Sunday 10 September 2017

Francis`s time in St. John`s Abbey in Colchester

With Richard III`s defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth on 22nd August 1485, Francis`s life changed drastically for the worse. Though it is not completely certain where Francis was during the battle, if he was perhaps not present during the battle, and if so, when and how he learnt of its outcome, he would have realised its significance as soon as he became aware of it, whether he was there or not. It was doubtlessly a devastating personal blow to him, but he would also have been aware that politically, it placed him in a difficult position. He would have had no way of knowing how the newly made king Henry VII would react to those who had been closest to the king he had usurped.

There is nothing known about Francis`s immediate reaction, or even if his politically suddenly precarious situation mattered to him at that time. His movements in the days and even weeks after the battle are unknown. All that is known is that at some point, he arrived in Colchester and took sanctuary in St.John`s Abbey there, but there`s no way of saying when exactly. It seems likely that it was soon afterwards; the fact that Francis was not made to swear allegiance to Henry VII, imprisoned for refusing to do so - or, like Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, simply for his support of Richard - or seemed to have come into contact at all with the new king`s men, argues he was somewhere he could not be affected by the strong arm of Henry`s government. It is, however, also possible that before taking sanctuary, he was in hiding somewhere else, though of course that would open the questions as to where and why, as well as why he then took sanctuary.

Whenever he arrived in the abbey in Colchester, we know that he spent some time there, together with Humphrey and Thomas Stafford, who definitely did fight for Richard at Bosworth. It is possible they arrived together with him, or perhaps arranged to meet him in the abbey. It`s also possible that it was only a coincidence they were there, though their joint rebellion in the following spring makes somewhat unlikely. It is not impossible, but that Francis would have just happened to have met two supporters of Richard who were ready to risk everything in a rather underplanned rebellion with him when he took sanctuary is perhaps somewhat unlikely.

It is also not known why Francis chose to go to Colchester. It is sometimes suggested that this was because of a secret mission Richard gave him to fulfil in the event of his death. This is possible, but it`s not the obvious reason, which is that St. John`s Abbey, like Westminster Abbey - where Elizabeth Woodville twice took sanctuary - and Beaulieu Abbey - where Anne Beauchamp stayed in sanctuary after her husband`s death - had extended rights of sanctuary. While usually, the right to sanctuary only lasted for forty days, abbeys who held these extended rights could shelter those who fled there for however long they wished. As John Ashdown-Hill points out in "The Dublin King", St. John`s Abbey had been granted these special rights as early as 1109 and had them confirmed by Henry VI on 13th May 1453. It seems likely that this special protection was something Francis wanted or thought he needed when he arrived there, possibly because he did not yet know what to do next or, if he was already planning to rebel, when and how to realise his plans. Perhaps he even hoped to find help there; the abbot, Walter Stansted, was, as Ashdown-Hill states, known to support the Yorkist cause and had had ties with John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who had fallen at the Battle of Bosworth fighting for Richard and who had himself stayed in sanctuary in the abbey during the Lancastrian re-adaption of 1470/1.

Though Francis`s motives are naturally speculative, it does seem he was there before Henry VII`s first parliament passed several attainders on 9th December 1485, for it seems that Henry tried to reach out to Francis and offer him a pardon and a place in his government. Just what this would have been is unknown - it`s unlikely it would have been anywhere near as influential as the role he had in Richard`s government - but whatever it was, Francis rejected it. Though scholars such as Livia Visser-Fuchs and Anne Sutton have stressed Henry`s attempt to "bring into the fold men [...] who were still dissident", we do not know how he tried to convince Francis. The claim that Francis was offered a place in Henry`s coronation is not supported by evidence, for the list concerning attendance and honours given to attending nobles for his coronation was clearly a barely modified one from Richard`s coronation, also included the above-mentioned John Howard and moreover lists as Francis`s task carrying a sceptre in the queen`s train - which originally was meant to be Francis`s part in Richard and Anne`s joint coronation - despite Henry not even being married yet when he was crowned.

Since Francis rejected Henry´s offer, whatever exactly it was, he was attainted in Henry`s first Parliament, along with Richard and a number of Richard`s other supporters, most of whom had died with him at Bosworth. This was reportedly an unpopular move, but we do not have any idea how Francis reacted to it. The act made him officially a traitor and dispossessed him, which does not support the sometimes proposed theory that Henry and Francis were still negotiating about the terms for the latter`s emergence from sanctuary. However, it could be that Henry still hoped he would; attainders had been overturned before and could have been in Francis`s case as well. If Henry still had such a hope, though, there is no evidence he did anything to make Francis reconsider his decision. It`s possible he did not care much, thinking that stripped off his wealth and with no easy way of contacting co-conspirators even if he wished, Francis couldn`t do much harm.

If so, this was clearly a miscalculation. We do not know when, but at some point during his stay in the abbey, Francis started to make plans for a rebellion. As he might have hoped, he seems to have found support and help for this in the abbey and the town of Colchester; for example, one Sir Thomas Pilkington`s pardon for being involved in the rebellion described him as "alias late of Colchestre", while two named rebels later connected with Humphrey Stafford are also known to have come from there. St.John´s Abbey was fined by Henry VII some time after the rebellion, though while the timing is suggestive, it is not known if this was indeed a punishment for giving Francis and the Staffords help or some other transgression now lost to history.

Whichever it was, it is clear that Francis and the Stafford found a way to plot more effectively than Henry seems to have foreseen. They also appear to have to found a way of contacting those whose support they wanted/hoped for without Henry learning of it, until someone entrusted with Francis`s plans told them to Henry. Called Sir Hugh Conway, he was, according to his own words, given information about Francis`s plans and even when exactly he intended to leave sanctuary by a friend, with instructions not to tell anyone about it, a promise Conway broke. He describes giving the news first to Sir Reginald Bray, then to the king himself, who at first refused to believe him and "said that it could not be so, and reasoned with me always to the contrary of my sayings."

This reported reaction has also sometimes been taken as evidence that he must still have been in negotiations with Francis and didn`t want to believe they were failing and Francis would go behind his back. Again, while it is not impossible, it is unlikely, as it would not have made sense for Henry to attaint Francis while still doing so. Nor does Henry`s reaction appear to have been unusual, for, according to Professor Stanley Chrimes, he often reacted with initial denial to bad news. The fact that Francis was the opposite of a plotter and even contemporary sources seemed to struggle seeing him the role of the instigator of a rebellion may have contributed to this as well.

We have no record whether Francis learnt that his plans had been betrayed to the king, and if he changed them because of it. Since he managed to leave sanctuary and start the rebellion, it is probable he either knew or suspected of the betrayal and at least left at a different time than originally planned, but since it is neither known when exactly he left nor what date and time Conway gave to the king, it is once more guesswork.

In fact, we know extremely little about Francis`s time in St.John`s Abbey, not when exactly he arrived or left, nor definitely why he chose to go there. All we do know for a fact is that while there, Francis started to plan the first of his attempts to unseat Henry VII.

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