[Illustration: 1_286_edward4.jpg EDWARD IV.]
EDWARD IV.
{1461.} Young Edward, now in his twentieth year, was of a temper
well fitted to make his way through such a scene of war, havoc, and
devastation, as must conduct him to the full possession of that crown,
which he claimed from hereditary right, but which he had assumed from
the tumultuary election alone of his own party. He was bold, active,
enterprising; and his hardness of heart and severity of character
rendered him impregnable to all those movements of compassion which
might relax his vigor in the prosecution of the most bloody revenges
upon his enemies. The very commencement of his reign gave symptoms of
his sanguinary disposition. A tradesman of London, who kept shop at the
sign of the Crown, having said that he would make his son heir to the
crown; this harmless pleasantry was interpreted to be spoken in derision
of Edward’s assumed title; and he was condemned and executed for the
offence.[*] Such an act of tyranny was a proper prelude to the events
which ensued. The scaffold, as well as the field, incessantly streamed
with the noblest blood of England, spilt in the quarrel between the
two contending families, whose animosity was now become implacable. The
people, divided in their affections, took different symbols of party:
the partisans of the house of Lancaster chose the red rose as their mark
of distinction;[**] those of York were denominated from the white; and
these civil wars were thus known over Europe by the name of the quarrel
between the two roses.
* Habington in Kennet, p. 431.
** Grafton, p. 791.
The license in which Queen Margaret had been obliged to indulge her
troops, infused great terror and aversion into the city of London, and
all the southern parts of the kingdom; and as she there expected an
obstinate resistance, she had prudently retired northwards among her own
partisans. The same license, joined to the zeal of faction, soon brought
great multitudes to her standard; and she was able, in a few days, to
assemble an army sixty thousand strong in Yorkshire. The king and the
earl of Warwick hastened, with an army of forty thousand men, to check
her progress; and when they reached Pomfret, they despatched a body of
troops, under the command of Lord Fitzwalter, to secure the passage of
Ferrybridge over the River Are, which lay between them and the enemy.
Fitzwalter took possession of the post assigned him; but was not able
to maintain it against Lord Clifford, who attacked him with superior
numbers. The Yorkists were chased back with great slaughter; and Lord
Fitzwalter himself was slain in the action.[*] The earl of Warwick,
dreading the consequences of this disaster, at a time when a decisive
action was every hour expected, immediately ordered his horse to be
brought him, which he stabbed before the whole army; and kissing the
hilt of his sword, swore that he was determined to share the fate of the
meanest soldier.[**] And to show the greater security, a proclamation
was at the same time issued, giving to every one full liberty to retire,
but menacing the severest punishment to those who should discover any
symptoms of cowardice in the ensuing battle.[***] Lord Falconberg was
sent to recover the post which had been lost: he passed the river some
miles above Ferrybridge, and falling unexpectedly on Lord Clifford,
revenged the former disaster by the defeat of the party and the death of
their leader.[****]
* W. Wyrcester, p. 489. Hall, fol. 186. Holingshed, p. 664.
** Habington, p. 432.
*** Holingshed, p. 664.
**** Hist. Croyl. Contin. p. 532.
The hostile armies met at Touton; and a fierce and bloody battle ensued.
While the Yorkists were advancing to the charge, there happened a great
fall of snow, which, driving full in the faces of their enemies,
blinded them; and this advantage was improved by a stratagem of Lord
Falconberg’s. That nobleman ordered some infantry to advance before the
line, and, after having sent a volley of flight-arrows, as they were
called, amidst the enemy, immediately to retire. The Lancastrians,
imagining that they were gotten within reach of the opposite army,
discharged all their arrows, which thus fell short of the Yorkists.[*]
After the quivers of the enemy were emptied, Edward advanced his line,
and did execution with impunity on the dismayed Lancastrians: the bow,
however, was soon laid aside, and the sword decided the combat, which
ended in a total victory on the side of the Yorkists. Edward issued
orders to give no quarter.[**] The routed army was pursued to Tadcaster
with great bloodshed and confusion; and above thirty-six thousand men
are computed to have fallen in the battle and pursuit:[***] among these
were the earl of Westmoreland, and his brother Sir John Nevil, the
earl of Northumberland, the Lords Dacres and Welles, and Sir Andrew
Trollop.[****] The earl of Devonshire, who was now engaged in Henry’s
party, was brought a prisoner to Edward; and was soon after beheaded by
martial law at York. His head was fixed on a pole erected over a gate
of that city; and the head of Duke Richard and that of the earl of
Salisbury were taken down, and buried with their bodies. Henry and
Margaret had remained at York during the action, but learning the defeat
of their army, and being sensible that no place in England could now
afford them shelter, they fled with great precipitation into Scotland.
They were accompanied by the duke of Exeter, who, though he had married
Edward’s sister, had taken part with the Lancastrians; and by Henry,
duke of Somerset, who had commanded in the unfortunate battle of Touton,
and who was the son of that nobleman killed in the first battle of St.
Albans.
* Hall, fol. 186.
** Habington, p. 432.
*** Holingshed, p. 665. Grafton, p. 656. Hist. Croyl. Cont.
p. 533.
**** Hall, fol. 187. Habington, p. 433.
Notwithstanding the great animosity which prevailed between the
kingdoms, Scotland had never exerted itself with vigor, to take
advantage either of the wars which England carried on with France, or of
the civil commotions which arose between the contending families. James
I., more laudably employed in civilizing his subjects, and taming them
to the salutary yoke of law and justice, avoided all hostilities with
foreign nations; and though he seemed interested to maintain a balance
between France and England, he gave no further assistance to the
former kingdom in its greatest distresses, than permitting, and perhaps
encouraging, his subjects to enlist in the French service. After the
murder of that excellent prince, the minority of his son and successor,
James II., and the distractions incident to it, retained the Scots in
the same state of neutrality; and the superiority visibly acquired by
France, rendered it then unnecessary for her ally to interpose in her
defence. But when the quarrel commenced between the houses of York and
Lancaster, and became absolutely incurable but by the total extinction
of one party, James, who had now risen to man’s estate, was tempted to
seize the opportunity, and he endeavored to recover those places which
the English had formerly conquered from his ancestors. He laid siege to
the Castle of Roxburgh in 1460, and had provided himself with a small
train of artillery for that enterprise: but his cannon were so ill
framed, that one of them burst as he was firing it, and put an end to
his life in the flower of his age. His son and successor, James III.,
was also a minor on his accession: the usual distractions ensued in the
government: the queen dowager, Anne of Gueldres, aspired to the regency:
the family of Douglas opposed her pretensions: and Queen Margaret, when
she fled into Scotland, found there a people little less divided by
faction, than those by whom she had been expelled. Though she pleaded
the connections between the royal family of Scotland and the house of
Lancaster, by the young king’s grandmother, a daughter of the earl of
Somerset, she could engage the Scottish council to go no further than to
express their good wishes in her favor; but on her offer to deliver to
them immediately the important fortress of Berwick, and to contract
her son in marriage with a sister of King James, she found a better
reception; and the Scots promised the assistance of their arms to
reinstate her family upon the throne.[*] But as the danger from that
quarter seemed not very urgent to Edward, he did not pursue the fugitive
king and queen into their retreat; but returned to London, where a
parliament was summoned for settling the government.
On the meeting of this assembly, Edward found the good effects of his
vigorous measure in assuming the crown, as well as of his victory
at Touton, by which he had secured it;[**] the parliament no longer
hesitated between the two families or proposed any of those ambiguous
decisions which could only serve to perpetuate and inflame the
animosities of party.
* Hall, fol. 137.
** Habington, p. 434.
They recognized the title of Edward, by hereditary descent, through the
family of Mortimer; and declared that he was king by right, from the
death of his father, who had also the same lawful title; and that he was
in possession of the crown from the day that he assumed the government,
tendered to him by the acclamations of the people.[*] They expressed
their abhorrence of the usurpation and intrusion of the house of
Lancaster, particularly that of the earl of Derby, otherwise called
Henry IV.; which, they said, had been attended with every kind of
disorder, the murder of the sovereign, and the oppression of the
subject. They annulled every grant which had passed in those reigns;
they reinstated the king in all the possessions which had belonged to
the crown at the pretended deposition of Richard II.; and though they
confirmed judicial deeds and the decrees of inferior courts, they
reversed all attainders passed in any pretended parliament; particularly
the attainder of the earl of Cambridge, the king’s grandfather; as well
as that of the earls of Salisbury and Glocester, and of Lord Lumley, who
had been forfeited for adhering to Richard II.[**]
Many of these votes were the result of the usual violence of party: the
common sense of mankind, in more peaceable times, repealed them: and the
statutes of the house of Lancaster, being the deeds of an established
government, and enacted by princes long possessed of authority, have
always been held as valid and obligatory. The parliament, however, in
subverting such deep foundations, had still the pretence of replacing
the government on its ancient and natural basis: but in their subsequent
measures, they were more guided by revenge, at least by the views of
convenience, than by the maxims of equity and justice. They passed an
act of forfeiture and attainder against Henry VI. and Queen Margaret and
their infant son Prince Edward: the same act was extended to the dukes
of Somerset and Exeter; to the earls of Northumberland, Devonshire,
Pembroke, Wilts; to the Viscount Beaumont; the Lords Roos, Nevil,
Clifford, Welles, Dacre, Gray of Rugemont, Hungerford; to Alexander
Hedie, Nicholas Latimer, Edmond Mountfort, John Heron, and many other
persons of distinction.[***]
* Cotton, p. 670.
** Cotton, p. 672. Statutes at large, 1 Edward IV cap. i.
*** Cotton, p. 670. W. Wyrcester, p. 490.
The parliament vested the estates of all these attainted persons in the
crown, though their sole crime was the adhering to a prince whom every
individual of the parliament had long recognized, and whom that very
king himself, who was now seated on the throne, had acknowledged and
obeyed as his lawful sovereign.
The necessity of supporting the government established will more fully
justify some other acts of violence, though the method of conducting
them may still appear exceptionable. John, earl of Oxford, and his son
Aubrey de Vere were detected in a correspondence with Margaret,
were tried by martial law before the constable, were condemned
and executed.[*] Sir William Tyrrel, Sir Thomas Tudenham, and John
Montgomery were convicted in the same arbitrary court; were executed,
and their estates forfeited. This introduction of martial law into civil
government was a high strain of prerogative; which, were it not for the
violence of the times, would probably have appeared exceptionable to a
nation so jealous of their liberties as the English were now become.[**]
[18] It was impossible but such a great and sudden revolution must leave
the roots of discontent and dissatisfaction in the subject, which would
require great art, or, in lieu of it, great violence, to extirpate
them. The latter was more suitable to the genius of the nation in that
uncultivated age.
But the new establishment still seemed precarious and uncertain; not
only from the domestic discontents of the people, but from the efforts
of foreign powers. Lewis, the eleventh of the name, had succeeded to
his father, Charles, in 1460; and was led, from the obvious motives
of national interest, to feed the flames of civil discord among such
dangerous neighbors, by giving support to the weaker party. But the
intriguing and politic genius of this prince was here checked by itself:
having attempted to subdue the independent spirit of his own vassals, he
had excited such an opposition at home, as prevented him from making all
the advantage, which the opportunity afforded, of the dissensions among
the English.
{1462.} He sent, however, a small body to Henry’s assistance under
Varenne, seneschal of Normandy;[***] who landed in Northumberland,
and got possession of the Castle of Alnwick; but as the indefatigable
Margaret went in person to France, where she solicited larger supplies
and promised Lewis to deliver up Calais, if her family should by his
means be restored to the throne of England; he was induced to send along
with her a body of two thousand men at arms, which enabled her to take
the field, and to make an inroad into England.
* W. Wyrcester, p. 492. Hall, fol. 189 Grafton, p. 658.
Fabian fol. 215. Fragm. ad finem T. Sproti.
** See note R, at the end of the volume.
**** Monstrelet, vol. iii. p 95.
{1464.} Though reënforced by a numerous train of adventurers from
Scotland, and by many partisans of the family of Lancaster she received
a check at Hedgley-more from Lord Montacute, or Montague, brother to
the earl of Warwick, and warden of the east marches between Scotland
and England. Montague was so encouraged with this success, that, while
a numerous reënforcement was on their march to join him by orders
from Edward, he yet ventured, with his own troops alone, to attack the
Lancastrians at Hexham; and he obtained a complete victory over them.
The duke of Somerset, the Lords Roos and Hungerford, were taken in the
pursuit, and immediately beheaded by martial law at Hexham. Summary
justice was in like manner executed at Newcastle on Sir Humphrey Nevil,
and several other gentlemen. All those who were spared in the field,
suffered on the scaffold; and the utter extermination of their
adversaries was now become the plain object of the York party; a conduct
which received but too plausible an apology from the preceding practice
of the Lancastrians.
The fate of the unfortunate royal family, after this defeat, was
singular. Margaret, flying with her son into a forest, where she
endeavored to conceal herself, was beset, during the darkness of the
night, by robbers, who, either ignorant or regardless of her quality,
despoiled her of her rings and jewels, and treated her with the utmost
indignity. The partition of this rich booty raised a quarrel among them;
and while their attention was thus engaged, she took the opportunity of
making her escape with her son into the thickest of the forest where she
wandered for some time, overspent with hunger and fatigue, and sunk
with terror and affliction. While in this wretched condition, she saw a
robber approach with his naked sword; and finding that she had no means
of escape, she suddenly embraced the resolution of trusting entirely for
protection to his faith and generosity. She advanced towards him; and
presenting to him the young prince, called out to him, “Here, my friend,
I commit to your care the safety of your king’s son.” The man, whose
humanity and generous spirit had been obscured, not entirely lost,
by his vicious course of life, was struck with the singularity of the
event, was charmed with the confidence reposed in him, and vowed, not
only to abstain from all injury against the princess, but to devote
himself entirely to her service.[*] By his means she dwelt some time
concealed in the forest, and was at last conducted to the sea-coast,
whence she made her escape into Flanders. She passed thence into her
father’s court, where she lived several years in privacy and retirement.
Her husband was not so fortunate or so dexterous in finding the means
of escape. Some of his friends took him under their protection, and
conveyed him into Lancashire, where he remained concealed during a
twelvemonth; but he was at last detected, delivered up to Edward, and
thrown into the Tower.[**] The safety of his person was owing less
to the generosity of his enemies, than to the contempt which they had
entertained of his courage and his understanding.
The imprisonment of Henry, the expulsion of Margaret, the execution and
confiscation of all the most eminent Lancastrians, seemed to give
full security to Edward’s government; whose title by blood, being now
recognized by parliament, and universally submitted to by the people,
was no longer in danger of being impeached by any antagonist. In this
prosperous situation, the king delivered himself up, without control,
to those pleasures which his youth, his high fortune, and his natural
temper invited him to enjoy; and the cares of royalty were less attended
to than the dissipation of amusement, or the allurements of passion. The
cruel and unrelenting spirit of Edward, though inured to the ferocity
of civil wars, was at the same time extremely devoted to the softer
passions, which, without mitigating his severe temper, maintained a
great influence over him, and shared his attachment with the pursuits of
ambition and the thirst of military glory. During the present interval
of peace, he lived in the most familiar and sociable manner with his
subjects,[***] particularly with the Londoners; and the beauty of his
person, as well as the gallantry of his address, which, even unassisted
by his royal dignity, would have rendered him acceptable to the fair,
facilitated all his applications for their favor.
* Monstrelet, vol. iii. p. 96.
** Hall, fol. 191. Fragm. ad finem Sproti.
*** Polyd. Virg. p. 513. Biondi.
This easy and pleasurable course of life augmented every day his
popularity among all ranks of men: he was the peculiar favorite of
the young and gay of both sexes. The disposition of the English little
addicted to jealousy, kept them from taking umbrage at these liberties:
and his indulgence in amusements, while it gratified his inclination,
was thus become, without design, a means of supporting and securing his
government. But as it is difficult to confine the ruling passion within
strict rules of prudence, the amorous temper of Edward led him into a
snare, which proved fatal to his repose, and to the stability of his
throne.
Jaqueline of Luxembourg, duchess of Bedford, had, after her husband’s
death, so far sacrificed her ambition to love, that she espoused, in
second marriage, Sir Richard Woodeville a private gentleman, to whom she
bore several children; and among the rest, Elizabeth, who was remarkable
for the grace and beauty of her person, as well as for other amiable
accomplishments. This young lady had married Sir John Gray of Groby, by
whom she had children; and her husband being slain in the second battle
of St. Albans, fighting on the side of Lancaster, and his estate being
for that reason confiscated, his widow retired to live with her father,
at his seat of Grafton, in Northamptonshire. The king came accidentally
to the house after a hunting party, in order to pay a visit to the
duchess of Bedford; and as the occasion seemed favorable for obtaining
some grace from this gallant monarch, the young widow flung herself
at his feet, and with many tears entreated him to take pity on her
impoverished and distressed children. The sight of so much beauty in
affliction strongly affected the amorous Edward; love stole sensibly
into his heart under the guise of compassion; and her sorrow, so
becoming a virtuous matron, made his esteem and regard quickly
correspond to his affection. He raised her from the ground with
assurances of favor; he found his passion increase every moment, by
the conversation of the amiable object; and he was soon reduced, in his
turn, to the posture and style of a supplicant at the feet of Elizabeth.
But the lady, either averse to dishonorable love from a sense of duty,
or perceiving that the impression which she had made was so deep as to
give her hopes of obtaining the highest elevation, obstinately
refused to gratify his passion; and all the endearments, caresses, and
importunities of the young and amiable Edward proved fruitless against
her rigid and inflexible virtue. His passion, irritated by opposition,
and increased by his veneration for such honorable sentiments carried
him at last beyond all bounds of reason and he offered to share his
throne, as well as his heart, with the woman whose beauty of person and
dignity of character seemed so well to entitle her to both. The marriage
was privately celebrated at Grafton:[**] the secret was carefully
kept for some time: no one suspected that so libertine a prince could
sacrifice so much to a romantic passion; and there were, in particular,
strong reasons, which, at that time, rendered this step, to the highest
degree, dangerous and imprudent.
The king, desirous to secure his throne, as well by the prospect of
issue as by foreign alliances, had, a little before, determined to make
application to some neighboring princess, and he had cast his eye on
Bona of Savoy, sister to the queen of France, who, he hoped, would by
her marriage insure him the friendship of that power, which was alone
both able and inclined to give support and assistance to his rival. To
render the negotiation more successful, the earl of Warwick had been
despatched to Paris, where the princess then resided; he had demanded
Bona in marriage for the king; his proposals had been accepted; the
treaty was fully concluded; and nothing remained but the ratification of
the terms agreed on, and the bringing over the princess to England.[**]
But when the secret of Edward’s marriage broke out, the haughty earl,
deeming himself affronted, both by being employed in this fruitless
negotiation, and by being kept a stranger to the king’s intentions, who
had owed every thing to his friendship, immediately returned to England,
inflamed with rage and indignation. The influence of passion over so
young a man as Edward, might have served as an excuse for his imprudent
conduct, had he deigned to acknowledge his error, or had pleaded his
weakness as an apology; but his faulty shame or pride prevented him
from so much as mentioning the matter to Warwick; and that nobleman was
allowed to depart the court, full of the same ill humor and discontent
which he brought to it.
* Hall, fol. 193. Fabian, fol. 216.
** Hall, fol. 193. Habington, p. 437. Holingshed, p. 607.
Grafton, p. 665. Polyd. Virg. p. 513.
{1466.} Every incident now tended to widen the breach between the king
and this powerful subject. The queen, who lost not her influence by
marriage, was equally solicitous to draw every grace and favor to her
own friends and kindred, and to exclude those of the earl, whom she
regarded as her mmortal enemy. Her father was created earl of Rivers: he
was made treasurer in the room of Lord Mountjoy:[*] he was invested in
the office of constable for life; and his son received the survivance of
that high dignity.[**] The same young nobleman was married to the only
daughter of Lord Scales, enjoyed the great estate of that family, and
had the title of Scales conferred upon him. Catharine, the queen’s
sister, was married to the young duke of Buckingham, who was a ward of
the crown:[***] Mary, another of her sisters espoused William Herbert,
created earl of Huntingdon: Anne, a third sister, was given in marriage
to the son and heir of Gray, Lord Ruthyn, created earl of Kent.[****]
The daughter and heir of the duke of Exeter, who was also the king’s
niece, was contracted to Sir Thomas Gray, one of the queen’s sons by her
former husband; and as Lord Montague was treating of a marriage between
his son and this lady, the preference given to young Gray was deemed an
injury and affront to the whole family of Nevil.
The earl of Warwick could not suffer with patience the least diminution
of that credit which he had long enjoyed, and which he thought he had
merited by such important services. Though he had received so many
grants from the crown, that the revenue arising from them amounted,
besides his patrimonial estate, to eighty thousand crowns a year,
according to the computation of Philip de Comines,[*****] his ambitious
spirit was still dissatisfied, so long as he saw others surpass him in
authority and influence with the king.[******] Edward also, jealous of
that power which had supported him and which he himself had contributed
still higher to exalt, was well pleased to raise up rivals in credit
to the earl of Warwick; and he justified, by this political view, his
extreme partiality to the queen’s kindred. But the nobility of England,
envying the sudden growth of the Woodevilles,[*******] were more
inclined to take part with Warwick’s discontent, to whose grandeur they
were already accustomed, and who had reconciled them to his superiority
by his gracious and popular manners.
* W. Wyrcester, p. 506.
** W. Wyrcester, p. 505.
*** Liv. iii. chap. 4.
**** Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 539.
***** W. Wyrcester, p. 506.
****** Polyd. Virg. p. 514.
******* Rymer, vol. xi. p. 581.
And as Edward obtained from parliament a general resumption of all
grants, which he had made since his accession, and which had extremely
impoverished the crown,[*] this act, though it passed with some
exceptions, particularly one in favor of the earl of Warwick, gave
a general alarm to the nobility, and disgusted many, even zealous
partisans of the family of York.
But the most considerable associate that Warwick acquired to his party,
was George, duke of Clarence, the king’s second brother. This prince
deemed himself no less injured than the other grandees, by the
uncontrolled influence of the queen and her relations; and as his
fortunes were still left upon a precarious footing, while theirs were
fully established, this neglect, joined to his unquiet and restless
spirit, inclined him to give countenance to all the malecontents.[**]
The favorable opportunity of gaining him was espied by the earl of
Warwick, who offered him in marriage his elder daughter, and coheir of
his immense fortunes; a settlement which, as it was superior to any that
the king himself could confer upon him, immediately attached him to the
party of the earl.[***] Thus an extensive and dangerous combination was
insensibly formed against Edward and his ministry. Though the immediate
object of the malecontents was not to overturn the throne, it was
difficult to foresee the extremities to which they might be carried:
and as opposition to government was usually in those ages prosecuted by
force of arms, civil convulsions and disorders were likely to be soon
the result of these intrigues and confederacies.
* W. Wyrcester, p. 508.
** W. Wyrcester, p. 511. Hall, fol. 200. Habington, p. 439.
Holingshed, p. 671. Polyd. Virg. p. 515.
*** Grafton. p. 873.
While this cloud was gathering at home, Edward carried his views abroad,
and endeavored to secure himself against his factious nobility, by
entering into foreign alliances. The dark and dangerous ambition of
Lewis XI., the more it was known, the greater alarm it excited among his
neighbors and vassals; and as it was supported by great abilities,
and unrestrained by any principle of faith or humanity, they found no
security to themselves but by a jealous combination against him. Philip,
duke of Burgundy, was now dead: his rich and extensive dominions were
devolved to Charles, his only son, whose martial disposition acquired
him the surname of Bold, and whose ambition, more outrageous than that
of Lewis, but seconded by less power and policy, was regarded with a
more favorable eye by the other potentates of Europe.
The opposition of interests, and still more a natural antipathy of
character, produced a declared animosity between these bad princes; and
Edward was thus secure of the sincere attachment of either of them, for
whom he should choose to declare himself. The duke of Burgundy, being
descended by his mother, a daughter of Portugal, from John of Gaunt,
was naturally inclined to favor the house of Lancaster:[*] but this
consideration was easily overbalanced by political motives; and Charles,
perceiving the interests of that house to be extremely decayed in
England, sent over his natural brother, commonly called the Bastard of
Burgundy, to carry in his name proposals of marriage to Margaret, the
king’s sister.
{1468.} The alliance of Burgundy was more popular among the English than
that of France; the commercial interests of the two nations invited the
princes to a close union; their common jealousy of Lewis was a natural
cement between them; and Edward, pleased with strengthening himself by
so potent a confederate, soon concluded the alliance, and bestowed
his sister upon Charles.[**] A league, which Edward at the same time
concluded with the duke of Brittany, seemed both to increase his
security, and to open to him the prospect of rivalling his predecessors
in those foreign conquests, which, however short-lived and unprofitable,
had rendered their reigns so popular and illustrious.[***]
* Comine’s, liv. iii. chap. 4, 6.
** W. Wyrcester, p. 5. Parl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 332.
*** Hall, fol. 169, 197.
{1469.} But whatever ambitious schemes the king might have built on
these alliances, they were soon frustrated by intestine commotions,
which engrossed all his attention. These disorders probably arose
not immediately from the intrigues of the earl of Warwick, but from
accident, aided by the turbulent spirit of the age, by the general humor
of discontent which that popular nobleman had instilled into the nation,
and perhaps by some remains of attachment to the house of Lancaster.
The hospital of St. Leonard’s, near York, had received, from an ancient
grant of King Athelstane, a right of levying a thrave of corn upon every
plough-land in the county; and as these charitable establishments are
liable to abuse, the country people complained, that the revenue of
the hospital was no longer expended for the relief of the poor, but was
secreted by the managers, and employed to their private purposes.
After long repining at the contribution, they refused payment:
ecclesiastical and civil censures were issued against them, their goods
were distrained, and their persons thrown into jail: till, as their ill
humor daily increased, they rose in arms; fell upon the officers of the
hospital, whom they put to the sword; and proceeded in a body, fifteen
thousand strong, to the gates of York. Lord Montague, who commanded
in those parts, opposed himself to their progress; and having been so
fortunate in a skirmish as to seize Robert Hulderne, their leader,
he ordered him immediately to be led to execution, according to the
practice of the times. The rebels, however, still continued in arms; and
being soon headed by men of greater distinction: Sir Henry Nevil, son of
Lord Latimer, and Sir John Coniers, they advanced southwards, and began
to appear formidable to government. Herbert, earl of Pembroke, who had
received that title on the forfeiture of Jasper Tudor, was ordered by
Edward to march against them at the head of a body of Welshmen; and he
was joined by five thousand archers, under the command of Stafford,
earl of Devonshire, who had succeeded in that title to the family of
Courtney, which had also been attainted. But a trivial difference about
quarters having begotten an animosity between these two noblemen, the
earl of Devonshire retired with his archers, and left Pembroke alone to
encounter the rebels. The two armies approached each other near Banbury;
and Pembroke, having prevailed in a skirmish, and having taken Sir John
Nevil prisoner, ordered him immediately to be put to death, without any
form of process. This execution enraged without terrifying the rebels:
they attacked the Welsh army, routed them, put them to the sword without
mercy; and having seized Pembroke, they took immediate revenge upon him
for the death of their leader. The king, imputing this misfortune to
the earl of Devonshire, who had deserted Pembroke, ordered him to be
executed in a like summary manner. But these speedy executions, or
rather open murders, did not stop there: the northern rebels, sending
a party to Grafton, seized the earl of Rivers and his son John; men
who had become obnoxious by their near relation to the king, and his
partiality towards them: and they were immediately executed by orders
from Sir John Coniers.[*]
* Fabian, fol. 217.
There is no part of English history since the conquest so obscure,
so uncertain, so little authentic or consistent, as that of the
wars between the two “roses:” historians differ about many material
circumstances; some events of the utmost consequence, in which they
almost all agree, are incredible, and contradicted by records;[*] [19]
and it is remarkable, that this profound darkness falls upon us just on
the eve of the restoration of letters, and when the art of printing was
already known in Europe. All we can distinguish with certainty through
the deep cloud which covers that period, is a scene of horror and
bloodshed: savage manners, arbitrary executions, and treacherous,
dishonorable conduct in all parties. There is no possibility, for
instance, of accounting for the views and intentions of the earl of
Warwick at this time. It is agreed that he resided, together with his
son-in-law, the duke of Clarence, in his government of Calais during the
commencement of this rebellion; and that his brother Montague acted
with vigor against the northern rebels. We may thence presume, that the
insurrection had not proceeded from the secret counsels and instigation
of Warwick; though the murder committed by the rebels on the earl
of Rivers, his capital enemy, forms, on the other hand, a violent
presumption against him. He and Clarence came over to England, offered
their service to Edward, were received without any suspicion, were
intrusted by him in the highest commands,[**] and still persevered in
their fidelity. Soon after, we find the rebels quieted and dispersed
by a general pardon granted by Edward from the advice of the earl
of Warwick: but why so courageous a prince, if secure of Warwick’s
fidelity, should have granted a general pardon to men who had been
guilty of such violent and personal outrages against him, is not
intelligible; nor why that nobleman, if unfaithful, should have
endeavored to appease a rebellion of which he was able to make such
advantages. But it appears, that after this insurrection, there was an
interval of peace, during which the king loaded the family of Nevil
with honors and favors of the highest nature: he made Lord Montague
a marquis, by the same name: he created his son George duke of
Bedford;[***] he publicly declared his intention of marrying that young
nobleman to his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, who, as he had yet no sons,
was presumptive heir of the crown: yet we find that soon after, being
invited to a feast by the archbishop of York, a younger brother of
Warwick and Montague, he entertained a sudden suspicion that they
intended to seize his person or to murder him: and he abruptly left the
entertainment.[****]
* See note S, at the end of the volume.
** Rymer, vol. xi. p. 647, 649, 650.
*** Cotton, p. 702.
**** Fragm. Edward IV. ad fin. Sproti.
{1470.} Soon after, there broke out another rebellion, which is as
unaccountable as all the preceding events; chiefly because no sufficient
reason is assigned for it, and because, so far as appears, the family
of Nevil had no hand in exciting and fomenting it. It arose in
Lincolnshire, and was headed by Sir Robert Welles, son to the lord of
that name. The army of the rebels amounted to thirty thousand men; but
Lord Welles himself, far from giving countenance to them, fled into a
sanctuary, in order to secure his person against the king’s anger or
suspicions. He was allured from this retreat by a promise of safety; and
was soon after, notwithstanding this assurance, beheaded, along with Sir
Thomas Dymoc, by orders from Edward.[*] The king fought a battle with
the rebels, defeated them, took Sir Robert Welles and Sir Thomas Launde
prisoners, and ordered them immediately to be beheaded.
Edward, during these transactions, had entertained so little jealousy
of the earl of Warwick or duke of Clarence, that he sent them with
commissions of array to levy forces against the rebels:[**] but these
malecontents, as soon as they left the court, raised troops in their
own name, issued declarations against the government, and complained
of grievances, oppressions, and bad ministers. The unexpected defeat of
Welles disconcerted all their measures; and they retired northwards into
Lancashire, where they expected to be joined by Lord Stanley, who had
married the earl of Warwick’s sister. But as that nobleman refused
all concurrence with them, and as Lord Montague also remained quiet
in Yorkshire, they were obliged to disband their army, and to fly into
Devonshire, where they embarked and made sail towards Calais.[***]
* Hall, fol. 204. Fabian, fol. 218. Habington, p. 442.
Holingshed, p. 674.
** Rymer, vol. xi. p. 652.
*** The king offered, by proclamation, a reward of one
thousand pounds, or one hundred pounds a year in land, to
any that would seize them. Whence we may learn that land was
at that time sold for about ten years’ purchase. See Rymer,
vol. xi. p. 654.
The deputy governor, whom Warwick had left at Calais, was one Vaucler, a
Gascon, who, seeing the earl return in this miserable condition, refused
him admittance; and would not so much as permit the duchess of Clarence
to land, though, a few days before, she had been delivered on shipboard
of a son, and was at that time extremely disordered by sickness. With
difficulty he would allow a few flagons of wine to be carried to the
ship for the use of the ladies: but as he was a man of sagacity, and
well acquainted with the revolutions to which England was subject, he
secretly apologized to Warwick for this appearance of infidelity, and
represented it as proceeding entirely from zeal for his service. He said
that the fortress was ill supplied with provisions; that he could not
depend on the attachment of the garrison; that the inhabitants,
who lived by the English commerce, would certainly declare for the
established government; that the place was at present unable to resist
the power of England on the one hand, and that of the duke of Burgundy
on the other; and that, by seeming to declare for Edward, he would
acquire the confidence of that prince, and still keep it in his power,
when it should become safe and prudent, to restore Calais to its ancient
master.[*] It is uncertain whether Warwick was satisfied with this
apology, or suspected a double infidelity in Vaucler; but he feigned
to be entirely convinced by him; and having seized some Flemish vessels
which he found lying off Calais, he immediately made sail towards
France.
The king of France, uneasy at the close conjunction between Edward
and the duke of Burgundy, received with the greatest demonstrations of
regard the unfortunate Warwick,[**] with whom he had formerly maintained
a secret correspondence, and whom he hoped still to make his instrument
in overturning the government of England, and reëstablishing the house
of Lancaster.
* Comines, liv. iii. chap. 4. Hall, fol. 205.
** Polyd. Virg. p. 519.
No animosity was ever greater than that which had long prevailed between
that house and the earl of Warwick. His father had been executed by
orders from Margaret: he himself had twice reduced Henry to captivity,
had banished the queen, had put to death all their most zealous
partisans either in the field or on the scaffold, and had occasioned
innumerable ills to that unhappy family. For this reason, believing that
such inveterate rancor could never admit of any cordial reconciliation,
he had not mentioned Henry’s name when he took arms against Edward;
and he rather endeavored to prevail by means of his own adherents, than
revive a party which he sincerely hated. But his present distresses and
the entreaties of Lewis made him hearken to terms of accommodation;
and Margaret being sent for from Angers, where she then resided, an
agreement was, from common interest, soon concluded between them. It was
stipulated, that Warwick should espouse the cause of Henry, and endeavor
to restore him to liberty, and to reëstablish him on the throne; that
the administration of the government, during the minority of young
Edward, Henry’s son, should be intrusted conjointly to the earl of
Warwick and the duke of Clarence; that Prince Edward should marry the
Lady Anne, second daughter of that nobleman; and that the crown, in case
of the failure of male issue in that prince, should descend to the duke
of Clarence, to the entire exclusion of King Edward and his posterity.
Never was confederacy, on all sides, less natural, or more evidently the
work of necessity: but Warwick hoped, that all former passions of the
Lancastrians might be lost in present political views; and that, at
worst, the independent power of his family, and the affections of the
people, would suffice to give him security, and enable him to exact the
full performance of all the conditions agreed on. The marriage of Prince
Edward with the Lady Anne was immediately celebrated in France.
Edward foresaw that it would be easy to dissolve an alliance composed
of such discordant parts. For this purpose, he sent over a lady of
great sagacity and address, who belonged to the train of the duchess of
Clarence, and who, under color of attending her mistress, was empowered
to negotiate with the duke, and to renew the connections of that
prince with his own family.[*] She represented to Clarence, that he had
unwarily, to his own ruin, become the instrument of Warwick’s vengeance,
and had thrown himself entirely in the power of his most inveterate
enemies; that the mortal injuries which the one royal family had
suffered from the other, were now past all forgiveness, and no imaginary
union of interests could ever suffice to obliterate them; that even if
the leaders were willing to forget past offences, the animosity of their
adherents would prevent a sincere coalition of parties, and would,
in spite of all temporary and verbal agreements, preserve an eternal
opposition of measures between them; and that a prince who deserted
his own kindred, and joined the murderers of his father, left himself
single, without friends, without protection, and would not, when
misfortunes inevitably fell upon him, be so much as entitled to any
pity or regard from the rest of mankind.
* Comines, liv. iii. chap. 5. Hall, fol. 20*7. Holingshed,
p. 676.
Clarence was only one and twenty years of age, and seems to have
possessed but a slender capacity; yet could he easily see the force of
these reasons; and, upon the promise of forgiveness from his brother,
he secretly engaged, on a favorable opportunity, to desert the earl of
Warwick, and abandon the Lancastrian party.
During this negotiation, Warwick was secretly carrying on a
correspondence of the same nature with his brother, the marquis of
Montague, who was entirely trusted by Edward; and like motives produced
a like resolution in that nobleman. The marquis, also, that he might
render the projected blow the more deadly and incurable, resolved, on
his side, to watch a favorable opportunity for committing his perfidy,
and still to maintain the appearance of being a zealous adherent to the
house of York.
After these mutual snares were thus carefully laid, the decision of the
quarrel advanced apace. Lewis prepared a fleet to escort the earl of
Warwick, and granted him a supply of men and money.[*] The duke of
Burgundy, on the other hand, enraged at that nobleman for his seizure of
the Flemish vessels before Calais, and anxious to support the reigning
family in England, with whom his own interests were now connected,
fitted out a larger fleet, with which he guarded the Channel: and he
incessantly warned his brother-in-law of the imminent perils to which
he was exposed. But Edward, though always brave and often active, had
little foresight or penetration. He was not sensible of his danger; he
made no suitable preparations against the earl of Warwick;[**] he even
said that the duke might spare himself the trouble of guarding the seas,
and that he wished for nothing more than to see Warwick set foot on
English ground.[***] A vain confidence in his own prowess, joined to the
immoderate love of pleasure, had made him incapable of all sound reason
and reflection.
The event soon happened, of which Edward seemed so desirous. A storm
dispersed the Flemish navy, and left the sea open to Warwick.[****] That
nobleman seized the opportunity, and setting sail, quickly landed at
Dartmouth with the duke of Clarence, the earls of Oxford and Pembroke,
and a small body of troops, while the king was in the north, engaged
in suppressing an insurrection which had been raised by Lord Fitz-Hugh,
brother-in-law to Warwick.
* Comines, liv. iii. chap. 4. Hall, fol. 207.
** Grafton, p. 687.
*** Comines, liv. iii. chap. 5. Hall, fol. 208.
**** Comines, liv. iii. chap. 5.
The scene which ensues resembles more the fiction of a poem or romance
than an event in true history. The prodigious popularity of Warwick,[*]
the zeal of the Lancastrian party, the spirit of discontent with which
many were infected, and the general instability of the English nation,
occasioned by the late frequent revolutions, drew such multitudes to his
standard, that in a very few days his army amounted to sixty thousand
men and was continually increasing. Edward hastened southwards to
encounter him; and the two armies approached each other near Nottingham,
where a decisive action was every hour expected. The rapidity of
Warwick’s progress had incapacitated the duke of Clarence from executing
his plan of treachery; and the marquis of Montague had here the
opportunity of striking the first blow. He communicated the design to
his adherents, who promised him their concurrence: they took to arms
in the night-time, and hastened with loud acclamations to Edward’s
quarters; the king was alarmed at the noise, and starting from bed,
heard the cry of war usually employed by the Lancastrian party. Lord
Hastings, his chamberlain, informed him of the danger, and urged him
to make his escape by speedy flight from an army where he had so many
concealed enemies, and where few seemed zealously attached to his
service. He had just time to get on horseback, and to hurry with a small
retinue to Lynne, in Norfolk, where he luckily found some ships ready,
on board of which he instantly embarked.[**] And after this manner the
earl of Warwick, in no longer space than eleven days after his first
landing, was left entire master of the kingdom.
* Hall, fol. 205.
** Comines, liv. iii. chap. 5. Hall, fol. 208.
But Edward’s danger did not end with his embarkation. The Easterlings
or Hanse Towns were then at war both with France and England; and some
ships of these people, hovering on the English coast, espied the king’s
vessels, and gave chase to them; nor was it without extreme difficulty
that he made his escape into the port of Alcmaer, in Holland. He had
fled from England with such precipitation, that he had carried nothing
of value along with him; and the only reward which he could bestow on
the captain of the vessel that brought him over, was a robe lined with
sables; promising him an ample recompense if fortune should ever become
more propitious to him.[*]
* Comines, liv, iii. chap. 5.
It is not likely that Edward could be very fond of presenting himself in
this lamentable plight before the duke of Burgundy; and that having so
suddenly, after his mighty vaunts, lost all footing in his own kingdom,
he could be insensible to the ridicule which must attend him in the eyes
of that prince. The duke, on his part, was no less embarrassed how he
should receive the dethroned monarch. As he had ever borne a greater
affection to the house of Lancaster than to that of York, nothing but
political views had engaged him to contract an alliance with the latter;
and he foresaw, that probably the revolution in England would now turn
this alliance against him, and render the reigning family his implacable
and jealous enemy. For this reason, when the first rumor of that event
reached him, attended with the circumstance of Edward’s death, he
seemed rather pleased with the catastrophe; and it was no agreeable
disappointment to find, that he must either undergo the burden of
supporting an exiled prince, or the dishonor of abandoning so near a
relation. He began already to say, that his connections were with the
kingdom of England, not with the king; and it was indifferent to
him whether the name of Edward or that of Henry were employed in the
articles of treaty. These sentiments were continually strengthened by
the subsequent events. Vaucler, the deputy-governor of Calais, though
he had been confirmed in his command by Edward, and had even received
a pension from the duke of Burgundy on account of his fidelity to the
crown, no sooner saw his old master, Warwick, reinstated in authority,
than he declared for him, and with great demonstrations of zeal and
attachment, put the whole garrison in his livery. And the intelligence
which the duke received every day from England, seemed to promise an
entire and full settlement in the family of Lancaster.
Immediately after Edward’s flight had left the kingdom at Warwick’s
disposal, that nobleman hastened to London; and taking Henry from his
confinement in the Tower, into which he himself had been the chief
cause of throwing him, he proclaimed him king with great solemnity.
A parliament was summoned in the name of that prince, to meet at
Westminster, and as this assembly could pretend to no liberty while
surrounded by such enraged and insolent victors, governed by such an
impetuous spirit as Warwick, their votes were entirely dictated by the
ruling faction. The treaty with Margaret was here fully executed: Henry
was recognized as lawful king; but his incapacity for government being
avowed, the regency was intrusted to Warwick and Clarence till the
majority of Prince Edward; and in default of that prince’s issue,
Clarence was declared successor to the crown. The usual business also
of reversals went on without opposition: every statute made during the
reign of Edward was repealed; that prince was declared to be a usurper;
he and his adherents were attainted; and in particular Richard, duke of
Glocester, his younger brother: all the attainders of the Lancastrians,
the dukes of Somerset and Exeter, the earls of Richmond, Pembroke,
Oxford, and Ormond, were reversed; and every one was restored who had
lost either honors or fortunes by his former adherence to the cause of
Henry.
The ruling party were more sparing in their executions than was usual
after any revolution during those violent times. The only victim of
distinction was John Tibetot, earl of Worcester. This accomplished
person, born in an age and nation where the nobility valued themselves
on ignorance as their privilege, and left learning to monks and
schoolmasters, for whom indeed the spurious erudition that prevailed was
best fitted, had been struck with the first rays of true science,
which began to penetrate from the south, and had been zealous, by his
exhortation and example, to propagate the love of letters among his
unpolished countrymen. It is pretended, that knowledge had not produced
on this nobleman himself the effect which naturally attends it, of
humanizing the temper and softening the heart;[*] and that he had
enraged the Lancastrians against him by the severities which he
exercised upon them during the prevalence of his own party.
* Hall, fol. 210. Stowe, p. 422.
He endeavored to conceal himself after the flight of Edward, but was
caught on the top of a tree in the forest of Weybridge, was conducted
to London, tried before the earl of Oxford, condemned, and executed. All
the other considerable Yorkists either fled beyond sea, or took shelter
in sanctuaries, where the ecclesiastical privileges afforded them
protection. In London alone it is computed that no less than two
thousand persons saved themselves in this manner;[*] and among the rest,
Edward’s queen, who was there delivered of a son, called by his father’s
name.[**]
Queen Margaret, the other rival queen, had not yet appeared in England,
but on receiving intelligence of Warwick’s success, was preparing with
Prince Edward for her journey. All the banished Lancastrians flocked to
her; and, among the rest, the duke of Somerset, son of the duke beheaded
after the battle of Hexham. This nobleman, who had long been regarded
as the head of the party, had fled into the Low Countries on the
discomfiture of his friends; and as he concealed his name and quality,
he had there languished in extreme indigence. Philip de Comines tells
us,[***] that he himself saw him, as well as the duke of Exeter, in a
condition no better than that of a common beggar; till being discovered
by Philip, duke of Burgundy, they had small pensions allotted them, and
were living in silence and obscurity when the success of their party
called them from their retreat. But both Somerset and Margaret were
detained by contrary winds from reaching England,[****] till a new
revolution in that kingdom, no less sudden and surprising than the
former, threw them into greater misery than that from which they had
just emerged.
Though the duke of Burgundy, by neglecting Edward, and paying court to
the established government, had endeavored to conciliate the friendship
of the Lancastrians, he found that he had not succeeded to his wish; and
the connections between the king of France and the earl of Warwick still
held him in great anxiety.[*****] This nobleman, too hastily regarding
Charles as a determined enemy, had sent over to Calais a body of four
thousand men, who made inroads into the Low Countries;[******] and
the duke of Burgundy saw himself in danger of being overwhelmed by the
united arms of England and of France. He resolved therefore to grant
some assistance to his brother-in-law; but in such a covert manner as
should give the least offence possible to the English government.
* Comines, liv. iii. chap. 7.
** Hall, fol. 210. Stowe, p. 423. Holingshed, p. 677.
Grafton, p. 690.
*** Liv. iii. chap. 4.
**** Grafton, p. 692. Polyd. Virg. p 522.
***** Hall, fol. 205.
****** Comines, liv, iii. chap. 6.
{1471.} He equipped four large vessels, in the name of some private
merchants, at Terveer, in Zealand; and causing fourteen ships to be
secretly hired from the Easterlings, he delivered this small squadron
to Edward, who, receiving also a sum of money from the duke, immediately
set sail for England. No sooner was Charles informed of his departure
than he issued a proclamation inhibiting all his subjects from giving
him countenance or assistance;[*] an artifice which could not deceive
the earl of Warwick, but which might serve as a decent pretence, if that
nobleman were so disposed, for maintaining friendship with the duke of
Burgundy.
Edward, impatient to take revenge on his enemies, and to recover his
lost authority, made an attempt to land with his forces, which exceeded
not two thousand men, on the coast of Norfolk; but being there repulsed,
he sailed northwards, and disembarked at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire.
Finding that the new magistrates, who had been appointed by the earl of
Warwick, kept the people every where from joining him, he pretended, and
even made oath, that he came not to challenge the crown, but only the
inheritance of the house of York, which of right belonged to him;
and that he did not intend to disturb the peace of the kingdom. His
partisans every moment flocked to his standard: he was admitted into the
city of York: and he was soon in such a situation as gave him hopes of
succeeding in all his claims and pretensions. The marquis of Montague
commanded in the northern counties; but from some mysterious reasons,
which, as well as many other important transactions in that age, no
historian has cleared up, he totally neglected the beginnings of an
insurrection which he ought to have esteemed so formidable. Warwick
assembled an army at Leicester, with an intention of meeting and of
giving battle to the enemy; but Edward, by taking another road, passed
him unmolested, and presented himself before the gates of London. Had he
here been refused admittance, he was totally undone: but there were many
reasons which inclined the citizens to favor him. His numerous friends,
issuing from their sanctuaries, were active in his cause; many rich
merchants, who had formerly lent him money, saw no other chance for
their payment but his restoration; the city dames who had been liberal
of their favors to him, and who still retained an affection for this
young and gallant prince, swayed their husbands and friends in his
favor;[**] and above all, the archbishop of York, Warwick’s brother,
to whom the care of the city was committed, had secretly, from unknown
reasons, entered into a correspondence with him; and he facilitated
Edward’s admission into London.
* Comines, liv. iii. chap. 6.
** Comines, liv. iii. chap. 7.
The most likely cause which can be assigned for those multiplied
infidelities, even in the family of Nevil itself, is the spirit of
faction, which, when it becomes inveterate, it is very difficult for
any man entirely to shake off. The persons who had long distinguished
themselves in the York party, were unable to act with zeal and
cordiality for the support of the Lancastrians; and they were inclined,
by any prospect of favor or accommodation offered them by Edward, to
return to their ancient connections. However this may be, Edward’s
entrance into London made him master not only of that rich and powerful
city, but also of the person of Henry, who, destined to be the perpetual
sport of fortune, thus fell again into the hands of his enemies.[*]
It appears not that Warwick, during his short administration, which had
continued only six months, had been guilty of any unpopular act, or had
anywise deserved to lose that general favor with which he had so lately
overwhelmed Edward. But this prince, who was formerly on the defensive,
was now the aggressor; and having overcome the difficulties which always
attend the beginnings of an insurrection, possessed many advantages
above his enemy: his partisans were actuated by that zeal and courage
which the notion of an attack inspires his opponents were intimidated
for a like reason; every one who had been disappointed in the hopes
which he had entertained from Warwick’s elevation, either became a cool
friend or an open enemy to that nobleman; and each malecontent,
from whatever cause, proved an accession to Edward’s army. The king,
therefore, found himself in a condition to face the earl of Warwick;
who, being reënforced by his son-in-law the duke of Clarence, and
his brother the marquis of Montague, took post at Barnet, in the
neighborhood of London. The arrival of Queen Margaret was every day
expected, who would have drawn together all the genuine Lancastrians,
and have brought a great accession to Warwick’s forces: but this very
consideration proved a motive to the earl rather to hurry on a decisive
action than to share the victory with rivals and ancient enemies, who,
he foresaw, would, in case of success, claim the chief merit in the
enterprise.[**]
* Grafton, p. 702.
** Comines, liv. iii. chap. 7.
But while his jealousy was always directed towards that side, he
overlooked the dangerous infidelity of friends, who lay the nearest to
his bosom. His brother Montague, who had lately temporized, seems now to
have remained sincerely attached to the interests of his family: but
his son-in-law, though bound to him by every tie of honor and gratitude,
though he shared the power of the regency, though he had been invested
by Warwick in all the honors and patrimony of the house of York,
resolved to fulfil the secret engagements which he had formerly taken
with his brother, and to support the interests of his own family: he
deserted to the king in the night-time, and carried over a body of
twelve thousand men along with him.[*] Warwick was now too far advanced
to retreat; and as he rejected with disdain all terms of peace
offered him by Edward and Clarence, he was obliged to hazard a general
engagement. The battle was fought with obstinacy on both sides: the two
armies, in imitation of their leaders displayed uncommon valor; and the
victory remained long undecided between them. But an accident threw the
balance to the side of the Yorkists. Edward’s cognizance was a sun; that
of Warwick a star with rays; and the mistiness of the morning rendering
it difficult to distinguish them, the earl of Oxford, who fought on the
side of the Lancastrians, was by mistake attacked by his friends, and
chased off the field of battle.[**] Warwick, contrary to his more usual
practice, engaged that day on foot, resolving to show his army that he
meant to share every fortune with them; and he was slain in the thickest
of the engagement;[***] his brother underwent the same fate; and
as Edward had issued orders not to give any quarter, a great and
undistinguished slaughter was made in the pursuit. There fell about one
thousand five hundred on the side of the victors.
The same day on which this decisive battle was fought,[****] Queen
Margaret and her son, now about eighteen years of age, and a young
prince of great hopes, landed at Weymouth, supported by a small body of
French forces.
* Grafton, p 700. Comines, liv. iii. chap. 7. Leland’s
Collect. vol. ii. p. 505.
** Habington, p. 449.
*** Comines, liv. iii. chap. 7.
**** Leland’s Collect, vol. ii. p. 505.
When this princess received intelligence of her husband’s captivity, and
of the defeat and death of the earl of Warwick, her courage which had
supported her under so many disastrous events, here quite left her; and
she immediately foresaw all the dismal consequences of this calamity.
At first she took sanctuary in the abbey of Beaulieu;[*] but being
encouraged by the appearance of Tudor, earl of Pembroke, and Courtney,
earl of Devonshire, of the Lords Wenlock and St. John, with other men of
rank, who exhorted her still to hope for success, she resumed her former
spirit, and determined to defend to the utmost the ruins of her fallen
fortunes. She advanced through the counties of Devon, Somerset, and
Glocester, increasing her army on each day’s march; but was at last
overtaken by the rapid and expeditious Edward, at Tewkesbury, on the
banks of the Severn. The Lancastrians were here totally defeated: the
earl of Devonshire and Lord Wenlock were killed in the field: the duke
of Somerset, and about twenty other persons of distinction, having
taken shelter in a church, were surrounded, dragged out, and immediately
beheaded: about three thousand of their side fell in battle: and the
army was entirely dispersed.
Queen Margaret and her son were taken prisoners, and brought to the
king, who asked the prince, after an insulting manner, how he dared to
invade his dominions. The young prince, more mindful of his high birth
than of his present fortune, replied, that he came thither to claim his
just inheritance. The ungenerous Edward, insensible to pity, struck him
on the face with his gauntlet; and the dukes of Clarence and Glocester,
Lord Hastings, and Sir Thomas Gray, taking the blow as a signal for
further violence, hurried the prince into the next apartment, and there
despatched him with their daggers.[**] Margaret was thrown into the
Tower: King Henry expired in that confinement a few days after the
battle of Tewkesbury; but whether he died a natural or violent death is
uncertain. It is pretended, and was generally believed, that the duke
of Glocester killed him with his own hands:[***] but the universal odium
which that prince had incurred, inclined perhaps the nation to aggravate
his crimes without any sufficient authority.
* Hall, fol. 219. Habington, p. 451. Grafton, p. 706. Polyd.
Virg. p. 528.
** Hall, fol. 221. Habington, p. 453. Holingshed, p 688.
Polyd. Virg. p. 530.
*** Comines. Hall, fol. 228. Grafton, p. 703.
It is certain, however, that Henry’s death was sudden; and though he
labored under an ill state of health, this circumstance, joined to the
general manners of the age, gave a natural ground, of suspicion; which
was rather increased than diminished by the exposing of his body
to public view. That precaution served only to recall many similar
instances in the English history, and to suggest the comparison.
All the hopes of the house of Lancaster seemed now to be utterly
extinguished. Every legitimate prince of that family was dead: almost
every great leader of the party had perished in battle or on the
scaffold: the earl of Pembroke, who was levying forces in Wales,
disbanded his army when he received intelligence of the battle of
Tewkesbury; and he fled into Brittany with his nephew, the young earl of
Richmond.[*] The bastard of Falconberg, who had levied some forces, and
had advanced to London during Edward’s absence, was repulsed; his men
deserted him; he was taken prisoner and immediately executed:[**] and
peace being now fully restored to the nation, a parliament was summoned,
which ratified as usual, all the acts of the victor, and recognized his
legal authority.
* Habington, p. 454. Polyd. Virg. p. 531.
** Holingshed, p. 689, 690, 693. Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 554.
But this prince, who had been so firm, and active, and intrepid during
the course of adversity, was still unable to resist the allurements of
a prosperous fortune; and he wholly devoted himself, as before, to
pleasure and amusement, after he became entirely master of his kingdom,
and had no longer any enemy who could give him anxiety or alarm. He
recovered, however, by this gay and inoffensive course of life, and
by his easy, familiar manners, that popularity which, it is natural
to imagine, he had lost by the repeated cruelties exercised upon his
enemies; and the example also of his jovial festivity served to abate
the former acrimony of faction among his subjects, and to restore
the social disposition which had been so long interrupted between the
opposite parties. All men seemed to be fully satisfied with the present
government; and the memory of past calamities served only to impress
the people more strongly with a sense of their allegiance, and with
the resolution of never incurring any more the hazard of renewing such
direful scenes.
{1474.} But while the king was thus indulging himself in pleasure, he
was roused from his lethargy by a prospect of foreign conquests, which,
it is probable, his desire of popularity, more than the spirit of
ambition, had made him covet. Though he deemed himself little beholden
to the duke of Burgundy for the reception which that prince had given
him during his exile,[*] the political interests of their states
maintained still a close connection between them; and they agreed to
unite their arms in making a powerful invasion on France. A league
was formed, in which Edward stipulated to pass the seas with an army
exceeding ten thousand men, and to invade the French territories:
Charles promised to join him with all his forces: the king was to
challenge the crown of France, and to obtain at least the provinces of
Normandy and Guienne; the duke was to acquire Champaigne and some other
territories, and to free all his dominions from the burden of homage
to the crown of France: and neither party was to make peace without
the consent of the other.[**] They were the more encouraged to hope for
success from this league, as the count of St. Pol, constable of France,
who was master of St. Quintin and other towns on the Somme, had secretly
promised to join them; and there were also hopes of engaging the duke of
Brittany to enter into the confederacy.
The prospect of a French war was always a sure means of making the
parliament open their purses, as far as the habits of that age would
permit. They voted the king a tenth of rents, or two shillings in the
pound; which must have been very inaccurately levied, since it produced
only thirty-one thousand four hundred and sixty pounds; and they added
to this supply a whole fifteenth, and three quarters of another;[***]
but as the king deemed these sums still unequal to the undertaking, he
attempted to levy money by way of benevolence, a kind of exaction which,
except during the reigns of Henry III. and Richard II., had not been
much practised in former times, and which, though the consent of
the parties was pretended to be gained, could not be deemed entirely
voluntary.[****]
* Comines, liv. iii. chap. 7.
** Rymer, vol. xi p. 806, 807, 808, etc.
*** Cotton, p. 696, 700. Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 558.
**** Hall, fol. 226. Habington, p. 461. Grafton, p. 719.
Fabian, fol. 221.
The clauses annexed to the parliamentary grant show sufficiently the
spirit of the nation in this respect. The money levied by the fifteenth
was not to be put into the king’s hands but to be kept in religious
houses; and if the expedition into France should not take place, it
was immediately to be refunded to the people. After these grants, the
parliament was dissolved, which had sitten near two years and a half,
and had undergone several prorogations; a practice not very usual at
that time in England.
{1475.} The king passed over to Calais with an army of one thousand five
hundred men at arms and fifteen thousand archers, attended by all the
chief nobility of England, who, prognosticating future successes from
the past, were eager to appear on this great theatre of honor.[*] But
all their sanguine hopes were damped when they found, on entering the
French territories, that neither did the constable open his gates to
them, nor the duke of Burgundy bring them the smallest assistance. That
prince, transported by his ardent temper, had carried all his armies
to a great distance, and had employed them in wars on the frontiers of
Germany, and against the duke of Lorraine: and though he came in person
to Edward, and endeavored to apologize for this breach of treaty,
there was no prospect that they would be able this campaign to make a
conjunction with the English. This circumstance gave great disgust to
the king, and inclined him to hearken to those advances which Lewis
continually made him for an accommodation.
That monarch, more swayed by political views than by the point of honor,
deemed no submissions too mean which might free him from enemies who
had proved so formidable to his predecessors, and who, united to so
many other enemies, might still shake the well-established government of
France. It appears from Comines, that discipline was at this time very
imperfect among the English; and that their civil wars, though long
continued, yet, being always decided by hasty battles, had still left
them ignorant of the improvements which the military art was beginning
to receive upon the continent.[**]
* Comines, liv. iv. chap. 5. This author says, (chap. 11,)
that the king artfully brought over some of the richest of
his subjects who, he knew, would be soon tired of the war,
and would promote all proposals of peace, which he foresaw
would be soon necessary.
** Comines, liv. iv. chap. 5.
But as Lewis was sensible that the warlike genius of the people would
soon render them excellent soldiers, he was far from despising them for
their present want of experience; and he employed all his art to detach
them from the alliance of Burgundy. When Edward sent him a herald
to claim the crown of France, and to carry him a defiance in case of
refusal, so far from answering to [*] this bravado in like haughty
terms, he replied with great temper, and even made the herald a
considerable present:[**] he took afterwards an opportunity of sending a
herald to the English camp; and having given him directions to apply to
the Lords Stanley and Howard, who, he heard, were friends to peace, he
desired the good offices of these noblemen in promoting an accommodation
with their master.[***] As Edward was now fallen into like dispositions,
a truce was soon concluded on terms more advantageous than honorable
to Lewis. He stipulated to pay Edward immediately seventy-five thousand
crowns, on condition that he should withdraw his army from France, and
promised to pay him fifty thousand crowns a year during their joint
lives: it was added, that the dauphin, when of age, should marry
Edward’s eldest daughter.[****] In order to ratify this treaty, the
two monarchs agreed to have a personal interview; and for that purpose
suitable preparations were made at Pecquigni, near Amiens. A close rail
was drawn across a bridge in that place, with no larger intervals than
would allow the arm to pass; a precaution against a similar accident
to that which befell the duke of Burgundy in his conference with the
dauphin at Montereau. Edward and Lewis came to the opposite sides;
conferred privately together; and having confirmed their friendship, and
interchanged many mutual civilities, they soon after parted.[*****]
* Comines, liv. iv. chap. 5. Hall, fol. 227.
** Comines, liv. iv. chap. 7.
*** Rymer, vol. xii. p. 17.
**** Comines, liv, iv, chap. 9.
***** Hall, fol. 235.
Lewis was anxious not only to gain the king’s friendship but also that
of the nation, and of all the considerable persons in the English court.
He bestowed pensions, to the amount of sixteen thousand crowns a year,
on several of the kings, favorites; on Lord Hastings two thousand
crowns; on Lora Howard and others in proportion; and these great
ministers were not ashamed thus to receive wages from a foreign prince.
As the two armies, after the conclusion of the truce remained some time
in the neighborhood of each other, the English were not only admitted
freely into Amiens, where Lewis resided, but had also their charges
defrayed, and had wine and victuals furnished them in every inn, without
any payment being demanded. They flocked thither in such multitude that
once above nine thousand of them were in the town, and they might have
made themselves masters of the king’s person; but Lewis, concluding
from their jovial and dissolute manner of living, that they had no
bad intentions, was careful not to betray the least sign of fear or
jealousy. And when Edward, informed of this disorder, desired him to
shut the gates against them, he replied, that he would never agree to
exclude the English from the place where he resided; but that Edward, if
he pleased, might recall them, and place his own officers at the gates
of Amiens to prevent their returning.[*]
Lewis’s desire of confirming a mutual amity with England, engaged him
even to make imprudent advances, which it cost him afterwards some pains
to evade. In the conference at Pecquigni he had said to Edward, that he
wished to have a visit from him at Paris; that he would there endeavor
to amuse him with the ladies; and that, in case any offences were then
committed, he would assign him the cardinal of Bourbon for confessor,
who, from fellow-feeling, would not be over and above severe in the
penances which he would enjoin. This hint made deeper impression than
Lewis intended. Lord Howard, who accompanied him back to Amiens,
told him in confidence that, if he were so disposed it would not be
impossible to persuade Edward to take a journey with him to Paris, where
they might make merry together. Lewis pretended at first not to hear the
offer; but on Howard’s repeating it, he expressed his concern that his
wars with the duke of Burgundy would not permit him to attend his royal
guest, and do him the honors he intended “Edward,” said he privately
to Comines, “is a very handsome and a very amorous prince: some lady
at Paris may like him as well as he shall do her; and may invite him to
return in another manner. It is better that the sea be between us.” [**]
* Comines, liv. iv. chap. 9. Hall, fol. 233.
** Comines, liv. iv. chap. 10. Habington, p. 469.
This treaty did very little honor to either of these monarchs: it
discovered the imprudence of Edward, who had taken his measures so ill
with his allies, as to be obliged, after such an expensive armament,
to return without making any acquisitions adequate to it: it showed the
want of dignity in Lewis who, rather than run the hazard of a battle,
agreed to subject his kingdom to a tribute, and thus acknowledge
the superiority of a neighboring prince possessed of less power and
territory than himself. But as Lewis made interest the sole test of
honor, he thought that all the advantages of the treaty were on his
side, and that he had overreached Edward, by sending him out of France
on such easy terms. For this reason he was very solicitous to conceal
his triumph; and he strictly enjoined his courtiers never to show the
English the least sign of mockery or derision. But he did not himself
very carefully observe so prudent a rule: he could not forbear, one
day, in the joy of his heart, throwing out some raillery on the easy
simplicity of Edward and his council; when he perceived that he was
overheard by a Gascon, who had settled in England. He was immediately
sensible of his indiscretion; sent a message to the gentleman; and
offered him some advantages in his own country, as engaged him to remain
in France. “It is but just,” said he, “that I pay the penalty of my
talkativeness.” [*]
* Comines, liv. iii. chap. 10.
The most honorable part of Lewis’s treaty with Edward was the
stipulation for the liberty of Queen Margaret, who, though after the
death of her husband and son she could no longer be formidable to
government, was still detained in custody by Edward. Lewis paid fifty
thousand crowns for her ransom; and that princess, who had been so
active on the stage of the world, and who had experienced such a variety
of fortune, passed the remainder of her days in tranquility and privacy,
till the year 1482, when she died; an admirable princess, but more
illustrious by her undaunted spirit in adversity, than by her moderation
in prosperity. She seems neither to have enjoyed the virtues, nor been
subject to the weaknesses, of her sex; and was as much tainted with the
ferocity as endowed with the courage of that barbarous age in which she
lived.
Though Edward had so little reason to be satisfied with the conduct of
the duke of Burgundy, he reserved to that prince a power of acceding
to the treaty of Pecquigni: but Charles, when the offer was made him,
haughtily replied, that he was able to support himself without the
assistance of England, and that he would make no peace with Lewis till
three months after Edward’s return into his own country. This prince
possessed all the ambition and courage of a conqueror; but being
defective in policy and prudence, qualities no less essential, he was
unfortunate in all his enterprises; and perished at last in battle
against the Swiss;[*] a people whom he despised, and who, though brave
and free, had hitherto been in a manner overlooked in the general system
of Europe. This event, which happened in the year 1477, produced a
great alteration in the views of all the princes, and was attended with
consequences which were felt for many generations. Charles left only one
daughter, Mary, by his first wife; and this princess, being heir of his
opulent and extensive dominions, was courted by all the potentates of
Christendom, who contended for the possession of so rich a prize. Lewis,
the head of her family, might, by a proper application, have obtained
this match for the dauphin, and have thereby united to the crown of
France all the provinces of the Low Countries, together with Burgundy,
Artois, and Picardy; which would at once have rendered his kingdom an
overmate for all its neighbors. But a man wholly interested is as rare
as one entirely endowed with the opposite quality; and Lewis, though
impregnable to all the sentiments of generosity and friendship, was, on
this occasion, carried from the road of true policy by the passions of
animosity and revenge. He had imbibed so deep a hatred to the house
of Burgundy, that he rather chose to subdue the princess by arms, than
unite her to his family by marriage: he conquered the duchy of Burgundy
and that part of Picardy which had been ceded to Philip the Good by the
treaty of Arras: but he thereby forced the states of the Netherlands to
bestow their sovereign in marriage on Maximilian of Austria, son of the
emperor Frederick, from whom they looked for protection in their present
distresses: and by these means, France lost the opportunity, which she
never could recall, of making that important acquisition of power and
territory.
During this interesting crisis, Edward was no less defective in policy,
and was no less actuated by private passions, unworthy of a sovereign
and a statesman. Jealousy of his brother Clarence had caused him to
neglect the advances which were made of marrying that prince, now a
widower, to the heiress of Burgundy;[**] and he sent her proposals
of espousing Anthony, earl of Rivers, brother to his queen, who still
retained an entire ascendant over him.
* Comines, liv. v. chap. 8.
** Polyd. Virg. Hall, fol. 240. Holingshed, p. 703.
Habington p. 474. Grafton, p. 742.
But the match was rejected with disdain;[*] and Edward, resenting this
treatment of his brother-in-law, permitted France to proceed without
interruption in her conquests over his defenceless ally. Any pretence
sufficed him for abandoning himself entirely to indolence and pleasure,
which were now become his ruling passions. The only object which divided
his attention was the improving of the public revenue, which had been
dilapidated by the necessities or negligence of his predecessors; and
some of his expedients for that purpose, though unknown to us, were
deemed, during the time, oppressive to the people.[**] The detail of
private wrongs naturally escapes the notice of history; but an act of
tyranny of which Edward was guilty in his own family, has been taken
notice of by all writers, and has met with general and deserved censure.
* Hall, fol. 240.
** Hall, p. 241. Hist. Croyl. Cont. p, 559.
The duke of Clarence, by all his services in deserting Warwick, had
never been able to regain the king’s friendship, which he had forfeited
by his former confederacy with that nobleman. He was still regarded at
court as a man of a dangerous and a fickle character; and the imprudent
openness and violence of his temper, though it rendered him much less
dangerous, tended extremely to multiply his enemies, and to incense them
against him. Among others, he had had the misfortune to give displeasure
to the queen herself, as well as to his brother, the duke of Glocester,
a prince of the deepest policy, of the most unrelenting ambition, and
the least scrupulous in the means which he employed for the attainment
or his ends. A combination between these potent adversaries being
secretly formed against Clarence, it was determined to begin by
attacking his friends; in hopes that, if he patiently endured this
injury, his pusillanimity would dishonor him in the eyes of the public;
if he made resistance, and expressed resentment, his passion would
betray him into measures which might give them advantages against him.
The king, hunting one day in the park of Thomas Burdet, of Arrow, in
Warwickshire, had killed a white buck, which was a great favorite of the
owner; and Burdet, vexed at the loss, broke into a passion, and wished
the horns of the deer in the belly of the person who had advised
the king to commit that insult upon him. This natural expression of
resentment, which would have been overlooked or forgotten had it
fallen from any other person, was rendered criminal and capital in that
gentleman, by the friendship in which he had the misfortune to live with
the duke of Clarence; he was tried for his life; the judges and jury
were found servile enough to condemn him and he was publicly beheaded
at Tyburn for this pretended offence.[*] About the same time, one John
Stacey, an ecclesiastic, much connected with the duke as well as with
Burdet, was exposed to a like iniquitous and barbarous prosecution.
This clergyman, being more learned in mathematics and astronomy than
was usual in that age, lay under the imputation of necromancy with the
ignorant vulgar; and the court laid hold of this popular rumor to effect
his destruction. He was brought to his trial for that imaginary crime;
many of the greatest peers countenanced the prosecution by their
presence; he was condemned, put to the torture, and executed.[**]
The duke of Clarence was alarmed when he found these acts of tyranny
exercised on all around him: he reflected on the fate of the good duke
of Glocester, in the last reign, who, after seeing the most infamous
pretences employed for the destruction of his nearest connections,
at last fell himself a victim to the vengeance of his enemies. But
Clarence, instead of securing his own life against the present danger
by silence and reserve, was open and loud in justifying the innocence
of his friends, and in exclaiming against the iniquity of their
prosecutors.
{1478.} The king, highly offended with his freedom, or using that
pretence against him, committed him to the Tower,[***] summoned a
parliament, and tried him for his life before the house of peers, the
supreme tribunal of the nation.
The duke was accused of arraigning public justice, by maintaining the
innocence of men who had been condemned in courts of judicature, and or
inveighing against the iniquity of the king, who had given orders for
their prosecution.[****]
* Habington, p. 475. Holingshed, p. 703. Sir Thomas More in
Kennet, p. 498.
** Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 561.
*** Hist Croyl. Cont. p. 562.
**** Stowe, p. 430.
Many rash expressions were imputed to him, and some, too, reflecting on
Edward’s legitimacy; but he was not accused of any overt act of treason;
and even the truth of these speeches may be doubted of, since the
liberty of judgment was taken from the court, by the king’s appearing
personally as his brother’s accuser,[*] and pleading the cause against
him. But a sentence of condemnation, even when this extraordinary
circumstance had not place, was a necessary consequence, in those times,
of any prosecution by the court or the prevailing party; and the duke of
Clarence was pronounced guilty by the peers. The house of commons were
no less slavish and unjust: they both petitioned for the execution of
the duke, and afterwards passed a bill of attainder against him.[**] The
measures of the parliament, during that age, furnish us with examples of
a strange contrast of freedom and servility: they scruple to grant, and
sometimes refuse, to the king the smallest supplies, the most necessary
for the support of government, even the most necessary for the
maintenance of wars, for which the nation, as well as the parliament
itself, expressed great fondness: but they never scruple to concur
in the most flagrant act of injustice or tyranny which falls on any
individual, however distinguished by birth or merit. These maxims,
so ungenerous, so opposite to all principles of good government, so
contrary to the practice of present parliaments, are very remarkable
in all the transactions of the English history for more than a century
after the period in which we are now engaged.
The only favor which the king granted his brother after his
condemnation, was to leave him the choice of his death; and he was
privately drowned in a butt of malmsey in the Tower; a whimsical choice,
which implies that he had an extraordinary passion for that liquor. The
duke left two children by the elder daughter of the earl of Warwick;
a son, created an earl by his grandfather’s title, and a daughter,
afterwards countess of Salisbury. Both this prince and princess were
also unfortunate in their end, and died a violent death; a fate which,
for many years, attended almost all the descendants of the royal blood
in England. There prevails a report, that a chief source of the violent
prosecution of the duke of Clarence, whose name was George, was a
current prophecy, that the king’s son should be murdered by one, the
initial letter of whose name was G.[***] It is not impossible but, in
those ignorant times, such a silly reason might have some influence;
but it is more probable that the whole story is the invention of a
subsequent period, and founded on the murder of these children by the
duke of Glocester. Comines remarks, that at that time the English
never were without some superstitious prophecy or other, by which they
accounted for every event.
* Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 562.
** Stowe, p. 430. Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 562.
*** Hall, fol. 239. Holingshed, p. 703. Grafton, p. 741.
Polyd. Virg. p. 537. Sir Thomas More in Kennet, p. 497.
All the glories of Edward’s reign terminated with the civil wars, where
his laurels, too, were extremely sullied with blood, violence, and
cruelty. His spirit seems afterwards to have been sunk in indolence and
pleasure, or his measures were frustrated by imprudence and the want of
foresight. There was no object on which he was more intent than to have
all his daughters settled by splendid marriages, though most of these
princesses were yet in their infancy, and though the completion of his
views, it was obvious, must depend on numberless accidents, which were
impossible to be foreseen or prevented. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth,
was contracted to the dauphin; his second, Cicely, to the eldest son of
James III., king of Scotland; his third, Anne, to Philip, only son of
Maximilian and the duchess of Burgundy; his fourth, Catharine, to John,
son and heir to Ferdinand, king of Arragon, and Isabella, queen of
Castile.[*] None of these projected marriages took place; and the king
himself saw in his lifetime the rupture of the first, that with the
dauphin, for which he had always discovered a peculiar fondness. Lewis,
who paid no regard to treaties or engagements, found his advantage
in contracting the dauphin to the princess Margaret, daughter of
Maximilian, and the king, notwithstanding his indolence, prepared to
revenge the indignity.
* Rymer, vol. xi. p. 110.
{1482.} The French monarch, eminent for prudence as well as perfidy,
endeavored to guard against the blow; and by a proper distribution of
presents in the court of Scotland, he incited James to make war upon
England. This prince, who lived on bad terms with his own nobility, and
whose force was very unequal to the enterprise, levied an army; but
when he was ready to enter England, the barons, conspiring against
his favorites, put them to death without trial; and the army presently
disbanded. The duke of Glocester, attended by the duke of Albany,
James’s brother, who had been banished his country, entered Scotland at
the head of an army, took Berwick, and obliged the Scots to accept of
a peace, by which they resigned that fortress to Edward. This success
imboldened the king to think more seriously of a French war; but while
he was making preparations for that enterprise, he was seized with a
distemper, of which he expired in the forty-second year of his age, and
the twenty-third of his reign; a prince more splendid and showy than
either prudent or virtuous; brave, though cruel; addicted to pleasure,
though capable of activity in great emergencies; and less fitted to
prevent ills by wise precautions, than to remedy them, after they took
place, by his vigor and enterprise. Besides five daughters, this king
left two sons; Edward, prince of Wales, his successor, then in his
thirteenth year and Richard, duke of York, in his ninth.