This excellent blog post by Annette Carson, based on a presentation given to the Society’s Mid-Anglia Group, summarises the events of 29th-30th April 1483, as Edward V and Anthony Woodville (Earl Rivers), together with Sir Richard Grey and others, met the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham as the Great North Road and Watling Street converged.
As in The Maligned King and Richard of Gloucester as Protector and Constable, Carson has analysed and judged the sources such as Mancini’s de occupatione regni Anglie and the Crowland Chronicle. The former, whilst bound by several constitutional misconceptions, was not rewritten in “Tudor” hindsight and is often informed by Dr. Argentine, whilst the Crowland Continuator‘s identity is not yet known. It is clear that Edward V, Rivers and Grey did not proceed from Ludlow to London by the most obvious route, but that Edward and some others were at the Wydeville seat of Grafton Regis, whilst Rivers and Grey were accompanied by more followers than the two Dukes. Rivers, Grey and Vaughan were arrested but only tried and executed eight weeks later, when the Three Estates elected Gloucester as King (cf. Gairdner).
PS The title comes from Agatha Christie‘s first novel, published a century ago.
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