The New Murrey and Blue blog

Here is a link (We travel back in time to the scene of one of England’s bloodiest battles (yahoo.com)) to someone’s account of attending the annual Tewkesbury Medieval Festival. It is very interesting and worth reading.

However, something that is repeated about events in the aftermath of the battle is that the sanctuary of Tewkesbury Abbey was violated by Edward IV’s men “barging in” and slaying those Lancastrians who’d taken refuge inside. It’s a well-known story, regarded by many as nothing more than anti-Yorkist lies and propaganda. It’s also a story that’s refuted by Yorkists who say that as a devout Catholic, Edward IV (and anyone else in high command, including Richard of Gloucester) would never commit such sacrilege.

Maybe not. But things can get out of hand in the heat of battle and pursuit, and while there may not have been an order to kill the Lancastrian fugitives, it cannot be said that the men-at-arms necessarily held back when their own blood was boiling.

Apart from the murder of Becket in Canterbury, I know of at least one other precedent in the sanctuary of an abbey, this time in Westminster Abbey.

Robert Hawley/Hawley/Haule/Hawle (https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/robert-hauley) and John Shakell were esquires who had managed to take an important Aragonese nobleman as a hostage and then refused to hand him over without getting the enormous ransom they were due. They were thrown into the Tower in October 1377 for refusing to obey orders, but escaped, and were eventually run to ground when they took sanctuary in Westminster Abbey in August 1378. Here are some of my research notes:

(no specific date) August 1378—Saul, Richard II,36/37—Hawley and Shakell made dramatic escape from the Tower and took sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. The constable of the Tower, Sir Alan Buxhill/Buxhall/Buxhull (Alan Buxhull – Wikipedia) went after them.. He ordered his men to drag the two  escapees out but everything went wrong. A sacristan was cut down and Hawley was despatched on the steps of the altar. Buxhill managed to catch Shakell. See also Armitage-Smith 236.

August 1378—Saul 37—in the wake of the Hawley-Shakell affair and the violation of sanctuary….The bishop excommunicated Buxhill and everyone else involved in the deed, and made very pointed and deliberate exceptions of the king, the Princess of Wales and Lancaster, as if he strongly suspected them of having a hand in it all but didn’t have enough proof.

As the article on Robert Hawley above states: “….Four months after its desecration the Abbey was reconsecrated. Buxhall had his excommunication lifted on payment of a substantial fine….) End of my notes.

This, of course, doesn’t prove anything where the mayhem after the Battle of Tewkesbury is concerned, but it does prove that shedding blood in sanctuary, although a terrible thing, had taken place before. It may have happened at Tewkesbury, but not at the command of any Yorkist leader.

You can read more about the Battle of Tewkesbury here Battle of Tewkesbury (britishbattles.com).