Sir James Tyrrell, Kt.

6 May 1502 – Death of James Tyrrell, English knight and supposed murderer of the princes in the Tower, was the eldest son of William Tyrell of Gipping, Suffolk, by Margaret, daughter of Robert Darcy of Maiden. Sir John Tyrrell was his grandfather. James Tyrell was a strong Yorkist. He was knighted after the battle of Tewkesbury on 3 May 1471, was appointed to conduct the Countess of Warwick to the north of England in 1473, and served as member of parliament for Cornwall in December 1477.

https://books.google.com/books?id=YrRSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=... The Archaeological Journal, Volume 28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tyrrell

Sir James Tyrell (c. 1450 – May 6, 1502) was an English knight, a trusted servant of King Richard III of England. He is known for 'confessing' to the murders of the Princes in the Tower under Richard's orders. However, his statement was taken under torture, so the confession can easily be discredited. (Nevertheless, William Shakespeare portrays Tyrrell as man who organises the princes' murderer in Richard III.)

Tyrrell was the eldest son of Sir William Tyrell (c. 1415-February 22, 1461) and Margaret Darcy (c. 1425), married in 1444. Like his father before him, a loyal Yorkist, James was knighted in 1471. He married Anne Arundell on March 9, 1483. They would later have a son also named James Tyrrell.

James was in France in 1485 and played no part in the Battle of Bosworth Field which signalled the start of the Tudor dynasty.

In the following year, he returned to England and was pardoned by King Henry VII, who reappointed him governor of Guisnes (in the English possession of Calais). However, in 1501, Tyrrell lent his support to Edmund de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, now the leading Yorkist claimant to the English throne, who was in voluntary exile. When Henry heard of this, Tyrrell was recalled, accused of treason, and tortured. Thomas More wrote that, during his examination, Tyrrell made his confession as to the murders of Edward V and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York and implicating two other men; despite further questioning, however, he was unable to say where the bodies were, claiming that they had been moved. He was beheaded on May 6, 1502.

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/James_Tyrrell

He was beheaded on May 6, 1502, and his confession, if it happened, was never made public.

Although serious historians have never given much credence to the Tyrrell story, Ricardians have exploited the confusion over the date of the pardon in order to point the finger at King Henry.

Was there anything sinister about Tyrrell's pardon?

Thomas B. Costain and others have made much of Henry VII's pardoning Tyrrell in 1486, because he seems to have done so twice: There are records of a "general pardon" on 16 June (as was customary for someone clearing up his records when leaving office) and another one on 16 July. If that is not some clerical error and there really were two pardons a month apart, the question arises of what Tyrrell did during that month to make him want another pardon. It has been suggested that Henry made a deal to pardon Tyrrell and restore him to office if he would kill the princes, or that he pardoned Tyrrell again and held the knowledge of his guilt in reserve in case he ever wanted to use it against him later.

This explanation in itself begs several questions. Given that Henry was ruthless and clever enough to murder the princes, the question arises of why he would he have waited a whole year after his accession to do so, and why he would he have selected a dyed-in-the-wool Yorkist as his instrument.

Archbishop John Morton is said to have been the source of the information in Sir Thomas More's The History of Richard III, which is where the story of the "confession" of Tyrrell appears. According to More's account, King Richard first sent a man named John Green to Robert Brackenbury, keeper of the Tower, with a written order to kill the two princes. When Brackenbury refused, Richard sent Tyrrell to Brackenbury with a written order to deliver the keys to the Tower to Tyrrell for one night, which he did. Tyrrell killed the boys that night, and Brackenbury's priest moved the bodies from where Tyrrell buried them.

On the other hand, if Henry had murdered the princes, it is inexplicable that he should have missed the opportunity of making Tyrrell his scapegoat by publishing his confession at the time of his execution. More's account suggests that Henry's reason for suppressing the confession was that he feared that his earlier pardoning of Tyrrell would lead to his being blamed for the murder. Morton, apparently the source of this information, was dead by the time of Tyrrell's supposed confession, thus none of the content of More's book was contemporary with the events described. It is now accepted that More's book was an exercise in rhetoric and was never meant to be taken as historical fact; however, for a while, it became good propaganda for the Tudor dynasty.

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/64934

Legend

He is a participiant in the legend of the Horndon Worm from East Horndon which he slew using highly polished armour. Because of this he has made an appearance in the "2000AD" story called "London Falling". In this he is brutally killed by the character Black Shuck.

External links

• Sir James Tyrell: Hero or Villain?
• Sylly Suffolk

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Husband's Name

James TYRELL (AFN:8Q45-JM)  Pedigree  

Born: Abt 1443 Place: Of, Gipping, Suffolk, England
Died: Aft 1483 Place:
Married: 9 Mar 1483 Place: Of, Arundell, Sussex, England
Father: William TYRRELL (AFN:9GFH-BD) Family
Mother: Margaret DARCY (AFN:9GFH-CK)
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Wife's Name

Anne ARUNDELL (AFN:95L0-6J)  Pedigree  

Born: Abt 1445 Place: Of, Lanhern, Cornwall, England
Married: 9 Mar 1483 Place: Of, Arundell, Sussex, England
Father: John ARUNDELL ;VII (AFN:95L0-5C) Family
Mother: Elizabeth MORLEY (AFN:95L0-46)
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Children

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1.  Sex  Name    

F Anne TYRRELL (AFN:TH38-R8) Pedigree
Born: 1479 Place: Of, Gipping, Suffolk, England

Sir James Tyrrell (c.1455 – 6 May 1502) was an English knight, a trusted servant of King Richard III of England. He is known for confessing to the murders of the Princes in the Tower under Richard's orders. However, his statement may have been taken under torture, so the confession might not be genuine. William Shakespeare portrays Tyrrell as the man who organizes the princes' murder in Richard III.

Family

James Tyrrell was the eldest son of William Tyrrell of Gipping, Suffolk, and Margaret Darcy, the daughter of Robert Darcy of Maldon, Essex, and the grandson of Sir John Tyrrell.

Career

Tyrrell's father was beheaded on Tower Hill on 23 February 1462, together with Sir Thomas Tuddenham and John Montgomery. John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, and his eldest son and heir, Aubrey, were beheaded on 26 February and 20 February, respectively, after the discovery of an alleged plot to murder Edward IV. No records of the trials of the alleged conspirators have survived to shed light on what part, if any, Tyrrell's father played in the alleged conspiracy. He was not attainted, and his eldest son and heir's wardship and the custody of his lands were granted to Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, who sold them to William Tyrrell's widow in March 1463 for £50.

James Tyrrell fought on the Yorkist side at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471, and was knighted there by Edward IV. A few months later he entered the service of the future Richard III, then Duke of Gloucester. After Richard III assumed power, he was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1484. He was in France in 1485, and played no part in the Battle of Bosworth Field which signalled the end of the Yorkists and the start of the Tudor dynasty.

In the following year, he returned to England and was pardoned by King Henry VII, who reappointed him governor of Guînes (in the English possession of Calais). However, in 1501, Tyrrell lent his support to Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, now the leading Yorkist claimant to the English throne, who was in voluntary exile. In the spring of 1501 Henry VII sent Thomas Lovell to Guines arrest Tyrrell and others, including Tyrrell's son, Thomas.

Tyrrell was charged with treason and tortured. Sir Thomas More wrote that during his examination Tyrrell confessed to the murders of King Edward V of England and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York. He also implicated two other men. Despite further questioning, however, he was unable to say where the bodies were, claiming that they had been moved.

Tyrrell was tried and convicted of treason at the Guildhall in London on 2 May 1502 and executed four days later, on 6 May, together with one of his accomplices in aiding Suffolk, Sir John Wyndham. He was buried at the church of the Austin Friars, London. He was attainted on 25 January 1504; however the attainder was reversed three years later, on 19 April 1507.

Marriage and issue

In 1469 Tyrrell married Anne Arundel, the daughter of John Arundel of Lanherne, Cornwall, by his first wife, Elizabeth Morley, daughter of Thomas, Lord Morley, by whom he had three sons and a daughter:

Sir Thomas Tyrrell (d.1551) of Gipping, Suffolk, who married firstly Margaret Willoughby, daughter of Christopher Willoughby, 10th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, by whom he had a son, Sir John Tyrrell (d.1574), who married Elizabeth Munday, the daughter of Sir John Munday (d.1537), Lord Mayor of London, and a daughter, Anne Tyrrell, who married Sir John Clere of Ormesby, Norfolk.

James Tyrrell (d.1539) of Columbine Hall in Stowupland, Suffolk, who married Anne Hotoft

William Tyrrell.

Anne Tyrrell, who married Sir Richard Wentworth (d.1528) of Nettlestead, Suffolk, by whom she was the mother of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Baron Wentworth

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Sir James Tyrell (d.1502)

SIR JAMES TYRELL or TYRRELL, (d. 1502), supposed murderer of the princes in the Tower, was the eldest son of William Tyrell of Gipping, Suffolk, by Margaret, daughter of Robert Darcy of Maiden. Sir John Tyrrell was his grandfather. James Tyrell was a strong Yorkist. He was knighted after the battle of Tewkesbury on 3 May 1471, was appointed to conduct the Countess of Warwick to the north of England in 1473, and served as member of parliament for Cornwall in December 1477. An order to pay £10 signed by him and dated 1 April 1478, has been preserved and is in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 18673, f. 1.

In the war with Scotland he fought under Richard, then Duke of Gloucester, and was by him made a knight-banneret on 24 July 1482. The same year, when the office of constable, held by Richard, was put into commission, Tyrell was one of those appointed to execute it. At the coronation of Richard III he took part in some capacity. His brother Thomas was master of the horse, and he just afterwards was made master of the henchmen; and, no doubt on his brother resigning what was meant to be a temporary office, also master of the horse.

The whole interest of Tyrell's career centres round the murder of the two sons of Edward IV. The story, as told by the author of the 'Historie of Kyng Rycharde the Thirde,' makes Richard send John Green to Sir Robert Brackenbury, the constable of the Tower, with orders that the deed should be done by him. This was while Richard was on his progress to Gloucester. On Brackenbury's refusal, Green returned to Richard at Warwick, and while the king was in a state of anxious uncertainty, a page suggested that Tyrell would do what was wanted. The writer explains that Tyrell had been kept in the background by Ratcliffe and Catesby, and was therefore likely to stick at nothing that could secure his advantage. Tyrell was then sent to the Tower with a letter to Brackenbury, commanding him to give up the keys for a night. The two princes were accordingly smothered by Miles Forest, one of their keepers, 'a felowe fleshed in murther before time,' and John Dighton, Tyrell's horsekeeper, 'a big, brode, square, strong knaue.' Tyrell, having seen that the murder was carried out, ordered the bodies to be buried at the stair foot, and rode back to Richard, 'who gave hym gret thanks, and, as som say, there made him knight.'

This account contains much matter for dispute and involves a larger question, the character of Richard III. Sir Clements Markham has attempted to fix the guilt of the murder on Henry VII, but his contentions have been opposed by Mr. Gairdner, whose view is accepted by Professor Busch. In either case Tyrell is admitted to have been the instrument.1

Tyrell's reward was certainly not in proportion to his service. He became a knight of the king's body, and on 5 Nov. 1483 received commissions to array the men of Wales against Buckingham. He was also a commissioner for the forfeited estates of Buckingham and others in Wales and the marches. On 10 April 1484 he benefited at the expense of the traitor Sir John Fogge. On 9 Aug. 1484 he was made steward of the duchy of Cornwall for life, and on 13 Sept. 1484 he became sheriff of the lordship of Wenlock, steward of the lordships of Newport Wenlock, Kevoeth Meredith, Lavenitherry, and Lanthoesant, for life. He also was allowed to enter on the estates of Sir Thomas Arundel, a relative of his wife. At some time in the reign he was made one of the chamberlains of the exchequer.

He is said to have wavered in his allegiance to Richard III towards the end of his reign, but of this there is no proof, and Richard seems to have employed him in some unknown capacity in Flanders. Just before Bosworth he was clearly in the king's confidence, as, though holding a command in Glamorgan and Morgannock, he was sent to Guisnes, certainly no place for trimmers.

Henry VII, however, took him into favour, or at all events employed him. He lost the post of chamberlain of the exchequer and his Welsh offices, but on 19 Feb. 1485-6 he was made sheritf of Glamorgan and Morgannock, with all it involved, including the constableship of Cardiff Castle, for life, at a salary of £100 a year. He received a general pardon on 16 June 1486, another on 16 July following.

On 15 Dec. 1486 Tyrell is mentioned as lieutenant of the castle of Guisnes in a commission appointing ambassadors to treat with those of Maximilian, and on 30 Aug. 1487 he received the stewardship of the lordship of Ogmore in South Wales. A curious commission of 23 Feb. 1487-8 recites that for his services he is to be recompensed of the issues of Guisnes for property he had held in Wales at the beginning of the reign, and a schedule is annexed showing what that property had been. He is also here mentioned as a knight of the body. Tyrell was present at the battle of Dixmude in 1489 and took a prominent part in the ceremonial attending the making of the peace of Etaples in 1492; he was also present at the creation of Prince Henry as Duke of York in 1494.

In the summer of 1499 Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, fled from England, and, on his way to the Netherlands, he stayed some time with Tyrell at Guisnes. Henry was merciful or politic, and sent in September 1499 Sir Richard Guildford and Richard Hatton to persuade the earl to return, and, though he had left Guisnes, he did so; Tyrell was ordered to come with him. He may have been regarded with suspicion, but nevertheless he was one of those prominent in 1501 at the reception of Catherine of Aragon. About July or August 1501 Suffolk fled again, and Tyrell was induced to surrender Guisnes by a trick, which is alluded to in a letter of Suffolk written just after Tyrell's death, and long afterwards in a letter from Sandys to Cromwell of 19 Jan. 1530-7.2 With his son he was imprisoned in the Tower. He had helped in the first flight, and doubtless through his agents Henry had certain knowledge of his treason. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on 6 May 1502, and attainted 1503-4.

Knowing that he was to die, Tyrell made, it is said while in the Tower, a confession of his guilt as to the princes; Dighton, his accomplice, was also examined and confessed. It is the substance of this confession that forms the history of the murder as we know it, though the text has not been preserved. He had by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir John Arundel of Cornwall, three sons; Thomas, his heir, who was restored in blood; James, and William. One pedigree given by Davy mentions a daughter Anne and does not give William.3

   See English Historical Review, vi. 250, 444, 806, 813; Busch, England under the Tudors, p. 319.

   cf. Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, XII. i. 151.

   cf. Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 5509, f. 41.

Source: Archbold, W. A. J. "Sir James Tyrell." Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. LVII. Sidney Lee, Ed. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1899. 440-441. http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/tyrell.htm