him that a new council should be immediately appointed, of which he
should form a member, and which should decide all matters now in
dispute or debate. For his more thorough satisfaction and assurance,
the duke of Somerset was reported to be in custody by the king's com-
mand. Satisfied with these concessions and promises, York instantly
disbanded his army, and repaired alone and uncovered to Henry's tent,
where, to his surprise and consternation, he was confronted by Somer-
set, who appeared at perfect liberty, and as high as ever in the king's
favour. The two rivals fiercely retorted the charge of treason upon
each other. Somerset accused York of designs upon the crown, and
called upon the king to arrest him as a traitor. York replied with
equal spirit ; but on quitting the royal tent, found himself a prisoner.
Somerset would have had his rival led forth to instant execution ; but
the mild genius of Henry prevailed, and he contented himself with ex-
acting a solemn and public oath of fealty and allegiance from the duke.
1 Fenii's Collection, vol. i.
PERIOD.] lUCHAIlD, DUKE OF YORK. 395
The birth of Edward lowered the hopes of the Yorkists ; but we have seen
that the indisposition into which Henry soon afterwards sunk, rendered
the recall of the duke of York into the cabinet a measure of necessity,
and gave him, for the time, a complete ascendency over his rival, who
was committed to the tower. On this occasion York protested " that
he did not assume the title or authority of protector, but was chosen
by the parliament of themselves, and of their own free and mere dis-
position ; and that he should be ready to resume his obedience to the
king's commands, as soon as it was notified and declared unto him by
the parliament, that Henry was restored to his health of body and
mind."
By his marriage with the lady Cicely Neville, the duke gained the
powerful support of her brothers, the earls of Salisbury and Warwick.
These potent barons were easily induced to second their relative in his
struggle for political ascendency after Henry's recovery. " It was
dwing this period," says Sir James Mackintosh, " that the whole people
seem gradually to have arrayed themselves as Yorkists or Lancastrians.
The rancour of parties was exasperated by confinement to narrow cir-
cles and petty districts. Feuds began to become hereditary, and the
heirs of the lords slaughtered at St Albans, regarded the pursuit of re-
venge as essential to the honour of their families, and as a pious office
due to the memory of their ancestors." The king, in the midst of these
distractions, laboured assiduously, but in vain, to calm the angry pas-
sions of his nobles, and establish unanimity in the national councils.
The pageant of a public reconciliation was enacted, but the stratagems
of the queen again excited the distrust of the Yorkists, and the duke
returned in disgust to his castle of Wigmore, the ancient seat of the
Mortimers. Salisbury went to Middleham in Yorkshire, and Warwick
to his government of Calais. 8 " But," says old Hale, " although the
bodies of these noble persons were thus separated asunder by artifice,
yet their hearts were united and coupled in one." They planned a
junction, the result of which, as we have elsewhere detailed, once more
threw the government into their hands. A parliament which assem-
bled at Westminster, after the battle of Northampton, annulled all the
recent proceedings which had been levelled against the Yorkists ; and a
few days afterwards, Richard, duke of York, having returned from
Ireland, whither he had fled after his defeat at Ludlow, entered Lon-
don, and riding to Westminster, presented himself in the upper house,
in an attitude, and under circumstances which unequivocally indicated
the views and wishes by which he was now animated. Stepping for-
ward to the royal throne, he laid his hand upon the cloth of state, and
stood for a short time in that attitude, as if waiting for an invitation
to place himself on it. But every voice was silent, the nobles stood
mute, and neither by word nor sign manifested the slightest token of
approbation. The duke, thereupon, somewhat disconcerted, withdrew
his hand, and this movement was instantly applauded by the circle
around him. The archbishop of Canterbury taking courage from these
indications of right feeling on the part of the spectators, boldly in-
quired, whether he would not wait upon the king, who was now in the
' " Then," says Comities, " considered u the most advantageous appointment at the
disposal of any Christian piinc, and that which placed the most considerable force
at the disposal of the governor.''
396 POLITICAL SERIES. [THIRD
queen's apartment ? To this question he indignantly replied, " I know
no one in this realm who ought not rather to visit me." He then hastily
withdrew, and took up his abode in that part of the palace which had
been usually reserved for the accommodation of the king himself. Even
the duke's party were not prepared for such a step as this ; but Richard
felt that he had now committed himself, and took his resolution accord-
ingly. On the 16th of October, 1460, his counsel delivered to the
bishop of Exeter, the new chancellor, a writing, containing a statement
of his claims to the crowns of England and France, with the lordship of
Ireland. In this writing, having first derived his descent from Henry
III., by Lionel, duke of Clarence, third son to Edward III., he observ-
ed, that on the resignation of Richard II., Henry, earl of Derby, the
son of John of Ghent, the younger brother of the said Lionel, against
all manner of right, entered on the crowns of England and France,
and the lordship of Ireland, which by law belonged to Roger Mortimer,
earl of March, great-grandson to the said Sir Lionel : whence he con-
cluded, that of right, law, and custom, the said crown and lordship now
belonged to himself, as the lineal representative of Roger Mortimer, in
preference to any one who could claim only as the descendant of
Henry, earl of Derby. 3 We have already related in what spirit Henry
received the first communication of York's pretensions ; he concluded
his address to the lords who waited upon him on this occasion, by com-
manding them " to search for to find in as much as in them was, all
such things as might be objected and laid against the claim and title of
the said duke." The lords devolved this duty upon the judges, who
excused themselves from entering upon so delicate and dangerous a task,
by observing that their office was not to be of counsel between party
and party, but to apply the laws of the realm to such matters as came
before them ; that the present question was above law, and appertained
not unto them, and that only the lords of the king's blood, and the
high court of parliament, could decide it. The king's Serjeants and
attorney were then called upon for an opinion ; and they also presented
their excuses, alleging, that since the matter was so high, that it passed
the learning of the judges, it must needs exceed their learning. But
the apology was not received ; the lords found that these officers were
bound to give advice to the crown, and directed them as counsel for
the king, to draw up an answer to Richard's claims. In the issue, the
following objections which we shall state in the words of Dr Lingard
were drawn up and sent to the duke : " I. That both he and the
lords had sworn fealty to Henry, and of course he, by his oath, was
prevented from urging, they by theirs from admitting, his claim. 2.
That many acts passed in divers parliaments of the king's progeni-
tors, might be opposed to the pretensions of the house of Clarence,
which acts have ' been of authority to defeat any manner of title.' 3.
That several entails had been made of the crown to heirs male, whereas
he claimed by descent from females. 4. That he did not bear the arms
of Lionel the Third, but of Edmund the Fifth, son of Edward III.
And, 5. That Henry IV. had declared that he entered on the throne
as the true heir of Henry III.' To the three first objections, the duke's
counsel replied : ' That as priority of descent was evidently in his
Blackm. p. 375.
PERIOD.] RICHARD, DUKE OF YORK. 397
favour, it followed that the right to the crown was his, which right
could not be defeated by oaths or acts of parliament, or entails. In-
deed, the only entail made to the exclusion of females, was that of the
seventh year of Henry IV., and would never have been thought of,
had that prince claimed under the customary law of descent-*. That
the reason why he had not hitherto taken the arms of Lionel, was the
same as had prevented him from claiming the crown, the danger to
which such a proceeding would have exposed him. And, lastly, that
if Henry IV. pronounced himself the rightful heir of Henry III., he
asserted what he knew to be untrue. As, however, the principal reli-
ance of his adversaries was on the oaths which he had taken, and which
it was contended were to be considered as a surrender of his right by
his own act, he contended that no oath contrary to truth and justice is
binding. That the virtue of an oath is to confirm truth, and not to
impugn it ; and that as the obligation of oaths is a subject for the deter-
mination of the spiritual tribunals, he was willing to answer in any
such court all manner of men, who had any thing to propose against
him." The lords resolved that the title of the duke of York could not
be defeated ; but proposed a compromise by which Henry acknow-
ledged York as heir-apparent, notwithstanding the existence of the in-
fant prince of Wales. On the adjustment of this important affair, the
king and the duke went in state to St Paul's, to make their thanks-
givings. But the spirit of Margaret was not so easily subdued as that
of her husband. Instead of obeying the order which York procured,
requiring her instant presence in London, that warlike dame hastened
to join Northumberland and Clifford in the north. The duke of Som-
erset and the earl of Devon marched to her standard ; and the coalition
thus formed assembled a most formidable force at York. On receiving
intelligence of these proceedings, York hastened, with a small body of
men, to Sandal castle, near Wakefield, leaving his son and heir, the
earl of March, to follow more at leisure with fresh supplies. Here his
best advisers wished him to remain until the arrival of the expected
reinforcement, but in opposition to such wise counsel he rashly deter-
mined to hazard a battle. It is said by some authors that the bitter
taunts of the enemy provoked him to this rash step ; but others with
more probability suggest that Richard found himself driven to the neces-
sity of risking an engagement by want of provisions ; whatever it was
that dictated the line of conduct which he now pursued, he seems to
have forgotten that precaution which had hitherto been one of his char-
acteristics, and to have rushed headlong and blindfold on certain de-
struction. On the last day of the year 1460, he drew out his troops
on Wakefield common, and was instantly hemmed in on all sides by
the greatly superior force of the enemy. A horrid scene of carnage
ensued. The Yorkists fought with the fury of despair ; but their des-
perate and unyielding courage availed them not Within half an hour
of the onset, nearly 3000 of York's followers lay dead on the field,
while their leader himself and Salisbury, covered with wounds, hat! fall-
en into the hands of their assailants. Salisbury was decapitated the
next day at Pontefract. Authors differ respecting the fate of York,
Whethamstede affirms that he was taken alive, and his dying moments
embittered by the brutal derision of his enemies, who, placing him
upon an ant-hill for a throne, with a crown of grass round his temples,
398 POLITICAL SERIES. [THIRD
hailed him, ' King without a kingdom ! prince without a people !' *
Others affirm that he was killed in the fight, but add that his inanimate
remains were treated with the most brutal indignity ; that Clifford bore
his reeking head upon a pole into the presence of the queen, exclaim-
ing, " Madam, your war is done ; here is the ransom of your king 1"
and that the unfeeling woman laughed aloud at the fearful spectacle,
and ordered her brutal ally to attach the bloody head to one of the gates
of the city of York. 5 In the pursuit, Clifford overtook Richard's
youngest son, the earl of Rutland, a boy in his twelfth year. His tutor,
a venerable priest, was hastening Avith him from the field of conflict
towards Wakefield, in hopes of finding shelter for his young charge in
that town. They were stopped on the bridge, and Clifford, attracted
by the rich garments of the boy, asked " Who is he?" Unable to speak
through terror, the poor boy fell on his knees, and began to implore
mercy ; and his faithful preceptor, thinking to save him, exclaimed,
" He is the son of a prince, and may, peradventure, do you good here-
after !" " The son of York I" shouted the bloody Clifford. " Then as
thy father slew mine, so will I slay thee, and all thy kin !" And plung-
ing his dagger into the heart of the young prince, he bade the tutor
bear the tidings of what he had seen to the boy's mother.
Cuttor.
DIED A. D. 14-61.
QUEEN CATHERINE, widow of Henry V., soon after the death of
her gallant and accomplished husband, bestowed her hand upon Sir
Owen Tudor, a simple Welsh knight, whose graceful manners and great
personal beauty had captivated the fair and royal matron. Sandford
bears witness to the good taste at least which Catherine displayed in the
selection of this husband ; for he tells us that Sir Owen was so " abso-
lute in all the lineaments of his body, that the only contemplation of it
might make a queen forget all other circumstances." Catherine indeed
seems to have forgotten, or disregarded many circumstances which
should have deterred her from a union so much beneath her in dignity,
and so likely to prove the forerunner of family discord. She was a
Frenchwoman, however, and cared little for the objections which were
urged against her gratifying her own feelings in the disposal of her
hand a second time. When Tudor's kindred and country were objected
to amongst other things, she expressed a desire to see some of his kins-
men. " Whereupon," says Wynne, " he brought to her presence John
Ap Meredith and Howell Ap Llewellyn Ap Howell, his neare cozens,
men of goodly stature and personage, but wholly destitute of bringing
up and nurture, for when the queen had spoken to them in divers lan-
guages, and they were not able to answer her, she said that they were
' the goodliest dumbe creatures that ever she saw.' " Three sons were
the fruit of this union. The two elder, Edmund and Jasper, were cre-
ated earls of Richmond and Pembroke by their half-brother, " with
pre-eminence," says Fuller, " to take place above all earls, for kings
Whet. 439. Hall.
PERIOD.] TIPTOFT, EARL OF WORCESTER. 399
have absolute authority in dispensing honours." The younger entered
into a religious community and died a monk. Upon the death of
Catherine which happened in 1437 Tudor was committed to prison
for contempt of the royal prerogative, in marrying a tenant of the
crown without previously obtaining the royal license. The hardy
Welshman soon made escape from his confinement, but was after-
wards retaken and committed to the castle of Wallingford. Miss Ro-
berts has given a passage from a manuscript chronicle in the Hurleian
library, which, as she observes, goes far to disprove the ostentatious
account so industriously circulated by Henry VII. and his partisans,
respecting the royal descent of that monarch's paternal ancestor. It
runs thus : " This same year one Oweyn, no man of birth neither of
livelihood, broke out of Newgate against night, at searching time,
through help of his priest, and went his way, hurting foule his keeper.
The which Oweyn had privily wedded the Queen Katherine, and had
three or four children by her, unweeting the common people till that
she was dead and buried." Sir Owen perished at last upon the scaf-
fold, having been taken prisoner by young Edward after the battle at
Mortimer's cross, and instantly sacrificed to the revengeful feelings
which then filled the conqueror's bosom.
Ctptoft, (Carl of <L!orrr0tcr*
BORN A. D. 1428 DIED A. D. 1470.
JOHN TIPTOFT, earl of Worcester, one of the few literary ornaments
of England in the 15th century, was born at Everton in Cambridge-
shire, and educated at Baliol college, Oxford, where, as his contempo-
rary John Rous of Warwick informs us, he greatly distinguished him-
self by his application to study and progress in the literature of the
age. Upon the death of his father, Lord Tiptoft, in the twenty-first of
Henry the Sixth's reign, he succeeded, while yet a minor, to the great
estates of his family, and at the age of twenty-two was elevated to the
earldom of Worcester. Three years later he was appointed lord-trea-
surer of England, and in the twenty-seventh year of his age he was
commissioned with some other noblemen to guard the channel, a
task which he performed with equal honour to himself and advantage
to his country. Withdrawing himself for a time from public life, he
visited the Holy land, and returning by Italy, spent some time in Pa-
dua, then the great seat of learning for Europe, and graced by the
presence of Ludovicus Carbo, Guarinus, and John Phrea, an English-
man, all famous for their learning. On this occasion, Phrea dedicated
two of his works to the noble and accomplished young Englishman, of
whom, amongst other complimentary things, he says : " Those supe-
rior beings whose office it is to be the guardians of our island of Bri-
tain, knowing you to be a wise and good man, an enemy to faction,
and a friend of peace, warned you to abandon a country which they
had abandoned, that you might receive no stain from associating with
impious and factious men." 1 This is quite in the style of the age; but
1 Lcland, p. 477.
400 POLITICAL SERIES. [THIRD
the fact appears to have been, that Tiptoft long balanced in his own
mind the comparative advantages of adherence to the rising or to the
sinking party, and unable at the moment to decide, wisely resolved on
withdrawing himself from the scene altogether, until the great national
struggle had been decided. He continued at Padua for the space of
three years, during the heat of the civil wars in his native country.
Laurentius Carbo represents him as so exceedingly fond of books, that
during his residence at Padua, he plundered, so to speak, the libraries
of Italy to enrich those of England. On his return home, he presented
the literary spoils thus acquired to the university-library of Oxford.
Before quitting Italy he visited Rome, and being introduced to Pope
Pius II. addressed his holiness in a Latin oration, which drew tears of
admiration from him. After it became known that Edward was firmly
seated on the throne of England, Tiptoft returned to England, and was
received into favour with that prince, who loaded him with honours,
and at last appointed him lord-lieutenant of Ireland and constable of
England. But on the brief restoration of Henry, this accomplished
nobleman was seized, condemned, and beheaded at the tower in 1470,
on a charge of mal-administration in Ireland. " O good blessed Lord!"
exclaims Caxton, in allusion to his unhappy fate " what grete losse
was it of that noble, virtuous, and well-disposed lord, the earl of Wor-
cester ! What worship had he at Rome in the presence of our holy
father the pope, and in all other places unto his death ! The axe then
did at one blow cut off more learning than was in the heads of all the
surviving nobility." The earl translated Cicero's treatises ' De Ami-
citia,' and ' De Senectute,' which were printed by Caxton in 1481.
Some other pieces of his still remain in manuscript, and several have
been lost.
fibers*
BORN CIRC. A, D. 1442 DIED A. D. 1483.
THE accomplished Anthony Wydeville, Earl Rivers, was the son
of Sir Richard Wydeville, by Jacqueline of Luxemburg, duchess-dow-
ager of Bedford, who, like Queen Catherine, had not hesitated to be-
stow her hand on the man she loved, though, in doing so, she outraged
some just notions of propriety and dignity. The subject of our present
sketch was born about the year 1442, and, while yet a youth, took an
active part with his father in supporting the sinking interests of the
Lancastrian family. When Denham, by a bold and unexpected de-
scent on Sandwich, had surprised Lord Rivers, who was engaged in
fitting out an armament in that port, the young Rivers shared his fa-
ther's captivity, and was carried with him to Calais, where he nobly
endured the rude reproaches of Warwick and his coadjutors Salisbury
and March. The marriage of Edward with Elizabeth, the sister of
Anthony Wydeville, changed the politics as well as fortunes of the
house of Rivers. Soon after his sister's marriage, Anthony obtained
the hand of the orphan daughter of Lord Scales, and in addition to his
wife's estates, succeeded also to her father's title. In 1467, hi a solemn
and magnificent tournament held at Smithfield, probably in honour of
PlRIOD.] WYDEVILLE, EAKL BIVERS. 401
the marriage of the king's sister with Charles, duke of Burgundy, An-
thony twice overcame the Count de la Roche, and won for himsi-lf tin-
highest reputation for skill and chivalric courtesy. Equally distin-
guished as a warrior and a statesman, ' vir haud facile diacernaa
manuve aut consilio promptior,' in the words of Sir Thomas .More,
Lord Rivers was intrusted with several important embassies at the
courts of Scotland, Burgundy, and Bretagne ; and being smitten with
the desire to visit foreign countries, he employed his leisure in travel-
ling through Spain and Italy. He made a pilgrimage to the altar of
St James of Compostella, and purchased a large indulgence from the
holy see for the chapel of our Lady of Pisa, near St Stephen's, West-
minster.
At the period of Edward the Fourth's decease, the youthful heir of
his crown resided at Ludlow castle under the care of the earl of Rivers,
and the queen proposed that her son should be instantly escorted to
the metropolis by his uncle, at the head of a large body of troops ; but
the jealousy of Lord Hastings retarded this measure, and in the mean-
time Gloucester appeared on the stage, and entered on that deep game
which involved the Wydevilles as its earliest victims. Rivers lias been
censured for allowing the young king to pursue his route to Stoney-
Stratford while he himself lingered behind in Northampton until Glou-
cester arrived there. But it does not appear that the carl either medi-
tated deserting the young prince, or suspected the treacherous designs
of the duke: for the whole party, after having exchanged mutual assur-
ances of friendship, sat down together to a festal banquet, after which
Rivers retired to his lodgings without making an attempt to escape,
and next morning he accompanied the duke to Stoney-Stratford, where
they joined Edward and his train. Gloucester now threw off the
mask, and suddenly accused Rivers and Gray of having attempted to
misrepresent him to the king, his nephew; at the same time he caused
the most confidential of the young king's servants to be laid under ar-
rest, and ordered the rest of his retinue to disperse. Soon afterwards,
the gallant Rivers was beheaded without form of trial. He perished
in the forty-first year of his age. Walpole has justly said of him, that
he was " as gallant as his luxurious brother-in-law, without his weak-
nesses ; as brave as the heroes of either rose, without their savageness ;
studious in the intervals of business, and devout after the manner of
those whimsical times, when men challenged others whom they never
saw, and went barefoot to visit shrines in countries of which they had
scarce a map."
The literature of England is under deep obligations to this accom-
plished nobleman, who greatly enriched it by original and felicitous
poetry and translations from the classics and from French authors.
Hume says that he first introduced the noble art of printing into Eng-
land ; but this is evidently a mistake. He greatly patronised Caxtou,
however, and his * Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers ' is sup-
posed to have been the second work produced in England by that
printer. This translation was executed by the earl during his seclu-
sion at Ludlow, while superintending the education of the prince, his
nephew. The preface is written in a fine spirit, and cannot fail to
interest the general reader as well as the student of our early literature.