upward, not rising yet as fast as he had hoped, being hindered and kept under by Sir Richard Ratcliffe and Sir William Catesby. Whereupon King Richard rose and came out into the palet chamber, where he found Sir James a bed, and calling him up, brake to him secretly his mind in this mischievous matter, in which he found him to his purpose nothing strange. Wherefore on the morrow he sent him to Brackenbury with a letter, by which he was commanded to deliver to Sir James all the keys of the Tower for a night, to the end that he might there accomplish the king's pleasure in such things as he had given him commandment. Forthwith on the protector assuming the title of king, the two young princes were both shut up, and all their people removed but only one, called Black Will, or Will Slaughter, who was set to serve them, and four keepers to guard them. The young king was heard to say, sighingly, "Would mine uncle would let me have my life, though he taketh my crown.' After which time the prince never tied his points, nor anything thought of himself, but with that young babe his brother lingered in thought and heaviness till this traitorous deed delivered them from their wretchedness. Sir James Tyrell devised that they should be murdered in their beds, and no blood shed, to the execution whereof he appointed Miles Forest, one of the four that before kept them, a fellow, flesh bred in murder before time; and to him he joined one John Dighton, his own horse-keeper, a big, broad, square and strong knave. Then all the other attendants being removed from them this Miles Forest and John Dighton, about midnight, came into the chamber, and suddenly wrapped them up amongst the clothes, keeping down by force the feather-bed and pillows hard upon their mouths, that within awhile they smothered and stifled them; and their breaths failing, they gave up to God their innocent souls unto the joys of Heaven, leaving to their tormentors their bodies dead in bed; after which the wretches laid them out upon the bed and fetched Tyrell to see them, and when he was satisfied of their death, he caused the murderers to bury themat the stair-foot, meetly deep in the ground, under a great heap of stones. Sir James having fulfilled his task, rode in great haste to King Richard, and shewed him all the manner of the murder, who gave him great thanks, and, as men say, there made him knight; but he allowed not their burial in so vile a corner, saying he would have them buried in a better place, because they were a king's sons; whereupon a priest of Sir Robert Brackenbury's took them up and buried them in such secrecy as by the occasion of his death, which was very shortly after, no one knew it.* Sir Thomas More.

* In 1674, a new stair was made to this chapel (on the south side of the White Tower), and as the workmen were digging at the foot of an old staircase, they found some bones, the proportion of which being answerable to the ages of the royal youths, King Charles the Second was so well satisfied that these must be those princes bones, that he caused them to be translated and decently and honoura'ly interred in Henry the Seventh's chapel, among their royal ancestors. Kennet, v l. i., p. 551. This fact must go far to confute the speculations of IIorace Walpole, and other

RICHARD'S MARRIAGE WITH LADY ANNE.

Our great poet, Shakspeare, has presented us with such an affecting history of the "gentle Lady Anne," that we are almost tempted, when we compare it with the stern facts of contemporary chroniclers, to doubt their authenticity, and cling to our first impressions; but fiction must give way to truth, and the plain unvarnished tale is thus recorded by the monk of Croyland :"Anne Neville was the second daughter of Richard Neville, the great Earl of Warwick, the king-maker, and was betrothed (not married, as Shakspeare and many historians have erroneously related), to Edward, the Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou, who was murdered after the Battle of Tewkesbury. Richard and Anne had been playmates from their childhood, and there is little doubt mutually attached; but on Richard, then Duke of Gloucester, desiring her for his wife, the Duke of Clarence, who had married her elder sister, Isabel, was unwilling to share so rich an inheritance with his brother, and concealed the young heiress; but Richard was too alert for him, and discovered Lady Anne, in the disguise of a cook-maid, in an obscure part of London, and removed her to the sanctuary of St. Martin. The brothers pleaded each his cause in person before their elder brother, King Edward IV. in council, and every man admired the strength of their respective arguments. The king composed their differences, bestowed the maiden on Richard, and parted the estate between him and Clarence; the Countess of Warwick, mother of the heiresses, who had brought the vast wealth to the house of Neville, remaining the only sufferer, being thereby reduced to a state of absolute necessity. Richard and Anne were married long before the death of Edward IV., and not as Sir Richard Baker has recorded, after Richard's accession, in 1483, at which time the Prince of Wales, their son, was nearly ten years old, and his legitimacy undisputed. They were crowned at Westminster on the 6th July, 1483, and Anne's death, supposed to have been caused by poison administered by her husband, who wished to remove her to marry his niece Elizabeth, took place 16th March, 1484. Kings of England, p. 87.

BOSWORTH FIELD-DEATH OF RICHARD. Henry, after crossing the Severn, was joined by the Talbots, and a few other families, but his force was still very inconsiderable compared with the army under his bold and experienced rival.

historic cavillers, that the princes were not murdered and buried in the manner handed down to us by Sir Thomas More and popular tradition; great stress is laid on the bones being found at a spot far removed from the traditional place of their interment; but when the wish of King Richard, that "the bodies might be buried in a better place," be considered, it is not unnatural to conclude that Sir Robert Brackenbury's chaplain removed them secretly to the precincts of his chapel, and dying a few days afterwards, the secret of their last resting place was not divulged. Thus all the researches of Henry the Seventh were baffled, and the fate of the princes enveloped in so much mystery.

But Henry knew that not one man in ten would fight for Richard, and he continued to press forward. On the 21st August he moved from Tamworth town to Atherstone, where he was joined by swarms of deserters from the enemy. On the same day Richard marched from Leicester, and encamped near the town of Bosworth. Early on the following morning Richard, with his crown on his head, mounted his horse, marshalled his troops, and advanced. Henry at the same time moved from Atherstone: and the two armies met in the midst of a fine and spacious plain, nearly surrounded by hills, which commences about a mile to the south of Bosworth. "There," in the quaint language of a contemporary (Fabian), was fought a sharp battle, and sharper should it have been if the king's party had been fast to him, but many towards the field refused him, and rode over to the other party, and some stood hovering afar off till they saw to which party the victory should fall." In fact, of all the lords that followed Richard, scarcely was one true to him except the Duke of Norfolk, and his son the Earl of Surrey. As he gazed along the enemies lines he saw many a banner, which, a few hours before, had been on his own side, and either immediately before the first attack, or very soon after, Lord Stanley appeared in the field with three thousand men, and joined his adversary. On looking back on his own lines he saw them wavering and broken by desertion, for whole bands at a time left their positions to fall into the rear or go over to Henry. Even the Earl of Northumberland, with the hardy men of the north, seemed inclined to keep aloof. Hesitation could only increase these evils; Richard gave the order, and the Duke of Norfolk, who led the van, began the attack by falling on the advanced guard of the enemy, which was commanded by the old Earl of Oxford, who had recently been delivered from prison by Sir Walter Blount, once Richard's sworn friend, but who now, like so many other adherents, drew his sword for the Earl of Richmond. Norfolk's attack made a great impression, but no other leader seconded him.

While the forewards_thus_mortally fought, eche entendyng to banquishe and conuice the other, King Richarde was admonished by his espialles that the Erle of Richemond, accompanied with a small number of men-of-armes, was nor farre of, and as he ap= proached and marched towards him, he perfectly knewe his personage by certaine demonstrations and tokens which he had learned, and knowen of other, and beyng inflamed with pre, and vered with outragious malice, he put syurres to his horse, and rode out of the side of the range of his bataile, leauyng the auaunt-gardes fighting, and like a hungrie Lyon raune with speare in rest towarde hym. The Erle of Richemond perceaued well the king furiously coming towarde hym, and because the whole hope of hys welth and purpose was to be determined by battayle, he gladly profered to encounter wyth hym bodye to bodye, and man to man. King Richarde set on so sharpely at the first brunt, that he overthrew and slue Sir William Brandon, the Erle's standard-bearer, and

matched hande to hande with Sir John Cheincy, a man of great force and strength, which would have resisted him, but the said Sir John was by him manfully overthrowne, and, so makyng open pas= sage by dent of sworde as he wente forwarde, the Erle of Richemonde withstoode his violence, and kept him at the swordes point without adnantage longer than his companions cyther thought or iudged, which, beyng almost in dispaire of victory, were sodenly recom= forte by Sir William Stanley, who came to succors with three M tall men, at which very insiant King Richardes men were driven back and fled, and he himself manfully fighting in the middle of his enemies was slaine, and brought to his death as he worthely had descrued.

Then Lord Stanley picked up his crown, battered and bloodstained, and put it on the head of Henry. The Duke of Norfolk, the Lord Ferrers, Sir Richard Ratcliffe, Sir Robert Brackenbury, and a few other knights shared the fate of their master. It is said, that in the battle, and in the flight, three thousand men perished; but, considering the way in which the affair was managed, and Henry's politic anxiety to reconcile parties, and to show himself a clement sovereign, it is probable that this number is somewhat exaggerated. The battle of Bosworth Field, which terminated the wars of the Roses, was altogether on an inferior scale to that of several preceding conflicts. Counting both armies there were not eighteen thousand men on the field, and of these the greater part were never engaged.

En the meane season the dead corpse of King Richarde was as shameful caryed to the towne of Leycester, as he gorgeously the day before with his pompe and pride departed out of the same townc. for his bodie was naked and dispoyled to the skinne, and was trussed behinde a Pursyaunt of armes, called Blaunché Senglier, or white Bore, like a Hogge or a Calfe, the head and armes hang= yng on the one syde of the horse, and the legs on the other syde, and, all besprinckled with mire and blood, was brought to Grey Friars church, within the towne, and there lay like a miserable spectacle; but surely consideryng his mischievous actes and vn= gracious dopugs, men may worthely wonder at such a captive, and in the sayde church he was with no lesse funeral pompe and solem= nitie enterred than he would to be done at the burying of his innocent Nephews, whom he caused cruelly to be murthered, and vnna= turally to be quelled. When his death was knowen, fewe lamen= ted, and many reioysed, the prowde, braggyng whyte Bore (which was his badge) was violently rased and plucked downe from euery signe and place where it might be espyed, so yll was his lyfe, that men wished the memorie of him to be buryed with hys carren corps.* Cabinet History of England, vol. i., p. 230, and Grafton's Chronicle, vol. ii., p. 156.

As Richard rode over Leicester Bridge his left foot struck against a low wooden post; a blind beggar, who was sitting near it, said oracularly, "HIS HEAD SHALL STRIKE AGAINST THAT VERY PLACE AS HE RETURNS THIS NIGHT;" and the local tra

PERSON AND CHARACTER.

He was of small stature, humpbacked, and had a harsh and disagreeable countenance.* Hume, vol iii., p. 296. On the character of Richard it is unnecessary to say much; if he was guilty of the crimes laid to his charge he was little better than a monster in human shape. Writers have indeed existed in modern times who have attempted to prove his innocence; but their arguments are rather ingenious than conclusive, and dwindled into groundless conjectures when confronted with the evidence which may be arrayed against them. Lingard, vol v., p. 271.

CHRONICLE.

1483, July 6. Richard and his queen crowned at Westminster. 1483, Nov. 20th. The Duke of Buckingham beheaded in the marketplace at Salisbury. 1483. Prince Edward, Richard's only son, dies suddenly at Middleham. 1485, March 16. The queen dies unexpectedly, and not without suspicion of poison. Aug. 16. The Earl of Richmond landed at Milford Haven with 2,000 men.

REIGN OF HENRY VII.

FROM 1485 TO 1509-23 YEARS, 8 MONTHS.
LAMBERT SIMNEL.

The great uncertainty regarding the fate of the two sons of Edward IV. giving rise to numerous idle speculations and conjectures, and offering to evil-minded and self-interested persons a wide field for imposture, it was not long ere a claimant to the crown appeared,

ditions say that as the dead body of the king was carried across the bridge after the battle, with his head dangling from the horse of the pursuivant, Blanche Sanglier, like a thrum mop, struck against this very piece of wood, and thus the beggar's prophecy was fulfilled.

The exact spot of ground on which the Battle of Bosworth was fought is frequently more and more discovered by pieces of arinour, weapons, and especially abundance of arrow's heads found there of long and large proportion. There is a little mount cast up on which Henry VII. is said to have made his speech to his soldiers. Richard (according to Sandford) was not above thirty-three or thirtyfour when he was killed; a monument of various coloured marbles, surmounted with his statue in alabaster. was erected by Henry VII. in St. Mary's Church; it stood till the dissolution of the abbeys under Henry VIII., when it was pulled down and utterly defaced; since then the grove being overgrown with weeds and nettles no trace of it can be found, except the stone coffin, which was long used as a drinking trough at the White Horse Inn, in Leicester.

Many historians have endeavoured to throw discredit on the popular tradition of Richard's deformity, and quote Buck, Rous and the old Countess of Desmond, who state that he "was well-formed and active, and with the exception of one shoulder being a trifle higher than the other, he was, save his brother Clarence, the handsomest man of his time;" but from his portrait in the Rous-roll, in the Herald's College, and the drawings published by Horace Walpole, in his "Historic Doubts," there is good reason to believe his title to the surname ct "crook-back" was well founded.