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EDWARD, the fourth child but eldest | court at Ludlow, in the Welsh marches, son of Edward IV., was born in the

Arms and Supporters of Edward V. Sanctuary at Westminster, during his father's brief exile, Nov. 4, 1470. He was soon after created prince of Wales, and in 1479 also earl of Pembroke; in 1482 he was sent to keep a mimic

Used also in the latter part of the reign of Edward IV.

According to a memorandum in the Red Book of the Exchequer, his reign "ceased" on June 22,

being under the guardianship of Anthony Woodville earl Rivers, his maternal uncle, and attended by his half-brother Sir Richard Grey, Sir Thomas Vaughan, and others of the Woodville party. The death of his father on the 9th of April, 1483, called him to the throne, but after a mere nominal possession of less than three months, he and his brother, Richard duke of York, both disappeared, and nothing is known as to their fate.

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A.D. 1483.

Edward is proclaimed king, April 9. The queen-mother endeavours to obtain the regency, but is foiled by the union of the dukes of Gloucester and

the day that had been appointed for his coronation, and the same on which his uncle's claim was pub licly brought forward; from that day to the 26th of June was an interregnum.

Buckingham, Lord Hastings, and others, who resolve to depress the Woodvilles.

The young king, being sent for to London, is met at Stony Stratford by the dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham, April 30. They seize Rivers, Grey, Vaughan, and Haute, and send them prisoners to the north, and bring Edward to London, where he arrives May 4

The queen-mother takes sanctuary at Westminster, with the duke of York and her daughters, May 1.

The duke of Gloucester is appointed by a great council of prelates, nobles, and chief citizens, protector of the king and kingdom'.

The duke of Buckingham is appointed chief justice, chamberlain, seneschal and receiver of Wales, and constable of "all the king's castles" there, May 168.

The protector issues proclamations appointing June 22 for the coronation of the young king.

Lord Hastings is seized while at the council-board in the Tower, and be

headed, June 131. The Woodville prisoners are executed at Pomfret shortly after.

The queen allows the duke of York to leave the Sanctuary and join his brother in the Tower.

Ralph Shaw', a popular preacher, sets forth the Protector's claim to the throne, in a sermon at Paul's Cross, Sunday, June 22.

The duke of Buckingham makes a speech to the like effect at the Guildhall, Tuesday, June 24.

"The lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons of the land," wait on the Protector at Baynard's Castle, June 25, with a "bill of petition, wherein his sure and true title" to the throne " is evidently shewed.”

The duke accepts the offer, and, the next day, repairs to Westminster Hall, where certain deputies, in the name of the nobles and people of the north, present a petition to the assembly, desiring that he may take the office and title of king: the children of Edward IV. being illegitimate, those of the duke of Clarence attainted, and

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York, who through the duke's influence obtained the sheriffdom of Warwick and Leicester. The son was equally favoured by Edward IV., received a large share of the Lancastrian forfeitures, was employed on embassies, held the posts of master of the mint, captain of Calais, constable of many other castles, and chamberlain. He was, however, on bad terms with the Woodvilles, although made by the queen guardian of her son Thomas, and hence he readily joined with Richard, duke of Gloucester, against them. From some cause which has never been clearly ascertained, Hastings was seized at the council board, by order of the Protector, and immediately beheaded in the Tower, June 13, 1483. He left, by his wife Katherine, the widow of Lord Bonville and sister of the earl of Warwick, a son, Edward, who succeeded him, and became, in right of his wife, Lord Hungerford, and whose son was created by Henry VIII. earl of Huntingdon.

Commonly, but wrongly, called Hawes. was a kinsman of the Woodvilles.

He

• Her brother Sir Richard Woodville, and her son the marquis of Dorset, attempted to seize on the Tower, and to raise a fleet, but failed; they remained concealed until Buckingham's rebellion, in which they took part.

f The day is uncertain: the first public document now known in which he is styled Protector is dated May 14.

These grants gave him power to appoint all the officers heretofore appointed by the crown, and to survey and array the population.

On

The archbishop of York (Thomas Scott or Rotherham) and the bishop of Ely (John Morton) were also seized. The former was soon released. Morton was given shortly after into the custody of the duke of Buckingham, who was weak enough to be persuaded by him to take up arms. Buckingham's death Morton made his escape and joined Richmond; a pardon was granted to him by Richard, Dec. 11, 1484, but he did not return until Richmond was established on the throne. He became the minister of Henry VII., to whom he is said to have suggested many of his most oppressive measures, and in 1486 he was made archbishop of Canterbury, in which post he died, Sept. 15, 1500.

He was the brother of the lord mayor of London (Sir Edmund Shaw). Taking for his text a passage from the book of Wisdom (iv. 3), "The multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive, nor take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor lay any fast foundation," he dwelt on the alleged marriage of Edward IV. to Lady Butler, which if true rendered the young Edward, his brothers and sisters, illegitimate, but it is incredible that he also asserted that Edward and Clarence were base-born; the Protector surely would not thus defame his own mother, who beside favoured his claim; yet this is the statement of Sir Thomas More, who has given form and distinctness to the vague charges of earlier writers.

S

the blood of Richard, duke of York, | tector assumes the style of Richard remaining uncorrupt only in the per- the Third, and rides in state as king son of Richard, the Protector, duke of to St. Paul's, "and was received there Gloucester." with great congratulation and acclamation of all the people."

The petition is received, the Pro

These are Richard's official statements, made to the garrison of Calais, who, having taken an oath

to Edward V., required some formal document to justify the transfer of their allegiance.

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RICHARD, the youngest son of Richard duke of York, was born at Fotheringhay in 1450". In his eleventh year he was sent for safety to Flanders, on the occasion of the death of his father, but was speedily recalled by his brother Edward, to whose fortunes he seems to have closely attached himself, accompanying him in his exile in the year 1470, and receiving from him in return many important grants. Very early in his reign Richard had been created duke of Gloucester, and he subsequently became constable, justiciary of Wales, and warden of the west marches; he served under his banner at Barnet and at Tewkesbury, went with him to France, and commanded an army against Scotland, with which he captured both Berwick and Edinburgh.

When Edward IV. died the duke of Gloucester was in the north, but as he, like his late brother Clarence, had

a long-standing quarrel with the Woodvilles, he marched southward, took his nephew out of their hands, and escorted him to London, sending earl Rivers, Sir Thomas Gray, Vaughan and Haute, his chief attendants, to Sheriff Hutton and other castles in Yorkshire. He was accompanied by a large body of troops who had served under him in the north, and was speedily declared Protector of the kingdom, the queen-mother having in the mean time retired to the Sanctuary at Westminster, with her youngest son and her five daughters.

So far Richard seems to have been supported by numerous parties whose only bond of union was dislike of the Woodvilles; these were now helpless, and the confederates quarrelled; but the real course of events in the months of May and June, 1483, has never yet been ascertained. We only know that Hastings, one of the chief opponents

"On the feast of the Eleven Thousand Virgins," (i.e. St. Ursula, October 21,) according to Rous.

Frantit ott ordomunusChibernte

Richrons disgracias

of the Woodvilles, was executed, apparently on the spur of the moment, in the Tower: that, shortly after, earl Rivers and his friends were put to death at Pomfret, and that between these two events the young duke of York was withdrawn from the Sanctuary (whether by force or fraud is an open question), and joined his brother in the Tower; neither was publicly seen after, and nothing is known, though much has been plausibly conjectured, as to what became of them. Whilst these events were in progress Richard had brought forward a claim to the crown, (founded on an alleged pre-contract of marriage of Edward IV. which rendered his union with "dame Elizabeth Gray" invalid, and the attainder of his brother Clarence,) which appeared satisfactory to the parliament; he was in consequence received as king, June 26, and vas crowned with much pomp and a larger concourse than ordinary of the nobility, July 6.

Richard made a progress through the country, and knighted his son with much ceremony at York, Sept. 8. This was hardly concluded when the duke of Buckingham, many of the old Lancastrians, and some of the Woodvilles combined against him, but were speedily crushed; the earl of Richmond, in concert with them, attempted an invasion, but his fleet was dispersed by bad weather. Richard visited the disturbed districts, and on his return took vigorous measures to guard the

coast.

In the parliament which met early in 1484, several statutes were passed, mainly directed against abuses in the administration of justice; some laws

b They were not executed on the same day, as is commonly stated. Hastings was put to death June 13, and Rivers made his will June 23; he is believed to have been beheaded June

25 or 26.

The most received theory is, that the two children were murdered by Richard; another, that they were only imprisoned by him, and that their mother contrived the escape of one or both from the Tower, in the interval between Richard's death and the entry of Henry VII. into London; if true, this would account for Henry's harsh treatment of her and her son, the marquis of Dorset.

Thirty-five peers attended it, being nearly the whole of the body, so much had it been reduced by the wars and attainders. His mother was present, and Margaret, countess of Richmond (the mother of Henry VII.) bore the train of his queen. • A strong presumption arises from this that their

also were enacted for the protection of traders and the extension of commerce. The same assembly declared the marriage of Edward IV. and his queen a nullity, and revoked all grants made to her, thus rendering her totally dependent on Richard, who induced her to leave the Sanctuary, by the promise of a suitable maintenance for herself and daughters; it also took an oath to support the right of Richard's son to the throne. This arrangement was foiled by the young prince's death soon after, and then Richard's nephew, John earl of Lincoln, was recognised as his heir. The king, however, felt his throne perpetually endangered by the hostility of the Lancastrian exiles, and endeavoured, but without success, to get their chiefs into his power. He made a truce with Scotland, and knowing that a plan was on foot for a marriage between Henry earl of Richmond and Elizabeth of York, he laboured to thwart it by offering to marry her himself, a proposal to which, strange as it may appear, both she and her mother seem to have agreed. But before anything could be done, Richmond landed in Wales, and penetrated without opposition to the centre of England, with the secret concurrence of many who professed to adhere to Richard. One decisive battle took place at Bosworth, in Leicestershire, and there, through the desertion of Stanley and others, the king lost both his crown and his life', on the 22nd of August, 1485. body, which was found covered with wounds on the field, was carelessly thrown across a horse, and carried into Leicester, where it was interred in the Grey Friars monastery .

His

nearest relatives did not believe Richard to be the murderer of his nephews.

f The duke of Norfolk, Lord Ferrers, Sir Robert Brakenbury, were killed; and his chancellor of the exchequer, William Catesby, taken and beheaded. Catesby is mentioned in a Lancastrian distich as one of Richard's principal councillors :

"The Cat, the Rat, and Lovel, that dog, Rule all England under the Hog." The Rat is either Sir Richard or Robert Ratcliff (both devoted partisans, and the recipients of grants from the crown). Either Lovel was particularly obnoxious, as the son of a Lancastrian; or the expression that dog" may be an allusion to his crest, a talbot passant.

A mean tomb was erected over his remains by Henry VII. at a cost, as appears from his Privy Purse Accounts, of £10 15. At the suppression of

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