RICHARD BEFORE BOSWORTH.
While Oxford was leaving Hammes, and Richmond was at Paris maturing
his projects, and Reginald Bray was carrying messages from the English
malcontents to the Welsh earl, the king appears to have been unaware of
the magnitude of his danger.
Richard was not, however, the man to be surprised by armed foemen in
the recesses of a palace. No sooner did he hear of an armament at the
mouth of the Seine, than Lord Lovel was stationed at Southampton, Sir
John Savage commissioned to guard the coasts of Cheshire, and Rice ap
Thomas intrusted with the defense of Wales. At the same time, Richard
issued a proclamation, describing Richmond as "one Henry Tudor,
descended of bastard blood both by father's and mother's side;" who
could have no claim to the crown but by conquest; who had agreed to
give up Calais to France; and who intended to subvert the ancient laws
and liberties of England.
Having thus endeavored to excite the patriotism of the populace,
Richard, about midsummer, set up his standard at Nottingham, and around
it, with the Earl of Northumberland at their head, came the men of
the north in thousands. While keeping his state in Nottingham Castle,
Richard heard of Richmond's landing at Milford Haven, and soon after
learned, with indignation, that Rice ap Thomas had proved false; that
Sir Gilbert Talbot, with two thousand retainers of his nephew, the
young Earl of Shrewsbury, had joined the invaders; that, after leaving
Shrewsbury, Richmond had pursued his way through Newport to Stafford,
and from Stafford to Lichfield, and that men were rapidly gathering to
his standard. Vowing vengeance, the king issued orders that his army
should forthwith march southward to Leicester.
Meanwhile, many of the lords whom Richard had summoned did not appear;
and Lord Stanley, feeling that he, as husband of the Countess of
Richmond, was peculiarly liable to suspicion, sent to say that sickness
alone kept him from his sovereign's side at such a crisis. But this
apology did not prove satisfactory; and Richard having Stanley's son,
Lord Strange, in the camp, ordered him to be secured, and made it
understood that the son's life depended on the sire's loyalty.
It was the evening of Tuesday, the 16th of August, when Richard,
mounted on a tall white charger, environed by his guard and followed
by his infantry, entered Leicester; and as the castle was too much
dilapidated to accommodate a king, he was lodged in one of those
antique edifices, half brick, half timber, that have gradually given
way to modern buildings. In a room of this house, long known as "The
old Blue Boar," Richard slept during his stay at Leicester on a
remarkable bedstead of wood, which had a false bottom, and served him
as a military chest. After the battle of Bosworth this strange piece of
furniture was found to contain a large sum of money, and it was long
preserved in Leicester as a memorial of King Richard's visit to that
city.
While Richard was at Leicester, fighting men came in to his aid. There
he was joined by John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, by Thomas, Earl of
Surrey, by Lord Lovel, and by Sir Robert Brackenbury. But with them
came farther tidings of desertion; for at Stony Stratford, Sir Walter
Hungerford and Sir Thomas Bourchier, son of Sir Humphrey, who fell
at Barnet, feeling that they were not trusted, deserted Brackenbury,
and--much as they owed to Richard--went straight to Richmond's camp.
Nevertheless, the king's courage continued high; and on the morning
of Sunday, the 21st, having, it would appear, been previously out of
the city looking for his foes, he rode from Leicester toward Market
Bosworth, in the hope of an early meeting. On the way, it was necessary
for him to pass over Bow Bridge, which crossed the Stoure on the west
side of the town. Upon this bridge, according to tradition, was a stone
of such height that, in riding by, Richard happened to strike it with
his spur. An old woman, who was supposed to practice, in a humble way,
the arts which the populace associated with the names of Friar Bungey
and the Duchess of Bedford, thereupon shook her head, and on being
asked what would be the king's fortune, she answered, "Where his spur
struck, there shall his head be broken."
After marching about eight miles, Richard came in sight of Richmond's
army, and encamped for the day near the Abbey of Miraville. In the
evening, however, he moved forward to within a mile of the town of
Bosworth, and posted his army strongly on Amyon Hill, an acclivity
with a steep descent on all sides, but steepest toward the north, or
Bosworth side, and least so toward the south, where, with a morass
intervening, Richmond's army lay. Lord Stanley still remained at
Stapleton. His brother, Sir William Stanley, had not yet arrived.
When that August day drew to a close, and darkness concealed the
hostile armies from each other's view, Richard retired to rest.
Repose, however, was not granted, so disturbed were his slumbers and
so alarming his dreams; and at daybreak he had farther evidence of the
spirit of treachery that prevailed in his camp. During the night, Sir
John Savage, Sir Simon Digby, and Sir Brian Sandford had gone over to
Richmond. The desertion of Savage was of no slight consequence, for he
was Lord Stanley's nephew, and he led the men of Cheshire.
Nor was the desertion of Savage, Digby, and Sandford the most alarming
incident. A mysterious warning in rhyme, attached, during the night,
to the tent of the new Duke of Norfolk,[16] seemed to intimate that
the king's prospects were worse than they yet seemed; for still, to
all appearance, Richard's army was comparatively formidable. It was
not merely by Brackenbury, and by Catesby, Ratcliffe, and Lovel, whose
names had been rendered familiar by Collingborn's rhyme, that the
usurper found himself surrounded on that memorable morning. On the
king's side, Northumberland still remained, somewhat reserved, perhaps,
but raising no suspicion of the treachery of which he was about to
be guilty. On the king's side, also, appeared John, Lord Zouche, and
Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, and Sir Gervase Clifton,
albeit the son of the Lancastrian executed after Tewkesbury. And not
the least conspicuous, decked out in the trappings of the Mowbrays, and
reminding contemporaries of the jackass in the lion's skin, figured
Sir John Howard, for once in his life acting with honesty, and
prepared to prove his gratitude for the dukedom he had long coveted.
All this time, however, the intentions of Lord Stanley were doubtful.
Hitherto the wary baron had kept his counsel so well that even his
own brother, who had come with three thousand men from Stafford, and
encamped to the king's right, was unaware of his intentions.
When, however, the morning advanced, and the hostile armies prepared
for battle, and Lord Stanley, moving slowly forward, posted his men
midway between the two armies, Richard lost temper, and resolved to
try the influence of a menace. He therefore sent a pursuivant-at-arms
to command Lord Stanley's attendance, and to intimate that he had
sworn by CHRIST'S passion, in case of not being obeyed, to strike off
Lord Strange's head. Lord Stanley, however, remained resolute. "If
the king cut off Strange's head," said the grim baron, "I have more
sons alive. He may do his pleasure; but to come to him I am not now
determined." Enraged at this answer, Richard ordered Strange to be led
forth to execution; but his advisers agreed that it was better to keep
the prisoner till after the battle. "It was now," they said, "the time
to fight, not to execute;" and Richard, perhaps thinking that, while
the son's life hung in the balance, there was a chance of the father
repeating the part so well played at Bloreheath, placed Strange in
the custody of his tent-keeper, and girded on his armor for a great
struggle to retain the crown he had usurped.
And who can doubt that, in such an hour, other than selfish motives
animated the last Plantagenet king? With all his faults, Richard was
an Englishman, and a man of genius; and his patriotism and his pride
must have been shocked at the possibility of the throne, from which
the first and the third Edward had commanded the respect of Europe,
becoming the perch of an adventurer, who would never have been heard
of but for a Welsh soldier having made too elaborate a pirouette while
enacting the part of court fool.