fore she found some few friends still waiting to assist her fallen fortunes She had now fought battles in almost every province in England; Tewkesbury-park was the last scene that terminated her attempts. 15. The duke of Somerset headed her army: a man who had shared her dangers, and had ever been steady in her cause. When Edward first attacked him in his intrenchments, he repulsed him with such vigour, that the enemy retired with precipitation; upon which the duke, supposing them routed, pursued, and ordered lord Wenlock to support his charge. But unfortunately, this lord disobeyed his orders; and Somerset's forces were soon overpowered by numbers. 16. In this dreadful exigence, the duke finding that all was over, became ungovernable in his rage; and beholding Wenlock inactive, and remaining in the very place where he had first drawn up his men, giving way to his fury, with his heavy battle-axe in both hands he ran upon the coward, and with one blow dashed out his brains. 17. The queen and the prince were taken prisoners after the battle, and brought into the presence of Edward. The young prince appeared before the conqueror with undaunted majesty; and being asked, in an insulting manner, how he dared to invade England without leave, more mindful of his high birth than of his ruined fortunes, he boldly replied, "I have entered the dominions of my father, to revenge his injuries, and to redress my own." 18. The barbarous Ed ward, enraged at his intrepidity, struck him on his mouth with his gauntlet; and this served as a signal for further brutality the dukes of Gloucester, Clarence, and others, like wild beasts, rushing on the unarmed youth at once, stabbed him to the heart with their daggers. To complete the tragedy, Henry himself was soon after murdered in cold blood. Of all those that were taken, none were suffered t survive but Margaret herself. 19. It was perhaps expected that she would be ransomed by the king of France; and in this they were not deceived, as that monarch paid the king of England fifty thousand crowns for her freedom. This extraordinary woman, after having sustained the cause of her husband in twelve battles, after having survived her friends, fortunes, and children, died a few years after in privacy in France, very miserable indeed; but with few other claims to our pity, except her courage and her distresses.* * During this and several previous reigns, a most absurd fashion was fol 'owed by the people. It was customary to wear the beaks or points of theu Questions for Examination. 1. What was the issue of the first battle between the houses of York and Lancaster? 2. What was the fortune of Henry? 3. Where did the contending parties next meet? What circumstances gave the advantage to Henry's party? 4. Who was the commander of the Yorkists? 5. What was his success? 6 Who now laid claim to the crown? 7 What were the particulars of the action at Towton? 8 What happened to Margaret and the young prince after the battle! 9. How did Edward conduct himself after his accession? 11 For what reason did Warwick combine against Edward? By what title was Warwick received among the people? 13. What was the fortune of the next battle? 14. What followed this engagement ? 17. What was the answer of the young prince to Edward? 18. What was his treatment? What was the fate of Henry? 19. What of Margaret? Emperors of the West. Emperors of the East. A-D 1433 Edward... ....... Kings of Denmark and 1411 1410 Eric IX............. Emanuel II....... 1391 Frederick III..... 1440 Christian I........ 1448 John VII... Constantine III. and last Christian emperor. Succeeded by his conqueror Ma. homet II. who 1429 Kings of France. Louis XI......... 1461 Kings of Portugal. EMINENT PERSONS. Kings of Scotland. Robert III.......... 1390 James I..... 1424 James II......... 1437 1460 John Stratford and John Kemp, archbishops of Canterbury. De La Pole dike of Suffolk. The Dukes of Bedford, Gloucester, Exeter, and bishop of Winchester, regents and guardians to the king. Richard, duke of York. shoes so long, that it was necessary to tie them up to their knees with laces ur chains, to enable them to walk without stumbling: gentlemen used for this purpose chains made of silver, or silver gilt, and others used laces. This ridiculous custom was now (A.D. 1467) prohibited, on the forfeiture of twen ty shillings, and the pain of cursing by the clergy. Whatever absurdities in dress may have been rendered fashionable in modern times, certainly none have exceeded this folly of our ancestors. M CHAPTER XIX. EDWARD IV. Bo 1441. Died April 9th, 1482. Began to reign March 5th, 1461. Reigned 22 years. Edward, to each voluptuous vice a slave, Cruel, intemp'rate, vain, suspicious, brave.- Egerton. 1. (A.D. 1478.) EDWARD, being now free from great omies, turned to the punishment of those of lesser note; that the gibbets were hung with his adversaries, and their estates confiscated to his use. Whilst he was rendering himself terrible on the one hand, he was immersed in abandoned pleasures on the other. Nature, it seems, was not unfavourable to him in personal charms; as he was universally allowed to be the most beau tiful man of his time. 2. His courtiers also seemed willing to encourage those debaucheries in which they had a share; and the clergy, as they themselves practised every kind of lewdness with impunity, were ever ready to lend absolution to all his failings. The truth is, enormous vices had been of late too common. Among his other cruelties, that to his brother, the duke of Clarence, is the most remarkable. The king, hunting one day in the park of Thomas Burdet, a creature of the duke's, killed a white buck, which was a great favourite of the owner. Burdet, vexed at the loss, broke into a passion, and wished the horns of the deer in the belly of the person who had advised the king to that insult. For this trifling exclamation, Burdet was tried for his life, and publicly executed at Tyburn. 4. The duke of Clarence, upon the death of his friend, vented his grief in renewed reproaches against his brother, and exclaimed against the iniquity of the sentence. The king, highly offended with this liberty, or using that as a pretext against him, had him arraigned before the house of peers, and appeared in person as his accuser. 5. In those times of confusion, every crime alleged by the prevailing party was fatal; the duke was found guilty; and, being granted a choice of the manner in which he would die, was privately drowned in a butt of malmsey in the Tower: a whimsical choice, and implying that he had an extraordinary passion for that liquor. 6. However, if this monarch's reign was tyrannical, it was but short; while he was employed in making preparations for a war with France, he was seized with a distemper, of which he expired in the forty-second year of his age, and counting from the deposition of the late king, in the twentythird of his reign. Questions for Examination. 1. What was now the conduct of Edward? 2. For what was Burdet tried and executed? 4. Relate the cruelty of Edward towards his brother. Thomas Borlieur, archbishop of Canterbury; Nevil, earl of Warwick, call ed the king-maker; Beaufort, duke of Somerset; Richard, duke of Glouces ter; Tiptoft, earl of Worcester; William Caxton, mercer of London, the first printer (practised his art in Westminster Abbey, 1471). Jane Shore. CHAPTER XX. Born 1470. Died June, 1483. Began to reign April 9, 1483. Reigned 3 months. 1. (A.D. 1483.) THE duke of Gloucester, who had been made protector of the realm, upon a pretence of guarding the persons of the late king's children from danger, conveyed them both to the Tower Having thus secured them, his next step was to spread a report of their illegitimacy; and by pretended obstacles, to put off the day appointed for young Edward's coronation. His next aim was to despatch Lord Hastings, whom he knew to be warmly in the young king's interest. 2. Having summoned Lord Hastings to a council in the Tower, he entered the room knitting his brows, biting his ips, and showing, by a frequent change of countenance, the signs of some inward perturbation. A silence ensued for some time and the lords of the council looked upon each other, not without reason expecting some horrid catastrophe. 3. Laying bare his arm, all shrivelled and decayed, he accused Jane Shore and her accomplices of having produced this deformity by their sorceries; upon which Hastings cried, "If they have committed such a crime, they deserve punishment."-"If!" cried the protector, with a loud voice; dost thou answer me with ifs? I tell thee they have conspired my death; and that thou, traitor, art an accomplice in the crime." 4. He struck the table twice with his hand, and the room was instantly filled with armed men. 'I arrest thee," continued he, turning to Hastings, "for high-treason;" and at the same time gave him in charge to the soldiers. Hastings was obliged to make a short confession to the next priest that was at hand; the protector crying out, by St. Paul, that he would not dine till he had seen his head taken off. He was accordingly hurried out to the little green before the Tower chapel, and there beheaded on a log of wood that accidentally lay in the way. 5. Jane Shore, the late king's favourite was the next that felt his indignation. This unfortunate woman was an enemy too humble to excite his jealousy: yet, as he had accused her of witchcraft, of which all the world saw she was innocent, he thought proper to make her an example for those faults of which she was really guilty. 6. She had been formerly deluded from her husband, who was a goldsmith in Lombard-street, and continued to live with Edward, the most guiltless favourite in his abandoned court. It was very probable that the people were not displeased at seeing one again reduced to her former meanness who had for a while been raised above them, and enjoyed the smiles of a court. 7. The charge against her was too notorious to be denied; she pleaded guilty, and was accordingly con demned to walk barefooted through the city, and to do pe nance in St. Paul's church in a white sheet, with a was |