The New Murrey and Blue blog

Apparently, according to Copinger’s Manors of Suffolk, Richard of Gloucester, who later became Richard III, was Lord of the Manor of Lavenham from 1473 until his death in 1485.

He may possibly have been made Lord of the Manors of Lavenham on the execution of the 12th Earl of Oxford in 1462, but have then handed the title to the 13th Earl of Oixford in 1464, with whom Edward IV sought to be reconciled.

There is no record that Richard ever visited, which was perhaps just as well, since the village apparently actively flauted Yorkist rule by adorning many of its buildings with Lancastrian emblems.

There is a well-known story that, in the wake of Bosworth in 1485, one pub in Leicester quickly painted its white boar (Richard’s emblem) to become the blue boar of de Vere.  Around the same time, the Greyhound was renamed after the Tudor Talbot, the Angel briefly became the Harpy of the de Veres, and the Swan adopted the myth that it was named for the enamel swans handed around by Margaret of Anjou in 1472, rather than being named after its first owner and landlord.

There is no record of Richard ever visiting Lavenham, but it seems his wife, Queen Anne, did in 1484 on her way to London from Cambridge, in order to visit her aunt, Margaret Neville, who was residing under house arrest at De Vere House.

For those supporters of Richard of Gloucester who live in Lavenham, to know that he was once Lord of the Manor will come as welcome news.

Information via Tony Ranzetta, moderator of the Lavenham Facebook page.