The duchess and lord Ryvers had a very | 3. Lionel; 4. Edward; and 5. Richard; and numerous family, of whom the eldest daughter five sisters: 1. Margaret; 2. Anne; 3. Jawas Elizabeth, afterwards destined to captivate quetta; 4. Mary; and 5. Katharine. king Edward IV. She was married, at an The greatest of the nobility were ready to early age, to John Lord Grey of Groby, and take the sisters of the new queen in marriage. had already given birth to two sons, Thomas The festivities at Reading were not concluded afterwards marquess of Dorset, and Richard, before Margaret was wedded to the lord Malafterwards called the lord Richard Grey, be- travers, heir apparent of the earl of Arundel ; fore the death of her husband, which occurred 2. Anne was united shortly after to the lord in the first battle of St. Alban's, on the 17th Bourchier, heir apparent of the earl of Essex; Feb. 1460-1. He fell fighting on the Lancas-3. Jaquetta to the lord Strange of Knokyn; trian side; and the anecdote is well known of 4. Mary to the son and heir of lord Herbert, the circumstances under which his widow was soon after earl of Pembroke; and 5. Kathaafterwards introduced to the sovereign of the rine to the duke of Buckingham. This last house of York. The king was hunting in the marriage took place in Feb. 1465-6, accordforest of Whittlebury, when he turned for ing to William of Worcester, who says that rest to Grafton House, an ancestral manor of "the king made the duke to marry the queen's the family of Wydeville, and then the resi- sister, to the secret displeasure of the earl of dence of the duchess of Bedford and her hus- Warwick:"* and it was in the following band the lord Ryvers. "The popular tradi- September, at Windsor, that the marriage tion of the neighborhood is, (as we are told by was solemnized between the young lord Herthe county historian,*) that the lovely widow bert and the lady Mary Wydeville, a daughsought the young monarch in the forest for ter of lord Herbert being married at the same the purpose of petitioning for the restoration time to Thomas Talbot viscount Lisle; and of her husband's lands to her and her impov- upon that occasion the king made the said erished children; and met him under the tree young Herbert a knight, and created him lord still known by the name of the Queen's Oak, of Dunsterre, which was all "to the secret diswhich stands in the direct line of communica-pleasure of the earl of Warwick and the magtion from Grafton to the forest, and now rears nates of the land." † its hollow trunk and branching arms in a Thus were the ladies of the Wydeville famhedge-row between Pury and Grafton parks." ily provided for; whilst their brothers were Whatever were the circumstances of their in- not less regarded, though they suffered more troduction, the bargain was hastily concluded. from the storms of the world. Of three of them It was on the morning of the first of May, we shall have more to say of the third, Lio1464, that Edward again came early to the nel, we need only remark, that, being bred to manor of Grafton, leaving his train at Stony the church, he was made dean of Exeter, and Stratford, and was there privately married by afterwards bishop of Salisbury; and of Richa single priest, no other witnesses being pres-ard, the youngest, that, surviving the wreck ent but the boy who served at mass, the duch- of his family, he was restored to his father's ess of Bedford, and two of her gentlewomen. earldom in the reign of Henry VII. In a few hours the king returned to Stratford, and retired to his chamber, as if he had been hunting, and fatigued with the exercise. Shortly after, he invited himself to spend a few days with lord Ryvers at Grafton, and was splendidly entertained there for four days, but the marriage was still kept a profound secret; nor was it made known until the following Michaelmasday, when Elizabeth, being led by the duke of Clarence in solemn pomp to the church of Reading abbey, was declared Queen, and received the compliments of the nobility.

The first honors conferred on the queen's relatives were to grace her coronation, when her father was advanced to the degree of an earl, and the two eldest of her brothers were made knights of the Bath.

Lord Ryvers, the father, was a man of unquestionable merit and talents; he had already filled several important offices, and had been elected a knight of the Garter, in the reign of Henry VI. A new career of pros perity opened to him under the rays of "the sun of York.” On the 4th March, 1464–5, he was appointed lord treasurer, "to the secret displeasure of the earl of Warwick and the magnates of England, as Worcester repeats, in his favorite phrase; in 1467 he was made constable of England for life, with remainder to the lord Scales his son.

His eldest son Anthony had already been provided for in marriage with the heiress of the

Wilhelmi Wyrcester Annales, ad calc. Lib. Nigri (Hcarne). f Ibid.

.

ancient barony of Scales, in whose right he other of his brothers was slain at Bristol. The was summoned to parliament. This had taken earl of Devonshire was taken in Somersetplace in 1462, before the elevation of his sis-shire, and beheaded at Bridgewater on the ter. Sir John Wydeville, the second son, 17th of August. And about the same time the made a different match, and one that was con- lord treasurer himself, and his son sir John sidered to outrage decency, even at a time Wydeville, were seized in like manner, and when marriages more or less unequal in point beheaded at Northampton. His son lord of age were not uncommon. Though a mere Scales and lord Audley narrowly escaped the stripling, he became the fourth husband of the like fate, for they were arrested in Wiltshire, aged duchess of Norfolk, the grandmother of and imprisoned in Wardour castle, but fortuthe existing duke.* nately delivered by the aid of John Thornhill, But the family of Wydeville was rudely a gentleman of Dorsetshire.† The duchess of shaken by the political tempest of the year Bedford was assailed by the diabolical weapon 1469. At that period, the earl of Warwick, which had been formerly successfully emwho had become much dissatisfied with the di-ployed against Alianor duchess of Gloucester, minished share he now enjoyed in the coun-a "disclaunder of witchcraft.” ‡

sels of the monarch whom he had raised to the The king himself, being at Honiley near throne, formed a scheme to recover his influ- Warwick, was suddenly captured by the archence in the state by the removal of Edward, bishop of York, carried a prisoner to Warand the substitution of his next brother wick castle, and for some time atter detained George. He had won the alliance of the latter at Middleham in Yorkshire. And then enprince by the offer of the elder of his two sued one of those strange compacts, intended daughters, who were the presumptive heirs of to patch up a peace between hostile families, his great possessions. A papal dispensation by the prospective matrimonial alliance of their for the marriage of the duke of Clarence and junior members, which were often attempted the lady Isabella Neville was dated at Rome in the middle ages, but almost as often failed on the 14th March, 1469, and it was solem- from an unforeseen change of circumstances. nized at Calais (where the earl of Warwick The Nevilles were scarcely content to be the was captain) on the 11th of the following Ju- second family in the kingdom; and, though ly, without the concurrence, and perhaps with- the earl of Warwick had no son, and had alout the knowledge, of king Edward. At the ready married one of his daughters to the duke same period public commotions were raised in of Clarence, yet the male heir of the house was England by the machinations of Warwick. his nephew George Neville, son of the earl of On the 12th of July, the morrow of the mar- Northumberland - soon after created marquis riage, in conjunction with the duke of Cla- Montacute. So, the king having as yet no son, rence and the archbishop of York (his own the aspiring views of the house of Neville were brother), he issued a manifesto† complaining now propitiated by an agreement that its heir of the king's government, which was compared to those of his unfortunate predecessors Edward II., Richard II., and Henry VI., and stigmatizing "the deceivable covetous rule and guiding of certain seditious persons, that is to say, the lord Ryvers, the duchess of Bedford his wife, sir William Herbert earl of Pem-and contradictory. In some they are erroneously broke, Humphrey Stafford earl of Devonshire, the lords Scales and Audley, sir John Woodville and his brethren, sir John Fogg (who was treasurer of the king's household) and others of their mischievous rule, opinion, and assent." Nor was it long before this threatened vengeance fell upon several of the denounced favorites. A rebellious force from the North of England, under the command of sir John Conyers, defeated the earl of Pembroke at Edge-archbishop of York. cote near Banbury, and on the 27th July he Hearne's Fragment. Chron.

should wed the king's eldest daughter, and thus (as one of the contemporary writers says) by possibility should be king of England." S The boy was at once exalted to the dignity of a duke, having the title of Bedford, which

*The accounts given of their deaths are obscure stated to have suffered with the earl of Pembroke, but they survived him for two or three weeks. One authority (MS. Arundel. Coll. Arms 5) states that lord Ryvers and sir John Wydeville were be headed at Kenilworth castle on Saturday before the Assumption, which would be on the 19th Au gust. Mr. Baker in his pedigree of the family, quoting an Inquis. post mortem, places the earl's death on the 12th August, (also a Saturday). It is not improbable that he was arrested at the same time that the king was made a prisoner by the

and his brother sir Richard Herbert were be- This infamous charge was repeated in the act headed at that town. One day before, an- of settlement of the crown upon Richard and his issue passed, in his parliament: in which it was *William of Worcester places this occurrence in affirmed that "the pretensed marriage" of Edward Jan. 1464-5. He calls the duchess "a lass of near-and Elizabeth was made "by sorcerie and wichely eighty years of age," and terms it "a diabolical marriage, upon which the curse of Bernard was afterwards manifested."

Printed in the notes to Warkworth's Chronicle (for the Camden Society).

crafte, committed by the said Elizabeth and her moder Jaquett duchesse of Bedford, as the common opinion of the people and the publique voise and fame is thorrugh all this land." Rot. Parl. vi. 241. Warkworth's Chronicle.

had formerly belonged to the brother of Hen- time absent on those foreign pilgrimages which ry V. and which was still retained by the Caxton has commemorated. He resigned the queen's mother, the widow of that prince. It reversion of the office of constable of England, is not apparent under what inducement the to which he was entitled by his father's patent, king consented to this arrangement. Either it in favor of the duke of Gloucester, and, after was done in Warwick's absence, in the hope receiving the lucrative appointment of captain of dividing the family of Neville, and raising of Calais, which was granted to him for seven against him one that should supersede him in years, he relinquished that also, and it was conhis own family - after the very policy of which ferred in (1471) on the lord chamberlain Hashe had set the example in his own trafficking tings an event which is thought to have with the king's brother, the unprincipled Cla- originated bitter feelings between them. Howrence; and this, from the general characteris-ever, Ryvers acquired another great office, tics of this treacherous age, and the subsequent that of chief butler of England; and in 1473 vacillating conduct of Montacute, is not im- he was appointed governor of the Prince of probable. Or else the king acted entirely un- Wales, whose education he continued to suder restraint, at the dictation of the short-perintend until after the king's death. In that sighted ambition of the dominant peers. The capacity, on the prince's court being estabduke of Bedford's patent bore date the 5th Jan. lished at Ludlow, Ryvers had the chief con1469-70. After his father's death, only fif- trol in the government of the principality of teen months after, it became virtually a dead Wales. letter, and it was annulled by parliament in

1477.

Soon after this alliance with the Nevilles, the king escaped from his thraldom, and in the open battle-field his usual success did not desert him. In March, 1470, he defeated an insurrection in Lincolnshire, and thereupon Clarence and Warwick fled the kingdom. But now Warwick still further strengthened his hands by making peace with queen Margaret at Angiers, and bestowing his younger daughter on her son the Prince of Wales; and, having at the same time obtained the alliance of the French king, he effected the restoration of Henry of Lancaster, and Edward was for a season driven into banishment.

The sudden return of the "sun of York," in March, 1471, and the melting away of all Lancastrian opposition, during his march from the North to London, is a well known incident in the history of the period, more particularly from the circumstantial narrative of it which was the first production of the Camden Society. The battle of Barnet followed soon after, where the kingmaker and his brother

Montacute were slain.

So entirely was he placed on a par with princes, that, on the death of the duke of Burgundy in 1477, we read that the queen endeavored to put him forward as a competitor for the hand of the heiress of that country, in opposition to the duke of Clarence, who was then also a widower; and, though we might be disposed to set this down to idle surmise, it is certain that in Dec. 1482 ambassadors were specially sent to Scotland, in order to negoti ate the marriage of earl Ryvers with the princess Margaret, sister to king James III.*

Sir Edward Wydeville, the next brother of the earl, followed his example, both as a gallant courtier and as an active servant of his Sovereign. He was one of the knights for the king's body, was one of those knighted with the Prince of Wales in 1475, and as early as 1479 was proposed as a candidate for the order of the Garter, though he was not elected until the reign of Henry VII. He appears to have taken an active part in naval affairs, being governor of Portchester castle, and on the

sides the daughter and heir of lord Scales had an*Dugdale states that Anthony earl Ryvers, be other wife called Mary, daughter and heir to Henry After that great deliverance and the conse-Fitz Lewes." Baronage, ii. 233); and according to quent murder of the Lancastrian monarch, Baker, she was afterwards married to sir John NeEdward IV. had a fresh season of undeserved ville, a natural son of the earl of Westmoreland(Hist. of Northamptonshire, ii. 166). Sir Harris Nicolas, in good fortune, and the surviving members of the his memoir of the earl in Excerpta Historica, 1831, queen's family again shared in his prosperity. does not notice any other wife but the heiress of His seat was now strengthened by the exist- Scales. Mr. Nichols in the work before us (page ence of a son and heir, to whom the queen x.) concludes that the earl must have been unmarhad given birth in the sanctuary at Westmin-ried at the time of his death, or else the embassy ster during his absence; and a few years later a second son was born, whom he created duke of York. Anthony, the new Lord Ryvers, as uncle to the heir-apparent, became quite as important a person as his father had been, although it appears that he had some court jealousies to contend with, and was for some

to Scotland above mentioned could not have taken place so shortly before. His will, which is printed in the Excerpta Historica, seems to acknowledge distinctly three marriages: 1. "the lady Scalis my fyrst wyfe;" 2. "the soules of my last wyfe lady Scalys and Thomas hyr brother;" 3. he desires "that my wyfe have all such plate as was Henry Lowes "-and "all such plate as was given hyr at oure mariage." It is evident, as Mr. Nichols remarks, that the pedigree of Wydevile in Baker's Northamptonshire is in various respects incorrect and imperfect.

death of Edward IV. he took some of the Towton, and then fled the country. He had king's ships to sea in order to command the not, it is evident, any friend in his wife, who Channel. Among one of the first measures suffered him to remain in exile, and Commines taken by the duke of Gloucester on his arri- tells us that he once saw him running bareval in London (as shewn in the book before us), was the despatch of other ships to oppose sir Edward Wydeville, and to arrest him if possible, but he effected his escape to the continent.

Having now passed in review the children of the queen's father, we come to her own. By her former husband she had two sons, Thomas marquis of Dorset and the lord Richard Grey.

foot after the duke of Burgundy, to solicit his charity. Meanwhile, various settlements of his estates upon Anne duchess of Exeter appear on the patent rolls; she was bringing up his only child, a daughter, and that daughter was contracted in inarriage to the queen's eldest son. We again quote the curious chronicler William of Worcester: "In October 1466 (he says), there was a marriage at Greenwich between Thomas Grey the queen's son Thomas Grey was created earl of Hunting- and the lady Anne daughter of the duke of don in 1471, and marquis of Dorset in 1475, Exeter, niece of the king, to the great secret on the occasion of his brother the Prince of displeasure of the earl of Warwick, because a Wales being made a knight. He was elected marriage had been previously proposed bea knight of the Garter in 1476. He enjoyed tween the said lady Anne and the son* of the the office of constable of the Tower of London, earl of Northumberland, brother to the earl and he availed himself of his position on the of Warwick; and the queen paid to the demise of Edward IV. to take possession of the duchess for that marriage four thousand marks." royal treasure; but when the duke of Glouces- The duchess of Exeter had herself found a subter came upon the stage, Dorset, like his royal stitute for her Lancastrian duke in a gallant mother, took sanctuary, not, as it seems, with Yorkist knight named sir Thomas St. Leger, her at Westminster, but possibly at Ely, for whose name occurs in 1462 as one of the Fabyan says of him that he "escapyd many esquires for the king's body; and, though the wonderful daungers, both aboute London, Ely, date of her final divorce from the duke is so and other places, whereof to write the maner late as the 12th Nov. 1472,† it appears that she and circumstaunce wolde aske a longe and must have given birth to a second daughter greate leyseur." No such narrative is known before the year 1467; for, in the parliament to be extant. However, after making some then holden, an act was passed whereby this head in Yorkshire at the time of Buckingham's second Anne (for she had the same name as rebellion, he finally escaped the toils of his her mother and sister) was nominated heir to pursuers, and returned with Henry VII. from the duchy of Exeter, in default of issue of her Britany to end his days in peace." He was elder sister. It may be presumed that the elthe greatgrandfather of Lady Jane Grey. der sister had at that time fallen into a state His brother the lord Richard Grey was not of hopeless consumption, for she shortly after so fortunate. He had lived as the intimate died. The duke returned to England to fight companion of his half-brother prince Edward, at the battle of Barnet in 1473, soon after and his life was sacrificed in consequence. which he was found a corpse upon the coast His name occurs in 1482-3 among the "coun-of Kent; and in 1475 the duchess also died. cil" of the prince of Wales. It does not ap- Another heiress had been found for the marpear that he was appointed to any specific of- quis of Dorset, namely, Cecily Bonville, daughfice; nor do we find that he was provided for ter of lord Harington; but the queen did not by marriage; but in 1482, on the settlement withdraw her hold upon the duchy of Exeter. of the estates of the duchy of Exeter, the She soon was blessed with a grandson, and the heiress of that dignity being destined for the younger heiress (Anne St. Leger) was now eldest son of the marquis of Dorset, a certain handed down one generation in the race of portion of them was divided off for the benefit Grey, and destined to become the future wife of the lord Richard. He was still in attendance of Thomas afterwards second marquis of Doron the young king, when proceeding to take set. By an act of parliament passed in 1482, possession of his throne; was arrested with the estates of the duchy of Exeter were setford Ryvers at Stony Stratford, and after-tled upon this projected marriage, a certain wards beheaded with him at Pontefract. slice being at the same time apportioned off for The matter of the duchy of Exeter, to which the advantage of the queen's younger son the we have just alluded, forms a very curious lord Richard Grey. On the 16th May, 1483, chapter in the domestic policy of the queen. the council of the protector Gloucester diThe original heiress was the only child of rected "a lettre to the bisshope of Excestre to Henry Holand duke of Exeter, a staunch Lan- deliver the Duchesse of Escestre unto my lord castrian, by the lady Anne of York, one of the sisters of king Edward. The duke fought against the house of York at Wakefield and at

The little duke of Bedford already noticed. † Stowe's Chronicle.

Rot. Parl. vi. 244.

of Buckingham," Gloucester taking the first opportunity to snatch this prize from the queen's family. By an act of Richard's parliament, the settlements made in favor of the heiress so singularly substituted were reversed, and in Nov. 1484 her father sir Thomas St. Leger was beheaded at Exeter. The quondam duchess was subsequently married to sir George Manners lord Roos, and it is in honor of the royal descent derived through her that the noble house of Manners displays on its shield a chief of France and England, and enjoys the title of Rutland once borne by her uncle Edmund of York, killed at the battle of Wakefield. That title (with the rank of earl) was first given to her son Thomas lord Roos by king Henry VIII. in 1525; and at the same time he bestowed the title of Exeter (with the rank of marquis) on Henry Courtenay earl of Devon, the grandson of king Edward IV. by his daughter Katharine.

into active opposition, and afterwards materially contributed to the setting aside of king Edward's children.

We have entitled this article "The Reign of Edward the Fifth," and yet we have nearly occupied our space by the occurrences of the reign of his father. As we have already remarked, the reign of Edward V. was little else than the destruction of the arrangements of Edward IV. The princesses, one and all, lost their promised husbands; both the princes their lives; the queen's brother and son were sacrificed; and all the inferior supporters of her party were prosecuted to their destruction.

The Editor of the book before us does not affect to offer any important new lights on the much-discussed character and conduct of the chief actor in these tragedies. He justly remarks that the best history of the period is that by Mr. Sharon Turner, who during a long life devoted to historical studies was particularly attentive to the career of Richard III. Mr. Nichols shows no ambition to add another name to the list of the paradoxical apologists of Richard; but he agrees in Mr. Sharon Turner's opinion that the usurper was carried beyond his first intentions, and attributes considerable influence to the ill advice of the duke of Buckingham. That nobleman had lived much about the court, whilst Gloucester was absent in the government of the North, and he was consequently able to convey false impres sions and instil unjust suspicions of the designs of the king's maternal relatives.

Turning from this remarkable history which has been developed for the first time by Mr. Nichols's researches, we may remark that king Edward was not less careful to provide for the future establishment of his own children. Alliances for the whole of his five daughters were contracted with the greatest princes of Europe: his eldest daughter Elizabeth, was betrothed to the dauphin of France; Cicely, the second, to James, heir-apparent of Scotland; Anne, to Phillip comte of Charolais, son of Maximilian archduke of Austria; Mary, to the king of Denmark; and Katharine, to the infante John of Castille. All these alliances Buckingham was deeply imbued with the were arranged between the years 1474 and evil ambition of the age, which the advantages 1479; and in 1481 the prince of Wales was of his birth and position had rather inflamed affianced to Isabella daughter of Francis duke than satisfied. He was the representative of of Britany. To Richard duke of York, the one of the sons of king Edward III. and one of. king's second son, was given the only daughter the only two dukes, besides the dukes of York and heiress of John Mowbray duke of Norfolk, and Gloucester then living in England - the the representative of one of the sons of king fourth being the duke of Suffolk, brother-inEdward III. The princely child was in con-law of the late king. Buckingham had marsequence created duke of Norfolk, earl Mar-ried one of the queen's sisters; but that allishal and Warren, with all other the concomi-ance seems to have failed to attach him cortant dignities of that house; and the marriage dially to her race. It had been the king's do was solemnized at Westminster in Jan. 1477 "the said Anne being then of the age of six years," and her baby husband not more than three! And though this young bride died in the course of a few years, her widower retained possession of her estates, in derogation to the claims of her heirs of blood—a royal prerogative which had been previously exercised when the earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury were attached to the house of Lancaster, although not inherited by right of blood from the old Lacies and Longespés. This arrange ́ment, however, was not without its fatal consequences: for, though the lord Berkeley, one of the co-heirs of the house of Norfolk, was conciliated by the title of viscount in 1481, sir John Howard, a more able man, was thrown

ing, not his own; and the pride of the Staffords was rather offended than flattered by such a connection. He had, however, a greater grievance. The Bohuns, of whom he was the heir, had held the great office of constable of England, which had been allowed by Henry VI. to his grandfather the former duke; but Edward IV. had given it, as we have already seen, successively to earl Ryvers and the duke of Gloucester. Since the death of Henry VI. Buckingham considered himself entitled to the entire inheritance of the Bohuns, which had been formerly divided between the house of Lancaster and his own, as representatives of the original coheirs; but such lands as had descended to Henry VI. were still retained by the Crown. To attain the accomplishment of