A duke, brother to a king, was executed in 1478 by being drowned in a barrel of sweet wine. It may have been his own choice.
The Duke of Clarence is a pub with eight hundred and fifty reviews and a 4.5 – a genuinely good score on a large sample – and it is named after a title whose most famous holder met one of the strangest and most fitting deaths in all of English history: drowned, allegedly, in a barrel of wine.
The prince and the barrel
George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was born in 1449, the brother of two kings – Edward IV, who reigned, and Richard III, who would later seize the throne. George lived through the Wars of the Roses, the long, savage dynastic conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster, and he played it treacherously: he switched sides, betrayed his brother the king, joined a rebellion, was forgiven, and then plotted again.
Eventually, in 1478, his brother King Edward IV ran out of patience. George was convicted of high treason – the king prosecuted him in person – and sentenced to death. And here the legend takes over: rather than being beheaded, the usual fate of a traitorous noble, George was, according to tradition, drowned in a butt of malmsey wine, in the Tower of London.
Malmsey
Malmsey was a sweet, strong, fortified wine, much prized in medieval England – a luxury drink, imported from the Mediterranean. A “butt” was a large barrel, holding well over a hundred gallons – easily enough to drown a man.
And here is the detail that has delighted historians and drinkers for five centuries: George, Duke of Clarence, was famously a very heavy drinker, particularly fond of malmsey. So the story that he was drowned in a butt of his favourite wine may be a grim joke, or it may be literally true – and some accounts suggest he may even have chosen the method himself, electing to drown in the sweet wine he loved rather than face the axe.
Shakespeare immortalised the scene in “Richard III,” where the duke is stabbed and then drowned in the malmsey butt. Whether it truly happened, no one can prove – his exhumed body showed his head was intact, so he was certainly not beheaded – but the story has stuck for over five hundred years, because it is too perfect to let go: the drunkard prince, drowned in a barrel of his favourite drink.
The charm on the bracelet
There is one haunting piece of evidence. George’s daughter, Margaret Pole, is said to have worn, for the rest of her life, a small charm bracelet with a tiny wine-barrel charm on it – a private memorial to her father and the manner of his death. A portrait believed to be of her appears to show exactly this. If true, it suggests the family, at least, believed the story of the barrel. It is a small, sad, extraordinary detail.
The pub
A genuinely well-regarded pub, doing a strong 4.5 across a large and real sample of eight hundred and fifty people – by this survey’s standards, convincingly good. It carries one of the great morbid stories of English history in its name, whether its drinkers know it or not.
Verdict
A good, popular, properly-rated pub named after a treacherous prince drowned in a barrel of sweet wine – possibly by his own choice.
Raise a glass to George, Duke of Clarence, who loved his malmsey so much that he may have asked to die in it. There are worse ways to be remembered.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
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