IV. CHAP. cester, on his knees, conjured him to dismiss his terrors, to rely on the affection of his uncle, and to believe that these precautions had been rendered necessary by the perfidy of the Wydeviles. He conducted Edward back to Northampton, and ordered the four prisoners to be conveyed under a strong guard to the castle of Pontefract.* The same evening this mysterious transaction was confidentially announced to the Lord Hastings, and soon afterwards was communicated to the queen mother, who, foreboding the ruin of her family, hastily retired with her second son Richard, her five daughters, and the marquess of Dorset, into the sanctuary at Westminster. That asylum had formerly been respected by her greatest enemy, the earl of Warwick: it would not, she trusted, be violated by a brotherin-law. The capital was instantly thrown into confusion. The citizens armed themselves : some repaired to Elizabeth in Westminster; others to the lord Hastings in London. That nobleman in general terms assured his friends, what he probably believed himself, that the two dukes were loyal subjects: but their real purpose was preserved an impenetrable secret; and the adherents of the queen, without a leader, and without information, awaited the result in the most anxious uncertainty.5 IV. The young ters Lon king en don. May 4. On the fourth of May, the day originally ap- CHAP. pointed for the coronation, Glocester conducted his captive nephew into the metropolis. At Hornsey park they were met by the lord mayor and aldermen in scarlet, followed by five hundred citizens in violet. The young king wore a long mantle of blue velvet, his attendants were dressed in deep mourning: Glocester rode before him with his head bare, and pointed him out to the acclamations of the citizens. He was lodged with all the honours of royalty in the palace of the bishop, and immediately received the fealty and homage of the prelates, lords, and commoners who were present. A great council had been summoned, and continued to sit during several days. On the motion of the duke of Buckingham the king was removed to the Tower a distant day, the 22nd of June, was fixed for the coronation: fifty lords and gentlemen were summoned to receive the order of knighthood preparatory to that ceremony: the seals were taken from the archbishop of York The duke and given to the bishop of Lincoln: several protector, officers of the crown were dismissed, to make room for the adherents of the ruling party: and Glocester, who had been appointed protector, assumed the lofty style of "brother and uncle "of kings, protectour and defensour, gret chamberlayne, constable, and lord high admiral of "England." 6 Cont. Croyl. 566. More, 47. Rym. xii. Buck, 522. 185. Fab. 513, Drake's Eborac, 115. is made CHAP. Murder of the lord HISTORY OF ENGLAND. What may have been the original object of this prince, can be only matter for conjecture. It is not often that the adventurer discerns at the outset the goal to which he ultimately arrives. The tide of events bears him forward: and past success urges him still to higher attempts. If the duke aspired to nothing more than the protectorate, his ambition was not to be blamed. It was a dignity which the precedents of the two last minorities seemed to have attached to the king's uncle. But it soon appeared that he could not stand so near to the throne, without wishing to place himself on it: and that when he had once taken his resolve, no consideration of blood, or justice, or humanity, could divert him from his object. He proceeded, however, with that caution and dissimulation which marked his character: his designs were but gradually and partially unfolded: nor did he openly avow his pretension to the crown, till he had removed the most trusty of the king's friends, and taken from the rest the very hope of opposing him with success. While orders were issued and preparations Hastings, made for the expected coronation, Glocester was busily employed in maturing his plans, and dispatching instructions to his adherents. With consummate art he divided the council, ordering the members, distinguished by their attachment to Edward, to hold their sittings in the Tower while those to whom he dared impart the secret of his ambition, held their meetings CHAP. IV. at Crosby place, his own residence in London. This separation of the council awakened the jealousy of lord Stanley, who communicated his June 12. suspicions to Hastings: but that minister replied, that there was no reason of alarm: and that he kept a confidant at Crosby place, from whom he was sure to learn all the duke's secrets. The next day the protector took his seat June 13. at the council in the Tower. After a short pause he struck his fist upon the table; a voice at the door exclaimed treason; and a body of armed men burst into the room. Hastings and Stanley, with the prelates of York and Ely, men whose attachment to the sons of the late king he despaired to subdue, were instantly arrested. The three last were confined in separate cells; Hastings was told to prepare for immediate execution. It was in vain that he inquired the The order of the protector would not admit of delay: the first priest who offered himself, received his confession; and a piece of timber, which accidentally lay in the yard at the door of the chapel, served for the block on which he was beheaded. A proclamation was issued the same afternoon, announcing that Hastings and his friends had conspired to put to death the dukes of Glocester and Buckingham, who had most miraculously escaped the snare laid for their destruction." cause. 7 Cont. Croyl. 566. More, 53, 54. CHAP. prisoners at Pontefract. On the same day (and the time should be noticed) Ratcliffe, one of the boldest partisans And of the of the protector, at the head of a numerous body of armed men, entered the castle of Pontefract, and made himself master of the earl Rivers, the lord Gray, sir Thomas Vaughan, and sir Richard Hawse. To the spectators it was announced that they had been guilty of treason but no judicial forms were observed; and the heads of the victims were struck off in the presence of June 15. the multitude. Two days afterwards a letter from the duke was delivered by Ratcliffe to the mayor and citizens of York, informing them of the traitorous designs imputed to Elizabeth and June 19. the Wydeviles; and four days later proclamations were issued in the northern counties, commanding all men "to rise, and come to London "under the earl of Northumberland and the lord Nevil, to assist in subduing, correcting, and punishing the quene, her blode, and other her adherents, who entended to murder and destray the protectour and his cousyn the duc "of Buckyngham, and the old royal blode of "the realm."9 66 66 66 8 Cont. Croyl. 567. More says it was the same day, 54. * See the originals in Drake's Eboracum, 115. It is observable that on the 8th Richard wrote to the citizens of York a cajoling letter, promising to reward them for their constant attachment to him two days later, on the 10th, but three days before the murders in the Tower and at Pontefract, he wrote again to inform them of the plots against his life by the queen and her friends. The letter |