V. BOOK It has been seen that Catesby,, by his dying will, recommended that this friend of Richard should be taken into Henry's favor. Instead of using this policy, the king excepted him out of the general amnesty. REIGN OF HEN. VII. 1486. ༣ In the spring, Henry resolved, like Richard, to make a tour of popularity and policy to the northern counties.31 As they cherished so warmly the memory of Richard, this visit had the appearance of danger; and Lovel thought it would enable him to avenge his fallen master. He left his sanctuary, and attempted a sudden insurrection against Henry." The king, on horseback, nobly accompanied, proceeded by Waltham to Cambridge, where the University received him with honor; and passed on to Lincoln, where he kept his Easter, attending frequently at the cathedral during the solemnity. Turning off to Nottingham, he went, the next week, into Yorkshire, where the Stanleys took their leave of him; and he moved thro Doncaster to Pomfret.33 It was the plan of Lovel to destroy him by surprise. The king had heard that he was exciting disturbance, and had disregarded the rumor; but as the stately train was advancing towards York, the rebels suddenly appeared about Rippon and Middleham; 34 and if Henry had not been, at this crisis, joined at Barnesdale, by the earl of Northumberland, "with a right great and noble company," Lovel might have effected his purpose. The king was almost intercepted, when the earl appeared. He could only send, at the 35 31 There is a full account of Henry's progresses in the Harl. MS. No 7, 408. Hearne has printed the present one, from the pen of a spectator, in his Leland's Collectanea, v. 4. p. 185. 32 Pol. Vir. 568. 33 Hearne, p. 186, 35 So Croyland states, p. 582. III. moment, against the insurgents, 3000 men, several CHAP. armed only with leather instead of mail, under the duke of Bedford. But this nobleman, on consulting REIGN OF with his knightly companions, deeming it advisable HEN. VII. to allure them to submission, without a conflict that must be doubtful, sent to them an offer of grace and pardon to all who would lay down their arms. As their plan of surprise had failed, and had not been seconded, and they were too few to wage a protracted war with the king, they accepted the judicious proposal; and Lovel withdrew, in the night, into Lancashire, and afterwards sailed to Flanders, to Margaret, the dowager duchess of Burgundy," whose affection for her brother, Edward IV. led her to support all who chose to become inimical to Henry. The two Staffords, who had been co-operating with Lovel, were taken, and the elder one executed.3 36 38 The king approaching York, was received, three miles from its gates, by the corporation and citizens, on horseback; and near the walls, by processions of friars; and within the city, by the general assemblage from all the parish churches; the whole population vociferously acclaiming him.39 Pageants of crowned kings and minstrels were ready with their long speeches; and Solomon, David, and the Virgin, were also conjured up to welcome him. His devout attendances at the minster were followed by state banquets, which united the hearts of the subjects to their king; and he then crossed the country; and having, at 36 Pol. Virg. 569. 37 Bacon, 582. 38 Pol. Virg. Grafton, 860. This was the Humphrey who had so actively assisted to surround Buckingham. "The popular cry of the mervellous great nomber of men, women, and children, on foote, was, King Henry! king Henry! Our Lord preserve us that sweet and well-savored face.' Hearne, 187. V. REIGN OF 1486. 40 BOOK Whitsun evening, reached Worcester, he visited Gloucester and Hereford, with the same congratulations from the municipal authorities, friars, clergy, and people; and from their oratorical pageants, which so much delighted the emerging and simple literary taste of our ancestors. He paused awhile at Bristol, where the William Canyng" of our too early-flowering, and too impatient Chatterton, had then recently been mayor; and where some Rowley taught king Bremmius at the town gate, and Prudence at the high cross, and Justice, with her maiden children, at St. John's, to address the king with humble good sense, tho not with the poetry that breathes in Ella and Sir Charles.2 The inventive genius of the city was displayed in pageants that were praised; 43 and the king, having conversed with the citizens to their hearts delight," returned to Sheen, visited by the nobles as he passed; and receiving, from the great towns and 40 All these our author describes with careful remembrance and visible pleasure. 188-201. 11 This merchant is frequently mentioned in W. Wyrcestre's Itiner. 42 See the speeches to Henry, in Hearne, 199-201. I have no doubt that Chatterton found much that was ancient; but like Macpherson with Ossian, he seems to have made his originals but themes for his own genius to compose upon, and has given us himself instead of his ancestors. It is a misfortune to the world, that he found any thing to excite his talents so prematurely, and to suggest their exertion in the path he chose. 6 43 After mentioning that a baker's wife, in her joy, cast out of a window a great quantity of wheat, exclaiming, Welcome, and good luck!' the author adds, from his own taste, There was a pageant called The Shipwright's pageant, with praty conceits pleying in the same; and a litle farther, an olifaunte, with a castle on his back, curiously wrought; and the resurrection in the highest tower of it, with certain imagery smiting bells. All went by weights, merveolously wele done.' p. 202. 44 The king asked them, the cause of their poverty; and they showed his grace, for the great loss of ships and goods within five years. The king comforted them, that they should set on and make new ships, and exercise their merchandize as they were wont to do; and he should so help them, by divers means, as he showed them.' The effect of his kind manners, the author thus expresses: 'The mayor of the town told me, they heard not, this hundred years, of no king so good a comfort; wherefore they thanked Almighty God, that had sent them so good and gracious a sovereign lord.' Hearne, p. 202. III. HEN. VII. abbeys, complimentary presents of gold, silver, wine, CHAP. beads, and mittens. The lord mayor of London, with all the city companies, in their barges, rowed up to REIGN OF Putney, to accompany him in state down the Thames to Westminster. At all the cities, the bishops read the pope's bull, declaring the king and queen's title to the crown,45 the foundation for the anathemas of the church, that were subsequently issued against those who opposed it. Henry soon afterwards visited Winchester, where his son Arthur was born; 46 whose christening was contemplated and provided for by the countess of Richmond, the king's mother, with a ceremonial solicitude," and was afterwards performed with a deliberate pomp,48 which shew how fondly the age was attached to the dramatic parade, as well as the happy directress.4 15 Hearne, 200-3. 46 On St. Eustachius' day. Ib. 204. In September 1486. Speed, 742. Our venerable chronicler was absurd enough to say, on the prince being christened Arthur, of which name outward nations and foreign princes trembled and quaked, so much was that name to all terrible and fearful.' Graft. p. 860. So Hall, 428. They forgot that the Arthur of romance was not the Arthur of history. 47 His minute preparatory ordinances, from the Harl. MS, No 6079, are printed by Hearne, p. 179. Hearne has also printed the full detail of this stately baptism, and the consequent festivities, 204-8. This lady survived her son king Henry. Her life is a favorable picture of the high female nobility of those times. Her funeral serinon states, that her father was John Duke of Somerset; her mother, Margaret. That she was right studious in books, which she had in great number, both in English and in French; and she translated several tracts of devotion from French into English; among these, the Mirror of Gold, and the last book of Thomas-a-Kempis. She lamented that she had not applied to Latin, tho she knew enough of it to understand well her prayer-book. By lineage and affinity, she had thirty kings and queens within four degrees of marriage to her, besides earls, marquisses, dukes and princes. She was temperate in food, eschewing banquets, reresuppers and joucrys betwixt meles.' She rose about five o'clock, attended her public and private prayers, dined at ten. She had written regulations for her household, which she had read to them four times a-year. She frequently exhorted them to do well. She was very kind in BOOK V. HEN. VII. 1486. As Henry had been as much seated by violence on his throne as Richard III. tho by battle, instead of REIGN OF the scaffold, he was not, for some time, popular beyond his own immediate party, that had enthroned him. The general body of the nation was still greatly affected to the house and memory of York. Richard was remembered with regret, especially in the northern counties.50 Henry was hated for his success; and charged with having put to death, in the Tower, the young earl he had imprisoned." The king's general demeanor, from the difficulties surrounding him, was not adapted to lessen the adverse humor. He was mysterious and impenetrable. More says, that one thing was so often pretended, and another meant, that nothing was so plain and openly proved, but from the custom of close dealing, men inwardly suspected it;" and Bacon remarks, that he had a fashion rather to create doubts than assurance." Having prospered so much by the treachery of others to Richard, and being afterwards compelled to keep the traitors as his friends; while, from his strange 52 53 entertaining strangers. She daily fed, lodged, and visited in her house, 50 Bacon, 595. 1 |