partisans, of course passed whatever acts he pleased. The crown was
settled on Edward, the Prince of Wales, and his issue; but that failing,
it was to devolve upon Clarence.
Queen Margaret might have been expected, from her characteristic energy
and rapidity of action, to have been in London nearly as soon as Warwick;
but this was not the case. In the first place, she was in want of the
necessary funds. Louis, who was chary of his money, probably thought he
had done sufficient in enabling the victorious armament of Warwick to
reach England; and poor King Réné, Margaret's father, was in no condition
to assist her. In the meantime all the exiled Lancastrians flocked to
her; and all were destitute. In February, 1471, she set sail to cross
the Channel, but was driven back by tempests. Three times did she make
the daring attempt to cross, though warned against it by the seamen of
Harfleur; and every time she was driven back with such fury and damage,
that many declared it was the will of Heaven she should not pass over;
nor was she able to do so till the following month. Till that time
Warwick held England in the name of Henry, and appeared established, if
not exactly on the throne, in the seat of supreme and settled power.
The mock restoration of Henry VI. was not destined to be of long
continuance. The ups and downs of royalty at this period were as rapid
and strange as the shifting scenes of a theatre. There is no part of
our history where we are left so much in the dark as to the real moving
causes. It is difficult to see how Warwick, with his vast popularity,
should, in the course of a single winter, become so unpopular as to
render his fall and the success of Edward so easy. It must be remembered,
however, that there was a secret schism in his party. Clarence was only
waiting to seize a good opportunity to overthrow his father-in-law,
Warwick, and climb the throne himself. Though he was by no means
high-principled, Clarence was not so weak as to build any hopes on
Warwick's having given him the succession in case of the issue of the
Prince of Wales failing. Warwick had married another of his daughters to
the prince, and it was his strongest interest to maintain that line on
the throne.
All these causes undoubtedly co-operated to produce what soon followed.
Burgundy determined to assist Edward to regain his throne, and thus
destroy the ascendency of Warwick. While, therefore, issuing a
proclamation forbidding any of his subjects to follow Edward in his
expedition, he privately sent to him the cross of St. Andrew; and a gift
of 50,000 florins furnished him with four large ships, which were fitted
up and stored for him at Vere, in Walcheren. Besides these, he hired for
him fourteen ships from the merchants of the Hanse Towns, to transport
his troops from Flushing to England. These transactions could leave no
question in the minds of the subjects of Burgundy which way lay the real
feelings of their sovereign. But the number of troops embarking with
Edward was not such as to give to the enterprise a Burgundian appearance.
The soldiers furnished him were only 2,000. Edward undoubtedly relied on
information sent him from England as to the forces there ready to join
him.
The fleet of Edward steered for the Suffolk coast. It was in the south
that the Yorkist influence lay, and Clarence was posted in that quarter
at the head of a considerable force. But Warwick's preparations were too
strong in that quarter; an active body of troops, under a brother of
the Earl of Oxford, deterred the invaders from any attempt at landing.
They proceeded northward, finding no opportunity of successfully
getting on shore till they reached the little port of Ravenspur, in
Yorkshire--singularly enough, the very place where Henry IV. landed when
he deposed Richard II. From this same port now issued the force which was
to terminate his line.
At first, however, the undertaking wore anything but a promising
aspect. The north was the very stronghold of the Lancastrian faction,
and openly was displayed the hostility of the inhabitants towards the
returned Yorkist monarch. But Edward, with that ready dishonesty which
is considered defensible in the strife for crowns, solemnly declared
that he had abandoned for himself all claims on the throne; that he saw
and acknowledged the right of Henry VI. and his line, and for himself
only desired the happy security of a private station. His real and
most patriotic design, he gave out, was to put down the turbulent and
overbearing power of Warwick, and thus give permanent tranquillity to the
country, which never could exist so long as Warwick lived. He exhibited
a forged safe-conduct from the Earl of Northumberland; he declared that
he sought for himself nothing but the possessions of the Duke of York,
his father; he mounted in his bonnet an ostrich feather, the device of
the Prince of Wales, and ordered his followers to shout "Long live King
Henry!" in every place through which they passed.
These exhibitions of his untruth were too barefaced to deceive any one.
The people still stood aloof, and, on reaching the gates of York, Edward
found them closed against him. But by the boldest use of the same lying
policy, Edward managed to prevail on the mayor and aldermen to admit
him. He swore the most solemn oath that he abjured the crown for ever,
and would do all in his power to maintain Henry and his issue upon it.
Not satisfied with this, the clergy demanded that he should repeat this
oath most emphatically before the high altar in the cathedral. Edward
assented with alacrity, and would undoubtedly have sworn anything and any
number of oaths to the same effect. He then marched in with that bold
precipitance which was the secret of his success, and which, as in the
case of the great Napoleon, always threw his enemies into consternation
and confusion. At Pontefract lay the Marquis of Montague, Warwick's
brother, with a force superior to that of Edward, and all the world
looked to see him throw himself across the path of the invader, and to
set battle against him. Nothing of the kind; Montague lay still in the
fortress, and Edward, marching within four miles of this commander, went
on his way without any check from him.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF BARNET: DEATH OF THE KING-MAKER. (_See p._ 34.)]
As Edward approached the midland counties, and especially when he had
crossed the Trent, the scene changed rapidly in his favour. He had
left the Lancastrian districts behind, and reached those where Yorkism
prevailed. People now flocked to his standard. At Nottingham the Lord
Stanley, Sir Thomas Parr, Sir James Harrington, Sir Thomas Montgomery,
and several other gentlemen, came in with reinforcements. Edward felt
himself strong enough to throw off the mask: he assumed the title of
king, and marched towards Coventry, where lay Warwick and Clarence with a
force sufficient to punish this odious perjury. But a fresh turn of the
royal kaleidoscope was here to astonish the public. Edward challenged
the united army of Warwick and Clarence on the 29th of March, 1471. In
the night, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, paid a visit to his brother
Clarence. The two brothers flew into each other's arms with a transport
which, if not that of genuine affection, was at least that of successful
conspiracy. The morning beheld the army of Clarence, amounting to 12,000
men, arrayed, not on the part of Warwick, but of Edward, the soldiers
wearing, not the red, but the white rose over their gorgets.
Here, then, was fully disclosed the secret which had induced Edward to
march on so confidently through hostile districts, and people standing
aloof from his banners. Clarence, whether in weak simplicity, or under
the influence of others, sent to Warwick to apologise for his breach of
his most solemn oaths, and offered to become mediator betwixt him, his
father-in-law, and Edward his brother. Warwick rejected the offer with
disdain, refusing all further intercourse with the perjured Clarence;
but he was now too weak to engage him and Edward, and the Yorkist king
then boldly advanced towards the capital. The gates of the city, like
those of York, he found closed against him, but he possessed sufficient
means to unlock the one as he had done the other. There were upwards
of 2,000 persons of rank and influence, including no less than 400
knights and gentlemen, crowded into the various sanctuaries of London
and Westminster, who were ready not only to declare, but to act in his
favour. The ladies, who were charmed with the gay and gallant disposition
of Edward, were avowedly his zealous friends; and perhaps still more
persuasive was the fact that the jovial monarch owed large sums to the
merchants, who saw in his return their only chance of payment. Edward
even succeeded in securing the Archbishop of York, who was, in his
brother Warwick's absence, the custodian of the city and the person
of King Henry. All regard to oaths, and all fidelity to principle or
party, seemed to have disappeared at this epoch. By permission of the
archbishop, Edward was admitted on Thursday, April 2nd, by a postern into
the bishop's palace, where he found the poor and helpless King Henry, and
immediately sent him to the Tower.
So confident now was Edward of victory, that he disdained to shelter
himself any longer within the walls of the city, but marched out against
the enemy. It was late on Easter eve when the two armies met on Barnet
Common. Both had made long marches, Edward having left London that day.
The Earl of Warwick, being first on the ground, had chosen his position.
Edward, who came later, had to make his arrangements in the dark, the
consequence of which was, that he committed a great error. His right
wing, instead of confronting the left wing of Warwick, was opposed to his
centre, and the left wing of Edward consequently had no opponents, but
stretched far away to the west. Daylight must have discovered this error,
and most probably fatally for Edward; but day--the 14th of April--came
accompanied by a dense fog, believed to have been raised by a celebrated
magician, Friar Bungy. The left wing of each army, advancing through the
obscurity of the fog, and finding no enemy, wheeled in the direction of
the main body. By this movement the left wing of Warwick trampled down
the right wing of Edward, and defeating it, pursued the flying Yorkists
through Barnet on the way to London.
Meantime, the left wing of the Yorkists, instead of encountering the
right of the Lancastrians, came up so as to strengthen their own centre,
where Edward and Warwick were contending with all their might against
each other. Both chiefs were in the very front of the battle, which was
raging with the utmost fury. Warwick, contrary to his custom, had been
persuaded by his brother Montague to dismount, send away his horse, and
fight on foot.
The battle commenced at four o'clock in the morning, and lasted till
ten. The rage of the combatants was terrible, and the slaughter was
proportionate, for Edward, exasperated at the commons, who had shown such
favour to Warwick on all occasions, had, contrary to his usual custom,
issued orders to spare none of them, and to kill all the leaders if
possible. The conflict was terminated by a singular mistake. The device
of the Earl of Oxford, who was fighting for Warwick, was a star with
rays, emblazoned both on the front and back of his soldiers' coats. The
device of Edward's own soldiers on this occasion was a sun with rays.
Oxford had beaten his opponents in the field, and was returning to assist
Warwick, when Warwick's troops, mistaking through the mist the stars of
Oxford for the sun of Edward, fell upon Oxford's followers, supposing
them to be Yorkists, and put them to flight. Oxford fled with 800 of
his soldiers, supposing himself the object of some fatal treachery,
while, on the other hand, Warwick, weakened by the apparent defection of
Oxford, and his troops thrown into confusion, rushed desperately into the
thickest of the enemy, trusting thus to revive the courage of his troops,
and was thus slain, fighting.
No sooner was the body of Warwick, stripped of its armour and covered
with wounds, discovered on the field, than his forces gave way, and fled
amain. Thus fell the great "king-maker," who so long had kept alive the
spirit of contention, placing the crown first on one head and then on
another. With him perished the power of his faction and the prosperity of
his family. On the field with him lay all the chief lords who fought on
his side, except the Earl of Oxford and the Duke of Somerset, who escaped
into Wales, and joined Jasper Tudor, the Earl of Pembroke, who was in
arms for Henry. The Duke of Exeter was taken up for dead, but being found
to be alive, he was conveyed by his servants secretly to the sanctuary
at Westminster; but the holiness of the sanctuary does not appear to
have proved any defence against the lawless vengeance of Edward, for,
some months after, his dead body was found floating in the sea near
Dover. On the side of Edward fell the Lords Say and Cromwell, Sir John
Lisle, the son of Lord Berners, and many other squires and gentlemen.
The soldiers who fell on both sides have been variously stated at from
1,000 to 10,000; the number more commonly credited is about 1,500. The
dead were buried where they fell, and a chapel was erected near the spot
for the repose of their souls. The battle-field is now marked by a stone
obelisk. The bodies of Warwick and Montague were exposed for three days,
naked, on the floor of St. Paul's Church, as a striking warning against
subjects interfering with kings and crowns. They were then conveyed to
the burial-place of their family in the abbey of Bilsam, in Berkshire.
In the fall of Warwick Edward might justly suppose that he saw the only
real obstacle to the permanency of his own power; but Margaret was still
alive. She was no longer, however, the elastic and indomitable Margaret
who had led her forces up to the battles of St. Albans, Northampton,
Wakefield, Towton, and Hexham. On the day that she landed at Weymouth,
imagining she had now nothing to do but to march in triumph to London,
and resume with her husband their vacant throne, the fatal battle of
Barnet was fought. The first news she received was of the total overthrow
of her party and the death of Warwick. The life of the great king-maker
might have caused her future trouble; his fall was her total ruin.
Confounded by the tidings, her once lofty spirit abandoned her, and she
sank on the ground in a swoon.
It was the plan of her generals to hasten to Pembroke; and, having
effected a junction with him, to proceed to Cheshire, to render the army
effective by a good body of archers. But Edward, always rapid in his
movements, allowed them no time for so formidable a combination. He left
London on the 19th of April, and reached Tewkesbury on the 3rd of May.
Margaret and her company set out from Bath, and prepared to cross the
Severn at Gloucester, to join Pembroke and Jasper Tudor. But the people
of Gloucester had fortified the bridge, and neither threats nor bribes
could induce them to let her pass. She then marched on to Tewkesbury,
near which they found Edward already awaiting them.
The troops being worn down by the fatigue of a long and fearful march,
Margaret was in the utmost anxiety to avoid an engagement, and to press
on to their friends in Wales. But Somerset represented that such a thing
was utterly impossible. For a night and a day the foot-soldiers had been
plunging along for six-and-thirty miles through a foul country--all
lanes, and stony ways, betwixt woods, and having no proper refreshment.
To move farther in the face of the enemy was out of the question. He must
pitch his camp in the park, and take such fortune as God should send.
The queen, as well as the most experienced officers of the army, were
much averse from this, but the duke either could not or would not move,
and Edward presented himself in readiness for battle. Thus compelled to
give up the cheering hope of a junction with the Welsh army, Margaret and
her son did all in their power to inspire the soldiers with courage for
this most eventful conflict. The next morning, being the 4th of May, the
forces were drawn out in order. The Duke of Somerset took the charge of
the main body. The Prince of Wales commanded the second division under
the direction of Lord Wenlock and the Prior of St. John's. The Earl of
Devonshire brought up the rear. The Lancastrian army was entrenched
in a particularly strong position on the banks of the Severn; having,
both in front and on the flanks, a country so deeply intersected with
lanes, hedges, and ditches, that there was scarcely any approaching it.
This grand advantage, however, was completely lost by the folly and
impetuosity of the Duke of Somerset, who, not content to defend himself
against the superior forces and heavier artillery of Edward, rushed
out beyond the entrenchments, where he was speedily taken in flank by
a body of 200 spearsmen, and thrown into confusion. The Lancastrians
were utterly defeated, and the Prince of Wales fell on the field, or,
according to other accounts, was put to death immediately after the
battle. Somerset was condemned and beheaded.
No fate can be conceived more consummately wretched than that of
Margaret now--her cause utterly ruined, her only son slain, her husband
and herself the captives of their haughty enemies. They who had thus
barbarously shed the blood of the prince might, with a little cunning,
shed that of her husband and herself. No such good fortune awaited
Margaret. She was doomed to hear of the death of her imprisoned consort,
and to be left to long years of grief over the utter wreck of crown,
husband, child, and friends--a great and distinguished band.
Edward returned to London triumphant over all his enemies, and the next
morning Henry VI. was found dead in the Tower. It was given out that he
died of grief and melancholy, but nobody at that day doubted that he was
murdered, and it was generally attributed to Richard of Gloucester, but
probably without reason. The continuator of the chronicles of Croyland
prays that the doer of the deed, whoever he was, may have time for
repentance, and declares that it was done by "an agent of the tyrant" and
a subject of the murdered king. Who was this? The chronicler in Leland
points it out plainly. "That night," he says, "King Henry was put to
death in the Tower, the Duke of Gloucester and divers of his men being
there." Fabyan, also a contemporary, says, "Divers tales were told, but
the most common fame went that he was sticked with a dagger by the hands
of the Duke Gloucester."
To satisfy the people the same means were resorted to as in the case of
Richard II. The body of the unfortunate king was conveyed on a bier, with
the face exposed, from the Tower through Cheapside to St. Paul's. Four
of the principal chroniclers of the day assert that the fresh blood from
his wounds "welled upon the pavement," giving certain evidence of the
manner of his death; and the same thing occurred when he was removed to
Blackfriars. To get rid of so unsatisfactory a proof of Henry's natural
death the body was the same day put into a barge with a guard of soldiers
from Calais, and thus, says the Croyland chronicler, "without singing or
saying, he was conveyed up the dark waters of the Thames at midnight, to
his silent interment at Chertsey Abbey, where it was long pretended that
miracles were performed at his tomb."
Henry's reputation for holiness during his life, and his tragical death,
occasioned such a resort to his tomb, that Gloucester, on mounting
the throne as Richard III., caused the remains of the poor king to be
removed, it was said, to Windsor. Afterwards, when Henry VII. wished
to convey them to Westminster, they could not be found, having been
carefully concealed from public attention.
Margaret, who was conveyed to the Tower the very night on which her
husband was murdered there, was at first rigorously treated. There
had been an attempt on the part of the Bastard of Falconberg, who was
vice-admiral under Warwick, to liberate Henry, during the absence
of Edward and Gloucester, at the battle of Tewkesbury. He landed at
Blackwall with a body of marines, and, calling on the people of Essex and
Kent to aid him, made two desperate attempts to penetrate to the Tower,
burning Bishopsgate, but was repulsed, and on the approach of Edward,
retreated. To prevent any similar attempt in favour of Margaret she was
successively removed to Windsor, and lastly to Wallingford. She remained
a prisoner for five years, when at the entreaty of King Réné, she was
ransomed by Louis of France, and retired to the castle of Reculé, near
Angers. She died at the château of Dampierre, near Saumur, in 1482, in
the fifty-third year of her age.
The two brothers, Clarence and Gloucester, came now, on the first return
of peace, to quarrel at the very foot of the throne for the vast property
of Warwick. Edward would fain have forgotten everything else in his
pleasures. The blood upon his own hands gave him no concern; he was only
anxious to devote his leisure hours to Jane Shore, the silversmith's
wife, whom he had, like numbers of other ladies, seduced from her duty.
But Clarence and Gloucester broke through his gaieties with their
wranglings and mutual menaces.
The fact was, that Clarence having, as we have seen, married Isabella,
the eldest daughter, was determined, if possible, to monopolise all the
property of Warwick, as if the eldest daughter were sole heiress. But
Gloucester, who was always on the look out for his own aggrandisement,
now cast his eyes on Anne, the other daughter, who had been married to
the Prince of Wales. Clarence, aware that he should have a daring and a
lawless rival in Gloucester, in regard to the property, opposed the match
with all his might. On this point they rose to high words and much heat.
Clarence declared at length that Richard might marry Anne if he pleased,
but that he should have no share whatever in the property; but only let
Richard get the lady, and he would soon possess himself of the lands.
The question was debated by the two brothers with such fury before the
council, that civil war was anticipated.
All this time the property was rightfully that of the widow of Warwick,
the mother of the two young ladies. Anne, the Countess of Warwick,
was the sole heiress of the vast estates of the Despensers and the
Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick. To all the great court party, who had
once been her friends--as the world calls friendship--and many of them
her humble flatterers and admirers, she applied from her sanctuary at
Beaulieu, in the most moving terms, for their kind aid in obtaining a
modicum of freedom and support out of her own lands, the most wealthy
in England. But it was not her that the two princes courted, it was her
property; and nobody dared or cared to move a finger in favour of the
once great Anne of Warwick. The daughter, Anne, so far from desiring to
marry Richard of Gloucester, detested him. Cooperating, therefore, with
the wishes and interests of Clarence, she, by his assistance, escaped
out of the sanctuary of Beaulieu, where she had been with the countess,
her mother, and disappeared. For some time no trace of her could be
discovered; but Gloucester had his spies and emissaries everywhere; and,
at length, the daughter of Warwick, and the future queen of England, was
found in the guise of a cookmaid in London. Gloucester removed her to the
sanctuary of St. Martin's-le-Grand. Afterwards she was allowed to visit
her uncle, the Archbishop of York, before his disgrace, and the Queen
Margaret in the Tower. All this was probably conceded by Gloucester in
order to win Anne's favour; but Anne still repelling with disgust his
addresses, he refused her these solaces, and procuring the removal of her
mother from Beaulieu, sent her, under the escort of Sir John Tyrrell,
into the north, where he is said to have kept her confined till his own
death, even while she was his mother-in-law. Anne was at length compelled
to marry the hated Gloucester; and her hatred appeared to increase from
nearer acquaintance, for she was soon after praying for a divorce.
[Illustration: BURIAL OF KING HENRY. (_See p._ 36.)]
The king was compelled to award to Gloucester a large share of Warwick's
property; and the servile Parliament passed an act in 1474, embodying the
disgraceful commands of these most unnatural and unprincipled princes.
The two daughters were to succeed to the Warwick property, as though
their mother, the possessor in her own right, were dead. If either of
them should die before her husband, he should continue to retain her
estates during his natural life. If a divorce should take place between
Richard and Anne, for which Anne was striving, Richard was still to
retain her property, provided he married or did his best to marry her to
some one else. Thus, by this most iniquitous arrangement, while Richard
kept his wife's property, they made it a motive with her to force her
into some other alliance, if not so hateful, perhaps more degrading. It
is impossible to conceive the tyranny of vice and selfishness carried
farther than in these odious transactions. But this was not all. There
was living a son of the Marquis of Montague, Warwick's brother; and to
prevent any claim from him as next heir male, all such lands as he might
become the claimant of were tied upon Clarence and Gloucester, and their
heirs, so long as there should remain any heirs male of the marquis. By
these means did these amiable brothers imagine that they had stepped into
the full and perpetual possession of the enormous wealth of the great
Warwick. Edward, having rather smoothed over than appeased the jealousies
of his brothers, now turned his ambition to foreign conquest.
In all his contests at home, Edward had shown great military talents.
He had fought ten battles, and never lost one; for at the time of the
treason of Lord Montague in 1470, he had not fought at all, but, deserted
by his army, had fled to Flanders. He had always entertained a flattering
idea that he could emulate the martial glory of the Edwards and of Henry
V., and once more recover the lost territories of France, and the lost
prestige of the British arms on the Continent. His relations with France
and Burgundy were such as encouraged this roseate notion. Louis XI. had
supported the claims of Henry, and accomplishing the alliance of Margaret
and his most formidable enemy Warwick, had sent them to push him from his
throne. The time appeared to be arrived for inflicting full retribution.
Burgundy was his brother-in-law, and had aided him in recovering his
crown. True, the assistance of Burgundy had not been prompted by love to
him, but by enmity to Warwick and Louis; nor had his reception of him in
his distress been such as to merit much gratitude, but he did not care to
probe too deeply into the motives of the prince; the great matter was,
that Burgundy was the antagonist of Louis, and their interests were,
therefore, the same.
The Duke of Burgundy, formerly Count of Charolais--called Charles le
Téméraire, or the Bold--was no match for the cold and politic Louis XI.
He and his ally, the Duke of Brittany, fancied themselves incapable of
standing their ground against Louis, and now made an offer of mutual
alliance to Edward, for the purpose of enforcing their common claims
in France. Nothing could accord more with the desires of Edward than
this proposition. He had employed 1473 in settling his disputes with
the Hanse Towns, in confirming the truce with Scotland, and renewing
his alliances with Portugal and Denmark. His Parliament had granted
him large supplies. They voted him a tenth of rents, or two shillings
in the pound, calculated to produce at that day £31,460, equal to more
than £300,000 of our present money. They then added to this a whole
fifteenth, and three-quarters of another. But when Edward entered into
the scheme of Burgundy and Brittany for the French conquest, they
granted him permission to raise any further moneys by what were called
_benevolences_, or free gifts--a kind of exaction perhaps more irksome
than any other, because it was vague, arbitrary, and put the advances of
the subjects on the basis of loyalty. Such a mode of fleecing the people
had been resorted to under Henry III. and Richard II. Now there was added
a clause to the Act of Parliament, providing that the proceeds of the
fifteenth should be deposited in religious houses, and, if the French
campaign should not take place, should be refunded to the people: as if
any one had ever heard of taxes, once obtained, ever being refunded to
the payers!
All being in readiness, Edward passed over from Sandwich to Calais, where
he landed on the 22nd of June, 1475. He had with him 1,500 men-at-arms,
and 15,000 archers, an army with which the former Edwards would have
made Louis tremble on his throne. He dispatched Garter-king-at-arms with
a letter of defiance to Louis, demanding nothing less than the crown of
France. The position of Louis was to all appearance most critical. If
Burgundy, Brittany, and the Count of St. Pol, the Constable of France,
who had entered into the league against him, had acted wisely and
faithfully together, the war must have been as dreadful, and the losses
of France as severe, as in the past days. But probably Louis was well
satisfied of the crumbling character of the coalition. Comines, who was
at the time in the service of Louis, has left us ample accounts of these
transactions and, according to them, the conduct of the French king was
masterly in the extreme. Instead of firing with resentment at the proud
demands of the letter, he took the herald politely into his private
closet, and there, in the most courteous and familiar manner, told him
he was sorry for this misunderstanding with the King of England; that,
for his part, he had the highest respect for Edward, and desired to be
on amicable terms with him, but that he knew very well that all this was
stirred up by the Duke of Burgundy and the Constable St. Pol, who would
be the very first to abandon Edward, if any difficulty arose, or after
they had got their own turn served. He put it to the herald how much
better it would be for England and France to be on good terms, and gave
the greatest weight to his arguments by smilingly placing in Garter's
hand a purse of 300 crowns, assuring him that if he used his endeavours
effectually to preserve the peace between the two kingdoms, he would add
to it a thousand more.
The herald was so completely captivated by the suavity, the sound
reasons, and the money of Louis, that he promised to do everything in his
power to promote a peace, and advised the king to open a correspondence
with the Lords Howard and Stanley, noblemen not only high in the favour
of Edward, but secretly adverse to this expedition. This being settled,
Louis committed Garter-king-at-arms to the care of Philip de Comines,
telling him to give the herald publicly a piece of crimson velvet thirty
ells in length, as though it were the only present, and to get him away
as soon as he could, with all courtesy, without allowing him to hold any
communication with the courtiers. This being done, Louis summoned his
great barons and the rest of the courtiers around him, and ordered the
letter of defiance to be read aloud, all the time sitting with a look of
the greatest tranquillity, for he was himself much assured by what he had
heard from the herald.
The words of Louis came rapidly to pass as regarded Edward's allies.
Nothing could equal the folly of Burgundy and the treachery of the
others. Charles the Rash, instead of coming up punctually with his
promised forces, and in his usual wild way, led them to avenge some
affront from the Duke of Lorraine, and the princes of Germany, far away
from the really important scene of action. When the duke appeared in
Edward's camp, with only a small retinue instead of a large army, and
there was no prospect of his rendering any effective aid that summer,
Edward was highly chagrined. All his officers were eager for the
campaign, promising themselves a renewal of the fame and booty which
their fathers had won. But when Edward advanced from Péronne, where he
lay, to St. Quentin, on the assurances of Burgundy that St. Pol, who held
it, would open its gates to him, and when, instead of such surrender, St.
Pol fired on his troops from the walls, the king's wrath knew no bounds;
he upbraided the duke with his conduct in thus deceiving and making a
laughing-stock of him, and Burgundy retired in haste from the English
camp. To add to Edward's disgust, Burgundy and his subjects had from the
first landing of the English betrayed the utmost reluctance to admit the
British forces into any of their towns. Artois and Picardy were shut
against them, as if they came, not as allies, but as intending conquerors.
Precisely at this juncture, the herald returned with his narrative of
his kind reception, and the amiable disposition of Louis. This was by
no means unwelcome in the present temper of Edward. It gave him the
most direct prospect of punishing his perfidious allies. On the heels
of Garter-king-at-arms arrived heralds from Louis, confirming all he
had stated, and offering every means of pacification. The king called a
council in the camp of Péronne, in which it was resolved to negotiate a
peace with France on three grounds--the approach of winter, the absence
of all supplies for the army, and the failure of assistance from the
allies. For two months, while the terms of this treaty were being
discussed, the agents and money of Louis were freely circulating amongst
the courtiers and ministers of Edward.
The plenipotentiaries found all their labours wonderfully smoothed by the
desire of Louis to see the soil of France as soon as possible clear of
the English army. The French King agreed to almost everything proposed,
never intending to fulfil a tithe of his contracts. A truce for seven
years was concluded at Amiens. The King of France agreed to pay the
King of England 75,000 crowns within the next fifteen days; and 50,000
crowns a year during their joint lives, to be paid in London. Apparently
prodigal of his money, it was at this time that Louis paid 50,000 crowns
for the ransom of Queen Margaret. To bind the alliance still more firmly,
Edward proposed that the dauphin should marry his eldest daughter,
Elizabeth, which was readily assented to. To testify his great joy in the
termination of this treaty, Louis sent 300 cart-loads of the best wines
of France into the English camp, and proposed, in order to increase the
feeling of friendship between the two monarchs, that they should have a
personal interview before Edward's departure.
The treaty being signed, Gloucester and some others of the chief nobility
who were averse from the peace, and therefore would not attend the
meeting of the kings, now rode into Amiens to pay their court to him, and
Louis received them with that air of pleasure which he could so easily
put on, entertained them luxuriously, and presented them with rich gifts
of plate and horses.
Thus was this singular treaty concluded, and each monarch thought most
advantageously to himself. Edward had paid off the Duke of Burgundy for
neglecting to fulfil his agreement as to the campaign, and he now sent
the duke word, patronisingly, that if he wished, he would get a similar
truce for him; to which Burgundy sent an indignant answer. Edward had,
moreover, got a good round sum of money to pay his army, and a yearly
income of 50,000 crowns for life. Like Charles II. afterwards, he did
not trouble himself about the disgrace and disadvantage of having made
himself a pensioner of France. Besides this, he had arranged to set his
eldest daughter on the French throne after Louis' decease.
The people were very much of the French king's opinion, that their own
monarch had been sadly over-reached. The army, which on its return was
disbanded, promoted this feeling everywhere. The soldiers came back
disappointed of the plunder of France, and accordingly vented their
chagrin on the king and his courtiers, who for their private emolument
had sold, they said, the honour of the nation. As to the general terms of
the peace, the people had good cause to be satisfied. It was much better
for the nation to be left at liberty to pursue its profitable trade than
to be year after year drained of its substance to carry on a useless war.
But the real cause of discontent was the annual bribe, which bound the
king and his court to wink at any proceedings of France on the Continent
against our allies and commercial connections, and even to suffer
intrusions on our own trade, rather than incur the danger of losing the
pay of the French king.
Edward endeavoured to silence these murmurs by severity. He sent amongst
the people spies who reported any obnoxious language, and he punished
offenders without mercy. At the same time, he extended an equally stern
hand towards all disturbers of the peace; the disbanded soldiers having
collected into hordes, and spread murder and rapine through several of
the counties. Seeing, however, that the general discontent was such
that, should some Wat Tyler or Jack Cade arise, the consequences might
be terrible, he determined to ease the burdens of the people at the
expense of the higher classes. He therefore ordered a rigorous exaction
of the customs; laid frequent tenths on the clergy; resumed many of the
estates of the Crown; and compelled the holders of estates to compound by
heavy fines for the omission of any of their duties as feudal tenants.
He moreover entered boldly into trade. Instead of permitting his ships
to lie rotting in port--since he had no occasion for them as transport
vessels,--he sent out in them wool, tin, cloth, and other merchandise,
and brought back from the ports of the Levant the produce of the East.
By these means Edward became the wealthiest monarch of Europe, and while
he soon grew popular with the people, who felt the weight of taxation
annually decreasing, he became equally formidable to those who had more
reason to complain.
But however generally prosperous was the remainder of Edward's reign,
it was to himself filled with the deepest causes of grief and remorse.
The part which his brother Clarence had taken, his allying himself
to Warwick, with the design to depose Edward and secure the crown to
himself, could never be forgotten. He had been named the successor to
the Prince of Wales, the son of Henry VI., and, should anything happen
to Edward, might assert that claim to the prejudice of his own son.
Still further, Clarence had given mortal offence to the queen. Her
father and her brother had been put to death in Clarence's name. Her
brother Anthony, afterwards, had narrowly escaped the same fate from
the orders of Clarence. He had been forward in the charge of sorcery
against her mother, the Duchess Jacquetta. Scarcely less had he incensed
his brother Richard of Gloucester, the vindictive and never forgiving,
by his opposition to his marriage with Anne of Warwick, and to sharing
any of Warwick's property with him. Clarence was immensely rich, from
the possession of the bulk of Warwick's vast estates, and he seems to
have borne himself haughtily, as if he were another Warwick. He was at
the head of a large party of malcontents, those who hated and envied the
queen's family, and those who had been made to yield up their valuable
grants from the crown under Henry VI. Clarence himself was one of the
reluctant parties thus forced to disgorge some of his lands, under the
act of resumption, on Edward's return from France. While brooding over
this offence, his wife Isabella of Warwick died, on the 22nd of December,
1476, just after the birth of her third child. Clarence, who was so
extremely attached to her that he was almost beside himself at the loss,
accused, brought to trial, and procured the condemnation of one of her
attendants, on the charge of having poisoned her.
Directly after this, January 5th, 1477, the Duke of Burgundy fell at
the battle of Nancy, in his vain struggle against the Duke of Lorraine,
backed by the valiant Swiss. His splendid domains fell to his only
daughter, Mary, who immediately became the object of the most eager
desire to numerous princes. Louis of France disdained to sue for her
hand for the Dauphin, but attacked her territories, and hoped to secure
both them and her by conquest. There had been some treaty for her by the
Archduke Maximilian, of Austria, for his son during the late duke's life;
but now Clarence aroused himself from his grief for the loss of his wife,
and made zealous court, on his own account, to this great heiress. Her
mother, Margaret, the sister of Clarence, favoured his suit warmly, but
the idea of such an alliance struck Edward with dismay. Clarence already
was far too powerful. Should he succeed in placing himself at the head
of one of the most powerful states on the Continent, and with his avowed
claims on the English crown, and his undisguised enmity to Edward's queen
and family, the mischief he might do was incalculable.
[Illustration: LOUIS XI. AND THE HERALD. (_See p._ 38.)]
Edward, therefore, lost no time in putting in his most decided
opposition. In this cause he was zealously seconded by Gloucester. But if
ever there was a choice of a rival most unfortunate, and even insulting,
it was that put forward by Edward against Clarence, in the person of
Lord Rivers, the queen's brother. This match was rejected by the court
of Burgundy with disdain, and only heightened the hatred of the queen in
England--an odium which fell heavily on her in after years. She was now
regarded as a woman who, not content with filling all the chief houses of
England with her kin, aimed at filling the highest Continental thrones
with them. The result was that Edward succeeded in defeating Clarence
without gaining his own, or rather his wife's, object.
From this moment Clarence became at deadly feud with Edward and all his
family. The king, the queen, and Gloucester, united in a league against
him, which, where such men were concerned--men never scrupling to destroy
those who opposed them--boded him little good. The conduct of Clarence
was calculated to exasperate this enmity, and to expose him to its
attacks. He vented his wrath against all the parties who had thwarted
him, king, queen, and Gloucester, in the bitterest and most public
manner; and on the other side, occasions were found to stimulate him to
more disloyal conduct. They began with attacking his friends and members
of his household. John Stacey, a priest in his service, was charged with
having practised sorcery to procure the death of Lord Beauchamp, and
being put to the torture was brought to confess that Thomas Burdett,
a gentleman of Arrow, in Warwickshire, also a gentleman of the duke's
household, and greatly beloved by Clarence, was an accomplice. It was
well understood why this confession was wrung from the poor priest.
Thomas Burdett had a fine white stag in his park, on which he set great
value. Edward in hunting had shot this stag, and Burdett, in his anger at
the deed, had been reported to have said that he wished the horns of the
deer were in the stomach of the person who had advised the king to insult
him by killing it. This speech, real or imaginary, had been carefully
conveyed to the king, and he thus took his revenge. Thomas Burdett was
accused of high treason, tried, and, by the servile judges and jury,
condemned, and beheaded at Tyburn.
Clarence had exerted himself to save the lives of both these persons
in vain. They both died protesting their innocence, and the next day
Clarence entered the council, bringing Dr. Goddard, a clergyman, who
appeared on various occasions in those times as a popular agitator.
Goddard attested the dying declarations of the sufferers; and Clarence,
with an honourable but imprudent zeal, warmly denounced the destruction
of his innocent friends. Edward and the court were at Windsor, and these
proceedings were duly carried thither by the enemies of Clarence. Soon
it was reported that, having for many days sat sullenly silent at the
council-board, with folded arms, he had started up and uttered the most
disloyal words, accusing the queen of sorcery, which she had learned of
her mother, and even implicating the king in the accusation.
The fate of Clarence was sealed. The queen and Gloucester were vehement
against him. Edward hurried to Westminster; Clarence was arrested and
conducted by the king himself to the Tower. On the 16th of January a
Parliament was assembled, and Edward himself appeared as the accuser
of his brother at the bar of the Lords. He charged him with a design
to dethrone and destroy him and his family. He retorted upon him the
charge of sorcery, and of dealing with masters of the black art for
this treasonable purpose; that to raise a rebellion he had supplied his
servants with vast quantities of money, wine, venison, and provisions, to
feast the people, and to fill their minds at such feasts with the belief
that Burdett and Stacey had been wrongfully put to death; that Clarence
had engaged numbers of people to swear to stand by him and his heirs as
rightful claimants of the throne--asserting that Edward was, in truth, a
bastard, and had no right whatever to the crown; that to gain the throne,
and support himself upon it, he had had constant application to the arts
for which his queen and her mother were famous, and had not hesitated
to poison and destroy in secret. As for himself--Clarence--he pledged
himself to restore all the lands and honours of the Lancastrians, when he
gained his own royal rights.
To these monstrous charges Clarence made a vehement reply, but posterity
has no means of judging of the truth or force of what he said, for the
whole of his defence was omitted in the rolls of Parliament. Not a soul
dared to say a word on his behalf. Edward brought forward witnesses to
swear to everything he alleged; the duke was condemned to death; and the
Commons being summoned to attend, confirmed the sentence. No attempt was
made to put the sentence into execution, but about ten days later it was
announced that Clarence had died in the Tower. The precise mode of his
death has never been clearly ascertained. The generally received account
is that of Fabyan, a cotemporary, who says that he was drowned in a butt
of Malmsey wine.
Edward now again gave himself up to his pleasures, and would have been
glad, in the midst of his amorous intrigues, to have forgotten public
affairs altogether. But for this the times were too much out of joint.
It was not in England alone that the elements of faction had been in
agitation. Nearly the whole of Europe had witnessed the contentions of
overgrown nobles and vassal princes by which almost every crown had
been endangered, and the regal authority in many cases brought into
contempt. The changes consequent on the accession of Henry IV. we have
fully detailed; those storms which raged around the throne of France we
have partially seen; but similar dissensions betwixt the Electors of
Germany and the Emperor Sigismund prevailed; the Netherlands were divided
against each other; and Spain was equally disturbed by the conspiracies
of the nobles against the crown. Edward of England, as if sensible of the
weakness of his position, strove anxiously to strengthen it by foreign
alliances. Though his children were far too young to contract actual
marriages, he made treaties which should place his daughters on a number
of the chief thrones. Some of these contracts were entered into almost
as soon as those concerned in them were born. Elizabeth, the eldest,
was affianced to the Dauphin of France; Cecilia, the second, to the
eldest son and heir of the King of Scotland; Anne, to the infant son
of Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, and husband of Mary of Burgundy;
Catherine, to the heir of the King of Spain. His eldest son was engaged
to the eldest daughter of the Duke of Brittany. On the other hand, all
these royal negotiators appear to have been equally impressed with the
precarious character of Edward's power, and were ready at the first
moment to annul the contracts.
That subtle monarch, Louis of France, never from the first moment
seriously meant to adhere to his engagement; and in a very few years all
these anxiously-planned marriages were blown away like summer clouds.
Edward was not long in suspecting the hollowness of the conduct of
Louis XI. Though repeatedly reminded that the time was come to fetch
the Princess of England, in order to complete her education in France,
preparatory to her occupying the station assigned to her there, Louis
took no measures for this purpose; and when Edward remonstrated on
the subject, threatened to withdraw the payment of the annual 50,000
crowns. Edward boiled with indignation, and vowed, amongst his immediate
courtiers that he would hunt up the old fox in his own cover if he did
not mind. But that wily prince was not so easily dealt with. He saw
with chagrin the proposed alliances betwixt Edward and his dangerous
neighbours, the Duke of Brittany and Maximilian of Austria, now, through
his wife, the ruler of Burgundy. Edward, in his resentment at the threat
of Louis to withdraw his annual payment, made offers of closer union
with Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy, and engaged, on condition that they
should pay him the 50,000 crowns which he now had from Louis, to assist
them against that monarch. But Louis was not to be out-manoeuvred in
this manner; he was a profounder master in all the arts of diplomatic
stratagem than Edward. He, therefore, made secret and tempting advances
to Maximilian and Mary, one article of which devoted the Dauphin to their
infant daughter, despite of her engagement to the English heir. At the
same time he stirred up sufficient trouble in Scotland to occupy Edward
for some time.
The circumstances of Scotland were at this time very favourable to the
mischievous interference of Louis. James III. was a monarch far beyond
his age. He was of a pacific and philosophic turn. Surrounded by a rude
and ignorant nobility, he conceived an infinite contempt for them, and
was not politic enough to conceal it. They were received at court with
coldness and neglect, while they saw men of science and letters admitted
to the king's most intimate conversation. To avenge their slighted
dignity, they stirred up the king's two brothers, the Duke of Albany,
and the Earl of Mar, to rebellion. James, however, showed that, though
pacifically disposed, he did not lack energy. He seized Mar and Albany,
and confined them--Mar in Craigmillar Castle, and Albany in that of
Edinburgh. Albany managed to escape, and made his way, by means of a
French vessel, to France. Mar, who was of a vehement temper, was seized
in his prison with fever and delirium. He was, therefore, removed from
Craigmillar to a house in the Canongate, at Edinburgh, where, having
been bled, he is said on a return of the paroxysm to have torn off his
bandages while in a warm bath, and died from loss of blood. The incident
was suspicious; but public opinion, for the most part, exonerated the
king from the charge of any criminal intention; and even when he was
afterwards deposed, no such charge was preferred against him by the
hostile faction.
It was at this crisis that Edward--roused to indignation by the conduct
of the French king, who neglected to fetch the Princess of England,
and withdrew his annual payment of the 50,000 crowns, and still more
by tracing Louis' hand in Scottish affairs--invited over Albany from
Paris, promising to set him on the throne of Scotland. Albany, smarting
with his brother's treatment, was but too ready to accept the proposal.
Edward launched reproaches against the King of Scotland for his perfidy
in listening to Louis of France, whilst under the closest engagements
with himself. Three years' payments of the dowry of Edward's daughter,
Cecilia, had already been paid to the Scottish monarch, and yet he had
thrown constant obstacles in the way of a marriage agreed upon between
the sister of James and the Earl Rivers, the brother-in-law of Edward. In
reply to Edward's reproaches, James flung at him the epeithet of reiver,
or robber, alluding to his seizure of the English crown.
Edward despatched an army to the borders of Scotland, under his brother
Gloucester and Albany. He engaged to place Albany on the throne of James,
and, in return, Albany, who was believed already to have two wives, was
to marry one of Edward's daughters. With upwards of 22,000 men Gloucester
and Albany reached Berwick, which speedily surrendered, though the castle
held out.
James, to meet this formidable attack, summoned the whole force of his
kingdom to meet him on the Burghmuir, near Edinburgh, and at the head of
50,000 men advanced first to Soutra, and thence to Lauder. But sedition
was in his camp. Edward and Albany had opened communications with the
discontented nobles. Albany, at the treaty of Fotheringay, where the
Scottish scheme was made matter of compact, had assumed the title of
Alexander, King of Scotland, and the adhesion of the principal chiefs
of Scotland was confirmed by the impolicy of James, who had not only
given to his favourite Cochrane, the architect, the bulk of the estates,
along with the title of the Earl of Mar, but now placed him in command
of the artillery, and permitted him to excite the envy and indignation
of the great barons by the splendour of his appointments. Cochrane was,
therefore, put to death by a band of conspirators, headed by Archibald
Douglas, Earl of Angus, known, therefore, as Archibald "Bell-the-Cat."
Albany and Gloucester quickly followed the conspirators to the Scottish
capital, and there appeared now every prospect of the crown being placed
on the head of Albany; but this was suddenly prevented by a new movement.
The whole body of the Scottish nobles had joined in the destruction of
the favourites, but there was a strong party of them who contemplated
nothing further. The loyalty of this section of the aristocracy being
well known to Angus and his friends, they had not ventured to communicate
to them their design of deposing James. The moment that this became
known to them, they quitted Edinburgh, collected an army, and planted
themselves near Haddington, determined to keep in check any proceedings
against the king. At the head of this loyal party were the Archbishop
of St. Andrews, the Bishop of Dunkeld, the Earl of Argyll, and Lord
Evandale. They called on all loyal Scots to gather to their standard,
and, being posted betwixt Edinburgh and the English border, threw
Gloucester and his adherents into considerable anxiety as to their
position. Albany, Gloucester, and the insurgent lords were glad to come
to an accommodation. It was agreed that James should retain the crown;
that Albany should receive a pardon and the restoration of his rank and
estates; that the money paid by Edward as part of the dowry of Cecilia
should be repaid by the citizens of Edinburgh, and that Berwick and its
castle should be ceded to England. Gloucester thereupon marched homeward,
and Albany laid siege to the castle of Edinburgh, where the Earls of
Atholl and Buchan still detained the king. He soon compelled them to
capitulate, and James being now in the hands of Albany, the two brothers,
in sign of perfect reconciliation, rode together on the same horse to the
palace of Holyrood, and slept together in the same bed. The treason of
Albany, however, only hid itself in his bosom for a season.
The Scottish difficulty being settled, Edward now turned his attention
to Louis of France. Whilst the Scottish campaign had been proceeding,
an occurrence had taken place which raised Edward's wrath to its pitch.
Mary of Burgundy had one day gone out hawking in the neighbourhood of
Bruges, when her horse, in leaping a dyke, broke his girths, and threw
her violently against a tree. She died in consequence, leaving three
infant children, one of whom, Margaret, was a little girl two years
old. Mary herself was only twenty-five at the time of her death. No
sooner did Louis hear of this, than he immediately demanded the infant
Margaret for his son the Dauphin, totally regardless of the long-standing
engagement with Edward for the Princess Elizabeth. Maximilian of Austria,
the father of Margaret, was strongly opposed to the match, seeing too
well that Louis only wanted to make himself master of the territories of
the children. Louis, however, had intrigued with the people of Ghent,
and they would insist upon the alliance. Margaret was delivered to the
commissioners of Louis, who settled on her the provinces which he had
taken from her mother. The French, who regarded this event as bringing to
the kingdom some very fine territories, without the trouble and expense
of a conquest, received the infant princess with great rejoicings.
[Illustration: ST. ANDREWS FROM THE PIER.]
The rage of Edward knew no bounds. He had been so often warned, both
by his courtiers and by Parliament, that the crafty Louis would play
him false, that he now vowed to take the most consummate vengeance
upon him. The best means of inflicting the severest punishment on the
King of France engrossed his whole soul, and occupied him day and
night. This violent excitement, operating upon a constitution ruined
by sensual indulgence, brought on an illness, which, not attended to
at first, soon terminated his existence. He died on the 9th of April,
1483, in the twenty-third year of his reign and the forty-first of his
age. The approach of death awoke in him feelings of deep repentance. He
ordered full restitution to be made to all whom he had wronged, or from
whom he had extorted benevolences. But such orders were not likely to
receive much attention from Gloucester, who became the source of power.
Immediately after his death he was exposed on a board, naked from the
waist upwards, for ten hours, so that the lords spiritual and temporal,
and the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London, might see that he had received
no violence. He was then buried in Westminster Abbey, with great pomp and
ceremony.
Edward IV. was a man calculated to make a great figure in rude and
martial times. He was handsome, lively of disposition, affable, and
brave. So long as circumstances demanded daring and exertion in the
field, he was triumphant and prosperous. Rapid in his resolves and in his
movements, undaunted in his attacks, he was uniformly victorious; but
peace at once unmanned him. With the last stroke of the sword and the
last sound of the trumpet he flung down his arms, and flew to riot and
debauchery. Ever the conqueror in the field, he was always defeated in
the city. He never could become conqueror over himself. By unrestrained
indulgence he destroyed his constitution, and hurried on to early death.
Whether in the battle-field or in the hour of peace, he was unrestrained
by principle, and sullied his most brilliant laurels with the blood of
the young, the innocent, and the victim incapable of resistance. He was
magnificent in his costume, luxurious at table, and most licentious in
his amours. As he advanced in years he grew corpulent and unhealthy.
He had the faculty of never forgetting the face of any one whom he had
once seen, or the name of any one who had done him an injury. There was
no person of any prominence of whom he did not know the whole history;
and he had a spy in almost every officer of his government, even to the
extremities of his kingdom. By this means he was early informed of the
slightest hostile movement, and by a rapid dash into the enemy's quarters
he soon extinguished opposition. Such a man might be a brilliant, but
could never be a good monarch. He attached no one to his fortunes;
therefore all his attempts to knit up alliances and his other projects
failed; and his sons, left young and unprotected, speedily perished.
His children were Edward, his eldest son and successor, born in the
Sanctuary in 1470; Richard, Duke of York; Elizabeth, who was contracted
to the Dauphin, but who became the queen of Henry VII.; Cecilia,
contracted to James, afterwards IV. of Scotland, but married to John,
Viscount Wells; Anne, contracted to the son of Maximilian of Austria, but
married to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk; Bridget, who became a nun at
Dartford; and Catherine, contracted to the Prince of Spain, but married
to William Courtney, Earl of Devonshire.