April 2nd 1471: Courting Sir Henry Vernon
Clarence was coming late to the party, but at last he was coming. He had reached the market town of Burford, in Oxfordshire, on his way to Banbury when he wrote yet again to Sir Henry Vernon. He was not seeking intelligence about wavering nobility this time, but was being blunt about needing his help:
Right trusty and well-beloved we greet you well and desire and pray you that incontinent [impatiently] after the sight of these our letters ye come unto us with the people that ye have gathered in defensible array, keeping the way towards us to Banbury-ward, and that ye fail not hereof as our special trust is in you.
Given under our signet at Burford ye second of April. G. Clarence, signet.
We know about the appeals to Sir Henry because the letters survived in the archives of Haddon Hall. They didn’t keep copies of any replies, unfortunately. There is no evidence at all that Sir Henry gathered any people and went to join Clarence.
It didn’t help Sir Henry’s decision-making that he’d been involved in family feuds with Sir Walter Blount, a favoured Yorkist, and Sir Henry Grey of Condor, another Yorkist. The latter dispute had led to the murder of Roger Vernon, a commission of enquiry (led by Clarence) and a ban on maintaining private armies. As Clarence had supported the Vernon interests through all this, he had anticipated some reciprocation, but Sir Henry’s policy has been described as ‘masterful inactivity’. This seems, with hindsight, to have stood him in very good stead.