(Richard, third Duke of, father of Edward IV and Richard III, Lieutenant of France 1436-7 & 1440-45, 1411-60) Indenture agreement between Henry VI and Jean Salvain [Sir John Salvin], knight, royal councillor, a contract by Salvain, Captain of Chateau Gaillard, for the period of one year from 29 June 1444, following the advice and consideration of Richard, Duke of York, lieutenant general and governor of France and Normandy, for the defence of Chateau Gaillard Jean Salvain is obliged to maintain two mounted lancers, eight foot lancers and thirty archers, of which one eighth only of his men may be French, the remaining must be English, Irish, Welsh or Gascons, among his troops he should never recruit a captain or any person who participated in the horrible murders committed in the area of St-Pierre-sur-Dives [near Lisieux] by Walter Houx and his accomplices, he may retain in his service a gunner ( cannonier ), an armourer, a bowmaker and a crossbowmaker, soldiers should be properly equipped and the captain (Salvain), his lieutenant and his troops should be garrisoned at Chateau Gaillard, and the captain to be responsible for any misdeeds of his troops, if he fails in any of his obligations the king or the lieutenant-general of France may transfer his duties to any other person, manuscript in Norman-French, on vellum, in a chancellery hand, in brown ink, 40 lines, indented at head, without seal, folds, slightly creased, lightly soiled, 273 x 657mm., Honfleur, 26th June 1444. The father of Richard III and one of the instigators of the Wars of the Roses. York was killed at the battle of Wakefield by the forces of Margaret of Anjou, queen consort of Henry VI. "Duke Richard was the true founder of the royal house of York." - Oxford DNB. Chateau Gaillard. The castle was constructed in 1196 by Richard I to protect the Vexin, a strip of land between Normandy and France and was a long running source of contention between the two kingdoms. Although by the 1440 s the castle was over two hundred years old, its strategic value was still high and it changed hands repeatedly during the Hundred Years War. It was finally taken by the French for the last time in 1449. Jean Salvain, bailiff of Gisors, 1424; bailiff of Rouen, 1432.