Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/89

Edward V Edward appointed by patent a council for the young prince, consisting of his mother the queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury, his two paternal uncles, the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, his maternal uncle, Earl Rivers, with certain bishops and others, to have the control of his education and the rule of his household and lands till he should reach the age of fourteen. On 17 July he received formal grants, which were afterwards confirmed by parliament, of the principality of Wales, the counties palatine of Chester and Flint, and the duchy of Cornwall (Rolls of Parl. vi. 9-16). Next year, at the creation of Louis Sieur de la Grutuyse, as Earl of Winchester, he was carried to Whitehall and thence to Westminster in the arms of Thomas Vaughan, who was afterwards appointed his chamberlain and made a knight (Archæologia, xxvi. 277). In 1473 several important documents occur relating to him. First, on 20 Feb. a business council was appointed for the affairs of the principality (Patent Roll, 12 Edw. IV, . pt. 2, m. 21). Then on 23 Sept. the king drew up a set of ordinances alike for the 'virtuous guiding' of the young child and for the good rule of his household, in which a more special charge was given to Earl Rivers and to John Alcock [q. v.] (who was now become bishop of Rochester) than in the appointment of 1471. (See these ordinances, printed in the Collection of Ordinances for the Household, published by the Society of Antiquaries 1790, pp. [*27] sq.) On 10 Nov. Bishop Alcock was appointed the young princes schoolmaster and president of his council, while Earl Rivers on the same day was appointed his governor (Patent Roll,) 13 Edw. IV, pt. 1, m. 3, and pt. 2, m. 15).

It is clear that as Prince of Wales, although only in his third year, he had already been sent down into that country to keep court there with his mother the queen; for on 2 April Sir John Paston writes to his brother: 'Men say the queen with the prince shall come out of Wales and keep this Eaater with the king at Leicester' — a report which he adds was disbelieved by others. On July 1474 a patent was granted to him enabling him to give liveries to his retainers (ib. 14 Edw. IV, pt. 1, m. 13). In 1475, when he was only in his fifth year, the king his father on 20 June, just before crossing the Channel to invade France, appointed him his lieutenant and guardian (custos) of the kingdom during his absence, with full powers under four different commissions to discharge the functions of royalty (, xii. 13, 14). That same day King Edward made his will at Sandwich, charging the property of his heir with various charitable bequests, and appoint ing marriage portions for his daughters on condition that they should be governed in their choice of husbands by Queen Elizabeth Woodville and her son the prince (Excerpta Historica, pp. 366-79).

On 2 Jan. 1476 he was appointed justiciar of Wales (Patent Roll, 15 Edw. IV, pt. 3, m. 4 in dorso), and on 29 Dec. power was given him (of course to be exercised by his council) to appoint other justices in the principality and the marches (ib, 10 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 22). On 1 Dec. 1477 he received a grant of the castles and lordships of Wigmore, Presteign, Narberth, Radnor, and a number of other places in Wales, to which was added a grant of the manor of Elvell on 9 March 1478, and of Uske and Caerleon on 26 Feb. 1483 (ib. 17 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 24, 18 Edw. IV, pt. 1, m. 18, and 22-23 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 11).

He was only in his thirteenth year when his father died, 9 April 1483, and he became king. His short troubled reign was merely a struggle for power between his maternal relations, the Woodvilles, and his uncle Richard, duke of Gloucester, to whom the care of his person and kingdom seems to have been bequeathed in the last will of his father. When his uncle Rivers and his half-brother. Lord Richard Grey, were conducting him up to London for his coronation, which his mother had persuaded the council to appoint for so early a date as 4 May, they were overtaken at Northampton by Gloucester and Buckingham, or rather, leaving the king at Stony Stratford, they rode back to Northampton to meet those two noblemen on 29 April, and found next morning that they were made prisoners. Probably there would have been a pitched battle, but that the council in London had strongly resisted a proposal of the queen dowager that the young king should come up with a very large escort. As it was, a good deal of armour was found in the baggage of the royal suite, which, taken in connection with some other things, did not speak well for the intentions of the Woodville party. At least popular feeling seems rather to have been with the Duke of Gloucester when he sent Rivers and Grey to prison at Pomfret, and conducted his young nephew to London with every demonstration ot loyal and submissive regard.

It was on 4 May — the very day fixed by the council for his coronation — that Edward thus entered the capital. His mother meanwhile had thrown herself into the Sanctuary at Westminster. It was determined that he himself should take up his abode in the Tower, and while the day ot his coronation was deferred at first only to 22 June, a parliament