III. The Warrior and Lover
On the morrow came a letter bidding John join the Earl at Calais. Shortly thereafter Blanche left St. Albans to visit her father and sisters.
Among the Paston Letters is one from John Jernyngan to his cousin, Margaret Paston, which is here reproduced with all the quaint spelling of those days:
Unto my ryght wurchipfell Cosyn, Marget Paston, this lettre be delyvered in haste.
Ryght wurchipful and my moste beste beloved maystres and cosyn, I recommaund me unto you as lowly as I may, evermor desyring to here of your gode welfar; the whiche I beseche Almyzthy Jesus to preserve you and kepe you to his plesur, and to your gracious herts desyre.
And yf it plese you to here of my welfar, I was in gode hele at the makyng of this lettre, blessed be God.
Praying you that it plese you for to send me word yf my fadyr wer at Norwiche with you at this Trenite Masse or no, and how the matyr doth betwene my Maystres Blawnche Wychynham and me, and yf ze supose that it shall be brought a bowte or no; and how ze fele my fadyr, yf he be wele wyllyng thereto or no; praying you lowly that I may be recomaund lowly unto my maystres Arblastres wyfe, and unto my Maystres Blawnche, her dowzther, specially.
Ryght wurchipfull cosyn, yf it please you for to her of suche tydings as we have her, the basset [embassay] of Burgoyne schall come to Calleys the Saturday[[2]] eftyr Corpus Christi day, as men say v. hondred horse of hem. Moreover on Trenite Sonday,[[3]] in the mornyng, came tydings unto my Lord of Warwyke that ther were xxviijte sayle of Spanyards on the se, and wherof ther was xvj. grete schippis of forecastell; and then my Lord went and manned fyve schippis of forecastell, and iii. carvells, and iiij. spynnes [pinnaces], and on the Monday,[[4]] on the mornyng eftyr Trenite Sonday, we met to gedyr afore Caleis, at iiij. at the clokke in the mornyng, and fawz thet gedyr till x. at the clokke; and ther we toke vj. of her [their] schippis, and they slowe of oure men about iiijxx [four score] and hurt a ij. hondred of us ryght sore; and ther wer slayne on theyr parte abowte xijxx [twelve score], and hurt a v. hondred of them.
And haped me, at the fyrste abordyng of us, we toke a schippe of iijc [300] ton, and I was lefte therin and xxiij. men with me; and thei fawzthe so sor[[5]] that our men wer fayne to leve hem,[[6]] and then come they and aborded the schippe that I was in, and ther I was taken, and was a prisoner with them vj houris, and was delyvered agayne for theyr men that wer taken beforne. And as men sayne, ther was not so gret a batayle upon the se this xl. wyntyr. And for sothe, we wer wele and trewly bette; and my Lord hathe sent for mor scheppis, and lyke to fyzthe to gedyr agayne in haste.
Nomor I write unto you at this time, but that it please you for to recomaund me unto my ryght reverent and wurchipfull cosyn your husband, and myn ownkll Gournay, and to myn awnte his wyfe, and to alle gode maysters and frends where it schall plese yow; and eftyr the writyng I have from you, I schall be at you in alle haste.
Wretyn on Corpus Christi day in gret haste, be your owne umble servant and cosyn,
John Jernyngan.
The engagement with the Spaniards related in this letter was looked upon as a victory by the English. The next year there was another naval battle in which after a running two days’ chase three out of five Genoese and Spanish ships were captured and brought into Calais, and Warwick became a naval hero to his countrymen.
On June 24, 1460, with Salisbury and March, Warwick landed at Sandwich, which Fauconberg had previously captured and held for the Duke of York. John Jernyngan, as we must now call him, was of course of the party. On July 2 they were in London, and on the 10th their army faced the army of the Red Rose in the meadows near Northampton.
The King’s position was well protected by the crude artillery of that day, but there was a heavy rain storm and the pieces could not be discharged. The Lord Grey of Ruthven turned traitor to the King and assisted the advance of the young Earl of March who soon opened the way for the Yorkists. Buckingham, Shrewsbury, Beaumont, Egremont and Sir William Lucy with three hundred other Lords, knights and squires were killed and Henry was captured and taken to London.
In 1461, John was present at the rout of the Yorkists at the second battle of St. Albans and escaped with difficulty. In March of the same year he also took part in the decisive battle of Towton where the hopes of Henry the sixth and his Queen found their grave. This was a fiercely fought field where the mallets of lead crushed many a skull. In the nick of time the troops of the Duke of Norfolk arrived and the Lancastrians broke and fled. John had been in the front of the fighting, towering above the heads of the other knights and esquires with the exception of the new King Edward IV who was a mighty man and handsome. The slaughter was terrible. “No Quarter!” was the order, and most of those captured were promptly beheaded.
After the pursuit was at an end John returned to Saxton where he found the King who said:
“Thou art a valiant soldier. Kneel!”
Then he smote John gently on the back with his sword and said:
“Rise, Sir John Jernyngan! The field is won. Go now to thy people in Norfolk.”
It may be imagined that this command of the King was promptly obeyed. When John arrived he discovered that the news of his new honor had preceded him. There were great rejoicings in which Blanche participated. To her he seemed a different man—older, more sedate, of greater knowledge, more to be admired and respected. She began to wonder what were his thoughts? and above all what he thought of her, but he gave at first no sign. In fact the slaughter after the battle had sobered him. It was borne in upon him that the King was cruel and that trouble must come. From boy he had become a man, accustomed to command and self-reliant. Like the moth near the flame Blanche was attracted and then repelled. She began to dream, and he figured in her dreams. She was a beautiful girl, much courted and a trifle spoiled, but John seemed to her stronger, handsomer and better than her other men friends. He never wavered in kindness but said little. She became bolder and he met her advances. Soon she found herself hopelessly in love.
In those days love was not alone the concern of the lovers. Fathers and mothers, often overlords, and even sometimes the King, must be consulted. When all these tedious matters had been arranged there was a great wedding at Warwick Castle, where Anne insisted the ceremony must be performed. The Bishop of Canterbury said mass and married the couple in the presence of the King, the Earl of Warwick and many of the nobility.
After their marriage several years of peace followed. Then more strife and blood with the struggle between Edward and Warwick, the return of Henry for a brief period, the fight at Barnet and the death of Warwick, the accession of Richard III and his brief and bloody career ending in the fight and his death on Bosworth Field. With the accession of Henry VII, the wars of the roses were at an end; peace returned and our story ends.
[1]. Whethamstede, quoted by M. E. Christie in “Henry VI.”
[2]. June 3rd.
[3]. May 28th.
[4]. May 29th.
[5]. “For” in Fenn; seemingly a printer’s error, as the word is “sore” in the modern version.
[6]. Here, according to Fenn, the words “and go the” occur in the original, struck out.