King Richard III.
From a picture in the National Portrait Gallery
RICHARD III: HIS LIFE & CHARACTER
REVIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT RESEARCH
BY SIR CLEMENTS E. MARKHAM, K.C.B.
AUTHOR OF 'THE LIFE OF THE
GREAT LORD FAIRFAX' AND
'THE FIGHTING VERES'
WITH A PORTRAIT
LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, AND CO.
15 WATERLOO PLACE. 1906
(All rights reserved)
PREFACE
There are periods of history when the greatest caution is called for in accepting statements put forward by a dominant faction. Very early in my life I came to the conclusion that the period which witnessed the change of dynasties from Plantagenet to Tudor was one of these. The caricature of the last Plantagenet King was too grotesque, and too grossly opposed to his character derived from official records. The stories were an outrage on common-sense. I studied the subject at intervals for many years, and in the course of my researches I found that I more or less shared my doubts with every author of repute who had studied the subject for the last three centuries, except Hume and Lingard. My own conclusions are that Richard III. must be acquitted on all the counts of the indictment. The present work is divided into two parts, the first narrating the events of his life and times, and the second examining the various accusations against him. I did not contemplate publication because I thought that in these days prejudices were too strong to make it possible that a fair and candid hearing should be given to the arguments. But I determined to consult some historical friends, and I was pleased to find that to a great extent I was mistaken.
In the first place, I wrote a full abstract of my arguments, for publication in the 'Historical Review,' acting under the advice of my old schoolfellow, Professor Freeman, to whom I sent it in the first instance. It so happened that Mr. Freeman had given attention to part of the subject. He upset some odious fabrications of the chroniclers affecting the character of Margaret of Anjou, by proving that she was in Scotland at the time when the battle of Wakefield was fought. Freeman seldom wrote on so late a period of our history, and we owe this modern excursion to a visit to Mr. Milnes Gaskell at Thornes.
After reading what I sent him, Professor Freeman wrote on August 13, 1890: 'Your abstract has set me a-thinking. It is only a Robert of Bellême who does that kind of thing. On your main point I will talk to Gardiner and Stubbs. Meanwhile, I have shown your manuscript to Sidney Owen, who read it and held it to be what lawyers would call considerable. Owen had been at those times, and holds Henry VII. to be at least capable of it.
'It would be a self-denying ordinance in Gairdner if he accepted your view, for he has gone more straight at that time than anybody else. Gardiner has written to him, and he is a little fierce, as was to be expected, but if you are like me, no man's fierceness will hinder you from dining and sleeping as well as usual. The matter is at all events worth discussing.'
Professor York Powell read my manuscript, and wrote: 'I have read the manuscript and think there is something worth looking into. Henry's conduct to Tyrrell is exceedingly suspicious. Either Richard or Henry might have put the boys to death, but it would be interesting for many reasons to know which it was. I am not convinced by Markham, but I do not think Gairdner has the right to be cocksure. The Morton suggestive idea is very ingenious and pretty, and quite probable. It has interested me much to read Markham's letter, for I remember my difficulties in the matter and the point I got to, that the great men did not, for a time, hold the now vulgate view of the murder of the princes. I should rejoice should Markham light upon additional evidence in favour of his thesis, which à priori is by no means unlikely. There is something about Richard's character, ability, and reign which, I think, attracts every real student of history, and gives one a feeling that he has been unfairly dealt with.'
In 1891, the abstract of my work was published in the 'Historical Review,' and Bishop Creighton, who was then the editor, wrote: 'Thank you for your paper, which I have read with great interest. It certainly makes out a strong case.'
There were two rejoinders from Mr. Gairdner, which enabled me to recast and improve parts of my work by the light of his criticism.
I lost my adviser, Mr. Freeman, in 1892. One of the last things he did was to warn me of an objection taken by Miss Edith Thompson, which enabled me to meet it.[[1]]
After careful revision I showed my manuscript to the late Sir Archibald Milman, who had given close attention to those times. On December 27, 1897, he wrote: 'It is your bounden duty to tell your story of Richard III., giving the date for every fact. It is only by sticking to dates that you get at truth in criminal causes, and the same method must be followed at the bar of history. It would be a pleasure to think that the last Plantagenet was not a cruel scoundrel. By giving dates and authorities for them, you render a great service. Richard's loyalty and able administration in the north seem inconsistent with such ferocity. I was much interested in one of your facts, that, according to the story put forward by Henry VII., the bodies of the little princes were taken up from the place of hasty interment and placed in consecrated ground. But lo! they remained under the staircase, where they were found in Charles II.'s reign.'
In consequence of Sir A. Milman's letter I made another close scrutiny of dates given by various authorities for the same events with important results. I also went very carefully over the ground of the battlefields of Wakefield, Towton, Barnet, Tewkesbury, and Bosworth; and I added some chapters to the work.
The correspondence to which I have referred has led me to the conclusion that students of history are not, as I once believed, unwilling to reconsider the questions which form the subject of the present work, when they are presented from new points of view; and that the well-known arguments which were supposed to suffice for the defence of the Tudor stories in the past are in these days insufficient. The numerous points now raised and submitted for the judgment of students are at all events worth discussing. The present work is about as complete as very frequent revision can make it.
[[1]] She pointed out that the titles of Norfolk and Nottingham, granted by Edward IV. to his second son Richard, were given by Richard III. to Lords Howard and Berkeley, and that, therefore, young Richard must have been dead. The answer is that the grants to Lords Howard and Berkeley were made on June 28, 1483, before it was even pretended that young Richard had been murdered.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [v]
PART I
CHAPTER I
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD
Description of Fotheringhay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [1] Possessions of the Duke of York. Marriage . . . . . . . . [2], [3] Birth of Richard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [3] Letter of Edward and Edmund to their father . . . . . . . [4] Children of the Duke of York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [6] Richard a prisoner of war aged 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . [7] Refuge in John Paston's chambers . . . . . . . . . . . . . [8]
CHAPTER II
DEATH OF RICHARD'S FATHER AND BROTHER AT THE BATTLE OF WAKEFIELD
The Duke of York declared Heir-Apparent . . . . . . . . . [9] The Duke and his family united at Baynard's Castle . . . . [10] March to Sandal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [11] Description of Sandal Castle and its neighbourhood . . . . [12], [13] Battle of Wakefield. Death of the Duke . . . . . . . . . [14], [15] Death of Edmund, Earl of Rutland . . . . . . . . . . . . . [15], [16] Cruelty and inhuman folly of the Lancastrians . . . . . . [17] Edward's victory at Mortimer's Cross . . . . . . . . . . . [18] George and Richard sent to Holland for safety . . . . . . [18], [19]
CHAPTER III
THE CROWNING VICTORY OF TOWTON
Description of Edward IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [20] Edward proclaimed King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [21], [22] March to the north. Yorkist leaders . . . . . . . . . . . [23] Lancastrian leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [24] Sir Andrew Trollope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [25] Description of the country round Towton . . . . . . . . . [26] Surprise at Ferrybridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [27] Chase and death of Clifford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [28] Yorkists march to Saxton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [29], [30] Marshalling of the Lancastrians . . . . . . . . . . . . . [31] Battle of Towton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [32], [33] Flight of Henry and his partisans. Edward at York . . . . [34] Coronation of Edward IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [35] Edward's generous treatment of his foes . . . . . . . . . [36] Chapel built by Richard at Towton . . . . . . . . . . . . [37]
CHAPTER IV
THE CROWN LOST AND WON--BATTLE OF BARNET
Return of George and Richard from Holland . . . . . . . . [38] Their Dukedoms, Earldoms and Richard's K.G. . . . . . . . [38] Richard chief mourner at his father's obsequies . . . . . [39] Military training under Warwick . . . . . . . . . . . . . [40] Description of Richard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [40] Treason of Warwick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [41] Flight of Edward and Richard to Holland. . . . . . . . . . [42], [43] Expedition fitted out at Veere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [44] Landing at Ravenspur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [45] Edward's brilliant campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [46], [47] Richard's negotiation with Clarence . . . . . . . . . . . [48] Battle of Barnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [49], [52]
CHAPTER V
MARGARET OF ANJOU AND HER SON EDWARD
Birth and marriage of Margaret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [53], [54] Birth of Edward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [55] Adventures in the wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [56], [59]
Home at Koeur-la-Petite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [60] Edward's conversations with the Chief Justice . . . . . . [61], [66] Agreement with Warwick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [67] Description of young Edward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [68]
CHAPTER VI
THE BATTLE OF TEWKESBURY
Margaret and Edward land at Weymouth . . . . . . . . . . . [69] Advance to Bristol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [70] King Edward's plan of campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [71] Description of the battle field . . . . . . . . . . . . . [72] March of King Edward's army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [73] Battle of Tewkesbury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [74], [75] Death of Edward of Lancaster on the battle field . . . . . [75] Execution of some leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [76] Pardon of the rest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [77] Death of Henry VI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [78] Ransom of Margaret. Her death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [79]
CHAPTER VII
MARRIED LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF RICHARD DUKE OF GLOUCESTER
Richard's march to Sandwich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [80] Marriage of Richard and Anne Nevill . . . . . . . . . . . [81], [82] Richard with his brother in France . . . . . . . . . . . . [82] Description of Middleham Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . [83] Home life at Middleham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [82], [83], [84] Public duties. Frequent visits to York . . . . . . . . . [84] Warden of the Marches. Scottish campaign . . . . . . . . [84], [86] Death of Edward IV. Lady Grey. Children . . . . . . . . [86], [87]
CHAPTER VIII
ACCESSION OF RICHARD III
Conspiracy of the Woodvilles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [88] Richard made Protector by his brother's will . . . . . . . [89] Arrest of Rivers and his colleagues . . . . . . . . . . . [90] Queen Dowager in sanctuary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [91] Richard and his mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [92] Disclosure of Bishop Stillington . . . . . . . . . . . . . [93]
Account of Bishop Stillington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [94-95] Foundation of the College at Acaster . . . . . . . . . . . [96] Children of Edward IV. illegitimate . . . . . . . . . . . [97] Hastings-Woodville conspiracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [98], [99] Execution of Rivers and his colleagues . . . . . . . . . . [99], [100] Richard's title to the crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [101] Accession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [102]
CHAPTER IX
CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE
Results of the Lancastrian usurpation . . . . . . . . . . [103] Effects of the Wars of the Roses . . . . . . . . . . . . . [104] No destruction of the nobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [105] Scenery. Country life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [106] Castles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [107] Hunting and hawking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [108] The Peerage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [109] Town residences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [110] Magnificence of the Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [111] Wealth of merchants. City Companies . . . . . . . . . . . [112] Introduction of printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [113] Caxton's works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [114], [115] Literary noblemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [115], [116] Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [117] Bishops. Clergy. Monasteries. Pilgrimages . . . . . . . [118-119] Lawlessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [120] Manor houses. Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [121] Condition of the people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [122-123] Prices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [123]
CHAPTER X
REIGN OF RICHARD III
Description of the King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [124] Treatment of his nephews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [125] Coronation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [126-127] Claim of Buckingham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [128] Royal Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [129-130] Rebellion of Buckingham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [131-132]
List of traitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [132-133] Parliament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [134] Reforms. Revenue. Navy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [135] Convocation. Agreement with the Queen Dowager . . . . . . [136] Death of the Prince of Wales. His tomb . . . . . . . . . [137] Edward Earl of Warwick made Heir-Apparent . . . . . . . . [138] King Richard's popularity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [139] Conspiracy of Henry Tudor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [140] The King assembled troops at Nottingham . . . . . . . . . [141] Proclamation against Henry Tudor . . . . . . . . . . . . . [143] Peerage of Richard III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [143] Ministers of Richard III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [144] Commissioners for Peace with Scotland . . . . . . . . . . [145] Judges and Law Officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [145] Bishops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [146] Knights of the Garter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [146] Knights of the Bath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [147]
CHAPTER XI
THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH
Treachery of the Stanleys explained . . . . . . . . . . . [148], [149] King Richard's military talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [150] English pluck displayed by Richard . . . . . . . . . . . . [150] Loyal men flocking to the King's standard . . . . . . . . [151] Description of the country round Bosworth . . . . . . . . [152] Positions of the two armies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [153] King Richard leads his men to the encounter . . . . . . . [154] Treachery of Lord Stanley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [155] The King's gallant charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [155] Death of the King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [155-156-157] Richard buried at Leicester. Memorials . . . . . . . . . [158] Character of King Richard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [159] His generosity. Arbitrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [160] Able administration. Building operations . . . . . . . . [161] Literary tastes. Founded the Heralds' College . . . . . . [162] Comparison of Richard and the Tudors . . . . . . . . . . . [162], [163] His married life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [164] Contemporary Sovereigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [165]
PART II
CHAPTER I
THE AUTHORITIES
The Plantagenet Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [166] Character and position of the accusers . . . . . . . . . . [167] Extravagance of their caricature . . . . . . . . . . . . . [167] Writers in the pay of the Tudors . . . . . . . . . . . . . [168] The notorious pamphlet by Morton . . . . . . . . . . . . . [168-171] Bernard André . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [171] Polydore Virgil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [171-172] Rous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [173] Fabyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [174] Warkworth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [175] Continuators of the Croyland Chronicle . . . . . . . . . . [175-178] Official documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [179] Hall, Grafton, Holinshed, Stow, Buck . . . . . . . . . . . [179] Reaction. Modern authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [181] Miss Halsted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [182] Upholders of the Tudor stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [182-183]
CHAPTER II
EXAMINATION OF THE CHARGES AGAINST RICHARD
Reckless profusion of abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [184] Deformity. Statement of Rous and Morton . . . . . . . . . [185] The truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [186] Object of the calumny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [187] Tewkesbury. The truth told by all contemporaries . . . . [188-189] Fable by Fabyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [190] Polydore Virgil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [190] Subsequent embellishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [190] Silence of Morton and Rous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [191-192] Henry VI. Insinuations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [193] Warkworth and Fabyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [194-195] The Croyland Monk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [195] Polydore Virgil contradicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . [196] All unworthy of credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [196] Evidence of the accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [197]
Evidence of a contemporary writer . . . . . . . . . . [198] The truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [199] Marriage. Richard and Anne really attached . . . . . . . [200] Attack of Miss Strickland, a specimen of the sort
of arguments used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [201] Countess of Warwick. False statement of Rous . . . . . . [201] The truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [202] Death of Clarence. Charge absolutely groundless . . . . . [202] Another specimen of argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . [203] The truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [204]
CHAPTER III
FURTHER CHARGES AGAINST RICHARD III
Some account of Morton, the chief accuser . . . . . . . . [205-207] Misrepresentation of events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [208-210] Cunning misrepresentations respecting Hastings . . . . . . [210-212] Falsification of dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [215-217] The accession. The true claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [218] Attempt of Henry VII. to destroy the evidence . . . . [219] Polydore Virgil's version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [220] Morton's version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [221] Fabyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [222] Further falsification of dates . . . . . . . . . . . . [223] Buckingham's treason. False reason given for
his discontent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [223] The truth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [224] Morton's account of conversations . . . . . . . . . . [225], [226] Second coronation. Statement disproved . . . . . . . . . [227] Death of the Queen. Slanders of Polydore and Rous . . . . [228] Elizabeth of York. Absurd rumour spread . . . . . . . . . [229] Elizabeth's letter to the Duke of Norfolk . . . . . . [229-230] Intrigues of Henry's mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . [231] Lord Strange. The truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [232]
CHAPTER IV
THE MAIN CHARGE AGAINST RICHARD III
Rests on the truth or falsehood of previous crimes . . . . [233] Richard's antecedents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [234] Nothing to fear from his nephews . . . . . . . . . . . . . [235]
Treatment of others in the same position . . . . . . . . . [236] His nephews were probably members of his household . . . . [236] Bill, in March 1485, for the elder nephew . . . . . . . . [237] Conduct of the mother and sister . . . . . . . . . . . . . [238-239] Alleged rumours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [240-242] Assertion of the French Chancellor . . . . . . . . . . . . [242] Statements of Fabyan, Rous, Polydore, André . . . . . . . [244] Sir William Stanley's conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [244] Baseless rumours promulgated by Henry . . . . . . . . . . [245]
CHAPTER V
HENRY TUDOR IN THE DOCK
Description of Henry VII. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [246] His lawless executions after Bosworth . . . . . . . . . . [247] Responsible for the lives of royal children . . . . . . . [248] Henry's character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [249] Necessity to strengthen his position . . . . . . . . . . . [250] His Parliament of outlaws. Unjust attainders . . . . . . [251] Loyal men attainted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [252] Silent about the late King's nephews. Were they missing? [253] If alive, Henry's marriage necessitated their deaths . . . [254] Henry's treatment of other victims in his way . . . . . . [255] The fate of the princes, if alive, was sealed by
the marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [256] Imprisonment of the Queen Dowager . . . . . . . . . . . . [257] Henry put forward a story, in Polydore Virgil . . . . . . [258] A more detailed story, published by Rastell and Grafton [260-263] Rewards alleged to have been given by Richard
to murderers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [264], [265] Confession of Tyrrel and Dighton fabricated . . . . . . . [267] Genesis of these stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [267] Some account of Sir James Tyrrel . . . . . . . . . . . . . [268] Henry's grant to John Green. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [269] Tyrrel taken into favour. His two pardons . . . . . . . . [269] Murder of the two Princes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [269] Relations silenced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [270-271] Hush money to 'Black Will' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [271] Reward to Dighton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [272] Rewards and employments for Tyrrel . . . . . . . . . . . . [272] Treacherous arrest and hurried execution of Tyrrel . . . . [273] Dighton to reside at Calais . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [274] The story put forward and generally accepted . . . . . . . [274]
Judicial murder of the Earl of Warwick . . . . . . . . . . [275] Henry's remorse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [276] Elizabeth saw the cruel treatment of her mother and cousin
Her death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [277] Henry's design to kill the Earl of Suffolk . . . . . . . . [277] His death. Successful as this world counts success . . . [278] Things unexplained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [279], [280]
CHAPTER VI
MR. GAIRDNER'S RICHARD III
Mr. Gairdner's view of the alleged crimes . . . . . . . . [281] Views stated in Mr. Gairdner's preface . . . . . . . . . . [282] Richard's character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [283] Richard acquitted of several charges . . . . . . . . . . . [285] Tudor fables irreconcileable with Richard's character . . [285] Mr. Gairdner's latest view of the Tewkesbury charge . . . [286-287] On Edward IV.'s proceedings after Tewkesbury . . . . . . . [289-290] His view of the Henry VI. charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . [290] His rejection of the evidence of the writer in Fleetwood . [292] Acquits Richard of responsibility for the death of
Clarence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [294-295] Position with regard to the title to the crown . . . . . . [296] Believes in the Duchess of York slander . . . . . . . . . [297] His reason for the belief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [297] Murder of the Princes. Story admitted to be full
of inaccuracies and improbabilities . . . . . . . . . . [298] Richard could not have been a cool, calculating villain . [298] Must have been headstrong and reckless . . . . . . . . . . [298] Such a man might have committed the crime on a
sudden impulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [299] The rising in Kent supposed to be the motive . . . . . . . [299] But the murders are stated to have been in August,
the rising in October. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [299] Thus Mr. Gairdner's theory fails . . . . . . . . . . . . . [299] Mr. Gairdner supplies proofs of the King's popularity . . [300] Richard was the victim of the perfidy of a few traitors . [300] Mr. Gairdner's testimony to Richard's good qualities . . . [300] Great value of Mr. Gairdner's work . . . . . . . . . . . . [300-301]
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [303]
GENEALOGICAL TABLES
SEIZE QUARTIERS OF EDWARD IV. AND RICHARD III. . . . to face page [6]
SEIZE QUARTIERS OF ANNE NEVILL . . . . . . . . . . . " " [82]
MAP
BATTLE OF BOSWORTH FIELD . . . . . . . . . . . . to face page [328]
[Transcriber's note: in the source book, the map of the Battle of Bosworth faced page 328. In this ebook, the map has been moved to page 152.]
LIFE OF RICHARD III
PART I
CHAPTER I
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD
The castle of Fotheringhay[[1]] was the birthplace of our last Plantagenet king. This venerable pile stood on the banks of the river Nen, in Northamptonshire, amidst 'marvellous fair corn ground and pasture.' From its battlements there was an extensive view, bounded to the westward by the forest of Rockingham, while on the other side the abbey church of Peterborough and the woods of Milton intercepted the distant expanse of fen country. Originally built by bold Simon de St. Liz in the twelfth century, the castle had fallen into ruin when it reverted to the crown, and was granted by Edward III. to his son Edmund of Langley.
Edmund, who was created Duke of York by his nephew Richard II., rebuilt the castle and founded a college hard by. Fotheringhay was surrounded by a double moat with drawbridges, the river Nen serving as the outer moat on the south side, and the Mill Brook, flowing between the castle yard and the little park, to the east. The walls were of stone, and the great gate in the north front was adorned with the arms of England, as differenced for Edmund of Langley, impaling the arms of Castille and Leon.[[2]] The keep, built in the shape of a fetterlock, was on a mount in the north-west angle of the castle; and below there was a great courtyard surrounded by stately buildings, a chapel, and 'very fair lodgings,' as Leland tells us. The great hall was seventy feet long, with a deep oriel window at one end.[[3]]
Here dwelt Edmund the first Duke of York, his son Edward the second Duke, who fell at Agincourt, and his grandson Richard, the third Duke. Edmund projected the foundation of a college near the parish church, to consist of a master, eight clerks, and thirteen choristers. He commenced the choir, while his son and grandson completed and richly endowed this religious house. The church was a fine specimen of the Perpendicular architecture of the time, and the cloisters had numerous windows filled with stained glass.
The third Duke of York resided at Fotheringhay during part of every year when he was in England, with his beautiful wife the Lady Cicely Nevill, the 'Rose of Raby,' and their troop of fair children. But he also held vast estates elsewhere. In Yorkshire the castles of Sandal and Conisborough were part of his paternal inheritance. On the Welsh borders he had succeeded to all the possessions of the Mortimers, including Ludlow and Wigmore. For his mother was the heiress of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, and also of Lionel Duke of Clarence, the second surviving son of King Edward III. Baynard's Castle, in the City of London, was the Duke's town house.
The 'Rose of Raby' bore her husband twelve children, and they came of a right noble English stock. In their veins flowed the blood of Plantagenet and Holland, Mortimer and FitzAlan, Nevill and Percy, Clifford and Audley. Five of these fair branches died in infancy. Ann, the eldest of those who survived early childhood, was born at Fotheringhay in 1439. The three next, Edward, Edmund and Elizabeth, first saw the light at Rouen, when their father was making a last gallant stand for English dominion in France, from 1442 to 1444. Margaret was born at Fotheringhay. The Duke and Duchess were ruling in Ireland when George was born at Dublin Castle. The three last births were at Fotheringhay, but of these only Richard, the eleventh child, survived infancy.
Richard Plantagenet was born at Fotheringhay Castle on October 2, 1452. He probably passed the first five years of his life there with George and Margaret. The elder sisters, Anne and Elizabeth, were married to 'Lancastrian' noblemen, the Dukes of Exeter and Suffolk, when Richard was still in infancy. His elder brothers, Edward Earl of March and Edmund Earl of Rutland, were separated from him by an interval of ten years, and lived with their tutor Richard Croft at Ludlow or Wigmore. So that Richard's childhood must have been passed with his brother George and his sister Margaret, the future Duchess of Burgundy. But both were a few years older than little Richard.
We obtain a glimpse of the home life of the two elder boys, Edward and Edmund, from a letter to their father which has been preserved.[[4]]
'Right high and right mighty prince, our full redoubted and right noble lord and father.
'As lowly with all our hearts as we, your true and natural sons can or may, we recommend us unto your noble grace, humbly beseeching your noble and worthy fatherhood daily to give us your hearty blessing; through which we trust much the rather to increase and grow to virtue, and to speed the better in all matters and things that we shall use, occupy, and exercise.
'Right high and right mighty prince, our full redoubted lord and father—
'We thank our blessed Lord, not only of your honourable conduct and good speed in all your matters and business, of your gracious prevail against the intent and malice of your evil willers, but also of the knowledge that it pleased your nobleness to let us now late have of the same by relation of Sir Walter Devereux Kt.[[5]] and John Milwater Esq.,[[6]] and John at Nokes, yeoman of your honourable chamber. Also we thank your noble and good fatherhood for our green gowns now late sent unto us to our great comfort, beseeching your good lordship to remember our porteux,[[7]] and that we might have some fine bonnets sent unto us by the next sure messenger, for necessity so requireth. Over this, right noble lord and father, please it your highness to wit that we have charged your servant, William Smyth, bearer of these, for to declare unto your nobility certain things on our behalf, namely concerning and touching the odious rule and demeaning of Richard Croft and of his brother. Wherefore we beseech your gracious lordship and full noble fatherhood to hear him in exposition of the same, and to his relation to give full faith and credence. Right high and right mighty prince, our full redoubted and right noble lord and father, we beseech Almighty Jesus give you as good life and long, with as much continual perfect prosperity as your princely heart can best desire. Written at your castle of Ludlow on Saturday in Easter week.
'your humble sons
'Edward (Earl of March)
'Edmund (Earl of Rutland).'
The boys evidently did not like their tutor, declaring him to be tyrannical and disagreeable.[[8]]
CHILDREN OF RICHARD, DUKE OF YORK
1. Anne. Born at Fotheringhay, August 11, 1439. (Duchess of Exeter.)
2. Henry. Born at Hatfield, February 10,1441. (Died in infancy.)
3. Edward. Born at Rouen,[[9]] April 28, 1442. (Earl of March. King.)
4. Edmund. Born at Rouen, May 17, 1443. (Earl of Rutland.)
5. Elizabeth. Born at Rouen, April 22,1444. (Duchess of Suffolk.)
6. Margaret. Born at Fotheringhay, May 3, 1446. (Duchess of Burgundy. Died 1503.)
7. William. Born at Fotheringhay, July 7, 1447. (Died young.)
8. John. Born at Neath, November 7, 1448. (Died in infancy.)
9. George. Born at Dublin, October 21, 1449. (Duke of Clarence.)
10. Thomas. Born at Fotheringhay, 1450. (Died in infancy.)
11. Richard. Born at Fotheringhay, October 2, 1452.[[10]] (Duke of Gloucester. King.)
12. Ursula. Born at Fotheringhay, July 20,1455. (Died in infancy.)
W. WYRCESTER, Annales, 460-477.
SEIZE QUARTIERS OF EDWARD IV. AND RICHARD III.
Their father, the Duke of York, first Prince of the blood royal, was the most powerful and wealthy, as well as one of the ablest noblemen in the kingdom. He was moderate and prudent, and was unwillingly driven into resistance to the misgovernment of the corrupt faction which misused the powers they had seized, owing to the imbecility of Henry VI. His original object was not to assert his own undoubted title to the throne, but to obtain just and reasonable government by the removal of corrupt and incapable ministers. 'After repeated experience of bad faith, and after fruitlessly endeavouring to bind Henry by pledges, the Duke was at length forced into advancing his own claim.'[[11]]
Disaster followed the first attempt of the Duke of York at open resistance. He was overpowered by the Lancastrian forces at Ludlow, in October 1459, and his followers were scattered. The Duke himself, with his son Edmund, fled to Ireland. His eldest son, Edward Earl of March, escaped to Calais with the Earl of Warwick. The Duchess of York, and her three young children, Margaret, George and Richard, were taken prisoners at Wigmore. They were sent to Tunbridge Castle in the custody of their mother's sister, the Duchess of Buckingham, who had married a Lancastrian husband.
Little Richard was only seven years of age when he became a prisoner of war. The detention was of short duration. His eldest brother landed in Kent and marched to London. Troops flocked to the standard of the gallant youth, and he advanced northwards against his enemies. The Duchess of York then escaped from Tunbridge, and found an asylum for her little children at the chambers of John Paston, in the Temple.[[12]]
Meanwhile Edward, Earl of March, won a great victory at Northampton, and Henry VI. became his prisoner. He returned to London, but the children had not been two days in John Paston's chambers before their mother was summoned to meet her husband at Hereford, who was returning from Ireland. The children were left with servants. Young Edward, however, while busily engaged in preparing for the defence of the city, found time to visit his little brothers and sister every day.[[13]]
[[1]] 'Fodringeia' in Domesday. 'Fodering' is part of a forest separated from the rest, for producing hay.
[[2]] He married Isabella of Castille and Leon.
[[3]] Mary Queen of Scots was tried and beheaded in the great hall of Fotheringhay. But it is untrue that the castle was destroyed by James I. on that account. James granted it to Lord Mountjoy, and it was intact, though out of repair, when it was surveyed in 1625. It began to be dismantled soon after this survey; but the work of demolition was very gradual. The college buildings had been desecrated and destroyed by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, to whom they were granted by the government of Edward VI. The last remains of the castle were demolished in the middle of the last century. See Historic Notices in reference to Fotheringhay, by the Rev. H. K. Bonney (Oundle, 1821).
[[4]] MS. Cotton, Vesp., F. iii., fol. 9. Printed in the first series of Ellis's original letters, i. 9, letter v.
[[5]] This Sir Walter Devereux, son of Walter Chancellor of Ireland 1449, when the Duke of York was Lord Deputy, was born in 1432. He married Anne, heiress of Lord Ferrers of Chartley, and was summoned to Parliament by that title jure uxoris. Sir Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, fell gloriously at Bosworth, fighting for his King, Richard III., the younger brother of his two young friends Edward and Edmund. He was ancestor of the Devereux, Earls of Essex.
[[6]] Afterwards esquire to Richard Duke of Gloucester. He fell at the battle of Barnet, fighting by his young master's side.
[[7]] Breviary.
[[8]] Richard Croft of Croft Castle, in Herefordshire, is the odious ruler mentioned by the young princes. He was faithful to King Edward during the Tewkesbury campaign; but the boys had some insight into character. For Croft appears to have been a time-server. He got made Treasurer of the Household to Henry Tudor, and fought for him at Stoke. To please his new patron he appears to have told some story, disparaging to Edward IV., which, in a garbled form, appeared in Hall's Chronicle.
[[9]] Edwardus quartus Rothomagi natus. Rous, p. 210.
[[10]] Rous says that Richard was born on the feast of the eleven thousand virgins, October 21. But this was really George's birthday, in 1449.
[[11]] Gairdner. The Duke's mother, Anne Mortimer, was grand-daughter of Philippa Countess of March, the only child of Lionel Duke of Clarence, second son of King Edward III. Henry VI. was great-grandson of John Duke of Lancaster, third son of Edward III.
[[12]] Paston Letters, i. 525. Christopher Hansson to John Paston.
[[13]] 'And sythe y left here bothe the sunys and the dowztyr, and the Lord of Marche comyth every day to se them.'—Paston Letters.
CHAPTER II
DEATH OF RICHARD'S FATHER AND BROTHER AT THE BATTLE OF WAKEFIELD
In October 1460, the Duke and Duchess of York, with young Edmund Earl of Rutland, reached London. The Duke's superior right to the crown, as representative of the second son of Edward III. while Henry VI. only derived from the third son, was recognised and declared by Act of Parliament. But, in consideration of the reverence felt for his father and of his own long tenure, it was enacted that Henry should retain the throne for life, provided that he acknowledged the Duke as heir-apparent. This Act of Settlement received the royal assent and became law, all opposing statutes being repealed. On November 9, the Duke of York was solemnly declared Heir-Apparent and Lord Protector during Henry's life.
But Queen Margaret and her partisans refused to be bound by the acts of the King, her husband, in Parliament. She fled to Scotland, and the Lancastrians raised a formidable army in Yorkshire. It is probable that the Duke of York was not fully aware of the numbers opposed to him, though he may have foreseen that the Lancastrian army would become larger if time was allowed to slip away. There was also some danger from the machinations of the Tudors[[1]] in Wales. Arrangements to counteract these evils were promptly made. The Duke assembled a small force to advance northwards and confront the Lancastrian army. The Duke of Norfolk, who was warmly attached to the House of York, and the Earl of Warwick were to remain in London until Christmas, and then to follow with reinforcements. The young Earl of March advanced to the Welsh borders to collect forces, disperse the Tudor rising, and then join his father in Yorkshire.
On December 1, 1460, the Duke of York was with his wife and children at Baynard's Castle for the last time. He bade farewell to his loving Duchess and the children; little Richard was a child of eight, Margaret and George a few years older. The gallant young Edmund Earl of Rutland was nearly eighteen, well able to fight by his father's side, and he accompanied the Duke. On December 2, the Duke of York set out with his brother-in-law the Earl of Salisbury and the Earl of Rutland. Salisbury had with him his son, Sir Thomas Nevill, and the force, barely numbering 5,000 men, was led by other experienced captains. Chief among them was old Sir David Hall, the Duke's faithful friend and adviser in all military affairs. Sir John and Sir Hugh Mortimer, illegitimate brothers of the ill-fated Earl of March, rallied to their nephew's standard with many Yorkist knights, such as Sir Thomas Parr, Sir Edward Bourchier, and Sir James Pickering. The force included a company of Londoners under the command of the Warden of the Mercers' Company, stout John Harrow.
The Duke of York advanced by easy marches, for he did not reach his castle of Sandal, about a mile south of Wakefield, until Christmas Eve. Here he halted while a summons was sent out to assemble his Yorkshire tenants and adherents. It is said that Lord Nevill, a kinsman of the Duchess of York, came to Sandal as a friend of the Duke, and induced him to grant a commission to raise men; and that when he had raised about 8,000, he treacherously brought them to swell the ranks of the Lancastrian army.[[2]]
At this time the Duke's eldest son Edward was at Shrewsbury. The poor Duchess and her young children anxiously waited for news at Baynard's Castle. Henry VI., with the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Warwick, observed the festival of Christmas in the palace of the Bishop of London, in St. Paul's Churchyard. Afterwards the King went to enjoy a few days' hunting at Greenwich and Eltham. Queen Margaret and her son were in Scotland. The Lancastrian leaders were assembled with a great army at Pomfret.
Edward III. had granted Sandal and Conisborough Castles to his son Edmund, the Duke's grandfather. The Duke himself had frequently resided at Sandal, sometimes with his wife and family. The castle stood on a grassy knoll, steep on one side, with a gentle slope to the south. It is a little less than a mile from the bridge which spans the river Calder at the town of Wakefield, the intervening space sloping gently from Sandal. It was then partly wooded. Leland tells us the bridge was of stone, with nine arches, and that it had on it 'a right goodly chapel of our Lady.' It led to the market place whence two streets, called Norgate and Wrengate,[[3]] formed communications with gates on the northern side of the town. The houses were then nearly all of timber, but there was a handsome parish church consecrated in 1322, with a tower and spire 228 feet high. From the bridge one road went south by Sandal to Barnsley and Sheffield; another branched off to the eastward, and divided again into two, one leading to Doncaster, the other to Pomfret. To the westward the river Calder flanked the fields between Sandal and Wakefield Bridge. Near the castle is the fine cruciform church of Sandal Magna, where there was a chantry belonging to the castle.
There are scarcely any remains of Sandal Castle, which was razed by order of the Long Parliament in 1648. But fortunately a drawing was made in 1560 and preserved in the office of the Duchy of Lancaster. It is engraved in the 'Vetusta Monumenta.' A lofty donjon, with flanking round towers, stood on the verge of the steep descent to the north-east, and two smaller square towers, connected by a wall, formed the western face. The principal gate, protected by a barbican, was in the centre of the southern face; and on this side the enceinte consisted merely of a wall without towers. An arcade or cloister led from the gate to the main entrance of the donjon, and the roofs of various buildings appear above the parapet of the southern wall. On the north-western side of the inner courtyard a flight of steps led to a covered archway opening on a semicircular stone pulpit supported by a single pillar. The castle was surrounded by a moat, and the ground it covered was about forty yards square. We gather these details from the drawing. The existing ruins consist of part of the gatehouse, three arches of the arcade leading to the keep, bits of wall on the west side, and the great mound covering the ruins of the keep.
Sandal Castle was built on a natural hill of sandstone, and in those days it must have presented an imposing appearance from Wakefield Bridge, with its lofty towers rising over the trees. There were extensive views in every direction from the castle walls. Northward is Wakefield and the rich valley of the Calder. To the west were the woods stretching away until the view is bounded by Woolley Edge. The woods and lake of Chevet are to the south, and a wide extent of country was visible to the east, with Nostell Priory and Walton Manor hidden among the trees. But, although Sandal commanded extensive views, yet, owing to the wooded character of the country, an enemy might approach without his force being fully known to the garrison.
The Duke of York kept his Christmas in Sandal Castle, with his son Edmund Earl of Rutland, his brother-in-law the Earl of Salisbury, old Sir David Hall his trusty military adviser, many other captains, and 5,000 men. Sir David knew that the enemy was near in overwhelming numbers. He anticipated a siege until relief could come from the south, and he, therefore, sent out foraging parties to bring in supplies.
The Lancastrian chiefs at Pomfret received news of the arrival of the Duke at Sandal on Christmas Day. They were engaged for three days in collecting their forces. On the 30th they began their march from Pomfret, a distance of eight miles. Lord Clifford, with his Yorkshire friends, led the van, so as to become the right wing in forming the battle, resting on the river Calder. The Dukes of Somerset and Exeter and Earls of Devon and Northumberland were in the centre. The rear, which would form the left wing in wheeling into line, was under the command of the Earl of Wiltshire. Sir Andrew Trollope was the principal military adviser and chief of the staff.
On the last day of the year the division under Lord Clifford came in sight of the towers of Sandal, and attacked a foraging party which appears to have been returning from Wakefield. This was seen from the castle. The Duke determined to come to the rescue with his whole force. He probably believed that Clifford was considerably in advance of the main body of the enemy. Sir David Hall thought otherwise, and strongly represented the danger of running such a risk. But the chivalrous Duke spurned the idea of leaving his foraging party to be destroyed without making an effort at their rescue.
The Lancastrians under Clifford were between the castle and Wakefield Bridge, and the great gate faced to the south. It was, therefore, necessary for the Yorkist force, barely 5,000 strong, to march out with their backs to the enemy, and to deploy round the castle hill, before forming line to attack. This was done, and a brilliant charge was made on the field between Sandal and Wakefield—a Balaclava charge. The Duke himself, rightful heir to the throne, and his trusty brother-in-law, the Earl of Salisbury, led this forlorn hope. Near them was the gallant young Prince Edmund in the flower of his age, about to flesh his maiden sword. There, too, was old David Hall, knowing that all was lost, but resolved to fight for his beloved master to the end. Success must have attended on the reckless bravery which Hall deplored, if Clifford's force, about equal in numbers, had been unsupported. But the main body of the Lancastrians arrived during the thick of the fight with overwhelming numbers, while their left wing, under the Earl of Wiltshire, cut off the retreat to the castle. There was nothing left but to die bravely. The Duke of York fell, fighting to the last. Camden says that there was a small space hedged round enclosing a stone cross, on the spot where the Duke fell. His faithful knights fell around him. Among them were his uncles John and Hugh Mortimer, Sir David Hall the tried and trusty councillor, his wife's nephew Sir Thomas Nevill, Sir Edward Bourchier, Sir Eustace Wentworth, Sir James Pickering, Sir John Gedding, Sir Thomas Harington, Sir Hugh Hastings, Captains Fitzjames, Baume, Digby and Ratford. Two gallant brothers, William and Thomas Parr, fought steadily beside their master. William was slain, but Thomas escaped, surviving to be the grandsire of Queen Catherine Parr. Sir Walter Lymbricke, Sir Ralph Stanley, Captain Hanson and John Harrow, the loyal mercer of London, were wounded and taken prisoners.
When all hope was gone young Prince Edmund, with a few followers, perhaps with the Harry Lovedeyne whose service was 'right agreeable' to him and his brother in the happy days of their childhood, fought his way through the encircling foe and reached Wakefield Bridge. But they were closely pursued by some of Clifford's men, perhaps by Clifford himself. Leland tells us that the prince 'was overtaken a little above the bars beyond the bridge, going up a clyming ground'; that is in the street leading up to the market place from the bridge. He and his few followers turned at bay, and we may be sure that young Edmund Plantagenet did not die before his enemies had been made to pay dearly for his life.[[4]]
No quarter was given to the defeated soldiers by the Lancastrians, 2,000 were slaughtered in the field or during the flight, and the prisoners were all killed. The Earl of Salisbury escaped from the battle, but was taken prisoner the same night by a servant of Sir Andrew Trollope and conveyed to Pomfret, where he was put to death.
The Lancastrian leaders took counsel after the battle, and decided on the perpetration of an inhuman piece of folly. The bodies of the Duke of York and of the Earls of Rutland and Salisbury were buried at Pomfret. But their heads were ordered to be stuck on the gates of York. The Duke's head was placed upon Micklegate Bar, with a paper crown on it by way of insult. The heads of the Earls of Salisbury and Rutland, of Sir Thomas Nevill, Sir Edward Bourchier, Sir Thomas Harington, Sir William Parr, Sir James Pickering and John Harrow were also ordered to be stuck on the different gates of York.
As soon as Queen Margaret received the news in Scotland, she came to York and joined the victorious army. It was resolved to march direct to London, and the northern soldiers were bribed by permission to pillage the whole country. This they did for fifteen miles on either side of their track; attacking churches, taking away vessels, books and vestments, and even the sacramental pyx after shaking out the eucharist, and killing the priests who resisted. Reaching St. Albans they continued the work of pillage, and defeated the troops sent out from London to oppose them. They even recovered the person of Henry VI. But here their successes ended. The gates of London were closed, provisions ran short, and the Lancastrian marauders retreated into Yorkshire.[[5]]
When the dreadful news of the battle of Wakefield reached London, the Duchess of York was plunged into grief at the loss of her noble husband and gallant young son, and she was terrified for the safety of her children. The two little boys, George and Richard, were put on board a vessel in the Thames and sent to Holland. There, under the protection of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, they were established at Utrecht with suitable tutors. The Duchess of York, with her little daughter Margaret, remained in London awaiting events.
The age of Edward Earl of March was then only eighteen years and eight months. He was at Shrewsbury when the terrible blow fell upon him. It spurred him into resolute action. He had collected a good force, with which he turned upon the Tudors and crushed them at Mortimer's Cross. There was a parhelion when the victory was decided. Edward adopted the sun in splendour as his special cognizance. He then advanced to London by rapid marches, and was proclaimed king as Edward IV.
Richard was thus hurried away to Holland. He was but eight years old when he saw his father and brother Edmund mount their horses at the gate of Baynard's Castle; and when the sad news came that they were slain, and that he would see them no more. In after years Richard took part in the pious act of the children of the Duke of York. They re-endowed the beautiful chapel on Wakefield Bridge, which was built in the reign of Edward III.,[[6]] and dedicated it to the memory of their brother Edmund.
[[1]] Owen Tudor, a Welsh squire, had three sons by Catharine, the widow of Henry V.; Edmund and Jasper created by Henry VI. Earls of Richmond and Pembroke, and Owen a monk at Westminster. They were half-brothers of Henry VI.
[[2]] Stow's Chronicle, p. 412.
[[3]] An abbreviation of Warenne-gate. The Earls of Warenne and Surrey were Lords of Wakefield for more than two centuries.
[[4]] Of all the baseless fabrications of the Tudor chroniclers, Hall's story of the death of Edmund Earl of Rutland is the most absurd. Hall says that the prince was scarcely twelve years of age, that his tutor and schoolmaster, named Robert Apsall, secretly conveyed the little boy out of the field, that they were espied and taken by Lord Clifford, that the child knelt on his knees demanding mercy; that the schoolmaster made a speech; that Clifford gave a truculent reply; and that Clifford then struck the child to the heart with a dagger.
This fable rests on there being a child. If there was no child nothing of the sort happened.
The contemporary evidence is simply that after the battle Lord Clifford killed the Earl of Rutland on or near Wakefield Bridge. William of Worcester says:—'et in fugiendo post campum super pontem apud Wakefelde Dominus de Clyfforde occidit Dominum Edmondum comitem de Rutlande, filium Ducis Eborum.' William of Worcester also gives the birthdays of all the children of the Duke of York. Edmund was born at Rouen on May 17, 1443. He was in his eighteenth year, and not a child. It was George, born on October 21, 1449, in Ireland, who was in his twelfth year when the battle of Wakefield was fought; but he was left in London with his mother, as any child of that age was sure to have been. Even if the Duke had brought a child to Sandal, he would have been left in the castle, not taken into the thick of a desperate battle. Edmund was old enough to accompany his father, and doubtless acquitted himself manfully. These facts also relieve the gallant Clifford's name from a vile calumny. Holinshed and Shakespeare follow Hall, and all later historians have continued to repeat the absurd story without taking the trouble to ascertain Rutland's age at the time of the battle of Wakefield.
[[5]] The weight of authority is decisively against the Duke of York having been taken prisoner, and in favour of his having been killed in the battle. William of Worcester says: 'Ubi occubuerunt in campo Dux Eborum, Thomas Nevill,' &c. The Croyland chronicler, Fabyan, Polydore Virgil, Hall, and Stow concur. Hall says, 'He, manfully fighting, within half an hour was slain and dead.' But Whethamstede states that the Duke was taken prisoner and grossly insulted: that he was set upon an ant-hill, a crown of woven grass was put on his head, and that the soldiers bowed their heads before him, saying in derision: 'Hail, King without a kingdom!' Whethamstede adds, 'non aliter quam Judæi coram Domino.' But this John Bostock of Whethamstede was Abbot of St. Albans, and violently prejudiced against the Lancastrians for their marauding and pillaging in his neighbourhood. It is generally stated that Queen Margaret took part in the barbarities of her adherents. Stow, for instance, says that Lord Clifford cut off the Duke's head, put a paper crown on it, stuck it on a pole, and presented it to the Queen, who 'was not lying far from the field.' But there is clear proof that the Queen was actually in Scotland when the battle of Wakefield was fought. William of Worcester says: 'Dicto bello finito Regina Margareta venit ab Scotia Eboraco.' This is confirmed by the Croyland chronicler, who says, 'Inpartibus borealibus morabatur.' Margaret had nothing to do with the Lancastrian barbarities, except that she allowed the heads to remain on the gates of York. She was forced to tolerate the deeds of her savage adherents.
[[6]] See The Chapel of Edward III. on Wakefield Bridge, by N. Scatcherd (1843).
CHAPTER III
THE CROWNING VICTORY OF TOWTON
When the Lancastrians, after their success at St. Albans, had failed before London, they retreated northwards with the person of Henry VI., and proceeded to collect forces in Yorkshire for one more great effort, making their headquarters in the city of York. Meanwhile the young Earl of March, after his victory at Mortimer's Cross on February 2, 1461, advanced to London with his Welsh and border tenantry. He was joined on the road by the Earl of Warwick, whose incapacity as a military commander had been the cause of the disaster at St. Albans on the 17th of the same month.
Edward was only in his nineteenth year when he entered London and succeeded to his father's rights, and to the duty of avenging the cowardly insults heaped upon that father's body. He found his mother, the widowed Duchess, with his little sister Margaret, at Baynard's Castle.
Edward was tall and eminently handsome, with a fair complexion and flaxen hair, 'the goodliest personage,' says Comines, 'that ever mine eyes beheld.' His capacity for command, his fortitude, and prudence were far beyond his years, and he had already acquired experience in two pitched battles.
On his arrival in London Edward called together a great Council of Lords, spiritual and temporal, and declared to them his title to the Crown. The assembled Lords determined that, as King Henry had, contrary to the solemn agreement made with the Duke of York and the Parliament which met in October 1460, violated his word, and as he was useless to the Commonwealth, he should be deprived of all sovereignty. Edward was elected and acknowledged as King.
That night the young King was once more at home with his mother and sister; but it was a melancholy home-coming. Two months before, the whole family was united at Baynard's Castle, now the father was slain and his head fixed on Micklegate Bar at York. The beloved brother, Edward's companion from earliest infancy, also dead; the two younger brothers sent abroad for safety; his uncle, Salisbury, killed, with Sir David Hall, the trusted friend of the family, and many more. Yet a feeling of pride must have mingled with the bereaved mother's grief as she gazed on the superb young warrior who was the last hope and prop of her house.
Next day the citizens of London assembled at their muster in St. John's Fields, just outside the city, where they were reviewed by Lord Fauconberg, the King's uncle, an experienced warrior who had seen much service in France. As Sir William Nevill, he was at the siege of Orleans, and since 1429 he had been summoned to Parliament jure uxoris, for he had married Joan, the heiress of the last Baron Fauconberg. As soon as he had completed the muster, his nephew, George Nevill, Bishop of Exeter, made a speech to the people. He explained to them how King Henry had broken the agreement solemnly made with the Duke of York only four short months before; he demanded of them whether they would have a forsworn king any longer to rule over them; and he called upon them to serve and obey the Earl of March as their earthly sovereign lord. The multitude cried 'Yea! Yea!' with great shouts and clapping of hands. 'I was there,' says William of Worcester, 'I heard them, and I returned with them into the city.'
On the same evening the Lords and Commons went to Baynard's Castle to report what had taken place to young Edward, and he was persuaded to assume the kingly office by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Exeter. Next day, being March 4, he rode to St. Paul's as King Edward IV. and made an offering. After Te Deum he was conveyed to Westminster, where he sat in the Hall while his title was declared to the people as son and heir of Richard, Duke of York, and by authority of Parliament. Henry VI. was deposed quod non stetisset pacto, neque paruisset senatûs consulti decreto. Edward then entered the Abbey under a canopy in solemn procession, and received homage from the lords, returning by water to London, where he was lodged in the Bishop's palace. On the 5th he was proclaimed King through the city as Edward IV; but there was to be no coronation until he was victorious over his enemies.
No time was lost. On Saturday, March 7, the Earl of Warwick left London for the north, with what Fabyan calls 'a great puissance of people.' Four days afterwards the King's infantry followed, consisting of borderers from the Welsh marches, Kentish men, and Londoners. On Friday, March 13, Edward himself rode through Bishopsgate with a great body of men, and attended by many lords and knights. Since the death of Sir David Hall, Edward's uncle Fauconberg was the most able and experienced general on the Yorkist side, and he was now the King's chief adviser. A powerful adherent was John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, who is so frequently mentioned in the 'Paston Letters.' Representative of Thomas de Brotherton, the youngest son of Edward I., the Duke had vast wealth and great influence in the eastern counties, but he was in failing health. Sir John Ratcliffe, K.G., called Lord Fitzwalter jure uxoris, Sir Henry Ratcliffe, Lord Scrope of Bolton, Sir Walter Blount, Sir John Wenlock, Sir John Dynham, Sir Roger Wolferstone, William Hastings, Robert Home of Kent, the King's cousins Humphry and John Stafford, were the principal captains.
The marches were made in a leisurely way to give time for followers to join from various directions, and it was a fortnight before Edward formed a junction with the Earl of Warwick, and mustered his army between Pomfret Castle and Ferrybridge, about forty thousand strong. Reinforcements had flocked to him during the march, especially in Nottinghamshire. Sir John Ratcliffe, with a young illegitimate son of the Earl of Salisbury, was stationed with a small force at Ferrybridge, to guard the passage of the river Aire.
Meanwhile, the nobles who had rallied round the proud Margaret of Anjou were collecting their strength at York. The Duke of Somerset, although he was only in his twenty-fourth year, was the chief commander in the Queen's army. The son of her favourite, who had been slain in the first battle of St. Albans, and the head of a powerful connection, Margaret placed great reliance on the prowess and influence of the young Duke. His first cousin was Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, a lad of twenty, who came to York with the Fulfords, Fortescues, and other west-country squires. His sister Eleanor was married to James Butler, Earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire, K.G., a more mature nobleman who had reached his fortieth year, but who was more noted for running away than for fighting. His brother, Sir John Butler, accompanied him. Next to Somerset the most influential leader was Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who was also in his fortieth year. His family had fought and bled in the Lancastrian cause. His father was slain at St. Albans, his brother, Lord Egremont, at Northampton. Another brother, Sir Richard Percy, now rode by the Earl's side at the head of a numerous body of retainers. Lord Clifford, Lord Dacre of Gillesland, Lord FitzHugh, and Sir John Nevill came with a great muster of West Riding and Westmoreland yeomen; while Lord Welles and Sir William Talboys rallied the Lincolnshire yeomen round their standards. Lord Roos, Sir Ralph Eure, and Sir John Bigot of Musgrave Castle, joined the army with their Yorkshire tenantry; and the Duke of Exeter, Lord Hungerford, and Lord Beaumont swelled the throng with their levies.
Nor were lawyers and churchmen wanting to prop the falling cause. Sir John Fortescue, the Lord Chief Justice, was at York, for he believed the parliamentary title of King Henry to be good, and would not desert him in his need. There too, in attendance on poor Henry, was Dr. Morton, the parson of Bloxworth and Master in Chancery—a treble-dyed traitor and falsifier of history, who afterwards flourished like a green bay tree, and died Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury at the age of ninety.
So far as experience and military training were concerned, the reliance of the Lancastrians was on Lord Welles, Lord Hungerford, and Sir Andrew Trollope. Lionel Lord Welles, now in his fifty-fifth year, had seen much service in France, and had filled the important posts of Lieutenant in Ireland and Captain of Calais. Lord Hungerford had served under the great Talbot, and was present at the fatal battle of Chastillon, where he was taken prisoner. At that time, during his father's life, he was known as Lord Molines, in right of his wife. Trollope was a veteran of the French wars, and seems to have been looked to as the officer who would marshal the army and select positions. He had been a trusted Yorkist captain, and was long in command of the Calais garrison. But when the two rival armies were confronted near Ludlow, in October 1459, he had secretly deserted with a large part of the best soldiers from Calais and gone over to Queen Margaret. This had given her a temporary triumph; and Trollope had since been her most trusted military adviser.
The force collected at York numbered 60,000; and the largest bodies of men that have ever tried conclusions on English ground were thus gathered together between York and Pomfret.
A distance of twenty-five miles separated the towers of Pomfret Castle, under whose shadows young Edward was marshalling his avenging army, from Micklegate Bar, over which the head of his beloved father was withering in the chilling gales of that bitter month of March 1461. Nine of those miles covered the distance from York to Tadcaster on the river Wharfe, and the rest of the distance, from the Wharfe to the Aire, was the scene of the momentous campaign.
The tract of country between the Wharfe and the Aire is a portion of that magnesian limestone formation which extends in a narrow zone across Yorkshire. It is crossed by the principal streams flowing to the Humber, the Ure, the Nidd, the Wharfe, the Aire, the Went, and the Don; and they all form picturesque gorges, with overhanging limestone cliffs and crags, before they enter the great alluvial plain of York. This hilly limestone region, between the Wharfe and the Aire, was once a great forest of elm trees. It was the Elmet of remote times. When the forest was cleared the name remained, and the people called the limestone country 'Elmet lands.' The little river Cock rises on Bramham Moor, flows through this limestone country in a winding course among the undulating hills, and falls into the Wharfe below Tadcaster. Passing the village of Barwick-in-Elmet, it winds along the skirts of 'Becca Banks,' so famous for rare wild flowers, flows under the bridge at Aberford, and westward to Lead Hall, a farmhouse in a great meadow about half a mile short of the village of Saxton. Thence it takes a northerly course to its junction with the Wharfe. Here the winding little brook has hills on either side, covered with woods, with Towton on the right bank, and Hazlewood, the ancient seat of the Vavasours, to the left. It passes through extensive willow garths, and by the village of Stutton, entering the Wharfe, near Tadcaster, after a course of about ten miles.
At present the road from York to Pomfret turns south at the end of Tadcaster Street, and goes direct to Towton and Sherburn, passing the lodge gate at Grimston. But in those days it continued along the left bank of the Cock to beyond Stutton, crossed the little brook by Renshaw Wood, and led up a gentle slope to the hamlet of Towton. By this route the Lancastrian army advanced from Tadcaster, and encamped on the fields between Towton and Saxton. The main road leads direct from Towton to Sherburn, leaving Saxton on the right, and Scarthingwell, with its mere and heronry, on the left. From Sherburn to Ferrybridge the distance is six miles due south. The distance from Ferrybridge, by Sherburn and Saxton, to the battlefield of Towton is nine miles.
On March 26, 1461, the great army of the Lancastrians was encamped round the hamlet of Towton. King Edward's headquarters were at Pomfret, and he had an advanced post to defend the passage of the river Aire in his front, at Ferrybridge, under the command of the titular Lord Fitzwalter, an experienced veteran of the French wars. The object of the Lancastrian leader in advancing across the Wharfe was to oppose the passage of Edward's army over the river Aire at Ferrybridge. The deposed King and Queen, with Lord Roos and Dr. Morton, awaited the event at York. But the Lancastrians were too late. Lord Clifford and Sir John Nevill, however, did press forward in advance, in hopes of surprising the outlying post of Yorkists at Ferrybridge. In this they were successful. The guard at the bridge was taken completely by surprise before the dawn of March 28, and slaughtered by Lord Clifford's men. Lord Fitzwalter, hearing the noise, thought it was merely a disturbance among his own soldiers. He jumped out of bed, ran down with a battle-axe in his hand, and was slain as he came into the street. The brave young bastard of Salisbury fell with him.
This unexpected onslaught caused a panic in the Yorkist camp, which was increased by the conduct of the excitable Earl of Warwick. He lost his head, galloped up to the King's tent, dismounted and killed his horse, crying out, 'Let him fly that will, for surely by this cross I will tarry with him who will tarry with me, fall back fall edge!'[[1]] The conduct of young Edward was very different. Perfectly cool and collected, his firmness restored order among the soldiers. He soon saw that the attack had been made by a small force which would as rapidly retreat. He, therefore, gave prompt orders to his uncle, Lord Fauconberg, to cross the river Aire at Castleford, about three miles to the left, with troops led by Sir Walter Blount and Robert Home of Kent. His object was to intercept the retreat of Lord Clifford. This judicious order was ably carried out by the veteran general. Fauconberg overtook the enemy, and a complete rout of the Lancastrians followed. The chase was continued through Sherburn to a little dell or valley called Dittingdale,[[2]] between Scarthingwell and Towton. Here there was a rally, close to the outposts of the main army of the Lancastrians. Lord Clifford, while taking off his gorget, owing to its having chafed his neck, was struck by an arrow and killed. Sir John Nevill was also slain, and there was a great slaughter among the flying troops. The Yorkist pursuers fell back on their supports without serious loss.
Lord Clifford was only in his twenty-sixth year. His father was slain at the first battle of St. Albans, and he had naturally joined the same cause with enthusiasm. But, as has already been pointed out, the story of his having assassinated a defenceless little boy on Wakefield Bridge is a fiction. There is no reason to believe that Clifford was such a base caitiff. He was evidently an active and enterprising leader. It is the tradition of the family that he was buried, with a heap of undistinguished dead, on the battlefield. Sir John Nevill, a younger brother of the second Earl of Westmoreland, and father of the third Earl, was probably buried within Saxton Church.[[3]] The loss of these two gallant and influential young leaders, whose scattered fugitives brought in the news on that Friday night, must have cast a gloom over the Lancastrian army.
King Edward now resolved to advance with his whole force and attack the enemy where he was encamped. He believed that the main body could not have been very far distant when Lord Clifford was detached to make the attack at Ferrybridge. The van division of the Yorkist army, led by Lord Fauconberg and Sir Walter Blount, was already across the river Aire, and orders were given to them to march northwards by Sherburn and Saxton. The King himself, with the Earl of Warwick, was to follow at the head of the main body. The Duke of Norfolk should have led the van, but he was taken ill, and it was arranged that he should remain behind at Pomfret, with Sir John Wenlock and Sir John Dynham, and follow next day with the rear division and any reinforcements that might have arrived.[[4]]
During March 28, the Eve of Palm Sunday, the Yorkist army was marching northwards in two divisions. It must have been late in the afternoon when the division of Lord Fauconberg passed through Sherburn-in-Elmet, a long street with the old Norman church on an isolated hill to the westward. Two miles more brought him to Saxton late in the evening. Saxton was a small village, with the manor house of the Hungates, and a very old church of Norman times. Thence a steep ascent leads northward to the battlefield. To the east is the high road from York to Pomfret, passing over elevated ground. To the west is a ravine with sides sloping down to the valley of the Cock. The latter brook is seen winding through the green valley, with roads on either side. Northwards there was high undulating ground, and the hamlet of Towton is two miles north of Saxton.
On the ground between Towton and Saxton the Lancastrian army was encamped. The centre, led by the Earl of Northumberland and Sir Richard Percy, with Lord Welles and Sir Andrew Trollope, was formed across the road leading up from Saxton. To the east, forming the Lancastrian left, Lord Dacre and his brother-in-law Lord FitzHugh were encamped on some land called 'North Acres.' To the west, forming the right wing, were the Earls of Devonshire and Wiltshire, and Lords Hungerford and Beaumont. The Dukes of Somerset and Exeter commanded a reserve at Towton village.
When Lord Fauconberg arrived at Saxton he ascertained the position of the enemy and sent intelligence to the King. Edward had probably reached Sherburn by that time, and he at once pushed forward to the neighbourhood of Saxton. The whole Yorkist force numbered 48,640 men, including the reserves, which were still at Pomfret under the Duke of Norfolk.
Palm Sunday dawned and found the host of young Edward facing the long array of Lancastrians. It was bitterly cold. The advance up the hillside from Saxton village was made between eight and nine o'clock in the forenoon, and when the hostile forces came in sight there was a great shouting. At the same time snow began to fall. The wind was northerly in the early morning, but it veered round, became fresher, and by nine o'clock it was driving the snow full into the faces of the Lancastrian troops. The two armies, just before they closed, were separated by an undulating depression which marks the exact position.
Lord Fauconberg caused every archer under his standard to shoot one flight of arrows and then halt. The enemy felt the volley, but could not judge of distances on account of the blinding snow. Their arrows fell short. As soon as the quivers of the enemy were nearly empty, Lord Fauconberg gave the order for his archers to advance, shooting as they came on, and they not only shot off their own arrows, but gathered those of the enemy and sent many of them back whence they came. Then the Earl of Northumberland ordered his men to close, and the battle became a fierce hand-to-hand combat all along the line. For several hours the desperate conflict continued, ebbing and flowing with doubtful result, the snow still falling. King Edward was everywhere, exhorting and encouraging the men, leading them on when they wavered, and helping the wounded out of the fray. The struggle was obstinate and long doubtful. Men were falling fast on both sides. Lord Scrope of Bolton was severely wounded. Robert Home, the valiant captain of Kent, who came from Appledore on the Rother, fell dead.
Messengers had been sent in hot haste to hurry up the Duke of Norfolk with the reserves. He arrived at about noon. With his trusty lieutenants Wenlock and Dynham, he led his men up the road from Sherburn, keeping well to the east of Saxton, and ailing upon the Lancastrian left flank at 'North Acres.'
This was the turning point of the battle. The Lancastrians were disheartened at the arrival of fresh foes. The fighting continued until late in the afternoon, and the slaughter was prodigious, but gradually the Lancastrian left wing was doubled up on the centre; the confusion increased, and there was a complete rout. Lord Dacre had fallen early in the day. He was killed by a boy who shot him from a 'bur' tree,[[5]] when he had unclasped his helmet to drink a cup of wine. The lad thus avenged his father's death, who had been slain by the northern baron. Lord Caere's friends, Sir John and Sir Thomas Crakenthorpe, from the banks of the Eden, fell with him. The Earl of Northumberland, Sir Richard Percy, Lord Welles, and Sir Andrew Trollope were slain in the thick of the fight, with many more. The retreat to the eastward being cut off by the Duke of Norfolk, the defeated army fled down the steep slopes into the valley of the Cock closely pursued.
The well-mounted noblemen, Somerset and Exeter, Devonshire and Wiltshire, Beaumont, Hungerford, and FitzHugh, with many knights, effected their escape. But the footmen were cut down by hundreds in the pursuit. The little Cock beck is not very wide, but it is deep, and many fugitives were drowned in it. The country people declared that the pursuers crossed the brook on dead bodies, and that the river Wharfe was coloured with blood. The Croyland monk relates that the blood of the slain lay caked with snow, which then covered the ground, and that afterwards, when the snow melted, the blood flowed along the furrows and ditches for a distance of two or three miles. The chase continued all night and part of next day.
Fully 10,000 were stated to have been wounded or made prisoners, and Polydore Virgil says that some were cured and some died. This disposes of the statement of Hall, which is adopted by modern writers, that no quarter was given. Edward always gave quarter to the men and junior officers of a defeated army.
The fugitive nobles only had time to ride through York, calling upon Henry and Margaret, with their child, to mount and ride as hard as their horses would carry them. Away they went out of Bootham, and through the dark forest of Galtres, to take refuge in Scotland.
King Edward advanced to York on Monday, March 30, 1461, where he was received with great solemnity by the mayor and commons of the city, in procession. They obtained grace through the intercession of Lords Montagu and Berners. The heads of the Duke of York, the Earl of Rutland, and the Earl of Salisbury were removed from the gates of York, and placed with the bodies at Pomfret, preparatory to the subsequent magnificent obsequies at Fotheringhay and Bisham.
Only four executions took place at York, of the Earl of Devonshire, Sir Baldwin Fulford, Sir William Talboys, and Sir William Hill. The Earl of Wiltshire was captured by William Salkeld at Cockermouth. For this prominent actor in the barbarous deeds after Wakefield fight there could be no forgiveness. He was beheaded at Newcastle on May 1.
The Earl of Northumberland, a first cousin of King Edward, was buried in the north choir of St. Denis church at York, probably with his brother Sir Richard Percy. The body of Lord Welles was taken to Methley, and buried in the Waterton Chapel. Lord Dacre was buried, with his horse, in Saxton churchyard, on the north side of the church, where there is a monument to his memory. The undistinguished dead were at first buried in five great pits on the battlefield, and in separate graves in the valley. It was a tradition that red and white roses grew and flourished on the battlefield, and it is true that there are many rose bushes in the meadows. Leland tells us that Master Hungate of Saxton caused the dead bodies to be brought from the pits on the battlefield, and buried in consecrated ground, in a trench running the whole length of Saxton churchyard.
King Edward kept his Easter at York, which fell that year on April 5. He then advanced as far as Durham, whence he returned southwards, leaving the pacification of the north to the Earl of Warwick and his brother Lord Montagu. Early in June Edward was at the manor of Sheen, and on the 26th of that month he came from Sheen to the Tower of London. On the 27th he created thirty Knights of the Bath, and on Sunday the 28th he was solemnly crowned in Westminster Abbey by Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury.
The King liberally rewarded his supporters. The Duke of Norfolk died in November 1461, and was buried before the high altar at Thetford. But Lord Fauconberg was created Earl of Kent and Lord High Admiral. He died in 1463. Sir Walter Blount was created Lord Mountjoy and a Knight of the Garter. Sir John Dynham, a valued adherent, was created Lord Dynham; and Sir John Wenlock, already a Knight of the Garter, was created Lord Wenlock. Many Yorkists were knighted, either on the field or afterwards at the coronation. Young William Hastings, the King's most faithful follower, was knighted on the field, and created Lord Hastings, in July 1461. Among the Knights of the Bath were the gentlemen of Nottinghamshire who had joined the King on the march northward, Sir Robert Clifton, Sir Nicholas Byron, and Sir Robert and Sir John Markham.
Edward IV. was 'a King who, with many faults, was most honourably anxious from the first to do justice even to the meanest of his subjects.'[[6]] After the first heat of battle had passed he was placable and forgiving. He had strong and justifiable cause for resentment against his opponents at Towton. In the white heat of his indignation, with the sight of his father's head over Micklegate Bar fresh in his recollection, he stayed his avenging hand after four executions. The bill of attainder passed by his first Parliament included 150 names, but many were afterwards granted full pardons, and all who submitted received back portions of their estates. The Duke of Somerset made his peace, and was taken into favour. The son of the Earl of Northumberland was restored to all his father's honours. The brother of the Earl of Wiltshire, though he was also at Towton, was restored to all his estates, was taken into favour, and succeeded as sixth Earl of Ormond. Similar forgiveness was extended to the Courtenays, and to the brother of Lord Dacre. Although Lord Hungerford continued in rebellion, Edward IV. treated his wife and young children with kindness and generosity, making an ample provision for them out of their father's forfeited lands. The son of Lord Welles was taken into favour, and had a grant of all his father's forfeited property. Lord FitzHugh was forgiven and employed in positions of importance. Mr. Thorold Rogers says:—'I entirely discredit the stories told of the tyranny and suspiciousness of Edward IV. He never refused a petition for pardon.'[[7]]
All historians unite in the statement that the old nobility of England was nearly annihilated by the battles and executions during the Wars of the Roses. But facts are opposed to this theory. Scarcely a single peerage became extinct owing to the Wars of the Roses.[[8]]
The battles of Wakefield and Towton made a deep impression on the mind of Prince Richard, although he was but eight years old. The fate of his father and brother in a battle which drove him into exile, and then the crowning victory following so rapidly, could not fail to do so. In later years he erected a memorial chapel at Towton, where prayers were to be offered up for the souls of the fallen. It was standing in Leland's time, but there is now no vestige of this pious work of King Richard III.[[9]]
[[1]] Mr. Green, in his History of the English People, places the time of Warwick's killing his horse 'at one critical moment' during the battle of Towton. But the evidence that this act of folly was perpetrated owing to the panic after the surprise at Ferrybridge is quite conclusive.
[[2]] Hall has Dintingdale, Habington spells it Dindingdale, Baker has Dandingdale. There is no such place on the maps. But Whitaker, in his History of Craven, says that the Rev. F. Wilkinson, Vicar of Bordsey, discovered the almost forgotten name of Dittingdale, as that of a dell or small valley in Scarthingwell Park.
[[3]] Leland says that the Earl of Westmoreland was killed, and buried within Saxton Church. Hall also includes the Earl of Westmoreland among the slain. They mistook him for Sir John Nevill. The Earl himself did not die until 1485. Sharon Turner and later writers repeat the blunder. The Earl of Westmoreland was not in the battle.
[[4]] Mr. Green says that 'the Duke of Norfolk came with a fresh force from the eastern counties.' The Duke came from Pomfret, having left London with the King. Sharon Turner says: 'We owe the remarkable fact of the battle beginning at four o'clock in the afternoon and continuing through the night, and of Norfolk's coming up the next clay at noon to Hearne's fragment.' This fragment was transcribed by Hearne from an old manuscript, but not older than Hall's Chronicle. The statement that the battle began at four on Saturday afternoon and went on through the night, not only contradicts Hall and Stow, but is also impossible. Edward's army could not have got over the ground in time to begin the battle at four in the afternoon. Possibly the mistake of the anonymous writer of Hearne's fragment arose from having been told that Lord Fauconberg came in sight of the Lancastrian army at twilight. It was not the twilight of Saturday afternoon, but of Palm Sunday morning, as Hall explains.
[[5]] Loidis and Elmete, p. 156. Dr. Whitaker says that the word 'bur' is very distinct in Glover's manuscript. It means an alder tree, from the old Norse 'bur' or 'baurr.'
[[6]] Gairdner. Introduction to the Paston Letters, ii. p. xii.
[[7]] Work and Wages, ii. 316.
[[8]] The Duke of Exeter was separated from his wife, and had no children. The Duke of Somerset, who was beheaded, had six daughters, and another was unmarried. But the House of Somerset was perpetuated in that of Beaufort. A few new peerages became extinct because their recipients did not marry, such as Egremont and Wenlock. But Lord Egremont was a Percy, and the family of Percy continued to flourish. No more peerages became extinct owing to the Wars of the Roses than would have done so in a time of profound peace.
[[9]] There is a warrant for 40l. to be given for building the chapel at Towton, dated November 28, 1483 (Harl. MSS., No. 413). In July 1488, an indulgence of forty days was granted ad speciosam capellam in villa de Toughton (per Saxton) de novo a fundamentis sumptuose et nobiliter erectam, super quodam loco seu fondo ubi corpora procerum et magnatum ac aliorum hominum multitudine copiosa in quodam bello in campis circumjacentibus inito interfectorum sepeliuntur. In December 1502 another indulgence of forty days was granted. The exact site of the chapel is the garden behind Mr. Kendall's house.
CHAPTER IV
THE CROWN LOST AND WON—BATTLE OF BARNET
The young princes, George and Richard, were in Holland for about six months, under the protection of the Duke of Burgundy. They resided at Utrecht. Then the news came of Edward's accession, and the crowning victory of Towton. The two boys were brought home again, and were soon under their mother's immediate care, with their sister Margaret.
Immediately after the coronation, George was created Duke of Clarence; and Richard Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Carlisle, and Earl of Richmond,[[1]] a title which had merged in the crown after the attainder of Edmund Tudor. Richard was created a Knight of the Garter in 1465. In February 1466 his sword and helmet were placed in St. George's Chapel, and he took possession of his stall in the following April. His stall plate is now in the ninth stall on the south side of the choir, in St. George's Chapel at Windsor. The arms are France and England quarterly, with a silver label of three points, each ermine with a canton gules. The crest is a crowned leopard gold, on a cap of estate, with a label as in the arms, round his neck. The helm is barred as used in the mêlée, the only one on the early plates, the rest all being tilting helms.
The first public appearance of young Richard was on the occasion of his father's solemn obsequies. The Duke of York's body, and that of his son Edmund Earl of Rutland, had to be conveyed from Pomfret to Fotheringhay, and the Duke of Gloucester, then in his fourteenth year, was appointed by the King to be chief mourner. On July 22, 1466, the bodies of Richard Duke of York, and of his son, Edmund Earl of Rutland, were taken from their temporary resting place at Pomfret, and placed in a chariot covered with black velvet, richly embroidered with cloth of gold. At the feet of the Duke stood the figure of an angel clothed in white, bearing a crown of gold, to signify that of right he was a king. The chariot was drawn by four horses trapped to the ground. Every horse carried a man, and upon the foremost rode Sir John Skipwith, who bore the Duke's banner displayed. Bishops and abbots, in their robes, went two or three miles in front, to prepare the churches for the reception of the bodies.'[[2]] The boy Duke of Gloucester followed next after the chariot, accompanied by noblemen and heralds. In this order they left Pomfret and rested that night at Doncaster. Thence they proceeded by easy stages to Blythe, Tuxford, Newark, Grantham, and Stamford. On Monday, July 27, the procession arrived at Fotheringhay. The bodies were carried into the church by servants of the deceased, and received by the King and his Court in deep mourning.
Edward IV. built a magnificent shrine in the choir, over the tombs of his father and brother, and completed the works of the college, including the cloister.[[3]]
There is reason to believe that the young Duke of Gloucester received his knightly training in the use of arms from the age of fourteen, in the household of his cousin the Earl of Warwick. There are payments to the Earl for costs and expenses incurred by him on account of Richard, the King's brother. Here he was the companion of Francis Lovel and Robert Percy, for both of whom he formed a friendship which ended only with death. Here too he was the playfellow of his cousin Anne Nevill, and an attachment was probably then formed between them, which was destined to bear fruit in after years. We find Richard and Anne sitting together at the installation feast of her uncle the Archbishop of York in 1467.
Richard was short in stature, with a delicate fragile frame, the right shoulder being slightly higher than the left. But he had been inured to warlike exercises, and was fond of hunting and all manly sports. He had light brown hair and a very handsome face, full of energy and decision, yet with a gentle and even melancholy expression when the features were at rest.[[4]]
While Richard was receiving a knightly education in the north, his brother Edward was conducting his own and the country's affairs recklessly and without wisdom. The secret marriage ceremony he went through with the widow of Lord Grey of Groby, and her subsequent coronation, had estranged the nobles, and their disgust was increased by the promotion and enrichment of her Woodville relations. The Earl of Warwick, the cousin and formerly the supporter of Edward, became the chief among the malcontents. He married his daughter Isabella to the Duke of Clarence, without the King's consent or knowledge, and afterwards fostered and encouraged disturbances and insurrections. At last he went to France with Clarence, and made an agreement with Margaret of Anjou to restore Henry VI. to the throne. Finally he returned to England, with the Duke of Clarence, as an open enemy of King Edward. Troops rapidly flocked to his standard, and the country was lost and won as if by magic.
Warwick had used all his arts of persuasion to induce the younger brothers of the King to be false to their allegiance. With Clarence he succeeded; but Richard never wavered for a moment. His loyalty to his brother was not to be shaken. There is something very touching in the unalterable affection between Edward and Richard. In Edward, from the time when he used to visit his little brother every day in Paston's chambers, to the hour of his death, there was a loving protection and a solicitude for the lad's welfare which was shown in many ways. On the part of Richard there was loyalty and zeal for his elder brother's service as well as warm affection. His motto was
'LOYAULTÉ ME LIE.'[[5]]
(Loyalty bindeth me.)
From the moment that Warwick became a traitor, Richard was constantly by his brother's side, sharing his long marches,[[6]] his dangers and hardships. When Warwick landed and proclaimed the restoration of Henry VI., King Edward summoned his forces to assemble at Doncaster, particularly relying on the Marquis Montagu, Warwick's brother, in whose loyalty he implicitly believed. Edward related to the historian Comines the events immediately preceding his flight from the kingdom. He was in a fortified house with his friends, to which the only access was a bridge, and the troops were quartered in the villages near. Suddenly news arrived that Montagu and others were riding among his soldiers shouting for Henry. Edward hastily put on his armour and sent a body of faithful adherents to defend the bridge. There was nothing left but flight. Accompanied by his brother Richard and a few loyal friends the King galloped off, leaving Lord Hastings to gain time by defending the bridge. Hastings made some terms for his followers with Montagu, and then followed his master. Reaching Lynn, in Norfolk, the fugitives found two Dutch vessels on the point of sailing. They immediately went on board without other clothes than leurs habillemens de guerre.[[7]] The brothers were accompanied in their flight by Lords Hastings, Rivers, and Saye, and a few faithful knights. Narrowly escaping capture by an Easterling ship, they landed near Alkmaar in North Holland. A gown lined with martens was the only thing of value wherewith King Edward could pay his passage; and he was saved from capture by the Easterlings through the intervention of the Sieur Louis de Bruges, Lord of Gruthuus, who received the fugitives with generous hospitality and conducted them to The Hague. King Edward and his host were brother Knights of the Golden Fleece, an obligation which the lord of Gruthuus most fully recognised. He gave up his great house at Bruges for the use of the exiled princes, who resided there during the ensuing winter, and he also lent them his château of Oostcamp. From Bruges, King Edward and his brother proceeded to the court of the Duke of Burgundy at St. Pol, to seek for aid in recovering the crown of England. Charles the Bold publicly declined to interfere, and the Lancastrian Duke of Somerset hurried to London with the good news. But Charles had been married, in 1468, to the Princess Margaret of York, who was devotedly attached to her brothers. She opened a correspondence with the Duke of Clarence in England, to induce him to return to his allegiance. Through her influence, the aid which had been withheld publicly was given in secret. She smoothed all difficulties, and enabled her brothers to undertake their romantic enterprise. For Edward was resolved to recover his crown, and Richard, from this time, was his efficient lieutenant.
Richard's services in Flanders, and especially in fitting out the expedition, secured for him the full confidence of his brother. The ships had to be equipped very secretly and with great care. The Duchess Margaret had procured a grant of 15,000 florins, and permission to get ready four ships of Flanders and thirteen hired Easterlings[[8]] which were to be at Edward's service until he should land in England, and for fifteen days afterwards. The next step was the selection of a seaport where the expedition could be quietly fitted out. The Lord of Gruthuus again proved a friend in need. He had married Margaret, the sister of Henry van Borselle, Lord of the island of Walcheren. The traditions of the family of Borselle were adverse to the House of Lancaster, for Francis van Borselle was the lover, and eventually the husband, of that unfortunate Jacoba of Holland who was treated so shamefully by Humphrey Duke of Gloucester. The excellent ports of Veere and Flushing were, therefore, placed at Edward's disposal.
The expedition was fitted out in the port of Veere, under the protection of Henry van Borselle. Besides the King and young Richard, Lords Hastings, Rivers, and Saye were the principal leaders. The expeditionary force consisted of 900 men, in addition to the crews of the ships. A select body of 300 Flemish gunners, armed with hand-guns, formed part of the little army; and this is nearly the first time that these new weapons are mentioned in English warfare. The men carried slow matches, and are called 'smoky gunners' by Fabyan. Richard actively helped in the preparation of this daring little expedition at Veere; for by this time the King had learned to appreciate his brother's remarkable ability and fitness for command.
By the end of February 1471, the ships were ready. They were brought down the Channel from Veere to Flushing and the troops were embarked. But they had to wait nine days in Flushing Roads for a fair wind, and it was not until Monday, March 11, that the gallant adventurers sailed for the Norfolk coast. Edward was in one ship with Lord Hastings, while his brother had a separate command in another vessel, each being followed by a squadron of transports. It is probable that the exiled King shaped a course for the coast of Norfolk in the hope that the influence of the Duke, who was faithful to his cause, would ensure him a cordial reception. But he was disappointed. Two knights, named Sir Robert Chamberlain and Sir Gilbert Debenham, went on shore at Cromer and found the country occupied by Warwick's adherents. Edward, therefore, steered for Yorkshire, and encountered a gale of wind which lasted from March 12 to 14, scattering his little squadron. When Edward and Hastings anchored off Ravenspur,[[9]] on the Holderness coast, no other vessel was in sight. The King landed and burnt his ship, resolved to regain his crown or perish in the attempt.
Edward stood on that dreary waste of sand with 500 followers. The look-out was black indeed. He had seen nothing of the other ships since they were separated by the gale off Cromer. He sent scouts to the adjacent villages, but not a man ventured to join his standard. While hesitating what should be the next step, horsemen appeared over the brow of a rising ground. The adventurers stood to their arms, but a few minutes turned anxiety into joy. The young Duke of Gloucester was seen to be at the head of a little force of 300 men. He had effected a landing at a point about four miles from Ravenspur, and hurried to join his brother. Soon afterwards Lord Rivers, who had reached the shore at a place called Pole, fourteen miles away, made his appearance. Thus was the little force once more united. They marched to Beverley and thence to York, but although armed men were seen, no one either molested them or came to their assistance. There appears to have been no ill-will among the people, but fear of the power of the Earl of Warwick and a belief that Edward's cause was hopeless.
The authorities of York did not dare to receive Edward as King. It was thought advisable that, at this stage, he should only claim his hereditary dukedom.[[10]] This deceived no one, but it would enable the mayor and aldermen of York to defend their conduct in the event of Edward's overthrow. They received him into their town, gave him supplies, and next day he marched southwards to Tadcaster.
The campaign by which Edward regained the crown was one of the most brilliant that has ever been conducted by an English general. It elicited proofs of consummate military skill from the Yorkist princes, and displays of valour and presence of mind in action which were never surpassed by any of their race. Edward IV. is entitled to an equal place as a military commander with Edward III. or Henry V. His strategy and resource were superior to those of either. He never lost a battle, though he never declined a combat. In three short months from the time that he landed with a handful of men on the coast of Holderness, he had outwitted and out-manoeuvred his opponents, had won two pitched battles, and had recovered his crown. Richard deserves scarcely less credit. He was only eighteen, yet he contributed largely to the success of the campaign, while in battle his brother entrusted the young prince with important separate commands.
Edward's little band of adventurers was opposed by the whole resources of England in the hands of the Earl of Warwick. The Earl himself was posted with a strong force at Coventry. His brother Montagu occupied an advanced position at Pomfret to intercept the invaders on their southward march. The Earl of Oxford was advancing from the Eastern counties, and Clarence from London. By a masterly flank march the King passed to the westward of Pomfret and reached Nottingham, leaving Montagu in his rear baffled and outwitted. At Nottingham loyal men began to flock to the King's standard. The Earl of Oxford and Duke of Exeter had advanced against him from the Eastern counties, but the rumoured increase of his forces made them halt at Newark. The King pressed onwards to Leicester, and marching thence to Coventry, offered battle to the Earl of Warwick, who was behind the walls with 7,000 men. Warwick declined. He was taken completely by surprise. This was on March 29, only a fortnight after Edward had landed. Without losing a moment the royal army marched on to Warwick, and on the approach of Clarence from London, his brothers encamped in a field three miles on the road to Banbury.
The negotiations between King Edward and Clarence were conducted throughout by their younger brother Richard, and to him is due the credit of the reconciliation which took place. He thus restored one brother to his throne, and reclaimed the other from dishonour. The defection of Clarence left no enemy between the King and his capital. Edward reached Daventry on the night of April 6, attending divine service there on Palm Sunday. On the 9th he was at Northampton, and on the 11th he entered London, where he was joyfully received by the citizens.
Warwick was outwitted like his brother. There was nothing left for him but to follow the King, who could give him battle or not as he chose. So the baffled Earl concentrated his army, calling up Montagu from Pomfret, Vere and Exeter from Newark, and Somerset from the west. Having united his forces he marched towards London, reaching St. Albans on the 12th, and encamping on Gladmore Heath to the north of Barnet, and about ten miles from London, on the afternoon of April 13.
Battle of Barnet
The King only had one full day in London, in which to organise his little army, now increased to 9,000 men, and to rest the faithful few who had marched with him from Ravenspur. He entered London on the 11th, and in the forenoon of the 13th he marched out to encounter his enemies. Advancing to Barnet his scouts drove out the scouts of Warwick and chased them for half a mile. The King then marched through the town, and reached Gladmore Heath when it was dusk. He encamped much nearer the enemy than he intended, and by reason of the darkness his line was not formed directly in front of the opposing force. The King's right extended beyond Warwick's left, while his left was similarly overlapped by Warwick's right. In one respect this was fortunate, for Warwick's artillery was in his right wing, and he kept up a fire all through the night[[11]] without doing any damage to his adversaries, because their left wing was not posted in front of the rebel right wing; but somewhat to the eastward of it.
Warwick had drawn up his army with his brother Montagu and John Vere, son of the attainted Earl of Oxford, in charge of the right wing consisting mainly of cavalry; the Duke of Somerset in the centre with archers and bill-men; and Warwick himself, with the Duke of Exeter, in command of the left wing. The opposing force of the King was inferior in numbers to that of the rebels. Edward, accompanied by Clarence and Henry VI., commanded the centre in person. On the left was Lord Hastings, while young Richard Duke of Gloucester, who was only eighteen years of age, had charge of the right wing. A strong body of infantry was kept in reserve. The King ordered strict silence to be observed throughout the night.
When the morning of Easter Sunday, April 14, at length dawned there was a dense fog, so that the two armies could barely distinguish each other. At half-past four the King advanced his standards, and sounded his trumpets for battle. There were flights of arrows, and then the opposing forces closed and encountered each other with hand strokes, in the thick mist. For a long time it was impossible for the leaders to know what was taking place in different parts of the field. Oxford found little to oppose him. He charged the followers of Lord Hastings and easily routed them, continuing the chase beyond Barnet. Then he returned to reinforce the main body; but here a fatal mistake occurred. The cognizance of King Edward was the sun in splendour, adopted after seeing the parhelion at Mortimer's Cross. The cognizance of the Veres was a star with rays.[[12]] When the soldiers of Warwick's centre, under Somerset, saw a fresh body of men approaching under the banner of the star, they mistook it for the King's cognizance and thought they were attacked in flank. A cry of treason ran through their ranks. Up to this time they had stubbornly resisted the onslaughts of King Edward and his men, but now they broke and fled. Somerset and Vere rode away with their men, and made good their escape.
Meanwhile the Duke of Gloucester had led his troops to a furious attack on the enemy's left wing which was commanded by Warwick in person. The Duke himself plunged into the thickest of the fight. His two esquires, John Milwater[[13]] and Thomas Parr, were slain by his side. At the moment when the fate of the battle was still uncertain, and when the King heard that his young brother was hard pressed, the reserves were brought into action, just as Somerset's division began to waver. Victory then ceased to be doubtful, and soon there was complete rout all along the rebel line. The Earl of Warwick and his brother Montagu fell either in the battle or in attempting to escape. The accounts vary. Though enemies and traitors to the royal brothers, they were cousins, and had once been devoted friends. The King sincerely mourned the death of Montagu, and the depth of Richard's sorrow is proved by his subsequent intercession for Montagu's heirs. The bodies, after being laid for two days in St. Paul's Cathedral, were honourably interred in the burial place of their mother's family at Bisham. The losses on the King's side included Lord Saye, who had shared Edward's exile, Humphrey Bourchier Lord Cromwell,[[14]] another Sir Humphrey Bourchier,[[15]] son of Lord Berners, and the son and heir of Lord Mountjoy. The losses, on both sides, amounted to about 1,500 men.[[16]] King Edward and the Duke of Gloucester returned to London the same day, while their army rested for the night on the battlefield.
[[1]] Rot. Parl. vol. vi. p. 227. Halsted, i. 432.
[[2]] Sandford, p. 391.
[[3]] The tombs were desecrated in the time of Edward VI., when the college was granted to John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Queen Elizabeth gave orders that they should be restored. The bones of Richard Duke of York, of the Duchess Cicely, and of Edmund Earl of Rutland, lapped in lead, were removed into the parish church. For the choir, where they rested under the beautiful shrine, had been destroyed. Mean monuments of plaster were then erected over them, and over the remains of Edward Duke of York, on either side of the altar. They are specimens of the taste of the Elizabethan age, fluted columns supporting a frieze and cornice, ornamented with the falcon and fetter-lock. In the inscriptions they have forgotten the name of young Edmund Earl of Rutland.
[[4]] Portrait at Windsor Castle. Dr. Parr, in a letter to Roscoe, speaking of the head of Lorenzo (the Magnificent) prefixed to Roscoe's biography, says: 'I am very much mistaken if, by invigorating a few traits, it would not make an excellent head of Richard III.'—Life of Roscoe, i. 178.
[[5]] Buck, p. 83.
[[6]] Paston Letters, ii. 357, 389.
[[7]] Comines.
[[8]] The ships of the towns belonging to the Hanseatic League, in the Baltic, and on the Elbe, were known in England by the name of Easterlings.
[[9]] Ravenspur appears, from the description of the writer in Fleetwood, to have been inside Spurn Head. He says: 'He landed within Humber on Holderness side, at a place called Ravenspoure.'
[[10]] The Tudor chroniclers, as is their wont, grossly exaggerate and misrepresent this incident: introducing imaginary details, including an oath before an altar, vows of allegiance to Henry VI., and other romances. These are the offspring of their zeal to please their Tudor paymasters, by traducing the House of York.
[[11]] Warkworth says that: 'each of them loosed guns at other all night.' Balls have been dug up weighing 1-½ lbs.
[[12]] The second Alberic de Vere, father of the first Earl of Oxford, was a crusader. In 1098 he was in a battle near Antioch when the infidels were defeated. During the chase, a silver star of five points was seen to descend from heaven and light on Alberic's shield, there shining excessively. It had ever since been borne in the first quarter of the Vere arms. This is the old tradition. Modern heralds suspect that the mullet was merely a mark of cadency adopted by the second brother of the second Earl, who retained it when he became third Earl.
[[13]] Mentioned in the letter of Edward and Edmund to their father.
[[14]] Ralph Cromwell, fourth Baron Cromwell, who was Lord Treasurer for Henry VI., and was the builder of Tattershall Castle, died childless in 1455. His sister Maud married Sir Richard Stanhope and had a daughter Maud, whose husband Sir Humphrey Bourchier, third son of Henry Bourchier Earl of Essex, by the Princess Isabel Plantagenet (aunt of Edward IV.), took the title of Lord Cromwell jure uxoris. This Lord Cromwell seems to have been a student of law as well as a soldier. There is a manuscript copy of the statutes of Edward III. in the Hunterian Library of Glasgow University which once belonged to him. At the beginning there is the following entry: 'Eximii et preclari militis liber, Johannis Markham capitalis just, de B. Regis, Liber Humfredi Bourchier dmus Cromwell ex dono supradicti'; and at the end: 'This boke is mine Humphrey Bourchier Lord Cromwell by the gift of the right noble and famous judge Sir John Markham Chief Justice of the King's Bench.'
[[15]] Sir John Bourchier, fourth son of William Bourchier Earl of Eu, by Anne, daughter of Thomas Duke of Gloucester, married the heiress of Sir Richard Berners, and was summoned to Parliament as Lord Berners in 1455 to 1472. The second Humphrey Bourchier who was slain at Barnet was his son. Fabyan and Habington call him 'Lord Barnes.'
[[16]] Fabyan gives the number at 1,500. Habington says 4,600. Hall is unreliable as usual. He says 10,000 on both sides. Although some writers say that the King's army was superior in numbers, it is probable that, while Edward only had 9,000 men, the forces of Warwick were very much more numerous.
CHAPTER V
MARGARET OF ANJOU AND HER SON EDWARD
It is necessary to look back a few years in order to consider the lives of the mother and son who now, for a time, come prominently into connection with the life story of Richard Duke of Gloucester.
Margaret, second daughter of René of Anjou and Isabelle of Lorraine, was born at Pont-à-Mousson on March 23, 1429, and baptized at Toul. As a child she went with her mother to Capua and Naples. Provence was also one of her homes, but she returned to Lorraine in her fifteenth year. She was only sixteen when the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk came to Nancy to demand her hand for Henry VI. of England, and in November 1444 she was married by proxy amidst great rejoicings; for the event secured a lasting peace with France. There was a great tournament in the Place de Carrière at Nancy to celebrate the event, at which Charles VII. and many of the chief nobles of France were present. Charles tilted with King René, bearing on his shield the serpent of the fairy Melusina. The daisy was young Margaret's cognizance, and Pierre de Brezé, Lord of Varenne, and Seneschal of Normandy, maintained the pre-eminence of the 'daisye flower' against all comers in the Place de Carrière.[[1]] This was no passing sentiment. Two at least in that brilliant throng remained true to the fair princess to the bitter end, Pierre de Brezé and the Duchess of Suffolk.
Margaret was not only very beautiful, she was endowed with rare gifts of intellect, which had been cultivated by travel in Italy and Provence, and through communion with her accomplished father. She set out for England attended by the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk and a train of nobles. On her way she supped with the Duke of York at Mantes, and reached Honfleur on April 3, 1445. Thence she sailed across to Portsmouth, where she slept at the Maison Dieu. She was then taken in a row-boat to Southampton, but her marriage was delayed for some time by an illness. Henry VI., who was in his twenty-fourth year,[[2]] had been waiting for his bride at Southwick. The marriage took place at Titchfield Abbey on May 30.
Never was a young girl placed in a more wretched position. Married to a poor feeble creature who could be neither companion nor protector, surrounded by self-seeking intriguers, living in a foreign country with few to sympathise with or care for her; the years that followed her marriage could not fail to embitter the brave heart that no misfortune had power to crush. For years she lived on, the memories of the bright and happy court of her father gradually fading, while the cruel facts of her miserable position hardened round her.
It was in the eighth year after her marriage that Margaret became a mother. Her whole soul opened to the loving influence. All her pent-up womanly feelings found a vent. She at last had something to live for. Her brilliant intellect, her fortitude and devotion, her great powers of endurance, all she had, her whole being, became centred in this child—the one thing she had to love. For him she would face dangers, dare more than most men in perils and hardships, and, if need be, would become as a tigress at bay in defence of her young.
The prince was born at Westminster on October 13, 1453, being just one year younger than Richard. It was at a time when Henry VI. was in one of his fits of complete mental derangement which came upon him periodically, as they did upon his grandfather Charles VI. of France, from whom no doubt he inherited them. The Duke of York was administering the realm. The child was proclaimed Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. His mother was just twenty-four, and Henry was in his thirty-third year. The Queen had lost her mother, to whom she was fondly attached, on the previous February 28. In hopes that the name would endear her boy to the people, Margaret gave him that of Edward. He was baptized by Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by Waynflete of Winchester, the Duke of Somerset and Duchess of Buckingham[[3]] being sponsors. He was also created a Knight of the Garter.
From his very cradle the child was in the midst of war and turmoil. The misgovernment of the Beauforts had strengthened the legitimate claim of the Duke of York, which would never have had a chance against the parliamentary title of an able and popular king. But the Yorkists now had to reckon with the gifted and intrepid Queen, whose whole soul, and whose every gift of mind and body, were concentrated with fierce devotion on the defence of her child's birthright. Nothing but death could make her desist from efforts on his behalf.
Young Edward was only in his second year when the first battle of St. Albans was fought, on May 22, 1455. His mother had taken him to Greenwich, where she received the news of the death of Somerset and her other supporters, and of the wound received by Henry. During the following four years there were hollow reconciliations, but a death struggle was inevitable; and in June 1459 the court left London for Warwick, virtually to take the field. The child Edward was only five years old. He was destined never to see London again.
Margaret strove to make the child popular with the people, and to excite a feeling of loyalty for him. He was named Edward to remind them of the king who added to the glory of England at Cressy and Poitiers. She adopted the badge of Edward III. as that of the Prince, and the pretty little boy, with long golden hair, distributed silver swans among the people wherever he went. The Queen could not bear him out of her sight, yet her dauntless eagerness would not allow her to be absent from scenes of strife, when her child's future depended on the result. Mother and child looked down on the battle of Blore Heath from the tower of Muccleston Church, and when Lord Audley was routed they fled to Eccleshall Castle. Then there were a few months of dawning hope, which was crushed at Northampton. Again Margaret watched the fortunes of the day with her child. She heard of the treachery of Grey, she saw the gallant young Edward of York leading his men over the trenches, and that the day was lost. The King fell into the hands of her enemies.