May 15. May 18. July. : Dilswater, near Hexham. That unfortunate nobleman, whose forces did not exceed five hundred men, endeavoured to save himself by flight but was taken, beheaded the same day, and buried in the abbey. Three days later the lords Roos and Hungerford met with the same fate on the sandhill at Newcastle; and many of their followers were successively executed in that town and at York'. Of those who escaped, the major part followed Gray to the castle of Bamborough, which was immediately besieged by the earl of Warwick. This impregnable fortress might have defied his efforts, had not a wall by accident fallen on the commander; and the garrison, not expecting him to recover, hastened to surrender without requiring any stipulation in his favour. But Gray was carefully nursed by the cruelty of the victors, and reserved for the more disgraceful death of a traitor. He was conducted to the king at Doncaster, and received the following sentence from Tiptof earl of Worcester, and constable of England. « Sir Ralph Gray, for thy treason the king had ordained « that thou shouldst have thy spurs stricken off by the «< hard heels, by the hand of the master cook, who is « here present. Moreover, he had ordained here as «<thou mayest see, the kings of arms and heralds, and << thine own proper coat of arms, which they should « tear off thy body, that thou mightest be degraded as << well of thy worship, noblesse, and arms, as of thy knighthood. Also here is another coat of thine arms reversed, the which thou shouldest wear on thy body, going to thy death-wards, for that belongeth to thee after the law. Notwithstanding, the degrading thee of knighthood, and of thine arms, and thy Wyrcest. 497, 498. Fab. 494. Fenn, i. 284. « " " ་ soner. noblesse, the king pardoneth for the sake of thy noble grandfather, who suffered trouble for the king's «< most noble predecessors. Now, sir Ralph, this shall << be thy penance. Thou shalt go on thy feet to the town's end, and there thou shalt be laid down, and drawn to a scaffold made for thee, and thou shalt have thy head smitten off, thy body to be buried in the Friars, and thy head where the king's pleasure « shall be. >> This sentence was immediately executed. ' Henry, who had fled from Hexham before the Henry is made priarrival of Montague, was so closely pursued that three of his servants were taken clothed in gowns of blue velvet, and on them was found his cap of state, embroidered with two crowns of gold, and ornamented with pearls. He had however the good fortune to escape, and sought an asylum among the natives of Lancashire and Westmoreland, a people sincerely devoted to his interests 2. Their fidelity enabled him for more than a year to elude the vigilance and researches of the government : but he was at last betrayed by the perfidy 1465. of a monk of Abingdon, and taken by the servants of sir James Harrington, as he sate at dinner in Waddington hall in Yorkshire. At Islington the unfortunate king was met by the earl of Warwick, who ordered by proclamation that no one should shew him any respect, tied his feet to the stirrups as a prisoner, led him thrice Wyrcest. 499. Stow, 418. In the year-book it is said that the degrading part of the sentence was actually carried into execution: et le cause del cel punishment de luy en tiel maner, fuit per cause de son perjury et doublenesse, que il avoit fait al roy Henry le size jadis roy, etc. et auxy al roy Edward le quart, qui ore est. Term. Pasch. 4 Ed. IV. 20. 2 He was during this time frequently concealed in the house of John Machell, at Crakenthorp in Westmoreland. Rym. xi. 575. July. round the pillory, and conducted him to the Tower. There he was treated with humanity, but kept in the most rigorous confinement for some years. conqueror After the flight from Hexham the Lancastrians abandoned the contest; and the had leisure to reward his partisans, and attend to the confirmation of his throne. Lord Montague was created earl of Northumberland, and Lord Herbert earl of Pembroke: another long list of attainders contributed to exhaust the resources of his opponents and to add to those of his own partisans : and an act of resumption was passed to enable the king to live on the income of the crown, but was clogged, as usual, with so many exceptions as to render it useless 2. From internal polity he turned I Rym. xi. 548. Wyrcest. 504. Fab. 494. Monstrel. iii. 119. Harrington received for his services the lands belonging to Tunstal of Thurland castle to the amount of 100l. per annum : his associates, who were principally Tempests, and Talbots, had annuities out of Bolland and Tickel, till they could be provided with lands. Rot. Parl. v. 584. 2 Rot. Parl. v. 511-548. In this parliament was made a law respecting dress, forbidding any man or woman under the estate of a lord to wear cloth of gold, or cloth wrought with gold, or furs of sables; any person under the estate of a knight to wear velvet, satin, or silk made like to velvet or satin, or furs of ermine; any yeoman to wear stuffing in his doublet but only the lining; or any one under the estate of a lord to wear gown, jacket or cloak, which did not reach to his thighs, or shoes with pikes above two inches in length. Rot. Parl. v. 504. « Ever since the 1382, year α says Stow, the pikes of shoes and boots were of such length that they were << fain to be tied up to their knees with chains of silver, or at the least with silk laces. » Stow, 429. Such interference with private expenditure was very common, and at the same time very useless. Its object, as we learn from the rolls, was to prevent the « impoverishment of the realm, » by the sums of money sent into «< strange «< countries » in exchange for articles of luxury. Rot. Parl. ibid. his thoughts to his relations with foreign states. To the pope he had already notified his accession, and sent an abstract of the arguments on which he founded his claim. The answer of Pius II. was civil, but reserved: and while the pontiff congratulated the king on his elevation to the regal dignity, he cautiously abstained from any expression, which might be deemed an approbation of his title. With Scotland, which had so long offered an asylum to his enemies, Edward concluded a peace for fifteen, and afterwards prolonged it for fifty-five years. What measures the policy of Louis of France might have pursued, is uncertain but that monarch was so harassed by the war of the public good,» as it was called, that he had no leisure or temptation to intermeddle with the concerns of foreign states and the two most powerful of the French princes, the dukes of Burgundy and Bretagne, had entered into alliances defensive and offensive with the king of England. Treaties almost similar were signed between him and the kings of Denmark and Poland in the north and east, and those of Castile and Arragon in the south, so that he might consider himself on " 'Rym. xi. 489. This pontiff had always favoured Henry, though his legate, Francesco Copini, bishop of Terni, had favoured Richard duke of York, and his son Edward. He had even presumed to excommunicate their opponents: and the pontiff in consequence had deposed him, and sent him to a monastery to do penance for life. Raynald, vii. 68. 122, 123. It would appear, however, that he was afterwards liberated for Edward appointed him his procurator in the court of Rome, granted him an annuity of 100l. gave him permission to distribute the royal livery to twelve of his friends, and authorized him and his two brothers to bear on the upper part of their coat of arms the white rose, the device of the house of York. All these grants were confirmed by parliament. Rym xi. 479, 480. destine marriage. terms of amity with almost all the great powers in His clan- In these circumstances the king no longer hesitated to acknowledge in public a marriage, which he had some time before contracted in private. Ever since the battle of Towton he had resigned the management of affairs to the wisdom and activity of the Nevils; and had devoted his own attention to the pursuit of pleasure. They had frequently urged him to marry into some royal or princely family, which might contribute to support him against his competitor: but the king felt no inclination to shackle himself with the chains of matrimony; and foreign princes were not anxious to offer their daughters to one, whose claim to the crown was disputed, and whose possession of it was still precarious. It chanced that Edward visited Jacquetta the dutchess of Bedford, and her husband Wydevile lord Rivers, at Grafton: where he saw their daughter Elizabeth, a woman of superior beauty and accomplishments, and the relict of sir John Gray, a Lancastrian, who had fallen at the second battle of St. Alban's. The lady Gray seized the opportunity to throw herself at the feet of her sovereign, and solicited him to reverse the attainder of her late husband in favour of her destitute children. The king pitied the suppliant: and that pity soon grew into love. To marry a woman so far beneath him, without the advice of his council, and at a moment when his throne tottered under him, was a dangerous experiment. But the virtue of Elizabeth was proof against the arts of her royal lover, and his passion scorned the cooler calculations of prudence. About the end of April 1464, ! Rot. Parl. v. 622. Rym. xi. 525. 532. 536. 551. 557, etc. 1464. April 30. |