should be elected by forty shilling freeholders. Juries for the trial of foreigners were to be one-half aliens. The first viscount (John Beaumont) was created in 1439.

All Souls' College, Oxford, was founded by Archbishop Chichely (1437); and Magdalen College, Oxford, by William Wayneflete, Bishop of Winchester (1458). Eton College (1440); and King's College, Cambridge (1443), were founded by the king.

In 1434 the winter was excessively severe; and it is said that the Thames was frozen from London to Gravesend. The first Lord Mayor's show took place in 1453.

[In 1422 the slave trade was commenced by Portugal. In 1453 Constantinople was taken by the Turks.]

Death.-Henry survived his deposal about ten years. He was found dead in the Tower soon after the battle of Tewkesbury (1461).

THE HOUSE OF YORK.

EDWARD IV.

Reigned from 1461 to 1483.

Birth.-Edward was born at Rouen, April 29, 1441. Descent. He was the second son of Richard, Duke of York, who was the great grandson of Philippa, daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III.

Marriage. He espoused Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of Sir John Grey, and daughter of Jacquetta, formerly Duchess of Bedford.

Children.-Edward, his successor; Richard, Duke of York; Elizabeth, who married Henry VII; Catherine, who married William Courtenay, Earl of Devon; Anne, who married Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey; and several other children.

Important Events.-A few days after his accession, Edward marched to ToWTON (near Tadcaster), where he met and

defeated the Lancastrian army in a very sanguinary battle (March 29). In 1464 some new forces, assembled in behalf of the deposed king, were vanquished at HEDGLEY MOOR, near Wooller (April 25), and at HEXHAM (May 15). Numerous executions followed these victories. Henry secreted himself in Lancashire, but his retreat was at last betrayed. Margaret and her son retired to France.

Edward's marriage with Elizabeth Grey displeased his brothers, as well as his powerful supporter, the Earl of Warwick. The relatives of the queen, and the family of Warwick (the Nevilles), endeavoured to diminish one another's influence, and in 1469 the league against the former was strengthened by the marriage of the Duke of Clarence (Edward's brother) to Isabella, the daughter of Warwick. The same year an insurrection broke out, in which it is probable that Clarence and the Nevilles were implicated, since one of the objects of the insurgents was to remove the Woodvilles from power. They gained a victory over the king's troops at EDGECOTE, near Banbury (July 26), and put to death the queen's father and brother.

It is believed that Edward, not long after, was imprisoned by Warwick; but he recovered his freedom, and suppressed a Lancastrian rising by the overthrow of the rebels at ERPINGHAM, near Stamford, March 1470. Clarence and Warwick, being denounced as traitors, fled to France, and proceeding to the court of Louis, at Amboise, a reconciliation was effected between Warwick and Margaret of Anjou, the principal feature of which was, that prince Edward should marry the earl's second daughter, and that Henry should be restored.

Edward, with singular imprudence, was thinking only of his pleasures while this alliance was being formed; and on the landing of the Earl of Warwick with a body of men, he was compelled to escape to the continent. Henry was restored (Oct. 1470), and the attainders of the Lancastrians were repealed. Edward, however, with a small force, landed at Ravenspur (March, 1471), alleging, at first, that he only desired to

obtain his family estates; but when sufficient followers had been collected, he threw off the mask, and was joined by Clarence, who had been, from the first, dissatisfied with the convention of Amboise, since it diminished his prospect of wearing the crown. A battle was fought at BARNET, between Warwick and his royal opponent; and the king-maker, for so the earl was popularly called, was vanquished and slain (April 14). Margaret landed on the southern coast, with some troops, on this disastrous day; and three weeks after, the re-instated sovereign, having overtaken her at TEWKESBURY, another battle ensued, which ended in the decisive defeat of the Lancastrians (May 4). Prince Edward was slain either in or after the battle; and his unfortunate mother, a few days later, fell into the victors' hands.

In 1475 Edward invaded France, professedly to regain the provinces lost in the late reign; but the crafty Louis preferring negotiation to war, induced the king to agree to peace, and a treaty was signed at Pecquigny, by which Louis promised to pay him a large sum of money. He also ransomed Margaret.

The Duke of Clarence was charged by his brother with treason in 1478, and condemned; and it is believed that he was put to death in the tower. At the same time, George Neville, Duke of Bedford, was deprived of his title by act of parliament, on the ground that he was unable to support his dignity.

Edward extorted large sums of money from the people, under the name of "benevolences, or free gifts," "by which," says a chronicler, "every man gave to the king what he pleased, or rather, what he did not please." Posts were first established in England, during a campaign in Scotland, horsemen being placed about twenty miles apart on the road from Scotland to London. They conveyed the despatches from one to another, at the rate of 100 miles per day. In 1472 a plague caused great ravages in England; it is said that it carried off more people than fifteen years' war.

Caxton introduced printing into England in 1474. The

earliest volume which he is believed to have produced in this country is the" Game and Playe of the Chesse," printed in that year. He certainly had a press at work in the Almonry, near Westminster Abbey, in 1477.

The Wars of the Roses proved very destructive to the nobility of England, many of whom were slain, and some reduced to want. Comines tells us that threescore or fourscore of the blood-royal of the kingdom were killed, and says of some that survived, that no common beggar could have been poorer. He saw the Duke of Exeter (great-grandson of John of Gaunt, and brother-in-law of Edward IV) following the Duke of Burgundy's train in disguise, bare-foot and bare-legged, begging his bread from door to door. The Countess of Oxford, sister of the great Earl of Warwick, was compelled to live for some years by her needle, and the secret gifts of her friends.

Death.-Edward died April 9, 1483. One chronicler states that it was caused by a surfeit occasioned by drinking too much of some rich wines presented to him by the French king.

EDWARD V.

Reigned during a few weeks in 1483.

Birth. He was born in the Sanctuary at Westminster, November 4, 1470.

Descent. He was the eldest son of Edward IV.

Important Events.-The Woodvilles seem to have designed to keep the government in their own hands during the minority of the king, but they were foiled by the alliance of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Hastings. Richard, having obtained possession of his nephew, was soon after made protector by a great council of prelates, nobles, and chief citizens; and he issued proclamations for the coronation of Edward on the 22nd of June.

Earlier in that month he charged Hastings, Earl Rivers (the maternal uncle of the young sovereign), and others, with designs

on his life, and they were executed. Reports also began to be circulated that Edward IV's marriage with Elizabeth was invalid. On this ground the Duke of Buckingham induced a body of peers and commoners to offer the crown to Richard as the rightful heir, who replied that it was his duty to obey the voice of the people, and that he would therefore take upon him at once the royal estate.

Jane Shore, a concubine of Edward IV, was ordered by the protector to do penance for her incontinence; and in her kirtle, with bare feet and a lighted taper in her hand, she was compelled to walk through the streets of the metropolis.

Death.-Edward V, as well as his brother, is said to have been murdered in the Tower, by Richard's order. Nothing, however, is really known as to their fate.

RICHARD III.

Reigned from 1483 to 1485.

Birth.-Richard was born at Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire, in 1450.

Descent. He was the youngest son of Richard, Duke of York, and therefore brother of Edward IV.

Marriage. He married Anne, daughter of the Earl of Warwick, and widow of Prince Edward.

Child.-Edward, who died before his father.

Important Events.-Though the Duke of Buckingham was amply rewarded by Richard for his services, he soon exhibited discontent, and joined in a conspiracy, with the Marquess of Dorset and others, to place the Earl of Richmond, a descendant of John of Gaunt, upon the throne. The duke unfurled the standard of revolt at Brecon, but when he arrived at the Severn, he found the bridges broken down, and the fords impassable from a flood. His followers soon deserted him, and he hid himself in the hut of one of his servants, who betrayed him.