Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/560

346 son were taken prisoners, and brought to the king, who asked the prince, in an imperious tone. How he dared to invade his dominions? "I came hither," replied the undaunted youth, more mindful of his high birth than his present fortune, "to revenge my father's wrongs, and rescue my just inheritance out of your hands." Incensed at his freedom, instead of admiring the boldness of his spirit, the ungenerous Edward barbarously struck him on the face with his gauntlet; and the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, Lord Hastings, and Sir Thomas Gray, taking this blow as a signal for farther violence, hurried him aside, and instantly dispatched him with their daggers. Margaret was thrown into the Tower, where her husband had just expired: whether by a natural or violent death is uncertain, though it is generally believed the duke of Gloucester killed him with his own hands.

The hopes of the house of Lancaster were thus extinguished by the death of every legitimate prince of that family. Edward, who had no longer any enemy that could give him anxiety or alarm, was encouraged once more to indulge himself in pleasure and amusement; but he was not deaf to the calls of ambition, and planned an invasion of France. He passed over in 1475, to Calais, with a formidable army; but Lewis proposed an accommodation by no means honourable to France, except in one article, which was a stipulation for the life of Margaret, who was still detained in custody by Edward. Lewis paid fifty thousand crowns for her ransom; and this princess, who, in active scenes of life, had experienced so remarkably the vicissitudes of fortune, passed the remainder of her days in privacy. The situations into which she was thrown in a manner unsexed her; as she had the duties and hardships