riage 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 His death. vengeance on the perfidy of the king of France. But whether it were owing to the agitation of his mind, or to the debaucheries in which he indulged, a slight ailment, which had been treated with neglect, suddenly exhibited the most dangerous symptoms. He spent the few days preceding his death in the exercises of religion, and 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 twenty-first year of his reign. 1483. April 9. Edward is said to have been the most accomplished, and, till he grew too unwieldy, the most handsome man of the age. The love of pleasure was his ruling passion. Few princes have been more magnificent in their dress', or more licentious in their amours: few have indulged more freely in the luxuries of the table 2. 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 military affairs to his brother the duke of 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. Croyl. 563. « מ D * In homine tam corpulento, tantis sodalitiis, vanitatibus, crapulis, luxui, et cupitatibus dedito. Id. 564. Glocester. 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 2. 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 3. Hence every project of opposition to his government was suppressed almost as soon as it was 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 I 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. 2 Id. 564. 564. 3 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. was buried with the usual pomp in the new chapel at Windsor.' 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. 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. Emperor of Ger. King of Scotl. | King of France. Sover. of Spain. Popes. Sixtus IV. CONDUCT OF THE DUKE OF GLOCESTER. A MADE PROTECTOR. RIVERS. ARRESTS. -- THE DUKE IS MURDER OF LORD HASTINGS AND THE EARL PENANCE OF JANE SHORE. SERMON IN HIS FAVOUR. THE DUKE ASPIRES TO THE BUCKINGHAM. ties at the FAINT glimmering of light may be thrown on the State of pardark transactions, which followed the death of the late death of king, by adverting to the state of parties at the close of Edward. 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 in the state. By the more ancient nobility their rapid elevation was viewed with jealousy and resentment; and their influence, though it appeared formidable, while it was supported by the favour of the king, proved in the sequel to be very inconsiderable, and confined to the few families into which they had married. The mar : quess of Dorset, the queen's son by a former marriage, and her brother, the accomplished but unfortunate earl Rivers, possessed the first seats at the council board but they were continually opposed by the lords Hastings, Howard, and Stanley, the king's personal friends, particularly the first, whom Edward had chosen for the companion of his pleasures, and who on that very account was the more odious to the queen. The monarch, during his health, had balanced by his prudence the rivalry, and silenced by his authority the dissensions, of the two parties and on his death bed, warned by the unfortunate minority of Henry VI., had called them into his chamber, exhorted them to mutual forgiveness, and commanded them to embrace in his presence. They obeyed with apparent cheerfulness: but their hearts gave the lie to the sentiments which they uttered, and the lapse of a few days proved how treacherous were all such reconciliations, when he by whose order they had been made, no longer lived to enforce them. ' : 'More's Works, 38–40, edit. of 1557. For our knowledge of the events of this period we are chiefly indebted to the continuator of the history of Croyland, and sir Thomas More. The first was a contemporary. His name is unknown; but it appears from his work that he was a doctor of canon law, some time a member of the council under Edward IV., and occasionally employed by him as envoy to foreign powers (p. 557). He declares that he has written with truth and impartiality. Sine ulla scita intermixtione mendacii, odii, aut favoris, 575. Sir Thomas More was born in 1480. In 1513, when he was under-sheriff of London, he wrote his history of Richard III. from the accounts of contemporaries. In substance he generally agrees with the preceding writer: in circumstances of smaller import, he sometimes differs from him. In that case I prefer the authority of the continuator. |