CHAP. XXII.

EDWARD V.

[Years after Christ, 1483.]

We are now come to the shortest reign, and the most pathetic story in the annals of England. When Edward IV. died, his eldest son was about thirteen years old, and was at Ludlow castle, under the care of his uncle, lord Rivers, and his half-brother, lord Grey. The title of the fami ly of York to the crown was now completely established, and no objection was made to the young Edward's being proclaimed.

But though the public willingly acknowledged the young prince, there was amongst his nearest relatives, one who had long marked the innocent boy for destruction. This person was his uncle Richard, duke of Gloucester, a prince of great bravery and ability, but a man of most execrable selfishness, deceitfulness, and cruelty. It was to him that the victories of Towton and of Barnet were principally ascribed.

Richard had long formed the project of usurping the crown, and had cloked it with the most profound dissimulation. His first step, soon after his brother's death, was to impart to lord Hastings a wish to remove the lord Rivers and Grey from about the person of the young king. Has tings, a loyal and honest man, but who bore a bitter enmity to the queen and her relations, willingly agreed to second this design; and Richard accompanied by Hastings and by the duke of Buckingham, who was still deeper in his secrets, set out with a numerous train to meet the king, who was on his way from Ludlow to be crowned at Lon don.

Who was the acknowledged successor of Edward IV.?

Who had plotted the destruction of the prince, and what sort man was he?

Who were the complotters of Richard's criminal designs?

They met the king and his little party at Stony Stratford, where the lords Grey and Rivers waited on the duke of Gloucester, and passed the evening with him in convivial mirth and pleasantry, unsuspicious of the coming evil. The next morning, they and two other gentlemen of the king's retinue were seized and sent to Pontefract, and all the rest of Edward's attendants were dismissed, and for bidden on pain of death to come near the court.

The young king, finding himself alone, and in the power of his uncle, whom he had been early taught by his mother to dread, was struck with grief and terror; but Gloucester falling on his knees, assured him with strong professions of loyalty and affection, that what he had done was for his preservation. Edward then suffered himself to be soothed into composure, and set off with his uncle towards London.

There the news of these violent measures arrived before Gloucester and the prince, and occasioned great alarm, for no one knew what to expect from such a strange beginning. The queen, fearing the worst, instantly fled into the Sanctuary at Westminster, taking with her the duke of York, then about seven years old, and her five daughters.

On the 4th of May, Gloucester conducted his nephew into London, riding before him bareheaded, and saying to the people, "Behold your king!" Two days after, a great council was held, in which the artful duke was appointed Protector of the king and kingdom. Preparations were begun for Edward's coronation on the 22d of June; but on the 13th of May, during the meeting of the council at Westminster, the door of the hall was suddenly opened, and a party of armed men, the tools of the cruel duke of Gloucester, rushed in, crying out, "Treason! treason!" The archbishop of York, Morton, bishop of Ely, and the lords Stanley and Hastings, who were all now hurried off to the Tower, and commited to close custody, except lord Hastings, whom Gloucester pronounced a traitor, and com.

How were the young king and his relations treated?
Did Gloucester dissimulate with his nephew?

Whither fled the young king's mother and her children?

How were preparations for the coronation commenced and interrupted?

How was Lord Hastings treated?

manded to be immediately put to death. He was only permitted a few moments' delay to confess himself to a priest, and his head was cut off on a log of wood which happened to be on the spot.

On the same day, sir Thomas Ratcliffe, one of Richard's chief confidants, entered Pontefract with 5,000 men, and, without any trial, beheaded lord Rivers and lord Grey, and their two fellow prisoners. The death of lord Rivers caused much lamentation, for he was the most accomplished nobleman of his time.

Gloucester, while committing these acts of violence, still kept on his mask of loyalty. He declared in council that it would be highly indecent to suffer the duke of York, during the ceremony of his brother's coronation, to remain in the Sanctuary, a place where thieves and murderers found refuge. The archbishop of Canterbury was in consequence sent to require the queen to surrender her young son.

Having now got both the young princes into his power, Gloucester declared to the people, that the late king had been married to another lady previously to his marriage with lady Elizabeth Wydville, therefore her son was not the legitimate king; and the citizens of London were thus persuaded to offer him the crown.

Richard at first affected to decline it, and said “his love of his brother's children was greater than his love of a crown" but when the duke of Buckingham urged the suit, Richard pretended to overcome his reluctance, and accepted the offered gift. He was the same day proclaimed king, and was soon after crowned. The same preparations that had been made for the coronation of Edward V. served for that of Richard III.

It was long before the fate of the two unfortunate young princes was known with certainty, but they never appeared more. Some years afterwards two people owned themselves to have been concerned in their murder, and said that

What were the next violent measures of Richard's adherents?
Upon what pretence did Gloucester get the young king into his pos-

session?

By what falsehood did Gloucester lay claim to the crown?
Did Richard pretend to refuse the crown, and when was he crowned}
What became of the young princes?

the two princes had been suffocated in their bed, and buried at the foot of a staircase in the Tower.

Edward was in his thirteenth year when his father died, and reigned not quite three months.

The troubled times of England it seems, did not much interrupt the popular amusements. It has been mentioned that the English nation were fond of noisy sports. We have seen the early Saxons entertained with the bards and minstrels; and the Normans with jousts and tournaments, and we have heard that the baronial halls and courts abounded with the tricks of jugglers and buffoons.

Dramatic entertainments, representations of stories by assumed characters, came slowly into fashion in England, and did not take the form of an elegant and moral entertainment till the age of Shakspeare (1580,) or thereabouts.

There were theatrical entertainments long before there were theatres. The first public representation that was any thing like a play was exhibited as early as 1378, and was called a miracle. It was the history of St. Catharine, and was performed by the priests of Dunstable. The actors were attired in the holy vestments belonging to the abbey of St. Alban's. In Richard the Second's reign, the clergy of St. Paul's enacted a miracle before the king and queen,

What were the amusements of the English at different times?
What was the progress of the drama in England?

What was a dramatic miracle?

R

which lasted eight days, and in which was represented the greater part of the history of the bible.

These miracles were succeeded by mysteries, in which sacred subjects were strangely jumbled with mimicry and buffoonery. By degrees, some little moral allegory crept into these entertainments, and miracles and mysteries gave way to moralities, which consisted of long elaborate speeches from allegorical personages, as Theology, Adulation, Admonition, &c. These plays were all performed in churches and chapels, and the actors were almost always ecclesiastics. Besides these church plays, there were secular plays and interludes performed in private houses and in the streets, by jugglers, tumblers, and jesters, whose business it was to rove about and exhibit their talents.

In the time of popery there were so many saints' days, and holidays, the lower orders of people had a great deal of time for their amusements. Christmas was the chief time of sports; and in the king's courts, and probably also in private families, a leader of the sports was elected, who had for the time the pleasant title of lord of misrule.

When there was so much play, of course there was less work. The country was miserably cultivated: there were frequent famines; the dirt and wretchedness of the poor was extreme hunger and idleness made them always ready to raise tumults and disturbances. Their condition is now better, though poor laborers of England do not dance and sing so much as their ancestors did, they enjoy more comforts, and fewer of them are killed in broils, or die of hunger.

What were Mysteries and Allegories?

What effect had the Catholic religion upon popular amusements in England?

Is too much diversion conducive to the well-being of a people?