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THE WARS OF THE ROSES;
THE WARS OF THE ROSES;
OR, Stories of the Struggle of York and Lancaster. By J. G. EDGAR , AUTHOR OF "HISTORY FOR BOYS," "THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT MEN," "THE FOOTPRINTS OF FAMOUS MEN," ETC. With Illustrations. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. TO MASTER DAVID M'DOWALL HANNAY, This Book for Boys IS, WITH EARNEST PRAYERS FOR HIS WELFARE, INSCRIBED BY HIS GODFATHER, THE AUTHOR....
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
My object in writing this book for boys is to furnish them with a narrative of the struggle between York and Lancaster—a struggle which extended over thirty years, deluged England with blood, cost a hundred thousand lives, emasculated the old nobility, and utterly destroyed the house of Plantagenet. It is generally admitted that no period in England's history is richer in romantic incident than the three decades occupied by the Wars of the Roses; but the contest is frequently described as having
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INTRODUCTION. The Plantagenets.
INTRODUCTION. The Plantagenets.
About the middle of the ninth century a warrior named Tertullus, having rendered signal services to the King of France, married Petronella, the king's cousin, and had a son who flourished as Count of Anjou. The descendants of Tertullus and Petronella rose rapidly, and exercised much influence on French affairs. At length, in the twelfth century, Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, surnamed Plantagenet, from wearing a sprig of flowering broom instead of a feather, espoused Maude, daughter of Henry Beaucler
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CHAPTER I. THE MONK-MONARCH AND HIS MISLEADERS.
CHAPTER I. THE MONK-MONARCH AND HIS MISLEADERS.
On St. Nicholas's Day, in the year 1421, there was joy in the castle of Windsor and rejoicing in the city of London. On that day Katherine de Valois, youthful spouse of the fifth Henry, became mother of a prince destined to wear the crown of the Plantagenets; and courtiers vied with citizens in expressing gratification that a son had been born to the conqueror of Agincourt—an heir to the kingdoms of England and France. Henry of Windsor, whose birth was hailed with a degree of enthusiasm which no
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CHAPTER II. THE DUKE OF YORK AND THE KING-MAKER.
CHAPTER II. THE DUKE OF YORK AND THE KING-MAKER.
When Suffolk fell a victim to the popular indignation, Richard, Duke of York, first prince of the blood, was governing Ireland, with a courage worthy of his high rank, and a wisdom worthy of his great name. Indeed, his success was such as much to increase the jealousy with which the queen had ever regarded the heir of the Plantagenets. York was descended, in the male line, from Edmund of Langley, fifth son of the third Edward, and was thus heir-presumptive to the crown which the meek Henry wore.
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CHAPTER III. THE CAPTAIN OF KENT.
CHAPTER III. THE CAPTAIN OF KENT.
In the summer of 1450 there was a ferment among the commons of Kent. For some time, indeed, the inhabitants of that district of England had been discontented with the administration of affairs; but now they were roused to action by rumors that Margaret of Anjou, holding them responsible for the execution of Suffolk, had vowed revenge; that a process of extermination was to be forthwith commenced; and that the country, from the Thames to the Straits of Dover, was to be converted into a hunting-fo
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CHAPTER IV. THE RIVAL DUKES.
CHAPTER IV. THE RIVAL DUKES.
About the end of August, 1451, a rumor reached the court of Westminster that the Duke of York had suddenly left Ireland. The queen was naturally somewhat alarmed; for, during Cade's insurrection, the duke's name had been used in such a way as to test his influence, and no doubt remained of the popularity he enjoyed among the commons. Margaret of Anjou had no wish to see York in London. On the pretext, therefore, that the duke came with too large a force, the queen, at Somerset's instigation, dis
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CHAPTER V. THE KING'S MALADY.
CHAPTER V. THE KING'S MALADY.
In the autumn of 1453 the queen was keeping her court at Clarendon; the Duke of York was at Wigmore and at Ludlow, maintaining a state befitting the heir of the Mortimers; the barons were at their moated castles, complaining gloomily of Henry's indolence and Somerset's insolence; and the people were expressing the utmost discontent at the mismanagement that had, after a brave struggle, in which Talbot and his son, Lord Lisle, fell, finally lost Gascony; when a strange gloom settled over the coun
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CHAPTER VI. THE BATTLE OF ST. ALBANS.
CHAPTER VI. THE BATTLE OF ST. ALBANS.
When Henry recovered from his malady York resigned the Protectorship, and Margaret of Anjou again became all-powerful. The circumstances were such that the exercise of moderation, toward friends and foes, would have restored the Lancastrian queen to the good opinion of her husband's subjects. Unfortunately for her happiness, Margaret allowed prejudice and passion to hurry her into a defiance of law and decency. It happened that, during the king's illness, Somerset had been arrested in the queen'
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CHAPTER VII. THE QUEEN AND THE YORKIST CHIEFS.
CHAPTER VII. THE QUEEN AND THE YORKIST CHIEFS.
When the battle of St. Albans placed the king and kingdom of England under the influence of the Yorkists, the duke and his friends exercised their authority with a moderation rarely exhibited in such circumstances. No vindictive malice was displayed against the vanquished; not a drop of blood flowed on the scaffold; not an act of attainder passed the Legislature. Every thing was done temperately and in order. As Henry was again attacked by his malady he was intrusted to Margaret's care, and York
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CHAPTER VIII. THE CITY AND THE COURT.
CHAPTER VIII. THE CITY AND THE COURT.
One day, in the year 1456, a citizen of London, passing along Cheapside, happened to meet an Italian carrying a dagger. The citizen was a young merchant who had lately been on the Continent, and who had, in some of the Italian states, been prohibited by the magistrates from wearing a weapon, even for the defense of his life. Naturally indignant at seeing an Italian doing in the capital of England what an Englishman was not allowed to do in the cities of Italy, the merchant ventured upon stopping
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CHAPTER IX. A YORKIST VICTORY AND A LANCASTRIAN REVENGE.
CHAPTER IX. A YORKIST VICTORY AND A LANCASTRIAN REVENGE.
In the summer of 1459 Margaret of Anjou carried the Prince of Wales on a progress through Chester, of which he was earl. The queen's object being to enlist the sympathies of the men of the north, she caused her son, then in his sixth year, to present a silver swan, which had been assumed as his badge, to each of the principal adherents of the house of Lancaster. Margaret had left the County Palatine, and was resting from her fatigues at Eccleshall, in Staffordshire, when she received intelligenc
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CHAPTER X. THE BATTLE OF NORTHAMPTON.
CHAPTER X. THE BATTLE OF NORTHAMPTON.
In the month of June, 1460, while the Duke of York was in Ireland, while Margaret of Anjou was with her feeble husband at Coventry, and while Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, York's son-in-law, was, as lord high admiral, guarding the Channel with a strong fleet, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, sailed from Calais for the shores of England. It was in vain that Exeter endeavored to do his duty as admiral; for on the sea as on the land, "The Stout Earl" was a favorite hero, and the sailors refused t
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CHAPTER XI. YORK'S CLAIM TO THE CROWN.
CHAPTER XI. YORK'S CLAIM TO THE CROWN.
On the 7th of October, 1460, a Parliament, summoned in King Henry's name, met at Westminster, in the Painted Chamber, for centuries regarded with veneration as the place where St. Edward had breathed his last, and with admiration on account of the pictures representing incidents of the Confessor's life and canonization, executed by command of the third Henry to adorn the walls. On this occasion the king sat in the chair of state; and Warwick's brother, George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, who, thou
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CHAPTER XII. THE QUEEN'S FLIGHT AND RETURN.
CHAPTER XII. THE QUEEN'S FLIGHT AND RETURN.
When Margaret of Anjou, from the rising ground at Northampton, saw her knights and nobles bite the dust, and descried the banner of Richard Plantagenet borne in triumph through the broken ranks of the Lancastrian army, she mounted in haste and fled with her son toward the bishopric of Durham. Changing her mind, however, the unfortunate queen drew her rein, turned aside, and made for North Wales. The way was beset with danger. As Margaret was passing through Lancashire she was robbed of her jewel
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CHAPTER XIII. THE ANJOUITE'S VENGEANCE.
CHAPTER XIII. THE ANJOUITE'S VENGEANCE.
As the autumn of 1460 was deepening into winter, a rumor reached London that Margaret of Anjou was raising troops on the borders of England. The Duke of York, though not seriously alarmed, was apprehensive of an insurrection in the north; and, marching from the metropolis, with an army of five thousand men, he, on Christmas-eve, arrived at Sandal Castle, which stood on an eminence that slopes down toward the town of Wakefield. Finding that his enemies were so much more numerous than he had antic
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CHAPTER XIV. A PLANTAGENET AND THE TUDORS.
CHAPTER XIV. A PLANTAGENET AND THE TUDORS.
At the opening of the year 1461, a princely personage, of graceful figure and distinguished air, rather more than twenty years of age, and rather more than six feet in height, might have been seen moving about the city of Gloucester, whose quiet streets, with old projecting houses, and whose Gothic cathedral, with stained oriel window and lofty tower, have little changed in aspect since that period. The youthful stranger, who was wonderfully handsome, had golden hair flowing straight to his shou
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CHAPTER XV. BEFORE TOWTON.
CHAPTER XV. BEFORE TOWTON.
On the 3d of March, 1461, while Margaret of Anjou was leading her army toward the Humber, and the citizens of London were awakening from fearful dreams of northern men plundering their warehouses with lawless violence, and treating their women with indelicate freedom, Edward of York entered the capital at the head of his victorious army. Accompanied by the Earl of Warwick, by whom he had been joined at Chipping Norton, the conqueror of the Tudors rode through the city, and was welcomed with the
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CHAPTER XVI. TOWTON FIELD.
CHAPTER XVI. TOWTON FIELD.
With Margaret of Anjou heading a mighty army at York, and Edward Plantagenet heading an army, not assuredly so numerous, but perhaps not less mighty, at Pontefract, a conflict could not long be delayed. Nor, indeed, had the partisans of either Rose any reason to shrink from an encounter. For, while the Yorkist chiefs felt that nothing less than a crowning triumph could save them from the vengeance of the dethroned queen, the Lancastrian lords were not less fully aware that nothing but a decisive
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CHAPTER XVII. THE QUEEN'S STRUGGLES WITH ADVERSITY.
CHAPTER XVII. THE QUEEN'S STRUGGLES WITH ADVERSITY.
On Palm Sunday, when, on Towton Field, the armies of York and Lancaster were celebrating the festival with lances instead of palms, Margaret of Anjou, with the king, the Prince of Wales, and Lord De Roos, remained at York to await the issue of the conflict. The Lancastrians, when they rode forth, appeared so confident of victory that, in all probability, the queen was far from entertaining serious apprehensions. As the day wore on, however, Somerset and Exeter spurred into the city, announced th
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CHAPTER XVIII. THE WOODVILLES.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE WOODVILLES.
About the opening of 1464, Edward, King of England, then in his twenty-fourth year, was diverting himself with the pleasures of the chase in the forest of Whittlebury. One day, when hunting in the neighborhood of Grafton, the king rode to that manor-house and alighted to pay his respects to Jacqueline, Duchess of Bedford. The visit was, perhaps, not altogether prompted by courtesy. He was then watching, with great suspicion, the movements of the Lancastrians, and he probably hoped to elicit from
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CHAPTER XIX. THE LANCASTRIANS IN EXILE.
CHAPTER XIX. THE LANCASTRIANS IN EXILE.
On that day when Lord Montagu inflicted so severe a defeat on the Lancastrians at Hexham, and while the shouts of victory rose and swelled with the breeze, a lady of thirty-five, but still possessing great personal attractions, accompanied by a boy just entering his teens, fled for safety into a forest which then extended over the district, and was known far and wide as a den of outlaws. The lady was Margaret of Anjou; the boy was Edward of Lancaster; and, unfortunately for them, under the circu
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CHAPTER XX. WARWICK AND THE WOODVILLES.
CHAPTER XX. WARWICK AND THE WOODVILLES.
At a court, over which Elizabeth Woodville exercised all the influence derived from her rank as a queen and her fascination as a woman, the Earl of Warwick was somewhat out of place. By Woodvilles, Herberts, and Howards, he was regarded with awe and envy as the haughtiest representative of England's patricians. Especially to the queen and her kinsmen his presence was irksome; and, knowing that any attempt to make "The Stout Earl" a courtier after the Woodville pattern was hopeless as to convert
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CHAPTER XXI. DESPOTISM, DISCONTENT, AND DISORDER.
CHAPTER XXI. DESPOTISM, DISCONTENT, AND DISORDER.
While the Woodvilles were supreme, and while Edward was under their influence disheartening the ancient barons of England, and alienating the great noble to whom he owed the proudest crown in Christendom, the imprudent king did not ingratiate himself with the multitude by any display of respect for those rights and liberties to maintain which Warwick had won Northampton and Towton. Indeed, the government was disfigured by acts of undisguised tyranny; and torture, albeit known to be illegal in En
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CHAPTER XXII. THE SIEGE OF EXETER.
CHAPTER XXII. THE SIEGE OF EXETER.
On the summit of the hill that rises steeply from the left bank of the River Exe, and is crowned with the capital of Devon, some of the burghers of Exeter might have been met with, one spring day in 1470, gossiping about the king and Lord Warwick, and making observations on several hundreds of armed men, who, not without lance, and plume, and pennon, were escorting a youthful dame, of patrician aspect and stately bearing, toward the city gates. The mayor and aldermen were, probably, the reverse
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CHAPTER XXIII. LOUIS THE CRAFTY.
CHAPTER XXIII. LOUIS THE CRAFTY.
When Warwick sailed from Dartmouth as a mortal foe of the man whom, ten years earlier, he had seated on the throne of the Plantagenets, the excitement created by the event was not confined to England. So grand was the earl's fame, so high his character, so ardent his patriotism, and so great the influence he had exercised over that nation of which he was the pride, that Continental princes listened to the news of his breaking with Edward as they would have done to that of an empire in convulsion
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CHAPTER XXIV. "THE STOUT EARL" AND "THE FOREIGN WOMAN."
CHAPTER XXIV. "THE STOUT EARL" AND "THE FOREIGN WOMAN."
It was the spring of 1470 when Warwick left the shores of England, accompanied by the Duke of Clarence, by the Countess of Warwick, and by her two daughters. The king-maker sailed toward Calais, of which, since 1455, he had been captain-general. At Calais Warwick expected welcome and safety. Such, indeed, had been his influence in the city in former days that his dismissal by the Lancastrian king had proved an idle ceremony; and, moreover, he relied with confidence on the fidelity of Lord Vaucle
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CHAPTER XXV. THE EARL'S RETURN AND EDWARD'S FLIGHT.
CHAPTER XXV. THE EARL'S RETURN AND EDWARD'S FLIGHT.
When Warwick, in France, was forming an alliance with Margaret of Anjou, the people of England were manifesting their anxiety for "The Stout Earl's" return. [10] Edward of York, meanwhile, appeared to consider the kingdom nothing the worse for the king-maker's absence. He even ridiculed the idea of taking any precautions to guard against the invasion which was threatened. Instead of making preparations for defense, the king, after the earl's departure from England, occupied himself wholly with t
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CHAPTER XXVI. THE EARL OF WORCESTER.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE EARL OF WORCESTER.
While Edward is in exile; and Elizabeth Woodville in the sanctuary; and Warwick holding the reins of power; and Margaret of Anjou and her son on the Continent; we may refer with brevity to the melancholy fate of John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, celebrated on the same page of history as "the Butcher" and as "the paragon of learning and the patron of Caxton"—the most accomplished among the nobility of his age, and, at the same time, the only man "who, during the Yorkist domination, had committed s
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CHAPTER XXVII. THE BANISHED KING.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE BANISHED KING.
The adventures of Edward of York, when, at the age of thirty, driven from the kingdom by the Earl of Warwick, seem rather like the creation of a novelist's fancy than events in real life. Scarcely had he escaped from his mutinous army on the Welland, taken shipping at Lynn, and sailed for the Burgundian territories, trusting to the hospitality of his brother-in-law, than he was beset with a danger hardly less pressing than that from which he had fled. Freed from that peril, and disappointed of a
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CHAPTER XXVIII. QUEEN MARGARET'S VOYAGE.
CHAPTER XXVIII. QUEEN MARGARET'S VOYAGE.
One day in the middle of November, 1470, about three months after the marriage of Edward of Lancaster and Anne Neville, Margaret of Anjou visited Paris, and was received in the capital of Louis the Crafty with honors never before accorded but to queens of France. The daughter of King René must in that hour have formed high notions of the advantage of Warwick's friendship, for it was entirely owing to the king-maker's triumph that King Henry's wife was treated with so much distinction. The news o
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CHAPTER XXIX. THE BATTLE OF BARNET.
CHAPTER XXIX. THE BATTLE OF BARNET.
Memorable was the spring of 1471 destined to be in the history of England's baronage, and in the annals of the Wars of "the pale and the purple rose." From the day that the warriors of the White Rose—thanks to Montagu's supineness in the cause of the Red—were allowed to pass the Trent on their progress southward, a great battle between Edward and Warwick became inevitable; and as the king, without any desire to avoid a collision with the earl, led a Yorkist army toward London, the earl, with eve
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CHAPTER XXX. BEFORE TEWKESBURY.
CHAPTER XXX. BEFORE TEWKESBURY.
It was Easter Sunday, in the year 1471, and the battle of Barnet had been fought. Exeter lay stretched among the dead and the dying on the blood-stained heath of Gladsmuir; Oxford was spurring toward the north; Somerset was escaping toward the west; Henry of Windsor had been led back to his prison in the Tower; the bodies of Warwick and Montagu were being conveyed in one coffin to St. Paul's; and Edward of York was at the metropolitan cathedral, offering his standard upon the altar, and returnin
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CHAPTER XXXI. THE FIELD OF TEWKESBURY.
CHAPTER XXXI. THE FIELD OF TEWKESBURY.
On Saturday the 4th of May, 1471, ere the bell of Tewkesbury Abbey tolled "the sweet hour of prime," or the monks had assembled to sing the morning hymn, King Edward was astir and making ready to attack the Lancastrians. Mounted on a brown charger, with his magnificent person clad in Milan steel, a crown of ornament around his helmet, and the arms of France and England quarterly on his shield, the king set his men in order for the assault. The van of the Yorkist army was committed to Richard, Du
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CHAPTER XXXII. THE VICTOR AND THE VANQUISHED.
CHAPTER XXXII. THE VICTOR AND THE VANQUISHED.
While Edward of York was smiting down his foes on the field of Tewkesbury, and the blood of the Lancastrians was flowing like water, a chariot, guided by attendants whose looks indicated alarm and dread, might have been observed to leave the scene of carnage, and pass hurriedly through the gates of the park. In this chariot was a lady, who appeared almost unconscious of what was passing, though it had not been her wont to faint in hours of difficulty and danger. The lady was Margaret of Anjou, b
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CHAPTER XXXIII. WARWICK'S VICE-ADMIRAL.
CHAPTER XXXIII. WARWICK'S VICE-ADMIRAL.
One day in May, 1471, while Edward of York was at Tewkesbury, while Henry of Windsor was a captive in the Tower, and while Elizabeth Woodville and her family were also lodged for security in the metropolitan fortress—thus at once serving the purposes of a prison and a palace—a sudden commotion took place in the capital of England, and consternation appeared on the face of every citizen. The alarm was by no means causeless, for never had the wealth of London looked so pale since threatened by the
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CHAPTER XXXIV. ESCAPE OF THE TUDORS.
CHAPTER XXXIV. ESCAPE OF THE TUDORS.
When the spirit of the Lancastrians had been broken on the fields of Barnet and Tewkesbury, and the violent deaths—if such they were—of the monk-monarch and his gallant son had left the adherents of the Red Rose without a prince to rally round, the house of York seemed to be established forever. That branch of the Plantagenets which owed its origin to John of Gaunt was not, indeed, without an heir. The King of Portugal, the grandson of Philippa, eldest daughter of John and Blanche of Lancaster,
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CHAPTER XXXV. ADVENTURES OF JOHN DE VERE.
CHAPTER XXXV. ADVENTURES OF JOHN DE VERE.
One autumn day, about six months after the fall of Warwick and Montagu, a little fleet approached the coast of Cornwall, and anchored in the green waters of Mount's Bay. The monks and fighting men who tenanted the fortified monastery that crowned the summit of St. Michael's Mount might have deemed the appearance of the ships slightly suspicious; but the aspect and attire of those who landed from their decks forbade uncharitable surmises. Indeed, they were in the garb of pilgrims, and represented
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CHAPTER XXXVI. A DUKE IN RAGS.
CHAPTER XXXVI. A DUKE IN RAGS.
Among the Lancastrian chiefs who survived the two fields on which the Red Rose was trodden under the hoofs of King Edward's charger, none was destined to a more wretched fate than the conqueror's own brother-in-law, Henry, Duke of Exeter. The career of this chief of the family of Holland, from his cradle to his grave, forms a most melancholy chapter in the annals of the period. The Hollands were somewhat inferior in origin to most of the great barons who fought in the Wars of the Roses. The foun
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CHAPTER XXXVII. LOUIS DE BRUGES AT WINDSOR.
CHAPTER XXXVII. LOUIS DE BRUGES AT WINDSOR.
In the autumn of 1472, while Oxford was being secured in the Castle of Hammes, and Edward was striving to get Pembroke and Richmond into his power, a guest, whom the king delighted to honor, appeared in England. This was Louis de Bruges, who had proved so true a friend in the hour of need; and right glad was Edward of York to welcome the Lord of Grauthuse to the regal castle which still stands, in the nineteenth century, a monument of the Plantagenets' pride in peace and prowess in war. An accou
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CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE TREATY OF PICQUIGNY.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE TREATY OF PICQUIGNY.
When Edward's victories on Gladsmuir Heath and the banks of the Severn had rendered the Lancastrians in England utterly incapable of making head against the house of York, the martial king naturally turned his thoughts to Continental triumphs, and prepared to avenge himself on Louis of France for the encouragement which that monarch had openly and secretly given to the adherents of the Red Rose. Apart from the friendship shown by the crafty king to Warwick and Lancaster, Edward had a strong reas
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CHAPTER XXXIX. A DOMESTIC TRAGEDY.
CHAPTER XXXIX. A DOMESTIC TRAGEDY.
At the opening of the year 1477, Charles the Rash, Duke of Burgundy, fell at Nanci, before the two-handed swords of the Swiss mountaineers, leaving, by his first wife, Isabel of Bourbon, a daughter, Mary, the heiress of his dominions. About the same time, George, Duke of Clarence, and Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, happened to become widowers. The duke and the earl, in other days rivals for the hand of the heiress of Lord Scales, immediately entered the arena as candidates for that of Mary of B
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CHAPTER XL. KING EDWARD'S DEATH.
CHAPTER XL. KING EDWARD'S DEATH.
For some years after the treaty of Picquigny, Edward of York, trusting to the friendship and relying on the pension of King Louis, passed his time in inglorious ease; and Elizabeth Woodville, elate with the prospect of her daughter sharing the throne of a Valois, persisted in pestering the crafty monarch of France with inquiries when she was to send him her young dauphiness. Meanwhile, Louis, who had no intention whatever of maintaining faith with the King of England one day longer than prudence
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CHAPTER XLI. THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER.
CHAPTER XLI. THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER.
Whether Richard the Third, with his hunch back, withered arm, splay feet, goggle eyes, and swarthy countenance, as portrayed by poets and chroniclers of the Tudor period, very closely resembles the Richard of Baynard's Castle and Bosworth Field, is a question which philosophical historians have answered in the negative. The evidence of the old Countess of Desmond, when brought to light by Horace Walpole in 1758, first began to set the world right on this subject. Born about the middle of the fif
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CHAPTER XLII. THE PROTECTOR AND THE PROTECTORATE.
CHAPTER XLII. THE PROTECTOR AND THE PROTECTORATE.
Before "giving up his soul to God " in the Palace of Westminster, the fourth Edward nominated his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as Protector of England during the minority of Edward the Fifth. The choice was one of which the nation could not but approve. Richard was in the thirty-first year of his life, and in the full vigor of his intellect; with faculties refined by education and sharpened by use; knowledge of mankind, acquired in civil strife and in the experience of startling vicissit
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CHAPTER XLIII. THE USURPATION.
CHAPTER XLIII. THE USURPATION.
After mewing the princes in the Tower, beheading Hastings in London and the Woodvilles at Pontefract, placing such foes to his pretensions as Lord Stanley and the Bishop of Ely under lock and key, and arousing the people's moral indignation by the scandal of a king's widow taking counsel with her husband's mistress to embarrass the government carried on in the name of her son, Richard applied himself resolutely to secure the prize on which he had set his heart. Ere long, the citizens who discuss
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CHAPTER XLIV. RICHARD'S CORONATION.
CHAPTER XLIV. RICHARD'S CORONATION.
When Richard had expressed his intention to usurp the English crown, he fixed the 6th day of July, 1483, for his coronation, and caused preparations to be made for performing the ceremony with such magnificence as was likely to render the occasion memorable. Never had arrangements been made on so splendid a scale for investing a king of England with the symbols of power. At the same time Richard took precautions against any opposition that might be offered by the friends of Elizabeth Woodville.
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CHAPTER XLV. THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER.
CHAPTER XLV. THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER.
When the sons of the fourth Edward and Elizabeth Woodville had been escorted through London, conducted to the Tower, and given into the keeping of Sir Robert Brackenbury, the populace saw their faces no more. According to the chroniclers who wrote in the age of the Tudors, the young king had, from the time of the arrest of his maternal kinsman at Stony Stratford, been possessed with vague presentiments; and he no sooner heard of the usurpation than he revealed the alarm he felt for his personal
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CHAPTER XLVI. A MOCK KING-MAKER.
CHAPTER XLVI. A MOCK KING-MAKER.
Among the many men of high estate who aided Richard to usurp the English throne, none played a more conspicuous part than his rival in foppery, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. No sooner, however, had the Protector been converted into a king than his confederate became malcontent and restlessly eager for change. The death of Warwick, the captivity of John de Vere, the extinction of the Mowbrays and Beauforts, had left the duke one of the most influential among English magnates then alive and
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CHAPTER XLVII. THE COMING MAN.
CHAPTER XLVII. THE COMING MAN.
At the time when Richard usurped the English throne, a young Welshman was residing at Vannes, in Brittany. His age was thirty; his stature below the middle height; his complexion fair; his eyes gray; his hair yellow; and his countenance would have been pleasing but for an expression indicative of cunning and hypocrisy. It was Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, grandson of Owen Tudor, and sole heir of his mother, Margaret Beaufort, granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford. While passing
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CHAPTER XLVIII. FROM BRITTANY TO BOSWORTH.
CHAPTER XLVIII. FROM BRITTANY TO BOSWORTH.
On Christmas day, 1483, a memorable scene was enacted in the capital of Brittany. On that day, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, appeared in the Cathedral of Rennes; before the high altar, and in the presence of the Marquis of Dorset and many other exiles the Welsh earl swore, in the event of being placed on the English throne, to espouse Elizabeth of York, and thereupon the marquis, with the other lords and knights, did him homage as to their sovereign. On the same day Richmond and the English exi
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CHAPTER XLIX. RICHARD BEFORE BOSWORTH.
CHAPTER XLIX. RICHARD BEFORE BOSWORTH.
While Oxford was leaving Hammes, and Richmond was at Paris maturing his projects, and Reginald Bray was carrying messages from the English malcontents to the Welsh earl, the king appears to have been unaware of the magnitude of his danger. Richard was not, however, the man to be surprised by armed foemen in the recesses of a palace. No sooner did he hear of an armament at the mouth of the Seine, than Lord Lovel was stationed at Southampton, Sir John Savage commissioned to guard the coasts of Che
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CHAPTER L. BOSWORTH FIELD.
CHAPTER L. BOSWORTH FIELD.
It was the morning of Monday, the 22d of August, 1485, when the Yorkist usurper and the Lancastrian adventurer mustered their forces on the field of Bosworth, and prepared for that conflict which decided the thirty years' War of the Roses. On the eve of a struggle which subsequent events rendered so memorable, Richard was not quite himself. For days his temper had been frequently tried by news of desertion, and for nights his rest had been broken by dreams of disaster. Nevertheless, he prepared
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CHAPTER LI. AFTER BOSWORTH.
CHAPTER LI. AFTER BOSWORTH.
When the battle of Bosworth was over, and Richmond, with John De Vere, and Jasper of Pembroke, and the Stanleys, including Lord Strange, stood around the mangled corpse of Richard, the prisoners were brought before the victor. Among them appeared William Catesby, and the Earls of Surrey and Northumberland. Northumberland was readily received into favor. Surrey, when asked how he durst bear arms for the usurper, answered, "If the Parliament of England set the crown upon a bush, I would fight for
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CHAPTER LII. THE UNION OF THE TWO ROSES.
CHAPTER LII. THE UNION OF THE TWO ROSES.
At the time of the battle of Bosworth the eldest daughter of Edward of York and Elizabeth Woodville was immured in the Castle of Sheriff Hutton, within the walls of which her cousin, Edward Plantagenet, was also secure. After Richmond's victory both were removed to London: Elizabeth of York by high and mighty dames, to be restored to the arms of her mother; Edward of Warwick by a band of hireling soldiers, to be delivered into the hands of a jailer and imprisoned in the Tower. [18] It soon appea
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