The arrest of John Santé
The World of Misplaced Men part 2
Undeterred by the defeat of the Ricardians at the battle of Stoke, by 1489 Santé was involved in another plot. In February 1488 Francis Lovell’s mother-in-law, Lady Fitzhugh, had engaged Lovell’s friend, Sir Edward Franke, to investigate the whereabouts of Lovell who had vanished after the battle of Stoke and was the only major Ricardian figure still at large. Franke was a good choice; originally from Yorkshire, he had been appointed sheriff of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire by Richard III in 1484 and had remained an irreconcilable Yorkist and one of Lovell’s intimates ever since. Having survived the battle of Stoke, Franke had been incarcerated in the Tower of London but was released in the autumn of 1487 on his own surety and a promise of future good behaviour. His engagement to search for Lovell just a few months after his release reveals his continued antipathy towards the new Tudor regime.
We know nothing more of Franke's movements until 1 December 1489 when, supposedly by chance, he visited the London home of one Thomas Davey where, to Franke's ‘surprise’, Davey already had two visitors - John Mayne and Thomas Rothwell. Davey was an old acquaintance, having previously been Richard III’s Sergeant Tailor – inevitably a post involving a close relationship with the former king and directly answerable to Lovell, who was Richard’s Chamberlain. After Bosworth, Davey’s career prospects had been severely dented and he had joined the world of misplaced men, burnishing his resentment whilst continuing to work as a tailor in London. Doubtless that resentment was shared by Franke whose star had fallen even further and faster than Davey’s.
John Mayne was also well-known to the Tudor government, having previously been intercepted by Tudor intelligencers on 1 January 1487 on his way to Burgundy with over 1000 marks destined for the Lambert Simnel campaign. The presence of John Mayne, a lay brother of Abingdon Abbey, indicates that Santé was once again stoking the fires of treason. Mayne’s detention in the Spring of 1487 had no doubt saved his neck as he had been under arrest and missed the battle of Stoke. Once free, he too had found himself drawn on that winter's day to Thomas Davey’s house. Rothwell was a London priest who had been involved in various nefarious activities – so much so that already employed an alias - Thomas Even.
These then were the main players in the latest plot to replace Henry VII. Their plan, like the Lambert Simnel conspiracy, centred on the Earl of Warwick. After meeting, the plotters wrote to Warwick, still a prisoner in the Tower, informing him they intended to set fire to the outer wall of the Tower and the adjoining outbuildings. In the ensuing confusion, Warwick would be whisked away to sanctuary in Colchester Abbey where Lovell and Franke had spent the winter of 1485.
Presumably the plotters had a favourable response for, they met again to further their plans on 20 December. At this meeting, Christopher Swann, bailiff of the town of Abingdon and a lay brother of the abbey entered the plot accompanied by a monk called Miles Sally. Both had strong connections with Santé. This was confirmed when it was revealed that Sally brought money and other resources for the plotters.
However, Santé, who had been’ joyous’, having initially discussed the plot with Mayne, became increasingly worried and soon came to regret his involvement in the plot, regarding Thomas Rothwell as light witted. While this may have been the case, it is equally possible that Rothwell was, in fact, an Agent Provocateur who had already been turned by Henry VII’s efficient secret service. This would explain how, within a few days, the authorities were fully aware of the plot.
Soon after the meeting on 20 December, Crown officers struck and John Mayne was arrested: the subsequent dragnet, presumably brought on by his confession, brought in Edward Franke and Thomas Davey. Miles Sally was arrested soon after trying to escape to Abingdon and Franke, already convicted of treason and attainted after the battle of Stoke, required no trial and was immediately incarcerated. Davey and Mayne were charged with treason and accused of ‘starting a war against the king our sovereign Lord to the intent to have destroyed his most royal person’ and were inevitably found guilty. They, along with another unnamed person, were brought to the Tower in the company of Franke where all four suffered the dread penalties of treason, being hung drawn and quartered. Thomas Swann and Miles Sally were convicted but later pardoned due to benefits of clergy, but both were heavily fined and later allowed to return to Abingdon. Thomas Rothwell vanishes from the records at this point and tellingly fails to make an appearance in any subsequent records.
John Santé, the most prominent of the plotters failed to escape retribution this time, being arrested at Abingdon abbey and immediately imprisoned. Henry’s intelligencers recognised that he, along with Franke, were the main instigators of the plot. Santé’s prints were all over the conspiracy and it was only his clerical collar that once again saved his neck, ensuring he was imprisoned and not beheaded. He languished in prison for 18 months until 1490 when he was released on condition that he paid an enormous fine of £1000, at that time the annual income of an earl. This would have hung heavily on him since all of his wealth and property had already been confiscated. His possessions were returned to him in 1493 after which he continued to live in a chastened state as the abbot of Abingdon until his death in 1496.
After his death the will of this Ricardian loyalist, perhaps recognising the new reality, left all of his moveable goods and personal possessions to Henry VII ‘in token of all the grace shown to him and praying to God for a good continuation of the kings royal estate’ – a sobering bequest for one who for so long had inhabited the darkest shadows of a treasonous world.