and all the lords at their pleasure; the poor knights of Windsor, dean, canons, yeomen, and officers-at-arms, all offered, and after mass the lord marquis paid the cost of the funeral." At the east end of St. George's chapel, north aisle, is the tomb of Edward IV., being a monument of steel representing a pair of gates between two towers, of ancient gothic architecture.1 On a flat stone at the foot of this monument are engraven, in old English characters, the words, King Edward and his Queen, Elizabeth Widville. In 1810, when the place of sepulchre for the family of George III. was in course of preparation at the east end of St. George's chapel, an excavation was formed in the solid bed of chalk of the full size of the edifice above, when two stone coffins, containing the bodies of queen Elizabeth Woodville and her son prince George,2 were discovered fifteen feet below the surface: thus realizing the emphatic words of Southey : "Thou, Elizabeth, art here; Thou, to whom all griefs were known, In happier hour than on a throne." This beautiful work of art is said to be by the hand of Quentin Matsys, the Flemish blacksmith-painter; it has the appearance of black lace. 2 The third son of Elizabeth, who died in infancy. The coffin of her second daughter, the princess Mary, a beautiful girl of fifteen, who died the year before her father, was soon after discovered. A curl of hair of the most exquisite pale gold bad insinuated itself through the chinks of her coffin; it was cut off, and is in fine preservation. 429 ANNE OF WARWICK. QUEEN OF RICHARD III. Anne of Warwick, last Plantagenet queen-Place of her birth-Coronets of York and Lancaster-Her armorial bearings-ParentageChildhood-Richard of Gloucester-His early acquaintance with Anne -Anne at Calais-Marriage of her sister-Returns to England-Embarks with her family-Naval battle-Distress before Calais-Lands in France-Marriage with Edward prince of Wales-Remains with queen Margaret-Tewksbury-Richard of Gloucester wishes to marry her-Her aversion-She is concealed by Clarence-Richard discovers her-Resides with her uncle-Disputes regarding her propertyCompelled to marry Richard-Divorce meditated-Birth of her sonResidence at Middleham-Death of Edward IV.-Gloucester departs for London-Anne's arrival at the Tower-Coronation-Her progress to the north-Her son-Re-coronation of Richard and Anne at YorkBribe to the queen-Death of her son-Her fatal grief-Rumours of divorce-Conversation of her husband regarding her-Rumours of her death-Her alarm and complaints-Her kindness to Elizabeth of York -The queen's death and burial. ANNE OF WARWICK, the last of our Plantagenet queens, and the first who had previously borne the title of prin cess of Wales,1 was born at Warwick Castle in the year 1454.2 On each side of the faded, melancholy portrait of this unfortunate lady, in the pictorial history of her maternal ancestry called the Rous Roll, two mysterious hands are introduced, offering to her the rival crowns of York and Lancaster; while the white bear, the cognizance assumed by her mighty sire, Warwick the king-maker,3 lies muzzled at her feet, in token that the royal lions of Plantagenet had quelled the pride of that hitherto tameless bear, on the blood-stained heath of Barnet. The principal events which marked the career of Richard Neville earl of Warwick have been traced in There have been but six princesses of Wales in England; the three first were left widows; and it is singular, that although two of them were afterwards queen-consorts, they did not derive that dignity from the princes of Wales they had wedded, The first princess of Wales, Joanna, the widow of Edward the Black Prince, died of a broken heart. The miseries of Anne of Warwick, the widow of Edward of Lancaster, prince of Wales, this memoir will show. The misfortunes of Katherine of Arragon, consort of Henry VIII., and widow to Arthur prince of Wales, will be related in the course of the next volume. Caroline of Anspach, consort of George II., after a lapse of two hundred years, was the only princess of Wales who succeeded happily to the throne-matrimonial of this country. Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, widow to Frederic prince of Wales, lost a beloved husband in the prime of life, and never was queen. The troublous career of the sixth princess of Wales, Caroline of Brunswick, is still in public memory. 2 Rous Roll, Herald's College. 3 The ragged staff is not seen in the Rous Roll as an accompaniment to the Beauchamp bear. But in the pictorial biography of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, the bear and ragged staff is seen in the tilting helmet of that earl. Richard Neville earl of Warwick is represented with a bull at his feet, and with the green eagle of Monthermer, in the Rous Roll, which appropriates the bear entirely to the Beauchamp heiresses; although Warwick certainly assumed both bear and staff after his marriage. the memoirs of the two preceding queens. Richard Neville, surnamed the king-making earl of Warwick, was heir, in right of the countess his mother, to the vast inheritance of the Montagues, earls of Salisbury. He aggrandized himself in a higher degree by his union, in 1448, with Anne, the sister of Beauchamp earl of Warwick, who had become sole heiress of that mighty line by the early death of her niece the preceding year. Richard was soon after summoned to the House of Lords, in right of his wife, as earl of Warwick. He possessed an income of 22,000 marks per annum, but had no male heir, his family consisting but of two daughters; the eldest, lady Isabel,1 was very handsome. Bucke calls lady Anne "the better woman of the two," but he gives no reason for the epithet. When, on the convalescence of king Henry, Margaret of Anjou recovered her former influence in the government, Warwick, having good reason to dread her vengeance, withdrew with his countess and young daughters to his government of Calais, where much of the childhood and early youth of the lady Anne were spent. Occasionally, indeed, when the star of York was in the ascendant, Warwick brought the ladies of his family either to his feudal castle or his residence in Warwick-lane. The site of this mansion is still known by the name of Warwick-court. Here the earl exercised semi-barbarous hospitality in the year 1458, when pacification was attempted between the warring houses of York and Lancaster; six hundred of the retainers of Anne's mother were quartered in Warwick-lane, “all dressed alike in red jackets, with the bear and ragged 2 Born at Warwick Castle 1451. Rous Roll, Herald's College. 2 Stow's London. staff embroidered both before and behind. At Warwickhouse, six oxen were daily devoured for breakfast, and all the taverns about St. Paul's and Newgate-street were full of Warwick's meat, for any one who could claim acquaintance with Warwick's red-jacketed gentry might resort to his fleshpots, and sticking his dagger therein, carry off as much beef as could be taken on a long dagger." At this period the closest connexion subsisted between the families of the duke of York and the earl of Warwick. Richard Plantagenet, afterwards Richard III., was two years older than the lady Anne; he was born Oct. 2nd, 1452, at his father's princely castle of Fotheringay, and being the son of lady Anne's great-aunt, an intimacy naturally subsisted between the children of such near relations and close political allies. Majerus, a Flemish annalist,1 affirms that Richard had formed a strong affection for his cousin Anne; he does not say that the partiality was returned; it is not very probable that it was, considering Richard's disagreeable person and temper.2 Passing over events already related, that led to the deposition of Henry VI., positive proof may be found that Anne of Warwick and Richard of Gloucester were companions when he was about fourteen and she twelve years old. After Richard had been created duke of Gloucester at his brother's coronation, it is highly probable he was consigned to the guardianship of the earl Quoted by Bucke, in his Life of Richard III. 2 The author quoted by Holinshed speaks as one who had seen Richard. The oft-quoted testimony of the old countess of Desmond ought not to have great weight, as many ladies would think any prince handsome who had danced with them. |