however, prevailed upon him to resign that office, and to remove to his new foundation at Eton, of which he became provost in 1442. In 1447, he succeeded cardinal Beaufort in the bishopric of Winchester. In 1456, he was appointed lord high chancellor, which office he resigned in 1460. He accompanied Henry VI. to Northampton, and was with him a few days before the fatal battle near that place, in which the royal army was defeated. Edward IV. treated Waynflete with respect, but he retired from all political affairs, and died of a short but violent complaint on August 11, 1486. He was interred in the cathedral of Winchester. Waynflete founded Magdalen college, Oxford, and a free school in his native town.

EDWARD IV., king of England, was born in 1441. His father, Richard duke of York, was grandson of Edmund earl of Cambridge and duke of York, fourth son of Edward III.; while the Lancaster branch descended from John of Gaunt, the third son of the same king. But the York line was intermarried with the female descendant of Lionel duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III., which, according to the established rules of representation, gave it the preferable right to the crown. Edward was brought up in scenes of civil contention. He succeeded, in the title of York, his father, who was slain in the battle of Wakefield in 1460; and soon after defeated the earl of Pembroke at Mortimer's cross in Hertfordshire. After the battle of St. Alban's, gained by queen Margaret over the earl of Warwick, Edward, collecting the relics of Warwick's forces, advanced and obliged the queen to retire into the north. He then entered London, where, by popular acclamation, he was declared king, in March, 1461, being then in his twentieth year. His person was uncommonly handsome, his disposition bold and enterprising, but unfeeling and unrelenting. Indeed, the savage deeds perpetrated on both sides, during this bloody contest, rendered it one of the most unamiable periods of the English character. Soon after his accession, he had to fight for his crown against an army of 60,000 Lancastrians, assembled in Yorkshire; and the field at Towton, the most destructive in the course of those wars, confirmed his title by a decisive victory. He then summoned a parliament, which recognized in the most ample manner, his hereditary right, and passed large attainders of the opposite party. The hopes of the Lancastrians were somewhat revived by an aid sent from Lewis XI., of France, which enabled the heroic and indefatigable Margaret again to appear in arms. But she was defeated in the battle of Hexham, May, 1464, and obliged to take refuge in Flanders; while her husband, the weak and insignificant Henry VI., fell into the hands of the Yorkists, and was thrown into the Tower. Edward, now freed from warlike cares, indulged himself in those pleasures of gallantry, to which he was addicted, and which

rather promoted his popularity than injured it, but a marriage of love, which he contracted with one of his subjects, produced very serious consequences. Elizabeth Woodville, widow of Sir John Gray of Groby, a Lancastrian, whose estate had been confiscated, took the opportunity of an accidental visit of the king at her father's house, to throw herself at his feet, and implore his compassion on her ruined children. The sight of beauty in distress, won the heart of Edward, who raised and comforted her, and soon proceeded to offer conditions for mutual favours. Her virtue, however, would not suffer her to listen to any dishonourable proposals, and the king could only gratify his passion by agreeing to a private marriage. A short time before, he had sent the earl of Warwick to negociate for him a treaty of marriage with Bona of Savoy, sister of the queen of France, and his offer had been accepted. This circumstance occasioned an avowal of his new union, and besides the offence he gave to the courts of France and Savoy, he incurred the high indignation of the potent earl, who had been delusively employed in the nuptial commission. While discontents among the great were secretly operating in England, an insurrection in Yorkshire, in which it is probable Warwick had some share, inflamed to an open rebellion in 1469. In the next year Warwick being employed with Clarence, the king's brother, to levy troops, in order to oppose an insurrection in Lincolnshire, they raised an army in their own name, and declared against the abuses of government. Not being supported, however, as they expected, they fled to France, where Warwick was received with great distinction by Lewis. He procured a reconciliation between the exiles and queen Margaret; cemented by the marriage of Clarence's daughter by the Lancastrian prince Edward. Lewis fitted out a fleet to escort Warwick and Lancaster with a body of troops to England. They landed at Dartmouth, and such was Warwick's popularity and influence, that he soon saw himself at the head of 60,000 men, with whom he marched to encounter Edward. They approached each other near Nottingham, where, by the treachery of the marquis of Montague, Warwick's brother, who was high in Edward's confidence, the king was nearly surprised in his tent during the night. He had just time to mount his horse, when, with a few attendants he hastened to Lynn, and embarked for Holland, leaving Warwick in full possession of the kingdom, within eleven days after his landing. Edward, with much difficulty, reached a port in Holland. The Lancastrians were entirely triumphant in England. Henry's title was recognized by Parliament. All the attainders of his party were taken off, and transferred to the Yorkists. Warwick and Clarence were declared regents of the kingdom, under the incapable Henry, during the mino

rity of his son; and Margaret, with all the exiles, prepared to return. The duke of Burgundy, who had married Edward's sister, was at first cold in the cause of his brother-in-law, but at length resolved secretly to assist him; and he delivered to him, in March 1471, a small squadron of ships, with which he immediately sailed, and landed at Ravenspur. He brought over only 2000 troops; but a number of partisans daily flocked to his standard. He was admitted into York, and was soon enabled to march to London. There, through the influence of many rich merchants, who had advanced him money, and particularly it is said, through that of the citizens' wives, with whom he had deeply ingratiated himself, he obtained entrance as king, while the unfortunate Henry again became a prisoner. Warwick advanced against him as far as Barnet, where, on Easter-day, April 14, another great battle between the two houses was fought, ending in a complete victory to Edward, and the death of Warwick in the field. On the very same day queen Margaret and her son, now eighteen years of age, landed at Weymouth. She advanced into Gloucestershire, where she was met by the victorious Edward, who gave her a total defeat at Tewkesbury, May 4; Margaret and the young prince were taken prisoners, and brought before the victor. Edward asked the prince how he dared to invade his dominions? and receiving a spirited answer, basely struck him in the face with his gauntlet. At this signal the king's brothers and other nobles dragged him into the next room, and stabbed him. Margaret, was thrown into the Tower, where Henry VI. soon after died, whether by violence or a natural death is uncertain. Edward was now, by the destruction of all his foes, firmly seated on the throne, and he resigned himself to that course of pleasure and gaiety to which he was addicted. The ambition of French conquests, however, at length seized him; and in 1475, in consequence of a league with the duke of Burgundy, he crossed the seas with a powerful force, attended by the principal nobility of the kingdom. The duke of Burgundy sailed to his assistance, and the politic Lewis, trusting rather to negociations than to arms, concluded a truce with him, by which he purchased Edward's return to his own dominions with a present payment of money and an annual pension. He also bought the friendships of the venal English nobles by pensions, and he gave liberal treats to the greatest part of his army in Amiens. Such was the disgraceful treaty of Pecquiqui. Edward's attention was now chiefly engaged with jealousy of his brother Clarence, who, though he had deserted Warwick at a critical time, had never been able to regain Edward's confidence. In 1478, he was capitally arraigned before the House of Peers; and though the charges against him were weak and trifling, was found guilty. The Commons concurred in a bill of attainder against him, and

the unhappy Clarence feli a sacrifice to fraternal jealousy. He was indulged in the whimsical desire of being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. An expedition of the duke of Gloucester to the borders of Scotland, in which he took Berwick, and forced the Scots to make peace, was the principal remaining event of this reign. Edward was making preparations for a French war in order to revenge some injuries received from Lewis, when he was taken off by sickness on April 9, 1483, in the forty-second year of his age, and twenty-third of his reign. He left two sons and five daughters.

ELIZABETH WOODVILLE widow of Sir John Gray, who was slain in the battle of Bernard's Heath. After his death she applied to Edward IV. for the restoration of his estate, when the monarch fell in love with, and married her. The princess Elizabeth was the fruit of this marriage, who married Henry VII., and thus united the houses of York and Lancaster. Edward's partiality for his concubines was not calculated to ensure domestic happiness to Elizabeth, yet, after his death, she took a third husband, lord Stanley. She died in a monastery, where her son-in-law, Henry VII., had confined her.

ANTHONY WOODVILLE, earl of Rivers, brother to the queen of Edward IV., was born in the end of 1442, or in the beginning of 1443. He was one of the most accomplished men of his age. He was early and constantly employed either in the tumults of those turbulent times, or in discharging the duties of some of the highest offices of the state, with which he was invested. Yet he found leisure to cultivate letters, and to be the author of works which, though of little value now, excited some interest in that age. These consisted chiefly of translations from the French; and his lordship, with his printer Caxton, were the first English author and printer who had the pleasure to see their works printed. He was treacherously imprisoned by Richard III. in Pomfret castle, where, during his confinement, he composed a short poem, which has been preserved. He was beheaded on the 23d of June, 1483, in the 41st year of his age.

GEORGE, duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV. of England, was condemned to death for conspiring against his brother. He was, in 1478, at his own request, drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine, a liquor to which he was particularly partial.

JANE SHORE, the celebrated concubine of the licentious king Edward IV. She was the wife of Matthew Shore, a goldsmith in Lombard-street. She was naturally inclined to virtue, but suffered herself to be seduced, by the poor ambition of shining at Edward's court as the royal favourite. Historians represent her as extremely beautiful, remarkably cheerful, and of most uncommon generosity. The king, it is said, was

no less captivated with her temper than with her person; she never made use of her influence over him to the prejudice of any person; and if ever she importuned him, it was in favour of the unfortunate. After the death of Edward, she attached herself to lord Hastings; and when Richard III. cut off that nobleman as an obstacle to his ambitious schemes, Jane Shore was arrested as an accomplice, on the ridiculous accusation of witchcraft. She was acquitted of this charge, when Richard ordered her to be tried in the spiritual court for adultery; she pleaded guilty, and was condemned to do public penance in a white sheet at St. Paul's, after walking barefoot through the city. Richard rifled her of all her property. Notwithstanding the severity exercised towards her, she lived to a great age. It appears that she was alive, though sufficiently wretched, in the reign of Henry VIII., when Sir Thomas More saw her poor, old, and shrivelled, without the least trace of her former beauty. Mr. Rowe, in his tragedy of Jane Shore, has adopted the popular story related in the old historical ballad, of her perishing by hunger in a ditch where Shore-ditch now stands. But Stow assures us that that street was so named before her time.

CATHERINE FITZGERALD, countess of Desmond, who attained the age of one hundred and forty-five years, was daughter of the House of Drumana, in the county of Waterford, and second wife to James, the twelfth earl of Desmond, to whom she was married in the reign of Edward IV., and being on that occasion presented at court, had the honour of dancing with the duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., whom she," in conversation with lady Dacre," averred, was the best made man in the room except the king, who was remarkably handsome. This circumstance is quoted by Mr. Walpole, in his "Historic doubts," as proof among many others, that Richard was not the deformed figure which the Lancastrian historians have described him. The beauty, but more the vivacity of Lady Desmond, rendered her an object of general admiration at a period of life when all other women are considered unfit for society; and historians very confidently assert, that she had passed her hundredth year before she could refrain from dancing and mixing in the gayest circles. She then thought proper to assume the matronly character, and enlivened by her wit and cheerful conversation, the assemblies of her friends. She resided at Inchiquin, in Munster, and held her jointure from many earls of Desmond, until the family being by an attainder deprived of the estate, she was reduced to poverty; but feeling few of the infirmities of age, although then one hundred and forty, she crossed the Channel to Bristol, and travelling up to London, laid her case before the king, "James the First," and solicited relief, which she obtained. Sir Walter Raleigh, who was well acquainted with this wonderful lady,