1486.] Sponsor for her grandson. 35 the gaieties of her daughter's court. Nevertheless, she appeared there frequently enough to invalidate the oft-repeated assertion that she fell into disgrace with the king for encouraging the rebellions of the earl of Lincoln and Lambert Simnel. Was such conduct possible? The earl of Lincoln had been proclaimed heir to the throne by Richard III., and as such, was the supplanter of all her children; and Lambert Simnel represented a youth who was the son of Clarence, her enemy, and the grandson of the mighty earl of Warwick,1 the sworn foe of all the house of Woodville. However, at the very time she is declared to be in disgrace for such unnatural partiality, she was chosen by the king, in preference to his own beloved mother, as sponsor to his dearly prized heir, prince Arthur. "On September 20th, 1486, Elizabeth of York, gave birth to an heir, and on Sunday following, her mother, the queendowager, stood godmother to him in Winchester cathedral." After describing the procession, in which the princess Cicely carried the infant, the historian adds :- Queen Elizabeth [Woodville] was in the cathedral, abiding the coming of the prince; she gave a rich cup of gold, covered, which was borne by Sir Davy Owen. The earl of Derby gave a gold salt, and the lord Maltravers gave a coffer of gold; these standing with the queen as sponsors." Soon afterwards Henry VII. sought to strengthen his interest in Scotland, by negotiating a marriage between James III. and his mother-in-law, a husband certainly young enough to be her son; yet his violent death alone prevented her from wearing the crown-matrimonial of Scotland-when she would have been placed in a situation to injure her son-in-law, if such had been her wish. 66 "2 The queen-consort had taken to her chamber, previously to her accouchement in the close of the year 1489, when her mother, queen Elizabeth Woodville, received the French ambassador in great state, assisted by Margaret, the king's mother. The next year, Henry VII. presented his mother-in-law with an annuity of 400l. No surrender of lands of equal value has yet been discovered; yet, strange to say, historians declare that she was stripped of everything, because about this time she retired into the convent of Bermondsey. Here she had every right to be, not as a prisoner, but as a cherished and highly honoured inmate; for the prior and monks of Bermondsey were solemnly bound, by the deeds of their charter, to find hospitality for the representatives of their great founder, Clare earl of Gloucester, in the state-rooms of the convent. Now Edward IV. was heir to the Clares, and Elizabeth, queen-dowager, had every right, as his widow, to appropriate the apartments expressly reserved for the use of the founder. She had a right 1 The existence of the young earl of Warwick was a profound court-secret, till the imposture of Lambert Simnel obliged Henry VII. to show the real person to the public. 2 Lelandi Collectanea. 4 Annales Abbatæ de Bermondsey. of property there; and as it was the custom in the middle ages for royal persons to seek monastic seclusion when health declined, not only for devotional purposes, but for medical advice, where could Elizabeth better retire, than to a convent bound by its charter to receive her? Eighteen months after she was seized with a fatal illness at Bermondsey, and, on her death-bed, dictated the following will: "In the name of God, &c., 10th April, 1492, I, Elizabeth, by the grace of God queen of England, late wife to the most victorious prince of blessed memory, Edward IV. Item. I bequeath my body to be buried with the body of my lord at Windsor, without pompous interring or costly expenses done thereabout. Item. Whereas I have no worldly goods to do the queen's grace, my dearest daughter, a pleasure with, neither to reward any of my children according to my heart and mind, I beseech God Almighty to bless her grace, with all her noble issue; and, with as good a heart and mind as may be, I give her grace my blessing, and all the aforesaid my children. Item. I will that such small stuff and goods that I have be disposed truly in the contentation of my debts, and for the health of my soul, as far as they will extend. Item. That if any of my blood will wish to have any of my said stuff, to me pertaining, I will they have the preferment before all others. And of this my present testament I make and ordain my executors— that is to say, John Ingilby, prior of the Charter-house of Shene, William Sutton and Thomas Brent, doctors. And I beseech my said dearest daughter, the queen's grace, and my son, Thomas marquis of Dorset, to put their good wills and help for the performance of this my testament. In witness whereof to this my testament, these witnesses— John, abbot of Bermondsey, and Benedict Cun, doctor of physic.” The daughters of Elizabeth attended her death-bed, and paid her affectionate attention; the queen alone was prevented, having taken to her chamber preparatory to the birth of the princess Margaret. Elizabeth died the Friday before Whitsuntide, and as she expressed an earnest wish for speedy and private burial, her funeral took place on WhitSunday, 1492. Her will shows that she died destitute of personal property; but that is no proof of previous persecution, since several of our queens, who were possessed of the undivided dower appanage, and whose children were provided for, died not much richer. Indeed, it was not easy, in that era, for persons who had only a life income, to invest their savings securely; therefore they seldom made any. Elizabeth had four daughters wholly dependent on her for support, since the calamities of the times had left them portionless; and after the death of their mother, the queen, their sister, was much impoverished by their maintenance. The great possessions of the house of York were chiefly in the grasp of the old avaricious duchess Cicely of York, who survived her hated daughter-in-law several years. Edward IV. had endowed his 1492.] Burial at Windsor. 37 proud mother as if she were a queen-dowager; while his wife was dowered on property to which he possessed no real title. Some discontented Yorkist, who witnessed the parsimonious funeral of Elizabeth, has described it, and preserved the interesting fact, that the only lady who accompanied the corpse of the queen on its passage from the river to Windsor-castle, was one mistress Grace, a natural daughter of Edward IV. "On Whit-Sunday, the queen-dowager's corpse was conveyed by water to Windsor, and there privily, through the little park, conducted into the castle, without any ringing of bells or receiving of the dean, but only accompanied by the prior of the Charter-house, and Dr. Brent, Mr. Haute, and mistress Grace (a bastard daughter of king Edward IV.), and no other gentlewoman; and, as it was told to me, the priest of the college received her in the castle [Windsor], and so privily, about eleven of the clock, she was buried, without any solemn dirge done for her obit. On the morn thither came Audley, bishop of Rochester, to do the office, but that day nothing was done solemnly for her; saving also a hearse, such as they use for the common people, with wooden candlesticks about it, and a black [pall] of cloth of gold on it, four candlesticks of silver gilt, every one having a taper of no great weight. On the Tuesday hither came, by water, king Edward's three daughters, the lady Anne, the lady Katherine, and the lady Bridget [the nun princess] from Dartford, accompanied by the marchioness of Dorset, daughter of the duke of Buckingham, the queen's niece, the daughter of the marquis of Dorset; lady Herbert, also niece to the queen; dame Katherine Gray; dame Guildford (governess to the children of Elizabeth of York): their gentlewomen walked behind the three daughters of the dead. Also that Tuesday came the marquis of Dorset, son to the queen; the earl of Essex, her brother-in-law; and the viscount Welles, her son-inlaw. And that night began the dirge. But neither at the dirge were the twelve poor men clad in black, but a dozen divers old men,”—that is, old men dressed in the many-coloured garments of poverty-" and they held old torches and torches' ends. And the next morning one of the canons, called master Vaughan, sang Our Lady mass, at which the lord Dorset offered a piece of gold; he kneeled at the hearse-head. The ladies came not to the mass of requiem, and the lords sat about in the quire. My lady Anne came to offer the mass-penny, and her officersat-arms went before her: she offered the penny at the head of the queen, wherefore she had the carpet and the cushion. And the viscount Welles took his (wife's) offering, and dame Katherine Gray bare the lady Anne's train every one of the king's daughters offered. The marquis of Dorset offered a piece of gold, and all the lords at their pleasure; the poor knights of Windsor, dean, canons, yeomen, and officers-at-arms, 2 Daughter of her sister Katherine, who married Buckingham. 1 Arundel MSS. 30. all offered and after mass, the lord marquess paid the cost of the funeral." At the east end of St. George's chapel, north aisle, is the beautiful monument of Edward IV., made of steel, the work of Quentin Matsys, representing a pair of gates between two towers of ancient gothic architecture. On a flat stone at the foot of this monument are engraven, in old English characters, the words King Edward and his Queen, Elizabeth Wirville. The actual place of interment of Elizabeth Woodville was supposed to be discovered March 4th, 1789. The workmen employed in new-paving the choir of St. George's chapel, Windsor, perceived some decay in the stones which close the entrance of the vault where the body of Edward IV. is deposited. Two of the canons and the surveyor entered that vault, and viewed king Edward's body, which is enclosed in a wooden and then a leaden coffin. The skeleton was entire, nobly proportioned, and of the gigantic height of six feet three inches. The head of the king reclined to the right, where there was a quantity of long brown hair, which had fallen off the skull, but remained entire. There was no trace of envelope, cere-cloth, robe, ring, or royal insignia-plunderers in Cromwell's time, when the vault was opened, having carried off all these. Upon Edward's coffin was found another of wood, much decayed; it contained the skeleton of a woman: from the marks of age on the skull, this was supposed to be the remains of his queen, Elizabeth Woodville,' -thus realizing the emphatic words of Southey, "Thou, Elizabeth, art here Thou to whom all griefs were known; Who wert placed upon the bier In happier hour than on a throne." ANNE OF WARWICK, QUEEN OF RICHARD III. ANNE of Warwick, the last of our Plantagenet queens, and the first who had previously borne the title of princess of Wales, was born at Warwick-castle, in the year 1454.1 Previously to the marriage of the illustrious lady who now bears the title, there had been but six princesses of Wales in England: the first three were left widows; and it is singular that, although two of them were afterwards queen-consorts, neither of them derived that dignity from the prince of Wales she had wedded. The first English princess of Wales, Joanna, the widow of Edward the Black Prince, died of a broken heart. The miseries of Anne of Warwick, the widow of Edward of Lancaster, prince of Wales, this biography will show. The misfortunes of Katharine of Arragon, consort of Henry VIII., and widow to Arthur prince of Wales, will be related in the course of the present voluine. Caroline of Anspach, consort of George II., after a lapse of two hundred years, was the only princess of Wales who succeeded happily to the throne-matrimonial of this country. Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, widow to Frederick prince of Wales, lost a beloved husband in the prime of life, and never was queen. The troublous career of the sixth princess of Wales, Caroline of Brunswick, is still in public memory. In the pictorial history called the Rous roll, two mysterious hands are introduced, offering to Anne of Warwick the rival crowns of York and Lancaster; while the white bear, the cognizance assumed by her mighty sire, Warwick the king-maker, lies muzzled at her feet, as if the royal lions of Plantagenet had quelled the pride of that hitherto tameless bear on the blood-stained heath of Barnet. The principal events which marked the career of her father have been traced in the biographies of the two preceding queens. Richard Neville, surnamed the king-making earl of Warwick, was heir, in right of the countess his mother, to the vast inheritance of the Montagues, earls of Salisbury. He aggrandized himself in a higher degree by his union 1 Herald's College. |