An attempt made to assassinate the earl of Warwick, in London, Sept. 9. He escapes to the north, arranges with his father (the earl of Salisbury) and the duke of York for their defence, and then repairs to Calais.

A.D. 1459.

The earl of Salisbury marches to join the duke of York. On his way he defeats and kills Lord Audley, a Lancastrian, at Blore-heath, in Staffordshire, Sept. 23.

The earls of Salisbury and Warwick join the duke of York. The Lancas

trians, headed by the queen, advance to Ludlow against him, when Sir Andrew Trollope deserts to them, Oct. 13; a pardon is offered, and the duke's army disbands!.

The duke of Somerset makes an

attempt to get Calais out of the hands of the Yorkists, but fails.

A parliament held at Coventry, in which the duke of York and his chief adherents are attainted, Nov. 20.

The queen raises a force, which is totally defeated by the Yorkists at Northampton, July 10. The duke of Buckingham, the queen's general, is killed, the king taken prisoner, and the queen and her son obliged to flee to Scotland.

James II. of Scotland is killed by the bursting of a cannon at the siege of Roxburgh, Aug. 3. He is succeeded by his son James III., a child not seven years old.

The parliament assembles, Oct. 7. The duke of York returns from IreHe makes a formal land, Oct. 9. claim to the crown, Oct. 16.

A compromise is effected, Oct. 31, that Henry shall retain the crown for life, and be succeeded by the duke of York. The proceedings of the parliament at Coventry in 1459 are set aside as illegal, [39 Hen. VI. c. 1].

The queen raises an army in the north, and advances against the Yorkists. The duke of York leaves London to oppose her, Dec. 2.

The duke of York is besieged by Margaret's forces in Sandal castle, near Wakefield; he sallies out, and attacks them, but is defeated and killed, Dec. 30. His son, the earl of Rutland, is taken and butchered in cold blood by Lord Clifford'; and the earl of Salis

occasion Lord Rivers and other Lancastrians, who were assembling a force against them ai Sandwich.

John, lord Clifford, had been commissary-general of the Scottish marches, and from his fierce and lawless character bore the name of "the butcher." His father, Thomas, who was the nephew of Hotspur, had fallen on the Lancastrian side at the first battle of St. Alban's, and he himself was killed at Towton. He had made himself so obnoxious to the Yorkists, that his son Henry owed his life to being brought up as a shepherd, in which state he remained until the accession of Henry VII.,

his integrity, that Edward IV. not only allowed him to retire unmolested to his see and granted him a general pardon, but also became visitor of his college and bestowed lands on it. Bishop Wayneflete died Aug. 11, 1486, and was buried at Winchester, where his tomb is still kept in repair by Magdalen College.

He had long served in the French wars, and was much trusted by the earl of Warwick, with whom he came from Calais. He was killed on the Lancastrian side at Towton.

He fled with one of his sons (the earl of Rutland) to Ireland. The earls of March, Salisbury, and Warwick escaped to Calais, and ravaged the English coast with their ships, capturing on one

LIONEL of Antwerp, duke of Clarence and earl of Ulster, the third son of Edward III., was the ancestor of this House, as his younger brother John was of that of Lancaster His wife was Elizabeth, heiress of William de Burgh, who had been killed by some of his fellow Anglo-Irish chiefs, and it was to recover her patrimony, which had been shared according to the native laws, that his expeditions to Ireland were mainly undertaken. Their only daughter, Philippa, became the wife of Edmund, and the mother of Roger Mortimer, earl of March and Ulster, who was in 1385 declared presumptive heir to the throne, and was killed in Ireland in 1398. He had married Eleanora, the daughter of Thomas Holland, earl of Kent, (half-brother of Richard II.,) and left a son and two daughters. His son Edmund's claim to the throne was set aside by the parliament of 1399, and he died without issue in 1424; his daughter Anne married Richard, earl of Cambridge, (second son of Edmund of Langley, duke of York,) and was by him the mother of one son, Richard, who, though he never bore the title, is justly to be regarded as the first king of the House of York.

Neither the place nor the date of

Richard's birth have been fully ascertained, but he cannot have been more than five years of age when his father was put to death. He was placed in the guardianship of Joan, countess of Westmoreland, whose youngest daughter, Cicely, he afterwards married. In 1425 he was relieved from corruption of blood, and succeeded to the estates and titles of his uncles, Edward duke of York, and Edmund earl of March, and he was knighted along with the young King Henry in 1426. In 1430 the important office of constable of England was bestowed on him; in 1432, though still very young, he was employed to guard the coast of Normandy, and in 1436 he advanced almost to the gates of Paris. He was recalled in the following year, and though sent again in 1440 as lieutenant and captain to Normandy, he was again superseded by Beaufort, marquis of Dorset, who weakly or treacherously suffered himself to be expelled by the French, and then returning to England shared with Queen Margaret the direction of public affairs. York firmly opposed him, and in order to remove such an obstacle to their projects, he was made lieutenant of Ireland for ten years, from July 5, 1449.

Up to this time the duke of York

had silently acquiesced in the Lancastrian usurpation, but he now (urged, it is said, by his brother-in-law and nephew, the earls of Salisbury and Warwick,) began to put forward his claim to the crown, having by his wise and mild government gained the firm support of the Irish, whose affection for his House continued unabated after its fall. His claim was resisted far more strenuously by Margaret, and by Dorset (who had become duke of Somerset), than by Henry himself, and was looked on with favour by the bulk of the nation, not only from its real weight and the duke's brilliant services, but also from hatred to those who had lost the conquests of Henry V. Attempts were made to accommodate the dispute by bringing Somerset to trial, and declaring the duke of York Protector of the realm; but these failed through the violent spirit of Margaret, and arms were at length resorted to. The first battle was fought at St. Alban's (May 23, 1455); Somerset was there killed, and York again acknowledged Protector. This appointment was soon after revoked by Henry, and the Yorkists were obliged to retire. A formal reconciliation followed, but it was soon broken by an attempt to assassinate the earl of Warwick. The battle of Bloreheath next occurred (Sept. 23, 1459), where the Lancastrians were again defeated, but through treachery the Yorkist army was soon after dispersed, and the duke and his friends having taken to flight, were attainted by a parliament held at Coventry.

In the summer of 1460 they returned, defeated the Lancastrians at Northampton, took Henry prisoner, and had the duke of York declared heir to the throne. Margaret, however, did not abide by this, but raising a force in Scotland and the north of England, she advanced southward. The duke marched to meet her, but, by some mismanagement not to be expected in so experienced a soldier, he suffered himself to be surrounded

by her forces, and besieged in Sandal castle, in Yorkshire; and then, with equal imprudence, sallying out before his reinforcements arrived, he fell into an ambuscade and was killed, near Wakefield, Dec. 30, 1460. His head was placed on the wall of York, and garnished with a paper crown, but was taken down after the battle of Towton, and interred with his body and that of his son, the earl of Rutland, at Pontefract. Thence the bodies were removed in July, 1466, and buried with royal pomp at Fotheringhay.

By his marriage with the daughter of Ralph, earl of Westmoreland (who survived until May 31, 1495, when she died at Berkhampstead, and was buried with him at Fotheringhay,) he had a family of eight sons and four daughters. Of these,

EDWARD and RICHARD became kings.

Edmund, earl of Rutland, born at Rouen, May 17, 1443, was killed at Wakefield, Dec. 30, 1460.

A

George, born at Dublin in 1449, was created duke of Clarence, and also appointed lieutenant of Ireland (Feb. 28, 1462), soon after his brother's accession. He, however, conceived himself neglected and injured by the aggrandizement of the Woodvilles, and leagued with the earl of Warwick (whose daughter Isabel he married) first against them, and eventually against the king. His fickle temper led him to forsake Warwick shortly after, but his reconciliation with Edward was probably not sincere. quarrel next arose with Richard, duke of Gloucester, concerning the Warwick estates, which Clarence endeavoured to secure entirely to himself, and which Gloucester was resolved to share; then fresh dissensions occurred with the Woodvilles. In 1477 he apparently gave his sanction to an attempt to calculate "by art magic, the death and final destruction of the king and prince," was thereupon convicted of treason, and was found dead in the Tower shortly after (Feb. 18, 1478).

His wife and youngest child had died by poison about a year before, but he left a son and a daughter (Edward, earl of Warwick, and Margaret, countess of Salisbury), who both suffered death in the same prison under the Tudors. Of the duke of York's daughters, Anne married first Henry Holland, duke of Exeter', and afterwards Sir Thomas St. Leger. She died in 1475, leaving by her second husband a daughter, Anne, who married Sir George Manners, the ancestor of the dukes of Rutland.

Elizabeth married John de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, and was the mother of John, earl of Lincoln, who was nominated the heir of Richard III., but was killed in the battle of Stoke, during his father's lifetime; Edmund, earl of Suffolk, beheaded in 1513; Richard, known as the White Rose of England, killed at Pavia in 1525; Humphrey and Edward, who preserved their lives by taking holy orders; and two daughters.

Margaret married Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and surviving him near thirty years died at Mechlin, in 1503.

Henry, William, John, Thomas, and Ursula, died young.

The peculiar seat of the House of York was the castle of Fotheringhay, on the Nen, in Northamptonshire. The manor was granted by Edward III. to his son Edmund of Langley, who rebuilt great part of the castle, and commenced a collegiate church, dedicated to the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin and All Saints, which was carried on by his son, and completed by his grandson, Richard, whose body was, in 1466, buried there under a handsome shrine on the north side of the high altar. His wife, the duchess Cicely, and their son, the earl of Rutland, were buried beside him; but the college being suppressed under Ed

amends for the " 'great injuries and mighty of fences" he had formerly done to the earl and his family.

He was a Lancastrian, and was attainted in 1461. He lived awhile in exile, in abject poverty, see p. 230), his forfeited estates being granted to is wife, who also sought a divorce. He returned in 1470, was wounded and left for dead at Barnet; he was conveyed to sanctuary at Westminster, and his wounds healed, but being unable to obtain his pardon, his wife vehemently opposing it, he left his asylum, and was soon after found dead on the coast of Kent.

ward VI., and its site granted to Dudley, duke of Northumberland, the church, as was but too usual, was dismantled, and the royal tombs fell to decay. At length Queen Elizabeth, visiting the spot, ordered the bodies to be removed to the parish church, where monuments, "by no means worthy," says Camden, "of such princes, sons of kings, and progenitors of kings of England," still exist to their memory.

So troubled a period as the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., and Richard III., might seem little favourable to peaceful pursuits, yet considerable progress was made both in commerce and in the encouragement of learning. The Statute-book, particularly of the Yorkist princes, shews how carefully what were then conceived to be the true interests of the nation as to trade were legislated for; and the period which witnessed the foundation of numerous colleges and halls in both Universities, and of the public schools and library at Oxford, cannot justly be reproached as neglectful of the libe ral arts. Indeed Edward and Richard were distinguished patrons of learning, although engaged in an almost incessant struggle for their lives. Among Edward's chief favourites were the accomplished scholar, John Tiptoft earl of Worcester, and Anthony Woodville earl Rivers, a gallant cavalier, though a man of doubtful character, but worthy of remembrance as the elegant poet, the translator of moral works, and the generous patron of William Caxton, who introduced the art of printing to England under his auspices.

Nothing can be more unjust than the tone that modern historians in general have adopted towards the House of York, the members and the partisans of which are represented as guilty of innumerable crimes, many

1441.

He was the eldest child, and was born Feb. 10,

Some of the richly carved stalls have been

preserved in the neighbouring churches of Hemington and Tansor; they are decorated with the Yorkist badges and crests.

i Lincoln, All Souls', and Magdalen Colleges, at Oxford; King's and Queens' Colleges and Catherine Hall, at Cambridge; and Eton College, still exist of the foundations of this era. Most of them were commenced under the Lancastrian princes, but the House of York protected them, and added to their endowments.