The Livery Collar: Politics and Identity in Fifteenth-Century England

The Livery Collar: Politics and Identity in Fifteenth-Century England MATTHEW WARD, SA (Hons), MA Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy AUGUST 2013 IMAGING SERVICES NORTH Boston Spa, Wetherby West Yorkshire, lS23 7BQ www.bl.uk ANY MAPS, PAGES, TABLES, FIGURES, GRAPHS OR PHOTOGRAPHS, MISSING FROM THIS DIGITAL COPY, HAVE BEEN EXCLUDED AT THE REQUEST OF THE UNIVERSITY Abstract This study examines the social, cultural and political significance and utility of the livery collar during the fifteenth century, in particular 1450 to 1500, the period associated with the Wars of the Roses in England. References to the item abound in government records, in contemporary chronicles and gentry correspondence, in illuminated manuscripts and, not least, on church monuments. From the fifteenth century the collar was regarded as a potent symbol of royal power and dignity, the artefact associating the recipient with the king. The thesis argues that the collar was a significant aspect of late-medieval visual and material culture, and played a significant function in the construction and articulation of political and other group identities during the period. The thesis seeks to draw out the nuances involved in this process. It explores the not infrequently juxtaposed motives which lay behind the king distributing livery collars, and the motives behind recipients choosing to depict them on their church monuments, and proposes that its interpretation as a symbol of political or dynastic conviction should be re-appraised. After addressing the principal functions and meanings bestowed on the collar, the thesis moves on to examine the item in its various political contexts. It then places the collar within the sphere of medieval identity construction. In the final two chapters collars on church monuments are used as a starting point for conducting prosopographical studies of groups of linked individuals, in order to explore political and other types of shared identities at both a national and local level. It is argued that livery collars were used on church monuments as a manifestation, and indeed perpetuation, of the collective identity of the deceased and their kin. The inclusion of collars on church monuments could be used, as it were, differently, depending on local social, geographical and tenurial contexts. The author's original contribution to research centres on his findings regarding the nature of political affiliation and political life in the fifteenth century. In addition, the thesis offers a fresh methodology with which to analyse local history and networks. The collar is used as a vehicle through which to analyse and appraise wider themes of late-medieval politics and culture, and to explore the nature and understanding of royal power in the fifteenth century. Original conclusions are developed regarding the nature and extent of political thinking and conviction during the period - indeed the very meaning of politics to contemporaries at the centre and on the periphery of the polity - and its visual manifestation. Dedicated to C.E.J. 'Sedge' Smith Acknowledgements lowe a great debt of gratitude to many individuals for their support and advice. Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Dr Rob Lutton for his encouragement and help throughout the process. I would also like to thank Dr Gwilym Dodd, Dr Richard Goddard, Dr Gabriele Neher, Philip Riden, Lord Stafford, Sir Richard FitzHerbert, Nicholas Fitzherbert, Jennie Pegram, Sally Badham, C.E.J. 'Sedge' Smith, Geoffrey Wheeler, Philip Lankester, Margaret O'Sullivan and a multitude of church wardens and archivists who have provided assistance on my site visits. Last, but by no means least, my thanks go to my parents, who have endured countless informal lectures on the livery collar OVer the past four years. Matthew Ward Contents Abbreviations Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Function, Meaning and Significance 31 Chapter 2: The Political Context 69 Chapter 3: Medieval Identities 108 Chapter 4: 'A coler of the kynge Iyverey': Depictions of the 134 livery collar on church monuments to the Derbyshire gentry, 1465 to 1500 Chapter 5: Livery collars in Wales and the Edgecote connection 190 Conclusion 227 Appendix 1 240 Appendix 2 251 Appendix 3 253 Appendix 4 321 Bibliography 323 Abbreviations Cal. Inq. Misc. Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous, Chancery, preserved in the Public Record Office, 7 vols. (London, 1916-68) CChR Calendar of Charter Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, 6 vols. (London, 1903-27) CCR Calendar of Close Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, 1441-85,6 vols. (London, 1933- 54) CFR Calendar of Fine Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, 1452-1509,4 vols. (London, 1911-62) CIPM Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office, Henry VII, 3 vols. (London, 1898- 1955) CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, 1370-1509,25 vols. (London, 1895-1916) ii DAJ Derbyshire Archaeological Journal Derbyshire Gentry S.M. Wright, The Derbyshire Gentry in the Fifteenth Century, Derbyshire Record Society, 8 (Chesterfield, 1983) Dunham W.H. Dunham, Lord Hastings' Indentured Retainers 1461-1483, Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 39 (1955, reprinted 1970) English Church Monuments N. Saul, English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages: History and Representation (Oxford, 2009) Fletcher D. Fletcher, 'The Lancastrian Collar of Esses: Its Origins and Transformations down the Centuries', in J.L. Gillespie (ed.), The Age of Richard /I (Stroud and New York, 1997), pp. 191-204 Friar S. Friar, 'Livery collars on late-medieval English church monuments: A survey of the south western counties and some suggestions for further study', University of Southampton, unpublished MPhil dissertation (2000) iii Harleian 433 R. Horrox and P.W. Hammond (eds.), British Library Harleian Manuscript 433: Register of Grants for the Reigns of Edward V and Richard 111,4 vols. (Upminster and London, 1979-83) Heraldry P. Coss and M. Keen (eds.), Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display in Medieval England (Woodbridge, 2002) John Vale's Book M.L. Kekewich, C. Richmond, A.F. Sutton, L. Visser-Fuchs and J.L. Watts (eds.), The Politics of Fifteenth-Century England: John Vale's Book (Stroud, 1995) 'Livery Collar' C.E.J. Smith, 'The Livery Collar', Coat of Arms, 8 (1990), 238-53 Monumental Industry S. Badham and S. Oosterwijk (eds.), Monumental Industry: The Production of Tomb Monuments in England and Wales in the Long Fourteenth Century (Donington, 2010) PL J. Gairdner (ed.), The Paston Letters A.D. 1422- 1509, Complete Library edn., 6 vols. (London, 1904) PROME C. Given-Wilson, P. Brand, A. Curry, R. Horrox, G. Martin, M. Ormrod and S. Phillips (eds.), The iv Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275- 1504 (Leicester, 2005) Test' Ebor' J. Raine and J.W. Clay (eds.), Testamenta Eboracensia, or, Wills registered at York, Surtees Society, 6 vols. (London, 1836-1902) TMBS Transactions of the Monumental Brass Society 1 Introduction The maner of ynglonde was whan the kyng Nobilitatyd eny personne, to geve hym a certen baage or Iyuery wyth hys Fee, whyche Iyuery was a collar wyth letters of S made off golde or syluer. 1 John Blount's citation of c. 1500, translated from Nicholas Upton's De Studio Militari (c. 1446),2 is one of an abundance of references to the livery collar from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, albeit in this case not an entirely accurate interpretation of to whom the collar was given. 3 The collar found its way into literary sources, gentry correspondence and royal ordinances, was the object of legislation, was referred to in petitions to the king, and was depicted in manuscript illustrations and on church monuments, sculpture and stained glass. Quite simply, it had a pervasive presence. If one considers the three hundred and more depictions of livery collars on extant church monuments and in church windows from the fifteenth century, it is clear that the number of recipients of the item reached well into the hundreds, and probably the thousands. Despite this, it is perhaps its very ubiquity that has led many historians to overlook or dismiss the collar when it appears in source material; it is forever present, but seemingly only on the periphery. This thesis seeks to redress the balance, by appraising the social and political meaning and utility of the livery collar during the fifteenth century, with a particular emphasis on the second half of the century, the period associated with the Wars of the Roses in England. The livery collar was a band of leather or velvet decorated with devices usually composed of silver, silver-gilt or gold, and was worn about the neck. The more prestigious examples were produced entirely of precious metal and resembled a broad necklace. Many 1 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS.Eng.misc.d.227, fol. 32. 2 For a copy of the original latin text see london, British Library [hereafter Bl], Additional MS 30946. 3 There is no evidence to confirm the suggestion that a livery collar was given to every individual who was 'ennobled' by the king, whether the term refers to knighthood or the conferment of an earldom or dukedom, for example. In some cases it is conceivable that the individual had already received a collar. As will be addressed later, it was the case that those of a lower rank were also recipients. 2 collars terminated in pendants which depicted an armorial device, again usually made of metal. Part of the late-medieval system of livery, the collar was the most prestigious item, being awarded to those of the rank of esquire or wealthy merchant and above. The more common badges, robes and caps were given to lesser individuals. The evidence suggests that when it was introduced in the late fourteenth century it was given by leaders of baronial as well as royal affinities, but as a result of legislation in the early fifteenth century it increasingly became exclusive to the royal family.

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