Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/166

 In 1473 the widowed Countess of Warwick, who had been in Beaulieu sanctuary in Hampshire since her husband's death, at length came out, and was conveyed by Sir James Tyrell [q. v.] into the north. She seems to have been anxious to throw herself upon Richard's protection, and Clarence was believed to have objected to her removal. The king, according to a letter of that date, restored to her all her patrimonial property, the lands of the Beauchamps; but she granted it to Richard, with whom she had found a home, probably at Middleham. The whole of her property, however, alike inheritance and jointure, was divided between him and Clarence by an act of parliament in May 1474, her own rights being set aside just as if she were dead, and Richard kept her as a prisoner while he lived.

Richard continued to receive new grants from the crown. In 1471 he was made justiciar of North Wales; in 1472 warden of the royal forests north of Trent. In 1474 a further portion of Lord Hungerford's lands was bestowed on him, and in 1475 some of those of the Earl of Oxford and Sir Thomas de la Launde. After receiving his share of Warwick's property he resided chiefly in Yorkshire, and mostly at Middleham, though he had an official residence at Pomfret as steward of the duchy of Lancaster.

In 1475, when Edward invaded France and made an inglorious peace with Louis XI, without striking a blow, Richard was displeased and stood aloof from the interview at Picquigny; but, when the matter was settled, he paid a visit of courtesy to Louis at Amiens, and received from him presents of plate and horses (, bk. iv. ch. x.). It does not appear that he was directly responsible for the death of his brother Clarence in 1478, which Sir Thomas More says he openly opposed; but a suspicion prevailed that he had helped indirectly to bring it about. Three days before the duke suffered Richard's son was created Earl of Salisbury—a second title which had belonged to Clarence—and three days after the event Richard himself obtained licenses from the king to erect two considerable religious establishments, each presided over by a dean, the one at Barnard Castle and the other at Middleham, for the souls of himself and his wife after their decease, as well as of his father, brothers, and sisters.

Of the lordship of Barnard Castle, Richard had held one moiety in right of his wife till the death of Clarence, when the other moiety fell to him also. On the same day (21 Feb.) on which he obtained these licenses he was again appointed to the office of great chamberlain of England, which he had before resigned in Clarence's favour. Not long after, he was made admiral of England, Ireland, and Aquitaine. On 12 May 1480 he was appointed the king's lieutenant-general in the north, in anticipation of a Scottish invasion, and in June a commission was directed to him and others to raise troops in Yorkshire (, xii. 115, 117). In September he had to punish a Scottish raid into Northumberland, but he was back again at Sheriff-Hutton in October (Plumpton Corresp. p. 40, Camden Soc.;, York Records, pp. 106, 108). On 12 June 1482 he was appointed to command an army against Scotland. He began the campaign by taking the town of Berwick, and, leaving a force to besiege the castle, marched on to Edinburgh. He was accompanied by Alexander, duke of Albany, whom Edward IV had promised to make king of Scotland. His progress was aided by Angus ‘Bell the Cat’ [see, fifth ]. After the Scottish nobles at Lauder took their king (James III) into their own keeping, Richard enabled Albany to make terms for his pardon, and having exacted an important bond from the town of Edinburgh, he obtained on his return the surrender of Berwick Castle.

A campaign so successful won for him the thanks of parliament, which met in January 1483. He had also been for some years warden of the west marches, and had brought the borders into such admirable subjection that, in reward for his services, parliament made the extraordinary provision that that wardenship should descend to his heirs male, with the possession of Carlisle and various lands in Cumberland, and such adjoining districts of Scotland as they should be able to conquer (Rotuli Parl. vi. 197, 204).

On 9 April following Edward IV died at Westminster, leaving to Richard the care of his family and kingdom during the minority of his eldest son Edward, then in his thirteenth year. Lord Hastings sent Richard notice of the event, and he immediately repaired to York, where he held a funeral service for his brother, and called on all the neighbouring gentry to swear allegiance to Edward V, himself setting the example. Meanwhile the queen-dowager and her relatives had likewise sent word to young Edward, who was then at Ludlow, and whom they wished to come up to London with a strong escort; but Lord Hastings said if the company were dangerously large he would retire to Calais, of which place he was governor. Hastings was not the only one suspicious of the Woodvilles or Wydevilles, the queen dowager's family. When Richard reached North-