What would it have been like to walk through the town of Reading in the medieval period, while Henry V ruled? Or the period of the Wars of the Roses? What did it look like, and who lived there? Luckily, there’s a lot of local evidence for this period in surviving ancient deeds, parish records and other sources. 

Many of the same historic landmarks we see today would have been known to Reading’s medieval residents. The Sun Inn on Castle Street was standing, but it's not clear if it was a public house or inn at this time. It was next to the town's gaol, the place offenders were imprisoned long before Reading Gaol first opened in 1785. There were many others. The George was open, and is mentioned in records from 1423. Unlike the crumbling ruins of today, Reading Abbey was a sprawling collection of neatly-arranged, well-maintained buildings with a mill, gardens and an impressive Norman abbey church.

By 1420 the abbey church's sister church, St Laurence’s, had been standing for three hundred years, a centre of worship, burials and marriages. At the start of the century, it would have been smaller than today, and without the impressive stone tower it is known for now. In around 1458 the church underwent substantial building works, which included the erection of the tower. Residents would therefore have been used to seeing wooden scaffolding on the church, with stonemasons and carpenters hammering away with their tools. The era saw St Laurence grow, with a new roof, internal extensions and the addition of new windows.

The market place alongside the church was owned by Reading Abbey, and traders from all around the country – and even further afield – would have come here to buy and sell produce. The medieval graveyard of St Laurence’s would have been smaller than it is today, extended with the permission of Mary I in the mid-sixteenth century. Immediately to the right of the main doors of the church was a gateway leading to Reading Abbey and today’s Forbury Gardens. Locals would have watched as kings, queens and nobles made their way through this entrance into the abbey’s interior with their large retinue of advisors, nobility and servants. The extravagant wedding of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster in 1359 at the abbey church would have been within living memory with tournaments and celebrations held in the Forbury. Throughout the 1400s, many English kings held parliament here, escaping into Reading Abbey whenever travelling this way, or in the event plague threatened London. The Calendars of Patent Rolls record appearances in Reading by kings such as Henry IV, Henry VI, Edward IV, and Henry VII throughout the century. The 1400s marked their own royal wedding in 1464, that of Elizabeth Woodville's sister Margaret Woodville, who married the heir to the earl of Arundel. 

The era was marked by one of the most turbulent periods of English history: The Wars of the Roses. Reading’s role in the medieval civil war has been overlooked, but decisions on military affairs and political business were carried out in the centre of the town. Most notably, Edward IV presented his wife Elizabeth Woodville to the nobility as his wife for the first time in September 1464 within the walls of the abbey. From here too, Henry VI knighted his half-brothers from whom Henry Tudor would one day descend. Across the bridge in Caversham, curious visitors would be shown a dagger that was believed to have killed King Henry VI in the Tower of London, regarded for many years as an important spiritual and historical relic. The town also has a scandalous link to the very beginning of the unrest that triggered the Wars of the Roses. In 1444, a servant at the abbey criticised King Henry VI, accusing him of ruling weakly and like a child. He was hauled up for an investigation, condemned to die and at the last minute, pardoned by the king.

Some names of the town’s residents during this period survive, giving us an intimate glimpse into medieval Reading. Deeds record characters such as John Caylok of Herteley, who owned a tenement called Fougheresplace (Fowler’s Place) in Reading in 1404. A 1429 document describes this building later owned by John Say, John Whyte and John Veyre who granted it to William Stappere. It is described as being in the ‘street called Wodestret’ (Wood Street) in Reading, ‘extending to the lane called Bataylelane’ (Battle Lane). In 1456 a groom of Henry VI's household occupied a tenement in Wood Street - his name was John Barnet. We have to wonder if he knew William More, another member of Henry's household whose life is commemorated in a brass in St Michael's church in Tilehurst nearby. John Barnet married Agnes, and in her will, she left goods to Salisbury Cathedral and bequeathed a 'silver ring worth 6d' to 'the table of the high altar of St Mary's, Reading'. She wrote her will on 2 January 1456 and died on around 13 March in the same year. It is therefore possible that Agnes was ill and had a feeling that death would approach. Later, another servant lived here in Wood Street, a servant of Edward IV's household, William Barnett, in 1464. It's possible that William was a relative of John and Agnes.

New Street, today’s Friar Street, was a popular residential area, packed with homes of people from all backgrounds. Residents usually lived in tenements - buildings that contained individual rooms or quarters for living in - a bit like our modern-day flats. Richard Suward lived in a tenement on New Street in 1411, ‘in the angle between the lane called ‘Goturlane’ (Gutter Lane) on the west, and the tenement of Richard Welham formerly John le Brewer’s on the east’. In 1414 his home was transferred to William Huntyngdon, a glover living in the town. Stephen Bekke with his wife Agnes, and John Lewynden were neighbours, recorded two years later at New Street in 1416. 

John Clerk, John Whyte, Robert Godewyne and Robert Bodewyn are some of the mayors listed for the period. In 1414 the constables of the town included Robert Keynes and Alexander Colleshulle, while Nicholas Barbur and Walter Baron were bailiffs. You would have met these men if you were summoned to answer at the the town council, engaged in legalities or were sent to be imprisoned. 

In the 1460s and 1470s one couple in particular dominate the town records in New Street. Thomas and Elizabeth Clerk moved into the street in 1458, according to a deed of that year where they were granted a tenement by Robert Farle of Reading. Robert had inherited the home on the death of his father Richard. Thomas Clerk was a draper and later served as mayor of Reading during the reign of Edward IV. One of the couple's neighbours was Henry Justice. Thomas appears again in a letter of attorney in 1465 but by 1476 Elizabeth is described as a widow. On 8 January of that year Elizabeth transferred all her goods to the ironmonger John Langham and his wife Joan, along with the tenement she once shared with her husband. The couple's nephew, Edward Clerk, also lived in the town and inherited some of his uncle's property on his death. The Langhams seem to have lived in the old Clerk home until 1484, when John Langham released his right to the tenement during the brief reign of Richard III.

Thomas and Elizabeth Clerk were wealthy, judging by the expensive gifts they granted to St Laurence’s church, and not only made a career in local government but were an example of the potential of those who took part in Reading's bustling cloth trade. The founding of Reading Abbey in 1121 by Henry I encouraged visitors of all walks of life into the town and increased its attraction as a centre of commerce, politics and religion. The Clerks were drapers, but there were shoemakers, leather-sellers and other cloth workers and merchants living in the town. Later, in the reign of Henry VIII, report was made of John Vyntener living in a corner tenement with his wife Amisia. Theirs was a corner plot with a shop and kitchen on New Street, and they agreed to add a solarium to it within two years. Vyntener was described as a 'barber and painter' in 1512.

Reading’s other medieval churches were active, too. St Giles and St Mary’s both welcomed parishioners for worship. St Giles had work undertaken in 1398. Residents in these areas included John Denys, a cook who lived in London Street in 1498, and John and Helen Carpynter, who lived in Reading's High Street and also had a shop in Butcher Row, roughly where the Minster Street end of the Broad Street is today. In May 1497  Thomas Carpynter is named as living in the High Street near the market place with his wife Margaret, a property with a garden. Thomas and Margaret were later benefactors to St Laurence's Church. In 1544, during the reign of Henry VIII, John' son William made a claim to the family's tenement following his father's death. 

Various records mention a tenement called 'Le Cok' in the High Street. This would have been a pictorial image which hung from the building so that residents who could not read were able to navigate through the town. John Hunte was a butcher in the time of Henry IV, married to his wife Matilda. John had died by 1409, when Matilda is mentioned as a widow in a legal document. A shoemaker, John Mereham, is mentioned in a deed relating to London Street in 1442. There were also masons, hosiers and merchants living in the area. One interesting record of 1466 relates to 'Red Rose Rent', with Gilbert Sawyer granting a tenement in London Street to John Body for life, 'on payment of a red rose yearly', as long as Sawyer agreed to carry out repairs on the tenement, excepting any damages 'that Body or his servants shall cause'. 

While Reading was split into different wards for administration and religious reasons, it was still a small town in the 1400s, and residents from different parishes would have known one another. They would have met at the markets, festivals and performances, like the one held at the Forbury in the abbey grounds on May Day in 1499, where locals were treated to an enactment of Robin Hood. There is also some evidence that a Maypole was erected near here for dancing on special occasions.

Reading might have been much smaller than it is today, but the medieval town was an important centre, not only to its own families, but in national decisions and actions carried out through war, commerce, religion and the administration of the realm. Mayors, bailiffs and constables lived alongside shoemakers, ironmongers and cooks and they all celebrated important events such as Henry V’s victory after Agincourt, to the birth of Henry VI. They would have watched Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville leave, smiling, through the abbey gates and whispered as rumours of the fates of the Princes in the Tower trickled into the town through salesmen and merchants. Later, they lit bonfires and drank wine in the streets to celebrate the coronation of Henry VII and the dawn of the Tudor age. 

Interested in the Wars of the Roses? My first book explores the roles of women from all sectors of fifteenth century society and the impact they had on the Wars of the Roses conflict. Reading is mentioned, as is Elizabeth Clerk. Order your copy here. 

My second book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, published by Pen and Sword Books, explores the contributions sixteenth century couples made to their own times as well as how they influenced our own. Order your copy here. 

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Source:

A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds in the Public Record Office. Vols 1-6. Mackie and Co Ltd, London, 1902.

There is one family in particular that I always feel gets a little overlooked when dealing with the Wars of the Roses, or the fifteenth century in general. The Pastons in Norfolk are famous for leaving behind a stack of letters on family matters, business and political subjects which all help us gain a greater understanding of what it was like to live through one of the most turbulent periods in our history. However while Margaret Paston was writing to her husband requesting armour, weapons and men to repel a siege at their home, 135 miles away another family were surviving politically, socially and financially in a country manor at Henley on Thames. 

Image extracted from page 296 of volume 3 of "Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. L.P", by John Preston Neale. Original held and digitised by the British Library, Copied from Flickr via Wikimedia Commons

The influence of the Stonors can be traced back to the thirteenth century, the family active during the reign of Edward I, appearing in a grant of land concerning a manor near Henley in 1290. During the medieval period they served the crown as sheriffs of local justice, were summoned to parliament and travelled overseas on diplomatic missions. By the fifteenth century they lived at Stonor Park, a place John Leland described in the mid-sixteenth century as pleasant, with rabbit warrens and deer parks, just a few miles away from the busy riverside market centre of Henley-on-Thames. 

The family had tight links with the Chaucers, which continued into the early 1400s through Alice, the granddaughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who married Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury and later, William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk. Suffolk was an early victim of the anger and violence simmering before the Wars of the Roses broke, having been sent into exile by Henry VI but intercepted on the sea. A band of sailors gave him a mock trial, beheaded him and threw the duke's body overboard, found mutilated on the shore in May 1450. Before his marriage to Alice, William de la Pole is believed to have had an illegitimate daughter with a nun while serving in the military in France. The nun's name was Malyne de Cay, and the daughter Joan. This is believed to have been the Joan that Thomas Stonor, the next heir of the family estates, married. Another factor in the friendship between the Stonors and the Chaucers is that the Chaucers were based in the nearby village of Ewelme in Oxfordshire.

A document records that de la Pole's daughter Jane was born in Normandy, and the early twentieth century writer Charles Lethbridge Kingston believed that the way she spelled words like 'thesyryd' for desired and 'sendyd' for sent it in her letters revealed that she had been educated abroad. It's possible that also, if she spelled these words phonetically, she may have had a French accent. She died in 1493, while living in Henley-on-Thames and requested in her will that she be buried at the west door of the town's church. Thomas had died on 23 April 1475 and was buried at Pyrton Church. 

Thomas and Jane had three sons (William, Thomas and Edmund) and three daughters (Jane, Mary and Elizabeth). Throughout the wars, the family continued to serve Edward IV in battle, accompanying him to France in 1475 and in parliament. William, the eldest son, was born in around 1449 and, as a young man, played an active role in assisting his father with the family estates and dealing with disputes. In 1472 he approached the daughter of Sir Thomas Etchingham, and the widow of William Blount, the son of the first Lord Mountjoy. However the marriage never took place. In 1475 he married Elizabeth Stonor. Elizabeth brought children from her previous marriage to the wealthy merchant Thomas Ryche, and a servant called Thomas Betson, who assisted her in mercantile business for the family's livelihood. Betson was a stockfishmonger and a merchant at Calais, and corresponded with Elizabeth about the family's dabbling in the wool trade, which Elizabeth drove forwards without, if the letters are anything to go by, too much input from William. There is some hint in the letters that some of the Stonors did not welcome Elizabeth openly, perhaps feeling as if she was of a lower social status than them, or perhaps grudging that William did not marry the woman of higher status, Etchingham, his first choice of bride. However, she was praised as a good wife to William, worked towards the family fortunes and checked in on him when he was ill, sending medicines and referring to him in her letters lovingly and with care. Elizabeth attended Court in London and saw Cecily Neville meet with her son Edward IV, writing of the event back home. She died in 1479. 

After Elizabeth's death William remarried in around 1480, to another wealthy widow, Agnes Wydeslade. She brought cash and lands to the marriage, through her father's estates in Devon and Cornwall. William seems to have fostered an alliance with the Woodvilles in the early 1480s, and was described in one letter as 'the greatest man with my lord [Dorset, Elizabeth Woodville's son]... the most courteous knight that ever was'. Agnes' marriage to William was short, and she died on 4 May 1481. That autumn, William married for a third time. Beside him at the church door was Anne Neville, the daughter of John, Marquis of Montagu, brother of Warwick the Kingmaker. Although he had ties with the Woodvilles, William was present at Richard III's coronation after Elizabeth Woodville's son Edward V was deposed. However, plotting was underway. Francis Lovell, the staunch supporter of Richard, wrote to William to ensure he would support the king in October 1483. William avoided further contact with Lovell and joined the Buckingham Rebellion of that year, and was later attainted as a traitor in parliament. By February 1484 his lands in Devon and Cornwall were seized by Richard, and his manor of Stonor in Henley granted to none other than Francis Lovell. 

After 1485 and Richard's defeat at the Battle of Bosworth, William, like many Tudor supporters, found favour with their new king, Henry VII. He was placed back in charge of his lands and estates and given a close position as Knight of the Body. He continued to serve as sheriff of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and in 1490-1491, as sheriff of Devon. He also fought for Henry VII against the Pretender Lambert Simnel at the Battle of Stoke in 1487. He died on 21 May 1495, leaving instructions for prayers to be said for his three wives and other family members. 

The later Stonors, living through the early Tudor period, were fractured through various legal battles. William and Anne's son, John, died young and their estates passed to their daughter, Anne. However this was disputed by William's brother Thomas Stonor and a bitter legal battle ensued. Thomas died in 1512, and Anne in 1518. At the time of her death, Anne was married to Sir Adrian Fortescue and had two daughters, Margaret and Frances. 

We don't hear much about the Stonor family of Oxfordshire, but they should be considered as important as the Pastons for what their private and business correspondence tells us about life in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Some of their inventories survive too, meaning we are able to build up a picture not only of family relationships but of personal tastes and their surroundings at Stonor during the Wars of the Roses. I deal with a number of Stonor women in my book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses, if you'd like to find out more. 

Liked this? You might also like The Women of Warwick Castle, Thomas Beauchamp and Katherine Mortimer, Medieval Power Couple and A Visit to Lord Leycester's Hospital, Warwick. 

Interested in the Wars of the Roses? My first book explores the roles of women from all sectors of fifteenth century society and the impact they had on the Wars of the Roses conflict. Order your copy here. 

My second book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, published by Pen and Sword Books, explores the contributions sixteenth century couples made to their own times as well as how they influenced our own. Order your copy here. 

Never want to miss a post? Subscribe to my newsletter here: 

Sources:

Stonor Family Tree, Cambridge.org [accessed 3 July 2025]

Charles Lethbridge Kingston, The Stonor Letters and Papers, Vol 1 and 2, 1290-1483. London, 1919.

Mary I was a formidable power in mid-sixteenth century England. Married to Philip of Spain, she fused the Tudor dynasty to that of the Habsburgs, arguably the most powerful family in Europe. She was England's first queen regnant, ruling in her own right, with her husband serving as consort. Their union boasted military, political and financial power and triggered crucial debates over a woman's power as a ruler in sixteenth century England. 

Mary was hard-working, decisive and had a clear image of the England she wanted to establish. She could be brutal, ordering the executions of those who rebelled, resisted or refused to follow her rules on power or religion. Very much her father's daughter, she also demonstrated the tenacity and determinedness of her mother, Katherine of Aragon. But what was it like to meet her? 

Luckily, the Venetian ambassador Giacomo Sorranzo met Mary in 1554 and left a detailed description of this formidable queen. At the time of their meeting she was thirty-eight years old and had been crowned the year before. Here's what he wrote.  

Princess Mary, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain

 "The most serene Madam Mary is entitled Queen of England and of France, and Defenderess of the Faith. She was born on the 18 February 1515 [1516], so she yesterday completed her thirty-eighth year, and six months. She is of low stature with a red and white complexion, and very thin. Her eyes are white and large, and her hair reddish; her face is round, with a nose rather low and wide, and were not her age on the decline, she might be called handsome rather than the contrary. She is not of a strong constitution, and of late she suffers from headache, and serious affection of the heart, so that she is often obliged to take medicine, and also to be blooded. She is of very spare diet, and never eats till one or two p.m., although she rises at daybreak, when after saying her prayers, and hearing Mass in private, she transacts business incessantly until after midnight, when she retires to rest; for she chooses to give audience not only to all the members of her Privy Council, and to hear from them every detail of public business, but also to all other persons who ask it of her. 

Her Majesty's countenance indicates great benignity and clemency, which are not belied by her conduct, for although she has had many enemies, and though so many of them were by law condemned to death, yet had the executions depended solely on her Majesty's will, not one of them perhaps would have been enforced; but deferring to her Council in everything, she in this matter likewise complied with the wishes of others, rather than with her own. She is endowed with excellent ability, and more than moderately read in Latin literature, especially with regard to Holy Writ; and besides her native tongue, she speaks Latin, French and Spanish, and understands Italian perfectly, but does not speak it. She is also very generous, but not to the extent of letting it appear that she rests her chief claim to commendation on this quality. She is so confirmed in the Catholic religion, that although the King her brother, and his Council, prohibited her from having the Mass celebrated according to the Roman Catholic ritual, she nevertheless had it performed in secret, nor did she ever choose by any act to assent to any other form of religion, her belief in that in which she was born being so strong, that had the opportunity offered, she would have displayed it at the stake, her hope being in God alone, so that she constantly exclaims, 'In te Domine confido, non confundar in eternam! Si Deus est pro nobis, quis contra nos?' ['In you, Lord, I trust; let me not be put to shame forever! If God is for us, who can be against us?']. 

Her Majesty takes pleasure in playing on the lute and spinet, and is a very good performer on both instruments, and indeed before her accession, she taught many of her maids of honour. But she seems to delight above all in arraying herself elegantly and magnificently, and her garments are of two sorts; the one a gown such as men wear, but fitting very close, with an under petticoat which has a very long train; and this is her ordinary costume, being also that of the gentlewomen of England. The other garment is a gown and bodice with wide hanging sleeves in the French fashion, which she wears on State occasions, and she also wears much embroidery, and gowns and mantles of cloth of gold, and cloth of silver of great value, and changes every day. She also makes great use of jewels, wearing them both on her chaperon, and round her neck, and as trimming for her gowns, in which jewels she delights greatly, and although she has a great plenty of them left her by her predecessors, yet were she better supplied with money than she is, she would doubtless buy more."

This account is in contrast with a lot of modern misconceptions about Mary. She is often depicted in period dramas and caricature as short and overweight, but was actually thin. Her medical problems are documented in other sources, which also refer to her sparse appetite. The 'Bloody Mary' of legend, according to Sorranzo after their meeting, regretted the executions of her enemies, who were only murdered under the advice of her council, presumably needing to set a precedent to prevent future rebellion. It is also possible that she felt the same way about the religious discord and many that were burned for their religion during her reign. Anna Whitelock, in her book Mary Tudor: England's First Queen, has also wondered whether Mary considered her laws to be so horrific that no one would resist them, and was surprised when subjects continued to practice Protestantism and meet death at the stake. I do think that if we could meet Mary we would find a woman quite unlike the caricature of her in many history books today. She was generous, patient, loved jewels and fine clothing and was resolute in her following of the Catholic religion. Fluent in languages, she was busy and worked hard, but made time for any that wanted to speak to her personally. By the time she reached the throne she had overcome a huge amount of adversity, managing a difficult relationship with her father, experiencing the decline and death of her mother, a succession of stepmothers and being called illegitimate after the annulment of her parents' marriage. She overcame resistance to her rule and openly rallied her troops at a rebellion, standing defiantly to marry the man she believed could provide England with power, military resources and an heir. Sadly, she was never to bear a child, and the throne passed to her half-sister Elizabeth I. One thing is for certain: Mary was a three-dimensional character and far more complex than the stake-wielding 'Bloody Mary' of legend.

Liked this? You might also like Richard and Elizabeth Cholmely of the Tower of London, Exploring Tudor Power Couple's Contributions to History and Why was Henry VIII Obsessed with Producing a Male Heir? 

Interested in Tudor history? You might also like my second book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, published by Pen and Sword Books, which explores the contributions couples made to their own times as well as how they influenced our own. Mary is examined in detail in the context of her marriage to Philip of Spain and the ways in which they changed Tudor history. Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, Bess of Hardwick and George Talbot and Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon are among others explored in depth. Order your copy here.