RICHARD'S FATHER.
A.D. 1415-1461
Genealogy of Richard Plantagenet.--Family of Edward III.--Succession
of heirs in the family of Edward III.--Genealogical table of the
houses of York and Lancaster.--Union of the houses of Clarence and
York.--Richard Plantagenet a prisoner.--King Henry VI.--His gentle and
quiet character.--Portrait.--Discontent of the people.--Arrangements
made for the succession.--Character of Margaret of Anjou.--No
children.--Feeble and failing capacity of the king.--Richard
Plantagenet formally declared the heir.--Unexpected birth of a
prince.--Suspicions.--Various plans and speculations.--Richard's
hopes.--Progress of the formation of parties.--Queen Margaret's
resolution and energy.--Wars.--Richard's two brothers, Edward and
Edmund.--The walls of York.--Prince Richard at York.--Boldness of the
queen.--The advice of Richard's counselors.--Richard's reply.--The
battle.--Richard defeated.--Death of Edmund.--Death of Richard.--The
head set upon a pole at York.
Richard's father was a prince of the house of York. In the course of
his life he was declared heir to the crown, but he died before he
attained possession of it, thus leaving it for his children. The
nature of his claim to the crown, and, indeed, the general relation of
the various branches of the family to each other, will be seen by the
genealogical table on the next page but one.
Edward the Third, who reigned more than one hundred years before
Richard the Third, and his queen Philippa, left at their decease four
sons, as appears by the table.[C] They had other children besides
these, but it was only these four, namely, Edward, Lionel, John, and
Edmund, whose descendants were involved in the quarrels for the
succession. The others either died young, or else, if they arrived at
maturity, the lines descending from them soon became extinct.
[Footnote C: See page 35.]
Of the four that survived, the oldest was Edward, called in history
the Black Prince. A full account of his life and adventures is given
in our history of Richard the Second. He died before his father, and
so did not attain to the crown. He, however, left his son Richard his
heir, and at Edward's death Richard became king. Richard reigned
twenty years, and then, in consequence of his numerous vices and
crimes, and of his general mismanagement, he was deposed, and Henry,
the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, Edward's third son,
ascended the throne in his stead.
Now, as appears by the table, John of Gaunt was the third of the four
sons, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, being the second. The descendants of
Lionel would properly have come before those of John in the
succession, but it happened that the only descendants of Lionel were
Philippa, a daughter, and Roger, a grandchild, who was at this time an
infant. Neither of these were able to assert their claims, although in
theory their claims were acknowledged to be prior to those of the
descendants of John. The people of England, however, were so desirous
to be rid of Richard, that they were willing to submit to the reign of
any member of the royal family who should prove strong enough to
dispossess him. So they accepted
GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE FAMILY OF EDWARD III., SHOWING THE CONNECTION
OF THE HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER.
EDWARD III. = Phillippa.
|
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| | | |
EDWARD LIONEL JOHN EDMUND
(The Black Prince). (Duke of Clarence). (Of Gaunt, (Duke of York).
| | Duke of Lancaster). |
| | | |
RICHARD II. PHILLIPPA = Edward HENRY IV. RICHARD = Anne.
| Mortimer. | (_See second column._)
ROGER MORTIMER HENRY V. |
Earl of Marche). | |
| HENRY VI. RICHARD PLANTAGENET
| | (Duke of York).
| | |
| | ---------------
| | | | |
ANNE = Richard EDWARD EDWARD GEORGE RICHARD
of York. (Prince IV. (Duke III.
(_See fourth column._) of Wales). of
Clarence).
The character = denotes marriage; the short perpendicular
line | a descent. There were many other children and
descendants in the different branches of the family besides
those whose names are inserted in the table. The table
includes only those essential to an understanding of the
history.
Henry of Lancaster, who ascended the throne as Henry the Fourth, and
he and his successors in the Lancastrian line, Henry the Fifth and
Henry the Sixth, held the throne for many years.
Still, though the people of England generally acquiesced in this, the
families of the other brothers, namely, of Lionel and Edmund, called
generally the houses of Clarence and of York, were not satisfied. They
combined together, and formed a great many plots and conspiracies
against the house of Lancaster, and many insurrections and wars, and
many cruel deeds of violence and murder grew out of the quarrel. At
length, to strengthen their alliance more fully, Richard, the second
son of Edmund of York, married Anne, a descendant of the Clarence
line. The other children, who came before these, in the two lines,
soon afterward died, leaving the inheritance of both to this pair.
Their son was Richard, the father of Richard the Third. He is called
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. On the death of his father and
mother, he, of course, became the heir not only of the immense estates
and baronial rights of both the lines from which he had descended, but
also of the claims of the older line to the crown of England.
The successive generations of these three lines, down to the period of
the union of the second and fourth, cutting off the third, is shown
clearly in the table.
Of course, the Lancaster line were much alarmed at the combination of
the claims of their rivals. King Henry the Fifth was at that period on
the throne, and, by the time that Richard Plantagenet was three years
old, under pretense of protecting him from danger, he caused him to be
shut up in a castle, and kept a close prisoner there.
Time rolled on. King Henry the Fifth died, and Henry the Sixth
succeeded him. Richard Plantagenet was still watched and guarded; but
at length, by the time that Richard was thirteen years old, the power
and influence of his branch of the royal family, or rather those of
the two branches from which, combined, he was descended, were found to
be increasing, while that of the house of Lancaster was declining.
After a time he was brought out from his imprisonment, and restored to
his rank and station. King Henry the Sixth was a man of a very weak
and timid mind. He was quite young too, being, in fact, a mere child
when he began to reign, and every thing went wrong with his
government. While he was young, he could, of course, do nothing, and
when he grew older he was too gentle and forbearing to control the
rough and turbulent spirits around him. He had no taste for war and
bloodshed, but loved retirement and seclusion, and, as he advanced in
years, he fell into the habit of spending a great deal of his time in
acts of piety and devotion, performed according to the ideas and
customs of the times. The annexed engraving, representing him as he
appeared when he was
[Illustration: HENRY VI. IN HIS CHILDHOOD.]
a boy, is copied from the ancient portraits, and well expresses the
mild and gentle traits which marked his disposition and character.
Such being the disposition and character of Henry, every thing during
his reign went wrong, and this state of things, growing worse and
worse as he advanced in life, greatly encouraged and strengthened the
house of York in the effort which they were inclined to make to bring
their own branch of the family to the throne.
"See," said they, "what we come to by allowing a line of usurpers to
reign. These Henrys of Lancaster are all descended from a younger son,
while the heirs of the older are living, and have a right to the
throne. Richard Plantagenet is the true and proper heir. He is a man
of energy. Let us make him king."
But the people of England, though they gradually came to desire the
change, were not willing yet to plunge the country again into a state
of civil war for the purpose of making it. They would not disturb
Henry, they said, while he continued to live; but there was nobody to
succeed him, and, when he died, Richard Plantagenet should be king.
[Illustration: QUEEN MARGARET OF ANJOU, WIFE OF HENRY VI.]
Henry was married at this time, but he had no children. The name of
his wife was Margaret of Anjou. She was a very extraordinary and
celebrated woman. Though very beautiful in person, she was as
energetic and masculine in character as her poor husband was
effeminate and weak, and she took every thing into her own hands.
This, however, made matters worse instead of better, and the whole
country seemed to rejoice that she had no children, for thus, on the
death of Henry, the line would become extinct, and Richard Plantagenet
and his descendants would succeed, as a matter of course, in a quiet
and peaceful manner. As Henry and Margaret had now been married eight
or nine years without any children, it was supposed that they never
would have any.
Accordingly, Richard Plantagenet was universally looked upon as
Henry's successor, and the time seemed to be drawing nigh when the
change of dynasty was to take place. Henry's health was very feeble.
He seemed to be rapidly declining. His mind was affected, too, quite
seriously, and he sometimes sank into a species of torpor from which
nothing could arouse him.
Indeed, it became difficult to carry on the government in his name,
for the king sank at last into such a state of imbecility that it was
impossible to obtain from him the least sign or token that would
serve, even for form's sake, as an assent on his part to the royal
decrees. At one time Parliament appointed a commission to visit him in
his chamber, for the purpose of ascertaining the state that he was in,
and to see also whether they could not get some token from him which
they could consider as his assent to certain measures which it was
deemed important to take; but they could not get from the king any
answer or sign of any kind, notwithstanding all that they could do or
say. They retired for a time, and afterward came back again to make a
second attempt, and then, as an ancient narrative records the story,
"they moved and stirred him by all the ways and means that they could
think of to have an answer of the said matter, but they could have no
answer, word nor sign, and therefore, with sorrowful hearts, came
away."
This being the state of things, Parliament thought it time to make
some definite arrangements for the succession. Accordingly, they
passed a formal and solemn enactment declaring Richard Plantagenet
heir presumptive of the crown, and investing him with the rank and
privileges pertaining to that position. They also appointed him, for
the present, Protector and defender of the realm.
Richard, the subject of this volume, was at this time an infant two
years old. The other ten children had been born at various periods
before.
It was now, of course, expected that Henry would soon die, and that
then Richard Plantagenet would at once ascend the throne, acknowledged
by the whole realm as the sole and rightful heir. But these
expectations were suddenly disturbed, and the whole kingdom was thrown
into a state of great excitement and alarm by the news of a very
unexpected and important event which occurred at this time, namely,
the birth of a child to Margaret, the queen. This event awakened all
the latent fires of civil dissension and discord anew. The Lancastrian
party, of course, at once rallied around the infant prince, who, they
claimed, was the rightful heir to the crown. They began at once to
reconstruct and strengthen their plans, and to shape their measures
with a view to retain the kingdom in the Lancaster line. On the other
hand, the friends of the combined houses of Clarence and York declared
that they would not acknowledge the new-comer as the rightful heir.
They did not believe that he was the son of the king, for he, as they
said, had been for a long time as good as dead. Some said that they
did not even believe that the child was Margaret's son. There was a
story that she had had a child, but that he was very weak and puny,
and that he had died soon after his birth, and that Margaret had
cunningly substituted another child in his place, in order to retain
her position and power by having a supposed son of hers reign as king
after her husband should die. Margaret was a woman of so ambitious and
unscrupulous a character, that she was generally believed capable of
adopting any measures, however criminal and bold, to accomplish her
ends.
But, notwithstanding these rumors, Parliament acknowledged the infant
as his father's son and heir. He was named Edward, and created at once
Prince of Wales, which act was a solemn acknowledgment of his right to
the succession. Prince Richard made no open opposition to this; for,
although he and his friends maintained that he had a right to the
crown, they thought that the time had not yet come for openly
advancing their claim, so for the present they determined to be quiet.
The child might not survive, and his father, the king, being in so
helpless and precarious a condition, might cease to live at any time;
and if it should so happen that both the father and the child should
die, Richard would, of course, succeed at once, without any question.
He accordingly thought it best to wait a little while, and see what
turn things would take.
He soon found that things were taking the wrong turn. The child lived,
and appeared likely to continue to live, and, what was perhaps worse
for him, the king, instead of declining more and more, began to
revive. In a short time he was able to attend to business again, at
least so far as to express his assent to measures prepared for him by
his ministers. Prince Richard was accordingly called upon to resign
his protectorate. He thought it best to yield to this proposal, and he
did so, and thus the government was once more in Henry's hands.
Things went on in this way for two or three years, but the breach
between the two great parties was all the time widening. Difficulties
multiplied in number and increased in magnitude. The country took
sides. Armed forces were organized on one side and on the other, and
at length Prince Richard openly claimed the crown as his right. This
led to a long and violent discussion in Parliament. The result was,
that a majority was obtained to vote in favor of Prince Richard's
right. The Parliament decreed, however, that the existing state of
things should not be disturbed so long as Henry continued to live, but
that at Henry's death the crown should descend, not to little Edward
his son, the infant Prince of Wales, but to Prince Richard Plantagenet
and his descendants forever.
Queen Margaret was at this time at a castle in Wales, where she had
gone with the child, in order to keep him in a place of safety while
these stormy discussions were pending. When she heard that Parliament
had passed a law setting aside the claims of her child, she declared
that she would never submit to it. She immediately sent messengers all
over the northern part of the kingdom, summoning the faithful
followers of the king every where to arm themselves and assemble near
the frontier. She herself went to Scotland to ask for aid. The King of
Scotland at that time was a child, but he was related to the
Lancastrian family, his grandmother having been a descendant of John
of Gaunt, the head of the Lancaster line. He was too young to take any
part in the war, but his mother, who was acting as regent, furnished
Margaret with troops. Margaret, putting herself at the head of these
forces, marched across the frontier into England, and joined herself
there to the other forces which had assembled in answer to her
summons.
In the mean time, Prince Richard had assembled his adherents too, and
had commenced his march to the northward to meet his enemies. He took
his two oldest sons with him, the two that wrote the letter quoted in
the last chapter. One of these you will recollect was Edward, Earl of
Marche, and the second was Edmund, Earl of Rutland. Edward was now
about eighteen years of age, and his brother Edmund about seventeen.
One would have said that at this period of life they were altogether
too young to be exposed to the hardships, fatigues, and dangers of a
martial campaign; but it was the custom in those times for princes and
nobles to be taken with their fathers to fields of battle at a very
early age. And these youthful warriors were really of great service
too, for the interest which they inspired among all ranks of the army
was so great, especially when their rank was very high, that they were
often the means of greatly increasing the numbers and the enthusiasm
of their fathers' followers.
Edward, indeed, was in this instance deemed old enough to be sent off
on an independent service, and so, while the prince moved forward with
the main body of his army toward the north, he dispatched Edward,
accompanied by a suitable escort, to the westward, toward the
frontiers of Wales, to assemble all the armed men that he could find
in that part of the kingdom who were disposed to espouse his cause.
Edmund, who was a year younger than Edward, went with his father.
The prince proceeded to the city of York, which was then a fortified
place of great strength. The engraving gives a very good idea of the
appearance of the walls in those times. These walls remain, indeed,
almost entire at the present day, and they are visited a great deal by
tourists and travelers, being regarded with much interest as
furnishing a very complete and well-preserved specimen of the mural
fortifications of the Middle Ages. Such walls, however, would be
almost entirely useless now as means of defense, since they would not
stand at all against an attack from modern artillery.
The great church seen over the walls, in the heart of the city, is the
famous York minster, one of the grandest Cathedral churches in
England. It was a hundred and fifty years in building, and it was
completed about two centuries before Richard's day.
When Prince Richard reached York, he entered the town, and established
himself there, with a view of waiting till his son should arrive with
the re-enforcements which he had been sent to seek in the western part
of England.
[Illustration: WALLS OF YORK.]
While he was there, and before the re-enforcements came, the queen, at
the head of her army from Scotland, which was strengthened, moreover,
by the troops which she had obtained in the north of England, came
marching on down the country in great force. When she came into the
neighborhood of York, she encamped, and then sent messengers to Prince
Richard, taunting and deriding him for having shut himself up within
fortified walls, and daring him to come out into the open field and
fight her.
The prince's counselors advised him to do no such thing. One of them
in particular, a certain Sir Davy Hall, who was an old and faithful
officer in the prince's service, urged him to pay no attention to
Queen Margaret's taunts.
"We are not strong enough yet," said he, "to meet the army which she
has assembled. We must wait till our re-enforcements come. By going
out now we shall put our cause in great peril, and all to no purpose
whatever."
"Ah! Davy, Davy," said the prince, "hast thou loved me so long, and
now wouldst thou have me dishonored? When I was regent in Normandy,
thou never sawest me keep fortress, even when the dauphin himself,
with all his power, came to besiege me.[D] I always, like a man, came
forth to meet him, instead of remaining within my walls, like a bird
shut up in a cage. Now if I did not then keep myself shut up for fear
of a great, strong prince, do you think I will now, for dread of a
scolding woman, whose weapons are only her tongue and her nails, and
thus give people occasion to say that I turned dastard before a woman,
when no man had ever been able to make me fear? No, I will never
submit to such disgrace. I would rather die in honor than live in
shame; and so the great numbers of our enemies do not deter me in the
least; they rather encourage me; therefore, in the name of God and St.
George, advance my banner, for I am determined that I will go out and
fight them, if I go alone."
[Footnote D: In former years Prince Richard had acted as viceroy of
the English possessions in France, under King Henry, and while there
he had been engaged in wars with the King of France, and with the
dauphin, his son.]
[Illustration: LAST HOURS OF KING RICHARD'S FATHER.]
So Prince Richard came forth from the gates of York at the head of his
columns, and rode on toward the queen's camp. Edmund went with him.
Edmund was under the care of his tutor, Robert Aspell, who was charged
to keep close to his side, and to watch over him in the most vigilant
manner. The army of the queen was at some distance from York, at a
place called Wakefield. Both parties, as is usual in civil wars, were
extremely exasperated against each other, and the battle was
desperately fought. It was very brief, however, and Richard's troops
were defeated. Richard himself was taken prisoner. Edmund endeavored
to escape. His tutor endeavored to hurry him off the field, but he
was stopped on the way by a certain nobleman of the queen's party,
named Lord Clifford. The poor boy begged hard for mercy, but Clifford
killed him on the spot.
The prince's army, when they found that the battle had gone against
them, and that their captain was a prisoner, fled in all directions
over the surrounding country, leaving great numbers dead upon the
field. The prince himself, as soon as he was taken, was disarmed on
the field, and all the leaders of the queen's army, including, as the
most authentic accounts relate, the queen herself, gathered around him
in wild exultation. They carried him to a mound formed by an ant-hill,
which they said, in mockery, should be his throne. They placed him
upon it with taunts and derision. They made a crown for him of knotted
grass, and put it upon his head, and then made mock obeisances before
him, saying, "Hail! king without a kingdom. Hail! prince without a
people."
After having satisfied themselves with their taunts and revilings, the
party killed their prisoner and cut off his head. They set his head
upon the point of a lance, and in this way presented it to Queen
Margaret. The queen ordered the head to be decorated with a paper
crown, and then to be carried to York, and set up at the gates of
that city upon a tall pole.
Thus was little Richard, the subject of this narrative, left
fatherless. He was at this period between eight and nine years old.