POLITICAL HISTORY family of York and the reigning house began to develop Richard of York, the son of the earl of Cambridge, held large possessions in Herefordshire. Several of the lesser families supported his cause. Sir John Harley of Bramp- ton Bryan was knighted on the field of Tewkesbury ,^^^ while Richard Croft of Croft Castle was tutor to the earl of March, afterwards Edward IV, and the earl of Rutland, who complained bitterly of his strictness.^^' The Vaughans of Bredwardine and Walter Devereux of Weobley, ancestor of the earls of Essex, also followed Richard of York. But though the Yorkist party was strong, the Lancastrian interest probably predominated in the county. The Bohun possessions were divided between the crown and the Lancastrian family of Stafford, whose head in 1444 was created duke of Buckingham, while the earl of Ormonde held Kilpeck Castle eight miles from Hereford, and in Archenfield beyond the Wye the earl of Shrewsbury held Goodrich Castle, the ancient seat of his family, which had been inherited from Aymer de Valence through marriage. In July, 1452, Queen Margaret and the duke of Somerset brought Henry VI to Hereford in the course of a progress intended to overawe dis- affection. In the next year when Parliament made a novel grant of 20,000 archers in consequence of the disturbed state of England, Hereford was required to supply a contingent of 130.^'* In spite of these precautions the Yorkists defeated the government at St. Albans on 22 May, 1455, but in the next year Queen Margaret succeeded in reasserting herself, and forced the duke of York to retire to Wigmore. She kept the king and court mainly at Coventry and Kenilworth, with occasional excursions to other towns of the Midlands and West, including Hereford. In April, 1457, the court removed to Hereford, where the king was attended by the duke of Buckingham and the earl of Shrewsbury, the heads of the Lancastrian party in the Marches. The reason for the approach to the Welsh frontier was to check the proceed- ings of Sir William Herbert of Raglan Castle, who was attacking Jasper Tudor and the other Lancastrian leaders in Wales. Wholesale indictments by Margaret had strengthened his hands by alienating public opinion, but the presence of the king and queen at Hereford had a marked effect, the burgesses and the gentlemen of the neighbourhood declaring themselves ready to take the king's part unless peace was concluded. On i May it was reported in London that Herbert was willing to make his peace.^^^ He was, however, too devoted to the house of York to contemplate more than obtaining a respite. In 1459 hostihties broke out in the Western Midlands. After the prehminary success of the Nevilles at Blore Heath over a local Lancastrian force, Henry VI moved from Worcester with his main army towards Ludlow, where was gathered the whole force of Richard of York and of the Nevilles. As he advanced Henry offered pardon to all who would submit to him within six days. On 1 2 October he found the Yorkists posted in front of Ludlow, at Ludford, within the Herefordshire border, in an entrenched position com- manding the bridge across the Teme. But the bulk of their followers were not yet prepared to war against the king, and their leaders to keep them '«* Collins, Hist. Coll. of the Noble Families of Cavendish, &c. (1752), 194. "^ Ellis, Ori^nal Letters (Ser. i), i, 9. ' ^'^ Rot. Pari v, 132. '^ Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner, 1872), i, cxxix-cxxx, 416-17. 373
