THE COMING MAN.
At the time when Richard usurped the English throne, a young Welshman
was residing at Vannes, in Brittany. His age was thirty; his stature
below the middle height; his complexion fair; his eyes gray; his
hair yellow; and his countenance would have been pleasing but for an
expression indicative of cunning and hypocrisy. It was Henry Tudor,
Earl of Richmond, grandson of Owen Tudor, and sole heir of his mother,
Margaret Beaufort, granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine
Swynford.
While passing his time at Vannes, Richmond was one day startled by the
arrival of messengers with intelligence that a conspiracy had been
formed at Brecknock to place him on the English throne, and give him
in marriage a young woman who belonged to the house of York, which he
had detested from his cradle, and who, moreover, had the disadvantage
of being considered illegitimate. Richmond does not appear to have
received the proposals with enthusiasm, and matters might never have
been brought to a satisfactory issue but for the arrival of the Bishop
of Ely. The prelate, by his diplomacy, however, removed all obstacles,
and the Duke of Brittany, on being consulted, promised to aid the
enterprise.
At that period, Dr. Thomas Hutton, a man of intellect and perception,
was in Brittany as English embassador, ostensibly to ascertain whether
or not Duke Francis gave any countenance to the Woodvilles, but,
doubtless, with secret instructions to defeat the machinations of
the exiles at Vannes. Hutton, who had an eye to see and a brain to
comprehend, soon became aware of Buckingham's plot, and endeavored to
persuade the Duke of Brittany to detain Richmond. But, when the duke,
who was already committed, declined to interfere, the embassador sent
such intelligence to England as enabled Richard to form a clear notion
of the conspiracy formed to hurl him from the throne.
Nevertheless, Richmond, with forty ships and five thousand Bretons,
sailed from St. Malo. But his voyage was the reverse of prosperous; and
on the very evening when the adventurers put to sea a violent tempest
dispersed the fleet. Only the ship which carried Richmond, attended
by a single bark, held on her course, and reached the mouth of Poole
Harbor, on the coast of Dorset.
And now the Welsh earl had startling proof of Hutton's vigilance. On
approaching the English coast, Richmond perceived crowds of armed
men, and immediately suspected a snare. However, he sent a boat ashore
to ascertain whether they were friends or foes, and his messengers
returned with information that the soldiers were friends, waiting to
escort him to Buckingham's camp. But Richmond, too cautious to land
with so slender a force in an enemy's country, resolved on sailing back
to St. Malo. The wind being favorable, Richmond soon came in sight of
Normandy, and after a short stay on that coast he returned to Brittany.
Meanwhile, Buckingham's insurrection began, and in autumn Richmond
was proclaimed king at various places in England. At the same time,
the duke, at the head of a large body of Welshmen, marched from his
castle and moved toward the Severn, his first object being to join the
Courtenays.
Matters immediately assumed a gloomy aspect; and Buckingham found
that heading an insurgent army was less agreeable than dancing with
princesses at Windsor, or displaying his gorgeous attire before the
citizens of London. While he was blundering along the right bank of
the Severn in search of a ford, autumnal rains rendered every ford
impassable; and the river, rapidly overflowing its banks, inundated
the country around. A scene replete with horrors was the consequence.
Houses were overthrown; men were drowned in their beds; children were
carried about swimming in cradles; and beasts of burden and beasts of
prey were drowned in the fields and on the hills. Such a flood had
never been experienced within the memory of man; and, for centuries
after, it was remembered along the banks of the Severn as "the Duke of
Buckingham's water."
Buckingham was rudely awakened from his delusions. The flooded river
and broken bridges created difficulties with which he could not cope.
His enterprise--from the beginning never very promising--became utterly
hopeless; and the Welshmen, losing heart and finding no provision made
for their subsistence, turned their thoughts affectionately to the rude
homes and the rude fare they had left behind. The result soon appeared.
The Celtic warriors pretended to regard the flood as a sign that the
insurrection was displeasing to Heaven, deserted their standards in
crowds, and, without exception, returned to their mountains.
Buckingham now lost courage; and, while his confederates--Dorset,
the Courtenays, Lord Welles, Sir William Brandon, and Sir John
Cheyney--escaped to Richmond in Brittany, the duke fled to Shrewsbury,
and took refuge in the house of one of his retainers, named
Humphrey Bannister. Tempted by the reward offered for Buckingham's
apprehension, Bannister betrayed his master; and the duke, having been
conveyed to Salisbury, was beheaded, without trial, in the market-place.
When the conspiracy of Brecknock had been crushed, Richard summoned a
Parliament, which declared him lawful sovereign, entailed the crown on
his son, and passed a bill of attainder against those who had taken
part in Buckingham's attempt at king-making. Nevertheless, Richard did
not feel secure. The dread of an invasion, and of his enemies uniting
Richmond and Elizabeth, kept the usurper uneasy, and he set himself
boldly to the scheme of getting both the Welsh earl and the English
princess in his power. The persons who could aid him in this were Peter
Landois and Elizabeth Woodville.
The Duke of Brittany now reigned no longer save in name, and Peter
Landois--son of a tailor--ruled the province with more than ducal
power. Peter, though elevated to so high a position, was not proof to
the temptation of a bribe; and Richard, by means of gold, converted him
from a friend to an enemy of Richmond, and obtained his promise to send
the Welsh earl a prisoner into England.
With Elizabeth Woodville Richard was equally successful. That lady,
weary of the sanctuary, not only listened to his proposals, but went
with her daughters to court, where Elizabeth, the eldest, was treated
with the utmost distinction. Richard is supposed to have intended to
match the princess with his son, a boy of eleven, but the death of the
prince at Middleham defeated this plan for reconciling conflicting
claims.
No sooner, however, had Richard recovered from the grief caused by the
death of his son, than he formed a new scheme for keeping Elizabeth in
his family. His queen, the Anne Neville of other days, was in feeble
health; and Richard, under the impression that she could not live long,
determined to obtain a dispensation from Rome, and marry the princess.
Neither mother nor daughter appear to have objected to this scandalous
project. Elizabeth Woodville wrote to the Marquis of Dorset to abandon
Richmond's cause, as she had formed a better plan for her family; and
Elizabeth of York, at the instigation of her mother, no doubt, wrote to
Sir John Howard, now Duke of Norfolk, expressing her surprise that the
queen should be so long in dying.
At length, in March, 1485, Anne Neville breathed her last, and
Richard consulted Catesby and Ratcliffe as to the policy of espousing
Elizabeth. Both protested against the project, declaring that such a
marriage would shock both clergy and populace, and would, moreover,
alienate the men of the north, hitherto so faithful to Richard as the
husband of Lord Warwick's daughter. Richard, convinced, banished all
thought of marrying Elizabeth; and, having sent her for security to the
Castle of Sheriff Hutton, he prepared to encounter the coming man.