Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/77

Henry VII obliged to leave his son Lord Strange in Richard's hands. Sir William Stanley also temporised. Many others came over to Henry, who at last took up a position near Bosworth in Leicestershire, where with five thousand men, protected by a rivulet on the left and a morass on the right and in front of him, he awaited the attack (22 Aug.). After about two hours' fighting Richard endeavoured to single out his enemy, when Sir William Stanley, who had viewed the action from a neighbouring hill, brought his men into the field to Henry's aid. Richard was surrounded and killed. He had gone into battle wearing his crown upon his head. This was afterwards found and set upon Henry's head by Lord Stanley.

Having sent Sir Robert Willoughby to Sheriff Hutton in Yorkshire, to bring up the Princess Elizabeth and the young Earl of Warwick to London, Henry advanced thither himself, and entered the city on Saturday, 3 Sept. (Harl. MS. 541, f. 217 b). A severe visitation of the sweating sickness delayed Henry's coronation at Westminster till 30 Oct. Three days before he made twelve knights-bannerets at the Tower; promoted his uncle Jasper, earl of Pembroke, to the dukedom of Bedford; created his stepfather, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby; and Sir Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon. He also instituted a bodyguard to attend him—a new institution after a French model. Parliament met in November following and confirmed his title to the crown. On 10 Dec. both houses petitioned the king to fulfil his promise to marry the Princess Elizabeth, which he accordingly did on 18 Jan. 1486. In March he left London without his queen on a progress through the eastern counties to York, where he was received with acclamations; but he was warned of danger on the road, and was nearly captured in York itself by a conspiracy of Lord Lovell and Humphrey and Thomas Stafford, who since the battle of Bosworth had lived in sanctuary at Colchester. Lord Lovell escaped to Lancashire, Humphrey Stafford was hanged at Tyburn, and his younger brother Thomas was pardoned. Henry went on to Worcester, where Bishop Alcock preached before him on Whit-sunday, and after the sermon declared certain bulls received from Rome in confirmation of the king's title and of his marriage. The king then visited Bristol and returned to London in June. He ended by coming from Sheen to Westminster by water, and was accompanied from Putney downward by the lord mayor and citizens in barges. Shortly afterwards he went westward again hunting, and took his queen to Winchester, where on 20 Sept. she gave birth to a son, who was christened Arthur (1486–1502) [q. v.]

Next year took place the imposture of Lambert Simnel personating Edward (1475–1499) [q. v.], the young earl of Warwick, eldest son of George, duke of Clarence, whom Henry had shut up in the Tower. Simnel met with extraordinary success in Ireland, where he was crowned as Edward VI, and invaded England with Gerald Fitzgerald, eighth earl of Kildare [q. v.], and a number of Irish followers, and a band of Germans supplied by Margaret, duchess of Burgundy, whose hostility to Henry caused her to be called his Juno. On the first news of the conspiracy, Henry called a council at Sheen and caused the real Warwick to be taken out of the Tower and shown in the streets. He also took a strange resolution to deprive his own mother-in-law, Elizabeth Widville or Woodville [q. v.], of her jointure lands, for some unknown indiscretion, so that she retired to Bermondsey Abbey for the rest of her days. But he conferred her lands on the queen, her daughter. The rebels landed in Lancashire and endeavoured to raise Yorkshire, but meeting with little encouragement, advanced southwards towards Newark; they were utterly defeated by the king himself at Stoke, near Newark (16 June 1487). Kildare and Simnel were taken prisoners; not one of the other leaders was seen alive after. Henry went on to Lincoln, where he ordered thanksgiving for the victory, and from there to York and Newcastle, causing strict inquiry to be made as he went along for persons guilty of encouraging or even sympathising with the rebels. He punished the suspected persons for the most part by fines, but in serious cases with death. From Newcastle he sent his faithful friend Richard Foxe [q. v.], whom he had made bishop of Exeter, and Sir Richard Edgcumbe (d. 1489) [q. v.] on an embassy to James III of Scotland to prolong the existing truce and arrange some marriages between the two royal families. But these projects were completely frustrated next year by the overthrow and death of the Scottish king in a rebellion of his nobles.

In the autumn he returned southwards, and was at Leicester when he received an embassy from Charles VIII, sent to explain the reasons of the French king's attack on the duchy of Brittany. He arrived in London 3 Nov. 1487, and was received like a conqueror. Parliament met on the 9th, and the queen was crowned on the 25th with great splendour at Westminster. This parliament, besides taking measures for the repression of crime and punishment of rebellion, may almost be