THE CHILDHOOD OF RICHARD III.
Condition of young Richard in his childhood.--Strange tales in
respect to his birth.--Dangers to which Richard was exposed in
his childhood.--Extraordinary vicissitudes in the life of his
mother.--The castles and palaces belonging to the house of
York.--Situation of Lady Cecily at the time of her husband's
death.--Lady Cecily sends the children to the Continent.--Situation
of Lady Cecily and of her oldest son.
Young Richard, as was said at the close of the last chapter, was of a
very tender age when his father and his brother Edmund were killed at
the battle of Wakefield. He was at that time only about eight years
old. It is very evident too, from what has been already related of the
history of his father and mother, that during the whole period of his
childhood and youth he must have passed through very stormy times. It
is only a small portion of the life of excitement, conflict, and alarm
which was led by his father that there is space to describe in this
volume. So unsettled and wandering a life did his father and mother
lead, that it is not quite certain in which of the various towns and
castles that from time to time they made their residence, he was born.
It is supposed, however, that he was born in the Castle of
Fotheringay, in the year 1452. His father was killed in 1461, which
would make Richard, as has already been said, about eight or nine
years old at that time.
There were a great many strange tales related in subsequent years in
respect to Richard's birth. He became such a monster, morally, when he
grew to be a man, that the people believed that he was born a monster
in person. The story was that he came into the world very ugly in face
and distorted in form, and that his hair and his teeth were already
grown. These were considered as portents of the ferociousness of
temper and character which he was subsequently to manifest, and of the
unnatural and cruel crimes which he would live to commit. It is very
doubtful, however, whether any of these stories are true. It is most
probable that at his birth he looked like any other child.
There were a great many periods of intense excitement and terror in
the family history before the great final calamity at Wakefield when
Richard's father and his brother Edmund were killed. At these times
the sole reliance of the prince in respect to the care of the younger
children was upon Lady Cecily, their mother. The older sons went with
their father on the various martial expeditions in which he was
engaged. They shared with him the hardships and dangers of his
conflicts, and the triumph and exultations of his victories. The
younger children, however, remained in seclusion with their mother,
sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, wherever there was,
for the time being, the greatest promise of security.
Indeed, during the early childhood of Richard, the changes and
vicissitudes through which the family passed were so sudden and
violent in their character as sometimes to surpass the most romantic
tales of fiction. At one time, while Lady Cecily was residing at the
Castle of Ludlow with Richard and some of the younger children, a
party of her husband's enemies, the Lancastrians, appeared suddenly at
the gates of the town, and, before Prince Richard's party had time to
take any efficient measures for defense, the town and the castle were
both taken. The Lancastrians had expected to find Prince Richard
himself in the castle, but he was not there. They were exasperated by
their disappointment, and in their fury they proceeded to ransack all
the rooms, and to destroy every thing that came into their hands. In
some of the inner and more private apartments they found Lady Cecily
and her children. They immediately seized them all, made them
prisoners, and carried them away. By King Henry's orders, they were
placed in close custody in another castle in the southern part of
England, and all the property, both of the prince and of Lady Cecily,
was confiscated. While the mother and the younger children were thus
closely shut up and reduced to helpless destitution, the father and
the older sons were obliged to fly from the country to save their
lives. In less than three months after this time these same exiled and
apparently ruined fugitives were marching triumphantly through the
country, at the head of victorious troops, carrying all before them.
Lady Cecily and her children were set at liberty, and restored to
their property and their rights, while King Henry himself, whose
captives they had been, was himself made captive, and brought in
durance to London, and Queen Margaret and her son were in their turn
compelled to fly from the realm to save their lives.
This last change in the condition of public affairs took place only a
short time before the great final contest between Prince Richard of
York, King Richard's father, and the family of Henry, when the prince
lost his life at Wakefield, as described in the last chapter.
[Illustration: PALACE AND GARDEN BELONGING TO THE HOUSE OF YORK.]
Of course, young Richard, being brought up amid these scenes of wild
commotion, and accustomed from childhood to witness the most cruel and
remorseless conflicts between branches of the same family, was trained
by them to be ambitious, daring, and unscrupulous in respect to the
means to be used in circumventing or destroying an enemy. The seed
thus sown produced in subsequent years most dreadful fruit, as will be
seen more fully in the sequel of his history.
There were a great many hereditary castles belonging to the family of
York, many of which had descended from father to son for many
generations. Some of these castles were strong fortresses, built in
wild and inaccessible retreats, and intended to be used as places of
temporary refuge, or as the rallying-points and rendezvous of bodies
of armed men. Others were better adapted for the purposes of a private
residence, being built with some degree of reference to the comfort of
the inmates, and surrounded with gardens and grounds, where the ladies
and the children who were left in them could find recreation and
amusement adapted to their age and sex.
It was in such a castle as this, near London, that Lady Cecily and her
younger children were residing when her husband went to the northward
to meet the forces of the queen, as related in the last chapter. Here
Lady Cecily lived in great state, for she thought the time was drawing
nigh when her husband would be raised to the throne. Indeed, she
considered him as already the true and rightful sovereign of the
realm, and she believed that the hour would very soon come when his
claims would be universally acknowledged, and when she herself would
be Queen of England, and her boys royal princes, and, as such, the
objects of universal attention and regard. She instilled these ideas
continually into the minds of the children, and she exacted the utmost
degree of subserviency and submission toward herself and toward them
on the part of all around her.
While she was thus situated in her palace near London, awaiting every
day the arrival of a messenger from the north announcing the final
victory of her husband over all his foes, she was one day
thunderstruck, and overwhelmed with grief and despair, by the tidings
that her husband had been defeated, and that he himself, and the dear
son who had accompanied him, and was just arriving at maturity, had
been ignominiously slain. The queen, too, her most bitter foe, now
exultant and victorious, was advancing triumphantly toward London.
Not a moment was to be lost. Lady Cecily had with her, at this time,
her two youngest sons, George and Richard. She made immediate
arrangements for her flight. It happened that the Earl of Warwick,
who was at this time the Lord High Admiral, and who, of course, had
command of the seas between England and the Continent, was a relative
and friend of Lady Cecily's. He was at this time in London. Lady
Cecily applied to him to assist her in making her escape. He
consented, and, with his aid, she herself, with her two children and a
small number of attendants, escaped secretly from London, and made
their way to the southern coast. There Lady Cecily put the children
and the attendants on board a vessel, by which they were conveyed to
the coast of Holland. On landing there, they were received by the
prince of the country, who was a friend of Lady Cecily, and to whose
care she commended them. The prince received them with great kindness,
and sent them to the city of Utrecht, where he established them safely
in one of his palaces, and appointed suitable tutors and governors to
superintend their education. Here it was expected that they would
remain for several years.
Their mother did not go with them to Holland. Her fears in respect to
remaining in England were not for herself, but only for her helpless
children. For herself, her only impulse was to face and brave the
dangers which threatened her, and triumph over them. So she went
boldly back to London, to await there whatever might occur.
Besides, her oldest son was still in England, and she could not
forsake him. You will recollect that, when his father went north to
meet the forces of Queen Margaret, he sent his oldest son, Edward,
Earl of Marche, to the western part of England, to obtain
re-enforcements. Edward was at Gloucester when the tidings came to him
of his father's death. Gloucester is on the western confines of
England, near the southeastern borders of Wales. Now, of course, since
her husband was dead, all Lady Cecily's ambition, and all her hopes of
revenge were concentrated in him. She wished to be at hand to counsel
him, and to co-operate with him by all the means in her power. How she
succeeded in these plans, and how, by means of them, he soon became
King of England, will appear in the next chapter.