This Day in History: 1483-06-10

Elizabeth WoodvilleRichard III put in motion a plan to destroy the  Queen Dowager, Elizabeth Woodville, and the Woodville family forever. On the 10th June 1483, Richard wrote  to the Mayor of York, John Newton, requesting that he ‘come unto us to London in all the diligence you can possible, after the site thereof, with as many as ye can make defensibly arrayed, there to aid to assist us against the Queen, her blood, her adherents and affinity, which have intended and daily doth intend to murder and utterly destroy us and our cousin the Duke of Buckingham.’ The troops were asked to gather at Pontefract before proceeding to London.