according to Lancastrian rumour, by Edward's youngest brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Queen Margaret, after four years' captivity, was ransomed by King Louis XI. of France, and died in her own country of Anjou. Anne Neville, widow of the slain Prince Edward, married the Duke of Gloucester, who is known to us by the nickname of "Crookback Richard," and as one of the greatest of villains. Ambitious and unscrupulous he certainly was; but as the detailed accounts of him were written after his death, and in the interest of his adversaries, we cannot depend upon them, even in so small a matter as the crook in his back. The truth as to his appearance seems to be that he was a small, slight man, with one shoulder rather higher than the other. 4. Invasion of France.-Having nothing else to do, the King determined on the renewal of the claim to the French crown. Not satisfied with the large sums which Parliament readily granted to him for this object, but still not venturing to levy taxes on his sole authority, Edward obtained from wealthy men, who did not know how to refuse the King's requests, additional sums under the name of "benevolences," because they were supposed to be gifts offered out of good-will. Everyone gave, as was remarked, "what he was willing, or rather what he was not willing, to give." The invasion however came to nothing. The crafty Louis XI., who did not want to fight, persuaded his enemy to go quietly home in consideration of receiving a large annual pension-a tribute, as the English chose to call it-and, to the disgust of Edward's soldiers, a truce for seven years was made in August, 1475, at Picquigny, near Amiens. 5. Death of Edward. The House of York now seemed firm upon the throne, but it was a house divided against itself. The Duke of Clarence was again at enmity with his royal brother, to whom in 1478 he gave offence which led to his committal to the Tower. Edward, himself appearing as accuser, impeached him of treason before the Peers, who found him guilty. About ten days later it was given out that the Duke had died in the Tower-how was never certainly known, but a wild story flew about that he had been drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. Edward himself died April 9, 1483, leaving two sons, Edward, Prince of Wales, and Richard, Duke of York; one twelve, the other ten years old. CHAPTER XXV. EDWARD V. Edward V.; seizure of power by the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham (1)-beheading of Lord Hastings; the Duke of Gloucester raised to the throne (2). 1. Edward V., April 9-June 22, 1483. Protectorate of Gloucester.-Edward V. reigned less than three months, and was never crowned. At the time of his father's death he was living at Ludlow Castle, surrounded by his mother's kinsmen and friends. But on his road to London, he was overtaken at Stony Stratford by his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who had come up from the North, and by Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, the chiefs of the party opposed to the Wydeviles. These two, by a sudden stroke of treachery and violence, arrested four of the young King's retinue-his mother's brother, Earl Rivers, his mother's son, Lord Richard Grey, and two gentlemen of his household-whom they sent prisoners into Yorkshire; and, ordering the rest of the royal train to disperse, they, with their own followers, brought the King to London. The poor boy, seeing his friends thus taken from him, "wept and was nothing content, but it booted not." The Dukes accused Rivers and the Greys of a design to usurp the government; and the fact that large store of armour and weapons was found among the baggage of the royal attendants was generally thought to justify the arrests. The Queen-Mother, as soon as she heard what had happened, fled with her youngest son Richard, Duke of York, and her five daughters, to the Sanctuary at Westminster. The King was lodged in the Tower, then a palace. as well as a fortress and a prison; and the Duke of Gloucester was appointed Protector. 2. Deposition of Edward.-So far, Gloucester and his supporters had been united by a common hatred of the Wydeviles; but it is plain that they now disagreed among themselves. Lord Hastings in particular, who had been a bitter enemy of the Queen's friends, seems to have repented, and to have secretly gone over to their side. On June 13, by order of the Protector, Hastings was seized at the council-board in the Tower, and put to death out of hand. "By St. Paul," the Protector was reported to have said, "I will not to dinner till I see thy head off;" and a log of wood which lay on the Tower Green served as a block for the hurried execution. The same afternoon proclamation was made that Hastings and his friends had conspired to murder the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham. Rivers, Grey, and their two fellow-prisoners were, without trial, beheaded at Pontefract. The little Duke of York was removed from his mother in the Sanctuary to join his brother in the Tower, and thus Gloucester had both his nephews in his hands. On Sunday, June 22, Dr. Ralf Shaw, a preacher of some note, and brother to the Mayor of London, preached a sermon at Paul's Cross-a cross and pulpit which then stood at the north-east corner of St. Paul's Churchyard -setting forth that the children were illegitimate on the ground that when their father married Elizabeth Wydevile, he was under a precontract to marry another woman. According to the ecclesiastical law, this would make his marriage with Elizabeth void. The Lord Protector was pointed out by the preacher as the rightful inheritor of the Crown. The claim thus first put forward was accepted by an assembly of Lords and Commons, which was practically a Parliament, though owing to some informality it was not afterwards allowed that name; a deputation of lords and knights, joined by the Mayor, aldermen, and chief citizens, desired the Protector to take upon him the royal dignity; and on June 26, the Duke of Gloucester sat in Westminster Hall as King Richard III. of England. CHAPTER XXVI. RICHARD III. Richard III.; disappearance of the sons of Edward (1)-the Earl of Richmond; beheading of Buckingham (2)-legislation (3)-death of Anne; invasion of Richmond; battle of Bosworth; fall of Richard (4) -printing (5)—-literature (6). 1. Richard III., 1483—1485.-Richard and Anne his wife were crowned at Westminster, July 6, 1483, the preparations which had been made for the coronation of the nephew serving for those of the uncle. The new King then set out for York, where he and the Queen, with crowns upon their heads, walked through the streets in a grand procession. He was already liked in the North, where he had lived for some time; and all this display was designed to increase his popularity. But while he was thus T L spending his time, there arose much murmuring in the south and west at the captivity of Edward's sons; and at last Buckingham, hitherto Richard's staunch ally, seems to have undertaken to head a rising for their release. At this moment it was reported that the children were no longer living. In the next reign, it was stated that Sir James Tyrrel and John Dighton had confessed that on the refusal of Sir Robert Brackenbury, Constable of the Tower, to put his young prisoners to death, Richard had bidden that the keys of the Tower should be delivered to Tyrrel for twenty-four hours, and that Tyrrel's groom Dighton, together with one Miles Forrest, had smothered the sleeping children in their bed, and then buried them at the stair-foot. It was further rumoured that by Richard's desire a priest of Brackenbury's household had removed the bodies elsewhere. Some however have doubted the murder, notwithstanding the apparent confirmation of the popular belief by a discovery made 191 years later of the bones of two boys, of about the age of the young princes, lying buried in the White Tower under the staircase leading to the chapel. The reigning King, Charles II., had them removed to Henry the Seventh's Chapel as the remains of Edward V. and Richard, Duke of York. 2. Revolt of Buckingham.-The league now formed against Richard consisted of Buckingham, many old Lancastrians, and the Marquess of Dorset, Elizabeth Wydevile's son, with others of the Wydevile party, acting in concert with Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who on his father's side was a grandson of Owen Tudor and Katharine, widow of Henry V., and on his mother's a descendant, through the Beaufort line, of John of Gaunt, and who, in the absence of any better representative of the House of Lancaster, was accepted as its head. To unite the Yorkists and Lancastrians, it was agreed that he should marry Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. Richmond was |