would seem to have been much distinguished, but without having ever attained any higher title than that of knighthood. This Sir Richard left her a widow, with four sons and one daughter; and after his decease, in the fifth year of King Henry the Eighth," she exhibited her petition in Parliament, as being only sister and heir to Edward, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury, and daughter of Isabel, daughter and heir to Richard Nevil, Earl of Salisbury, son and heir to Alice, daughter and heir to Thomas Montague, Earl of Salisbury." The result of this application was, that she was restored by the king in Parliament to the title of Countess of Salisbury, the honour she had coveted, and was in fairness entitled to. But she did not long retain this new dignity; the sun of royal favour, which at first had shone so brightly upon her, being speedily overclouded, and being succeeded by a storm that tore her up by the roots. Henry the Eighth, too fond of power to allow of any sharer in it, had just now destroyed the papal authority in his realm, although while he thus struck off the church's head, he was still anxious to keep alive its body, being a stanch upholder of the Catholic belief, notwithstanding his enmity to the see of Rome. He chose to be his own Pope, and it behoved all his people to think as he did, on pain of incurring his anger, an anger which was never known to spare either man or woman. Few things could have given deeper offence to this headstrong and despotic monarch than the slightest attempt to maintain the papal supremacy in opposition to his own. Unfortunately for Margaret, she became suspected, not without grounds, perhaps, of this new treason, for the human mind does not often abandon its long-cherished opinions at the mere bidding of another, even when conversion is assisted by the stake and the faggot. It is, therefore, probably true enough that certain bulls from Rome were found at her mansion-house of Cowdray; and as true, no doubt, what was also charged upon her, that the parson of Wallingford had conveyed letters from her to her son, Reginald, who, as he was a cardinal, was of course an object of suspicion. A yet graver, or, at least, more tangible accusation was, that she had forbidden all her tenants to have the New Testament in English, or to possess any other book privileged by the king, an offence which could not fail to wound his pride and vanity, and was, therefore, of all others, the least likely to be forgiven by him. In this dilemma Margaret was not wanting to herself, although age might have been expected to have impaired her powers of resistance, for she was more than seventy at the time. But of what use was denial where a despotic king was the accuser? She was condemned without the ceremony of a trial; and two years afterwards, May 27th, 1541, was beheaded in the Tower of London. Anne of York. NNE OF YORK, Duchess of Exeter, is better known to us from her powerful kindred and alliances than from any events of public interest attached to her own life, so far, at least, as we have any records of it. Of such characters, independent of the attractions they may have for the antiquary or the genealogist, the best monumental inscription would be, "vixere,”—they lived. Anne was the eldest daughter of that Richard, Duke of York, who, after the Lancastrians gained the day, had his head taken off and set up in mockery upon the gates of the city from which he derived his title. She was consequently sister to the King Richard of Bosworth Field, whose chronicle, unfortunately for his fame with after-times, has been written by his triumphant enemies, and copied without the least doubt or hesitation by all subsequent historians. In the present day, when we have no longer any clue to the private story of the past, it cannot be other than a matter of surprise to find one so allied uniting herself in marriage to the favourite and godson of King Henry the Sixth. A union of mere affection it could hardly have been, for in those times, still more than in the present, the inclinations of the highly born bride were little studied; and perhaps it was not expected by herself that they should be so, such matches being based for the most part upon similarity of political feelings and equality of birth and wealth, with a view to the continuance and extension of the power of the nobles. In this case the bridegroom was Henry Holland, son of John, Duke of Exeter, whose influence with the weak but kind-hearted Lancastrian monarch may be estimated from the fact of his having granted "to this Henry and his said father, and the longer liver of them two, the office of Admiral of England, Ireland, and Aquitaine, for term of life, by patent dated the 14th of February, Anno 24 H. 6. Upon the 7th of August, in the twenty-ninth year of the said king's reign, James, Lord Say, the king's chamberlain, had the office of Constable of the Tower of London granted unto him during the minority of this Henry Holland, who much the same time espoused this Lady Anne." The only reasonable conjecture to be made in the way of accounting for this union is to suppose that the lady had fallen into the state of wardship by the premature death of her father, in which case, according to the custom then prevalent, her guardian, whoever he might be, could dispose of her hand at his pleasure, and probably did so with a view to his own interest. The possession of a ward was a sort of estate. Hence it was that upon the death of the natural parent we find the courtiers emulously petitioning for the office of guardian, when it chanced to be in the gift of the monarch, who, by a singular stretch of prerogative, was supposed to be the father of all orphans possessed of sufficient wealth and rank to entitle them to the honours of such paternity. The same rights of wardship would appear to have been exercised by the nobles on their tenants-the last link in the chain of serfdom, which was not completely broken until the reign of Charles the First. The fortunes of Anne's husband naturally rose and fell with the success or discomfiture of the Lancastrians. At the battle H of Wakefield, wherein King Henry gained the day, he did such good service to his party, that in requital he was made constable of Fotheringay for life, that office having escheated to the crown by the forfeiture of Richard, Duke of York. This success, however, cannot have been particularly gratifying to Anne, who must have looked with anything but indifference upon the cruel death of her father, and the downfall of her paternal house, for which the growing honours of her husband afforded a poor compensation. Indeed, it would seem, if we may judge from her after-conduct, that the greater his achievements in the cause of Henry, the less must have been his chances of domestic happiness, and the seeds of discord thus sown, we shall presently find ripening into bitter fruit. A few months afterwards, the Duke was retained by indenture to serve the King in his fleet at sea for the term of three years, and sailed from Sandwich to Dartmouth to oppose the landing of Neville, Earl of Warwick; but, for lack of victuals and money, he was forsaken by his soldiers. The tide had now begun, after many vicissitudes and a long struggle, to turn in favour of the Yorkists. At Towton Field the Lancastrians received so decisive an overthrow as seemed to ensure the utter annihilation of their party. The Duke, however, had the good fortune to escape with the Duke of Somerset and some others of their faction to York, in which city the King and Queen then were, awaiting the final issue. But this city could only afford them a temporary refuge, and for their better security the whole of them fled to Scotland, where the government was at that time, as, indeed, it generally was, most bitterly opposed to the ruling powers in England. Still Exeter's attachment to the cause of his adoption continued unabated, and after a time he made a last attempt in the ranks of the Lancastrians at Barnet Field. There his party sustained another complete defeat, and he himself, in a fierce assault upon Edward the Fourth, was unhorsed, and left for dead upon the field from seven in the morning until four in the evening. He |