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.
60 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. II.
there
to aid and
assist
us
against
the
queen,
her
bloody
adherents
and
affinity, which have intended
and
daily doth
intend
to
murder
and
utterly destroy
us and our
cousin
the
Duke
of
Buckingham and the old royal blood
of
this realm,
and (as
it
is now openly known) by their subtle
and
damnable
ways forecasted the same, and also the final destruction
and
disherison
of
you
and all
other
the
inheritors
and men of
honour
as
well
of
the North parts
as of
other countries that
belongen
us, as our
trusty servant, this bearer, shall more
at large show you,
to
whom we pray you give credence.
And
as ever
we may do for you in
time coming, fail
not, but
haste
you to us
hither. Given under our signet
at
London
the ioth
day of
June
1
.'
On the ioth of June, then, Richard professed
to
have taken
Aiie ed serious alarm
at
a conspiracy by the queen and her
conspiracy adherents, which,
he
said, had just come
to
light
queen's
and
was then notorious. They
had
organised
a
confederacy
to
destroy himself
and the
Duke
of
Buckingham 'and
the old
royal blood
of the
realm.' Never-
theless
it
would seem that
he
could
not
depend upon
the
power
at
his command
in
London
to
counteract their malice,
and therefore demanded assistance from
his
dependents
in
the North. From this alone
it is
tolerably evident that, hot-
withstanding the alleged notoriety
of
the treason,
the
people
of London
did not
take Richard's view
of the
affair;
and
perhaps some may be disposed to think that
the
danger could
not have been
so
very urgent
if
Richard could afford
to
wait
till
his
followers came from Yorkshire.
In
point
of
fact,
it
was
no
such sudden discovery.
It
was just
the day
before
Richard wrote
to
York that Stallworth had noticed
in
his letter
to
Sir
William Stonor
how
'there was none that spake with
the queen.' Apparently, before that
day,
there
had
been
several efforts made
by the
council
to
come
to an
under-
standing with
her and
induce
her to
leave sanctuary.
But
1
Davies' York Records, 149.
A.D.
1483. ALLEGED CONSPIRACY. 6l
on the 9th of June this policy was abandoned. Though the
council had a remarkably long sitting, no interview was held
with her, and on the Very next day Richard wrote to the
North for assistance against her and her adherents.
Sir Richard Ratcliffe was the messenger; but notwith-
standing the apparent urgency of the case it was a day or
two before he left London; for on his departure he was
charged with another letter, dated the nth, addressed to Lord
Nevill, probably the son of the Earl of Westmoreland, the
tenor of which was as follows
1
:—
' To my Lord Nevill, in haste.
' My Lord Nevill, I recommend me to you as heartily as I can ;
and as ever ye love me and your own weal and security, and this
realm, that ye come to me with that ye may make, defensibly
arrayed, in all the haste that is possible; and that ye give credence
to Richard Ratcliffe, this bearer, whom I now do send to you,
instructed with all my mind and intent.
'And, my Lord, do me now good service, as ye have always
before done, and I trust now so to
1
remember you as shall be the
making of you and yours. And God send you good fortunes.
'Written at London, nth day of June, with the hand of your
heartily loving cousin and master,
'R. GLOUCESTER.'
It must not, however, be too readily presumed that there
was no foundation at all for Richard's charge of
HOW
far
conspiracy against the queen and her relations.
real
-
Polydore Vergil, a writer who cannot be suspected of any
design to palliate the protector's misdeeds, expressly states
that an act of sudden violence was at this time contemplated,
in order to liberate the young king from his uncle's control.
Richard knew quite well of the intention, but it did not give
him by any means such a serious alarm as he pretended; or
if it did, he contrived to conceal his fears from everybody
1
Paston Letters
(new edition), vol. iii.
No.
874.
62 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. II.
except his Northern supporters. Two whole days passed
away after he had written for aid to the city of York, and
nothing was yet heard in London of the plot which he
said was notorious. On the third day it was proclaimed
through the city by order of the protector
himself;
but it was
proclaimed as the justification of an act of tyranny, and the
city seems to have doubted at first whether it was not alto-
gether a false pretence.
The truth appears to be, that the conspiracy, however
much it may have been advanced by the queen and her
relations, did not originate with them. Differences had sprung
up within the council, and the protector met with opposition
in a quarter where he had hitherto been most cordially sup-
„ . ported. It was the boast of Hastings that he
Hastings
"
changes had defeated the designs of the Woodvilles and
created a complete revolution without shedding
so much blood as would have flowed from a cut finger
1
. But
either he had taken alarm at some far more treacherous de-
signs that he detected in Richard, or he thought it advisable,
for some reason or other, to curtail the protector's authority.
Much as he disliked Dorset and the queen's party, he now
positively regretted the change that he had so lately gloried
in having effected. He made overtures for reconciliation,
and held a meeting with them at St Paul's, to consider how
to get the king out of Richard's power. Sudden and violent
measures were proposed by some as the only effectual counter-
poise to the policy under which Rivers and Grey had been
arrested. But there were others who objected to proceed
to such extremities; and it does not appear that, even in
council, the more dangerous party carried the day
2
.
Richard was not ignorant of what was done at this
meeting; but so far was he from taking alarm at it, that
he seems positively to have encouraged the conspirators by
1
Cont. Croyl. 566.
2
Polydore Vergil, 540.
A.D. 1483. SEPARATE COUNCILS. 63
giving them every possible opportunity of conferring together
undisturbed. From a private conference at St Paul's it came
to sectional meetings of the council elsewhere, till the design
was discussed at the Tower with the privity of
The
king
the young king
himself.
The lad of thirteen,
C
°™*H«I-
of course, who had been surrounded from infancy by his
mother's relations, resented strongly the imprisonment of his
uncle Rivers and his half-brother Lord Richard Grey, and
no doubt he lent a ready ear to those who offered to free
him from the control of his uncle Gloucester. But it is more
singular that Richard, for his part, should have allowed them
to mature their plans in the royal council chamber
itself.
He held private meetings with his more particular friends at
Crosby's Place in Bishopsgate Street, where he then resided.
At first very few were admitted to the conclave, but afterwards
several of the council came up from the Tower to join them,
so that in the end the king and the Hastings-Woodville party
had the council chamber to themselves. Thus it appears
there were two separate councils, neither of which quite under-
stood what was going on in the other.
The object of the protector's meetings, as we are told by
More, was to procure his own elevation to the
throne. But whether he at this time revealed his tector's
whole designs, even to his chief supporters, may
p
°
icy
"
be doubted. There was enough of matter on which to take
counsel with his friends without putting before them, as yet,
any such ambitious project. His power as protector was in a
critical condition, a party in the council being clearly opposed
to its continuance, and the coronation day was approaching,
when, according to the precedent of Henry VI.'s time, it ought
to terminate. But as Parliament was to meet immediately
after, Richard proposed to obtain from the lords there as-
sembled a confirmation of his authority until the time that
his nephew should be competent to rule in person. This
apparently was the utmost of what he ventured at present to
64 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. II.
put forward, and the Chancellor prepared a speech for the
opening of Parliament declaring that the confirmation of the
protectorship was the main object of their being called to-
gether.
The king and his friends, however, had other views, and,
having the council chamber all to themselves, they appear to
have been lulled into a false security that their deliberations
would not be revealed to the protector. Lord Stanley, indeed,
confessed to Hastings a dislike of these two separate councils;
but the other replied with an assurance that he had a spy in
the protector's meetings, and knew all that was going on there.
More gives the name of this spy as Catesby, meaning, there
can be little doubt, Richard's devoted friend, William Catesby,
esquire of the Royal Body, who was made Speaker of the
House of Commons next year, when Richard had become
king. At this time, it would appear, he was endeavouring to
serve two masters. He had been much advanced by the
patronage of Hastings, and was in great authority in Leicester-
shire and Northamptonshire, through the influence of that
nobleman. Yet More considers that he expected to be a
gainer by his patron's death, and that his own power in those
counties would be increased after his removal. So while acting
the part of a confidant he was privately betraying his friend to
the protector.
The crisis came on the morning of
Friday,
June 13—the third
day after Richard had written to York for assistance against the
queen's friends. That morning a council was held in the Tower
to make arrangements for the approaching coronation; but
before mid-day the meeting was broken up in confusion, three
or four of the principal councillors arrested, and one of them
hurriedly put to death by the protector's order. The particu-
lars of this extraordinary scene are familiar to most people, as
they are not only recorded by Sir Thomas More in his History
of Richard III., but have been dramatised by Shakespeare,
according to More's report of them. And, strange as the story
A.D.
1483. SCENE IN COUNCIL. 6$
is,
we have every reason to believe that the facts are strictly
true;
for there can be no doubt that Sir Thomas More derived
his knowledge of what took place from one who had been an
eye-witness of the whole scene, and who, though he can scarcely
be called an impartial spectator, was undoubtedly a statesman
of high integrity. Still, it is only right to remember that in
connection with this story we have the report of one side
only—the account, that is to say, of Cardinal Morton, at this
time Bishop of Ely. The colouring, therefore, is that of a
partisan, though the facts, no doubt, are those of a truthful
reporter. The substance of the story, however, is as follows:
The protector made his appearance in the council chamber
about nine o'clock. His manner was gracious; he blamed his
own inactivity for not having been present earlier, and com-
menced the day pleasantly by remarking to Bishop Morton,
' My lord, you have very good strawberries in your garden at
Holborn
:
I pray you let us have a mess of them.' He then
opened the business of the council, and having engaged the
lords in conversation, he requested their indulgence for a
temporary absence, and withdrew. But between ten and
eleven o'clock he returned with an altered countenance, and
as he took his seat, looked upon the assembled councillors
with an angry frown, and bit his lips. The council marked
the change, in silent amazement. After a pause, he asked
suddenly what punishment they deserved who had conspired
against the life of one so nearly related to the king as
himself,,
who was, besides, entrusted with the government of the realm?
The council was confounded. Hastings, presuming on his
familiarity with the protector, replied that they deserved the
punishment of traitors. ' That sorceress, my brother's wife,'
cried Richard,' and others with her—see how they have wasted
my body by their sorcery and witchcraft!' And, as he spoke,
he bared his left arm and showed it to the council, shrunk and
withered, as, our author says, it had always been.
Sir Thomas More, it must be observed, says nothing in his
G. 5
66 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. II.
history of the confederacy between Hastings and the queen's
friends, but intimates that Hastings bore to the last a mortal
aversion to the queen dowager, and believed that he himself
stood high in the protector's favour. He was therefore not at
first displeased that Richard should accuse his sister-in-law so
absurdly. The charge was scarcely more preposterous than
many a serious indictment in those days; and as a means of
gratifying party malice, it was quite to Hastings's mind. But
he felt very differently the next moment, when Richard fol-
lowed up the accusation against the queen by mentioning
Shore's wife as her principal accomplice. Jane Shore, as she
is commonly called in history, had been, as is well known, one
of the mistresses of the late king, Edward IV.; but since the
death of her royal paramour she had become the mistress of
Hastings, and with her, according to More's narrative, he had
spent the night before this scene in the council chamber. The
attack upon her came, therefore, very near home to his feelings;
but having already shown his willingness to credit a charge
against the queen, he could not directly dispute the statement
with regard to this woman. So he replied, with as good a
grace and in the only way that he very well could do, ' Cer-
tainly, my lord, if they have done so heinously, they are worthy
of heinous punishment.' 'What!' exclaimed the protector,
*
dost thou serve me with ifs and with ands
?
I tell thee, they
have done it; and that I will make good on thy body, traitor!'
So saying, he struck his fist upon the council-table with
Arrest
and
8
reat
force. It was a signal preconcerted with
<xecution others who stood without. A cry of treason was
of Hastings. . , / .
heard outside the room. Armed men rushed in,
and Hastings and some others were immediately arrested
amid great confusion. The cautious Stanley had a blow
aimed at his head with a pole-axe, but escaped with a slight
wound in the face, and was taken into custody. The Bishop
of Ely and the Archbishop of York were also placed in
confinement. As for Hastings, the protector bade him prepare
A.D.
1483. DEATH OF HASTINGS. 67
for immediate death, swearing by St Paul that he would
not dine till he had seen his head off. Small time was given
for shrift. The protector's noonday dinner could not wait.
The first priest that could be found received his confession.
A log of timber which had been provided for some repairs
in the Tower served the purpose of a block; and before noon,
in front of the chapel on Tower Green, the head of Hastings
was severed from his body
1
.
Such are the material facts of the case, and they are
marvellous enough. Sir Thomas More—unlike what we
should have expected in so wise a man—goes on to tell
us,
not only of warnings sent to Hastings beforehand, but of
various dreams, omens, and presages which he neglected to
take note of. He says Hastings went to the council that
morning in remarkably high spirits, not only fearing no evil
to
himself,
but in the full confidence that his old enemies,
the Earl of Rivers and Lord Richard Grey, were that day
to be beheaded at Pomfret. So much, More tells us, had
already been determined in the protector's council, and
Hastings was a party to the design; so that it was in the
hour of triumph over fallen enemies that he was cut off
himself.
As a matter of fact, More is wrong in supposing
that Rivers and Grey were really executed on that very
day at Pomfret; but it is possible their death may have been
already determined on with Hastings's concurrence.
Of them we shall speak presently. Of Hastings we may
remark in conclusion, that More himself describes him as an
honourable man, ' plain and open to his enemy, and secret to
his friend; easy to beguile, as he who of good heart and
courage forestudied no perils. A loving man and passing well
beloved; very faithful and trusty enough; trusting too much.'
After this, Richard sent for some of the principal citizens,
and appearing before them, along with Buckingham, in rusty
armour
2
, which they had suddenly put on, explained that their
1
More, 70-74.
2
'In old ill-faring briganders,'
says
More.
68 LIFE OF RICHARD III. CH. II.
unsightly array was owing to a startling discovery that Hastings
and others had planned to assassinate them at the council-
table. The design, they declared, had been very nearly carried
into effect; and they had been quite unconscious of their
danger until ten o'clock that very morning. A proclamation
to this effect was published without delay; but the very
neatness with which it was written belied the pretence of
sudden alarm with which it was put forth. Shrewd observers
remarked that it must have been written by prophecy, for
there could not be a doubt that it was prepared before-
hand
1
.
Simultaneously with the arrest of Hastings took place, as
we have seen, that of the Archbishop of York and the Bishop
of Ely, who were sent into Wales in the custody of the Duke
of Buckingham. The former was soon afterwards released and
restored to Richard's favour. His weakness about the Great
Seal must have convinced the protector that he was not a
dangerous political opponent. But the same could not be
Bishop
sa
id of John Morton, Bishop of Ely. His was an
Morton. organizing mind which even in captivity could plan
a revolution and lay a sure foundation for England's future
government. Of Lancastrian leanings originally, he had never-
theless become attached to the family of Edward IV., and,
there can be little doubt, shared the counsels of Hastings in
whatever he may have proposed to do in the queen dowager's
behalf.
It is unquestionably from his relation in after times
that Sir Thomas More obtained a large part of the information
contained in his History of Richard III., and especially those
vivid details of the scene in council, and other incidents in
which the bishop took a leading part. To Morton is alike due
the minuteness and the partiality of More's picturesque and
most interesting narrative.
1
More,
78-81.
The justice of the insinuation that the proclamation
was "written by prophecy" is strongly corroborated by Richard's letter to
the city of York three days before. See p. 60.
A.D.
1483. JANE SHORE. 69
Morton was confined by the Duke of Buckingham in
Brecknock Castle. As he was a liberal patron of learning
the university of Oxford soon afterwards wrote to intercede
with Richard in his favour, urging that his offence ' proceeded
not of pertinacity but human frailty'.' The plea cannot well
be said to have been in harmony with facts.
Another person who was made to feel the protector's
displeasure at this time was Jane Shore. What part
j
ane
she had taken against Richard, or why he should shore.
have thought it necessary to take notice of such a person, we
have no clear information. More says the protector's only
object with regard to her was to obtain possession of her goods,
over 2,000 or 3,000 marks in value. But this is scarcely a
satisfactory explanation. It is admitted by More himself that
prodigality rather than covetousness was a part of Richard's
character; and if he desired to confiscate the property of
anyone, there must have been special reasons for selecting
Jane Shore out of all the wealthy persons in London for a
victim. Considering the great influence she had exerted at
the court of Edward IV., and her relations since then with
Hastings, there can hardly be a doubt that she was employed
as a political agent and go-between by the Hastings and
Woodville party. And though it was certainly a very frivolous
charge that Richard brought against her of conspiring with the
queen dowager to do him personal injury, we must remember
that the most mendacious assertions are commonly founded
upon something plausible. We probably do not know, after
all,
the whole extent of the accusation against either the queen
or her; and the fact that they were accused of acting in
concert seems in itself to imply a better understanding than
1
A. Wood's Hist, of the University of
Oxford,
i. 640. The letter was
written on 29 July (iv. cal. sextilis) 1483, not 1484 as Wood dates it. The
University also interceded for Archbishop Rotherham, who was their
Chancellor. Grace Book A, pp. 171-2, edited by Stanley M. Leathes
(Cambridge Antiquarian Society).