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THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 



1457. Tocotes gained the manor of Roche in 

 Bromham in right of his wife, and this became the 

 centre of his power in the ensuing years. 1 



Tocotes was first appointed Sheriff of Wiltshire 

 in 1464, when the new king Edward IV was 

 establishing Yorkist ascendancy after the heavy 

 Lancastrian defeat at Towton. 2 Earlier of 

 Lancastrian leanings, Tocotes seems to have 

 changed allegiance after his marriage and to have 

 allied himself with George, duke of Clarence, the 

 king's malcontent and fickle brother. When 

 Clarence took the part of Richard Neville, the 

 'Kingmaker' earl ofWarwick, in the latter's rebellion 

 against Edward IV, Tocotes became involved in the 

 rapid shifts of fortune which beset both sides in the 

 years 1469-71, and was indicted for treason with 

 his master, Clarence. 



Warwick and Clarence first forced Edward IV 

 to flee to Bruges with his loyal brother, Richard of 

 Gloucester, but when the king was able to return 

 later at the head of a small force 'false, fleeting 

 Clarence' changed sides again. The resulting battle 

 at Barnet saw Warwick's defeat and death and the 

 fall of the house of Neville. These events presaged 

 Margaret of Anjou's landing near Weymouth with 

 her army, and the resulting watershed battle at 

 Tewkesbury in May 1471. Here Edward IV was 

 once again victorious, destroying in the process the 

 Lancastrian army, together with their heir to Henry 

 VI's throne, Prince Edward, killed either in the 

 battle or shortly afterwards. This was followed by 

 the probable murder of the poor semi-mad Henry 

 VI in the Tower of London - the Lancastrian party 

 as a potent force had now ceased to exist. Tocotes 

 was pardoned and fought as a knight banneret at 

 Tewkesbury, with Clarence, and was rewarded by 

 the grant of two manors in Staffordshire. 3 Before 

 the battle he had been one of the commissioners of 

 array to raise forces in Wiltshire, together with Sir 

 William Stourton, Sir George Darell and Sir 

 Laurence Raynsford. 4 The year 1471 was also the 

 second occasion of Tocotes' tenure as sheriff of 

 Wiltshire. In successive following years he was again 

 named as a commissioner, in August 1473 for oyer 

 and terminer, with John Cheney of Falstone, who, 

 like Tocotes, was later to rebel against Richard III 

 at the time of Buckingham's rebellion ten years 

 later. 5 Throughout the 1470s Tocotes was very 

 actively involved in the administration of his 

 adopted county." Under Clarence he served as a 

 commissioner of enquiry into alienations in 

 mortmain, and was granted Devizes casde by the 

 Crown. 7 



Perhaps his most significant appointment, 

 however, in these years was to the Duke of Clarence's 

 Council in 1475, when he became comptroller of 

 the duke's household - an office which was to have 

 far-reaching repercussions in Tocotes' life. 8 Clarence, 

 always restless and greedy to increase his power and 

 possessions, had, on the premature death of his 

 duchess, Isabel, in December 1476, or possibly even 

 before, determined to marry Mary, the rich daughter 

 and heiress to the Duke of Burgundy. This was an 

 alliance which would have made Clarence even more 

 powerful than his brother, the king, and was not a 

 scheme which Edward IV would have either 

 approved or sanctioned. 



Tocotes, in charge of the duke's household, now 

 became involved in the notorious case of Ankarette 

 Twynyho, a widow who had been an intimate 

 servant to the duchess. The latter's death, probably 

 as a result of long-standing tuberculosis, was 

 however blamed by Clarence upon 'a venomous 

 drink of ale mixed with poison', which was said to 

 have been administered by Ankarette and her 

 accomplice, John Thuresby. Surprisingly, the 

 indictment which lists these supposed crimes also 

 named Roger Tocotes as 'abetting' in the affair. 9 

 The poison was evidently a slow-acting draught, 

 for the duchess had sickened in October, but did 

 not die until shortly before Christmas! A further 

 time elapsed until April of the following year when 

 the duke sent his man Richard Hyde 'accompanied 

 with divers riotous and misgoverned persons in 

 manner of war and insurrection' to seize the 

 innocent Ankarette. They arrived at Lower Keyford 

 near Frome, where the lady lived, and without any 

 legal authority broke and entered her house 'with 

 great fury and woodenesse', carrying her off to Bath 

 en route to Warwick where the duke resided. The 

 unfortunate lady was imprisoned until the next 

 morning when she was then brought up before the 

 justices at the Guildhall and charged with poisoning. 

 She vehemently protested her innocence, but a jury 

 suborned, or under Clarence's compulsion, 

 condemned her. She was sentenced, drawn to the 

 gallows, and hanged all within three hours, such 

 being the contempt for normal legality engendered 

 by the contemporary general lawlessness. Some of 

 the jury asked for her forgiveness, declaring that 

 they had given their verdict under compulsion and 

 fearing for their lives. 



Tocotes was able to refute the charge against 

 him and prove his innocence. Clarence had 

 seemingly decided that his comptroller was 

 expendable, but it proved a more difficult matter 



