Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com
Stained glass image of Edward V Coldridge Church, Devon,
This wonderful church in Devon contains some little gems including a charming portrait of the young Edward V in a stained glass window, king for such a short while.
The story of Edward and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury is well known, their disappearance still a matter of great debate and well documented elsewhere so I won’t go into it here. Over the years his ‘murder’ has, in general, been attributed to his uncle Richard III but now more enlightened historians plus a great band of Ricardian followers have taken up the cudgel on his behalf and are now disputing that version of events and seeking to find the truth. Whatever that truth is, and personally I think they were separated and then taken to places of safety, it is hard not to feel sympathy towards the young boy who for eleven weeks was king only to be informed this was not actually the case. For all his short life up until then he had been shielded from the harsh realities of life and utterly indulged as heirs to the throne are. Even while still a tiny child his wardrobe was extravagant. A surviving account records clothing being delivered for his use not later than November 1472: five doublets priced 6s 8d, two of velvet – purple or black – and three of satin, two being green or black, five long gowns price 6s 8d, three being satin – purple, black and green and the others of black velvet; two bonnets, price 2s, one of purple velvet lined with green satin and the other of black velvet lined with black satin; and a sixth, even more splendid long gown cloth of gold on damask priced £1 (1) . When they broke the news to him and reality kicked in – there was to be no coronation, no crown and a complete and utter loss of status – it must have come as a massive, massive shock and through no fault of his own. Poor little blighter. That fault and blame must land fair and square on his parents shoulders, particularly his father. Yes the buck stops with Edward IV who kept his brains in his pants and a lot of people paid a heavy price for that…tsk. Historian Michael Hicks in his biography of Edward V say as much: ‘The blame rests firmly with Edward V’s father whose dishonourable conduct, faithlessness and duplicity as much as his sexual immorality was two decades later to place in doubt the title of a son who had not then even been born’ (2 ).
Not surprisingly because of the window, which is in the Evans chapel, and a tomb with an effigy of a young man, John Evans, the story has grown that this church could be the final resting place of the disappeared Edward V. John who died 1511, is said to have came from Wales – thus the name Evans which is Welsh – EVans – Edward V – one time Prince of Wales – get it? – please keep up at the back dear reader. It should also be remembered that Ludlow, where Edward spent most of his life up until 1483 was in the Welsh Marches and not Shropshire as it is today. The effigy is wearing chainmail under his robe and the story goes that John turned up in Coldridge in 1485 after the battle of Bosworth. IF he had been Edward he would have been around 15 at that time. It is indeed strange and as the author of an article on the Devonchurchland website (and what a beauty of a website!) points out why would a small church ‘in a gritty little village lost in the boondocks of Devon’ have such a wonderful royal and extremely rare window. It is also pointed out the plot thickens for John Evans was given ‘Coldridge Manor and a job as keeper of the deer park by Thomas Grey, the half-brother of Edward V’. This much is true, confirmed by historian Michael Hicks in his biography of Edward, that the village of Coldridge was once the property of Thomas Grey Marquis of Dorset, Elizabeth Wydeville’s oldest son and that Sir John Evans was indeed his park keeper. Crickey! John must have at some stage come to the attention of Henry Tudor and left an impression as he appears to have been knighted and thereafter known as Sir John Evans.
There is also a medieval stained glass portrait of a man who appears to be holding an open crown very similar to the one hovering over Edward’s head – you can clearly see the fleur-de-lis at the bottom of the portrait. If you look closely you can also spot an ermine collar, ermine would of course only been work by the nobility. How strange. Is this a portrait of John Evans, who if he was indeed Edward would have been around 41 when he died.
Medieval portrait of a man. He appears to be looking down at an open crown which is almost identical to the one in the image of Edward V. Is this man the mature John Evans/Edward V?
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