York. tried for some time to preserve a kind of moderation. At one time, indeed, and after a battle in which his The Duke of party was victorious, he agreed to a sort of compromise, something like the Treaty of Troyes in France; by which it was proposed that Henry should be king as long as he lived, and the Duke of York would be content to be named as his heir, and reign after him. But as, of course, Queen Margaret would not sit down quietly under that, and see her boy disinherited, the war went on again, and the Duke of York was killed. 25. The death of the duke, however, did not end the war; he left three sons to carry on the struggle, all more ambitious and vigorous than himself. One of the most delightful of English writers and English men, who, if he did not know them himself, knew those who did, Sir Thomas More, says of them, "All these three, as they were great estates by birth, so were they great and stately of stomach, greedy of promotion, and impatient partners of rule and authority." The eldest of them, Edward, who during the course of these wars became king as Edward IV., was a curious character, and though he was very popular, we cannot see that he deserved to be so. He was handsome and agreeable, and, unlike poor Henry VI., he was clever and unscrupulous, immoral in his private character, and, though seemingly amiable and kind, in his heart he was hard, cruel, and revengeful. Edward of York. 26. The next brother, George, Duke of Clarence, though he too was "stately of stomach," was not so clever nor determined, but he was faithless and treacherous, as we shall see, and was used as a sort of tool by the stronger men he had to do with, till they threw him away. Clarence. Richard. 27. The third, Richard, was one of the most remarkable characters in all English history. The old historians almost exhaust the language in describing his wickedness, and at the same time seem half awed by his wonderful cleverness. Our common idea of him we gain from Shakespeare. Alas for any man whom Shakespeare describes as a villain! to the end of time he will never be anything else. "I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear" Shakespeare makes Richard say. "Then since the heavens have shaped my body so, Be resident in men like one another, Not long ago, however, a clever French writer gave this account of Richard III.: "The truth is, Richard was one of the greatest kings who ever reigned over England. As a general, he gained the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. As a sovereign, he was merciful, and caused the laws to be respected; he reformed abuses, and diminished taxes. As a man, he was violent, but courageous and sincere. Finally, far from being a monster in person, it appears that he was admirably handsome, well-made, and elegant." If this is the truth, it is to be feared that a great part of it will never get itself believed. 28. Baker's description of him is rather a contrast, and it is painted so very black that one feels inclined to soften it a little, "There never was in any man a greater uniformity of body and mind, both of them equally deformed. Of body he was but low; crook-backed, hook-shouldered, splay-footed, and goggle-eyed; his face little and round, his complexion swarthy, his left arm from his birth dry and withered. . . . Those vices which in other men are passions, in him were habits; and his cruelty was not upon occasion, but natural. . . . And to say the truth, he was scarce of the number of men who consist of flesh and blood, being nothing but blood." Sir Thomas More does not say quite so much about his bodily deformity, though he tells us he had what in high rank "is called a warlike visage, and among common persons a crabbed face." But he is most struck with his terrible hypocrisy and cold, cruel persistency. "He was close and secret," he writes, "a deep dissembler, lowly of countenance, arrogant of heart, outwardly familiar where he inwardly hated, not letting to kiss whom he thought to kill. . . . Friend and foe were all indifferent where his advantage grew; he spared no man's death whose life withstood his purpose.' Thus we get the general opinion of him, which his acts, as far as we know them, bear out, that he was so deformed as to seem to himself and to others more a monster than a man; that he felt himself a kind of outcast from all that makes life dear to most men; that he scorned himself, and scorned everybody else, both man and woman. He gave all his mind to ambition; he determined to be king, and nothing, nobody should hinder him. That he did become king at last, and that all who stood between him and the crown came to an untimely end, is certain, but charity, and perhaps justice, would lead us to hope that he was not quite so black as he was painted. The Earl of Warwick. He was 29. But for a long time the most important person in all these conflicts was neither king, queen, nor prince. Of all the nobles at this time, the richest, the most powerful, and the most popular was the Earl of Warwick, of whom Hume says he was the greatest as well as the last of those mighty barons who formerly overawed the crown. the head of one of the greatest and richest of all the families in England, and was related to nearly all the others. Fuller can hardly find words enough to tell his greatness. "This was that Neville," he says, "who for extraction, estate, alliance, dependents, wisdom, valour, success, and popularity was superior to any English subject since the Conquest. People's love he chiefly purchased by his hospitality, keeping so open house that he was most welcome who brought the best stomach with him, the earl charitably believing that all who were men of teeth were men of arms. Any that looked like a man might have in his house a full half-yard of roast meat, namely, so much as he could strike through and carry away on his dagger. The bear was his crest, and it may be truly said that when the bear roared the lion of the forest trembled, the kings of England themselves being at his disposal." He had houses and castles in several parts of England, and altogether it was believed that 30,000 persons lived at his cost, and were more devoted to him than to any king or prince; so that he could do more than any one else for whichever side he favoured. For a long time he was on the White Rose side, and it was through his help and support that Edward of York was made king. But when, afterwards, Edward gave him offence he changed sides, joined himself to Margaret of Anjou, turned Edward out, brought poor Henry from his prison, and set him on the throne again. For these exploits he was called the "king-maker." At last, in the great fight of Barnet, Warwick was killed, and could make no more kings, though no doubt he had still many schemes in his busy brain, for he had married his two daughters to two princes; one of the House of York, and one of the House of Lancaster; and one of those was Queen of England in course of time. 30. There is one other person who must be mentioned, the Earl of Richmond. We have not forgotten Queen Katherine, Henry V.'s French bride. After his death she had married a Welsh gentleman named Tudor. Though Richmond. Henry of it was very common in those days for members of the royal house to marry those who were not royal, so that half the noble families in England were related to the king, still they generally only allied themselves with the high nobility, and this marriage of Queen Katherine was considered as greatly beneath her dignity, so that she fell into a sort of disrepute, and we hear no more about her, though she was probably much happier as a private lady than any of the unhappy queens who succeeded her. Her sons by the Welsh marriage were of course halfbrothers to Henry VI., and one of them was made Earl of Richmond, and married to a lady of the House of Lancaster, daughter of the Duke of Somerset. And though such a distant and lefthanded sort of relation, the son of those two came forward by and bye as the representative of the House of Lancaster, and became King of England in the end. 31. As for the rest of the actors in this great tragedy, we find that the Percies, perhaps remembering Henry V.'s generosity, were faithful to the House of Lancaster, but most of the nobility seem to have been guided by only selfish motives, and became as fickle and treacherous as they were cruel. LECTURE XXXVII.-WARS OF THE ROSES. The old nobility and their armies. End of the feudal system. Causes of the war. Condition of the people. Edward IV. His marriage. Vicissitudes. 1. Ir is hardly necessary to study and recollect all about these twelve battles,* and the changes and chances of the war. Sometimes one side conquered, and sometimes the other; in the end we may say neither, or perhaps both conquered, since a member of the House of Lancaster, marrying a member of the House of York, became undisputed king. But though we may be inclined to say then that the wars were all for nothing, and nothing came of them, they had in reality a very great effect on the whole future history and state of England. After those wars were over England was much more like what she is now, than she ever could have been without them. 2. In all the past history we have seen what an enormous power the nobles possessed; how they could help or hinder the king and the government just as they chose; how The armies. they rebelled and led armies about, fighting each other, or fighting the king, just as it happened; or if they had a strong, clever king, whom they respected, following him and fighting for him. How different all that is from anything we ever see or hear of now. Imagine now if we were to hear that some great duke or earl was going to lead an army against the government! We all know it is impossible. Dukes and earls have no armies now. They may give their opinions, and advice, and votes, and money; they may serve in the queen's army, as any other gentleman may, and that is all they can do. But up till this time the great lords had always little armies, or even rather large armies sometimes, of their own. They were bound indeed to have them; it was on that very condition they held their estates. The theory of the feudal system was, that the vassals * A list of them will be found at the end of this lecture, BB |