served to stimulate Edward's passion, or derived from his patrimony.* Not satisfied whether he was charmed by her composed with these resources, he accepted a secret demeanor, her graceful form, her "pregnant pension and gratuities from Louis XI., of wit," and her "eloquent tongue;" for her which the exposure bares the mean heart countenance is said to have been not beau- that often lurked beneath knightly armor.t tiful: certain it is, that when dame Eliza- Perhaps the report of this dishonorable corbeth made an humble suit to the king, she respondence might have alarmed Edward; prevailed more rapidly than other suitors. while Warwick might consider his patriThe manners of Edward were so dissolute monial estate as in some danger from the as to countenance a rumor that he tried rapacity of the upstart Woodvilles. In the every means of seduction before he offered year 1469, Warwick gave no small token his hand and crown to her. Even though of estrangement by wedding his daughter we should without just ground refuse the to George duke of Clarence, Edward's bropraise of unmingled virtue to her resist- ther, without the permission, probably withance, still it would not lose its right to be out the knowledge, of that monarch. After accounted virtue, by calling to its aid the several jars, followed by formal and superdictates of a commendable prudence and ficial reconciliations, Warwick broke out of an honorable ambition. From whatever into open revolt against Edward, which motive, or mixture of motives, she acted, gave rise to two years of more inconstancy she was, in fact, steady in her rejection of and giddiness, more vicissitudes in the forillicit union. The king at length consented tune and connexions of individuals, and to a private marriage, which was solemn-more unexpected revolutions in governized at Grafton on the 1st of May, 1464. ment, than any other equal space of time The bride and bridegroom, a priest, a in the history of England. About the chanter, two gentlemen, and the duchess beginning of that time the men of Yorkof Bedford, were the only persons present shire, under the command of Robin of at the solemnity. The king, after remain- Redesdale, a hero among the moss-troopers ing a short time, returned to Stony Strat- of the border, took the field to the amount ford, where he went to bed, affecting to of 60,000 men. Their manifesto complainhave been occupied by the chase during ed of the influence of evil counsellors over the night. He speedily imparted his secret the king, and of other matters more likely to Sir Richard Woodville, but contented to be suggested by barons than by boors. himself with secret and stolen visits to his These insurgents were checked by Neville bride. She was acknowledged at Michael- earl of Northumberland; but they were mas, and crowned with all due splendor on dealt with so leniently by that nobleman, Ascension-day of the following year. This as to strengthen the suspicion that the disunion displeased the powerful and haughty contents of the Nevilles had ripened into Warwick, who did not easily brook the projects of rebellion. Warwick, too, was rupture which it occasioned of the negoti- deeply suspected of being inactive only till ation for marriage with the princess Bonne he was armed. It was about this time (26th in which he had been employed. He of July, 1469), that the revolters, after beblamed, with reason, the levity with which ing defeated in an imprudent attack on the Edward incurred the resentment of those royalists at Edgecote, were finally dispowerful princes by alliance with whose persed. It seems to have been the last families he, in his wiser moments, sought heave of the earth before the wide-spread to strengthen himself. The sudden eleva- earthquake. The execution of two Woodtion of the queen's family to office and honor villes, father and son, favorites of the king, awakened the jealousy of the nobility, and yet put to death by the victorious army, especially of Warwick, who received the seemed to indicate that some of the leaders alarming name of the king-maker, and against the peasants were ill-affected to might be impelled by his quick resentment the court. The duke of Clarence and the and offended pride to prove that he could earl of Warwick returned from Calais, appull down as well as set up kings. His parently obeying the king's summons, and means of good and harm were most exten- supporting his cause. It appears from the sive. To the earldoms of Warwick and records, that between the 17th and 27th Salisbury, with the lands of the Spencers, he added the offices of great chamberlain and high admiral, together with the government of Calais, and the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland. The income of his offices is said by Comines to have amounted to eighty thousand crowns by the year, be-xi. 541, 542. sides the immense revenue or advantage] § Rymer, xi. 447–461. * Comines liv. iii. c. 4. i. 148. edition de L'Englet Dufresnoy, 4to. 1747. †Note on Comines, i. 149. He was sent a minister to France, Burgundy, and Britany, immediately after Edward's marriage, perhaps with the double purpose of soothing his anger and abating his personal influence.-Rymer, of August, 1469, several feigned reconcili- the field. By their death the greatness of ations were effected, which were termin- the house of Neville was destroyed. Warated by a royal declaration against Clarence wick is the most conspicuous personage of and Warwick as rebels. The remaining this disturbed reign; and the name of part of our information does not flow from king-maker, given to him by the people, so pure a source, and is indeed both scanty well expresses his love of turbulence for and perplexed. Clarence and Warwick its own sake; his preference of the pleawere at length compelled to quit England; sure of displaying power to that of attainand under specious pretences, were refused ing specific objects of ambition; and his permission to land at Calais by Vauclere almost equal readiness to make or unmake the lieutenant of that fortress, a wary officer, any king, according to the capricious incliwho was desirous to retain the liberty of nation or repugnancy of the moment. finally adhering to the successful.* Louis Another contest still remained. The unXI. now openly espoused the cause of these daunted and unwearied Margaret had levied malcontent barons. Under his mediation, troops in France, at the head of which she Margaret and Warwick, so long mortal landed at Weymouth on the very day of enemies, were really reconciled to each the battle of Barnet. The first event of other by their common hatred of the king which she received tidings was the fatal of England, and concluded a treaty, by battle. Her spirits were for an instant dewhich it was stipulated that prince Edward pressed. She sought sanctuary for herself should espouse Anne Neville, Warwick's and her son in the monastery of Beaulieu. daughter; that they should join their forces But the bolder counsels of the Lancastrian to restore Henry; and that, in failure of lords who had escaped from Barnet resumed issue by the prince, the crown should de- their wonted ascendant over her masculine volve on Clarence. Meanwhile, Edward mind. Pembroke had collected a considerseems to have been seized with an unwont-able force in support of her cause in Wales. ed fit of supineness. He lingered while If she had been able to pass the Severn, he was beset with revolts. His only ex- and form a junction with him, there was ertion, that of going to Northumberland, still a probability of success; but the inhabwhere the borderers now favored their new itants of Gloucester had already fortified masters, the Nevilles, more than their an- their bridge, and Edward had taken a posicient lords of the house of Percy, was tion which commanded the pass of Tewkesmore pernicious than inaction, by placing bury. him so far from the capital that the fate of On Saturday the 14th of May, 1471, the the kingdom must be determined before he battle of Tewkesbury concluded this sanlearned the existence of the danger. The guinary war. The defeat of the Lancasapproach of Warwick shook the fidelity of trians was complete. Courtenay earl of the troops; and Edward was compelled to Devonshire, Sir Edmund Hampden, and make his escape to Holland. Warwick, by about 3000 soldiers, were killed. On the the aid of Clarence, and under the name next day the duke of Somerset and the prior of Henry, resumed the supreme power. of St. John were beheaded, after a summaEdward, by the connivance of the duke of ry trial before the constable and the marBurgundy, collected a body of Flemings shal. Search was made, and reward offerand Dutchmen, with whom he landed at the ed, for prince Edward: he was taken prismouth of the Humber, on the 14th of oner, and brought before the king by Sir March, 1471. His advance towards Lon- Richard Crofts. The king said to him, don obliged Henry's army, commanded by "How dare you presumptuously enter into Warwick, to take a position at Barnet; my realm with banner displayed?" Wherewhere, on the fourteenth of April, a battle unto the prince answered, "To recover my was fought, which proved much more im- father's kingdom and heritage, from his faportant in its consequences than could have ther and grandfather to him, and from him been conjectured from the small number of to me, lineally descended." At these words, the slain, which on both sides is estimated Edward said nothing, but thrust the youth by an eye-witness at no more than 1000. from him, or, as some say, "struck him with On Edward's side were killed the lords his gauntlet, when he was instantly put to Cromwell and Say, with some gentlemen death by the dukes of Clarence and Glouof the neighboring country. The great cester, lord Dorset and lord Hastings;"|| a event of the day was that Warwick, and display of barbarous manners among perhis brother, Montague, were left dead on * Monstrelet. Comines, iii. 4. † Fenn, i. 49. A parliament was as usual called, of which some of the proceedings are to be found in Rymer, X1. 661-707. It confirmed the present engagement between the prince and Warwick. §" Margaret is verily landed and her son in the "west country, and I trou that to-morrow or the "next day King Edward will depart from hence to norwards to drive her out again."-Letter of J. Paston to his mother, with an account of the battle of Barnet.-Fenn, ii. 67. Holinshed, iii. 320. ༣ sons of the highest dignity, which it would eral and more momentous, benevolently bebe hard to match among the most embruted guiles us into a tenderness for the beings savages. It must not, however, be forgot- who most need it, inspiring us with the ten, that it passed in the first heat and irri- fond imagination that the innocence of chiltation of battle; that the nearest observers dren is the beautiful result of mature reamight have overlooked some circumstances, son and virtue;—a sentiment partaking of and confounded the order of others; and the same nature with the feelings which that the omission of a provoking look or dispose the good man to be merciful to his gesture (to say nothing of words or deeds) beast. might give a different color to the event. The war with France which followed the Margaret and her son having been declared civil wars was attended with no memorable rebels by the king a few days before the events, and it was closed by the treaty of battle of Tewkesbury, the barbarous chiefs Pecquigny, in 1475, by which provision might have deemed the assassination of the was made for large payments of money to prince as little differing from the execution Edward, and for the marriage of the dauof a sentence; and instead of remorse for phin with his eldest daughter. Margaret that deed, they perhaps thought that by of Anjou was set at liberty on payment of sparing Margaret they had earned the 50,000 crowns by Louis. She survived her praise of knightly generosity. deliverance about seven years, during which, Shortly after Edward's victorious return, having no longer any instruments or objects Henry VI. breathed his last in the Tower, of ambition, she lived quietly in France. where much of his life had been passed as The earl of Richmond the grandson, and a pageant of state, and another large por- the earl of Pembroke the second son, of tion of it as a prisoner of war. He is gen- Catherine of France by Owen Tudor, took erally stated by historians to have died by refuge from the persecution of the Yorkists violence; and the odium of the bloody deed at the court of Britany. By the marriage has chiefly fallen upon Richard duke of of Edmund Tudor earl of Richmond with Gloucester. The proof of the fact, how- Margaret Beaufort the last legitimate deever, is disproportioned to the atrocity of scendant of John of Gaunt's union with the accusation. Many temptations and Catherine Swinford, Henry earl of Richprovocations to destroy him had occurred mond, the surviving son of that marriage, in a secret imprisonment of nearly ten was the only Lancastrian pretender to the years. It is rather improbable that those crown. who through so many scenes of blood had The quarrel of Edward with his brother spared "the meek usurper's hoary head," the duke of Clarence; the share of the latshould, at last, with so small advantage, ter in Warwick's defection; and the levity incur the odium of destroying a prince who which led him to atone for his desertion of seems to have been dear to the people for Edward by another desertion from Warno other quality but the regular observance wick, have already been related summaof petty superstitions. He was as void of rily. The reconciliation, probably supermanly as of kingly virtues. No station can ficial from the first, gave way to collisions be named for which he was fitted but that of the interests and passions of the princes of a weak and ignorant lay brother in a of the royal race, at a period when the monastery. Our compassion for the mis-order of inheritance was so often interfortunes of such a person would hardly go rupted. The final rupture is said to have beyond the boundary of instinctive pity, if been produced by a singular incident. an extraordinary provision had not been Thomas Burdett, a man of ancient family made by nature to strengthen the social af in the county of Warwick, one of the genfections. We are so framed to feel as if all tlemen of Clarence's bedchamber, is said to harmlessness arose from a pure and gentle have had a favorite buck in his park at Harmind; and something of the beauty of in- row, which the king, when sporting there, tentional goodness is lent to those who only chanced to kill. Burdett, as we are told, in want the power of doing ill. The term in- the first transports of his rage, declared nocence is ambiguously employed for impo- that he "wished the horns in the belly of tence and abstinence. A man in a station him who killed it." It is not known whesuch as that of a king, which is generally ther this was more than a hasty expression, surrounded with power and dignity, is apt or even whether Burdett then knew the to be considered as deliberately abstaining king to be the killer. He was, however, from evil when he inflicts none, although immediately imprisoned, and very summahe be really withheld, as in the case of rily put to death. Clarence, who had spoken Henry, by an incapacity to do either good angrily of the execution of his friend, was or harm. Nature, by an illusion more gen- attainted of treason for his hasty language, and of sorcery to give to Burdett's expression the dire character of necromantic im * Rymer, xi. 709. rants. precation. The commons importuned the of its neighborhood to the priory of Bolton; king to give orders for his brother's execu- that he might converse with some of the tion; an act of baseness not easily surpass- canons of that house who were skilled in ed. The king had some repugnance to the astronomy, for which his life as a lonely public execution of a prince. Clarence was shepherd had inspired him with a singular accordingly privately put to death; and the affection. Amidst the beautiful scenery of prevalent rumor was, that he was drowned Bolton, or in his tower of Barden, he is said in a butt of malmsey; a sort of murder not to have passed the remainder of his days. indeed substantiated by proof, but very His death occurred when he had reached characteristic of that frolicsome and festive his seventy-second year, after a life the cruelty which Edward practised in com- greater part of which was spent in the calm mon with other young and victorious ty- occupations of science and piety. He distinguished himself as a commander on the Some incidents in the lives of individu- field of Flodden; and he was allied by marals open a more clear view into the state riage to the royal blood. It is hard to conof England during this calamitous period, ceive any struggle more interesting than than public documents or general history that of a jealous tyrant searching for infants can supply: among these may be numbered whom, had he made them captives, he the romantic tale of the shepherd lord Clif- would have won the power of destroying, ford. The reader already knows that the against the perseverance and ingenuity of Cliffords, a martial and potent race of the a mother's affection employed in guarding northern borders, afterwards earls of Cum- her progeny from the vulture.f berland, had embraced the Lancastrian Many of the long concealments and narcause with all the rancor of hereditary feud. row escapes of Henry and his consort atJohn lord Clifford was killed at the battle test, like the story of lord Clifford, the conof St. Alban's by Richard duke of York. dition of the borders, thinly peopled by preAt the battle of Wakefield, another John datory tribes, mixed with a few priests, lord Clifford revenged the death of his fa- and fugitives from justice, who had so ther by the destruction of the young earl little amicable intercourse with their neighof Rutland, that duke's eldest son; to say bors, that kings and barons might long lie nothing of the slaughter which procured hidden among them undiscovered by their for him in that action the name of "the enemies. butcher." At the battle of Towton this interchange of barbarous revenge was chiefly employed in apparent preparations closed by the death of lord Clifford and the for renewing the pretensions of his prededisappearance of his children. Henry his cessors to the crown of France, with no eldest son was then only seven years of age. serious intention, as it should seem, to exeBut lady Clifford, the mother, eluded the cute his threat; but in order to obtain money rigorous inquiry which was made for the in various modes from Louis XI., from the children. She then resided at Lonesbo- house of commons, and by prerogative from rough in Yorkshire, where she placed her the body of the nation. The senseless pureldest son under the care of a shepherd suit of aggrandizement in France was still who had married his nurse. The boy was popular in England. Parliament granted trained in a shepherd's clothing and habits. no subsidy so gladly as one for conquering Some time after, however, on a rumor pre- France. The practice of raising money by vailing that he was still alive, the court re- what was called benevolences was rendered newed the jealous search, and his mother almost acceptable when it was to be applied removed the faithful shepherd with his fam- for this national purpose. They had originily to Cumberland, where he dwelt some- ally been voluntary contributions, for which times on the debatable ground, at other the king applied to the wealthier of his times at Threlkield, near the seat of her subjects. The odium of refusal was so second husband. At that place she private- great, that they were gradually growing ly visited her beloved child. On the acces- into a usage which would shortly have sion of Henry VII., at the age of thirty-one, ranked with positive law. The remainder of Edward's reign was he was restored to the honors and estates The most dangerous of his objects in of his family. Every part of his life was threatening France with war, was that of so well fitted to his outward station, that he obtaining pensions from Louis XI. for himwas not taught to read, and only learnt to self and his ministers. That wily monarch write his name. He built the tower of Barden, which he made his residence by reason †“In him the savage virtue of his race, Revenge, and all ferocious thoughts, were dead thought the most effectual means of attain- he nor you shall have it to brag that the ing his ends, whatever they might be, were lord-chamberlain of England has been his to be always chosen, without regard to any pensioner.”+ * other consideration. In the year 1475, a Louis postponed the marriage of the dautreaty had been concluded, by which a phin, with a view to an union with some present gratification of seventy-five thou- heiress, whose territory might be united to sand crowns, with an annuity of fifty thou- the crown. Edward discovered at last that sand more, were to be paid by Louis to Ed-Louis was amusing him with vain promises: ward; and by which it was stipulated that his death (9th April, 1482,) is ascribed by the union should be further cemented by some to mortified ambition; by others, to the marriage of the dauphin with Edward's one of those fits of debauchery which now eldest daughter. It was impossible that succeeded the vices of youth, and which this example should not be followed. Lord had already converted his elegant form and Hastings and the chancellor accepted pen- fine countenance into the bloated corpulence sions of two thousand crowns each. Twelve of depraved and premature age. Either thousand more were distributed among the cause of death suited his character, and marquis of Dorset, the queen's son, the might naturally have closed such a life: lords Howard and Cheyne, and other favor- for the shortest and yet fullest account of ites. This pernicious expedient opened to his character is, that he yielded to the imthe needy and prodigal prince immense pulse of every passion. His ambition was means of supply, independent of grants from as boundless as his revenge was fierce. parliament, and which might even be easily Both these furious passions made him cruel, concealed from that assembly. The terri- faithless, merciless, and lawless. Nothing tories of the crown might thus be alienated; restrained him in the pursuit of sensual the strong-holds of the kingdom placed in gratification. He squandered on his misthe hands of foreigners; a door opened by tresses the foreign bribes which were the which foreign armies might enter the king- price of his own dishonor. To fear and its dom to enslave it. To the pensions were abject train he was a stranger; but it can added occasional gratuities to an amount scarcely be said with truth that he was scarcely credible. Lord Howard, within exempt from any other species of vice; untwo years, received 24,000 crowns; lord less we except avarice, which would have Hastings, at the treaty of Pecquigny, re- bridled him more than his impetuous apceived twelve dozen of gilt silver bowls, petites could have brooked. Sir Thomas and twelve dozen not gilt; each of which More tells us, that his licentious amours weighed seventeen nobles. The receipts rather raised than lowered his popularity, of the English politicians for these danger- by inuring him to familiar intercourse with ous gifts were preserved in the public offices women of the middle class. The year beat Paris. At first, the permission of the fore his death, he entertained the lordcrown was probably obtained: the ministers mayor and aldermen at Windsor, and disthen might flatter themselves that, though tributed his presents of venison so liberally they accepted the money, it was only to among them, “that nothing won more the obey the commands and promote the policy hearts of the common people, who oftenof their master; but during an intercourse times esteem a little courtesy more than a in which both parties must have learned to great benefit.”‡ despise each other, it is impossible that the ministers should not be tempted to deal clandestinely with the foreign government, and finally, with however slow steps, that they should not slide into the miserable condition of its hireling agents. Lord Hastings, in these corrupt transactions, showed some glimmering of a sense of perverted and paradoxical honor. Cleret, the paymaster of the English ministers, after one EDWARD V. nominally reigned over Engof his payments, softly insinuated the pro- land for two months and thirteen days. His priety of a written acknowledgment. Hast- imaginary rule began and ended in his ings, without disputing Cleret's demand, fourteenth year. In that brief space revoanswered, "Sir, this gift cometh from the lutions of government occurred of which liberal pleasure of the king your master, not one was unstained by faithless, delibeand not from my request: if it be his de-rate, and cruel murder; and it was closed terminate will that I should have it, put it by a dark and bloody scene, which has beinto my sleeve; if not, return it: for neither come the subject of historical controversy CHAP. VI. TO THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH. EDWARD V.-RICHARD III. * See page 180. † Holinshed, iii. 342. Itid. |