Sir Edward Woodville (died 1488) was a member of the Woodville family during the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...

. He survived the reign of Richard III in which several of his relatives were executed in a power struggle after the death of his brother-in-law Edward IV. Exiled with Henry Tudor, he participated in Henry's capture of the throne. He was then appointed

Lord of the Isle of Wight The Lord of the Isle of Wight was a feudal title, at times hereditary and at others by royal appointment in the Kingdom of England, before the development of an extensive peerage system. William the Conqueror granted the lordship of the Isle of ...

, the last person to be given that title. An enthusiastic soldier, he has been called "the last knight errant" because of his devotion to the chivalrous ideal.Wilkins, Christopher, ''The Last Knight Errant: Edward Woodville and the Age of Chivalry'', IB Tauris, 2009. Involved in many military adventures, he was finally killed in an ill-fated personal expedition to Brittany in support of

Francis II, Duke of Brittany Francis II ( Breton: ''Frañsez II'', French: ''François II'') (23 June 1433 – 9 September 1488) was Duke of Brittany from 1458 to his death. He was the grandson of John IV, Duke of Brittany. A recurring theme in Francis' life would be ...

. Woodville was referred to as Lord Scales after the death of his brother

Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers (c. 144025 June 1483), was an English nobleman, courtier, bibliophile and writer. He was the brother of Queen Elizabeth Woodville who married King Edward IV. He was one of the leading members of the Woodvi ...

, who bequeathed the Scales lands to him. He is consistently referred to as Lord Scales in Spanish and Breton records, but he never officially held the baronial title.

Early life

Edward was the tenth child, and youngest son, of

Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers (1405 – 12 August 1469), also Wydeville, was the father of Elizabeth Woodville and father-in-law of Edward IV. Early life Born at Maidstone in Kent, Richard Woodville was the son of Richard Wydeville ( ...

, and his wife

Jacquetta of Luxembourg Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Dowager Duchess of Bedford and Countess Rivers (1415 or 1416 – 30 May 1472) was a prominent, though often overlooked, figure in the Wars of the Roses. Through her short-lived first marriage to the Duke of Bedford, bro ...

, who came to prominence when their daughter Elizabeth Woodville married King Edward IV. During the reign of his sister's husband, young Edward Woodville was among those who allegedly encouraged the king's licentious lifestyle as "promoters and companions of his vices", in the words of the Italian courtier

Dominic Mancini Dominic Mancini ( it, Domenico Mancini) was an Italian monk who visited England in 1482–3. He witnessed the events leading up to Richard III being offered the English crown. He left in 1483 and wrote a report of what he had witnessed. He calle ...

. In 1472 he accompanied his brother,

, to Brittany.

had appealed to Edward IV for support against the French, who were threatening invasion. The king sent 1000 archers with the Woodvilles. Determined Anglo-Breton resistance forced the French to withdraw. In 1475, Edward IV made him one of the

Knights of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as on ...

. In 1480 Edward was granted control of the town of Portsmouth and the stronghold of

Porchester Castle Portchester Castle is a medieval fortress that was developed within the walls of the Roman Saxon Shore fort of Portus Adurni at Portchester, to the east of Fareham in Hampshire. The keep was probably built in the late 11th century as a ba ...

. In 1482, he joined the king's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester in his invasion of Scotland. Richard made him a knight banneret on 24 July 1482.C. P. Wilkins, "Woodville, Sir Edward (d. 1488), soldier and courtier", ''Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press 2011. The following year, he was commissioned to prepare an expeditionary force to be sent to France, but the king's sudden death halted this project.

Escape from Richard III

After the death of King Edward there was a power-struggle between the Woodvilles and Richard Duke of Gloucester, who had been appointed as Protector of the under-age heir Edward V. The Woodvilles were keen to bypass the protectorate and have Prince Edward crowned quickly. They attempted to outmanoeuvre Richard by placing their large family in positions of power. They convinced the royal council to appoint Edward Woodville as admiral of a fleet, supposedly to deal with the French naval commander Philippe de Crèvecoeur, who was attacking English ships in the channel.Horrox, Rosemary, ''Richard III: A Study of Service'', p.90 He seems to have left London to take command of the fleet shortly after Richard initiated his ''coup'' by arresting Edward's brother

, at Stony Stratford. Apparently still unaware of this development, Edward then sailed with his fleet in April. Richard quickly moved to place his supporters in control of key posts in Edward's power-base at the Isle of Wight and Porchester. By mid-May he sought to capture his fleet. Woodville was at Southampton, having just confiscated a large sum in gold coins (allegedly belonging to the king) from a merchant ship, when he was made aware of the situation. Most of his fleet surrendered to Richard, but Woodville escaped with two ships and, probably, the money. He and his men then joined Henry Tudor in exile in Brittany, where he seems to have received a monthly allowance from the Duke. Richard executed Anthony Woodville and proclaimed himself king. He made a number of attempts to extradite the Tudor faction, but the Duke resisted the pressure.

Under Henry VII

Edward returned to England with Henry in 1485 and fought at the

Battle of Bosworth The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 Au ...

. Under Henry VII he was appointed as

in the first year of the new king's reign. He was also given command of Porchester Castle again, along with

Carisbrooke Castle Carisbrooke Castle is a historic motte-and-bailey castle located in the village of Carisbrooke (near Newport), Isle of Wight, England. Charles I was imprisoned at the castle in the months prior to his trial. Early history The site of Carisb ...

.John Duncan Mackie, ''The Earlier Tudors: 1485–1558'', Oxford University Press, 1952, p.87. By this time he was being called " Lord Scales", coming from his brother's wife, Elizabeth de Scales, whose lands had been bequeathed to him, but which he never seems to have received. In 1486 Edward went to Spain to join with Ferdinand and Isabella in the attempt to expel the Moors and unify Spain, possibly to fulfil a vow he had made that he would participate in a crusade. He fought at the siege of Loja, where he helped to defeat the Moorish forces by leading an attack to scale the city walls. In the fight, Edward was hit in the face by a rock thrown by a defender. He was knocked unconscious and his front teeth were smashed, a disfigurement he considered a badge of honour. He was visited in hospital by the king and queen, who sympathised with him over the loss of his teeth. According to the chronicler Andrés Bernáldes he replied, "Our Lord, who reared this fabric, has only opened a window to discern more readily what lies within". In the following year, back in England, he played an important role in defeating the rebellion of

Lambert Simnel Lambert Simnel (c. 1477 – after 1534) was a pretender to the throne of England. In 1487, his claim to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, threatened the newly established reign of Henry VII (1485–1509). Simnel became the ...

, when he was placed in command of the light cavalry, sent north to make first contact with the rebels. His forces repeatedly harassed the rebel army in a series of skirmishes in

Sherwood Forest Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous because of its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood. The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cor ...

, forcing it to slow down and giving the king time to build up his army before the main battle. He seems to have intentionally adopted the "Moorish hit-and-run tactics" of the kind he'd seen used effectively in Spain. His cavalry joined the main royal army before the decisive

Battle of Stoke The Battle of Stoke Field on 16 June 1487 may be considered the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, since it was the last major engagement between contenders for the throne whose claims derived from descent from the houses of Lancaster and Yo ...

, forming its right wing. In the following year he was made a

Knight of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...

Death in Brittany

In 1488 the Duke of Brittany appealed to Henry for help when he was once more threatened with invasion by France. Henry attempted to negotiate a settlement, but the French decided to invade. Edward asked Henry to allow him to raise a force to support the Bretons. Henry was unwilling to commit to this, and so Edward collected men from the Isle of Wight on his own authority. He managed to gather a small force of between 400 and 700 archers along with 40 of the local gentry. He sailed to

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

, plundering a French ship on the way. The Bretons decided to make the English force seem larger by dressing 1,300 of their own men in English colours, possibly to frighten the French with the fearsome reputation of the English

longbow A longbow (known as warbow in its time, in contrast to a hunting bow) is a type of tall bow that makes a fairly long draw possible. A longbow is not significantly recurved. Its limbs are relatively narrow and are circular or D-shaped in cross ...

men. At the

Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier (1488) The Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier took place on 28 July 1488, between the forces of King Charles VIII of France, and those of Francis II, Duke of Brittany, and his allies. The defeat of the latter signalled the end to the " guerre folle" ('Mad ...

Edward's force formed the vanguard of the Breton army. He led a bold attack on the French in the opening stages of the battle, but a French counter-attack on the weak Breton centre broke their position and the Bretons were defeated. Lord Scales' force was almost completely wiped out. Supposedly there was one survivor, a boy called Diccon Clarke, who returned to the Isle of Wight to tell the tale. Edward was killed with his men, apparently after he had refused to surrender for ransom. He was buried in Brittany. In 1988 a monument was erected by Breton nationalists at the site of the battle, which commemorates the English forces, but erroneously refers to their leader as "Talbot Earl of Scales"."English Heritage honore les archers de Wight morts à Saint-Aubin du Cormier en 1488", Agence Bretagne Presse, 11/08/09
The wording, in English followed by French, is «To the 500 English archers who shed their blood under Talbot Earl of Scales; Aux 500 Archers Anglais qui versèrent leur sang sous les ordres de Talbot comte de Scales ». This may derive from confusion caused by the wording of a famous letter written by

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

in 1429 referring to her victories over the English: "Believe what you have heard about the earl of Suffolk, the lord la Pole and his brother, the ''lord Talbot, the lord Scales'', and Sir Fastolf; many more knights and captains than these are defeated." This refers to

John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

and

Thomas de Scales, 7th Baron Scales Thomas Scales, 7th Baron Scales (9 October 1399 – 20 July 1460) was an English nobleman and one of the main English military commanders in the last phase of the Hundred Years' War. The son of Robert de Scales, 5th Baron Scales (c. 1372–1402 ...

(d. 1460) In 2009

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

put up a memorial plaque to him at Carisbrooke castle. Sir Edward's biographer Christopher Wilkins calls him "a true hero whose significance in the politics of the period is often overlooked", describing him as an "essentially Medieval" figure, whose actions in Spain, England and France helped form, sometimes contrary to his intentions, modern nation-states.

Scales title

Edward is consistently referred to as Lord Scales during Henry VII's reign, mostly by continental sources. Richard III did not honour Anthony Woodville's will granting the Scales lands to Edward. Other exiled members of the Tudor group, such as

Jasper Tudor Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford (November 143121/26 December 1495), was the uncle of King Henry VII of England and a leading architect of his nephew's successful accession to the throne in 1485. He was from the noble Tudor family of Penmynydd i ...

, used titles they considered themselves to have been unjustly deprived of by the Yorkist kings. However, there is no record of Edward claiming to be anything other than a knight. Edward was not officially granted the title by Henry VII when he became king. The minor Woodville relations who had inherited the land were left in possession of it, but without the right to use the baronial title. It is not known whether this was Edward's or Henry's wish. Wilkins believes that Edward chose not to pursue his claim. Edward nevertheless is consistently called "Conde d'Escalas" by the Spanish during and after his expedition there, and is called "Le Seigneur d'Escales" by the French chronicler

Jean Molinet Jean Molinet (1435 – 23 August 1507) was a French poet, chronicler, and composer. He is best remembered for his prose translation of ''Roman de la rose''. Born in Desvres, which is now part of France, he studied in Paris. He entered the s ...

. However, when Edward defied Henry's instructions not to become involved in the Franco-Breton war of 1488, Henry wrote to the French king referring to him as "Sir Edward Woodville, knight, calling himself Lord of Scales".Wilkins, p.183

References

External links

Edward Woodville at the Woodville family page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodville, Edward 1488 deaths Edward Knights of the Bath Knights of the Garter History of the Isle of Wight Year of birth unknown People of the Wars of the Roses Knights banneret of England Younger sons of earls