Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/290

 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE to Stafford, having by that time collected a considerable force. In the mean time Richard had entrusted the defence of Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Wales to Lord Stanley and his brother Sir William, and had taken up his head quarters at Nottingham. From Stafford Henry marched to Lichfield, and lay without the walls in his camp all night, entering the town next morning, when he was received ' with all honour like a prince.' A day or two before, Lord Stanley with 5,000 men had been in the town, but evacuated it, being afraid to commit himself by any definite action, for he had been summoned both by Henry and Richard, and was as yet undecided. Henry left Lichfield and marched towards Tamworth, meeting on the way Sir Walter Hungerford, Sir Thomas Bourchier and others who joined him. 206 ' Divers other noble personages which inwardly hated King Richard worse than a toad or serpent,' also came to him now. Hall 207 gives a quaint account of Henry's wandering away from his own army near Tamworth, perplexed as to the future conduct of Stanley, and passing the night in a small village, three miles from the head quarters of his force, much fearing least he should be captured by King Richard's scouts. However he was unmolested, and next morning after giving an excuse to his men for his absence, and riding through the streets of the town so that all could see him, he went to Atherstone, where he had an interview with the Stanleys, then either returned to Tamworth, or slept where he was, and next day was joined by his army and marched on to Bosworth. Shakespeare makes him return to Tamworth, where on ' the plain near Tamworth ' 208 he makes his address to his troops. Among those who died fighting for Richard at Bosworth was Walter Devereux, who had married Anne the heiress of William Lord Ferrers of Chartley, and had been advanced to the dignity of a baron under the title of Lord Ferrers. 209 Henry VII had the good fortune to enjoy a reign which, compared with those immediately preceding it, was peaceful and quiet, and he had leisure to enjoy the sport of hunting, of which he was fond. Need- wood Forest was one of his hunting grounds, and he often brought his court to Tutbury for that purpose when on his way to Lathom House in Lanca- shire to see his mother the Countess of Derby. 210 In 1512 Staffordshire was summoned to provide a contingent for war with France, Henry VIII having joined the Holy League ; and the Earl of Shrewsbury was directed to muster ' as many of our subjects able men for the war under the degree of a baron to do unto us service as be our own tenants, and other our subjects within our counties of Derby, Salop, and Stafford,' and those retained for the war were to have delivered to them tokens or badges to wear, but the expedition was a failure. 811 The chief connexion of the county of Stafford with the political history of England during the reign of Henry VIII is furnished by the life of Edward, third Duke of Buckingham. In England, by the time of Edward I most of the feudal nobility of the Norman period had disappeared. In Stafford- shire, as we have seen, Fitz Anculf was soon only a memory, and the great 106 Hall, Chrm. (ed. 1 809), 413. * Ibid. Ric. Ill, Act v, sc. 2. > Dugdale, Baronage (ed. 1675), ">> 1 77- " Mosley, Hist, of Tutbury, 132. 111 Rymer, Foedera (orig. ed.), xiii, 337. 246