During the period of the world's history when the law's redress of wrongs was so inadequate and the ambition and cupidity of the race so often imposed such hardships upon the nobility, it is little wonder that they established a place where they would be secure from such attacks as those which threatened the Queen, in this play. When the dangerous game for place and power had gone against one and the arbitrament of war had decided for an opponent who sought one's life and family, the privilege of sanetuary was one very dear to Englishmen and it alone, furnished an abode free from the "force and fraud" of the outer world. The right of sanctuary dates from an early period in English history, for Alfred, Ethelred, and all subsequent Saxon kings, expressly recognized the right, by their laws, and in a state of society like that among the Anglo-Saxons, the immunity indulged to places of worship, was not only politic, but humane and necessary, as well. It prevented the shedding of blood and preserved the peace. Hence, we find, that from the earliest time, in England, places of public worship were held in such reverence that eriminals flying thither were, during their stay, allowed protection from arrest, whatever their crime might be. If the person was drawn violently from the place where he had embraced sanctuary, he could plead this in abatement of the prosecution, during the reign of Edward III, but during the reign of Henry VIII, by statute, (27 Henry VIII, c. 19) the benefit of sanctuary was denied to all offenders guilty of high treason.* 1 For description of the Sanctuary at Westminster, where Elizabeth fled, with her mother and three daughters, in 1470, which was destroyed in 1775, see Rolfe's 3' Henry VI, p. 215, notes. 2I Reeves's History Eng. Law, p. 198. 3 III Reeve's History Eng. Law. p. 331. IV Reeve's History Eng. Law, p. 469. In a recent article in Law Notes, (Vol. 14, p. 51, June, 1910) discussing the ancient privilege of Sanctuary, the author ob serves: "That system was not always consistent or clear, but its main outlines were as follows: Sanctuaries were of two kindsgeneral, as all churches and churchyards; special, as St. Martin's le Grand and Westminster. No doubt these last had originally also a religious sanction. Such places were twice consecrate; Pope and King, the canon and the common law, united in their favor. They protected felons, but not those guilty of sacrilege or (some held) of treason. They were not properly for debtors, whose reception was nevertheless justified by an ingenious quibble. Imprisonment might endanger life, and therefore (so the learned argued) the runaway debtor must be received. A man took sanctuary thus:-Having stricken (let us say) his fellow, he fled to the cathedral and knocked (with how trembling a hand!) at the door of the galilee. Over the north porch were two chambers where watchers abode night and day. On the instant the door swung open, and had scarce closed behind the fugitive when the galilee bell proclaimed to the town that another life was safe from them that hunted. Then the prior assigned him a gown of black cloth marked on the left shoulder with the yellow cross of St. Cuthbert, and therewith a narrow space where he might lie secure of life, though ill at ease. So it was at Durham; At Westminster the sanctuary man bore the cross keys for a badge, and walked in doleful state before the abbot at procession times; and there were, no doubt, countless variations. A phrase of the time reveals how close the watch was now and again. Under Edward II it was complained that the sanctuary man might not remove so much as a step beyond the precincts, causa superflui deponendi, without being seized and haled to prison. He was fed and lodged in some rough sort for forty days, within which time he must confess his crime before the coroner at the churchyard gate, and so constitute himself the king's felon. Then he swore to abjure the realm. The coroner assigned him a port of embarkation (chosen by himself), whither he must hasten with bare head, carrying in his hand a cross, not departing, save in direst need, from the king's highway. He might tarry on the shore but a single ebb and flow of the tide, unless it were impossible to come by a ship, in which case he must wade up to his knees in the sea every day. He was protected for another forty days, when, if he could not find passage, he returned whence he came, to try his luck elsewhere." "On the whole the privilege was strictly respected. For instance, the king's justices were wont to hold session in St. Martin's Gate. They sat on the very border. The accused were placed on the other side of the street; a channel ran between them and their judges, and if they once got across that they claimed sanctuary, and all proceedings against them were annulled. And one sees the reason why Perkin Warbeck took such care to squint one eye upon the crown and the other on the sanctuary' (as Bacon curiously phrases it); yet the great case of Becket is there to show that nothing was absolutely sacred in these violent years. Nor does it stand alone. In 1191, Jeffrey, Archbishop of York, and son of Henry II, was seized at the altar of St. Martin's Priory, Dover, and dragged, episcopal robes and all, through dirty streets to the castle; this, too, by order of William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, and Papal legate. In 1378, Archbishop Sudbury complained in Parliament that one Robert Hawley had been slain at the high altar even while the priest was saying a mass. It was rumored indeed that one Thurstian, a knight, chasing a sanctuary man with drawn sword, was of a, sudden stricken with grievous ailments. But this and other like stories did not deter the citizens of London (circa 1349) from assembling at supper time in a great crowd, and dragging forth a soldier who had escaped on the way from Newgate to Guildhall, where he was being taken for trial. In another case (temp. Henry VI), where a youth had taken sanctuary after having foully slain a kind mistress, the good women about St. Martin's broke in and dispatched him with their distaffs. Of those who took sanctuary to good purpose the most famous was Elizabeth, widow of Edward IV, who, in 1471, registered herself a sanctuary woman in Westminster, and there sat, in Sir Thomas More's phrase, 'alow in the rushes.' But you have read the tragic story in Shakespeare. And in a later age beastly Skelton' (as Pope will have him), from that same Westminster safely lampooned the mighty Wolsey, though for that he needs must live and die there." "To catalogue the evils of the sanctuary system were to show lack of historical sympathy, nay, even of humor. The former days were not as these; it had its place with the shrine and the pilgrimage, the knight-errant, and the trial by ordeal in the strange economy of a vanished world. As the times grew modern its practical inconvenience was felt for the first time. Yet the occasion of the first assault on the privilege of sanctuary was one where the benefits were conspicuous, and the assailant had the worst of motives. It was the case just noted of Edward IV's widow; she had the young Duke of York as yet safe with her. Her enemies were at a loss for the moment, and Buckingham, then the sworn ally of Richard of Gloucester, took occasion in the Privy Council to attack her place of refuge. "There were two chief plague-spots in London,' he snarled: 'one at the elbows of the city (Westminster), the other in the very bowels thereof (St. Martin's le Grand). These places were the refuge of theeves, mirtherers, and malitious, heynous traytors! nay,' he added, 'men's wives ran hither with their husbands' plate, and say they dare not abide their husbands for beating,' with more to the same effect. Had not Elizabeth yielded, Westminster might have witnessed a violation as affecting as that of Canterbury." CHAPTER XXIV. "KING RICHARD THE THIRD." Sec. 312. Richard's crimes prompted by his isolation 313. Law of God and man. 317. Disputing with Lunatic. 318. Clothing villany with "holy writ." 319. Warrant no protection against murder. 320. Guilty conscience. 327. Levitical Law against niece marrying uncle. 330. Corrupted Justice. 331. Swords as Laws, under Richard's reign. Sec. 312. Richard's crimes prompted by his isolation.I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's "Glo. majesty, |