Two monks vying for the abbot’s chair at one of England’s prestigious monasteries each promised King William Rufus handsome rewards for his favour.
William II Rufus became King of England following the death of his father William the Conqueror in 1087. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, prevailed on the Norman barons to crown William instead of his brother Robert, and thereafter kept William on a short leash. The death of his mentor in 1089 marked a sharp decline in William’s character, but memories of better days remained.
A few years before the Battle of Agincourt, the Duke of Orléans challenged King Henry IV to meet him in Bordeaux for a winner-takes-all joust.
In 1404, during an uneasy peace in the Hundred Years’ War, the Duke of Orléans invited King Henry IV of England to Bordeaux, then in English hands. There they were to do combat — with a few men, or single combat if Henry liked — and the winner would ransom the loser back to his people. Henry played for time, the two princes traded insults and Louis lost his temper.
A few weeks after a large French raiding party had been driven away from the Isle of Wight, another flotilla arrived from across the Channel demanding money with menaces.
Shortly before Christmas 1403, French pirates landed a thousand men on the Isle of Wight only to be scared off by irate islanders. In the New Year more ships came. Since Henry Bolingbroke (said their captains) had seen fit to depose his cousin King Richard II, and call himself Henry IV, some recompense was surely due for the humiliation of Richard’s young French wife, Isabella of Valois.
Sir Thomas More gives his explanation for the mysterious disappearance of King Richard III’s nephews.
On April 9th 1483, Edward IV’s son acceded to the throne as Edward V. But the boy’s uncle pronounced him and his brother Richard illegitimate, named himself Richard III, and shut the two princes up in the Tower of London. Thirty years later, Sir Thomas More gave his version of what happened next.