Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/84

 triumphant Yorkists made him (January 1461) chief justice of Chester and Flint. Edward IV's accession was the signal for the reassertion of the Scrope claim to the lordship of Man, which William le Scrope, earl of Wiltshire [q. v.], had held under Richard II, and Stanley's title was still disputed in 1475. When his brother-in-law, Warwick, fleeing before Edward IV in 1470, made his way to Manchester in the hope of support from him, Stanley cautiously held aloof, but on the king-maker's succeeding in restoring Henry VI, he turned to the rising sun, and in March 1471 we find him besieging Hornby Castle on behalf of the Lancastrian government (Paston Letters, ii. 396; Fœdera, xi. 699). Nevertheless, after Warwick's defeat and death, Edward made Stanley lord steward of his household and privy councillor. He took part in the king's French expedition of 1475, when he characteristically seized a private opportunity of recommending himself to the favour of Louis XI (, i. 340, 347), and held a high command in Gloucester's invasion of Scotland seven years later. His services there were specially brought to the attention of parliament (Rot. Parl. vi. 197). Polydore Vergil credits him, perhaps rather partially, with the capture of Berwick. Not long after he married Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond, whose second husband, Henry Stafford, younger son of the second Duke of Buckingham, died in the same year.

After Edward's death Stanley remained loyal to his son, but though wounded in the head with a halbert during the scuffle in the council chamber (13 June 1483), when Gloucester arrested Hastings, his good fortune did not desert him, and he escaped with a short imprisonment. Gloucester is said to have feared that Stanley's son would raise Lancashire and Cheshire (, p. 668;, pp. 45–8; , p. 689). With his accustomed pliancy he carried the mace at Richard's coronation, his wife bearing the queen's train (Excerpta Historica, pp. 380, 384). He remained steward of the household, and succeeded Hastings as knight of the Garter. His wife was deeply engaged in Buckingham's rising [see ] on behalf of her son, Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond; but the wary Stanley avoided committing himself, and actually improved his position by the collapse of the revolt. Richard must have known him well enough to feel sure that he would not turn traitor until he could do so with the minimum of risk. He accepted his assurances of loyalty, and appointed him (16 Dec. 1483) constable of England in Buckingham's place. Stanley undertook to put a stop to his wife's intrigues, ‘keeping her in some secret place at home, without having any servant or company,’ and her estates were transferred to him for life (, p. 398; Rot. Parl. vi. 250). In 1484 Richard employed him in a Scottish mission. No one except the Dukes of Norfolk and Northumberland profited more by Richard's bounty (, ii. 534). But Stanley could not but feel that Richard's throne was insecure, and that in any case his own position would be much safer with his stepson wearing the crown. Not long before Richmond's landing, the ‘wily fox’ asked and obtained leave to go home to Lancashire on private affairs. Richard apparently suspected nothing at first, for on hearing that Richmond was likely to land in Wales, he ordered Stanley and his brother to be prepared to take the field against the rebels (, p. 287). But his prolonged absence at last roused suspicion, and he received peremptory orders either to come to the king at Nottingham himself or send his son, Lord Strange. He sent his son, but when news reached Richard that Richmond was marching unhindered through North Wales, of which Sir William Stanley (d. 1495) [q. v.] was justiciar, he ordered the father imperatively to join him at once. Stanley excused himself, however, on the plea that he was ill of the sweating sickness. Strange's futile attempt to escape from court, and his admission that he and his uncle were in league with Richmond, made Stanley's position still more delicate, though his son offered to guarantee his fidelity if his own life were spared (Cont. Croyl. Chron. p. 573). Richmond reckoned on the support of both Stanleys, but the elder was obliged to temporise, if only to save his son. The two brothers were playing much the same game as they had done at Blore Heath a quarter of a century before. Richmond was pretty sure of Sir William, who had been proclaimed a traitor. But Lord Stanley, who had thrown himself with five thousand men between the two approaching armies, evacuated Lichfield before Henry, and after a secret interview with him at Atherstone (20 Aug.) he marched on ahead to Bosworth. He selected an ambiguous position and returned an evasive answer when Richmond begged him to join forces before the battle began. He took no part in the action, hanging between the two armies, and it was his brother's intervention which gave Henry the victory. It was he, however, who placed the crown, taken from Richard's corpse, upon