Clarence
accused and
attainted
in x478.
Hie death.
Parliament
of 1478.
222 Constitutional History. [chap.
the ascendancy of Gloucester, quitted the court. He had lost
his wife in 1476, as he suspected, by poison, and had gone
beyond the rights of his legal position in exacting punishment
from the suspected culprits1. A series of petty squabbles
ended in a determination of the ruling party at court to get
rid of him. In a parliament which met on the 16th of January,
14782, Edward himself acting as the accuser, he was attainted,∖
chiefly on the ground of his complicity with the Lancastrians ∣
in 14703; the bill was approved by the commons ; and on the -
7th of February order was given for his execution, the duke of
Buckingham being appointed high steward for the occasion4.
How he actually perished is uncertain, but he was dead before
the end of the month, and the Wydvilles received a large share
of the forfeitures. Clarence was a weak, vain, and faithless
man ; he had succeeded to some part of Warwick’s popularity,
and had, in the minds of those who regarded as valid the acts
of the Lancastrian parliament of 1470, a claim to be the consti-
tutional king. If lɪis acts condemn him, it is just to remember
that the men with whom he was matched were Edward IV and
Richard III. The particular question of his final guilt affects
his character as little and as much as it affects theirs.
The parliament had probably been called for this express
purpose; the chancellor, who had opened it with a discourse
on the first verse of the twenty-third Psalm, had illustrated
his thesis with examples, drawn from both Testaments, of the
punishments due to broken fealty. Besides the formal declara-
tion, which was now made, of the nullity of the acts of the
Lancastrian parliament5, two or three exchanges of estates
were ratified, and some few attainders reversed. George
Feb. 13, 1477 ; it seems to have been employed on foreign affairs ; Paston
Letters, iii. 173.
1 Rot. Parl. vɪ. 173.
2 ɪb. vɪ. 167. The chancellor’s text was ‘ The Lord is my shepherd ; ’
the application ‘ He beareth not the sword in vain.’ William Alyngton
was again speaker. We learn from the York records that this parliament
sat from Jan. 16 to Feb. 26; the representatives of that city receiving
wages for forty-two days of session and twelve more going and returning ;
Davies, York Records, p. 66.
3 Rot. Park vi. 193-195 ; Cont. Croyl. p. 560.
4 Rot. Parl. v. 195. s lb. vi. 191, 192.
XVUI.] Edward’s Judicial activity. 223
Neville, son of the marquess of Montague, who had been
created duke of Bedford, and had been intended to marry the
king’s eldest daughter, was deprived of his titles on the ground
that he had no fortune to maintain them1 ; his father’s estates
had been secured to the king’s brotheɪs. The statutes which
were passed were of the usual commercial type. The session
must have been a very short one, and no money was asked for.
The convocation, which under the influence of archbishop
Bourchier was more amenable to royal pressure, was made to
bestow a tenth in the following April2. Edward was growing Edward
rich by mercantile speculations of his own ; and, complaisant8 ° π
as the parliament might have proved, there was a chance that
the military failure of 1475 might be subjected to too close
inspection if any large demand were made from the assembled
estates3. No parliament was called for the next five years,
and the intervening period, so far as constitutional history is
concerned, is absolutely without incident. The quarrels of the
court did not extend beyond the inner circle around the king.
He continued to heap favours on the Wydvilles, and to throw
military and administrative work on Gloucester. Considerable Edwaxd'⅛
judicial
efforts were made during the time to enforce the measures activity.
necessary for internal peace ; frequent assizes were held, and as
of old, when the sword of justice was sharpened4, the receipts
of the Treasury increased ; obsolete statutes and customs were
made to produce a harvest of fines, and ancient debts were
recovered. But neither the rigour of the courts nor the ex-
tortions, which the rising prosperity of the country was well
able to bear, seem to have damaged Edward’s popularity. He Herotains
remained until his death a favourite with the people of London iarity.pu
and the great towns ; and his reign, full as its early days had
been of violence and oppression, drew to its close with no un-
favourable omens for his successor. The troubled state of
ɪ Rot. Part. vi. 173. 2 Wilkins, Cone. iii. 6t2. 3 Cont. Croyl. p. 559.
4 In his nineteenth year Edward ‘ began, more than he was before accus-
tomed, to search out the penal offences, as well of the chief of his nobility
as of other gentlemen . . . by reason whereof it was of all men adjudged
. . . that he would prove hereafter a sore and an extreme prince amongst
his subjects . . . he should say, that all men should stand and live in fear
of him and he to be unbridled and in doubt of no man ; ’ Hall, p. 329.