Tiptoft

I bought the book at reference 1 after a stray mention in the last volume of Church autobiography. Chapter 9, Section 3, Page 200; references 2 and 3. From a time when Church and his wife were living in a large old cottage, once the dower house for the nearby moated Tiptofts, near Saffron Walden in Essex. Now Tiptoft Farm, lower middle in the snap above – having failed to make the cut for the National Trust treatment.

The point of interest being to find out how an educated and able chap came to earn the sobriquet of butcher, the example of Henry VIII in the century that followed notwithstanding.

From there to the biography of Sit John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, executed in 1470 during one of the vicissitudes of the reign of Edward VI. A not very well written book of some 300 pages: a bit of an avalanche of names, places and dates. All a bit much for the older brain. But an interesting read for all that.

The author appears to be linked to Pen & Sword, a house which specialises in military history, to be found at reference 4. But while this book is mainly set during the Wars of the Roses which so thinned out the ranks of the old nobility, Tiptoft was no soldier, although he may have dressed up as one from time to time and he did have some campaigning experience. From the middle reaches of the nobility, unusually well educated for the time, more a trusted servant of the king – first Henry VI, then Edward IV – than a grandee in his own right, in the way say of the Percy earls of Northumberland. A prototype for the later Wolsey and Cromwell.

He lived in turbulent times and there were a lot of battles and a lot of executions, many of them in the aftermath of battles. Winners’ justice. Worcester was involved in, ordered even, some of these executions, some of them of very eminent people – people who were more ‘noble’ than he was. Perhaps he went a bit far on a few occasions. But the nickname of ‘Butcher of England’ is not really fair: he was just one of many losers in the great game.

It is perhaps telling that his enemies went to the bother of a proper trial, albeit a show trial, and that he was properly executed, with all due pomp and ceremony, at Tower Hill. He was also allowed a decent burial, something of a privilege in the circumstances.

Along the way he spent quality time in what is now northern Italy, from where he made an elaborate pilgrimage to Jerusalem; a pilgrimage which involved taking along his own private choir. A convenient bridge between the reigns of Henry VI and Edward IV, with the second usurping the first and with Tiptoft being a trusted servant of both.

Spring turns up lots of contemporary letters and records about all this. I was quite surprised, not for the first time, by how much of this has survived. Also by the amount of letter writing that appears to have gone on in the upper reaches of society.

Oddments

Tiptoft was taken from a tree in which he was hiding, disguised as a shepherd or some such, in a wood in Huntingdonshire. Not very glorious at all.

Unlike the elaborate tournament in London at which he officiated in 1467, in essence a diplomatic encounter between Burgundy and England. I learn that by this time, tournament armour and fighting armour were entirely different: the former might have been elaborate and expensive but would have been useless in a real fight. In any event, knights in armour fighting on horseback were more or less obsolete.

It seems that he was very good at establishing and writing down the complicated rules which governed this tournament.

He walked to his execution on Tower Hill, in shirt and sandals, from Westminster. This took rather longer than expected, so they added in an unscheduled overnight stop at the reasonably comfortable Fleet Prison.

He lived in uncertain times, not least because of the accidents of battle and childbirth. People of his sort often married three or four times – giving rise to all kinds of complications of wardship, alliance and inheritance. Perhaps people of the lower sort were much the same, without bothering with actual marriage.

Despite being written up by Spring as being close to two kings, he does not appear at the lengthy reference 5.

I learn that in the mid fifteenth century, it was necessary to get papal permissions to do with the founding of Eton College. Slightly puzzled about this, I asked Gemini, from whom I learn that the popes of that time not only sold indulgences, they also sold the right to grant indulgences. No doubt lawyers took some fees. Some such indulgences were part of the original (very large) endowment for Eton College, the chapel of which Henry VI had hoped would become a place of pilgrimage. Gemini also provided respectable references which checked out. A win!

Location of the house

Bing soon turns up the house, the subject of the report at references 6 and 7. Where it is, in error, put on the headwaters of the River Stour. Actually, the River Pant, which becomes the Blackwater. The Stour rises a little to the north.

Bing also turns up the extensive records of the long-established Essex Society for Archaeology and History of references 8 and 9, with the snap above being taken from the second of these.

From all of this I learn that Tiptofts was owned for a long time by Brasenose College, Oxford, and was for a short time in the possession of our Tiptoft’s grand grandfather John, who died in 1367. Once notable for its extensive fish ponds.

So while the connection to our Tiptoft is a bit thin, and Church’s account goes rather further than the facts appear to warrant, I was still, once again, impressed by the volume and quality of information available online about the place. Even if I have not located the dower house.

I might add that Church does get the right river, unlike the archaeologist.

Conclusions

Another interesting excursion, well worth the few pounds I paid Abebooks.

PS 1: according to gmaps, Tiptofts is now the home of Normadough of reference 10. Who appear to be a young couple who used to live on the ocean wave but who now sell sour dough bread based snacks out of what looks like a converted horse box. Perhaps Google quality control on markers of this sort is a bit weak?

PS 2: whoever the actual occupiers of Tiptofts are, they must be private people as neither Bing nor Google turn up any images of the place. On the other hand, Bing does turn up this very post, which is more than Google can manage.

References

Reference 1: Sir John Tiptoft: Butcher of England: Earl of Worcester, Edward IV’s enforcer & humanist scholar – Peter Spring – 2018.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/church-three.html.

Reference 3: The voyage home – Richard Church – 1964.

Reference 4: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Peter-Spring/a/2226. 

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV. 

Reference 6: https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/109-1996.

Reference 7: https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/8366/TIPTOFTSMANORESSEX.

Reference 8: https://www.esah1852.org.uk/. 

Reference 9: https://www.esah1852.org.uk/library/files/T2160000.pdf. 

Reference 10: https://www.nomadough.co.uk/.