#116 HELPED A KING
SIR EDMUND SHAA
Edward Shaa was born in Mottram, Longdendale, Cheshire. In
the 1450s, he apprenticed in London as a goldsmith and had completed his freedom by 1458. He rose quickly in the
Goldsmith Company and served as its Prime Warden in 1476. In 1462, he was appointed
engraver to the Royal Mint (in the Tower of London and in Calais), a post he
held for about two decades. He served as Alderman for Cripplegate from
1473-1485 and for Cheapside from 1485-88; he was a London Sheriff in 1474-75
and elected Lord Mayor of London in 1482-3. He was knighted by Richard III in
1483 and sat on the Privy Council.
Dick Whittington and His Cat: Long ago, a poor boy named Dick Whittington heard that London’s streets were paved with gold. Hoping to make his fortune, he walked there with nothing but his courage. But London was no golden city—only noise, hunger, and hard work. A kind merchant, Mr. Fitzwarren, took Dick in as a servant. The cook treated him cruelly, and his only comfort was a little cat he had bought with a penny to chase away the mice in his attic. One day, Mr. Fitzwarren sent a ship on a trading voyage and let all his servants send something to sell. Dick had nothing but his cat, so he sent her aboard, never dreaming it would change his life. Unable to bear his hardships, Dick ran away. But on Highgate Hill, he heard the Bow Bells of London ringing, and it seemed they were saying: “Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London!” Encouraged, Dick turned back and worked even harder. Meanwhile, his master’s ship reached a distant kingdom overrun with rats. The king and queen were delighted when Dick’s cat cleared their palace of vermin. They paid a chest of gold for her, and when the ship returned, Dick found himself rich beyond imagining. He married his master’s daughter, became a successful merchant, and, just as the bells had foretold, was chosen Lord Mayor of London three times. The tale of Dick Whittington and His Cat remains one of London’s enduring myths. His became a moral fairytale for apprentices; he embodied industry, piety and social ascent and his many charitable deeds outshone even the legend.
Edmund Shaa’s rags-to-riches story resembled Whittington’s. In 1857, Thomas Middleton, a local historian, remembered
that one of Cheshire’s famous sons, a “man of this place”, had made it rich and
had become Lord Mayor of London so he included the myth of Edward Shaa in his Legends
of Longdendale. The story goes that while still a youth, Shaa dreamed of a
Lord Mayor’s pageant and thought the phantom face looked like his own. Then he
heard a fairy in his dream singing’ “If thou would’st win great renown/Make thy
way to London town;/Fortune waits to greet thee there/Even London’s civic chair;/Lord
Mayor of London thou shalt be/And when thou rulest London town/The King shall
beg of thee his crown.” Edmund woke from his dream and headed to London to fulfil his destiny.
There is, of course, no contemporary or early source to confirm this narrative; it was but a romantic legend that Middleton wove into the local lore of his birthplace. Middleton’s audience in industrial Cheshire were millworkers and small town folk who admired upward mobility and these Victorians wanted to believe that local men of virtue and enterprise, like Shaa, would be divinely rewarded. Once in print, later storytellers then repeated Shaa’s story as if it was an ancient legend. Victorians told these legends not because they believed in magic but because they believed in meaning and needed the past to reassure them that their bustling, industrial society still rested on divine moral order.
Royal Connection
What is not romantic legend was Shaa’s close dealings with the
English royals. He lent money to Edward IV and as mayor was extensively
involved in the coronation of Edward’s brother, Richard III. Shaa was not just
a bystander during Richard III’s rise; he was one of Richard’s key allies in
1483.
When Edward IV died suddenly in April 1483, his heir was his
12 year son, Edward V. The late king’s brother, Richard of Gloucester, was
named Lord Protector during his nephew’s minority. London was a city on edge
and two factions vied for power: the family of the widowed Queen Elizabeth
Woodville versus Richard of Gloucester and his northern allies. The mayor and
aldermen of London were the key civic arbitrators since whoever held London
controlled England’s treasury, mint and legitimacy. That’s where Edmund Shaa,
then Lord Mayor of London (1482-83), enters the story. As a prominent
goldsmith, and the engraver at the Royal Mint, Shaa had long been trusted by
Edward IV’s court. His position naturally tied him financially and politically to
the crown. When Richard of Gloucester reached London in May 1483, he needed the
cooperation of the city authorities to muster armed support, to “secure” his
nephew, Edward V, and his younger brother in the Tower “for their safety”, and
then to prepare a declaration of his own right to the Throne. Shaa gave Richard
this cooperation, and more.
The most famous episode came on Sunday, June 22, 1483 when Edmund’s brother, Dr. Ralph Shaa, a theologian and preacher, delivered a sermon at St. Paul’s Cross, an outdoor pulpit near St. Paul’s Cathedral. Ralph claimed that Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid, therefore his children were illegitimate, and thus Richard Gloucester was the rightful king. Historians agree that Edmund Shaa was involved in arranging this moment; he gave his brother the civic platform and, as mayor, he authorized the gathering and promoted the sermon as an official public event. Thus, both Shaa brothers were backers of Richard’s propaganda. Two days later, the Duke of Buckingham addressed London’s elite, urging them to acclaim Richard as king. Shakespeare dramatizes this in Richard III where Lord Mayor Edmund Shaa briefly appears: Buckingham: “How now, Sir Edmund Shaa! Are all things ready?” Mayor: “They are, and all things else are well prepared.” Historically, Shaa did preside over such a delegation and citizens to Richard, symbolically “offering” him the crown on behalf of London.
Richard III promptly rewarded Shaa and knighted him in July
1483, soon after the coronation. He gave Shaa civic and mint commissions and
named him to the royal commission of inquiry following the Buckingham Rebellion
(October 1483), thus showing much trust in his loyalty. Shaa’s connection with
Richard was not accidental; it was a sustained alliance of office, trade and
conviction.
When Richard fell at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, Shaa,
though tainted by association, was not punished; he kept his standing in the
city and he died wealthy and respectfully. It wasn’t until Shakespeare, who for
his own opportunistic reasons, depicted the Shaa brothers helping Richard steal
the crown that Edmund’s reputation became tarnished. (Thus, Middleton’s book in
1857 attempted to clear Shaa’s reputation, but I am not sure how successful he
was against the weight of a Shakespearean classic.)
Edmund Shaa died on April 20,1488, about age 60, and was buried in the Mercers' Chapel, London (this chapel was twice destroyed --in the Great Fire of 1666 and during the blitz of 1940). Shaa’s will made provisions for his wife, Julian and named his children as beneficiaries. He made gifts to churches and chapels and for “masses for the souls” (i.e. commemorative religious services).
Edmund Shaa's will funded the steeple for Mottram Parish Church
And he directed that sixteen gold rings (to the value of 20 shillings each) be made and given to a list of friends including fellow goldsmiths and aldermen and possibly churchwardens. Twenty-shilling rings were high-value gifts (roughly a craftsman’s several months’ wages). Leaving such personal remembrance gifts was a common medieval civic-elite custom used to bind together friends and kin in perpetual memory; they underscored Shaa’s wealth and his desire for lasting remembrance among London’s governing elite. Recipients often wore them publicly during guild, religious or civic occasions, keeping the donor’s name alive within the company. One of these gold rings, (believed to be a Shaa memorial ring) was found in 1895 during an excavation and is now in the British Museum.
SIR EDMUND SHAA b. abt 1427 in Mottram, Longdendale, Cheshire, England m. Julian ? (-1494) d. April 20, 1488 in London, England my Harper line
Post Script about Richard III
I am a longtime Ricardian so find it awesome that my kin met and worked with Richard III. In Grade 9, a most wonderful teacher introduced me to British history and she captivated me with the story of the 2 young princes who, in 1483, were imprisoned in the Tower of London and then disappeared. In 1674, two small human skeletons were discovered beneath a staircase in the Tower. Believed, but not proven, to be Edward V and his brother, they were reinterred, as princes, in Westminster Abbey. There are many theories as to their fate. The “standard” theory is that they were murdered on orders of their uncle, Richard III, because he saw them as rivals to the throne but there is no definite proof of this. Another theory is someone else killed them, on their own or with Richard’s tacit consent. Now some modern researchers, including Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society, speculate that the princes weren’t killed in 1483 but they escaped or were spirited away but this theory lacks credible evidence of their later existence. What happened to them will likely never be known.
Richard III was defeated by Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. (Bosworth was the last significant battle of the 32 year old War of the Roses.) In Shakespeare’s climactic scene, Richard shouts “A horse! A horse! My Kingdom for a horse” as his steed is killed beneath him and the tide of battle turns against him. Desperate, wounded, and surrounded, the once-mighty king was reduced to begging for a mount — a vivid symbol of his fall from power and fortune.
Richard's broken body was paraded through Leicester, stripped
and buried somewhere without ceremony. What happened to his body was one of those
great mysteries of English history that remained hidden until just fifteen years
ago! In 2012, a small group of researchers led by Philippa Langley and the
Ricardian Society followed the clues to a very nondescript parking lot in Leicester.
They struck bone. Archaeologists carefully excavated the bones, which
were found in a shallow hurried grave—no coffin, hands likely bound, the skull
bearing brutal wounds from swords and halberds. Forensic study revealed the
full story of his violent death: a blow to the back of the head that split the
skull, several post-mortem “humiliation” wounds, and the curvature of the spine
that confirmed his scoliosis. DNA analysis matched a living descendant of
Richard’s sister, conclusively proving his identity. In March 2015, Richard III
was reburied with full honors in Leicester Cathedral. The coffin—crafted from
English oak by a distant descendant—was borne through the streets in a solemn
procession watched by thousands. Medieval hymns, heraldic banners, and royal
dignitaries gave the once-vilified monarch the dignity he was denied in 1485.Today,
his tomb lies beneath a pale stone slab in the cathedral’s chancel, near the
very spot where he was rediscovered—an extraordinary closure to a mystery that
had haunted England for half a millennium. In 2019, we visited the site of his
burial and his final resting place; it was a very humbling connection to
history.
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