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15th Century
Wars of the Roses (1455 - 1485)
Men of Warwick
 
Simon Sweetwyd (Tim Seasholtz)
Simon was born in February 1432 in the town of St. Albans, the youngest
of four children. His father was a successful merchant whose livelihood
was dependent on the raw wool trade. The family prospered, so much so,
that it seemed Simon would have a live property and wealth.
He learned the family business, although he knew his older brothers
would have the lion share of it when his father passed on. He was taught
writing and rhetoric, at which he excelled, and the basic business practices
of the day for which he showed only a basic aptitude. He learned to fight
in the streets of London, where the family kept a modest house near London
Bridge. Simon had two weaknesses - women and gaming. He used the later
to fund his trysts with the former which proved an embarrassment to his
family. His father gave him an ultimatum: Stop or be exiled. Reluctantly,
Simon stopped.
In June of 1450, the rabble rouser Jack Cade brought his men to the
gates of London. The group was denied entry and a fight ensued on London
Bridge. Sweetwyd's father was one of the merchants who sallied out to defend
his city. He was killed by an arrow in the opening minutes of the conflict
and his oldest son, Richard, lost an arm. Simon was barely able to extricate
Richard and get him to a surgeon before he bled to death. Later that night,
Simon returned to find his father's warehouse had been burned by some of
Cade's sympathizers, effectively ruining the family. Within a year, Simon's
mother remarried.
Lacking future prospects, Simon joined on as a soldier with Lord Talbot's
continuing expedition into France. He was a capable soldier and well liked
by his fellows. His life went well for two years until the disaster of
Castillon where Talbot and most of his army were killed. Sweetwyd and a
small band escaped to Calais and then across the Channel where he swore
of soldiering forever. He found work in London, but had to leave after
impregnating the daughter of a leading merchant. Feeling that Yorkshire
was, "a goodlie distance from ally mye troubbles, Simon hired on with the
Duke of York's army as a clerk. He was caught stealing money and was sentenced
to prison, but a personal appeal to the Duke was successful and Sweetwyd's
sentence was commuted to service in the Army as a halberdier. So much for
sacred oaths.
Simon signed on with the Earl of Warwick's personal guard after the
death of York in 1460. He was seriously wounded at Wakefield and took some
time recovering in a nunnery and rejoined Warwick's men in January.
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