until the battle of Northampton, brief but bloody, gave them anew the ascendancy, and the custody of the king's person. The duke of York now ventured a farther and bolder step: he claimed the throne, as of right, unimpaired by the lapse of time during which it had been unclaimed. This demand was laid before Henry, whose reply was short and pithy" My father was king; his father was also king; I have worn the crown forty years, from my cradle ; you have all sworn fealty to me as your sovereign, and your fathers have done the like to my fathers; how then can my right be disputed?" The question of right was largely discussed in the house of lords, and various schemes were proposed for its settlement: at length it was proposed, and ratified by the agreement of both parties, that Henry should possess the crown for life, but that its reversion should be in the duke and his heirs. The queen, however, and a powerful party still made a resolute stand for the line of Lancaster; the duke of York suffered himself to be brought to action, near Wakefield, on terms of inferiority, and paid the penalty of his rashness with his life. His youngest son, the duke of Rutland, then only in his twelfth year, was butchered after the battle by 'bloody Clifford.' The war now assumed a sterner and a higher character Edward, the heir of York, appears to have been a consummate warrior, rapid and decisive in his movements, skilful and forecasting in his arrangements. He was, at the time of his father's death, at the head of a separate division, and, on learning that event, he hastened to intersect the line by which the victors were marching on the capital. A force, inferior to his own, but still formidable in numbers, under the command of the earl of Pembroke, pressed upon his rear, and not only impeded his movements, but threatened to place him between the two royalist armies, which were now in the field. Edward, however, was a commander too decided in character, and too prompt in evolution, to be thus caught in a trap. He turned fiercely on his pursuers, and put them to the rout with tremendous slaughter, at Mortimer's Cross, near Wigmore. The victory was followed by executions, in savage retaliation for his father's and his brother's death. This action was fought on the first of February, 1461; and, on the 17th of the same month, the success was balanced by the defeat of Warwick, at St Alban's, where he was attacked by the queen's army, and saved from irretrievable ruin only by the approach of night. Henry was found by the victors in his tent, and once more embraced his wife and son. But Edward was on his march, flushed with conquest, and the troops which fled from St Alban's had rallied on his victorious battalions; the royal army retired northwards, and he entered London in triumph. Rejecting all temporizing measures, he accepted the defiance of his antagonists, as a violation of the late agreement, and at once, amid the shouts of the Londoners, assumed the titles and offices of royalty. The day of his proclamation, March 4, 1461, is historically taken as determining the reign of Henry VI.; and, from that date, Edward IV. stands in the national annals as king of England. If personal character, if amiable dispositions, perfect integrity, and steady piety, could, in unstable times, have given stability to the throne, the sovereignty of Henry would have been unchallenged; men Rot. Parl. v. 877. of all ranks and every party would have given their willing service to a king who seems, in perfect freedom from every taint of selfishness, to have, in simple sincerity, desired the well-being of his subjects, without a reserve for his own interest. Ambition he had none-his were the virtues of private life; and it may be questioned, whether he were not happier even in his hours of imprisonment, than when seated on an unsteady and ensanguined thronc. It is not, however, to be overlooked, that in perilous and uncertain seasons, dispositions of this kind may effect irreparable mischief. An indolent or weak-minded acquiescence becomes not the character or conduct of him to whose authority and management the fortunes of the commonwealth are intrusted. Henry, too, had difficulties to struggle with, before which more resolute spirits might have quailed. A turbulent people opposed him on one hand, while an imperious wife urged him on the other; and he was compelled to yield an assent to much which his kind feelings lamented, and his better judgment disapproved. Out of all these evils good was elicited, though probably less than might have resulted from a different state of things. The interference of parliament in the government of the realm became daily more necessary and more decided. The lords assumed a lofty attitude, as the ultimate referees in extreme cases; and the commons claimed an unlimited control over the public revenue and expenditure. John, Duke of Bedford. DIED A. D. 1435. UPON the decease of Henry V., John of Lancaster, duke of Bedford, was appointed to the regency of both kingdoms, with the administration of France. Inferior to his brother, the late king, in abilities, he greatly surpassed him in the more amiable qualities of the heart, to which he also added what was more rare in these days-great prudence and sagacity. By his judicious management of the foreign regency, the provinces recently torn from the crown of France were retained for his infant nephew, notwithstanding the impolitic attempt of Gloucester upon Hainault, and the want of harmony which perpetually disturbed the counsels and operations of the allies. It was with extreme reluctance that this cool-headed and experienced nobleman consented to the rash attempt which was made by the allies upon the provinces behind the Loire. It is not indeed easy to guess how the expedition against Orleans could have been made without his consent; but the fact is certain, that he disapproved of the whole plan of that campaign—the result of which we have detailed in the preceding memoir-for, in a letter addressed, after its failure, to the king his nephew, he uses the following language: "All things prospered with you, till the tyme of the seage of Orleans, taken in hand God knoweth by what advice."" The death of the duchess of Bedford, sister to the duke of Burgundy, in 1432, shook the alliance which had hitherto existed between the English and Burgundians; and the precipitate union of the regent with Rot. Parl. Jacquetta, or Jacqueline of Luxemburg, a vassal of the Burgundian, which took place within one year after the late duchess's death, hastened the dissolution of the confederacy. It was in vain that the cardinal of Winchester laboured to effect a reconciliation betwixt the two dukes. The high spirit of Bedford felt mortally aggrieved at the taunts with which he of Burgundy had received intelligence of the projected marriage; and the Burgundian not less keenly resented the disrespect offered to his sister's memory. Cardinal Beaufort, indeed, succeeded in bringing them both to consent to an interview at St Omer; but they eagerly availed themselves of some trifling point of etiquette, to decline a personal conference, and departed in mutual and irremediable disgust. Bedford lived to witness, and doubtless to lament, the bitter fruits of his obstinacy. The negotiations of Arras annihilated Henry's power in France; and before the congress, which met there in 1435, had broken up, the gallant Bedford, worn out by past efforts and the pressure of hopeless anxiety, expired at Rouen. He left the reputation of a prudent statesman and able general, and his memory was justly respected both by friends and foes. He was buried in the cathedral of Rouen, on the right hand of the high altar; and when, some years later, it was suggested to Louis XI. to remove his bones to a less honourable situation, that monarch is reported to have replied: "I will not war with the remains of a prince who was once a match for your fathers and mine, and who, were he now alive, would yet make the proudest of us tremble. Let his ashes rest in peace; and may the Almighty have mercy on his soul."2 Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. DIED A. D. 1447. On the death of Henry V., the duke of Gloucester preferred a claim to the regency on two grounds :-first, because in the absence of his elder brother, the duke of Bedford, he was the nearest of kin to his nephew, and secondly, because the late king, while on deathbed, had appointed him to that charge. The lords held that his demand was not founded either on law or precedent; but, to satisfy him, appointed him president of the council of regency, with the title of protector of the realm and church of England.' The history of his protectorate presents one continued struggle with Thomas, bishop of Winchester, afterwards cardinal. Gloucester was supported by Richard, duke of York, and the Plantagenets; the cardinal wielded the influence of the church, and had for his lay-representative, Henry Beaufort, afterwards duke of Somerset. The protector endeared himself to the nation by many popular qualities, and particularly by the liberal and munificent spirit which he displayed upon all-fitting occasions; and his connexion with the regent gave him a decided advantage, had he known how to make use of it, in every struggle with his great political rival. Unfortunately he suffered himself to be swayed in too many instances by personal considerations; and carried away by the impetuosity of his passions, • Hall, 129. lent himself to measures which unnerved the very arm which it was his best policy to strengthen and support. Such was his unadvised and hasty marriage with Jacqueline of Hainault, who, after having been previously betrothed to the elder brother of the king of France, bestowed her hand upon the duke of Brabant, and finally fled from her husband to the court of England, where her charms, and perhaps still more her splendid inheritance, comprising Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Hainault, won the heart of the duke of Gloucester. Having obtained a divorce between her and the duke of Brabant from the antipope, the protector took this woman for his wife, and immediately laid claim to her dominions. The duke of Burgundy, though the ally of England, supported Brabant, and entered so keenly into the question of her injuries, as to defy Gloucester to single combat. The challenge was fiercely accepted; but before the duel took place, a bull from the legitimate pope appeared, declaring Jacqueline's third marriage to be null and void, and forbidding the intended combat, under pain of excommunication. In 1428, a lady of the name of Stokes, attended by the wives of the principal citizens of London, went to the house of lords, and presented a petition against the duke, accusing him of neglecting his lawful wife, the duchess Jacqueline, and of living in open adultery with Eleanor Cobham, daughter of Reginald Lord Cobham of Sterborough. Eleanor appears to have been a woman of exquisite beauty, but highly dissolute morals. She had already lived with different noblemen before Gloucester took her under his protection. To the surprise of Europe, the duke met the protest of the fair citizens of London, by publicly acknowledging Eleanor as his wife; while Jacqueline, with equal sense of delicacy, bestowed her hand upon a gentleman called Frank of Bursellen, who was immediately seized by the Burgundians, and only regained his liberty by his wife ceding the greater part of her dominions. The cardinal eagerly improved the advantages which such infatuated conduct on the part of his rival placed within his reach; and during the absence of Gloucester in Hainault, garrisoned the tower of London, and committed it to the care of Sir Richard Wydevile, with orders to admit no one more powerful than himself.' When the duke returned and found the gates of the tower closed against him, he retaliated, by ordering the mayor to shut those of the city against the bishop. The next morning, the retainers of Beaufort attempted to force their way into the city, and declared that they would at least prevent the duke from quitting it. In this state of matters, the parties were with difficulty persuaded, through the intervention of the archbishop of Canterbury, to keep the peace till the return of the duke of Bedford, who was immediately called from Paris for the purpose of mediating betwixt the two rivals. The regent, on arriving in England, instantly summoned a parliament at Leicester, before which the duke of Gloucester preferred a bill of impeachment against his uncle the bishop, in which he charged him, among other things, with having hired an assassin to cut off the late king while he was yet prince of Wales. In what manner the trial proceeded, we are not informed. But the quarrel was finally adjusted in appearance through the mediation of the primate, and eight other arbitrators, whose exertions produced a show of apology from the bishop, which was accepted by Gloucester. The mutual animosity of the two ministers was, however, too strong to be annihilated by any such feeble measures, and each continued to labour secretly to strengthen their own influence by the advancement of their dependants. In 1439, the two rivals tried their strength in the question relating to the duke of Orleans, who had been a prisoner since the battle of Agincourt, and now petitioned urgently for his liberty. The cardinal favoured, the duke opposed his petition. The king decided in favour of the former, and Gloucester lodged a solemn protest against the measure. In the following year the duke experienced a still more humiliating defeat at the hands of his rival. An accusation of sorcery and treason was brought against his concubine, Eleanor. Roger Bolingbroke, one of the duke's chaplains, had been accused of necromancy, and on his apprehension declared that it was at Eleanor's instigation that he first applied to the study of magic. An investigation followed, and an indictment of treason was soon afterwards found against Bolingbroke and Southwell, a canon of St Paul's, as principals, and Eleanor as an accessary. The former were charged with having prepared, at the solicitation of Eleanor, a waxen image of the king, and to have exposed it to a slow heat, with the design, according to the principles of necromancy, of doing serious injury to the health of the person it represented. Southwell died before his trial; Bolingbroke was executed; and Eleanor did penance for her crime by walking hoodless, save a kerchief,' through the streets of London to St Paul's, where she offered a taper. She was then committed to the custody of Sir John Stanley, who sent her to his castle of Chester, whence she is traced to Kenilworth, where she disappears from history. The proud and lofty spirit of Gloucester must have burned at the disgrace thus inflicted on him at the instigation of his rival, but he was 'obliged to take all patiently, and said little,' for the cardinal had now, by his insidious representations, effectually poisoned the ear of the credulous monarch against his uncle. The final attack on Gloucester was made in the year following that of the king's marriage. "It is a transaction," says Mackintosh, "buried in deep obscurity, of which a probable account may be hazarded, but of which little, except the perpetration of an atrocious murder, can be affirmed with certainty." The old chroniclers do not hesitate to attribute Gloucester's death to the malevolence of the queen and Suffolk, aided by the duke of Buckingham, and the two cardinals of Winchester and York. The administration of public affairs had now fallen into the hands of William de la Pole, earl and afterwards duke of Suffolk, who soon saw in Gloucester a popular and formidable rival, and to rid himself of him, is supposed to have eagerly adopted the policy of his patron, the cardinal, and lost no opportunity of infusing into the mind of Henry suspicions of his uncle's loyalty. On the 10th of February, 1447, the duke repaired from his castle of Devizes to Bury, to attend the opening of a parliament which Henry had summoned to meet there. The assembly opened in the usual form, and the first day passed in tranquillity; but on the morning of the second, the lord viscount Beaumont, as constable of England, arrested the duke of Gloucester for divers acts of high treason. Seventeen days later he was found dead in his Ellis's Royal Letters, 2d Series. i. 107. 2 Hall. |