Confrontation on Dartford Heath, on the morning of March 1st. 1452

The below (and very comprehensive) narrative has been supplied by Bob Newberry.

The reasons for the confrontation on Dartford Heath, on the morning of March 1st. 1452, can with some justification be traced back to the preceding century and the reign of King Edward III. King Edward III was arguably one of the most successful English Kings and fathered many children. It is important to remember this last point as it had a major impact on decades to come.

As was the law of the land, Edwards’s eldest son should have become King on Edwards’s demise. However, his eldest son (the Black Prince) was already dead from one of these medieval bloody pox’s that seem so prevalent. The crown therefore passed to Richard, Edward III’s grandson (son of the Black Prince of course).

Richard II was a disaster, both indolent and capricious. He was almost certainly homosexual and elevated his ‘favourites’ to much high positions and showering them with gifts whilst at the same time insulting many of the established nobles of the land.

In 1399, Lord Henry Bolingbroke could take no more. Whilst Richard II was in Ireland, Henry staged a successful coup and became King Henry IV. He justified his action as his father was John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, third son of Edward III. Thereafter, this line of succession was known as the Lancastrian.

The most significant thing about this ‘coup’ was that for the first time since the Norman Invasion some centuries earlier, God’s own anointed, King of England had been deposed. As it happens, Henry IV developed some sort of debilitating illness shortly after (probably leprosy) and didn’t reign for many years. Many people saw this as a sign of God’s wrath and were nervous at the upsetting of the natural order. But now the damage had been done however. If you were utterly convinced of your own unassailable royal bloodline, felt slighted (and it was very easy for a medieval lord to feel slighted) and you had ten thousand armoured soldiers marching behind, you might think seriously what your options were regarding the throne.
Things settled down for a while with Henry IV’s son, Henry V. This pin up boy won everlasting fame by knocking seven bells out of the French which played well with the home crowd and Londoners felt free to beat up those whom they perceived to be ‘foreign’. Actually, Henry V was not a pin up boy; he had a lurid scar down the side of his face from a war wound at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1404.

Henry V died young, succumbing yet again to the good old bloody flux, so his son Henry (VI) came to the throne at the ripe old age of 1.After years of infighting over the regency, causing many simmering feuds to come, Henry VI became of age and to be able to rule in his own right. Unfortunately, history started repeating itself. In an age where the main qualifications to be a medieval King, was to be a ruthless warlord and distrust everybody to keep self serving nobles in check, Henry had none of these qualities. He was deeply religious and spent long periods in silent contemplation or prayer. He much preferred architecture, spending prodigious amounts of money on building colleges at Eton and Cambridge. He loved hunting and writing poetry. More important, he abhorred warfare, being physically sick at the site of blood. During his ‘watch’, England lost all of its conquests in France except for the coastal strip round Calais. Henry preferred spending money on building projects to that of raising armies. The average medieval noble was prickly, easily offended and self-entitled. Nobles who had previously had free license to exhaust their male testosterone by killing, raping and burning their way through France were bitter and angry, now confined to England, over lands and revenue lost. It was a powder keg waiting to explode.
Henry VI trusted everyone and hated confrontation; he wanted everyone to ‘get on’. His way of dealing with dispute was to give parties involved, generous titles, gifts and lands, hoping they would just go away. Obviously these resources are finite, but that wasn’t a problem for Henry, he would carry on giving out titles and land when other people already held the same benefice’s, thus ensuring more confusion and rancour. In effect, he was just lighting more blue touch papers.

Now, 80 years on, there were many descendants of the sons (and daughters) of Edward III, made much more confusing by frequent intermarrying. Many of these cherished their bloodlines and felt slighted and angered if their right to be the most powerful was endangered in any way. One of the most powerful was Richard, Duke of York, a descendant of Edward III’s second son, name of Lionel (note –second son, topping Henry VI’s, third son of Edward III’s line of succession).
Because the King was so easily swayed by those around him, anyone outside this circle could easily feel slighted and not getting their just recognition.

And thus, we come to the confrontation between the Lancastrians and the Yorkist’s at Dartford Heath on 1st March 1452. At what point Richard, Duke of York crossed over from righting his perceived ‘wrongs’ to thinking ‘Do you know what? I have the better bloodline and I would make a better King!’ we don’t know. It is probable at this time he just wanted to be within the inner circle of the King. A couple of years before, the Men of Kent had rebelled against the week royal authority. Under the leadership of a rather enigmatic figure called Jack Cade, in their thousands they poured across Dartford Heath and Blackheath. Fighting their way over old London Bridge they caused mayhem in the city for three days, even managing to breach the Tower. Shortly after, Jack cade and his ragtag army defeated a royal army sent against them at Sevenoaks. Richard, Duke of York had clearly moved his forces to the South East in an attempt to engage these rebellious forces and increase his own power base.

Nothing really came of the Dartford Heath confrontation, but a similar stand off occurred a couple of years later in 1455 at St Albans. This time however, the meeting quickly dissolved into open warfare and the Wars of The Roses commenced. Richard, Duke of York was victorious and took the opportunity to carry out general ‘cull’ of the King’s closest advisors. Richard now became the man who pulled the strings. In effect, the defacto ruler of England.
After this, there were many ups and downs in the fortunes of the two parties. Richard, Duke of York was killed in the battle of Wakefield and his son Edward then became puppet master. Soon tiring of the charade, Edward incaserated Henry VI in the Tower. For a the only period in England’s history, we actually had two concurrent kings, Edward IV and Henry VI. Henry VI was almost certainly murdered by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later to be the infamous Richard III. Still, at least it wasn’t the bloody flux or a red hot poker!

The Lancastrians subsequently won out with Henry VII (basically last man standing after 30 years of bloodletting) and starting the Tudor Dynasty. The Tudor claim to the throne was pretty tenuous to put it mildly. Not often shown on films or TV programmes is that well into the time of six wives Henry VIII, he was much concerned by Yorkist plots.

I’ll leave you with one final thought. If you were a medieval knight, it took a long time to put on your armour and take it off. You also needed assistance. If you are in your armour in an area of danger and you feel the need of a comfort break, what are you going to do? A squire had more to do than polish his lords sword.

Bob Newberry

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