, it seems York was in no actual hurry to make the move across the Irish Sea, which may indicate that he also felt this was, in effect, a role designed to take him away from court business. Whilst the family were still preparing for the move, Anne, who had spent the previous eighteen months away from her family, would now find that the move to Ireland would become a reality for her too. For in August 1447, Henry’s father, John Holland, died, and Henry’s wardship was awarded to the Duke of York, meaning Anne most likely returned home.
John Holland had reportedly been ailing since late 1446, when he began to plan for the future of his estates. He died at Combes in Kent (possibly the parish of Combes in Greenwich?)31 on 5 August 1447. Upon his father’s death, Henry Holland became the Duke of Exeter, and Anne, as his wife, was the new Duchess of Exeter. Aged just 8, she may perhaps have been more delighted to find herself back in the bosom of her family than she was to receive the title of duchess.
For whatever reason, perhaps some clever stalling by York, it would be another twenty-two months before the family actually set sail across the Irish Sea. After losing their son, William, in July 1447, Cecily had fallen pregnant again and, on 7 November 1448, she gave birth to another son, John, at Neyte. Neyte was part of the manor of the Abbot of Westminster, an area extending south towards the Thames, and again we can assume that Cecily was in London with her husband at the time. Once again, though, tragedy struck and their young son, the fifth born to York and Cecily, did not survive.
By May 1449, with York having tied up his administration and the family having no doubt grieved the loss of another York son, they were packed up, ready to move and unable to delay any longer. There are questions as to which of their children travelled with York and Cecily to Ireland, but given their closeness as a family and the fact that York had committed to a ten-year stay, there is a strong likelihood that they would all have gone. Elizabeth, aged 5, and 3-year-old Margaret would almost certainly have accompanied their parents. York’s ward, Henry Holland, by then a 19-year-old young man, seemingly remained behind in England. Anne, still not quite 10, may also have stayed behind, but as she was back in the care of her family and she and Henry would not yet have been living as man and wife, it is highly possible that she went too.
As for their male siblings, Edmund and Edward, they would eventually be installed in a separate household at Ludlow but the timing of this transition for the boys is unclear. Older sons from noble families would often be set up in their own household as they grew into adulthood, enabling them to concentrate on their studies and grow into accomplished young men. Different historians have differing views of when Edward and Edmund began their stay at Ludlow, with some indicating they would have gone there from around the age of 5 or 6, and others believing it was later. Edward was 9 years old in 1449, Edmund just 8 and, once again, given the family believed they would be residing in Ireland for the next ten years (the agreed term of York’s tenure), and their closeness as a family unit, I think it is highly likely that they would have travelled with their parents.
Leaving Fotheringhay in May with a contingency of around 600 men, the Yorks arrived at Beaumaris Castle on the Isle of Anglesey, a distance of over 200 miles, by 22 June.32 Here they probably rested for a few days before making their way across the Irish Sea. And whilst they were there, the York girls would almost certainly have learned of the castle’s most famous prisoner who was in residence at the time, a lady named Eleanor Cobham.
Eleanor was the second wife of the now deceased Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. The duke had once been married to Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut, and Eleanor had become his mistress sometime around 1425. Gloucester arranged an annulment of his marriage in 1428, making way for him to marry Eleanor. For a while the couple lived a dream life, developing their manor at Greenwich into a pleasure garden they called La Pleasaunce (also known as The Palace of Placentia). Eleanor was intelligent and ambitious, the perfect partner for the cultivated and pleasure-loving Humphrey. As a couple they liked to entertain magnificently and their friends were an intellectual group of learned musicians, poets and scholars. But after the death of Gloucester’s brother, the Duke of Bedford, Gloucester had become heir to his nephew’s throne and Eleanor reportedly became obsessed as to whether her husband would ever become king. Foolishly she decided to commission a horoscope that predicted Henry VI would suffer ill health. Discussing the king’s death for any reason was an act of treason and, when her actions were discovered in 1442, Eleanor was arrested on charges of witchcraft. Her loving husband, who had had his first marriage declared unsound so he could marry her, distanced himself from her declaring that their union had been brought about by sorcery.
Eleanor was sentenced, without trial, and was forced to do penance, parading through the streets barefoot and in her undergarments to be shamed in front of the gathered crowds. She was then sent to prison, moving from castle to castle under different custodians until 10 March 1449, just a few months before the Yorks’ arrival, she was transferred to Beaumaris under the watchful eye of the king’s carver, Sir William Beauchamp, who was constable of the castle.33 Whilst there, York, once a close friend of her husband’s, would surely have paid a visit to her; perhaps Anne, Elizabeth and Margaret were also able to meet the beautiful and unfortunate Eleanor.
After a few days’ respite in their journey, the family finally set sail across the Irish Sea, arriving with their retinue in Howth, a small, picturesque village and harbour north-east of Dublin, on 6 July, where the duke was received with great honour. The Earls of Ireland reportedly welcomed him and ‘gave him as many beeves for the use of his kitchen as it pleased him to demand’.34
Their base whilst in Ireland was to be Trim Castle, although they would also spend time in Dublin, the centre of English rule and where, on 18 October 1449, the Duke of York opened his first parliament. Anne, Elizabeth and Margaret, would, however, have spent much of their time at Trim, an ancient building situated 23 miles from Dublin on the banks of the River Boyne.
The town of Trim was an ancient dwelling, dating back to at least 432 when an abbey was founded there and was once known as Atha Truim (the ford of Trim). During its early history, the town had been a victim of fire several times. The castle that the Yorks would reside in was one of the properties owned by the Duke of York, coming into his possession through the Mortimer inheritance.
The castle itself, surrounded by a large deep ditch, was first built in 1173 by a Hugh de Lacy. Leaving Ireland for a trip to England, de Lacy left it in the hands of a servant, Hugh Tyrell who, after his master had left, suddenly found himself under attack by the King of Connaught. Upon realising he could not defend himself, he fled and burned the castle, determined that their enemies would not be able to take possession. He later returned to repair the remains before de Lacy’s return from England. When Hugh de Lacy did return, he continued building and over a thirty-year period he and his son, Walter de Lacy, constructed a magnificent, fortified structure. Most of the castle that is still visible today was completed by 1220.
In 1258, ownership of Trim Castle passed into the de Geneville family through marriage.35 It was Geoffrey de Geneville who built the great hall beside the keep and founded the Dominican Blackfriary in the north of the town. In 1308 the castle passed into the hands of Roger de Mortimer. The Duke of York also began restoration work to the castle and the parish church during his time in Ireland, eventually restoring it to much of its former glory with the intention of making it a suitable family residence for the next ten years.36 The castle that the family would call their home was dominated by a monumental three-storey keep. With a massive twenty sides, it was entered by a single door with the lower floor giving access to a staircase and rooms in the side towers. The second floor had a suite of rooms and the third floor had one main room which took up the whole floor and was linked to a gallery. The centrepiece of the castle was the magnificent great hall which looked out over the River Boyne. Built as a defensive structure, the castle was surrounded by curtain walls and the girls may have spent some of their leisure time on the wall walk that linked the towers. Entrance to the castle was through two gate towers, one a west gate that led into the town and the other, the south gate, which led out into the countryside and the road to Dublin. As well as the ditch and the curtain wall, there was a water-filled moat protecting the castle.37
Much of the duke’s business required him to be in Dublin, and Cecily certainly travelled with her husband when he was there. Whether the York girls went with their parents or remained in Trim is unclear; likely they did both on occasion. If they did travel to Dublin, they would have stayed at the magnificent Dublin Castle, a building that had been in existence since 1204. A year after its construction, a Meiler Fitzhenry was commanded to strengthen the castle, an undertaking that was eventually taken up in 1213 by a Henry de Loundres, who was archbishop and lord justice. He enclosed the fortress with quadrangular walls with four corner towers.38 The castle needed further restoration in 1415, and again in 1430 when 20 marks per annum were allowed for repairs to the castle hall, building and towers which had been badly damaged by stormy weather and which held the records of the courts of law.39 Much of the castle that the Yorks would have known was destroyed by fire in 1684.
Whilst Cecily was at Dublin Castle with her husband, she gave birth to another York son. Born on Tuesday, 21 October 1449, he was named George and was surely a most welcome addition to their family after the loss of their last two boys. Baby George was baptised at the Dominican Priory on the other side of the River Liffey to the castle with the Earls of Desmond and Ormond standing as his godfathers.40 Cecily and York then returned to spend the winter at Trim, perhaps when Anne, Elizabeth and Margaret met their new baby brother for the first time.
As the new year of 1450 dawned bright, the York girls may have been quickly settling into their new homeland. But their parents may not have felt quite so optimistic; back across the sea, at the English court, the queen and her favourites were riding high and York was perhaps already starting to feel that the distance was not working in his favour.
Henry VI was not a strong leader and an undercurrent of discontent had been building for a while amongst the general populace. In April 1450 a full-on rebellion broke out, led by a Kentish man named Jack Cade, an event that the Croyland Chronicle believed had been portended a year before by a ‘violent and terrible’ earthquake that occurred on St George’s night 1448, and that some learned teachers had publicly declared was a sign of sinister events to come.41
Under the leadership of Cade, some 5,000 men gathered at Blackheath, demanding the end of fighting in France and the end of unpopular taxes. According to the Croyland Chronicle, the men fortified their position on the heath with embankments and stakes driven into the ground. They then forced their way into the capital across London Bridge, assaulting the citizens who turned out to defend their city. With all this happening miles away from York and his family in Ireland, it should have been of minor consequence. However, it was to have a huge effect on York’s reputation because Jack Cade claimed he was a Mortimer and proudly displayed the York emblems of the falcon and fetterlock on his badge as he made his advance into London.
York immediately wrote to the king to pledge his allegiance, declaring he had nothing to do with the uprising. The king replied, assuring York of his continued trust in him, but the die had been cast and York’s enemies were gathering apace.
York had now been in Ireland for just over twelve months and although he was popular with the Irish lords and populace, things were not going as well as they should. He had not been paid any of the stipulated salary, despite writing to the king requesting funds. And now the Cade rebellion highlighted that he was too far away from the court to defend himself against his enemies and the poison they may have been dripping into the king’s ear. Realising that the only way to ensure that his loyalty to the king was not in question was to return and defend himself, the York family packed up their belongings. They left Trim on 26 August 1450 and arrived in Dublin two days later.42 In early September 1450 they set sail, making an unplanned and unannounced return to England. York’s sudden return was designed to defend himself and his family, and to pledge his loyalty to the king, but in the end it would have the exact opposite effect.