Beaufort Herald Beaufort Companye Newsletter March 2011 Volume 5, Issue 3 Now is the time to make sure you kit fits and is fixed Sir Richard Tunstall 2 hobby that I have seen. Well done to all of you that did appear, you were a Codnor Castle 3 –4 credit to the hobby and to the Beauforts. Also worth remembering they were Heworth Moor 5 filming all around our camp for the en- tire weekend so where will the rest of Angels of Mons 6 Still from Time Team Special the footage end up, suggestions anyone? JAYNE E .. 600 the revolt ...PT3 7 I take it that everyone has heard of or Fatal Colours 8 saw the Time Team Special on the Wars of the Roses, If you haven’t here is the Towton Guns 8 link to 4oD http://www.channel4.com/programm Cooks corner 8 es/time-team-specials/4od#3173822 You can then play “spot the reenactors I know” and freeze frame who's that? In the next issue: The program manages to create the ♦ Beaufort babes right atmosphere and was a credit to all ♦ “Sumer is icumen “ the reenactors taking part as it is one of ♦ Archers at events the best pieces of publicity for our “That’s my snickers you bounder!” ♦ Battle of Piltown Yorvik festival Asked if we will come back next year for the Yor- Next Issue— April 2011 On Friday 24th Feb several of vik Festival and also to us ably assisted by some Sav- stage a medieval event in iles and KIBS staged a pres- York in August of 2012 entation on the military side of the Wars of the Roses. Which leads me to this, is there anywhere near you It was a great success, so that you want an event. good that they have already Then get in touch …. A 1 Sir Richard Tunstall (1427-1492), Lord of Bentham, Beaufort Companye Newsletter Yorkshire and Thurland Castle Richard Tunstall first appears in Sept 1452 when he was appointed as a Squire of the Body to Henry VI with an annuity of 40 marks and by Feb 1455 he had been knighted and made the King’s Carver. He appears to have received a pardon in November 1455 by the temporary pro-Yorkist government but his continued loyalty to the Lancastrian regime, following York’s dismissal, resulted in a series of appointments including Chamber- lain of Chester, Master and Warden of the King’s Mints, Chamberlain of the Receipt of the Exchequer and Steward of Kendal. He fought at Wake- field and St Albans and was issued with the Commission of Array for Knaresborough prior to Towton from where he escaped to Scotland with the Duke of Somerset. During the subsequent war in the north he led an army of Scots across the border and besieged Carlisle (1461), captured and then surrendered Naworth Castle (Sept 1462), captured Bamburgh (Oct 1462) and was present during the siege of Dunstanburgh from where he escaped in Dec 1462. He fought alongside Somerset at Hedgeley Moor and Hexham in 1464 but unlike the Duke he once again escaped. He is recorded as being present with Henry IV when he was betrayed by Not recorded at being at Bosworth, Henry VII the Harrington’s in July 1465 but again avoided capture and fled to Har- granted him an annuity for life of £100 out of the lech which he held until August 1468 after which he was finally arrested customs of Kingston-upon-Hull in June 1486 but and thrown in the Tower. In 1469 Tunstall received a pardon from Ed- reversed this in 1487 when he made Tunstall a ward IV but quickly reverted back to Henry VI during his redemption of King’s Counsellor and Knight of the Body for an 1470/1471. Tunstall faired better than most after Tewkesbury receiving annuity of £117 3s 4d. Active during the rebellion of another pardon from Edward IV in July 1471 and the following year he 1487 he received money and instruction to defend saw his attainder reversed. York against the rebels. He died in 1492 having served all four King’s of the Wars of the Roses. In August 1474 he was retained for the war in France for one year with 10 spears men-at-arms and 100 archers for which he was paid 2s a day for himself, 12d per spear and 6d a day for each archer and in the summer of 1475 he was with the army in France during which time he was one of the signatories to the Treaty between Edward and the King of France. Ed- ward IV later appointed him to the commis- sions of the peace for Wiltshire, Dorset, Hamp- shire and Somerset and in 1477 was an ambas- sador to the French Court. In June 1483 Tunstall was appointed as Deputy of the Castle of Guisnes, under Sir Humphrey Talbot and was made a Knight of the Garter by Richard III by the end of that year. Tunstall appears to have continued to support Richard III and in May 1484 he was appointed as Lieutenant of Calais Castle and tasked with the rebuilding of decayed fortifications at Guisnes. At this time he is also recorded as being an important ship-owner in the Pale. 2 Beaufort Companye Newsletter lands and titles but the city was strong and held out for longer than ex- THE SCARLET CLOSES pected. Although Harfleur fell to the English forces the cost was high and in A Brief History of Codnor Castle in Derbyshire the end the king could only march his men back to the port of Calais. But a The Norman conquest of 1066 changed the lives of the Anglo-Saxon populous in mighty French army stood between Britain in every possible way. Their language was hijacked, their history subju- Henry’s men and home. At a little town called Agincourt between gated, they had new leaders and new government. Within a few short years of 30,000 and 50,000 French soldiers the invasion local lands were turned over to Lords and Barons who were support- blocked the path of just 6,000 weary ers of William the Conqueror the new King of England. and bedraggled English troops. We know the outcome, against all the According to Domesday Book of 1086, the manor of Codnor (which included odds the English were triumphant and amongst those victorious men was De areas like Heanor, Langley, Smitecote, Shirland, Toton and Wollaton) was the Grey and the brave archers and lanc- property of William Peveril (of Peveril Castle at Castleton), given for service to ers of Derbyshire. the King and it was he who constructed the first fortification there. Like most Norman sites it is believed to have been the typical wooden motte and bailey design and was placed in a prominent position on the hillside overlooking the Erewash valley. In around the year 1200 the manor of Codnor became the property of Henry De Grey though his marriage to Isolda Bardolf, and it was Henry who started the construction of a new and much stronger stone castle that would be the seat of power for the De Greys of Codnor for the next 300 years. Henry De Grey was a wealthy and powerful Baron who had served King Richard I of England abroad on crusade and held land in Thurrock, Essex and Derbyshire. Henry’s The wars in France dragged on for brother Walter De Grey was also very successful and influential. As the longest another 40 years after Agincourt and serving Archbishop of York (from 1215 to 1255) he was present at the signing the nobility of England became dissat- of Magna Charta with King John and all of the most powerful Barons in England isfied with our performance overseas, in 1215. battles and territories lost, weak or ineffectual kings and generals, it be- Over the next few hundred years the Barons De Grey took on a variety of roles came the perfect breading ground for supporting their king and country including Governor of the islands of Guernsey internal power struggles. and Jersey, Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports, Consta- ble of Kenilworth, Sheriff of Essex and Hertford, Constable of the Tower of Lon- The De Greys had their own problems don and even Sheriff of Nottingham. a little closer to home. In 1433 Henry De Grey (6 th Baron) became involved Over that same period The De Greys distinguished themselves in many battles. in a series of disputes with the owner John (3 rd Baron) was there at the battle of Crecy in 1346, although the English of Haddon Hall Sir Richard Vernon. were heavily outnumbered they were victorious using their highly skilled archers, Amongst other thing Henry was ac- knights and men at arms on foot to devastating affect. In 1395 Richard De Grey cused of hindering an election in (4 th Baron) fought in Ireland in the service of King Richard II and was with a Derby and he even spent time in the young Henry, Prince of Wales during the Welsh Rebellions against Owain Glyn Tower of London for his part in the Dwr in 1403 . That support continued when the Prince came to the throne a few trouble but he was pardoned for his years later, when Henry V and the English army landed in France in 1415 Rich- crimes. ard De Grey was there with 162 archers and 68 mounted lancers recruited from the regions around Codnor. They laid siege at the port of Harfleur in an effort Cont’d page 4 to create a bridgehead and begin the royal quest to reclaim Henry’s rightful 3 CODNOR CASTLE HISTORY (Cont’d) Beaufort Companye Newsletter The enmity between the two families never really went away and it matched the growing divide within the country.