everywhere, and several men thought to be passing on her messages were tortured and killed.
But for now the people of London were overjoyed to have a king worthy of that name. As well as being tall – he stood at 6’3” – Edward was handsome, fair-haired and blessed with charisma and natural affability. He had that knack of remembering the names of everyone under him, as well as something about them with which to make small talk. The king knew how to keep the growing merchant class happy, even taking leading merchants away for a day’s hunting, where they played sport in the morning and drank themselves senseless in the afternoon,
For the first time in living memory the Crown was not in financial meltdown, as Edward saved money by avoiding overseas conflict and managing stability at home. With the profit he was able to build Windsor Castle and lavish money on court. Sitting on the marble throne, he was attended by 400 men under the control of the Lord Chamberlain, while the Knights of the Body looked after his personal needs. Each day he would sit in the King’s Chamber, where in the morning 2,000 ate at the king’s expense with servants on hand with water and 13 minstrels playing. This was an era of outlandish fashions, with huge pointy shoes, ostentatious and disgusting rings and enormous belt buckles, which young men thought made them look dangerous and sexy. The king himself was a great lover of fashion. In the first year of his reign the keeper of the great wardrobe spent £4,784 on clothes and furs for the king’s person, at a time when the average annual wage of a labourer was £6. He even employed a peasant to jump on his bed after he had woken up to ensure it was wrinkle-free.
Edward also loved gold and had a toothpick made of it, the paranoid monarch having it garnished with diamond, pearls and ruby, as it was believed that if a poison went near the gemstone it became moist. He also brought jousting back into fashion, and in June 1467 he arranged for the greatest fighters in Christendom – Lord Scales, the Queen’s brother, and Anthony, ‘Bastard of Burgundy’ – to come to London to fight. It was meant to be a light-hearted affair, but after a day it was interrupted by the news that the Bastard’s father had died, and the plague was back in town. The sports fans left and spread it all over the country.
Fashion, fighting, food and fornication – Edward had ferocious appetites, but his lust for women would be his undoing.
After the bloodshed, he was wise enough to forgive Lancastrian lords who bent the knee, including Lord Rivers, who was given his lands back within a year, as was his eldest son Anthony, both even being allowed to join the king’s council. Rivers’ daughter Elizabeth had lost her husband Sir John Gray in the fighting, and she took it upon herself to ambush the king while he was out hunting to get his lands back. Elizabeth Woodville was a beautiful schemer with long blonde hair and blue eyes, and the king was enraptured, and by some accounts tried to take her by force, only for her to stick a knife to her own throat. xxv He backed down, and when his attempts to make her his mistress failed he did the unthinkable, by marrying her in secret.
As in Westeros, where Robb Stark married for love, this was a disaster. When Edward told the council that he was married there was at first laughter; no king had married a commoner for 400 years and that’s what Richard Woodville, now Earl Rivers, had been born. Then there was outrage. Marriage was for the purpose of alliance-making, and Edward’s decision to marry for love (or lust) was a serious mistake.
It infuriated Warwick in particular, as he had been in communication with the wily French king Louis XI, nicknamed ‘the Universal Spider’ for his network of spies, about a marriage alliance with France. Out of lust the king had thrown away a hugely advantageous chance of such an alliance. The Earl of Warwick’s aim was to thwart
But for now the people of London were overjoyed to have a king worthy of that name. As well as being tall – he stood at 6’3” – Edward was handsome, fair-haired and blessed with charisma and natural affability. He had that knack of remembering the names of everyone under him, as well as something about them with which to make small talk. The king knew how to keep the growing merchant class happy, even taking leading merchants away for a day’s hunting, where they played sport in the morning and drank themselves senseless in the afternoon,
For the first time in living memory the Crown was not in financial meltdown, as Edward saved money by avoiding overseas conflict and managing stability at home. With the profit he was able to build Windsor Castle and lavish money on court. Sitting on the marble throne, he was attended by 400 men under the control of the Lord Chamberlain, while the Knights of the Body looked after his personal needs. Each day he would sit in the King’s Chamber, where in the morning 2,000 ate at the king’s expense with servants on hand with water and 13 minstrels playing. This was an era of outlandish fashions, with huge pointy shoes, ostentatious and disgusting rings and enormous belt buckles, which young men thought made them look dangerous and sexy. The king himself was a great lover of fashion. In the first year of his reign the keeper of the great wardrobe spent £4,784 on clothes and furs for the king’s person, at a time when the average annual wage of a labourer was £6. He even employed a peasant to jump on his bed after he had woken up to ensure it was wrinkle-free.
Edward also loved gold and had a toothpick made of it, the paranoid monarch having it garnished with diamond, pearls and ruby, as it was believed that if a poison went near the gemstone it became moist. He also brought jousting back into fashion, and in June 1467 he arranged for the greatest fighters in Christendom – Lord Scales, the Queen’s brother, and Anthony, ‘Bastard of Burgundy’ – to come to London to fight. It was meant to be a light-hearted affair, but after a day it was interrupted by the news that the Bastard’s father had died, and the plague was back in town. The sports fans left and spread it all over the country.
Fashion, fighting, food and fornication – Edward had ferocious appetites, but his lust for women would be his undoing.
After the bloodshed, he was wise enough to forgive Lancastrian lords who bent the knee, including Lord Rivers, who was given his lands back within a year, as was his eldest son Anthony, both even being allowed to join the king’s council. Rivers’ daughter Elizabeth had lost her husband Sir John Gray in the fighting, and she took it upon herself to ambush the king while he was out hunting to get his lands back. Elizabeth Woodville was a beautiful schemer with long blonde hair and blue eyes, and the king was enraptured, and by some accounts tried to take her by force, only for her to stick a knife to her own throat. xxv He backed down, and when his attempts to make her his mistress failed he did the unthinkable, by marrying her in secret.
As in Westeros, where Robb Stark married for love, this was a disaster. When Edward told the council that he was married there was at first laughter; no king had married a commoner for 400 years and that’s what Richard Woodville, now Earl Rivers, had been born. Then there was outrage. Marriage was for the purpose of alliance-making, and Edward’s decision to marry for love (or lust) was a serious mistake.
It infuriated Warwick in particular, as he had been in communication with the wily French king Louis XI, nicknamed ‘the Universal Spider’ for his network of spies, about a marriage alliance with France. Out of lust the king had thrown away a hugely advantageous chance of such an alliance. The Earl of Warwick’s aim was to thwart
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