The King’s Brother-in-Law: Antony Wydeville, Second Earl Rivers
Dorothy Margaret Stuart introduces a grandee at the court of Edward IV, a warrior both on land and sea, and the first patron of English printing; Earl Rivers, who met his death in the sinister Castle of Pontefract at the orders of Richard III.
When queen Elizabeth Wydeville emerged from the chapel of the “manoir royall” of Sheen one morning in Easter week in the year 1465, she was met and greeted by her eldest brother, Antony, Lord Scales.
As he knelt before her, cap in hand, certain ladies of the court gathered round him and contrived to clasp above his right knee a jewelled collar to which was attached a “Floure of Souvenance, enamelled and in manner of an emprise.”
Into the cap which he had let fall they also slipped a sealed scroll tied with a golden thread. Though he later described himself as “abashed” by the incident, he had been well briefed in advance, for he promptly carried the sealed scroll to King Edward, who, also well briefed, caused it to be opened and read aloud “in his high presence” and readily approved the “contenue,” namely, the articles of a proposed challenge of which the “Floure of Souvenance” would be the emblem.
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