Page:History of the Kings and Queens of England.pdf/12

 RICHARD III., surnamed Crook-back, was the brother of Edward IV., and paved his way to the throne by a series of the most cruel murders. He was proclaimed king on the 20th of June, 1483, and was crowned on the 6th of July. He was short in stature, with a cloudy and forbidding aspect; one of his arms also was withered, and one shoulder higher than the other. He possessed uncommon judgment, penetration, eloquence, and courage; but through his whole life he seems to have been a complete tyrant. He was killed in the battle of Bosworth-field, on the 22d of August, 1485, in the 34th year of his age, after an infamous reign of 2 years.

HENRY VII., Earl of Richmond, of the Lancaster line, was crowned on the 30th of October, 1485; and by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., the claims of York and Lancaster were united. He was a chaste, temperate, brave, and politic prince; assiduous in the exercise of religious duties, and decent in his deportment: he was remarkably close and mistrustful, and insatiably covetous. He died at Richmond Palace, on the 22d of April, 1509, in the 52d year of his age, and the 24th of his reign.

In this reign, maps and sea-charts were first brought into England ; and America and the West Indies were discovered by Christopher Columbus.