[chap.
226
Constitutional History.
discover any conspicuous merits. With great personal courage
he may be freely credited ; he was moreover eloquent, affable,
and fairly well educated. He had a definite plan of foreign
policy, and, although he was both lavish in expenditure and
extortionate in procuring money, he was a skilful merchant.
He had, or professed to have, some love of justice in the
abstract, which led him to enforce the due execution of law
where it did not interfere with the fortunes of his favourites
or his own likes and dislikes. He was to some extent a favourer
of learned men ; he made some small benefactions to houses of
religion and devotion, and he did not entirely root up the
collegiate foundations of his predecessors of the house of Lan-
caster. But that is all : he was as a man vicious far beyond
any king that England had seen since the days of John; and
more cruel and bloodthirsty than any king she had ever known :
Cruelties and he had too a conspicuous talent for extortion1. There had been
fierce deeds of bloodshed under Edward II and Edward III;
cruel and secret murder under Richard II and Henry IV ; the
hand of Henry V had been heavy and unrelenting against the
conspirators of Southampton ; and at S. Alban’s the house of
York, and at Wakefield the house of Lancaster, had sown fresh
seeds for a fatal harvest. But Edward IV far outdid all that
Iiis forefathers and his enemies together had done. The death
of Clarence was but the summing up and crowning act of an
unparalleled list of judicial and extra-judicial cruelties which
those of the next reign supplement but do not surpass.
state of the 3G0. Edward IV, by the strength of his popularity, the
court at the . ° . . ' .
tɪme of, force of his will, and ms ruthless extinction of every kind
deatiɪ. of resistance, had been able for the last few years to keep
his court at peace. The Wydvilles were not more beloved
by the elder nobility than they had been by the Nevilles,
and had done little to secure the position to which Edward
had raised them. The queen’s brothers, Antony Earl of
Rivers, Lionel bishop of Salisbury, and Edward and Richard
1 ‘ Tantam omnium memoriam esse ut omnium репе hominum per comi-
tatus regni dispersorum, si in patriis ubi degebant etiam in Conditione va-
Iecti alicujus compoti erant, nomina et fortunae sibi tanquam eos quotidie
prospicienti innoteseerent Cont. Croyl. p. 564.
XVIII.]
Court of Edward V.
227
Wydville, with her sons, Thomas Grey marquess of Dorset, The Wyd-
j . . . 4 . Villesand
and Sir Richard Grey, formed a little phalanx, strong in Greys,
union and fidelity, in the support of the queen and in the in-
fluence which Edward’s favour had won for them; but to any
cause that might depend on them alone they were a source
of danger rather than a safeguard. The lords of the council, The council,
among whom the chief were the lords Hastings, Stanley
and Howard, were personally faithful to the king and the
house of York, but were kept on friendly terms with the
Wydvilles only by the king’s influence. Somewhat OutsideThegreat
these parties were the duke of Gloucester, whose interests state,
up to this point had been one v¾ith Edward’s ; Henry Stafford
duke of Buckingham, the head of the line which represented
Thomas of Woodstock; and the duke of Suffolk, who had
married the king’s sister. Of these lord Hastings was the The
σ σ ministers.
captain of Calais, lord Stanley steward of the household, the
duke of Gloucester great chamberlain and lord high admiral,
Dorset constable of the Tower. Archbishop Rotherham was
chancellor ; the Earl of Essex the treasurer died a few days
before the king1. There was at the time of Edward’s death
no great public question dividing the nation ; the treasury
was well filled, and, as against France and Scotland, England
was of one mind. The king’s death at once broke up the
unity of the court, the peace of the country, and the fortunes
of the house of York.
The young Edward was keeping court at Ludlow, sur- ^lξegyoung
rounded by his mother’s kinsfolk, and the council which
his father had assigned him as prince of Wales2; the queen
was at Westminster in the midst of the jealous council of
1 April 4. Sir John Wood was appointed treasurer of the Exchequer,
May 16 ; Nichols, Grants &c. p. 13.
2 HisgovernorwaslordRivers, appointed Sept. 27,1473 ; bi`hop AIcock
of Worcester was the president of his council ; bishop Martin of S. David’s
his chancellor ; Sir Thomas Vaughan chamberlain ; Sir William Stanley
steward ; Sir Richard Croft treasurer ; Richard Hunt controller; Nichols,
Grants of Edw. V, p. viii. Lord Rivers was an accomplished man and
the patron of Caxton ; and the boy’s education was carefully attended to.
Ordinances were drawn up by Edward IV for his son’s household in 1473,
which are printed among the Ordinances of the Household, pp. 25—33 ;
and others were issued as late as 1482 ; Nichols, Grants &c., pp. vii, vιii.
Q 2