into their old position of opposition to the Crown; and more
completely to reproduce the often-repeated state of English
politics, succeeded in securing a Plantagenet Prince as their
nominal leader. The Duke of Clarence, Edward’s brother, was
induced, in spite of the King’s prohibition, to go to Calais, and
there marry Isabella, Warwick’s daughter. This ominous union soon
produced fruits. The lower orders--those orders that are below the
burgher class--cared but little for the name of the ruler; it was
much the same to them whether Lancastrian or Yorkist was on the
throne, their interests were confined to evils which pressed upon
themselves. They were therefore ready instruments in the hands
of the opposition. And upon a quarrel upon some Church dues, the
men of the northern counties rose under a popular leader, Robert
Hilyard, commonly called Robin of Redesdale. The insurgents soon
found nobler leaders. Lords Latimer and Fitz-Hugh, relations of
Warwick, and Sir John Coniers appeared at their head, and with
60,000 men marched southward, declaring that Warwick alone could
save the country, complaining that the money wrung from the people
was squandered upon the Queen’s relatives, and demanding the
dismissal of the new counsellors, such as Herbert, Stafford, and
Audley. At the same time, Warwick and his brothers promised the
men of Kent that they would appear at their head to make demands
similar to those of the northern insurgents. Herbert, who had just
beaten Jasper Tudor with the last remnant of the Lancastrians in
Wales, and received his title of Earl of Pembroke, and Humphrey
Stafford, who had been made Earl of Devonshire, advanced against
the rebels; but quarrelling between themselves, they were defeated,
and Pembroke beheaded, while shortly after, Rivers and Sir John
Woodville, the Queen’s father and brother, were captured and
met the same fate. It was sufficiently plain that Warwick had
instigated this rebellion. The destruction of his chief enemies
made his power for the time paramount. He even kept Edward for
a short period prisoner in his castle of Middleham. But his
disapprobation of the Government had not yet gone so far as to make
him wish for a return of the Lancastrians. And when that party
again raised its standard in the North, he felt himself unable to
cope with it without the King’s assistance, and therefore released
him. A complete pardon was granted to the Nevilles, and apparent
harmony again reigned.
[Sidenote: Clarence’s weakness drives the Nevilles to the
Lancastrians.]
[Sidenote: Wells’ rebellion. 1470.]
[Sidenote: Flight of Warwick.]
But it must have been obvious to all parties that it was but a
temporary truce.[99] Had Clarence been a man of more ability,
Warwick would probably have put him on the throne. Failing him,
it began to be plain to the Earl that it was only by connection
with the Lancastrian party that he could hope finally to triumph
over his enemies the new nobility. A new insurrection broke out in
Lincoln, against the oppressions of the royal tax-gatherers. The
insurgents, finding themselves no better off under the new dynasty
than they had been before, declared for King Henry. At their head
was young Sir Robert Wells. The King, not yet aware of Warwick’s
designs, under promise of pardon drew Lord Wells (Sir Robert’s
father) and Sir Thomas Dymock from the sanctuary, and kept them
as hostages, and intrusted Warwick and Clarence with the duty
of collecting troops to repress the insurgents. They collected
troops, indeed, but did not suppress the insurgents; and the King
discovered that they were acting in union with Sir Robert Wells. He
at once put Dymock and Wells to death, routed the insurgents near
Empingham in Rutland, at a battle known by the name of “Lose Coat
Field,” and turned his arms against Clarence and Warwick, who had
been seeking assistance in vain from his brother-in-law Stanley in
Lancashire. They did not await his coming, but rapidly fled through
Devonshire to France. Sir Robert Wells, anxious to revenge his
father, had driven matters on too hastily for the success of the
conspiracy. Warwick had always been anxious for a French alliance,
and was therefore well received by Louis, who felt that there was
now but little chance of peace with England except by restoration
of the Lancastrians. He therefore contrived to bring the Earl and
Margaret together; and the old enemies, finding that they had in
common their hatred to the new nobility and their views of foreign
politics, agreed to forget their old differences, and made a treaty
by which Ann Neville was to marry the Prince of Wales, upon whom
the throne was settled. Failing him it was to pass to Clarence.
This treaty, which put Clarence’s claims in the background, did
not please him; and, utterly without principle, he at once opened
negotiations with his brother, although he did not as yet openly
join him.
[Sidenote: Warwick returns and re-crowns Henry.]
In spite of all the warnings which he received from Burgundy,
Edward remained in a condition of false security, even allowing
Montague to retain his offices in England. He was absent from
London in the North, when the Queen, Warwick and Clarence landed
in Devonshire, issued a proclamation calling on the nation to
arm, and soon found themselves surrounded by a sufficient army.
So far did Edward carry his want of suspicion, that Montague, who
at once declared for the Red Rose, as nearly as possible captured
him at dinner in the neighbourhood of Doncaster; he had just time
to escape, and fled (not without danger from a Hanseatic fleet) to
Flanders. Warwick and his friends proceeded to London, drew the
old King from the Tower, and re-crowned him with all ceremony.
A Parliament assembled on the 26th of November. All the Acts of
Edward’s reign were annulled, and a general change took place in
property and offices. It marks the effect of the fusion of parties,
that this revolution, unlike most of the events of this war, was
almost bloodless. Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, who had rendered
himself hateful by his severity as Constable, was almost the only
victim.
[Sidenote: Edward gets help from Burgundy. 1471.]
[Sidenote: Clarence joins him.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Barnet. April 14.]
Though on many grounds (personal hatred to Warwick, sympathy with
Edward’s enmity to France, and mercantile and family reasons)
the Duke of Burgundy would have been naturally attached to the
House of York, this friendship was of new growth, and could not
make him forget his long connection with the House of Lancaster.
It was therefore with much difficulty that Edward got from him
a small pecuniary assistance. With such as it was, however, he
collected about 2000 men, and took, what at first sight appears,
the foolhardy step of landing at Ravenspur in Yorkshire. But
he knew that he had friends in his enemy’s camp. At first,
declaring, in imitation of Henry IV., that he only came to
claim his rights as Duke of York, he passed unmolested through
Yorkshire, where Montague was. Even Warwick, who lay in the
midland counties, watched his progress unmoved. He had received
letters from Clarence, begging him not to stir till he joined him
with reinforcements. But when Clarence took the field, it was not
Warwick, but Edward to whom he went. Strong enough now again to
assume the name of King of England, Edward marched to London, where
the Archbishop of York had tried in vain to raise enthusiasm for
the Lancastrian King. Too late, Warwick found that he had been
deceived, and he also marched towards London. Edward met him with
inferior forces in the neighbourhood of Barnet, and there a battle
was fought, in which Warwick was entirely defeated, and himself
and his brother Montague killed. Probably the great bulk of the
people cared but little who was their ruler. York’s army was very
small--less than 10,000 men. A series of accidents gave him the
victory. The indifference of the nation, weary of the squabble,
explains the rapid success of these revolutions.
[Sidenote: Margaret lands.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Tewkesbury. May 4.]
Meanwhile, the day before the battle, Queen Margaret had landed at
Weymouth. For the moment, the true Lancastrians were almost glad
when they heard that they were rid of their new Yorkist ally. The
Queen’s generals intended to march through Wales, there make a
junction with Jasper Tudor, who was collecting forces, and thence
move to their strongholds in the North. Edward divined their plan,
and pushed rapidly across England, to secure if possible Gloucester
and the valley of the Severn. The armies encountered at Tewkesbury,
where the Queen had taken a strong position among the abbey
buildings and the neighbouring enclosures. Again the superior skill
of Edward secured the victory to his much inferior forces. The few
remaining Lancastrian nobles, the Prince of Wales, Devonshire,
Lord John Beaufort, and others, fell upon the field. The Duke of
Somerset, the fourth and last of the Beauforts, was executed after
it. Margaret and some others were taken prisoners.
[Sidenote: Edward’s triumphant return. Murder of Henry VI.]
There was one other danger, and then the Lancastrian party
seemed destroyed for ever. The Bastard of Falconbridge suddenly
appeared with a considerable fleet before London. The gallant
defence of the citizens, and the arrival of assistance from the
King, thwarted this last effort, and Edward returned in triumph,
having proved the stability of the house of York. His arrival was
immediately followed by the secret murder of King Henry, one of
those dark deeds which has been attributed without much ground
to Edward’s brother, Richard of Gloucester. A bloody court of
justice held in Canterbury, for the punishment of the Kentish men,
closed this revolution of eleven weeks. On the subsequent death
of Holland, Earl of Exeter, whose body was found upon the sea in
the Straits of Dover, there were but two important members of
the Lancastrian party left. These were Oxford, and Jasper Tudor,
Earl of Pembroke, who made good their escape to Brittany, whence
Jasper’s nephew subsequently returned to England in that expedition
which terminated in Bosworth field. The clergy and the lesser
nobles, seeing further contest useless, made their peace with the
reigning house, and received pardons, and after Parliament had
re-established the Yorkist dynasty, the wars of the Roses seemed to
be at an end, and England at peace.
[Sidenote: Clarence’s quarrel with Richard. 1476.]
[Sidenote: With Edward. 1477.]
[Sidenote: His trial.]
[Sidenote: His death. 1478.]
But the house of York was now to feel that ineradicable evil
which beset the Plantagenets. The princes of the family could not
agree. Clarence had already occupied the position of chief of the
opposition. He had already joined in the struggle between the old
and new nobility as the partisan of the former party. Richard,
a man of far greater ability, and of a reflective turn of mind,
was in his heart inclined in the same direction. For the present,
however, he saw his advantage in remaining the true and very
efficient assistant of his brother Edward, by whom he had been
intrusted with the government of the North. Clarence, incapable
of being a great party leader, showed his disposition in lesser
matters, and quarrelled with both his brothers. He had himself
married Warwick’s eldest daughter, Isabella, and was anxious to
appropriate all the great Warwick possessions. When Richard,
therefore, determined upon marrying Anne, the younger sister, he
hid the young lady, who is said to have been discovered by her
lover in the dress of a servant-maid, and when he was unable to
prevent the marriage, refused to divide the inheritance. A fierce
quarrel was the consequence, and it required the intervention of
Parliament to secure an equitable division of the property. Thus
embroiled with one brother, the Duke of Clarence speedily fell out
with the other. On the death of his wife in 1476, he turned his
thoughts to a second marriage with Mary of Burgundy, who became, on
the death of Charles the Bold at Nancy in 1477, the heiress of his
vast dominions. Edward prevented the marriage. In the first place,
he would have much disliked to see his brother, on whom he had not
the smallest reliance, powerful in Burgundy, and again, the Queen,
and the Queen’s party of the new nobility, were anxious that
Mary should be married to the Earl of Rivers. The breach between
the brothers was complete, and Edward, who never knew pity, only
watched for an opportunity to rid himself of Clarence. The occasion
chosen was trivial enough, but very characteristic of that age.
A gentleman of Clarence’s household, called Burdett, had uttered
some angry words against the King. He was shortly after tried
for necromancy, and as in the course of the inquiry it appeared
that, among other acts of magic, he had cast the King’s horoscope,
he was condemned to death. With this verdict Clarence violently
interfered. Edward was now able to charge him with interfering
with the course of justice. He was impeached and tried before the
House of Lords. The King in person was his accuser, and after a hot
personal quarrel, in which the King charged him with all sorts of
ungrateful acts of treason, he was condemned to death in 1478. A
petition of the Commons, always at the command of Edward, removed
the King’s last scruple, and Clarence disappeared privately at the
Tower, drowned it is said in a butt of Malmsey wine.
[Sidenote: Edward joins Burgundy against France. 1475.]
[Sidenote: Failure of his expedition.]
[Sidenote: Treaty of Pecquigni. Sept. 13.]
These quarrels had occupied several years, but meanwhile matters
of more national interest had also engaged Edward’s attention.
Charles the Bold was full of vast plans for increasing his
possessions, and with the Duke of Brittany alone of the peers of
France, resisted the centralizing policy of Louis XI. He found no
great difficulty in enlisting Edward in a coalition against that
King. As early as 1472, the war had been spoken of as probable.
It did not actually take place till 1475, after a treaty had been
made by which Lorraine, Bar, and other districts lying between
Burgundy and Flanders were to be given to the Duke, while Edward
was content to stipulate for the acknowledgment of his title as
King of France, and a formal coronation at Rheims. The war, begun
on such feeble conditions, had a disgraceful conclusion. Money, of
which Edward was very fond, was scraped together, chiefly by the
personal application of the King for loans known as benevolences,
and a considerable army landed in France. But Edward did not
meet with the reception he had expected. Charles, whose mind was
incapable of carrying out the vast schemes that it planned, was
engaged in war in other parts of his dominions, and brought no
help to his ally. The gates of Péronne were shut against him. St.
Quentin, which Charles had told him would be given up to him by
the Constable of St. Pol, opened fire upon his troops. Provisions
were scantily supplied, and Louis, who well knew the character
of his invader, saw his opportunity. At a private interview with
the herald who brought the declaration of war, he bribed him, and
won from him the hint that he might apply successfully either to
Stanley or to Howard, counsellors high in Edward’s favour. He took
the hint, found those Lords ready recipients of his bribes, threw
Amiens open, and supplied the English army lavishly with food; and
shortly persuaded Edward to arrange terms at a personal interview
at Pecquigni. He was thoroughly afraid of the English soldiers,
but rated them very low as diplomatists, and, as his manner was
when he had great objects in view, was lavish with his money. A
yearly pension, the expenses of the war, 50,000 crowns as a ransom
for Margaret, and handsome bribes judiciously given to the chief
members of the King’s Council, secured the withdrawal of the
English army. At the same time it was arranged that the Dauphin
should marry the Princess Elizabeth. It mattered little to him,
having now the English King in his pay, that the English to cover
their disgrace spoke of the money payments as tribute, and that
Edward continued to bear the title of the King of France. Nothing
can give a better view of the despicable character of that new
nobility on which Edward rested, than the readiness with which they
accepted the French King’s bribes.
[Sidenote: Ambitious projects of marriage for his daughters.]
The chief objects of Edward’s life were, to collect money to be
spent in magnificent debauchery, and to secure the position of his
house by great marriages for his daughters. He had thus arranged
for the marriage of Elizabeth, his eldest, with the Dauphin of
France; Mary was to have been married to the King of Denmark;
Cicely to the eldest son of James III. of Scotland; Katherine to
the son of the King of Castile; and Anne was destined for the son
of Maximilian of Austria, who by his marriage with Mary of Burgundy
had become the possessor of that duchy. None of these marriages
took effect. The events connected with some of them fill up the
remainder of the reign.
[Sidenote: Affairs in Scotland.]
[Sidenote: Edward supports Albany. 1482.]
[Sidenote: England obtains Berwick.]
James III. of Scotland was a man much like Edward, a product of
the renaissance at that time making its way in England. Addicted
to art in all its forms, he had surrounded himself with artists,
and ennobled members of the lower orders, and had estranged all the
old nobility. At the head of the discontented party was the King’s
brother, the Duke of Albany. Although James had already received
some of the dowry of the English Princess, in consequence probably
of some French intrigues, he seemed inclined to withdraw from the
engagement. Therefore, when Albany, a fugitive from Scotland,
sought his protection, Edward determined to support him and his
party, and, finally, made a treaty with him at Fotheringay, in
which he spoke of him as King Alexander. He obtained from him a
promise of homage, and of the cession of Berwick and some other
districts. Albany also engaged to marry the Princess Cicely, who
was to be transferred to him, although previously engaged to the
son of the Scotch King. An invasion of Scotland under Richard of
Gloucester, and a conspiracy which broke out at the Bridge of
Lauder, where James’s favourite, Cochrane, was hanged, seemed for
a moment to raise Albany to the summit of his ambition. But the
Scotch had no intention of changing the succession to the throne,
or suffering their kingdom to be in any way dependent on England.
They restored Albany his property, but also returned the dowry of
Cicely, and intimated that the match was entirely broken off. The
advantage that the English gained from the whole affair was the
much disputed town of Berwick.
The arrangements for the marriage between Elizabeth and the Dauphin
were equally unsuccessful. Although that Princess had assumed the
name of the Dauphiness, Louis was in no hurry to complete the
marriage, and had indeed directed his views elsewhere. In 1477,
Mary of Burgundy had married Maximilian the Archduke of Austria;
and now Edward engaged to join him against France upon condition
of receiving from him the same pension as Louis had paid him
since Pecquigni. But, as usual, Louis’ diplomacy got the better
of Edward’s. Mary of Burgundy died in 1482, and the French King
contrived to make a treaty with Maximilian, by which the Dauphin,
deserting Elizabeth, engaged himself to Margaret, the heiress of
Burgundy. Edward was vowing vengeance at this trick, and speaking
of a new invasion of France, when he died on the 9th of April, worn
out probably by his self-indulgence.
[Sidenote: Edward’s death. His character. 1483.]
His personal beauty, his success in war, the familiarity of his
manners, his splendid household, and the share which he allowed
himself to take in the commercial enterprise of the day, endeared
Edward to the burgher class, and rendered him on the whole a
popular monarch. But beneath this splendid exterior there existed
a pitiless cruelty, a selfishness which sought its gratification
in unbounded license, and which was ready to crush relentlessly
any, however nearly related to himself, who crossed his path.
The mixture of sensuality, love of the new state of society,
mingled with political selfishness and cruelty, remind us rather
of the character of an Italian tyrant than of an English king. The
character of the monarchy which he established was also different
from that which had hitherto been seen in England. It has been
usual to name the reign of Henry VII. as that in which this change
began. It is true that that Prince and his successors completed
it; but already there are visible all the elements of that
peculiar despotic government resting upon popular favour, which
is the characteristic of the Tudor rule. In all respects Edward
is the popular King. The old nobility had for the most part been
destroyed. As around the Buonapartes of modern time, a new nobility
of relatives or personal friends of the King had begun to be called
into existence. The balance of the Constitution had been changed
by the removal of the Baronage, the great check on the royal
power, which now stood, as it were, face to face with the Commons,
who were as yet unfitted to make head against it. The practice
of tampering with the elections had ruined the independence of
Parliament. The Church, no longer in sympathy with the nation,
sought to secure their wealth by devotion to the Crown. The King
thus found no class sufficiently strong to check his prerogative.
For a time, therefore, the constitutional advance of the preceding
century was lost, and the government of England was practically
despotism. At the same time, as the disturbances caused by the
Wars of the Roses were not yet wholly over, and a short period of
rapid revolutions intervenes before the final establishment of the
constitutional change now begun, it is more convenient to adopt the
old division, and to place the epoch of the new monarchy at the
Battle of Bosworth.
EDWARD V.
1483.
RICHARD III.
1483-1485.
Born, 1450 = Anne of Warwick.
|
Edward. Died 1484.
CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.
_Scotland._ | _France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._
| | |
James III., | Charles VIII., | Frederick III., | Ferdinand, } 1479.
1460. | 1483. | 1440. | Isabella, }
POPES.--Sixtus IV., 1471. Innocent VIII., 1484.
_Archbishop._ | _Chancellor._
|
Thomas Bouchier, 1454. | John Russell, 1483.
[Sidenote: Edward’s reign a revolution.]
[Sidenote: State of parties.]
Edward V. was between twelve and thirteen when he came to the
throne. His reign, which lasted from the 9th of April to the 26th
of June, was entirely occupied by a short and not very intelligible
revolution, which terminated in the accession of his uncle, Richard
of Gloucester. On the death of Edward IV., the state of parties
was rather complicated. In the period of success which followed
his restoration in 1471, he had collected round him counsellors
from all parties, although chiefly inclined to the new nobility.
His friends were thus divided into three sections--the Queen and
her family, the most prominent members of which were Anthony, Lord
Rivers; Grey, Earl of Dorset; his brother Sir Richard Grey, and
Lord Lisle, who seem to have worked in unison with the Chancellor,
Cardinal Rotheram, Archbishop of York, and Morton, Bishop of Ely:
there were, secondly, the new nobility, of whom Hastings and
Stanley were the representatives: and, thirdly, a certain number
of the older nobles led by Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, and Sir
John Howard. The two latter sections were full of jealousy of
the Queen’s party, in which feeling Richard joined. But his real
connection was with Buckingham and the old nobles. His first
step was, by a union of the other two parties, to overthrow the
influence of the Queen. This he immediately proceeded to do.
[Sidenote: Richard first overthrows Queen’s party.]