William of Worcester's Chronicle of England
William of Worcester, born around 1415, and died around 1482 was secretary to John Fastolf, the renowned soldier of the Hundred Years War, during which time he collected documents, letters, and wrote a record of events. Following their return to England in 1440 William was witness to major events. Twice in his chronicle he uses the first person: 1. when writing about the murder of Thomas, 7th Baron Scales, in 1460, he writes '… and I saw him lying naked in the cemetery near the porch of the church of St. Mary Overie in Southwark …' and 2. describing King Edward IV's entry into London in 1461 he writes '… proclaimed that all the people themselves were to recognize and acknowledge Edward as king. I was present and heard this, and immediately went down with them into the city'. William’s Chronicle is rich in detail. It is the source of much information about the Wars of the Roses, including the term 'Diabolical Marriage' to describe the marriage of Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s brother John’s marriage to Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he aged twenty, she sixty-five or more, and the story about a paper crown being placed in mockery on the severed head of Richard, 3rd Duke of York.
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Effigy of a Nevill and Lady in Brancepeth Church, Durham is in Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
THESE are most probably the effigies of Ralph second Earl of Westmorland, and one of his wives. He was the son of John Nevill (who died in the lifetime of his father, Ralph, first Earl of Westmorland), by Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent.
He had two wives; his first was Elizabeth, widow of Lord Clifford, daughter of that remarkable historical character Henry Lord Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland, surnamed, for his promptitude in military emprize, Hotspur. By Elizabeth he had a son, John, who was slain during his life-time in the battle of Towton. His second wife was Margaret, daughter of Sir Reginald Cobham, knight. He died in the year 1484, the second of the reign of Richard the Third. The remarkable points in these effigies are the collars which decorate the necks of the figures. The Lancaster badge of SS is now discarded, and we find that of York, the white rose in the suna, adopted; from which is suspended the white boar, Richard the Third's device.
Note a. The parhelion which appeared in the Heavens at the battle of Mortimer's Cross occasioned Edward the Fourth to add the device of the sun to the white rose; and this assumed omen of success was indeed the occasion of victory to him at Barnet Field; for, being embroidered on the coats of his men, (much as we see, at this day, the crown, &c. on those of the yeomen of the Royal Guard,) and the Earl of Oxford, on the other side, having either a blazing star, or the silver mullet of his arms, on the jacks of his retainers, indistinctly seen gleaming through the mists of a spring morning, it was taken by the Earl of Warwick's soldiers for the badge of the foe, and assailed as such. Oxford, in consequence, suspected treachery in Warwick, and fled the field. Warwick's valour could not repair the mistake; he was defeated and slain.