Edward pardoned Richard and Anne?

I have stumbled on a comment to an old blog stating

It's in the Calendar of Patent Rolls that this shining example of fraternal loyalty received a royal pardon as did his wife of all offences committed by them'

.....

As for that royal pardon I must have checked up on every book and article on R3 EIV and EV the British Library has in its collection yet not one mention not even from the detractors or the royal pardon on the opposite page granted some eight months later at the request of R3 'to the king's subjects in the counties of York, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmoreland and the city of York and the precint of the same and town of Kyngeston(Kingston) on Hull'

Now, neither blogger nor commenter seem to be sympathetic to Richard and Anne, but I would like to ask if any of you is aware of these entries in the CPR, of their date and of the circumstances that led to it. I had never heard of it before. Thanks for your help. Mac

I've found it. It's dated July 1475 and pardons them "all fines, issues, amercements, reliefs, scutages, debts and arrears" due to the king for any lands they might have entered without royal licence. It's standard stuff, and interesting to see that it was actually issued while Gloucester was away in France. It's in the 1467-77 volume of the CPR, pp. 556-7.

Marie

Susan Higginbotham's website?

In a word, yes. The thing's too long to post, but it refers to Richard and Anne as heirs to various lands and perks - quite an odd list of items, not including the obvious such as Sheriff Hutton & Middleham - presumably there was no worry concerning the actual Neville lands that Richard had by royal grant. Chirk (which I think he was in the process of exchanging with Stanley for Skipton) was included, and it refers to Richard as 'late occupier' of Abergavenny. It pardons them, as I stated in my last post, from anything due to the crown for having entered any of these lands/ offices without royal licence.

The critical thing IMO is that it was issued in summer of 1475. Men going off to France were busy settling their affairs before they went, making wills, enfeoffing properties, etc. Clarence, for instance, enfeoffed all his estates. If you think about it, had Richard died Anne might have found herself in a very vulnerable position, particularly if Clarence survived. She had as yet no heir for whom her lands would have been kept. One can just imagine what might have happened. I suspect that there were a lot more documents drawn up by the couple before Richard left for France in an effort to ensure that Anne would not find herself deprived of her share of the Beauchamp-Montagu inheritance again on his death. With a very quick hunt I'm finding that in the spring of 1475 Richard and Anne requested copies of grants relating to some of their lands, and also that it wasn't until November 1475 that George & Richard and their wives actually obtained written licence to enter the Montagu lands.

To fully understand what was going on here, and why the couple were anxious about the lands and offices mentioned in this pardon would require a lot of work. I take it Susan Higginbotham [?] hasn't done that?

Marie