XII.

CHAP. tlemen and near neighbours. Upon the Lancastrian invasion, the former joined the standard of Henry Tudor, while the latter remained faithful to Richard; but differing so widely in their political sentiments, and espousing opposite interests, the bond that united these noble spirits was not snapped, and previous to their separation under rival banners they both soleinnly engaged, that if either should be vanquished the other should intercede with the conqueror, and exert all his influence to prevent the forfeiture of the estate belonging to the defeated party. During the heat of the conflict Clifton received a mortal wound; the watchful eyes of his friend observed his fall, he fled from the opposing ranks, supported the expiring warrior in his arms, and presenting his own shield as a guard against all hostile weapons, entreated that he would surrender. Clifton, feeling that life was ebbing fast, exclaimed, "All is over," and with his dying breath besought his friend to remember the promise so sacredly pledged, and to watch over the interests of the orphan children now left defenceless at the victor's mercy. The faithful Byron honourably fulfilled his engagements, and preserved the luckless knight's estates to his descendants.

For another anecdote relative to Bosworth field the author is indebted to the kindness of Dr. Meyrick. The record of an almost solitary act of fidelity and attachment shewn to the person of Richard by a follower not bound to him by a participation in his crimes runs thus: "Rhys Vychan was owner of

From a MS. in the possession of Dr. Wynn, the last male descendant of the Gwydyr family. Copied from a very old one.

XII.

great lands and possessions in Môn Caernarvonshire CHAP. and Flintshire. He was esquire of the body unto Richard III., and did attend him in his privy chamber, and by patent was free denizen within England. He had purchased from the king three goodly manors near Whitchurch, and had bought Aber Cammis and Wîg and divers other things which were all taken from him by. Henry VII. When Richard saw that Stanley was become a turncoat and that all the Welshmen had revolted from him, he called for a boule of wine sitting on horseback in his complete armour, and when the wine was brought him, he called unto Rhys Vychan and drank unto him in these words: Here Vychan I will drink to thee the truest Welshman that ever I found in Wales,' and having drank, threw the boule over his head and made towards his enemies, where he was immediately slain."

Lord Lovel escaped from the field of battle into sanctuary, and Sir William Catesby, who also endeavoured to save himself by flight, was pursued and overtaken, and survived the carnage of the king's immediate friends only to lay his head upon the block.

The universal feeling against Richard extended to his lifeless corse; the body was stripped and thrown with studied indignity upon the back of a horse behind a pursuivant at arms; urged forward by the brutal rider the animal in passing over a bridge crushed the head of its ghastly burthen against a projecting stone, and thus disfigured and covered with blood and dirt the mortal remains of the last monarch who bore the illustrious name of Plan

XII.

CHAP. tagenet, were exposed to public view, being afterwards interred with little ceremony in the church of the Gray Friars at Leicester.*

Henry marched his victorious troops from the scene of his splendid victory to the neighbouring town, where he was received with those acclamations which a conqueror seldom fails to elicit from the multitude, delighting in pomp and pageantry, and eager to assert their right to the expression of their feelings upon all public occasions. The popularity of Henry's cause most probably rendered these manifestations sincere, for Richard had vainly sought to acquire the esteem and affection of his subjects, and with the exception of his northern adherents, fear and not love was the principle which ensured obedience to a government almost universally disliked, notwithstanding its just and numerous claims to national confidence.

Richard's crimson hand had sapped the foundation of the House of York, and he fell beneath its ruins; few were found to lament the monarch's fate, though perishing in the flower of his age, and by a cold blooded conspiracy unparalleled even in those annals which record the frequent and treacherous desertions of the fickle partisans of either rose, during a long and sanguinary civil war.

* Hall.

CHAPTER XIII.

Description of Richard's Person-Compliments paid to him—Extract from Holinshed-Decay of the White Rose-Cecily Duchess of York-Reports respecting her interference in public affairs-her Descent from the Lancastrians-Rise and Fall of the NevillesMisfortunes and Crimes of Cecily's Children-Supposition concerning St. Leger-Cecily's Retirement-her Death-Henry VII. enriched by her Dower-Elegance of Armour in Richard's ReignRichard's Fondness for Dress-his Letter-Custom of wearing the Crown-Badge of the White Boar-Richard II.'s White Hart-Incorporation of Heralds-Officers at Arms attached to NoblemenRich Presents to Heralds-Proclamations at Christmas.

To descant upon Richard's character would only CHAP. be to reiterate the remarks which his actions have XIII. drawn forth, but his person demands a few observations: in this particular the usurper seems to have been unfortunate; it was a decided disadvantage to succeed the most beautiful prince of the age: accustomed to the handsome countenance and majestic port of the late monarch, Edward IV., Richard's ungraceful form provoked unfavourable comparisons, and deepened the prejudice excited by the flagitious nature of his conduct; but though dwarfish in stature his face does not appear to have been destitute of the comeliness which distinguished the members of the House of York; the old Countess

CHAP. of Desmond who had danced with him at a ball, XIII.

according to Walpole, declared that he was the handsomest man in the assembly, except his brother. Dr. Shaw also, in his sermon, complimented him on the striking resemblance he bore to his father, Richard, Duke of York; and Burke, in translating a Latin oration composed by one of the commissioners who negociated a peace and marriage between England and Scotland, renders one passage thus, an encomium which if too flattering had probably some foundation in truth: "Behold in your face a princely majesty and authority royal, sparkling with the illustrious beams of all moral and heroical virtues." It was therefore the shrunk and withered arm, or probably a misshapen and distorted arm, since Gloucester's strength in the field was incompatible with weakness of frame, and the ill proportioned body, for there seems to be no sufficient proof of more conspicuous deformity, which furnished Richard's enemies with the groundwork for their revolting pictures. The description given by Hollinshed, though not entirely authorizing the hideous exaggerations of dramatic writers, affords ample scope for poetic license. Shakspeare has probably drawn his crooked backed tyrant from the historian's vivid sketch: "As he was small and little of stature, so was he of bodie greatly deformed, the one shoulder higher than the other, his face small, but his countenance was cruel, and suche that at the first aspect a man would judge it to favour and smell of malice and deceit: when he stode musing he would bite and chawe buisily his nether lippe, as who said that his fierce nature in