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~ WHO'S WHO ~

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William Hastings (c. 1430-1483))

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One of Leicestershire's most important families was the Hastings family of Kirby Muxloe and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, whose two most famous members were Lord William Hastings (c. 1430-1483) and Henry Hastings, Third Earl of Huntingdon (1536-1595). 1985 was the quincentenary of the Battle of Bosworth Field, which saw the downfall of the House of York which Lord William Hastings had served so well. The career of Hastings was to a large extent mapped out for him by his ancestors for they were enthusiastic and fervent supporters of the House of York and so Lord William Hastings spent his life in the service of the Yorkist party and it was his great tragedy after working so hard for them that he should be put to death by a Yorkist King Richard III.

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The first Yorkist magnate whom William Hastings supported was Richard, Duke of York, the Yorkist leader for part of the 15th century. It was natural that Hastings should serve this nobleman, for his father, Sir Leonard Hastings, was a firm friend of the Duke, being a member of his Council. When Sir Leonard died in 1455, William continued the family policy of allegiance to the Yorkists and soon became a member of the Duke's household. Thus, he was at the side of the Duke when the latter was decisively defeated in 1459 at the Battle of Ludford Bridge by the Lancastrians. When the Duke was killed in the following year at the Battle of Wakefield, William immediately joined the household of the Duke's eldest son, Edward, Earl of March and it was this nobleman who was crowned Edward IV on 4 March 1461, that William was to serve for the rest of his life. William married Catherine Neville, daughter of Richard de Neville and Lady Alice de Montagu, Before 1461. (Catherine Neville was born About 1435, died About Mar 1503-1504 and was buried in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. From "William, First Lord Hastings" by Bernard Elliot.

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Soon after his Coronation, Edward moved north to deal with the formidable Lancastrian army and at Townton, twelve miles southwest of York, the two armies met. The resulting battle ended in such a complete victory for Edward that the way was now open for him to rule without much opposition from the Lancastrians for the next few years: it was also open for William Hastings to enjoy the fruits of his steadfast loyalty to the Yorkist cause. The first step in this direction came immediately after the Battle of Towton when William Hastings, along with Humphrey Stafford and Walter Devereux, was knighted on the field of battle. Thereafter, lucrative and important appointments followed. Soon after receiving his knighthood, Hastings was appointed Chamberlain of the Royal Household, an appointment which showed how valuable the King regarded his services and an appointment which made Hastings very powerful, since he now controlled all business brought before the King, including the hearing of petitions, and Hastings remained in this office throughout Edward IV's reign. Then, on 5 April 1461, he was made a member of the King's Council and on the 13th June that year he was summoned to Parliament as a Baron for his good services against the Lancastrians and was given the title of Baron of Hastings by writ of 26 July 1461.

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Before that, on 8 May 1461, he had been appointed Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall for life and this appointment was confirmed on 26 February 1463 when he was also to receive �41 yearly from the issues of the Duchy. On 23 May 1461, too, he was granted for twelve years, the office of Master and Worker of the King's Mints within the Tower of London, the Realm of England and the town of Calais, with the accustomed profits. Less than three months later, on 31 July, he was appointed for life, Chamberlain of North Wales. The next year (1462), Edward showed his friendship for Hastings by making him a Knight of the Garter, for election to this order remained very much a mark of the King's personal favour. Neither high birth nor even kinship with the King, automatically gained a man the privilege of being admitted to this charmed circle. John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk and John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, both had to wait until 1472 before becoming Knights of the Garter, but Hastings received his admission as early as 1462 - a sign of his extreme friendship with the King.

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The high position which Hastings now occupied in the Kingdom enabled him to marry an important and wealthy widow, Katharine Nevill, the sister of the Earl of Warwick and the widow of Lord, Bonville, Lord Harrington. Meanwhile, Hastings realised that in the unsettled days of bastard feudalism it was necessary for him to build up his territorial power to equate his political pretensions. Hence, throughout Edward IV's reign he was steadily acquiring manors, castles and offices in the Midlands. In this way many possessions of former Lancastrian nobles came into his hands. On 17 February 1462, for example, Edward IV granted him the lands which had belonged to Jasper, Earl of Pembroke and James, Earl of Wiltshire.

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These included the Castle, Manor and Lordship of Folkingham and the Manor and Lordship of Lavington in Lincolnshire, the Manor and Lordship of Loughborough and the Manor and Lordship of Shepshed and the Manor and Lordship of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire and the Honor, Castle and Lordship of Belvoir. Edward IV had already helped Hastings to consolidate his power in the Midlands, for in July 1461 the King had appointed Hastings for life to an important group of Duchy of Lancaster offices in Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire and later the King replaced Warwick by Hastings as Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster Honor of Leicester. So, whereas Leicester had been at one time a source of Lancastrian strength, it now became, thanks to the power conferred on Lord Hastings, a Yorkist stronghold.

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Further substantial grants of land were made by the King to Lord Hastings later in his reign. In 1469, he was appointed Steward of the Castle of Fotheringay, Northamptonshire. Moreover, Hastings' influence in the Midlands was strengthened by the several Stewardships of land given him by private persons and by his own purchase of property in the area. As a result of these various grants, Lord Hastings could put into the field 3,000 retainers, a fact which played no small part in enabling Edward IV to regain the throne after his return to England from exile in 1470.

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His large agglomeration of estates enabled Lord Hastings to parcel out lands among his followers, some of whom he retained formally by written indentures. One of his retainers was Harry, Lord Grey of Codnor, who signed his indenture on 30 May 1464, promising to take Hastings' full part and quarrel and to be with him against all persons except the King. As Hastings' retainer, Grey brought his own servants to his master's aid and in this way Hastings could furnish a large force of soldiers for the King. In the course of his career, at least eighty-eight knights, esquires and gentlemen and two peers signed and sealed indentures to serve Hastings for life in both peace and war.

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After ruling as King for eight years (1461-69), Edward IV was forced to flee abroad because Warwick changed his allegiance and persuaded Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence, to join him in an attack on the King. Indeed, there was a general movement in support of Warwick and Clarence against the King. So, on 2 October 1470, he sailed for the Low Countries and Lord Hastings accompanied him into exile.

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Edward, however, did not remain abroad for long and he was able to return to England, mainly because of a treaty which Warwick made with Louis Xi of France on 16 February 1471, in which Warwick agreed to join with Louis against Burgundy. As a result, Duke Charles of Burgundy now gave his support to Edward so that the latter could now return to his own Kingdom. With the Duke's assistance Edward and Lord Hastings were able to land their invasion force at Ravenspur on the Humber. At first, Edward received little assistance in the North of England but as the Royal forces moved south their numbers slowly increased and the supreme value of Hastings to the King's cause was shown when at Leicester, 3,000 of Hastings' retainers led by Sir William Stanley and Sir William Norris joined Edward's army. So, Edward was now strong enough to march on London, which he entered on II April. Two days later the King, accompanied by Hastings marched out of London with an army of 9,000 men to face Warwick's forces which were now rapidly approaching St. Albans.�

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The two armies met just north of Barnet and in the ensuing battle, Hastings commanded the Yorkist left wing, Gloucester the right wing and the King the centre. Warwick at first had some success, as his troops drove Hastings' contingent from the field of battle, but in the end the Yorkists were completely victorious and Warwick himself was killed. Meanwhile, Henry VI's wife, Margaret of Anjou, had landed at Weymouth on 14 April 1470. She reached Exeter on 15 April, where she soon raised a considerable army. With that force she advanced to Bath. Edward responded to this new threat with great vigour and on 24 April set out from Windsor, travelling westwards so as to stop Margaret and the Lancastrian army from effecting a junction with her Welsh supporters. Edward caught up with the Lancastrians at Tewkesbury and once more Hastings commanded the left wing of the Royal army, while Edward himself commanded the centre and Gloucester the right wing. Once more, Edward was completely victorious and the Lancastrian cause lay in ruins. On 21 May, Edward returned to London in triumph and to make sure that there would be no further Lancastrian effort to remove him from the throne Henry VI was put to death in the Tower, no doubt on Edward's orders.

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The continual assistance which Hastings had given to the King in these months of struggle did not go unrewarded. On 17 April 1471, Edward licensed Hastings to fortify his Leicestershire houses at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Bagworth, Thornton and Kirby Muxloe, and to make parks in each place. Building began almost immediately at Ashby where a 14th century manor house already existed. Here Hastings raised a high curtain wall round the south side of the manor house and built a formidable tower house in the middle of it. This magnificent keep rose to a height of ninety feet which gave adequate protection to its inhabitants at a time of civil war and anarchy.

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Not until October 1480, however, did Hastings begin his new building at Kirby Muxloe, and there an older manor house was partly incorporated into it. The type of fortified manor house which Hastings was building at Kirby bore a superficial resemblance to the mediaeval castle. In the course of its construction, Hastings gave careful attention to decoration and display. The castle was set back from Kirby by means of an open approach and it was one of the earliest brick buildings in Leicestershire. Courses of brickwork were made with patterned decorations with an heraldic design over the main gate. Originally it had a brick tower at each corner and a massive gatehouse commanding the drawbridge. In a time of Civil War, defence needs had to be considered; so, into the gatehouse and corner towers gun-ports were built. On Hastings' brutal murder on 13 June 1483, work came to a standstill, but it was resumed later and building accounts continued until December 1484 when work finally ended, during the whole time of which �l,000 had been spent and 1,342,500 bricks had been laid.

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Another reward that the King gave to Hastings was on 17 July 1471, when he replaced Earl Rivers with Hastings as Lieutenant of Calais, a move which led to much bitterness between Hastings and the Woodville family. Meanwhile, Hastings lost no time in taking over his duties in regard to Calais; in late July 1471, he and his deputy Lord Howard crossed over to Calais with a strong force of 1,500 men and reduced the rebellious garrison to submission.

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Foreign affairs played a larger part in Edward's second reign than they did in the first. Consequently, Hastings in his role of Lieutenant of Calais found himself more engaged in foreign affairs than in domestic issues. On 19th January 1473, for example, he left England at the head of an embassy to arrange with Duke Charles of Burgundy how to conduct the war against France. On 25 July 1474, Charles entered into a formal alliance with England against France, by the Treaty of London. The following year, an English army invaded France and on 4 July, Edward himself joined the invasion force. But neither Edward nor Louis XI wanted war and so the two sovereigns met on the bridge at Picquigny where they concluded a treaty, the main article of which was that Edward would leave France in return for the payment of 75,000 crowns. Having acquired most of this money, Edward and his army left France. Moreover, Louis XI arranged for Edward's Councillors to receive pensions and the largest of these went to Hastings who received an annual fee of 2,000 crowns. In addition, Louis made several gifts to Hastings, including 1,000 marks worth of plate.

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On 5 January 1477, Duke Charles died and Louis XI at once attacked Burgundy. The problem for Edward IV was which side to support in the Franco-Burgundian struggle. Many influential people in England favoured Burgundy, including Hastings. In 1477 a Great Council at Westminster decided that the Calais garrison should be strengthened and Hastings was sent there with 500 men. Throughout the next two years both France and Burgundy sought Edward's support and in 1480 Louis XI tried to buy goodwill in England by a series of lavish presents to many of Edward's councillors and Hastings once more benefited from French generosity. That same year, Edward decided to launch a war against the Scots and preparations for a summer invasion of Scotland went ahead; then the King decided to call off the war and so Hastings was able to enjoy one of his last summers in England.

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This story is taken from the publication "William, First Lord Hastings" by Bernard Elliot, published Dec 1984 by� Leicester Research Department of Chamberlain Music and Books, 134 London Road, Leicester LE2 1EB.

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