Gairdner J. History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third: To which is Added the Story of Perkin Warbeck from Original Documents

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

140 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. IV.

probably Buckingham's object, as his son is said to have

confessed long afterwards, to have stabbed him suddenly to

the heart

It is needless, perhaps, to speculate whether Buckingham

would at this time have rebelled at all but for those conver-

sations with Bishop Morton into which he had allowed

himself to be seduced. He was apparently one of those

characters whose readiness of tongue leads them continually

into difficulties which they had not foreseen. The same gift

which induced him to advocate the cause of Richard with so

much fervour and ability at the Guildhall, undoubtedly led

him into indiscreet confessions and revelations to his prisoner

Morton. In such men, strength of partisanship for a time is

more to be expected than political consistency. They are

sure to become the tools and the catspaws of greater intellects.

Buckingham, we may well believe, writhed under a secret

feeling that in his antipathy to the Woodvilles he had not

only lent himself to acts of tyranny and usurpation, but had

become—at least by his adhesion to Richard—the abettor of

a still more odious crime, the responsibility of which he could

not all at once disavow. It was, therefore, with resentment in

his heart, although with outward show of the most perfect

cordiality, that he parted from the king at Gloucester, to put

himself in the power of a much greater politician than Richard.

With the greatest simplicity he revealed to Morton his deep

See ' Calendar of the Baga de

Secretis,

in Third Report of the Deputy

Keeper of the Public Records,' App. ii. p. 231. The reader will re-

member how the later Buckingham's confession is reported in Shakespeare's

Henry

VIII.:

'If,' quoth he, 'I for this had been committed,

As,

to the Tower, I thought,—I would have played

The part my father meant to act upon

The usurper Richard; who, being at Salisbury,

Made suit to come in his presence; which, if granted,

As he made semblance of his duty, would

Have put his knife into him.'

A.D.

1483. THE REBELLION CRUSHED. 141

dissatisfaction with the usurper, his knowledge of the murder,

his own views upon the crown, and his willingness to abandon

them in favour of the Earl of Richmond. To no one else

would he have dared to utter one tenth of what he had said to

the bishop; but the bishop was a prisoner in his own custody,

and he believed their conversations could not possibly be

disclosed. But Morton, after getting him to open commu-

nications with the Countess of Richmond and the queen

dowager about the projected marriage and the rising in the

Earl of Richmond's favour, contrived, much to the duke's

dissatisfaction, to escape from his custody, and fled in disguise

to his own diocese of Ely. Here he was in the midst of

friends and might, perhaps, have sojourned for a while in

comparative safety in a country cut off from the rest of

England by fens and marshes. But, without much delay, he

found means to obtain shipping for Flanders, and so escaped

abroad, where he did further service to the Earl of Richmond's

cause, and did not return to England till two years later, when

the master whom he served had overthrown King Richard and

vindicated his own claim to the crown in battle

The decapitation of Buckingham was a death-blow to the

rebellion. The principal leaders, in dismay, took

ship and escaped to Brittany. Among them were the rebei-

the Marquis of Dorset, Lionel Woodville, Bishop

of Salisbury, Piers Courtney, Bishop of Exeter, his brother,

Sir Edward Courtney

, and Lord Wells. These all had

mustered in the West, whither Richard was in haste pro-

ceeding. Most of the other leaders fled to sanctuary: only a

few were taken and executed. But Richard sent orders to

the sea-coasts to prevent further escapes, and marched on to

Exeter, triumphant without striking a blow

Hall, 390.

Inaccurately called Sir Edmund by Hall. He was afterwards created,

by Henry VII., Earl of Devonshire.

Cont. Croyl. 56S. Fabyan, 671. Hall, 394.

142 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. IV.

There remained only the Earl of Richmond, who, having

been informed by Buckingham of the intended rising, had

arranged to land in England with a small force and join the

insurgents. The Duke of Brittany, in whose country he had

been long a refugee, connived at his escape, though bound by

treaty to prevent it. Richmond left the shores of Brittany on

the 12th of October, with a fleet, according to some accounts,

of forty sail and

5,000

mercenary soldiers; but Polydore

Vergil, the earliest authority on this point, gives the number

Dispersion of vessels at fifteen. They set out with a fair

monks' wind, but had not been long at sea when the

fleet

- storm, which produced 'the Great Water' in the

West of England, dispersed the ships and drove several

of them back upon the coasts of Brittany and Normandy.

Only a very few—no more, it is said, than the earl's own

ship and another—succeeded in getting across. These ap-

proached the land near Poole, but, finding the coast well

guarded, proceeded westward and stood off Plymouth. There,

too,

the earl found preparations made to receive him. The

country people were in arms and lined the shore. The earl

sent to enquire what troops they were. A deceitful answer

was returned that they were the Duke of Buckingham's forces,

awaiting the earl's disembarkation to conduct him to the

camp.

But Richmond was not entrapped, and, finding cause to

suspect their good faith, hoisted sail and recrossed the Channel'.

The triumph of Richard was complete. The mayor and

aldermen of Exeter met him, with a congratulatory

Richard's ' . ,

reception address, at the east gate of the city, and presented

at Exeter. . . . . ^ , , , . V., ,

him with a purse of 200 gold nobles. The keys

of the city also were delivered him, and he was conducted in

state to the bishop's palace. Some unhappy work, however,

remained to be done. Lord Scrope was commissioned to try

the rebels, and a special assize was held at Torrington. A

Hall, 395, 6. Cont. Croyl. 570. Polydore Vergil, lib. xxv. Rolls

of Parl. vi. 245.

A.D.

1483. RICHARD'S TRIUMPH. 143

number who had not escaped were executed; those who had

were outlawed, among whom was the bishop whose palace the

king then occupied. At Exeter itself three insurgents were

beheaded, of whom the most distinguished was Sir Thomas

St Leger. He was the king's own brother-in-law, having

married his sister Anne, Duchess of Exeter, and large sums

of money were offered to spare his life. But Richard seems

to have been determined to make of him a signal example.

In London, about the same time, six executions are recorded.

Four persons, who had been yeomen of the crown to Edward

IV., were taken in Southwark and hanged at Tyburn; and

two gentlemen, taken in Kent, were beheaded on Tower

Hill

Jenkins'

Exeter,

88.

Cont.

Croyl.

568. Fabyan,

671.

Hall, 397.

CHAPTER V.

RICHARD'S GOVERNMENT, HIS PARLIAMENT AND

HIS RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN POWERS.

RICHARD

returned to London at the close of November

A.D.

1483. He was met, as usual, on his approach to the

Nov

- city, by the mayor and aldermen with a body of

horsemen clad in violet

. The kingdom was now at rest

and his authority undisputed. Nor can it be doubted that

one so competent to rule might have reigned for a long time

unmolested if he had not already lost the confidence of his

people by acts of treachery and violence. But his bloodless

triumph, in the opinion of his well-informed contemporary,

the chronicler of Croyland, was not less expensive to him than

if the two armies had come into actual conflict

. With all

his ability, he had not now the hearts of his subjects. Of

the character of his administration we are able to form some

opinion, not only from what is said of him by the chroniclers,

but from the official record of his diplomatic acts from day

to day; for it happens that there has been preserved to our

own days a complete register of all the warrants issued by

him to the Chancellor for grants, pardons, or other documents

dates

from

London

early

November

28.

(Harl.

433, f. 129.)

He had

been

Winchester

from

the 21st to the

26th

of the

month.

Fabyan,

671.

Cont.

Croyl.

570.

A.D.

1483. RICHARD'S ADMINISTRATION. I45

under the Great Seal, together with a large number of royal

letters, instructions to ambassadors, and state papers de-

spatched and received during the two years that he was king.

Of no other king have we so minute a record; and it is not

wonderful that the MS. should have been very much cited

in evidence, not only as to what Richard did, but as to the

motives by which he is supposed to have been governed.

It must be observed, however, that as to this latter point,

the language the king himself chooses to employ must be

received with caution. For some who have sought to call

in question the evidence of Richard's crimes, have certainly

not shown themselves over-critical in accepting evidence as

to his better qualities. This Docket Book of his grants does

indeed confirm the character given him even by Sir Thomas

More for profuse liberality, but there is every appearance

that this bounty was stimulated by the necessity of gaining

friends. On the other hand, the expressions of a

... . . . ,

Richard's

religious purpose in certain particular acts are profession

manifestly open to more than one interpretation; ligioua

and it surely implies an extreme degree of sim-

urpose

plicity to argue that things done from a professedly religious

motive could not have been the acts of a tyrannical usurper.

While staying at Pomfret on his Northern progress, Richard

restored to the priory there twenty acres of land within the

park at Pomfret, which had been taken from them about the

tenth year of Edward IV.; to which act the king himself

declares that he was prompted by 'calling to remembrance

the dreadful sentence of the Church of God, given against

all those persons which wilfully attempt to usurp unto them-

selves, against good conscience, possessions or other things

of right belonging to God and His said Church, and the

great peril of soul which may ensue by the same

.' Even if

words like these were to be taken as perfectly sincere, as one

of Richard's biographers seems to consider them, they certainly

Harl.

MS.

433,

No. 1548. (See Catalogue.)

I46 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. V.

by no means indicate that the king was not at this

very time suffering inward pangs of remorse for the great

crime by which he had attempted to secure himself more

firmly on his usurped throne. It is not at all incompatible

with what we know of human nature that the conscience of a

tyrant and a murderer in one age should be more sensitive on a

particular subject than that of a religious statesman in another;

and it is even probable that Richard did harbour some little

thought at the bottom of his heart, that by an act like this

he was making some small atonement to God and doing

something to mitigate for himself the extreme severity of penal

fires in the world to come. But it is still more probable that

he was also influenced by a desire to appear religious in the

eyes of men, so as to draw off from

himself,

as much as

possible, the suspicion of his extraordinary wickedness.

If, however, there could be any doubt about this in cases

such as that just mentioned, where he freely took upon him-

self the duty of redressing an old wrong, there surely can

be none in such an instance as the proclamation against

the Marquis of Dorset and his confederates, where he en-

deavoured to hold up to reprobation the moral delinquencies

of other people. Nothing can explain the language of this

proclamation except a kind of cynical hypocrisy which led

him to believe he could turn the vices of his enemies to his

own advantage, and perhaps ward off suspicion of his own

more flagrant crime by professing great indignation at their

licentiousness. The policy does not appear to have been

very successful, for with all the art he could employ to check

it disaffection still remained. All open rebellion, indeed,

had been extinguished when he marched west to Exeter,

but even after his return to London he felt it necessary to

make the sheriffs of some counties administer

Won

still oaths of allegiance to the inhabitants generally',

remains. Q

sner

jeed—the sheriff of Hampshire—

Harl. 433, Nos. 1580, 1666, 1667. (See Catalogue.)

A.D. 1484.

FEAR

OF NEW DISTURBANCES. I47

was among the rebels, and a commission was issued to call to

account all bailiffs and other officers who were his deputies

Commissions still continued to be issued to seize the lands

of rebels

; rewards still continued to be offered for the taking

of certain traitors

. Sir John Fogge had not been conciliated

by the king's ostentatious display of forgiveness. He, too,

had joined the revolt, and his lands, with those of other rebels,

were granted to Sir Ralph Ashton

. The extent of the dis-

affection seems to have made the king anxious to resist the

rights of sanctuary, and the Abbot of Beaulieu, in Hampshire,

was required to come before the council and produce the

documents by which he claimed to have a sanctuary there*.

Orders had also been sent to the officers at all the ports to

prevent anyone passing beyond sea without special commands

from the king; in consequence of which it appears that some

Genoese and other Italian merchants, and a messenger of the

Duke of Milan, were detained at Dover until they received

a special letter of passage

. Even after the New Year strict

injunctions were sent to the city of Canterbury not to allow

any liveries to be worn except the king's

. Richard himself

visited Canterbury about that time

, having issued a procla-

mation before going into Kent, in which he praised the

loyalty of the people, many of whom had deserted the rebel

leaders, and offered large rewards for the apprehension of

the latter; finally promising to hear all complaints that might

be addressed to him of injustice or oppression, and especially

of the nature of extortion

All this seems to indicate great anxiety to prevent renewed

disturbance. The uncertain loyalty, in fact, of men in high

Harl. 433, No. 1641.

Ib. Nos. 1674, 1683-6.

Ib. No. 1588. * Ib. No. 1608.

Ib. No. 1620. • Ib. I. 135b.

Ib. No. 1649, dated Jan. 4 (1484).

He dates from Canterbury, Jan. 12. No. 1662.

See Appendix, Note v.

10.—2

148 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. V.

position rendered everything insecure, even when their alle-

giance was accepted; and a warrant had to be issued to the

tenants of Cardinal Bourchier commanding them to pay their

rents,

' forasmuch as the king had accepted and received his

said cousin into the favour of his grace; ascertaining them

that he is unto him perfect and very good sovereign lord

At the same time we meet with many acts which seem

to have been dictated by charitable feelings or a

sense of

justice. A bricklayer of Twickenham

™™

received a licence to ask alms, having had his

dwelling-place and thirteen small tenements burned,

with all his goods, ' who before kept, after his degree, a good

household, by the which many poor creatures were refreshed

A similar licence was granted to a yeoman of Nottingham-

shire, 'who had two of his barns, full of corn and other his

goods, during his being in the king's service at Dunbar in

Scotland, by misfortune and negligence suddenly burnt, to

his utter desolation and undoing

.' More remarkable, as an

evidence of Richard's anxiety to secure good and honest

service in the work of administration, is a warrant issued at

Winchester, on his return from the west, 'to Mr John Gun-

thorpe, keeper of the Privy Seal, to discharge Richard Bele

from his place in the office of the said Privy Seal, to which

he had been admitted contrary to the old rule and due order,

by mean of giving of great gifts, and other sinister and un-

godly ways, in great discouraging of the under-clerks, which

have long continued therein to have the experience of the

same, to see a stranger, never brought up in the said office,

to put them by of their promotion*.' This was immediately

followed by a 'grant to Robert Bolman of the place of one

of the clerks of the Privy Seal, for the good and diligent

service done by the said Robert in the said office, and specially

in this the king's great journey, and for his experience and

Harl. 433, No, 1585.

/*. No. 1702.

Ib. No/1712. * Ib. No. 1563

A.D.

1484. DEFENCE OF THE KINGDOM. I49

long continuance in the same : declaring that no more clerks

shall be admitted in the said office unto the time the said

office shall be reduced to the number ordered and stablished

in the days of King Edward the Third'.' However necessary

Richard may have found it himself to endeavour to secure

men's loyalty by large gifts, he saw clearly the importance

of checking corruption, and promoting economy in the service

of the state.

But now it was needful to take precautions against another

invasion. A number of Breton ships had certainly set out

with the Earl of Richmond in the attempt to cross the

Channel. Some, it appears, had been driven on the coast

of Devonshire and Cornwall, and had been seized by the

Mayors of Dartmouth, Fowey, Plymouth and Penzance

But some had been driven to seek refuge in Flemish harbours,

and were prepared to return home as soon as wind Enemies

and weather would permit. Against these Richard

at sea-

sent a squadron under the command of Thomas Wentworth,

and ordered that the coasts should be strictly watched, that

if an encounter should take place within sight of shore the

king's forces might have all possible assistance with such small

vessels as the different ports could man

. Another naval

force was put under the command of John, Lord Scrope, of

Bolton

, and a commission was issued to take mariners for

the king's service

Not long after we find merchants and others engaged ' to

do the king service upon the sea against his enemies of France

and Brittany;' and a Spanish ship is purchased by the king

for the purpose of ' making war upon the Bretons

.' John

Harl. 433, No. 1564.

Ib. No. 1627.

Ib. Nos. 1632, 1636, 1659.

From Rymer's Transcripts, Add. MS. 4616, f. 184. Without date,

but arranged with documents of March 1484.

Harl. 433, No. 1823.

Tb. Nos. 1675, 1690.