Constitutional History.
[eɪɪʌp.
230
summoned to the Tower to attend the king, and beheaded him
at once. The two strongest prelates in the council, Botherham
and Morton 1, were then arrested and committed to the Tower,
whence Morton was soon after sent off to prison in Wales.
Archbishop Bourchier, now nearly eighty, proved once more
his faithfulness to the stronger party, by inducing the queen
to allow her younger son to join his brother in the Tower,
Richard’s on the 16tl1. On the 2 2nd, Richard’s right to the crown was
throne. publicly declared by a preacher at S. Paul’s Cross, and on the
24th the duke OfBuckingham propounded the same doctrine
The≡cτown at Guildhall2. On the 25th, at Baynard’s Castle, the protector
to Richard, received a body of lords and others, ‘ many and diverse lords
June 25, j η
1483. spiritual and temporal, and other nobles and notable persons
of the commons,’ who in the name of the three estates presented
to him a roll of parchment, with the contents of which he
was no doubt already familiar. The roll contained an invi-
tation to accept the crown ; it rehearsed the ancient pros-
perity of England, its decay and imminent ruin owing to the
πieg⅛ima⅛∙ influence of false counsellors ; since the pretended marriage
children, ʌ of Edward IV the constitution had been in abeyance, laws
divine and human, customs, liberties and life, had been sub-
jected to arbitrary rule, and the noble blood of the land had
been destroyed ; the marriage was the result of sorcery, was
informally celebrated, and was illegal, Edward being already
bound by a pre-contract of marriage to the lady Eleanor
Butler : the children of the adulterous pair were illegitimate ;
clarence's the offspring of the duke of Clarence were disabled by their
attaint. father’s attainder from claiming the succession ; the protector
himself was the undoubted heir of duke Richard of York and
1 Exc. Hist. p. 17. Sir Thomas More (p. 485) says that Rotherham left
the Great Seal in the queen’s hands in the sanctuary at Westminster, and
had to demand it again owing to the disturbances in London before the
king’s arrival.
2 More gives, among many other speeches composed for this eventful
drama of history, the speech of the duke of Buckingham, which contains
several interesting points against Edward IV : e.g. the hanging of Burdett
for a jesting word, and the deprivation of the judge who refused to sentence
him ; the ill-treatment of aiderman Cook ; the influence of Jane Shore, &c.
But the speech, although worthy of study as a composition of More, is not
historical.
XVIIi.] Character of Uichard III. 231
of the crown of England; by birth and character too he was
entitled to the proffered dignity. Accordingly, the petitioners
proceed, they had chosen him king, they prayed him to accept
the election, promised to be faithful to him and implored the
divine blessing upon the undertaking1. The petition was
favourably received ; resistance, if it were thought of, was
impossible, for the city was full of armed men brought up
from the north in Gloucester’s interest. On the 26th he ap- Bichard ɪɪɪ
peared in Westminster Hall, sat down in the marble chair, id∏1seif king,
and declared his right as hereditary and elected king 2. Edward ɪjsʒ.261
V ended his reign on the 25th, and, with his brother Richard,
then disappears from authentic history. How long the boys
lived in captivity and how they died is a matter on which
legend and conjecture have been rife with no approach to
certainty. Most men believed, and still believe, that they died
a violent death by their uncle’s order. The earl of Rivers3 Execution of
RiversjJune.
and Sir Richard Grey had been executed at Pomfret a few days
after the usurpation, and the new king was not strong enough
to afford to be merciful.
361. It is unnecessary to attempt now anything like a Bi<*ard⅛
sketch of Richard’s character; the materials for a clear de-for ability.
Iineation are very scanty, and it has long been a favourite
topic for theory and for paradox. There can however be
little doubt of his great ability, of his clear knowledge of
the policy which under ordinary circumstances would have
secured his throne, and of the force and energy of will which,
put to a righteous use, might have made for him a great
name. The popularity which he had won before his accès- Hfa popu-
sion, in Yorkshire especially, where there was no love for
the house of York before, proves that he was not without
the gifts which gained for Edward IV the lifelong support
of the nation. The craft and unscrupulousness with which he and poiɪ-
carried into effect his great adventure, are not more remark-
able than the policy and the constitutional inventiveness with
1 See Rot. Part. vi. 238, 239.
2 Cont. Croyl. p. 566 ; Letters of Rich. Ill, i. 12.
3 Lord Riversmadehiswillonthe 23rd of June; Excerpta Historica,
p. 246 : his obit was kept on the 25th; ib. p. 244.