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 of them, in all probability, being mere inventions of writers in the interest of the Tudors, whose object in vilifying their predecessors is sufficiently obvious. Though the fact is indisputable that Richard, duke of York, was the legitimate king, and the Lancastrians mere intruders, he is ordinarily spoken of as a rebel, and thus is laid on him the odium of the murderous conflict, so well known as the War of the Roses, (in which, according to a vague, but probably not exaggerated estimate, 12 princes of the blood, 200 other nobles, and 100,000 of the knights, gentry, and common people perished,) when in reality this awful amount of bloodshed flowed from the treason of Henry of Bolingbroke. The falcon and fe terlock, the un

in splendour, and the white rose (often with the emblem of the Passion in its centre,) are the peculiar badges of the House of York; many other emblems are found, but they are rather the personal distinctions of each prince, as the lion rampant

Crest of Mortimer.

argent, of the earl of March; the black bull, of Clarence; and the white boar, of Gloucester.

EDWARD, the second son of Richard, duke of York, and Cicely, daughter of the earl of Westmoreland, was born at Rouen, April 29, 1441, while his father held the office of regent of France for Henry VI. He was obliged to flee to Calais when the Yorkist forces were dispersed in 1459, but returned in the following summer, when they gained a great victory at Northampton, and soon after the duke of York was recognised by the parliament as heir to the throne. At the end of the year the duke was killed at Wakefield, but Edward shortly after defeated the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross, and boldly advancing on London, in spite of a defeat experienced at St. Alban's by his chief partisan, the earl of Warwick, he entered the city Feb. 28, and was received as king March 4, 1461.

He had, however, to leave London almost immediately to meet the forces of Queen Margaret, and having defeated them at Towton, March 29, thus secured

his throne. The Lancastrians rose again in 1464, but were defeated, and so completely crushed that they could offer no further opposition; Margaret retired to the continent, and Henry fell into his hands. Quarrels, however, arose between the duke of Clarence, the earl of Warwick, and others of the old nobility, and the family of his queen, in consequence of which he was driven into exile, and King Henry restored, in 1470. Edward soon returned, however, defeated all his opponents at Barnet and at Tewkesbury, captured Queen Margaret, and reigned. undisturbed by civil war, though by no means free from

The Woodvilles were a Northamptonshire family, and their ancestors had frequently held the shrievalty there. Richard, the new queen's father, had married Jaqueline, duchess of Bedford; he held at different times the offices of seneschal of Normandy, Constable of the lower, and lieutenant of Calais; he was in 1448 ennobled, and being a warm partisan of the House of Lancaster, was in 1459 seized at Sandwich by some of the exiled Yorkists and carried a prisoner to Calais. He was soon released, lived apparently in retirement for a few succeeding years, and shortly after his daughter's marriage was created earl Rivers, and received many valuable grants, and the offices of constable and treasurer. At length, on the breaking out of the troubles which drove Edward IV. for a while into exile, the earl and his son John were captured at Grafton and beheaded. He left a large family, of whom Anthony succeeded him as Earl Rivers, and also lost his life by violence; Lionel became bishop of Salisbury, conspired against Richard III. and died in exile; and Richard was killed in Britanny in 1489.

Arms of Woodville, Earl Rivers.

Anthony, in right of his wife, became Lord Scales, and is celebrated for his gallantry and love of literature. He received from Edward IV. a grant of the Isle of Wight, fled with him to Holland, and on his return was appointed governor of Calais and captain general. He was the governor of his nephew, Edward V., but being seized at Stony Stratford, in April, 1483, was carried into Yorkshire, and beheaded at Pontefract about the 26th of June, by order of Richard lil., with whom he had been long at variance.

disquietudes from the protection which the exiled Lancastrians met with abroad. He was engaged during the greater part of his reign in either covert or open attacks upon Scotland, and he also, in 1475, led an army into France, but he effected nothing of consequence in either country; he was equally unsuccessful in a number of marriages which he planned for his children while yet infants, none of which took effect, and he died rather suddenly, April 9, 1483, after a reign of twenty-two years, marked by more cruelty and licentiousness than any former king had exhibited.

In 1463, or 1464, Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of Sir John Grey, and daughter of Jaqueline, formerly duchess of Bedford. The queen's relatives were all Lancastrians, they were also needy, but they were speedily married to the richest heirs and heiresses, and engrossed the favour of the king to the exclusion of those who had placed him on the throne. This was deeply resented, and caused his temporary expulsion; several of the Woodvilles perished on the scaf

His interference was highly resented, and in an Act of the Scottish Parliament of 1481 he is styled "the revare (robber) Edward calland him king of England.”

The partisans of his brother Richard asserted that he had a wife living at the time, Eleanor, daughter of Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, and widow of Lord Butler, son of James, earl of Ormond and Wiltshire, and the proofs of their statement appeared satisfactory to the first parliament of Richard III., but the Tudor writers allege that she was only his mistress.

Her brother Anthony married the daughter of Lord Scales, believed to be the wealthiest heiress in the kingdom, and intended as the wife of the young duke of Clarence; John, another brother, married the dowager duchess of Norfolk; her son, Sir Thomas Grey, married the infant daughter of the duke of Exeter (she was Edward's niece); and her five sisters were amply provided for in like manner; one of them (Katherine) married the young duke of Buckingham, who was a ward of the crown.

fold; the queen was obliged twice to take sanctuary; and she at last died (June 8, 1492) in confinement in the nunnery at Bermondsey, where she had been placed by her son-in-law, Henry VII.

The children of Edward and Elizabeth were three sons and seven daughters.

1. EDWARD, became king.

2. Richard, born in 1473, was created duke of York, and also appointed lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Gormanstown being his deputy. In 1477 he was married to Anne, the heiress of John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, but she died shortly after, and he is usually said to have been murdered with his brother, in the Tower, by order of their uncle, the duke of Gloucester; the fact, however, is far from certain.

3. George, created duke of Bedford, died an infant. Mary and Margaret died young; Bridget (born 1480) died a nun at Dartford in 1517.

Of the remaining princesses, Elizabeth married Henry VII. Cicely (born 1469) married first Lord Wells, and afterwards Sir John Kyme; she died in 1507. Anne (born 1475) married Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, Feb. 4, 1494, and died 1512. Katherine (born 1479) married William Courtenay, earl of Devon, and died 1527. Her son was Henry, marquis of Exeter, beheaded in 1538, on a charge of corresponding with his cousin, Reginald Pole.

Edward left two natural children: 1. Arthur, who married an heiress, and was created Viscount Lisle1;

1 His daughter Frances married Thomas Monk, a gentleman of Devon, and ancestor of Monk, duke of Albemarle.