Sir Richard Ratcliffe, KG

Sir Richard Ratcliffe, KG (died 1485) was a close confidant of Richard III of England.

Notes: Knight of the Garter. Younger son of Sir Thomas Radcliffe and Margaret, daughter of Sir William Parr of Kendal, Comptroller of the Household of Edward IV.

He was knighted by Edward IV on the battlefield of Tewkesbury in 1471 and was created Knight Banneret by Richard, Duke of Gloucester during the siege of Berwick in Aug 1482. He was sent to York in Jun 1483 with a letter to the city’s Mayor, John Newton, asking for assistance in the Buckingham rebellion. Returning from York, he arrived at Pontefract at the same time as the Earl Rivers, Richard Grey and others. On 25 Jun 1483 Rivers, Grey, and Sir Thomas Vaughan were executed by Radcliffe. For his services, he was created a Knight of the Garter, Knight of the Body to the King, High Sheriff of Westmorland for life, as well as the receiving the Stewardship of Wakefield.

Along with William Catesby, Radcliffe was regarded as one of Richard III's most trusted advisers. By the mid-1470's he was Constable of Barnard Castle and a member of Richard's council at Middleham. He served in the campaigns against the Scots and rose high in Richard's favour, receiving many grants and official posts. On 22 Apr 1485 Radcliffe was sent a safe conduct from James III of Scotland to head a commision to treat with him. He never left London.

He was slain at Bosworth and was attainted by Henry VII. The attainder was reversed in 1495 on the petition of Radcliffe's son Richard.

Notes

From The Ballad of Bosworth Field

The ballad then records the deaths of Lord Ferrers, the ‘noble’ Sir Richard Radcliffe, a close counsellor of the king, the ‘wight’ Sir William Conyers, the ‘full doughty’ Sir Robert Brackenbury, the ‘good’ Sir Richard Charlton, all on Richard’s side. It c ommends in particular the valour of the respective standard-bearers: William Brandon, the only notable casualty on Henry Tudor’s side, and Sir Percival Thirwall who did not let fall the royal standard even when his legs were hewn from under him.

• There was Sir Richard Ratcliffe, a noble Knight,
• of King Richards councell was hee;
• Sir William his brother was ffeirce to ffight,
• & Sir Thomas, they were brethren 3. – 77.308

From Wikipedia

During the seizure of power by Richard III, Ratcliffe was chosen to return to the north and organize an army to help the Protector, as Richard III was then titled. Some sources name Ratcliffe as the person who gave the orders to execute Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers (beheaded Jun 1483).

When Richard became king he gave Ratcliffe a number of offices, including the currently attainted hereditary High Sheriff of Westmorland, and made him a Knight of the Garter. He also received a large grant of lands, including much that had belonged to the Courtenay Earls of Devon. After the rebellion of 1483 he was given a very large number of forfeited estates. As a result he had an income larger than most Barons.

In July 1484, William Collingbourne, a Tudor agent, tacked up a lampooning poem to St. Paul's Cathedral, which mentions Ratcliffe among the three aides to King Richard, whose emblem was a white boar:

“ The Catte, the Ratte and Lovell our dogge rulyth all Englande under a hogge. ”

He had married Agnes Scrope, daughter of Henry Scrope, 4th Baron Scrope of Bolton, one of the great barons in the north of England. The "Catte" above refers to William Catesby. The "dogge" here refers to a Lovell family heraldic symbol.[2][3] The poem was interpolated into Laurence Olivier's film Richard III, a screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's play.

Richard Ratcliffe was one of the two councilors (the other was William Catesby) who are reputed to have told the king that marrying Elizabeth of York would cause rebellions in the north

Ratcliffe appears in Shakespeare's play Richard III as a minor character who executes Rivers, Grey, and Vaughn.

Sources

1. Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 47.  edited by Sir Leslie Stephen.  Page 134.  "Sir Richard Radcliffe d 1485"

Links

• http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/RADCLIFFE2.htm#Richard%20RADCLIFFE%20(...
• http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/richardratcliffe.htm

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SIR RICHARD RADCLIFFE or RATCLIFFE (d. 1485), adviser of Richard III, was a younger son of Sir Thomas Radcliffe. The latter's father was younger son of the Clitheroe branch of the Radcliffes of Radcliffe Tower, Lancashire, and himself became Lord of Derwentwater and Keswick, through his marriage, about 1417, to the daughter and heiress of John de Derwentwater.1 Richard's mother was Margaret, daughter of Sir William Parr of Kendal, grandfather of Queen Catherine Parr. The family pedigree makes him the second son of his parents, and his brother Edward, who ultimately succeeded to the Derwentwater estates, the third.2 There must, however, be some mistake here, for Radcliffe's son stated in parliament in 1495 that his father had two elder brothers, both of whom were living in that year.3 His maternal grandfather's connection with the court as Comptroller of the Household to Edward IV will no doubt explain the origin of Radcliffe's intimacy with Richard of Gloucester. He and his uncle, John Parr, were knighted by the king on the field of Tewkesbury, and Gloucester made him a knight-banneret during the siege of Berwick in August 1482.4 Next year, Gloucester, just before he seized the crown, sent Radcliffe to summon his Yorkshire friends to his assistance. Leaving London shortly after 11 June 1483, he presented the Protector's letters to the magistrates of York on the 15th, and by the 24th he had reached Pontefract on his way south with a force estimated at five thousand men. On that day Earl Rivers, Sir Richard Grey, son of the queen-dowager, Sir Thomas Vaughan, and Sir Richard Haute were brought to Pontefract from their different northern prisons and executed there on the 25th by Radcliffe, acting under Gloucester's orders. According to the well-informed Croyland chronicler they were allowed no form of trial,5 though the statement of Rous that the Earl of Northumberland was their principal judge may imply a formal sentence by a commission.6

Radcliffe did not find Richard ungrateful. He was made a Knight of the Garter, Knight of the Body to the King (10 Aug. 1484), and High Sheriff of Westmoreland for life.7 Besides the lucrative stewardship of Wakefield, estates to the annual value of over £650 were conferred upon him.8 These grants were only exceeded in amount by those made to the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Northumberland, and Lord Stanley.9 Radcliffe and William Catesby, who did not benefit, however, anything like so largely, were reputed Richard's most confidential counsellors, 'quorum sententiis vix unquam rex ipse ausus fuit resistere;' and this found popular expression in the satirical couplet which cost its author, William Collingbourne, so dear:

The catte, the ratte, and Lovell our dogge Rulyth all Englande under a hogge.

The 'hogge' was an allusion to Richard's cognisance, the white boar.10

The 'catte' and the 'ratte' did not hesitate to tell their master to his face in the spring of 1485 that he must publicly disavow his idea of marrying his niece, Elizabeth of York, or even the Yorkshiremen whose loyalty he owed to his late wife, Ann Neville, would think that he had removed her to make way for an incestuous marriage. They produced twelve doctors of theology to testify that the pope had no power of dispensation where the relationship was so close. Their opposition, to which Richard yielded, was perhaps a little too ardent to be wholly disinterested, and they were generally thought to have entertained a fear that if Elizabeth became queen she would some day take revenge upon them for the death of her uncle Rivers and her half-brother, Richard Grey.

Shortly after this (22 April), as head of a commission to treat with Scotland, Radcliffe received a safe-conduct from King James, but may have been prevented from going by the news of Richmond's contemplated invasion.11 At any rate, he fought at Bosworth Field on 21 Aug., and was there slain, some said while attempting to escape.12 He was attainted in Henry VII's first parliament, but the attainder was removed on the petition of his son Richard in 1495.13

Radcliffe is said by Davies to have married Agnes Scrope, daughter of John, Lord Scrope (d. 1498) of Bolton in Wensleydale,14 and widow of Christopher Boynton of Sedbury in the parish of Gilling, near Richmond.15 The only child given to him in Nicolson and Burn's pedigree is the son mentioned above, who appears to have died without male issue. But a correspondent of 'Notes and Queries' (1st ser. x. 164) asserts, without quoting his authority, that 'Radcliffe's daughter Joan married Henry Grubb of North Mimms, Hertfordshire, and was heiress to her brother, Sir John (?) Radcliffe.'

1. Whitaker, History of the Original Parish of Whalley, 3rd ed., p. 415; Nicolson and Burn, The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, 1777, ii. 78. 2. ib.; Surtees, History of Durham, i. 32. 3. Rotuli Parliamentorum, vi. 492. 4. Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, 1875, iii. 9; Davies, Extracts from the Municipal Records of York, p. 48. 5. Cont. of the Croyland Chronicle, ed. Fulman, Oxford, 1684, p. 567. 6. John Rous, Joannis Rossi antiquarii Warwicensis Historia regum Angliae, ed. Hearne, 2nd Ed., 1745, p. 213. 7. Davies. 8. £650 in 1484 had roughly the equivalent purchasing power as £355,000 in 2010.

     Source: Measuring Worth. 9. Davies; Ramsay, Lancaster and York, ii. 534. 10. Croyland Continuator, p. 572; Fabyan, Chronicle, ed. Ellis, p. 672. 11. Rymer, Foedera, xii. 266. 12. Croyl. Cont., p. 574. 13. Rot. Parl. vi. 276, 492. 14. Davies, p. 148. 15. Whitaker, History of Richmondshire, i. 77.

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/richardratcliffe.htm

Tait, James. "Sir Richard Radcliffe." Dictionary of National Biography. Vol XVI. Sidney Lee, Ed. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1909. 577-8.

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