Richard Plantagenet (Richard of Eastwell)

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Richard Plantagenet or Richard of Eastwell (? 1469 - 22 December 1550) was a reclusive bricklayer who was claimed to be a son of Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England.

Life

According to Francis Peck's Desiderata Curiosa (a two-volume miscellany published 1732–1735), Richard boarded with a Latin schoolmaster until he was 15 or 16. He did not know who his real parents were, but was visited four times a year by a mysterious gentleman who paid for his upkeep. This person once took him to a "fine, great house" where Richard met a man in a "star and garter" who treated him kindly. At the age of 16, the gentleman took the boy to see King Richard III at his encampment just before the battle of Bosworth. The King informed the boy that he was his son, and told him to watch the battle from a safe vantage point. The king told the boy that, if he won, he would acknowledge him as his son. If he lost, he told the boy to forever conceal his identity. King Richard was killed in the battle, and the boy fled to London. He was apprenticed to a bricklayer, but kept up the Latin he had learned by reading during his work.

Around 1546 the bricklayer, by then a very old man, was working on Eastwell Place for Sir Thomas Moyle. Moyle discovered Richard reading and, having been told his story, offered him stewardship of the house's kitchens. Richard was used to seclusion and declined the offer. Instead, he asked to build a one-room house on Moyle's estate and live there until he died. This request was granted. A building called "Plantagenet Cottage" still stands on the site of the original.^[1]

It has recently been suggested this Richard Plantagenet could have been Richard, Duke of York, one of the missing Princes in the Tower.^[2]

Re-discovery

The record of Richard's burial was re-discovered in the parish registers around Michaelmas 1720. Heneage Finch, 5th Earl of Winchilsea, came across it when researching his own family. He passed it on, along with family tradition of his story, to Thomas Brett, L.L.D. Brett communicated it in a letter to William Warren, L.L.D., president of Trinity Hall, who in turn passed it on to Peck.

The burial record in the Eastwell Parish Register is a 1598 transcript of the original and is dated 22 December 1550. The handwriting is consistent and not considered a forgery.^[3][4] The register entry reads: "Rychard Plantagenet was buryed on the 22. daye of December, anno ut supra. Ex registro de Eastwell, sub anno 1550."

In 1861, John Heneage Jesse published his Memoirs of King Richard III.^[5] He states:

Anciently, when any person of noble family was interred at Eastwell, it was the custom to affix a special mark against the name of the deceased in the register of burials. The fact is a significant one, that this aristocratic symbol is prefixed to the name of Richard Plantagenet. At Eastwell, his story still excites curiosity and interest ... A well in Eastwell Park still bears his name; tradition points to an uninscribed tomb in Eastwell churchyard as his last resting place; and, lastly, the very handwriting which, more than three centuries ago, recorded his interment, is still in existence.

A rubble-stone tomb with modern pointing, within the floor plan of the now ruined church of St Mary's, Eastwell, has a plaque with the following words:

Reputed to be the tomb of Richard Plantagenet, 22. December 1550

Although his name is inscribed on one of the tombs, the grave is more likely to be that of Sir Walter Moyle, who died in 1480.^[6] The church, which has been a ruin since the 1950s, is cared for by a national charity, the Friends of Friendless Churches.

In Fiction

• "Richard of Eastwell" is the main character in Mark J.T. Griffin's novel Richard of Eastwell"". The novel fictionalises the "legend". Richard's character is enigmatic and is either Richard III's illegitimate son or Richard, the surviving son of Edward IV.
• Richard Plantagenet a legendary tale, a poem by Thomas Hull was published in 1774. It is written in the first person, spoken by Richard, who grows up in ignorance of his parentage. He meets his father just before the Battle of Bosworth. His father proposes to acknowledge him and raise him to royalty after the battle, but with the king's defeat, Richard spends the rest of his life as a lowly workman.
• The Sprig of Broom (1971), Book 2 of the "Mantlemass" series for children written by Barbara Willard, imagines the life of Richard of Eastwell during the years from the Battle of Bosworth to his death at Eastwell, and is told from the point of view of his fictional son.
• "Richard Plantagent" is referenced in the opening paragraph of Shirley Jackson's novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) by protagonist Mary Katherine Blackwood, "I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagent, and Amanita phalloides, the death cup mushroom."

References

Other sources

• The Parallel, or a Collection of Extraordinary Cases Relating to Concealed Births, and disputed successions. 1774.
• The History of King Richard III. Edited by A. N. Kincaid. 1974. (from George Buck's original text)
• The Hopper Ring. The Ricardian Bulletin. December 1991. Robert Hamblin, with acknowledgement to Audrey Cartwright
• Notes on Royal Bastardy, Ricardian Bulletin numbers 5 and 6.
• The Royal Bastards of England. Givens-Wilson and Curteis
• The Illegitimate Children of Richard III. Peter Hammond.
• Richard III, the Road to Bosworth Field. 1985. Peter Hammond and Anne Sutton
• Eastwell Parish Registers
• Richard III Crown and People. 1985. Edited by J. Petre.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Desiderata Curiosa

• Richard III Society
• Richard III's Children, article by P W Hammond
• Richard of Eastwell novel

House of Plantagenet
Henry II of England Wife: Eleanor of Aquitaine William IX, Count of Poitiers Henry the Young King Richard I of England Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile Joan of England, Queen of Sicily John, King of England Illegitimate: William de Longespée, Earl of Salisbury Geoffrey (archbishop of York)
Henry the Young King Wife: Margaret of France, Queen of England and Hungary William Plantagenet (died in infancy)
Richard I of England Wife: Berengaria of Navarre Illegitimate: Philip of Cognac
John, King of England Wife: Isabella of Angoulême Henry III of England Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall Joan of England, Queen of Scotland Isabella of England Eleanor of Leicester Illegitimate: Joan, Lady of Wales Richard FitzRoy Oliver FitzRoy Geoffrey FitzRoy John FitzRoy Henry FitzRoy Osbert Gifford Eudes FitzRoy Bartholomew FitzRoy Maud FitzRoy Isabel FitzRoy Philip FitzRoy William de Forz
Henry III of England Wife: Eleanor of Provence Edward I of England Margaret of England Beatrice of England Edmund Crouchback Katherine of England
Edward I of England Wives: Eleanor of Castile Margaret of France, Queen of England Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar Joan, Countess of Hertford and Gloucester Alphonso, Earl of Chester Margaret of England, Duchess of Brabant Mary of Woodstock Elizabeth of Rhuddlan Edward II of England Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent
Edward II of England Wife: Isabella of France Edward III of England John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall Eleanor of Woodstock Joan of the Tower
Edward III of England Wife: Philippa of Hainault Edward, the Black Prince Isabella de Coucy Joan of England (1335–1348) Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York Mary of Waltham Margaret, Countess of Pembroke Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester
Richard II of England Wives: Anne of Bohemia Isabella of Valois
Henry IV of England Wives: Mary de Bohun Joan of Navarre, Queen of England Henry V of England Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester Blanche of England Philippa of England
Henry V of England Wife: Catherine of Valois Henry VI of England
Henry VI of England Wife: Margaret of Anjou Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales
Edward IV of England Wife: Elizabeth Woodville Elizabeth of York Mary of York Cecily of York Edward V of England Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York Anne of York, Lady Howard Catherine of York Bridget of York Illegitimate: Elizabeth Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle Grace Mary John Tuchet, 6th Baron Audley unnamed
Edward V of England no consort or issue
Richard III of England Wife: Anne Neville Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales Illegitimate: John of Gloucester Katherine, Countess of Pembroke Richard of Eastwell
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