Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Note on text
- 1 Introduction
- PART I STRUCTURAL
- PART II CHRONOLOGICAL
- 9 Social and political networks 1401–50
- 10 Warwickshire under Richard Beauchamp: 1401–39
- 11 The interregnum: 1439–49
- 12 The period of crisis I: Warwickshire under the Kingmaker: 1449–61
- 13 The period of crisis II: Warwickshire under the Kingmaker and the duke of Clarence: 1461–78
- 14 The period of crisis III: Warwickshire under the crown: 1478–85
- 15 The period of crisis IV: Warwickshire under the crown: 1485–99
- 16 Politics and society c. 1449–1500
- 17 Conclusions
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - The interregnum: 1439–49
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Note on text
- 1 Introduction
- PART I STRUCTURAL
- PART II CHRONOLOGICAL
- 9 Social and political networks 1401–50
- 10 Warwickshire under Richard Beauchamp: 1401–39
- 11 The interregnum: 1439–49
- 12 The period of crisis I: Warwickshire under the Kingmaker: 1449–61
- 13 The period of crisis II: Warwickshire under the Kingmaker and the duke of Clarence: 1461–78
- 14 The period of crisis III: Warwickshire under the crown: 1478–85
- 15 The period of crisis IV: Warwickshire under the crown: 1485–99
- 16 Politics and society c. 1449–1500
- 17 Conclusions
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On Richard Beauchamp's death the king and the local magnates had to face the question of how Warwickshire and the other counties where he had been pre-eminent were to be ruled in the minority of his son. No minority rule could possibly encompass the breadth of governance that Beauchamp had commanded from 1422 to 1439, but there was no reason why it should be required any more. The reigns of the first two Lancastrians had shown that, given firm and reasonably amicable leadership in the areas to the north and east of the county, Warwickshire could be put under an effective divided rule that exploited the Beauchamps' power in the west midlands without necessarily obliging or allowing them to move very far north or east of their natural sphere of influence in Warwickshire, immediately south and west of Warwick. We have seen that the natural candidate for the job in Staffordshire and Leicestershire and, by extension, in north and east Warwickshire was the duke of Lancaster. However, once it had become clear that Henry VI was not the sort of king who could provide leadership, these sectors were open to competition. There were a number of candidates in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, while in Staffordshire Buckingham was the only obvious one, especially as he already controlled the Duchy estates there. The drawback of them all was that none had the undisputed authority of a king that had made possible the harmonious division of the county between Richard Beauchamp and the first Lancastrian kings earlier in the century. Alternatively, one nobleman could try to recreate Richard Beauchamp's wholesale control of Warwickshire from a different tenurial base.
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- Information
- Locality and PolityA Study of Warwickshire Landed Society, 1401–1499, pp. 399 - 436Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992