There was a pretty full house when members of the Vale of Evesham Historical Society met to hear John Reid talk about Warwick the Kingmaker.

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Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, was probably the most famous man in 15th century England.  The richest man in the country after the king, he was equally revered and reviled.  Popular amongst all sections of society in England, he was hated abroad, particularly in the Low Countries, where he was actually a bogeyman used by mothers to frighten naughty children.  His was a massive personality and his good qualities and his faults were also on a massive scale.  Was he a Yorkist hero, the flower of chivalry and the model for Sir Lancelot in Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur? Or was he a brutal killer and traitor? 

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He was born in 1428, and by the time he was 21 he had become the premier Earl of England through two lucky deaths and a lucky marriage.  His extensive properties throughout the country included many manors in the Evesham area: he was Lord of the Manors of Tewkesbury, Elmley Castle, Hanley Castle and Sheriff’s Lench, to name but a few! 

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In 1461 Warwick chose to support the claim of Richard Duke of York to the throne in place of the incompetent Henry VI.  (His reasons were not entirely selfless, as he was embroiled in a territorial dispute with the Duke of Somerset, one of Henry’s supporters.) When Richard died he then supported his son Edward  Having deposed Henry, he placed the 19 year old Edward as King Edward IV on the throne, becoming virtual governor of the realm between 1461 and 1464. The decline of his influence began when he arranged  Edward’s marriage with a French princess in the hope of achieving peace between the two countries.  Unfortunately he arrived home from France to discover that Edward had contracted a secret marriage with the comparatively lowly gentlewoman Elizabeth Woodville.

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Humiliated by this, and increasingly sidelined by the rise of the Woodville family to positions of power and influence, he changed sides, and in 1470 deposed Edward and reinstated Henry VI. 

 

He was killed at the Battle of Barnet on Easter Sunday the following year.

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John completed his talk by summing up Warwick’s good and bad qualities, but the audience found it difficult to arrive at a conclusion on his character.  That he was still regarded as a major historical celebrity into the 20th century is evidenced by his featuring as the subject of a Ladybird book!

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The Chairman thanked John for a fascinating talk, presented with a good deal of humour, and introduced an extensive period of discussion before refreshments were served.

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