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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240 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

The two armies now came to close quarters. But the

Earl of Oxford, perceiving the danger to which his party-

had exposed themselves by their advance and fearing to be

surrounded, gave orders that not a man in his company should

move ten feet from the standard. His troops accordingly drew

themselves together and ceased awhile from fighting. The

king's men who stood opposed to them also paused, fearing

some artifice to lure them to their destruction. They were

but half-hearted fighters; and Oxford, after a time, perceiving

his advantage, advanced his men once more in a compact

body, and charged them vigorously. On this Lord Stanley,

thinking that further disguise was needless, came up with his

company and helped to throw the king's vanguard into con-

fusion ; while Richard at the same time made the unpleasant

discovery that another of the leaders whom he trusted was

likewise betraying him. Northumberland, with all his fol-

lowers, stood still and remained idle spectators of the battle.

The day was going hard against the Yorkists. Norfolk fell

in the thickest of the fight. His son the Earl of Surrey was

surrounded and taken prisoner

Information was now brought to the king that his rival

Richmond was posted not far off on the other side of the

hill, with only a slender guard. Putting spurs to his horse

he rode immediately to the place

, and, rushing violently upon

the little troop which attended his adversary, made them for

a moment despair of the fate of their leader. He met first

Sir William Brandon, Henry's standard-bearer, whom with the

suddenness of his attack he unhorsed and laid dead at his

feet. Sir John Cheney, a man of great strength and valour,

next presented

himself;

but Richard threw him from his

saddle. He now engaged in personal conflict with Henry

Pol. Vergil, 563, 564. Hall, 418-420. Cont. Croyl. 574.

Just before making this movement he is said to have quenched his

thirst at a spring which goes by the name of King Richard's Well at

this day.

A.D.

1485. THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH. 241

himself,

who kept him for some time at his sword's point

successfully, though his friends had begun to fear that all

was over. But Sir William Stanley, who had been posted

on a neighbouring height, now brought his men into action,

and, just at the critical moment, came down with his red coats

in time to check the advance of the royal forces and nearly

to surround the king

Richard was now seriously urged to fly. But such a thing

was not in his nature. Like Henry V. at Agincourt, he had

come into the battle wearing his crown upon his head, and

he wore it to the last. ' I will die King of England,' he is

reported to have said. ' I will not budge a foot.' He knew

well that his fate was sealed, and while dealing blows right

and left among his enemies cried out often that

he was betrayed. Still, he defended himself to

Pg|S in

the utmost, resolved to sell his life as dearly as

possible, and while shouting ' Treason

treason !' he fell, over-

deadly wounds

The battle from its commencement lasted little more than

two hours. The slaughter was reckoned at about a thousand

persons; but probably the number slain in the field was con-

siderably less. The defeated party, however, were pursued

southwards towards the village of Stoke Golding, where human

bones and armour continued long afterwards to be picked up,

and other indications seem to mark a scene of carnage

Among those who fell on the king's side were the Duke of

In 'the Song of the Lady Bessy,' Sir William Stanley gives his

followers coats 'as red as blood,' with a hart's head upon them. See

Appendix, note vi.

Pol. Vergil. Hall, 418, 419. The issue of the battle was undoubtedly

due to the Stanleys, who had all the power of Lancashire, Cheshire and

North Wales at their backs, and whose action in Henry's behalf was

celebrated afterwards in several ballads. See Appendix, note vi.

Cont. Croyl. 574. Rous, 218. MS. of Stowe quoted by Hutton, 217.

Hutton, 128.

G. 16

242 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

Norfolk, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, Sir Richard RatclifFe, and

Sir Robert Brackenbury. On that of Richmond scarce a

hundred persons were slain, the chief of them being his

standard-bearer, Sir William Brandon, whom King Richard

killed with his own hand

Notwithstanding the numerical superiority of the king's

Conduct of

armv

> there was very little devotion to his cause.

Richard's Northumberland, as we have already mentioned,

supporters. ,

remained inactive on the field; and it would seem

that many of those on whom Richard most relied deserted

him in the fight. It was even reported that the Duke of

Norfolk fled, and though the fact was that he died upon the

field, the belief seems to have gained a large amount of credit.

The Croyland writer relates it as a fact without misgiving,

besides some more modern and less trustworthy authorities

The day after the battle news was received at York that

Richard had been slain through Norfolk's treason

. As a

matter of fact Norfolk neither fled nor betrayed his sovereign,

but it was not for want of warning of the hopelessness of

Richard's cause. In the morning before the battle began he

Pol. Vergil, 564. Hall, 419. This Sir William Brandon whom

Richard killed, appears to have been knighted by Henry himself on his

landing at Milford (see Appendix, note vm.). In the first edition of this

book I treated the statement of his having been killed as an error because

I found a Sir William Brandon alive after the battle. But this, I find,

was his father, who during Richard's tyranny remained in sanctuary at

Gloucester, while the son, after Buckingham's rebellion, fled to Richmond

in Britanny (see Rolls of Parl. vi. 291-2). The Sir William whom Richard

killed was the father of Henry VIII.'s favourite, Charles Brandon, duke of

Suffolk. Richard seems to have been anxious at first to conciliate both

father and son, for the former was named in Commissions as late as August

1483,

while the latter received a free pardon on the 28 March, 1484. See

Calendar of the Patent Rolls of Richard III. in Report ix. of the Deputy

Keeper of the Public Records.

Cont. Croyl. 574. MS. quoted in Hutton, 217.

Davies' York Records, 218.

A.D.

1485. THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH. 243

found a rude inscription on the door of his tent which ran

as follows:—

'Jack of Norfolk, be not too bold,

For Dickon, thy master, is bought and sold.'

The warning was unheeded, but it seems to have been

founded upon fact.

The Earl of Surrey, Norfolk's son, was taken prisoner, and

remained two or three years in confinement in the Tower

of London; till the new king, struck with his integrity and

sense of honour, as shown both in his fidelity to Richard,

and afterwards in refusing an opportunity of escape, not only

restored him to liberty but committed to him the government

of all England north of Trent

. Of Richard's other adherents

who survived the battle no one else met with similar favour.

Catesby escaped from the field, but was taken and beheaded

a few days afterwards at Leicester

. Lord Lovel also escaped,

and two years later fought for Lambert Simnel, but perished,

either at the battle of Stoke or in concealment after it.

Humphrey and Thomas Stafford escaped and took sanctuary

at Colchester, and afterwards endeavouring to raise a rebellion

against Henry VII., the former was beheaded at Tyburn

Very few besides these fought heartily for King Richard;

yet his side had so greatly the advantage in numbers that if

the temporising Stanleys had not at length come to Henry's

aid, the event might have been different. Tardy as their

interference was, it decided the fortune of the day; for it

would seem the very life of Richmond was in danger when

Sir William Stanley created a diversion. The service Sir

William did him that day Henry rewarded after he became

Hall, 419.

Weever's Funeral Monuments, 836.

Dugdale's Warwickshire, 789.

Pol. Vergil, 564, 568, 569. Hall, 419, 427. Bacon's Henry VII.

42,

43 (in Spedding's Bacon, vol. vi.). Hall speaks in the first passage of

Gloucester as the place where the Staffords took sanctuary; but the name

is evidently a mere typographical error.

16—2

244

LIFE OF

RICHARD III. CH. VI.

king by making him his chamberlain; but either he did not

remain entirely devoted to the king whom he had set up,

or his merits were in the end very ill requited; for in after

years he was accused of treason against Henry VII. and

suffered on the block. It is suggested by Lord Bacon that

Henry must have been conscious that though Sir William

came in time to save his life in this battle, he had stayed

quite long enough to endanger it

The Stanleys, however, were the first that day to greet

the conqueror as king. The crown which Richard had worn

in the field was found after the battle in a hawthorn bush,

where apparently, after falling from Richard's head, it had

been secreted during the engagement

. It was discovered

by Reginald Bray, who brought it to Lord Stanley, or, as

some think, to Sir William, who took it to the Earl of Rich-

mond

. Henry, perhaps to put an end to the pursuit, had

moved southward to the neighbourhood of Stoke Golding.

When all was over, he knelt down and thanked God for the

victory; then ascending a little hill made an address to his

soldiers, which was responded to with cries of ' King Henry!

King Henry!' Lord Stanley then stepped forward, and placed

Richard's crown upon his head and saluted him as king amid

universal acclamations. The hill on which this was done

is called Crown Hill to this day, and sometimes King Harry's

Hill

. With Richard's crown upon his head the conqueror

marched on to Leicester

Unseemly indignities were showered upon Richard's life-

less body. Covered with dirt and gore, stripped

trSt^nt"' perfectly naked, and with a halter round the neck,

bo,f

ichard

it was trussed across a horse's back behind a pur-

suivant-at-arms of Richard's own, named Blanc

Bacon's Henry VII. 152.

In memory of this event Henry adopted the device of a crown on a

hawthorn bush, which is seen in the great window of Henry VII.'s Chapel

at Westminster.

Hutton, 132, 201.

Hutton, 247-8.

Cont. Croyl. 575.

A.D.

1485. HENRY'S VICTORY. 245

Sanglier, who carried it into Leicester. The head and arms

dangled on one side of the horse and the legs on the other.

Borne along in this careless, irreverent fashion, the head was

bruised against a stone in passing over a bridge. The corpse

iay exposed to view two days, that all might be assured King

Richard was really dead, and was buried at the Grey Friars

at Leicester with equally little ceremony

. No treatment

seemed at the time too base to satisfy the spite and malice

of his enemies. But some years after a better spirit prevailed,

and Henry VII. erected a monument to him with an effigy

in alabaster, which was shamefully destroyed at the dissolution

of the monasteries in the succeeding reign

. An epitaph was

also written for the tomb, in Latin hexameters, showing that

it was put up at Henry's expense, but the verses, it is said,

were never inscribed upon the stone

Two Devonshire or west country gentlemen, of the name

of Bracher, father and son, who were yeomen of the crown

to Richard

, were hanged shortly after the battle. With the

exception of Catesby, they seem to have been the only ad-

herents of the usurper who were capitally punished; and the

conqueror obtained great credit for clemency because the

victims were so few

. Whether even these few executions

were just is another question, save that the ministers of a

bad king must take the responsibility of his worst misdeeds.

Catesby was suffered to make his will before execution, and

there are passages in it which would lead us to regard him

as something better than a mere instrument of iniquity. He

leaves his wife as his executrix, ' to whom,' he says, ' I have

Pol. Vergil, 564. Hall, 421. Fabyan, 673. Cant. Croyl. 575.

Drake, 122.

Excerpta Historica, 105.

Buck in Kennet, i. 576, 577. Sandford's

Genealogical

History, 435

One of them was named William, and had two grants from Richard III.

Patents r Richard III. p. 1, No. 70, and p. 2, No. 10.

Cont. Croyl. 575.

246 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VL

ever been true of my body.' He gives instructions that all

lands he has wrongfully purchased should be restored. He

hopes the new king will be good to his children, 'for he is

called a full gracious prince, and I never offended him by

my good and free will; for God I take to my judge I have

ever loved him.' He leaves a bequest to the widowed Duchess

of Buckingham for her children, and to help her to pay her

lord's debts and to execute his will. Finally he addresses

a petition to the Stanleys, which seems to imply that he had

claims upon them which were dishonoured in the hour of

need :—' My Lords Stanley, Strange, and all that blood, help

and pray for my soul, for ye have not for my body, as I trusted

in you

Henry knighted upon the field eleven of his chief sup-

porters, among whom were Gilbert Talbot and Rice Ap

Thomas*. Reginald Bray was knighted shortly after

. Some

months later Philibert de Shaunde, the leader of his French

auxiliaries, was rewarded with an English peerage and a

pension. He was created Earl of Bath

. Henry also made

his uncle, Jasper Earl of Pembroke, Duke of Bedford; Lord

Stanley he created Earl of Derby; and Sir Giles Daubeney

he raised to the rank of baron. Few other honours seem to

have been distributed at the commencement of his reign.

Both the character and the personal appearance of

character Ri

ar(

i III. have furnished matter of controversy,

of Richard But with regard to the former the day has now

gone by when it was possible to doubt the evi-

dence at least of his principal crime; and that he was regarded

as a tyrant by his subjects seems almost equally indisputable.

At the same time he was not destitute of better qualities. It

Dugdaie's Warwickshire, 789.

Sandford's Gen. Hist. 434.

He bore the designation esquire on the 20th September, but was

knight before the 25th November.—Campbell's Materials, 61, 178.

* Campbell's Materials, 227, 246, 494.

A.D.

1485. HIS CHARACTER. 247

is admitted on all hands that he was a good general in war,

and that he was liberal even to the extent of imprudence.

He alone, when Duke of Gloucester, refused the gifts of Louis

and protested against the ignoble peace with France. As king

he seems really to have studied his country's welfare; he

passed good laws, endeavoured to put an end to extortion,

declined the free gifts offered to him by several towns, and

declared he would rather have the hearts of his subjects than

their money. His munificence was especially shown in religious

foundations. Near the Tower of London he founded a college

of priests beside the church of All Hallows Barking

; at York,

in the cathedral, a chantry of no less than a hundred chaplains,

and at Middleham a college. Another college which he had

purposed to found at Barnard Castle does not seem ever to

have been established. He endowed Queens' College, Cam-

bridge, with a rental of 500 marks a year

. He was a bene-

factor of various churches in Yorkshire

. And, hypocrite as

he was in many things, we may believe, nevertheless, that he

acted in these matters from mixed motives in which some

real sense of religion had its share. For there is surely a

religious element even in the hope, so eagerly cherished by

wrongdoers, that they may possibly buy back the favour of

God as they do of men, or mitigate His displeasure in some

degree by costly contributions.

He did not succeed, however, in giving entire satisfaction

even to the Church. The new Pope, Innocent VIII., to

whom, on his accession, it would seem that he had written

about his own good intentions, could not but commend the

magnificent endowment which he contemplated in York

Which Rous calls St Mary Barking by mistake. This college consisted

of a dean and six canons.—Strype's Stowe, book ii. 32.

Rous, 215, 216.

Whitaker's Richmondshire, i. 335. In MS. Harl. 433, No. if,

18,

is a

warrant to pay 20/. to the Abbot and Convent of Coverham towards the

building of their church.

248 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. VI.

Cathedral and his desire to promote religion generally. But

complaints had reached his holiness that the clergy were still

imprisoned and brought before secular judges—that bishops

were deprived of their temporalities without being accused

or condemned by the Holy See—and that these things were

done by royal authority, in violation, it would seem, of the

charter that Richard himself had granted to the spirituality.

Innocent therefore exhorted him very earnestly not to permit

in future what had been done to the offence of God

Richard, in fact, had made as many enemies among the

clergy as among the laity; and he scrupled no more than

any other prince to seize the temporalities of a disaffected

bishop. He had in his hands the possessions of the bishoprics

of Ely and Exeter, and perhaps of some minor benefices.

Richard Fox, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, and Chris-

topher Urswick, the Countess of Richmond's chaplain, were

among his chief political antagonists ; but neither of these

at this time held a living. Fox was indeed presented to the

vicarage of Stepney, and would have been instituted by Car-

dinal Bourchier, but that he had escaped abroad and taken

part with the Earl of Richmond

. No zeal that Richard might

profess on behalf of the Church could have made any Pope

view with indifference the sequestration of much ecclesiastical

property and the violation of the Church's liberties.

Yet it may be believed that his zeal for the Church and

his desire to promote religion and morality were only bounded

by his power. His hypocrisy was not of the vulgar kind,

which seeks to screen habitual baseness of motive by habitual

affectation of virtue. His best and his worst deeds were alike

too well known to be either concealed or magnified; at least,

soon after he became king, all doubt upon the subject must

Wilkins' Concilia, iii. 617. The brief is supposed by the editor to

have been addressed to Henry VII., but the date shows it is to Richard III.

Harl. 433, No. 2087.

A.D.

1485. HIS CHARACTER. 249

have been removed. If the speech attributed to him by the

chroniclers before the battle of Bosworth be true even as

regards the spirit of the man, he was a penitent still calling

upon his subjects to forget his crimes and remember only the

relations that ought to subsist between a sovereign and his

people. His good laws, his proclamations in behalf of justice

and morality, his benefactions to the Church, were all, I take

it, conceived in this spirit, in which self-interest sought to

reunite itself with a sense of public duty. It was not as a

pretender to purity of life himself that he denounced the

licentiousness of his enemies; for it is well known that he

had at least two illegitimate children, one of whom, though

but a boy, he made captain of the town and castle of Calais

and the other, a daughter, he married to the Earl of Hun-

tingdon

. There is also a curious tradition about a third,

who was only acknowledged by his father on the eve of the

battle of Bosworth, and lived long afterwards in obscurity as

a stonemason at Eastwell, in Kent; and strange as the story

is,

it derives some colour from the parish register, which shows

that a Richard Plantagenet was buried there in 1350

Richard, therefore, had undoubtedly been guilty of com-

monplace deviations from morality, as well as crimes of a

much deeper dye; yet it is probably true that he was not

a habitual, careless voluptuary, like his brother Edward or

the Marquis of Dorset.

His ingratiating manners, together with the liberality of

his disposition, seem really to have mitigated to a considerable

extent the alarms created by his fitful deeds of violence. The

reader will not require to be reminded of Shakspeare's portrait

of a murderer who could cajole the woman whom he had

most exasperated and made a widow into marrying

himself.

Rymer, xii. 265.

See the marriage contract quoted in Halsted, ii. 569, from MS.

Had. 258.

The story will be found in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, ii.

249—251.