Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/87

Edward IV  the furtive up to him not long afterwards, but that he was dissuaded at the last moment.

Not long after this the Duke of Burgundy met his fate at the battle of Nanci, 5 Jan. 1477, leaving an only daughter, Mary, as his heiress. The Duke of Clarence, who was now a widower, aspired to her hand in marriage, and thereby revived the old jealousy of his brother Edward, who took care to prevent the match. This with other circumstances inflamed the duke's indignation, and his conduct gave so much offence that Edward first had him sent to the Tower, and then accused him before parliament in the beginning of 1478. The scene is recorded by a contemporary with an expression of horror. 'No one,' says the writer, 'argued against the duke except the king, no one made answer to the king except the duke.' Sentence was formally pronounced against him, but the execution was for some time delayed, till the speaker made request in the name of the commons that it should take effect. The king complied; but, to avoid the disgrace of a public execution, ordered it to be done secretly within the Tower, and it was reported that Clarence was drowned in a butt of malmsey.

It was noted that his removal placed the whole kingdom more entirely at Edward's command than it had been before. No other member of the council was so popular or influential; and no one now could advocate a policy opposed to the king's personal will. Yet the memory of what he had done embittered Edward's after years, insomuch that when solicited for the pardon of an offender he would sometimes say, 'O unfortunate brother, for whose life not one creature would make intercession!'

One result of this greater absolutism was that the law officers of the crown became severe in searching out penal offences, by which wealthy gentlemen and nobles were harassed by prosecutions, and the king's treasure increased by fines. But these practices were not long continued. Edward was now wealthy, corpulent, and fond of ease, and he loved popularity too well to endanger it by persistent oppression. Another matter in which he was allowed to have his own way doubtless alarmed many of his subjects long before he found reason to repent the course he had taken himself. His whole foreign policy had undergone a change at the treaty of Pioquigny when he accepted a French alliance instead of a Burgundian; and when, after the death of Charles the Bold, Louis XI overran Burgundy and Picardy, depriving the young duchess Mary of her inheritance, she appealed in vain to Edward for assistance. Not to listen to such an appeal was little short of infatuation, for the success of France imperilled English commerce with the Low Countries. But Edward was more afraid of losing the French pension and the stipulated marriage of his daughter to the dauphin, and he was base enough even to offer to take part with Louis if the latter would share with him his conquests on the Somme. His queen, on the other hand, would have engaged him the other way if the council of Flanders would have allowed the marriage of Mary to her brother Anthony, earl Rivers; but the match was considered too unequal in point of rank, and the young lady, for her own protection, was driven to marry Maximilian of Austria.

The French pension was for some years punctually paid, but Louis still delayed sending for the Princess Elizabeth to be married to his son, alleging as his excuse the war in Burgundy, and sending such honourable embassies that Edward's suspicions were completely lulled to sleep. A like spirit showed itself in Edward's relations with Scotland, with which country he had made peace in 1474, marrying his second daughter, Cecily, by proxy, to the eldest son of James III, and had since paid three instalments of her stipulated dowry of twenty thousand marks. But misunderstandings gradually grew up, secretly encouraged by France. A Scotch invasion was anticipated as early as May 1480 (, xii. 115), and the Scotch actually overran the borders not long after ('Chronicle' cited in, i. 503). James excused the aggression as made without his consent; but Edward made alliances against him with the Lord of the Isles and other Scotch nobles (, xii. 140), and a secret treaty with his brother Albany, whom he recognised as rightful king of Scotland, on the pretence that James was illegitimate (ib. 156). This Albany had been imprisoned by James in Scotland, and had escaped to France, but was now under Edward's protection in England; and he engaged, on being placed on the throne of Scotland, to restore Berwick to the English and abandon the old French alliance. In return for these services Edward promised him the hand of that princess whom he had already given to the Scotch king's heir-apparent, provided Albany on his part could 'make himself clear from all other women.'

An expedition against Scotland, for the equipment of which benevolences had been again resorted to, was at length set on foot in May 1482. It was placed under the command of Richard, duke of Gloucester, and Albany went with it. Berwick was besieged,