It is much more likely that they resided in the royal household, and were the companions of the King's other nephew, the Earl of Warwick; at least until it became necessary to place them in safe keeping on the invasion of the realm by Henry Tudor. In the regulations for King Richard's household, dated July 23, 1484, it is ordained that 'the children are to be together at one breakfast.' Who were these children, if not the King's nephews? They were evidently children of high rank,[[2]] and Richard's little son Edward had died in the previous April.
Before the coronation, the King created eighteen Knights of the Bath, four of them sons or brothers of peers.
The coronation of King Richard III. and Queen Anne took place on Sunday, July 6, 1483. Its splendour was greater than had ever been known before. The Cardinal Archbishop placed the crowns on the heads of the new sovereign and his consort. He was surrounded by bishops, and nearly the whole peerage was present. Never was accession received with such unanimous consent by all ranks of the people. The attendance of a Woodville bishop and a Grey viscount gave grounds for the hope that even faction was at an end. On scarcely any other occasion was the aristocracy of England so fully represented. The Duchess of Suffolk, as sister of the King, walked alone in state, in the procession. The intriguing wife of Stanley, mother of Henry Tudor, had the privilege of bearing the Queen's train.
CORONATION PROCESSION OF KING RICHARD III.
Serjeants of Arms
Heralds
Trumpets and Clarions
The Cross
Priests in grey amices
Bishops, with mitres and croziers
Abbots, with mitres
BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, bearing a cross
THE CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP
THE EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND, bearing the pointless sword of mercy
LORD STANLEY, DUKE OF SUFFOLK, EARL OF LINCOLN
bearing the mace of bearing the sceptre bearing the orb
Constable
DUKE OF NORFOLK, bearing the crown
EARL OF SURREY, bearing the sword of state in scabbard
VISCOUNT LOVELL, B C B C EARL OF KENT
bearing the sword a i a i bearing the sword
(civil) of justice r n r n (ecclesiastical)
o q o q of justice
n u n u
s e s e
THE KING
o P o P
f o f o
r r
BISHOP OF BATH AND t t BISHOP OF DURHAM
WELLS s s
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, bearing the King's train
Earls
Barons
EARL OF HUNTINGDON, EARL OF WILTSHIRE, VISCOUNT LYLE,
bearing the Queen's bearing the Queen's bearing the rod
sceptre crown with dove
BISHOP OF EXETER THE QUEEN BISHOP OF NORWICH
LADY STANLEY, bearing the Queen's train
DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK (King's sister), in state, alone
Twenty peeresses
The Duke of Buckingham put forward an important claim, soon after the coronation, and its success was an example of the lavish generosity of Richard III. Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, died in the year 1372, leaving his two daughters co-heiresses of his vast estates. Alianore, the eldest, married Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of Edward III. Their daughter and eventual heiress Anne married Edmund Earl of Stafford, great-grandfather of the Duke of Buckingham. Mary, the second daughter, married Henry of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, who became Earl of Hereford by right of his wife, and eventually usurped the crown as Henry IV. His male descendants ended with his grandson Henry VI. The Duke of Buckingham claimed that the moiety of the Bohun estates which Mary brought to Henry IV. and which had merged in the crown, should now revert to him as the male heir of both sisters. Legally, the claim was untenable, and it had been rejected by Edward IV. Richard, however, generously conceded all that Buckingham asked, making a formal grant of the lands in question under his own sign manual.
On his accession the generous young King was anxious to be reconciled with all his subjects with whom he had ever had differences. Among these was a certain Sir John Fogge, a low intriguer, with whom the King condescended to shake hands. This treacherous fellow soon afterwards joined in Buckingham's rebellion. Like Louis XII. of France King Richard forgot and forgave all offences against the Duke of Gloucester.