"The sole doughtar of the Lorde Harington cawlid (Cecily) was
maried to Thomas the first Marquese of Dorset that favorid the
cummynge of Henry the vii, and he had by hir a 14 children, bothe
men and wimen of excedinge goodly parsonage, of which the first
sune lyvyd not longe, and then had Thomas the name of Lorde
Harington, and aftar was the second Marquese of Dorset."
The Marquis of Dorset with Lord Hastings commanded the rear-guard at
the battle of Tewkesbury, and after the engagement was over, and the
young Prince Edward taken prisoner, who being introduced to Edward's
presence, and interrogated, was brutally struck by him on the mouth
with his gauntlet, and was thereupon dragged out of the king's
presence and murdered by the attendant nobles, the Marquis of Dorset
is said to have been among the savage conclave. Mercy and pity appear
at the time to have fled from the earth.
Naturally all went well with the Marquis during the reign of his
father-in-law, Edward IV., but at that king's death the machinations
of Gloucester, Buckingham, and Hastings, the entrapping Earl Rivers,
and getting possession of the persons of the young king and his
brother, placed him in considerable peril. The Duke of York was under
his custody in London, as Governor of the Tower, but on the approach
of Gloucester to London, with the young king, the Marquis, together
with the Duke of York, the Queen-Mother and her family at once took
sanctuary at Westminster.
Events rapidly succeeded each other. Gloucester got first named
Protector, a stepping-stone merely to his assumption of the Crown; the
Earl Rivers and his companions, and Lord Hastings, were mercilessly
disposed of; the young king and his brother sent to the Tower. Nothing
now remained calculated to give Richard any cause for uneasiness, or
lie in the way of his ambition, but the fact that these two poor boys,
his nephews, were still alive. This difficulty did not exist long, and
they perished under the influence of the same hideous resolve.
But the retribution was surely coming, if delayed for a time.
Buckingham had retired in dudgeon to his castle at Brecknock, and his
astute prisoner Morton, soon became the capturer of his gaoler, at
least in mind, and then bade him adieu. Then followed the series of
intrigues between Buckingham, the Countess of Richmond, and the
Queen-Widow, with Sir Reginald Braye as ambassador, and Dr. Lewis as
go-between, which ended in the unfortunate rising of Buckingham, so
disastrously extinguished by the Severn flood. The Marquis of Dorset
then appears to have quitted sanctuary, and gone into Yorkshire,
presumably to raise forces, with the intention of joining the other
contingents to be gathered in Kent under Sir Richard Guilford, and
from the west under the Courtenays, Cheney, Daubeney, and others, the
place of _rendez-vous_ being at Salisbury. Before however this could
be accomplished, or rather while measures were being taken in
preparation, Buckingham's misfortune took place, and these, the other
chief actors, fled for their lives, and were fortunate to escape and
get across the channel to Brittany, and to the Earl of Richmond.