rescue him; and one of them inade a blow at misery under the late king, proceeds thus: "Also lord Stanley's head with a pole-axe; but he we consider how the pretended marriage betwixt escaped by shrinking under the table. The same the above-named king Edward and Elizabeth day were executed the earl Rivers, and some Gray, was made of great presumption, without the others, who had committed no other crime than knowing and assent of the lords of this land, being faithful to the young king. The pro- and also by sorcery and witchcraft committed by tector now thought he might with safety lay the said Elizabeth and her mother Jacquetta, claim to the throne. He had previously gained duchess of Bedford, as the common opinion of over the duke of Buckingham, a nobleman of great the public voice and fame is throughout all this influence; and he used his utmost endeavours land, and hereafter, if and as the case shall reto inspire the people with a notion of the illegi- quire, shall be proved sufficiently in time and timate birth of the late king. Dr. Shaw, a po- place convenient: and here also we consider how pular preacher, was also employed to harangue that the said pretended marriage was made prithe people to this effect at St. Paul's cross. Hav- vily and secretly, without edition of bans, in a ing expatiated on the incontinence of the queen, private chamber, a profane place, and not openly and the illegality of the young king's title, he in the face of the church after the law of God's added a warm panegyric on the virtues of the church, but contrary thereunto, and the laudable protector. It is the protector,' continued he, custom of the church of England: and how also who carries in his face the image of virtue, and that at the time of the contract of the said prethe marks of a true descent. He alone can re- tended marriage, and before and long after, the store the lost glory and honor of the nation.' It said king Edward was and stood married and was hoped that on this occasion some of the po- troth plight to one dame Eleanor Butteler, pulace would have cried out, Long live king dau hter of the old earl of Shrewsbury, with Richard!' but on their remaining silent, the duke whom the said king Edward had made a preof Buckingham undertook in his turn, to address contract of matrimony long time before he made them. Having expatiated on the calamities of the said pretended marriage with the said Elizathe last reign, and the illegitimacy of the pre- beth Gray in manner and form aforesaid: which sent race, he told the people that he saw only premises being true, as in very truth they be true, one method of warding off the miseries which it appeareth evidently that the said king Edward, threatened the state, which was by electing the during his life, and the said Elizabeth, lived toprotector king. He was only apprehensive, that gether sinfully and damnably in adultery against he would never be prevailed upon to accept a the law of God and of his church. Also it appearcrown encompassed with such difficulty and eth evidently and followeth, that all the issue danger. He then boldly asked his auditors whe- and children of the said king Edward be basther they would have the protector for their king? tards, and unable to inherit or to claim any when a total silence ensued. The mayor, who thing by inheritance, by the law and custom of was in the secret, observed, that the citizens were England.' Next is recited the attainder of the not accustomed to be harangued by a man of his duke of Clarence, by which his children were quality, and would only give an answer to their debarred from the succession, and thence it is recorder. This officer, therefore, repeated the inferred that the protector is the next heir to duke's speech; but the people still continued Richard, late duke of York. And hereupon,' silent. This is strange obstinacy,' the duke ob- continues the petition, we humbly desire, pray served, we only require of you, in plain terms, and require your noble grace, that according to to declare, whether or not you will have the duke this election of us the three estates of your land, of Gloucester for your king; as the lords and as by your true inheritance, you will accept and commons have sufficient power without your take upon you the said crown and royal dignity, concurrence?' At this, some of the apprentices, with all things thereto annexed and appertainincited by the servants of the protector and ing, as to you of right belonging, as well by inBuckingham, raised a feeble cry of God save heritance as by lawful election.' king Richard!' The mob repeated the cry; and throwing up their caps into the air, cried out, A Richard! A Richard!'.

This scene is well drawn by Dr. Lingard. In the morning Buckingham, with several lords and gentlemen, and Shaw with principal citizens, proceeded to the palace, and demanded an audience. The protector affected to be surprised at their arrival: expressed apprehensions for his safety; and when at last he showed himself at a window, appeared before them with strong marks of embarrassment and perturbation. Buckingham, with his permission, presented to him an address, which, having been afterwards embodied in act of parliament, still exists for the information of posterity: It is styled the consideration, election, and petition, of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons of this realm of England: and after an exaggerated picture of the former prosperity of the kingdom, and of its

The protector was careful not to dispute the truth of these assertions. But he replied with modesty, that he was not ambitious; that royalty had no charms for him; that he was much attached to the children of his brother, and resolved to preserve the crown that it might grace the brow of his nephew. "Sir,' returned the duke of Buckingham, the free people of England will never crouch to the rule of a bastard, and if the lawful heir refuse the sceptre, they know where to find one who will cheerfully accept it.' At these words Richard affected to pause; and after a short silence replied, 'that it was his duty to obey the voice of his people; that since he was the true heir, and had been chosen by the three estates, he assented to their petition, and would from that day take upon himself the royal estate, pre-eminence, and kingdom of the two noble realms of England and France, the one from that day forward by him and his heirs

celebrated in London with greater appearance of joy than either his entry or his coronation had been. Henry remarked, with displeasure, this general favor borne to the house of York; and the suspicions arising from it, not only disturbed his tranquillity during the whole of his reign, but produced a disgust toward his consort, and poisoned his domestic happiness. A long course of civil wars had rendered the people turbulent and factious; and the king's violent animosity to the house of York, irritated their proneness to rebellion. Early in his reign, instead of endea

battle. Richmond, on the other hand, though he had not above 6000 men, and the king nearly double that number, did not decline the combat, encouraged chiefly by the promises of lord Stanley to join him with a body of 7000 men, with which he hovered near the intended field of action, not far from Leicester. The king entrusted his van to the duke of Norfolk, while he himself, with the crown on his head, took the command of the main body. Lord Stanley in the mean time posted himself on one flank between the two armies, while his brother Sir William took his station directly opposite. As his intention ofvouring to conciliate the affections of the oppoeither joining the enemy or keeping neutral during the time of the engagement was now far from being doubtful, Richard sent him orders to join the main body; which not being complied with, the tyrant determined to put to death his son, who had been left with him as a pledge of Stanley's fidelity. He was persuaded, however, to defer the execution till after the engagement, that Stanley might thereby be induced to delay his purpose of joining the enemy. This he did not long do; and by joining Richmond's forces, entirely decided the fortune of the day. The tyrant now perceiving his situation to be desperate, and seeing his rival at no great distance, rode towards him with great fury, in hopes that either Henry's death or his own would decide the victory. He killed Sir W. Brandon the earl's standard bearer; dismounted Sir John Cheyney; and was within reach of Richmond, when Sir William Stanley breaking in with his troops, Richard was surrounded and overwhelmed by numbers. His body was afterwards found in the field, covered with the dead bodies of his enemies. It was thrown carelessly across a horse, carried to Leicester amidst the shouts of insulting spectators, and interred in the Gray-Friar's church of that place. The usurper's crown being found on the field of battle, was placed on the head of Richmond, both armies saluting him with shouts of Long live king Henry !'

8. Of England under the house of Tudor.Two days after the battle, Henry gave orders to confine Edward Plantagenet, earl of Warwick, son of the unfortunate duke of Clarence, and to release the princess Elizabeth, who had been confined in the Tower. He then advanced by slow marches to the city of London, where he was very satisfactorily received. He was crowned king of England on the 30th of October, 1485; and, to heighten the splendor of that occasion, bestowed the rank of knights banneret on twelve persons, and conferred peerages on three. Jasper earl of Pembroke, his uncle, he created duke of Bedford; Thomas lord Stanley his father-in-law, earl of Derby; and Edward Courteney, earl of Devonshire. At the coronation likewise appeared a new institution, which the king had established for personal security as well as pomp; a band of fifty archers, who were denominated Yeomen of the Guard. But, lest the people should take umbrage at this step, as if it implied a diffidence of his subjects, he declared the institution to be perpetual. The ceremony of the coronation was performed by cardinal Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury. On the 18th of January, 1486, he married the princess Elizabeth; an occurrence

site party, he always strove to quell them by absolute force. For this purpose, soon after his accession, he passed into the north of England, where the Yorkists were very numerous. In his journey thither, he received intelligence of an insurrection raised against him by lord Lovel and Sir Henry and Sir Thomas Stafford, who were marching to besiege the city of Worcester. The rebels dispersed, however, on the offer of a general pardon; and lord Lovel submitted to the king's mercy. The Staffords took sanctuary in the church of Colnham, near Abingdon; but it was found, or asserted, that it had not the privilege of protecting rebels. The elder was therefore brought out, and executed at Tyburn; but the younger, pleading that he had been misled, received a pardon. This success was soon after followed by the birth of a prince; whom Henry named after the celebrated king Arthur, said to have been the direct ancestor of the house of Tudor. None of these occurrences, however, seemed fully to reconcile the hearts of the English to their sovereign. His extreme severity still continued towards the house of York: many of its popular adherents had been treated with great cruelty, and deprived of their fortunes under pretence of treason; a general resumption had likewise been made of the grants made by the princes of that house. It was likewise universally believed that the queen herself met with harsh treatment. Hence, notwithstanding the politic and vigorous administration of Henry, the people generally made little scruple of openly expressing their disapprobation of his conduct and government; and one rebellion seemed to be extinguished only to give birth to another. At the commencement of his reign, the king had confined the duke of Clarence's son, as has been mentioned. This unfortunate youth, who was generally recognised as the earl of Warwick, was, through long confinement, entirely unacquainted with the affairs of the world. But he was now made use of to disturb the public tranquillity. The queen dowager was, with much reason, suspected to be at the bottom of this conspiracy; but not choosing to interfere openly in it, she employed one Simon, a priest of Oxford, to prosecute her designs. Having found a lad about fifteen years of age, named Lambert Simnel, who, from his graceful air and appearance, seemed capable of personating a man of quality, he intructed him to assume the title of Richard duke of York, second son of Edward IV., who, it was said, had secretly made his escape from the cruelty of his uncle. Hearing afterwards a new report that Warwick had escaped from the

freed from danger, determined to take ample vengeance on his enemies. For this purpose he took a second journey into the north; where finding many delinquents, he exacted heavy fines from all who could pay them; levying them, as well as indicting capital punishment, not by the ordinary judges, but either by commissioners appointed for the occasion, or by sentence of a court-martial. Having thus re-established his authority, he determined to recommend himself to his subjects by affecting a military disposition. He seems, however, never to have had an intention of prosecuting foreign conquests; though, to please the people, he frequently gave out that he intended to invade France, and recover the continental possessions of England. Under these pretences, particularly that of assisting the Bretons, whom the king of France had lately subdued, and who had applied to him for relief, he persuaded his parliament to grant him a considerable supply. The counties of Durham and

Henry's government, and still farther provoked by the oppressions under which they labored after the extinction of Simnel's rebellion, opposed the commissioners sent by the king to levy the taxes. When the latter applied to the earl of Northum

Tower, and observing that this news was received with general satisfaction, he changed his plan of imposture, it is said, and made Simnel personate that unfortunate prince. This pliant and able youth was, therefore, found to speak familiarly of many occurrences, as happening to him in the court of Edward. But as the imposition was not calculated to bear a close scrutiny, he was removed to Ireland; and no sooner presented himself to the earl of Kildare the deputy,' claiming his protection as the unfortunate earl of Warwick, than he is said to have shaken the loyalty of that nobleman, who, with several others, began to consult as to their line of duty, and expressed a strong belief in Simnel's story. In proportion as it was spread it obtained credit. Simnel was lodged in the castle of Dublin; the inhabitants universally took an oath of allegiance to him, as the true descendant of the Plantagenets; he was crowned with a diadem taken from the statue of the blessed virgin, and proclaimed king by the title of Edward VI.: the whole king-York, who had always been discontented with dom followed the example of the capital. This. event so much alarmed Henry, that he would have gone over to Ireland to quell the rebellion, had he not been afraid of the machinations of the queen dowager in his absence. He was therefore resolved to confine her for life in a monas-berland for assistance in the execution of their tery: under pretence, however, of its being on account of her having formerly delivered up the princess her daughter to king Richard. The queen murmured against this treatment of her mother in vain: the king persisted in his resolution, and she remained in confinement till the time of her death, which happened some years after. The next measure was to show Warwick to the people. He was taken from the Tower, and led through the principal streets of London; after which he was conducted in solemn procession to St. Paul's, where great numbers were assembled to see him. Still, however, they proceeded in Dublin to honor their pretended monarch; and he was crowned with great solemnity in the presence of the earl of Kildare, the chan cellor, and the other officers of state. At last, being furnished by the duchess of Burgundy with a body of 2000 veteran Germans under the command of Martin Swart, a brave and experienced officer, he proceeded to invade England. Landing in Lancashire, he marched thence to York, expecting that, as in Ireland, the people would rise and join him every where. But, in this he was deceived: they were unwilling to connect themselves with a body of foreigners; and were besides kept in awe by the reputation of Henry. Lord Lincoln, therefore, who commanded the rebel army, determined to bring the matter to a speedy issue. Accordingly he met the royal army at Stoke, in the county of Nottingham. An obstinate engagement ensued, but the royal forces obtained a complete victory. Lord Lincoln, with 4000 private men, fell in the battle; and Simnel with his tutor Simon were taken prisoners. The latter, being a priest, could not be tried by the civil power, and was only committed to close confinement. Simnel was pardoned, and made a scullion in the king's kitchen, whence he was afterwards advanced to the rank of falconer, in which employment he died. Henry being now VOL. VIII.

office, instead of being able to enforce the levying of the tax, he himself was attacked and put to death by the insurgents. This act of violence committed by themselves, seemed to render the insurgents desperate, so that they now prepared openly to resist the royal power, under the conduct of Sir John Egremond. This ill-conducted and precipitate scheme, however, met with no success. Henry instantly levied a considerable force, which he committed to the charge of the earl of Surrey; by whom the rebels were quickly defeated. Sir John Egremond fled to the duchess of Burgundy, who protected him. The Bretons now urgently applied to Henry for assistance, their distresses becoming every day more galling, and as he had obtained the subsidy under the pretext of invading France, he found himself obliged to attempt something. With this view he set sail for Calais with an army of 25,000 foot and 1600 horse, of which he gave the command to the duke of Bedford and the earl of Oxford. Negociations for peace were even now, however, secretly begun, and commissioners were appointed to consider the terms, it is said, three months before Henry set out for the continent. As the love of money was his ruling passion, and the possession of Bretagne was a great object to France, an accommodation soon took place between the parties. The king of France engaged to pay Henry £200,000 as a reimbursement for the expenses of his expedition, and stipulated at last, to pay him and his heirs an annual pension of 25,000 crowns more. The authority of Henry now seemed so firmly established, as to leave no reason to dread any rival; but the duchess of Burgundy, resenting the depression of her family, and exasperated by her repeated disappointments, resolved to make a final effort against him. For this purpose, she had recourse to the same kind of expedient that had succeeded so well in Simnel's case. She propagated a re

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