Lord Bergavenny’s illegal retaining revisited, 1501–22

George Neville, Lord Bergavenny, was fined £70,650 in 1507 for illegal retaining. This is used as the classic example of early Tudor attitudes towards noble retaining. Yet it is frequently taken out of the context of the other occasions for which he was prosecuted for this crime over a fifteen-year period, and for which he escaped punishment. A thorough analysis of the legal records and other sources shows a much more ambivalent and inconsistent royal attitude towards him; the fine of 1507 was linked to high politics as much as to retaining. Bergavenny’s motives for his consistent lawbreaking over twenty years are also examined, as is the essential atypicality of his retaining compared to others of his class.