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Makers of History
Richard III.
By JACOB ABBOTT
WITH ENGRAVINGS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1901
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and fifty-eight, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District
of New York.
Copyright, 1886, by BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT, AUSTIN ABBOTT, LYMAN
ABBOTT, AND EDWARD ABBOTT.
[Illustration: THE ROYAL CHAMPION.]
PREFACE.
King Richard the Third, known commonly in history as Richard the
Usurper, was perhaps as bad a man as the principle of hereditary
sovereignty ever raised to the throne, or perhaps it should rather be
said, as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever _made_. There is
no evidence that his natural disposition was marked with any peculiar
depravity. He was made reckless, unscrupulous, and cruel by the
influences which surrounded him, and the circumstances in which he
lived, and by being habituated to believe, from his earliest
childhood, that the family to which he belonged were born to live in
luxury and splendor, and to reign, while the millions that formed the
great mass of the community were created only to toil and to obey. The
manner in which the principles of pride, ambition, and desperate love
of power, which were instilled into his mind in his earliest years,
brought forth in the end their legitimate fruits, is clearly seen by
the following narrative.
CONTENTS.
Chapter Page
I. RICHARD'S MOTHER 13
II. RICHARD'S FATHER 33
III. THE CHILDHOOD OF RICHARD 57
IV. ACCESSION OF EDWARD IV., RICHARD'S ELDER
BROTHER 67
V. WARWICK, THE KING-MAKER 89
VI. THE DOWNFALL OF YORK 118
VII. THE DOWNFALL OF LANCASTER 137
VIII. RICHARD'S MARRIAGE 165
IX. END OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD 182
X. RICHARD AND EDWARD V. 208
XI. TAKING SANCTUARY 221
XII. RICHARD LORD PROTECTOR 236
XIII. PROCLAIMED KING 258
XIV. THE CORONATION 279
XV. FATE OF THE PRINCES 291
XVI. DOMESTIC TROUBLES 301
XVII. THE FIELD OF BOSWORTH 320
ENGRAVINGS.
Page
THE ROYAL CHAMPION _Frontispiece._
SCENES OF CIVIL WAR 15
LUDLOW CASTLE 26
CASTLE AND PARK OF THE MIDDLE AGES 29
HENRY VI. IN HIS CHILDHOOD 38
QUEEN MARGARET OF ANJOU, WIFE OF HENRY VI. 40
WALLS OF YORK 49
LAST HOURS OF KING RICHARD'S FATHER 54
CASTLE AND GROUNDS BELONGING TO THE HOUSE OF
YORK 62
THE OLD QUINTAINE 84
PLAYING BALL 86
BATTLE-DOOR AND SHUTTLE-COCK 87
RICHARD'S SIGNATURE 88
EDWARD IV. 102
QUEEN ELIZABETH WOODVILLE 103
WESTMINSTER IN TIMES OF PUBLIC CELEBRATIONS 106
WARWICK IN THE PRESENCE OF THE FRENCH KING 112
THE SANCTUARY 133
DEATH OF WARWICK ON THE FIELD OF BARNET 148
STREET LEADING TO THE TOWER 151
CHURCH AT TEWKESBURY 155
QUEEN MARGARET BROUGHT IN PRISONER AT COVENTRY 160
TOMB OF HENRY VI. 163
RICHARD III. 176
QUEEN ANNE 177
MIDDLEHAM CASTLE 180
LOUIS XI. OF FRANCE 184
THE MURDERERS COMING FOR CLARENCE 200
JANE SHORE 203
THE ATTEMPTED RECONCILIATION 211
ANCIENT PORTRAIT OF EDWARD V. 219
ANCIENT VIEW OF WESTMINSTER 228
THE PEOPLE IN THE STREETS 235
CLARENCE'S CHILDREN HEARING OF THEIR FATHER'S
DEATH 237
THE COUNCIL IN THE TOWER 244
POMFRET CASTLE 248
BAYNARD'S CASTLE 273
THE KING ON HIS THRONE 276
THE BLOODY TOWER 283
QUEEN ELIZABETH AT THE GRAVE 304
PORTRAIT OF THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH 318
THE CASTLE AT TAMWORTH 325
KING HENRY VII. 332
THE MONASTERY AT BERMONDSEY 335
KING RICHARD III.
CHAPTER I.
RICHARD'S MOTHER.
The great quarrel between the houses of York and Lancaster.--Terrible
results of the quarrel.--Origin of it.--Intricate questions of
genealogy and descent.--Lady Cecily Neville.--She becomes Duchess of
York.--Her mode of life.--Extract from the ancient annals.--Lady
Cecily's family.--Names of the children.--The boys' situation and mode
of life.--Their letters.--Letter written by Edward and Edmund.--The
boys congratulate their father on his victories.--Further particulars
about the boys.--The Castle of Ludlow.--Character of Richard's
mother.--Spirit of aristocracy.--Relative condition of the nobles and
the people.--Character of Richard's mother.--The governess.--Sir
Richard Croft, the boys' governor.
The mother of King Richard the Third was a beautiful, and, in many
respects, a noble-minded woman, though she lived in very rude,
turbulent, and trying times. She was born, so to speak, into one of
the most widely-extended, the most bitter, and the most fatal of the
family quarrels which have darkened the annals of the great in the
whole history of mankind, namely, that long-protracted and bitter
contest which was waged for so many years between the two great
branches of the family of Edward the Third--the houses of York and
Lancaster--for the possession of the kingdom of England. This dreadful
quarrel lasted for more than a hundred years. It led to wars and
commotions, to the sacking and burning of towns, to the ravaging of
fruitful countries, and to atrocious deeds of violence of every sort,
almost without number. The internal peace of hundreds of thousands of
families all over the land was destroyed by it for many generations.
Husbands were alienated from wives, and parents from children by it.
Murders and assassinations innumerable grew out of it. And what was it
all about? you will ask. It arose from the fact that the descendants
of a certain king had married and intermarried among each other in
such a complicated manner that for several generations nobody could
tell which of two different lines of candidates was fairly entitled to
the throne. The question was settled at last by a prince who inherited
the claim on one side marrying a princess who was the heir on the
other. Thus the conflicting interests of the two houses were combined,
and the quarrel was ended.
But, while the question was pending, it kept the country in a state of
perpetual commotion, with feuds, and quarrels, and combats
innumerable, and all the other countless and indescribable horrors of
civil war.
[Illustration: SCENES OF CIVIL WAR.]
The two branches of the royal family which were engaged in this
quarrel were called the houses of York and Lancaster, from the fact
that those were the titles of the fathers and heads of the two lines
respectively. The Lancaster party were the descendants of John of
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and the York party were the successors and
heirs of his brother Edmund, Duke of York. These men were both sons of
Edward the Third, the King of England who reigned immediately before
Richard the Second. A full account of the family is given in our
history of Richard the Second. Of course, they being brothers, their
children were cousins, and they ought to have lived together in peace
and harmony. And then, besides being related to each other through
their fathers, the two branches of the family intermarried together,
so as to make the relationships in the following generations so close
and so complicated that it was almost impossible to disentangle them.
In reading the history of those times, we find dukes or princes
fighting each other in the field, or laying plans to assassinate each
other, or striving to see which should make the other a captive, and
shut him up in a dungeon for the rest of his days; and yet these
enemies, so exasperated and implacable, are very near
relations--cousins, perhaps, if the relationship is reckoned in one
way, and uncle and nephew if it is reckoned in another. During the
period of this struggle, all the great personages of the court, and
all, or nearly all, the private families of the kingdom, and all the
towns and the villages, were divided and distracted by the dreadful
feud.
Richard's mother, whose name, before she was married, was Lady Cecily
Neville, was born into one side of this quarrel, and then afterward
married into the other side of it. This is a specimen of the way in
which the contest became complicated in multitudes of cases. Lady
Cecily was descended from the Duke of Lancaster, but she married the
Duke of York, in the third generation from the time when the quarrel
began.
Of course, upon her marriage, Lady Cecily Neville became the Duchess
of York. Her husband was a man of great political importance in his
day, and, like the other nobles of the land, was employed continually
in wars and in expeditions of various kinds, in the course of which he
was continually changing his residence from castle to castle all over
England, and sometimes making excursions into Ireland, Scotland, and
France. His wife accompanied him in many of these wanderings, and she
led, of course, so far as external circumstances were concerned, a
wild and adventurous life. She was, however, very quiet and domestic
in her tastes, though proud and ambitious in her aspirations, and she
occupied herself, wherever she was, in regulating her husband's
household, teaching and training her children, and in attending with
great regularity and faithfulness to her religious duty, as religious
duty was understood in those days.
The following is an account, copied from an ancient record, of the
manner in which she spent her days at one of the castles where she was
residing.
"She useth to arise at seven of the clock, and hath readye her
chapleyne to say with her mattins of the daye (that is, morning
prayers), and when she is fully readye, she hath a lowe mass in
her chamber. After mass she taketh something to recreate nature,
and soe goeth to the chapelle, hearinge the divine service and two
lowe masses. From thence to dynner, during the tyme of whih she
hath a lecture of holy matter (that is, reading from a religious
book), either Hilton of Contemplative and Active Life, or some
other spiritual and instructive work. After dynner she giveth
audyence to all such as hath any matter to shrive unto her, by the
space of one hower, and then sleepeth one quarter of an hower, and
after she hath slept she contynueth in prayer until the first
peale of even songe.
"In the tyme of supper she reciteth the lecture that was had at
dynner to those that be in her presence. After supper she
disposeth herself to be famyliare with her gentlewomen to the
seasoning of honest myrthe, and one hower before her going to bed
she taketh a cup of wine, and after that goeth to her pryvie
closette, and taketh her leave of God for all nighte, makinge end
of her prayers for that daye, and by eighte of the clocke is in
bedde."
The going to bed at eight o'clock was in keeping with the other
arrangements of the day, for we find by a record of the rules and
orders of the duchess's household that the dinner-hour was eleven, and
the supper was at four.
This lady, Richard's mother, during her married life, had no less than
twelve children. Their names were Anne, Henry, Edward, Edmund,
Elizabeth, Margaret, William, John, George, Thomas, Richard, and
Ursula. Thus Richard, the subject of this volume, was the eleventh,
that is, the last but one. A great many of these, Richard's brothers
and sisters, died while they were children. All the boys died thus
except four, namely, Edward, Edmund, George, and Richard. Of course,
it is only with those four that we have any thing to do in the present
narrative.
Several of the other children, however, besides these three, lived for
some time. They resided generally with their mother while they were
young, but as they grew up they were often separated both from her and
from their father--the duke, their father, being often called away
from home, in the course of the various wars in which he was engaged,
and his wife frequently accompanied him. On such occasions the boys
were left at some castle or other, under the care of persons employed
to take charge of their education. They used to write letters to their
father from time to time, and it is curious that these letters are the
earliest examples of letters from children to parents which have been
preserved in history. Two of the boys were at one time under the
charge of a man named Richard Croft, and the boys thought that he was
too strict with them. One of the letters, which has been preserved,
was written to complain of this strictness, or, as the boy expressed
it, "the odieux rule and demeaning" of their tutor, and also to ask
for some "fyne bonnets," which the writer wished to have sent for
himself and for his little brother. There is another long letter
extant which was written at nearly the same time. This letter was
written, or at least signed, by two of the boys, Edward and Edmund,
and was addressed to their father on the occasion of some of his
victories. But, though signed by the boys' names, I suspect, from the
lofty language in which it is expressed, and from the many high-flown
expressions of duty which it contains, that it was really written
_for_ the boys by their mother or by one of their teachers. Of this,
however, the reader can judge for himself on perusing the letter. In
this copy the spelling is modernized so as to make it more
intelligible, but the language is transcribed exactly from the
original.
"Right high and mighty prince, our most worshipful and
greatly redoubted lord and father:
"In as lowly a wise as any sons can or may, we recommend us
unto your good lordship, and please it to your highness to
wit, that we have received your worshipful letters yesterday
by your servant William Clinton, bearing date at York, the
29th day of May.[A]
"By the which William, and by the relation of John Milewater,
we conceive your worshipful and victorious speed against your
enemies, to their great shame, and to us the most
comfortable things that we desire to hear. Whereof we thank
Almighty God of his gifts, beseeching him heartily to give
you that good and cotidian[B] fortune hereafter to know your
enemies, and to have the victory over them.
"And if it please your highness to know of our welfare, at
the making of this letter we were in good health of body,
thanked be God, beseeching your good and gracious fatherhood
for our daily blessing.
"And whereas you command us by your said letters to attend
specially to our learning in our young age, that should cause
us to grow to honor and worship in our old age, please it
your highness to wit, that we have attended to our learning
since we came hither, and shall hereafter, by the which we
trust to God your gracious lordship and good fatherhood shall
be pleased.
"Also we beseech your good lordship that it may please you to
send us Harry Lovedeyne, groom of your kitchen, whose service
is to us right agreeable; and we will send you John Boyes to
wait upon your lordship.
"Right high and mighty prince, our most worshipful and
greatly redoubted lord and father, we beseech Almighty God
to give you as good life and long as your own princely heart
can best desire.
"Written at your Castle of Ludlow, the 3d of June.
"Your humble sons,
"E. MARCHE.
"E. RUTLAND."
[Footnote A: There were no postal arrangements in those days, and all
letters were sent by private, and generally by special messengers.]
[Footnote B: Daily.]
The subscriptions E. March and E. Rutland stand for Edward, Earl of
March, and Edmund, Earl of Rutland; for, though these boys were then
only eleven and twelve years of age respectively, they were both
earls. One of them, afterward, when he was about seventeen years old,
was cruelly killed on the field of battle, where he had been fighting
with his father, as we shall see in another chapter. The other,
Edward, became King of England. He came immediately before Richard the
Third in the line.
The letter which the boys wrote was superscribed as follows:
"To the right high and mighty prince, our most worshipful and greatly
redoubted lord and father, the Duke of York, Protector and Defender of
England."
[Illustration: LUDLOW CASTLE.]
The castle of Ludlow, where the boys were residing when this letter
was written, was a strong fortress built upon a rock in the western
part of England, not far from Shrewsbury. The engraving is a correct
representation of it, as it appeared at the period when those boys
were there, and it gives a very good idea of the sort of place where
kings and princes were accustomed to send their families for safety in
those stormy times. Soon after the period of which we are speaking,
Ludlow Castle was sacked and destroyed. The ruins of it, however,
remain to the present day, and they are visited with much interest by
great numbers of modern travelers.
Lady Cecily, as we have already seen, was in many respects a noble
woman, and a most faithful and devoted wife and mother; she was,
however, of a very lofty and ambitious spirit, and extremely proud of
her rank and station. Almost all her brothers and sisters--and the
family was very large--were peers and peeresses, and when she married
Prince Richard Plantagenet, her heart beat high with exultation and
joy to think that she was about to become a queen. She believed that
Prince Richard was fully entitled to the throne at that time, for
reasons which will be fully explained in the next chapter, and that,
even if his claims should not be recognized until the death of the
king who was then reigning, they certainly would be so recognized
then, and she would become an acknowledged queen, as she thought she
was already one by right. So she felt greatly exalted in spirit, and
moved and acted among all who surrounded her with an air of stately
reserve of the most grand and aristocratic character.
[Illustration: CASTLE AND PARK OF THE MIDDLE AGES.]
In fact, there has, perhaps, no time and place been known in the
history of the world in which the spirit of aristocracy was more lofty
and overbearing in its character than in England during the period
when the Plantagenet family were in prosperity and power. The nobles
formed then, far more strikingly than they do now, an entirely
distinct and exalted class, that looked down upon all other ranks and
gradations of society as infinitely beneath them. Their only
occupation was war, and they regarded all those who were engaged in
any employments whatever, that were connected with art or industry,
with utter disdain. These last were crowded together in villages
and towns which were formed of dark and narrow streets, and rude and
comfortless dwellings. The nobles lived in grand castles scattered
here and there over the country, with extensive parks and
pleasure-grounds around them, where they loved to marshal their
followers, and inaugurate marauding expeditions against their rivals
or their enemies. They were engaged in constant wars and contentions
with each other, each thirsting for more power and more splendor than
he at present enjoyed, and treating all beneath him with the utmost
haughtiness and disdain. Richard's mother exhibited this aristocratic
loftiness of spirit in a very high degree, and it was undoubtedly in a
great manner through the influence which she exerted over her children
that they were inspired with those sentiments of ambition and love of
glory to which the crimes and miseries into which several of them fell
in their subsequent career were owing.
To assist her in the early education of her children, Richard's mother
appointed one of the ladies of the court their governess. This
governess was a personage of very high rank, being descended from the
royal line. With the ideas which Lady Cecily entertained of the
exalted position of her family, and of the future destiny of her
children, none but a lady of high rank would be thought worthy of
being intrusted with such a charge. The name of the governess was Lady
Mortimer.
The boys, as they grew older, were placed under the charge of a
governor. His name was Sir Richard Croft. It is this Sir Richard that
they allude to in their letter. He, too, was a person of high rank and
of great military distinction. The boys, however, thought him too
strict and severe with them; at least so it would seem, from the
manner in which they speak of him in the letter.
The governor and the governess appear to have liked each other very
well, for after a time Sir Richard offered himself to Lady Mortimer,
and they were married.
* * * * *
Besides Ludlow Castle, Prince Richard had several other strongholds,
where his wife from time to time resided. Richard, who was one of the
youngest of the children, was born at one of these, called Fotheringay
Castle; but, before coming to the event of his birth, I must give some
account of the history and fortunes of his father.