Royal Treasure

The Legend
Local legend holds that Richard II hid his extensive Royal Treasure at Beeston Castle before sailing to Ireland to quell an uprising in 1399. Richard never reclaimed his treasure as he was captured, upon his return, at Flint by Henry Bollingbrooke (Duke of Lancaster, and later Henry IV) and imprisoned at Chester Castle for a while in 1399. Many attempts have been made to find the "treasure" over the years and none of them have been successful. Stories have suggested that there are "secret" passageways leading from the well to a nearby farmhouse, a possible escape or re-supply route if the castle was under siege. Local legends place the treasure at the foot of the castle well (said to be around 365 feet deep - an impressive feat of mediaeval engineering) or in passages running off the well. There is a document from the 16th century which suggests that some of the priceless artifacts included a gold quadrant in a leather case, a white helmet of St George, white hart brooches, cups and jewellery.

The White Hart ("hart" being an archaic word for a mature stag) was the personal badge of Richard II, who probably derived it from the arms of his mother, Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent", heiress of Edmund of Woodstock. It may also have been a pun on his name, as in "Rich-hart". In the Wilton Diptych (National Gallery, London), which is the earliest authentic contemporary portrait of an English king, Richard II wears his gold and enamelled white hart jewel, and even the angels surrounding the Virgin Mary all wear white hart badges.

So is there any basis for the legend? There are certainly clear connections between Richard II and Cheshire, but there are also hints that the treasure may not have been at Beeston but at Holt.

The King
Richard's father, Edward, Prince of Wales (the "Black Prince"), died in 1376, leaving Richard as heir apparent to his grandfather, the incredibly long-lived King Edward III, who had ruled from 25 January 1327 to 21 June 1377. Upon the death of Edward III, the 10-year-old Richard succeeded to the throne. Her would rule for 22 years.

Richard's father had been the Earl of Chester and appears to have paid considerable attention to the region, not least because of revolt. In 1353 some disturbances seem to have broken out in Cheshire, for the Prince as Earl of Chester marched with Henry of Grosmont, now Duke of Lancaster to the neighbourhood of Chester to protect the justices, who were holding an assize there. The men of the earldom offered to pay him a heavy fine to bring the assize to an end, but when they thought they had arranged matters the justices opened an "inquisition of trailbaston", took a large sum of money from them, and seized many houses and much land into the prince's, their earl's, hands. On his return from Chester the prince is said to have passed by the Abbey of Dieulacres in Staffordshire, to have seen a fine church which his great-grandfather, Edward I, had built there, and to have granted five hundred marks, a tenth of the sum he had taken from his earldom, towards its completion; the abbey was almost certainly not Dieulacres but Vale Royal.

During Richard's first years as king, government was in the hands of a series of regency councils, influenced by Richard's uncles John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock. England then faced various problems, most notably the Hundred Years' War. A major challenge of the reign was the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, and the young king played a central part in the successful suppression of this crisis. Less warlike than either his father or grandfather, he sought to bring an end to the Hundred Years' War. A firm believer in the royal prerogative, Richard restrained the power of the aristocracy and relied on a private retinue for military protection instead. In part this retinue was based around a political power base in Cheshire.



The years 1386-88 saw a crisis for Richard. Richard's high-handed behaviour as an adolescent, the extravagance of his household and the attempts of his councillors to broker a peace with France, led to a series of aristocratic protests between 1386 and 1388. Arguments at the Wonderful Parliament over military funding seriously challenged Richard's authority, which he saw as a direct assault on the traditional principle that medieval kings governed by personal prerogative. In 1388, as a result of the political and military actions of the magnates known as the Lords Appellant, some of Richard's closest friends and advisors were executed or sent into exile. By installing Robert de Vere as Justice of Chester (see: Courts), he began the work of creating a loyal military power base in Cheshire. De Vere's relationship with King Richard was very close and rumored by Thomas Walsingham to be homosexual. The Lord's Appellant had their revenge on the king's favourites in the "Merciless Parliament" (1388). The nominal governor of Ireland, de Vere, and Richard's Lord Chancellor, Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who had fled abroad, were sentenced to death in their absence. Alexander Neville, Archbishop of York, had all his worldly goods confiscated. The Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Tresilian, was executed, as were Sir Nicholas Brembre, Lord Mayor of London, John Beauchamp of Holt, Sir James Berners, and Sir John Salisbury. Sir Simon Burley was found guilty of exercising undue influence over the king and was sentenced to death. Derby and Nottingham, together with the Duke of York, tried to win a reprieve for him, but he was executed on 5 May.

After this virtual coup d'état, the Appellants continued to dominate English politics for the next year. Richard was effectively their puppet until the return of John of Gaunt from his Spanish campaigns in 1389. The power of the Appellants rested on popular support from the commons in parliament, but by the end of 1388 this support had already begun to wane. In the subsequent parliament held at Cambridge in September 1388, the commons were highly critical of the Appellants' record in government. Indeed, it has been argued that the Appellants were predominantly concerned with the task of destroying various members of Richard II's court, and after this objective had been achieved they ceased to concern themselves with the governance of England. Richard immediately began formulating plans for revenge and afterwards finally enacted a de facto peace with France with the Truce of Leulinghem.

Chester in Richard's Time
Hemingway (Vol II, page 301) records the following as regards the port of Chester:


 * That the Dee was navigable for vessels of great burden from the sea up to Chester in very ancient times is beyond all doubt and it is equally certain that early in the 14th century the navigation had been materially impeded by the shifting of the sands. The first notice we have of the latter circumstance is contained in letters patent of Richard II who releaseth to the citizens £73 10s 8d parcel of the £100 for the fee farm reserved by the charter of Edward I which the city was in arrears in which also is assigned as the reason of this indulgence the ruinous estate of the city and of the haven. Henry VI in confirming all the former charters of the city recites what great concourse in times past as well by strangers as others has been made with merchandise into this city by reason of the goodness of the port thereof and also what great trading for victuals into and out of Wales to the great profit of the city and then shows how the same port of Chester was lamentably decayed by reason of the abundance of sands which had choaked the creek and for these considerations released to the city £10 of the fee farm reserved by Edward I.

Richard II., by a charter dated tenth December, 1379, at Westminster, under his own hand, confirmed that of Edward the Black Prince. He had already ordered that "all the profits of the passage of the said water (the Dee) at Chester, and the Murage which used to be granted there for the Walls," were to be used for the repair of the bridge. In 1395 he, by his letters patent, wanted Murages for four years for the repair of the Walls and pavements.

Prince of Cheshire


Richard's seemingly impregnable position was more fragile than it seemed. In 1397 he attacked the Lords Appellant who had prevailed in 1388 and seized their lands and goods. His uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, was murdered and Richard, earl of Arundel, executed on Tower Hill. Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, and Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, were exiled. In the following year, as memorably dramatised by Shakespeare in his Richard II, the two remaining Appellants, who initially had been pardoned, Henry of Bolingbroke, duke of Hereford, the future Henry IV, and Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, accused each other of treason. Richard forbade the resulting duel and exiled both men.

In 1397, Richard II created the title "Prince of Cheshire", which he awarded to himself. His personal bodyguard was made up of Cheshire bowmen who were described as being intolerably arrogant, insolent ruffians who lived on far too intimate terms with king. This bodyguard was divided into watches commanded by: Ranulf of Davenport, John of Legh, Richard of Cholmondeley, Adam of Bostock, Thomas of Beeston, and Thomas Halford. In 1399 Richard II had a heated bathroom constructed in Chester Castle (costing £70). It was paneled with Norwegian timber. His apartments were redecorated with cushions and fine silk hangings, but he would not enjoy it for long. Richard's style of goverment may have had some bearing on other "improvements" at Chester Castle: Thomas le Wodeward, deputy constable of the castle, took delivery of the following new supplies in 1397: 11 iron collars and 2 gross of iron chain; 2 pairs of iron belts with shackles; 2 pairs of iron handcuffs with 4 iron shackles; 7 pairs of iron feet fetters with 3 shackles; 1 hasp for the stocks.

There were other local changes: in 1396 the office of master mason, which had lapsed in 1374, was reintroduced, and in 1397 the office of keeper of the king's artillery in Cheshire and Flintshire first appeared. In 1399 Richard II granted 3000 gold marks to the people of Chester (widows and dependents of soldiers killed during the battle) who had suffered as a result of the Battle of Radcot Bridge (19 December 1387). This was distributed by Robert de Legh (Sheriff of Chester) at the Exchequer court in the Castle.

Downfall
In June 1399, Louis I, Duke of Orléans, gained control of the court of the insane Charles VI of France. The policy of rapprochement with the English crown did not suit Louis's political ambitions, and for this reason he found it opportune to allow Henry Bolingbroke to leave for England. With a small group of followers, Bolingbroke landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire towards the end of June 1399. Men from all over the country soon rallied around him. Meeting with Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, who had his own misgivings about the king, Bolingbroke insisted that his only object was to regain his own patrimony. Percy took him at his word and declined to interfere. The king had taken most of his household knights and the loyal members of his nobility with him to Ireland, so Bolingbroke experienced little resistance as he moved south. Keeper of the Realm Edmund, Duke of York, had little choice but to side with Bolingbroke. Meanwhile, Richard was delayed in his return from Ireland and did not land in Wales until 24 July.

The Duke of Lancaster made his way to Chester and took it without a fight. The Duke stayed at Chester Castle for 12 days, amusing himself by drinking the king's wine, wasting fields and pillaging houses. and presumably enjoying the use of Richard II's "Norwegian Wood" bathroom. While there ("this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke, who all this while hath revell'd in the night"), he also found time to secure the arrest, incarceration in the Gowestower (outer gatehouse tower) and execution of Sir Peirs Legh of Lyme, one of Richard's leading retainers in Cheshire and the brother of the Sheriff - Legh's head was placed on the Eastgate.



Henry then marched against Richard at Fflint Castle to which Richard had been lured from the safety of Conwy Castle. Richard surrendered, but not before trying to escape dressed as a monk. According to Stowe's Annals, following the capture of the King, Bollinbrooke


 * " with a high sharp voice, badde bring forth the king's horses; and then two little naggs, not worth forty francs, were brought forth."

The king was set on the one, and the earl of Salisbury on the other, and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Gloucester's son, who led him straight to the castle (still wearing the monk's habit in which he had attempted to escape) and "lodged" them in Chester Castle for a few days (possibly in a tower over the outer or inner gateway, possibly in the Agricola Tower), while Henry received a deputation from the City of London renouncing their fealty to the prisoner. Imprisoned with Richard were some of his loyal supporters such as Janico d’Artois and James Darteys, who refused to lay aside Richard's badge of the white hart. Afterwards, Richard was escorted to Westminster, where he was persuaded to abdicate. Bollingbroke usurped Richard and became Henry IV.

Rebellions continued throughout the first ten years of Henry IV's reign, including the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr, who declared himself Prince of Wales in 1400, and the rebellion of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. Early in 1400, there was a revolt in Cheshire, linked with the Epiphany Rising. Those involved included prominent members of Richard's Cheshire retinue and a large group of townsmen from Chester, 28 of whom, dressed in the "white hart" livery of the deposed monarch, marched to the Eastgate on January 10th 1400, removed Peir's Legh's head from the Eastgate, and unsuccessfully besieged the castle, then held by the Chamberlain of Chester, the Sheriff of Cheshire, and the Constable, William Venables of Kinderton. The rebellion temporarily enhanced the castle's military importance: early in 1400 it was garrisoned by 8 men-at-arms and 35 archers, and even in 1404 it was still protected by 8 archers. It also contained considerable stores of weapons and supplies. The Chester "legend" that the people of the City are allowed to "Shoot the Welsh" dates from this time. In the weeks following the Battle of Shrewsbury the insecurity of both the new dynasty and some of the city authorities (some of whom had been on the King's side at the battle) was demonstrated in the instructions issued by then Prince Henry - then Earl of Chester - (later Henry V) in response to further defections in north Wales. On September 4, 1403, he wrote to the Mayor, Sheriffs and Aldermen of the City of Chester, who were required to impose a curfew upon all Welshmen visiting Chester, and to ensure that they left their arms at the city gates and did not gather in groups of more than three; all Welsh residents were expelled and any who stayed overnight were threatened with execution. Apparently, the actual wording was that:


 * "..all manner of Welsh persons or Welsh sympathies should be expelled from the city; that no Welshman should enter the city before sunrise or tarry in it after sunset, under pain of decapitation."

The deposed King Richard died in prison at Pontefract Castle later in the year (by 17 February 1400), possibly having been starved to death on Henry's orders. Rumours of his still being alive persisted but never gained much credence in England; in Scotland, however, a man identified as Richard came into the hands of Regent Robert Stewart, the Duke of Albany, lodged in Stirling Castle, and serving as the notional – and perhaps reluctant – figurehead of various anti-Lancastrian and Lollard intrigues in England. Henry IV's government dismissed him as an impostor, and several sources from both sides of the Border suggest the man had a mental illness, one also describing him as a "beggar" by the time of his death in 1419, but he was buried as a king in the local Dominican friary in Stirling.

The "Treasure Roll"
No medieval English king had such a reputation for spendor as Richard II. Contemporary rumours reported that at the time of his deposition Richard held enormous cash reserves and treasure worth as much again.

The treasure roll of Richard II, compiled in 1398/9, offers a rare insight into the magnificence of a late medieval English king. The roll, unknown until it was rediscovered in the 1990s, describes in exceptional detail the crowns, jewels, and other precious objects belonging to the king and to his two queens, Anne of Bohemia and Isabella of Valois. It contains 1,206 entries, some describing dozens of pieces, and is written on forty long, narrow parchment sheets. Fully unrolled it measures more than 28 metres. Every object listed is of precious metal or of materials such as beryl, rock-crystal, coconut, amber, ivory and jet mounted in gold or silver. Almost all are given a weight and value. Besides pieces inherited by Richard or given to him by his courtiers and as diplomatic gifts, the inventory contains jewels and plate from Isabelle's trousseau and many forfeited goods. The only piece known to survive today is a crown which the roll describes as:


 * "set with eleven sapphires, thirty-three balas rubies, a hundred and thirty-two pearls, thirty-three diamonds, eight of them imitation gems".

It belonged to his first wife, Anne of Bohemia (where that elaborate style of metalwork was popular). It was recorded again in a 1399 list of royal jewels being moved across London which had been owned by the deposed Richard II and others. Later it travelled to Germany in the possession of Henry IV’s elder daughter Blanche, who married Louis III, the Elector Palatine. The crown is now held in the Schatzkammer of der Residenz, Munich.

Anne of Bohemia (11 May 1366 – 7 June 1394) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Richard II. A member of the House of Luxembourg, she was the eldest daughter of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, and Elizabeth of Pomerania. Contemporaries criticised the marriage on two grounds: Anne had no dowry, and she was escorted by a large and expensive suite of Bohemian ladies and gentlemen, to some of whom Richard granted annuities. Her death at the age of 28 was believed to be caused by plague.



Isabella of France (9 November 1389 – 13 September 1409) was Queen of England as the second spouse of Richard II. She married the king at the age of six and was widowed three years later. The marriage treaty had stipulated that if the marriage was unconsummated Isabelle's dowry and jewels should be returned to France. The instalments of her dowry which had already been received were never repaid. Almost all the jewels and plate from her trousseau were returned in 1401, but not the other splendid gifts she had received from the English and French at the time of her marriage and at New Year from 1396 to 1399. In recognition of their kinship, Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria, Isabelle's mother and father, and her uncles, the Valois dukes, especially Philip of Burgundy and John of Berry, sent magnificent gifts to Richard II and Isabelle for New Year from 1397 to 1399. She later married Charles, Duke of Orléans, dying in childbirth at the age of nineteen.

Treasure Hunters
During the baronial civil war of King John’s reign (1199–1216), Ranulf de Blondeville, Earl of Chester (1170–1232), was a staunch supporter of the royal cause and received titles, castles and land across England in return for his loyalty. In 1218, after Henry III (reigned 1216–72) succeeded to the throne, Ranulf left England to take part in the fifth crusade. He returned in 1220 to find the king’s justiciar, or viceroy, Hubert de Burgh, confiscating lands from other men who had enriched themselves in the previous decade. Ranulf clearly felt the need to guarantee his political position and at some point in the 1220s began work on Beeston Castle. Although it is difficult to prove, it has always been thought likely that the castle owes part of its design to Ranulf’s experiences on crusade; the rock-cut ditch in particular is similar to features of buildings in the Holy Land. Beeston featured many other innovations. Instead of protecting an established location it was built in the best defensive position. It did not have a keep, but made use of a solid gatehouse instead. Towers are round and projecting to protect them against siege engines allow raking fire along the castle walls.

Ranulf died in 1232 and Beeston, together with the Earldom of Chester, was granted to Ranulf’s nephew, John le Scot. On John’s death in 1237 Henry III seized the earl’s estates, including Beeston. The early 14th century saw a major programme of rebuilding. Between September 1303 and September 1304 a total of £109 2s 4½d was spent on works, indicating more than routine maintenance. In 1333 it was reported in a survey that the castle was ‘well and surely sited on a rocky eminence, and very well enclosed’ and that no repairs were necessary. A short but valuable account, chiefly of the castle under royal ownership, was published in 1963 in the "History of the King’s Works".

Although historical sources suggest that any stockpiles of treasure were recovered by Henry IV (r.1399–1413), the legend was probably the reason for systematic investigations of the castle well in 1794 and 1842. It is not clear when the legend first arose. Egerton Leigh does not mention it in his "Ballads & Legends of Cheshire" (1867), although the early explorations clearly preceeded this date. Adam of Usk states that "goods were found in water cisterns" after the deposition of Richard. The Dieulacres Chronicle states that Henry seized treasure and other valuables that had been buried. John Stow states that Henry found coin to the value of 100,000 marks at Beeston - "all of which Duke Henry took with him".

During explorations in the 1930s debris was cleared out and two passageways leading off the shaft were discovered. That investigation was cut short when the rig which lowered the investigators down the well was destroyed, supposedly by vandals.



Attempts to probe the well (including those using sophisticated electronic measuring devices) revealed at least 3 passages, but no treasure, though investigators conjectured that a fourth passage remains to be investigated. It was widely accepted in the Middle Ages that the gold was guarded by demons and that "anyone that goes down the well will be struck dumb or go mad". There are however many local caves and so it is just possible that a treasure is hidden in the vicinity: although most of the caves are the result of rather too recent quarying. It has been suggested that indeed Richard II did commonly hide treasure in castle wells. Over the last few decades the Cheshire water table has fallen dramatically and even the deep, historic, crag-top well at Beeston Castle is dry.

Elsewhere?
Richard II seized Holt Castle in 1397 and made it his own private treasure house. It has been estimated that more than £40,000 in coins, jewellery, gold and silver plate was transferred from the royal treasury in London to Holt for safekeeping. When Henry Bolingbroke – later Henry IV – returned to England in 1399, he shadowed Richard II up the Welsh Marches and was quick to recapture Holt Castle. Despite being defended by 100 men-at-arms and being well provisioned, Henry’s men, including perhaps the French chronicler Jean Creton, were able to enter through the new water-gate and ascend "on foot, step by step", to take the castle unopposed and so apparently recover this vast proportion of the king’s disposable wealth. Creton is somwhat vague about Holt itself


 * "A vj, mile de la ville y avoit / un autre fort, que hoult on apelloit. / Sur une roche moult hault assis estoit" ( six miles from the town there was another castle, called Holt, set on a very high, rather narrow rock)

The castle held out for the Crown during the uprising of Owain Glyndŵr against Henry IV.

Creton travelled to Ireland with the King on his expeditionary force in May 1399, but was sent back to Wales with John Montagu the Earl of Salisbury two months later when Montagu was sent to Wales to raise opposing forces. When these deserted, Montagu advised King Richard to flee to Bordeaux. Creton was caught up in the events which followed. He waited with the King at Conway Castle, and here he witnessed the Earl of Northumberland arrival and then that of Bolingbroke. Along with the other minor members of the royal entourage, Creton was required by the earl to leave the castle with Bolingbroke's herald. The chronicler was later open about the fact that, as a recent scholar has put it, Creton "was more frightened than he had ever been in his life." However, on hearing that Creton and his companions were French, Bolingbroke addressed them in their own language and assured them of their personal safety. Créton is notable for being one of the few contemporary chroniclers who believed Richard II was in fact alive after 1399 - possibly, in fact, the only one. In his chronicle he says that, when Richard's body was displayed in St Paul's Cathedral in March 1400, he "certainly [did not] believe it was the old King," and, further, that "I think it was [Richard] Maudelyn, his chaplain, whose face, size, height and build were so exactly similar to the King's."

Summary
Possibly the only treasure in the well at Beeston Castle are the coins which have been dropped down it by visitors to see how deep it is. The well is not exactly vertical, and some have reported odd sounds after dropping a coin into the well, presumably as it glances against the sides.

Related pages

 * Chester Castle:
 * Beeston Castle:
 * Courts:
 * Grosvenor Treasure: another treasure hunt;
 * Cheshire Castles;
 * St Johns;

Online

 * Richard II's Treasure:

Beeston

 * History of Beeston Castle: English Heritage;
 * Beeston Castle listed building record;
 * Beeston Castle on Wikipedia;
 * Beeston Castle at CastleFortsBattles;
 * Beeston Castle at CheshireLive;
 * Beeston Castle at Britain Express;
 * Beeston Castle, Cheshire: Excavations by Laurence Keen & Peter Hough, 1968-85;

Holt

 * Gatehouse;
 * Wrexham County Borough Museum: information site;
 * Looking inside the medieval Holt Castle;