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THE HISTORY 
 
 or 
 
 ELIZABETH WOCMDVILLE; 
 
 OR 
 
 THE WARS 
 
 Houses of York and Lancaster, 
 
 By E. SANDHAM, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE TWIN SISTERS," « BRITANNIC US," 
 "CHOSROES AND HERACLIUS," &c &c &c. 
 
 '* The flattering index of a direful pageant ; 
 
 One heaved on high, to be hnrled down below." 
 
 SlIAKSPEARE. 
 
 Stout) on: 
 
 E. WALLIS, 42, SKINNER STREET, SNOW HILL. 
 
 182S, 
 
Printed by T. Davis, 102, MinorUs. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The History of Elizabeth Woodville, and 
 the various changes in her life, has long- 
 appeared to me an interesting subject. — But 
 the times in which she lived were so full of 
 incidents connected with the state of the 
 nation, that the life of an individual how- 
 ever illustrious can gain bat little notice 
 among the mass of events which crowd that 
 period of history* In chusing her for my 
 heroine, it has been my aim to draw into 
 one focus those events in which she was so 
 eminently interested. The civil wars of 
 this period were scarcely begun at her birth, 
 and they ended before her life was closed. 
 She was the mother of her whose union 
 with Henry VII. in a great measure, stilled 
 the tumults of the country; and, by her 
 offspring, the sword of blood, which had 
 A2 
 
THE HISTORY OF 
 
 At this time -the liberal arts, and the lessons 
 of universal benevolence and morality, were 
 scarcely known in Europe : the rights of nations 
 were totally disregarded, and superstition and 
 war were the sole objects of their rulers. The 
 people were taught from their infancy, that gifts 
 to the church would expiate the most atrocious 
 crimes ; and that injustice, usurpation, and inhu- 
 manity, were sufficiently atoned by a regular 
 attention to her rules. 
 
 Before the death of Henry V. he appointed his 
 two brothers, the Dukes of Bedford and of 
 Gloucester, to the regencies of France and 
 England, during his son's minority; but this 
 arrangement not being approved by the parlia- 
 ment, they named Bedford Protector of England 
 (not liking the title of Regent); and on finding that 
 his presence was necessary in France, Gloucester 
 was appointed to supply his place in England 
 during his absence. 
 
 The person and education of the infant king 
 were committed to the care of Henry Beaufort, 
 Bishop of Winchester, who was afterwards a 
 Cardinal, and of Thomas, Duke of Exeter, his 
 brother : these were the uncles of the late King. 
 
 The unfortunate Charles of France died within 
 two months of his son-in-law Henry V. and the 
 young Henry was proclaimed King of France. 
 The Dauphin, the youngest and only surviving 
 son of Charles VI. was also proclaimed, and 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 7 
 
 crowned at Poictiers as Charles VII.; but the 
 Duke of Bedford took possession of the kingdom 
 in the name of his nephew, and the war continued 
 with unremitting animosity. 
 
 The widow of Henry V. married Sir Owen 
 Tudor of Wales, by whom she had two sons, 
 Edmund and Jasper; the former was created 
 Earl of Richmond, and married Margaret, only 
 daughter of the Duke of Somerset, who was the 
 grandson of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, 
 son of Edward III. and of the same family as the 
 |£ing. From Richmond sprang Henry VII. of 
 whom we shall speak hereafter. Jasper was 
 created Earl of Pembroke. 
 
 The marriage of the Queen of England with a 
 commoner was considered as a degradation, and 
 for some time her husband was imprisoned by 
 the Duke of Gloucester, who acted as protector of 
 the realm. Having made his escape, he was 
 afterwards slain, fighting for the House of Lan- 
 caster, in those cruel anc^ unnatural wars which 
 distracted the kingdom, and at last terminated in 
 the ruin of that family. 
 
 The transactions of these wars are so connected 
 with the subject of my history, that it will be 
 necessary to remind my readers of the grounds 
 on which the Houses of York and Lancaster 
 founded their respective claims to the kingdom. 
 Edward III. from whom both families sprang, 
 had seven sons; the eldest, Edward the Black 
 a 4 
 
8 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Prince, so famous in history, died in his father 7 * 
 life-time, and his son succeeded to the throne as 
 Richard II. 
 
 The second son of Edward III. died in his 
 infancy. His third son was Lionel, Duke of 
 Clarence, whose daughter Philippa married Ed- 
 mund Mortimer, Earl of March. Their son 
 endeavoured to ascend the throne after the 
 usurpation of Henry IV. but not succeeding, 
 was kept in prison till he died, in the third year 
 of Henry VI. 
 
 The fourth son of Edward III. was John of 
 Gaunt, who married the daughter of the Duke of 
 Lancaster, and succeeded to his title. From 
 this marriage sprang Henry IV. who deposed his 
 cousin Richard II. in 1399, and ascended the 
 throne in his stead. 
 
 Edmund Langley, Earl of Cambridge, and 
 afterwards Duke of York, was the fifth son : his 
 son, the Earl of Cambridge, having married the 
 sister of the imprisoned Mortimer, raised a second 
 conspiracy in his favour early in the reign of 
 Henry V. and was beheaded, with his confede- 
 rates, at Southampton, 1415 ; when his title and 
 estates were forfeited to the crown. 
 
 He left a son, who in the fifth year of Henry 
 VI. was restored to the title and possessions of 
 his father, having succeeded to those of his uncle 
 Mortimer, in right of his mother, who inherited 
 the estates of her brother. He was also, at this 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 9 
 
 time, created Duke of York ; and was appointed 
 Regent of France, on the death of the Duke of 
 Bedford, notwithstanding the opposition of the 
 Duke of Somerset, who was his inveterate 
 enemy. The advancement of the Duke of York 
 was a fatal error in the administration ; for in- 
 stead of binding him to the service of the King* 
 it assisted his ambitious views upon the crown' 
 as descended in the female line from the Duke 
 of Clarence, the elder brother of Henry's ancestor. 
 He had married Cicily, the daughter of the Earl 
 of Westmoreland, and sister to the Earl of 
 Salisbury; the son of the latter nobleman had 
 succeeded to the title and estates of the Earl of 
 Warwick, in right of his wife ; and York's con- 
 nexion with these powerful noblemen gave him a 
 great ascendency in the nation. 
 
 The death of the Duke of Bedford, which 
 happened when the King was about fifteen years 
 of age, hastened the defeat of the English in 
 France, who lost many advantages for want of an 
 efficient commander. Paris was lost before the 
 Duke of York arrived there ; and Normandy, of 
 which Somerset was the Governor, was then the 
 only province which remained to England. 
 
 The amiable disposition of Henry could not 
 compensate for his want of understanding and 
 energy as a king. Much better qualified for a 
 private station than for the office he was called 
 to fill, he suffered himself to be governed by 
 ' A 5 
 
10 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 those who surrounded him, without considering 
 their character, or the tendency of their counsels. 
 Want of intellect i3 the fairest excuse which can 
 be made for such conduct in a sovereign, who is 
 more peculiarly commanded to do justice, as well 
 as to love mercy. He was kind and compas- 
 sionate, but he forbore to punish the guilty. 
 Had he been blessed with better counsellors, his 
 yielding to their opinion, and not s obstinately 
 persisting in his own, would have been com- 
 mendable, and a greater proof of understanding 
 than many wiser monarchs have shewn; as it 
 was, Henry was much to be pitied for being 
 placed in so high a station. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 State of England on Henry's Accession. — Second 
 Marriage of the Duke of Bedford. — His death. 
 • — Marriage of his Widow vrith Sir R. Wood- 
 ville.— -Birth of Elizabeth. — Her Journal. — 
 Marriage of the King. — Death of the Duke of 
 Gloucester. — Ambition of York. 
 
 When Henry VI. began his reign, there were 
 five princes of the blood of France, and the first 
 James, King of Scotland, prisoners in England. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 11 
 
 After seventeen years captivity, the latter was 
 liberated by the Protector, on his promising to 
 recal some troops which the Regent of Scotland 
 had sent to assist the King of France against 
 the English, and to preserve a strict neutrality 
 between the contending nations. James readily 
 agreed to these terms ; and the sister of the 
 Duke of Somerset, a cousin of the King, was 
 given to him in marriage. On entering on the 
 regency of France, the Duke of Bedford married 
 Anne, sister to the Duke of Burgundy, in 1423 ; 
 her death, which happened ten years after, 
 loosened the bond of union between her husband 
 and brother. In the following year, the former 
 married Jacqueline of Luxembourgh, daugh- 
 ter of James, Count of St. Pol, a vassal of the 
 Duke of Burgundy ; who not only resented it as 
 an insult to the memory of his sister, but was 
 displeased that his consent to the marriage had 
 not been asked. He accordingly made it a pre- 
 tence to break off his alliance with the Regent, and 
 joined his forces to those of the King of France. 
 Jacqueline of Luxembourg was only seventeen 
 when she married the Duke of Bedford, in 1434 ; 
 he died the year following, and in two years after 
 his death, she married Sir Richard Woodville, a 
 young soldier, who had no other fortune but his 
 sword. This marriage was without the consent 
 of the King, and contrary to an oath she had 
 taken before she could obtain possession of some 
 a 6 
 
12 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 estates which the Regent had left her on condition 
 of not marrying without his leave ; her husband 
 was fined a thousand pounds for having induced 
 her to break it, but from affection to the memory 
 of his brother, the Duke of Gloucester treated her 
 with the respect due to her former rank. By this 
 marriage she had several children, the eldest of 
 whom is more particularly the subject of this 
 history. The Duchess devoted her time to the 
 education of her daughters, the exercise of religion, 
 and to acts of charity. Part of the journal of 
 her daughter Elizabeth, written when she was 
 about fifteen, will shew my readers the manner of 
 those times; when ladies of the highest rank 
 knew none of those luxuries which now fall to 
 the lot of many in a less elevated situation. 
 Carriages were not known, either in France or 
 England, till the following century, and though 
 each noble family kept a number of retainers, the 
 servants of their household were comparatively 
 few, and constantly assisted, in domestic affairs 
 by the daughters of the family. 
 
 The following is said to be extracted from an 
 ancient manuscript, preserved in Drummond's 
 Castle, and communicated to the public by Lady 
 Ruthven, whose family descend from a sister of 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 " Monday morning. — Rose at four o'clock, 
 and helped Catherine to milk the cows. Rachel, 
 the other dairy-maid, having scalded her hand in 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 13 
 
 so bad a manner the night before ; made a poul- 
 tice for Rachel, and gave Robin a penny to get 
 something from the apothecary's. 
 
 Six o'clock. — Breakfast, the buttock of beef 
 too much boiled ; and the beer a little of the 
 stalest. 
 
 Mem: — To talk with the cook about the first 
 fault, and to mend the second myself by tapping 
 afresh barrel. 
 
 Seven o'clock. — Went to walk with the Lady 
 my mother in the court yard, fed twenty-five 
 poor men and women, chided Roger severely, for 
 expressing some ill-will at attending with broken 
 meat. 
 
 Eight o'clock. — Went into the paddock with 
 Dorothy, my maid. Caught Thump, the little 
 poney, myself, and rode a matter of six miles 
 without bridle or saddle. 
 
 Ten o'clock. — Went to dinner. 
 
 Eleven o'clock. — Rose from table, the com- 
 pany being all desirous of walking in the fields. 
 
 Four o'clock. — Went to prayers. 
 
 Six o'clock. — Fed the hogs and poultry. 
 
 Seven o'clock. — Supper on table. 
 
 Mem:— The goose pie over baked, and the pork 
 roasted to rags. 
 
 Nine o'clock. — The company half asleep : these 
 late hours are very disagreeable !" 
 
 Elizabeth Woodville was about seven years of 
 age when the King married Margaret of Anjou, 
 
14 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 daughter of the titular King of Sicily, and niece 
 to the Queen of France. This marriage was 
 much against the interests of his country, and 
 contrary to the will of his uncle the Protector ; 
 by whom he had been engaged to marry a daugh- 
 ter of the Count d'Armagnac, who promised to 
 espouse the cause of the English in France, and to 
 give a large dowry with his daughter. On the 
 other hand, Margaret's father was poor, and could 
 give her nothing ; and what was still more dero- 
 gatory to Henry's cause, the province of Maine 
 was to be ceded to her uncle the Duke of Anjou. 
 
 These terms were agreed on without the know- 
 ledge or consent of the Protector, by the Earl 
 of Suffolk, who had been appointed Henry's 
 ambassador to the court of France, to negotiate 
 a truce between the two nations for eighteen 
 months, which was afterwards renewed from 
 time to time during six years. 
 
 The Cardinal Beaufort, who was always in- 
 clined to forward what the Protector opposed, 
 approved of the match ; and by the King's con- 
 sent, Suffolk was appointed his proxy to marry 
 the Princess in France, which was performed 
 with unusual pomp and magnificence. She after- 
 wards came to England, and was married to the 
 King, the 18th of April, 1444, at the Abbey of 
 Titchfield, in Hampshire. From thence she pro- 
 ceeded to London, and was crowned at West- 
 minster, on the 30th of the same month. 
 
p. //, 
 
 " -7- 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 15 
 
 It may easily be imagined that the Duchess 
 of Bedford was among the ladies who graced 
 her entrance into the capital, and that the 
 childish curiosity of her daughter Elizabeth 
 was highly gratified, by hearing her mother 
 relate the pomp and parade with which it was 
 attended. The Duke of Gloucester, with his 
 retinue and the rest of the court, met the Queen 
 as she approached the city, and a variety of 
 verses and complimentary speeches were recited 
 on the occasion, by persons stationed in the 
 different streets through which she passed. 
 These verses were composed by a monk of St. 
 Edmondsbury, and probably formed the princi- 
 pal literature of that day. 
 
 The character of Margaret has been variously 
 represented by different authors. Some hold 
 her up to admiration, but her conduct before the 
 commencement of the wars, can by no means be 
 justified. Her improper familiarity with Suffolk, 
 and the undue authority she maintained in the 
 kingdom, which was unhappily strengthened by 
 the weakness of het husband, rendered her an 
 object of hatred and disgust. 
 
 Neither can the ferocity of the age in which 
 she lived, and the want of refinement then pre- 
 valent in female manners, excuse her perfidy 
 and cruelty to her foes when they were in her 
 power; she possessed a masculine spirit, without 
 the generosity of a man. It can only be said in 
 
16 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 her defence that she followed the example of 
 her enemies, who were equally perfidious and 
 cruel as herself, though this is by no means an 
 excuse, since to return the evil we receive, by a 
 similar conduct, is but to render ourselves as 
 bad as our foes. It may also be said that she 
 was endeavouring to restore to her husband and 
 son what she considered as their right, and that 
 the rising virtues of the latter gave hopes of a 
 better reign than his father's had been ; but her 
 former conduct had not secured her the affections 
 of the people, and therefore she had no well- 
 grounded hope of success. 
 
 She acquired a great ascendancy over the 
 King, and immediately joined in council with 
 the Cardinal and Suffolk, who was her principal 
 favourite, against the Duke of Gloucester, whom 
 she knew had opposed her marriage. Suffolk 
 was made a Marquess, and afterwards a Duke, 
 for the part he had taken in promoting it, and 
 received a large sum of money for his expenses. 
 
 After the truce between the two nations, York 
 returned from France to England, and was gra- 
 ciously received by the King, who granted him 
 a patent to continue Regent for five years longer. 
 In case Henry died without issue, Gloucester 
 was the next heir to the throne, and York, who 
 considered him as a bar to his ambitious views, 
 readily joined with his enemies in promoting his 
 downfall. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 17 
 
 Gloucester was the general favourite of the 
 people, and greatly beloved by his nephew, who 
 would hear no accusation against him. The 
 machinations of his enemies had excluded him 
 from the council, and deprived him of the pro- 
 tectorship. They now arrested him upon a false 
 charge of treason ; but his cause was so warmly 
 espoused by the populace, who styled him 6 1 the 
 good Duke Humphry," that they feared to bring 
 him to a trial, and after seventeen days imprison- 
 ment he was found dead in his bed, 1447. It 
 was strongly suspected that he was murdered, 
 though the authority of the queen was too great 
 for it to be openly said; and the dying agonies 
 of the Cardinal, who did not long survive him, 
 strengthened the opinion. 
 
 Some authors affirm that the latter confessed 
 the part he took in the murder. The extreme 
 sorrow of the King on the death of his uncle, 
 and the general tenor of his conduct, convinced 
 his subjects that he was not accessary to th& 
 cruel deed, though he forbore to enquire who 
 were the perpetrators of it; but their indigna- 
 tion vented itself in low and deep curses on the 
 Queen and her favourite, under whose influence 
 they believed it had been done. The Cardinal's 
 death lessened the power of Margaret and her 
 council, and rendered Suffolk more obnoxious to 
 the rage of the people, who now began openly 
 to revile him. 
 
18 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The blindness of mortals who would take the 
 regulation of their affairs into their own hands, 
 is clearly seen in the conduct of Margaret. She 
 thought herself more securely fixed on the throne 
 by the death of Gloucester, instead of which it 
 was the first event which forwarded her ruin. 
 York had now no opposer to his claim but Henry, 
 who had already lost the confidence if not the 
 affections of his people, by his pusillanimity and 
 weakness of understanding. The arbitrary con- 
 duct of his wife, who ruled in his name, made 
 her also the object of their displeasure; and 
 York thought it a fit time to assert his rights 
 with impunity. He secretly employed several 
 agents to spread his claim through the country, 
 and to substantiate its justice : but though 
 he appeared not in the business himself, the 
 Queen showed her displeasure at the steps he 
 had taken, by removing him from the regency 
 of France before the expiration of the appointed 
 time, and Somerset was sent thither in his place. 
 
 The war with that nation was renewed in 1449, 
 and York was sent to suppress an insurrection 
 in Ireland. Here he gained great ascendancy 
 over the people, and formed future plans for the 
 completion of his ambitious project. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Death of Suffolk. — Cade's Rebellion. — Loss of 
 Normandy. — Disgrace and Restoration of So- 
 merset. — Renewal of the War with France,-—' 
 Jts ill success.— Rivalry of York and Somerset. 
 —The first battle of St. Alban's. — Capture of 
 the King. — Advancement of York. 
 
 The death of the Duke of Gloucester was 
 sincerely lamented by all who desired the peace 
 and prosperity of England. Whatever had been 
 the faults of his private character, he. had, as a 
 Statesman, and as Protector, considered the wel- 
 fare and glory of the realm, rather than his 
 own, and had secured the love and respect of 
 the people. Elizabeth was old enough to join 
 with her mother in the sorrow she expressed on 
 the occasion, who felt his death as the loss of a 
 friend and relation, to whom she was indebted for 
 much of the respect which she received as the 
 widow of his brother. 
 
 At this time affairs in France went on very 
 ill ; the English were beaten in several engage- 
 ments, and the towns which yet remained to 
 them in that kingdom were' gradually yielding to 
 
20 THE HISTORY O? 
 
 their opponents. Suffolk, who was now the King's 
 chief counsellor, was blamed for not sending more 
 forces, and at length openly accused of having 
 betrayed the interest of his country to the French 
 King. He was committed to the Tower in 1450, 
 and notwithstanding the authority of the Queen,' 
 and the entreaties she condescended to make to 
 the King that he might not be punished, he was 
 banished the kingdom for five years. His ene- 
 mies however had determined on taking his life, 
 and according to Hume's account of the trans- 
 action, they employed an English cruiser to 
 seize the vessel in which he had embarked for 
 France, the captain of which ordered his head 
 to be taken off in his presence, declaring him a 
 traitor to his country. His body was thrown on 
 the sands at Dover, and afterwards buried by 
 his own chaplain at Wingfield in Suffolk. Such 
 was the unrestrained malignity of the times, that 
 no notice was taken of this unjust proceeding ; 
 and no one attempted to punish his murderer. 
 The Duke of Suffolk was a man of considerable 
 abilities, and had served forty-four years in the 
 wars with France ; in which his father and three 
 of his brothers had fallen. 
 
 During these transactions, York had been 
 forming his plans in Ireland. The death of the 
 Duke of Gloucester had opened the flood-gates 
 of rebellion ; but he was willing to try the minds 
 of the people of England by an underplot, before 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 21 
 
 he publicly declared his intention. Having 
 found a man suited to his purpose in John Cade, 
 who had formerly served under him as a soldier, 
 he instructed him to personate the son of Sir 
 John Mortimer, who had been beheaded without 
 trial, on a suspicion of treason, early in the 
 present reign; and was the cousin of Edmund 
 Mortimer, who died in prison. Instigated by 
 York, this man claimed the crown as the heir of 
 the house of Mortimer ; and though there was 
 not the least appearance of his succeeding, his 
 employer thought it might be a prelude to his 
 own attempt, and afford his friends an oppor- 
 tunity of assembling in his favour, under the 
 pretence of subduing the rebel party. Cade's 
 rebellion was soon suppressed, and his head 
 struck off by Iden, a yeoman of Kent, in whose 
 orchard he had secreted himself, when obliged 
 to desert the men he had raised. York would 
 have brought an army from Ireland, apparent- 
 ly to assist the King's forces, but he had now 
 become an object of suspicion with the coun- 
 cil, and they forbade his returning to England 
 with any other attendants than his usual retinue. 
 In this year, 1450, the province of Guienne in 
 France, which for three hundred years had been 
 possessed by the English, fell into the hands of 
 Charles VII. Normandy was lost the year 
 before : and of all the mighty conquests made 
 by the former Henrys, there now remained only 
 
22 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the town of Calais and its dependencies to their 
 successor. 
 
 Somerset, who had been appointed Regent of 
 France in the room of York, bore all the blame 
 of these losses, and became as much the object 
 of the people's resentment as Suffolk had for- 
 merly been. On his return to England he was 
 committed to the Tower, till his conduct during 
 his government of France should be examined ; 
 but he remained there only till the parliament, 
 by whom he had been committed, were separated. 
 He was then released, and resumed his place in 
 the council to which he was appointed on the 
 death of Suffolk, whom he also succeeded in the 
 favour of the Queen. 
 
 York, after he had written a letter to the King 
 in which he declared he had no intention of op- 
 posing him, was allowed to enter England, and 
 was joyfully received by his adherents. These 
 were Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk ; Nevil, Earl 
 of Salisbury, and his son Earl of Warwick ; the 
 Earl of Devonshire, and Baron Cobham. They 
 were acquainted with his views, and secretly 
 promoted them by propounding the justice of his 
 claim, in every society in which they durst make 
 it the subject of conversation. After consulting 
 with them, York retired into Wales, where he 
 had large possessions, and where his family had 
 been held in high esteem. 
 
 From thence he again wrote to the King, 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 23 
 
 warning him of evil counsellors, and more par- 
 ticularly of Somerset. The King returned a 
 civil answer, and offered to take him into his 
 council if he would swear allegiance to him, and 
 disband the forces he was now openly raising, 
 under the pretence of guarding himself from the 
 ill designs of Somerset his ancient enemy. 
 
 The Duke took the oath which the King 
 desired, but did not dismiss the men whom he 
 had raised in his own defence ; he marched with 
 them towards London, and Henry, advised by 
 Somerset, raised a superior force, and went to 
 meet him. Had the King acted with firmness, 
 it appears the rebellion might at this time have 
 been suppressed, for though York by forced 
 marches had arrived at the gates of London 
 before he met the King, whom he had avoided 
 by taking another road, the citizens refused him 
 entrance, and, much mortified by their refusal, 
 he returned to meet the King on the borders of 
 Kent, A parley ensued, in which the friends of 
 York endeavoured to mediate between the 
 parties; they insisted that he wished only for 
 the dismissal of Somerset, or that he should be 
 tried agreeably to the order of parliament after 
 his return from France. 
 
 The court pretended to comply with this 
 request, and intimated that Somerset was already 
 in confinement. This induced York to appear 
 before Henry, and, entering the royal tent, he 
 
24 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 repeated his charges against his enemy, accusing 
 him of betraying his country, and of imposing 
 on the King. At this moment he was surprised 
 to see Somerset himself step from behind a cur- 
 tain, who denied the charges, and openly accused 
 him of a design to wrest the crown from his 
 lawful Sovereign. York now found himself 
 betrayed, he was arrested by order of the King, 
 and had not his enemies feared the people, who 
 were evidently on his side, they would have 
 taken his life; they also considered that he had 
 a son old enough to avenge his death, and many 
 powerful friends, even in Henry's camp, pleaded 
 for his being set at liberty. 
 
 At this time deputies had arrived from Gas- 
 cony, offering to restore that province to the 
 English, if they would send troops to support 
 them. 
 
 The idea of recovering some of their posses- 
 sions in France, and their unwillingness to risk a 
 war in England, while they were attempting it, 
 induced them to release York. On his again 
 taking a solemn oath of allegiance, and engaging 
 to remain faithful to Henry till death, and on no 
 account to raise another army, he was allowed to 
 retire to his estate of Wigmore, in Wales ; his 
 soldiers were dismissed, and the English returned 
 with fresh ardour to the war with France. 
 
 Their attempt was fruitless; after two years 
 hard fighting, and the loss of several brave com^ 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 25 
 
 manders, they were obliged to give up all hopes of 
 subduing the forces of the French King, and from 
 this time no farther effort was made to recover 
 their possessions in that country. To those who 
 consider war as the scourge of the Almighty, the 
 memorable answer of an Englishman, to a French 
 Captain who asked him, deridingly, when their 
 troops would again come to France, will not be 
 uninteresting : — " When'* said he u the sins of 
 your country exceed those of our's." 
 
 The year 1453 was also remarkable for the 
 taking of Constantinople by the Turks, and the 
 destruction of the Grecian empire. In this year 
 also the Queen had a son, who received the name 
 of Edward. The adherents of York considered 
 this as no joyful event, as it removed their hopes 
 of his peaceable accession to the throne on the 
 death of Henry; who was at this time seized 
 with an illness which increased his natural imbe^- 
 cility, and rendered him incapable of maintain- 
 ing even the appearance of royalty. 
 
 York, although he by no means gave up his 
 pretensions to the crown, behaved with such 
 moderation in his retirement, that the queen 
 was induced to overlook his former conduct, 
 and at the intreaties of his friends, who were 
 very powerful, to recal him to the council, toge- 
 ther with the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick. 
 
 No sooner were they admitted than they re- 
 newed their attack upon Somerset, and, incited 
 
 B 
 
26 THE HISTORY OF ' 
 
 by York and his party, the parliament again sent 
 that nobleman to the Tower, on a charge of mal- 
 administration. At the same time they appoint- 
 ed York protector of the realm during their 
 pleasure. The Queen now saw her error in having 
 recalled him. Had he at this time asserted his 
 claim, it is probable he would have been esta- 
 blished on the throne without those wars which 
 afterwards depopulated the kingdom; but he 
 continued irresolute, till Henry, recovering from 
 his illness, resumed the royal authority, and 
 moved by the enemies of York, annulled his 
 protectorship, and recalled Somerset, to whose 
 care he again committed the administration, 
 1555. 
 
 York retired into Wales in disgust, where he 
 levied an army, but still without asserting his 
 -pretensions to the crown; he only complained 
 of the minister, and demanded a reform in the 
 government. The King also raised his troops, 
 and accompanied by his nobles marched to give 
 •him battle. The contending parties engaged 
 each other at St. Alban's, May 24th, 1455, in 
 ■which battle the Yorkists gained the victory 
 without losing any of their men, while there fell 
 'above five thousand of their enemies. The 
 Duke of Somerset was slain, and the Earls of 
 Northumberland and Stafford. The latter was 
 eldest son to the Duke of Buckingham. The 
 King was wounded in the neck by an arrow, and 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 27 
 
 was taken by the rebel party; the Duke of York 
 treated him with every mark of respect, and 
 kneeling before him, declared that since the 
 enemy of his country was dead, he was ready to 
 obey all his commands. Henry only begged 
 that no more blood might be shed ; and finding 
 himself entirely in the power of York, he made 
 a virtue of necessity, and received him again to 
 favour. Both armies were disbanded, and they 
 returned to London together; where the King 
 called the parliament, and in their presence de- 
 clared his entire reconciliation to York and his 
 friends, whom he styled his faithful and liege 
 subjects. A general indemnity was granted to 
 all his followers ; and Henry again appointed 
 him Protector during the minority of the Prince 
 of Wales. Salisbury was appointed Lord Chan- 
 cellor, and Warwick High Admiral and Governor 
 of Calais. Thus were the three highest stations 
 in England given to the enemies of the King : an 
 evident proof how much he was in their power, 
 and how greatly the people were prejudiced in 
 their favour to permit it to be done. 
 
 b2 
 
28 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Marriage of Elizabeth Woodville to Sir John 
 Grey.— -Tarty formed against the Duke of 
 York. — Henry resumes the Government. — York 
 retires into Wales.— 'Invasion of England by 
 Scotland. — Truce with that Nation. — Re-union 
 of Henry and the Duke of York. — Quarrel 
 between the King's Servants and Warwick's. 
 — Dissentions renewed,— 'York's Party raise 
 Forces, 
 
 While England was thus divided into separate 
 parties, Elizabeth, the heroine of this history, 
 was probably spending the happiest days of her 
 life. At the age of nineteen she was married to 
 him whom her youthful heart had selected as its 
 partner, the son of Lord Grey, of Groby in 
 ^Northamptonshire, near Grafton, the seat of her 
 father. The journal of Elizabeth, which I have 
 mentioned in a preceding chapter, is my only 
 authority for giving this title to the father of the 
 young man. The way in which she speaks of 
 him in these her simple memoirs, evinces their 
 attachment to each other; one of her remarks is 
 as follows : — " I cannot say that I should have 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 29 
 
 any objection to John Grey; he plays at prison- 
 bar as well as any of the country gentlemen, is 
 remarkably attentive to his parents, my Lord and 
 Lady, and never misses church on a Sunday." 
 
 They were married, with the consent of then- 
 friends, in 1455; and enjoyed the quiet of do- 
 mestic happiness till her husband took part in 
 the contest, which afterwards broke out into a 
 furious war. 
 
 At this time the Duke of York appeared to 
 live in perfect security: he did not arbitrarily 
 execute the duties of his high station, but 
 allowed the King and Queen to act without his 
 interference as Protector; yet Margaret could 
 not be easy while she knew him invested with a 
 power which he might at any time assume. 
 She had already formed a party, who with 
 herself were his inveterate enemies. The son of 
 the Duke of Somerset had succeeded to his 
 father's titles; he inherited also his enmity to 
 York, and was impatient to revenge his death: 
 the Duke of Buckingham was also eager to 
 avenge that of his son ; and all who were attached 
 to the House of Lancaster dreaded the encroach- 
 ments which York might make. In the following 
 year, 1456, Henry recovered his health, and was 
 induced by the Queen and her party to recal the 
 grant of the protectorship which he had given to 
 York. He resumed the appearance of royalty, 
 and removed Salisbury from the chancellorship. 
 b3 
 
30 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 This was the signal for them again to exert 
 themselves; they retired from the court in dis- 
 gust, and were for some time together with their 
 adherents in Yorkshire. The aim of Margaret 
 was to separate these discontented Lords; and 
 under the pretence of its being necessary for the 
 King's health, she repaired with the court to 
 Coventry, that she might be nearer to them, and 
 have it in her power to watch their conduct. 
 York and his friends were invited thither to 
 attend the King, but having been apprised of 
 treachery, they refused the invitation, and parted. 
 York withdrew to his old retreat in Wales, where 
 he had many partisans ; Salisbury retired to his 
 estate of Middleham, in Yorkshire, and Warwick 
 to his government of Calais. 
 
 In this year James II. of Scotland, who had 
 succeeded James I. assisted Charles of France to 
 invade England. As this nation had formerly 
 taken advantage of the intestine divisions of that 
 kingdom, Charles hoped to have been equally 
 successful in his attempt to subdue England, by 
 attacking it under the same circumstances ; but 
 his forces were soon defeated, and the truce 
 between the two nations renewed, which con- 
 tinued for four years. 
 
 % This affair being settled, Henry*s mild and 
 pacific disposition led him to seek a reconciliation 
 with York and his party ; to which the Queen 
 consented more from policy than a wish for a 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 31 
 
 re-union. She feared the increasing power of 
 the Duke, and knew not what excuse to make 
 for not complying with the King's wishes, which 
 were seconded by the request of the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury and several prelates. The offended 
 noblemen were therefore invited to London, but 
 their arrival had more the appearance of hostility 
 than of peaceable intentions. York came with 
 four hundred men, and took up his abode at 
 Baynard's Castle, so called from the name of the 
 person who built it, in Thames Street, mentioned 
 by Shakspeare as the residence of the hypocriti- 
 cal Gloucester, where he contrived his plans for 
 obtaining the kingdom. Salisbury repaired to 
 his house, called Cold Harbour, in the same 
 neighbourhood, with five hundred followers ; and 
 Warwick lodged, with six hundred more, in the 
 Grey Friars. 
 
 The opposite party presented an appearance 
 not less martial. Somerset and Exeter were 
 lodged within Temple Bar, with eight hundred 
 soldiers ; while Northumberland and other noble- 
 men lodged in Holborn, with fifteen hundred. 
 The King and Queen resided at the Bishop's 
 palace, within the city, not thinking themselves 
 safe out of it; the streets were continually 
 patrolled by five hundred men, under the direc* 
 tion of the Mayor, to maintain the public 
 tranquillity. 
 
 A conference took place between the con- 
 b4 
 
32 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 tending parties, in. which, after some high words 
 had passed, the mediating bishops produced a 
 seeming reconciliation. A day was appointed, 
 in which both parties went in solemn procession 
 to St. Paul's, headed by the King, in his royal 
 robes ; the Queen was led by the Duke of York, 
 and followed by the nobles of the opposite 
 parties, hand in hand, in token of their perfect 
 amity ; but much sincerity on either side could 
 not be expected. York and his friends still 
 dreaded the perfidy of Margaret ; and were glad 
 of the first opportunity to quit the court, and 
 retire into Yorkshire. On his return to Calais, 
 Warwick seized on some ships belonging to 
 Genoa, which had refused to pay the respect 
 which he considered due to the English flag. 
 These he carried with him to the port of Calais ; 
 and their rich cargoes were a great assistance 
 to York, in furnishing him with money to pursue 
 his plans* 
 
 The republic of Genoa applied to the English 
 government for redress ; and Warwick was 
 ordered to appear, and give an account of his 
 conduct. On his arrival in London with his 
 usual retinue, some of the King's servants in- 
 sulted his followers : a quarrel ensued, which 
 was attributed to the Earl's instigation, and 
 many lives were lost. He narrowly escaped an 
 arrest, and imprisonment in the Tower, by 
 hastening back to Calais; and took with him 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 33 
 
 several of the King's ships, of which he had the 
 command as High Admiral. 
 
 The flame thus breaking forth again, York, 
 who had already found he could place no de- 
 pendance on the promises of Margaret, imme- 
 diately returned to Wales, and began to levy his 
 forces; while Salisbury assembled five or six 
 hundred men, with whom he marched towards 
 London, to avenge the outrage committed on 
 his son. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Margaret raises an army. — Battle of Bloreheath. 
 — York affects Submission.— -Returns into Ire- 
 land. — He and his Parti/ pronounced Traitors.—' 
 Somerset supersedes Warwick in the Government 
 of Calais. — The Earl of March raises an Insur- 
 rection in Kent. — He enters London. — Battle of 
 Northampton. — Defeat of the Queens Army.— 
 The King taken prisoner. — Margaret retreats 
 into Scotland. — Warwick reinstated. — Death of 
 James II. and of Charles VII. of France. 
 
 The intrepid Margaret also raised her forces to 
 oppose her exasperated enemies, and accompa- 
 nied by the king and the prince, then six years 
 b5 
 
34 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of age, she made a progress through the coun- 
 ties of Warwick, Staffordshire, and Cheshire, in 
 which by her insinuating behaviour, and assumed 
 affability, she gained many followers, and to 
 these Edward Prince of Wales distributed silver 
 swans as badges of their party. Lord Audley 
 received a commission to raise ten thousand 
 men on their side, with whom he marched against 
 Salisbury, to intercept his union with the Duke 
 of York, who still remained in Wales. They 
 met at Bloreheath, near Muckle stone, on the 
 borders of Staffordshire, September 23, 1459, 
 and after an obstinate engagement, in which 
 Audley fell with twenty-four hundred of his 
 men, Salisbury prevailed. He opened a passage 
 and joined York in Herefordshire, while the 
 king's party retreated towards Coventry. 
 
 Warwick was then invited from Calais to join 
 the rebels ; and with him came part of the gar- 
 rison, commanded by Sir Andrew Trollop. The 
 Duke of York again wrote to the king, declaring 
 that he had not taken up arms against him, but 
 to defend himself from his enemies ; he repeated 
 his former assertion of subjection to his grace, 
 and his wish for a reform in the government. 
 
 The Queen attributed this affected submission 
 to fear, and hastened to come to another engage- 
 ment. On approaching the hostile forces she 
 caused copies of an offer of pardon, to all who 
 should quit them and return to the king, to be. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 35 
 
 distributed through their camp. Sir Andrew 
 Trollop, who now began to discover the designs 
 of York, hastened to accept the terms, and de- 
 serted with the whole of his men in the middle 
 of the night. His example was followed by 
 several others, which so intimidated York and 
 his friends, that without venturing to come to a 
 battle, they dismissed their remaining men, and 
 sought their own safety in flight. York, with 
 his youngest son Rutland, retired to Ireland. 
 His eldest son, the Earl of March, then nineteen 
 years of age, embarked with Salisbury and War- 
 wick for Calais. 
 
 The town of Ludlow, in Shropshire, where the 
 rebels had entrenched themselves, was bereft of 
 its walls ; and the Duchess of York, who resided 
 in its castle, and had not fled with her husband, 
 was deprived of her goods, and treated with 
 great indignity by the Queen. In the ensuing 
 parliament York, Salisbury, and Warwick were 
 pronounced traitors, their estates confiscated, 
 and their issue declared incapable of succeeding 
 to any inheritance, to the fourth generation. In 
 the mean time Somerset had been sent to take 
 possession of the government of Calais, and to 
 displace Warwick, who refused to resign the 
 office, saying he had received it from the parlia- 
 ment, and not from the King, from whom there- 
 fore he would not receive his discharge. 
 
 We now hear for the first time of Elizabeth 
 b6 
 
♦36 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Woodville's family taking any part in these 
 quarrels ; though it cannot be supposed that her 
 father, who had been bred a soldier, would remain 
 inactive. The Queen gave him and his son An- 
 thony the command of a considerable body of 
 men, with whom he was to assist Somerset in 
 obtaining the possession of Calais. While they 
 were waiting at Sandwich for a fair wind to waft 
 the transports in which they were embarked, 
 Warwick sallied forth with the ships already in 
 his possession, and brought them as prisoners 
 to Calais; then reinforcing his fleet with the 
 transports which conveyed them, (the sailors 
 being all devoted to his service,) he repaired to 
 Ireland, in order to plan with York another in- 
 surrection. 
 
 It was then agreed that March, Salisbury, and 
 himself should join their adherents in Kent, 
 raise an army, and proceed with them to Lon- 
 don, where they did not doubt of a favourable 
 reception. In his return to Calais, Warwick 
 was met on the seas by the Duke of Exeter, 
 whom the King had appointed to supersede him 
 as high-admiral. The duke ordered his fleet to 
 engage with him, but such was the attachment 
 of the sailors to their old commander, that they 
 refused to obey, and Warwick arrived in safety 
 at his government. 
 
 In 1460, the Earls of March, Salisbury, and 
 Warwick, with a considerable force, landed in 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE* 37 
 
 Kent, where they were met by the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, and several persons of distinc- 
 tion. After publishing a manifesto, declaring 
 their design was not to subvert the government, 
 or to injure the King, but to reform those abuses 
 under which the people had so long laboured, 
 they marched to London, where they were re- 
 ceived with triumphal acclamations. 
 
 Margaret, who had remained at Coventry with 
 her husband and son, sent from thence a detach- 
 ment, under the command of Lord Scales, to 
 oppose their entrance ; but the mayor refused to 
 admit that nobleman, even before the opposite 
 party had arrived. 
 
 Somerset and the Woodvilles had been re- 
 called from Calais ; the former with Buckingham 
 headed the royal army, in which the Queen 
 acted as General, and issued her orders in the 
 King's name, whom she kept with her as a 
 sanction to her proceedings. As soon as the 
 Earl of March heard she was advancing to- 
 wards London, he left Salisbury to guard the 
 capital, and proceeded with Warwick and his 
 army to stop her progress. They met near 
 Northampton, and though the associated Lords 
 sent the Bishop of Salisbury to intreat the King 
 to suspend his wrath, and join them in some 
 reasonable measure to prevent the shedding of 
 blood, their address was rejected, doubtless 
 
38 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 through the interference of the Queen, and a 
 desperate engagement ensued . 
 
 Margaret, accompanied by her son, stood on 
 an eminence at a little distance to survey the 
 battle, and gave her orders as she saw occasion : 
 while Henry remained in his tent, waiting with 
 anxious fear, the event which was to decide the 
 fate of his crown, and to which of the parties 
 he was afterwards to be in subjection, 
 
 March had commanded his soldiers to offer 
 no injury to the King, and to spare the common 
 men; his object being to defend them against 
 the abuses of the noblemen, who mis-ruled the 
 kingdom and at that time headed the army. 
 The revolt of Lord Grey, of Ruthven, who with 
 the men under his command went over to the 
 York party, decided the victory in their favour ; 
 the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Shrews- 
 bury, and several other persons of distinction 
 were slain on the spot j the Queen, her son, and 
 the Duke of Somerset, fled to Durham ; and 
 Henry again fell into the victor's power. He 
 was treated with every exterior mark of respect, 
 and his want of understanding prevented his 
 feeling very acutely the reverses of fortune to 
 which he was continually exposed. He accom- 
 panied the victorious party to London, and was 
 lodged with a sufficient guard in the palace ; 
 while the Queen, who was, much more the object 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 39 
 
 of their resentment, fled for refuge with her son 
 into Scotland. 
 
 Another parliament was called, in which the 
 acts of the former one, as relating to the Duke 
 of York and his friends, were annulled; and 
 they were again declared good and faithful sub- 
 jects. The government of Calais was a second 
 time confirmed to Warwick, and the Earl of 
 Salisbury was sent with a considerable force to 
 the relief of Roxburgh Castle, on the borders of 
 Scotland, which was besieged by James II. This 
 castle had formerly been given as a security to 
 England, but the distractions of the country had 
 induced James to attempt its recovery. He was 
 killed at this siege by the bursting of a cannon, 
 and was succeeded on the throne of Scotland by 
 his son, James III. then seven years of age. 
 Charles VII. of France, also died in this year. 
 It is said that he starved himself from the fear 
 of being poisoned by the Dauphin, who suc- 
 ceeded him, as Louis XII. 
 
40 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Return of York from Ireland. — His Claim to the 
 Crown. — Appointed to succeed Henry. —Mar- 
 garet raises another Army. — Battle of Wake- 
 field.— Death of York. — Murder of Rutland. 
 —Pembroke's Division defeated by the Earl of 
 March. 
 
 During these proceedings York remained in 
 Ireland; but on the success of his son, he 
 hastened to arrive in London. Finding the par- 
 liament sitting, which had been called in the 
 King's name, he entered the House of Lords, 
 and immediately advancing to the throne, he laid 
 his hand upon it, and then stood for some time 
 silent, as if to observe what the Lords thought 
 of this significant action. 
 
 Without appearing to notice it, the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury asked him if he had seen 
 the King since his arrival ? He boldly replied 
 that he knew no one to whom he allowed that 
 title; and then presented a written paper, in 
 which he had drawn up his claim to the crown, 
 as descended from the elder brother of John of 
 Gaunt, the founder of the House of Lancaster ; 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 41 
 
 and which claim I have laid before my readers 
 in the introductory chapter. 
 
 It is probable the Duke expected to be 
 greeted as their Sovereign on his first entrance, 
 but not finding them so inclined, he left them to 
 debate the matter, and retired from the house. 
 After having examined the paper, the Lords 
 resolved to inform the King of its contents, 
 before they proceeded farther in the business ; 
 and Henry received the intelligence with perfect 
 indifference. As, in reality, he never had pos- 
 sessed the royal authority (which was usurped 
 by those who governed him and the kingdom in 
 his name), and perhaps was not capable of 
 exercising it, the empty title of royalty did not 
 appear to him an object of much consequence. 
 
 After having perused the claim by which York 
 thought himself entitled to dispossess him of his 
 rights, he desired the judges and law-officers of 
 the realm might be consulted on its justice ; but 
 they refusing to decide on so important an affair, 
 the Lords resumed the debate ; and after various 
 consultations they endeavoured to compromise 
 the matter, and to please both parties by the 
 following decision : 
 
 They determined that Henry should retain the 
 title of king while he lived, and that York should 
 be the protector of the realm, and succeed to the 
 throne on his death. 
 
 To these terms Henry readily acceded ; but it 
 
4*2 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 was not likely that the enterprising Margaret 
 would thus resign the inheritance of her son. 
 She received an order in the King's name to 
 repair to London, wEich she refused to obey ; and 
 returning from Scotland, she called together the 
 northern Barons, who were on her side, and 
 raised an army of eighteen thousand men : a 
 much larger force than her enemies thought she 
 could have assembled ; but in order to gain their 
 assistance, she was obliged to promise them 
 liberty of plunder in all parts of England south 
 of the Trent. 
 
 Not aware of the numbers she was bringing 
 with her, York hastened to oppose her passage ; 
 and leaving Warwick to guard London and the 
 King, he sent his son, the Earl of March, to 
 raise a fresh levy in Wales, and advanced him- 
 self, with four or five thousand men, to meet the 
 Queen's army. On entering Yorkshire, he was 
 informed of her superior forces; and throwing 
 himself into his own Castle of Sandal, near 
 Wakefield, in that county, he resolved to wait 
 the arrival of his son, before he attacked her. 
 But this was contrary to the Queen's intention; 
 she approached the castle with part of her army, 
 having concealed the remainder behind a hill, 
 and by her unwomanly reproaches urged him to 
 give her battle. 
 
 The Duke possessed much personal courage, 
 and disdaining to appear intimidated by a 
 
P >+2, 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 43 
 
 woman, he issued forth and engaged her army, 
 contrary to the advice of Salisbury, who was 
 with him in the fortress. After fighting valiantly 
 for several hours he was slain in the field, with 
 many of his friends, and two thousand of his 
 soldiers. Such was the thirst for revenge in 
 these ferocious times, that the Duke's youngest 
 son, Rutland, then about twelve years of age, 
 and who had taken no part in the battle, was 
 cruelly murdered by Lord Clifford, in attempting 
 to make his escape ; because that nobleman's 
 father had fallen in the former battle of St. 
 Albans. 
 
 The Earl of Salisbury was wounded and taken 
 prisoner. Margaret immediately ordered him to 
 be beheaded, and his head and that of the Duke 
 of York's were fixed on the gates of York ; the 
 latter wearing a paper crown, in derision of his 
 claim. He possessed some great and amiable 
 qualities ; and had not the imbecility of Henry, 
 and the arbitrary measures of Margaret, provoked 
 his ambition, he would have left no stain on his 
 character. But his want of gratitude to the 
 King, who had restored him to his rights and 
 treated him with friendship, his breach of various 
 promises, and his total disregard to his oath, 
 lay him open to the severest censure. It was 
 said of him by the Duke of Somerset, that "had 
 he not learnt to act the king during his regency 
 in France, he would not have forgotten the part 
 
44 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of a subject in England." His death was a just 
 punishment for the distresses he had brought 
 upon his country. He died in the fiftieth year 
 of his age, leaving three sons, Edward Earl of 
 March, George, and Richard ; with three daugh- 
 ters, Anne, Elizabeth, and Margaret. 
 
 After this important victory the Queen divided 
 her army, and sent a detachment, commanded 
 by Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, the King's 
 half brother, to meet Edward, the new Duke of 
 York, on his march from Wales, from whence he 
 hasted to revenge his father's death. Margaret 
 proceeded towards London to meet the Earl of 
 Warwick. Pembroke's division was defeated 
 by Edward, at Mortimer's Cross in Herefordshire, 
 with the loss of four thousand men. He escaped 
 by flight, but his father, Sir Owen Tudor, the 
 husband of Henry's mother, was taken prisoner, 
 and beheaded by Edward's order, according to 
 the barbarous rules of retaliation in those ages. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 45 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Sir John Grey knighted. — Second Battle of St. 
 Albans. — Death of Sir John Grey. — Henry 
 re-taken by the Royalists.— The Citizens of 
 London refuse to obey the Queen's order. — 
 Edward enters London. — Is chosen King. — ■ 
 Henry's Character. 
 
 Elizabeth's father, brother, and husband, had 
 joined the Queen's army: the latter of whom she 
 was destined never to see ag;ain. After taking; 
 an affectionate leave of him, she with her two 
 children joined her mother, the Duchess of 
 Bedford, at Grafton; where they w 7 aited, in 
 trembling hope, the event of a battle, which on 
 the death of the Duke of York they hoped would 
 decide the contest in favour of Henry. 
 
 Elizabeth heard, with mingled pleasure and 
 apprehension, that the Queen had honoured her 
 husband with knighthood; for while she con^ 
 sidered the precariousness of his situation, she 
 could not greatly rejoice in this acquisition of 
 dignity, although she was gratified in knowing 
 that it was for his valour he had received it. 
 The Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Norfolk, 
 with Henry in their train, guarded by Lord 
 
46 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Bonvil and Sir Thomas Keriel, advanced to meet 
 the Queen's army. They met near St. Albans, 
 Feb. 17, 1461; and this town was a second time 
 the seat of battle. Six years before, the York 
 party had been victorious on the spot; they 
 were now to experience the reverse of fortune, 
 and were obliged to retreat, with the loss of 
 two thousand men. 
 
 In this battle (the sixth fought during these 
 unhappy wars) fell Sir John Grey, the husband 
 of my heroine, who retired to mourn his loss, 
 while her friends were rejoicing in the success of 
 the Queen; which, however, was but of short 
 continuance. The King was retaken by his own 
 party, and joined his wife and son, then eight 
 years of age, in the seat of Lord Clifford. At 
 the desire of the Queen he knighted the young 
 Prince, and thirty other persons who had fought 
 against the army which he had just quitted ; but 
 what was much to her dishonour, she caused 
 Lord Bonville and Sir Thomas Keriel to be 
 beheaded, although the King had engaged for 
 their safety, on their consenting to accompany 
 him. This was a proof of Margaret's vindictive 
 spirit, and how little the King's authority was 
 regarded by those who were fighting under the 
 pretence of establishing it. 
 
 After this unjust act, their Graces proceeded 
 to a monastery in the vicinity, where they sung 
 Te Deum, and gave thanks for their victory. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 47 
 
 This monastery was built by one of the Saxon 
 Kings, in memory of St. Alban, the first British 
 martyr for the Christian faith ; and from whom 
 the town derives its name. 
 
 The recollection of his former defeat on this 
 spot, the many changes which had happened 
 since, and the subsequent death of him who 
 had then taken him prisoner, were ample topics 
 of consideration for Henry, and afforded too 
 many proofs of the instability of human affairs 
 to allow him to confide in a long continuance of 
 his present good fortune. 
 
 The Queen's forces had pillaged the town and 
 its neighbourhood, and were now in want of 
 -provision, she therefore sent to London for a 
 fresh supply from thence. The mayor would 
 have obeyed her orders, but the citizens refused 
 to furnish necessaries for an army which did not 
 come to defend them. Some of the soldiers 
 hastened forward to revenge this insult, but 
 were repulsed, and Margaret, denouncing ven- 
 geance on the inhabitants, ordered her army to 
 advance thither. The Duchess of Bedford and 
 Lady Scales, with some of the prelates, went to 
 meet her on the road ; and to appease her wrath, 
 they entreated her to allow some of the alder- 
 men of the city to meet her and the King at 
 Barnet, and escort them into town, where several 
 noblemen had engaged to keep the peace with 
 armed forces. 
 
48 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Margaret did not deign to give them an 
 answer; but before she arrived at Barnet, she 
 heard that Edward, with his troops, had joined 
 the defeated army of Warwick, and was pro- 
 ceeding to London through Oxfordshire. On 
 this intelligence she returned to the north, to 
 recruit her army, and took the passive Henry 
 with her. The road was thus left open for Ed- 
 ward to enter the capital, where his bravery, 
 affability, and address, all very popular attrac- 
 tions, had already gained him many friends. He 
 was received by the citizens with the loudest 
 acclamations of joy; and not having the scruples 
 or the caution of his father, he resolved to trust 
 his claim to the decision of the people, rather 
 than to the will of the parliament. 
 
 The Earl of Warwick was therefore appointed 
 to harangue the army, and the inhabitants of 
 London, in St. John's Fields, Clerkenwell. He 
 read aloud to them the convention between 
 Henry and the late Duke of York, which had 
 been confirmed by act of parliament; and de- 
 clared the King had forfeited his right to the 
 throne, bv violating this agreement. 
 
 The above assertion was notoriously false, as 
 Henry had been his prisoner till the battle; and 
 after, falling into Margaret's hands, he was 
 obliged to follow her directions : but as whatever 
 is done in the King's name is accounted his act, 
 whether it is or is not his will, Henry was obliged 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 49 
 
 to bear whatever censure they chose to lay upon 
 him ; and the people, tired of so weak a Sove- 
 reign, were too well pleased with the manners 
 and appearance of the youthful Edward to 
 dispute the truth of what was said. On being 
 asked, which they would have to reign over 
 them, Henry of Lancaster, or the son of the 
 late Duke of York? they exclaimed, with one 
 voice, " Edward for ever ! " and declared him 
 their King. 
 
 This popular election was afterwards confirmed 
 by a number of noblemen, prelates, magistrates, 
 and gentlemen of distinction, who met for that 
 purpose at Baynard's Castle, where Edward 
 resided; and on the following day, March 5, 
 14bl, he was proclaimed king, by the name of 
 Edward IV. 
 
 Thus ended the reign of Henry VI. who had 
 been crowned King of England and France in 
 his cradle, but had never possessed more than 
 the shade of royalty, although he had been 
 styled a Sovereign almost his whole life. 
 
 It has been remarked of him by historians, 
 that never King came so early to the throne, or 
 lost it so long before his death ; as he lived twelve 
 years after he was deposed. The loss of his 
 crown was not felt by him, whose quiet manners 
 and devotional habits rendered him more fit for 
 the cloister than to govern a kingdom. He was 
 never known to injure any one : moderate, tem- 
 c 
 
50 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 perate, and merciful, when he possessed the 
 appearance of power; he was equally calm and 
 patient when deprived of it. His strongest ex- 
 pressions of anger were " forsooth" and " verily ;" 
 and when struck by his adversaries, who took 
 him prisoner, his only remark was, " you injure 
 yourself more than you injure me." If his devo- 
 tional exercises were uninterrupted, he seemed 
 to know no difference between prosperity and 
 adversity. His breach of promise of marriage 
 to the daughter of the Count d'Armagnac, and 
 not endeavouring to punish the murderers of his 
 uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, were his only 
 faults, if these can be imputed as such, to one 
 so imbecile as scarcely to appear capable of 
 directing his own conduct. Under Providence, 
 it was the people's will that deprived. him of the 
 crown, and gave it to Edward ; and from his and 
 other examples, princes may learn that their 
 thrones are not secured by long possession, but 
 by actions worthy their exalted station. 
 
 The parliament began to assume a greater 
 authority in his reign, and in some measure 
 resisted the power of the Pope, by refusing to 
 admit any foreigner to church preferment, and 
 not allowing the Cardinal of Winchester, who 
 was also his legate, to assist in the King's council, 
 when the supremacy of the church of Rome 
 was the subject of debate. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 51 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 Accession of Edward J F.— Margaret raises an 
 army to oppose it. — Battle of Touion. — Over* 
 throw of the Queen's Forces. — Margaret and 
 Henri/ take Refuge in Scotland. — Edward 
 crowned. — Confiscations in the Lancastrian 
 Party. — Promotion of the Yorkists. — Marga- 
 ret's Attempt to recover the Kingdom. — Her 
 Defeat at the Battle of Hexham. — Assisted by 
 a Robber.— She flies to France with her Son. — ■ 
 Henry returns to Scotland. 
 
 Edward IV. was twenty years old when he 
 ascended the throne : his father's rebellion had 
 prepared the way for his advancement, and 
 the attractions of his person, influenced the 
 people's choice. His character was a mixture of 
 voluptuous affections, with the ferocious cruelty 
 of that barbarous age in which he lived. His 
 affability and condescension to his subjects, 
 were stained with licentiousness and revenge; 
 and so jealous was he of his title to the throne, 
 (though placed on it by the suffrages of the 
 people,) that the scaffold streamed with blood, 
 while his accession was celebrated with all the 
 pageantry of pomp, and the revelry of pleasure. 
 c2 
 
52 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 All whom he suspected of being inimical to his 
 claim, were sacrificed to his fears ; and he caused 
 the death of a tradesman who had jestingly said 
 " he would make his son heir to the crown," 
 (which was the sign of his shop,) because he 
 imagined that he meant to ridicule his title to 
 the kingdom. 
 
 Edward had not been acknowledged King 
 more than eight days, before he was obliged to 
 assemble his forces in order to meet Margaret, 
 who had so well used her influence in the North, 
 as to collect sixty thousand men devoted to her 
 service. The followers of Edward were equally 
 attached to his cause, or probably rather to their 
 own interest, since the adherents of one party 
 could not at that time expect any quarter from 
 the other, or that the lives and fortunes of the 
 vanquished, would not be sacrificed to the resents 
 ment of the conquerors. 
 
 The army of King Edward was considerably 
 less in number than that of his opposer, but 
 they were determined men, experienced in war, 
 and headed by himself and the Earl of Warwick. 
 The license Margaret was obliged to grant her 
 troops, in order to support them, alarmed the 
 inhabitants of the south of England, and 
 strengthened their determination against her. 
 On hearing of the King's approach, Margaret 
 gave the command of the army to the Duke of 
 Somerset, whose father had fallen in the first, 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 53 
 
 battle of St. Alban's, while fighting for her 
 cause. She retired with her husband and son to 
 York to wait the result of an engagement, which 
 was either to destroy, or fix their hopes of 
 regaining the crown. 
 
 Edward, on his arrival at Pontefract in York- 
 shire, sent forward Lord Fitzwalter with a de- 
 tachment to secure the pass of Ferry Bridge, ori 
 the river Aire, which was between him and the 
 hostile forces. Having seized the passage, this 
 nobleman was driven back by superior numbers 
 sent from Somerset's army, under the command 
 of Lord Glifford, and lost his life in endeavouring 
 to regain it. Far from being discouraged by 
 this check, Edward commanded his army to 
 advance, and after giving to all who were afraid, 
 full liberty to quit the field, he denounced the 
 severest vengeance on all who should turn their 
 backs in the battle. 
 
 Murder was literally the order of the day, for 
 the King commanded that no quarter should 
 be given, and that every man should kill all who 
 opposed him. The Earl of Warwick who was 
 strenuously attached to his cause, stabbed the 
 horse upon which he rode, and enthusiastically 
 kissing the hilt of his sword, declared he would 
 lose his life in his defence, and share the dangers 
 of the day with the meanest soldier. Alas ! 
 what dependance can be placed on the promises 
 of men . ? A few years afterwards, Warwick be- 
 c3 
 
54 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 came the determined enemy of Edward, and he 
 shed his blood in fighting for his opposers. 
 
 The pass of Ferry Bridge was retaken by Lord 
 Falconbergh, and the death of Fitzwalter re- 
 venged by that of Clifford,** who had formerly 
 murdered the innocent Rutland. 
 
 The hostile armies met at Touton in Yorkshire, 
 on Sunday morning, March 29th, 1461, and the 
 King's forces gained a complete victory. The 
 weather was favourable to their success, as a fall 
 of snow driven in the faces of their adversaries 
 prevented their seeing them approach, till they 
 were within bow shot, and the archers having 
 discharged their arrows, returned unmolested to 
 their ranks, beyond the reach of their enemies' 
 shafts which were spent in vain, and even re- 
 turned by the opposite party when their own 
 quivers were exhausted. A closer combat en- 
 sued, and decided the contest in favour of Ed- 
 ward, whose personal bravery, and that of the 
 Earl of Warwick, greatly contributed to the 
 success of his arms. 
 
 * The widow of this nobleman fled with her only son into 
 Westmoreland, where he was bred as a shepherd's boy. At the 
 age of twenty-five years Henry VII. restored him to the earldom, 
 but he preferred the shepherd's life, and continued in obscurity. 
 His son was created Duke of Cumberland by Henry VIII. (whose 
 niece he had married,) and his grandson, who inherited the latter 
 title, afterwards signalized himself at the defeat of the Spanish 
 Armada, in the reign of Elizabeth. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 55 
 
 The small river Coe, which runs into the Warf, 
 was stained with the blood of the Lancastrians, 
 and made fordable by their dead bodies which 
 fell under the swords of their pursuers, till they 
 formed a mound for the fugitives to pass over. 
 
 Above thirty-six thousand men are computed 
 to have fallen in this sanguinary battle ; among 
 them were the Earls of Westmoreland and Nor- 
 thumberland, the Lords Dacres and Wells, with 
 Sir John Nevil, brother to the Earl of West- 
 moreland, and Sir Andrew Trollop. The Duke of 
 Somerset, and the Duke of Exeter, who, although 
 he had married one of Edward's sisters, took 
 part with the Lancastrians, escaped with dif- 
 ficulty, and fled into Scotland with the unfortu- 
 nate Henry and his Queen. The Earl of Devon- 
 shire, who had formerly been attached to the 
 York party, was taken prisoner, and brought 
 before Edward, who immediately ordered him 
 to be beheaded. His head was placed on the 
 gates of York, from whence those of the late 
 Duke of York, and the Earl of Salisbury, were 
 taken down and buried. The victorious King 
 pursued his enemies as far as Newcastle, and 
 then, knowing he had little to fear from the suc- 
 cours they might obtain from the Scots, during 
 the minority of their King, James III. he re- 
 turned to his palace at Richmond, and en- 
 deavoured to expel the remembrance of the late 
 dreadful day from the minds of his people, by 
 c4 
 
56 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 making splendid preparations for his coronation/ 
 which took place on the 20th June, 1461. 
 
 A parliament was called, which fully confirmed 
 his title to the throne, and designated " the meek 
 and moralizing Henry" an usurper, after he had 
 raigned thirty-eight years, and inherited the 
 crown from his father. 
 
 The estates of the Dukes of Somerset and 
 Exeter, the Earls Northumberland, Devonshire, 
 Pembroke and Wiltshire, with those of several 
 other noblemen, were confiscated to the crown ; 
 and these accumulated riches, served to support 
 the licentious luxuries of the new made king. 
 
 Among those who suffered confiscation was 
 the family of Sir John Grey, whose youthful 
 widow Elizabeth, and her sons, became by this 
 event dependant on her father, Sir Richard 
 Woodville, who either through the interest of 
 his wife, or because he was not supposed to be 
 very warmly attached to the House of Lancaster, 
 was allowed to remain unmolested. In the 
 society of her parents and her children, on the 
 spot where he for whom she mourned, had gained 
 her early affections, Elizabeth passed the years 
 of her widowhood. Every tiling she saw, re- 
 called her lamented husband to her remembrance, 
 and the double loss she had sustained by the 
 defeat of the Lancastrians. 
 
 At this time, Edward created his brother 
 George, Duke of Clarence, and his younger 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 57 
 
 brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, little 
 imagining the cruel and atrocious crimes which 
 he was even then planning in the secret recesses 
 of his heart. Lord Falconbergh was made Earl 
 of Kent; Henry Bourchier the King's uncle, Earl 
 of Essex ; and the brother of the Earl of War- 
 wick was created Baron Montague. 
 
 During Margaret's retreat in Scotland, she 
 formed a contract of marriage between her son 
 and the infant sister of James III. and in order 
 to gain the assistance of that nation, she pro- 
 mised to cede to them the town of Berwick, if 
 she succeeded in recovering her rights. Leaving 
 her husband in their protection, she then went 
 into France to solicit the assistance of Louis 
 XL to whom she was nearly related, being the 
 niece of his mother ; but this monarch was too 
 deeply engaged in a design to reduce the power 
 of his nobles, and form an arbitrary government, 
 to afford her much aid. However he promised 
 protection in his kingdom to all who espoused 
 her cause, and advanced her a sum of money, 
 with which she hired soldiers and returned to 
 Scotland, where also Edward had a strong party 
 on his side, headed by the Earl of Ross, Lord of 
 the Isles. 
 
 Margaret's first attempt was to land her hired 
 
 troops at Tinmouth in Northumberland, but a 
 
 storm dispersing her fleet, the transports returned 
 
 to France, and it was with difficulty that she 
 
 c5 
 
58 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 arrived at the port of Berwick. Not to be inti- 
 midated by this delay, she again implored the 
 aid of Louis, and on her engaging to deliver up 
 to him the town of Calais if she gained the day, 
 he sent an army of two thousand men, with 
 which she was again enabled to take the field. 
 In the year 1463, she entered Northumberland, 
 attended by a considerable body of freebooters, 
 whom the promise of plunder had engaged on 
 her side, and was met by Baron Montague, 
 whom the King had sent forward to oppose her 
 passage, while he followed with a larger army. 
 
 Montague encountered part of her troops on 
 Hedgely Moor, and defeated them; among 
 whom, Sir Ralph Piercy, who had returned to 
 Margaret's party, was slain. Encouraged by 
 this success, Montague hastened to meet the 
 Queen's army before Edward should arrive, that 
 he might himself have all the honour of the 
 victory, and coming upon them unawares at 
 Hexham, he obtained a complete conquest. 
 
 The Duke of Somerset was taken prisoner, 
 and the fugitive royal family were so closely 
 pursued, that many of their attendants were 
 seized. Among others, he who carried the cap 
 of state of the deposed king was taken, and this 
 last relick of Henry's royalty, fell into Edward's 
 hands. 
 
 Somerset was beheaded, with five other no- 
 blemen, at Newcastle; twelve more lost their 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVJLLE. 59 
 
 lives at York, and their estates were divided 
 among the conquerors. Lord Montague was cre- 
 ated Earl of Northumberland, but as a younger 
 brother of the house of Piercy afterwards sub- 
 mitted to the king, the earldom was restored to 
 him, and Montague resumed his former title. 
 
 Thus ended the battle of Hexham, the ninth 
 which had been fought in the space of thirteen 
 years. It seemed to decide the fate of the un- 
 fortunate royal family, and preclude all hopes of 
 their recovering the crown. Three castles which 
 Margaret had fortified in the North, — Bambergh, 
 Dunstanbergh, and Alnwick, were retaken by the 
 victorious party : that of Alnwick, which was 
 defended by French troops, held out the longest, 
 but at last surrendered to Edward's army, and 
 the soldiers retreated into Scotland. 
 
 The well-known anecdote of Margaret's taking 
 refuge with her son in a forest after the fatal 
 battle of Hexham, and being robbed of all her 
 jewels, has been so often recorded, that it can 
 scarcely be new to any of my readers; yet it 
 affords so remarkable an instance of her intre- 
 pidity, and of greatness of mind in the robber to 
 whom she committed the care of the Prince, 
 that I cannot pass it unnoticed. 
 
 After escaping from one party while they were 
 
 disputing about the division of the riches they 
 
 had taken from her, she saw another robber 
 
 advancing towards her, with a drawn sword in 
 
 c6 
 
60 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 his hand : she boldly approached him, and pre- 
 senting the young Edward to him, said, " My 
 friend, I commit to your care the safety of your 
 King's son." Struck by her magnanimity, and 
 pleased with the confidence she reposed in him, 
 he vowed to devote himself to her service. 
 
 The Queen and her son, then about ten years 
 of age, were supported by him in the forest till 
 the search of their pursuers were over ; he then 
 conducted them to the sea coast, and procured 
 them a passage into Flanders, whither those few 
 of her scattered adherents who had escaped the 
 vengeance of the enemy had gone before. The 
 unfortunate Henry took refuge in Scotland. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Henry ventures to appear in England. — Impri- 
 soned in the Tower. — Edward's ascendancy over 
 his people. — Proposal of Marriage with Bona. — 
 Marries the Lady Elizabeth Grey. — Indigna- 
 tion of Louis. — Warwick's Resentment. — Eli- 
 zabeth crowned. — Elevation of her Family* — 
 Jealousy of the Nobles. 
 
 Margaret was kindly received in Flanders by 
 the Duke of Burgundy, who had, during the 
 regency of the Duke of Bedford, married Isabel 
 
ELIZABETH; WOODV1LLE. 61 
 
 of Portugal, a near relation of Henry VI. 
 From thence she passed with her son, now her 
 only consolation, to the court of her father at 
 Kennes in Brittany, where she spent some years 
 in retirement. Happy would it have been for 
 herself and England, could her enterprising spirit 
 there have been lulled to rest : but though aban- 
 doned by her allies she did not despair of re- 
 covering the kingdom. The changes of fortune 
 which she had already seen, far from checking 
 her hopes, raised an expectation that its wheel 
 might again turn in her favour. 
 
 Her weak and dispirited husband, found the 
 Scots less inclined to assist his cause, after the 
 last fatal overthrow ; and on his hearing that the 
 archbishop of St. Andrews had been sent to 
 negotiate a truce between the Kings of England 
 and Scotland, in which it was to be agreed that 
 neither of them should assist the enemies of the 
 other ; Henry concluded he was no longer safe 
 in Edinburgh, and left it in disguise attended by 
 two ecclesiastics. 
 
 After this he found a refuge at Waddington 
 Hall in Lancashire, the seat of one of his adhe- 
 rents, where he spent nearly a twelvemonth, 
 quietly pursuing the acts of devotion to which 
 he had been accustomed ; little concerned about 
 what was passing in the world, and stilt less 
 inclined to enter again upon the stage of action. 
 
 At length he was discovered by Sir James 
 
62 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Harrington, one of the King's friends, and by 
 him taken prisoner to London. 
 
 Not content with having secured the person 
 of this harmless enemy, the unfeeling man 
 treated him with the utmost indignity. His legs 
 were tied together under the body of the horse 
 on which he rode, as if he had been the worst 
 of criminals. The Earl of Warwick met the 
 deposed monarch on the road, and added to the 
 degradation he had already received, by reviling 
 him in the most opprobrious language ; he even 
 encouraged the multitudes which followed him, 
 to insult their fallen King. Such conduct will 
 appear to every thinking mind, a greater dis- 
 grace to Warwick, than to the unoffending person 
 he thus insulted. 
 
 Henry discovered no resentment, and owed 
 his life to the meekness of his disposition, rather 
 than to the compassion of his rival, who imagined 
 ne had nothing to fear from one whose courage 
 and understanding he held in infinite contempt. 
 
 Henry was committed to the Tower, where by 
 his mild and quiet manners, he gained the affec- 
 tion of the Governor, and was permitted to spend 
 his time as he liked. 
 
 At this time, two of his principal adherents, 
 the Dukes of Somerset and Exeter, were living 
 in obscure indigence in Flanders, where they 
 were obliged to conceal themselves to avoid 
 being taken by Edward's spies. It is said by 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 63 
 
 historians, that they were seen as errand-carriers 
 to the meanest of the people, running bare- 
 footed through the streets in the depth of winter, 
 till the Duke of Burgundy discovering their 
 situation allowed them each a pension. 
 
 It was now thought necessary for Edward to 
 marry, to secure the succession to his offspring, 
 and three princesses were proposed for his ac- 
 ceptance. The first was Margaret of Scotland, 
 who had formerly been betrothed to Edward, 
 the son of Henry, but was yet too young for 
 marriage. The same cause prevented his chusing 
 Isabel of Castile, afterwards married to Ferdi- 
 nand of Arragon -> and Bona of Savoy, sister to 
 the Queen of France, appeared to be the most 
 suitable alliance. In 1464, the Earl of Warwick 
 was appointed ambassador extraordinary to the 
 court of France, where this Princess resided, to 
 demand her in marriage for his King. Louis 
 readily listened to the proposal, as he hoped by 
 this union to prevent Edward's affording assist- 
 ance to the powerful nobles, the Dukes of Bur- 
 gundy and Brittany, with whom he was contend- 
 ing. 
 
 The marriage contract was drawn up, and 
 Louis appointed one of his nobles as plenipoten- 
 tiary at the court of London, to finish the 
 negotiation ; but an extraordinary event defeated 
 his intention, and afforded to the world another 
 
64 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 instance of the instability of the human mind/ 
 and of what is called the caprice of fortune. 
 
 Early in 1465, Edward was invited by one of 
 his nobles, with whom he lived in the closest 
 amity, to a hunting-party in Northamptonshire ; 
 and while there, paid a visit to the Duchess of 
 Bedford. At this time Elizabeth, the subject of 
 these memoirs, had been a widow nearly four 
 years, with no other prospect for herself and 
 sons, but the continuance of obscurity and 
 dependance; till their age and strength should 
 enable them to maintain themselves, and support 
 her. 
 
 She was about the same age as the King, and 
 on hearing that he was in the house, she formed 
 the resolution of appearing before him, to im- 
 plore part of her husband's confiscated estate, 
 for the support of herself and children. The 
 sight of so beautiful a woman, as Elizabeth is 
 described to have been, in deep mourning, and 
 in distress, made a powerful impression on the 
 heart of the youthful Monarch. She held a 
 child in each hand, and directing them to kneel 
 at his feet, with many tears she implored his 
 compassion for them, her helpless and unoffend- 
 ing offspring. 
 
 The King assured her of his favour, but the 
 terms on which he proposed to grant her request 
 were such as she could not accede to, with 
 
F-64- 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVlLLE. 65 
 
 honour to herself. Although many ladies had 
 yielded to his solicitations, Elizabeth had too 
 much virtue to become his mistress. She re- 
 fused his offer, and was about to retire : " Her 
 suit was at an end." But the King still more 
 charmed by her rejection, which proved her 
 mind as worthy of his esteem as her person 
 was of his admiration, became, to use the words 
 of Hume, " a suitor in his turn." Lost to every 
 thing but the charms of Elizabeth — regardless 
 of the impropriety of such an union— and, above 
 all, forgetting the treaty of marriage Warwick 
 was then negotiating for him, he offered to share 
 his throne with her, who seemed so well formed 
 to grace an exalted station. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that he was a successful 
 wooer: — interest, ambition, his personal attrac- 
 tions, all contributed to make Elizabeth lend a 
 willing ear. She was grateful for the honour he 
 designed her: and in a few days the marriage 
 was privately solemnized ui her father's house. 
 
 Thus w r as Elizabeth raised from a state of 
 comparative penury, to the highest station : and 
 her father's family, on whom she had lately been 
 dependant, were now looking towards her for 
 advancement. She saw herself the beloved 
 Queen of a powerful Monarch, with no cloud to 
 darken her bright horizon : for when does youth 
 and beauty, in possession of so much beyond 
 their hope or expectation, look towards the 
 
66 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 lurking change which is yet hid from their view, 
 and perceived by none but those who have too 
 often traced the approach of storms from the 
 rising cloud, " small as a man's hand/' to the 
 full fury of its vengeance, to be deceived by the 
 promise of continual sunshine ? 
 
 Edward concealed his marriage from all but 
 his mother, the Duchess of York, who was then 
 residing at Baynard's Castle, and under whose 
 auspices he wished to introduce his new-made 
 bride to the rest of his family. 
 
 At first, his mother was unwilling to believe he 
 had acted so imprudently. She represented to him 
 the danger he was in from the anger of Louis ; and 
 the resentment of Warwick, on his sending him to 
 negotiate a marriage which could not now take 
 place. Edward pretended to think lightly of 
 these fears ; he maintained that he had a right to 
 raise whom he would to his throne, and having si- 
 lenced the scruples of the Duchess, he introduced 
 his bride, and gave orders for her coronation. 
 
 The news of this event soon spread as far as 
 France, and was heard with indignation by Louis 
 and Warwick. The affairs of his own nation 
 would not permit the former to declare openly 
 his resentment, till a more favourable opportu- 
 nity ; and Warwick returned to England equally 
 incensed, but with the same dissimulation; he 
 endeavoured to conceal his anger till time should 
 offer him an occasion to seek revenge. The King 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 67 
 
 saw his displeasure, but acted with equal caution 
 in not noticing it, and soon after sent him on an 
 embassage, with the Lords Hastings and Wen- 
 lock, to Boulogne, to form a treaty of commerce 
 with the Puke of Burgundy. 
 
 Elizabeth's beauty and unassuming manners 
 gained her universal admiration ; and the King 
 was gratified in proportion as her loveliness was 
 acknowledged by his courtiers. Her coronation 
 took place on the 20th of May, 1645, with great 
 pomp and magnificence; and his affection for her 
 was shewn in the promotion of her family, who 
 shared his favour to the exclusion of almost every 
 other person. Her father was created Earl of 
 Rivers, and afterwards appointed Lord Treasurer, 
 and High Constable, for life ; with the reversion 
 of that exalted station to his son Anthony, who 
 was married to the only daughter and heiress of 
 Lord Scales, and had that title conferred upon 
 him. Her sister Catherine was married to the 
 young Duke of Buckingham, a ward of the 
 crown ; her sister Mary to the Earl of Hunting- 
 don ; and her sister Anne to the son and heir of 
 Lord Grey, of Ruthven, who was created Earl of 
 Kent on the occasion. 
 
 The daughter and heiress of the Duke of 
 Exeter, (whose father I have already mentioned, 
 as having married a sister of the King, and who 
 was then abroad in the greatest distress,) was 
 affianced to one of Elizabeth's sons by her foi> 
 
68 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 mer husband. He received the title of Lord 
 Grey, and her other son was created Marquess 
 of Dorset, and afterwards married the heiress of 
 Lord Bonvil. 
 
 The affiance between Lord Grey and the King's 
 neice, was considered as another insult offered 
 to the Earl of Warwick, as the son of his bro* 
 ther, Lord Montague, had been named for the 
 future husband of that Lady. The sudden rise 
 of the Woodville family excited the jealousy of 
 all the nobility, though none was more incensed 
 at it than Warwick, by whose power Edward 
 had been placed on the throne. He had so long 
 enjoyed the sunshine of his favour that he could 
 not willingly share it with others. As a reward 
 for his services, Warwick had received grants 
 from the crown, which, in addition to his other 
 estates, made his annual income eighty thousand 
 crowns. Edward began to be jealous of the 
 power such a fortune procured him, and justified 
 the partiality he had shewn to the Queen's rela- 
 tions, by the political excuse of its being neces- 
 sary to crush the rising power of Warwick. 
 
 Most of the court joined in the discontent of 
 the Earl: even the King's brothers were not so 
 subservient to his will as to approve of his thus 
 ennobling an obscure family; and Elizabeth soon 
 found that her elevation had made her an object 
 of jealousy, and that the crown she wore was 
 but as a mark for envy to shoot her shafts at. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 69 
 
 She did not endeavour to inflame her husband's 
 resentment against those who treated her with 
 contempt, but, secure in his, and her family's 
 attention, she passed the first years of her royalty 
 in comparative happiness. 
 
 Shakspeare has well depicted the taunts of the' 
 Duke of Gloucester, the King's brother, to whom 
 she was more peculiarly an object of malice; 
 and the words which the bard had placed in her 
 mouth, are strongly expressive of her feelings 
 and situation.— r 
 
 f I had rather be a country servant maid 
 Than a great queen with this condition ; 
 To be thus taunted, scorned, and baited at. 
 Small joy have I in being England's queen '" 
 
 *f Poor painted Queen! vain flourish of my for- 
 tune! " was the appellation Shakspeare makes 
 Margaret give her, yet while her husband lived 
 she knew no diminution of his regard, Although 
 his affection for her could not enable him to 
 resist his prevailing passion for other women, it 
 was Elizabeth he loved, and in her he, confided. 
 She was a striking instance of the power of 
 beauty and innocence, and Edward was a person 
 likely to be attracted by them. Women may 
 captivate for a time by art and studied attentions, 
 l?ut native worth and disinterested affection can 
 alone procure them permanent esteem. 
 
70 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Birth of Princess Elizabeth. — Marriage of the 
 King's Sister. — Affairs of France.*— Animosities 
 in the Court of England. — Extortion of Rivers. 
 — Warwick's Disaffection. — Marriage of Cla- 
 rence. — Death of Lord Rivers. — Reconcliation 
 between the King and Warwick. — Uneasiness of 
 the Queen's Party. — Their Artifice to disunite 
 them. 
 
 In the next year, 1466, the Princess Elizabeth 
 was born, who was afterwards the wife of Henry 
 VII. in whose offspring were united the Houses 
 of York and Lancaster. The Duke of Burgundy, 
 though secretly attached to the latter family, on 
 observing Edward firmly seated on the throne of 
 England, thought it best to court his friendship, 
 and proposed a marriage between Edward's sis- 
 ter, Margaret, and his son, the Count de Charo- 
 lois, otherwise called Charles the Bold, who had 
 just then buried his second wife. 
 
 Edward also received overtures of friendship 
 from Louis, who, though he had by no means 
 forgotten the affront offered to his sister Bona, 
 thought it necessary still to dissemble, lest Ed^ 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 71 
 
 ward should assist his enemies, the Dukes of 
 Burgundy and Brittany, whose power in their 
 respective dominions he had resolved to crush. 
 Edward was equally wary, and amused both 
 parties, by receiving their proposals, without 
 declaring decidedly which side he would take. 
 
 Philip, Duke of Burgundy, dying in 1467, his 
 son, Charles, succeeded to the dukedom, and 
 warmly entered on the defence of the Duke of 
 Brittany, on whom, as being the least powerful, 
 Louis had begun his attack. He renewed the 
 treaty of alliance with Edward, and soon after- 
 wards married the Princess Margaret, who was 
 accompanied into his dominions by several ladies 
 of distinction. 
 
 At the instigation of his new brother-in-law, 
 Edward sent a body of archers, under the com- 
 mand of Lord Scales, the Queen's brother, to 
 assist the Duke of Brittany, although he was at 
 the same time engaged in a pretended negotia- 
 tion for a perpetual peace with Louis, who was 
 righting against that prince. 
 
 In the mean time the animosities of the En- 
 glish Court prevailed. Warwick and his family 
 were every day declining in the King's favour. 
 The Earl was no longer employed in any office 
 of importance ; his brother Montague was kept 
 at a distance, as Warder of the Scottish Marshes ; 
 and the Archbishop of York, another brother, 
 was deprived of the chancellorship, without any 
 
72 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 cause being assigned, and that office given to a- 
 favourite of the Queen. 
 
 The Earl of Rivers, her father, now began to 
 make himself very obnoxious, to the displeasure 
 of the people, by arresting several who were 
 accused of corresponding with Margaret, the 
 late Queen, and the Duke of Somerset. He laid 
 heavy fines on them, and enriched himself and 
 his family by various exactions from all whom 
 he thought were attached c to their party. Nor 
 was the Queen herself entirely exempt from 
 blame, since it is said by the historian, Smollet, 
 that she shared with them these extorted riches. 
 In 1468 the Earl of Pembroke, half brother 
 to Henry VI. raised a small party in Wales, on 
 his behalf. These were soon defeated by Lord 
 Herbert, whose son had married one of the 
 Queen's sisters. Herbert was created Earl of 
 Pembroke for this service, and enjoyed the for- 
 feited estates and titles of him whom he had 
 overcome. Two of the opposite party were 
 executed by the order of Rivers, in his office of 
 High Constable, and a false charge was brought 
 against Warwick, of having promoted the insur- 
 rection. The Earl thoroughly cleared himself 
 from this accusation ; but it added to his hatred 
 of the Woodville family, and made it necessary 
 for them to seek a reconciliation with him on 
 finding that the generality of the people were on 
 his side. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 73 
 
 At the King's request the two parties met, and 
 a seeming accommodation took place between 
 Warwick and Lord Rivers, with little sincerity 
 on either part. The former breathed only re- 
 venge in his heart, and as soon as the conference 
 was over, he hastened to Calais, of which place 
 he still retained the government. After this, 
 knowing the animosity of the King's brothers to 
 the Queen and her family, he proposed a marriage 
 to the Duke of Clarence with his daughter 
 Isabel, one of the handsomest and most accom- 
 plished women of the age. The Duke (who 
 after the Princess Elizabeth was the presumptive 
 heir to the throne) accepted the proposal, and 
 much against the inclination of the King, they 
 were married at Calais. 
 
 In the following year 1469, the Earl of Warr 
 wick, (who during his friendship for Edward's 
 father,, had been initiated in all the intrigues of 
 rebellion) appears to have fermented an insur- 
 rection in Yorkshire, in order to try the minds of 
 the people in that extensive county. 
 
 Apparently this tumult arose from their beino- 
 constrained to support by contributions, the 
 hospital of St.* Leonard, near York. They re-, 
 sisted this arbitrary proceeding, and Montague, 
 who commanded some of the King's forces, 
 opposed and killed their leader, commonly called 
 Robin of Reddesdale ; but the people, secretly 
 encouraged by Warwick, who still continued at 
 
 D 
 
74 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Calais, chose two other leaders, Sir Henry Nevil 
 and Sir John Conyers, under whose direction 
 they marched into Northamptonshire. The King 
 ordered the new Earl of Pembroke to go against 
 , them with twelve thousand Welshmen, assisted 
 by the Earl of Devonshire, at the head of five 
 thousand archers. 
 
 The latter had but newly succeeded to his 
 title, which had belonged to the attainted family 
 of Courtenay. These newly created nobles quar- 
 relled about their quarters : and Pembroke 
 hazarding an engagement at Banbury in Oxford, 
 shire without his colleague, was defeated and slain. 
 
 In revenge for the death of one of their 
 leaders who had been taken, and killed in cold 
 blood by the opposite party, the rebels allowed 
 no quarter to their enemies, and five thousand 
 Welshmen were slain on the spot. The Earl of 
 Devonshire was, on his return, beheaded by the 
 King's order, who supposed him not true to his 
 cause ; and the Earl of Rivers, with his youngest 
 son John, were taken from their house at Grafton, 
 and beheaded at Northampton by Sir John Con- 
 yers, in retaliation for the death of his companion 
 in arms, Sir Henry Nevil. 
 
 Thus the sanguinary scenes of former years 
 seemed to be again reviving; and England ap- 
 peared only to have been at rest, till she had 
 recovered strength to renew those contests, 
 which had formerly drenched her fields in blood. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. ,75 
 
 Warwick, and his son-in-law, the Duke of 
 Clarence, came over to England, and offered 
 their assistance to quell the rebellion. However 
 suspicious the King might be that it was raised 
 fey them, he thought fit to dissemble, and ac- 
 cepted their aid ; the power of Warwick was too 
 great for him to resist, he therefore attempted to 
 conciliate, and bestowed on him all the offices 
 in Wales, vacant by the death of the Earl of 
 Pembroke, 
 
 Tranquillity was once more restored, and by 
 the advice of Warwick, a general pardon was 
 granted to Sir John Conyers and his followers, 
 who at this time amounted to sixty thousand men. 
 
 It being reported that Margaret and her son 
 were in Normandy, waiting to take advantage of 
 the troubles in England and make a descent on 
 the island, commissions of array were issued to 
 raise the militia in the counties bordering the 
 coast; and Anthony, now Lord Rivers, the 
 Queen's brother, was sent to sea with a strong 
 squadron to prevent their approach. 
 
 Still farther to conciliate the Nevil family, a 
 treaty of marriage was negotiated between the 
 son of Lord Montague and the infant Princess 
 Elizabeth, then four years of age ; and the youno- 
 nobleman was created Duke of Bedford by the 
 King's patent. 
 
 Elizabeth had now still greater cause to say, 
 " small joy have I in being England's Queen/' 
 d2 
 
76 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Her father and one of her brothers, had fallen 
 victims to the rebel party: too well she guessed 
 at whose instigation! Her husband, though 
 King, had no power to avenge their deaths, and 
 had been obliged to pardon their murderers. 
 Her elder brother was engaged in a dangerous 
 service, and she saw the enemy of her family 
 fast advancing to reinstate himself in the Kind's 
 favour. 
 
 If family affection can be mentioned as a 
 fault, it is in a Queen, who should be more con- 
 cerned for the interests of the nation than to 
 seek, at the expense of the people, the aggran-r 
 disement of her relations; it was the only thing 
 for which Elizabeth, in her public character? 
 merited censure. In private life she was irre- 
 proachable : possessing much of the King's con- 
 fidence, she was often admitted to his council, 
 in which she too often justified many of the 
 arbitrary and severe acts of her father. Having 
 obtained great influence over her husband, she 
 used it to the advancement of her own family, 
 and the exclusion of the other nobility. It is 
 probable that she wished to establish the interest 
 of her relations, in order to secure the crown to 
 her children by their means; but her anxious 
 desire defeated its own purpose. Thus often 
 does short sighted man fight against himself, and 
 frustrate what he is endeavouring to establish j 
 
 The ministry, who were all in the Queen's 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 
 
 77 
 
 interest, and who dreaded a revival of the king's 
 partiality to the house of Nevil, thought of an 
 expedient to break off the union which seemed 
 to be commencing. 
 
 The King had accepted an invitation from the 
 Archbishop of York to partake of an entertain- 
 ment at his seat in Hertfordshire. While wash- 
 ing his hands before supper, one of his followers, 
 instructed for the occasion, whispered to him 
 that several armed men were in the house, who 
 were to secure his person, and convey him as a 
 prisoner to Middleham Castle in Yorkshire, the 
 residence of the Earl of Warwick. Not con- 
 sidering the improbability of such an attempt, 
 Edward took the alarm, and without assigning 
 any reason he left the company, and mounting 
 his horse, rode with all speed to Windsor, where 
 he found the Queen overjoyed at his return: she 
 expressed her happiness at his escape from a 
 conspiracy, which she might have persuaded 
 herself there was some reason to apprehend. 
 
 The abrupt departure of the King from the 
 feast, was considered as another affront offered 
 to the Nevil family. They were at no loss to 
 construe the reason afterwards assigned for such 
 conduct : it was a scheme concerted by their 
 enemies, again to lessen them in the King's 
 opinion. Their former enmity was renewed, 
 and both sides reproached each other with 
 increased malignity. 
 
 d3 
 
TO THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Warwick's Rebellion.— Louis receives him in France, 
 — Warwick espouses the cause of Margaret.— 
 Marriage of his Daughter with her Son, — In- 
 vades England. — Edward's flight, — Restoration 
 of Henry. — Birth of Edward, Prince of Wales, 
 —Restoration of the Lancastrian Parti/, 
 
 At the instigation of the Duchess of York, who 
 endeavoured to reconcile the offended parties, 
 the King; met his brother Clarence and the Earl 
 of Warwick, at her house in 1470, and once 
 more granted them commissions of array to 
 raise forces in the counties of Warwickshire 
 and Leicestershire. These were to quell another 
 insurrection raised in Lincolnshire on account 
 of oppression, and headed by the son of Lord 
 Willes ; but it was afterwards discovered that 
 Warwick himself had promoted this disturbance. 
 Edward's cruel disposition was seen on this 
 occasion, by his ordering the death of Lord 
 Willes, though he had taken no part in the re- 
 bellion, and had been drawn from the sanctuary 
 in which he had taken refuge, by the promise of 
 safety. The King engaged him to write a letter 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 79 
 
 to his son, containing a promise of pardon if he 
 would lay down his arms. The young man 
 refused to listen to any proposals, and in revenge, 
 Edward ordered his father and another nobleman 
 whose son was also engaged in the rebellion, to 
 be beheaded : this so exasperated the rebel 
 troops, that they hazarded an engagement with 
 the King's forces, and after an obstinate battle 
 they were defeated. 
 
 In the mean time Warwick and Clarence were 
 engaged in raising men, with whom they in- 
 tended to join the disaffected party* but hearing 
 of their defeat, and not finding others so willing 
 to unite with them as they expected, the,y threw 
 up the commissions which they had received 
 from the King, and embarked for Calais. 
 
 Edward was now fully apprised of their 
 treachery; he ordered them to be proclaimed 
 traitors, and offered a reward to any who should 
 apprehend them. On their arriving at the port 
 of Calais they were refused entrance by Vaucler, 
 a Gascon, whom Warwick had teft to govern in 
 his absence. In excuse for his conduct he found 
 means to inform his master that he was still 
 attached to his interest, but knowing the 
 fortress to be ill prepared for a siege, he thought 
 it best to appear as his enemy, lest Edward or 
 the Duke of Burgundy with whom he was in 
 alliance should attack it, and by this means he 
 hoped to secure it to the Earl, when the times 
 d4 
 
80 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 should be more favourable to him. By thus 
 temporizing, the crafty Gascon become the sup- 
 posed friend of both parties, and it is probable, 
 intended to declare for the strongest at a proper 
 opportunity : Edward rewarded him by giving 
 him the government of the place, and the Duke 
 of Burgundy allowed him a pension. Warwick 
 was compelled to submit, and apparently to 
 believe him ; he sought a refuge with his son-in- 
 law at the court of France, where Louis kindly 
 received them. During their voyage from Eng- 
 land, a son w T as born to the Duchess of Clarence, 
 who had accompanied her husband and father; 
 he afterwards succeeded to the title of his ma- 
 ternal grandfather, and was beheaded in the 
 reign of Henry VII. 
 
 Enraged at the alliance of Edward with the 
 Duke of Burgundy, the smothered resentment 
 of the King of France began to break forth ; he 
 gladly received Warwick, by whose means he 
 hoped to increase the troubles in England, and 
 promote the interest of Margaret and her son, 
 who were then in his court : through his means, 
 these foes, formerly so hateful to each other, 
 became reconciled, and the haughty Margaret 
 stooped to receive the offered friendship of War- 
 wick, who now openly declared himself the 
 enemy of Edward. In token of their amity, a 
 marriage was concluded between Margaret's son 
 Edward, (still called Prince of Wales) and Anne, 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE, 
 
 81 
 
 the youngest daughter of Warwick: by this 
 union the latter Earl became equally allied to the 
 houses of York and Lancaster ; the Prince was 
 then eighteen, and the marriage took place 
 immediately. 
 
 The father of Warwick had been put to death 
 by Margaret's order; he had himself twice re- 
 duced Henry to captivity, and had been the 
 cause of innumerable evils to the unhappy family 
 of Lancaster and their followers ; but these once 
 determined enemies were now united by the 
 firmest bonds for unstable man, those of 
 necessity. 
 
 The Duke of Burgundy informed Edward of 
 this incongruous alliance, who far from being 
 alarmed at it, and secure in his own popularity, 
 concluded he had nothing to fear from an enemy 
 who had so lately been obliged to quit the king- 
 dom, on not finding supporters in it. He aban- 
 doned himself to the pleasures he was pursuing, 
 and suffered his ministry to commit acts of 
 cruelty and oppression in his name, on all whom 
 they supposed favoured the interest of Warwick 
 or that of the house of Lancaster. The cause 
 of the latter was warmly espoused by Louis ; he 
 furnished money and troops with which Warwiek 
 sailed for England, to proclaim Henry VI. King, 
 and restore him to the throne. The weakness of 
 this Monarch, who still continued in the Tower, 
 caused him to be totally overlooked by his ene- 
 d 5 
 
82 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 mies, and they appeared to have no apprehension 
 of what was coming against them. 
 
 At this time Edward had a secret emissary in 
 the family of the Duke of Clarence. One of 
 the ladies who attended on the Duchess was 
 employed by him to persuade the Duke to leave 
 the enemies of his brother, and return to his 
 allegiance to him as King : he had engaged so to 
 do, and only waited a fit opportunity to accom- 
 plish his purpose. Warwick had also made the 
 ] same proposal to Montague his brother, who 
 V was still in the service of the King, and had 
 ■received from him a similar promise : both, there- 
 fore, were secretly intending to revolt from one 
 party, and to join the other. 
 
 In the mean time Warwick with his squadron 
 had escaped a fleet sent out by the Duke of 
 Burgundy to intercept his passage, and landed 
 safely in England, at Dartmouth in Devonshire, 
 in September, 1470. 
 
 In the same month Lord Fitzhugh, who had 
 married a sister of the Earl, raised an insurrec- 
 tion in his favour, which Edward was advancing 
 to repel when he heard of the landing of War- 
 wick; at first he affected to rejoice at it, think- 
 ing he should the more easily secure his person, 
 but in a few days he discovered his mistake. 
 
 Warwick was immediately joined by sixty 
 thousand men ; he declared himself fighting for 
 King Henry, and ordered all the subjects of that 
 
T.8S. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 83 
 
 Monarch to take arms against Edward the 
 usurper. At the approach of Edward, Fitzhugh 
 retired into Scotland, and the King returned 
 towards London: it was Warwick's aim to come to 
 an engagement with him before he reached the ca- 
 pital, where Edward had his principal adherents. 
 He therefore advanced as far as Nottingham 
 to meet him, and prepared to give him battle. 
 Edward had entrusted the command of six thou- 
 sand men to Montague the Earl's brother, lately 
 created a Marquess, who followed at a distance, 
 apparently to reinforce the King, but his real 
 intention was to unite his forces with those of 
 his brother. As Warwick advanced in front, 
 the Marquess drew nearer in the rear, and Edward 
 was surprised and nearly taken in the midst of 
 his camp. Alarmed to hear around him the cries 
 of " Long live King Henry," he called a council 
 of war, in which his officers, and particularly 
 Lord Hastings his chamberlain, advised him to 
 save himself by flight. Though Edward was 
 naturally courageous, he was not rash ; his army 
 was greatly reduced by the defection of Mon- 
 tague, and he knew not whom he might trust : 
 he could not hope to overcome Warwick's nu- 
 merous forces, and therefore yielded to their 
 entreaties. Accompanied by his brother Glou- 
 cester and eight hundred horsemen, he fled in 
 the night to Lynn in Norfolk, from whence he 
 embarked with his brother for Flanders ; but so 
 d6 
 
84 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 precipitate was his haste, that he had nothing 
 with which to reward the master of the vessel 
 which carried him over, but a rich cloak lined 
 with sable, and this he took from his own 
 shoulders to give to him. 
 
 The next morning his army surrendered to 
 Warwick, w T ho hastened to London and removed 
 the quiet and ill-fated Henry from the Tower to 
 the Bishop's palace. Scarcely conscious of 
 what was doing in his favour, he was a second 
 time proclaimed King, on the 6th of October, 
 1470. 
 
 At this time Elizabeth, Edward's Queen, took 
 refuge with her daughter and the Duchess of 
 York, in the sanctuary of Westminster; in this 
 retirement Prince Edward was born, who might 
 have been justly called " the child of misfortune :" 
 in our future pages we shall relate his melan- 
 choly fate. Seyeral of Edward's friends also 
 availed themselves of the security these places 
 afforded: their imagined sanctity precluded all 
 search for delinquents under their protection, 
 and the Queen, surrounded by her own party, 
 w T as treated with the respect and attention her 
 situation required. 
 
 This surprising revolution was accomplished 
 without bloodshed, and in the course of eleven 
 days Henry was again placed on the throne. 
 
 A total change was made in all the offices of 
 state ; the judges, sheriffs, and coroners through- 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 85 
 
 out the kingdom were displaced, and new ones 
 appointed in their room. Only one life was 
 sacrificed to the public resentment; this was 
 that of the Earl of Worcester, who by his cruel 
 conduct as a minister, had been named " the 
 butcher." 
 
 The Earl of Warwick became again high 
 admiral of England, and Clarence was made 
 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Archbishop of 
 York was a second time appointed chancellor, 
 and the Prior of St. John's monastery, treasurer. 
 Edward was declared a traitor and usurper, his 
 estates were confiscated, and all his acts as King 
 were repealed; his brother Gloucester with his 
 adherents were also attainted: the crown was 
 settled on Henry and his male issue, but in case 
 of their deaths it was to descend to the Duke of 
 Clarence and his children. 
 
 The Duke, who as yet had found no opportu- 
 nity of executing his promise to his brother, was 
 put into possession of the estates and honours 
 of his father, the late Duke of York, and he and 
 Warwick were appointed protectors of the realm, 
 during the life of the King and the minority of 
 his son. 
 
 The Dukes of Somerset and Exeter, the Earls 
 Oxford, Pembroke, and other noblemen, were 
 restored to their titles and estates ; and a com- 
 pensation of two and twenty thousand marks 
 from the estate of Anthony, Lord Rivers, was 
 
86 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 allowed to Sir Thomas Cook, a person who had 
 been cruelly oppressed and prosecuted by that 
 nobleman's father. 
 
 Thus the house of Lancaster seemed again 
 established on the throne, and the passive Henry 
 once more appeared with the ensigns of royalty, 
 though in reality he was as much under the 
 controul of others, as when a prisoner in the 
 Tower. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Edward takes refuge with the Duke of Burgundy. 
 — Returns to his Kingdom.— Enters London. — 
 Imprisons Henri/. — Battle of Barnet. — Death 
 of Warwick and Montague.— Margaret arrives 
 in England.— Battle of Tewksbury. — Death 
 of young Edward. — Imprisonment of Margaret. 
 —Death of Henry. 
 
 The fugitive Edward did not find a very cordial 
 reception at the court of his brother-in-law the 
 Duke of Burgundy, who, already engaged in a 
 war with Louis, feared to draw on himself the 
 resentment of England also, by assisting one 
 who had been declared an usurper in that king- 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 87 
 
 dom. Yet on account of his wife, who warmly 
 espoused the cause of her brother, and the 
 chance there might be of his restoration, he 
 endeavoured to compromise the matter, and 
 while he secretly afforded him aid, by advancing 
 a sum of money and hiring ships and troops in 
 Holland which were to embark in his service, he 
 pretended to refuse him shelter, and forbad any 
 of his subjects to assist him on pain of death. 
 
 In the month of March 1471, Edward return- 
 ed to his kingdom, (after he had been absent 
 nearly six months) with the small force of fifteen 
 hundred men, partly English and partly Flemish, 
 and landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire. Not 
 finding himself so well received there as he 
 expected, he declared himself the liege subject 
 of Henry, and that his only demand was, to be 
 restored to the dukedom of his father. Among 
 the citizens of York he had many friends, and 
 instigated by their entreaties, and the avowal of 
 Edward, the magistrates allowed him to enter 
 the city from which he claimed his title. Here, 
 according to the political consciences of some men, 
 who seem, in affairs of state, to allow themselves 
 to profess whatever they think will advance their 
 design, without considering it a crime to endeavor 
 to deceive, he entered the Cathedral, and by a 
 solemn oath confirmed his former protestations 
 of allegiance to Henry, and his determination to 
 abide by the decisions of parliament, respecting 
 
88 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 his claim to the inheritance he demanded. 
 Having thus obtained possession of the city, he 
 secretly borrowed money of his friends, and 
 when his army was sufficiently increased, he 
 marched with them towards London, still de- 
 claring that he had no treasonable intention. 
 
 As soon as the news of his landing had reach- 
 ed the court, Warwick, Clarence and Montague 
 were ordered to raise forces to repel the invader; 
 the Earl of Pembroke also had a commission of 
 array granted him : this title was now restored 
 to its former possessor, the half-brother of Henry. 
 
 It appears that Edward had still some friends 
 in the Nevil family, since the Marquis of Mon- 
 tague, who had been sent to intercept his march 
 to York, allowed him to pass unmolested within 
 four miles of where he was stationed ; and on 
 his appearing before London, the Archbishop of 
 York, another brother of the Earl of Warwick, 
 who was then chancellor, and had the care of 
 Henry, allowed him to enter the city without 
 opposition, and to seize the person of that ill- 
 fated King ; though to save his credit with the 
 other party, the archbishop was imprisoned for 
 a few days, and then restored to liberty and the 
 favour of Edward. 
 
 Warwick had marched to Coventry with a 
 view of engaging Edward before he approached 
 the metropolis, but was prevented giving him 
 battle by a letter from his son-in-law Clarence, 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 8& 
 
 desiring him not to come to an engagement till 
 he should join him with his forces. Owing to 
 his delay, which was probably intentional on the 
 part of Clarence, Edward arrived in London 
 without interruption, where he had many friends. 
 The sanctuaries of London and Westminster 
 alone, contained above two thousand of his 
 adherents, and several of the nobility and pre- 
 lates were attached to his cause. He was ad- 
 mitted without difficulty : Henry was taken from 
 the palace of the Bishop of London, and again 
 committed to the Tower. 
 
 Scarcely had Edward time to see his Queen 
 and embrace the son which had been born to him 
 in his absence, when he was again called to the 
 head of his troops, who were assembled at Bar- 
 net, at which place Clarence, Warwick and Mon- 
 tague, were preparing to give them battle. The 
 former, encouraged by a visit from his brother 
 the Duke of Gloucester the night before the 
 battle, came over to Edward's side, and brought 
 with him fourteen thousand men. In the morn- 
 ing he sent a message to his father-in-law, inti- 
 mating that he had received the King's pardon 
 who would also grant it to him if he would submit 
 to his authority. The haughty Earl rejected 
 the proposal with disdain, and enraged at the 
 defection of Clarence, hasted to begin the 
 engagement. 
 
 As in a former battle, he sent awav his horse 
 
90 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and fought on foot, but his impetuosity subjected 
 him to many disadvantages ; his troops were 
 disordered; and after desperately fighting for 
 many hours, he fell covered with wounds in the 
 hottest part of the engagement. His brother 
 Montague shared the same fate in endeavouring 
 to rescue him, and after their deaths, the army 
 surrendered to King Edward. The carnage was 
 dreadful on either part; five thousand men were 
 slain on the side of the Lancastrians, and half 
 that number on Edward's, whose ferocious dis- 
 position allowed his men to give no quarter to 
 their enemies. 
 
 The lately restored Earls of Oxford and Exe- 
 ter were in Warwick's army ; the former fled to 
 the Earl of Pembroke who was then raising 
 troops in Wales, and the latter, dreadfully 
 wounded was taken prisoner, and committed 
 to the Tower. 
 
 Thus fell the king-making Warwick, who was 
 no less celebrated for his military talents, influ- 
 ence, and fortune, than for his zeal, in behalf of 
 those whose cause he espoused. Without him 
 the York faction could never have prevailed; 
 but the share he had in their exaltation, only 
 made him an object of suspicious jealousy to 
 the one party, and of hatred to the other. That 
 the haughty and vindictive Margaret should so 
 far stifle her resentment as to accept his ser- 
 vices, is a proof how highly she valued them ; 
 
ELIZABETH WOOBVILLE. 91 
 
 and the tears she shed at his death, gave evi- 
 dence to his consequence, on which ever side 
 he fought. 
 
 Contrary winds prevented Margaret's joining 
 him as she intended; but on the day of the 
 battle of Barnet this impetuous woman, with 
 her son, and the Duke of Somerset, and a small 
 body of French troops, landed in England. 
 When she heard of the death of Warwick, and 
 the re-imprisonment of her husband, her wonted 
 courage seems to have forsaken her. She fled, 
 faint and dispirited, with her son for refuge to 
 the monastery of Beaulieu in Hampshire, but she 
 could not resign the hopes which she had so 
 little chance of realizing. 
 
 The tide of blood was not yet at its height, 
 and another portion of the unhappy people were 
 to fall a sacrifice to her ambition. Several gen- 
 tlemen, headed by Courtenay Earl of Devonshire, 
 came to offer her assistance; and encouraged 
 by them, she detennined to risk another en- 
 gagement. 
 
 On the 4th of May, 1471, she assembled her 
 forces at Tewksbury in Gloucestershire, where 
 she expected to be joined by the Earl of Pem- 
 broke, with the troops he had raised in Wales in 
 her behalf: but Edward, assisted by his brothers 
 the Dukes of Gloucester and' Clarence, prevented 
 their junction, and a decisive battle ensued, in 
 which three thousand men were slain on Mar- 
 
92 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 garet's side. She and her son were taken 
 prisoners, the Earl of Devonshire was slain in 
 the battle, and the Duke of Somerset, with 
 several nobles who had fled to the church for 
 sanctuary, were forcibly taken from thence, and 
 immediately executed. 
 
 The important victory which Edward had 
 gained was stained with cruelty ; and the murder 
 of a defenceless prince, whose courage and intre- 
 pidity evinced the greatness of his mind, was an 
 action which not even the ferocity of that bar- 
 barous age can excuse. Young Edward, Mar- 
 garet's son, was brought into his presence ; and 
 when asked by the King, in a tone of authority, 
 how he had dared to enter his kingdom in arms ? 
 he boldly replied, that it was to recover those 
 rights which had been usurped from his father. 
 There was too much truth in this assertion to 
 suit the imperious Edward. Exasperated to 
 rage, he struck the generous youth on the face, 
 and retired to the inner part of his tent. His 
 two subservient brothers, and the noblemen by 
 whom he had been surrounded, among whom 
 was Lord Grey, the son of the Queen, taking 
 this as a signal for his death, drew their swords 
 and inhumanly stabbed him till he died. 
 
 The untimely death of this unfortunate Prince, 
 at the early age of eighteen, cannot be con- 
 templated without regret. He possessed true 
 courage ; and influenced by the example of his 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 93 
 
 mother, he sought the restoration of his father, 
 and of his own inheritance. A generous enemy- 
 would have admired his intrepidity, while he 
 disdained his futile attempts : but the way in 
 which his life was ended must ever be a stain on 
 the character of Edward and his courtiers. His 
 unhappy mother was found more dead than alive 
 on the field of battle, taken prisoner, and con- 
 veyed to the Tower. The avarice of Edward 
 probably saved her life ; as Louis engaged to 
 pay fifty thousand crowns for her ransom, by 
 instalments. 
 
 She remained a prisoner four years, till the 
 sum was paid; and afterwards passed into the 
 French dominions, where she spent the remainder 
 of her days in tranquillity, and died in 1482. 
 
 Her character is thus described by Hume :«— 
 " An admirable Princess ; but more illustrious 
 by her undaunded spirit in adversity, than by 
 her moderation in prosperity. She seems neither 
 to have enjoyed the virtues, nor been subject to 
 the weakness of her sex; and was as much 
 tainted with the ferocity, as endowed with the 
 courage of that barbarous age in which she 
 lived." 
 
 Within a few days after the battle of Tewksbury, 
 Henry was found dead in his bed in the Tower ; 
 where, since the restoration of Edward, he had 
 heen confined. Most historians agree in sup- 
 posing him murdered by Gloucester; though 
 
94 THE HISTORY QF 
 
 others, more favourable to that Prince, attribute 
 Henry's death to grief. The brutal disposition 
 of Gloucester, and the many murders he after- 
 wards committed, justify the suspicion which 
 was formed against him. 
 
 Henry was the last of the House of Lancaster, 
 and of the Plantagenet line ; his ancestors had 
 worn the crown for above four hundred years. 
 In the last sixteen years of Henry's life, twelve 
 battles had been fought, and the blood of several 
 thousands of his subjects desperately shed on 
 his account. During his reign he founded the 
 college at Eton; and King's College Cambridge, 
 for the reception of those scholars who had 
 commenced their studies in the former school. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 95 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Edward's Cruelty-, and Revenge on the Lancas- 
 trians. — Death of the Earl of Exeter.— Claim 
 of Henry VII. — Promotion of the Queen's 
 Party. — Edward invades France. —Treaty of 
 Peace. — -Affiance of the Princess Elizabeth to 
 the Dauphin. — Edward's Offspring. — Death of 
 the Duke of Burgundy. — Marriage of his 
 Daughter.— Death of Clarence. 
 
 The arbitrary and cruel disposition of Edward 
 became more conspicuous after his restoration 
 to the throne. Every nobleman was again 
 obliged to take an oath of allegiance to him 
 and his son, whom he had already created Prince 
 of Wales, and he pursued with unremitting 
 vengeance, all whom he deemed obnoxious to 
 punishment. 
 
 The house of Nevil was still the object of his 
 dislike, and the Archbishop of York, to whom 
 in great measure he owed the facility with which 
 he had recovered the crown, was imprisoned in 
 a foreign country and deprived of his see, of 
 which the King long kept the emoluments in his 
 own power. 
 
98 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 The estates of those noblemen who had taken 
 part with Margaret were confiscated, and their 
 revenues increased the King's riches. The Earl 
 of Oxford, who had married a sister of Warwick, 
 was imprisoned in France, and his wife reduced 
 to the utmost necessity. 
 
 The Duke of Exeter having escaped from the 
 Tower where he had been confined, and taken 
 sanctuary, solicited in vain the intercession of 
 his wife with the King. Instead of befriending 
 him, she desired that their separation might be 
 confirmed by act of parliament, and this un- 
 happy nobleman perished some time after in a 
 miserable obscurity : he was the last branch of 
 the house of Lancaster, except the young Earl 
 of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII, who had 
 fled with his uncle Pembroke to the court of 
 Brittany. Here Edward allowed them pensions, 
 on receiving a promise from the Duke of that 
 province, that they should not infringe on his 
 government ; and after all his attempts to get 
 Richmond into his power, had been baffled by 
 their vigilance. 
 
 At this time the war between Louis and the 
 Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany was suspended, 
 and while the former Duke was extending his 
 territories in Germany, he influenced his brother- 
 in-law the King of England to make war upon 
 France, in order to prevent Louis from entering 
 his dominions in his absence. The promise of 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 97 
 
 his assistance, with the alluring prospect of 
 recovering some of those provinces which had 
 been lost in the preceding reign, induced Ed* 
 ward to make the attempt. 
 
 In 1475 he landed on the French coast, but 
 not rinding himself seconded by Burgundy as 
 he expected, he readily accepted the proposals 
 of peace made him by the French King, and 
 withdrew his forces without having attempted 
 any engagement. The articles of this treaty 
 were highly advantageous to Edward as to pe- 
 cuniary concerns, and he returned home with an 
 increase of riches, if not of glory, The ex- 
 penses of the armament were paid by Louis, 
 and Edward received an annuity of fifty thousand 
 crowns, as an equivalent for the towns in France 
 to which he laid claim: pensions were also 
 granted to several of his courtiers, and from 
 this time their conduct was greatly influenced 
 by the French court. Two years after this, the 
 Duke of Burgundy was slain in battle against 
 the Swiss, whose dominions he had also invaded. 
 The duchy devolved to his only daughter Mary, 
 by a former wife; by Margaret the sister of 
 Edward, he had no issue. Several princes 
 allured by the splendid patrimony cf the young 
 Duchess, had solicited her hand in marriage, 
 among whom was the Duke of Clarence, who 
 had lately lost his wife. His cause was warmly 
 espoused by the Dowager of Burgundy, who 
 
98 THE HISTORY OF -v 
 
 had great influence with her daughter-in-law, 
 but the negotiation was broken off by Elizabeth, 
 who wished to obtain her hand for her brother, 
 Lord Rivers. Louis would gladly have secured 
 this alliance for the Dauphin, but he feared to 
 exasperate Edward, whose daughter Elizabeth 
 had already received the title of Dauphiness, 
 and was considered as inviolably affianced to 
 that Prince. At length Mary silenced the 
 solicitations of her several w r ooers, by accepting 
 the hand of Maximilian, son of the Emperor of 
 Germany, to whom, though he was very unable 
 to defend her dominions, Louis restored some of 
 the towns he had taken since her father's death. 
 The animosity of Clarence to the Queen, was 
 secretly fermented by the artful insinuations of 
 his brother Gloucester, who had already formed 
 designs upon the crown, and considered him as 
 an impediment in his way to obtain it, as on the 
 death of Edward's children, Clarence w r ould 
 have been the legal successor. Having pro- 
 voked him to speak injuriously of the King, he 
 caused it to be reported, and Edward already 
 inflamed with anger and jealousy against his 
 unsuspecting brother, ordered him to be confined 
 to the Tower. According to the arbitrary pro^ 
 ceedings of that age, the Duke was not allowed 
 to bring forward any person to refute the charges 
 brought against him, and scarcely heard in his 
 own defence ; he was pronounced guilty of trea- 
 
T.3S 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 99 
 
 son, and condemned to death, but the parliament 
 fearing the resentment of the populace, with 
 whom Clarence was a general favourite, caused 
 him to be privately murdered in the Tower. 
 Historians relate that the choice of his death 
 being allowed him, he was drowned in a butt of 
 malmsey, his favourite liquor. He left two chil- 
 dren by the daughter of the Earl of Warwick, 
 whose unhappy fate should not be forgotten. 
 His son, as I have said before, succeeded to the 
 title of Earl of Warwick, and was beheaded in 
 the reign of Henry VII. and his sister, who had 
 married one of the family of Suffolk, inherited 
 his estates ; in the reign of Henry VIII. she was 
 created Countess of Salisbury, the title of War- 
 wick's mother; and at an advanced age was 
 beheaded, to complete that King's vengeance 
 against Cardinal de la Pole, her son, who had 
 not consented to the legality of his divorce 
 from Catherine of Arragon. 
 
 e2 
 
100 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Negotiation of Marriages for Edward's Children. 
 — Alliance with Brittany '.— 'Duke of Albany.— 
 Death of the young Duchess of Burgundy.— 
 Marriage of the Dauphin to her Daughter. — 
 Resentment of the English,-*- Preparations for 
 War. — Edward's Death. — His Character. — 
 Printing Presses established. 
 
 The succeeding years of Edward's reign are 
 very barren of events. The Queen brought him 
 several children, for whom he proposed matri- 
 monial alliances almost as soon as they were 
 born, in order to strengthen himself by foreign 
 connexions. In 1479, his fourth daughter Anne 
 was contracted to the new-born son of Maxi- 
 milian, Duke of Burgundy ; who, on the expira- 
 tion of the short truce allowed him by Louis on 
 his marriage, had recovered the whole of his 
 wife's dominions. Catherine, another daughter, 
 was affianced to the Infant of Castile. 
 
 The money which Edward and his courtiers 
 continued to receive from the court of France 
 proved very acceptable to them ; yet the King 
 was uneasy that the marriage of his eldest 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 101 
 
 daughter, then thirteen years of age, with the 
 Dauphin, had not taken place. Louis made 
 many frivolous excuses for the delay, and it was 
 evident he did not wish to see it accomplished. 
 The truth was, he had already destined the 
 Dauphin for the infant daughter of Maximilian ; 
 and willing to engage Edward in another pursuit, 
 he influenced the King of Scotland to break his 
 truce, and declare war against England. 
 
 The attempt of James to enter the kingdom 
 was soon repelled ; and Edward, who knew to 
 whose arts he might attribute his sudden inva- 
 sion, by way of retaliation on Louis, entered into 
 a closer alliance with Maximilian and Mary, and 
 assisted them with men and money: though not 
 without a promise from them of the same pension 
 which he received from Louis, in case that 
 Monarch should refuse to pay it. He also 
 entered into an engagement with the Duke of 
 Brittany, to give his son, the Prince of Wales, 
 in marriage to one of his daughters, and to 
 furnish him with troops when necessary. 
 
 This confederacy took place in 1482 : at which 
 time the Duke of Albany, brother to the King 
 of Scotland, having escaped from confinement, 
 in which he had long been kept by a corrupt 
 ministry, who governed their Sovereign, came 
 to England and implored the protection of 
 Edward. The King sent an army, under the 
 command of the Duke of Gloucester, to assist 
 e 3 
 
102 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 him in recovering his rights. Several Scottish 
 noblemen befriended him ; and encouraged by 
 the appearance of the English troops, they 
 seized on the ministers, who had by various acts 
 of tyranny made themselves detested by the 
 people, dragged them from the King's presence, 
 and executed on them a speedy vengeance in 
 the sight of the army. Terrified by their deaths, 
 and unable to avenge them, James agreed to 
 every thing which was required of him. He 
 was apparently reconciled to his brother; but 
 shortly after, seeking another occasion of quarrel 
 with him, the Duke of Albany retired to France, 
 where he was accidentally killed at a tourna- 
 men. 
 
 While Gloucester was in Scotland, he obliged 
 James to restore to his brother the town of 
 Berwick, which had been ceded to that kingdom 
 by Margaret, in return for the services she 
 received from them. 
 
 In the succeeding year, Mary, Duchess of 
 Burgundy, died, by a fall from her horse, and 
 Maximilian losing much of his influence among 
 her people, was obliged to return into Germany, 
 and leave his children in their guardianship. 
 Influenced by Louis, who renewed his claim to 
 the Duchy, they agreed to give Margaret, the 
 daughter of their late Duchess, in marriage to 
 the Dauphin, who had been so long affianced to 
 the Princess of England. The Princess Margaret 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 103 
 
 was brought to France, and at two years of age 
 openly betrothed to the Dauphin, with as great 
 splendour as her early age would admit. 
 
 This event was considered as a signal of war 
 by the English, who were impatient to revenge 
 the affront offered to their Monarch, though 
 Louis might have reminded them that Edward 
 had acted in the same manner with his sister 
 Bona. Fresh troops were raised, and a liberal 
 supply was granted by parliament, to which the 
 people largely added by voluntary contributions. 
 Devoted to licentious pleasures, and grown very 
 indolent, the King yet determined to rouse him- 
 self and once more to appear in arms : but in 
 the midst of his warlike preparations he was 
 seized with a violent fever, occasioned by his 
 excesses, and died, in the forty-second year of 
 his age, and the twenty- third of his reign, 1483. 
 
 By this unexpected event the armament was 
 suspended, and other occurrences of a much 
 more alarming nature soon occupied the attention 
 of the people. These seemed for a time to para- 
 lize their feelings ; but when roused to a sense 
 of the wrongs which had been committed, their 
 united efforts opened a way for the dawning of 
 that liberty, which in after ages produced the 
 revolution at the end of the seventeenth century. 
 
 Edward left two sons and five daughters. His 
 person and address gained him many admirers 
 but he possessed few virtues to secure their 
 e4 
 
104 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 esteem. His success in life was very remarkable, 
 as he never fought a battle which he did not win ; 
 and at a time when his adherents had lately expe- 
 rienced two defeats, and when his father's head 
 was still seen fixed on the gates of York, he was 
 proclaimed King almost without opposition. His 
 restoration to the throne before he had risked an 
 engagement, was yet more extraordinary, and 
 clearly proves the power of persuasion, which 
 he possessed in an eminent degree. With all 
 this, '* he was" to use the words of Smollet, 
 " cruel, vindictive, perfidious, lewd, perjured, 
 and rapacious; without one liberal thought, 
 without one sentiment of humanity." Hume 
 mentions him with less severity ; but those who 
 speak the most favourably of this Monarch can 
 say but little in his praise, if influenced by truth. 
 
 During his reign he added to the Tower of 
 London, built the royal chapel at Windsor, the 
 castles of Nottingham and of Dover, and a pa- 
 lace at Eltham, the only remains of which are 
 now seen as forming the walls of an extensive 
 barn and granary. 
 
 The greatest service which literature received 
 in the reign of Edward was by the art of print- 
 ing, which was first known in Germany, and 
 brought into England by William Caxton, a 
 citizen of London, whom Edward had employed 
 as envoy to the Duke of Burgundy. This man 
 established a press at Westminster, where it is 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 105 
 
 said the first book he printed was on the game 
 of chess. The monasteries soon after purchased 
 the art ; and presses were in a few years estab- 
 lished at the two universities and at St. Albans. 
 One of the first books printed, now extant, is 
 Tully's Offices, which is still preserved in the 
 Bodleian Library at Oxford. Caxton was recom- 
 mended to the King- by the Earl of Rivers, in 
 whom were united great taste for literature and 
 considerable abilities with a large share of valour. 
 The King had appointed this nobleman to super- 
 intend the education of his son the Prince of 
 Wales. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Parties in the Court. — Accession of Edward V. — 
 The Queen's suspicion. — Treachery of Gloucester, 
 — Confinement of the Princes in the Tower. — 
 Death of Earl Rivers and Sir Thomas Grey, 
 
 At the death of Edward IV. his court was com- 
 posed of two parties, who were hostile to each 
 other. The one was comprised of the Queen's 
 brother and sons, with all who owed or expected 
 promotion from them ; at the head of this party 
 e5 
 
106 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 was the Queen herself. Their opponents con- 
 sisted of the remains of the ancient nobility who 
 were offended at the rising greatness of the 
 Woodville family; these were headed by Stafford, 
 Duke of Buckingham, descended from a daugh- 
 ter of Thomas of Woodstock, seventh son of 
 Edward III. He was Lord High Constable of 
 England, and his colleagues were Lord Hastings 
 (the King's chamberlain) and Lord Stanley, both 
 noblemen, to whom Edward was much attached 
 for their adherence to him in his adversity. Not- 
 even the Queen's entreaties could prevail on him 
 to dismiss them from his council. 
 
 On his death-bed he was anxious to see these 
 parties reconciled, and calling them around it, 
 he begged them to consider the interest of his 
 son, and to assist each other in promoting it: 
 his appeal to their feelings and at such a time, 
 appeared to have the desired effect. The Mar- 
 quess of Dorset (son to the Queen,) and the 
 Duke of Buckingham, embraced each other with 
 many protestations of future friendship. The 
 Queen enlaced for the concurrence of her other 
 son and her brother Lord Rivers, who were then 
 absent with the Prince of Wales, at Ludlow 
 Castle in Shropshire, where he resided, to awe 
 by their presence some insurrections which had 
 lately arisen in Wales. 
 
 The Duke of Gloucester, while he preserved 
 the appearance of friendship and regard for the 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 107 
 
 Queen, secretly aided the opposite party ; and 
 on the death of his brother, determined to use 
 their influence to fix himself on the throne, al- 
 though he did not avow his intention even to 
 them, till he had seen the success of his projected 
 attempt to destroy the Queen's power. The 
 King was no sooner dead, than his eldest son, 
 then about twelve years of age, was proclaimed 
 as Edward V ; but the contending parties soon 
 forgot their seeming reconciliation, and each 
 were desirous of securing the person and favour 
 of the new King, in the hope of governing the 
 nation in his name. He was himself affec- 
 tionately attached to his maternal uncle Rivers, 
 who had attended to his education, and Glou- 
 cester was anxious to get him from under his 
 xare. 
 
 The Queen, aware of the contentions which 
 might arise on the decease of the King, imme- 
 diately despatched a messenger to her brother 
 with the news, and desired that her son might be 
 escorted to London with a body of troops. The 
 late King having expressed his wish that his 
 brother Gloucester should be protector of the 
 realm during his son's minority, the council wil- 
 lingly appointed him to that office, and the Queen, 
 who had at this time no reason to consider him 
 otherwise than a friend, as readily acceded to 
 the proposal. He was no sooner informed of 
 the order she had sent to her brother, thai! he 
 e6 
 
108 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 represented to her the offence which such a 
 measure might give to the opposite party: he 
 had already influenced them to protest against 
 it, as seeming to imply that their young Monarch 
 was not safe under their protection. 
 
 The Queen not doubting the sincerity of Glou- 
 cester, and fearful of increasing the animosity of 
 her enemies, yielded to his suggestions and 
 countermanded the order she had sent her bro- 
 ther, desiring only that the King might be at- 
 tended with a retinue, proper for his new dignity. 
 
 In the mean time Gloucester, under the ap- 
 pearance of shewing respect to his nephew, 
 raised a body of men, and attended by them and 
 the Duke of Buckingham, with a splendid train 
 of servants and retainers, went as far as Nor- 
 thampton to meet him; but his views were far 
 otherwise than to do him honour, and he was 
 determined to separate him from the friends he 
 was then with, before he should arrive in London, 
 
 The soldiers were quartered in the town and 
 neighbourhood of Northampton ; but the Earl 
 of Rivers supposing that the place would not 
 afford accommodation to the numerous retinue 
 of both parties, sent the young King, attended 
 by Sir Thomas Grey, by another roaa to Stony 
 Stratford, twelve miles nearer London, where he 
 was to pass the night. The Earl himself has- 
 tened to Northampton to meet the Duke of 
 Gloucester, and apologized for what he had done. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 109 
 
 He was received with the greatest cordiality, and 
 the late union of the contending parties seemed 
 to be cemented by their mutual harmony and 
 good humour. 
 
 An adept in dissimulation, Gloucester adopted 
 this conduct to put the Earl off his guard; he 
 had already concerted his plans for removing 
 him from the King, with Buckingham, and that 
 time-serving nobleman was ready to lend assist- 
 ance to any scheme which would destroy the 
 object of his hatred. In the morning they all 
 set out to join the King at Stony Stratford, but 
 before they entered the town, the Protector 
 ordered his followers to arrest Lord Rivers, who 
 was not suffered to see his nephew, nor informed 
 of the cause of such a violent proceeding. 
 
 Every outward mark of respect was shewn 
 by the perfidious Gloucester to the youthful 
 Monarch ; but when he inquired for his other 
 uncle, whom he expected to see with him, he 
 heard a feigned tale of the Earl's having formed 
 a conspiracy against the lives of Gloucester and 
 Buckingham. The Marquess of Dorset, with 
 Sir Thomas Grey, were also implicated in this 
 charge; and notwithstanding the earnest in- 
 treaties of the King, who offered to vouch for 
 the innocence of those who had been with him, 
 Sir Thomas Grey, with Sir Thomas Vaughan 
 (who also possessed a high station in his house- 
 hold), were arrested, and taken under a strong 
 
110 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 guard, with Lord Rivers, as prisoners to Pomfret 
 Castle. 
 
 Many tears were shed by the young Edward, 
 who could not draw any favourable presage of 
 his future reign from these arbitrary proceedings 
 at its commencement. He was taken back to 
 Northampton, till he would be reconciled to his 
 loss, and be able to enter London in better 
 spirits. The Marquess of Dorset, who remained 
 with the Queen, was also accused of having 
 secreted the treasure of the late King, with which 
 he had been entrusted ; but Gloucester assured 
 his nephew that each of these noblemen should 
 have a fair trial, and that nothing contrary to 
 law should be offered them. 
 
 When the news of these transactions reached 
 the Queen, she immediately suspected the whole 
 design of Gloucester; and not knowing whom 
 she might trust, she once more retired to the 
 sanctuary of Westminster, with her five daughters 
 and the Duke of York, her youngest son, then 
 about nine years of age, attended by the Marquess 
 of Dorset. Here she waited with the greatest 
 anxiety for further tidings of the King, for whom 
 she felt the most alarming apprehensions. 
 
 Lord Hastings, who was a nobleman of too 
 much integrity to harbour or assist in any design 
 against his Sovereign, sent the Archbishop of 
 York to assure the Queen that no harm was 
 intended either to herself or children : but she 
 
p.m. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. I'll 
 
 was in too much distress to attend to these 
 protestations. She sat on the floor, surrounded 
 by her trembling and affrighted family, deploring 
 their fate in accents of grief; nor would she be 
 persuaded to quit the asylum she had chosen, or 
 permit them to leave it. 
 
 In a few days after Hastings had suppressed a 
 tumult among the citizens, who were alarmed by 
 what had taken place, and assured them nothing 
 but justice was intended to the prisoners at 
 Pomfret, the young King entered London, amidst 
 the acclamations of the people, and accompanied 
 by his uncle Gloucester, who affected to treat 
 him with every appearance of respect and sub- 
 mission. He was conducted to the Bishop's 
 palace as a place of security, and that he might 
 seem to be placed under the protection of the 
 citizens. This mark of the Protector's confidence 
 in them removed the suspicions which they had 
 entertained of his design. 
 
 As the King earnestly desired to see his 
 brother, and the Duke was equally desirous of 
 having them both in his power, he dispatched 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury to bring him from 
 his mother, desiring she might be informed that 
 sanctuaries were appointed for criminals, and 
 not for those who, like the young Duke of York, 
 had done nothing amiss. The Queen persisted 
 in her refusal to part from him, till urged by the 
 Primate she confessed her fears of what might 
 
1J2 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 be Gloucester's intention. The Archbishop could 
 not suppose him capable of such a design : and 
 astonished and offended at such an insinuation, 
 he represented to her the improbability of his 
 making such an attempt, as well as the unlikeli- 
 ness of its success, since he must obtain the 
 consent of the nobles, who were all attached to 
 their King, before he could put it in execution. 
 He reprobated the idea, as injurious to a man of 
 such strict probity as he believed the Protector 
 to be ; and intimated, that while she refused to 
 put her younger son in his care, under whose 
 guidance the late King had placed his successor, 
 she was inciting suspicions in the minds of the 
 people, and above all, inflaming the anger of the 
 Duke of Gloucester, whose friendship it was 
 most necessary for her to retain. At length his 
 arguments prevailed : with a flood of tears she 
 embraced her son for the last time, and in an 
 ill-fated hour consigned him to the care of the 
 Prelate. She was destined never more to see 
 him or his brother ! 
 
 The young Princes met each other with every 
 affectionate expression of pleasure, and in a few 
 days were conducted by their uncle to the Tower, 
 it being the custom for the Kings of England to 
 ride in procession from thence to their coronation 
 at Westminster: this was the pretext Richard 
 used to place his nephews in confinement. 
 
 Having secured their persons, and the interest 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 113 
 
 of the Duke of Buckingham, to whom he now 
 disclosed the whole of his nefarious design, he 
 resolved to destroy the prisoners whom he had 
 left at Pomfret. The Lords Hastings and Stanley 
 willingly consented to their execution; and Sir 
 Thomas Radcliffe, the governor of the castle, 
 received orders to take their lives, which was 
 done without even the form of a trial, and to the 
 great dissatisfaction of the people, who now 
 began again to dread still greater evils. 
 
 Several emissaries were at this time employed 
 by Richard, to spread dishonourable reports of 
 his mother, the Duchess of York, who was yet 
 alive, and warmly attached to the Queen and 
 her children. She had ever borne the most un- 
 blemished character, yet these agents of Richard 
 scrupled not to say that the late King and 
 Clarence were not the children of her husband ; 
 and that Gloucester alone was his legitimate son. 
 The children of Clarence, who were then under 
 the care of their grandmother, were declared 
 attainted by the treason of their father, which had 
 never been disproved, and for which he had 
 suffered confiscation. They even went so far as 
 to insinuate that a previous contract of marriage 
 which the late King had made with Elizabeth 
 Lucy before he had seen the Lady Elizabeth 
 Grey, had made his marriage with her illegal^ 
 and that therefore the young Edward had XkQ 
 right to the throne. 
 
114 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The delay of the coronation increased the 
 alarm of the people, and the Protector found 
 that he must speedily execute his design, or 
 relinquish it for ever. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 State of Elizabeth. — Arrest and Death of Hast- 
 ings. — Buckingham harangues the People.— 
 Richard proclaimed King. — Murder of the 
 Princes in the Tower. — Their Bones discovered 
 and interred in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 After being eighteen years a Queen, Elizabeth 
 was again a widow ; her honours and her happi- 
 ness ended with the life of Edward. How often 
 might she, while in the sanctuary, look back to 
 her former widowhood, and sigh to think that in 
 proportion to her rise in life, her sorrows had 
 increased. 
 
 At that time, though deprived of a beloved 
 husband, though she had seen "his fair fame 
 tainted," and his estates confiscated for taking 
 part with the Lancastrians, she then had an af- 
 fectionate family to whom she might fly for 
 refuge, who were anxious to sooth her grief and 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 115 
 
 afford her assistance. Alas ! where were they 
 now ? Her marriage with the King, which had 
 raised her from obscurity, and which had been 
 hailed by them as the harbinger of their own 
 elevation, had also forwarded their destruction. 
 
 Her father and youngest brother were early 
 victims to the envy of their cotemporaries : her 
 mother alone died a natural death, and lived not 
 to see the destruction of her family. To whom 
 might Elizabeth now look for support? Her 
 sons by the King were in their uncle's power, 
 and too young to assert their rights. Of those 
 by her former husband, whom in their infancy 
 she had fondly pressed to her heart as the ex- 
 pected stay of her declining years, one had been 
 sacrificed with her other brother to the jealousy 
 of their rivals, and the other obliged to fly to 
 the sanctuary with her, now her only place of 
 refuge. The sanctuary might afford her an 
 asylum, but the religion of that day was ill cal- 
 culated to give her either real comfort or instruc- 
 tion. Dependent on the priests, the high and 
 the low were equally a prey to their avarice and 
 their superstition. Debarred from the perusal of 
 the Holy Scriptures, where, alone, true comfort 
 is to be found, it was deemed wrong to dispute 
 the will of the ecclesiastics, by whom these 
 places were governed, or to doubt their authority 
 to impose the penances they required. 
 
 Elizabeth's situation here was also changed: 
 
116 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 during her former abode in this retreat, she had 
 not lost the hope of being restored to her hus- 
 band and the throne; she was then surrounded 
 by friends and followers who cherished her ex- 
 pectation; they loved her as their queen, and 
 their attentions alleviated her sorrows. But now 
 her influence was waning! Even if her son 
 should possess the crown, the Duke of Glou- 
 cester would have all the power ; and who will 
 hang a garland on a withered tree when even its 
 rising scions seem decaying ? 
 
 This unfortunate Queen looked on her daugh- 
 ters and trembled for their fate: having been 
 already disappointed in her fairest hopes for one 
 of them, she could not anticipate the opening of 
 a brighter prospect for the others, any more 
 than for herself. 
 
 In the mean time the palaces were uninhabited, 
 and the Princes remained shut up in the Tower, 
 while their cruel and ambitious uncle was weaving 
 the plan of their destruction. Having tried 
 Lord Hastings, and found him determined to sup- 
 port their cause, he resolved to destroy him as 
 he had their former friends ; Lord Hastings was 
 quickly punished for the share he had in their 
 deaths, by suffering under a sentence equally 
 unjust. The Protector called a council under 
 the pretence of consulting them on his nephew's 
 coronation, but in the midst of their conference, 
 he accused the Queen and Jane Shore, formerly 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 117 
 
 a favourite mistress of the late King, and now 
 of Hastings, of having attempted to deprive him 
 of the use of his arm by sorcery. 
 
 Great as was the ignorance of that age, in 
 which the powers of witchcraft were firmly cre- 
 dited, no one could believe the truth of this 
 accusation, as it was well known his arm had 
 been withered from his infancy. When Hastings 
 expressed a doubt of their guilt, the Duke 
 charged him with being an accomplice, ordered 
 him to be seized as a traitor, and declared he 
 would not eat till he had seen his head severed 
 from his body. His arbitrary mandate was in- 
 stantly obeyed, and Lord Hastings was beheaded 
 on a log of wood without the door : Lord Stan- 
 ley, with the Archbishop of York and the Bishop 
 of Ely, were arrested on the same charge and 
 conveyed to prison. Gloucester then repaired 
 with Buckingham to the Tower, and wishing 
 to reconcile the citizens of London, who were 
 very fond of Hastings, to the death of that 
 nobleman, he sent for the mayor and aldermen, 
 and appearing in armour before them, he declared 
 that what he had done was to save his life from 
 the machinations of that villain and others who 
 had conspired against it, though he regretted 
 that his friends had so hastily avenged his cause. 
 
 Whatever might be the private opinion of his 
 auditors, they were obliged to conceal it, and so 
 far agree with him as to proclaim this report 
 
118 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 through the city. The proclamation being so 
 immediately ready for dispersion excited many 
 suspicions that the whole transaction had been 
 planned, and that the death of Hastings did not 
 arise from the zeal of the Protector's friends, but 
 from his own express order; the whole kingdom 
 became alarmed, and Richard's emissaries re- 
 doubled their efforts to vindicate his character. 
 The pulpit was venally prostituted to this pur- 
 pose by Doctor Shaw, the mayor's brother, and 
 every means used to induce the people to chuse 
 him for their King. 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham harangued the citi- 
 zens, and expatiated on the virtues and merits of 
 Richard. Three times did he stop in the midst 
 of his discourse, hoping to hear them exclaim, 
 *' King Richard for ever !" but all were silent till 
 he commanded gome of his own attendants to 
 begin the cry. It was followed by a few insig- 
 nificant voices, and this he chose to consider as 
 the suffrages of the people, demanding Gloucester 
 for their Sovereign. He told them he approved 
 their choice, and advised them to send a depu- 
 tation to the only Prince worthy to reign over 
 them, and beg him to assume the government; 
 though he much feared he would not comply 
 with their solicitation. 
 
 Every sensible person saw through this weak 
 artifice, yet none dared to speak their disappro- 
 bation. The Mayor and. Aldermen, who were 
 

 P. 11S. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 119 
 
 entirely at the Protector's service, repaired with 
 many of Buckingham's associates to Barnard's 
 Castle, where he was anxiously expecting their 
 arrival. He feigned alarm at their appearance ; 
 and affecting to be engaged in acts of devotion, 
 expressed surprize at their request. For some 
 time he refused to comply, but his denials grew 
 fainter when he suspected their entreaties were 
 not so urgent ; and at length, on their telling him 
 that Edward's children should never reign over 
 them, this miserable farce ended by his declaring 
 that though he knew himself the lawful heir to 
 the crown, he felt greater pleasure in possessing 
 it as the gift of a free people, than by inherit- 
 ance : thus endeavouring to conceal the joy he 
 felt at the success of his schemes, under the 
 mask of hypocrisy and feigned humility. 
 
 He was proclaimed King in little more than 
 two months from his brother's death, and after 
 he had taken the lives of so many innocent 
 persons without even the appearance of law or 
 justice. The measure of his iniquities was not 
 yet full, and a just punishment, both in this 
 and in another world, awaited him for his atro- 
 cious crimes. 
 
 He had married Anne, the daughter of the late 
 Earl of Warwick, and widow of the young 
 Edward, son of Henry VI. whom he had himself 
 assisted to inhumanly murder, as related in my 
 twelfth chapter. That Anne could consent to 
 
120 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 marry the murderer of her first husband, is a 
 strong proof of the want of feeling and delicacy 
 in that ignorant age ; and his cruel and tyran- 
 nical manners must have been a severe punish- 
 ment to her for putting herself in his power. 
 They were crowned together on the 6th of July, 
 1 483 ; the Queen's train was borne by Margaret, 
 Countess of Richmond, wife to Lord Stanley, and 
 mother of the young Earl of Richmond, then an 
 exile in Brittany. Her husband was liberated 
 on this occasion, and appointed steward of the 
 King's household, not from Richard's regard for 
 him, but in the hope of securing him in his 
 service. 
 
 Elizabeth heard of the coronation of Richard, 
 and feared for the lives of her sons, well knowing 
 that the tyrant would not suffer them to live, 
 although they were in close confinement, if the 
 least attempt was made in their behalf. 
 
 Having determined to make a progress through 
 several counties, to reform some abuses which 
 prevailed there, he left secret orders for the 
 murder of his nephews with Sir James Tyrrel, 
 who received the government of the Tower for 
 one night only, that he might perpetrate the 
 horrid deed. These unfortunate and innocent 
 Princes were smothered in their beds, by two 
 assassins hired for the purpose, who afterwards 
 confessed the crime. They were buried in 
 secret, under a stair-case, where their bones 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 121 
 
 were discovered by workmen who were repairing 
 the Tower, in the reign of Charles II. ; they were 
 removed by order of that Monarch to Westmin- 
 ster Abbey, and interred in the chapel of Henry 
 VIII. under a marble monument, with a Latin 
 inscription on it, which has been thus translated : 
 " Here lie the remains of Edward V. King of 
 England, and of Richard, Duke of York ; these 
 unhappy brothers were confined in the Tower, 
 and there smothered with pillows by order of 
 their perfidious uncle Richard, the usurper of the 
 throne, and privately and indecently buried : 
 their bones were often and diligently sought for 
 in vain, till on July 27th, 1674, one hundred and 
 nin& years after their deaths, they were dug up 
 under the ruins of a staircase that formerly led 
 to the chapel of the White Tower, and known 
 by most undoubted tokens. The most compas- 
 sionate King Charles II. pitying their severe fate, 
 thought fit to order these most unfortunate 
 Princes this place of interment among the monu- 
 ments of their forefathers, in, the year of our 
 Lord 1678, and the thirtieth of his reign." 
 
 The end of their murderers has been noticed 
 by historians, who both died miserably at Calais* 
 Sir James Tyrrel was arrested in the following 
 reign, and beheaded for treason. 
 
 Sir Thomas Moore, the historian of that a°-e, 
 relates that Richard was never happy afterwards, 
 and that his countenance continually betrayed 
 
122 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the accusations of his conscience. There are 
 other authors who endeavour to exculpate him 
 from the guilt of this crime, by denying the 
 truth of it; but his general character is such, 
 that it cannot be supposed he would scruple to 
 add these victims to those he had already offered 
 on the shrine of his ambition, when their death 
 was so necessary to secure to him the possession 
 of that throne, for which he had sacrificed all 
 the best feelings of human nature. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Buckingham and the King quarrel. — The former 
 espouses the cause of Richmond. — Raises an 
 army in his favour. — Betrayed by his servant. 
 — His execution. — Richmond returns into Brit- 
 tany. — Engages to marry the Princess Elizabeth. 
 — Richard discovers their plan. — Seeks a recon- 
 ciliation with the Queen dowager. — Death of 
 his son and of his wife. — Proposes to marry the 
 Princess. — 'Dissimulation of the Queen and 
 Princess. 
 
 Within a few months after his accession, 
 Richard was a second time crowned at York, 
 and his son, a boy of ten years of age, was created 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 123 
 
 Prince of Wales ; but as the wicked are gene- 
 rally jealous of the instruments by which they 
 attain their ends, he soon quarrelled with Buck- 
 ingham, who did not think himself sufficiently 
 rewarded for the services he had performed. 
 
 In revenge for Richard's neglect, this noble- 
 man began to consider the claim of young Rich- 
 mond to the crown, and formed the plan of his 
 marrying Elizabeth the eldest daughter of Edward 
 the Fourth, and thus uniting the two houses. He 
 communicated it to the Countess of Richmond, 
 the Earl's mother, and through her means (who 
 employed a physician to inform the Queen Dow- 
 ager of it,) a secret engagement was entered into 
 between the parties. 
 
 The unfortunate Elizabeth, the heroine of my 
 history, received with joy a proposal so advan- 
 tageous to herself and daughters, and once more 
 indulged the hope of seeing better days. Each 
 party informed their separate adherents in whom 
 they could confide, of what was projected, and 
 all were eager to see it executed, as the tyranny 
 of Richard had already made him many enemies. 
 The Marquess of Dorset, and Sir Richard Wood- 
 ville, the Queen's brother, with the Bishop of 
 Exeter, and several other persons of distinction, 
 heartily engaged in the association. Messengers 
 were sent by the Countess to her son in Brittanv, 
 to inform him of the project in his favour, and 
 the Duke of that province promised to engao^e 
 f 2 
 
124 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 on his side. The Earl was expected in England, 
 and all things seemed to promise him success* 
 but the vigilance of Richard discovered that 
 some plot was formed against him, and immedi- 
 ately suspecting Buckingham, who refused to 
 appear before him, he proclaimed him a traitor, 
 and set a price of a thousand pounds on his 
 head. 
 
 A servant, whom Buckingham's father had 
 raised from indigence, and whom the present 
 Duke had greatly benefited, was so ungrateful as 
 to betray his master, who had taken refuge in his 
 house, on hearing the proclamation issued against 
 him. This servant, whose name was Bannister, 
 received the offered reward for his infamous 
 conduct, but if conscience did her office, he 
 could ill enjoy it, ajid Buckingham was be- 
 headed without any process of law, by the 
 order of Richard. He suffered the same hasty 
 death, which he had seen with unconcern exe- 
 cuted on the unsuspecting Hastings and several 
 others, little considering how soon it might be 
 his own fate. He was thus justly recompensed 
 for his too ready adherence to the wicked de- 
 signs of Richard : that cruel tyrant, who made 
 him subservient to his will, was yet permitted to 
 live a little longer, and to perform more crimes 
 to fill the measure of his iniquities. 
 
 The armv which Buckingham had raised was 
 dispersed, and such of the commanders as 
 
2J2S 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 125 
 
 could escape, fled to Brittany, among whom was 
 the Marquess of Dorset; the rest took refuge in 
 the sanctuaries, and the houses of their friends. 
 The winds were fortunately unfavourable to 
 Richmond's arrival in' England so soon as he 
 expected, and on his appearing on the coast of 
 Dorsetshire, he was informed of what had hap- 
 pened time enough to prevent his being taken 
 by Richard, and hastened back to Brittany; here 
 he was encouraged by the English who had taken 
 refuge there, to wait for a more favourable op- 
 portunity to accomplish his purpose. He was 
 already acknowledged King of England by them, 
 and he entered into a solemn engagement to 
 espouse the Princess Elizabeth, or, in case of 
 her death, her sister Cecily, when he should be 
 put in possession of the kingdom. 
 , In the mean time, Richard pursued with unre- 
 mitting cruelty all whom he thought friendly to 
 the cause of Richmond; and Elizabeth, confined 
 with her children to the sanctuary, heard with a 
 sickening heart of the daily executions of her 
 adherents. Well has our immortal poet described 
 her situation, in his tragedy of Richard I J I. 
 
 " A mother, only mocked with two fair babes ; 
 A sign of dignity, a breath, a bubble, 
 A Queen in jest, only to fill the scene." 
 
 He makes Margaret continue her speech thus :— - 
 
 " Where is thy husband now? where be thy brothers? 
 Where be thy children? wherein dost thou joy? 
 
 f3 
 
126 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Who sues and kneels, and says, God save the Queen? 
 
 Where be the bending peers that flattered thee ? 
 
 Where be the thronging troops that followed thee ? 
 
 Decline all this ; and see what now thou art. 
 
 For happy wife, a most distressed widow; 
 
 For joyful mother, one that wails the name - 7 
 
 For one being sued to, one that humbly sues; 
 
 For queen, a very caitiff crowned with care; 
 
 For one that scorned at me, now scorned of me; 
 
 For one being feared of all, now fearing one; 
 
 For one commanding all, obeyed of none. 
 
 Thus hath the course of justiee wheel'd about, 
 
 And left thee but a very prey to time ; 
 
 Having no more but thought of what thou wert, 
 
 To torture thee the more, being what thou art.'* 
 
 By bribing the minister of the Duke of Brit- 
 tany, the King hoped to get Richmond into his 
 power, or at least to frustrate the designs of that 
 Duke in his favour. He learnt also the treaty 
 of marriage between the young Earl and the 
 Princess Elizabeth, and having now lost his only 
 son, whom he had created Prince of Wales, he 
 formed the incongruous design of marrying that 
 Princess himself, and thus to unite their contend- 
 ing titles. 
 
 His being her uncle, and his having a wife 
 already, were no obstacles to the enterprising 
 mind of Richard, who scrupled not to overstep 
 every bound of justice, decency, and morality, 
 to compass what he considered necessary to 
 attain his end. 
 
 For the one, a dispensation from the Pope 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 127 
 
 was thought sufficient, and he had various means 
 of destroying a wife whom he no longer regarded, 
 and whose health and spirits were daily declining 
 under his unkind treatment, and the grief she 
 felt at the death of her son. Historians most 
 favourable to Richard, (" for even this tyrant/' 
 says Hume, " has met with partisans,") ascribe 
 the Queen's death, which quickly followed that 
 of the Prince of Wales, to this cause ; but 
 others, and perhaps with more truth, attribute 
 it to poison, administered by her unnatural hus- 
 band. He who had already destroyed so many 
 lives, would feel no repugnance to taking her's, 
 when it came in competition with his ambition ; 
 nor could she who had consented to marry the 
 murderer of her former husband, and his father 
 expect better treatment from him. 
 
 No sooner had the King formed the design 
 above mentioned, than he endeavoured to insinuate 
 himself into favour with the Queen Dowager; 
 he confessed that he had dealt too hardly with 
 her, but as a reparation for his ill treatment, he 
 offered to provide suitable marriages for her 
 daughters, to settle a handsome pension on her- 
 self, and place her brother and son in lucrative 
 and honourable situations. For some time the 
 Queen could not be persuaded to believe these 
 flattering promises, but on its being hinted to 
 her, that as the Prince of Wales was dead, the 
 King intended to make her daughter Elizabeth 
 f4 
 
128 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 his heir and successor to the throne, she was 
 induced to quit the sanctuary, which she now 
 considered as her prison, and place herself and 
 her five daughters under his care. 
 
 They w T ere received at court with every mark 
 of distinction, and the flattering prospect which 
 the King held out for the advancement of her 
 son, the Marquess of Dorset, inclined her to 
 write to him to forsake the Earl of Richmond, 
 and depend on the generosity of Richard. It is 
 probable she considered that the plot in the 
 Earl's favour, having failed on the death of 
 Buckingham, she could expect for herself and 
 family only a more rigorous fate, if by her denial 
 she should farther incense the King; and the 
 Marquess, as weak and unguarded as herself, 
 would have complied with her request, had not 
 the friends of Henry discovered his design, and 
 by their powerful arguments prevailed on him to 
 stay, and share his fate. 
 
 Hitherto the Queen's conduct, though weak, 
 may admit of some excuse: from the hopeless 
 state of her affairs, she might be induced to 
 listen to the promises of a deceitful tyrant : but 
 that she could afterwards consent to his mar- 
 riage with her daughter, is scarcely to be credited, 
 unless we suppose that the fear of his cruelty 
 obliged her to dissemble, and conceal the aver- 
 sion which she must have felt to unite her child 
 with the murderer of her brothers. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 129 
 
 It is probable, that when the Marquess of 
 Dorset was compelled to remain in Brittany, 
 some other. scheme was proposed for the advance- 
 ment of Richmond, and privately communicated 
 to her ; this might have raised her hopes of his 
 ultimate success, and if by temporising with 
 Richard, and appearing to favour his wishes, she 
 could prevent his committing any farther outrage 
 on her family, she acted wisely in stifling her 
 resentment at his proposal. 
 
 Most of the historians agree, that the offer 
 was rejected with indignation by the Princess 
 herself, and Richard, hoping to conquer her 
 reluctance, relinquished his suit till a more 
 favourable opportunity. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIT. 
 
 Richmond, assisted by Fiance, enters England. — 
 Battle of Bosworth. — Death of Richard.-— 
 Accession of Richmond. — Extinction of the 
 Plant agenet Line. — Henry's Coronation. — His 
 Marriage with the Princess Elizabeth. 
 
 Early in the year 1485, Henry obtained suc- 
 cours from France, and openly declared to his 
 friends and adherents his intention to make a 
 
 f5 
 
130 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 second descent on England. On the 6th of 
 August he landed at Milford Haven, in Wales, 
 and the King prepared to give him battle. 
 
 The situation of the Queen and her daughter 
 can more easily be imagined than described. 
 They had already proceeded too far in dissimula- 
 tion towards the King to doubt that if he suc- 
 ceeded in overcoming his enemy, misery must 
 be their portion whether the marriage between 
 him and Elizabeth took place or not; and if 
 they anticipated Richmond's success, their total 
 ignorance of his disposition, and of his real 
 inclination towards the Princess, for whom it 
 was impossible he could feel regard, as he had 
 never seen her, must have caused them many 
 anxious hours. 
 
 At all events, the young Elizabeth was ex- 
 pected to be the wife of the victor; and she 
 might justly hope that less unhappiness would 
 arise from her marriage with Richmond, than 
 from an union so repugnant to her feelings as 
 that with her uncle. 
 
 The result of the battle of Bos worth is well 
 known to all who are acquainted with history, 
 or who have read Shakspeare's incomparable 
 tragedy of Richard III. That cruel tyrant was 
 slain in the field ; the pangs of conscience in- 
 creased his despair and hastened his death. He 
 died covered with wounds, to receive in another 
 world the eternal punishment which the cruel 
 

 
 
 
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 and Barbarous actions he had committed in this 
 so justly merited. 
 
 Richmond was crowned on the spot by Lord 
 Stanley, the husband of his mother, with the 
 diadem of Richard, which had been found in 
 the field, and immediately saluted as King by 
 the whole army. 
 
 Lord Stanley had long been his friend,, but 
 was prevented from declaring himself by the 
 cruel Richard, who threatened to kill his son, 
 Lord Strange, (and whom he kept as the hostage 
 of his father's fidelity,) if the latter shewed any 
 signs of defection. 
 
 Many of Richard's friends were slain, but the 
 remainder, on their subjection to Richmond, 
 were received into his favour. Few fell on the 
 side of the conqueror, who on his knees returned 
 thanks to the Almighty for the victory, in the 
 field of battle, and then ascending an eminence 
 expressed his approbation of the soldiers' brave- 
 ry who had fought for him, and promised them 
 all an ample reward. 
 
 The body of Richard was disgracefully thrown 
 across the back of a horse, and carried to Lei- 
 cester, where, after being exposed for a few days 
 to every indignity, it was buried in the abbey 
 church. A marble monument was afterwards 
 placed over it by Henry's order, but at the de- 
 struction of religious houses in the reign of his 
 son, Henry VIII. the bones of this inhuman 
 f 6 
 
132 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 monster were dug up by the rabble, who tumul- 
 tuously carried them through the streets, and 
 threw them into the river Soar, at a place now 
 called Back Stream, under Bow Bridge. This 
 bridge was broken down in 1791, and has not 
 since been repaired. 
 
 Richard III. was the last of the line of Plan- 
 tagenet, which had filled the throne of England 
 for nearly three hundred and thirty years, except 
 the Earl of Warwick, son to his brother Clarence, 
 whom he had imprisoned at Sheriff Hutton in 
 Yorkshire, and whose fate, with that of his 
 sister, the Countess of Salisbury, I have before 
 mentioned. 
 
 Their grandmother Cecily, the daughter of the 
 Earl of Westmoreland, and Duchess of York, 
 died at an advanced age in 1495, after having 
 seen three of her descendants crowned, Edward, 
 Richard, and Elizabeth her grand-daughter ; and 
 four others of them cruelly murdered, Rutland, 
 Clarence, and the two sons of Edward IV. Her 
 husband, with her half brother the Earl of Salis- 
 bury, were killed in battle, with most of her 
 friends and adherents, who lost their lives in the 
 cause of her sons. 
 
 She was buried in a collegiate church adjoining 
 Fotheringay Castle, by the side of her husband, 
 who fell in the battle of Wakefield.* 
 
 * Fotheringay Castle was erected by Edmund Langley, the pro- 
 genitor and founder of the House of York. He ordered the keep 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVlLLE. 133 
 
 The death of Richard, who had reigned nearly 
 two years, terminated the civil wars which had 
 raged for thirty years, and cost the lives of above 
 an hundred thousand Englishmen; in which 
 number were included several Princes of the 
 houses both of York and Lancaster. 
 
 Richmond claimed the crown from his affiance 
 to the latter family ; but as he well knew his title 
 to it was doubtful, on account of the illegitimacy 
 of his ancestor, the Duke of Somerset, he was 
 extremely tenacious of his right as King, and 
 chose to have it confirmed by parliament, and 
 several acts of sovereignty performed by himself 
 before he fulfilled his engagement of marriage 
 with the Princess Elizabeth, lest he should be 
 considered as reigning in the right of his wife 
 rather than his own. 
 
 Somerset sprang from John of Gaunt, t)uke 
 of Lancaster, by Catherine Swineford, whom 
 Lancaster afterwards married, and their children 
 were legitimatized by act of parliament; but 
 supposing this claim was recognised, Richmond's 
 mother, as the daughter of the Duke, had a 
 superior right to the throne. 
 
 The title of the family of York had been 
 acknowledged by the whole nation, and the ex- 
 pectation of Richmond's now marrying a daughter 
 of that house, was their principal inducement to 
 
 to be built in the form of a fetter-lock, the well-known cognizance 
 of his line. Miss Aikin. 
 
134 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 receive him as their King. They hoped to see 
 the dissentions between the two houses quelled 
 by their union; but Henry's jealousy of his own 
 prerogative made him more anxious to establish 
 himself on the throne, than to comply with their 
 wishes. He however expressed his intention of 
 marrying the Princess, and before he made his 
 public entrance into London, he dispatched Sir 
 Robert Willoughby, to escort her from the castle 
 of Sheriff Hutton, where she had been detained 
 by her uncle Richard as a prisoner at large, to 
 the metropolis.* 
 
 Here they met for the first time, and after 
 being introduced to each other, he, with the air 
 more of a governor than of a suitor, desired she 
 might remain with her mother till their marriage 
 could be celebrated. 
 
 With what anxiety must both the mother and 
 daughter have looked forward to this event, on 
 which hung all their future hopes. Affection 
 was out of the question. — Interest alone made 
 them desire the marriage, which from her first 
 interview with her intended husband, could not 
 promise the Princess much happiness. 
 
 * The Earl of Warwick, then quite a youth, was also confined 
 in the same castle as the Princess. He was at this time conducted 
 to London, and committed to the Tower by Henry's order; who 
 thus gave another proof of his jealous disposition, and of his fear 
 that the claim of the House of York to the throne would be con- 
 sidered before his. 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 135 
 
 Thus far are the offspring of princes to be 
 pitied, that they are seldom united from attach- 
 ment to each other, but from motives of advan- 
 tage either to themselves or the nation to which 
 they belong. In this instance our beloved 
 Princess Charlotte was an exception: she was 
 married to the mar. to whom her heart was united 
 and who was worthy of her affections. England 
 can rejoice that short as was the period of her 
 married life, it was crowned with domestic com- 
 fort ; and that no connubial unhappiness hastened 
 her much-lamented death. 
 
 But to return to my history. — Henry entered 
 London in a covered carriage, and was the first 
 English monarch who refused to gratify his sub- 
 jects with a sight of himself, on his accession, 
 not chusing to conciliate their affections, even 
 by these common acts of recognizance between 
 a king and his people. He was crowned on the 
 30th of October, 1485, and in tbte following 
 month he called a parliament, who were entirely 
 subservient to his will, and fully acknowledged 
 his title to the throne. On his coronation, he 
 created his uncle, the Earl of Pembroke, Duke 
 of Bedford; his father-in-law Lord Stanley, re- 
 ceived the title of Earl of Derby ; and Edward 
 Courtney, afterwards the husband of the young- 
 est sister of the Princess Elizabeth, was created 
 Earl of Devonshire. 
 
 In the ensuing parliament, he caused the act 
 
136 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of attainder against Edward Stafford, son to the 
 late Duke of Buckingham to be repealed, and 
 restored him to the honours and estates of his 
 family : this was a testimony of his gratitude to 
 the memory of Buckingham, who had been the 
 first to concert the plan of his elevation, and 
 had perished in his cause. During this period 
 the Princess Elizabeth was almost totally neg- 
 lected by him. It was even said, that before he 
 quitted Brittany he had engaged to marry the 
 Princess Anne, the heiress of that duchy, and 
 this report not only raised the fears of the peo- 
 ple, but created uneasiness in the mind of Eliza- 
 beth, who, from motives of policy as well as 
 self-interest, had brought herself to look with 
 complacency on their intended union, and had 
 determined to use her utmost endeavours to gain 
 the esteem of her husband. 
 
 Early in the year 1486, the parliament finding 
 that he still delayed his marriage, ventured to 
 petition him to fulfil his engagement with the 
 Princess. He thought proper to comply, and on 
 the 18th of January, their nuptials were cele- 
 brated to the great joy of the nation. The King 
 noticed their unfeigned attachment to the house 
 of York in their expressions of pleasure, which 
 w T ere more universal than when he entered Lon- 
 don, or on his coronation ; and the suspicions 
 which it occasioned in his mind, destroyed his 
 domestic tranquillity, and excited his dislike 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 137 
 
 towards his consort. Her amiable and unoffend- 
 ing manners were such as entitled her to his 
 affection and respect, but he considered her as 
 the head of a party against himself, nor could 
 all her obsequiousness erase the idea from his 
 sullen mind. 
 
 The Queen Dowager, saw with uneasiness her 
 daughter's situation, and endeavoured by every 
 attention in her power to soften her affliction. 
 These attentions only served to irritate the King's 
 temper, and increase his animosity towards his 
 wife and her family. Doubtless the unhappy 
 mother often compared her daughter's lot with 
 her own, and now regretted that the desire of 
 raising her daughter to the dignity of a Queen r 
 should have induced her so earnestly to promote 
 an union, which had produced no other advan- 
 tage. 
 
138 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Birth of Arthur. — Rebellion in favour of Simnel. 
 — Confinement and confiscation of the Queen 
 Dowager. — Rebellion suppressed. —Coronation of 
 the Queen.— The Marquess of Dorset. — Henry's 
 issue. — Marriage and death of Arthur. — Death 
 of the Queen. — Lord Woodville's Death.~- 
 Death of the Queen Dowager. — Conclusion. 
 
 In the ensuing year, 1487, the nation hailed the 
 birth of a Prince. They hoped that this event 
 would warm the chilling indifference with which 
 the King treated his wife, and all who seemed 
 attached to her interest; but it was far from 
 having so desirable an effect. He appeared to 
 consider his son as another rival, and daily grew 
 more tenacious of his authority, and more re- 
 served in his manners. 
 
 The young Prince, to whom the Queen Dow- 
 ager stood sponsor, received the name of Arthur; 
 but the attachment of the people towards his 
 Queen, continually excited the jealousy of Henry, 
 who was close, reserved, and avaricious ; he dis- 
 dained to court the favour of his subjects, and 
 grudged every necessary expense. His coffers 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 139 
 
 were filled with money, which he exacted as 
 fines from them, or as rewards for any benefit he 
 did them ; and though the laws were better 
 established in his reign, he often made them 
 subservient to his will, and wrested the appear- 
 ance of justice to suit his purposes. 
 
 More arbitrary than many former monarchs, 
 the race of Tudor, whilst they affected greater 
 care for the interests of the nation, were fully 
 determined to establish their own authority. 
 Henry VII. was the first king who grounded his 
 claim to the obedience of his subjects, on what 
 he called the judgment of God in giving him the 
 victory over his enemy; thus endeavouring to 
 establish a divine right in kings, who, while they 
 are permitted by Providence to fill exalted sta- 
 tions, are accountable to Him for their conduct 
 in them. 
 
 As nothing is done without the foreknowledge 
 and will of the Almighty, who directs and over- 
 rules each event to bring about His own pur- 
 poses, the will of the people is in this respect 
 the will of God, and kings are permitted to reign 
 either as scourges or blessings to their subjects ;. 
 but the power which raises them to the throne, 
 can by the same means deprive them of it, when 
 He sees fit to punish them, or the people whom 
 they rule. 
 
 The increasing ill humour of the King, and 
 his sordid disposition, induced his enemies to 
 
140 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 form a plot in the second year of his reign, as 
 enterprising as it was extravagant, since there 
 could be little chance of its succeeding. A 
 youth of obscure birth, but of extraordinary 
 talents and personal attractions, named Lambert 
 Simnel, and educated by a priest at Oxford, was 
 instructed to personate the young Earl of War- 
 wick, who was still in confinement in the Tower. 
 He first appeared in Ireland, where the memory 
 of his supposed father, the Duke of Clarence, 
 was cherished for his mild government of them 
 as Viceroy. 
 
 The old Duchess of York, who was yet living, 
 is said to have encouraged the imposition, though 
 as she had had the charge of the young Earl 
 till he was ten years of age, it might have been 
 easy for her to have confuted it. The Queen 
 Dowager is also supposed to have given her 
 consent to it, in revenge for the severity with 
 .which her daughter was treated, and the super- 
 cilious indifference the King shewed towards 
 herself. She knew that the claims of the ficti- 
 tious Warwick might at any time be set aside, 
 and either thought by alarming Henry to make 
 him more subservient to her will, or by de- 
 throning him, to fix her daughter on the throne 
 by the suffrages of the people. 
 
 Simnel was received in Ireland as his tutor 
 had expected ; he was universally acknowledged, 
 and crowned in the city of Dublin as Edward VL 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 141 
 
 with a diadem taken from an image of the Virgin 
 Mary. 
 
 In the mean time Henry concealed his appre- 
 hensions if he had any, and levied an army to 
 quell the insurrection, which was fast spreading. 
 He also called a privy council, and by their 
 means, secured the person and estates of the 
 Queen Dowager; not chusing to appear as her 
 accuser, and not having sufficient proof that she 
 had aided this conspiracy, he obliged them to 
 pronounce on her the sentence of perpetual im- 
 prisonment and confiscation of her estates, on 
 the pretence of her having done wrong in com- 
 mitting her daughters to the care of their uncle 
 Richard, after she had secretly agreed to the 
 marriage of Elizabeth with himself. 
 
 If this maternal weakness could be considered 
 as a crime, the public were astonished that Henry 
 had not thought of punishing it before, and their 
 dislike to him was more confirmed, when they 
 found that the sentence against this unfortunate 
 woman was never reversed. The Marquess of 
 Dorset, her son, although he appears to have 
 taken no part in the scene which was acting in 
 Ireland, was also confined to the Tower; probably 
 from the Kind's fear that he would avenge the 
 injustice done to his mother. 
 
 The place of Elizabeth's confinement was the 
 monastery of Bermondsey, where she was again 
 condemned to brood over her misfortunes in 
 
142 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 pining solitude, " Lethe's gloom without its quiet, 
 the pain without the peaee of death." Poverty 
 was now added to all her other distresses, and 
 her sorrowing daughters w T ere not allowed to 
 mitigate them. Their fear of Henry's enmity 
 induced three of them to accept the hands of 
 those noblemen, who either from affection or 
 pity offered them marriage. The splendid alli- 
 ances which had been projected for them in their 
 father's life time, were prevented by his death 
 and their subsequent misfortunes. Cecily, who 
 had been betrothed to the Prince of Scotland, 
 married Lord Willes, and Anne, formerly affi- 
 anced to Philip of Spain, was united to the Duke 
 of Norfolk, and was the grandmother of Anne 
 Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. and 
 mother of Queen Elizabeth. Catherine, for whom 
 Edward had negotiated a marriage with John, 
 the Infant of Spain, became the wife of William 
 Courtney, Earl of Devonshire. Bridget took 
 the veil, and died in a nunnery at Deptford. Of 
 all these sisters perhaps none was so unfortunate 
 in their marriage as the eldest, whose alliance 
 with Henry was so earnestly desired by her mo- 
 ther and the people. It was a national benefit, 
 but productive only of unhappiness to herself; 
 and the harsh treatment which her mother met 
 with on her account must have been a severe 
 addition to it. 
 
 After the Queen Dowager was thus secured, 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 143 
 
 Henry ordered that the real Earl of Warwick 
 should be taken from the Tower, and produced 
 to the public to refute the opinion of Simnel's 
 identity, which however did not satisfy the peo- 
 ple, till the troops which were sent from England 
 had subdued the Irish, who had taken up arms 
 in his cause. The young impostor and his tutor 
 Simon, were taken prisoners : the latter was 
 closely confined and never heard of afterwards ; 
 but on Simnel's confessing the conspiracy, he 
 was pardoned, and for some time employed as a 
 scullion in the King's kitchen, who affected to 
 think revenge on so mean a rival beneath his 
 dignity, and afterwards promoted him to the 
 office of falconer. 
 
 After Henry had punished those who favoured 
 Simnel's pretensions, by laying on them heavy 
 fines and confiscations, which while it gratified 
 his avarice gave him the appearance of clemency 
 in sparing their lives, he endeavoured to conci- 
 liate the people by giving orders for the Queen's 
 coronation, which took place November 25, two 
 years after her marriage. 
 
 On this occasion the Marquess of Dorset* 
 was set at liberty, having cleared himself of the 
 suspicions the King had entertained against 
 
 * The amiable Lady Jane Grey, whose accomplishments and 
 melancholy fate have;rendered her celebrated in historj, was a 
 descendant of this nobleman. 
 
144 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 him ; and we do not read that he ever incurred 
 his displeasure afterwards. 
 
 Elizabeth, Henry's Queen, brought him three 
 sons and four daughters, two of whom died in 
 their infancy. Her second son Henry succeeded 
 his father on the throne, and was first married, 
 by his command, to Catherine of Arragon, the 
 widow of his brother Arthur, because his avarice 
 would not allow him to relinquish her dowry. 
 Arthur died in his seventeenth year, after having 
 been married five months ; and Edmund died 
 young. 
 
 Margaret, his eldest daughter, married the 
 King of Scotland ; her great grandson, James VT. 
 of Scotland, succeeded to the crown of England, 
 after the death of Queen Elizabeth. Mary, his 
 second daughter, was first married to Louis XII. 
 and after his death to Charles Brandon, Duke of 
 Suffolk. 
 
 The Queen lived till after the marriage of her 
 eldest son and daughter, and died in childbed 
 soon after the death of the former, early in the 
 year 1503, aged thirty-seven years: the infant 
 did not long survive her. This Queen died in 
 the Tower, where the melancholy fate of her 
 murdered brothers must have often recurred to 
 her mind, and added to her sorrows. She was 
 buried at Windsor. Queen's College, Cam- 
 bridge, which was begun by Margaret, Queen of 
 Henry VI. was completed and endowed by 
 
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 145 
 
 Elizabeth. The historian Smollet says, "the 
 King rejoiced at her death, as it relieved him 
 from a hateful rival in his title to the throne ;" 
 and the nation, with whom she was deservedly a 
 favorite, could not regret her release from a life 
 of suffering, occasioned by her husband's un- 
 kindness. 
 
 The date of her mother's death is unknown, 
 but the last years of her eventful life were spent 
 in indigence and obscurity, without the solace 
 of society or a friend to cheer her, and where the 
 recollection of her former greatness must have 
 presented a striking contrast to her gloomy 
 solitude. If her children wished to offer her 
 consolation, it could only be by stealth that they 
 visited her, since the King's jealousy of their 
 conduct was greatly increased by the continual 
 plots and insurrections which disturbed his 
 reign. 
 
 The last of the Woodville family mentioned in 
 history is Lord Woodville, to whom the King 
 had given that title and the government of the 
 Isle of Wight. In 1487 the Duke of Brittany, 
 who had formerly protected Henry, solicited his 
 aid against Charles VIII. of France. Henry 
 offered to mediate between these contending 
 parties, but refused other succour; and Lord 
 Woodville, after having requested his permission 
 in vain, ventured to raise a troop of volunteers 
 for the service of Brittany without the King's 
 
 G * 
 
146 THE HISTORY, &€. 
 
 leave, and was slain, with all his followers, 
 -fighting for the Duke in the following year. 
 
 The death of her only surviving brother pro- 
 bably hastened that of the Queen Dowager, the 
 heroine of my tale ; whose history remains a sad 
 record of the instability of human greatness, and 
 should teach us not to build our hopes of happi- 
 ness on any thing this world can offer. To those 
 who are accustomed to reflect on what they 
 read, the events of her life will shew, that 
 whether in a private or an exalted station, there 
 can be no dependence on earthly bliss ; and that 
 the only source of comfort is derived from true 
 religion, and the prospect of eternal happiness 
 through the merits of a merciful Saviour. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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