A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

General uneasiness in England. 1485.

His recourse to benevolences.

Meanwhile the feeling of uneasiness increased. Lancastrian emissaries moved to and fro through the country. Clifford and some others of them were apprehended and put to death. But the evil was too great to admit of a speedy remedy. Libels were freely scattered through the country; among others the well-known couplet, “The rat, the cat, and Lovel the dog, rule all England under the Hog,” a plain allusion to his chief friends, Ratcliffe, Catesby and Lovel. William Collingbourne, its author, was captured and put to death. But libels increased in number, especially when there seemed to be grounds for asserting that, though his wife was still living, he was himself thinking of a subsequent marriage with the Princess Elizabeth of York. The opportune illness and death of his wife, and, it may be, the love[102] felt for him by the Princess, added such an air of truth to the story, that, at the instigation of his best friends, he was induced to make a public contradiction of it before the Common Council in London. His finances, too, were in disorder. Free-handed and ostentatious, he had speedily spent the wealth which his brother’s avarice had accumulated; and though he had himself caused a bill to be passed to put an end to benevolences, he was reduced to have recourse to that illegal method of taxation which the people in bitter jest termed the raising of malevolences.

Richmond lands at Milford.

Conduct of the Stanleys.

Battle of Bosworth. Aug. 22.

He was however prepared, when Richmond, supported by the French, made his second attempt upon England. But unfortunately for Richard, treason was at work among his own followers, and the Stanleys, without principle, without gratitude, and with a constant eye to their own aggrandizement, were in secret alliance with their young kinsman the Lancastrian Prince. At length the invasion came. The place of landing, which had been kept a profound secret, was Milford Haven: for the Tudor thought it prudent to enlist the national prejudices of the Welsh in his favour. The Leopard of England and the Dragon of Wales floated side by the side on his standards. He advanced in safety to Shropshire; and the Welsh leaders joined him, as well as the Talbots of Shrewsbury. Richard had assembled his forces in the centre of England. Northumberland brought him troops from the North, Howard from the South, Brackenbury from London, Norfolk from the East. But it was very doubtful what part the Stanleys would take; and it was through the county where they were powerful, both as proprietors and as the King’s governors, that Richmond had to pass. Lord Stanley demanded leave to go to his county; but the King, whose suspicions had been raised, insisted on his leaving his son Lord Strange as a hostage. Pleading illness, Lord Stanley had refused to join Richard, and with 5000 men retired before the invader, whom his brother Sir William had now openly joined. In August the armies approached one another in the neighbourhood of Atherstone. Richard then threw aside all doubts. He ordered Lord Strange to be beheaded, and felt that the struggle must be a final one. Lord Strange’s keepers, however, thought it well to await the issue of the battle before carrying out the command: and in the middle of the struggle, Lord Stanley, who, afraid for his son’s life, had kept aloof with his troops, suddenly joined Richmond. This turned the fortunes of the day; and in spite of the greatest personal bravery, Richard’s army was completely beaten, and himself killed.

Richard’s character and laws.

His character has been the subject of much discussion, nor is this strange. Had he lived in times of greater security, he would have been an able and admirable governor. Several of the enactments of his reign attest his wisdom and his love of justice. He recognized the evil of benevolences, and forbad them, although necessity drove him to have recourse to them. His efforts were much directed to the re-establishment of justice, to support which he had caused a bill to be passed, to secure the respectability of jurymen, by forbidding any but freeholders to the amount of 40s. from serving in that capacity. He restrained the lawlessness of the barons by the suppression of liveries; and while promising to uphold the liberties of the Church, had shown that he would not allow any interference with the civil power. He had also fostered the trade of England by opening fresh markets for English wool both in Spain and in Iceland. His personal character, too, was attractive. With beautiful though peculiar features, he was liberal and at times forgiving to the verge of folly. He had pardoned and extended constant favour to the wives and families of his political victims. In spite of his strange charge of adultery against her, he had been always a dutiful and affectionate son to his mother. The gentle side of his disposition is perhaps shown by his passionate love of music. But the troublous times in which he lived called out all his worst characteristics; and for political ends he had shown himself scheming, cold, and cruel; while the tyrannical temperament, which could brook no opposition, hurried him into deeds of violence which were the proximate cause of his downfall.