about Henry VI., the "murdered Saint," which is men- Henry VI.'s tioned by Shakespeare and various historians, prophecy most poetically in the phrase, "this pretty boy Henry of will wear the garland" (the graceful designation in those days of the crown of England), " for which we so sinfully contend." Richmond. IV.'s Richmond. Toward the end of Edward IV.'s reign, his Edward jealousy of Richmond reached to such a height practices that he endeavoured to lure him over to England against with a promise of marrying him to the princess royal Elizabeth. Henry was rescued from this danger by the honour of Francis, Duke of Brittany, who, at almost the last moment, discovered Edward's deadly designs against the young earl. I cannot forbear from remarking here, how shortsighted is the policy of men when they depart from the paths of right. The young prince against whom Edward so treacherously plotted was preserved from his hands to avenge on a tyrant the cruel murder of Edward's young sons, to marry the same Elizabeth, Edward's best beloved child, and to transmit the crown to their descendants to the present day. Edward IV. In 1483 Edward IV. died. With his death Death of begins the last tremendous act in the bloody A.D. 1483, drama of the Wars of the Roses. At his decease April 9. the principal descendants of Richard, Duke of ants of York, were the following: of the king's children, Richard, his eldest son Edward, Prince of Wales, then in York, at F Descend death. Edward Edward's his thirteenth year, his only other surviving son Richard, nine years old, and his eldest daughter IV.'s and child Elizabeth, who was in her eighteenth Clarence's. year. Of Clarence, two children were living, the Earl of Warwick and Margaret, afterwards Richard's. Countess of Salisbury. One son only of Richard, children. Gloucester's designs and actions. Duke of York, was living, the baleful Richard, Duke of Gloucester. He had by Anne, younger daughter of the great Earl of Warwick, an only child, Edward. I must baldly recount the portentous events out of which issued the auspicious union of the rival houses of York and Lancaster in the persons of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York. Immediately after Edward IV.'s death, the Duke of Gloucester determined to strike for the protectorship of the king and of the realm, if not for the crown itself. He first obtained possession of the person of the young king, Edward V., on his journey from Ludlow to London, under the escort of the boy king's uncle, Earl Rivers, He executes and half-brother, Sir Richard Grey. These two Earl Rivers noblemen he soon after caused to be beheaded. Hitherto he had been abetted by the Lord Hastings, as well as by Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. The latter was a nobleman of great possessions, and illustrious by his descent from Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, and also through his mother, Margaret, daughter of Edmond, second Duke of Somerset, from John of Gaunt's legitimated and Sir Richard Grey. Hastings and the Duke of Bucking ham. sounds possession Bastardizes children. family. But when Richard caused Catesby to Richard sound Lord Hastings' disposition to aid him in Hastings. his designs on his brother's throne, Hastings, strongly attached to the memory of Edward IV., refused his support, and was beheaded by Richard's Executes order, after the memorable council at the Tower. Hastings. Gloucester's next step was to obtain possession of Obtains the king's brother, Richard. Having effected of young this object, he proceeded to brand all Edward IV.'s Richard. children with illegitimacy. At his instigation, Edward Stillington, Bishop of Bath, came forward to de- IV.'s clare that he had privately married Edward IV. to the Lady Eleanor Talbot before the king's marriage with Elizabeth Woodville. Stillington owed a grudge to Edward, who had imprisoned him. He admitted that the alleged marriage was celebrated without witnesses. He scarcely pretended that he had ever previously confided the secret to any person. The Lady Eleanor had never claimed to be the king's wife. It may fairly be asserted that such evidence ought not to have determined a question of even private inheritance. children. But even if Edward's children were set aside Clarence's as illegitimate, the son and daughter of Clarence Gloucesstood between Richard and the throne. Against ter's two them was urged the attainder of Clarence, which would doubtless have barred them from any private inheritance. But in such a case, the throne. first pleas against their right to the The third plea. private inheritance would not have vested in the next kinsman unaffected by the attainder, but would have passed to the crown. There was, therefore, no true analogy between the succession of an attainted heir to a private possession and that of such an heir to the crown. But Richard enforced the two different pleas against the succession of his two elder brothers' children to the crown by a third, common to both their families, and unsurpassable for shameless baseness. He asserted that his own mother, the Duchess Cecily of York, who was still living, had been unfaithful to her husband, and that her sons Edward IV. and Clarence were not the offspring of her husband. Richard, however, it seems was legitimate, and his legitimacy was supposed to be attested by his striking likeness to Richard, Duke of York. It is to be remarked that the Duke of Gloucester did not moot the question whether the Earl of Rutland, the unhappy youth who was butchered by the ruthless Clifford after the battle of Wakefield, and the Duke of York's daughters were legitimate or not. I mention this only because it is a point common to most of the rumours of illegitimacy of princes that they attach only to those whose right to the throne rivals are interested in questioning. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the. scandal was of old date. The Duke of Burgundy used to style his brother-in-law Edward as "brother Blackburn," in allusion to the name of a handsome archer, who was supposed to have found favour in the eyes of Duchess Cecily, and we have seen that Clarence was accused of having countenanced rumours that his mother's frailty had affected the legitimacy of his eldest brother. becomes Richard, after a miserable burlesque of popular Gloucester election, became king, and was crowned on the king, A.D. 6th of July 1483. 1483, June 2. Edward IV.'s two sons. It shows how deeply the principle of hereditary Murders succession had sunk into the mind of the nation that the new monarch thought it essential to the security of his throne to rid himself at once of the two helpless boys whom he had professed to bastardize. I have little, if any, doubt but what both the young princes were murdered in the Tower by their uncle "the Protector," in violation of that relation of guardian to ward, which in those days was one of the most important, and held one of the most sacred of human ties. I believe the generally received version of their Popular murder and successive burials to be the true one. The two story true. That Tyrrell, receiving the keys of the Tower interments for one night, caused his associates in villainy to young smother them in the "bloody Tower," and bury princes. of the |