Richard Farndale

c1357 to 20 December 1435

A veteran soldier of the armies of Richard II and Henry V who fought in the French and Scottish Wars.

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Richard Farndale was the son of William and Juliana Farendale and was probably born at Sheriff Hutton in about 1357, assuming that he was about 78 when he died and 40 when he was an executor and beneficiary of his father’s will.

When he died in 1435, he left his own will. His first bequest was that his impressive collection of military equipment was to be used as his mortuary payment.

This military bequest included a grey horse with saddle and reins and his armour, comprising a bascinet, a breast plate, a pair of vembraces and a pair of rerebraces with leg harness.

His grey Horse His bascinet His breastplate His vambraces His rerebraces

A bascinet was a medieval combat helmet Vembraces or vambraces were armoured forearm guards A rerebrace was a piece of armour designed to protect the upper arms above the elbow

Richard was impressively armed for military service when he died, so it seems likely that he pursued a military career. He had lived through a period of wars with Scotland and France.

The armour of a medieval Man and Arms

A flavour of the armour of a medieval man at arms. I suggest you mute the sound.

The Hundred Years War with France lasted from 1337 to 1453. Before the Hundred Years War, warfare was rooted to the principles of chivalry, which focused the exploits of the nobility. By the 1320s experienced soldiers fought on foot alongside commoners. Ideas of feudal service were replaced by professional soldiers, who undertook operations contrary to the chivalric code including ambush, siege, raids, looting, burning, rape. The archers were the prime example of new commoners’ forces, firing arrows which could easily penetrate knights’ armour. The commoners were given opportunities to accumulate significant wealth through war booty, and ransoms, as well as their pay.

There was a Richard Farnham or Farneham, listed in records of medieval soldiers, who joined an expedition to France as an archer on 28 June 1380 under the captaincy of Sir William Windsor, and the command of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester. It is not certain that this was him, because the spelling of the surname is different, but this was a time of fluidity in surname spellings. Given his military equipment listed in his will, 55 years later, it seems likely that Richard would have started a military career at about this time. He would have been about 23 at this time. Whilst we cannot be certain, it is possible, perhaps even quite likely, that this was Richard in his early military exploits in France.

1380 was in the midst of a crisis in the French Wars in the time of Richard II. The Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 arose due to high taxes required to fund the French Wars. Richard II was not a popular King, and the cost of these French wars were not welcomed at home.

Richard’s commander, Thomas of Woodstock had been in command of a large campaign in northern France that followed the War of the Breton Succession of from 1343 to 1364. During this campaign John IV, Duke of Brittany had tried to secure control of the Duchy of Brittany against his rival Charles of Blois. John returned to Brittany in 1379, supported by Breton barons who opposed the risk of annexation of Brittany by France. An English army was sent under Thomas Woodstock to support the Duke of Brittany. Due to concerns about the safety of a longer shipping route to Brittany itself, the army was ferried instead to the English continental stronghold of Calais in July 1380.

As Thomas Woodstock marched his 5,200 men east of Paris, they were confronted by the army of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, at Troyes. However the French had learned from the Battle of Crécy in 1346 and the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 not to offer a pitched battle to the English. Eventually, the two armies simply marched away. French defensive operations were then thrown into disarray by the death of King Charles V of France on 16 September 1380. Woodstock's army engaged in a chevauchée, a practice common during the Hundred Years War, comprising an armed raid into enemy territory leading to destruction, pillage, and demoralization, generally conducted against civilian populations. The English army chevauchéed westwards largely unopposed, and in November 1380 the army laid siege to Nantes and its vital bridge over the Loire towards Aquitaine. However, the army did not succeed in establishing an effective stranglehold, and urgent plans were put in place for Sir Thomas Felton to bring 2,000 reinforcements from England. By January, though, it had become apparent that the Duke of Brittany was reconciled to the new French king Charles VI, and with the alliance collapsing and dysentery ravaging his men, Woodstock abandoned the siege.

There was a Richard Farnworth or Farnysworth who served in a standing force in Ireland under Sir John Stanley and mustered on 21 October 1389, which might have been him. Richard II had assumed full control of the government on 3 May 1389, and this was a period of fragile peace. Sir John Stanley KG (c 1350 to 1414) of Lathom, near Ormskirk in Lancashire, was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and titular King of Mann, the first of that name. John Stanley had been appointed as deputy to Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland in 1386 after an insurrection created by friction between Sir Philip Courtenay, the English Lieutenant of Ireland, and his appointed governor James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond. Stanley led an expedition to Ireland on behalf of de Vere and King Richard II to quell it. He was accompanied by Bishop Alexander de Balscot of Meath and Sir Robert Crull. Butler joined them upon their arrival in Ireland. Because of the success of the expedition, Stanley was appointed to the position of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Alexander to Chancellor, Crull to Treasurer, and Butler to his old position as Governor. In 1389 Richard II appointed Stanley as Justiciar of Ireland, a post he held until 1391. He was heavily involved in Richard's first expedition to Ireland in 1394 to 1395. It is possible that Richard was involved in these campaigns in Ireland.

Seventeen years after the French campaign in which Richard Farndale likely took part, Ralph Neville, Lord of Sheriff Hutton, supported Richard II's proceedings against Richard’s former commander Thomas of Woodstock in an early sign that the King’s rule was unsafe. By way of reward Ralph Neville was created Earl of Westmorland on 29 September 1397. However Ralph had married the daughter of the Lancastrian John of Gaunt, and by the end of the century the Nevilles had switched to oppose Richard II and to support a new Lancastrian dynasty.

The soldier, Richard Farndale was also an inhabitant of Sheriff Hutton in the lands of Ralph Neville, and he and his family were witnesses to the dynastic duels about to unfold.

His father died in 1398 and Richard was an executor with his mother, Juliana and beneficiary of his father’s will made on 23 February 1398. He received a legacy of £4 and, with his mother and sister Helen, the residue of his father’s estate. He was probably about 40 years old. It might have been with these inherited funds that he bolstered his military armoury.

Richard must have married at about this time, perhaps in about 1400. We don’t know the name of his wife, as she is not mentioned in his will and might have died before he did. Mysteriously Richard bequeathed a substantial sum of 40s and his bed to a lady called Joan Brantyng in his will in 1435. It might be possible that Joan was his wife and later remarried. Perhaps this was a more recent acquaintance after his wife had died.

Richard had three daughters, Margorie perhaps born in about 1409, Agnes born in about 1411 and Alice born in about 1413. They would each witness the Wars of the Roses from the heart of the Neville lands.

There was a Richard Farendon who was archer and man at arms in a Scottish Expeditionary Force who appeared in Retinue Lists on 24 June 1400. It seems likely that this was Richard’s next military exploit, perhaps freshly armed with funds from his father’s will. By this time he would have been in his early forties. It seems likely that he became an experienced soldier who may have joined a series of campaigns. The Nevilles were key players in national affairs, so it seems likely that he would have been encouraged to join national armies when called to do so.

The English invasion of Scotland of August 1400 was the first military campaign undertaken by Henry IV of England after deposing the previous king, his cousin Richard II. Henry IV urgently wanted to defend the Anglo-Scottish border, and to overcome his predecessor's legacy of failed military campaigns.

Although Henry had announced his plans at the November 1399 parliament, he did not attempt a winter campaign, but continued with negotiations though became increasingly frustrated by the Scottish response. Parliament was not keen on the forthcoming war, and, since extravagance had been a major complaint against Henry's predecessor, Henry was probably constrained in requesting a tax subsidy. The general feeling was that a French invasion might be a more imminent threat.

In June 1400, the king summoned his Duchy of Lancaster retainers to muster at York, and they in turn brought their personal feudal retinues. At this point, with the invasion being obvious to all, the Scots attempted to re-open negotiations. Although Scottish ambassadors arrived at York to meet the king around 26 June, they returned to Scotland within two weeks.

Although the army was summoned to assemble at York on 24 June, it did not approach Scotland until mid-August. This was due to the gradual arrival of army supplies. There were supply delays. The King's own tents, for example, were not dispatched from Westminster until mid July. Henry must have realised how these logistical delays would impact on his campaign. At some point before the army left for Scotland, the muster was met by the Constable of England, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and the Earl Marshal, Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland. Individual leaders of each retinue present were then paid a lump sum to later distribute in wages to their troops. Men-at-arms received one shilling a day, archers half that, but captains and leaders do not appear to have been paid at a higher rate.

Richard Farendale of Shyrefhoton came from Sheriff Hutton in the lands of Ralph Neville, so there is strong evidence that this was the same person as Richard Farendon who joined these Scottish Wars.

The army left York on 25 July 1400 and reached Newcastle-upon-Tyne four days later. It continued to suffer shortages of supplies, particularly food, of which more had had to be requested before even leaving York. As the campaign progressed, bad weather exacerbated the problem of food shortages.

It has been estimated that Henry's army was around 13,000 men, of which 800 men-at-arms and 2,000 archers came directly from the Royal Household. This was "one of the largest raised in late medieval England". Whilst it was smaller than the massive army assembled in 1345 that would fight the Battle of Crécy, it was larger than most that were mustered for service in France. The English fleet also patrolled the east coast of Scotland in order to besiege Scottish trade and to resupply the army when required. At least three convoys were sent from London and the Humber, the first of which delivered 100 tonnes of flour and ten tonnes of sea salt to Henry's army in Scotland.

Henry crossed the border in mid August. Henry took care to prevent his army from ravaging the countryside on their march through Berwickshire and Lothian in contrast to previous campaigns when for instance Richard II had devastation wreacked in the last campaign of 1385. This may well have been the lands they marched through belonged to the earl of Dunbar, who had joined the army.

Even so, the King probably envisaged some confrontation or such a chevauchée that the Scots would be eager to negotiate. In the event, they offered no resistance as the English army marched through Haddington.

However, Henry's army never progressed further than Leith. Not only was no pitched battle ever attempted, but the king did not try and besiege Scotland's capital, Edinburgh nor its castle where the Duke of Rothsay was ensconced. Henry's army left at the end of the summer after only a brief stay, mostly camped near Leith (near Edinburgh) where it could maintain contact with its supply fleet. Henry took a personal interest in his convoys, at one point even verbally instructing that two Scottish fishermen fishing in the Firth of Forth were to be paid £2 for their (unspecified) assistance.

The campaign ultimately accomplished little except to further deplete the king's coffers, and is historically notable only for being the last one led by an English king on Scottish soil.

By 29 August, the English army had returned south of the border.

Although the 1400 campaign ended the Wars directly into Scotland, the Scottish Wars continued with encounters south of the Border. Shakespeare’s play Henry IV Part 1 opens with word brought to the King in about 1402, a few years into the new Lancastrian dynasty of the Wars with Wales and Scotland.

The Battle of Holmedon Hill was a battle between English and Scottish armies on 14 September 1402 in Northumberland. A picture of that battle was painted by Shakepeare. Here is a dear, a true-industrious friend, Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse, Stained with the variation of each soil Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours, And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news. The Earl of Douglas is discomfited; Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights, Balked in their own blood, did Sir Walter see On Holmedon’s plains. Of prisoners Hotspur took Mordake, Earl of Fife and eldest son To beaten Douglas, and the Earl of Atholl, Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith. And is not this an honorable spoil? A gallant prize? Ha, cousin, is it not?

We don’t know whether Richard was still part of the army at this stage, but it seems likely that that he continued to fight in these campaigns and we get a Shakespearean flavour of these campaigns.

Henry V was crowned in 1413.

Richard Farndale appears in the military records again in 1417, after the Agincourt campaign, but it is possible that, as a veteran soldier, Richard might have later fought in Henry V’s Agincourt campaign. By this time he was in his late fifties.

I haven’t yet found him in the list of known soldiers at Agincourt. In a Roll of the men at arms at Agincourt, there is no Richard Farendale listed. But to these lists of named individuals were unnamed lists of lances and archers, so he could have been amongst these ordinary unlisted soldiers. Living firmly within the Neville lands, it seems likely that he would have fought in the King’s battles with France. The family also originated from the lands of the wife of the Black Prince and the lands of the Stutevilles and the Mowbrays.

It is possible that, as an old veteran, he was recruited after the Agincourt campaign, when reinforcements were required from the older ranks. It is possible though that he also participated in the main Agincourt campaign, as archer or man at arms.

After the Norman Conquest, the Dukes of Normandy, subjects of the King of France were also King of England. The Dukes of Normandy were frequently in dispute with their neighbours, including the Dukes of Brittany. By the thirteenth century, the French noble lines were eager to drive out the English from their Norman lands. During John’s reign, the English lost their Norman lands, and from the reign of Henry III, there was a desire to win back the Norman lands. Edward III died in 1377 having failed to do so, his son the Black Prince having died in 1376, leaving Richard II as King, to be overthrown by Henry IV of the Lancastrian line, who reign was marred by constant civil war.

When Henry V became King in 1413, his ambitions were to restore English interests in France, which would in turn unite the warring factions at home.

In 1415, the 29 year old Henry V launched his invasion of Normandy. He landed in Normandy, reinforcing his ambitions to restore the lands which the English believed to be theirs. He landed with a huge army of 12,000 men.

A quarter of those were men at arms, who wore heavy armour and had a horse. Men at arms were paid 1s to 2s a day, depending on their status.

Three quarters of the force were archers, paid only 6d a day. They were cheaper and acted as a force multiplier. They were armed with the longbow. They could fire at rapid rates, from 12 to even 20 arrows a minute, accurately over long distances.

Henry’s army initially besieged the town of Harfleur, which is modern day Le Havre, at the mouth of the Seine, the launch site of previous Viking raids on Paris. There was a long siege at Harfleur, and Henry V directed the siege himself, using artillery effectively against the walls. The inhabitants of Harfleur eventually surrendered.

It was at the Gates of Harfleur that Shakespeare depicted Henry V’s rally.

The Rally at Harfleur

Henry V inspires his army.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility, but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger, stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage, then lend the eye a terrible aspect, let it pry through the portage of the head, like the brass cannon, let the brow o’erwhelm it as fearfully as doth a gallèd rock o’erhang and jutty his confounded base, swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide, hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit to his full height. On, on, you noblest English, whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof, fathers that, like so many Alexanders, have in these parts from morn till even fought, and sheathed their swords for lack of argument. Dishonor not your mothers. Now attest that those whom you called fathers did beget you. Be copy now to men of grosser blood and teach them how to war.

And you, good yeomen, whose limbs were made in England, show us here the mettle of your pasture. Let us swear that you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not, for there is none of you so mean and base that hath not noble luster in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start. The game’s afoot. Follow your spirit, and upon this charge cry “God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”

(Henry V, Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 1)

Might Richard Farndale have been witness to such a speech?

The siege of Harfleur ended in September as the campaigning season was coming to an end. However Henry V decided to march home through Normandy via Calais, perhaps to demonstrate his new hold on Normandy. He challenged the rather pacific Dauphin to single combat, which was declined. Henry left perhaps 1,200 men to garrison Harfleur and had lost perhaps 2,000, so he had perhaps 8,000 left.

The French army blocked the English advance on the Somme, but the English crossed. The armies eventually met around 45 miles south of Calais, at Agincourt on 25 October 1415. Henry placed his bowmen in a V shape on either flank. The longbowmen were a known threat to the French. A tradition evolved after the battle that the French threatened to cut off the middle two fingers of any bowmen captured to stop them firing again, and the archers responded to the French with the defiant V sign.

Did Richard Farndale flick the V sign to the French?

Shakespeare imagined Henry V’s next stirring speech before Agincourt.

The Band of Brothers

Henry V’s rally at Agincourt.

We would not die in that man’s company that fears his fellowship to die with us. This day is called the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day and comes safe home will stand o’ tiptoe when this day is named and rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall see this day, and live old age, will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors and say “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.” Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, but he’ll remember with advantages what feats he did that day. Then shall our names, familiar in his mouth as household words, Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, be in their flowing cups freshly remembered. This story shall the good man teach his son, and Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition; and gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Could Richard Farndale have been amongst the happy few, the band of brothers? If he was not, he must have known those who were.

The French planned to take the archers with their cavalry, but Henry ordered his archers to take the initiative to advance until they were in range and then fire into the French horses and soldiers, depriving them of the opportunity.

The French lost perhaps 10,000 whilst the English were said to have lost only 100 to 200. Amongst the dead was Richard Duke of York, father of Richard of York who would become to nemesis of the Lancastrians, but at this stage the Yorkists were loyal to the King.

After the victory, Henry marched to Calais and besieged the city until it fell soon afterwards, and the king returned in triumph to England in November and received a hero's welcome. The brewing nationalistic sentiment among the English people was so great that contemporary writers described first hand how Henry was welcomed with triumphal pageantry into London upon his return. These accounts also describe how Henry was greeted by elaborate displays and with choirs following his passage to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Henry V returned to London in triumph and paraded like a Roman Emperor. Support for the King mean that Parliament eagerly voted new taxes to fund further campaigns against the French. Agincourt also fomented support for the new Lancastrian dynasty.

The victorious conclusion of Agincourt, from the English viewpoint, was only the first step in the campaign to recover the French possessions that Henry felt belonged to the English crown. Agincourt also held out the promise that Henry's pretensions to the French throne might be realized. Henry V returned to France in 1417 to establish his reconquest of Normandy. In this second campaign, Richard Farndale does appear back in the records.

It is tempting to think that Richard might have participated in the wider campaign from 1415 to 1421. If he was indeed a semi professional soldier, this seems likely. On the other hand, he may have joined the post Agincourt campaign in 1417. It might be that after the losses sustained during the 1415 campaign, older veteran soldiers were called upon to fill gaps in the ranks, which might make sense of Richard forming part of the post Agincourt garrison at Harfleur.

Richard Farndale was descended from the poachers of Pickering Forest only a hundred years previously. It was such men who certainly inspired the stories of Robin Hood and whose archery skills would foresee the bowmen of ordinary folk who would one day fight at Agincourt.

Richard might have been about 58 years old by this stage, so if he was part of a medieval army, he would have been an old soldier. However if it was he who had fought in France in 1380 and in Scotland in 1400, it is likely that this old soldier had become a campaign warrior. His impressive armoury which he left at his death suggests an old campaigner who had risen to possess the armoury of a man at arms. He seems to have alternated between being an archer and a man at arms.

The principal consolidated source for participation in the Agincourt campaign is the University of Southampton databases on the English Army in 1415 in their data on the Soldier in Medieval England. Amongst the candidates for Farndale ancestors amongst medieval armies, there was a Richard Farndon who was an archer mustered in the Garrison at Harfleur under Thomas Beaufort, Earl of Dorset and Duke of Exeter in 1417. After the Siege of Harfleur from 17 August to 22 September 1415, the town would have been garrisoned in the following years. It was at the gates of Harfleur that Henry V had delivered his inspiring speech in 1415.

The 1417 record of Richard Farndon at Harfleur might indicate that Richard Farndale, who we know from his will was a military man, was an old veteran fighting in those campaigns, either part of the 1415 Agincourt campaign and continuing in the wars that followed, or joining the English force after Agincourt in their subsequent campaign up to 1421.

The victory at Agincourt inspired and boosted English morale, while it caused a heavy blow to the French as it further aided the English in their conquest of Normandy and much of northern France by 1419. The French, especially the nobility, who by this stage were weakened and exhausted by the disaster, began quarrelling and fighting among themselves. This quarrelling also led to a division in the French aristocracy and caused a rift in the French royal family, leading to infighting.

By 1420, a treaty was signed between Henry V and Charles VI of France, known as the Treaty of Troyes, which acknowledged Henry as regent and heir to the French throne and also married Henry to Charles's daughter Catherine of Valois.

In 1421, Richard Farendon or Farndon appeared again in the list of medieval soldiers, as part of a Standing Force in France as a foot soldier (Man at arms) and as an archer, under Richard Woodville the elder (1385 to 1441) and Richard Baurchamp, Earl of Warwick.

1421 was the year of the Battle of Bauge, the defeat of the Duke of Clarence and his English army by the Scots and French army of the Dauphin of France. The battle took place on 22 March 1421 during the Hundred Years War. The Duke of Clarence, King Henry V’s younger brother commanded the English army. The Earl of Buchan commanded the Franco-Scottish army. The English army numbered around 4,000 men, of whom only around 2,500 men took part in the battle. The Franco-Scottish army comprised 5,000 to 6,000 men.

On the other hand Richard Woodville (or Wydeville) (later the First Lord Rivers and father of Elizabeth Woodville later wife of the Yorkist Edward IV), under whom Richard Farendon served, was granted various domains, lordships and bailiwicks in Normandy in 1419 and 1420, culminating in 1421 with appointment as Seneschal of the province of Normandy.

Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick held high command at sieges of French towns between 1420 and 1422, at the sieges of Melun in 1420, and of Mantes, to the west of Paris, in 1421-22. The more significant siege was of Meux to the east of Paris.

In 1420 the town of Melun in France surrendered to King Henry V. The siege had rumbled on since June and had been fairly dramatic at times, with close combat taking place literally beneath the walls as the besiegers and the garrison dug mines and countermines in an attempt to bring the siege to an end. James I of Scotland (1397 to 1437 crowned 1424) was present at the siege, brought to France in 1420 as Henry's trump card against the Scots serving on the Continent.

Siege of Melun from a late 14th century manuscript

The siege of Meaux was fought from October 1421 to May 1422. Paris was threatened by French forces, based at Dreux, Meaux, and Joigny. The king besieged and captured Dreux quite easily, and then went south, capturing Vendôme and Beaugency before marching on Orléans. Henry then marched on Meaux with an army of more than 20,000 men. The town's defence was led by the Bastard of Vaurus, by all accounts cruel and evil, but a brave commander. The siege began on 6 October 1421. Mining and bombardment soon brought down the walls.

The English also began to fall sick rather early into the siege, and it is estimated that one sixteenth of the besiegers died from dysentery and smallpox while thousands died thanks to the courageous defence of the men-at-arms inside the city. As the siege continued, Henry himself grew sick, although he refused to leave until the siege was finished.

News reached Henry from England that on 6 December, Queen Catherine had borne him a son and heir at Windsor.

On 9 May 1422, the town of Meaux surrendered, although the garrison held out. Under continued bombardment, the garrison also surrendered on 10 May, following a siege of seven months. The Bastard of Vaurus was decapitated, as was a trumpeter named Orace, who had once mocked Henry.

John Fortescue was then installed as English captain of Meaux Castle.

It seems likely that Richard Farndale took part in some or all of these siege campaigns around Paris in 1421.

Richard Farndale of Sheriff Hutton appears to have been an old soldier who campaigned with Henry V, and perhaps built up his small wealth on campaign.

Henry V died in 1422 and left a nine month old baby son, Henry VI. The inter noble rivalry would soon pick up again.

Henry VI had no father to guide him to Kingship and he relied on his advisors. He became timid and passive. At this point in history, the nobility needed strong leadership to control their ambitions. After the expensive battles in France, financial resources were depleted. The young king was easily controlled by the rival noble families.

This unpopularity would ferment displeasure with the Lancastrian dynasty, which under Henry V had been so popular, and would give stir up a Yorkist uprising.

In time the Yorkist cause came to be supported by the Nevilles of Sheriff Hutton. Cecily Neville married Richard, Duke of York, the main protagonist of the Yorkist cause. Their son, Edward IV would found the Yorkist dynasty in 1461. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker, was the main political strategist to the Yorkist cause, in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses.

Richard was about 65 by this time, too old perhaps to take an active role himself. However he lived in Sherif Hutton, at the heart of the cauldron that started to bubble amongst the Yorkists. As a proud old soldier of Henry V he was likely to have been appalled at the failures of Henry VI, stirred on no doubt by his landlords, the Nevilles. In the last dozen years of his life, we can imagine Richard over dinner with his daughters spitting with rage at where things had got to under Henry VI, and yearning for the new glamour of the Yorkist cause. In an old chest in his bedroom perhaps, his armour of bascinet, breastplate and arm and leg fittings must have lain. His grey horse rested in the stables. He probably would have put them on and rode out with the Nevilles if he had been asked to do so.

However at this stage Henry VI was just a young King, not yet a hopeless adult one and the Wars of the Roses did not kick off until 1455, twenty years after Richard’s death. He would leave his three daughters to live through the years of Yorkist and Lancastrian rivalry. We only know their names. Perhaps they were passive witnesses to the events which would follow. Perhaps their husbands and their sons engaged in those Wars. We don’t know.

Richard’s armour was bequeathed to the church, to pay for his funeral. Perhaps when the civil war kicked off, they were taken by some other man at arms who likely fought with the Yorkists, under the Neville banner.

Richard died in 1435, exhausted from his life of adventure and chevauchée. His will was proved at Sherifhoton 21 Dec 1435.

In the name of God Amen, 8th December 1435. I Richard Farndell being of sound mind make my will in this manner. Firstly, I bequeath and Commend my soul to God Almighty, My Creator, and my body to be buried in my said Parish Church.

Item. I bequeath a grey horse with saddle and reins and my armour, viz: a bascinet, a breast plate, a pair of vembraces and a pair of rerebraces with leg harness as my mortuary payment. And I bequeath 3 lbs of wax to be burned around my body on the day of my burial.

Item. I bequeath to the Vicar of my Parish Church 6s 8d and to every chaplain taking part in my burial service Mass, 4d.

And I bequeath 26s 8d for mending a service book for the use of the parish church.

And to the fabric of the Cathedral Church of St Peter York, 12d.

And I bequeath to my daughter Margorie at her marriage 10 marks, if she live to be marriageable age. And if she die before she arrives at her years of discretion, I wish the said 10 marks to be divided equally between my daughters Agnes and Alice.

And I bequeath to Joan Brantyng 40s and a bed.

And to the four orders of friars mendicant of York 20s and two quarters of corn to be divided in equal portions.

And to John Pyper 2s.

And as regards the rest of my funeral expenses, I wish them to be paid at the discretion of my executors.

The rest of my goods, not bequeathed above, my debts having been paid, I bequeath to the said Margorie, my daughter, to be divided among them in equal parts.

And I make the said Thomas Robynson and John Couper and Margorie my daughter, my executors, faithfully to implement the terms of my will.

Witnesses; Robert, Vicar of the Church of Hoton, William Huby of the same, John Burdley of the same and many others.’

Administration granted to Thomas and John on 21st December 1435 with rights reserved for similar administration to be granted to Margorie.

(Translated from Latin text of Will held at York. Prob. Reg. 3/441).

Richard Farndale therefore died between 8 and 21 December 1435.

How does Richard Farndale relate to the modern family?

It is not possible to be accurate about the early family tree, before the recording of births, marriages and deaths in parish records, but we do have a lot of medieval material including important clues on relationships between individuals. The matrix of the family before about 1550 is the most probable structure based on the available evidence.

If it is accurate, Richard Farndale was related to the thirteenth century ancestors of the modern Farndale family, and was part of the Sheriff Hutton Line. He was related to the original family who lived in the dale and then left for new lands. He was possibly a second cousin of the Doncastrian Farndales, from whom the modern family probably descends.

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The original webpage of Richard Farndale includes a chronology of his life and source material.