Bosworth: The French Connection Part II
The Complexity of Succession
We saw in Part I: Blood & Roses: Scions how the contest for the throne of England, the Wars of the Roses, has its deep roots with the sons of King Edward III. We traced how the Lancastrian line of succession commenced through Henry of Bolingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340–1399), who usurped the throne from Richard II in 1399. Bolingbroke was subsequently crowned as King Henry IV of England and reigned until 1413.
Bolingbroke challenged Richard’s succession, questioning who was the rightful heir of Edward III? Richard was the son of Edward, the Black Prince, first son of Edward III and Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (1301-1330), the sixth and youngest son of King Edward I of England. When the Black Prince died in 1376 his son Richard of Bordeaux was his nominated heir and then when Edward III died a year later in 1377 the throne passed directly to him as Richard II. There were of course those at the time that believed the throne should have passed to one of Edward III’s other sons as the Black Prince had not been King.
Richard II was without issue and his presumptive heir was Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March (1391-1425), grandson of Philippa, only daughter of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III. When Bolingbroke challenged Richard II in 1399 he was able to dismiss the Mortimer claim as Edmund was just seven years old at the time, and his brother Roger six. Their father, Roger, 4th Earl of March (1374-1398), had died the previous year following the trend of the Mortimer male line of dying young.
The conflict of the War of the Roses started in earnest in 1455 when Bolingbroke’s grandson, Henry VI was challenged by Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and continued for over thirty years to 1487. The Lancastrian line from Henry IV became extinct in 1471 when Henry VI and his son Edward of Westminster were both killed. However, the Lancastrian line would later rise again through Katherine Swynford, mistress then second wife to John of Gaunt, which spawned the Beaufort line which later would lead to the reign of the Tudors.
 |
| [click to enlarge] |
Succession from Edward III
The Wars of the Roses, a dynastic conflict which has its origins in contested succession, was further complicated by the apparent right of male inheritance over female. France had a strict Salic Law, derived from the time of Clovis and the Salian Franks, which not only barred women from the throne, but also refused to recognise any claims through a woman. The French had used this law, among others, to reject England’s claim to the throne of France, which was through a female line.
At this time in England the rules of succession were not so straightforward, and unlike France, there was no clear position; inheritance was rarely a simple matter, done and dusted without question, owing to the death of so many heirs as the Yorkist and Lancastrians seemed determined to wipe each other out. This often led to many young heirs coming to the throne who would be supported by a regency council during their minority years. When the line of succession was not clear cut the Royal Council would make a practical decision as to who was best placed to be King.
However, the French position was not directly adopted into English law although the concept of male-preference primogeniture gained favour in England, which meant that that the heir to the throne was the first-born son of the monarch. Only when there are no sons would the crown pass to the eldest daughter. This became law and persisted for over 300 years until the laws of succession were amended in 2013 to allow for absolute primogeniture, meaning the firstborn child, regardless of gender, inherits the throne.
Edward III had taken steps to secure the preference for male inheritance, and strongly favoured Richard II inheriting succession from the King’s first born son Edward, the Black Prince, although Edward had not been monarch himself, therefore completely bypassing Philippa of Clarence only daughter of his second son Lionel of Antwerp, and of course all his other sons.
Clearly not all of Edward III’s sons were happy with this decision which would result in the deposition of Richard II, son of an eldest son, but replaced with Henry IV, son of a third son. Henry’s challenge was successful because he had sufficient support from the nobility who had not been impressed with Richard’s reign in which he relied heavily upon his ‘favourites’ the Earl of Suffolk and the Earl of Oxford.
Henry IV's claim to the throne was based on his descent from Edward III through the male line, specifically through John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and third surviving son of the king. And just to be doubly safe, as we saw in Part I - Blood and Roses: Scions Henry maintained that his claim to the throne through his mother Blanche of Lancaster was superior to that through his father, John of Gaunt.
To further cement his position as king, Henry IV then barred the Beaufort family from challenging him through a parliamentary act in 1407, which specifically stated that although the Beauforts had been deemed legitimate they were excluded from the line of succession. The Beauforts were in fact the illegitimate children of Henry’s father John of Gaunt and his mistress Katherine Swynford. The Beauforts had been earlier legitimised by the Pope following the marriage of Gaunt and Swynford in 1396. The following year Richard II issued a charter also declaring them legitimate which was confirmed by Parliament. However, Henry clearly still saw them as a threat.
Margaret Beaufort, great-granddaughter of Edward III, would later become a key figure in promoting the Lancastrian claim, her sheer tenacity ensuring the challenge of her son Henry Tudor. It is significant that the Tudor dynasty, whose reign effectively ended the Wars of the Roses, accepted women as heirs to the throne; Henry Tudor gained much support from Yorkists as he had pledged to marry Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV and surviving heir, presuming Edward V and his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, the Princes in the Tower, were dead.
As noted above, the War of the Roses started in earnest in 1455 when Henry IV’s grandson, Henry VI was challenged by Richard, 3rd Duke of York (1411-1460). Richard’s strength of position was supported by the fact that he was descended in the female line through Philippa of Clarence, daughter of the second son of Edward III, whereas the Lancastrian kings from Henry IV and his heirs were descended in the male line from the third son of Edward III. If absolute primogeniture had been the precedent then, as it is now, then Richard would have been the rightful heir to the throne.
Female succession then was best avoided as the first time a King’s only surviving heir was his daughter the prospect of a queen regnant reigning suo jure resulted in civil war. Following the "White Ship" disaster in November 1120 when Prince William Adelin, only legitimate son and heir of Henry I, and 300 other souls were lost off the Normandy coast, Henry’s daughter the Empress Matilda became the sole legitimate heir to the throne. When Henry I died in 1135 the succession of Matilda was challenged by Henry's nephew Stephen of Blois who seized the throne resulting in a civil war, known as "The Anarchy". Stephen was eventually succeeded by Matilda’s son Henry "Curtmantle" in 1154 who was crowned as Henry II.
Evidently, when the precedent of succession wasn’t necessarily in one’s favour one could, with sufficient support, remove the reigning monarch as we have seen with Henry of Bolingbroke’s deposition of Richard II, an action that became increasingly common in the Wars of the Roses as the Yorkists and Lancastrians set about eliminating each others nobles with claims to the throne.
It is an odd twist of irony that the man credited with starting the Wars of the Roses was descended from the man who who was responsible for the first deposition of a King of England. Richard, 3rd Duke of York (1411-1460) was descended on his father’s side from Edmund, 1st Duke of York, fourth son of Edward III, and through his mother’s side to Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III. Lionel’s only daughter Philippa of Clarence married Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (1352-1381). Although descended from the House of York, Richard heralded his descent from the Mortimer’s as superior in line of succession to that of the House of Lancaster and the descendants of John of Gaunt.
>> Part III – The First Deposition
* * *
