the subsequent policy of Richard, the posterity of his brother might survive to claim, perhaps to recover, the crown. But the king, though it was unknown, had already guarded against the first of these projects by the murder of his nephews: and to prevent the second, he ordered John Nesfield to surround the sanctuary of Westminster with a body of armed men, and to refuse ingress or egress to any person without a special licence. Meanwhile the friends of the princes steadily pursued their object. In Kent, Essex, and Sussex, in Berkshire, Hants, Wilts, and Devonshire, meetings were privately held: a resolution was taken to appeal to arms and the hopes of the confederates were raised, by the unexpected accession of a most powerful ally. What, in the course of a few weeks, could have changed the duke of Buckingham from a zealous friend into a determined enemy to the new king, it is in vain to conjecture. If his services to Richard had been great, they had been amply rewarded. He had been made constable of England, justiciary of Wales, governor of the royal castles in that principality, and steward of the king's manors in Hereford and Shropshire and in addition had obtained the opulent inheritance of Humphrey de Bohun, which the late monarch had unjustly annexed to his own demesnes 2. Perhaps his knowledge of the cruel and suspicious character of the usurper had ' Cont. Croyl. 567, 568. 2 Bohun had left two daughters, who divided his property between them. One married Henry IV., the other an ancestor of the duke. When the posterity of Henry IV. became extinct in Henry VI., Buckingham claimed the share of the second sister, but it was refused by Edward IV. Most writers say that Richard also refused it: but the contrary appears from Dugdale's Baronage, i. 168. Death of his nephews. : taught him to fear that he himself, to whom the Lancastrians looked up for protection, might be the next victim perhaps, as has been said, his opinions were changed by the artful and eloquent observations of his prisoner Morton. However that may be, Buckingham, whose wife was the sister of Elizabeth, engaged to restore the crown to the young prince, whom he had contributed to dethrone: and his resolution to put himself at the head of the party was communicated in circular letters to the principal of the confederates. At that very moment, when their hearts beat with the confidence of success, their hopes were suddenly dashed to the ground by the mournful intelligence, that the two princes for whom they intended to fight, were no longer alive. ' On what day, or in what manner they perished, was kept a profound secret the following is the most consistent and probable account, collected from the confession made by the murderers in the next reign. Soon after his departure from London, Richard had tampered in vain with Brakenbury, the governor of the Tower. From Warwick he dispatched sir James Tyrrel, his master of the horse, with orders that he should receive the keys and the command of the fortress during twenty-four hours. In the night Tyrrel, accompanied by Forest, a known assassin, and Dighton, one of his grooms, ascended the staircase leading to the chamber in which the two princes lay asleep. While Tyrrel watched without, Forest and Dighton entered the room, smothered their victims with the bedclothes, called in their employer to view the dead bodies, and by his orders buried them at the foot of * Cont. Croyl. 568. the staircase. In the morning Tyrrel restored the keys to Brakenbury, and rejoined the king before his coronation at York. Aware of the execration to which the knowledge of this black deed must expose him, Richard was anxious that it should not transpire: but when he understood that men had taken up arms to liberate the two princes, he suffered the intelligence of their death to be published, that he might disconcert the plans, and awaken the fears of his enemies. ' in favour of The intelligence was received with horror by both Conspiracy the friends and the foes of the usurper; but, if it the earl of changed the object, it did not dissolve the union of the Richmond. conspirators. They could not retrace their steps with security and since the princes for whom they had intended to fight were no longer alive, it became necessary to set up a new competitor in opposition to Richard. The bishop of Ely proposed that the crown should be offered to Henry the young earl of Richmond, the representative, in right of his mother, of the house of Lancaster, but on the condition that he should marry the princess Elisabeth, to whom the claim of the house of York had now devolved: a marriage which, I - I See More's account of the murder, 67, 68. Objections have been raised against it, but I hope to shew that they are of no weight in a note at the end of this volume. Carte attributes the story of the death of the princes to Buckingham and his friends, as if it were intended to aid the insurrection (iii. 822): from the Croyland historian it is certain that it was published by others, and had at first the effect of disconcerting all their projects. Cont. Croyl. 568. 2 If Margaret countess of Richmond, was the great-grand-daughter of John Ghent, so was Margaret countess of Stafford, the mother of Buckingham: but as the father of the former was an elder brother, she was deemed the head of the house of Lancaster, and had married Edmund earl of Richmond, the son of queen Catharine by Owen Tudor -- Buckingham was descended also from Thomas duke Insurrection. the prelate observed, would unite the partisans of the two families in one common cause, enable them to triumph over the murderer, and put an end to those dissensions which had so long convulsed and depopulated the nation. The suggestion was approved by the queen dowager, the duke of Buckingham, the marquess of Dorset, and most of their friends: the countess of Richmond consented in the name of her son: and a messenger was dispatched to Bretagne, to inform the earl of the agreement, to hasten his return to England, and to announce the eighteenth of October as the day fixed for the general rising in his favour.' The new plan of the confederates escaped the vigilance of the king, who, ignorant of his danger, proceed of Glocester, sixth son of Edward III. These particulars will be plain from the following table: Oct. 15. ed from York into Lincolnshire : but in a fortnight the answer of Henry was received, and was no sooner communicated to his friends, than it reached the ears of Richard. To prepare for the contest, he summoned Oct. 11. all his adherents to meet him with their retainers at Leicester, proclaimed Buckingham a traitor, and sent for the great seal from London'. On the appointed day Oct. 18. the rising took place. The marquess of Dorset proclaimed Henry at Exeter the bishop of Salisbury declared for him in Wiltshire: the gentlemen of Kent met for the same purpose at Maidstone; those of Berkshire at Newberry: and the duke of Buckingham unfurled his standard at Brecknock. " " 2 Oct. 23. Five days later, Richard joined his army at Leicester, where he issued a most singular proclamation. He begins by boasting of his zeal for morality and the administration of justice then calls his enemies traitors, adulterers, and bawds; asserts that their object is not only the destruction of the throne, but the letting of virtue, and the damnable maintenance of vice; » grants a free pardon to all yeomen and commoners who have been deluded by the false pretensions of the rebels; threatens with the punishment of treason all who shall hereafter lend them assistance; and promises rewards for the apprehension of Buckingham and his associates 3. But Richard's good fortune Richard is served him better than his troops or his proclamations. Had Henry landed, or had the duke been able to join the other insurgents, the reign of the usurper would probably have been terminated. But though Henry successful. |