Another instance in which the expectations of Edward were cruelly disappointed, was the projected marriage of his daughter Elizabeth with the dauphin of France. When she had completed her twelfth year it was hoped that Louis, according to his engagement, would have sent for the princess, and have settled on her the stipulated annuity of sixty thousand francs. Four years past; still she remained in England. Remonstrances were made, but Louis always returned some plausible answer. The parliament warned the king of the artifices of the French court; still he refused to suspect the sincerity of his good brother. An unexpected event opened his eyes. The princess Mary of Burgundy, who had borne her husband Maximilian two children, Philip and Margaret, was unexpectedly killed by a fall from her horse and Louis, forgetting the princess Elizabeth, instantly demanded Margaret for the dauphin. It was in vain that the father hesitated. The people of Ghent, to whose custody the children had been intrusted, extorted his consent: Margaret was delivered by them to the commissioners of Louis and the provinces which that monarch had ravished from her mother, were settled upon her as her marriage portion. When the news reached Edward, he burst into a paroxysm of rage. From that moment his thoughts were constantly fixed, his conversation generally employed, on the readiest means of inflicting III. vengeance on the perfidy of the king of France. CHAP. But whether it were owing to the agitation of his mind, or to the debaucheries in which he in- His death. dulged, a slight ailment, which had been treated with neglect, suddenly exhibited the most dangerous symptoms. He spent the few days pre- 1483. ceding his death in the exercises of religion, and April 9. directed that out of the treasures which he should leave behind him, full restitution should be made to all whom he had wronged, or from whom he had extorted money under the name of benevolence. He expired in the twentyfirst year of his reign. The love of or Edward is said to have been the most accomplished, and, till he grew too unwieldy, the most handsome man of the age. pleasure was his ruling passion. Few princes have been more magnificent in their dress,11 more licentious in their amours: few have indulged more freely in the luxuries of the table.115 But such pursuits often interfered with his duties, and at last incapacitated him for active exertion. Even in youth, while he was fighting for the throne, he was always the last to join his adherents and in manhood, when he was firmly seated on it, he entirely abandoned the charge of 114 At the Christmas before his death he appeared in a new dress. His robes were furnished with sleeves enormously long and deep, lined with the most precious furs, and folded back on his shoulders: "Novum," says the historian, "et singulare intuentibus spectaculum." Cont. Croy. 563. 115 In homine tam corpulento, tantis sodalitiis, vanitatibus, crapulis, luxui, et cupitatibus dedito, Id. 564. III. CHAP. military affairs to his brother the duke of Glocester.116 To the chief supporters of the opposite party he was cruel and unforgiving: the blood which he shed, intimidated his friends no less than his foes: and both lords and commons during his reign, instead of contending like their predecessors for the establishment of rights, and the abolition of grievances, made it their principal study to gratify the royal pleasure.11 He was as suspicious as he was cruel. Every officer of government, every steward on his manors and farms, was employed as a spy on the conduct of all around him: they regularly made to the king reports of the state of the neighbourhood; and such was the fidelity of his memory, that it was difficult to mention an individual of any consequence, even in the most distant counties, with whose character, history, and influence he was not accurately acquainted. 18 Hence every project of opposition to his government was suppressed almost as soon as it was 116 During the Scottish campaign posts were first established in England. Horsemen were placed at the distance of twenty miles from each other on the road from Scotland to London. They delivered the dispatches from one to another at the rate of 100 miles a day. Cont. Croyl. 571. 117 Id. 562. 564. 118 We shall search in vain on the rolls for such petitions, as were presented to the throne by the commons in former reigns: but one improvement was firmly established, that of framing the petitions in the form of an act of parliament: an improvement which prevented any of those alterations in the statutes of which the commons formerly complained. The clerks had now nothing more to do than to copy the words of the petition, and add to it that the king had given his assent. EDWARD IV. formed and Edward might have promised himself a long and prosperous reign, had not continued indulgence enervated his constitution, and sown the seeds of that malady, which consigned him to the grave in the forty-first year of his age. He was buried with the usual pomp in the new chapel at Windsor.119 The king left two sons, Edward in his twelfth year, who succeeded him, and Richard in his eleventh, duke of York, and earl marshal. This young prince had been married in his fifth year to Anne, the daughter and heiress of John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, and thus became entitled to the immense estates of that nobleman. Five of Edward's daughters survived him. Of these four, whom he had so anxiously laboured to place on foreign thrones, found husbands in England. Elizabeth, contracted to the dauphin, was married to Henry VII.; Cecily, the destined wife of the prince of Scotland, to the viscount Welles; Anne, who had been promised to Philip of Burgundy, to Thomas Howard duke of Norfolk; and Catharine, the expected bride of the infant of Spain, to William Courtenay earl of Devonshire. Bridget became a nun in the convent at Dartford. 119 The ceremony of his interment may be read in Sandford (Geneal. Hist. p. 4-13). Immediately after his death he was exposed on a board, naked from the waist upwards, during ten hours, that he might be seen by all the lords spiritual and temporal, and by the mayor and aldermen of London. Ibid. CHAP. III. CONDUCT OF THE DUKE OF GLOCESTER ARRESTS - THE DUKE IS IV. State of parties at the death of Edward. CHAP. A FAINT glimmering of light may be thrown on the dark transactions, which followed the death of the late king, by adverting to the state of parties at the close of his reign. Whether it were that Edward had been compelled by the importunities of his wife, or that he felt a pride in aggrandizing the family of her whom he had placed by his side on the throne, he had successively raised her relations from the condition of knights and esquires to the highest honours and offices |