Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/164

  1381 and the events of 1394 and 1395, in which latter year he visited England. The French accounts of Richard's last days, being written to bring odium on Henry IV, have to be used with caution. Creton's metrical relation of these events, in many of which he took part, written in 1401 (ed. Webb in Archæologia, vol. xx.), is far more trustworthy than the Chronique de la Traïson et Mort (ed. Williams for Engl. Hist. Soc.), partly based upon it, but composed with less sense of responsibility in 1402, after the French had definitely charged Henry with Richard's murder. There is some reason to believe that its author was Creton himself (Pref. p. li). Its narrative was embodied in the official Latin Chronicle of the Monk of St. Denys (ed. Bellaguet). For discussions of the vexed question of Richard's death see Archæologia, vi. 314, xx. 282, 424, xxiii. 277, xxv. 394, xxviii. 75, xlv. 309; Revue des Deux Mondes, iii. 47; Fox's Hist. of Pontefract; Tytler's Hist. of Scotland, iii. App.; and Riddell's Lennox Question, and Tracts, Legal and Historical, Edinb. 1835. Wallon's Richard II (2 vols. 1864) is the fullest modern history of the reign, with careful analyses of the authorities, but gives too much weight to the French writers. The best short account is in Stubbs's Constitutional History (vol. ii.). Lingard (vol. iii.) and Pauli (Geschichte Englands, vol. iv.) are also useful. See also A True Relation of that Memorable Parliament which wrought wonders, 1386 (London, 1641, and Somers Tracts, iv. 174), Life and Reign of Richard II, by a Person of Quality, 1681, Reflections upon the Reigns of Edward II and Richard II, by Sir Robt. Howard, 1690. Other works consulted: Beckington's Letters (Rolls Ser.); Noel Valois's La France et le Grand Schisme d'Occident, 1896; Leroux's Relations Politiques entre la France et l'Allemagne (1378–1461); Pelzel's Lebensgeschichte Königs Wenceslaus, 1788; Lindner's Gesch. des deutsches Reiches unter König Wenzel, 1875; Aschbach Gesch. Kaiser Sigmunds, 1838; Sandford's Genealogical History of the Kings of England, 1677; Tanner's Notitia Monastica, 1787; Returns of Members of Parliament, 1878; Nichols's Royal Wills; Willement's Regal Heraldry, 1821; G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage; Ormerod's History of Cheshire, ed. Helsby; Beamont's Richard II, in Architectural and Archæological Society of Cheshire, 1870, p. 127.] 

RICHARD III (1452–1485), king of England, the eleventh child of Richard, duke of York [q. v.], by Cicely, daughter of Ralph Neville, first earl of Westmorland [q. v.], was born at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire on 2 Oct. 1452. At the time of his birth the court of Henry VI stood in fear of his father's pretension to the crown, and civil war was brewing. He was just seven years old when, owing to his father's hasty flight from Ludlow (October 1459), his mother, with her two youngest sons—namely, George and himself—was taken in Ludlow Castle and handed over by Henry VI to the keeping of her sister Anne, duchess of Buckingham. But next year Henry himself fell into the hands of the Yorkists at the battle of Northampton (10 July 1460), so that the Duchess of York recovered her freedom. She brought her sons George and Richard to London in September, and lodged them in John Paston's house. The duke, her husband, was killed five months later at the battle of Wakefield (30 Dec. 1460), and when, shortly afterwards, the Lancastrians won also the second battle of St. Albans (17 Feb. 1461), it seemed as if London lay at their mercy. The duchess accordingly sent her two youngest sons by sea to Utrecht for safety; but they were soon recalled by their elder brother, who had not only caused himself to be proclaimed king, as Edward IV, but had succeeded in securing his throne by the decisive victory of Towton (29 March 1461). They returned in April.

Out of a family of eight sons and four daughters only three sons and three daughters of the Duchess of York now survived. Edward was crowned at Westminster on 28 June, and created his brother George Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Gloucester. They were also made knights of the Bath at the Tower of London just before the ceremony (, Observations Introductory, Coll. of Authorities, p. 30). Edward then appointed Clarence lieutenant of Ireland, and Gloucester, though he was only nine years old, admiral of the sea. He also gave liberal grants to each, and to Richard, among other things, the fee-farm of the town of Gloucester, the constableship of Corfe Castle, the manor of Kingston Lacy, which belonged to the duchy of Lancaster, the castle, county, and honour of Richmond in Yorkshire, and the county, honour, and lordship of Pembroke. A few years later, Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, ‘the kingmaker,’ whose disaffection to Edward IV was beginning, tried to seduce both these younger brothers from their allegiance, and carried them down with him to Cambridge; but Richard remained steadfast to Edward, although Clarence proved disloyal. About the beginning of 1466 Richard was elected a knight of the Garter (, Register of the Garter, p. 181), and in the same year he was at the banquet at the enthronement of Archbishop George Neville [q. v.] of York (, Collectanea, vi. 3). In 1468 he had a grant of the castle and manor of Farley in Somerset and the manors of Heytesbury and Teffont in Wiltshire, which had belonged to Robert, lord Hungerford, and of the manor and town of Bedminster,