Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/168

 mand of the Earl of Northumberland, but without any legal trial, of Earl Rivers, Lord Richard Grey, and Sir Thomas Vaughan, who had been taken at Stony Stratford.

Meanwhile there was intense agitation in London. Westminster was full of armed men, and Richard was expecting more from Yorkshire, yet three days after the execution of Hastings, Archbishop Bourchier somehow persuaded the queen to deliver up her second son, the Duke of York, out of sanctuary, to keep company with his brother in the Tower. The coronation was now deferred until 2 Nov., and on Sunday, 22 June, when it was to have taken place, Dr. Shaw, at St. Paul's Cross, preached a sermon, in which he intimated that the children of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville were illegitimate, and that the crown belonged by right to the Protector. Nor was this all, for the preacher further insinuated that Edward IV himself was a bastard, which he must have been authorised to do by Richard, to the dishonour of his own mother. Further, it had been arranged that Richard was to pass by during the sermon, but he arrived rather late, and when the preacher, returning to the subject, said, ‘This is his father's own figure,’ the crowd, already deeply shocked, made no response.

On the Tuesday following (24 June) the Duke of Buckingham, with some other lords and knights, addressed the citizens at the Guildhall in an eloquent speech in favour of Richard's claims. The citizens remaining dumb, the recorder was instructed to ask if they would have Richard for their king, and a few at the end of the hall cried, ‘King Richard!’ Next day, the 25th, was that for which parliament had been summoned, and, though a supersedeas had been received at York to countermand the sending up of representatives, there was certainly something like a parliamentary assembly that day in London. A roll was brought in declaring Richard to be rightful king, on the ground that Edward's marriage with Elizabeth Woodville was invalid, Edward having, it was asserted, made a precontract of matrimony with Dame Eleanor Butler, ‘daughter of the old Earl of Shrewsbury.’ Moreover, it was insisted that that marriage had led to grave inconveniences. Besides, Edward himself had been born abroad, at Rouen, and his brother Clarence at Dublin. Richard alone of the brothers was the true-born Englishman. On these grounds a deputation was sent to him at Baynard's Castle, asking him to assume the crown. Buckingham was spokesman, and Richard, with feigned reluctance, accepted the honour. Next day, accompanied by a number of the nobles, he went to Westminster, and seated himself in the marble chair. From that day (26 June) he dated the commencement of his reign.

Immediately afterwards Sir Richard Radcliffe [q. v.], who had carried out the executions at Pomfret, came up with the Yorkshire bands written for by Richard to protect himself against the queen-dowager. They came up very ill accoutred in rusty armour, and were joined by others from Wales—a force, despite the sneers of the citizens, sufficient to keep London quiet till the coronation. It took place at Westminster on Sunday, 6 July. Two days before the king had proceeded in state down the river to the Tower, and liberated Lord Stanley and Archbishop Rotherham from their confinement; the next day there were pageants, and the coronation itself was conducted with particular splendour, the newly pardoned Stanley carrying the mace as lord high constable. The success of the usurpation, however, at once produced a changed feeling among the nobility, and Richard, we are told, lost the hearts of many who would have fought to the death for him as Protector. Strangely enough, even Buckingham was disaffected, and Bishop Morton, having been committed to his custody, flattered his vanity by the suggestion that he would have been a better ruler than Richard. Thoughts of supplanting Richard certainly seem to have occurred to him, and the murder which soon after followed of the dethroned Edward V and his brother must have stimulated them all the more; but they were presently laid aside in favour of a project to assist Henry, earl of Richmond, to the crown [see ].

The secret order for the death of the two young princes seems to have been given by Richard when on a royal progress which he made just after his coronation. He went first by Windsor and Reading to Oxford, where he met with a noble reception, and spent two days visiting the colleges; then to Woodstock, where he won popularity by disafforesting some land that his brother Edward had annexed to Whichwood Forest; then on to Gloucester, and to Worcester. Each of these towns offered him a gift of money to defray his expenses, as London itself had done before; but he gracefully declined, saying he would rather have their hearts than their money. At Warwick, which he reached next, he received the Duke of Albany and an embassy from Spain. He then went on through Coventry, Leicester, and Nottingham to York, which he reached on 29 Aug. There he stayed several days, and on 8 Sept. he and his queen [see, 1456–1485] walked through the streets with