A MOTTO AND SIGNIATURE OF
HENRY STAFFORD THE 2ND DUKE OF
BUCKINGHAM
(Revised By Neil F.
Stafford 06/25/2004)
His motto "Souvente
me souvene" and signature "Harre Bokyngham"
Notice that his name “Harre”
looks like “Hazze” above. The old English style of writing makes it
difficult for amateur American researchers to read old English records when
searching for English ancestors!
The motto written in
Medieval French translated is: “Remember me often”
Below are a very rare Portrait of Henry and a
Plaque, which commemorates the execution of Henry in Salisbury, England
on Sunday November 2nd, 1483 (died at the young age of 29) during
the Reign of King Richard III.
Henry Stafford
2nd Duke of Buckingham The site is now a 5 and dime
store in Salisbury, England!
Henry Stafford, 2nd
Duke of Buckingham (1454-1483)
Henry was the son of Lord
Humphrey II Stafford, the 7th Earl of Stafford (1424-1458) who
was seriously wounded at the first battle of St. Albans in 1455 but died three
years later of plague in the year 1458. (Place of death not known to me)
Because
of an incorrect phrase by William Shakespeare in the play Henry VI many
historians mistakenly reported that Lord Humphrey II died in the first battle
of St. Albans.
The play Henry VI also misled many historians into wrongly
writing that Humphrey I Stafford the 1st Duke of Buckingham
died in the first battle of St. Albans. In fact, Duke Humphrey Stafford was seriously
wounded but did not die during that battle. (Shakespeare
and historians should have known the difference between a “battle casualty”
and a “battle fatality!”)
Five
years later Humphrey I Stafford the first Duke
of Buckingham continued his command of the Lancastrian army in opposition to
the Yorkist forces during the War of the Roses. The Duke died on July 10, 1460 during the Battle of Northampton. He was buried at the Grey Friars Monastery, Northampton, England.
Henry Stafford became Duke of Buckingham at the young age of
6 in 1460 following the death of his grandfather, the first Duke, at the battle
of Northampton.
Still a minor, the young Duke was originally placed under the protection of a
relative Anne, Duchess of Exeter,
sister of King Edward IV, and was ceremoniously knighted at the age of 11 in
the same year as the coronation of Elizabeth Woodville in 1465. Following the coronation Henry became the
ward of the queen and was raised in the royal court of King Edward IV. (Control over the wealthy young Henry was the
King’s wedding gift to Elizabeth)!
In later years, as Lord High Steward of England, Henry
pronounced the death sentence upon George Plantagenet Duke of Clarence in 1478.
(George Plantagenet later became a direct Stafford
ancestor through the marriage of Ursula Pole to Baron Henry Stafford
[1501-1563]). King Edward IV did not
carry out the execution of his relative George Plantagenet who was imprisoned
in the Tower of London; George was murdered by assassins
while he was in prison. George was the
grandfather of Ursula (Pole) Stafford. The hapless George Duke of Clarence died a
very unusual death. While imprisoned
within the notorious Tower
of London he was
approached by two assassins who told George that they were about to murder him
and they offered him the opportunity to choose how they would kill him. The
colorful George proclaimed that he wanted to die while drinking his favorite
wine. So they obtained some and drowned
him in a barrel of Malmsey wine. (Wine
from the Malmesbury Monastery frequently mentioned by
Shakespeare, Also known as malvasia and Madeira wine.) Historians say that when his daughter
“Blessed Margaret” (Plantagenet) Pole, The Countess of Salisbury (at the age of
68) was brutally executed in May27, 1541 in the Tower of London, Tower Green,
London, England; a symbolic small wooden carved wine barrel was found clenched
in her hand.
Although he was married to Katherine Woodville, the Queen's
little sister, young Henry was almost as much distrusted by the Queen's party,
as was the Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III). It was with the help of
Duke Henry Stafford that the Protector (Richard the Duke of Gloucester) arrested Rivers and Grey in an
alleged conspiracy and gained possession of the king's person and with Henry’s
aid that Richard was raised to the throne. *** Richard granted him the offices
of Constable of England and
Chamberlain of North and South Wales
and restored to him the Bohun estates that had
been kept from him by Edward IV. Despite this, he was soon in open
rebellion, possibly having his own designs upon the crown. The uprising failed,
his army dispersed, and he was captured and beheaded at Salisbury in 1483.
***Note
Henry Stafford, the 2nd Duke of
Buckingham (1454-1483) played a major role in bringing King Richard III to
power, in fact the story is told how Henry and Richard successfully
engineered a farcical bit of political theater (following the death of King
Edward IV) wherein Henry (a very skillful speaker) brought a large group of his
influential friends to the home of Richard of Gloucester and stood outside
loudly calling for Richard to come out to a balcony of his home, then Henry
dramatically begged and pleaded with Richard to take control of the throne of England, while the assembled
crowd cheered loudly, Richard pretended to be embarrassed and said in a
medieval way, “oh shucks, and golly do you really want me?” And of course Henry Stafford led several
rousing cheers! Then rather sheepishly
Richard agreed to be their leader. Later
Henry Stafford served as the Master of Ceremonies at Richard’s coronation as
King of England. For services rendered Richard lavished a
great deal of wealth upon Henry and raised him to a position of great social
and political power. Then a strange
thing happened, one of the greatest mysteries in the history of England. Henry Stafford the 2nd Duke of
Buckingham led a conspiracy against King Richard III. In the process of rebellion and seeking
to bring his own army together with the armies of his co-conspirators he needed
to cross the flooding rain swollen Severn River from Wales into England to
raise a large enough force to march against King Richard III, However lo and
behold his own “cadet” cousin Sir Humphrey III Stafford of Grafton (1427-1486) sought
to assist King Richard III by suppressing the rebellion of his own cousin Duke
Henry Stafford by blockading the immediate exits across the Upper Severn River
from Wales and destroying the bridges.
Thus prevented from raising rebellion Buckingham’s forces began to
disburse and Henry was forced to flee alone into hiding, but he was betrayed by
one of his own retainers, captured in Shropshire and
executed the next day in November 1483, King Richard refused to speak to Henry,
though Henry begged for an audience.
King Richard III executed Henry Stafford on Sunday November 2nd
1483.
It is said
young Henry hated the Queen for a variety of reasons:
Item: (Just prior to her
coronation), Henry was forced by Elizabeth Woodville (with the full
cooperation of the King, of course) to marry the Queen's little 8-year-old
sister Katherine Woodville when he himself was only 10 years old! , So the wealth of the (commoner) Woodville
family might be enhanced by wealth of the (noble) Stafford
family. This was doubly
irritating to Henry because First: he didn't like little Katherine and
Second: he was very aware of his noble position and resented being mated
with a poor commoner. Henry
thought that this match weakened him both financially and politically. (Recall that the marriage of King Edward IV
to the commoner Catherine Woodville [Wydville] was
considered by some at the time to be somewhat scandalous.) The Woodvilles generally were neither liked nor respected!
Item:
Henry was forced to spend an inordinate amount of time with the women of the
court involved in feminine pastimes while young Henry wanted to train to be a
knight along with other young men of the court, an activity far more suited to
his presumed future role in life as a leader of men (recall, noted above: that
he was ceremoniously knighted at the age of 11 without any proper training for
knighthood during the year of the Queen’s coronation).
Item: Queen Elizabeth
sided with the powerful Bohun family (for political
reasons) who were contending that much of young Henry’s huge Stafford family
inheritance should go to them, recall that Anne Plantagenet of Woodstock's mother was Eleanor Bohun. (Anne of Woodstock was
Henry’s great-grandmother.) The Woodville family had designs on the
throne of England and needed the support of the Bohun
family thus the Queen indicated she would support the Bohun’s
in their legal fight for Henry Stafford’s substantial inheritance.
Henry was of royal descent through his father and mother, both
were descendents of King Edward III. Thus, He had a strong claim to
the throne of England after
the death of King Edward IV, but instead he supported Duke Richard of Gloucester, Who became
King Richard III. (Noted in Shakespeare's Play) Henry was beheaded for treason
because he later rebelled against King Richard III. Why Henry rebelled against
Richard is one of the great mysteries of English history. After all, it was
Henry who led the movement to have Richard crowned, and served as the master of
ceremonies at Richard's coronation. As a reward for this support, Richard made
Henry one of the richest and most powerful persons in England at the
time.
(Years
Later, Henry’s son Edward Stafford became the 3rd Duke of Buckingham
[1478-1521] one of the wealthiest men in Europe
at the time. (It is interesting to note
that in the year 2,000 in a special millennium edition in a popular London newspaper, Edward Stafford’s name appeared in a
list of the “20 wealthiest men in the history of England”!)
In Shakespeare’s play it is claimed that Richard III murdered
his two nephews who were being held within the Tower
of London while Richard was serving as
the “Protector” of England. The mystery regarding the “Murder of the
Princes in the Tower” is still a popular topic of current day literature. Some researchers have gone out on a limb,
suggesting that Henry Stafford was the murderer; this is due to the fact that
because of his position of power in England granted to him by Richard III,
Henry had possession of the keys to the Tower of London. However recent published research strongly
indicates that Henry was innocent of any wrongdoings regarding the
Princes. It is more likely that Henry
rebelled against King Richard III because Henry feared for his own life due to
the fact that King Richard seemed to be killing off anyone who remotely might
pose a threat to his throne. Because of
his ancestry Henry was a likely candidate to be a threat to Richard’s
throne! Mentioned earlier, Henry had a
strong claim to the throne himself following the death of King Edward IV, But
Henry chose at the time to support Richard.
Once Richard was in power and Richard’s presumed opponents started
dropping like flies, Henry decided to support someone else, his other cousin,
namely Henry Tudor, (later the victor at the Battle of Bosworth Field in
1485 who became the first Tudor king of England Henry VII; (Some have claimed
that because Henry Stafford was raised primarily by the ladies of the royal
court, and was not a strong manly person he was not really suited to function
as the King of England. Thus Henry
always looked to associate himself with strong friends for protection in
modern terms he was a bit of a wuss.
Further regarding the 2 princes in the Tower the sons of King
Edward IV; Richard attempted to have them declared to be illegitimate and
incapable of rightfully claiming the throne of England. Richard claimed that King Edward’s marriage
wasn’t valid because of a technicality; Richard alleged that Edward had
proposed to another woman before he married the commoner Elizabeth
Woodville. When Richard III took
possession of the throne of England
his enemies called him a Usurper.
It is interesting to note that after the passage of hundreds
of years prominent historical researchers continue to write extensively about
Henry Stafford the 2nd Duke of Buckingham and King Richard III. There are thousands of people around the
world have organized into formal groups trying to improve the image and
reputation of King Richard III. They
maintain that Richard was a healthy, handsome man who ruled England
well. Some say that the terrible image
and reputation of Richard was influenced by the writings of Saint Thomas More who was influenced by a
cleric friend (named Bishop Morton) who was an archenemy of King Richard III.
(Scholars claim Saint Thomas
More who never saw Richard III wrote his article as a tongue in cheek, humorous
jest; never intended for publication) They also claim William Shakespeare
portrayed King Richard III as a vile, hideous deformed monster to please and
ingratiate himself to the Tudor monarchy!
I suspect interest in both Richard III and Henry Stafford will probably
continue for many more years to come!
People seem to love the intrigue of conspiracies and unsolved mysteries.
