Wars of the Roses (1454) - Game Thread

[Garlan Gunter]

While the Duke of Somerset acknowledges his present imprisonment in the Tower was agreed by the will of the present regent and council, he on the other hand appeals that

I The sole regency of the Duke of York is highly divisive and contestable under ancient law and precedent.
II The regent's council was far from unanimous and swayed by improper and unbecoming demonstrations of force.
III By right of Magna Carta and other universally acknowledged customs of England, every day that the appellant is held in the Tower, without trial by his peers or by combat, constitutes a stain upon the legality of the regent's rule.
IV Any trial by peers cannot in justice be presided over by the regent, long since proven the appellant's open, unrelenting and personal enemy, but should rather be headed either by the Queen's majesty, or by his grace the Duke of Buckingham, Steward of England. Or else, of course, by the appellant's gracious and natural cousin and good lord, King Henry the Sixth, whom we all pray Christ and his angels restore to good health speedily.

[Garlan Gunter]

I cannot share my Lord of Salisbury’s view of my own detention apparently indefinitely and without trial as ‘laughable’. Think, peers of England. If such treatment befalls a Duke and cousin of the blood royal, what protection do your ranks afford any of you against tyranny?

The storied history of our realm affords many examples of royal wives exercising faultless regencies, from the Conqueror’s Queen onwards.

I feel that the statements of Salisbury and the regent regarding the Queen’s grace touch close upon treason, while the earl’s dismissal of his majesty’s much desired and most probable recovery’s likelihood passes that line.

Is not the King himself French on his mother’s side, proud Regent, and even himself rightful monarch still of France? Would you dare call him too incapable of asserting English interests?

Furthermore, the insidious Salisbury dares to call York ‘successor’, ignoring the existence of the infant Prince of Wales. This royal child must now suffer under the reign of a jealous cousin whose interest is directly opposed to his, as opposed to the natural guidance of his mother assisted by loyal kinsmen with no undue pride of blood or over leaping ambitions.

[Garlan Gunter]

Of Salisbury and his brother in law of York, it is the Earl’s words that are the more seditious, casting doubt on the very possibility of our natural monarch’s return to his right mind, doing dishonour to the office of queen in this land, and speaking of the regent as ‘successor’ without regard to the Prince of Wales, a wrong even the Earl of Richmond is careful to smooth over.

But I do note with extreme disapproval the regent’s attempt to whip up suspicion of the Queen by citing the French blood our monarch, and indeed all of our ancient nobility, shares. I recall that the Kentish rebels recently claimed the name of the Duke’s family of Mortimer. It seems York plays the populist still in courting the mob. Let the nobles and clergy of the realm take note.

The regency is a matter settled, until the King be well again. I simply note there are grounds for questioning how and why it came to be so settled, and in whose interest.

As to my trial, if York’s rule is not to be exposed as a lawless tyranny let it come soon. I deny the right of my notorious personal enemy the regent, or his Neville kindred, to preside over me in justice or equity, though of course they have the right as peers to join my judges. I will accept any verdict headed by the Steward of England, since it seems for, doubtless, reasons of their own the regent and his affinity are as eager to deny the right of the queen as I am to avoid my foe’s clearly interested persecution.

[Garlan Gunter]

‘The Lancastrians?’ Have a care, traitor Salisbury. It is the royal house of England, by Parliament and the consent of the realm established half a century ago, to which you refer. The house that steered England to her most glorious hours of victory, and God willing shall do so again.

Before that time, another Richard, the second of his name, that king of unfortunate memory, denied a trial by combat or peers to a far greater scion of Lancaster than I, banishing Henry of Bolingbroke and seizing upon his estates. The peers of the realm forsook him as a tyrant in consequence.

[Garlan Gunter]

I see that Salisbury believes he too is a regent of England, with much talk of ‘we’ and ‘us’. Open your eyes, nobles, clergy, burgesses of Parliament, to the overreaching despotism of this Neville clique!

[Garlan Gunter]

God’s blood preserve me and us all from the humility of the Nevilles! I would sooner brave the pride of the lions in the Tower menagerie.

[Garlan Gunter]

No doubt you would rather I were silenced against every law of chivalry - and the land!

As to Salisbury’s harping on the reverses of France, I call Lord Shrewsbury, valiant Talbot’s heir, to witness that I resisted the French while there was any prospect of so doing - my troops unpaid and my commanders distracted owing to the malcontent manoeuvres of the present regent and his upstart Neville friends, now so keen to fluff out their patriotic feathers.

[Garlan Gunter]

Let all Europe marvel at Humble Salisbury, the northern nobody who imprisons dukes and installs regents at will!

[Garlan Gunter]

Not I, cousin of York. I deplored the circumstances of the regency, of course. You were not, understandably given our previous relations, my choice. I felt undue pressure was brought upon the council that led to your appointment. And while you have a case, precedent indicates that the Queen has one also, and that in either case the regent ought to govern with the consent and collaboration of the king's blood and council, both of which I myself represent with loyal pride.

However, that you are now Regent, for the time being, I can hardly deny. I merely state that it is a rash and imprudent regent who detains without trial, contrary to custom, a kinsman ready and willing to assist him in the government of the realm, and leans instead upon the narrow support of his own marital relations: a clambering clan more notable for avaricious marriage than high blood or great deeds of battle.

[Garlan Gunter]

In recognition of my nephew-to-be Lord Richmond’s humanity and the universal confidence he enjoys as a uterine brother of our blessed king and a proven supporter of the regency, I appeal to him to assist in protecting my estates from any molestation by my personal adversaries while I lie perforce imprisoned.

[Garlan Gunter]

I am most interested to learn that the Earl of Warwick is in charge of my captivity. He has not yet seen fit to inform me of this pleasant coincidence himself, nor responded to my requests for a productive and honest private conversation...

[Garlan Gunter]

Neville hospitality at its finest indeed! They apparently aren’t even sure which oubliette they left me in...

[Garlan Gunter]

The Duke of Somerset welcomes the Regent’s just if tardy decision. He will accept the justice of a trial by his peers, so long as it is not headed by any of his known enemies, the Regent or the Earls of Salisbury or Warwick. Alternatively he is eager to stand trial by battle against any champion whatsoever the Regent chooses to provide.

[Garlan Gunter]

While noting that my father denied the validity of being tried by a jury of his personal enemies, I accept the manifest evidence of his guilt and vow not to seek redress against the regent or my Neville kinsmen for his death. I am dispatching my brother Edmund to attend the regent’s court and convey the confirmed loyalty of the Beaufort affinity to the highest lawful authority presently acting in the land, our cousin of York.

Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset

[Garlan Gunter]

I thank the Earl my cousin for his most fatherly concern.

[Garlan Gunter]

My thanks to my noble cousin the regent.

I do not, however, think anyone would object even to the son of a convicted traitor reminding Lord Salisbury that the Duke of York is not the King, rather regent until his majesty Henry the Sixth recovers or his son the Prince of Wales comes of age.

[Garlan Gunter]

An appointment sure to please his majesty upon his recovery. But the Lord Chancellor, usually though not invariably a cleric, most certainly needs to be at court in his own person to preside over royal justice. I counsel the regent that Jasper of Hatfield, Earl of Pembroke, already renowned in war, supply his brother’s place in Wales. As such he would enjoy my entire support as his nearest neighbour among the tenants in chief of the Crown.

[Garlan Gunter]

God bless our noble regent and smile upon this most honourable vow.

[Garlan Gunter]

Sir Owen Tudor is renowned for his powers of persuasion. The House of Beaufort predicts a dizzying future ahead for him at court.

[Garlan Gunter]

I rejoice at my brother and cousin’s happiness as I commit myself to the valiant cause of England ahead.

Somerset, Captain of Calais at the Regent’s command

[Garlan Gunter]

People of Calais! Burghers, soldiers, French or English speaking all.

My father’s father’s father’s father, King Edward III, won your town by the sword. My late father defended her for England in his youth and his maturity both.

The Beaufort arms bear a portcullis. Take this as a token by symbol and by name of my determination to keep Calais inviolate, English and profitable.

I have taken ship among you and among you I will stay, sword in hand for justice, for commerce, for Beaufort, for England and for Calais!

Your Captain,

Henry, Duke of Somerset