Richard de la Pole, the White Rose

I find myself saying this a lot but ......this is long overdue ! I very happily present the command of Richard de la Pole, the last White Rose, pretender to the English crown.

Richard de la Pole (born about 1480, died 24 February 1525) was a pretender to the English crown. Commonly nicknamed "White Rose", he was the last Yorkist claimant to actively and openly seek the crown of England. He was the youngest of seven sons of John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk and his wife Elizabeth of York. 

His eldest brother, John de la Pole was the leader of the first major Yorkist rising against Henry VII . After initially accepting the Tudor victory in 1485, Lincoln slipped into opposition and backed the scheme to use Lambert Simnel, presented as the imprisoned Earl of Warwick as a figurehead for a Yorkist restoration. Lincoln secured funding and mercenaries from his aunt, Margaret of Burgundy, gathered further support in Ireland, and invaded England in 1487. The campaign ended at the Battle of Stoke Field, where Henry VII’s forces swiftly crushed the Yorkist army. Lincoln was killed in the fighting, his supporters were destroyed, and he was posthumously attainted. His death removed the most credible Yorkist heir of his generation, but the wider de la Pole claim persisted through his brothers.

Richard de la Pole lived in exile from 1501, becoming allied with Louis XII of France in the War of the League of Cambrai. Louis saw him as a more favourable ally and prospect for an English king than Henry VIII.

For my interest the most intriguing aspect of his ascendency are in the years 1510-1514 (anti)-climaxing with the preparations for the Invasion of England under the sponsorship of the French King Louis XII, something that was not lost at all on the young Henry VIII who would expend a lot of anxiety over the course of de la Pole's life.

Here's some more detail on these years;

In December 1510, Maximilian wrote to his daughter, Margaret of Savoy, asking her to send a secretary to Henry to seek pardon “for the young Duke of Suffolk who is here.” This did not come and Richard de la Pole chose discretion. 

In 1511, Henry took a deliberately provocative stance toward France. That March, he sent 1,000 archers under Edward Poynings to Venlo to help Margaret of Savoy suppress the Duke of Guelders, whose ally, later French chronicler Robert de la Marck, sieur de Flouranges, was backed by Louis. By November, Henry had signed a treaty with his father-in-law, Ferdinand of Aragon, committing him to attack Louis by spring 1512. Meanwhile, Louis, focused on Italy, adopted a more conciliatory tone, even as his spies confirmed ships gathering in English ports.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, in early 1512 we next find Richard at the court of Louis XII. In early June of that year news arrived that Louis had “exalted” the nephew of Richard III and intended to make him King of England.

Louis saw Richard de la Pole as a valuable pawn, recognizing him as the rightful King of England and rewarding him with a generous pension and a command in his army. By December 1512, Henry had discovered that “Rychard de la Pole, calling himself among them Duke of Southfolke,” had led the Almains (German Landsknecht mercenaries) in Navarre, where they suffered the heaviest losses.

From this campaign, Richard came away with both the credit and the friendship of Pierre Terrail, le chevalier Bayard, with whom he had endured great hardships. It’s remarkable that Richard, with no known military experience, was entrusted with leading the often unruly Landsknechts - and that campaign featured some particularly unpleasant behaviour by the mercenaries. 

In 1513, as Henry VIII prepared to invade France he was careful to extinguish a Yorkist claimant in his realm in ordering the execution of Richard de la Pole’s brother, Edmund. Though the offence was simply being alive, the official charge was treason, that Edmund had been corresponding with his brother Richard about the prospect of a rising in England. Around this time a small group of English rebels did in fact join Richard in exile, suggesting that Yorkist discontent still flickered.

The next firm glimpse of Richard comes in July 1513, when he appears in command of some 6,000 men, almost certainly Landsknechts, serving with the French relief force positioned near Bomy, a short ride from the English encampment besieging Thérouanne. Richard must have been frustrated that express orders had been given by Louis not to engage the English in open battle and in any case events moved too quickly for him, but his opportunity for vengeance was not to be long delayed. In 1514 Louis entrusted him with a far larger force of 12,000 Landsknechts, intended both for the defence of Normandy and as the nucleus of an invasion army. Their presence proved deeply unpopular in Normandy, and Richard marched them to St Malo to embark for an invasion of England via Scotland, in cooperation with John Stewart, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland.

Once again, however, events conspired against him. Louis sought peace with Henry, sealing the agreement with the marriage of Henry’s sister Mary Tudor. Notably absent from the treaty was any provision for handing over the White Rose. Richard remained in French protection, but the invasion plans evaporated, leaving him once more a claimant without an army.

For my interest in February 1515 Richard left Metz at the gallop toward the English held town of Tournai just as the English garrison in considerable arrears of pay were at the point of mutiny. In April Lord Mountjoy (Edward Stanley) wrote to Henry that though he had restored order the mutineers had intended to join de la Pole but were 'too numerous to be punished'.

The next year 4000 landsknechts of the 'Black Band' were to be sent to Liege under the command of de la Pole who it was thought would take them to Tournai, Guelders or Scotland.

For completeness, some further brief biography

Thereafter and right up until 1524, de la Pole is mentioned often with de la Marck (who I must also represent one day) and also with Albany and interestingly Christian II of Denmark scheming potential invasions that ultimately would not materialise.

Richard de la Pole was killed fighting at the Battle of Pavia on 24 February 1525, leading his “black bands”  His body was buried with honour in Pavia by the Duke of Bourbon, who, though an enemy, attended the funeral in mourning. In England, however, the reaction was one of unrestrained celebration: Henry VIII received the “sure word and tidings” of the White Rose’s death with joy, and a lot of wine for the messenger. London’s bells were rung, and Cardinal Wolsey led a great procession of clergy into St Paul’s to sing Te Deum. Henry marked the moment as if it were a national victory, for the fall of his dreaded enemy removed the last living Yorkist claimant with a credible foreign backing.

There is no known portrait of him though this painting which emerged in an auction of 2013 was suggested to be him as the cloth cap features a white hart, an early badge of the Plantagenets.

The theory presented being that he may have adopted the white hart rather than the white boar in order to dissociate himself from a King whom some Yorkists considered a usurper.

In other words, by adopting a stag instead of a boar, Richard de la Pole was implying he belonged to the legitimate line of succession, first disrupted by the Lancastrians when they deposed Richard II, and later by Richard III when he replaced Edward V under somewhat questionable circumstances. Though it is a compelling argument it is conjecture, so as explained below I went for a safer option for a Royal Plantagenet Badge.

On to the figures.

All are from Steelfist Miniatures with the exception of the drummer which is from Warlord Miniatures. All apart from de la Pole are sculpted by the very talented Paul Hicks so this made for a cohesive group of figures.

Flags are from Pete's flags, the banner is conjecture but a very good guess at that and the standard is Yorkist featuring the red and white roses of York and Lancaster along with a crowned Lion on a field of Murrey and Blue, I took the artistic leap that Richard may well have carried something like this to gather the sympathies and allegiance of his proposed English subjects. The finials are ex Front Rank miniatures, I'm not sure where these are available from now.

De la Pole is a Landsknecht commander with Gendarme armet and plumes, all available from Steelfist, this level of variety is what i particularly enjoy for creating unique characters such as this. The drummer is in de la Pole's grey and blue livery.

The full command prior to basing.

Here's a group composition poised to invade over the border or waiting to meet with the Scots, supported by his landsknechts, some rebel archers and French men at arms.

lastly, a casualty marker......i've really fallen behind making these, figure is from Warlord Miniatures and the dial base is from Warbases.

I hope that was an interesting read.

All the best

Stuart