EDWARD OUTWITTED BY LOUIS OF FRANCE.-1475. 199

power. Once Edward had nearly succeeded. In compliance with his wishes, Richmond had already reached England, when the duke began to doubt the sincerity of Edward's promises, and sent after him and brought him back, thus saving him from probable destruction; for Edward's cruelty increased with his years.

3. In 1475, Edward made great preparations for a war with France, and landed at Calais with thirty thousand men. But while the English were expecting great conquests, Edward, who had grown indolent, and preferred pleasure to war, suffered himself to be cajoled, by the cunning of Louis XI., into a disgraceful peace. 4. Louis, who was one of the most wicked and most artful kings that ever reigned in France, by rich presents and pensions corrupted the integrity of many of the English nobles, and finally bribed King Edward himself to return to England. This conduct of the English excited the contempt even of the French. All the while that Louis was treating Edward with the most profound respect to his face, he used behind his back to divert himself and his friends with ridiculing him and his courtiers for being so mercenary and greedy.

5. Although the Duke of Clarence had rendered the king such an important service in the battle of Barnet, yet he never was able to secure his brother's favor. The queen was his enemy, but he had a still more inveterate and dangerous one in his brother, the Duke of Gloucester.

6. Gloucester was very desirous to marry Anne, the daughter of Warwick, who had been made a widow by the murder of the young prince. Clarence, who had married her eldest sister, wished her to remain single, that he might secure to himself the whole of Warwick's great estates. As Richard was not very attractive, in his character at least, and there are great disputes as to his person, it is probable that Clarence had little difficulty in persuading her to reject the addresses of her husband's murderer.

7. But Gloucester was not a man to be deterred by any scruples from effecting that by violence which he could not accomplish by persuasion, and Anne was obliged to use many artifices to conceal herself. At last he discovered her, disguised as a cook-maid, in London, and immediately married her.

8. Gloucester had now a new reason for hating Clarence. He sought in every way to excite the king's jealousy. A trifle at length gave him an opportunity of gratifying his malice. As the king was one day hunting in the park of Thomas Burdet, who was a friend of Clarence, it so happened that he killed a white buck, a great favorite of the owner.

9. Burdet, vexed at his loss, fell into a passion, and wished the horns of the buck might be the death of him who had advised the king to kill it; but as no one had advised the king to do this, it was agreed that these words could apply only to the king himself; and Burdet was thereupon condemned and executed, on the pretence of his wishing the king's death.

said of Edward's conduct in regard to France? 6. How was the Duke of Clarence viewed by the royal family? 7, 8. What particular cause of hatred had Gloucester? 9, 10, 11

200 BOOKS IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD IV.-1461-1483.

10. Clarence expressed very freely his opinion of the injustice of this act. These expressions were forthwith reported to the king by Gloucester, probably with many exaggerations. Clarence was at once arrested, and the parliament, who dared not oppose the wishes of the king, condemned him to die.

11. As a royal and brotherly favor, the king allowed him to choose the manner of his death. Historians tell us that he desired to be drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine, and that he was gratified in his wish. He had a son, who inherited his grandfather's title of the Earl of Warwick, and a daughter, afterwards Countess of Salisbury, both of whom met with violent deaths.

12. Edward survived his brother about five years; his life is said to have been shortened by his excesses, and his death at last to have been produced by his vexation at having been outwitted by Louis XI., in a new negotiation. He died April 9th, 1483, in the forty-first year of his age, and the twenty-third of his reign.

FAMILY OF EDWARD IV.

WIFE.

Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Woodville, and widow of Sir John Gray.

Edward, Prince of Wales.

Richard, Duke of York.

SONS.

DAUGHTERS.

Elizabeth, married to Henry VII.

Cicely.

Anne.

Catharine.

CHAPTER CXI.

The Invention of the Art of Printing.—Introduced into England by William Caxton.

1. THERE were very few books written during the reign of Edward IV., which some have accounted for by attributing it to the then recent discovery of the art of printing. They suppose that the business of transcribing declined before printing was brought to sufficient perfection to supply its place.

2. To whom, among the great number of claimants of the merit, we are indebted for this valuable invention is a matter of dispute. There is a common story that Laurentius Coster, of Haarlem, was the person to whom the idea first occurred. The following account

of it is in the words of his old servant:

3. "He, one day, walking in the wood near the city, as the rich

Relate the incident which gave an excuse for putting Clarence to death. 12. What was the manner of Clarence's death?

CXI. 1. How is the smallness of the number f books written in Edward IV.'s time accounted for? 2. To whom is the invention of printing usually attributed? 3. Wat

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citizens were wont to do, diverted himself by cutting letters on the bough of a beech-tree, and for fancy's sake the thought struck him to take the impression off on paper with ink, to please his grandchildren.

4. "The experiment succeeding beyond his expectation, he and his son-in-law applied their minds to improve the discovery. They made wooden types; but for a time they could only print on one side of a page. An old parchment, with the alphabet and the Lord's prayer printed on it, is, I am told, preserved in some library in Germany, and is supposed to have been one of these first attempts."

5. This story goes on to say that Coster set up a press in his own house, and wished to keep his discovery a secret, but that two of his servants stole his types. But the more authentic accounts seem to show that John Gutenberg, of Mentz, was the real inventor of printing, and that one Faust was his partner in the first successful attempts in the art.

6. The first book which was printed by Faust is an exceedingly splendid Bible, of the supposed date of 1450, or thereabouts. An honest citizen and mercer of London, named William Caxton, had occasion to go into Holland, where he heard and saw much of this new discovery.

7. Being very solicitous to make so valuable an art known in England, he established himself for some time at Cologne, for the purpose of learning it; and, though he was in his fifty-seventh year, he applied himself so diligently to his new undertaking, that, in 1471, he printed a book entitled "The Recule of the History of Troy."

8. He then went to England and set up a printing-press at Westminster, and printed a book on the Game of Chess, interspersed with wood-cuts, which appear uncouth enough to us, but were at the time considered as admirable specimens of engraving.

9. Caxton carried over with him the types used in Germany, and of course marked with the characters used in that country. From these and similar types, all English books were printed for more than a century. It is called black letter. In the reign of James I. the Roman character (the one now used) was adopted, and soon entirely superseded the old German, or black letter.

10. We must now say a few words of the ships, or "wooden walls of old England," as they are called. A great change had taken place in the construction of them in the last few reigns. The ships of war were of much larger size, and on the top of the mast was a little wooden tower, in which three or four men could stand to hurl down stones and arrows into an enemy's vessel.

11. These ships had guns, but they were not very serviceable, for they were fixed in their places, and had no carriages. In Henry VI.'s time, decks and bowsprits were added; and the large ships

is the story told by Laurentius' servant? 5. Who was the real inventor of the art? What of Faust? 6. What was the first book printed by Faust? Who was Wil iam Caxton? 7, 8. What of Caxton as a printer? 9. What is black letter? 10, 11 12 What is said of the ships?

202

RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOUCEST R.-1483.

were exceedingly encumbered by a sort of wooden house, or castle, at each end.

12. They were much ornamented with gilding and painting; and armorial bearings and badges were embroidered on the sails The vessels in which Henry V. sailed to France just before the battle of Agincourt had purple sails, embroidered with gold.

CHAPTER CXII.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester.-He aspires to wear the Crown.-Seizes upon the young King, Edward V., whose Mother flies to a Sanctuary.

1. We have now come to the shortest reign and most pathetic story in English history. Edward left two sons, the elder of whom, about thirteen years old, was proclaimed king by the title of Edward V. Though the public generally acknowledged his title, there was, among his nearest relations, one who had long marked the innocent boy for destruction.

2. This person was his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The ability, vigor of mind, and personal courage of this prince have never been disputed. But with regard to his moral character there has been great difference of opinion; some writers having loaded his memory with more crimes than it seems possible for any one man to have committed; while others have endeavored to vindicate him from most of the guilt of which he has been accused.

3. There has been the same difference of opinion as to his personal appearance. One old chronicler says, "He was crooked-backed, hook-shouldered, splay-footed, goggle-eyed, and his face was little and swarthy." On the other side, an old lady, Desmond, who lived to be 130 years old, and had danced with King Richard in her youth, used always to say that he was a very handsome man.

4. The truth probably lies between the two; and those are doubtless correct who tell us that, though his features were rather homely, the expression of his countenance was princely and sensible; that his figure, though short, was well built, with no other defect than that his right shoulder was somewhat higher than the left.

5. Richard had long entertained the project of usurping the crown and he now made use of the jealousy which the nobles felt of the queen and her relatives, to advance his plan. The young king had been intrusted to the care of his uncle, Lord Rivers, and his halfbrother, Lord Gray.

6. Richard's first step was to remove these noblemen from about the person of Edward. In this he was willingly assisted by Lord Hastings, a loyal and honest man, but one who bore a bitter enmity to the queen and her relatives. Accompanied by Hastings, Richard set out

CXII-1. Who succeeded Edward IV.? 2, 3, 4. What of Richard, Duke of Glouces

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with a numerous train to meet the king, who was on his way to London to be crowned.

7. They met him and his little party at Stony Stratford, where the Lords Gray and Rivers passed the evening with the Duke of Gloucester in mirth and pleasantry, unsuspicious of the coming evil. The next morning they were seized and sent to Pontefract, and all the rest of Edward's attendants were dismissed, and forbidden to come near the court on pain of death.

8. The poor young king, finding himself alone and in the power of his uncle, whom he had early been taught to dread, was struck with grief and terror; but Gloucester, falling on his knees, assured him, with strong professions of loyalty and affection, that all he had done was for his preservation.

9. Edward, being soothed into composure, set off with his uncle towards London, where the news of these violent measures arrived before them, and occasioned great alarm. The queen instantly fled into the sanctuary at Westminster, taking with her the Duke of York and her five daughters. Rotherham, Archbishop of York, a faithful servant of the crown, hastened to comfort her. Her condition is thus described by an old chronicler:

10. "The archbishop found about the queen much heaviness, rumble, haste and business; carriage and conveyance of her stuffe into sanctuarie; chests, coffers, packs, fardles, bundles, tossed all on men's backs; no man unoccupied; some lading, some going, some unloading, some going for more, some breaking down the wall to bring in the nearest way. The queen herself sate alone low on the rushes, all desolate and dismaid."

CHAPTER CXIII.

Richard III. usurps the Crown.--He causes the young King and his Brother to be murdered.

1. On the 4th of May, Gloucester conducted his nephew into London, riding before him bareheaded, and frequently calling out to the people, "Behold your king!" At a great council held two days after, the artful duke was appointed protector of the kingdom. To keep up the deception, a day was appointed for the coronation of the king, and the preparations were at once begun.

2. In the mean time, those to whom Richard had imparted his designs upon the crown were actively employed. On the 13th of May, Sir Thomas Ratcliffe, one of his chief confidants, entered Pontefract with 5000 men, and, without any trial, beheaded Lord Rivers and Lord Gray. The death of Lord Rivers caused much lamentation, for he was the most accomplished nobleman of his time.

ter? 5. To what did he aspire? 6, 7. How did he set about the accomplishment of his wish? 9, 10. What of the queen?

CXIII.-1. How did Gloucester treat his nephew? What office did he receive'