I have done my best to avoid recycling other historians’ arguments and any citations from the secondary sources are used mainly to point out facts, although in some situations I use the opinions of others to support my own argument. However, I still found primary information in the secondary reading that was great use to me. The secondary sources I have focused on using generally explore the lives of the kings during that time and mention the earl of Warwick a considerable amount, even though most of the time it is the author’s own opinions on them which I tried vigorously to avoid repeating.
In some cases, the arguments I have used have relied on secondary reading due to great difficulty in acquiring particular primary documents due to their distant locations at the various archives. For example, loyal service allowed them to ascend to the very height of English politics until at some point in time rebellion against the king, although somewhat successful to being with, always ended in a crushing and humiliating defeat. Despite the lack of primary sources for Thomas de Beauchamp and Richard Beauchamp, I feel that it is essential to explore their careers as deep as Neville’s as they all in some way share characteristics that resulted in similar privileges enjoyed as an earl of Warwick. When conducting the extensive research for this dissertation I have attempted to focus on primary sources when available either through accessing them at archives or finding them when they were quoted in secondary readings. However, I also wish to argue that not all of the earls were rebellious and in fact sometimes proved to be one of the most reliable and skilled noblemen in service to the crown, such as Richard Beauchamp. In the end, I hope to be able to determine that for the majority of the time, the earls of Warwick were troublesome to the monarchy through acting as a pillar of rebellion in response to exclusion from court or favouritism by the king such as Thomas de Beauchamp and Richard Neville.
The chapter concerning Richard Neville will not only analyse his career but also attempt to undercut the noble account he generally receives as the brave and successful ‘kingmaker’ and reveal him more as a selfish magnate fortunate in periods of his life but ultimately proving fruitless in his endeavours. From this, I hope to determine if during this period of time the earls of Warwick were mainly a nuisance to the king or overall a beneficial ally to have and thus what effect this had on both aspects of the careers of the earls.
The primary objective of this dissertation is to explore and analyse both the military and political careers of the earls of Warwick in the era 1369 with the beginning of the earldom of Thomas de Beauchamp to the end of the earldom of Richard Neville in 1471.
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