FROM BRITTANY TO BOSWORTH.
On Christmas day, 1483, a memorable scene was enacted in the capital
of Brittany. On that day, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, appeared in
the Cathedral of Rennes; before the high altar, and in the presence of
the Marquis of Dorset and many other exiles the Welsh earl swore, in
the event of being placed on the English throne, to espouse Elizabeth
of York, and thereupon the marquis, with the other lords and knights,
did him homage as to their sovereign. On the same day Richmond and the
English exiles took the sacrament, and bound themselves by oath never
to desist from making war against King Richard till they accomplished
his destruction or his dethronement.
Within twelve months after this solemn ceremony, and while Richmond
was musing over his prospects, his mother's chaplain one day arrived
with a message to the effect that the Welsh earl was no longer safe in
Brittany; and, after considering the matter, Richmond resolved upon
an escape, and prepared to be gone. With this view he announced his
intention to visit a friend in a neighboring village, and, without
delay, mounted his horse as if to proceed on the way thither. After
riding five miles, however, he entered a wood, and hastily exchanged
clothes with one of his servants. Having assumed the character of
a valet, Richmond again mounted, and traveling by by-paths without
halting, save to bait the horses, he reached Angers, and, accompanied
by the exiled lords, pursued his way to the court of France.
Events had recently occurred at the French court which secured Richmond
a favorable reception. In the summer of 1483, Louis the Crafty had
drawn his last breath, his son Charles then being a boy of thirteen. A
struggle for power began between the young king's sister Anne, wife of
the Sire de Beaujieu, and Louis, Duke of Orleans, heir-presumptive to
the throne. Orleans, it seems, had formed an alliance with Richard; and
Anne, from considerations of policy, determined to assist Richmond.
At Paris, therefore, Richmond was received with distinction; and,
ere long, Anne, in the young king's name, agreed to furnish him with
money and men to undertake an expedition against the King of England.
Richmond then commenced preparations for the great adventure.
Matters, however, did not go quite smoothly; and Dorset, despairing,
resolved to avail himself of Elizabeth Woodville's invitation; and,
with this view, the marquis, who, though young, appears to have been
false and calculating as his mother, forgot his oath in the Cathedral
of Rennes, and left Paris secretly by night. His disappearance caused
some consternation; for, though in most respects a man of arms would
have been a greater loss, he was possessed of information which,
conveyed to Richard, would have ruined every thing. Humphrey Cheyney,
one of Sir John's brothers, was therefore dispatched in pursuit, and
succeeded in bringing the renegade back to Paris.
Ere the escape of the marquis, Richmond had been joined by an
Englishman whose presence lent dignity to the enterprise, and would
have more than compensated for the loss of five hundred Dorsets.
A long and weary captivity, during which his only son had died in the
Tower, and his wife lived by needle-work, had not broken the spirit
of Oxford's earl. John De Vere was still ready for adventure; and no
sooner did he learn that the partisans of the Red Rose were in motion,
than, becoming eager to leave Hammes, he tried his eloquence on James
Blount, captain of the fortress. Oxford's success was more signal than
he anticipated. Won, and touched with admiration at the degree of
courage that animated the earl after so long a captivity, Blount not
only consented to set Oxford at liberty, but offered to accompany him
to Richmond, and place the fortress at the adventurer's service. They
went; and Richmond was delighted to have such a castle as Hammes at his
disposal, and such a patrician as John De Vere at his right hand.
All that could be done in Paris having been accomplished, Richmond put
Dorset in pledge for the money he had borrowed, and left the court of
Paris for Harfleur. Having made all preparations, he and his English
friends embarked, with a few pieces of artillery and about three
thousand men, collected from the jails and hospitals of Normandy and
Brittany, and described by Comines as "the loosest and most profligate
fellows of all the country." On the last day of July, 1485--it was a
Sunday--the armament, leaving the mouth of the Seine, put to sea, and
Richmond ordered the mariners to steer for Wales. The voyage was free
from such disasters as attended Richmond's former expedition; and,
after having been six days at sea, the adventurers sailed safely into
Milford Haven. At the grand national harbor, which gives importance
to that part of South Wales, Richmond debarked his soldiers without
challenge.
On the morning of Sunday, the 21st of August, about three weeks after
his landing, Richmond, having marched from Milford Haven without a
check, encamped in Leicestershire at a place then known in the locality
as Whitemoors, and erected his standard on the margin of a rivulet now
known in the locality as the Tweed. To the north of Richmond's camp
was a morass, and beyond the morass a spacious plain nearly surrounded
by hills. At the farthest verge of these hills, about three miles north
from the camp, but concealed from view by the elevated ground that
intervened, was a little town, to which the inhabitants of that part of
Leicestershire were long in the habit of repairing weekly to market.
Since that time, however, the name of that market-town has become
famous as the scene of a great battle, which destroyed a dynasty and
overturned a throne. It was Bosworth.