A.D. 1485.] INVASION OF RICHMOND. 403 natural a union; and Richard, with an affectation of indignation, denied that he had ever entertained so horrible an idea. Another competitor for her hand was less objectionable in point of nearness of blood, and the expatriated Richmond was glad to buy the support of many who were wearied out with civil dissension by binding himself to unite the fortunes of the houses by marrying the representative of the Yorks. Little was known at this period of his proceedings, for he . kept himself as quiet as possible in the town of Vannes. Richard, from policy, if not from the contempt he entertained for the talents and even the courage of his rival, appeared to take no heed of the approaching danger. He visited the different counties, and kept high wassail at the feasts of the Church. He passed, also, some excellent statutes for the security of his subjects against the power of the crown, and for facilitating the transfer of land. Yet the care of the energetic usurper was not so entirely absorbed by domestic affairs as to blind him to the actions of his enemies abroad. Richmond received notice from Bishop Morton of Ely, one of his confederates, that the Duchy of Brittany was no longer safe; and passing over the boundary which divided it from France, he made his way to Paris, and the contest was carried on in the same secret manner as before. § 7. But Richmond at last obtained the active aid of France, and prepared for a descent. Three thousand Normans were furnished for the invasion, and roused the tyrant from his plans of domestic change. The warlike spirit of the Plantagenets burst forth in the last of their line, and Richard, entrusting the protection of the sea-coast to his friends, took his station, as before, in the middle of the kingdom, prepared for any attack. But his friends, trained in a school of civil war, were ready to desert him at his need. The towns were for a while turned against the strengthener of their liberties by the forced contributions he was obliged to exact. The Yorkist name was rendered odious by the vices of most of its bearers, and the evil qualities of the new aspirer to the crown were still unknown. His claims by hereditary descent were exposed in a bitter proclamation; bastardy in both the male and female lines was proved against him beyond the possibility of dispute; but, fortunately for him, the popularity of the house of Lancaster had had time to revive. Men thought of the first two Henries with pride, and of the last with religious pity; for in the eyes of many his patience and submission had elevated him into a saint. The changes of the last years also had been so great and strange, that people were unprepared for the monotony of a long-continued scene. And the nation looked on almost as if sitting at a play, while the last struggle between the lords, to whom the interest in the result was limited, decided the very unimportant question of whether the name on the shilling should be Henry or Richard. § 8. Henry landed at Milford Haven on the 7th of August, and on the twenty-first both armies were in sight of Bosworth, near Leicester. When the plain was filled next morning with the contending hosts, any other than Richard would have felt that his hour was come. Half the chiefs of his party had gone over to the other side. Even Northumberland, his main reliance, had carried over all his followers; and others who owed their lives to his clemency had joined the enemy. No one continued true but Norfolk, and his son, Lord Surrey. With these, and the promised aid of Lord Stanley—who had sent to say he was detained by illness, but would certainly be with him before the fight was over-he determined to begin; -a sharp and bitter battle, which might have ended in a different manner, if Richard's design had not been foiled by treason. Stanley came on the field, and both parties hailed his approach as decisive of the day, for he had promised his help to both; but at a very critical period of the engagement he openly declared for Richmond, and turned hist whole power against the king. § 9. Clapping spurs to his horse, the fierce Plantagenet A D. 1485.] DEATH OF RICHARD III. 405 plunged into the thickest of the fight. Forcing his way through, he pushed madly on to where the more cool-blooded Richmond was surveying the combat. A blow slew Sir William Brandon, the standard-bearer of his rival; another overthrew the good knight, Sir John Cheney; one other plunge forward of the horse would have brought him within reach of Richmond, and the contest would have been ended by the death of one or other; but crowds galloped up, closed in on the still advancing king, and overpowered him by their numbers. They ignominiously stripped his lifeless body, and suspending it across a horse, buried it with contemptuous want of reverence in a monastery at Leicester. The royal crown of England, which had been worn by Richard round his casque, was discovered on a thorn bush, and being placed by the double traitor Stanley on the victor's head, he was saluted from all parts of the field with shouts of victory, and cries of "God save King Henry the Seventh!" A.D. LANDMARKS OF CHRONOLOGY. 1483. Edward V. succeeded his father at the age of eleven, but was never crowned. Richard, duke of Gloucester, Jane Shore, the mistress of A.D. obscurely buried. Richard is 1483. The Duke of Buckingham de- FRANCE. Charles VIII.; Louis XII. SCOTLAND.-James III.; James IV. SPAIN. Of Navarre-Catherine and her husband, John of Albret. Of Castile and Leon-Ferdinand V. (the Catholic); EMPERORS OF GERMANY.-Frederick III.; Maximilian I. § 1. Person and character of Richard III.-§ 2. Political retrospect. Changes in the social system.-§ 3. Discovery of printing, and its influence on society. Caxton.-§ 4. Accession of Henry VII., and his marriage with Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.— § 5. Discontent and insurrections in the country. Hostility of the Duchess of Burgundy.-§ 6. Proceedings of Henry. The Battle of Stoke. Lambert Simnel, the Pretender. Henry confiscates the estates of the rebels.—§ 7. His contests with France, and his pettifogging propensities.-§ 8. His secret league with Charles VIII., and pretended invasion of France for the sake of raising money. Peace of Estaples.-§ 9. Perkin Warbeck, the Pretender. Recognised by the Duchess of Burgundy and numerous others. Proofs of the imposture. § 10. Perkin's invasion of England. Marries Lady Catherine Gordon.-§ 11. Cornish rebellion.-§ 12. Flight and capture of Perkin. His trial and execution.-§ 13. Marriage and death of the king's son, Prince Arthur.-§ 14. Marriage of the Princess Margaret. Oppressions of Dudley and Empsom. -§ 15. Henry's demands extorted from the Archduke Philip of Castile and his wife Joanna.§ 16. His matrimonial intrigues. His grasping and avaricious spirit. His death. A.D. 1485.] PERSON AND CHARACTER OF RICHARD. 407 § 1. THE enmity of the successful faction pursued the unhappy Richard even beyond the grave. No surer avenue was found to the favour of the mean-souled Richmond than vituperation of the Yorkist king, for Henry considered it an acknowledgment of his Lancastrian descent when any one calumniated the rival line. It is therefore difficult to come to a true decision on all parts of the conduct of the vanquished of Bosworth, or even on circumstances connected with him more easily known. The hostility of his traducers descended even to malignant representations of his personal appearance, and tradition has transmitted him to us as a monster of deformity no less than of crime. It would be fortunate for him if we could diminish his delinquencies in the same degree as his bodily defects, for the exaggerations of malice are now reduced to the fact that there was a slight inequality in the height of his shoulders, and that his stature was below the knightly standard. But indubitable proofs remain that he shared in the comeliness of feature for which his brother was celebrated, and the gentlemen who fell or fled before his sword in the last of his encounters bore witness to his activity and skill. § 2. The transition from mediæval to modern times is dated from this reign. The characteristic of the former period is the predominance of the feudal or aristocratic element, while of the latter the prevailing feature is the supremacy of the monarchical principle, modified, in our country, by the admixture of popular power. It was not, however, in this country alone that the great change took place. A similar madness to that which excited the Wars of the Roses raged for many years among the landed nobles in France, till, when Louis XI. died, and his spirit transmigrated into our equally ignoble Henry VII., the strength of that armed feudalism which had counterbalanced the crown, was found to be entirely broken. Dukes, marquises, and earls were no longer the half-royal and almost entirely independent |