RICHARD III and his MUSIC
by ANNETTE DAVIES
While researching a talk on medieval music, I concentrated on the music of the late medieval period, on the music that Richard III himself might have listened to. I tried to imagine the music he would have heard in his daily life and what kinds of music this would have been. In the course of this research I not only found some beautiful music, but also began to be aware that Richard himself was a lover of music. I discovered that, even in his short but eventful reign, he was responsible for promoting and encouraging the music around him. I also wondered what musical influences there were in his early years, and so researched a little further into his background and education.
Richard it seems shared the musical genes that were present in his family. The Old Hall manuscipt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Hall_Manuscript was compiled between about 1400 and 1420 and contains many pieces by English composers, including two mass movements by one Roy Henry. The identity of Roy Henry is not certain, but was either Henry IV or Henry V, both related to Richard III by their common descent from Edward III and John of Gaunt. The mass movements are the earliest part music by an English monarch. More closely related, Edward IV, Richard’s brother, was so concerned with complaints from his own “beloved minstrels”[1] that their calling was falling into disrepute, that on 24th April 1469 he gave a charter to a fraternity or guild of musicians. This guild would help to maintain high standards of musicianship throughout the land. Of course the musical gene was there in Henry VIII who was both a musician and composer (the author of Pastime with Good Company and other ballads, including reputedly the romantic ballad Greensleeves). But what a shame that Henry VIII, in spite of his musical ability, allowed so much to be destroyed from monastic libraries during the Dissolution, including sadly musical manuscripts. We can see a love of music also in Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I, who both patronised some of the best composers of their day, including Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.
What of Richard’s education? Would that have fostered a love of music? Richard would certainly have received a good education as a very young child, whether he was at Fotheringhay or Ludlow. His life was far from secure, however, and must have seemed quite topsy turvy at times when he was forced to move from one place to another with the changes in his father’s fortunes. Perhaps one of the most influential times for the young Richard was his enforced visit to Burgundy in 1460 after a sharp downturn in Yorkist fortunes after the Battle of Wakefield. Richard and brother George were under the patronage of Duke Philip of Burgundy whose court was amongst the richest and finest in Europe. Perhaps the many talented musicians at Duke Philip’s court inspired the young and impressionable Richard. Robert Morton http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morton_(composer) was an English composer who was employed at the Burgundian court. It is possible that Richard met him either during his brief stay in Burgundy as a child in 1460/61, or his later stay as Duke of Gloucester in 1470/71, when once again he was forced to flee from England after the temporary return of Henry VI to the English throne. Guillaume Dufay, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Dufay of the most talented composers of his time, was well known at the Burgundian court and his music must have been played often during Richard’s second visit. Richard’s visits to Burgundy must have been influential, bringing him into contact as they did with a cultured Renaissance court.
From 1461 Richard (now Duke of Gloucester) received his knightly education at Middleham, under the patronage of the Kingmaker, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. Richard was certainly happy at Middleham, which must have seemed a haven of security and calm after his previous young life. Did he have time between the tiltyard and the lists to pursue any of the more peaceful arts? It seems very likely that he would have been taught music as part of his education as a chivalric knight. His education may have followed the Quadrivium, which included knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. It is almost certain that he learned to play an instrument at some time in his education. We can see that he had a respect for those who were musically talented; a respect that manifested itself during his reign.
Richard as king could be a generous employer, especially to those who had given him outstanding service. Harleian Manuscript 433 includes the registry book of his writs and grants. In his book Richard the Third Paul Murray Kendall tells us that the registry book records annuities of ten marks each to two of his minstrels – Robert Green and John Hawkins[2]. Richard also kept a band of trumpeters and encouraged musicians from abroad to come to his court. Sharon Turner, the 19th century historian also cites the Harleian Manuscript to tell us that two musicians came from the Duke of Austria and two from the Duke of Bavaria[3]. All of Richard’s musicians would have been extremely talented, and would have been capable of transferring from one medieval instrument http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/instrumt.html to another with ease. So we can imagine a talented player of the strangely shaped crumhorn would next day play the recorder or the shawm; the harpist might be equally talented at the psaltery and the guitarist at the lute. It would be good to think that Richard’s trumpeters were also at home with the mellow-toned sacbut, very like our trombone but somehow softer, a gentle instrument that was sometimes used to accompany voices. What kind of music would these musicians have played? Certainly dance music for King Richard and Queen Anne to lead the court in a stately basse dance or an energetic salterello; or perhaps secular motets, ballads and rondeaux to divert the listeners away from thoughts of impending war.
Perhaps we should admire Richard for his appreciation of just how music can be used to enhance a very special occasion, something that we take for granted today. Richard’s coronation was a splendid affair. Paul Murray Kendall uses several sources to portray the ceremony, full of pomp and splendour, and marked by the colour and richness in the costumes of all that took part. The procession to Westminster Abbey was led by the royal musicians and heralds.[4] As the royal couple were being arraigned in cloth of gold and the crowns set upon their heads “music burst from the organs”. At the end of the ceremony a fanfare of “trumpets and clarions and the organ” was used to proudly declare to all within earshot that here was the new King, ordained by God, a mighty ruler indeed.[5]
It seems that Richard took his minstrels with him when he and his Queen made official visits to other towns. In March 1484 Anne and Richard visited Cambridge along with a large retinue on their way to Nottingham. What a splendid sight they must have been to the people of Cambridge. Amongst this retinue was a troupe of minstrels. As seems to have been the custom, the town corporation rewarded these minstrels for their playing:-
“For the minstrels of the Lord the King Richard the Third this year 7s, and in rewards to the minstrels of the Lord the Prince 7s, and in rewards to the minstrels of the Queen, 6s 8d, and in rewards to the minstrels of the Duke of York 6s 8d.”[6]
It seems that just like the “fine lady” of Banbury Cross in the nursery rhyme Richard and his entourage would have music wherever they went.
Cambridge also had three waits http://www.townwaits.org.uk/history_index.shtml that were employed to entertain royalty and nobility. Town waits were musicians who may have originally combined their musical performances with duties as night watchmen. According to the Annals of Cambridge the Town Corporation paid 16s 4d for their vestments in 1484/5.[7] This was the first official record of the Cambridge waits, although they may have existed earlier. All this playing must have pleased – the royal couple were very generous towards the university town. Queen Anne endowed rents to Queen’s College, while Richard was busy founding scholarships and proceeding with the establishment of King’s College Chapel, giving the fortune of £700 towards the Chapel’s costs.[8] This visit was a happy and tranquil interlude before the royal couple reached Nottingham Castle. Many larger towns and cities employed waits. Richard must have been entertained often by the London waits, and perhaps he was entertained at Lincoln by the waits of that town. Many of the waits were fine musicians – Orlando Gibbons was the son of a Cambridge wait and his brother Ferdinando became a Lincoln wait.
But it was surely the York Waits that met most with Richard’s approval. His warm relationship with the city is well documented. Amidst all the stress of his reign he and Queen Anne spent a happy period at York at the end of August and beginning of September 1483. There the mayor and his dignitaries provided entertainments fit for the King and Queen of England and their noble entourage. They watched pageants and entertainments and attended banquets. On the 8th September the investiture of their son Edward as Prince of Wales took place in York. It was a ceremony to rival Richard’s own coronation in its opulence and splendour. Among all this celebration the three York waits played their musical best for the royal couple and the nobility that came with them, aided no doubt by Richard’s very own minstrels and trumpeters.
The choir of the Chapel Royal would also have played a part in the investiture of the little Prince of Wales at York. The importance of the Chapel Royal in Richard’s life came over to me strongly during my research. The Chapel Royal has been in existence from the 13th century and is an establishment of priests and singers created to care for the sovereign’s spiritual needs. Wherever the sovereign went, the Chapel Royal would accompany him or her. In her book on Richard III Caroline Halsted (Victorian writer and early Ricardian), mentions the Chapel Royal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapels_Royal again quoting from the Harleian Manuscript. It seems that Richard empowered John Melynek, one of the gentlemen of his chapel:-
“to take and seize for the King, all such singing men and children, being expert in the science of music, as he can find, and think able to do the King service in all places in the realm, as well cathedral churches, colleges, chapels, monasteries or all other franchised and exempt places or elsewhere, the college royal of Windsor excepted”.[9]
This sounds like a press-ganging of musicians! But it was really a pathway to great honour for some, and at the very least, a way out of poverty for others. From 1483 the Chapel Royal consisted of six Gentlemen-in-Ordinary and ten Children of the Chapel. So whether Richard was listening to the sweet sacred notes of John Dunstaple, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dunstaple or a mass by Guillaume Dufay, he had the knowledge that the music had surely been improved by his efforts.
There are so many “what ifs” of history, but if Richard had not lost at Bosworth it is easy to see that his court would have become one of the foremost in Europe for the development of music. It is sad that Richard had so little time.
NOTES
1 English Historical Documents 1327-1485, Vol. 4 by A R Myers, (Routledge 2001), p1200
2 Richard the Third by Paul Murray Kendall, (W.W. Norton & Co. 2002), p347
3 The History of England during the Middle Ages Vol. IV by Sharon Turner, (Longman et alter, 1825), p87
4 Paul Murray Kendall, op. cit. p273
5 Ibid., p274
6 Annals of Cambridge Vol. 1 by Charles Henry and John William Cooper, (Cambridge, 1842), p230
7 Ibid., p231
8 Ibid., p230
9 Richard III, as Duke of Gloucester and King of England Vol. 2 by Caroline Amelia Halsted, (Elibron Classics, 2006), p364
