A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



England in March, 1471, he landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, and came 

 south to Nottingham, where, according to Stow, ' Sir William Stanley, Sir 

 William Norris, and divers others brought him men, so that hee had then 

 4,000 or more.' 1 Other chroniclers mention also Sir William Parr and Sir 

 James Harington, who came ' with two good bands of men, well arrayed 

 and habled for warr, the nombarof VI C (600) men,' 8 and Sir Thomas Burgh 

 and Sir Thomas Montgomerie, with their aids, ' which caused him at their 

 first comming to make proclamation in his owne name, to wit, of King 

 Edward the fourth, boldlie affirming to him that they would serve no man 

 but a king.' s While he was at Nottingham Edward ' sent the scorers 

 alabowte the contries adioynynge to aspie and serche yf any gadyeryngs were 

 in any place agaynst hym.' These scouts reported that the duke of Exeter, 

 the earl of Oxford* and others, with a body of 4,000 men, were garrisoned 

 against him at Newark. But the duke and the earl, ' havynge knowledge 

 that the sayde forrydars of the kyng's had bene aforne the towne in the 

 evenynge,' and thinking that the whole army was coming upon them, 

 determined on flight, and ' erly, abowte two of the cloke in the mornynge, 

 they flede out of the towne, and ther they lost parte of the people that they 

 had gathered and brought with them thethar.' 1 The king, however, 

 directly he heard of the gathering at Newark, had set out thither, but 

 learning, when he was within three miles of the town, that the leaders had 

 fled, he returned to Nottingham, wishing ' to kepe the next and right way 

 towards his sayde great Rebell, th' Erie of Warwick.' " From Nottingham 

 the royal forces marched to Leicester, and thence to London, whence they 

 rode to Barnet, where, ' under a hedge-side, were ready assembled a great 

 people in array of the Earl of Warwick's.' Thus the scene of action was 

 changed from north to south, and Nottinghamshire had no local part in the 

 decisive battles of 1471. 



During the few unsettled years of his reign Richard III was often at 

 Nottingham, and seems to have done much to repair the damage done to 

 the castle during the late wars. While he was there, in 1484, the town was 

 the scene of an important gathering, when ambassadors came from James III 

 of Scotland, bringing a commission ' for the abstines of were be twyen 

 England and Scotland,' and ' for maryage by tweyne the Prince of Scottis, 

 and one of the kynges blood.' 7 It was when Richard was ' kepyng his howse 

 in the castell of Notyngham "in 1485 that the news of Henry of Richmond's 

 landing with a small force in Wales was brought to him. 8 Determined to 

 provide against any unexpected strength of the enemy, he sent commissions 

 to John duke of Norfolk, and other of his supporters, ' wyllynge theim to 

 mustre and viewe all their servauntes and tenentes, and to elect and choose 

 the moost courageous and active persones of the whole nomber, and with them 

 repaire to his presence with all spede and diligence.' ' Hearing, however, 



1 Stow, Annals, 423. 



* Hiit. of the Arrival of Edw. IV (Camd. Soc.), 7 ; Cbnn. of the White Rose (ed. Giles), 45-6. 



1 Holinshed, Ctron. iii, 680. This was contrary to the promise of allegiance to Henry that Edward had 

 made to the citizens of York, which ' cast a great shame and dolor into the hartcs of the citizens.' Hall's 

 Cbron. 292. 



' See Fenn'i Letters, ii, 59. The earl of Oxford, on hearing of Edward's arrival, had called upon the 

 gentry of his county bidding them meet him at Lynn in full array to proceed to Newark to meet the enemy. 



" Hut. of the arrival ofEdw. IV (Camd. Soc.), 8. Ibid. Chron. of the White Rose, 62. 



1 Letters, etc. Ric. Ill and Hen. Vll (Rolls Ser.), i, 60-65. HalTs Chnn. (ed. Ellis), 412. Ibid. 



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