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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30 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. I.

Edward's want of money had, in fact, been extreme; and

he was driven to various devices for supplying it, which did

not tend to increase his popularity. An Act of Resumption

had been passed by Parliament two years before the war

;

and by another Act, the king was allowed to pay his debts by

instalments spread over twenty years". These statutes touched

high and low; and the Croyland writer thinks the first was the

occasion of new disaffection showing itself in the Duke of

Clarence. All grants from the Crown were resumed, except

to those who made special interest to have reservations made

in their favour; but such persons were numerous. A very

long list of special exemptions is appended to the Act, and

among the rest, all grants previously made to the Duke of

Gloucester were to remain in full force

. No similar privilege

was given to the Duke of Clarence, probably

tion of because he was too proud to seek it; and he

lost, we are told, the lordship of Tutbury. This

and other injuries rankled in his mind. He withdrew himself

more and more from the council table. His duchess died,

he believed by poison and sorcery: one of her attendants

was executed for the poisoning, but the sorcery, he insinuated,

proceeded from the queen. Left a widower, he conceived

the design of marrying the heiress of Charles the Bold,

through the influence of his sister, Margaret of Burgundy,

the young lady's stepmother, and so becoming a great ruler

upon the Continent. This Edward opposed, not altogether

unnaturally. Jealousies increased, and flatterers on both sides

fanned the flame. One of Clarence's household, being accused

of conspiring with a necromancer against the life of Lord

Beauchamp, was condemned and put to death at Tyburn.

The duke resented it, apparently from a natural sense of

justice. The man had maintained his innocence to the last,

Rolls of Parl. vi. ji. The Croyland writer notices this as if it had

been passed after the peace.

Ib. 161.

Ib. 75.

A.D.

H75-8. CLARENCE IMPEACHED. 31

and Clarence, the day after his execution, brought Dr Godard,

one of the most celebrated divines of the day, to the council

chamber, to report his confession. The remonstrance was

very ill received, and only increased the king's indignation

Edward was convinced that his brother was endeavouring to

supplant him by branding his government with the stigma of

injustice.

Clarence was committed to the Tower, and soon after im-

peached in Parliament, where a heavy indictment

His im

was preferred against him by the king

himself.

eachm

ent.

The gross ingratitude of the duke was set forth at length.

The king had shown him great kindness in his early years, had

endowed him with lands and riches only second to royalty

itself,

and had caused the greater part of the nobles, at one

time,

to acknowledge him as next in the succession. This

had been repaid by his stirring up rebellions in confederacy

with Warwick and imprisoning the king. He had been

forgiven, yet he had again set himself to create as much

disaffection as possible, causing his servants to sow sedition

through the kingdom and to inform the people everywhere

that Burdett had been wrongfully put to death. He had

spread reports that the king worked by necromancy to poison

such of his subjects as he pleased. He had spread reports

still more infamous and unnatural, that the king was a bastard

and had no just right to reign. He had induced a number

of the king's subjects to swear allegiance to himself and his

heirs,

exhibiting an exemplification under the Great Seal of

Henry VI. of the compact made for his own succession on the

failure of Henry's issue—a document which he had carefully

kept from the knowledge of the king. Further, he had made

active preparations for a new rebellion, sent orders to his

retainers to be ready at an hour's warning to levy war against

the king, and made arrangements, which were happily defeated,

for sending his son secretly abroad, either to Ireland or to

Cont. Croyl. 561, 2.

32 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. I.

Flanders, where he might have procured further aid, while

another child was to have been artfully introduced into War-

wick Castle to personate his absent heir. Notwithstanding

the natural ties 6f blood, the king was bound, for the peace of

his kingdom, to bring such an offender to condign punish-

ment; and Clarence was attainted of high treason

The scene in Parliament was both painful and humiliating.

The matter was of a kind it was dangerous to meddle with.

No one argued against the duke except the king

himself.

No one replied to the king's arguments except the duke.

Witnesses were brought in who were more like accusers than

witnesses. The duke denied their statements, and offered to

disprove them, if allowed, by personal combat. It was of no

avail; he was condemned by the mouth of the Duke of

Buckingham, who was created Lord High Steward for the

occasion. The execution was delayed for some days, till at

length the Speaker of the House of Commons urged that it

should be carried into effect. Clarence was the last idol of the

multitude who had power to disturb the kingdom like the Earl

of Warwick, and the parliamentary title granted to him during

the restoration of Henry VI. might still have been a source of

danger, especially to those who had condemned him. The

king, however, seems to have been bitterly grieved and sorely

perplexed at what had now become a political necessity—

He is

put perhaps through his own unnecessary haste. At

death.

ast

ave

or(

ers

brother's death; but, to

avoid the ignominy of a public execution, the thing was

secretly done within the Tower, on February 18, 1478. The

well-informed chronicler of Croyland does not seem to have

been aware of the mode of death inflicted; but it was the

general opinion of the succeeding age that he was drowned

in a butt of malmsey wine

Rolls of Parl. vi. 193, 4.

Cont. Croyl. 562; Fabyan, 666; Hall, 326. The story of the malmsey

butt has been very generally discredited, but perhaps too much stress has

A.D.

1478. DEATH

CLARENCE.

Although the king had authorised his death, the event

made him unhappy ever afterwards; and it is said that when

anyone sued to him for the pardon of a malefactor condemned

to death, he would exclaim : ' O unfortunate brother, for

whose life not one creature would make intercession!" He

had hoped, apparently, that some of his councillors would

have put in a plea for mercy; but this was a responsibility

that few would undertake, and the greater part of them were

otherwise inclined.

We are most concerned, however, in this place, to enquire

whether it is true, as affirmed by some historians,

that the Duke of Gloucester was instrumental in Gloucester

......

. ,

was respon-

bnngmg this catastrophe about. Everyone knows sibie

for

his

that this

is the

view taken

Shakespeare, whose

judgment

on any

point

it is

certainly impossible

ignore,

though

his

accuracy, especially

minor facts

and

details, must

always

be a

subject

investigation.

But

even Shakespeare's

judgment cannot

be of

greater weight than

the

authorities

which Shakespeare himself relied;

and in

this instance

know pretty well what guides

followed.

The

play

Richard

III. is in the

main

dramatic representation

of a

life

of that king written

by Sir

Thomas More nearly thirty years

after

his

death—a work left imperfect

by the

author,

but

full

been laid on mere

priori improbability.

think

is clear that Edward's

feelings were severely tried,

and

that, while

consented

sanction

his

brother's death,

shrank from inflicting

on him the

shame

of a

public

execution, which,

fact, would have reflected

on the

whole family.

therefore preferred

secret assassination,

Richard

II. had

done

in the

case

of his

uncle Gloucester; although

he had

this,

least,

to say for

himself,

which Richard

had

not,—that

his

victim

had

been actually

ad-

judged

death

Parliament.

The

manner

which

the

secret

assassination

was

carried

out

might have been determined

mere

accidental circumstances,

Shakespeare evidently considered, who makes

the malmsey butt only

thing which

the

murderer found conveniently

hand

complete the work and terminate his struggle with his victim.

Hall, 326.

34 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. I.

graphic description and vigorous writing. The portrait drawn

of Richard by Sir Thomas, though true in the main, is highly

coloured, and is perhaps not without a little exaggeration in

itself;

but in Shakespeare the colouring could not but be

heightened to satisfy the exigencies of dramatic art. We are

given by the dramatist to understand—what seems probable

enough so far—that Edward put Clarence to death unwillingly,

and would fain have recalled his order. But it is also made to

appear that it was Richard who got the order for his death

secretly carried out, and that it was Richard who from the

beginning had plotted his destruction by setting him and the

king at enmity with each other. Of this view I must say in

the first place that I find no warrant for it in any of the

original sources of the history of Edward the Fourth's reign;

and it seems to be derived entirely from a passage in More's

Life of Richard III. To understand the degree of credit due

to it, little more, I think, is required than to read the state-

ment of this view in the original source.

At the beginning of the work, after a few words about

Edward IV. and his father Richard, Duke of York, More

paints the character of Richard III. with great art; and

proceeding to talk of his crimes, charges him first with the

death of Henry VI. He then goes on as follows :—

'Some wise men also ween, that his drift, covertly conveyed,

lacked not in helping forth his brother of Clarence to his death;

which he resisted openly, howbeit somewhat, as men deemed, more

faintly than he that were heartily minded to his wealth. And they

who thus deem think that he long time, in King Edward's life,

forethought to be king in case that the king his brother (whose life

he looked that evil diet should shorten) should happen to decease

(as indeed he did) while his children were young. And they deem

that for this intent he was glad of his brother's death the Duke of

Clarence, whose life must needs have hindered him so intending,

whether the same Duke of Clarence had kept him true to his

nephew the young king, or enterprised to be king

himself.

But of

A.D.

1478. DEATH OF CLARENCE. 35

all this point there is no certainty, and whoso divineth upon

conjectures may as well shoot too far as too short.'

From this passage it is evident that the view adopted by

Shakespeare was a mere surmise, at first, of some persons

who were reputed knowing in state secrets, and that it was not

altogether credited by Sir Thomas More

himself.

Indeed, he

evidently introduced it for effect in exemplification of the

character he had already given Richard as ' a deep dissembler,

not letting to kiss whom he thought to kill.' The story of

what ' wise men deemed,' even if doubtful in

itself,

at least

justified the colours he had laid on by showing the impression

Richard's acts had produced on those who had witnessed

them. The dramatist, of course, had not the means of saying,

like the biographer, ' But of all this point there is no certainty.'

So what in the first writer was a mere surmise was represented

as a fact upon the stage to reflect the character intended.

We have already traced the progress of the dissensions

between Edward IV. and his brother Clarence as far as true his-

torical light will serve, and have omitted nothing that seemed

very material, unless it be the story that Edward was partly

influenced by a prophecy that he would be suc-

ceeded by one whose name began with G

. No posed

one,

certainly, can dispute that the fifteenth century

prop ecy

was a peculiarly superstitious age; but it is still always a

question, in cases of this kind, whether the supposed prophecy,

if it was not actually invented after its accomplishment, did

not obtain a significance at a later period that was never really

attributed to it at the time. The ' G' who actually supplanted

Edward's children in the succession was of course Richard,

Duke of Gloucester, not George, Duke of Clarence; but after

the usurpation of Richard III., foolish people found in a foolish

prophecy an explanation of previous occurrences, of the real

causes of which they were entirely ignorant. Of all else relating

Hall, 326.

36 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. I.

to this matter the reader may now form a judgment; and he

will doubtless note that in relation to this particular wickedness

not only does Sir Thomas More admit that Richard's guilt is

doubtful, but he positively states that Richard openly opposed

the extreme measures taken against Clarence. It may be, as

More insinuates, that he was lukewarm in his opposition; but

if we are to trust Sir Thomas's account at all, he really did

express his disapproval, and should therefore be considered

guiltless of his brother's death

The king took the whole responsibility of the act. Glou-

cester had not yet lifted up his hand against his own flesh and

blood. Yet it must be said that after the sentence was

pronounced Gloucester did not remonstrate, else Edward

could not have given utterance to his regret in the words

ascribed to him. Moreover, it must be observed that Richard

and his family to some extent benefited by Clarence's attainder.

Three days before the duke was actually put to death, one of

his titles—that of Earl of Salisbury—was conferred upon

Richard's son Edward

. Afterwards Richard obtained by

grant from the Crown undivided possession of the lordship

of Barnard Castle, of which he had hitherto held only a

Miss Halsted suggests that as Richard lived so much in the North at

this time, he may have been there during the proceedings against Clarence,

and consequently had nothing to do with them. But this is certainly wrong,

for he was present at the opening of Parliament on Friday, January 16,

1478,

and was also the day before at Westminster at the marriage of the

young Duke of York, the king's second son, to Anne Mowbray, daughter

of the last Duke of Norfolk. This marriage, Miss Halsted thinks, was in

1477,

as indeed it was according to the account in Sandford's Genealogical

History; but that date is according to the old computation, beginning the

year on March 25. It is true, however, that Richard was very much in the

North, and even in the month of March he had returned to Middleham.

(See Davies's York Records, 60.)

Called his eldest son (filio primogenito) in the charter of creation,

though he was his only legitimate one. See Patent, February 15,

17 Edward IV. p. 2, m. 16.

A.D.

1478. HE FOUNDS COLLEGES. 2)7

moiety in right of his wife

. But another point, which has

never yet received notice in this connection, has a significance

which can hardly be mistaken. On the 21st of February—

just three days after the death of Clarence—Richard, Duke of

Gloucester, obtained licences from the king, his brother, for

the foundation of two separate religious establishments in the

North of England. These designs, no doubt, may have been

in his mind before; but the date at which he took active steps

to carry them out must certainly have been owing, in some

degree, to the death of Clarence.

The first was a licence to found a college at Barnard

Castle—a lordship of which one moiety till then

had belonged to Clarence. The establishment religious

,. . , . , . foundations.

was to consist of a dean, twelve chaplains, ten

clerks, and six choristers, who were to perform service con-

tinually for the good estate of the king and of Elizabeth

his consort, and of Richard himself and Anne his wife,

during their lives, and for the benefit of their souls after

their several deaths; also for the souls of his father, Richard,

Duke of York, and of his brothers and sisters, and of all

faithful persons deceased. The Duke of Clarence is not

specially named, but as the deceased brothers and sisters are

mentioned generally, it is clear that masses were to be said

for him among the others. The second licence was for a pre-

cisely similar foundation at Middleham in Yorkshire, to consist

of one dean and six chaplains, four clerks and six choristers

Richard was not even yet a hardened criminal, and however

Edward's conduct may have absolved him from personal re-

sponsibility for the death of Clarence, the event must have

weighed upon his mind in some way

. Even if it had been

Surtees'

Durham,

iv.

66.

Both these licences are enrolled on the Patent Roll, 17 Edward IV.

2, m. 16. The licence for Middleham is printed in Atthill's Documents

relating

tfu

Collegiate

Church of Middleham (Camden Society), p. 61.

See Appendix, Note 1.

38 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. I.

a natural death, the religious feeling of the age demanded

certain observances for the departed soul; and of this obliga-

tion Richard was possibly more sensible than King Edward

himself.

There is, in fact, no necessity to suppose that he may

not have had in him some measure of religious sentiment,

which, in the course of time, must have degenerated into

hypocrisy, and yet, perhaps, may never have been utterly

extinguished. Edward lamented the death of Clarence with

a remorse that was merely natural and human; Richard,

though less responsible, endeavoured to atone for it by acts

of piety. Too easily, alas, does religion itself endeavour to

persuade a man that good acts may atone for bad ones. It is

a delusion that has prevailed in many ages and was never more

prevalent than in those days; but so surely as it enters the

mind it corrupts the character. Not least so, certainly, when

the works reputed good consist of costly endowments and

pompous services; for these things shine in the eyes of men

and make the sinner's peace, not with God, but with the world.

At this period of his life, it is exceedingly probable, Richard

stood high in general estimation,—particularly high, no doubt,

in the estimation of his brother Edward.

He was, in fact, continually advancing in the king's favour

and confidence. He was reappointed to the office of Great

Chamberlain of England, which he had at one time resigned

in favour of Clarence

. He was made Admiral of England,

Ireland, and Aquitaine. He was also Warden of the West

Marches against Scotland. On the 12 th of May, 1480, he was

appointed lieutenant-general of the North in anticipation of a

Scotch invasion

, and in June he received a commission, along

with others, to raise troops in Yorkshire

. In August the

citizens of York were getting ready their men in jackets of

Patent, February 21, 17 Edward IV. p. 2, m. 16.

Rymer, xii. 115.

Ib. 115, ii7-

A.D.

1481. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 39

white and red to join him in an enterprise against Scotland

;

and though the Scots made a raid into Northumberland early

in September, there is little doubt that it was well chastised by

the joint forces of Richard and the Earl of Northumberland,

the former being back at Sheriffhutton in October*.

Two years later, there were further measures taken against

the Scots, and on the 12th of June, 1482, Richard war

with

was placed in command of an invading army

Scotland

For in the meantime matters had been visibly tending still

more to a war; and it would appear that Edward entered into it

unwillingly at a vast expense

, only after a distinct violation of

engagements on the part of Scotland had been followed up by

acts of invasion. As early as 1474, James had entered into a

treaty with Edward for the marriage of his eldest son to

Edward's second daughter, the Princess Cecily. To bind him

the more firmly to this alliance, Edward paid in advance to

the Scottish king three instalments of the dowry. But in the

course of a few years, by the persuasion of France, James was

induced to a rupture with England, and the Scots overran the

borders, as we have seen, in 1480. Edward entered into

alliances with the Lord of the Isles and some of the Scottish

nobles against the king

; but more especially he made a

secret treaty with Alexander, Duke of Albany, the brother

of King James, who set up a claim to the crown of Scotland

on the plea that James was illegitimate

. It does not appear

that the pretender ever advanced this claim openly before he

left Scotland. He had been imprisoned by his brother there

and escaped to France, but afterwards found a more com-

fortable asylum in England. He was entertained by Edward

Davies' York

Records,

106-7.

Ib. 108. Plumpton Corresp. 40.

Rymer, xii. 157.

For which money was again raised by benevolences. Cont. Croyl.

56».

Rymer, xii. 140.

Ib. 156.