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

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2OO LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

the

castle,

to set him at

liberty;

and

Blount

not

only

released

his

prisoner,

but

went with

him to the

Earl

Rich-

mond, putting

the

castle meanwhile

in as

strong

condition

could

resist

siege

by the

king's forces.

Sir

John

Fortescue,

the

porter

of the

town

Calais, was also

won

over

to connive

at the

earl's escape.

It was the

most important

accession

the

cause

Richmond

had yet

received.

Of dis-

affected Yorkists, personal enemies

King Richard,

or men

who feared

his

tyranny,

he had

enough;

but now he had

with

him a man of

tried fidelity

to the

House

Lancaster,

whose rank, ability,

and

experience

in war,

seemed almost

themselves sufficient

insure

the

victory

Richard,

receiving

the

news, immediately sent orders

the

governor

Calais,

take measures

for the

recovery

of Hammes.

The

greater part

of the

garrison

Calais

was

employed

making preparations

for a

siege.

The

garrison

of Hammes,

their side, prepared

for

defence,

and

sent

for

aid to the

Earl

Richmond,

who

despatched Oxford,

with

picked company

soldiers,

their

relief.

The men

of Calais

did

their utmost

prevent

the

succours under

Oxford making their way into

the

castle;

but

while

the

earl's

company kept them occupied

on one

side,

detachment

under Thomas Brandon entered

on the

other.

The men of

Calais were

now

between

two

fires,

and

were glad

offer

the garrison

Hammes liberty

depart with

bag and

baggage; which Oxford,

who had

come merely

secure

their safety (especially that

James Blount's wife, whom

her husband

had

been obliged

leave behind him), advised

them

accept.

The

earl, accordingly, returned

to the

Earl

of Richmond

Paris; while

the

garrison

Hammes,

in con-

sequence, probably,

some stipulation made

by the

governor

of Calais

intercede

for

them, obtained

pardon from

the

king

on the

27th

January

Fabyan, 672. Hall,

405.

Hall, 408. Patent,

Richard

III. p. 3, No. 33.

A.D.

148;. THE EARL OF RICHMOND. 2OI

It was probably about this time that the Earl of Richmond

sent letters to those who had expressed their wil-

lingness to support his claims in England, of which writes to°his

the tenor was as follows : E-'ngiind"

' Right trusty, worshipful, and honourable good friends, I greet

you well.

' Being given to understand your good devoir and entreaty to

advance me to the furtherance of my rightful claim, due and

lineal inheritance of that crown, and for the just depriving of that

homicide and unnatural tyrant which now unjustly bears dominion

over you, I give you to understand that no Christian heart can be

more full of joy and gladness than the heart of me, your poor

exiled friend, who will, upon the instant of your sure advertising

what power you will make ready and what captains and leaders

you get to conduct, be prepared to pass over the sea with such

force as my friends here are preparing for me. And if I have

such good speed and success as I wish, according to your desire,

I shall ever be most forward to remember and wholly to requite

this your great and most loving kindness in my just quarrel.

' Given under our signet.

'H.

pray you to give credence to the messenger of that he shall

impart to you

To defeat these designs of his rival, Richard certainly

could have done nothing so effectual as at once to redeem

his promise touching Edward IV.'s children, so far as to

provide a husband for the eldest daughter. For as the Earl

of Richmond had received the support of partisans of the

House of York only in view of his undertaking to marry that

lady whenever he should succeed in obtaining the crown, that

support must have failed him if once the lady were married

to someone else. It is, therefore, no more than in the nature

of things we might expect that the subject occu-

Richard

pied a good deal of the king's attention, and w*

118 over

that he consulted about it with the queen dowager, dowager,

Halliwell's

Letters,

i. i6r.

2O2 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

and with the Lady Elizabeth

herself.

For, strange as it

may seem, since her coming out of sanctuary, the queen

dowager had been completely won over by Richard, so that

she not only forgot her promise to the Countess of Richmond,

but even wrote, at the king's suggestion, to her son, the

Marquis of Dorset, at Paris, to abandon the party of the

Earl of Richmond and come to England. But it seems still

more strange and unnatural that she could have received,

and pro-

anv

degree of complacency, the proposition

poses to which it is said Richard had in view with regard

marry her °

daughter to her eldest daughter; which was nothing less

than, as we have already indicated, to marry her

himself.

Whether the queen was to be divorced or murdered,

or was expected to die ere long in the course of nature, there

seems to be no reasonable doubt that the project was con-

ceived during her lifetime

It is stated by the early Tudor historians, and we may

well believe not untruly, that the princess herself abhorred

the match, even after the death of the queen had removed

the greatest obstacle to it. But it must be observed that

this account of her sentiments does not pass unchallenged.

Nor, admitting its truth, is it by any means inconceivable

that she had at one time nearly made up her mind to what

she inwardly abhorred. She was in the tyrant's power, her

mother thought the match advisable, it offered her a brilliant

and captivating

•

position, and her refusal would have been

construed as secret enmity to the king. It would have been

bad policy, therefore, to exhibit reluctance, even if she really

intended to avoid compliance in the end. But one learned

Hall, 406, 407. If the story, as originally given by Polydore, be

not an exaggeration, he first abstained from her bed, then complained to

Archbishop Rotherham of her sterility, then spread a rumour of her death

which she herself interpreted as meant to bring it about; so that she sought

her husband with tears and inquired why he wished to kill her.

Polydore Vergil.

A.D.

1485. THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH. 203

antiquary, who has devoted special attention to the history

of this reign, is of opinion that she was not reluctant at all.

She danced, as we have seen, at the king's palace at Christ-

mas,

in a dress which was thought only suitable to a queen

consort, being exactly like that of the queen

herself;

and it

is stated by Sir George Buck, on the authority of a document

not known to be now extant, that she consulted the queen's

own physicians how long her rival was likely to live. Queen

Anne's health, we must suppose, was at the time visibly de-

clining, and the physicians gave it as their opinion that she

would not get over the month of February. But February

. passed away, and Queen Anne was still alive; on which the

princess, we are told, was not a little disappointed, and, in

a letter to the Duke of Norfolk, expressed her fears that ' the

queen would never die.' That letter, according to Sir George

Buck, was to be seen, in his day, in her own handwriting,

' in the magnificent cabinet of Thomas, Earl of Arundel and

Surrey.'

Positive testimony like this, however revolting and opposed

to natural expectation, is not to be lightly set aside as in-

credible. But it must be owned there are grounds of suspicion

in the present case which may fairly justify incredulity. Buck

does not expressly say that he had seen the letter

himself;

and we might, perhaps, rather infer the contrary, from the

fact that he only gives the substance of it in his own words,

whereas he has quoted at full length many documents of less

importance. On the other hand, if it is not clear that Buck

saw it, there is not a tittle of evidence to show that anyone

else did. No reference is made to it by any of the great

antiquaries and historians of Buck's day—by Stow, or Speed,

or Holinshed, or Camden. No person appears to have seen

it before, no person appears to have seen it since, and nothing

is known of its existence now. Add to this the fact that Buck,

even though not altogether dishonest (and I see no reason

to think him so), was certainly by no means an impartial

204 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

historian, but an essayist bent on justifying a paradox, and that

such a letter, if it really existed, was of very great service to

his argument. Taking all these circumstances into considera-

tion—together with the further possibility that the letter, even

if it existed, may have been misconstrued—we ought cer-

tainly to be pardoned for indulging a

belief,

or, at all events,

a charitable hope, that Elizabeth was incapable of sentiments

so dishonourable and repulsive.

At the same time it must be remarked that Buck's abstract

of the letter is very minute, and such as would seem to follow

pretty closely the turns of expression in a genuine original

;

that he expressly declares the MS. to be an autograph or

original draft; and that the horrible perversion and degra-

dation of domestic life which it implies is only too character-

istic of the age. Still, it would certainly appear from the

little we know of her after life that Elizabeth of York was

The following is Buck's account of it:—' When the midst and last of

February was past, the Lady Elizabeth, being more impatient and jealous

of the success than everyone knew or conceived, writes a letter to the

Duke of Norfolk intimating, first, that he was the man in whom she

affied, in respect of that love her father had ever bore him, &c. Then she

congratulates his many courtesies, in continuance of which she desires him

to be a mediator for her to the king in behalf of the marriage propounded

between them; who, as she wrote, was her only joy and maker in the

world, and that she was his in heart and thought; withal insinuating that

the better part of February was past, and that she feared the queen would

never die. All these be her own words, written with her own

hand,

and

this is the sum of her letter, which remains in the autograph or original

draft, under her own hand, in the magnificent cabinet of Thomas, Earl of

Arundel and Surrey.'—Kennetts England, i. 568. If the letter be not

simply a forgery palmed off upon Buck

himself,

or by him upon his

readers, I am inclined to think it was written, not by the Princess

Elizabeth, but by her mother the queen dowager, who bore the same

Christian name. Every word of it might just as well have come from

her, except the mention of her father, which may be a mistake; and

considering the weakness of which Elizabeth Woodville was actually

guilty in yielding to Richard III., there is nothing inconceivable in her

anxiety that he should marry her daughter.

A.D.

1485. THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH. 205

not destitute of domestic feeling; and that she could have

been eager to obtain the hand of her brothers' murderer is

really too monstrous to be believed.

But whatever may have been the truth about this, Queen

Anne actually did die not long after. On the day

of her death, the 16th of March, there was a great

Queen

Anne,

eclipse of the sun

—which of course made the

March l6-

event still more ominous, and was perhaps an additional

reason for believing that Richard had poisoned his wife. She

was honourably buried in Westminster Abbey. It is certain,

moreover, that just after her death the report began to be

current that Richard intended to marry his niece. The rumour

got abroad and dismayed the Earl of Richmond, who was now

at Rouen, taking steps for getting together a fleet at Harfleur

for the invasion of England

. But at home it was by no

means well received; and so strong was the opposition to it

in some quarters that Richard was compelled openly to re-

pudiate the intention. His own leading councillors, Sir Richard

RatclifFe and William Catesby, declared to him plainly that,

if he did not deny it publicly before the mayor and aldermen

of London, his friends in the North could no longer be ex-

pected to stand by him. For the lands in Yorkshire, where

his chief adherents lay—Middleham, which he called his home,

and other lordships—had come to him only by right of his

wife,

the Earl of Warwick's daughter; it was from their

Cont. Croyl. 572. In a contemporary MS. (Harl. 541 f. 217b) we

read "Quene Anne desesyd thys same yere at Westmyster that Thomas

Hylle was mayor the xvj day of Marche and bered the ix day after atte

Westmyster. God have merci on her soulle."

Hall, 409. He learned at the same time that Richard intended to

marry her sister the Princess Cecily ' to a man found in a cloud, of an

unknown lineage and family.' There is a curious cynicism about Richard's

proceedings. He is prepared to redeem his promise to provide his brother's

children with husbands; but they are still to be regarded as bastards, and

must be content with humble marriages. Yet, knowing it will defeat the

enemy's game, he is ready to marry the eldest himself

206 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

devotion to his wife's family that the Yorkshiremen had become

so attached to

himself;

and Ratcliffe declared to him that

if it were once believed that he was going to marry his niece,

it would strengthen greatly the suspicion that he had poisoned

his queen to make way for an incestuous match. The excite-

ment, indeed, was so great that they consulted more than

twelve doctors of divinity as to the illegal character of the

intended marriage; who all gave it as their opinion that it

was so opposed to divine law that the Pope himself could

not dispense in such a degree of consanguinity. The thing,

it is true, had been done in other countries; but in England

it was unprecedented; and the opinions given were not, like

those in favour of Henry VIII.'s divorce, intended to gratify,

but to control, the wishes of a tyrant

Yet it was believed not to be owing to natural indignation,

or even to a desire to protect the king from the indignation

of others, so much as to personal fear upon their own account,

that Ratcliffe and Catesby so strongly opposed the revolting

marriage. For they suspected that if the Princess Elizabeth

became queen, her mother, too, perhaps, recovering a large

amount of influence, the death of Rivers and Lord Richard

Grey would be avenged on those who had counselled it. The

king felt that he could not withstand an opposition so serious,

The kin coming from such a quarter. A little before Easter

disowns he called a meeting of the mayor and citizens of

of marrying London at the great hall of the Knights of St

John at Clerkenwell; and before them all with a

loud voice protested that the design imputed to him was a

fiction, and that he had never for a moment entertained

any such idea". Besides the citizens, a considerable number

of lords spiritual and temporal were present at this decla-

ration. He also wrote to the mayor and aldermen of York

that he had been led to this course to counteract the designs

of a number of seditious persons who set up bills, sent

Con/. Croyl. 572.

Ibid.

A.D.

1485. THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH. 2O/T

messages,

and by

open speech disseminated

the

most injurious

falsehoods

abuse

the

multitude

and

bring

him

into

dis-

repute;

and he

desired them,

as he had

desired

the

citizens

of London,

arrest

all

persons whom they found speaking

him, or

any lord or estate

of the

land, otherwise than accord-

ing

truth

honour,

endeavouring

stir

commotions

the

land. Following

the

same policy

as in his

letter four

months previously

to the

mayor

Windsor,

further desired

that every person arrested

for

circulating such reports should

be detained till

he had

given

up the

name

of the

person

on whose authority

uttered them,

and so,

proceeding from

one

another, they should trace

the

news

to its

first authors

But

remove Elizabeth

as far out of his

rival's

way as

possible, since

he was not

going

marry

her

She is

sent

himself,

sent

her to

Sheriff Hutton Castle, *°

sheriff

Hutton

where

the

young Earl

Warwick resided,

rather

was

confined;

for

although until

now he was

looked

upon

as the

king's successor

and

took precedence

every

other nobleman,

he was

shortly after

set

aside, apparently

on account

some mental incapacity

and

placed under

some restraint. Both

he and the

princess remained

Sheriff

Hutton till Henry VII.'s accession

Davies' York Records, 208-210.

similar letter

to the

town

Southampton

preserved, dated

the 5th of

April.

See the

Eleventh

Report

the Hist.

MSS.

Commission,

App. iii. 106.

Something

this sort seems

to be

generally hinted

at by old

writers.

The subsequent history

of the

poor

lad is a sad one. He was

unjustly

imprisoned

for

fifteen years

Henry

VII., and

finally

put to

death

for

attempting

escape from

his

confinement, which,

in a

prisoner

state,

was accounted high treason, though,

as the

chroniclers say, having passed

the greater part

his life

'out of all

company

men

and

sight

beasts,

he could

not

discern

goose from

capon.' Hall suspects

confessed

the indictment 'because

of his

innocency.'—Hall,

490,

491.

fact,

the

injustice

his sentence was confessed

Henry VII. himself on

his

death-

bed

and he

desired

his son to

atone

for it by

restoring

the

family property

his

sister. See Venetian Calendar, 1534-54,

pp.

246-7.

Rous, 218; Hall,

422.

2O8 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

Meanwhile his enemies abroad were busy, and he was

busy preparing for them. The Earl of Richmond, though

for a time sadly disconcerted by the news of the intended

marriage of Elizabeth, had no thought of abandoning his pur-

pose,

but sought to strengthen himself by marrying a sister

of Sir Walter Herbert, a man of great influence in Wales.

With this view he sent messengers secretly to the Earl of

Northumberland, who had married another of Sir Walter's

sisters, to request his favour in the scheme; which, if he

had gained it, would have secured to him not only the power

of Wales, but that of the North of England also. But the

coasts and all the roads were so carefully watched that, for-

tunately perhaps for Richmond's cause, the message could

not be conveyed; and shortly afterwards his mind must have

been set at ease on hearing of the declaration made by

Richard at Clerkenwell

On the king's part we find that early in April a squadron

was fitted out to intercept invaders, and placed under the

command of Sir George Nevill

. Sir Ralph Ashton's com-

mission as vice-constable was renewed and a coadjutor was

appointed to him in the office

The Earl of Lincoln was proclaimed heir to the crown,

the son of Clarence being set aside from the succession

The king then left London for the North a little before

Whitsuntide, as the contemporary writer of Croyland tells us ;

but Whitsunday fell that year on the 22nd of May, and I

find he was at Windsor on the 13th and 15th of the month,

from which it is not probable that he returned, as his route

lay by Kenilworth and Coventry to Nottingham. Most likely

Hall, 410.

Patent, April 8, 2 Richard III., p. 3, No. 15, in dorso, to take the

musters of the men.

Rymer, xii. 268.

Warwick seems to have taken precedence of Lincoln as late as the

beginning of May 1485.—Davies' York Records, 210.

A.D.

1485. PREPARATIONS AGAINST ENEMIES. 2O9

he was at Kenilworth on Whitsunday, as he certainly was

on Tuesday following, the 24th, and he seems to have re-

mained there generally till the 6th of June, though he paid

a visit to Coventry upon the 1st. By the 22nd of June he

had reached Nottingham

Before he left London Richard appointed his chamberlain,

Francis Lord Lovel, to the command of a fleet at

Fleet at

Southampton, on which he bestowed a good deal South-

ampton.

of expense to no purpose, deceived, it would seem,

by a rumour, or a prophecy, which nevertheless was literally

true,

that the enemy would land at Milford. For there is

a small village of that name in Hampshire, not far from

Christchurch, which seems in that day to have had a harbour;

and it was here, at the western entrance to the Solent, that

Richard was warned to have special watch kept". The mag-

nificent natural harbour of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire

was the place in which Henry had really determined to land;

for it lay in his native district, where his uncle Jasper Tudor,

once Earl of Pembroke, though attainted ever since the ac-

cession of Edward IV., would be sure of finding friends and

adherents whenever they set foot in the country. That the

possibility of Richmond landing at Milford Haven instead of

on the Hampshire coast should not have occurred to Richard

is simply inconceivable; but undoubtedly, if a landing had

been effected from the Solent, the enemy might soon have

been expected at the gates of the capital, whereas at the

extremity of Wales he would still have a long distance to

traverse in which he might possibly meet with considerable

opposition.

That Richard's extraordinary expenses at this time were

very large there is no doubt; and it may have been owing to

this circumstance, or to some new mode of distributing the

various charges upon different sources of revenue, that he had

MS. Harl. 433, ff. 317 £-219.

Cont. Croyl. 573.

G. 14