Presently they would be unpacked and a variety of
beautiful things distributed ; many of them were
for personal decoration in that age of fondness for
show. There would almost certainly be some ' picture-
blocks ' for the inmates of the royal nursery, for the
Low Countries were the home of the mediaeval wood-
cut. Some packs of playing-cards would delight the
elders. The ' court ' cards were often most elaborately
and beautifully painted, some bearing portraits of great
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The Royal House of York
men and women of recent times. In many repre-
sentations of the time one card bore the portrait of
the wife of the French king, and one that of Joan of
Arc. The knaves, too, were much more like knaben
(boys) than our modern ones gallant lads in pretty
dress instead of the curious conventional figures we
know. The suits were not at that time rigorously
fixed as hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades ; one
suit, for instance, was two bells.
Then it is possible that for the young princesses,
her nieces, the Duchess Margaret had brought silken
hose, gaily-painted shoes, or soft ' couvre-chefs ' for
the head. For the Queen, or indeed for King Edward
himself, there could be hardly any gift more pleasing
than some flasks of cordial, vials of unguents, or pots
of delicate medicaments. The King himself was a
great patron of apothecaries ; and every mistress of a
household kept a medicine-store as faithfully as her
linen-chest. Specifics against the prevailing epidemic
of the plague were quite usual. Perfumes were highly
esteemed, and must occasionally have been sorely
needed both in homes and streets. Some years
earlier King Edward had sent to his brother-in-law,
the Duke of Burgundy, a finger-ring with a diamond
inset, and a similar ornament may have been among
his sister's gifts on this occasion. Probably, too, she
had brought for some esteemed host or representative
one or more examples of the ' printed ' books of Bruges
or Cologne or Mentz for the Duchess was ever a
book-lover. And, finally, there would be casks and
flagons of the sweet red wines, and white, for which
her country was already famous.
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William Caxton
However much impressed the Duchess Margaret
might have been with her brother's kingdom, Court,
and stately surroundings, she must have been struck
with the change in himself. The nine years that
had passed since their meeting during his exile had
left their mark on the great frame and resolute mind
of the King. His ruthless punishment of his foes,
open or suspected, had terrorized his nobles into
obedience ; his impetuous and reckless conduct of
affairs had won the admiration of the bulk of his
subjects of lesser rank, and, in general, he was popular.
But his ambitions were continually being frustrated,
and the miseries of remorse made themselves felt
as the years passed. His self-indulgent habits im-
paired his health ; his impaired health affected his
spirits and destroyed his energy. Indeed he seemed
hardly the same man as the exiled Edward of 1471
who, with a handful of supporters, made a dash for
his own country and triumphantly seized his realm.
He was perpetually harassed with the thought of
the succession to the throne. Only a few months
before the arrival of the Duchess Margaret he had
received envoys from the French king laden with
rich gifts, which appealed to his love of wealth and
display. But no definite word was spoken as to
when the ' Dauphiness ' prospective was to become
the Dauphiness in fact, and he began to be irritably
conscious that he was being trifled with by France.
Affairs with regard to Scotland were also unsettled.
The Scottish king, James III, had suggested that
his brother the Duke of Albany should marry the
widow r ed Duchess Margaret, but King Edward had
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The Royal House of York
hesitated to sanction this match for fear of offending
Louis XL King James was as ambitious and as ready
to drive a bargain as Edward himself, and he inter-
fered in the matters in dispute between Louis XI and
Maximilian, the husband of Mary of Burgundy. High-
handed as usual, the English King had seized the Duke
of Albany and imprisoned him, but he had escaped a
few months before this time and had taken refuge at
the court of Louis. This was another occasion for
anxiety as, should the French king espouse his cause
and support the Scottish king, an invasion of England
would probably ensue.
The King's plan for his beloved heir Edward,
Prince of Wales, was that he should marry the daughter
of the Duke of Brittany, evidently with the idea of
securing certain dominions across the Channel. A
still more ambitious alliance was hoped for at the time
of the Duchess Margaret's visit the marriage of the
little Lady Catherine, aged three, to Prince John of
Spain, the third son of Ferdinand and Isabella. In all
these lofty designs for his children Edward had the
ready sympathy, and indeed the eager suggestions,
of his Queen. Partly to gratify her and partly to
surround himself with a new nobility, who might be
expected to be loyal to the sovereign who had honoured
them, the King had arranged, or sanctioned, the
marriage of the Queen's six sisters to noblemen,
whom he advanced to high positions.
The government of England during Edward IV's
reign was practically a military control. Parliament
was summoned but once between 1474 and 1483, and
that was only to procure the condemnation of the
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Duke of Clarence. The Duke of Gloucester was the
King's right-hand man ; officially he was ' Great Cham-
berlain and Lord High Admiral/ where ' Admiral '
is not an exclusively naval title. Henry Bourchier, Earl
of Essex, was Treasurer, and the Archbishop of York
was Chancellor. Early in the reign it had been pro-
posed, as one way of maintaining peace with Scotland,
that the Duke of Clarence should marry Margaret,
the sister of the Scottish king, James III. This fell
through, and some years later (1474) the infant son
of James was betrothed to King Edward's fourth
daughter, Cecily, aged five. But the ceremony,
though faithfully carried out, was not enough to
secure friendly relations between the two countries,
chiefly on account of the restless ambition of Alexander,
Duke of Albany, the King's brother. The characters
and relations of these two men might almost have
suggested to Shakespeare those of Prospero and
the usurping Duke of Milan in The Tempest. For
James III was overmuch given to the study of secret
and magical arts, and Alexander, backed by a dis-
contented party in the State, scornfully interfered in
the affairs of government and made mischief with
the English king.
The great nobles, in spite of the law against main-
tenance, kept up stately retinues in their strong castles,
and in practice the countenance and protection of a
powerful baron were better worth seeking by lesser
people than the protection of the law. We read
that the number of retainers who were kept at their
lord's expense and wore their lord's ' livery ' and
badge, varied from sixteen for a knight to two hundred
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and fifty for a duke, through all the grades, baron,
viscount, earl, marquess, etc. Hence it came that
quarrels easily developed into fights, and that a body
of armed men could enable an unsuccessful pleader
in a lawsuit to hold his own against any legal decision.
An interesting collection of letters written to and
from the members of an East Anglian family shows
that the instinct for settling any dispute by appeals
to force was far stronger than that for finding a
peaceable solution. One letter relates how some
disappointed relatives, declining to abide by the
terms of the will of a deceased squire, invaded the
house they thought should have been theirs, and held
it against all comers. The writer l says : There be
men in Cotton-hall who be strangely disposed towards
you, for as I hear say, they make revel there, they
melt lead, and break down your bridge, and make
that no man go into the place, but on a ladder ; and
make them as strong as they can. As for Edward
Dale (apparently a neighbour) he does not abide at
home, they threaten him so because he will send them
no victuals. . . . And as for the tenants, they be
well disposed to you, except one or two, if that ye
will support them in haste, for they may not keep
their cattle off the ground longer, and they desire to
have your own presence.' 1
In a letter from Mistress Paston to her husband,
who was absent in the train of the Duke of Norfolk,
she says : " As for tidings we have none good in this
country. It was told me that Richard Southwell
hath entered in the manor of Hale, the which is the
1 The Paston Letters.
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William Caxton
Lady Boys', and keepeth it with strength with such
another fellowship as hath been at Brayston, and
wasteth and despoileth all that there is ; and the
Lady Boys, as it is told me, is to London to complain
to the King and the Lords thereof. . . ." It is char-
acteristic of the violence of the times that the good
old English word ' fellowship ' had become degraded
so that it invariably refers to the band of armed
retainers employed by some powerful landowner.
On the occasion of the holding of the King's courts,
which the King sometimes attended in person, the
question of disputed ownership would be settled in
accordance with justice based upon the evidence.
But that by no means assured possession to the
suitor if the unsuccessful party was strong enough
to take it by force.
In these same letters we have various details show-
ing how important was the matter of liveried retainers
on any great occasion. Sir John Paston writes to
his brother : " Brother, is it that the King shall come
into Norfolk in haste and I wot not whether I may
come with him or not ; if I come I must make a livery
of twenty gowns, which I must pick out by your
advice ; and as for the cloth for such persons as be
in the county, if it might be had there at Norwich or
not, I wot not. . . . And whether ye will offer your-
self to wait upon my Lord of Norfolk or not, I would
ye did that were best to do. . . . He shall have
two hundred in a livery blue and tawny, and blue on
the left side, and both dark colours."
On another occasion the son, Sir John, writes to
his father : ' Please you to wit that I am at Lynn
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The Royal Hoitse of York
and am informed by divers persons that the Master
of Carbrooke (a Master of Knights Templars) would
take rule in the Mary Talbot as for captain, and give
jackets of his livery to divers persons which he waged
(paid) by other men, in the said ship. Wherefore,
inasmuch as I have but few soldiers in mine livery
here, to strengthen me in that which is the King's
commandment, I keep with me your two men
Dawbenny and Calle, which I purpose shall sail with
me to Yarmouth, for I have purveyed harness for
them. . . ." Not infrequently the King had paid
visits to the county of Norfolk, usually accompanied
by his brother, the Duke of Gloucester. The Queen's
relatives held large estates in the county, that of
Lord Rivers comprising the district famous in our
own day as Sandringham. Toward the close, how-
ever, of Edward's reign he journeyed alone, Duke
Richard being fully occupied in the North as Warden
of the Marches.
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CHAPTER IX: Troublous
Times
N the year 1483 there were great doings at
Westminster and elsewhere ; and, however
much Caxton may have been engrossed in his
work in the Almonry, the stir of the world outside
must have reached him. For in the early spring of
that year the King lay ill, and before his people had
realized his sickness he had passed away. The
once active soldier had become enfeebled by self-
indulgence and luxurious living, sad and morose
through disappointed ambitions, and, seized by fever
or ague, he had no strength or spirit wherewith to
resist it. His brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester,
was at York, ruling his ' province of the North/ and
the young Prince of Wales, aged thirteen, was still
at Ludlow Castle, in the charge of Lord Rivers.
Certain that he would not recover, King Edward
sent for the two bitter rivals, Lord Hastings and the
Marquis of Dorset, and implored them to be recon-
ciled and to keep the peace during the minority of
his young son Edward.
He then declared that the Prince and his younger
son Richard were heirs to his kingdom, and he com-
mitted them to the care of the Duke of Gloucester.
The lords present were so moved at the sight of his
sufferings and misery that they promised all he
asked and shook hands in token of amity, though
the feud of Hastings and the Marquis of Dorset was
too bitter to be thus healed. At the age of forty,
after a reign of twenty-two years, Edward IV passed
no
Troublous Times
away, leaving the English crown once again to a child
of tender years.
In his will the King had directed that he was to
be buried at Windsor, in the chapel of St George,
and that the building and decoration of that chapel
should be completed. He bequeathed money for
the foundation of a chantry and of a hospital or
almshouse for thirteen aged men ; he stated that
all his just debts were to be paid, and all claims
upon his bounty when alive were to be honoured
to the full out of his estate. To his second son
Richard, already created Duke of Norfolk and Duke
of York, he left great estates, and a noble fortune
to each of his daughters, of whom the Queen was to
be guardian.
Preparations were made for an imposing funeral.
For a week the body of the late King lay in state
in the Abbey, then, in the midst of a stately procession
of peers and men-at-arms, singing monks and clerks,
it was borne by slow stages to Windsor and buried
in the tomb he had had brought from Mentz some
months earlier. Meanwhile messengers had been sent
by Lord Hastings, at that time Great Chamberlain, to
the heir to the throne at Ludlow and to the Duke of
Gloucester at York. He delivered the King's mandate
that Richard of Gloucester was the responsible
guardian of the young King and of his realm, and
begged him to join his royal master at once and to
bring him to the capital. So slowly did news travel
in those days, and so unprepared was every one
concerned, that the new sovereign (to be known as
Edward V) left Ludlow Castle only on April 24th,
in
William Caxton
nearly a week after his father was buried. So great
a company came with him that they made but slow
progress and were five da}^s in reaching Northampton,
where he was to have been met by his uncle, Duke
Richard.
However, plots and counterplots were afoot, and
Earl Rivers and Lord Grey desired that the young
King should reach London and, if possible, be crowned,
before Gloucester could take up his duties as Protector.
They hurried on with the royal lad toward London but
were overtaken at Stratford, in Essex, by the angry
Gloucester. He and his supporters were resolved
that none of the Queen's family (the Woodvilles and
Greys) should have positions of authority near the
young King. Tidings of these doings reached the
widowed Queen in her palace at Sheen, and she fled
with her younger son Richard and her four daughters
into sanctuary at the Abbey of Westminster. The
Great Chamberlain had a hard and busy time for
some days as rumours flew about ; the citizens of
London impetuously took sides with one party or the
other, and expressed their views by tumultuous
gatherings in the streets. Earl Rivers was put under
honourable arrest, and the Lord Hastings summoned
the Mayor and Corporation to a conference in which
he assured them that the Lord Protector and the
Lords of the Council were fully alive to their responsi-
bilities, and that the way of safety for plain citizens
was to retire to their houses and to pursue their busi-
ness peacefully. Caxton commented rather severely
on the excited instability of the Londoners : ' No-
wher be these fairer or better bespoken children than
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Troublous Times
they in their youth, but at their full riping there is
no kernel, no good corn found, but chaffe for the
most part."
The disturbed state of things led to the decision to
escort the young King Edward to the Tower as his
residence during the days before the coronation could
take place. It was at once the most dignified and
the strongest of the royal residences in London, but
it must not be thought of at that date as primarily
a prison. Every baron's castle contained dungeons
and the royal fortresses were the same, but the Tower
was first of all the king's residence. On a day early
in May there went forth an imposing procession of
barons and men-at-arms, the mayor and the civic
officials, to meet the young King. At Hornsey they
met the royal cavalcade, and, turning back with it,
took part in a grand ceremonial at the Bishop of
London's palace, where the archbishops and bishops
offered their homage and the mayor and aldermen
took their oaths of fealty. Then they rode on toward
the Tower, through the crowds of thronging, curious
citizens. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, rode bare-
headed behind the young Edward, announcing from
time to time in a loud voice, " Behold your Prince and
Sovereign." The royal lad was of a quiet and timor-
ous disposition, and was probably overwhelmed with
the novelty of his new position and the clashing of the
nobles' wills and desires even in his very presence.
It may well have been that he was conscious of sad
foreboding as he entered the gateway of the gloomy
fortress. For the Queen's party, inspired by her
determined and restless ambition, was bent upon
H 113
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having Gloucester's Protectorate cease at the King's
coronation ; and desired that she herself, with her
relatives, should become his advisers and guardians.
To thwart this the Protector demanded the guardian-
ship of the King's brother, Prince Richard, since he
was next heir to the throne ; and he, being supported
in his claim by the two archbishops, the Queen after
a stormy scene gave way.
The meeting between the two brothers took place
at the Bishop of London's palace, and there they
spent some days together while preparations for the
coronation were made. Harsh doings were afoot,
too, for Lord Hastings, chief leader of the Queen's
party, had been accused of treason and summarily
executed without even the formality of a trial.
Rumours of this and other disturbing news no doubt
reached the young princes as they practised their
parts and were instructed in their duties for the
great ceremony. The coronation was to take place
on June 24th and the meeting of Parliament on
the next day. For the opening the Lord Chan-
cellor (the Bishop of Lincoln) prepared an impressive
sermon upon the text, ' Listen, O Isles, unto me
and hearken, ye people, from afar : the Lord hath
called me." This, though it was never delivered,
has been preserved among our records, and strange
and quaint are some of the images and turns of speech.
"It be undoubted that all the habitation of man be
either in land or in water. Then if there be any sureness
or permanence in this world such as may be found out
of heaven it is rather in the Isles and lands environed
with water than in the See or in any great Rivers."
1x4
Troublous Times
Just before the Sunday of the coronation the Lord
Protector postponed the intended meeting of Parlia-
ment, and then followed it up with the announcement
that the coronation was to be deferred till November.
The rest of the grim story is told so effectively and
with such mastery by Shakespeare in his Tragedy
of King Richard the Third that most readers can think
of the Duke of Gloucester only as deformed without
and a monster of cruelty within. He was not, how-
ever, accepted as such in his own time ; the political
party supporting him appear to have believed that
through an earlier secret marriage of Edward IV
his children had no legal claim to the throne. This,
if justified, made Edward's brother Richard the next
heir. We read that, in order to sway the public mind,
on the very Sunday which was to have seen the
coronation a political sermon was preached at Paul's
Cross by the brother of the Lord Mayor. Taking as
his text a verse from the Book of Wisdom, " The
brood of the ungodly shall perish . . . and shall
not strike deep root," the preacher declared that there
were grave doubts as to the right of the young Prince
to be crowned King Edward V, and that the Protector
himself was in that case the rightful heir.
We may well imagine that Caxton was among
the crowd of listeners, which numbered " peers and
clerks and goodly gentlemen and a great concourse of
citizens," and we can picture his grave face among
those of the startled hearers. We read that they were
too much disturbed and surprised to receive the news
with the cries of welcome which had been expected.
However, the next day the Lord Mayor and city
"5
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aldermen, the Duke of Buckingham and others, went
to Baynard's Castle where Richard was residing and
craved audience. They begged him to take not
merely the protection of the realm but the throne
itself.
It is a curious illustration of the slowness and un-
certainty of communication in Caxton's day, that the
Protector's mandate postponing the opening of Par-
liament failed to reach most of its members in time,
so that they were on the spot on June 26th, when
" all the lords spiritual and temporal of this realm '
accompanied him to Westminster. There they pre-
sented him with an address petitioning him to receive
the crown, and on July 4th he was proclaimed king.
Two days later the coronation took place, the cere-
mony being performed by the aged Cardinal-Arch-
bishop Bourchier, a fortnight after the date when he
was to have crowned the young Prince Edward. This
great ecclesiastic was one of the most striking figures
of the time. Himself of royal descent (for he was the
great-grandson of Edward III), it had been his lot to
hold the highest positions in Church and State. At the
age of twenty-nine he w r as made Bishop of Worcester ;
ten years later he was translated to the wealthy
and important See of Ely ; twelve years after this he
became Archbishop of Canterbury and soon after Lord
Chancellor. This was in 1454, when the Duke of
York was Protector, but when in the next year King
Henry recovered from his malady, and Queen Margaret
held power, the Great Seal was taken from him. At
the defeat of the Lancastrians the Archbishop crowned
Edward king, but he held aloof from political life
116
Troublous Times
for many years. He was nominated cardinal in 1467
and seldom took part in any but Church functions
afterward. He built himself a castle-palace and was
distinguished throughout Europe as the patron of
learning and the friend of scholars, keeping a splendid
hospitality and maintaining a stately household.
We are told that it was at his banquets that there
first appeared in England the small sweet grapes of
Corinth, familiar to us as 'currants.'
Twice in his life the Cardinal- Archbishop was said
to have ' prevented a revolution ' by his tact and calm
judgment. One occasion was \vhen the victorious
Duke of York entered the House of Lords after the
battle of Northampton and advanced toward the
steps of the throne as though about to make for
the seat. The Archbishop advanced with a courtly
obeisance, saying, Will not my Lord of York go
and pay his respects to the King ? ' The Duke was
taken aback and became so conscious that the feeling
of the assembly was not with him that he retired. The
second occasion contrasts strangely with this. In-
stead of administering a rebuff, Bourchier, by his
action, established Edward's position at a critical
time. In 1470 when the King's secret marriage with
Lady Elizabeth Grey offended many of the nobility,
it \vas very doubtful whether the citizens of London
would support him or not. The Archbishop made
great preparations for an impressive ceremony and,
surrounded by several bishops and the Cathedral
clergy, a\vaited the King on the steps of St Paul's
Cathedral and gave him his episcopal blessing.
Now once more he was to hold a prominent position
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William Caxton
in the great events of the time. The curious eyes
of the Londoners were again to be feasted with
pageants and processions and ceremonies. From
Baynard's Castle to Westminster Hall, from the
Hall to the Abbey, where the coronation took place,
from the Abbey to St Paul's and amid welcoming
shouts at last rode the new King. Everything that
could add to the impressiveness of the occasion was