John Santé - Unrepentent Ricardian

The World of Misplaced Men part 1

The first of the fifteenth century misplaced men that I am writing about is John Sante, a clerical thorn in Henry VII’s side.

The political turbulence of the later 15th century saw, not only a change in dynasty, but also a change in long-forged allegiances. For  many compromise was the essence of politics, others found their conscience was not so pliable.

One such  man was John Santé who could not alter his conscience as easily as the realm altered the king. Santé obtained a degree in theology from Oxford and  by 1468 was installed as abbot of Abingdon with a seat in the house of Lords. Edward IV  thought highly of him and sent him on a diplomatic mission to Rome in 1474 where he made such an impression that he returned as the Pope's nuncio and Legate de la Terre for England. He returned to Rome in 1478 and again in 1479, becoming the patron of the Church of San Spirito in Sassia which had been founded by the king Ine of Wessex.

 Santé’s links with the Yorkist family were reinforced in 1483 when  he consecreted a  chantry for the souls of Richard, Duke of York and William de la  of Suffolk, established at Abingdon abbey by Francis, Viscount Lovell and John, Earl of Lincoln under the auspices of the abbey’s fraternity of the Holy Cross. In April 1483 Santé officiated at Edward IV’s funeral and he remained high in royal favour  when Lovell’s friend, Richard Duke of Gloucester, became King Richard III in July 1483.

However, Santé’s world came crashing down in August 1485 after Henry Tudor’s victory at Bosworth and it seems that if Santé’s body could acquiesce to Henry Tudor’s accession, his conscience could not.

In April 1486, the first of the plots against Henry VII broke out, led by the most prominent Yorkist left at liberty after Bosworth, Santé's friend and patron Francis Viscount Lovell. Lovell broke sanctuary at Colchester and launched a plot to assassinate Henry VII at the Garter feast in York on 23 April. Also involved in the plot were two other unrepentant Ricardians, the Stafford Brothers of Worcestershire who tried to raise Warwickshire in support of Clarence’s son, Edward Earl of Warwick. The attempt to assasinate Henry failed and the two assassins were promptly killed by the Earl of Northumberland. With the collapse of the plot, the Stafford  brothers fled southeast to the church of Saint Paul in the village of Culham, an ancient place of sanctuary and part of the abbey of Abingdon. Santé was happy to offer sanctuary to the two fugitives but two days later, Sir John Savage, Henry VII’s cavalry commander, arrived at the church accompanied by sixty men under instructions to remove the fugitives. Santé defied Savage, invoking the full authority of the church and the right of sanctuary,  taking the case to the High Court of the King's bench. His protestations did little good as the judges determined that the right of sanctuary did not apply in treason cases.The elder Stafford brother was removed from sanctuary and publically hung, drawn and quartered whilst his younger brother escaped with his life.

Royal retribution was prompt in punishing Santé’s temerity, and on 25 May 1486, eight days after Stafford’s execution Santé was bound over for the enormous sum of £800 to ensure his good behaviour. However, an unrepentant Santé threw himself into Lovell’s next and more dangerous plot -  the transformation of a boy from Oxford into the Yorkist Prince Edward, a boy more famously known to history as Lambert simnel. A delinquent priest was charged with the transformation, with Lovell who had been Richard’s Chamberlain, Santé and bishop Stillington providing the information to finesse a simple lad called John into a facsimilie of Edward, Earl of Warwick. Santé with his abbey’s resources was crucial to the financing of the plot and over the autumn he started to collect cash to dispatch to the Ricardian exiles at the court of Richard’s sister Margaret in Burgundy. Having collected nearly £1,000 in cash to send across the North Sea, Santé’s men were intercepted by royal agents, arrested and interogated. Bishop Stillington was arrested in Feburary 1487 for “damnable conjurations and conspiracies” and placed under house arrest. Santé avoided such a fate but could not save the plot from failure at the battle of Stoke in June 1487. Santé emerged from the debacle unscathed and with his commitment to the house of York undimmed despite the death of Lincoln and the disappearance of Lovell. Despite this setback Santé still determined to topple the Tudors and his career in treachery continued as we shall see in part two…