| Stafford and Lovell rebellion | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theWars of the Roses | |||||||
 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| House of Tudor(Lancastrian) | House of York | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Henry VII Duke of Bedford SirRichard Edgcumbe SirJohn Savage | Viscount Lovell SirHumphrey Stafford Thomas Stafford | ||||||
TheStafford and Lovell rebellion was the first armed uprising againstKing Henry VII after he won the crown at theBattle of Bosworth in 1485. The uprising was led byFrancis Lovell, Viscount Lovell, along with SirHumphrey Stafford and Thomas Stafford, brothers fromGrafton, Worcestershire. The uprising occurred duringEastertime 1486.[1]
After the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, Francis Lord Lovell and Humphrey Stafford soughtsanctuary atColchester Abbey. The conspirators hoped to restore theYorkist monarchy.
Henry VII used spies to monitor the activities of known Yorkist supporters. Sometime in April 1486, King Henry learned that Lovell and Humphrey Stafford had escaped and were planning a rebellion. SirRichard Edgcumbe and Sir William Tyler were appointed by the King to apprehend Lovell. With the failure of the plot, Lovell first joined fellow rebels at Furness Falls and later fled toMargaret of York inFlanders.[2] In the meantime, the Stafford brothers had risen in rebellion inWorcester, despite the fact that King Henry had mass support in that area.
During this time, Henry was inYork on a nationwide tour of the country. As soon as he advanced towards Worcester in order to eliminate Yorkist support, on 11 May 1486, the Stafford brothers again fled tosanctuary, this time atCulham in the church belonging to Abingdon Abbey.[3][4]
King Henry had the Staffords forcibly removed from the abbey on the night of 14 May by 60 armed men led by his knightSir John Savage, who had commanded the left flank of his army at theBattle of Bosworth.[5] When the abbot found out about what had happened, he sent a written complaint to the authorities about what he saw as an outrageous infringement of his abbey's ancient privileges as a place of sanctuary.[5] However, the two men were tried before theCourt of King's Bench, where the justices ruled that sanctuary was not applicable in cases of treason.[6] Henry then ordered the execution of SirHumphrey Stafford ofGrafton but pardoned the younger Thomas Stafford.
The arrest prompted a series of protests againstPope Innocent VIII over the breaking of sanctuary; these resulted in apapal bull in August which agreed to some modifications affecting the privilege.[7]
Sir John Conyers, who was suspected of being involved in the revolt, was stripped of his stewardship of Middleham and had a £2,000 bond imposed. The Abbot of Abingdon, who had organised sanctuary for the Stafford brothers, was given a 3000-mark bond of allegiance.[8]
Henry had no wish to alienateViscount Lovell and his family. On 5 July 1486, Lovell was appointed a justice ofoyer and terminer, but later returned to England and again took up arms against the king, fighting what is considered to be the final battle of theWars of the Roses when Yorkist and Lancastrian forces met at theBattle of Stoke Field on 16 June 1487.Sir John Savage was also again present on the day, as one of the main cavalry commanders of King Henry's forces. The battle was a decisive victory for Henry, with almost all the leading Yorkists killed, and never again would a battle be fought along Yorkist and Lancastrian lines. Lovell survived the defeat but then disappeared shortly after his escape, and was never seen again.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)ISBN 1449966373
