THE USURPATION.
After mewing the princes in the Tower, beheading Hastings in London
and the Woodvilles at Pontefract, placing such foes to his pretensions
as Lord Stanley and the Bishop of Ely under lock and key, and arousing
the people's moral indignation by the scandal of a king's widow taking
counsel with her husband's mistress to embarrass the government carried
on in the name of her son, Richard applied himself resolutely to secure
the prize on which he had set his heart. Ere long, the citizens who
discussed the proclamation about Hastings were destined to have fresh
subjects for gossip.
Among the numerous ladies upon whom Edward, about the beginning of
his reign, cast admiring eyes, was Eleanor Talbot, granddaughter of
the great Earl of Shrewsbury. This patrician dame was the widow of
Lord Butler of Sudeley, and had seen fifteen more summers than her
royal lover. Edward, not on that account the less enamored, asked her
to become his wife; and, won by the ardor of his attachment, Eleanor
consented to a secret marriage. The ceremony was performed by Dr.
Stillington, Bishop of Bath; but, as time passed on, the Yorkist
king's amorous heart led him into another engagement, and the neglected
Eleanor was astonished with news of his having married Elizabeth
Woodville. On hearing of his faithlessness she fell into a profound
melancholy, and afterward lived in sadness and retirement.
This silent repudiation of a daughter of their house shocked the
propriety and hurt the pride of the Talbots, and they applied to
Stillington to demand satisfaction. Not relishing the perilous duty,
the bishop spoke to Richard on the subject, and Gloucester mentioned it
to the king. This intercession proved of no avail; and Edward displayed
such fury on learning that the secret was known, that nobody who valued
a head would have cared to allude to it while he was on the throne. But
Richard, who had not forgotten a circumstance so important, now saw
that the time had come when the secret might be used to advance his own
fortunes. It was necessary, however, that the facts should be published
in such a way as to produce a strong impression, and a plan was devised
for bringing together a multitude.
For this purpose, Richard caused Mistress Shore to be again dragged
into public, and tried before the spiritual courts for her scandalous
manner of life. The Protector was not this time disappointed. However
unfounded the charge of sorcery, there was no lack of evidence as to
her frailties, and she was condemned to do open penance. Sunday was
appointed for this act of humiliation; and on that day, through streets
crowded with spectators, the erring woman was under the necessity of
walking to St. Paul's barefooted, wrapped in a white sheet, and holding
a lighted taper of wax in her hand.
This exhibition was of itself deemed likely to advance the Protector's
interests by impressing people with a high opinion of his worth as
a reformer of morals; but Richard had arranged that, ere the crowd
assembled as spectators had time to disperse, another and a far more
important scene should be enacted. In this the chief actor was Dr.
Shaw, an Augustine friar of high reputation and great popularity.
Mounting the pulpit at St. Paul's Cross, Shaw, who was a brother of the
lord-mayor and an adherent of the Protector, preached from the text,
"The multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive, nor take deep
rooting from bastard slips;" and proceeded boldly to prove that the
princes in the Tower were illegitimate.
Richard appears to have found this stratagem unsuccessful; but he
did not dream of abandoning his ambitious project. Nor can he, with
justice, be severely blamed for setting aside the sons of Elizabeth
Woodville. However the matter may have been slurred over by men
writing with the fear of the Tudors before their eyes, hardly any doubt
can exist that Edward was guilty of bigamy, and that his marriage with
Elizabeth was invalid; for Philip de Comines bears witness to having
heard Bishop Stillington state that he had married the king to Lady
Butler; and Eleanor undoubtedly survived that unfortunate ceremony
performed on a May morning in the chapel at Grafton.
But the illegitimacy of Edward's offspring did not make Richard heir
of the house of York. Between him and the crown stood the children of
Clarence, Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, and his sister Margaret,
afterward Countess of Salisbury and mother of Cardinal Pole. The claim
of these children was such as could not decently be rejected; but,
having gone too far to recede, Richard pretended that their father's
attainder disqualified them from inheriting, and adopted measures for
usurping the crown.
Richard again invoked the aid of Buckingham; and, on the Tuesday
after Dr. Shaw's sermon, attended by nobles, knights, and citizens,
Buckingham appeared on the hustings at Guildhall, and harangued the
populace. The duke's oratory was successful. Some of the wealthy
citizens, indeed, asked time for consideration; but the multitude
tossed their bonnets in the air, and shouted, "Long live King Richard."
At Baynard's Castle, with the Duchess of York, Richard was then
residing; and thither, to wait upon him, the citizens sent a
deputation, headed by the lord-mayor and accompanied by Buckingham.
On being informed that a number of people were in the castle court,
Richard affected alarm and declined to receive them; but, at length,
they were admitted, and Buckingham presented an address, praying
Richard to take the crown as his by right of birth and the election of
the estates of the realm.
"I little thought, cousin," said Richard, angrily, "that you, of all
men, would have moved me to a matter which, of all things, I most
decline."
"The free people of England will never be ruled by a bastard," said
Buckingham; "and if you, the true heir, refuse the crown, they know
where to find another who will gladly accept it."
"Well," said Richard, with the air of a man making a great sacrifice,
"since I perceive that the whole realm is resolved not to permit my
nephew to reign, and that the right of succession belongs to me, I am
content to submit to the will of the people."
On hearing this speech the citizens raised a cry of "Long live King
Richard, our sovereign lord;" and the brief reign of Edward the Fifth
was at an end.