CHAPTER XXV--ENGLAND UNDER RICHARD THE THIRD
King Richard the Third was up betimes in the morning, and went toWestminster Hall. In the Hall was a marble seat, upon which he sathimself down between two great noblemen, and told the people that hebegan the new reign in that place, because the first duty of a sovereignwas to administer the laws equally to all, and to maintain justice. Hethen mounted his horse and rode back to the City, where he was receivedby the clergy and the crowd as if he really had a right to the throne,and really were a just man. The clergy and the crowd must have beenrather ashamed of themselves in secret, I think, for being suchpoor-spirited knaves.
The new King and his Queen were soon crowned with a great deal of showand noise, which the people liked very much; and then the King set forthon a royal progress through his dominions. He was crowned a second timeat York, in order that the people might have show and noise enough; andwherever he went was received with shouts of rejoicing--from a good manypeople of strong lungs, who were paid to strain their throats in crying,'God save King Richard!' The plan was so successful that I am told ithas been imitated since, by other usurpers, in other progresses throughother dominions.
While he was on this journey, King Richard stayed a week at Warwick. Andfrom Warwick he sent instructions home for one of the wickedest murdersthat ever was done--the murder of the two young princes, his nephews, whowere shut up in the Tower of London.
Sir Robert Brackenbury was at that time Governor of the Tower. To him,by the hands of a messenger named JOHN GREEN, did King Richard send aletter, ordering him by some means to put the two young princes to death.But Sir Robert--I hope because he had children of his own, and lovedthem--sent John Green back again, riding and spurring along the dustyroads, with the answer that he could not do so horrible a piece of work.The King, having frowningly considered a little, called to him SIR JAMESTYRREL, his master of the horse, and to him gave authority to takecommand of the Tower, whenever he would, for twenty-four hours, and tokeep all the keys of the Tower during that space of time. Tyrrel, wellknowing what was wanted, looked about him for two hardened ruffians, andchose JOHN DIGHTON, one of his own grooms, and MILES FOREST, who was amurderer by trade. Having secured these two assistants, he went, upon aday in August, to the Tower, showed his authority from the King, took thecommand for four-and-twenty hours, and obtained possession of the keys.And when the black night came he went creeping, creeping, like a guiltyvillain as he was, up the dark, stone winding stairs, and along the darkstone passages, until he came to the door of the room where the two youngprinces, having said their prayers, lay fast asleep, clasped in eachother's arms. And while he watched and listened at the door, he sent inthose evil demons, John Dighton and Miles Forest, who smothered the twoprinces with the bed and pillows, and carried their bodies down thestairs, and buried them under a great heap of stones at the staircasefoot. And when the day came, he gave up the command of the Tower, andrestored the keys, and hurried away without once looking behind him; andSir Robert Brackenbury went with fear and sadness to the princes' room,and found the princes gone for ever.
You know, through all this history, how true it is that traitors arenever true, and you will not be surprised to learn that the Duke ofBuckingham soon turned against King Richard, and joined a greatconspiracy that was formed to dethrone him, and to place the crown uponits rightful owner's head. Richard had meant to keep the murder secret;but when he heard through his spies that this conspiracy existed, andthat many lords and gentlemen drank in secret to the healths of the twoyoung princes in the Tower, he made it known that they were dead. Theconspirators, though thwarted for a moment, soon resolved to set up forthe crown against the murderous Richard, HENRY Earl of Richmond, grandsonof Catherine: that widow of Henry the Fifth who married Owen Tudor. Andas Henry was of the house of Lancaster, they proposed that he shouldmarry the Princess Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of the late King, nowthe heiress of the house of York, and thus by uniting the rival familiesput an end to the fatal wars of the Red and White Roses. All beingsettled, a time was appointed for Henry to come over from Brittany, andfor a great rising against Richard to take place in several parts ofEngland at the same hour. On a certain day, therefore, in October, therevolt took place; but unsuccessfully. Richard was prepared, Henry wasdriven back at sea by a storm, his followers in England were dispersed,and the Duke of Buckingham was taken, and at once beheaded in the market-place at Salisbury.
The time of his success was a good time, Richard thought, for summoning aParliament and getting some money. So, a Parliament was called, and itflattered and fawned upon him as much as he could possibly desire, anddeclared him to be the rightful King of England, and his only son Edward,then eleven years of age, the next heir to the throne.
Richard knew full well that, let the Parliament say what it would, thePrincess Elizabeth was remembered by people as the heiress of the houseof York; and having accurate information besides, of its being designedby the conspirators to marry her to Henry of Richmond, he felt that itwould much strengthen him and weaken them, to be beforehand with them,and marry her to his son. With this view he went to the Sanctuary atWestminster, where the late King's widow and her daughter still were, andbesought them to come to Court: where (he swore by anything andeverything) they should be safely and honourably entertained. They came,accordingly, but had scarcely been at Court a month when his son diedsuddenly--or was poisoned--and his plan was crushed to pieces.
In this extremity, King Richard, always active, thought, 'I must makeanother plan.' And he made the plan of marrying the Princess Elizabethhimself, although she was his niece. There was one difficulty in theway: his wife, the Queen Anne, was alive. But, he knew (remembering hisnephews) how to remove that obstacle, and he made love to the PrincessElizabeth, telling her he felt perfectly confident that the Queen woulddie in February. The Princess was not a very scrupulous young lady, for,instead of rejecting the murderer of her brothers with scorn and hatred,she openly declared she loved him dearly; and, when February came and theQueen did not die, she expressed her impatient opinion that she was toolong about it. However, King Richard was not so far out in hisprediction, but, that she died in March--he took good care of that--andthen this precious pair hoped to be married. But they were disappointed,for the idea of such a marriage was so unpopular in the country, that theKing's chief counsellors, RATCLIFFE and CATESBY, would by no meansundertake to propose it, and the King was even obliged to declare inpublic that he had never thought of such a thing.
He was, by this time, dreaded and hated by all classes of his subjects.His nobles deserted every day to Henry's side; he dared not call anotherParliament, lest his crimes should be denounced there; and for want ofmoney, he was obliged to get Benevolences from the citizens, whichexasperated them all against him. It was said too, that, being strickenby his conscience, he dreamed frightful dreams, and started up in thenight-time, wild with terror and remorse. Active to the last, throughall this, he issued vigorous proclamations against Henry of Richmond andall his followers, when he heard that they were coming against him with aFleet from France; and took the field as fierce and savage as a wildboar--the animal represented on his shield.
Henry of Richmond landed with six thousand men at Milford Haven, and cameon against King Richard, then encamped at Leicester with an army twice asgreat, through North Wales. On Bosworth Field the two armies met; andRichard, looking along Henry's ranks, and seeing them crowded with theEnglish nobles who had abandoned him, turned pale when he beheld thepowerful Lord Stanley and his son (whom he had tried hard to retain)among them. But, he was as brave as he was wicked, and plunged into thethickest of the fight. He was riding hither and thither, laying abouthim in all directions, when he observed the Earl of Northumberland--oneof his few great allies--to stand inactive, and the main body of histroops to hesitate. At the same moment, his desperate glance caughtHenry of Richmond among a little group of his knights. Riding hard athim, and crying 'Treason!' he killed his standard-bearer, fiercelyunhorsed another gentleman, and aimed a powerful stroke at Henry himself,to cut him down. But, Sir William Stanley parried it as it fell, andbefore Richard could raise his arm again, he was borne down in a press ofnumbers, unhorsed, and killed. Lord Stanley picked up the crown, allbruised and trampled, and stained with blood, and put it upon Richmond'shead, amid loud and rejoicing cries of 'Long live King Henry!'
That night, a horse was led up to the church of the Grey Friars atLeicester; across whose back was tied, like some worthless sack, a nakedbody brought there for burial. It was the body of the last of thePlantagenet line, King Richard the Third, usurper and murderer, slain atthe battle of Bosworth Field in the thirty-second year of his age, aftera reign of two years.