THE LIFE AND TURBULENT TIMES OF SIR ROGER TOCOTES 



95 



to make such a charge stick against a man of 

 Tocotes' standing. It may also have been that he 

 had the backing of the Beauchamp bishop of 

 Salisbury and possibly that of the king himself. 

 Edward IV, in any case, was incensed against his 

 brother, Clarence, for the latter's abrogation and 

 perversion of the king's justice in such a high- 

 handed way, and perhaps intervened on Tocotes' 

 behalf. On this occasion Clarence had tried his 

 brother's patience once too often. 



Edward IV had never completely trusted his 

 brother after the troubles of 1469-70, and the 

 Twynyho episode, together with Clarence's 

 proposed alliance with Mary of Burgundy and his 

 constant plotting, led to his attainder on the charge 

 of high treason for which, after much soul-searching 

 by the king, he was privately executed in the Tower. 

 By what method, however, is not known. Neither 

 are Clarence's reasons known for having Tocotes 

 indicted, for he seems always to have been a loyal 

 supporter of the duke, even to the extent of risking 

 a charge of treason by supporting Clarence and 

 Warwick during their insurrection in 1469. 

 Apparently Tocotes suffered the penalty of 

 happening to be in charge of Clarence's household 

 when the alleged poisoning took place, but the 

 ensuing trumped-up charges merely underlined the 

 duke's willingness to sacrifice any individual to the 

 maw of his ambition. 



When Edward IV, not yet 41 years of age, died 

 unexpectedly in April 1483, the whole court and 

 country were thrown into a state of flux. The young 

 heirs to the throne were in the care of their uncle, 

 Anthony Woodville, earl Rivers, but Richard of 

 Gloucester, the king's brother, had been appointed 

 Protector by Edward's will. Gloucester had to act 

 swiftly to secure the persons of the princes, and he 

 subsequently seems to have been persuaded that 

 he himself should make a bid for the crown. There 

 was, anyway, a general fear that another minority 

 rule would cause the same problems as had 

 occurred during the early years of Henry VI about 

 sixty years before: 'Woe to the land whose ruler is a 

 child'. This fear seems to have been the explanation 

 why Richard of Gloucester's sudden usurpation of 

 the throne was at first accepted without too much 

 demur - apart, that is, from the Woodville family, 

 who saw their influence on future events, and their 

 status, in much jeopardy. 



Richard III was crowned king in a magnificent 

 coronation on 6 July 1483. The most gorgeous 

 crowning ceremony which had ever been witnessed, 

 it was attended by almost the entire peerage of 



England. Richard III had ample cause for thinking 

 that his realm had accepted him with good heart, 

 but it was less than two weeks later that four 

 Londoners - Robert Busse, a serjeant, William 

 Davy, a pardoner of Hounslow, John Smith, a groom 

 of the stirrup to Edward IV, and Stephen Ireland, 

 wardrober of the Tower - were executed for their 

 part in a plot to free the princes from their prison. 

 These four conspirators were probably 'the certain 

 personnes ... as of late had taken upon theym the 

 fact of an entreprise', as Richard's letter to his 

 chancellor stated. The four were, however, 

 comparatively unimportant figures in the plot. 

 Rather was it the influential men behind them, and 

 here can be seen the Wiltshire involvement, for John 

 Cheyney, master of the horse under Edward IV, 

 was the aforesaid Smith's head of department. 10 He 

 lost his post under Richard III and was henceforth 

 treated with great suspicion. Cheyney 's friends and 

 neighbours in Wiltshire, Sir Roger Tocotes, Richard 

 Beauchamp Lord St. Amand, and Walter Hungerford 

 of Heytesbury at first continued in favour with the 

 king, but were soon to rebel in the autumn." 



Richard III made no attempt to produce the 

 persons of the heirs to the throne, and this led to 

 unrest and proliferations of ugly rumours regarding 

 their fate, and eventually to a full-scale rebellion in 

 October 1483. It became apparent that there were 

 four main centres of revolt, but the principal ones 

 were in Wiltshire and the West Country centred on 

 Exeter. In Wiltshire alone about 33 of the nobility 

 and gentry were involved. 12 In addition to those 

 mentioned above, other notables were Humphrey 

 Cheney and William Bampton of Falstone, Robert 

 Cheyney of Wodehay, Thomas and John Milborne 

 of Laverstock, William Hall and Michael Skilling 

 of New Salisbury, William Basket of Lydiard 

 Millicent, and others. These were all attainted, 

 forfeiting their possessions in the Parliament called 

 three months later. The rebellion failed, however. 

 Buckingham, its titular head, was captured and 

 summarily executed in Salisbury market place - no 

 coincidence this, for Richard III was desperate to 

 stamp his authority on the county. Buckingham's 

 execution was intended as a dire warning against 

 further insurrection. As has been observed: 



the involvement (in the rebellion) of men whose 

 loyalty Richard had taken for granted was a profound 

 shock, and there is a distinct note of hysteria in the 

 royal order that the land and goods of all household 

 men and gentry in Wiltshire and Hampshire should 

 be seized." 



