The usual morning routine was repeated for the last time as the bodies began the last stage of their journey and left the Stamford Greyfriars. Passing once again through the town to St Mary’s church the procession would have turned in the shadow of the church tower and spire to the left and down the slope to cross the bridge over the Welland and then climb up through the Stamford Baron parish of St Martin to the open road south towards Fotheringhay
One of the accounts in French records that on “the 29 day of the said month the said body was moved from stamford to Fotheringhay ... it was received very honourably by the said town of Stamford and by all the houses of religion and all the parishes. And it was received on the way by all the local processions and again torches and alms were given to all who came.”
The houses of religion would have been the Austin, Carmelite, Dominican and Franciscan friaries, and also the Benedictine St Leonard’s Priory, which was a cell of Durham Cathesral priory, but which in 1440 only two monks.
Stamford today has five surviving medieval parish churches, and the remains of two others but there were fourteen parishes in the medieval town together with that of St Martin in Stamford Baron, south of the river Welland, which was part of the fief of Peterborough Abbey. Those in the borough were consolidated into five under an Act of Parliament in 1548.
So if the monastic houses and the parishes all turned out as the account seems to imply the Stamford element in this stage of the procession must have been quite considerable.
Fotheringhay Collegiate Church of St Mary and All Saints
Image: The Tudor Travel Guide
There is a good illustrated account of the church together with a plan and picture of the reconstruction model at Fotheringhay
A reconstruction model of the church and college at Fotheringhay
Image: Wikimedia
When the procession arrived at Fotheringhay it looks as if the leading figures who has escorted the bodies now took their places alongside other nobles and bishops.
The first group to meet the procession “with great reverence” was the collegiate body of clergy accompanied by the bishops, both those who had travelled from Pontefract with the remains, although the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield has disappeared from the list, so he may have dropped out at some point, and those who had travelled directly to Fotheringhay, together with the Dean of the King’s Chapel.
At the entrance to the churchyard the body was removed from the carriage and borne by twelve knights, with the banners borne by six others.
King Edward had awaited the arrival of the remains of his father and brother at the gate of the churchyard. Clad in mourning dark blue with the hood furred with miniver the handsome auburn haired six foot four Yorkist “golden boy” might still appear splendid on a public occasion, but he was already showing signs of too much good living. The Burgundian-French chronicler Philippe de Commynes had been awed the King’s physical presence when in exile in 1470-71 but when he saw him again in 1475 he noted that the English king might look splendid but was starting to get fat.
King Edward IV
A painting of circa 1510, taken from a lost original. Note the developing double chin
Image: Society of Antiquaries
The Jibg made his obeisance to the coffin, laid his hand on the effigy, kissed it and wept. He then, with his brothers the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, brother-in-law the Duke of Suffolk, stepson the Marquess of Dorset, the Earls of Lincoln, Northumberland, Essex, Kent and Rivers, and Lords Stanley, Hastings, Audley, Dacres, Greystoke and Welles escorted the body to the choir where it was placed in the hearse that had been commissioned. Meanwhile the body of the Earl of Rutland was taken to the Lady Chapel at the east end of the church. Also present were the Queen and two of her daughters - presumably the eldest, Elizabeth and Mary - and many ladies, both married and unmarried, and all in mourning attire.
Placebo and Dirige were started and at the Magnificat at the King’s command his Chamberlain Lord Hastings laid seven five yard lengths of cloth of gold on the effigy and the Queen’s Chamberlain, Lord Dacre of the South, offered one five yard length which were laid in the form of a cross.
George Duke of Clarence
A late sixteenth century probably based on a lost original
Image: Daily Express / Philip Mould & Co
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