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LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 MARGARET BEAUFORT, 
 
 COUNTESS OF RICHMOND AND DERBY, 
 
 fflofytv o( Hiitg 5tnm> tije &tbentl). 
 
 BY 
 
 CAROLINE A. HALSTED. 
 
 " The famous Margaret, Countess of Richmond, whose merit exceeds 
 the highest commendation that can be given ; and from whom the royal 
 family of England is descended." Camden. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SMITH, ELDER AND CO. CORNHILL. 
 
 1839. 
 
.LONDON* : 
 
 PRINTED BY STEWART AND MURRAY, 
 
 OLD BAILEY'. 
 
THIS MEMOIR 
 
 OBTAINED THE HONORARY PREMIUM 
 
 AWARDED BY 
 
 THE DIRECTORS OF THE GRESHA.M COMMEMORATION, 
 
 MDCCCXXXIX. 
 
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 EDWARD EARL OF DERBY, 
 
 BARON STANLEY, 
 
 OF BIC KERSTAFFE, IN.THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER, 
 KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER. 
 
 My Lord, 
 It is with feelings of extreme satisfaction that 
 I do myself the honor of dedicating to your 
 Lordship the following Memoir of the illustrious 
 consort of your great progenitor, Sir Thomas 
 Stanley, first Earl of Derby. 
 
 Under no patronage could the life of Mar- 
 garet Beaufort appear with so much pro- 
 priety as that of her lineal descendant, and the 
 present representative of the noble personage, 
 who on the field of Bosworth placed the Crown 
 
VI DEDICATION. 
 
 upon the bead of his royal son-in-law, King 
 Henry the Seventh, who first hailed him as 
 Monarch of England, and who received from 
 his hands that Title which, during the long period 
 of three centuries, has ever been " spotless and 
 free from stain." 
 
 With the ancient dignities, and vast possessions 
 of your illustrious house, your Lordship has in- 
 herited the eminent virtues, steadfast loyalty, and 
 lofty patriotism of your ancestors ; to which, 
 permit me to add, are united a grace and kind- 
 ness peculiarly your own. 
 
 I have the honour to remain, 
 My Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's 
 Obliged, and most obedient Servant, 
 
 Caroline A. Halsted. 
 
 Newlan House, Lyminqton, 
 29th March, 1830. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Crown of England after a lapse of glo- 
 rious years again encircles the brow of a female 
 Sovereign. Though few Queens have swayed the 
 sceptre of these realms, they have all been de- 
 scended from Margaret Beaufort, the eminent 
 lady whose eventful career is recorded in the fol- 
 lowing pages. 
 
 As the progenitrix of the present Royal family 
 of England, her name alone would attract atten- 
 tion, even were it not connected with the pedigree 
 on which King Henry the Seventh founded his 
 chief pretension to the Throne. 
 
 But, the Countess of Richmond has higher 
 claims to respect than any arising from mere 
 hereditary distinctions. It is her goodness, and 
 the benefits which she has conferred upon her 
 country by her encouragement of literature and 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 her munificent endowments, that constitute the 
 charm which for centuries has rendered the " Ve- 
 nerable Margaret" an object of gratitude and 
 admiration. It is her Christian character, her 
 moral virtues, her high integrity during that dark 
 period when temptations to disloyalty and am- 
 bition assailed the collateral branches of Royalty 
 to a degree scarcely comprehensible in the present 
 age, that has secured for this illustrious Princess 
 so exalted a position among the most dignified 
 females of England. 
 
 It is hardly credible that a paucity of material 
 should have kept in shade so distinguished a 
 person as the " Lady Margaret," or that little 
 should be known of her, besides the brief, 
 though enthusiastic, notices which commemorate 
 her name. Unhappily, however, no portion of 
 the national records is so defective and confused 
 as those relating to the reigns of Henry the 
 Sixth, Edward the Fourth, and Richard the 
 Third. 
 
 The art of printing by which knowledge has 
 been so wonderfully diffused, tended nevertheless 
 at its introduction, to retard the authentic detail 
 of passing events. Its astonishing powers by 
 superseding the use of manuscripts, deterred the 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 professional copyists from continuing a task thus 
 wrested from them by a powerful and irresistible 
 competitor ; while the early printers multiplied 
 copies of such proceedings as had been committed 
 to writing, and neglected more recent transactions 
 as less interesting to their readers, and less 
 lucrative to themselves, than the philosophical or 
 legendary lore of the olden time. This fact, 
 and the unsettled state of the kingdom during 
 the civil wars of York and Lancaster, the de- 
 struction of family archives by the attainder, and 
 execution of so many of the nobility and gentry, 
 the danger of expressing opinions on political 
 affairs, or promulgating anecdotes of persons 
 allied to Royalty, sufficiently explain the cause 
 of the acknowledged and lamentable imper- 
 fection in all materials for the history and bio- 
 graphy of that period. 
 
 These difficulties have been sensibly felt in 
 collecting facts for the Memoir now offered to the 
 public ; yet the interest that attaches to the Lady 
 Margaret, as the first female in England, who 
 made intellectual attainments at once the pur- 
 suit and ornament of life ; and the beautiful 
 eulogiums which were considered due to her by 
 contemporary writers, when briefly but glowingly 
 
XII PREFACE. 
 
 recounting her deeds of charity, and her patronage 
 of learning, lias lightened the author's toil, and 
 left but one feeling predominant, that of regret, 
 that the task of delineating so admirable a person 
 had not fallen into abler hands. 
 
 The merit, however, of selecting the Life of 
 Margaret Beaufort, and its consequent pub- 
 lication, belongs to a society whose efforts to ad- 
 vance historical knowledge, and whose exertions to 
 rescue from oblivion characters and events hitherto 
 concealed, deserves, as it indeed receives, the 
 thanks of the literary world. 
 
 No subject perhaps could have been more ap- 
 propriately chosen than the history of the parent 
 of King Henry the Seventh, for the prize which 
 was to be awarded at the auspicious commence- 
 ment of the reign of our present gracious So- 
 vereign ; to whom the females of Britain look 
 with duty and affection, — with pride as women, 
 with devotion as subjects. As the successful 
 competitor, the Author was called upon to pub- 
 lish the Essay to which the premium had been 
 adjudged; and it then became her anxious desire 
 to render the work as complete as so interesting 
 a subject deserved. 
 
 To effect this, information has been sought 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 from many private and unpublished sources, and 
 the original of such documents as were accessible 
 have been diligently consulted. No available 
 contemporary statement has been neglected — 
 the Harleian, Cottonian,. and Lansdowne MSS. 
 have been attentively examined, and reference 
 made to the archives of those collegiate esta- 
 blishments which c owe so much to their eminent 
 Foundress. 
 
 To Sir Harris Nicolas, the Author feels es- 
 pecially bound to express her sense of his readi- 
 ness to afford every information in his power ; 
 and to acknowledge with gratitude that courtesy 
 which so materially enhanced his kindness. 
 
 Under all the circumstances above stated, she 
 cherishes the hope that indulgence will be ex- 
 tended to her as the medium of making more 
 generally known a character so noble in every 
 relative duty of life, as that of Margaret, 
 Countess of Richmond and Derby, who has 
 been justly styled " the brightest ornament of 
 her sex in the fifteenth century." 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 MARGARET BEAUFORT. 
 
 It has been justly observed, that the simple 
 mention of a great name often conveys a 
 higher degree of praise than the most laboured 
 panegyric or diffuse encomium. In few instances 
 has the truth of this assertion been more strongly 
 verified than in the subject of the present memoir. 
 The students of Christ's and of St. John's Col- 
 leges, Cambridge, can testify to the enthusiasm 
 with which strangers greet the statue of their 
 eminent foundress, by the simple exclamation of 
 — " There is the venerable Margaret." 1 
 
 At the sister University, her titles — her great- 
 ness — her munificence — her piety — all seem em- 
 
 1 " Foremost, and leaning from her golden cloud, 
 The venerable Margaret see." Gray. 
 
 B 
 
2 THE LIFE OF 
 
 bodied by common consent in the all-sufficient 
 designation of " The Lady Margaret." No 
 expletive is requisite, no further definition is 
 required ; and the descendant of princes — the 
 mother of kings — she who was destined to wreathe 
 with the peaceful olive the blood-stained rose of 
 Lancaster, and the withered rose of York, is better 
 known by the unpretending appellation of ' Marga- 
 ret Beaufort,' than by the high-sounding epi- 
 thets of titled dignity which graced the styles of the 
 parent of King Henry the Seventh, — who was her- 
 self by descent, a Lancaster — by birth, a Somerset 
 — by marriage, a Tudor, a Stafford, and a Stanley. 
 
 It may appear somewhat remarkable that an 
 individual so elevated in rank, so noble in action, 
 so illustrious in the opinion of her own and of suc- 
 ceeding ages, should have remained thus long 
 without a more detailed and minute account of 
 her important life and proceedings. Rather, 
 however, on reflection will it seem matter of aston- 
 ishment, that without a contemporary biographer, 
 her fame should have outlived the turbulent period 
 in which she flourished, and her memory have sur- 
 vived undiminished in estimation and uninjured by 
 time, which so often obliterates exemplary deeds, 
 while it only casts a veil over those that are evil. 
 
 Margaret of Lancaster was born before the art 
 of printing had enabled the admirers of the great 
 and good to perpetuate their noble acts ; and she 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 6 
 
 pursued her bright and glorious career, with so 
 much humility during England's darkest era, that 
 the mild light which her virtues shed upon the land 
 of her birth, rather tended to illuminate the path 
 of others than to enlighten her own. It was 
 on the public receptacles of learning, piety, and 
 knowledge, that it shone with resplendent lustre, 
 — those noble institutions that were to benefit ages 
 then in futurity, and which her liberality founded, 
 endowed, and perpetuated. 
 
 Not a single collected account appears to be 
 extant of this distinguished lady ; but the annals 
 of her time are so replete with brief memorials of 
 her charitable and munificent actions, that like the 
 tributary streams which, from minute sources, 
 gradually swell the wide expanse of a mighty 
 river, so amongst the archives of her colleges, and 
 from the scholastic manuscripts and rare notices of 
 the far-distant and unlettered age in which she 
 lived, a mass of facts may be elicited, which, 
 linked together in chronological order, forms a 
 faithful and attractive portraiture of that noble 
 mind, whose vicissitudes, trials, and genuine good- 
 ness, rendered her alike deserving of the respect 
 of her contemporaries and the admiration of 
 posterity. 
 
 Though deriving by comparison less celebrity 
 from her high birth and exalted rank, than from 
 that singular rectitude of heart and purpose, which 
 
 b 2 
 
THE LIFE OF 
 
 under peculiarly trying circumstances marked her 
 progress from childhood to old age ; yet, as the 
 troubles which invigorated her mind arose in 
 great measure out of her descent from the 
 blood royal of England, it becomes essential to 
 a true interpretation of many facts interwoven 
 with her singular history, briefly to trace her 
 parentage ; and before entering upon her private 
 and personal memoirs, to go back a few years, and 
 sketch the nature of that illustrious connection 
 with the family of Edward the Third which at times 
 rendered her an object of envy and suspicion — too 
 often of persecution and oppression — to that branch 
 of the Plantagenets which held the sceptre of 
 England during the prime of her days. 
 
 John of Gaunt (" time honoured Lancaster") 
 was the fourth son of King Edward the Third, born 
 in 1340, and surnamed of Gaunt, or Ghent, from 
 his mother Philippa of Hainault, having given him 
 birth in that city. He was the active coadjutor, with 
 his gallant brother the Black Prince, in most of the 
 valorous actions which shed such lustre on the 
 chivalric period in which they flourished. 1 
 
 At the age of nineteen, he married his cousin 
 Blanch, younger daughter and eventually sole 
 heiress of Henry Duke of Lancaster, surnamed 
 the Good ; who brought to him the duchy, 2 and 
 in whose right he assumed the title, which was 
 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 132. ~ Anglorum Speculum, p. 967. 
 
MA11GAKKT BEAUFORT. 
 
 5 
 
 confirmed to him by his father Edward the Third, 
 in the year 1362. 
 
 By this marriage, John of Gaunt became the 
 most extensive landholder in England, having 
 estates in eighteen English counties, besides lands 
 and castles on the Continent, and property of 
 great value in the principality of Wales. The 
 alliance was nevertheless one of pure affection. 
 Blanch of Lancaster was his near kinswoman, 
 and the " ladye love " of his boyhood. Their 
 romantic courtship has been immortalized by 
 Chaucer in his allegorical poem of the " Par- 
 liament of Birds," 1 and their happiness in the 
 nuptial state is commemorated by the same poet, 
 in his " Book of the Duchess," 2 written on oc- 
 casion of the death of this amiable princess, at 
 the early age of twenty-eight, about ten years after 
 her marriage. The result of their union was two 
 daughters, and an only son, afterwards King 
 Henry the Fourth, surnamed of Bolingbroke, from 
 a castle of that name appertaining to his mother 
 in Lincolnshire, where he was born, 3 but more 
 generally known by the title of Earl of Hereford, 
 which he assumed in right of his wife, who was 
 the daughter and co-heiress of Humphry de 
 Bohun, whose honours and estates devolved on 
 his daughters at his decease. By his means 
 
 1 Godwin's Chaucer, vol. ii. p. 223. " Verse 414. 
 
 s Verse 1 279. 
 
6 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the crown of England first came to the house 
 of Lancaster, and through his inheritance from 
 that powerful family, the greatest patrimony of 
 any subject prince in Christendom became an- 
 nexed to the regal possessions, the peculiar im- 
 munities, privileges, immense wealth, and power 
 of the Duchy of Lancaster, having been consi- 
 derably extended by John of Gaunt's influence 
 over his father, Edward the Third. 
 
 On the death of the Lady Blanch, and about 
 two years after that event, the Duke espoused 
 Dona Constantia, daughter and co-heiress of 
 Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon, 1 
 whom, in conjunction with his brother Edward 
 the Black Prince, he had reinstated in his king- 
 dom a few years previously. 
 
 On the death of this monarch, his two daughters 
 fled from the persecutions of an uncle, who had 
 usurped their father's crown, and took refuge in 
 Gascony, where John of Gaunt resided at the time 
 of his widowhood, and where, in 1372, he was united 
 to the eldest of these princesses, whose cause he 
 asserted by force of arms, and in whose right he 
 adopted the title of the deceased king. The 
 issue of this marriage, was an only child, a 
 daughter, who espousing the Prince of Asturias, 
 eldest son of the King of Spain, regained, on his 
 accession to the throne, her grandfather's posses- 
 1 Testamenta Vetusta, vol. i. p. 140. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 7 
 
 sions; 1 the Duke of Lancaster having surrendered 
 the claims of Dona Constantia, and his own 
 assumed title, to the youthful pair, on the considera- 
 tion of a suitable pension for life to himself and 
 his consort. The descendants of this daughter by 
 his second marriage, continued kings of Spain 
 until the year 1700 ; and her eldest sister by the 
 Lady Blanch, of Lancaster, being united about 
 the same period to John King of Portugal, her 
 posterity for seven generations governed that 
 kingdom, and continued to do so until it was 
 united to Spain in the year 1640. Thus were 
 the children of this heroic prince seated at the 
 same time on the thrones of England, Spain, and 
 Portugal. 
 
 It has been already observed, that by his two 
 marriages, John of Gaunt had only one son ; but, 
 by her who eventually became his third wife, he 
 had three others born out of wedlock, who are 
 usually characterized by the appellation of " his 
 valorous offspring." 2 Their influence in after 
 years, both in Church and State, would alone 
 have immortalized their names, had not the fatal 
 quarrel of the Rival Roses, begun by the usurpa- 
 tion of his legitimate son Henry the Fourth, been 
 destined to be healed by the descendants of the 
 eldest of these his illegitimate children, in the 
 
 1 Sandford's Genealogy. 2 Baker's Cliron. p. 141. 
 
o THE LIFE OF 
 
 person of Henry the Seventh, the son of Margaret 
 of Lancaster. 
 
 The constant intercourse with France, and the 
 numerous alliances which political expediency 
 produced in the higher ranks of society, caused, 
 as a natural result, an extensive connection amongst 
 the intermediate classes also ; and consequently 
 many foreigners were attached to the persons or 
 household of our most distinguished nobles. On 
 the marriage of John of Gaunt with the Princess 
 Blanch of Lancaster, Katherine, the beautiful 
 and accomplished daughter of Sir Payne de Roet, 
 a native of Hainault, and king- of- arms of the 
 province of Guienne, was engaged to attend on 
 the person of the young duchess. 1 Her sister 
 was " domicella" or, as it is termed, maid of 
 honour to Philippa, Queen of Edward the Third, 
 an appointment which is now reserved exclusively 
 for ladies of honourable birth. 2 
 
 Both sisters were highly accomplished, the 
 French having cultivated the elegancies of life at 
 a much earlier period than their neighbours; and 
 Katherine became so high in favour with the 
 Princess Blanch, that she enjoyed her peculiar 
 confidence, and was entrusted with the care and 
 superintendence of her cherished offspring. During 
 their early infancy, however, the beautiful Gas- 
 
 1 Sandford's Genealogy, p. 253. 
 
 ~ Godwin's Life of Chaucer, vol. ii. p. 108. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 9 
 
 coyne married Sir Otes Swynford, of Ketelthorpe, 
 in Lincolnshire ; but she does not appear to have 
 been wholly separated from her illustrious patrons ; 
 for, about the time of their union, it is recorded 
 that her husband was a knight in the retinue of 
 the Duke of Lancaster, and as such, received 
 letters of protection when with him in Gascony. 
 40 Ed. 3, 1366. 1 
 
 On the death of the Princess Blanch, Lady 
 Swynford was solicited by John of Gaunt to take 
 the entire charge of his bereaved children; and 
 the frequent visits of the prince to the nursery is 
 said to have laid the foundation of that attach- 
 ment, which formed so marked a feature in the 
 after life of this distinguished warrior. 2 
 
 Within a year of the marriage of John of 
 Gaunt with Constance of Castile, the still lovely 
 and fascinating Gascoyne became a widow, and 
 after a brief interval she was once more perma- 
 nently attached to the household . of the noble 
 duke, being engaged in the capacity of governess 
 to his daughters. 
 
 The union of John of Gaunt with the Princess 
 of Castile was not, like that with the Lady 
 Blanch, one of affection ; but on the contrary, a 
 match exclusively of ambition. 
 
 Dona Constantia was amiable, gentle, and vir- 
 
 1 Exccrpta Historica, p. 152. " Sandford's Genealogy. 
 
10 THE LIFE OF 
 
 tuous to a high degree ; l but the affections of 
 her princely partner were fixed on another, and 
 Katherine Swynford, with the laxity of morals 
 common in that period, and especially in the South, 
 the land of her birth, became the mistress of her 
 noble employer, though ostensibly the instructress 
 of his children. 
 
 Among the vast possessions which accrued to 
 the Duke of Lancaster, in right of his first wife 
 the Lady Blanch, was the castle and town of 
 Beaufort, in Anjou. 2 In this castle, and during 
 the life-time of the Princess Constance, Katherine 
 Swynford in the course of time gave birth to four 
 children ; viz., John, afterwards created Earl of 
 Somerset ; Henry, the imperious Cardinal Beau- 
 fort ; Thomas, the valiant Duke of Exeter; and 
 Joan, grandmother (by marriage with Sir Ralph 
 Nevill, first Earl of Westmoreland) of King 
 Edward the Fourth and Richard the Third, as 
 also of the renowned Earl of Warwick, whose 
 powerful influence in a future reign gave alternate 
 ascendancy to the York and Lancastrian factions. 
 
 These children were all surnamed "De Beau- 
 fort," 3 in consequence of their birth in that patri- 
 monial castle of the Lancasters, 4 and from that 
 
 i Buck, Rich. III. p. 45. 2 Collins' Peerage, vol. iv. p. 388. 
 
 3 Excerpta Hist. 152. 
 
 * The Lordship and Castle of Beaufort, in Anjou, came to 
 the House of Lancaster with Blanch of Artois, Queen of 
 Navarre, wife of Edmund the first earl of Lancaster. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 11 
 
 circumstance, they bore a portcullis for the cog- 
 nizance of their family, 1 which device was fre- 
 quently introduced among the elaborate orna- 
 ments which characterise the superb architectural 
 buildings of the Tudor period. 
 
 On the death of his second wife Constance, to 
 whom he was united for twenty-two years, John 
 of Gaunt obtained the legitimation of his children 
 by Katherine Swynford, first in a bull granted 
 by Pope Urban the Sixth, then by a charter 
 from his nephew Richard the Second, 2 and finally 
 by act of parliament confirming and enlarging 
 these indulgences. This important matter being 
 effected, to the wonder of all men, and to the 
 extreme annoyance of his kindred, 3 the prince 
 towards the close of his eventful life, elevated 
 their mother to the rank of a royal duchess ; 
 making her his third wife, on the 13th January, 
 1396; thus proving to the last the strong influence 
 she had possessed over him for twenty years ; 4 
 and this not merely by their union, but by the 
 favour he lavished on her sister, who after the de- 
 mise of Queen Philippa had espoused Chaucer, 
 the poet laureate, 5 and to whom he is said to have 
 allotted the rich demesnes and castle of Donning- 
 ton in Suffolk, adding many other testimonies of 
 
 1 Bakers' Chron. 1 32. 2 Rot. Pari. Ann. 20, Rich. II. 
 
 3 Dugdale, Tome II. p. 110. 4 Excerpta Hist. p. 152. 
 
 5 Godwin's Chaucer, vol. ii. p. 100. 
 
12 THE LIFE OF 
 
 good will to mark their consanguinity, after his 
 marriage with Katherine Swynford. She survived 
 her princely consort four years, and dying in 1403, 
 was interred in Lincoln Minster, where her monu- 
 ment yet remains on the west side of the altar. 
 
 Attention must now be centered in the issue of 
 this his third wife, it being irrelevant to trace the 
 career of any other of John of Gaunt's numerous 
 progeny, further than to observe, that Henry of 
 Bolingbroke, his eldest and lawful son, having 
 dethroned his cousin, the only child of Edward 
 the Black Prince, about twelvemonths after the 
 veteran chieftain's decease, forcibly took posses- 
 sion of the crown of England, by the title of 
 Henry the Fourth, and throughout his reign was 
 marked in kindness and affectionate treatment to 
 his now acknowledged brothers the De Beauforts. 
 They were joint inheritors with him of the im- 
 mense possessions left by John of Gaunt ; but as 
 regards his usurpation of the throne, no rivalry 
 could be apprehended ; as although the act of 
 parliament wiped off the stain of their birth, yet it 
 was silent as regards all regal claims connected 
 with the House of Lancaster. It neither ele- 
 vated them to the rank of princes, 1 nor did it 
 empower them to adopt the name of Plantagenet, 2 
 
 1 Buck's Rich. III. p. 45. 
 
 2 In a brief notice, however, of Margaret Beaufort, in the 
 Cotton. MSS. (Vitellius, C. xvii. f. 329.) the grandson of 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 13 
 
 which had been borne as the surname of their 
 father's family by all the blood royal of England, 
 since the time of their common ancestor Henry 
 the Second. 
 
 John de Beaufort, the eldest son of Katherine 
 Swvnford, was created Earl of Somerset during 
 the life-time of his father, with which dignity he 
 w r as invested on the occasion of the above-named 
 patent of legitimation being confirmed by the au- 
 thority of Parliament, 29th Sept. 1397. 1 Recent 
 discoveries have brought to light a remarkable 
 fact, relative to the true purport of the act above 
 cited ; but it will be sufficient at present merely 
 to observe, that before his legitimation, 2 the arms 
 of Sir John Beaufort were per pale argent and 
 blue, (the colours of the livery of the House of 
 Lancaster) having, on a bend, the arms of England, 
 and surmounted by a label of those of France, 
 which was latterly used by John of Gaunt ; but 
 when Sir John Beaufort was raised to the dignity 
 of Earl of Somerset, he discontinued the bearings 
 which were assigned to him before his legitima- 
 tion, and his seals contain the entire arms of the 
 Prince his father : viz. France and England, 
 quarterly, within a bordure, gobony, argent, and 
 
 John of Gaunt, and the son of the ahove named earl, is styled 
 " The Lord John Plantagenet, Duke of Somerset." 
 
 1 Excerpta Historica, p. 1 53. 
 
 - "Willement's roll of arms, of the reign of Rich. II. 
 
14 THE LIFE OF 
 
 azure ; thus proving that he considered himself 
 entitled to the coat armour of his illustrious 
 parent. 
 
 He left at his death, in 1410, four sons and 
 two daughters. The king stood sponsor for his 
 heir and successor Henry, who was baptized in 
 1401 j 1 but the young earl dying in his minority, 
 the title and possessions devolved on John, the 
 second son, whose martial exploits are minutely 
 recorded in the chronicles of the age in which he 
 flourished. 
 
 The castle of Beaufort, in Anjou, appears to 
 have continued the inheritance of these descend- 
 ants of John of Gaunt ; for this John, his grandson, 
 when quite a youth, was taken prisoner while 
 crossing the marches 2 that adjoined it, after a 
 conflict between the French and Scots against 
 the English, in the reign of Henry the Fifth ; from 
 which period began that brilliant career which has 
 rendered his name so conspicuous in the warlike 
 annals of the fifteenth century. 
 
 Recovering his freedom, the prime of his life 
 was passed, with little intermission, in prosecuting 
 those sanguinary wars with France which for years 
 devastated that country, and impoverished our 
 own ; and in consideration of his valiant exploits, 
 especially at the siege of Harfleur, he was advanced 
 
 1 Baker's Northamptonshire, p. 55. 
 
 2 Dugdale's Baronage, tome 2. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 15 
 
 to the rank of Duke of Somerset and Earl of 
 Kendale, made Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aqui- 
 taine, and Captain-general of the whole realm of 
 France and Normandy. 1 Dissatisfied, however, 
 at the Duke of York being preferred to himself, 
 as regent of that kingdom, in 1436, he retired for 
 a brief period from active service, and returning 
 to England, became enamoured with Margaret, 
 the attractive widow of Sir Oliver St. John, only 
 daughter and heiress of John Lord Beauchamp, 
 of Powyke, whose wealth and high estate were 
 declared in the almost regal splendour she main- 
 tained at her manor of Bletshoe, in Bedfordshire. 
 He was married to her in the thirty-sixth year of 
 his age ; and the issue of their union was one child, 
 a daughter, in whom were united the vast riches, 
 exalted rank, and noble qualifications, of a long 
 line of ancestry ; a line whose heroic deeds might 
 well have kindled within her the spirit and courage 
 of a Joan of Arc, or the ambition of a Margaret 
 of Anjou. But the softer virtues cradled the 
 infant, to whom the martial exploits of her ances- 
 tors, and the troubled period of her birth seemed 
 to have promised a ruder nurture. Religion 
 breathed complacently on the descendant of the 
 valiant chieftain who supported the cause of 
 Wickliffe and openly espoused the tenets of the 
 father of the Reformation. The genius of litera- 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 185. 
 
1(3 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ture hovered round the great grand-daughter of 
 the friend of Chaucer — the patron of Lydgate — 
 and the moral Gower ; while Peace, Charity, and 
 Love, watched over the offspring of the exem- 
 plary Queens Eleanor of Castile and Philippa of 
 Hainault. Under the auspices of these her 
 tutelary genii the progenitrix of England's future 
 sovereigns, was enabled to stimulate her own sex 
 to every feminine excellence, and to soften in the 
 other that spirit of savage ferocity which had sul- 
 lied the career of the heroic monarchs of our 
 country. 
 
 Margaret Beaufort was born in the year 1441, 
 at Bletshoe, 1 near Higham Ferrers, the patrimonial 
 estate of her mother, on whom had devolved the 
 rich inheritance of the Barons Beauchamp, and 
 whose distinguished position as sole heiress and 
 representative of that honourable branch of the 
 old Earls of Warwick, 2 cast additional lustre on 
 the noble paternal lineage of this the heiress 
 presumptive of the powerful famed Duke of 
 Somerset. 
 
 The little Margaret was named after her mo- 
 ther, who was soon destined to be her sole parent, 
 and natural guardian ; as, before she had passed 
 from infancy to childhood, she was deprived of her 
 father's protection. 
 
 1 Lysons' Mag. Britt. p. 58. 
 
 2 Collins' Peerage, vol. iv. p. 3,90. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 17 
 
 The Duke of Somerset died in the fourth year 
 after his marriage, (27th May, 1444 1 ) at the early 
 age of thirty-nine.* His title, from default of 
 male heirs, passed to his next brother, Edmunde 
 de Beaufort, but in all besides, his daughter and 
 only child, not quite three years old, became sole 
 heiress to her parents' vast possessions, and to the 
 dangers attendant upon so elevated and wealthy a 
 station. 
 
 This distinguished warrior was interred at 
 Wimborne Minster, in Dorset ; a town for which 
 the house of Lancaster had a particular favour, 2 
 and contiguous to which it is probable the parents 
 of Margaret dwelt at the time of her father's 
 
 1 Inquisition taken on his death. 
 
 * The Chronicler of Croyland (p. 519), asserts that he died 
 by his own hand. It appears, that for some cause not ex- 
 plained, the duke of Somerset had incurred the displeasure of 
 the king, and was forbidden the royal presence. " The noble 
 heart," says the monkish historian, " of so illustrious a man 
 took the message of this unfortunate rumour most indignantly; 
 and not able to bear the stain of so foul a disgrace, by his own 
 procuring he hastened his own death, choosing rather to end 
 compendiously his present sorrow, than to pass an unhappy 
 life in opprobrium." 
 
 Mr. Sharon Turner adopts the same view, and states posi- 
 tively, that he " committed suicide because courtly favour 
 waned." (History of England, vol. iii. p. 134.) It is, however 
 very remarkable that so grave a circumstance should have 
 been unnoticed by Camden, Sandford, and Dugdale, as also 
 by Hollingshed, Fabian, Monstrellet, Walsingham, Hall, and 
 other old chroniclers. 
 
 ~ Camden's Brit. p. 175. 
 
 C 
 
18 THE LIFE OF 
 
 decease, as Leland 1 mentions Kingeston Hall or 
 Kingston Lacy, " a fine place," a little to the 
 North West of Wimborne, as having appertained 
 to John of Gaunt, and as belonging in his time 
 to the Dukedom of Lancaster. A massive altar- 
 tomb, erected in after years to his memory, and 
 that of her mother, who was buried beside him, 
 ornamented with beautiful figures of alabaster, 
 hand in hand, attest to the present day the filial 
 affection of their daughter. 
 
 On the decease of the Duke, the Duchess of 
 Somerset appears to have returned to her manor 
 in Bedfordshire ; and that she resided there in 
 great pomp for many years, may be inferred from 
 a very ancient epitaph, formerly inscribed on 
 the tomb of Ralph Lannoy, in the parish church 
 of Bletshoe. He died in 1458, and is styled 
 " Cofferer and Keeper of the Wardrobe to the 
 most noble Margaret, Duchess of Somerset, 
 then married to a third husband, Leo Lord 
 Welles." 2 
 
 In this ancient abode of the Beauchamps, and 
 within the castellated mansion (of which vestiges 
 are still discernible, near the farm-house which 
 occupies the greater part of the site of the old 
 building) did Margaret Beaufort commence that 
 career, and pass the spring-time of that life, 
 
 1 Leland's Itin. vol. iii. p. 71. 
 
 2 Lyson's Mag. Brit. p. 58. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 19 
 
 which was to produce an autumn of peace and 
 repose, after a summer of unexampled storm and 
 desolation. But who sowed in her infant mind 
 those seeds of piety and virtue — who inculcated 
 those sound principles which actuated her con- 
 duct through life, or from what source she gained 
 that store of knowledge, which as regards litera- 
 ture was to crown her brow with laurels that 
 neither high birth would command, nor wealth 
 purchase — remains unrecorded. Sufficient how- 
 ever has been handed down to posterity, to prove 
 that the course of instruction bestowed on the 
 Lady Margaret, was one very unusual for the 
 period in which she lived ; and that it partook 
 more of what was deemed essential for the 
 youth of the other sex than what generally fell 
 to the lot of females. The Duchess of Somerset 
 had two sons by her first husband, Sir Oliver 
 St. John ; it is not, therefore, improbable, that 
 their tutor might also have been the preceptor 
 of Margaret Beaufort ; for to prevent the growth 
 of the tenets of WicklirTe, it had, about this 
 period, been made penal to put children under 
 private teachers, 1 so that the tutors of the high- 
 born youth of that age were usually the resident 
 confessors of the household, or churchmen from 
 the neighbourhood, who were famed for erudition 
 and sanctity. The high state and dignity which 
 1 Life of Caxton, p. 17. 
 c 2 
 
20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the Duchess is known to have maintained at her 
 domain of Bletshoe, favours the inference, that 
 she would engage for her children instructors of no 
 ordinary learning and piety. That such an indi- 
 vidual directed the opening talents of the young 
 Margaret cannot be doubted, for it is recorded, in 
 allusion to the austere devotion which charac- 
 terized her declining years, that her education 
 had qualified her for a studious and retired life. 
 It is also said that she was a proficient in French, 
 and though she was tolerably well skilled in Latin, 
 she was often heard to complain that in her youth, 
 she had not made herself perfect mistress of that 
 language, which is an evident proof that the means 
 of doing so had been afforded her, though the 
 necessity of application seems not to have been 
 enforced. These acquirements may appear but 
 trivial in the existing state of knowledge ; but in 
 forming an estimate of the advantages of educa- 
 tion afforded to Margaret Beaufort, the proper 
 criterion is the standard of excellence at the 
 period in which she lived, and not that of the 
 present day ; — a period when literature in Eng- 
 land was at so low an ebb, that it has been re- 
 corded by Sir Thomas More, as a remarkable 
 accomplishment in the fascinating favourite of 
 Edward the Fourth, Jane Shore, that she could 
 both read and write. These simple attainments, 
 and the common rules of calculation, compre- 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 21 
 
 hended indeed, the entire course of instruction 
 for persons even the most elevated in rank of the 
 fifteenth century. 1 
 
 The Lady Margaret must therefore, at a very 
 early age, have given promise of that singular 
 wisdom which in maturity won the admiration of 
 Erasmus, and displayed that quick perception, 
 ready wit, and extraordinary memory, which were 
 pronounced by her exemplary confessor, the good 
 and learned Bishop Fisher, as " passing the com- 
 mon rate of women." 2 By the same indisputable 
 authority, her studious habits are made known to 
 us, and her letters, which will be hereafter inserted 
 in their proper places, are considered to be the 
 most polished specimens extant of the epistolary 
 style of her age. 3 
 
 But though apparently associated with her half- 
 brothers in instruction unusual for females at that 
 time, it is nevertheless evident, that the accom- 
 plishments of her sex were not disregarded. Her 
 knowledge of the medicinal art is particularly ex- 
 tolled, — an acquirement which then constituted a 
 prominent feature in the education of the high- 
 born female ; and she had so attentively studied 
 even the practical department of the science, that 
 in after years, it is recorded of her, that she devoted 
 a portion of each day towards healing the wounds 
 
 1 Life of Caxton, p. 17. 2 Fisher's Funeral Sermon, p. 8. 
 " 5 Lodge, part 62. 
 
22 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of the indigent, and allaying by her skill the pro- 
 gress of their maladies. Her execution too in 
 needle-work — almost the sole occupation and chief 
 amusement of her sex in "the middle ages — must 
 have been as remarkable as her progress in more 
 substantial acquirements ; for it is related that 
 King James the First, whenever he passed into 
 that neighbourhood, asked to see some admirable 
 specimens of embroidery, 1 carefully preserved in 
 the fine old mansion of Bletshoe ; and there re- 
 mains to this day, in the possession of her descend- 
 ants, a carpet, with the arms and alliances of the 
 family worked by the hands of their illustrious 
 ancestress. 2 
 
 And well was it for the youthful Lady Margaret, 
 that a gracious Providence had been so bountiful 
 in its gifts to one, whom we of the present day 
 must perceive to have been an humble instrument 
 in the hands of her Maker, towards forwarding 
 and bringing about those mighty changes in church 
 and state, of which our generation are reaping the 
 full benefit. 
 
 The great inheritance which devolved on her 
 by her father's premature decease, had, it seems, 
 speedily attracted the notice of the ambitious 
 Duke of Suffolk, the favourite minister of the 
 day ; who is said to have obtained such ascen- 
 
 1 Thoresby, Vicar. Leodcnsis, p. 175. 
 
 2 Royal Wills, p. 366. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 23 
 
 dency over the reigning monarch and his queen, 
 that all favours passed through his hands, and his 
 power exceeded that of all the council. He sued 
 for and obtained a grant 1 of the wardship of the 
 person and lands of the richly-endowed heiress,* 
 while yet quite a child, but it does not appear that 
 she was removed from the care of her mother at 
 that early age. 
 
 The precise period when the Duchess of So- 
 merset was united to her third husband is uncer- 
 tain, but it probably occurred somewhere about 
 the time that her illustrious daughter entered her 
 seventh year, and may have been the plea al- 
 leged by her guardian for removing her into his 
 own charge. Subsequent circumstances warrant 
 also the conclusion, that it led to the removal of 
 the Lady Margaret to the vicinity of the court, 
 as it is stated that when she was scarcely nine 
 years of age, the Duke of Suffolk most diligently 
 
 1 See Appendix A. 
 
 * The custody of the lands of minors formed a profitable 
 branch of the royal prerogative at this period ; their wardship 
 being either sold by the crown, or conferred on some faithful 
 servant, or needy favourite. — Excerpta Ilistorica, p. 111. 
 
 The Paston Letters, 55 and 56, (vol. 3,) afford a true repre- 
 sentation of the address made use of to get possession of a 
 rich minor, not only from the management of his estate being 
 in the hands of the guardian, but, in order to make advantage- 
 ous marriages for the families of those who were so fortunate 
 as to obtain the care of them. 
 
 See also Testamenta Vetusta, p. 11. 
 
24 THE LIFE OF 
 
 sought her in marriage for John de la Pole, his 
 son and heir; and that his royal master, King Henry 
 the Sixth, wooed her at the same time for Ed- 
 mund Tudor, his half-brother, better known by 
 the title of Earl of Richmond. The tender 
 age of the little heiress might seem to disprove 
 such an occurrence, were it not attested by au- 
 thority beyond dispute — that of Lord Bacon, 1 and 
 her confessor, the Bishop of Rochester ; the latter 
 of whom, in his funeral sermon, preached at her 
 decease, which curious document is still extant,* 
 relates the circumstances, accompanied by the 
 remark, that she was by nature so acute, and her 
 understanding so precocious, that there was not 
 any thing which was too difficult for her compre- 
 hension. 
 
 The result of the rival courtship bears him out 
 in this statement ; but the incident which led to 
 so important a decision as regards her after years, 
 so rife with momentous events for futurity, will 
 be best narrated from her own account, commu- 
 nicated to her spiritual director. " Being then 
 
 1 Life of Henry VII. by Lord Bacon. 
 
 * Entitled " A mornynge Remembrance had at the moneth 
 minde of the noble Prynces Margarete Countesse of Richmonde 
 and Darbye, moder unto Kynge Henry the Seventh, and 
 grandame to our Sovereign Lorde that now is." The " moneth 
 minde" was a monthly solemnity in memory of the deceased, 
 when prayers were offered and alms given for the health of 
 the soul. — Paston Letters, vol. iii. p. 358. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 25 
 
 not fully nine years old, and doubtful in her mind 
 what she were best to do, she asked counsel of 
 an old gentlewoman, whom she much loved and 
 trusted, which did advise her to commend her- 
 self to St. Nicholas, the patron and helper of all 
 true maidens, and to beseech him to put in her 
 mind what she were best to do. This counsel 
 she followed, and made her prayer so full often, 
 but specially that night when she should the 
 morrow after make answer of her mind determin- 
 ately. A marvellous thing ! the same night, as I 
 have heard her tell many a time, as she lay in 
 prayer, calling upon St. Nicholas, whether sleeping 
 or waking she could not assure, but about four 
 of the clock in the morning, one appeared unto 
 her arrayed like a bishop, and naming unto her, 
 Edmund, bade take him unto her husband." 1 
 
 This vision she related to her parents, — which 
 warrants the inference that her mother was at this 
 time united to Lord Welles : the ' supernatural 
 direction was by them considered conclusive, and 
 Margaret accordingly declared her preference for 
 the king's brother, to whom she was forthwith 
 solemnly betrothed, in accordance with the custom 
 of that period. 
 
 The superstition which in the fifteenth century 
 had almost usurped the place of true religion, and 
 so alloyed the purity of prayer and supplication, 
 1 Funeral Sermon, p. 'J. 
 
26 THE LIFE OF 
 
 that miracles from pretended saints, were consi- 
 dered as the test of God's especial grace; renders 
 it by no means surprising that the over-wrought 
 imagination of the innocent Margaret Beaufort 
 should have believed that her decision had resulted 
 from supernatural agency. But, in the present en- 
 lightened age, when, through the blessing of God, 
 the spiritual tyranny of Romish priestcraft has been 
 swept from the land, by the force of that pure 
 apostolic doctrine which was beginning to manifest 
 itself through the immortal Wickliffe, in the 
 period when Margaret flourished, although not 
 fully matured in its powers until the days of her 
 grandson, King Henry the Eighth, sufficient 
 natural causes may be found to attach credit to 
 the incident. Moreover, we can discern in it, 
 apart from superstition, the finger of an overruling 
 Providence, working mysteriously, but surely, 
 to bring about that civil and religious emancipation 
 which the Almighty disposer of human events 
 designed should be accomplished by means of 
 the farther connection of the subject of this me- 
 moir with the reigning house of Lancaster. 
 
 Young as was the rich heiress of Somerset, 
 she had nevertheless sufficient discernment to 
 prefer enriching her noble kinsman ap Tudor, 
 rather than to gratify the ambitious and over- 
 bearing minister, who was already reaping so 
 abundant a harvest from the wardship of her great 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 27 
 
 possessions. The comparatively recent ennoble- 
 ment of the De la Poles, and the fact of their 
 enormous wealth having been derived from mer- 
 cantile speculations, 1 may, in the estimation of the 
 great-grand-daughter of the haughty John of 
 Gaunt, have depreciated any advantages which 
 might accrue from an alliance with the family of 
 her guardian, when placed in comparison with the 
 maternal brother of the reigning monarch of 
 England — the grandson of Charles the Sixth of 
 
 © © 
 
 France — the descendant of the holy and royal St. 
 Louis — and the lineal representative of the native 
 princes of Britain. 
 
 These circumstances might have influenced one 
 who had been reared with even less pride of birth 
 than the Lady Margaret ; but with her education, 
 and at her romantic age, with the dread too of 
 disappointment, through the possible intrigue of 
 others, the image of the young Edmund Tudor, 
 whether she were sleeping or awake, must have 
 been sufficiently predominant to account for any 
 dream, or with the superstitious feeling of the 
 times, to induce the belief of an actual vision. 
 
 At this early period of our national history, the 
 distinctions of rank were much more strongly 
 marked and closely observed than in the present 
 day. The nobles of the land had dealings with 
 those engaged in commerce, and made use of 
 
 1 Ileylyn, p. 368. 
 
28 THE LIFE OF 
 
 their services ; but excepting on matters of busi- 
 ness, they looked on them as a distinct race, and 
 would have scorned to intermarry with any who 
 moved in a sphere different from their own. 1 
 
 Ever alive to his own advancement, the crafty 
 Duke of Suffolk, had, in reference to this feeling, 
 secured a powerful ally to further his ambitious 
 views, in Edmunde de Beaufort, the uncle of his 
 infant ward, by displacing the Duke of York in 
 the Regency of France, and procuring the nomi- 
 nation, in his place, of the Duke of Somerset. 2 
 But the prosperity of the powerful minister was 
 on the wane — his enemies had decreed his fall 
 even at the moment when royal favour seemed to 
 have fixed him on the zenith of human ambition. 
 In February, 1449, articles of impeachment 3 were 
 exhibited against him by the house of commons ; 
 and the king, to appease them, committed him to 
 the Tower, (28th Hen. VI.) One of the lead- 
 ing accusations was that of having united his 
 youthful ward, the Lady Margaret, with John de 
 la Pole, his heir, immediately prior to his arrest, 
 with the view to her being a claimant of the 
 throne of England in case Henry the Sixth had 
 no issue. This charge in its full extent appears 
 however to have been groundless, although the 
 unpopular minister might probably have incau- 
 
 1 Paston Letters, vol. iv. c Bilker's Chron. 187. 
 
 3 Paston Letters, vol. iii. p. 63. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. '2\) 
 
 tiously avowed his intention of securing to his 
 family the riches and alliance of the young 
 heiress of Somerset, by a compulsory betrothment 
 to his eldest son.* The duke was released through 
 the influence of the queen, after a brief imprison- 
 ment. Within a few weeks, however, his un- 
 popularity threatened such serious consequences, 
 that Henry the Sixth, at the instigation of the 
 Commons, banished him to Calais for five years ; 
 but he was treacherously seized on his voyage 
 thither by spies, and cruelly murdered at sea, the 
 2nd May, 1450. These proceedings of Parlia- 
 ment have, however, led many into the error of 
 believing, that Margaret Beaufort's first husband 
 was the duke's eldest son. Her statement re- 
 specting the vision of St. Nicholas wholly sets at 
 rest any suspicion of the alleged marriage ; and 
 besides the infantine age of the parties, the im- 
 portant fact of the stigma which would have 
 attached to the birth of Henry the' Seventh, as 
 also to the children of John de la Pole, who 
 eventually married the sister of King Edward the 
 Fourth, would fully confirm her testimony that 
 she was wooed by the king and his minister at 
 
 * The power of disposing of a ward in marriage, when under 
 the direction of a covetous or had guardian, was often most 
 shamefully abused ; and tyrannical as it was, it continued in 
 force till the reign of Charles the Second. — See Paston Let- 
 ters, vol. iii. p. 227. 
 
30 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the same time, " though not fully nine years 
 old." 
 
 A still more conclusive refutation of the charge 
 is presented in the beautiful and affecting letter* 
 
 * This interesting document is here inserted, on account of 
 its own merits, and because it emanated from the pen of the 
 guardian of the illustrious subject of this Memoir. 
 
 " My dear and only well-beloved Son, 
 " I beseech our Lord in Heaven, the maker of all the world, 
 to bless you, and to send you ever grace to love him and to 
 dread him, to the which, as far as a father may charge his 
 child, I both charge you, and pray you, to set all your spirits 
 and wits to do and to know his holy laws and commandments, 
 by the which ye shall, with his great mercy, pass all the tem- 
 pests and troubles of this wretched world : and that also, 
 wittingly, ye do nothing for love nor dread of any earthly 
 creature, that should displease Him. And there as [when- 
 ever] any frailty maketh you fall, beseech his mercy soon to 
 call you to him again with repentance, satisfaction, and contri- 
 tion of your heart, never more in will to offend him. Secondly, 
 next Him, above all earthly things, to be true liegeman in 
 heart, in will, in thought, in deed, unto the king, our aldermost 
 {[greatest]] high and dread sovereign lord, to whom both ye 
 and I be so much bound to ; charging you, as father can and 
 may, rather to die than to be the contrary, or to know any 
 thing that were against the welfare or prosperity of his most 
 royal person ; but that as far as your body and life may stretch, 
 ye live and die to defend it, and to let his highness have know- 
 ledge thereof in all the haste ye can. Thirdly, in the same 
 wise, I charge you, my dear son, alway as ye be bounden by 
 the Commandment of God to do, to love, to worship your lady 
 and mother ; and also that ye obey alway her commandments, 
 and to believe her counsels and advices in all your works, the 
 which dread not but shall be best and truest to you. And if 
 any other body would stir you to the contrary, to flee the 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 31 
 
 written by the ill-fated nobleman to his son, the 
 day before he left England ; in which, though his 
 several duties to his God, his king, and his 
 mother, are solemnly enforced, no mention what- 
 ever is made of his obligations as a husband. 
 
 Nevertheless, at the time when she was sought in 
 marriage by her royal and noble suitors, which was 
 some months previous to the tragical death of her 
 
 counsel in any wise, for ye shall find it naught and evil. Fur- 
 thermore, as far as father may and can, I charge you in any 
 wise to flee the company and counsel of proud men, of covetous 
 men, and of flattering men, the more especially and mightily 
 to withstand them, and not to draw nor to meddle with them 
 with all your might and power ; and to draw to you, and to 
 your company, good and virtuous men, and such as be of good 
 conversation and of truth, and by them shall ye never be 
 deceived nor repent you of. Moreover, never follow your own 
 wit in no wise, but in all your works, of such folks as I write 
 of above ask your advice and counsel, and doing thus, with 
 the mercy of God, ye shall do right well, and live in right 
 much worship and great heart's rest and ease. And I will be 
 to you as good lord and father as my heart can think- And 
 last of all, as heartily and as lovingly as ever father blessed his 
 child on earth, I give you the blessing of our Lord and of me, 
 which of his infinite mercy increase you in all virtue and good 
 living ; and that your blood may by his grace from kindred to 
 kindred, multiply in this earth to his service in such wise as, 
 after the departing from this wretched world here, ye and they 
 may glorify him eternally amongst his angels in Heaven. 
 AVritten of mine hand, 
 
 The day of my departing from this land, 
 
 Your true and loving father, 
 April 28M, 1450. Suffolk." 
 
 Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 32. 
 
32 THE LIFE OF 
 
 guardian, the youthful Margaret and her aged 
 friend well knew she would be allowed no actual 
 choice of suitors, though the decision might nomi- 
 nally rest with her ; and the spirit of romance 
 which tinctured the moral actions, no less than the 
 ascetic bigotry which marked the spiritual views 
 of that period, might have led her adviser, from a 
 well-meaning zeal, to impose some deception upon 
 the innocent and guileless creature, who, with her 
 worldly inclinations still bent towards Edmund 
 Tudor, was evidently desirous of leaving to hea- 
 venly direction the future path of her earthly career. 
 That Margaret Beaufort believed she saw a vision, 
 is beyond all doubt ; but whether she was deceived 
 into the belief by the agency of others, or whether 
 her childish imagination dwelt on St. Nicholas in 
 prayer, until his image, and the object of her 
 wishes were associated in her dreams, cannot be 
 decided ; and would indeed be a most unimportant 
 point, had not the circumstance led to a result, so 
 fraught with momentous events, as the marriage 
 to which it was the prelude. 
 
 Some few years, however, elapsed before the 
 union of this illustrious young couple ; and as the 
 interval contains no historical facts connected with 
 the Lady Margaret, which demand particular 
 attention, it affords a fitting opportunity to trace 
 the parentage of her future husband. This is the 
 more needed as the Royal lineage of Edmund 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 33 
 
 Tudor increased the perils and vicissitudes to 
 which her own noble descent exposed this distin- 
 guished scion of the Red Rose of Lancaster, — 
 that ill-omened badge which seemed to encircle 
 with thorns the footsteps of all who cherished the 
 fatal flower, — the crimsoned leaves of which were 
 reddened yet more deeply by the blood of friends 
 and relatives, — whose root sprang from usurpation 
 and regicide, — whose opening buds were germs 
 of discord, — whose expanded blossoms were sig- 
 nals of destruction. It is with feelings of repose 
 that the mind, passing from such harrowing scenes, 
 rests on the gentle character whose descent en- 
 tailed not upon her the destructive qualities of 
 her race. No ! she was the flower that was des- 
 tined to survive the blight which eventually visited 
 her family ; and to perpetuate, by means of her 
 good deeds, that line which valour, heroism, and 
 undaunted courage, had raised indeed to the 
 highest pinnacle of glory, but which that very 
 success tended only the more speedily to anni- 
 hilate. 
 
 At the commencement of this Memoir, and 
 when tracing the connection of Margaret Beaufort 
 with the blood-royal of England, Henry the 
 Fourth, eldest son of John of Gaunt, was men- 
 tioned as being established on the throne of Eng- 
 land, after its usurpation from his cousin Richard 
 the Second. He was succeeded by his son Henry 
 
 D 
 
34 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the Fifth ; who, at the treaty of Melun, was so 
 fascinated by the surpassing loveliness of Kathe- 
 rine, only daughter of Charles the Sixth of 
 France, who had been brought thither with the 
 view of attracting the renowned monarch, that, 
 though the vanquisher of her father's kingdom, 
 he solicited and obtained the daughter in mar- 
 riage. His domestic happiness, however, was as 
 brief as his reign was glorious, for he survived 
 his marriage only two years, leaving his beautiful 
 widow scarcely of age, with a son but a few 
 months old, who was proclaimed king, by the 
 title of Henry the Sixth, and surnamed " of 
 Windsor," from the place of his birth. 
 
 But this illustrious princess, regarded as dow- 
 ager-queen both of France and England, by reason 
 of her husband having borne the title of King of 
 both realms, was destined ere long, in her turn, 
 to bow at the conquering shrine of personal 
 attractions. She became so enamoured with 
 Owen ap Tudor, a Welsh gentleman, of moderate 
 fortune, though ancient family, who was attending 
 the court at Windsor, that unmindful of her high 
 estate, and following only the impulse of attach- 
 ment, she was privately united to him, on her 
 son's entering his seventh year. 1 This alliance 
 excited great indignation, as well as astonishment ; 
 that a brow which had been graced with the lily, 
 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 180. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 35 
 
 and crowned with the rose, could disregard the 
 regal circlet, and condescend to become the bride 
 of a private individual — a mere soldier of fortune. 
 To the princes of the realm, who ruled during the 
 minority of the young king, the marriage was so 
 offensive, that a law was forthwith passed, enacting 
 severe penalties on any person who might pre- 
 sume to espouse the Dowager- Queen of England, 
 without the license of the reigning monarch. 1 
 But the slenderness of Ap Tudor's fortune, and 
 the mean extraction imputed to him by his ene- 
 mies, 2 was more than counterbalanced, in Queen 
 Catherine's estimation, by his noble bearing and 
 extraordinary personal endowments. 
 
 Owen ap Tudor, however, though the victim of 
 calumny and prejudice, was not unworthy of alliance 
 with the British empire. He could justly boast of 
 two royal descents, and claimed higher lineage even, 
 than that of the Fleur-de-lys of France, or the 
 Planta-Genista of England. Accumulated re- 
 verses had greatly reduced his parents from the 
 dignified station, which was nevertheless their 
 birth-right ; for in virtue of their ancestry, he 
 claimed uninterrupted descent from the aborigi- 
 nal princes of Britain, 3 through Arthur and Uther 
 Pendragon, the grandsons of Constantine the 
 
 1 Cotton's Abridgment of Pari. Records, p. 589. 
 a Sandford's Geneal. vol. iv. p. ?. 
 5 Pennant's Wales, p. 2.^7. 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Great, whose British dominions (A.D. 310.) were 
 united to the empire of Rome, of which he was 
 the first Christian emperor. 1 In proof of his 
 direct descent from Cadwallader, the last British 
 prince, and first King of Wales, (A.D. 678.) he 
 bore a dragon as his device, that being the ensign 
 of the above-named ancient monarch, and was 
 consequently displayed by the grandson of Owen 
 ap Tudor, King Henry the Seventh, on his vic- 
 torious standard at the battle of Bosworth Field. 2 
 Leaving it to antiquaries to decide the merits 
 of this lengthened pedigree, it will be sufficient 
 here to state the fact, that, in 1428, 3 the beautiful 
 Queen Mother, the Princess Katherine of France, 
 became the acknowledged wife of Owen ap Tudor; 
 and many ludicrous tales are still extant arising 
 from this incongruous union. 4 
 
 The issue of their marriage was three sons and 
 one daughter, viz. Edmund Tudor, surnamed of 
 Hadham, his royal mother's manor-house, and the 
 place of his birth ; Jasper Tudor, denominated of 
 Hatfield, another manor-house appertaining to 
 Queen Katherine, where he was bom ; Owen 
 Tudor, who early embraced a monastic life ; and 
 Katherine Tudor, who died young. 5 
 
 From some cause which has not transpired, the 
 
 1 Heylyn, p. 16. 2 Granger, p. 23. 
 
 3 Rym. Fed. x. p. 662. 4 Hist, of Gwyder Family, p. 69. 
 
 5 Dugdale's Baron, torn. ii. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 37 
 
 illustrious {Catherine, in a few years, separated 
 from her husband ; and taking refuge in the 
 monastery of Bermondsey, in Southwark, 1 she 
 there died, at the age of thirty-eight, in the year 
 1437. She was buried at Westminster, by the 
 side of her royal consort, Henry the Fifth. Her 
 second husband survived her many years, but paid 
 a heavy penalty for his regal alliance, as imme- 
 diately after Katherine's decease, he was seized 
 and imprisoned in Newgate, for his presumption 
 in espousing the Queen dowager. 2 His sons were 
 forthwith taken from him, but out of respect 
 for the memory of their royal mother, they were 
 placed under the tutelage of Katherine de la 
 Pole, Abbess of Barking. 3 Owen ap Tudor, 
 eventually effected his escape, but was a second 
 time seized ; and a series of persecutions and 
 imprisonments marked the remainder of his 
 chequered career. Having at length been re- 
 leased, by command of Henry the Sixth, he 
 devoted himself zealously to his cause ; and after 
 distinguishing himself in various conflicts, was 
 taken prisoner, with his second son, Jasper, 
 bravely fighting at Mortimer's Cross ; and in the 
 last year of that monarch's eventful reign, was 
 beheaded by the Yorkist faction at Hereford, 
 and there buried in 1461. 4 
 
 1 Sandford (Jen. chap. 9. s Rymer Fed. x. p. 228. 
 
 3 Rymer Fed. ibid. ' llulinsli. Chron. p. 660. 
 
38 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Such is the history of the immediate ancestors 
 of Edmund Tudor, to whom Margaret Beaufort 
 was betrothed at the early age of nine years ; a 
 history so replete with romantic adventure, that it 
 orms a suitable appendage to the vision of St. 
 Nicholas, and is rendered yet more striking as a 
 tale of the marvellous, because her union with the 
 descendant of the first rulers of Britain, led to the 
 accomplishment of the prophecies of Merlin, whose 
 predictions had been regarded as oracles, not only 
 by the bards, who recited his mysterious traditions, 
 but also by kings and nobles, who for many gene- 
 rations had listened devoutly to the legendary lore 
 of Merlin's prophecy delivered to Vortigern, — of 
 his magical aid afforded to Uther, — of the won- 
 derful exploits of King Arthur, and the knights 
 of the round table, — and in short, to fabulous 
 narrations of all the native princes of Britain, 
 down to Cadwallader of Wales, from whom Ed- 
 mund Tudor claimed, as already observed, unin- 
 terrupted descent, and whose progeny Merlin had 
 declared should one day regain the dominion of 
 the land. 1 
 
 King Henry the Sixth, when old enough to 
 assume the reins of government, had not been 
 content with merely releasing, so soon as he could 
 effect it, his father-in-law from imprisonment, but 
 he testified in the most amiable and affectionate 
 
 1 Camden's Brit. vol. i. p. 2. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 39 
 
 manner his kindness and love for his maternal 
 brothers, who were about ten years younger than 
 himself. He had them carefully educated, under 
 the most honest and virtuous ecclesiastics ; ! and 
 when of an age to be removed to court, they are 
 noticed as in attendance on the king and queen. 
 In the year 1452, Margaret of Anjou, who then 
 came to Norwich with the view of raising troops, 
 is particularly stated to have been attended by the 
 king's half-brothers, Edmund of Hadham, and 
 Jasper of Hatfield. It has been already stated 
 how early he interested himself for the former, by 
 endeavouring to secure for his future bride the 
 wealthy heiress of Somerset. The year following 
 their betrothment, he bestowed on him the castle 
 and county of Richmount, or Riehmondshire, in 
 the North-Riding of York, creating him at the 
 same time, by letters patent, Earl of Richmond, 
 with this peculiar privilege, that he should take 
 precedence above all earls, and sit in parliament 
 next to dukes, by reason of his near consanguinity 
 to the reigning monarch. 3 His brother, Jasper 
 Tudor, in the same year, 1452, he advanced to 
 the dignity of Earl of Pembroke, 4 by which he 
 became possessed of the castle and royal territories 
 
 1 Blakman Collect, p. 229. 
 8 Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 68. 
 » Rot. Pari. 32 H. VI. m. 12. 
 
 4 Lords' Report on the Dignity of the Peerage, vol. ix. 
 p. 231. 
 
40 THE LIFE OF 
 
 in South Wales, appertaining to the title, the 
 earldom having been erected into a county Pala- 
 tine in 1138; also of the ancient mansion in 
 the metropolis, belonging to the Earldom of 
 Pembroke, a fine building, then denominated 
 Pembroke's Inn, now known as Stationers' Hall. 
 In addition to these honours, the Earl of Rich- 
 mond shortly afterwards obtained from the 
 monarch, a grant in fee, of the noble mansion 
 called Baynard's Castle, 1 situate near Paul's 
 Wharf, on the banks of the Thames ; which 
 had recently been enlarged and beautified by 
 Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle ; 
 on whose death without issue, it fell to the crown, 
 and was bestowed by Henry upon his brother. 
 Here it is probable the young Earl of Rich- 
 mond chiefly sojourned, during the interval that 
 elapsed prior to his marriage, this palace of the 
 Saxon kings being usually occupied by some near 
 connection of the crown. 
 
 To return, however, to the young heiress, of 
 Somerset ; who, at the time of her betrothment, 
 though a child in years, had proved herself far 
 above a child in understanding, and whose personal 
 history will now be resumed, at a period usually 
 allotted to the happy carelessness of girlhood. But 
 with Margaret Beaufort, times and seasons appear 
 to have been anticipated, in all the leading inci- 
 
 1 Polydore Virgil, 522, n. 10. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 41 
 
 dents of her remarkable career, and ere the 
 maiden's timidity had fully checked the sprightli- 
 ness of youth, she was called on to assume the 
 duties and responsibilities of a matron. She had 
 been instructed to believe, that it was the fitting 
 season to fulfil the vows made in her childish days, 
 and so singularly gifted was she by nature, that 
 her character and qualifications needed not the 
 accompaniment of age, to fit her for the impor- 
 tant station she was henceforth to occupy. 
 
 On this matter there is no doubt, nor any ne- 
 cessity to rely on mere inference. The annals of 
 her time, and the testimony of contemporaries, 
 assure us, that in " manners she was right noble, 
 as in blood,"i and that her personal endow- 
 ments were fully equal to her illustrious descent. 
 That she was dignified in demeanour, courteous 
 in speech, gentle in disposition, patient, generous, 
 obedient, and humble ; neither revengeful nor 
 cruel, but ready to bury in forgetfulriess the great- 
 est injuries ; charitable to the poor, and pitiful of 
 their sufferings ; mindful of the slightest kindness, 
 easy of access, and full of tenderness to all who 
 were allied to her. Above all things, she was de- 
 voted to her God, beseeching his mercy, with an 
 innate fervour of piety, far above her tender age, 
 and very uncommon, at a period when outward 
 form and display was mistaken for inward piety. 
 1 Funeral Sermon, p. 5. 
 
42 MARGARET BEAUFORT. 
 
 Distrusting herself, and with the fear of His 
 judgments ever before her, she would daily, with 
 an intensity of devotion, that proved her safe- 
 guard through life, prostrate herself before the 
 throne of grace, early in the morning, and at mid- 
 day, seeking with prayer and supplication hum- 
 bly, but fervently, from the Omniscient Creator 
 and disposer of human events, guidance for the 
 young and inexperienced creature, who wept and 
 knelt before Him. 
 
 In short, to quote once more the words of her 
 spiritual confessor, whose situation, by reason of 
 the religious practice of the times, enabled him, 
 in the awful secrecy of the confessional, to read 
 every virtue, and search out every vice : " she 
 had, in a manner, all that was praisable in a wo- 
 man, either in soul or body." 1 Her enthusiastic 
 ardour, for the rescue of the Holy Land from the 
 infidels, almost amounted to fanaticism, yet was 
 it tempered by so much humility, that she would 
 often say, if the princes of Christendom would 
 combine, and march against the Turks, she would 
 willingly attend the camp in some menial capacity. 2 
 So accordant indeed were her actions with her 
 professions — so beautifully did she blend the moral 
 with the religious virtues, that Dr. Fuller has justly 
 observed, " She was a pattern of the best devo- 
 tion of her times." 3 
 
 1 Funeral Sermon, p. 6. - Camden's Remains, p. 2? I 
 3 Fuller's Ch. Hist. Cent. 16, Lib. ?. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT 43 
 
 Such was Margaret Beaufort, when, in her 
 fifteenth year, she exchanged her simple maiden 
 name, for the more lofty title of Countess of 
 Richmond. She was united to the young Earl 
 in 1455, 1 and, by means of this union, it is 
 remarkable that she became allied by birth or 
 marriage to no less than thirty kings and queens 
 within the fourth degree either of blood or affinity. 2 
 Edmund Tudor had just entered his twenty- 
 fifth year, and having been the object of her 
 especial choice, sanctified too as that choice was 
 by her firm conviction that she was influenced 
 by a higher source, the youthful Lady Margaret 
 entered the married state with brighter prospects of 
 happiness than usually fell to the lot of persons of 
 distinction at that period, on account of the forced 
 and early matches so prevalent in the middle 
 ages. 3 
 
 With an imagination peculiarly fitted to de- 
 light in the wild and romantic legends connected 
 with her husband's pedigree, and with her memory 
 well stored, owing to her studious habits, with the 
 poetry of an age, when the " gay science " of 
 minstrelsy was in its highest prosperity — we find 
 her, as was naturally to be expected, accompany- 
 ing the Earl of Richmond, shortly after their 
 union to the land of his ancestors. Their chief 
 
 1 Rot. Pari. v. 343. - Funeral Sermon, p. 7. 
 
 3 Paston Letters, v. iii. p. 227. 
 
44 MARGARET BEAUFORT. 
 
 abode appears to have been Pembroke Castle in 
 South Wales, the princely domain of their bro- 
 ther Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke. Here, in 
 this land of daring enterprise, and determined 
 patriotism, Margaret of Richmond, about a twelve- 
 month after her marriage, namely, on St. Anne's 
 day, the 26th of July, 1456, gave birth to a son and 
 heir. In the most ancient portion of the noble for- 
 tress above-mentioned, and in a chamber, which the 
 antiquary Leland visited, and minutely describes, 
 the youthful Countess, became a parent, and in 
 the infant Henry of Richmond, she welcomed a 
 fresh tie to that being on whom she had early 
 bestowed her heart's best and purest affections. 
 
 But alas ! her cup of happiness was full ! full 
 even to overflowing ; and ere the bridal chaplet 
 had faded from her brow, Margaret was called on 
 to drink as deeply of the bitterness of grief, as 
 she had prematurely been permitted to taste the 
 plenitude of earthly felicity. Before the second 
 year of her nuptials had expired, the mother's 
 smiles were changed for the widow's tears. The 
 Earl of Richmond, in the prime of life, in the 
 full enjoyment of all that this world deems great 
 and prosperous, was summoned to a premature 
 grave. He died on the 1st November, 1456, 
 leaving the bereaved Margaret, herself only in 
 her sixteenth year, with an infant son, 1 the in- 
 
 1 Dugdale's Baron, vol. ii. p. 23!). 
 
iMARGARET BEAUFORT. 45 
 
 heritor of the earldom, which his father had not 
 enjoyed above four years, and destined to become 
 in right of his mother, (though the knowledge 
 thereof was hidden by the veil of futurity), the 
 future monarch of England. 
 
 His illustrious parent was buried in the church 
 of the Grey Friars at Caermarthen, from whence 
 his remains, upon the suppression of the abbey, 
 were removed to the cathedral of St. David's. 1 
 In the centre of the choir, and beneath a monu- 
 ment directly before the steps of the high altar, 
 they yet lie, with an inscription styling him " Fa- 
 ther and brother to kings." 2 
 
 But the vigorous and well-disciplined mind of 
 Margaret of Richmond was singularly calcu- 
 lated to endure the extremity of grief. Deeply 
 embued with religious zeal, her faith was too 
 firmly rooted to be shaken by the blast of af- 
 fliction. She could discern the chastening hand 
 of the Almighty from the arm of the avenger ; 
 and though smitten to the heart's core, and that 
 too in the very zenith of her joy, she could school 
 
 1 Sandford's Geneal. Hist. B. iv. ch. 9. 
 
 2 The Earl of Richmond was buried in the chancel of the 
 church of St. David's, with this inscription upon his monu- 
 ment : " Under this marble stone, here enclosed, rest the bones 
 of that noble lord, Edmund, Earl of Richmond, father and 
 brother to Kings ; who departed out of this world in the year 
 1456 : the first day of November. On whose soul Almighty 
 Jesu have mercy." — Master's Memoirs of Thomas Baker, p. 
 U9. 
 
46 THE LIFE OF 
 
 her grief sufficiently to feel, that she had duties 
 to perform to the living, which were yet more 
 binding, from being hallowed by her fond remem- 
 brance of the dead. On her infant and now 
 orphan child, the offspring of short-lived but ge- 
 nuine attachment, the Lady Margaret henceforth 
 bestowed as much of her devotion and affection, 
 as she tremblingly thought could be spared from 
 the service of her God. Her struggles indeed were 
 great, but her fortitude never forsook her ; and with 
 a submissive spirit, that brought its own reward, 
 the widowed Countess tutored herself to feel, with 
 true Christian piety, that while her infant son 
 was spared she was not wholly bereft. How long 
 that blessing might be hers, she feared to think — 
 for his sickly constitution during infancy was a 
 fresh source of affliction to his anxious mother ; 
 but Richmond's earliest biographer, Bernard An- 
 dreas, who was contemporary with him, — and 
 from whose authority this fact is derived * — 
 bears testimony also to the maternal solicitude of 
 the Lady Margaret, who nursed and tended her 
 
 * Bernard Andreas was a native of Toulouse, and an Au- 
 gustine monk ; lie was poet laureate to Henry VII. and his 
 son Henry VIII. and was prince Arthur's tutor in grammar. 
 His unpublished life of Henry VII. is in the Cottonian 
 MSS. (Dom. xviii.) and was written in 1509. He was made 
 poet laureate in the 11th Henry VII. 1486, with an annuity 
 of 10 marks; and in the privy purse expences of that monarch, 
 (Excerpta Hist. p. 115.) frequent mention is made of small 
 sums given "To the blynde poet in rewarde." 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 47 
 
 puny offspring with a watchfulness and care, more 
 in unison with her energetic character than her 
 youthful age. 
 
 The period in which this heavy loss, so early 
 blighted the fair prospects of the Lady Mar- 
 garet, was one fraught with peculiar misery to Eng- 
 land, and more especially with imminent political 
 danger to her own, and her late husband's family. 
 The Earl of Richmond, as already observed, 
 expired in 1456, an era memorable in our annals, 
 in consequence of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of 
 York, having been made Protector of the King's 
 person, and of the realm. 1 From the opposition 
 made to this nomination, by the Queen and Lan- 
 castrian party, 2 and the foundation which these 
 conflicting interests laid, for those fearful civil 
 wars, between the partizans of the Red and White 
 Roses, to the former of which, by birth and mar- 
 riage, the Lady Margaret of Richmond was so 
 closely allied. 
 
 Her uncle and nearest paternal relative, Edmund 
 Duke of Somerset had been slain at the battle of 
 St. Alban's, a short time before, bravely fighting 
 for Henry the Sixth, and endeavouring to check 
 the growing power of the House of York, 3 and 
 the Earl of Pembroke, her husband's brother, 
 and her child's natural guardian, in whose castle 
 
 1 Rot. Pari. V. 284. " Baker's Chron. p. .94. 
 
 s Harleian MSS. 54,5. 
 
48 THE LIFE OF 
 
 too she was sojourning, was one of the most 
 determined enemies of the protector and his party, 
 and an equally strenuous supporter of his kins- 
 man, the reigning monarch. 
 
 With a prudence and foresight, which seemed 
 inherent in her character, Margaret saw the neces- 
 sity of avoiding all contact with the contending 
 parties. Keeping far aloof from the vicinity of 
 the court, she resolved on continuing her abode 
 in Pembrokeshire ; a step well calculated to shield 
 both herself and her infant son from those perils, 
 which might possibly ensue, in consequence of 
 the nation being on the verge of a civil war. 
 
 Built on a rock, and nearly encompassed by 
 water as was Jasper Tudor's fortress, she was at 
 least secure from sudden attacks; and she judici- 
 ously considered, that the grandson of Owen 
 Tudor — the descendant of the native princes of 
 Britain, — would be better protected in Wales, than 
 the aspect of public affairs promised for the 
 nephew of the reigning sovereign, either at his 
 own castle of Richmond, or in any other part of 
 distracted England. 
 
 Few buildings selected by necessity, could have 
 been better suited for the nursery of royalty, than 
 Pembroke Castle. Of Norman architecture with 
 a mixture of the early Gothic, it had been ren- 
 dered in every respect a residence suitable to 
 princes, by the first Earl of Pembroke, the re- 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 4 ( J 
 
 nowned Gilbert de Clare, surnamed Strongbow, 
 who becoming possessed of the royal territories 
 in that quarter, had strengthened it with such 
 additional fortifications, as, added to its remark- 
 able keep or tower, rendered it one of the most 
 majestic edifices in Britain. Here the Countess 
 of Richmond continued to reside 1 for many suc- 
 ceeding years, studiously instilling into the mind 
 of her son, those precepts of religion and morality 
 — that supporting confidence in his God — that 
 power of self-endurance — that contempt of dan- 
 ger, which shone forth so conspicuously in his 
 after-life, and which have been universally ascribed 
 by all his biographers to the admirable tuition 
 bestowed on him by his exemplary and judicious 
 mother. 
 
 Far removed from political excitement, and 
 thus engaged with her religious and maternal 
 duties, it is here necessary again to digress from 
 the narrative of her peculiar history, - and leave the 
 Lady Margaret to take a wider survey of the his- 
 torical events of the time. Her private career 
 being so intimately blended with public affairs, 
 it becomes essential to a clear understanding of 
 the former occasionally to retrace the latter, that 
 it may more clearly appear how entirely the vicis- 
 situdes of her chequered life arose from her con» 
 nection with the political events of the age. 
 
 1 Fenton, p. 462. 
 E 
 
50 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The vicissitudes of Margaret Beaufort were of 
 no common kind. On her they pressed heavily 
 and fearfully; in us they excite an overwhelming 
 interest, as the harbingers of bright and glorious 
 results, gradually, but now fully accomplished. 
 It is on occasions such as these, when we have 
 the opportunity of studying the human character 
 under the influence of peculiar trial — of contem- 
 plating humanity under all the modifications of 
 good and evil — of judging of man's powers of 
 resistance and endurance, and perceiving the in- 
 fluence which local circumstances and physical 
 causes exercise over all ages and conditions, that 
 we learn the true value, and real character of his- 
 torical research. We fulfil not its design when 
 we limit our attention to the collections of the 
 mere annalist, and exercise our memory, by 
 stringing together, dates and details, without 
 pausing to profit by the moral truths they incul- 
 cate. 
 
 The history of nations — the rise and fall of 
 empires, — the extinction or degeneracy of once 
 powerful states, enlarge our views by linking past 
 ages with more enlightened times, and enable 
 us to trace the gradual advance of civil, intellec- 
 tual, and legislative improvement. But it is the 
 study of man alone, which exercises the higher 
 faculties of our reason. This teaches us to form 
 a true estimate of persons and things, stimulates 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 51 
 
 the noblest powers of the mind, and calls forth 
 the best, the purest, and the most generous feel- 
 ings of our nature. The one speaks to our un- 
 derstanding and feeds the pride of human know- 
 ledge, the other acts upon the heart, and teaches 
 us how limited is our power, and how little capa- 
 ble we are of selecting our own path. 
 
 Few periods in the history of any nation, have 
 been more fraught with striking results than the 
 close of the fifteenth century, not merely to our 
 own country, but to far distant and at that time 
 undiscovered lands ; but whose inhabitants have 
 since been freed from debasing slavery as were 
 England's sons from religious thraldom, a deliver- 
 ance arising from causes, which had their rise in 
 this remarkable era, and of which the subject of 
 this memoir by the wise counsels and judicious 
 instruction early bestowed on Henry of Richmond 
 was the active, though unconscious agent. Hence 
 we are led, of necessity, from the contemplation 
 of her own striking character, to those political 
 events and national benefits with which it is inse- 
 parably united, and which have shed an enduring 
 halo round the name of Margaret Beaufort. 
 
 The last historical summary left Henry the 
 Sixth on the throne of England, to which it will 
 be remembered he succeeded, while yet quite an 
 infant. A long minority was the obvious result 
 of his father's early decease, and this was guarded 
 
 e 2 
 
52 THE LIFE OF 
 
 by one of the wisest and most efficient regencies 
 that this, or any other country ever possessed. 
 
 Had the illustrious son of the valiant conqueror 
 of France succeeded to dominion at a riper age, 
 the long catalogue of miseries, which marked his 
 eventful reign, might possibly have been averted 
 both from his country and himself. 1 But his title 
 to the throne of England, being no other than 
 that of a continued usurpation from Henry the 
 Fourth, and his claim to that of France, the 
 result of the treaty of Troye, in direct oppo- 
 sition to the natural rights of the Dauphin, 
 the legal heir of that kingdom, it was scarcely 
 within the power of the ablest regency to main- 
 tain undisputed the succession of a monarch 
 who with such doubtful titles, was proclaimed 
 king of England at the age of nine months, and 
 king of France before he had attained his second 
 year. 
 
 Nevertheless, with a spirit of integrity, which 
 has called forth the approbation of succeeding 
 ages, his two uncles, by consent of parliament, 2 
 promptly undertook and ably fulfilled the trust 
 reposed in them by their brother, the deceased 
 monarch, who by his will had delegated the 
 regency of France to John, the brave Duke of 
 Bedford ; and under the title of Lord Protector, 
 
 1 Sharon Turner, vol. iii. p. 135. 
 « Pari. Rolls, v. p. 174. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 53 
 
 the government of England, to Humphrey, the 
 amiable Duke of Gloucester, who was both learned 
 himself, and a great patron of literature. The 
 guardianship of the young king's person had 
 been committed to Thomas, Duke of Exeter, his 
 great uncle, (youngest son of John of Gaunt,) 
 whose actions were graced equally with judgment, 
 valour, and discretion. These, with the addition 
 of Cardinal Beaufort, — to whose zeal were en- 
 trusted the ecclesiastical labours of the cabinet, — 
 guided the helm of state, during the minority of 
 Henry the Sixth, and so long as he continued a 
 child in years, his dominions were kept flourishing 
 by the provident measures of his careful and vigi- 
 lant uncles. They so faithfully discharged the 
 duties respectively assigned them, and evinced 
 such abilitv in their several offices, that although 
 their administration was carried on chiefly by 
 force of arms and rigorous enactments, they, 
 nevertheless, secured for their nephew the love 
 and loyalty of his subjects, and maintained both 
 his kingdoms in a most prosperous and happy 
 condition. Upon attaining his eighth year, he was 
 crowned King of England, at Westminster, in 
 1429, and in the year following by a repetition of 
 the same solemn ceremony at Paris, he received 
 the oaths, and fealty of the French nobility, as 
 sovereign of that realm. 1 
 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 184. 
 
54 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 But unhappily for the country at large, and 
 especially for the faction of which he was the head, 
 Henry of Lancaster was fitter for an ecclesiastic 
 than a King. His disposition was too gentle for 
 the warlike period in which he lived, and his nature 
 too placid to oppose with sufficient vigour the 
 turbulence of his enemies, who, while they admired 
 his virtues, availed themselves of his weakness to 
 gratify their ambition, and to work his destruction. 
 The extreme severity exercised by his tutor, 
 the zealous and chivalric Earl of Warwick, 1 had 
 a tendency to break the spirit which it was his 
 object to kindle in his meek and docile pupil, 
 while the continued struggles for political ascen- 
 dancy which gradually arose between the Duke of 
 Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort, by excluding 
 the young monarch, even at the age of seven- 
 teen, 2 from all participation in a government to 
 which he should early have been admitted, en- 
 feebled still more the naturally inactive and too 
 yielding disposition of the unfortunate Henry the 
 Sixth. 
 
 As soon as he was of sufficient age to take 
 upon himself the executive power, his inca- 
 pacity for ruling was evinced by dissensions 
 at home, and losses abroad. His misfortunes 
 began early, by reason of the death of his able 
 
 1 Paston Letters, vol. iii. p. 12. 
 
 1 Rot. Pari. v. 433, and Paston Letters, vol. iii. p. 12. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 55 
 
 and judicious uncle, the Duke of Bedford ; and 
 were completed by his ill-assorted union, in direct 
 opposition to the Duke of Gloucester's policy, 
 with Margaret of Anjou, 1 a princess who brought 
 him no strength of alliance, and but small dowry ; 
 but who possessed an ambition so inordinate, and 
 a spirit so masculine and daring, that, stimulated as 
 it was by the intriguing spirit of her favourite the 
 Duke of Suffolk, (the early guardian of Margaret 
 Beaufort,) it embroiled her husband in a constant, 
 succession of private quarrels and destructive war- 
 fare. Her imperious manner and unconciliating 
 disposition gradually alienated from the king the 
 love of his friends; and the cruel murder of his only 
 surviving uncle the excellent Duke of Gloucester, 
 presumptive heir to the crown, — usually ascribed to 
 agents employed by Cardinal Beaufort, the queen, 
 and the Duke of Suffolk, 2 — completed his unpo- 
 pularity with his subjects; who soon grew impatient 
 at the slavish superstition to which Henry the 
 Sixth unhappily devoted himself, and disgusted 
 at the want of energy which permitted him to be 
 governed by a woman, and to leave the affairs of 
 state solely to the guidance of his heroic but 
 injudicious consort. The severe trials of this 
 unhappy princess have stifled, in succeeding gene- 
 rations, all feelings but those of commiseration 
 and pity. The joyous welcome which greeted 
 1 Fabian, HO. 2 Paston Letters, vol. iii. p. ft. 
 
56 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 her on landing in England, and the rejoicings 
 which followed her marriage, formed a striking 
 and melancholy contrast to the sorrows of her 
 after years. The poems of Lydgate have trans- 
 mitted to posterity the graces and attractions which 
 he so lavishly praises, and contemporary chroni- 
 clers corroborate Hall's assertion, that she " ex- 
 celled all other in beauty and favour, as well as 
 in wit and policy." 1 Whatever may have been 
 her failings, her maternal love, her disregard of 
 personal privations, and her undaunted courage 
 in the hour of danger, were the theme of admira- 
 tion and astonishment at the period in which she 
 flourished, and have commanded the respect and 
 sympathy of posterity. 
 
 On the death of the Duke of Suffolk, whose 
 cruel murder has been already noticed, the Duke 
 of Somerset, uncle to the Countess of Richmond, 
 succeeded as Prime Minister of England, and 
 enjoyed equally with his predecessor the regal 
 favour and confidence. 2 His strong influence 
 over the queen, however, and the despotic power 
 which he exercised, contributed to render him no 
 less unpopular, than that ill-fated nobleman ; 
 and the melancholy aberration of intellect, which 
 for the space of nearly two years reduced Henry 
 
 1 Hall's Chron. p. 205. 
 
 2 Paston Letters, vol. iii. p. 110. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 57 
 
 the Sixth to a state of lethargic idiotcy, 1 formed 
 a pretext which was gladly seized by parliament 
 for removing the obnoxious minister. 
 
 Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, was 
 nominated regent and defender of the realm, 2 and 
 the Duke of Somerset, after being arrested almost 
 in the queen's presence, was committed a prisoner 
 to the Tower. This proceeding gave rise to a 
 spirit of bitterness between the partizans of the 
 two noblemen, which never afterwards could be 
 softened ; and the unlooked-for recovery of the 
 king, with the consequent ascendancy of the 
 queen and her favourite the Duke of Somerset, 
 produced the most disastrous results to the coun- 
 try. The De Beauforts, of which family the 
 Duke of Somerset became the head, by the death 
 of the Lady Margaret's father without male issue, 
 assumed to be the representatives of the Lancas- 
 trian line, in the event of Henry the Sixth dying 
 without children, and so without doubt they were ; 
 for though the Duke of York was the legal heir 
 to the throne by descent from Edward the Third, 
 the De Beauforts were the nearest relatives of the 
 reigning monarch and his immediate ancestors, 
 whose sovereignty had been recognized by par- 
 liament, and who had swayed the British sceptre 
 for nearly fifty years. 
 
 1 Rot. Pari. v. p. 241. - Rot. Pari. r. p. 242. 
 
58 THE LIFE OF 
 
 But on the other hand the claims of the House 
 of York were founded in strict justice, though 
 they took their rise at a period antecedent ; one, 
 which it will be recollected gave occasion to a 
 former historical digression in this memoir, and 
 the object of which was to show the relative 
 position of the De Beauforts with the royal 
 family at the period of the Lady Margaret's 
 birth. The crown of England, as then stated, was 
 placed in the House of Lancaster, by the usur- 
 pation of Henry the Fourth, the offspring of John 
 of Gaunt, fourth son of Edward the Third. The 
 monarch he deposed — Richard the Second, heir to 
 that king's eldest son, the Black Prince, — left no 
 issue ; and William of Hatfield, the second son, 
 died unmarried ; but Lionel, Duke of Clarence, 
 King Edward's third son, had an only daughter, 
 Philippa, who became the lawful heir of the 
 crown ; and the right of her descendants was in- 
 disputably superior to that of the children of John 
 of Gaunt, who was a younger brother.* But 
 
 * The substance of the Duke of York's claim to the crown 
 of England was as follows: — " King Edward the Third had 
 seven sons. 1. Edward, Prince of Wales. 2. William of 
 Hatfield. 3. Lionel, Duke of Clarence. 4. John of Gaunt, 
 Duke of Lancaster. 5. Edmund, Duke of York. 6. Thomas, 
 Duke of Gloucester, and 7. William of Windsor. Edward 
 the eldest died during his father's life time, and left one son, 
 King Richard the Second, who died without issue, as also did 
 King Edward's second son, William . Lionel, the third son, had 
 only one daughter, named Philippa, who being married to Ed- 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. . r )<) 
 
 Henry of Bolingbroke, having forcibly obtained 
 possession of the throne, continued to retain it 
 by the sword, and the brilliant reign of his son 
 Henry the Fifth, made him so popular with his 
 subjects, that it rendered any opposition from the 
 descendants of Philippa of Clarence utterly futile. 
 Far different was the case when the meek and 
 inactive successor of such warlike ancestors came 
 to inherit the possessions which their valour had 
 acquired and maintained. The grievances which 
 multiplied yearly, and the gradual diminution of 
 our French possessions arising from the king's 
 misgovernment, and that of his ministry, induced 
 the more warlike portion of the community to 
 consider the slender claims of the ancestors of 
 Henry the Sixth to a sovereignty for which their 
 descendant was so evidently unfitted. The spirit 
 of discontent once roused, spread with incon- 
 ceivable rapidity, and the majority of the king- 
 dom were soon divided into two powerful factions ; 
 the one favouring the weak but amiable repre- 
 sentative of the valorous House of Lancaster, 
 then on the throne; the other advocating the re- 
 
 mund Mortimer, Earl of March, she had by him Roger, Earl of 
 March, who afterwards had two sons and two daughters, of 
 whom three died without issue, and Anne, the sole heiress 
 married Richard, Earl of Cambridge, the son of Edmund, 
 Duke of York, the fifth son of King Edward the Third; 
 which Earl of Cambridge was father of Richard, Duke of York, 
 the present claimant. 
 
60 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 storation of the rightful heirs, whose claims were 
 at this period centred in Richard Plantagenet, 
 Duke of York, a prince as eminent for his private 
 virtues, as he was distinguished for his heroism 
 and wisdom. 
 
 The state of imbecility under which the king 
 laboured, taken in conjunction with the unex- 
 pected appearance of an heir to the throne, 
 about ten years after his union with Margaret of 
 Anjou, 1 and after the rights of the protector had 
 been recognised by parliament, contributed more 
 than all else to give a preponderance to the claims 
 of the House of York, from the suspicions of 
 legitimacy which attached to the birth of the 
 young prince. 
 
 The noble duke above named united, in his 
 own person, two branches of the posterity of 
 Edward the Third. His parents being brothers' 
 children, he was the descendant on the father's 
 side from Edmund, Duke of York, King Edward's 
 fifth son, and through his mother the Lady Anne 
 Mortimer (heiress and sole surviving child of the 
 Princess Philippa, and the Earl of March) from 
 Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son of that 
 monarch. His nearest title and only claim to the 
 crown was derived from his maternal descent, 
 the male branches of the house of Mortimer 
 having been, by parliament, declared heirs to 
 
 1 Fabian, p. 456. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 61 
 
 Richard the Second, 1 so that by their decease 
 without issue, both in law and justice, the same 
 rights and privileges became vested in the 
 Duchess of York and her descendants. 
 
 It is needless to trace the political conflicts 
 which alternately raised and depressed the oppo- 
 sing parties, or to dwell upon the jealousy and 
 dissensions, which led to the final overthrow of 
 the English power in France : suffice it to 
 say, that from the period of the birth of Mar- 
 garet Beaufort, the illustrious subject of this 
 memoir, in 1441, until the birth of her son, the 
 infant Earl of Richmond in 1456 ; the vicissi- 
 tudes and trials of the reigning monarch were 
 as unceasing as the result was fatal to his re- 
 putation, and subversive of his power. Henry's 
 unfitness for government increasing with his years, 
 and the strength of the Yorkist faction gaining 
 ground from the martial spirit and gallant con- 
 duct of their princely leader, Richard Plantage- 
 net, affairs had at length reached a crisis, that 
 rendered a decision by the sword inevitable. 
 
 With a wise foresight of the misery that must 
 ensue from civil warfare, and with a politic 
 desire of averting the calamities that threatened 
 the divided realm, parliament again interposed, 
 and enacted that Henry the Sixth should possess 
 and enjoy the kingdom for the remainder of his 
 
 1 Rot. Pari. v. 484. 
 
()*2 THE LIFE OF 
 
 life, 1 and that Richard, Duke of York, should be 
 nominated protector of the state, 2 and heir and 
 successor of the reigning sovereign at his demise. 
 Margaret of Anjou, however, was not of a dis- 
 position tamely to yield her son's inheritance to 
 her husband's rival. Her ambition spurring the 
 Duke of York to anticipate his honours, the 
 compact was of brief duration, and the war it 
 was intended to prevent, commenced with a spirit 
 of condensed hatred, which ended in scenes of 
 cruelty, and extermination, such as can hardly 
 find a parallel in the history of any nation. 
 
 This unnatural feud was not entirely closed until 
 Providence, in compassion to the distracted land, 
 ordained in its own good time, that the sword 
 should be sheathed by the union of these two 
 branches of King Edward's ill-fated house, in the 
 person of the infant prince, who was left with 
 his mother, at Pembroke Castle in Wales, re- 
 ceiving the first rudiments of his education in 
 that land of bards and minstrels, which was laid 
 waste, and almost depopulated by the very 
 monarch, whose offspring we now find striving to 
 exterminate and ruin each other. 
 
 These retrospections are full of salutary lessons 
 for those who would strengthen their faith by study- 
 ing the inscrutable wisdom of Providence. We 
 have here a remarkable instance, how the unlawful 
 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 194. - Rot. Pari. v. 286. 
 
MARGARET 1SEAUF0RT. 
 
 M 
 
 ambition and evil passions of an individual, ap- 
 parently the most favoured and prosperous, may 
 nevertheless fall with heavy retribution on his 
 whole line of descendants in after generations. 
 In the unobtrusive path of private life, the mys- 
 terious workings of an over-ruling Power are 
 not so evident ; but the exalted position of 
 princes renders their lives, as it were, a beacon 
 to warn those in humbler stations against the same 
 evil tendencies, only modified, perhaps, in their 
 case by less extensive powers. By means of the 
 rise and fall of kings, history opens to our 
 contemplation a survey of results so opposed to 
 the limited views of mankind, that the retributive 
 justice of God is made apparent even by the most 
 trivial events. Unimportant, however, as these 
 events may appear if considered singly, yet 
 together, they form so mighty a mass, that, when 
 cast into those scales in which the good and evil 
 of life is more impartially weighed .than repining 
 man is apt to allow, the balance vibrates for a 
 time, until the preponderance of evil, which has 
 gradually been gaining strength in the lapse of 
 years, overturns itself, and causes an ascendancy 
 of the ultimate good which so frequently arises 
 from apparently overwhelming calamity. 
 
 At this juncture of political affairs, among 
 the most zealous supporters of King Henry the 
 Sixth, was the persecuted Owen Tudor, and 
 
64 THE LIFE OF 
 
 his son Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, the grand- 
 father and uncle of the young Earl of Richmond; 
 both of whom bore a most active share in the 
 dangers, and partook of the reverses of fortune, 
 which pressed so heavily on the unoffending 
 monarch. 
 
 During the eventful four years, which followed 
 the open warfare thus ferociously commenced 
 about the period of the Lady Margaret's widow- 
 hood, Henry the Sixth was sometimes a prisoner — 
 sometimes a conqueror ; but never more than 
 nominally a king. It may, therefore, be well be- 
 lieved that he had little power to protect his 
 kindred from calamities to which he was himself 
 subjected, and to which all who were in the re- 
 motest degree connected with the reigning monarch, 
 were peculiarly exposed. 
 
 The delicacy of the Lady Margaret's position, 
 as a De Beaufort and a Somerset by birth, was 
 increased yet more, by the peculiar situation of 
 her son, the young Henry of Richmond, on ac- 
 count of his double relationship to the House 
 of Lancaster. In those days of rapine and vio- 
 lence, high-born and wealthy widowhood was 
 replete with peril. Bereft of her husband when 
 she was herself but little more than a child, 
 and called upon to watch over the interests 
 of her infant son, when her own inexperience 
 almost equally needed a judicious adviser and 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 65 
 
 protector ; the Lady Margaret's trying situation 
 was rendered yet more hazardous by her close 
 alliance with one of the leading factions of that 
 turbulent era. 
 
 In this exigency the . Countess of Richmond 
 entered a second time into the marriage state, 
 and espoused her near relative Sir Humphrey 
 Stafford ; a step which, whether it resulted 
 from expediency or attachment, was certainly 
 a prudent one on her part, as from his near 
 consanguinity, political bias, high rank, and 
 powerful connections, the son of the gallant Duke 
 of Buckingham was peculiarly fitted for the 
 office of guarding and protecting the widowed 
 Margaret, his young and wealthy cousin. 
 
 Descended from Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, 
 sixth son of Edward the Third, this younger 
 branch of the Plantagenets had early espoused, 
 and always continued firm to the house of Lan- 
 caster ; and in consideration of these services to 
 his father, as also to himself, Henry the Sixth, 
 in the twenty-third of his reign, elevated Hum- 
 phrey, Earl of Stafford, his near kinsman, to the 
 dignity of Duke of Buckingham. 1 
 
 The precise year in which the Countess of 
 
 Richmond was united to her second husband, 
 
 is not known ; but sufficient may be gathered 
 
 from public records to place it with certainty 
 
 1 Synopsis of the Peerage, vol. '. p. 16. 
 
 F 
 
66 THE LIFE OF 
 
 about the year 1459. In the assignment to her 
 of certain lands and manors by letters patent 
 37 Hen. VI., she is styled wife of Henry Staf- 
 ford, son of Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, 
 and late wife of Edmund, Earl of Richmond: 1 
 and in the will of the Duke of Buckingham, 
 dated in 1460, he notices her as his daughter 
 in the following bequest : " To my son Henry 
 four hundred marks, to him and to my daughter 
 Margaret, Countess of Richmond, his wife." 2 
 From those and a few other documents, it is 
 evident that she was married to Sir Humphrey 
 Stafford at the above mentioned period : for the 
 valiant nobleman whose will has been quoted, fell 
 bravely fighting for his sovereign in 1460. 
 
 From the testimony, however, of Welsh writers, 
 it appears that the Lady Margaret continued her 
 abode in Pembroke Castle ; and Dr. Fuller states 
 that she there resided for some years, 3 the dis- 
 tracted condition of England affording an uncer- 
 tain asylum for any connections of the falling- 
 House of Lancaster. 
 
 The death of the Duke of York brought matters 
 at length to a crisis. He was slain at the battle 
 of Wakefield, in 1461, and the barbarous order 
 issued bv the Queen to place his head in mockery, 
 
 1 Vincent's Corrections of Brooke, p. 87. 
 
 2 Testamenta Vetusta, p. 297. 
 
 3 Fuller's Cli. Hist., Appendix, sec. vi. p. 89. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 67 
 
 crowned with a paper diadem over the gates of 
 York, so exasperated his party, that, concentrating 
 their forces under the banners of the young Earl 
 of March, the Duke of York's son and heir, 
 they so totally discomfited the king's army, 
 first at Mortimer's Cross, and subsequently at 
 Towton, that Henry the Sixth was compelled to 
 fly into Scotland, and Queen Margaret and the 
 Prince of Wales to take refuge in France. 
 
 The flower of the Lancastrian faction were 
 either slain or afterwards executed without trial, 
 and the dispersed survivors compelled to seek 
 safety by exile or concealment. Proceeding 
 directly to London, the young Duke of York was 
 proclaimed king by the title of Edward the 
 Fourth, and crowned at Westminster, towards 
 the close of the same year, 1461. King Henry 
 imprudently venturing into England, though in 
 disguise, was taken prisoner, and committed to 
 the Tower. The queen, the Prince of Wales, 
 and their adherents, were attainted by act of 
 parliament ; and Edward of York, to reward 
 his own partizans, distributed their lands and 
 possessions amongst such of his followers, as had 
 served him with the greatest zeal and fidelity. 
 Owen Tudor, as before mentioned, with many 
 other distinguished warriors, was beheaded at 
 Hereford ; but Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, eluded 
 the vigilance of his enemies, and flying from 
 
 f 2 
 
68 THE LIFE OF 
 
 England was compelled to wander from country 
 to country, enduring the greatest hardships, and 
 for many years suffering the extreme of penury 
 and want. 
 
 So long as Henry the Sixth retained even the 
 shadow of royalty, the Countess of Richmond 
 and the young earl remained in comparative tran- 
 quillity; but the dethronement of the Lancastrian 
 monarch, and the final ascendancy of the York- 
 ist faction, by the coronation of King Edward 
 the Fourth, led to a material change in the 
 fortunes of the Lady Margaret and her noble 
 son. 
 
 One of the early acts of the new monarch's 
 reign was to attaint the Earl of Richmond, 1 a step 
 probably induced by the active part taken against 
 him by his uncle and guardian, Jasper, Earl 
 of Pembroke, who commanded the Lancastrian 
 forces at Mortimer's Cross, and had ever been 
 the most determined opponent to the claims of 
 the House of York. King Edward, by letters 
 patent, stripped the young Henry Tudor of his 
 territorial possessions, and bestowed them on his 
 own brother George, Duke of Clarence ; but he 
 did not grant him the dignity of Earl of Rich- 
 mond, nor did the royal duke ever assume that 
 title. 3 
 
 1 Rot. Pari. 1. Edw. IV. p. 2., m. 19 and 21. 
 
 2 Report on the Dignity of the Peerage, p. 130. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 69 
 
 The Lady Margaret appears to have been 
 treated more favourably, as by the act of restitu- 
 tion, 1 Ed. IV. 1461, the rights of the Countess 
 of Richmond in lands which she held in dower, 
 of Edmund, late Earl of Richmond, were saved 
 to her, as well as all lands which descended to 
 her from her father John, late Duke of Somerset. 1 
 
 In a similar act to that just cited, in 1464, the 
 interests of Sir Henry Stafford, Knight, and 
 Margaret, his wife, Countess of Richmond in the 
 same lands are allowed, 2 and again the same year 
 her rights are confirmed by another act of par- 
 liament. 3 Whether this leniency arose from her 
 recent alliance with so influential and powerful a 
 family as that of Stafford, or whether the king 
 determined to wreak his vengeance on Jasper 
 Tudor, by attainting and impoverishing his 
 nephew, must remain a mere matter of specula- 
 tion ; the probable inference is, that revenge 
 actuated his conduct to the son, and policy that 
 to the mother. Few, indeed, understood the art 
 of acquiring popular favour so well as Edward 
 the Fourth : not only did he pay marked attention 
 to those who had served him in the most critical 
 time ; but he wisely endeavoured to attach to his 
 interest as many as could be gained by acts of 
 conciliation from the opposite party. 4 Notwith- 
 
 ■ Rot. Pari. v. 471. - Ibid. v. .523. * Ibid. v. 285^ 
 < Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 239. 
 
70 THE LIFE OF 
 
 standing the grace, however, which extended and 
 was continued to the Countess of Richmond ; her 
 near connection with the deposed monarch, and 
 her direct descent from John of Gaunt, rendered 
 both herself and her son objects of jealous watch- 
 fulness to King Edward. Though far removed 
 from the cabals and intrigues of the Court, they 
 were residents in the abode of his bitterest 
 enemy, the outlawed Earl of Pembroke ; whose 
 rich possessions were too important to be left in 
 abeyance when so many who had fought for the 
 House of York were but poorly and insufficiently 
 rewarded. 
 
 Foremost in the number of these was Sir Wil 
 liam Herbert, Lord of Ragland, in Monmouth- 
 shire, who for his manifold services, and eminent 
 merits, obtained a grant to him and his heirs of 
 the Castle, town and lordship of Pembroke, with 
 all its members, and appurtenances. Thither he 
 was forthwith ordered to remove with his family, 
 in consequence of the noble relatives of the at- 
 tainted Jasper Tudor having been committed to 
 his custody, so that from this time the sojourn 
 of the Lady Margaret and her son in Wales, 
 was not by choice as a voluntary home, but by 
 sufferance, and in what might almost be viewed 
 (especially as regards the latter) in the light of state 
 prisoners ; in confirmation of which it is on record 
 that the young Earl of Richmond, at a later 
 
MARGiARET BEAUFORT. 71 
 
 period of his life, informed Philip Comines, the 
 Flemish historian, 1 that he had been in prison, or 
 under strict command, from five years old. Now 
 this was his age at the historical era under con- 
 sideration, and in some respects the change was 
 as advantageous as it must have been pleasing 
 to his youthful fancy. Sir William Herbert's 
 family, consisting of four sons and six daughters, 
 afforded him companions in his own sphere of 
 life, and gave him opportunities to acquire accom- 
 plishments and exercises, that would have been 
 wholly unattainable on account of the retired 
 habits which had been forced on the Countess 
 of Richmond by the distracted state of the land. 
 
 But these advantages were more than counter- 
 balanced in the estimation of his anxious parent, 
 by the perilous situation in which the attainder of 
 himself and the heads of his family had placed 
 her only child. She viewed with misgiving and 
 alarm the rigour exercised against the line of 
 Lancaster. She felt that his tender years were 
 his only protection, and that he was left unmo- 
 lested in Pembroke Castle, merely as a hostage 
 for his outlawed kindred. The Lady Margaret 
 had a greatness of soul, that could sustain any 
 personal evil, and endure with equanimity the 
 extremes of good or bad fortune ; because her 
 thoughts were unceasingly fixed on a better state 
 1 Philip de Comines, v. p. 514. 
 
72 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of existence, so that she was neither elated with 
 prosperity, nor could be wholly subdued by ad- 
 versity. 1 But as regards her son her emotions 
 were strong, and her anxiety painfully acute. He 
 had been the infant sharer of her affliction, he 
 was the chief object of her solicitude, and for 
 him she entertained the most fervent affection : 
 all, therefore, that regarded his present and pos- 
 sibly his future career, excited her feelings most 
 powerfully ; and the ardour with which she de- 
 voted herself to his interests, to guarding his 
 childish days from evil, and striving to invigorate 
 his dawning intellect against sudden reverses or 
 unlooked-for dangers, was never obliterated from 
 his mind. Its remembrance indeed was cherished 
 to his latest years, with a warmth of feeling — 
 a respectful deference, well merited from the 
 anxiety and forethought exercised by the young 
 Countess of Richmond, the admired heiress of 
 Somerset, in the prime of her youth and beauty, 
 from a tender desire to guard and protect the 
 offspring of her early love. 
 
 The tendency of the precepts so strongly 
 impressed on the ductile mind of his infancy 
 was soon shown in the opening character of the 
 young Earl. He grew up sad, serious, and circum- 
 spect ; full of thought, and secret observation ; 
 peaceable in disposition, just and merciful in 
 
 1 Fisher's Funeral Sermon, p. 29. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 73 
 
 action. From the old Flemish historians, 1 and 
 his biographer Lord Bacon, 2 it further appears, 
 that " He was fair and well spoken, with singular 
 sweetness and blandishment of words, rather 
 studious than learned, with a devotional cast of 
 countenance ; for he was marvellously religious 
 both in affection and observance." 
 
 These were the characteristics developed in 
 the child whom Sir William Herbert and his 
 family found resident with his mother, in their 
 newly allotted domain of Pembroke Castle. He 
 appears to have excited no common degree of 
 interest in the hearts of his guardians, and to 
 have continued to win upon their love and affec- 
 tion, as he advanced in years, as it is asserted, 
 that by the Lady Herbert he was well and care- 
 fully educated, 3 and that Sir William desired to 
 see him wedded to his favourite daughter Maud. 4 
 So tranquilly, indeed, did the lives of both 
 families glide on, in their secluded abode, that a 
 betrothment as youthful as that of the Lady 
 Margaret with Edmund Tudor, might possibly 
 have been the result, had not a counter-revolution 
 again rent asunder the ties of domestic comfort, 
 and once more plunged the land into all the 
 horrors of civil war. 
 
 1 Philip do Comines, Froissart, and Lobineau. 
 
 2 Bacon's Hen. VII., p. 244, 240', and 233. 
 
 3 Polydore Virgil, 522, f. 10. 4 Dugdalc, ii.p. 239. 
 
74 THE LIFE OF 
 
 In the eighth year of King Edward's reign, the 
 indefatigable and zealous Jasper Tudor having by 
 unceasing efforts collected a small body of men, 
 landed in North Wales, where he was soon joined 
 by his kindred. He was, however, speedily op- 
 posed by Sir William Herbert, who compelling 
 him, by the most determined and continued defeat, 
 again to fly the realm ; the king, after having be- 
 stowed on this faithful adherent fresh honours, 
 completed the measure of his favours, by advanc- 
 ing him to the title of Earl of Pembroke, which 
 was then in the Crown, by the attainder of his 
 brave opponent. 
 
 But the popularity of the gallant monarch had 
 long been on the wane. Addicted wholly to 
 pleasure, and devoting his days to frivolous dis- 
 sipation, and indolent enjoyment, Edward the 
 Fourth gave, in time of peace, full opportunity for 
 his enemies to rally their strength, and prepare 
 for renewed warfare. Having mortally offended 
 the potent Earl of Warwick, and many other of 
 the chief leaders of his party, by imprudently 
 marrying the beautiful widow of a Lancastrian 
 noble ; conspiracies and cabals, gave indication 
 of the approaching storm which had long been 
 gathering on the political horizon. 
 
 In the year 1468, open rebellion was declared 
 in the north ; the new Earl of Pembroke and his 
 brother Sir Richard Herbert, assembled a con- 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 7^> 
 
 siderable body of the Welsh to oppose the insur- 
 rection ; but their party being vanquished at 
 Banbury with great loss, the two brothers, after 
 performing prodigies of valour, 1 were taken pri- 
 soners and beheaded at Northampton. The earl 
 by his last testament repeated the desire so long 
 indulged, that his daughter Maud should marry 
 the Lord Henry of Richmond. 2 
 
 The Lancastrian leaders having returned from 
 France, with a powerful force, headed by the 
 Earl of Warwick; Edward the Fourth, after brief 
 but vigorous resistance, was compelled to flee the 
 country, and abdicate the throne. The unfor- 
 tunate Henry the Sixth was taken from the 
 Tower, where he had been imprisoned nearly 
 nine years, and on the 6th October, 1470, with 
 great pomp was restored to his kingdom, and rein- 
 stated in his authority as sovereign of the realm. 
 
 Among the number of the exiled nobility who 
 accompanied the Earl of Warwick, was Jasper 
 Tudor : landing safely in the west with a deter- 
 mined band, he forthwith proceeded into Wales, 
 to visit his territory and increase his force. There 
 he found the Countess of Richmond, and his 
 orphan nephew, resident in the custody of the 
 widow of the brave and recently ennobled Earl 
 of Pembroke. 3 
 
 1 Angloruni Speculum, 9G0'. 2 Dugdalc's Baron, ii. p. 241. 
 3 Cottun MS. Dom. xviii. f. 135. 
 
76 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Though strictly watched, and considered in the 
 light of a captive, the youthful Earl had been 
 most courteously treated, and honourably brought 
 up, by the Lady Herbert. Andreas Scott, a priest 
 of Oxford, is stated to have been his preceptor, 
 and Henry's contemporary biographer (before 
 alluded to) in recording this fact, 1 mentions also 
 the eulogiums bestowed by him on his great 
 capacity, and aptitude for study. 
 
 Nevertheless, as he was now fourteen years of 
 age, and as his close imprisonment had deprived 
 him of many advantages suitable to his high 
 estate, his uncle immediately took him from 
 Wales, and carried him to London, where, after 
 being presented to King Henry the Sixth, he was 
 placed as a scholar at Eton ;* a college founded 
 by that pious monarch in his more prosperous 
 days. This singularly amiable prince, fitted by 
 his praise-worthy qualities to shine in private life, 
 though unhappily for himself and his kindred, 
 not possessing the talent suited to rule over a 
 contested and disunited realm, was attending a 
 feast at his munificent foundation of Eton, 
 shortly after Henry of Richmond had been placed 
 there. Chancing accidentally to cast his eyes on 
 him, he steadfastly regarded him for a time, and 
 then turning to the assembled nobles, he ex- 
 claimed, as it would seem prophetically, " This 
 
 1 Sandfoicl's Gencal. vi. ch. 10. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 77 
 
 is the lad who shall possess that for which we now 
 strive." 1 
 
 K. Henri/. — " My Lord of Somerset what youth is that 
 
 Of whom you seem to have so tender care ?" 
 
 Som. — " My liege, it is young Henry, Earl of Richmond." 
 K. Henri/. — "Come hither, England's hope. If secret powers 
 
 Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts, 
 
 This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss. 
 
 His looks are full of peaceful majesty ; 
 
 His head by nature fram'd to wear a crown, 
 
 His hand to wield a sceptre; and himself 
 
 Likely, in time, to bless a regal throne. 
 
 Make much of him, my lords ; for this is lie, 
 
 Must help you more, than you arc hurt by me." 
 
 Henri/ VI. Scene vi, Act iv. 
 
 This prognostication, thus beautifully rendered 
 by the immortal Shakspeare, had a strong influ- 
 ence on Richmond's after-life. It early fixed the 
 eyes of the court upon him, and proves also the 
 light in which he was considered from his boy- 
 hood by the Lancastrian leaders. In all the con- 
 flicts that ensued, both for the regency and the 
 throne, his mother's family, the powerful Somer- 
 sets, had enlisted themselves as interested parties ; 
 and Henry the Sixth may probably have had it in 
 view to nominate Richmond as his successor, in 
 the event of his own son's death without issue : 
 for the Lady Margaret's offspring in that case 
 would have been his nearest heir in descent from 
 1 Bacon's Hen. VII., p. 247. 
 
78 THE LIFE OF 
 
 John of Gaunt. Whatever may have been the 
 cause of the seemingly prophetic ejaculation, it 
 sufficiently accounts for the jealousy felt by the 
 Yorkists towards the young Earl, and for the per- 
 secutions he was quickly to endure at their hands. 
 
 During the brief triumph of the Lancastrian 
 party by the liberation of Henry the Sixth, his 
 maternal brother Jasper Tudor, was reinstated in 
 his Earldom, and fully restored to all his honours 
 and possessions ; but it was a very temporary en- 
 joyment. A few months enabled Edward the 
 Fourth to collect a sufficient body of foreign 
 mercenaries, and to land privately at Ravenspur, 
 in Yorkshire, and though prudently avoiding the 
 hazard of a battle, he made himself so formidable 
 to his opponents as he advanced towards the 
 metropolis, that Jasper Tudor felt the necessity 
 of withdrawing the young Earl, his nephew, from 
 Eton, and sending him again for greater security 
 to Wales; the Lady Margaret, his mother, having 
 continued to sojourn there until more tranquil 
 times enabled her to remove elsewhere with 
 safety. 
 
 The signal defeat of the Lancastrians at the 
 battle of Barnet, speedily laid prostrate the short- 
 lived hopes of the Red Rose faction, which were 
 wholly crushed by the result of the conflict at 
 Tewksbury, and the deaths which immediately 
 followed, first of the Prince of Wales, and then 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 79 
 
 of his ill-fated and care-worn parent ; for having 
 been again taken prisoner, and again deposed and 
 committed to the Tower, he died there suddenly 
 in the year 1471, leaving his rival Edward the 
 Fourth in quiet possession of the throne.* 
 
 The demise of these two princes placed the 
 Countess of Richmond and the young Earl, in 
 a very different position from that, which they had 
 hitherto held. 
 
 By the death of Edward, Prince of Wales, 
 Henry the Sixth's only child, the royal family 
 of the Lancastrian line had become extinct ; and 
 the offspring of the Lady Margaret, the represen- 
 tative and heiress of the eldest surviving male 
 
 * The MS. recently published by the Camden Society, 
 from the original in the British Museum (Harl. MSS. 543, 
 f. 3,) satisfactorily controverts the long accredited tale, that 
 Edward, Prince of AY ales, was assassinated in cold blood 
 after the battle of Tewksbury, by the heads of the House 
 of York ; and that Henry the Sixth was. inhumanly mur- 
 dered in the Tower, by the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards 
 Richard the Third. At page 30 of the above cited MS., 
 the author says, " Edward called Prince, was taken 
 fleinge to to wne- wards, and slayne in the field." And in 
 recording the death of Henry the Sixth, p. 38, he asserts 
 that of pure displeasure and melancholy he died the xxiij day 
 of the month of May." A fact perfectly reconcileable with 
 the debilitated state to which long illness, constitutional in- 
 firmities, and undue exertion had reduced the unhappy monarch . 
 — See "The historic of the arrival of King Edward the Fourth 
 in England, and the finall rccoveryc of his kingdomes from 
 Henry the Sixth." 
 
80 THE LIFE OF 
 
 branch of John of Gaunt's descendants, became, 
 in the estimation of the vanquished faction, not 
 merely the head of their almost exterminated 
 race, but also the next heir to the throne, and 
 lawful inheritor of the deceased monarch's pos- 
 sessions. Henry of Richmond, however, was 
 considered to have derived but an imperfect title 
 to the crown from his illustrious mother, in conse- 
 quence of the illegitimate connection which stig- 
 matised her descent from the House of Lancas- 
 ter. " A disabling brand," as justly observed by 
 a modern author, " in that day of proud nobi- 
 lity." 1 It is true the De Beauforts had been 
 legitimated by act of parliament, February 1397, 
 and enabled to enjoy all lands and hereditary 
 seignories ; but the charter, it was generally con- 
 sidered, conferred on them no pretension to 
 the crown, there being a special exception 
 with respect to the royal dignity. It would ap- 
 pear, however, from recent discoveries that the 
 Lady Margaret and her illustrious son pos- 
 sessed higher claim to the throne than has 
 hitherto been surmised; or than they probably 
 themselves believed. In the original letters 
 patent obtained by the Duke of Lancaster, from 
 Richard the Second, 1397, 2 there is neither re- 
 servation nor exception whatsoever. The De 
 
 1 Sharon Turner, vol. iii. p. 230. 
 
 "- Rot. Pari. 20 Rich. II. vol. iii. p. 3*3. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 81 
 
 Beauforts were to be " admitted to all honours 
 and all dignities." 
 
 At the time, however, when this legitimacy was 
 thus amicably established, the children of John of 
 Gaunt appeared far removed from all prospect of 
 inheriting the crown ; but Henry the Fourth hav- 
 ing usurped it, from Richard the Second, and 
 possession being secured to him by act of par- 
 liament, in defiance of the hereditary claims of 
 elder branches of Edward the Third's family; the 
 De Beauforts as the nearest kindred of the 
 reigning sovereign, were placed in a far different 
 position. Whether actuated by jealousy of his 
 recently acknowledged brothers, or whether as a 
 usurper himself, he was keenly alive to the possi- 
 bility of rivalship in them, need not here be dis- 
 cussed, and would, indeed, be at best a mere 
 opinion : it is only the result of his conduct that 
 is important, since his jealous precautions gave 
 rise to the belief that the Somersets, who acted 
 so conspicuous a part during the reigns of the 
 Lancastrian monarchs, were excluded from all 
 heirship or succession to the throne. 
 
 The Duke of Somerset, on Henry's accession, 
 applied to him to exemplify and confirm the act 
 of legitimation granted by his predecessor. He 
 acceded, but it would seem not without effecting 
 a most material change in the original document ;' 
 
 1 Exeerpta Historica, 152, 
 G 
 
82 THE LIFE OF 
 
 for it appears that in the reign of Henry the 
 Fourth, after the words all "honours and dignities," 
 an interlineation of the words, " except to the 
 royal dignity," was added to the enrolment on the 
 Patent Rolls ; J in a somewhat different hand, and 
 altogether a different coloured ink. This clause 
 is presumed to have been inserted by that monarch 
 in his exemplification to the Earl of Somerset, in 
 1407, just ten years after the original grant, an 
 interval of time sufficiently small to account for 
 the universally received opinion that the De 
 Beauforts were from the first excluded from all 
 claims to the English throne. This most singular 
 and curious discovery shows that Henry of Rich- 
 mond was indeed the lineal heir of John of Gaunt, 
 and the representative, as he asserted, of the 
 House of Lancaster. 2 
 
 But the fearful era which marked the wars of the 
 Roses, was one in which the sword triumphed 
 over law and justice, no right was acknowledged, 
 but that of power — no claim admitted, but by 
 force of arms. The Lady Margaret and her son 
 were generally believed to be excluded from all 
 pretension to the throne ; but even had their 
 claim been allowed, the priority of those of York 
 was incontestable. Nevertheless the near rela- 
 tionship of Edmund Tudor to the deposed 
 
 1 See Appendix B. 
 
 2 Privy Purse Expences of Elizabeth of York, p. 61. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 83 
 
 monarch, coupled with the consanguinity of 
 Margaret of Lancaster to the fallen House, made 
 her offspring an object of jealous apprehension, 
 to the White Rose faction, and of hopeful ex- 
 pectation to its rival. 
 
 After the defeat of his party at Tewksbury, 
 Jasper Tudor took refuge in his almost impregna- 
 ble castle at Pembroke, in which, for equal secu- 
 rity, his nephew and the Countess his mother were 
 still sojourning. Assured that as long as any of 
 King Henry's kindred lived, and were at liberty, 
 he should never be free from plots against his 
 life and throne, Edward the Fourth endeavoured 
 to entrap the cautious Earl, when he heard of his 
 escape after the great overthrow of his party ; 
 but Jasper eluded his vigilance, and took summary 
 vengeance on the treachery of the spies who were 
 sent to dispatch him. 
 
 Finding, however, that the king had re-instated 
 the son and heir of Sir William Herbert in the 
 earldom of Pembroke, he foresaw that strong 
 measures would be speedily adopted for his 
 capture. He resolved, therefore, to be prepared 
 for defence ; nor were his precautions unneeded, 
 for he was besieged in his fortress by Morgan ap 
 Thomas, a zealous friend and partisan of the 
 House of York, by whom he was so closely pressed, 
 that he must soon have surrendered, had not 
 David ap Thomas, another brother, who had era- 
 
 g 2 
 
84 THE LIFE OF 
 
 braced the Lancastrian cause, come promptly and 
 opportunely to his assistance. This chieftain, 
 aware that King Edward's object was to prevent 
 the illustrious inmates escaping out of the country, 
 hastily collected a strong body of ill-armed, but 
 resolute Welsh, who falling unexpectedly on the 
 besiegers, compelled them to retire; and in the 
 confusion which ensued, their brave deliverer fol- 
 lowing up his victory, conveyed the Countess of 
 Richmond with her son, and Jasper Tudor, to 
 Tenby, from whence they immediately embarked 
 and sailed for the coast of France ; the Earl 
 of Pembroke having not long before been 
 most courteously received by Louis the Eleventh, 
 when, with other of the exiled noblesse, he had 
 rallied round the standard of the unfortunate 
 Margaret of Anjou and Prince Edward of Lan- 
 caster, prior to their last visit to England. 
 
 But their trials were only slightly diminished, 
 when the fugitives escaped from their enemies. 
 The elements appeared to conspire against them, 1 
 for scarcely had they put to sea, when an awful storm 
 arose, which not only threatened their destruc- 
 tion, but frustrated all their plans, as regarded 
 landing in France. The wind being contrary, and 
 its violence extreme, they were driven far out of 
 their course, and, after having been placed in im- 
 minent peril, and preserved by little less than a 
 miracle, they were at length cast upon the shores 
 
 i Buck. Rich. III. p. 16. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 85 
 
 of Brittany. They gained St. Maloes with some 
 difficulty, and were resting there to recruit their 
 exhausted energies, when fresh evil was at hand, 
 to damp their small stock of remaining courage ; 
 for information having been forwarded to Francis, 
 the reigning Duke of that state, he forthwith or- 
 dered them to be arrested, and conveyed as pri- 
 soners to the castle of Vannes. 
 
 This breach of hospitality has been ascribed to 
 various causes, though by none can it be justified. 
 The most probable motive for their capture 
 seems to have been the advantage that was likely 
 to result to Duke Francis, from their detention as 
 hostages to restrain within bounds the ambition 
 of the English Monarch, and to reap the full be- 
 nefit which must accrue to the Duchy, from a se- 
 cure alliance with England, in case of a rupture 
 between himself and the French King. The pre- 
 diction of Henry the Sixth, it seems, had reached 
 his ears, and that he had heard, from others, that 
 Richmond would reign. Subsequent events prove 
 the policy of the Duke's foresight, though it did 
 not palliate his ungenerous conduct in arresting 
 the unfortunate shipwrecked party ; for he was en- 
 abled to keep the English completely under sub- 
 jection so long as the head of the Lancastrian 
 faction remained at his disposal, and no less to 
 trifle with the French King, 1 who, from his own 
 motives, strove to obtain possession of a rival so 
 1 Vide the Treaty of Picquiny, in II? 1. 
 
86 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 dreaded by Edward the Fourth. That King was 
 indeed outrageous, when he heard of the flight of 
 the noble party, 1 and was only calmed by learning 
 they were prisoners, with his ally, the Duke of 
 Brittany, instead of exiles at the court of a Mo- 
 narch, whose actions were so opposed to his pro- 
 fessions, as those of Louis the Eleventh. At any 
 sacrifice, however, would Edward of York have 
 ransomed them into his own power ; he sent costly 
 presents to Francis, and offered him great rewards 
 for their delivery ; but the wary Duke feigned that 
 he could not, in honour, abandon those whom 
 calamity had cast on his protection. He pledged 
 himself, however, for their safe custody, and en- 
 gaged to keep so unceasing a watch over their ac- 
 tions, that King Edward could, by no possibility, 
 be endangered, either in his person or throne. 
 
 With this promise, the Monarch was compelled 
 to rest satisfied, and the young Henry Tudor' 2 was 
 once more closely imprisoned. His personal at- 
 tendants were withdrawn and dismissed shortly after 
 to their homes, native Bretons being appointed by 
 Duke Francis in their stead ; and, to increase the 
 severity exercised towards him, he was also sepa- 
 rated from his uncle Jasper Tudor, who was sent 
 to a distant fortress, and there guarded with ex- 
 treme vigilance. 3 The Castle of Vannes, where 
 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 215. 2 Philip de Comines, 1, 514. 
 3 Lobineau's Hist. Bretagnc, 1, p. 751. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 87 
 
 the Earl continued, was strictly watched within, 
 and surrounded without by a guard of sol- 
 diers, 1 so that, though treated with the courtesy 
 befitting their elevated rank, the Lord of Pem- 
 broke, and his noble nephew, were considered as 
 state prisoners, and continued to be viewed as 
 such for a length of time. 
 
 The youthful Earl of Richmond was now about 
 fifteen years of age, and, even from his birth, can 
 scarcely be said to have enjoyed the blessings of 
 liberty. Hitherto, however, he had benefited by 
 the wise counsel, and been made happy by the 
 society of his mother ; but at this period, the 
 sorrows of the Lady Margaret and her son were 
 heightened by the pang of separation. 
 
 The annals of the Duchy of Brittany make no 
 mention of the Countess, when treating of circum- 
 stances connected with the imprisonment of the 
 Earl of Pembroke or the young Henry of Rich- 
 mond. 2 Tradition asserts, that she accompanied 
 them in their perilous voyage ; 3 but the probability 
 is, that she proceeded no further than Tenby ; the 
 Earl of Pembroke having proposed, before they 
 were besieged by Morgan ap Thomas, that his 
 
 1 Froissart. 
 
 2 Buck, p. 1G. 
 
 3 Rymer, speaking of after events in her life, says " Marga- 
 ret, mother to the Earl of Richmond who was a refugee in 
 Bretagne," vol. ii. p. 2. 
 
88 THE LIFE OF 
 
 nephew should flee with him to France for secu- 
 rity ; his grandmother, Katherine of Valois (wife 
 of Owen ap Tudor) having been aunt to the 
 reigning monarch. The Lady Margaret, however, 
 opposed the scheme, and suggested their trusting 
 to the many strongholds in Wales, but Jasper 
 knew that Richmond's life would be sought, and 
 subsequent events made his alarmed parent gladly 
 consent to his seeking safety by flight ; whether, 
 therefore, she accompanied them to Brittany, and 
 was compelled to return to England, when his 
 retinue were dismissed, and his uncle removed to 
 another fortress, or whether she voluntarily re- 
 signed her child to the protection of Jasper Tudor, 
 under the impression that her presence might em- 
 barrass their future efforts at escape, is not known. 
 As, however, frequent allusions are made to the 
 hardships which she endured for the sake of her 
 son, it may confidently be inferred that the Lady 
 Margaret had to struggle with severe trials, before 
 she could establish herself in any part of her in- 
 heritance, and that the personal sufferings of both 
 parent and child were greatly aggravated by a pre- 
 mature and hopeless separation. 
 
 The exterminating and disastrous wars which, 
 with little intermission, had marked the epoch 
 from the marriage of Margaret Beaufort with Ed- 
 mund Tudor to the period of their son's im- 
 prisonment in the Castle of Vannes, was no less 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 89 
 
 fraught with misery to England than with deso- 
 lation to the kindred of both their illustrious 
 families. The Duchess of Somerset, her mother, 
 was dead, and slept by the side of her valiant hus- 
 band, at Wimborne Minster ; Leo, Lord Welles, 
 the Lady Margaret's father-in-law, was killed at the 
 battle of Towton; that of. St. Alban's numbered 
 her uncle, the Duke of Somerset, amongst its slain ; 
 Mortimer's Cross terminated the career of Owen 
 ap Tudor, and the chief of her son's Welsh connec- 
 tions ; while Northampton was rendered memor- 
 able, by the fall of the Duke of Buckingham, the 
 gallant father of her present husband. Of the 
 many noble and distinguished relatives who had 
 hailed the descendant of John of Gaunt, as the 
 bride of the King's brother, little more than ten 
 years previously, scarcely one now remained, when 
 the Countess of Richmond returned to the home 
 of her birth, and sought out the remnant of those 
 ties of kindred, the greater portion - of which was 
 so painfully and irrevocably broken. 
 
 Fearful, indeed, had been the changes, both po- 
 litical and domestic, during her seclusion in Wales. 
 King Henry the Sixth, after being four times a 
 prisoner, and twice deprived of his kingdom, slept 
 with his forefathers, as did his ill-fated and princely 
 son. Queen Margaret of Anjou, ransomed by 
 her father from imprisonment, was a widow, and 
 childless, a broken-hearted exile in her native land. 
 
90 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The bitterest enemies of their race wielded 
 the sceptre of England ; the devoted friends of 
 their house were outcasts and wanderers. Ed- 
 ward of York, after having been himself a 
 prisoner, compelled to fly the country, de- 
 prived of his crown, and proclaimed an usurper 
 and traitor by his own brother, the Duke of Cla- 
 rence, and his once firm friend the Earl of War- 
 wick, was seated, more firmly than before, on the 
 throne of his ancestors ; with the unassuming, 
 Lady Margaret, and her exiled child, as his only 
 rivals, and probable opponents. 
 
 The blood royal of England, indeed, was nearly 
 extinguished, and the flower of its nobility had 
 perished in the field, or on the scaffold. The 
 hereditary, and rich provinces in France, which 
 had belonged to the Kings of England, were irre- 
 coverably lost. Ireland was a wilderness, — the 
 national wealth was exhausted — and the people op- 
 pressed with evils of every kind, were sunk in the 
 depths of ignorance and misery. 1 Darkness might 
 truly be said to overshadow the land. Parents had 
 fought against their children ; fathers had fallen 
 by the hands of their sons ; brothers betrayed each 
 other into the power of the enemy, and every tie, 
 human and divine, was severed and disregarded. 
 No wonder that literature did not advance, or that 
 the kingdom was without knowledge. No wonder 
 1 Camden's Britt. vol. 2, p. 916. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. ( Jl 
 
 that a veil has been tacitly drawn over the era that 
 marks the wars of the Roses ; an era that reduced 
 the glories of our once favoured isle, to the 
 ferocious barbarity of her primitive and savage 
 state ; an era that made her chieftains executioners 
 — her people the victims of penury and want. 
 
 A fearful picture this of the misery which civil 
 war entails on countless multitudes. Would that 
 in this matter we could believe the prejudices 
 of party spirit had multiplied the extent of the 
 evil, or the pen of romance under the garb of 
 history, transformed, by its embellishment, simple 
 truth to almost incredible fiction; but one of the 
 most indefatigable writers of the present age 1 has 
 only confirmed by his valuable researches, and 
 plain unvarnished statement, the harrowing scenes 
 impressed upon the youthful mind for centuries 
 past by the Bard of Avon. 2 
 
 Leaving then Edward the Fourth in tranquil 
 possession of a throne which was so fiercely con- 
 tested and so dearly purchased, it will be refresh- 
 ing to pass from public to private life; and con- 
 sider a little more in detail, that domestic career 
 of the Countess of Richmond from which attention 
 has been somewhat too largely withdrawn by the 
 review of political events. 
 
 With that discretion which she so frequently 
 
 1 Sharon Turner, vol. iii, pp. 299 — 373. 
 
 2 Henry vi. act ii. scene v. 
 
92 THE LIFE OF 
 
 displayed in avoiding danger by precautionary 
 measures, and which, as before observed, so strongly 
 marked her character, the Lady Margaret shunned 
 all contact with her enemies, by leading a life of 
 the strictest privacy, in the most secluded places of 
 her inheritance. A great part of her possessions 
 and those of her son, had been wrested from them 
 during their abode in Wales, or had passed into 
 other hands in that turbulent and uncertain period. 
 Baynard's Castle had been held by the house of 
 York from the time of her first husband's decease, 
 and was now the palace of the king and the 
 occasional residence of his mother Cicely, Duchess 
 of York ; and the county of Richmondshire, with 
 its castle and rich domains, had been taken from 
 the exiled Earl, and bestowed by the reigning 
 monarch, first upon his brother the Duke of 
 Clarence, 1 and after his death, upon Richard of 
 Gloucester. 2 Notwithstanding these changes, and 
 many which bore more immediately on her own 
 individual patrimony, her manorial rights, and rich 
 lands in various counties were so valuable, and 
 yielded, as may be judged from her immense wealth 
 in after years, so large a revenue, that it may reason- 
 ably be inferred that the Lady Margaret, with her 
 prudent foresight, and strong maternal feelings, 
 judiciously devoted this period of her life to 
 
 1 Rot. Pat. 11 Ed. IV. pars 2. m. 19 and 21. 
 2 Rot. Pat. 18 Ed. IV. pars I. m. 22. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 93 
 
 provident measures for the endowment of her 
 now portionless child ; King Edward, on his 
 restoration, having confiscated the lands and 
 goods of all persons that had taken part against 
 him, or fled from the arm of the law. ' 
 
 She seems to have dwelt for some time at Tor- 
 rington, in Devonshire ; for it is on record that the 
 manse being far removed from the church, she 
 bestowed on the minister there and his suc- 
 cessors, her manor-house and lands appertaining 
 to it which were situated close to the sacred 
 edifice.' 2 
 
 By her charities at Wimborne, Hatfield, and 
 Fordham, she probably sojourned also at each of 
 these places occasionally ; but her chief residence 
 was Colly weston 3 in Northamptonshire, where she 
 erected a stately mansion, on the site of one com- 
 menced by Lord Cromwell, lord treasurer to 
 Henry the Sixth. 4 The property on which it stood 
 was important 5 by reason of the slate quarries ad- 
 joining; and the spirit of benevolence which was so 
 inherent in her nature, had here ample scope for 
 its exercise, in mitigating the sufferings of the 
 hard-working poor, who laboured at the building 
 she was erecting, or wrought in the adjacent 
 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 213. - Magna Brit. p. 489. 
 
 3 Leland's Itin. vol. i. p. 23. 
 
 4 Leland's Itin. vol. vi. p. 28. 
 
 5 Camden's Brit. vol. i. p. 52fi. 
 
94 THE LIFE OF 
 
 mines. Charity indeed appears to have been the 
 mainspring of her every thought and action. It 
 was this charity that led her to shun the path of 
 discord, and strive for that of peace ; to endure 
 evil from her enemies with meekness and patience, 
 and to submit to the trials of her allotted path 
 with cheerfulness, humility, and fortitude. 
 
 Though practising in the overstrained spirit 
 of the faith in which she had been nurtured, the 
 most rigid mortification, and voluntarily enduring 
 the most painful self-discipline, she was always 
 mindful of the sufferings of others. Her deep 
 sense of religion has justly been the theme 
 of eulogium to all who have recorded her virtues, 
 and whilst she austerely performed the rites 
 appointed by the papal church, she so uni- 
 formly blended with these the steady practice of 
 every moral duty, that her actions excite the 
 admiration of the present generation, as they did 
 that of the far distant, and unenlightened period 
 in which she flourished. 1 
 
 In the performance of her conjugal and maternal 
 duties, she has been justly held up as a bright ex- 
 ample to her sex. Nevertheless every earthly feel- 
 ing was chastened by the higher claims due to her 
 Maker. It was her habit to rise at five, and she 
 invariably passed the time till ten — the dinner-time 
 of that period — in deep meditation and prayer. 
 The remainder of the day was given to the exercise . 
 1 Hartley Coleridge, Worthies of Yorkshire. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 95 
 
 of every virtue that could adorn with christian grace 
 her exalted rank. Wherever was her abiding place, 
 blessings followe'd the steps of the illustrious Mar- 
 garet. Thus disposed to religion and charity, 
 she was peculiarly qualified for the secluded life 
 which she had been called upon to lead, first 
 by necessity, and now by choice, while sorrowing 
 in secret for her son's exile. Happily her studi- 
 ous habits rendered her retirement anything but 
 irksome, while it induced the cultivation of talents, 
 the result of which has added to her fame by 
 ranking her amongst the earliest of England's 
 female authors, and which led to her proving 
 in more peaceful days, the patron of able con- 
 temporaries, and one of the greatest benefac- 
 tors to learning, either of her own or of succeed- 
 ing ages. 
 
 At what precise period the Lady Margaret com- 
 menced the works that have been handed down to 
 posterity is uncertain, but probably, the task that 
 devolved on her of superintending the education of 
 her son, the young Henry of Richmond, during their 
 lengthened sojourn in Wales, first led her to devote 
 a portion of each day to translating from French 
 into English, books of scholastic divinity. 
 
 This laborious task would scarcely perhaps be 
 admitted as a claim to authorship in these favoured 
 times, when vocabularies and lexicons are abundant, 
 and books of reference easy of access and cheaply 
 purchased ; but before the invention of printing, and 
 
96 THE LIFE OF 
 
 more especially at so dark an era as the close of the 
 fifteenth century, the merit of translation with exact- 
 ness, and the positive toil and talent requisite for the 
 employment, render these labours one of the most 
 interesting and remarkable features in her history. 
 That these extremely rare and curious MSS., the 
 work of the Countess of Richmond, were the pro- 
 duce of the prime and vigour of her days, seems 
 probable, from their being amongst the earliest 
 and most valuable specimens extant of English 
 typography; and that she was eminent for studious 
 habits, and remarkable for close application to 
 books during the time of her second marriage, is 
 shown by the will of her husband's mother, the 
 Duchess Dowager of Buckingham, who bequeathed 
 her in her last testament the following legacy : — 
 
 " To my daughter of Richmond, a book of 
 English, called ' Legenda Sanctorum,' being a 
 legend of saints: — A book of French, called 
 * Lucun;' another book in French of the Epistles 
 and Gospels, and a primmer with clasps of silver 
 gilt, covered with purple velvet." 1 — A considerable 
 legacy this, for that age, both as regards the rarity 
 and intrinsic worth of the bequest. 
 
 On the taking of Paris about fifty years 
 previous, the Duke of Bedford sent in triumph 
 to England the royal library of France, 2 which, 
 although it consisted of only 800 volumes, was 
 
 1 Testamenta Vetusta, p. 357. 2 Life of Caxton, p. 15. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 97 
 
 valued at 2,300/., an enormous sum at that 
 period. These works, which were of course all 
 iu MSS., afterwards formed the foundation of 
 the library which was bestowed by Humphery, 
 Duke of Gloucester, on the University of Oxford 
 in the year 1440, when, out of 600 volumes, 
 120 alone, we are told, were valued at more 
 than 1000/. of the money of that day. 
 
 These facts, though not immediately connected 
 with the Lady Margaret's history, are inserted to 
 strengthen her claim to be classed amongst those 
 literary female characters, whose writings and skill 
 in languages, have ranked them amongst the 
 learned of the land. The bequest of the Duchess 
 of Buckingham shows the nature of the books 
 that were alone likely to be attainable by her 
 daughter-in-law, and the scarcity and great 
 cost of such works as were needful to aid her 
 in the task of translation, is apparent from the 
 great value and limited extent of public and royal 
 libraries at the time that Margaret of Lancaster 
 headed the list of the learned women of England. 
 As regards choice of language, and purity of 
 diction, her productions are deservedly held high 
 in estimation, as standard specimens of the style 
 of that age; for the merits of a work should be 
 estimated by the difficulties to be surmounted in 
 its accomplishment at the time, and not merely by 
 
 H 
 
98 THE LIFE OF 
 
 comparison with similar undertakings at a later 
 period. 
 
 Among the works which were the result of 
 the Lady Margaret's studious hours, (or rather 
 such as have been preserved to the present 
 day,) stands conspicuous : " The Mirroure of 
 Golde for the Sinfull Soule," previously trans- 
 lated at Paris, from a Latin work, entitled 
 " Speculum Aureum Peccatorum," and sub- 
 sequently, rendered, by her, from French into 
 English. 
 
 The preface of this exceedingly rare, and 
 curious book, (of which a very fine copy is pre- 
 served in the valuable Biblical library of His 
 Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex,) makes us 
 acquainted with the nature of its contents, which 
 are as follows : " For to know the order and 
 maner how to procede in this lytell boke, it is to 
 know it shall be divided in seven chapitoures after 
 the seven dayes of the weeke, To thentent that 
 the synfull soule, soy led and defouled by synne, 
 maye, in every chapitoure, have a new mirroure, 
 wherein he may beholde and consider the face of 
 his soule." 
 
 The table of these chapters is as follows : 
 
 " Firste — Of the filthines and miserie of 
 man. 
 
 " Seconde — Of synnes in generalle, and of 
 their effectes. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFOKT. 99 
 
 " Thyrde — Howe they ought hastily, with all 
 diligence to do penance. 
 
 " Fourthe. — Howe they ought to flee the 
 worlde. 
 
 " Fyfthe. — ( Of the false riches, and vayne 
 honours of the worlde. 
 
 " Sixth — Howe they ought to dred deth. 
 
 " Seventh — Of the joyes of Paradyse, and of 
 the paynes of Hell I" 1 
 
 The other chief production of the Lady 
 Margaret's pen, which has escaped the ravages of 
 time, is " The imitation and following of the 
 blessed life of our most merciful Saviour Christ ;'" 
 being a translation from French into English, 
 of the fourth book of Dr. John Gersen's (or 
 Kempis's) treatise, " De imitatione Christi." 
 
 In Dr. Fuller's Church History, there is also a 
 notice relative to some prayers published some 
 years after by her command ; and the nature 
 of her devout occupations, and literary habits, 
 would warrant the inference, that these too were 
 her own composition. 
 
 While thus pursuing in comparative tran- 
 quillity, a career, alike honourable to herself 
 and beneficial to those around her, the young 
 Henry Tudor, her son, divested of his inherit- 
 ance, and deprived of his liberty, was passing the 
 prime of his life in hopeless exile, debarred 
 from the indulgence of those warm afFec- 
 
 1 Extracted from the copy at Kensington Palace. 
 H 2 
 
100 THE LIFE OF 
 
 tions, and denied all those active enjoyments 
 which gladden the heart of youth. The captive 
 Richmond had early been tutored by his exem- 
 plary parent to place his trust in Heaven, and to 
 submit with patient endurance to present evils, 
 under the firm belief, that in God's own good 
 time, he would surely work out his wise though 
 hidden purpose. 
 
 His unrepining submission to the strict im- 
 prisonment, rigorously enforced by the Duke of 
 Brittany, gradually created a feeling of interest 
 and compassion in those who were charged with 
 his custody. 
 
 His misfortunes, and the romance of his life, 
 gained him many friends connected with the 
 court, and at length excited the especial commi- 
 seration of the Duke's consort, the noble-minded 
 Margaret of Brittany, daughter of the celebrated 
 Gaston de Foix. Edward the Fourth, full of 
 apprehension of the danger that might ensue to 
 his family, so long as this last scion of the Red 
 Rose survived, had, from the first date of his im- 
 prisonment, continued to preserve unshaken the 
 league with his ally by means of large sums of 
 money, and most costly presents to Francis, and 
 his chief ministers. 
 
 Until Henry of Richmond had attained his 
 twentieth year, the vigilance pledged by the Duke 
 had been strictly observed ; but at this period, a 
 
MAKGARET BEAUFORT. 101 
 
 strong party began to form in his favour, botli in 
 the courts of Brittany and France. The peculiar 
 sweetness of manner and address with which by 
 nature he was gifted, enabled the attainted Earl 
 to improve this feeling. Philip de Comines, 
 who knew him well, testifies that he was perfect 
 in that courtly breeding, which so conciliates 
 favour in princes who are ready of access, and 
 plausible in speech. He had become master of 
 
 the French language during his exile, and though 
 
 © © © 7 © 
 
 in consequence of his long imprisonment, and 
 the trials which had saddened his early life, he 
 was singularly cautious and timid, he had never- 
 theless gained from the same school of adversity, 
 a wisdom that enabled him to profit by any 
 favouring circumstance that might lead to more 
 prosperous days. 
 
 The English monarch, who attentively watched 
 every change of opinion in foreign and domestic 
 policy, soon became sensible that his rival was 
 engaging the attention of many powerful princes, 1 
 and strengthening his interest in every possible 
 way, through the co-operation of the exiled ad- 
 herents of the Lancastrian family, who had 
 sought shelter in most of the principal kingdoms 
 in Europe. 
 
 Finding that neither money w r ould purchase the 
 ransom of his victim, nor bribes effect his delivery 
 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 215. 
 
102 THE LIFE OF 
 
 into his hands, the wary monarch resolved on 
 changing his line of conduct, and trying to gain 
 by underhand dealing, that compliance from the 
 Duke Francis, which open treaty and earnest 
 solicitation had failed to win. He accordingly 
 dispatched ambassadors to his ally, to sue for the 
 release of the exiled Earl, under the plea of 
 desiring to cement the long protracted disputes of 
 the two opposing parties, by means of the union 
 of Henry Tudor with the princess Elizabeth, his 
 eldest daughter. 1 This subtle device succeeded. 
 The Duke of Brittany, deceived by the eloquent 
 and persuasive address of Dr. Stillington, then 
 chancellor, and Bishop of Bath and Wells, de- 
 livered the Earl into his care, sending him with a 
 strong guard to St. Maloes, to prevent his escape 
 into France. 
 
 But the son of the Lady Margaret was not of a 
 temperament to be easily deceived, or likely to be 
 dazzled by the specious bait of so illustrious an 
 alliance. He became alarmingly ill with a fever, 2 
 arising from the distress of mind which over- 
 powered him in their progress to the port of em- 
 barkation. This, united to his earnest entreaties, 
 and a representation of the persecutions he had 
 long undergone, so wrought on the feelings of the 
 admiral of Brittany, Jean de Quelenac, and the 
 
 1 Cotton MSS. Dom. A. xviii. 
 
 2 Lobineau's Hist. Bret, tome i. p. 751. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 103 
 
 noble Peter de Landois, the Duke of Brittany's 
 treasurer, and favourite minister, that being con- 
 strained to wait there for a fair wind, the latter 
 connived at the escape of his charge into the 
 abbey church of the town, from which sanctuary 
 no efforts of the English ambassadors could with- 
 draw him. The Baron Shaunde, a nobleman 
 high in favour with Francis, and warmly attached 
 to the unfortunate Henry, co-operated with Peter 
 de Landois in pleading his cause with their royal 
 master, which they did so effectually, that the 
 eyes of the Duke were fully opened to the true 
 cause of his abduction. 1 
 
 Indignant at finding, by farther inquiry, that 
 his credulity had been imposed on by false 
 promises, he again tendered protection to the 
 noble exile, and withdrew him from the sanc- 
 tuary of St. Maloes, by pledging his word that all 
 exercise of power should henceforth be limited to 
 his being considered a state prisoner in the Castle 
 of Vannes. To avoid a rupture with the English, 
 however, he was compelled to have him strictly 
 guarded, and faithfully to guarantee his safe cus- 
 tody, though it was accompanied by a promise to 
 the illustrious captive, of courteous and respectful 
 treatment. 
 
 The pitiable situation of the imprisoned Rich- 
 mond, and the efforts made to entice him from 
 
 1 Buck's JRic. III. p. iy. 
 
104 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Brittany, were not unmarked or disregarded by 
 his affectionate parent. Except, however, by means 
 of few and secret communications, she was unable 
 to render him the slightest aid : for the long space 
 of eight years he continued a captive ; and, dur- 
 ing that wearisome time, the mortification, dan- 
 gers, and difficulties, which he endured, were not 
 the least among the many trials in the life of 
 Margaret of Lancaster, which combine to render 
 her memoirs so remarkable in the annals of bio- 
 graphy, so replete with stirring interest in an 
 historical point of view. 
 
 Towards the termination of the period just 
 alluded to, she was called upon to experience 
 fresh affliction, by the death of Sir Henry Staf- 
 ford, her second husband, 1 to whom she had 
 been united for twenty-two years, and whose at- 
 tachment and respect were evinced by his leaving 
 her sole executrix to his will ; as well as by the 
 anxiety expressed in it, to secure to her all lands 
 and manors, that were promised to him by his 
 father, the Duke of Buckingham, on his mar- 
 riage. 
 
 Throughout the whole of this instrument, he 
 alludes to the Lady Margaret in a manner which 
 bespeaks his fond affection, styling her " his en- 
 tirely and best-beloved wife, Margaret Countess 
 of Richmond ;" and, after bequeathing to her the 
 residue of all his property, he leaves remembrances 
 
 1 Dugdale's Baronage, i. p. 167. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 105 
 
 to his son-in-law, the Earl of Richmond, thus tes- 
 tifying also his paternal regard for the offspring of 
 his much-loved consort. 1 He expired in the year 
 1481, having directed his body to be buried 
 within the church of the college of Plessy, in 
 Essex, which was founded by Thomas, Duke of 
 Gloucester, the sixth son of Edward the Third. 
 
 It would seem, that, at the time of his death, Sir 
 Henry Stafford and the Lady Margaret must have 
 been dwelling at Woking, in Surry, as his will is wit- 
 nessed by Walter Baker, vicar of that parish; and 
 it would also appear as if they had long sojourned 
 there, for he bequeathes to the high altar of the same 
 church " 10s. for tithes and offerings, forgotten or 
 withholden, and 20s. for works to the same sacred 
 edifice." It is somewhat remarkable, that little 
 should be known of a nobleman so highly con- 
 nected, and united, for many years, to so conspi- 
 cuous a character as the subject of this memoir. 
 Except, however, in relation to his marriage and 
 death, Sir Humphrey Stafford is scarcely named 
 in history or the public records during his union 
 with the Countess of Richmond. 
 
 Connected with his household, however, was a 
 person whose after career is so interwoven with 
 that of the Lady Margaret and her son, that it 
 would be an error to omit notice of him at this 
 particular place. Amongst the few bequests in 
 Sir Henry Stafford's 1 will was one to " Reginald 
 
 1 Sou Appendix, C. 
 
106 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Bray, his receiver-general," and an old follower 
 of the Buckingham family. After his master's 
 decease, this trusty adherent was continued in 
 the service of his noble mistress, and made 
 steward of her household ; from which it may be 
 inferred, that he held as high a place in the 
 confidence of the Lady Margaret as he had done 
 in the estimation of Sir Henry Stafford. 
 
 Time, which had produced so little change 
 in the situation of the banished Richmond, had 
 however effected a material alteration in the 
 general state of affairs in his native land. Eng- 
 land was, at this time, recovering from the dis- 
 tractions of civil warfare, and, though jealousy 
 and suspicion still lurked " in the court and in the 
 camp," yet the ferocity which had so debased all 
 ranks of society at the close of the Lancastrian 
 dynasty, had gradually mellowed into more kindly 
 feelings, arising from the gay and thoughtless 
 career which made Edward the Fourth a popular 
 monarch, though deficient in many of the noble 
 qualifications that constitute a good prince. The 
 badges of the Red and White Rose were still 
 borne by the old adherents of each faction, but 
 without exciting that spirit of cruelty which cha- 
 racterised both parties ; while the youthful repre- 
 sentatives of many noble families, allured by the 
 attractions and gallantry of the King and his fas- 
 cinating court, abandoned the cause for which 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 107 
 
 their fathers had bled, and enlisted among the sup- 
 porters of the house of York. 
 
 One of the most distinguished seceders of the 
 latter class was the young Duke of Buckingham, 
 nephew of the Lady Margaret's deceased husband, 
 and who was closely allied to herself by birth, as well 
 as by marriage, his mother being the daughter of 
 Edmund, Duke of Somerset, the uncle who suc- 
 ceeded to her father's title. This cousin, who bore 
 the same maiden name as herself, — that of Margaret 
 Beaufort, had espoused the valiant Sir Humphery, 
 son and heir of the Earl of Stafford, who fell at 
 the battle of St. Albans in 1455, a victim to his 
 zeal for the Lancastrian cause, leaving an infant 
 heir of five years old, who eventually succeeded to 
 the title of Duke of Buckingham, bestowed on his 
 grandfather by Henry the Sixth. In accordance 
 with the custom of the age, the wardship of the 
 young Stafford became at the disposal of the 
 crown ; and Edward the Fourth, on' his accession, 
 conferred it on his sister, the Duchess of Exeter, 1 
 that the Earl might be brought up by her, with an 
 attachment to the line of York. This view was 
 borne out by the result ; for Buckingham became 
 as warmly devoted to the political opponents of 
 the house of Stafford as his father and grandfather 
 had been to that of the extinct dynasty. Des- 
 pairing of her son's release from captivity, and 
 
 1 Dugdale's Baron, vi. 167. 
 
108 THE LIFE OF 
 
 restoration to his country, through the agency of 
 the subdued Lancastrians, when perpetually wit- 
 nessing the changes in sentiment which had weaned 
 from their cause even members of her own family, 
 the Lady Margaret wisely determined to attempt 
 effecting a re-union with the Earl of Richmond, by 
 conciliatory measures towards their former ad- 
 versaries. 
 
 With that strong judgment and acute percep- 
 tion which influenced her conduct in all matters of 
 emergency, she resolved, henceforth, to lay aside 
 the rapidly fading distinctions of party, and to add 
 strength to her son's apparently hopeless cause, 
 by forming alliances with the most popular, or 
 most powerful individuals of those times. This 
 path she could the more consistently pursue, by 
 reason of the prudence which had ever actuated 
 her, in checking the assumption of right to the 
 throne, injudiciously advanced in favour of her 
 son, by the Lancastrians. For she invariably 
 sought to dissuade them, by the example of her 
 own submission to the reigning monarch, from 
 all open display of Richmond's title, which would 
 have been equally destructive of their own safety, 
 as she felt it would be untenable with claims so 
 indisputable as those on which the House of 
 York had founded their pretensions to the crown. 
 
 In accordance with this policy, the Lady 
 Margaret, at the expiration of her mourning 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 109 
 
 for the deceased Sir Henry Stafford, accepted 
 proposals of marriage from Thomas Lord Stan- 
 ley, steward of the king's household, and lord 
 of the Isle of Man ; l the Stanley immortalized 
 by Shakespeare, one of the most renowned 
 nobles of the realm, and one of the greatest 
 characters of the age. Great, not from high 
 ancestry or wealth, though he was the inheritor 
 of both these, but from the rectitude of con- 
 duct which ennobled him in the estimation 
 of all parties, and rendered him the personal 
 friend as well as the faithful adherent of his 
 sovereign. 
 
 This nobleman was related to the Lady Mar- 
 garet in no very remote degree of consan- 
 guinity,* and he was also closely allied to her 
 by marriage, having espoused for his first wife, 
 the Lady Eleanor Neville,f sister to the re- 
 
 1 Collins's Peerage, vol. ii. p. 63. 
 
 * The mother of Thomas Lord Stanley, was daughter and 
 co- heiress of Sir Robert Goushill, and great-grand-daughter of 
 Henry Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster and Derby. 
 
 f The connection of the Stanleys with the Nevilles, accounts 
 for the manner in which the former espoused the interests of the 
 House of York, attached as their family otherwise must have 
 been, by relationship to the Lancastrian line. The battle of 
 Blore Heath in 1459, appears to be the first conflict in which 
 the Stanley family publicly avowed their hostility to Henry VI. 
 The execution of Lady Stanley's father, the Earl of Salisbury, 
 at Pomfret in 1460, confirmed them in their opposition to the 
 
110 THE LIFE OF 
 
 nowned Earl of Warwick, and grand-daughter 
 of Ralph, Earl of Westmoreland, by Joan de 
 Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, and 
 Katherine Swynford. It is said that a dispensa- 
 tion was obtained from the see of Rome before 
 the marriage, and though no evidence of this 
 fact has been found, the consanguinity of the 
 parties (Margaret of Richmond being the first 
 cousin once removed of the Lady Eleanor Ne- 
 ville,) renders it almost certain that this tradition 
 in the Stanley family is well founded. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1482, Lord 
 Stanley espoused the Lady Margaret, and the 
 official situation of that nobleman as one of the 
 king's council, obliged her to leave the retire- 
 ment she had adorned with such dignity, and 
 which had so long hidden her estimable qualities 
 from general observation. This change of life, 
 if not altogether in unison with her austere and 
 studious habits, yet was one which she un- 
 hesitatingly adopted as the only probable method 
 of effecting her son's release after twelve years' 
 imprisonment. 
 
 Quitting her paternal domains, the vassals ap- 
 pertaining to which she had gladdened by her 
 
 Lancastrian cause, and the subsequent marriage of the heir of 
 the house of Stanley, George Lord Strange, with the sister of 
 Edward the Fourth's queen, cemented their union with the 
 reigning family, and fully explains the cause of the zeal with 
 which they devoted themselves to that monarch and his off- 
 spring. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. Ill 
 
 benevolence, and benefited by her charity, the 
 Lady Margaret removed to Derby House, her 
 husband's princely abode in London, which he 
 had recently erected on St. Beliefs Hill, where 
 the Herald's College now stands. 1 Scarcely, how- 
 ever, was she settled in her new habitation, when 
 her lord was sent into Scotland with a large force 
 to aid the Duke of Gloucester at the siege of 
 Berwick, whence, however, he, together with that 
 prince, was speedily summoned by the unexpected 
 demise of Edward the Fourth, in the forty-second 
 year of his age, and the twenty-second of his reign. 
 This event effected a greater change in the public 
 life of the Countess of Richmond, than her mar- 
 riage with an acknowledged Yorkist had produced 
 in her domestic career. Faithful to the late king, 
 whose confidence and affection he had especially 
 enjoyed, from having resisted in former times even 
 the entreaties of his brother-in-law, the renowned 
 Earl of Warwick, 2 to join the revolt which had 
 driven Edward from the throne, the Lord Stanley 
 hastened to the widowed queen, to tender allegi- 
 ance to her son, and to redeem the pledge he had 
 given to the deceased monarch, soon after Prince 
 Edward's birth, that he would maintain his claims 
 as King of England, in the event of his surviving 
 his father. By the death of Edward the Fourth, 
 his youthful heir became the lawful successor to 
 
 1 Pennant's London. 2 Paston Letters, 2. p. 37. 
 
112 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the throne, and was proclaimed in the month of 
 April by the title of Edward the Fifth, his uncle, 
 the Duke of Gloucester, being nominated Pro- 
 tector of the realm during his minority. l 
 
 The extraordinary incidents that mark this 
 important year, and which have rendered it 
 one of the most memorable in the annals of 
 our country, are too conflicting, and too im- 
 portant, both in themselves and in their results, 
 to admit even of a brief recapitulation, though 
 the ultimate position of the illustrious subject 
 of this memoir was intimately connected with 
 that wonderful revolution, which, in the brief 
 space of ten weeks, comprehended the procla- 
 mation of Edward the Fifth, and the usurpation 
 of Richard the Third, without a single effort to 
 preserve the rights of the true heir, or to check 
 the ambition of the Protector. The chief agent 
 in promoting the election of the latter prince, was 
 Henry Duke of Buckingham, 2 and one of the most 
 powerful of his enemies, and the most faith- 
 ful adherent of Edward the Fifth, was Thomas 
 Lord Stanley. His fidelity indeed had nearly 
 cost him his life, before the youthful king was 
 deposed, and though preserved from the peril 
 which menaced his person, it was followed by the 
 loss of liberty. The uncompromising and loyal 
 Stanley was committed by the Duke of Glouces- 
 ter to the Tower, and the actions of his family were 
 
 i Croyland Chron. 556. " More's Rich. III. p. 253. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 113 
 
 jealously watched; but on the election of the Pro- 
 tector to the throne, he was released, and every 
 pains taken to win him to his interests. These 
 proceedings had worked a very powerful change 
 in the domestic sentiments of Lord Stanley and 
 the Countess of Richmond. At the time of their 
 marriage, notwithstanding the strict neutrality ob- 
 served by the latter in all matters of state, yet 
 their views, it was well known both to themselves 
 and others, were in direct collision ; the negative 
 allegiance of Margaret of Lancaster being strongly 
 contrasted with the positive loyalty of the king's 
 personal friend and servant. The words of Ed- 
 ward the Fourth's queen, as given by Shaks- 
 peare are a just epitome of the feeling of the 
 Court towards this illustrious pair at the time of 
 their marriage. 
 
 Stan. — God make your majesty joyful as you have been ! 
 
 Q. Elizabeth. — The Countess Richmond, good my Lord of 
 Stanley, 
 To your good prayer will scarcely say — amen. 
 Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife, 
 And loves not me, be you, good lord, assured, 
 I hate not you for her proud arrogance. 
 
 Stan. — I do beseech you, either not believe 
 The envious slanders of her false accusers ; 
 Or, if she be accus'd on true report, 
 Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds 
 From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice. 1 
 
 1 Richard III. act i. sc. 3. 
 
 I 
 
114 THE LIFE OF 
 
 But a few short months had told deeply on the 
 sympathies of individuals, as well as in the annals 
 of the country. Passive submission to the reign- 
 ing monarch was now the lot of the noble hus- 
 band, as for so many years it had been that of 
 his admirable wife ; and both were called upon to 
 evince publicly that loyalty which passing events 
 prove to have been so foreign to their private 
 feelings. On the eve of his coronation, the Lord 
 Stanley was created by Richard the Third, Lord 
 Steward of his household; 1 and his personal atten- 
 dance, as also that of the Lady Margaret his con- 
 sort, commanded for the ensuing day, to assist at 
 the solemn ceremonial which was to confirm his 
 usurpation. 2 
 
 Obedience to the command of kings at this 
 period of absolute monarchy, was merely a choice 
 between life and death, unless indeed absence 
 from the court gave them time for defiance, or 
 refuge in flight. In the present instance, the dis- 
 tinguished pair were in no situation to hesitate, 
 and the Countess of Richmond was drawn from the 
 unobtrusive path of private life in which she had 
 hitherto moved, to take a public and leading posi- 
 tion in the courtly proceedings of Richard the 
 Third. 3 
 
 The coronation of this monarch and his queen 
 
 1 Grafton's Chron. p. 799. • Hall's Chron. p. 375. 
 
 3 Lodge's Memoir, No. 67. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 115 
 
 on the 7th July 1483, was solemnized with greater 
 splendour than that of any preceding sovereign. 
 He had espoused, some years previously, (about 
 1473 *) Anne,* the youngest daughter and co- 
 
 1 Paston Letters, vol. ii. p. 131. 
 
 * The opinion has so long heen prevalent that the Lady Anne 
 Neville was the widow of Prince Edward, Henry Sixth's 
 son, slain at Tewkesbury, that it may not be considered irre- 
 levant, as her marriage with Richard the Third is noticed in 
 this memoir, to clear the calumniated Queen from so un- 
 founded and unnatural an accusation, as that of having 
 espoused the murderer of her husband. The homicide itself 
 (See note, p. 80,) has been already disproved, and equally un- 
 true is the tradition of the marriage. The facts are simply 
 these. As a matter of policy, the usual cause of betrothments 
 in the middle ages, the son of Margaret of Anjou was contracted 
 in 1470 to the co-heiress of the powerful Warwick, as a bond 
 of union between two parties, which had previously been so 
 violently opposed to each other. The affianced couple were 
 strangers, and very young, the Prince of Wales but sixteen years 
 of age ; and the sole condition on which the haughty Queen of 
 Henry YI. was induced to consent to their future marriage 
 was the recovery, by the Earl of Warwick, of her husband's 
 crown. But the compact was never fulfilled, the Lady Anne's 
 heroic father having fallen at the battle of Barnet, and Prince 
 Edward being slain shortly afterwards at Tewkesbury. As a 
 pledge of his honourable intentions, the Earl of Warwick, on 
 quitting France, had left his daughter with Margaret of Anjou, 
 but there is no document which narrates the meeting of the 
 youthful betrothed, none which attests their marriage. Neither 
 does there appear even the probability of such an event having 
 occurred, for the outlawed Queen was not of a disposition to 
 sanction, prematurely, an alliance, against which she had pro- 
 tested as disparaging to the Prince of Wales, and to which she 
 at last only yielded a reluctant and conditional assent, on ac- 
 
 i 2 
 
116 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 heiress of the famed Earl of Warwick, and who 
 consequently was niece by marriage to the Lord 
 Stanley. This latter nobleman was appointed to 
 bear the staff of Constable before the King, who 
 was attired in robes of purple velvet, having his 
 train borne by the Duke of Buckingham, who 
 also held in his hand the white staff of Lord 
 High Steward of England, an office bestowed on 
 him for life, by Richard the Third, but which he 
 claimed by inheritance from the house of Bohun.* 
 The Queen followed, apparelled in robes of vel- 
 vet, with a circlet of gold and precious stones on her 
 head. The honor of supporting Her Majesty's train 
 being allotted to the noble " Margaret of Somer- 
 set, Countess of Richmond I" 1 At the banquet 
 which followed in Westminster Hall, the Lord 
 Stanley as Steward, (with three other noblemen 
 belonging to the royal household,) served the 
 
 count of her child's hopeless prospects, and at the earnest soli- 
 citations of the French Monarch, at whose court she had sought 
 and received an asylum. — (Harl. MSS. 543). 
 
 * His great-grandfather, Edmund, had married Ann the 
 daughter of the Duke of Gloucester ; her mother was one of 
 the co-heiresses of Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford. Richard 
 the Third's aversion to grant him the Hereford lands, was from 
 its apparently sanctioning a claim of affinity to Henry the 
 Fourth, and through that to the crown ; Henry the Fifth's 
 mother heing the sister of Buckingham's maternal ancestor. — 
 Sharon Turner, vol. iii. p. 502. 
 
 i Baker's Chron. p. 22fi. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 117 
 
 king " with one dish of gold, and another of 
 silver." A place of marked distinction was al- 
 lotted to the Lady Margaret, who was ranked 
 with the princesses of the blood royal, and oc- 
 cupied a station not far removed from the Queen's 
 person. Her Majesty was served by her honourable 
 ladies, no gentlemen being with them, except the 
 carvers, who knelt at their feet ; the peers 
 being seated apart with the king. 1 Still further 
 to ingratiate himself with the head of a family, 
 whose power he dreaded, and whose allegiance 
 he coveted, Richard created the Lord Stanley, 
 towards the close of the same year, Constable of 
 England for life, investing him with the order of 
 the Garter, and bestowing on him other marks of 
 his favour and esteem. 2 
 
 The fair opening which these accumulated 
 honours gave his illustrious consort to plead the 
 cause of her banished son, was too favourable to 
 be overlooked by so devoted and anxious a parent. 
 She continually supplicated the King to restore 
 the attainted Earl to his patrimony ; and seizing 
 on the conciliatory proposition formerly made 
 (though with subtlety by Edward the Fourth,) 
 she further urged permission for his union with 
 one of the deceased monarch's daughters. But 
 the liberation of the captive Tudor formed no 
 part of King Richard's policy. In consequence 
 
 1 Leland's Collect, vol. iv. p. 162. • Harl. MSS. 433. 
 
118 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of his usurpation of the throne from the youthful 
 heir, and the hitherto unexplained disappearance 
 of both his nephews, the partisans of the house 
 of York became discontented, so that a scion 
 of the line of Lancaster, so much feared in less 
 ominous times, was doubly formidable to a 
 monarch who knew himself to be unpopular with 
 both factions. Immediately after his usurpation, 
 he despatched Sir Thomas Hutton to renew the 
 existing treaty with the Duke of Brittany, 1 and 
 ensure the continued imprisonment of the perse- 
 cuted Richmond, by sumptuous gifts to his minis- 
 ters, as well as to himself. The report of his 
 ambassador was so satisfactory, that he was 
 relieved from all fear in that quarter ; and he com- 
 pleted his assumption of the sovereignty by creating 
 Edward, — the young Earl of Salisbury, his only 
 child, — Prince of Wales, and Duke of Corn- 
 wall. 2 
 
 Having thus provided for the safe custody of 
 his apprehended rival abroad, and secured the 
 allegiance of his subjects at home, by his recent 
 coronation, he proceeded in great state to the 
 ancient city of York, with his queen, his son, and 
 the chief of his courtiers ; where he was a second 
 time crowned with extraordinary pomp, a circum- 
 stance unparalleled since the time of the Anglo 
 
 1 Harl. MSS. 433. p. 241. ~ Folklore Virgil, 547. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 110 
 
 Saxon kings, and constituting one of the most 
 marked features of this king's extraordinary reign. 
 
 The ceremony was performed by Dr. Rotheram, 
 Archbishop of that See, with great solemnity. 
 On its termination, Prince Edward, who was 
 about ten years of age, and was led by the hand 
 of the Queen, during the procession through the 
 city, having on his head the coronet of a prince, 
 was created Earl of Chester, and a second time 
 invested with the principality of Wales. 1 
 
 Dispirited at the failure of her efforts after 
 twelve years submissive endurance, and indignant 
 at the implacable rancour, the unceasing per- 
 secution, which, without a shadow of blame, had 
 consigned to hopeless imprisonment her unof- 
 fending son, the Lady Margaret was roused, at 
 length, to listen to propositions for his emancipa- 
 tion by secret aid, and to countenance measures 
 for obtaining, by force of arms, that justice which 
 had so long, and so ungenerously been denied 
 her. 
 
 Shortly after King Richard's coronation at 
 Westminster Abbey, a marked coolness and 
 jealousy arose between him and his coadjutor in 
 the usurpation of the throne, Henry, the powerful 
 Duke of Buckingham. Various motives have 
 been assigned for the bitter feelings which suc- 
 ceeded to the enthusiastic devotion that had 
 
 1 King's Vale Royal, p. 33. 
 
120 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 led the Duke to side so strongly with the Pro- 
 tector. The grave details of the chroniclers of 
 these troubled times, assign 1 more cause for his 
 change of feelings, than the father of the English 
 drama, who has handed his name down with such 
 discredit to posterity, as the selfish betrayer of that 
 monarch, to whom his vows had recently been 
 tendered. 2 Buckingham was weak and vain, but 
 he was the near kinsman, and personal friend of 
 Richard. Ambition was the rock on which he 
 struck ; but ingratitude, and breach of faith were 
 the causes that roused that spirit of indignation 
 in the impetuous prince which led to open rebel- 
 lion, and ended in his own utter destruction. 
 
 In yielding to the representations of Gloucester, 
 as regards his usurpation of the throne, it no- 
 where appears that the noble Duke was actuated 
 by any hostile feelings towards the young Princes 
 in the Tower. Their suspicious disappearance, 
 and the faithless observance of those promises on 
 which he had relied with full confidence, opened 
 Buckingham's eyes to the fact of what a mere 
 tool he had been made, and henceforth converted 
 Richard's most devoted friend into his bitterest 
 foe. 3 The true state and origin of the quarrel, 
 however, are irrelevant to this memoir, though the 
 
 i Hall's Chron. 387. Grafton, 813. More, 251. 
 
 2 Shakspeare's Rich. III. act iv. scene 2. 
 
 3 Grafton's Chron. 815. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 121 
 
 result of their dissension brought over to the 
 Lancastrian party, an ally as powerful as hereto- 
 fore he had been deemed successful in the cause 
 of Richard the Third. Dr. Morton, Bishop of 
 Ely, who could not be induced to sanction the 
 disinheritance of the deceased monarch's children, 
 had early been committed to the custody of his 
 then political opponent, the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham, and had continued from the period of his re- 
 lease from the Tower, after the proclamation of King 
 Richard, a closely watched prisoner at the Duke's 
 Castle of Brecknock, in Wales. Thither Buck- 
 ingham himself retired on the King's departure 
 for York, and there his discontent was speedily 
 apparent to the irritated and loyal bishop, and 
 was as speedily fomented into designs of secret 
 rebellion, and open defiance. 1 
 
 A compact was forthwith effected between 
 them, the result of which was, that the Duke 
 should forthwith seek his kinswoman, the Coun- 
 tess of Richmond, propose to her the emanci- 
 pation of her son from captivity, and enter into 
 a treaty for seating him on the throne of England, 
 provided he consented to espouse the Lady Eliza- 
 beth of York, who, by the disappearance of the 
 young Princes, was now the rightful heir. A 
 singular train of circumstances had rendered this 
 proposition no less acceptable to the Lord 
 
 1 Grafton, 816. 
 
122 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Stanley as regarded the princess Elizabeth, than 
 tempting to the Lady Margaret, by fostering 
 expectations for the speedy release of her son 
 from imprisonment, and justifying the hopes 
 so long fixed on him by the persecuted and 
 exiled Lancastrians. 
 
 On the testimony of a metrical narrative, pre- 
 served in the Harleian MSS. 1 the production 
 of Humphrey Brereton, a gentleman apparently 
 of some talent and acquirement, and who held a 
 trustworthy situation in the service of Lord 
 Stanley, it appears that King Edward, on his 
 death bed, confided to the especial care of this 
 eminent nobleman his eldest daughter Elizabeth. 
 
 This young Princess had early been affianced 
 to the Dauphin of France, whose offensive breach 
 of the contract by his recent marriage with the 
 grand-daughter of the Emperor of Germany, 
 had incensed to the highest degree the late 
 king, who was preparing to avenge the affront by 
 war with that country, when his sudden and fatal 
 illness terminated his career. 
 
 The Lady Elizabeth, thus prematurely bereft 
 of her royal father, is stated to have lodged in 
 Derby House under the protection of the Lord 
 Stanley, 2 after quitting the sanctuary in West- 
 
 1 Harleian MSS. 367. 
 
 • See Privy Purse expences of Elizabeth of York, by 
 Sir Harris Nicolas, p. 56. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 123 
 
 minster Abbey, in which her distressed mother 
 had taken refuge with her children on the arrest 
 of her brother, Earl Rivers, and the execution of 
 himself, and other of her kindred at Pomfret ; an 
 atrocity which made the unhappy Queen first 
 suspect the ultimate intentions of the Duke of 
 Gloucester. 
 
 The Lord Stanley is especially named as hav- 
 ing attended the funeral obsequies of his late 
 royal master, 1 and his imprisonment so shortly after 
 the solemn ceremony is of itself sufficient proof 
 of his fidelity to Edward the Fourth and his off- 
 spring. By that monarch he was left one of the 
 executors of his will : 2 and the care of the Prin- 
 cess Elizabeth, whose extreme beauty was height- 
 ened by the gentleness and winning sweetness of 
 her temper, 3 is said to have completed the devotion 
 which though cherished in secret, bound him 
 unalterably to the deceased king's children. After 
 his release, the suspicious watchfulness of King 
 Richard precluded any open espousal of their 
 cause, which indeed was beset with difficulty of 
 all kinds, and rendered little short of hopeless by 
 the doubtful fate of Edward the Fifth, and the 
 youthful Richard, his brother. 
 
 On the departure of the King and Queen for 
 
 York, it is probable that the Countess of Rich- 
 
 » Harl. MSS. 6. 111. 2 Royal Wills, p. 347. 
 
 3 Bernard Andreas MS. 
 
124 THE LIFE OF 
 
 mond quitted the metropolis to visit her estates 
 in the Midland counties, for it is recorded that 
 whilst journeying between Worcester and Bridg- 
 north, 1 she was met by the Duke of Buckingham 
 on his mission. 
 
 He then communicated to her the important 
 league which had been formed between himself 
 and Bishop Morton, through which the reported 
 death of the young Princes was to be avenged, 
 and peace restored to the country, by the union 
 of the two eldest surviving branches of the Plan- 
 tagenet family. The Lady Margaret promised 
 her zealous co-operation towards effecting an ob- 
 ject so desirable for the realm, and so grateful to 
 her maternal pride. In her eyes King Richard 
 was a usurper, and a regicide ; and her son and the 
 Lady Elizabeth martyrs to an unjust ambition : 
 hence, the yearning affection which led her so 
 ardently to desire the deliverance of her child, 
 warred not with any religious compunctions to- 
 wards the reigning monarch. That she would 
 have withheld her consent, had it been otherwise, 
 is probable, from the meekness and forbearance 
 with which she submitted to the oppressive treat- 
 ment of the Earl of Richmond by his predeces- 
 sor, Edward the Fourth, who, however opposed 
 to her politically or individually, she nevertheless 
 considered her lawful sovereign. 
 
 i Baker's Cliron. p. 229. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 125 
 
 While the Duke of Buckingham proceeded on 
 his journey to open the plot to other adherents of 
 the deceased king, the Lady Margaret undertook 
 to communicate it to the Queen Dowager, through 
 the medium of her physician, Dr. Lewis, 1 a Welsh- 
 man devoted to her interests, and those of her 
 son, and who from his profession had ready access 
 to every branch of the royal family. 
 
 During Buckingham's absence from Breck- 
 
 © © 
 
 nock Castle, on this grave mission, the bishop's 
 escape (at which he connived) was effected. 
 Proceeding direct to Ely, by the most unfre- 
 quented route, he abstracted a considerable sum 
 of money secreted in his abode there, and jour- 
 neying hence with all speed to the sea-side, the 
 prelate effected a safe landing in France, from 
 whence he passed in disguise into Brittany, and 
 announced to the Earl of Richmond the bright 
 prospects that had at length dawned on him. Richard 
 the Third, was a man of too deep discernment to 
 be entirely blinded, notwithstanding the guarded 
 conduct and cautious measures observed by his 
 enemies. He had narrowly watched their actions, 
 and had certain intelligence of their proceedings. 
 He knew what friends and supporters had pledged 
 themselves to his rival, though many of them 
 maintained a semblance of allegiance to himself. 
 Nevertheless it suited his purpose to conceal his 
 
 1 Polydorc Virgil, p. 549. 
 
12(3 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 knowledge, until the whole plot was more fully 
 developed. The Queen Dowager entered with 
 alacrity into the scheme communicated by Dr. 
 Lewis, promising on her part to engage the co- 
 operation of the most influential of the Yorkist 
 party, if Henry of Richmond by solemn oath 
 would bind himself to marry her daughter Eliza- 
 beth, whose consent to the compact she readily 
 obtained, and whose pledge was forthwith for- 
 warded to him. 1 While matters were thus pro- 
 gressing in England, the banished Earl was zeal- 
 ously advancing his interests in foreign courts. 
 He first pleaded his cause frankly with the Duke 
 of Brittany ; but his league with King Richard 
 which in honour he could not violate, precluded 
 Francis from openly affording him aid. He was 
 nevertheless so affected by his tale, and won over 
 by his entreaties, that he promised to offer no 
 opposition to his undertaking, if he would raise 
 sufficient force to attempt the restitution of his 
 alleged rights. 
 
 With other potentates, Richmond was still more 
 successful ; they promised him active assistance, 
 and so zealously espoused his cause, and encou- 
 raged him with such flattering assurances of sup- 
 port, that by the close of the eventful year that 
 witnessed Richard's usurpation of the crown, 
 Henry Tudor had drawn to his party so many 
 » Harl. MSS. 367. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 1'27 
 
 powerful princes, and was supported by so strong 
 a band both of Yorkists, and Lancastrians, that 
 the spring of 1484 dawned with hopes that bid 
 fair to reward both himself and his mother for 
 their many years of painful separation. But — 
 prosperity and peace were yet far distant. 
 
 In the January of that year, Richard the Third 
 assembled parliament, in which, after noticing the 
 Earl of Richmond's pretensions to the crown, 
 and his attempts to engage the King of France 
 and Duke of Brittany on his behalf, he caused 
 him to be attainted of high treason, 1 together 
 with Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, Mor- 
 ton, Bishop of Ely, and all the other partizans 
 of the illustrious captive. The Lady Margaret 
 was declared to have merited a sentence equally 
 severe for " sending writings, tokens, money, and 
 messages to the Earl, her son, stirring him up to 
 invade the realm ;" but fear of the powerful 
 family with whom she was now allied obtained for 
 the Countess of Richmond, a lenity which Mar- 
 garet of Lancaster if unprotected, would vainly have 
 sought from Richard the Third. In consideration 
 of the services which the Lord Stanley had ren- 
 dered to the House of York, the king forbore to 
 attaint the Countess ; but she was banished the 
 Court, and ordered to be closely confined to her 
 husband's residence in the country ; and an act of 
 1 Rot. Pari. vol. vi. p. 246. 
 
128 THE LIFE OF 
 
 parliament declared her lands to be forfeited, de- 
 graded her from all titles of dignity, and settled 
 her property on her consort for his life, with re- 
 mainder to the crown at his decease. 1 
 
 This public denouncement of a combination 
 formed secretly, and pursued with extreme cau- 
 tion, paralysed for a brief period the exertions 
 of all connected with the scheme. The Lord 
 Stanley had throughout maintained a strict neu- 
 trality. He wisely concealed his real sentiments 
 at this critical juncture, though his zeal for the 
 cause of the late king's offspring appears never to 
 have been diminished either by bribes, as relates to 
 personal aggrandisement, or threats, which were 
 made more significant by the public disgrace, and 
 the forfeiture of the title and lands of his illustri- 
 ous consort. He was the first to disclose his 
 fears of the Duke of Gloucester's evil designs on 
 the youthful Princes ; 2 but Lord Stanley's know- 
 ledge of human nature, and experience in the 
 vacillation of public opinion in those troubled 
 times, taught him that tranquil submission would 
 better serve the deceased monarch's family than 
 indiscreet zeal, or premature assertion of rights. 
 
 Amongst the number of eminent persons, whom 
 we have noticed as commiserating the situation of 
 Henry Tudor, was Margaret, Duchess of Brittany. 
 
 1 Rot. Pari. vi. p. 244. * More's Rich. III. p. 199. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 129 
 
 Of her he now earnestly besought assistance. 
 Though deaf to the expostulations and fervent 
 prayer of his prisoner, Francis could not with- 
 stand the urgent solicitations of his consort. 
 She succeeded in obtaining both liberty and aid 
 for the captive Richmond, and three ships well 
 furnished with men, arms, and provisions were 
 placed at his disposal. 
 
 The valiant Buckingham, whose power and in- 
 fluence was very great, had raised so strong a 
 force in Wales, that being joined by the kindred 
 of the dowager queen, the Earl of Devon, and 
 some of the most distinguished persons of the 
 age, he openly unfurled the standard of rebellion, 
 and vowed defiance to the king. But the ele- 
 ments seemed again to conspire against the ill- 
 fated Richmond, and fortune to befriend the usur- 
 per. Having assembled, by the aid of foreign 
 allies, forty ships, with five hundred paid merce- 
 naries, he sailed from Brittany on the'4th October 
 1484, making for Poole, in Dorset, before which 
 port he anchored, that by means of spies, he 
 might discover the position of King Richard's 
 army, and of his own allies. Finding that part 
 of the coast strongly guarded, he again put to 
 sea, to proceed westward. Scarcely, however, 
 had he lost sight of land, than so awful a tempest 
 arose, that on the same night his little fleet 
 was totally dispersed, and all his bright hopes 
 
 K 
 
130 THE LIFE OF 
 
 again laid low. In the fearful darkness that pre- 
 vailed, great part of the vessels foundered and 
 were wholly lost ; the remnants were scattered, 
 some on the shores of Brittany, others on those of 
 France. 
 
 The Earl of Richmond himself narrowly es- 
 caped with life, and was cast on the coast of 
 Normandy, whence sending messengers to Charles 
 the Eighth, King of France, he was kindly invited 
 to his court, and aided with sums of money to- 
 wards defraying the charge of his ill-fated expe- 
 dition. Returning after a time into Brittany, to 
 renew with a heavy heart his amicable understanding 
 with Duke Francis, he there found fresh afflic- 
 tion awaiting him. His expectations in England 
 being annihilated by the execution of the Duke 
 of Buckingham, and the total dispersion of his 
 army by long continued storms, and unexampled 
 floods. The calamity which had visited the Earl 
 of Richmond on the sea, had fallen with equal 
 ruin on his English allies : for so unceasing had 
 been the rain, so fearful the tempest, that the 
 Severn which the Duke of Buckingham had to 
 cross, to reach the coast for the reception of 
 Richmond, became impassable. 
 
 It overflowed the adjoining lands, to an amaz- 
 ing extent, and, for ten days, the country on each 
 side was so deluged, that his troops were exposed 
 to the severest privations of hunger and wretched- 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 131 
 
 ness. Alarmed at such a fearful visitation, the 
 Welch soldiery, considering it an ill omen, 1 aban- 
 doned their noble leader, and, in spite of his ear- 
 nest entreaties, dispersed to a man, and quietly 
 returned to their homes. 
 
 The princely Buckingham himself was com- 
 pelled to seek shelter at a farm house near Shrews- 
 bury, 2 with a servant, whom he had fostered, for 
 years, with extreme kindness; but, alas! the per- 
 fidy he had shewn to Edward the Fifth, and which 
 he was about to repeat, though with some shew of 
 reason, towards Richard the Third, was repaid 
 with signal vengeance on his own head. The 
 large sum speedily offered by the King for his 
 apprehension, 3 was a golden bait not to be resisted 
 by his treacherous and mercenary follower. " The 
 deep revolving witty Buckingham" was disgrace- 
 fully betrayed by the worthless Banaster to the 
 High Sheriff of Shropshire, who conveyed him to 
 Salisbury, where the King was then encamped. 
 A scaffold was immediately erected in the mar- 
 ket place of that city, and, without trial, the 
 noble Duke was there beheaded on the 2nd of 
 November, 1483, having first earnestly, but fruit- 
 lessly, besought an interview with King Richard. 
 These complicated miseries greatly dispirited 
 Henry of Richmond ; but being gradually joined 
 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 23G. 
 
 - Polydore Virgil, p. 552. 3 Rymcr's Fed. xii. 204. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE LIFE OF 
 
 by such of the leaders of Buckingham's army as 
 had escaped the storms, their enthusiasm in his 
 cause inspired him with fresh energy ; and, hav- 
 ing rallied from the disheartening effects of their 
 discomfiture, they proceeded on Christmas day, in 
 solemn state to the cathedral at Rheims, and, be- 
 fore the high altar, the Earl renewed his oath to 
 espouse the Princess Elizabeth, all the assembled 
 warriors pledging themselves, most sacredly, never 
 to cease prosecuting war against King Richard 
 until either his deposition or destruction was ef- 
 fected. 
 
 The English Monarch had not slumbered during 
 this period. In the Parliament which he assem- 
 bled on the 23rd of January, 1484, he caused the 
 crown to be settled upon him, and the heirs of 
 his body, 1 the children of his elder brother, the 
 Duke of Clarence being declared incapable of 
 succession, by reason of their father's attainder ; 
 and the family of Edward the Fourth, having al- 
 ready been excluded, on the ground of illegiti- 
 macy, arising from the pretended informality of his 
 marriage,* that king having been pre-contracted 
 to Lady Eleanor Butler, 2 when the beautiful 
 
 1 Act of Settlement. Rot. Pari. vi. 241. - More, 241. 
 
 * By the ancient canon law, a contract for marriage might 
 be valid and perfect without the church ceremony ; and second 
 marriages were liable to be annulled on account of the exist- 
 ence of a pre-contract, until the statute of 32 Hen. VIII. re- 
 scinded the same. — Sharon Turner, iii. p. 463. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 133 
 
 widow of Lord Grey tempted the gallant monarch 
 to forego his engagements, and privately to make 
 her his queen. 
 
 In a proclamation, issued a few months after this 
 extraordinary proceeding of King Richard's, the 
 widow of the deceased monarch is styled " Dame 
 Elizabeth Grey, late calling herself Queen of 
 England." 1 Still more firmly to establish his own 
 claims, and to perpetuate them in his family, he 
 caused the principal personages of his kingdom 
 to swear adherence and fidelity to his son Ed- 
 ward, the young Prince of Wales. 2 He likewise 
 vigilantly guarded the sea-coast, to prevent the 
 sudden landing of the Earl of Richmond, and 
 dispersed spies throughout the country to gather 
 information relative to persons favouring the Lan- 
 castrian cause. He had divers individuals exe- 
 cuted, and he attainted all such as were in exile 
 with Richmond, seizing their lands and goods, and 
 appropriating them to his own use. 
 
 To defeat yet more effectually the views of his 
 opponents as regarded the union of the two Roses, 
 he determined himself to espouse the Lady Eliza- 
 beth of York, the decline of the Queen, apparently 
 in consumption, giving speedy prospect of his 
 widowhood. The match he proposed was one un- 
 exampled in the history of this country, on account 
 of the near consanguinity of the parties as uncle and 
 1 Harl. MSS. p. 308. * Chron. Croy. p. 570. 
 
134 THE LIFE OF 
 
 niece ; but it was King Richard's object to darken 
 the prospects of Richmond, by casting into the 
 shade his brightest hopes, and defeating, by vigi- 
 lance, those plans which were daily forming in fa- 
 vour of his rival. 
 
 The consequence of this most unnatural design 
 was to effect a marked relaxation in the severe 
 treatment hitherto exercised towards the family 
 of Edward the Fourth. 1 The appearance of the 
 Lady Elizabeth at court was immediately re- 
 quired, where she was forthwith placed in atten- 
 dance on the Queen ; and the young princesses, 
 her sisters, were soon after withdrawn from the 
 sanctuary at the Abbey, by promises of the 
 King's favour and advancement, and were re- 
 ceived during festivities at Westminster Hall 
 with marked courtesy and honourable distinction, 
 both by Richard the Third and his royal consort. 
 
 A grievous blow, however, was in store for the 
 Kins: ; one which was to wound him in the ten- 
 derest point, and to lay prostrate those schemes of 
 future ambition for which he had sacrificed so 
 much of honour and humanity. He had calculated 
 on the death of his wife, whom the physicians had 
 pronounced to be past recovery, but he had not an- 
 ticipated that the melancholy event would have 
 been preceded by the demise of his only child, the 
 young Prince of Wales, who expired at Middle- 
 1 Buck's Rich. III. p. 12?. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 135 
 
 ham Castle the 9th of April, 1484, in the twelfth 
 year of his age. 1 The languor and debility of Queen 
 Anne was increased by this unlooked-for afflic- 
 tion ; she survived her son but a few months, and 
 died, not of poison, as has been asserted, and so 
 long unjustly credited, — as if King Richard had 
 perpetrated every crime that malignity could lay 
 to his charge, — but from the effects of a lingering 
 decline, accelerated by grief at the premature 
 death of her child. Thus was Richard the Third 
 left childless and a widower, apparently, in the 
 plenitude of his success, and thus were the views 
 of his opponents more strongly advanced by the 
 retributive justice of Heaven. These most un- 
 looked-for events rekindled anew those embers 
 of dissatisfaction and rebellion, which had only 
 smouldered, but never been extinguished in the 
 minds of either faction. The treaty of marriage, 
 said to have been proposed between King- 
 Richard and his niece, the Princess Elizabeth, 
 before the demise of the Queen, had completely 
 alienated from him the affections of the Yorkist 
 party : while the nomination of John, the young 
 Earl of Lincoln, son of his eldest sister, Eliza- 
 beth, as heir apparent to the throne, roused a 
 spirit of indignation in the baffled Lancastrians, 
 too strong ever again to be put down. 
 
 It may not be uninteresting here to remark, 
 1 Cliron. Croyland, p. 571. 
 
136 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 that the noble individual thus elevated, by the de- 
 cease of the Prince of Wales, to so exalted a po- 
 sition, was the lineal descendant of Philippa Py- 
 card, wife of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, 1 who has 
 been already noticed as the sister to Katherine 
 Swynford ; and as domicella to the Queen of Ed- 
 ward the Third, at the period when her sister filled 
 the same situation about the person of the Lady 
 Blanch, of Lancaster. 2 Thus, by one of those 
 extraordinary revolutions which renders historical 
 research so interesting, by proving that the ro- 
 mance of real life is as replete with incident as the 
 most highly wrought production of mere human 
 ingenuity — the lineal descendants of the two 
 sisters were at this epoch brought into collision, 
 as heirs of the long contested throne. 
 
 Remarkable, indeed, was the situation of the 
 progeny of the co-heiresses of Sir Payne de 
 Roet, at this eventful period of English history. 
 The young Earl of Lincoln, whom King Richard, 
 in default of male issue, had procured to be nomi- 
 nated as his successor to the crown, in right of his 
 mother, the Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet, sister to 
 himself, and the late King Edward, was the fourth 
 in direct descent from Philippa, the wife of Geoffrey 
 Chaucer ; whilst the Earl of Richmond stood in 
 exactly the same degree of relationship to Kathe- 
 rine Swynford, her sister, who, by the ultimate 
 
 i Hollinshcd, A.D. 1484. - Godwin, vol. iv, p. 161. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 137 
 
 succession of King Henry the Seventh, became the 
 ancestress of all the future sovereigns of England. 
 To return, however, from this brief digression. 
 — King Richard renewed his proposals of mar- 
 riage to his niece in due form immediately after 
 the late Queen's interment ;* and to the astonish- 
 ment of all men, notwithstanding the barrier of 
 their near relationship, he overcame the Queen 
 Dowager's scruples, who, unmindful of her oath 
 to the Countess of Richmond, and regardless of 
 the King's treatment of her family, consented 
 for an application to the Pope to sanction the 
 union. 2 The pitiable situation in which this un- 
 happy princess was placed, bereft of her sons, 
 and mourning the execution of her nearest 
 kindred, scarcely rendered her a free agent ; and 
 terror lest the committal of her daughters to the 
 Tower, might be the result of refusal, justifies the 
 conclusion both reasonably and in charity, that 
 her alleged consent was extorted' by maternal 
 fear, and her scruples laid at rest by the confident 
 hope, that neither the See of Rome, nor the 
 English nation would submit to so unnatural 
 and revolting a marriage. The love of life 
 inherent in the youthful breast, united to that 
 firm trust in her God, which had marked the 
 character 3 of this amiable princess from her cradle, 
 
 1 Dr. Lingard'a Hist. Eng. vol. v. p. 355. 
 
 s Baker's Chron. p. 231. 3 Ber. And. in Cotton : MS. 
 
138 THE LIFE OF 
 
 may as satisfactorily account for the letter, said 
 to be extant in the archives of the Norfolk family, 1 
 from the Lady Elizabeth of York, in which she 
 professes attachment to King Richard, and 
 anxiety to promote their union, though her vows 
 had been secretly made to his rival, and her 
 pledge 2 forwarded in token of her fidelity. Alas! 
 for England's honor, at this most degraded period 
 of her national history. Deceit, intrigue, and 
 treachery like a blight, had blackened the whole 
 face of nature, and rendered undistinguishable 
 by means of its withering effects, the wholesome 
 fruits of the land, from such as were irrecoverably 
 diseased and worthless. There are strong reasons 
 to believe from manuscripts of that period, 3 that 
 King Richard had no actual intent to celebrate 
 so extraordinary a marriage, but that his aim in 
 propounding it was to divert the affections of his 
 niece, and to nullify that policy which involved 
 his own destruction, by the proposed union of 
 the two Roses, in the persons of their rightful 
 representatives, the Lady Elizabeth of York, 
 and the exiled Henry of Lancaster. All parties, 
 however, were too highly excited to render any 
 cessation of hostility practicable, by mere acts of 
 policy. Ten months of bitter exasperation fol- 
 lowed the death of Buckingham, and the defeat 
 
 i Buck's Rich. III. p. 129. 2 Had. MSS. 3G7. 
 
 3 Chron. Croy. 572. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 13Q 
 
 of Richmond's proposed invasion ; it was passed 
 by the remnant of the Plantagenets on both sides, 
 in gathering a sufficient force to decide by the 
 sword the long protracted quarrel, each faction 
 being- resolved to extinguish the other. 
 
 During this eventful period, the Lady Margaret 
 was not an inactive spectator. No longer Countess 
 of Richmond, in consequence of the act which de- 
 prived her of title and lands, she felt herself ab- 
 solved from all allegiance to the king, and at liberty 
 to follow the dictates of maternal interests. Through 
 the medium of Christopher Urswicke, her chaplain 
 and confessor, Hugh Conway, a zealous Lancas- 
 trian, and Reginald Bray, the trusty follower 
 before alluded to, she privately supplied her 
 son with large sums of money, and despatched 
 emissaries to rouse the co-operation of the friends 
 and connections of their persecuted house. In 
 consequence of these proceedings, the Lord 
 Stanley, 1 though abstaining from all apparent 
 interference, began to be suspected by Richard 
 the Third, as a well-wisher to the interest of his 
 consort and her son. He was commanded to 
 dismiss all her old servants, and forbidden to 
 communicate with, or receive messages from the 
 Earl of Richmond. The situation of this power- 
 ful nobleman was singularly distressing, for on his 
 discretion seemed to hang the lives of his wife, 
 
 1 Seacoinbe's House of Stanley. 
 
140 THE LIFE OF 
 
 and possibly of the young princess, the preserva- 
 tion of both of whom were so material towards 
 the fulfilment of a scheme he had almost as much 
 at heart as the Lady Margaret ; deeming with 
 her, that by the union of the objects of their 
 mutual love, peace would at length be restored to 
 the distracted kingdom. He was constrained 
 therefore to act a part, and to remain perfectly 
 passive, though it appears by the statement of 
 Humphrey Brereton, his esquire, that he had 
 constant communication with the young princess 
 on the subject, whose pathetic remonstrances, it 
 is the burden of his narrative to prove, was 
 the true cause of the Lord Stanley's taking 
 eventually so decided a part against King Richard ; 
 despite of the peculiar circumstances which to 
 the last moment, compelled him to appear a 
 partizan of his cause. The trusty Brereton was 
 sent into Cheshire to communicate with Lord 
 Stanley's sons, and to state the noble chieftain's 
 sentiments to his valiant brother, Sir William 
 Stanley of Holt, and other of their connections, 
 urging them to be prepared for active measures, 
 in case of the Earl of Richmond's landing in 
 Wales. Passing by a circuitous route into 
 Brittany, he was the bearer of letters both from 
 the young princess and Lord Stanley to the 
 exiled Tudor, together with a ring from the 
 former in testimony of her continued fidelity. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 141 
 
 This faithful follower, who states himself to have 
 been privy to the motives, as well as agent to the 
 designs of his noble employer, has thrown much 
 interesting light on the proceedings of this con- 
 fused era. Many of his statements in verse are 
 corroborated by the prose annals of Grafton, the 
 earliest typographical collector of English annals, 
 and who treated especially of the 'union of the 
 houses of York and Lancaster. All countries 
 are more or less indebted for the preservation of 
 their early historical events to the rude poetical 
 effusions of primitive times. From the Armorican 
 and ancient British rhymes, Geoffrey of Monmouth, 
 compiled his chronicle of the native princes of 
 our island, which account, if obscured by much 
 fable, and garnished with romantic legend, con- 
 tains nevertheless facts sufficiently well attested to 
 be quoted as authority by Hume, and other stan- 
 dard historians. The rude verses of early 
 monkish writers, supplied materials to Spenser, 
 Shakspeare, and other of our best poets for 
 their sublime compositions. Lydgate's poetical 
 works were chiefly on historical subjects; and the 
 immortal Milton, after publishing in prose, a his- 
 tory of England to the Norman invasion, became 
 so fascinated with his metrical authorities that he 
 formed the design of perpetuating in an epic poem, 
 the rhyming traditions of that early period. 1 
 
 1 Johnson's Lives of the Poets. 
 
142 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The character of Bishop Morton and other 
 prominent actors of the troubled times of which 
 this narrative treats, have been faithfully and 
 minutely traced in Dr. John Hird's Metrical 
 History of England, 1 and posterity is so entirely in- 
 debted for the preservation of various important 
 national occurrences to lyrical compositions, from 
 the time of the wandering minstrel until the age 
 of chivalry had passed away, that the statements of 
 Humphrey Brereton being written in poetic mea- 
 sure, does not invalidate his testimony ; while 
 many of his assertions are unquestionable and 
 impart authority to the whole. Greater stress 
 has been laid on the confidence to be attached to 
 the statements of Humphrey Brereton, from the 
 elucidation which his narrative affords to apparent 
 acts of intrigue and double dealing, peculiarly 
 irreconcileable as emanating from individuals so 
 eminent for piety, rectitude, and high principles, 
 as Lord Stanley and the Lady Margaret. They 
 have been accused of acting a treacherous and 
 ensnaring part to the monarch they ostensibly 
 professed to serve, whereas it would appear, that 
 fidelity to the trust reposed in him by his deceased 
 sovereign, and unchangeable devotion for his off- 
 spring, influenced every action of Lord Stanley 
 from his imprisonment before the deposition of 
 the young king, to his efforts for the restoration 
 
 1 Buck's Rich. III. p. 52. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 143 
 
 of his rights in the person of his eldest sister; 
 while to a mind constituted like that of the 
 Countess of Richmond, the vices imputed to 
 Richard the Third, must have excited such horror 
 and detestation, that she needed not the plea of 
 maternal affection, or the instigation of her priestly 
 confessor Urswicke, to believe that in endeavour- 
 ing to effect the restitution of the Lancastrian 
 line she was promoting the ends of justice ; and 
 accelerating the retribution of Heaven on the 
 head of an acknowledged usurper — a suspected 
 regicide and murderer. And here Brereton's 
 narrative also helps to explain the apparently 
 inconsistent conduct of King Richard, who 
 wooing his niece before his wife's death, did not 
 marry her when that obstacle was removed. The 
 princess herself, whose proximity to the throne 
 rendered her the tool of both factions, is cleared 
 by the same authority from desiring a union, 
 which, if true, would deteriorate from the singu- 
 lar virtues which all parties unite in ascribing to 
 her ; by showing that though the fear of being 
 doomed to her brother's untimely end, induced a 
 seeming compliance with the will of her mother, 
 yet that it was in truth a feeling wholly sub- 
 servient to that confident belief and trust in 
 her Heavenly Maker, a trait which renders the 
 character of Elizabeth of York one of the most 
 endearing that ever graced our regal annals. But, 
 
144 THE LIFE OF 
 
 as before stated, there can be little doubt that 
 each of the parties were dissembling; the mo- 
 narch with the purpose of defeating the plans 
 of Richmond, and his Lancastrian supporters; 
 the Dowager Queen, and the princess, because 
 opposition to King Richard's will would have 
 been as fruitless as they knew it to be dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 On his return from his mission in Brittany, Hum- 
 phrey Brereton states that he found the Lady 
 Elizabeth in London, as was likewise Lord Stanley, 
 to whom he gave so favourable an account of 
 Richmond's preparations, that his noble father- 
 in-law felt the period had now arrived for retiring 
 into the country, that he might be prepared to 
 co-operate with his illustrious consort in furthering 
 the views of her son. 
 
 But the politic Richard was too well aware of 
 the powerful resources of the Stanleys, to lose 
 sight of the head of that wealthy family. Sus- 
 pecting that his design was to afford aid to his 
 rival, an opinion fully proved by the result, he 
 positively refused his consent to dispense with 
 his personal attendance, or to his quitting the me- 
 tropolis even for a brief period, unless he gave up 
 his son and heir, George Lord Strange, as a host- 
 age for his fidelity : an exaction which placed the 
 enthralled chieftain in a yet more painful position, 
 as, by this pledge, another life, if not yet more 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 145 
 
 precious, was rendered dependent on his circum- 
 spection for liberty and existence. 
 
 Henry of Richmond had found it very difficult 
 to gain assistance a second time, either from 
 France or Brittany, in consequence of the utter 
 failure of his former expedition ; but the romance, 
 which attached to his singular career, excited so 
 great an interest in the Lady Anne of Valois, 
 eldest sister of Charles the Eighth, that female 
 commiseration once more won for the exiled Earl 
 that, help which his own manly entreaties had 
 failed of procuring. In the present instance, few 
 allies could have befriended him more effectually 
 than this advocate for his cause. The Lady Anne 
 was the Princess Royal of France, and so early 
 distinguished for genius, sagacity, and penetration, 
 that the reins of government were delegated to her 
 by Louis the Eleventh, during the minority of his 
 son, under the title of Governess of France. The 
 illustrious Princess, married to the Sire de Beau- 
 jeu, youngest brother of the Duke of Bourbon, 
 and Lieutenant- General of France, was so zealous 
 in the cause of the persecuted Earl, that she suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining from her brother's ministers 
 the aid of 3,000 men, and the loan of a con- 
 siderable sum of money. 1 But fortune seemed 
 never weary of overclouding every bright gleam 
 of sunshine that dawned on the prospects of the 
 unfortunate Henry Tudor. 
 
 1 Philip de Comines, p. 536". 
 L 
 
146 THE LIFE OF 
 
 While the King of France was collecting his 
 promised troops, the Earl returned into Brittany, 
 to communicate the result to his adherents, and 
 to seek further aid from a quarter where he be- 
 lieved a friendly welcome awaited him ; but it was 
 far otherwise. His league with France had broken 
 his interest in Brittany. His former friend, Peter 
 de Landois, and the Duke, were so jealous of his 
 residence at the French court, (the Lady of 
 Beaujeu being particularly obnoxious to them,) 1 
 that they resolved to prevent his proposed in- 
 vasion of England, by detaining him, as hereto- 
 fore, a prisoner at Vannes, so soon as preparations 
 were complete for his departure. 
 
 Misfortune, however, and continued disappoint- 
 ment in every possible form, had rendered Rich- 
 mond singularly wary and suspicious. Having 
 received secret intimation of this treachery, 2 he 
 privately charged his uncle, Jasper Tudor, who had 
 been the companion of his exile, and the faithful 
 sharer of his vicissitudes, to march to the confines 
 of Brittany, with the small force already collected, 
 and there to await his coming, and the junction of 
 the French auxiliaries. He remained quietly at 
 Vannes, without shewing his knowledge of the du- 
 plicity intended ; but, in the course of a few days, 
 under pretence of visiting a friend in an adjoining 
 village, he proceeded, with only five attendants, to 
 
 1 Buck's Rich. III. p. 57. • Dugdale's Baron, ii. p. 239. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 1 17 
 
 a short distance, when suddenly entering a 
 wood, he assumed the garb of a page, and, con- 
 tinning his flight with great rapidity during the 
 night, he reached Anjou, and was joined by his 
 uncle and troops in France, before the treacherous 
 Bretons were conscious of his departure from 
 Vannes. He proceeded forthwith to the French 
 Court, again to claim the protection of Charles ; 
 and, being courteously received, and finding him 
 constant to his promises, he took his leave, for a 
 time ; to strengthen his cause by assembling as 
 leaders to his hired troops, the exiled and dispersed 
 chieftains, who so long had been banished from 
 their lands and their home. He commenced by 
 releasing the Earl of Oxford from the Castle of 
 Hammes who had there been committed by Edward 
 the Fourth, but was now set at liberty by Rich- 
 mond, through the influence of Bishop Morton 
 with his keeper. 
 
 With the exception of these two notices of his 
 proceedings, the English, Flemish, and French 
 historians, are altogether silent as to Richmond's 
 place of abode, after his perilous adventure in 
 Brittany ; but contemporary Welsh bards assert, 
 that he privately passed from France into Wales, 
 and there lay concealed, wandering in disguise 
 from place to place, to ascertain, by personal ob- 
 servation, how the people stood affected towards 
 
 1 Pennant's Wales, vol. i. p. 9. 
 L 2 
 
148 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Richard, and whether he might venture, with 
 prudence, to attempt, as strenuously advised by 
 Reginald Bray, a landing amongst his kindred. 
 Many wild and beautiful compositions are yet 
 extant, in which, under the emblem of the Eagle 
 and the Lion, according to the allegorical poetry 
 of the age, his sojourn is described ; and the fact 
 of secret intimation of his proceedings having been 
 communicated to King Richard, is also made 
 known, by a tradition yet preserved in the Mostyn 
 family, — to the effect, that while preparing for din- 
 ner with the chief of that house, he was so nearly 
 surprised by the king's soldiery, in their search 
 after him, that an open window alone ensured his 
 escape. To this day, his hiding-place at Tre- 
 mostyn retains the appellation of the " King's 
 Hole." 
 
 Certain it is, that all things were ready for his 
 invasion of England, before he again appeared in 
 France, 1 — when he presented himself suddenly at 
 Paris, to take leave of the King and Madame de 
 Beaujeu : after which, towards the end of July, 
 1485, he departed for Harfleur, in Normandy, 
 where his shipping lay, and his soldiers were en- 
 camped. He there found Bray, awaiting his ar- 
 rival, with large sums of money from England ; 
 and, in addition to his French auxiliaries, 2,000 
 Bretons, suitably provided, were tendered to his 
 
 1 Buck's Rich. III. p. 58. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 149 
 
 acceptance, by Duke Francis, 1 accompanied by 
 protestations and excuses for his meditated de- 
 tention ; a supply, in all probability, obtained 
 through his consort, Margaret of Brittany, who 
 possessed great influence over her husband, and had 
 so firmly stood his advocate on a former occasion. 
 Prior to joining his followers, the Earl rested at 
 Rouen, on his road from Paris to Harfleur, where 
 he received information, for the first time, that 
 preparations were making for the immediate union 
 of Kins Richard with his affianced bride, the Prin- 
 cess Elizabeth, and also of the actual marriage of 
 her second sister, the Lady Cicely Plantagenet. 
 The latter union had been arranged more effectually 
 to frustrate all hopes of his connection with the co- 
 heiresses of Edward the Fourth : and, with a view 
 of increasing his mortification, this young Princess 
 was bestowed by her uncle, on the Lady Mar- 
 garet's maternal brother, the son of the Duchess of 
 Somerset, by her third husband, Leo Lord Welles, 2 
 a young man of no pretensions for so high an 
 alliance, though of ancient and noble family. 
 Goaded to the quick by the final discomfiture of 
 his interests in the point where he had chiefly re- 
 lied for success, and indignant at the vacillation of 
 the Princess, whose ring he had received in token 
 of her faith, ;i Richmond, nevertheless, felt that 
 
 1 Dugdalc's Baron, torn. ii. p. 240. 
 
 2 Camden's Britt. vol. i, p. 507- r> Harleian MSS. 307. 
 
150 THE LIFE OF 
 
 matters had now proceeded too far to admit of any 
 check of the expected invasion, to which he was 
 pledged both to his hired troops and to his partizans 
 in England. As his greatest power lay in Wales, 
 a country endeared to him as the land of his birth 
 and childhood, he resolved, in the event of his 
 contemplated marriage with the Lady Elizabeth 
 of York not being completed, to strengthen his 
 connection in that principality, by allying him- 
 self to the daughter of his former guardian, Sir 
 William Herbert ;' the companion of his youthful 
 days, whose brother Sir Walter ranked among the 
 most powerful of the British chieftains. Dispatch- 
 ing a trusty messenger with proposals to the latter, 
 he proceeded, without delay, to Harfleur, care- 
 fully concealing from his adherents his chagrin, 
 and the failure of his views on the House of York, 
 as also his measures for effecting a fresh alliance 
 among his early connections. 
 
 He sailed from Harfleur on the 7th of August, 
 and landed shortly after at Milford Haven, in Pem- 
 brokeshire, whence he marched by Haverfordwest 
 to Cardigan, where he was welcomed by his British 
 kindred with the greatest enthusiasm, the Welsh 
 hailing him as a Prince descended from the ancient 
 rulers of the land. Here the messenger, who had 
 been dispatched to Sir Walter Herbert, joined him 
 with the dispiriting intelligence that he found 
 
 1 Grafton's Chron. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 151 
 
 it impossible to proceed, for Herbert, having 
 espoused the cause of King Richard, had raised 
 all his power to oppose Richmond. 1 
 
 This unlooked-for intelligence, like many tem- 
 porary disappointments, proved a blessing, not 
 only to himself, but to the great cause to which 
 Henry of Richmond stood pledged, as it left him 
 free to fulfil those vows which alone ensured him 
 success, by gaining to his party the strength of the 
 Yorkist faction, who had long viewed Richard 
 as an apostate to their cause, and a traitor, by rea- 
 son of his perfidy to the deceased monarch's sons. 
 Nevertheless, the determined opposition of Sir 
 Walter Herbert, with whom, in boyhood, he had 
 been so intimately associated, made a powerful 
 and very painful impression on the Earl ; and so 
 effectually alienated his regard, that on gaining the 
 crown, he deprived him of his lands, and settled 
 them on Cicely, the sister for whose hand he had 
 tendered proposals. 2 She was eventually married 
 to Sir Charles Somerset ; her sister Maud, de- 
 signed for him in childhood by her father, had pre- 
 viously married Henry, Earl of Northumberland, 
 who proved one of Richmond's most powerful sup- 
 porters at this trying period. 
 
 From Cardigan he sent messengers to the Lady 
 Margaret, his mother, as also to her husband, 
 Lord Stanley, desiring them to meet him on his 
 
 1 Leland's Itin. vol. vi. p. 30. - Dugdale's Baronage. 
 
152 THE LIFE OF 
 
 way, that he might take their advice, as to his 
 future proceedings. The undisguised preparations, 
 so long making by Henry, had roused King Richard 
 to a sense of his danger, and feeling secure of the 
 fidelity of Stanley, from having kept his son as an 
 hostage, he had sent him to Wales as soon as Lord 
 Strange was in his custody, to levy forces, as a far- 
 ther test of his loyalty. 1 That nobleman proceeded 
 to Leicester, accompanied, as Brereton states, by 
 the Princess Elizabeth, who, for greater security, 
 was soon after sent, by command of the King, to 
 the castle of Sheriff Hutton, in Yorkshire. The 
 Lord Stanley and his formidable body of troops, 
 consisting of 5,000 men, all determined and well- 
 disciplined Welsh, continued at Leicester, in which 
 city he was abiding when Reginald Bray pri- 
 vately conveyed to him the Earl of Richmond's 
 message. 
 
 Not daring, however, to meet his son-in-law 
 openly, lest his defection might prove the death 
 warrant of Lord Strange, he was constrained, 
 after receiving intimation of his close vicinity, to 
 dissemble his knowledge of the fact, until after 
 night-fall ; when cautiously quitting Leicester, 
 he proceeded to Alderton, about six miles from 
 Redmore Heath, where the hostile armies had en- 
 camped. There under cover of the darkness, in 
 a spot the most lonely that could be selected, the 
 
 1 Seaconibe's Hist, of Stanley. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 153 
 
 interview, rendered so interesting by our great dra- 
 matic poet, took place between the son and the 
 husband of Margaret of Lancaster. 1 
 
 Richmond. — " All comfort that the dark night can afford, 
 Be to thy person, nohle father-in-law ! 
 Tell me how fares onr loving mother ?" 
 
 Stanley. — " I, by attorney, bless thee from thy mother, 
 Who prays continually for Richmond's good." 2 
 
 This meeting, however, had nearly proved fatal 
 in its consequence to all parties ; the Earl of 
 Richmond, from the darkness of the night, mistook 
 the path, and, being unfortunately separated from 
 his attendants, well nigh fell a victim to that 
 ill fortune, which ever seemed at hand to mar his 
 brightest and most cheering prospects. Never- 
 theless, after great difficulty, he regained his camp 
 in safety, and spent the remainder of the night, 
 which was that of the Sabbath, in earnest and fer- 
 vent prayer. 
 
 The 22nd of August, 1485, was a portentous 
 day for England. To the combatants it was a 
 struggle for life or death — to the leaders a con- 
 test for a crown — to the nation it was more, far 
 more, — it was the day-spring of civil and religious 
 freedom. It chronicles the fearful whirlwind which 
 scattered, in awful fury before it, the stagnant and 
 accumulated evils of ages, but which was, by its 
 very violence, eventually to purify the land. The 
 
 1 Baker's Chrun. p. 232. " Rich. III. act 5. scene 3. 
 
154 THE LIFE OF 
 
 two armies met in a large plain near the town of 
 Bosworth, and few conflicts were undertaken with 
 more determined spirit. The Earl of Richmond's 
 force was less than that of King Richard, but both 
 numbered on their sides warriors of undaunted 
 courage. The appearance of the Earl was greatly 
 in his favour ; in stature he was above the com- 
 mon height — of great muscular strength, pleasing 
 countenance, and distinguished bearing. 1 He dis- 
 played the ensign of Cadwallader, the red dragon 
 of the native princes of Britain, to commemorate 
 his descent from them, and to revive the remem- 
 brance of Merlin's prophecies, and the predictions 
 of the great bard Taliesin. Richard in defiance 
 of his rival, went to the field of battle crowned 
 as a king. Though neither deformed nor hunch- 
 backed, 2 as the prejudice of party spirit has so 
 long delighted to portray the exterior of so un- 
 amiable a character, he was nevertheless pallid, 
 diminutive, and of repulsive aspect ; 3 but his cou- 
 rage was invincible, his personal bravery almost 
 superhuman : and there hung about his speech, 
 his voice, and his address, a degree of fascination 
 that rendered him irresistible, when he was bent on 
 subduing men's minds to his own purposes. 4 Few 
 possessed so profound a knowledge of the human 
 heart as Richard III. He could read allitswork- 
 
 1 Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 246. 2 See Appendix D. 
 
 3 Sir Thos. More, p. 154. 4 Baker's Chron. p. 234. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 155 
 
 ings, and penetrate its weaknesses ; he knew the 
 effect which regal attributes, and pomp, and splen- 
 dour have on the vulgar and illiterate : he also 
 knew his rival's personal advantages, as contrasted 
 with his own mean appearance ; it was not there- 
 fore merely to scorn the pretensions of Richmond, 
 and to grace his own cause, that in imitation of 
 Henry V. at Agincourt, he led his army to the 
 contest encircled by the kingly diadem, 1 but 
 chiefly with the view of impressing on his troops, 
 that the fate of their monarch depended on their 
 exertions ; and glorious as were the actions of 
 Henry in that famous battle, he was fully equalled 
 by his imitator, in the prodigies of valour, which 
 Richard this day achieved on Bos worth field. For 
 a brief period the victory was doubtful, and Henry 
 of Richmond sent earnestly to beseech the aid of 
 Lord Stanley, but the recollection of his son, who 
 had been detained as a hostage, kept him neuter, 
 until near the close of the engagement. King 
 Richard had also commanded his presence before 
 the action had began, threatening the instant exe- 
 cution of his noble heir, in case of unnecessary 
 delay : but the gallant sire was callous to his 
 threats, as hitherto he had been proof against 
 his bribes. " Tell King Richard," he firmly re- 
 plied, " to act as it so pleaseth him — the Lord of 
 the Isle of Man has other sons alive !" 2 
 
 1 Buck's Rich. III. p. CO, * Baker's, Chion. 234. 
 
156 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Happily the Lord Strange was preserved by the 
 same power, that willed the overthrow of King 
 Richard. Seeking the Earl of Richmond, the en- 
 raged monarch defied him to mortal combat, and 
 was pressing hard upon his little band, after slay- 
 ing his standard-bearer, and unhorsing Sir John 
 Cheyney, — who, seizing the banner, as it fell from 
 Sir William Brandon's grasp, waved the Bri- 
 tish dragon in defiance — when the appearance of 
 Lord Stanley, with his force, aided by that of his 
 brother, Sir William Stanley, openly declaring for 
 Henry of Tudor, decided the fate of the day. 
 
 King Richard, overpowered by numbers, was 
 slain, and Richmond, amidst the acclamations 
 of the whole army, was proclaimed king on the 
 battle-field, by the title of Henry the Seventh. In 
 the heat of the conflict, the crown had fallen from 
 Richard's head, and was hidden by a soldier in a 
 hawthorn bush, which, being discovered by Regi- 
 nald Bray, he brought it to the Lord Stanley, 1 
 who, placing it on the head of his son-in-law, 
 shouted, with enthusiasm, " Long live King 
 Henry the Seventh !" 
 
 In remembrance of the incident, Henry caused 
 to be erected in after years, on his superb 
 tomb in Westminster Abbey, the device of a 
 crown hidden in a bush, and the same scene of his 
 rustic coronation was painted on glass, for the 
 
 1 Hurl. MSS. 542. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 157 
 
 windows of his princely chapel, where it, to this 
 day, remains a conspicuous and interesting object. 
 This fierce battle, decisive as were the results, 
 lasted but two hours, in which brief space of time 
 was finally set at rest the contest of the Roses. 
 By the death of Richard III. the race of the 
 Plantagenet Kings, who had ruled the land for 
 the space of three hundred and thirty-three years, 
 became extinct. 
 
 Immediately after the battle, the fruits of the 
 Lady Margaret's early lessons to her son were 
 strikingly displayed. " The King," says the 
 great Lord Bacon, 1 " as one that had been bred 
 under a devout mother, and was in his nature a 
 great observer of religious forms, caused ' Te 
 Deum laudamus,' to be solemnly sung in the 
 presence of the whole army upon the battle 
 plain, where kneeling down he rendered thanks 
 to Almighty God, for the victory he had gained." 2 
 After which, he commanded that all care and 
 kindness should be paid to the wounded, then 
 turning to the Lord of Mostyn, who had secreted 
 him in his perilous sojourn in Wales a few months 
 previously, he presented him with the sword and 
 belt he had that day worn, in token of his grati- 
 tude and regard. 3 
 
 The feeling in favour of King Henry was unani- 
 
 1 Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 1. 2 Baker's Chron. p. 234. 
 
 3 Pennant's Wales, vol. i. p. fiO. 
 
158 THE LIFE OF 
 
 mous. By the Welsh soldiery he was viewed with 
 superstitious reverence, because their last king, 
 Cadwallader, had prophesied of him, as they be- 
 lieved, seven hundred years before — it having been 
 revealed to him, that his offspring should again reign, 
 again have dominion in Britain. 1 The English with 
 scarcely less superstition, hailed in him the Prince 
 who had long been destined to unite the Roses ; 2 
 and for whom they considered the Most High had 
 fought, according to the prediction of the good 
 King Henry the Sixth, whom they imagined 
 to have been gifted with inspiration when testify- 
 ing that the youth on whom he then looked at 
 Eton, would gain the mastery of both factions, 
 and win the crown for which both so vindictively 
 fought. 
 
 Proceeding direct to Leicester from the field 
 of battle, there is reason to infer from his making 
 a brief stay in that city, that her son was there 
 at length restored to the Countess of Richmond, 
 after a separation of fourteen years — a separation 
 marked on both sides by a series of anxieties, 
 perils, and vicissitudes, such as are seldom com- 
 pressed within so short a period, and that most 
 rarely are apportioned to one individual. She 
 had parted from him a stripling, an exile, and an 
 outlaw. She hailed him the Monarch of Eng- 
 land, called upon by the unanimous voice of the 
 
 1 Baker's Cliron. p. 252. - Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 247. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 15{) 
 
 nation to bring peace to his desolated land. From 
 a grave and serious child, he had become a gallant 
 and victorious Prince. It needs no other testi- 
 mony but the records of their past lives to com- 
 prehend the feelings which marked the first em- 
 brace of Margaret of Lancaster and King Henry 
 the Seventh. 
 
 Prior to his departure from Leicester, the Mo- 
 narch despatched Sir Robert Willoughby to the 
 castle of Sheriff Hutton, with directions for the 
 Princess Elizabeth to repair with all conve- 
 nient speed to London, and there to remain 
 with the Queen Dowager, her mother, which she 
 did with a stately retinue suited to her now ele- 
 vated position, as the affianced Queen of Eng- 
 land. 1 The King himself proceeded by slow 
 journeys to the metropolis, amidst the unbounded 
 acclamations of his subjects, which ardent greet- 
 ing he received with a spirit of humility that com- 
 pletely accorded with the piety of his character. 
 His first visit was to St. Paul's Cathedral, where 
 he offered up the standards borne on the day of 
 his victory, and after having heard prayers, and 
 joined with fervent devotion in the service of the 
 church, he adjourned to the Bishop's palace where 
 he rested for some days. 2 Here he assembled 
 his council, and renewed most solemnly his vow of 
 espousing the Lady Elizabeth of York, it having 
 
 1 Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 7. • Grafton's Chron. p. 854. 
 
160 THE LIFE OF 
 
 been reported in Brittany, that, if successful in 
 gaining the English crown, the Earl of Richmond 
 purposed to marry the Lady Anne of Brittany, 
 heiress to that Duchy, and the highly gifted and 
 only child of Francis and the Lady Marguerite de 
 Foix. The affliction, which Lord Bacon says, 
 this report occasioned the Princess Elizabeth, 1 
 greatly corroborates the testimony of Humphrey 
 Brereton, as relates to their private betrothment 
 at the period above stated ; while the circumstance 
 of Henry the Seventh placing his bride elect under 
 the protection of the Queen mother, controverts 
 the opinion that she ever seriously entertained the 
 idea of making her child the consort of her own 
 uncle ; of him, who was the reported murderer — 
 certainly the unblushing usurper of her son's law- 
 ful rights and realm. The spirit of research, now 
 so rife, and the eager desire that prevails at this 
 time, of proving or disputing facts, passively re- 
 ceived as such, merely from the long copied 
 relation of a few popular and oft-times prejudiced 
 annalists, is likely to throw a new light on innu- 
 merable occurrences connected with the Plan- 
 tagenet race. Various incidents on which from 
 childhood we have been accustomed to linger with 
 romantic delight, or to shrink from with undis- 
 guised horror and amazement, must ere long give 
 place to more impartial statements, and be judged 
 1 Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 8. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 161 
 
 by that calm philosophic inquiry, which can dis- 
 tinguish the result of mere political rumours from 
 actual and authenticated truths. 
 
 The art of printing which has so aided to sub- 
 stantiate the virtues, and palliate the vices of 
 subsequent monarchs, exercised but a feeble 
 influence, until after the race of York had fallen 
 from its high and palmy state ; and the heated 
 and exaggerated statements of those who sought 
 patronage and support from the victorious Lan- 
 castrian party, were as little likely to be con- 
 troverted by persons uninterested in the conquered 
 faction, as to meet with opposition from such as 
 risked evil to themselves by volunteering details, 
 which it was both dangerous and fruitless to pro- 
 mulgate. 
 
 In compiling either historical or biographical 
 memoirs, the actions of contemporary monarchs 
 are comparatively unimportant, unless any lead- 
 ing events tend to elucidate the character or 
 career of the eminent person under considera- 
 tion. The life of the Countess of Richmond 
 stands unparalleled in this matter, for whether 
 viewed in its outset as the kinswoman and 
 sister by marriage to Henry the Sixth, or at its 
 close as the mother of Henry the Seventh, — 
 whether jealously watched by King Edward 
 the Fourth, as the parent of the exiled Tudor, 
 or patronized by King Richard the Third, as 
 
 M 
 
162 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the consort of the powerful Stanley — her pro- 
 gress through life is so inseparably connected, so 
 absolutely interwoven with the rise and fall of 
 these several kings, that a brief survey of the 
 leading actions of their reigns, is indispensable 
 towards forming a just conclusion as to the extent 
 of her trials, and the amount of her virtues. It 
 has also been needed to explain any seeming in- 
 consistency between the profession and the practice 
 of one, who made religion the basis of that un- 
 compromising integrity, which characterized Mar- 
 garet of Lancaster. Having, however, minutely 
 traced the variety of conflicting circumstances 
 which ended in her son becoming the monarch 
 of England, it will be advisable to retreat from 
 public to private life, and again limit attention 
 to considering the Countess of Richmond in her 
 domestic career, lest the close of her eventful 
 life should be eclipsed by that illustrious per- 
 sonage, from whom hitherto had flowed her sorrows, 
 trials, and vicissitudes, but in whom, henceforth, 
 was to be reflected to her admiring sight, all that 
 maternal pride could desire, and more than human 
 foresight could have apprehended. 
 
 The establishment of King Henry on the throne, 
 appears to have been the signal to his admirable 
 parent for retiring from all matters connected with 
 public affairs. This course was adopted from the 
 same prudent and wise policy which induced her 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 163 
 
 ever to look more to future results than to present 
 consequences. She well knew that her son derived 
 but an imperfect title to the throne from her, on 
 account of the limitation as believed of that act 
 which alone constituted, the legitimacy of her 
 inheritance ; for there can be little doubt that 
 had Henry the Seventh been aware that the 
 original instrument of Richard the Second had 
 never been superseded, but merely been interlined 
 when exemplified by Henry the Fourth, he would 
 have grounded his right to the crown apart from 
 his marriage with Elizabeth of York, and not 
 have rested his title as regards himself on con- 
 quest, or his Welsh pedigree. In any case, how- 
 ever, the Lady Margaret could not but be conscious 
 that his pretensions from the house of Lancaster, 
 however lightly regarded, arose through her 
 descent from John of Gaunt ; but, she was con- 
 tent to see the line, of which she was the sole 
 remaining link,* restored in the person of her 
 offspring; she had no ambition to rule a king- 
 
 * Rymer says " There was not a prince of the house of 
 Lancaster left in England, the preceding wars having swept 
 them all away. Margaret of Richmond was the only person 
 in the kingdom that could pretend any right to the crown, but 
 even that right was far from being clear. The princes and 
 princesses who descended from the two first marriages of John 
 of Gaunt, chief of the Lancaster family, were all in Castile, 
 Portugal, Germany, and the Netherlands, and did not seem 
 inclined to assert the rights of their family." Fcedera, 
 vol. ii. p. 2. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 THE LIFE OF 
 
 dom, or to assume a show of authority over its 
 king — that king too, was the son from whom she 
 had so long been separated, too long to have 
 maintained any power over his opinions or actions 
 beyond that which emanated from his cherished 
 remembrance of early days — but he was then a 
 dependent child — he was now a reigning monarch. 
 Disregarding therefore all feelings of personal 
 ambition, all claims of gratitude, all ties of con- 
 sanguinity, the great, the noble Margaret, sub- 
 mitted with all deference to a sovereign, whose 
 rights though now capable of being viewed in a 
 somewhat different light, were then considered 
 doubtful from every source but that which he least 
 liked to admit — his union with Elizabeth of York. 
 The Countess of Richmond never appeared at 
 court in any other character than that of the af- 
 fectionate parent she had always proved ; one who 
 set a bright example of obedience and submission 
 to the laws of the land, without sacrificing mater- 
 nal affection, or lessening that dignity which was 
 due to her own exalted birth and singular rectitude 
 of conduct. 
 
 The course of this narrative is now brought to 
 the close of the year 1485. On the thirtieth of 
 October, to ensure the fruits of his recent victory, 
 and to render more valid his unanimous election 
 to the throne, Henry the Seventh caused himself 
 to be crowned at Westminster, but with that 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 1 65 
 
 absence of display and ostentation, which marked 
 all matters connected with his own merely personal 
 concerns. He had nearly completed his thirtieth 
 year, and the Countess of Richmond her forty- 
 sixth. Having had no issue by her second or 
 third husband, the son of Edmund Tudor re- 
 mained her only child ; but the maternal affection, 
 which hitherto had centred exclusively in him, was 
 about to be shared by another. On her son's 
 union with the Lady Elizabeth of York, she 
 welcomed her as a daughter, and treated her with 
 the tenderness of a parent. They were rarely 
 separated, and the attachment which appears from 
 undoubted authority to have existed between 
 these illustrious ladies, tends yet more to sanction 
 the belief of the youthful Princess having been 
 early associated with the Lord Stanley, and the 
 Lady Margaret ; which latter was known to have 
 been most zealous in promoting her marriage with 
 Henry the Seventh, and thus realizing the hopes 
 which that connection held out of peace and con- 
 tentment to all parties. Previously, however, to 
 redeeming his pledge to the Yorkists, the King 
 hastened to fulfil the claims of personal gratitude 
 and affection. One of his earliest acts 1 naturally 
 was, to reverse the attainder of his mother. He 
 not only restored to her the lands and titles of 
 which she had been deprived by the disabling 
 
 1 Rot. Fail. v. 285. 
 
166 THE LIFE OF 
 
 statute of Richard the Third, but he " empowered 
 her to sue and be sued as a single woman, and to 
 make grants, &c. as if she were unmarried.* 
 She was dignified by the style of " the full noble 
 Princess Margaret, Countess of Richmond, Mo- 
 ther of our Sovereign Lord the King ;" and sub- 
 sequently, by letters patent, Henry secured to her 
 all her honours and manorial rights, notwith- 
 standing any grants which might have been 
 made by King Edward the Fourth, or Richard 
 the Third. 1 
 
 His uncle, Jasper Tudor, the faithful follower 
 of all his fortunes, and the sharer of all his 
 miseries, he created Duke of Bedford, and be- 
 stowed on him various places of trust and emolu- 
 ment. The Lord Stanley, to whom Henry was 
 doubly bound as his mother's husband, and as the 
 arbiter of his own fate at Bosworth field, he ele- 
 vated to the rank of Earl of Derby ; and the 
 Baron Shaunde who had been his chosen friend 
 in Brittany, and who it will be remembered as- 
 sisted him in escaping from the insidious snare 
 laid for him by Edward the Fourth, he made Earl 
 of Bath. 2 The eldest son of the unfortunate 
 Duke of Buckingham, he restored to all his 
 
 * This grant gave her one of the peculiar privileges of the 
 queen consort, who is the only person whom the law considers 
 single. 
 
 1 Rot. Pari. vi. 446, " Baker's Chron. p. 237. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 167 
 
 dignities and possessions. 1 Bishop Morton, whose 
 inviolable fidelity to Henry the Sixth, had secured 
 for him that confidence from Edward the Fourth 
 which was so well repaid to his unhappy offspring, 
 was constituted Lord Chancellor of the realm, 
 and eventually advanced to the see of Canter- 
 bury. 2 Christopher Urswicke, the Lady Mar- 
 garet's faithful priest, was made Dean of York, 
 and appointed private chaplain and almoner to 
 the King ; 3 and the zealous, indefatigable, and 
 trusty Reginald Bray was created a knight 
 banneret, and attached to the royal person as 
 Treasurer and Privy Counsellor. 4 Henry also 
 issued a proclamation to the effect that all persons 
 who would submit themselves to his government 
 and take the oath of allegiance, should be par- 
 doned. 5 He granted considerable immunities and 
 privileges to the towns in Wales, which had 
 befriended his former escape, and aided his return ; 
 and the deceased monarch Richard the Third, 
 having been interred at Leicester without the 
 funeral solemnities suited to his kingly rank, he 
 caused a tomb to be made, and set over the place 
 where he was buried, with his effigy in alabas- 
 ter. 6 That monarch's remains were borne from 
 the field of battle to the grave by his Poursuivant 
 
 1 Bacou's Hen. VII. 2 Dugdale's Baron, ii. p. 239. 
 
 3 Excerpta Hist. p. 109. 4 Testamenta Vetnsta, p. 446. 
 
 5 Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 14. 6 Buck's Rich. III. p. J 47. 
 
168 THE LIFE OF 
 
 " Blanc Sanglier," so termed from his device of 
 the white boar, but after his interment, Henry 
 the Seventh changed the title of that honourable 
 office to " Rouge-Dragon," in commemoration of 
 the ancient British standard which he had conse- 
 crated at St. Paul's. 
 
 Having thus terminated the first year of his 
 reign, by satisfying his conscience and advancing 
 the interests of the most zealous of his friends ; 
 besides making many wise enactments, that 
 evinced his desire to temper justice with mercy, 
 he commenced the second year by solemnizing 
 his marriage with the Princess Elizabeth; an event 
 that was hailed with such universal and unbounded 
 demonstrations of joy, 1 that the dawn of 1486 
 teemed with brighter prospects of harmony to the 
 country than had illumined the political horizon 
 since the time that Edward the Third and the 
 good Queen Philippa, the progenitors of the pre- 
 sent royal pair, had ascended the throne. 
 
 He marked this event by an act of justice to 
 the Queen Dowager and her royal offspring, by 
 reversing the statute of Richard the Third, which 
 had so cruelly degraded the widow and children 
 of Edward the Fourth. 2 The former he restored 
 to her dignity, as a woman and a Queen ; 3 and by 
 letters patent, 4 issued shortly afterwards, he 
 
 1 Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 16. 
 
 2 Rot. Pari. vi. 288. 3 Rot. Pari. vi. 289. 
 * Rot. Patent. 1 Hen. VII. p. 3. m. 25. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 169 
 
 granted her an annuity for life, and various 
 lordships in lieu of those that were forfeited by 
 the statute which had divested her of title and 
 lands. 
 
 While Henry the Seventh was thus sowing the 
 seeds of peace and prosperity, calming angry 
 passions, and quelling rebellious spirits, his excel- 
 lent parent was occupied in those literary pursuits 
 which had contributed to soothe the privacy of 
 former and sorrowful years. 
 
 About the year 1472, William Caxton, the fa- 
 ther of English typography, returned to England, 
 and having learned the art of printing in the Low 
 Countries, established a press in the immediate 
 vicinity of Westminster Abbey. For some few 
 years after his abode there, the civil wars, which 
 embroiled the kingdom, and the disunited state of 
 all parties, caused but little benefit to the com- 
 munity at large, from this wonderful and happy 
 invention. Nevertheless, it slowly progressed ; 
 and, upon her son's elevation to the throne, 
 the Countess of Richmond and Derby, became 
 a zealous supporter of an art, from which it was 
 evident such inestimable advantages might spring. 
 She ordered new works to be printed, and patron- 
 ized such as were published at the expence of 
 Caxton and his fraternity. Wynken de Worde, 
 his partner and contemporary, she appointed to 
 the office of her printer, 1 and Caxton, who was an 
 
 1 Baker's Preface to Fisher's Funeral Sermon. 
 
170 THE LIFE OF 
 
 author himself, dedicated to her one of his most 
 curious performances, " The Historye of Kinge 
 Blandhardyne and Queen Eglantyne." 1 Among 
 the earliest and most rare specimens of typography 
 now extant is the translation of " Waltere Hylton's 
 scala perfectionis," which was " englished and 
 printed by desire of Margaret Countess of Rich- 
 mond and Derby, in W. Caxton's house, by 
 Wynken de Worde, anno Salutis 1484." 
 
 Thus did this eminent lady assemble around 
 her persons remarkable for studious habits. Fre- 
 quent mention is made in the privy purse expences 
 of King Henry the Seventh, of the Countess of 
 Richmond's Poet; 2 and she was ever a liberal 
 promoter and munificent patron of learning and 
 learned men. She encouraged the ladies about 
 the court, to cultivate more gentle accomplish- 
 ments ; and that taste for literature and politeness 
 which, in this reign, began to be appreciated, was 
 mainly owing to the example and energy of the 
 Lady Margaret. 3 
 
 In September, 1486, the birth of a son and heir 
 tended still more effectually to draw the hearts of 
 the whole nation to the reigning monarch and his 
 queen. The young prince was named Arthur, 
 in honour of the renowned and ancient British 
 King, 4 claimed as his progenitor by Henry the 
 
 1 Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors. 2 Excerpta Hist. p. 86. 
 
 3 Russell's Essay on Women. Bacon's Hen. VII, p. 18. 
 
 4 Bacon's Henry VII. p. 18. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 171 
 
 Seventh, a name peculiarly grateful to his faithful 
 Welsh partisans, as both Merlin and their chief 
 bard Taliesin, had prophesied that the aboriginal 
 Britons should regain their dominion ; and they 
 believed that the prediction was now accomplished 
 by the race of Tudor. To shew his desire, how- 
 ever, to conciliate all parties, the King selected the 
 Queen Dowager to be sponsor to his grandson, 
 and nominated the noble Earl of Derby, his 
 mother's husband, one of the godfathers. 1 
 
 Peace, however, is not easily restored to a long 
 disputed realm, and early the following year the 
 King was stopped in a tour he was making to re- 
 dress grievances, and become better known to his 
 subjects, by the insurrection of Lambert Simnel ; 
 who personated the unfortunate Earl of Warwick, 
 son of the Duke of Clarence, the prince who was, 
 according to popular report, drowned in a butt 
 of Malmsey wine. 
 
 This rebellion was headed by the young Earl of 
 Lincoln, formerly Henry's rival for the crown of 
 England, in consequence of the decease of King 
 Richard's son. The King dispatched messengers 
 forthwith for the Queen and his mother, whom he 
 consulted on all matters of importance. 2 They 
 joined him at Kenilworth, and prompt measures 
 were taken to suppress the insurrection. The 
 Earl of Lincoln was slain at the battle of Stoke, 
 and Lambert Simnel, being captured, was de- 
 
 i Leland's Collec. vol. iv. p. 210. 2 Ibid. 
 
172 THE LIFE OF 
 
 graded to a menial situation in the royal house- 
 hold. Every precaution was adopted to subdue 
 the disaffected spirit which this insurrection had 
 roused in the land, by the attainder of the most 
 influential of the leaders. They were, as may be 
 judged, chiefly partisans of the House of York, 
 and the early misfortunes of the King had ren- 
 dered him peculiarly prone to suspicion and poli- 
 tical jealousy from that quarter, the bitter perse- 
 cution, and oft experienced treachery of the two 
 last sovereigns of that dynasty having sunk too 
 deeply in his heart ever to be effaced.* 
 
 At a very early period after his accession, Henry 
 the Seventh, influenced by this feeling, and tenaci- 
 ous of all power, which appeared to emanate from 
 the family of his persecutors, applied to Pope Inno- 
 cent VIII. to confirm by an edict, the validity of 
 
 * It has been generally considered that King Henry had 
 cause to suspect the Queen Dowager of fomenting the decep- 
 tion of Lambert Simnel, and that his indignation induced him 
 to confine her for life in Bermondsey monastery at Southwark, 
 and to confiscate all her lands and possessions. This long re- 
 ceived, but most erroneous statement, is now wholly disproved. 
 Nothing, indeed, can be more untrue, as is evinced by the 
 Queen mother being named as appearing at court long after 
 the date of her reputed disgrace, 1487, and receiving acts of 
 personal kindness from the King, at so late a period as 1490. 
 The fact is here noticed as being essential to retrieve the me- 
 mory of Henry VII. from the unfounded accusation of undue 
 severity to his mother-in-law, and of harshness to his meek and 
 inoffensive Queen. Vide Leland's Collect, vol. iv. p. 249. 
 and Rot. Patent. 5 H. VII. m. 20. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 173 
 
 his alleged title to the empire of Britain, in virtue 
 of his descent from the ancient princes of the land. 
 This being admitted by the See of Rome, and his 
 claims, arising from popular election and right of 
 conquest, recognised by divers Acts of Parliament, 1 
 he caused preparations to be made for crowning 
 the young Queen with great pomp in Westminster 
 Abbey towards the close of 1487 ; his dread of 
 being considered but nominally a king, and of the 
 Lancastrian pretensions appearing secondary to 
 those of York, having decided him in submitting 
 to that sacred form, singly and in his own person, 
 before his marriage with King Edward's heiress 
 could give a colour to his accession being the re- 
 sult of that alliance. 
 
 The precarious health of the Queen, and the 
 birth of his infant heir, followed by SimnePs in- 
 surrection, had delayed her coronation longer than 
 had been designed by her royal consort, which 
 created some discontent in the public mind ; it 
 was therefore preceded and accompanied by marks 
 of popular favour, which contributed to render the 
 ceremony singularly striking and impressive. 
 
 On the arrival of their majesties in the vicinity 
 of the metropolis, King Henry made a public 
 entry into the city, where the pageants prepared 
 on the occasion were of so costly and magnificent 
 a description, that Elizabeth of York with the 
 
 1 Rot. Pari. vi. 268—270. 
 
174 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Countess of Richmond and other ladies of elevated 
 rank, were privately placed to behold the scene, 
 in a house near St. Mary's hospital, Bishopsgate. 1 
 The following morning the King and Queen 
 attended mass in St. Stephen's chapel, after which, 
 we are informed by Leland, 2 that " Her Majesty 
 kept her estate" in the parliament chamber, the 
 Countess of Richmond and Derby sitting on her 
 right hand. 
 
 The unanimity and affection which subsisted 
 between the king's mother and his gentle consort, 
 is a very leading feature in the Lady Margaret's 
 career. She supported the young queen on all 
 public occasions, and appears by the interest she 
 exhibited in matters of importance, to have con- 
 sidered her as a very daughter. During the im- 
 posing ceremony of the coronation, it is stated 
 that " the kings grace and my Lady his Moder 
 stood on a goodlye stage well latyzed," erected 
 betvteen the pulpit and the high altar, from whence 
 they viewed the interesting spectacle; 3 and at 
 the banquet which followed in Westminster Hall, 
 the feast being limited to those who formed part 
 of the procession, Henry the Seventh, with his 
 illustrious parent, again viewed the scene from a 
 window on the left side of the building, out of 
 which was made a stage well latticed and 
 
 1 Ives's Select Papers, 1773. 
 
 5 Leland's Collect., vol. iv. p. 224. 3 Ibid. p. 225. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 1?5 
 
 " richely besene with clothes of arras, that they 
 might prively at ther pleasur see that noble 
 feste and service." 1 The faithful friend of the 
 youthful queen, the noble Earl of Derby, was 
 nominated to a more active, part in the ceremonial, 
 being appointed one of the commissioners for 
 executing the office of High Steward of England 
 on the day of the coronation, 2 an office he had 
 previously filled on a similar occasion, though with 
 far less display, to the king : for now, " attired in 
 a riche gowne furred with sables, a marvellous 
 riche cheyne of gold many fowldes abowte his 
 neke, he rode before her Majestie the Queen, the 
 trappurof his courser being right curiously wrought 
 with the needle." 8 In no portion of her remark- 
 able life, does the Countess of Richmond appear 
 to greater advantage than at this period ; the most 
 exalted female in the land, next to the reigning 
 queen, she yet acted as though she were the most 
 lowly; consulted by her royal son on all matters of 
 real importance, she nevertheless kept herself aloof 
 from all obvious interference, and was so unos- 
 tentatious in her demeanour, so open and upright 
 in her dealings, that it is difficult to reconcile 
 such extreme humility with the pride of birth 
 and wealth in which from infancy she had been 
 nurtured. Under the most severe dispensations 
 
 J Leland's Collect., vol. iv. p. 227. 
 
 8 Collins' Peerage, vol. ii. p. 04. 'Leland's Collect, p. 227. 
 
176 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of Providence she had remained calm and un- 
 moved. She never felt herself forsaken while 
 she had religion for her shield and support ; 
 but her fortitude in adversity was not greater 
 than her moderation in prosperity : and she so 
 constantly accustomed herself to witness the 
 sufferings of the poor and the afflicted, that grati- 
 tude for mercies vouchsafed to herself and the 
 object of her strongest earthly affection, preserved 
 her from ever being unduly elated by the smiles 
 of fortune. 
 
 Stow says " it would fill a volume to recount 
 her good deeds ;" and her biographer and con- 
 fessor narrates such a series of benevolent actions, 
 as fully to sanction the eulogium passed on her by 
 Camden, who states " that the merits of the 
 famous Margaret Countess of Richmond and 
 Derby, exceeds the highest commendation that 
 can be given." 1 She was indeed a singular in- 
 stance of genuine goodness and pure devotion, in 
 an age remarkable for blind and superstitious 
 bigotry. Performing daily and with the most 
 ardent zeal, all the religious offices appointed by 
 the church of Rome, practising the severity of its 
 discipline with a rigour that gave even an ascetic 
 cast to her piety, she nevertheless with that glad- 
 some spirit which seems to have shed such a 
 charm over her domestic life, abandoned not the 
 1 Camden's Britt. vol. i. p. 337. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 177 
 
 amusements of the court, though she scrupulously 
 avoided all participation in its cabals and intrigues. 
 From the period of her son's marriage, the Coun- 
 tess of Richmond added dignity, by her presence, 
 to his feasts, and gave confidence and support to 
 his meek and retiring consort, at all the pageants 
 which are recorded as having been celebrated 
 during his reign. Thus, it is mentioned that she 
 accompanied her majesty in state by water from 
 Greenwich, when invited by the mayor and civic 
 authorities to witness a nautical fete given by them, 
 the Friday previous to her coronation, where, 
 amongst other pageants, "well and curiously 
 devised, to give her highness sport and pleasure, 
 was a barge containing a dragon spouting flames 
 of fire into the Thames." 1 At an entertainment 
 given by the King at Windsor on St. George's 
 day, the Lady Margaret and her royal daughter- 
 in-law were present, each being habited in a gown 
 of the Order of the Garter." 2 At the Christmas 
 festivities at Shene in 1489, the Queen was at- 
 tended by the Countess of Richmond and Derby, 
 and in the November of 1490 the king's mother 
 was still with her majesty, continuing her usual 
 attentions preparatory to the birth of her infant 
 daughter, 3 which took place on the 29th of that 
 month. 
 
 1 Ives's Select Papers, 1773. 
 
 2 Leland's Collect, vol. iv. p. 258. 3 Ibid. 259. 
 
 N 
 
178 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The little princess was named " Margaret" after 
 her august grandmother, a name destined to be 
 of singular import in the regal annals of this king- 
 dom ; as from the Lady Margaret of Lancaster 
 are descended all the kings of England who have 
 wielded the sceptre since the accession of her son 
 Henry the Seventh ; and by the union of this royal 
 infant, her namesake, at the age of fourteen with 
 James the Fourth, King of Scotland, are descended 
 all subsequent monarchs of that realm. This 
 latter became also the ancestress of the first and 
 every succeeding sovereign of Great Britain, when, 
 on the death of her niece Queen Elizabeth of im- 
 mortal memory, the two crowns were united in 
 the same personage, and that title adopted by King 
 James the First, her grandson. ' At the christen- 
 ing of the royal infant, which was performed with 
 great ceremony, the Countess of Richmond and 
 Derby stood sponsor, and presented her royal 
 godchild with a chest of silver gilt filled with gold, 
 borne by her maternal brother the Lord Welles. 2 
 
 Prosperous, however, as seemed the opening 
 years of her son's reign, his peace and repose were 
 still embittered by great struggles, and disturbed 
 by unceasing cabals. When once the spirit of 
 discord has taken root in a land, it is no easy mat- 
 ter to extirpate it, or to eradicate the baneful in- 
 
 1 Baker's Preface to Funeral Sermon, p. vi. 
 
 2 Leland's Collect, vol. iv. p. 238. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 179 
 
 fluencc which evil passions and malignant feelings 
 engender. Scarcely had Henry the Seventh quelled 
 insurrection in his native country, by the defeat 
 and degradation of Lambert Simnell ; than he was 
 called upon to set at rest,, by force of arms, or con- 
 ciliatory measures, the long-protracted quarrel be- 
 tween France and England. Henry was sufficiently 
 politic to perceive he could neither seize nor re- 
 tain the crown of that realm ;* he therefore ac- 
 cepted, as a compromise, an enormous subsidy, 
 wherewith to enrich the impoverished coffers of the 
 kingdom, together with a princely allowance, as a 
 yearly payment to himself. And happy was it 
 that he adopted so pacific a course ; for the ap- 
 pearance of a fresh claimant for his throne, in the 
 person of Perkin Warbeck, again involved both 
 himself and his subjects in the misery of domestic 
 war. This youth appeared on the arena of strife 
 as Richard Duke of York, believed to have been 
 murdered by Richard the Third, but now proclaimed 
 as having been secretly preserved and educated in 
 Flanders, where he remained concealed until he 
 was of an age to assert his claims. The preten- 
 sions of Perkin Warbeck being sanctioned by the 
 Duchess of Burgundy, the aunt of the missing 
 Princes ; and his alleged rights supported by a 
 variety of stubborn facts, so startling, as to have 
 caused almost up to the present day, a strong coti- 
 
 1 Lord Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 99. 
 N 2 
 
180 THE LIFE OF 
 
 viction that he was in truth the illustrious individual 
 whose title he assumed, he became a formidable 
 rival to Henry the Seventh, and a subject of great 
 agitation to the once more divided state. All the 
 dissatisfied remnant of the Yorkist faction thronged 
 to the standard of the " White Rose of England," 
 as Perkin was denominated at the court of Bur- 
 gundy ; where a guard of honour, clothed in murrey 
 and blue, were appointed by the Duchess to be in 
 attendance on his person, all deference being paid 
 him in public and private, that was due to a prince 
 of the blood royal of England. 1 Most of the 
 nobler connections and adherents of the unhappy 
 race of Plantagenet had transferred their allegi- 
 ance to the Lady Elizabeth of York, when they 
 believed her to be the legal representative of their 
 party. Hesitation and misgivings were soon, how- 
 ever, apparent, as the report of the preservation of 
 young Richard, her brother, gained ground, and 
 obtained credence from many qualified to judge 
 of the validity of his tale ; till at length the cause 
 of the supposed murdered Prince was openly and 
 unhesitatingly espoused by some of the highest of 
 the nobility, from their conviction of his being the 
 lawful and true heir to the throne. 
 
 Henry the Seventh, though brave, was the friend 
 of peace. He strove to maintain the power he 
 had gained by the sword, by a wisdom which ren- 
 
 1 Baker's Chron. p. 242. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 181 
 
 dered him as formidable to his unruly subjects, as 
 dreaded by his foreign allies, — and which obtained 
 for him, from the great Lord Bacon, the appella- 
 tion of the " Solomon of England." 1 He inva- 
 riably prefaced his treaties (says that eminent 
 writer) by stating, " that when Christ came into 
 the world, peace was sung ; and when He went 
 out of the world, peace was bequeathed. And 
 this vertue could not proceede out of fear, or 
 softness ; for he was valiant and active, and there- 
 fore it was truly Christian and moral." 2 Con- 
 forming to his doctrine, he never unsheathed the 
 sword until he had tried, to the utmost, the effect 
 of pacificatory measures. He experienced, how- 
 ever, but little tranquillity, even after his treble 
 rights to the throne had been proclaimed by the 
 church, the law, and the sword, and fully con- 
 firmed by his union with the acknowledged heiress 
 of the long-disputed crown. 
 
 Perkin Warbeck, having been openly received 
 with princely honours by the King of France, and 
 his pretensions favourably viewed by other foreign 
 potentates, Henry resolved on sending agents to 
 the court of Burgundy, where his cause was most 
 triumphant, to ascertain the names of the most 
 powerful of his English supporters ; hoping, that 
 by determined acts of severity towards a few of 
 the leaders, he might stay the misery consequent 
 
 1 Lord Bacon's Hen. VII., p. 231. 2 Ibid. 233. 
 
182 THE LIFE OF 
 
 on avowed insurrection. Sir Robert Clifford, the 
 mercenary spy and perfidious friend, betrayed the 
 confidential intercourse of those noble minds, 
 whose candour worked their ruin.* He headed 
 his list of the denounced with the name of Sir 
 William Stanley, brother to the Earl of Derby, 
 Lord Chamberlain of the King's household, in 
 whom Henry the Seventh had placed unbounded 
 confidence, and whom he had distinguished with 
 especial honour and regard, in consequence of the 
 aid he had afforded him in conjunction with the 
 Lord Stanley, at the battle of Bosworth. Sir 
 William Stanley was openly arraigned as a con- 
 spirator, and, with heroic firmness, pleaded guilty 
 to the charge of being favourably disposed to 
 King Edward's race. 1 The result of his trial 
 would seem to confirm the reports yet extant 
 in many old chronicles, that he had aided the 
 aspiring Perkin with large sums of money towards 
 establishing his right ; 2 for, on the 16th of 
 February, 1495, this distinguished warrior was be- 
 headed on Tower Hill. It can scarcely be ima- 
 
 * In the Privy Purse expences of Henry VII., proof occurs 
 in the following entry, of the immense bribe, bestowed on Sir 
 Robert Clifford for betraying his accomplices, — " Delivered to 
 Sir Eobert Clifford, by the hand of Master Bray, £500 ;" — and 
 in reward to the person who so successfully negociated with 
 Sir Robert Clifford, £26 13s. 4d. (Excerpta Hist. p. 86.) 
 
 1 Seacombe's House of Stanley. 
 
 2 Bernard Andreas, MS. p. 593. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 183 
 
 gined that an accusation, founded on mere words, 
 would have induced the King to forget the services 
 of so eminent a man and to disregard his close 
 connection with the Lord Derby and his own 
 mother. Such severity would be wholly incon- 
 sistent with the mercy that spared Lambert Sim- 
 nel's life, and the gratitude he had invariably 
 evinced to the Stanley family. Though he had 
 found them faithful to himself, he still knew them 
 to have been previously warm and zealous friends 
 of Edward the Fourth ; and Sir William Stanley, 
 from having been steward of the household to the 
 youthful Edward the Fifth, during his abode at 
 Ludlow, was attached, in no common degree, 
 to the memory of the ill-fated princes. The be- 
 lief, therefore, which has always, more or less, pre- 
 vailed, that Perkin Warbeck was indeed Richard 
 Duke of York, 1 as effectually rescues the memory 
 of the brave Sir William Stanley from disloyalty 
 and treachery, as it extenuates the act of severe 
 justice, which the chief conspirator, and most 
 efficient supporter of his rival, met with from the 
 hands of his offended sovereign. The documents 
 of this period all agree in stating, that the conflict 
 in King Henry's mind was most acute. He de- 
 layed the arraignment of Sir William Stanley for 
 many weeks after his accusation ; but a monarch 
 cannot evince that tenderness and mercy which is 
 
 1 Sec Appendix E. 
 
184 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the privilege of humbler individuals ; and the for- 
 giveness which Henry Tudor would probably have 
 extended, with true Christian feeling, to his for- 
 mer friend, though present foe, was incompatible 
 with the justice required from the King of Eng- 
 land to the disturber of the peace of the realm.* 
 This distressing occurrence appears to have been 
 keenly felt by all parties. The Earl of Derby 
 and the Lady Margaret quitted the court, and re- 
 tired to Lathom Hall, their abode in Lancashire, 
 where they passed many months in strict seclusion, 
 overwhelmed with grief at the untimely death of 
 so near and valued a relative. 
 
 Anxious, however, to be justified to the world, 
 and especially to reconcile himself with the noble 
 Earl, and to comfort his mother, whom Lord 
 Bacon tells us " he did always tenderly love and 
 revere," Henry the Seventh resolved on visiting 
 them in their retirement. 
 
 Lord Derby, apprized of the honour intended, 
 and aware of the King's desire privately to com- 
 miserate and condole with him on so severe an 
 affliction, made suitable preparations for receiv- 
 ing him with the respect due to royalty. With 
 all possible despatch, he beautified his seats of 
 
 * A strong proof, however, is afforded of the King's grief at 
 this distressing event, in his having paid the Lord Chamber- 
 lain's debts, and causing him to be interred at Syon, at his own 
 charge. — (Excerpta Hist. p. 100.) 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 185 
 
 Lathom and Knowsley, enlarging the latter con- 
 siderably, for the better accommodation of the 
 King and his suite, who would there rest prior to 
 their arrival at Lathom. Remembering also that 
 there was no certain or continual passage over 
 the river Mersey, he built a bridge, and threw 
 up a causeway across the marshes to the rising 
 ground on the Cheshire side, that the King might 
 pursue his progress to the demesne of his illustri- 
 ous relatives, without delay or hazard. 1 
 
 On the 24th of June, 1495, Henry the Seventh 
 and his Queen arrived at Knowsley Place, and 
 from thence proceeded in state to Lathom Hall, 
 where they sojourned about a month, with the 
 Lord Derby and the Lady Margaret, quitting 
 their hospitable castle well satisfied with their 
 reception. 
 
 We are too apt to imagine, judging by the 
 standard of human policy, that all that can render 
 life desirable is concentrated in wealth, titles, and 
 exalted rank. Here again the study of history, by 
 spreading before us, as in a map, the full career 
 of princes, nobles, and chieftains — by pourtraying 
 their public triumphs, and making known their 
 domestic trials, enables us to form a truer estimate 
 of things; and to perceive how far more equally the 
 blessings of life are distributed, than the yearning 
 after earthly preferment allows many on a cursory 
 
 1 Seacombe'a Hist, of House of Stanley. 
 
186 THE LIFE OF 
 
 view to admit. The enormous wealth of Sir William 
 Stanley — for he "was the richest subject for value 
 in the kingdom," — and his proud station as cham- 
 berlain and counsellor to the king, were in all likeli- 
 hood the ultimate causes of his untimely death: the 
 one aggravating his offence with his sovereign, the 
 other being a chief incentive to the rebels to seek 
 the enlistment of so powerful a supporter. It is 
 indeed scarcely possible to survey the scene just 
 narrated, without pausing to observe how pain- 
 fully the duties incident on their elevated position 
 warred with the kindly feelings of all the distin- 
 guished personages connected with the tragedy of 
 Sir William Stanley's execution. 
 
 The King, as testified by Lord Bacon, was a 
 " merciful prince. In twenty-four years reign," 
 says that eminent philosopher, " though his times 
 were full of conspiracies and troubles, he never 
 put down, or discomposed counsellor or near 
 servant, save only Stanley the Lord Chamberlain;" 
 and he was the man to whom he had committed 
 the trust of his person — whose brother had 
 espoused his exemplary and illustrious parent, 
 who was "no ways discontented, no ways sus- 
 pected ;" and who had enjoyed his favour and 
 advancement both in honor and riches, yet he 
 was false to him ! and to a prince so sensitive, and 
 who had been so often betrayed by friend and foe, 
 bitter indeed must have been the conviction." 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 187 
 
 Nevertheless it is affirmed that for six weeks the 
 king did stay the execution, in hope of inter- 
 cession ; and had the Lady Margaret yielded to 
 the humane and gentler feelings which ever 
 marked her private character, there can exist 
 little doubt that she would have pleaded at the 
 foot of the throne for Stanley's brother ! But 
 Margaret of Lancaster had stern duties to fulfil 
 to the country at large, that militated against 
 the exercise of the mild virtues that adorned the 
 domestic career of the Countess of Derby. She 
 had witnessed and bemoaned the misery of civil 
 discord. She had laboured unceasingly to bring 
 peace to the distracted land, and she wisely re- 
 pressed the emotions of a wife and a kinswoman, 
 from the conviction that justice must be dispensed 
 with the same measure alike to the rich conspira- 
 tor, as to the poor and friendless rebel. But that 
 it was a deep and bitter affliction, is evident from 
 the words of the same noble statesman whose 
 authority has been so often quoted. Lord Bacon 
 expressly mentions in describing the visit to La- 
 thom, that the king "went in progresse to comfort 
 his mother, whom he did always tenderly love and 
 revere, and to make demonstration that the pro- 
 ceedings imposed upon him by necessity of state 
 had not in any degree diminished the affection he 
 bore to the noble earl his father-in-law." Thus 
 must all reflective minds feel that temptation 
 
188 THE LIFE OF 
 
 awaits us in proportion to our prosperity, and that 
 the path of duty is not steadily pursued even by 
 the most conscientious, without many a painful 
 conviction that it must often war with earthly 
 affections, yet ever be unhesitatingly pursued as 
 a pledge of our solemn belief that man's inten- 
 tions, as well as his deeds, are registered in heaven. 
 A flourishing and increasing family shed over 
 the domestic circle of Henry the Seventh and 
 Elizabeth of York, that repose which party 
 spirit and continual insurrection had denied 
 to their public lives. In addition to another 
 daughter, a second son had been born to them, 
 the noble Prince Henry, who was created at this 
 important crisis, Duke of York, a title that must 
 have been as grateful to the queen's party, as it 
 evinced policy and good feeling on the king's side ; 
 to endeavour to mitigate, by means of the names 
 and titles of his children, those prejudices and 
 contending feelings that the union of the two fac- 
 tions in the person of himself and his royal consort 
 had softened, but not entirely subdued. By the 
 British appellation of Arthur, bestowed on the 
 Prince of Wales, he bound himself, as has 
 been already noticed, more firmly to his faithful 
 Welsh, though he counteracted all appearance of 
 triumph on the Lancastrian side, by selecting for 
 his first born, sponsors, chosen from the Yorkists, 
 in the persons of the Dowager Queen, and the 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 189 
 
 noble Earl of Derby. His eldest daughter 
 Margaret, (as also previously stated) was by 
 name and spiritual adoption peculiarly the child 
 of his own revered parent. The infant Eliza- 
 beth was called after her royal mother and 
 grandmother, whilst his name of Henry revived 
 anew in the Lancastrians the glorious days of his 
 progenitors, and yet rekindled by the title of Duke 
 of York that deep-rooted affection to the fallen 
 dynasty, which induced rebellion in many a gene- 
 rous heart, and rankled deeply in some of the 
 finest spirits that yielded obeisance to Henry 
 Tudor, merely as the husband of Elizabeth of York. 
 Of all materials for biography, letters are per- 
 haps the most interesting, certainly the most 
 satisfactory. After the lapse of centuries, no in- 
 formation respecting the feelings and character of 
 individuals can be relied upon with greater safety; 
 for in their confidential correspondence, they ap- 
 pear, as it were, before us in their own persons, 
 and exhibit their thoughts and attainments in 
 true and natural colours. Though unfortunately 
 only a few of the Countess of Richmond's letters 
 are preserved, they are such authentic relics, that 
 they could not with propriety be omitted in a 
 memoir of her life; more especially as the earliest 
 now extant 1 shows the Countess's affection for her 
 
 1 The original is in the Tower, and printed literally in the 
 Excerpta Historica, p. 285. 
 
190 THE LIFE OF 
 
 son, for the queen, and for her grandchildren, in 
 a peculiarly pleasing and unaffected manner. It 
 was addressed to the Earl of Ormond, the Queen's 
 chamberlain, apparently during his embassy 1 to 
 France, towards the end of 1495 or early in 
 1496, 
 
 " My Lord Chamberlain, 
 " I thank you heartily that ye list so soon re- 
 member me with my gloves, the which were right 
 good, save they were too much for my hand. I 
 think the ladies in that parts be great ladies all, 
 and according to their great estate they have great 
 personages. As for news here I am sure ye shall 
 have more surety than I can send you. Blessed be 
 God, the King, the Queen, and all our sweet children 
 be in good health. The Queen hath been a little 
 erased, but now she is well, God be thanked. 
 Her sickness is so good as I would but I trust 
 hastily it shall, with God's grace,* whom I pray 
 give you good speed in your great matters, and 
 bring you well and soon home. 
 
 " Written at Shene the 25th day of April, 
 
 " M. Rychemond. 
 " To my Lord the Queen's Chamberlain." 
 
 1 Lodge's Irish Peerage, vol. ii. p. 13. 
 
 * The import seems that the Queen had been ill, but the 
 Countess hoped would soon be quite restored. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 191 
 
 In the Spring of 1498, the Lady Margaret was 
 again summoned by her son as sponsor to another 
 grandchild, 1 a third prince being born at Green- 
 wich in the fourteenth year of King Henry's 
 reign, who was christened Edmund Tudor, in 
 memory of his grandfather, the Earl of Rich- 
 mond. The venerable Countess, now advancing 
 in years, held the noble infant at the font, 2 while 
 bestowing on him an appellation so fraught with 
 conflicting feelings. Her royal god-child, in 
 further commemoration of his grandmother's birth 
 and descent, was created Duke of Somerset ; but 
 the little prince lived not long enough to ap- 
 preciate the tenderness she early testified for the 
 infant inheritor of such endearing appellations. 
 He died in childhood at Bishop's Hatfield, the 
 manor, it will be recollected, of his ancestress, 
 Queen Katherine, and which was then the nursery 
 of the King's children. 3 This instance of attach- 
 ment to associations connected with his early days 
 and those of his parents, was not the only proof 
 evinced by the King of the deep respect he 
 entertained for all that related to them. The 
 ancient palace at Sheen, in Surry, which had wit- 
 nessed such frequent festivities in his time and 
 in that of his predecessors, he rebuilt in the 
 sixteenth year of his reign, and changed its 
 
 1 Sandford's Gen. Hist. Book vi. chap. 10. 
 
 2 Leland's Collect, vol. iv. p. 243. 3 Anglorum Spec. p. 398 . 
 
192 THE LIFE OF 
 
 appellation to Richmond, in commemoration of 
 the title, which in infancy he had inherited from 
 his father. Baynard's Castle, the early abode 
 of Edmund of Hadham, and subsequently the 
 residence of the Lady Margaret, he likewise 
 rebuilt in a style of great splendour ; chang- 
 ing its form from a castle to a palace,* and 
 restoring its original name, which during the late 
 dynasty had been exchanged for that of York- 
 House ; and the once princely palace of Savoy, 1 
 the dwelling-place of his progenitor, John of 
 Gaunt, he converted into a goodly hospital, re- 
 taining its ancient and well-known name, and en- 
 dowing it with lands for the relief of two hundred 
 poor and afflicted persons. 
 
 The devotional spirit which had characterized 
 the Lady Margaret, throughout a useful and ex- 
 emplary life, which had disciplined the romance 
 of youth, tempered the sorrows, and chastened the 
 joys of maturer years, was now beginning to 
 exercise over her declining days that exclusive 
 feeling which resulted from the conviction, that 
 her pilgrimage on earth was drawing to an end ; 
 and that the close of a life so diversified with good 
 
 * Henry the Seventh resided at Baynard's Castle, and from 
 thence made several solemn processions. Here, in 1505, he 
 lodged Philip of Austria. This ancient fahric was totally 
 destroyed in the great fire of London 1 666. 
 
 » Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 233. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 193 
 
 and evil, so fraught with wondrous changes, 
 ought to be wholly devoted to that great and 
 merciful Being who had never forsaken her in 
 sorrow or in joy. It was not unusual at the era 
 in which she flourished for persons advancing in 
 years to procure by purchase or gift, a retreat in 
 some holy asylum, where, abandoning earthly 
 cares, they could devote the decline of life 
 to prayer and confession. * Some of pure 
 and unspotted lives, adopted such devotional re- 
 tirement, from the pious wish of ending their days 
 in a sanctuary set apart for religion, where they 
 might be free from worldly temptations, and 
 estranged from worldly thoughts. Others under- 
 took it as an atonement for their former evil 
 deeds, hoping it might ensure their pardon and 
 secure their eternal peace ; 1 and a few embraced 
 it from love of literature, for it must not be for- 
 gotten that the great majority of people could 
 obtain books in convents alone. The Countess 
 of Richmond had long been preparing herself for 
 seclusion from the pleasures and fascinations of 
 the court, by increased severity in personal mor- 
 tifications and a more rigid exercise of austere 
 
 * Cicely Duchess of York, the mother of King Edward 
 IV. and Richard III. widow of the Duke of York who 
 was slain at Wakefield, and grandmother of the reigning queen, 
 became a Benedictine Nun in 1480. (Cott. MSS. Vitellius, 
 c. 17. p. 250.) 
 
 1 Paston Letters, vol. it. 
 
 O 
 
194 THE LIFE OF 
 
 penance. She had engaged as her confessor, a 
 divine of eminent piety. The ascetic severities, 
 the fervent devotion, and unbounded charity of 
 John Fisher, the friend and companion of Eras- 
 mus, having come to the knowledge of the Lady 
 Margaret, she solicited him to quit his studies 
 at Cambridge and to become her spiritual guide, 
 and the almoner and distributor of her charities. l 
 It does not however appear, that she ever formally 
 embraced a conventual life, or became an inmate 
 of any monastic establishment, but she was ad- 
 mitted a member of the fraternity of five religious 
 houses, Westminster, Crowland, Durham, Wyn- 
 burne and the Charter House, London, which 
 her biographer observes, "As it entitled her to 
 the prayers, so it gave her a share in the merits 
 and good works of all those holy societies." 2 
 
 It is probably from her connection with these 
 sanctuaries purely set apart for religious duties, 
 that the Lady Margaret is usually represented in 
 the habit of a recluse ; especially as about this 
 time in conformity with her resolution of retiring 
 from the world, she solicited and obtained the 
 consent of the Earl of Derby, or rather, — as ex- 
 pressed by Bishop Fisher, " She obtained licence 
 in her husband's days long time before he died," 3 
 for a formal separation. According to the 
 
 1 Coleridge's "Worthies of Yorkshire. 
 
 2 Baker's preface to Funeral Sermon. 3 Funeral Sermon, p. 1 1 . 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 195 
 
 rites of the Romish Church, "in the hands" of 
 Richard Fitzjames, afterwards Bishop of London, 
 she solemnly vowed the rest of her life to prayer 
 and penance, and resigned henceforth all worldly 
 interests and earthly considerations. Having re- 
 newed this vow some years afterwards to Bishop 
 Fisher, he deposited the deed which perpetuates 
 the fact in the archives of St. John's College, 
 Cambridge, which enables the date of the first 
 vow to be fixed with precision to about the year 
 1497. J 
 
 Retiring to her patrimony at Woking 2 in Surrey, 
 the Manor House appertaining to which had been 
 recently enlarged and repaired by King Henry the 
 Seventh, she there fixed her abode, and with the 
 exception of occasional sojourns at Colyweston, 
 Hatfield, and Westminster, and brief visits con- 
 nected with her charitable endowments, she there 
 continued to dwell with little intermission for the 
 remainder of her life. Her royal son, however, 
 had provided for her a city residence suitable 
 to her high station, in the event of matters of 
 import requiring her presence in London. By a 
 grant from him yet extant, the ancient mansion of 
 the Duke of Exeter, called Cold or Coin Harbour, 
 was assigned to the Lady Margaret as her tem- 
 porary abode 3 when necessity obliged her to 
 
 1 See Appendix F. - Camden's Brit. 
 
 1 Wilkinson's Lond. illustrata. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 quit the life of retirement which she had volun- 
 tarily chosen at this period. The religious zeal 
 which induced seclusion from a court where her 
 dignified conduct had at once elevated her own 
 character, and that of her sex, was marked by an 
 increase of benevolence and charitable actions. 
 She supported under her roof twelve poor or 
 afflicted persons, whose wounds she would dress 
 with her own hands, and supply their wants with 
 the most gentle and tender piety. It was her 
 custom to be present at their decease, and she 
 generally attended their obsequies, observing that 
 such scenes taught her how to die. 
 
 With the ascetic spirit which marked that era 
 the Lady Margaret increased her personal mortifi- 
 cations, when thus striving to enlarge the comforts 
 of those around her. She would wear next her 
 skin, lacerating girdles and garments of hair cloth ; 
 and withal was so strict in her devotional exercises 
 that her bodily health was frequently injured by 
 her spiritual zeal. 
 
 Dr. Fisher became a member of her household, 
 and in conjunction with Dr. Hornby, who was 
 chancellor of her court or family, 1 directed all 
 things therein with the austere ceremonial, and 
 almost rigid sanctity belonging to the monastic 
 orders. This excellent divine is said to have direct- 
 ed the studies and superintended the education of 
 1 Baker's Preface to Funeral Sermon, p. 50. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 197 
 
 the young prince, afterwards Henry the Eighth, 
 and the circumstance appears credible, not merely 
 from the proficiency of this monarch in scholastic 
 divinity, but because he is known to have been in 
 a great degree brought up by his grandmother, 
 and to have imbibed from her tuition and love of 
 literature, that taste for letters so early and strik- 
 ingly displayed. This fact has been handed 
 down by means of an inscription in the north 
 aisle of the parish church of Bletshoe, on a monu- 
 ment to the memory of Sir John St. John, 1 
 nephew of the Countess of Richmond, who it is 
 there stated was educated by this eminent lady 
 together with her grandson Prince Henry ; who 
 retained for his youthful associate in study and 
 amusement so strong a regard, that in after years 
 when Monarch of England, he made St. John 
 guardian of his daughters Mary and Elizabeth 
 the future queens. He died in the office of 
 chamberlain to the latter, and the effigy of a 
 knight in armour, together with the before-men- 
 tioned inscription, commemorates this distinguished 
 ancestor of the barons St. John of Bletshoe, and 
 the Viscounts Bolingbroke ; which last title was 
 bestowed on account of the connection of their 
 progenitors with the Lady Margaret of Lancas- 
 ter. 2 The nurture and tuition of her young kins- 
 folk is a further instance of the extent to which 
 1 Lyson's Mag. Brit. - Camden's Brit. vol. i. p. 337. 
 
198 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the countess cherished the claims of consan- 
 guinity, and how beautifully she blended the 
 moral virtues with the extreme of devotional enthu- 
 siasm, even to the latest hour of her life. The 
 young St. John, who had shared with her royal 
 grandson, the tenderness of her love, and bene- 
 fited by the value of her precepts ; she appointed 
 in maturer years, chamberlain of her household, 
 and left him one of the executors of her will. 
 She as zealously promoted the interests of a 
 younger half-brother, by the Duchess of Somer- 
 set's third marriage, John Lord Wells, who was 
 created a viscount by her son Henry the Seventh ; J 
 and by his union with the Princess Cicely the 
 queen's sister, was intimately associated with herself 
 and the royal family. This nobleman dying without 
 heirs in 1498, the title became extinct. 
 
 About this period Lady Margaret completed the 
 superb altar tomb to the memory of her noble pa- 
 rents in Wimborne Minster, and augmented a 
 chauntry previously established by one of the early 
 monarchs, wherein she ordained mass to be daily 
 celebrated, for the souls of herself, of her son 
 Henry the Seventh, of her parents and her ances- 
 tors ; the collects and other ceremonies being par- 
 ticularly specified. She founded likewise a free 
 school at Wimborne, and procured letters patent 
 from her son for its endowment, bequeathing an 
 
 * Camden's Brit. vol. i. p. 567- 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 199 
 
 annual stipend to a priest to teach grammar free 
 to all who should demand it, according to the cus- 
 tom of the schools of Eton and Winchester ; en- 
 joining the residence of the chaplain in a house set 
 apart for that purpose, and forbidding all perqui- 
 sites from the scholars, or any fees but such as were 
 derived from her endowment. This fine institu- 
 tion yet exists, but from having been considerably 
 enlarged and benefited by letters patent granted 
 by Queen Elizabeth her great-grand-daughter, its 
 original appellation was altered from that of " the 
 Lady Margaret's," to Queen Elizabeth's free 
 Grammar School. 1 
 
 Peaceably occupied with undertakings such as 
 these, and in planning various other great and 
 good deeds, tending to advance true piety and 
 encourage that growth of knowledge which 
 springing in great measure from the seeds she 
 scattered and sowed in a barren soil, has since 
 attained to such a height as now to overshadow 
 with its branches our highly favoured land ; it is 
 necessary to leave the venerable countess pursu- 
 ing her tranquil and enlightened path, to perceive 
 by another brief glance at the state of public 
 affairs, how peculiarly valuable were her single 
 efforts to effect in the minds of the rising genera- 
 tion a more civilized and peaceable feeling than 
 that turbulent and factious spirit which yet held 
 
 1 Iiutcliinsou's Dorset, Art. Wimborne. 
 
200 THE LIFE OF 
 
 in thraldom the mass of King Henry's rebellious 
 subjects. 
 
 The insurrection which led to the execution of 
 Sir William Stanley was not quelled by his death 
 or by the rigorous measures taken by Henry to 
 crush the rebellion at its commencement. For 
 the space of five years both the king and the 
 country were harassed with civil war, and once 
 more a prey to cabal, to executions, and to 
 attainder. Sometimes as a leader of a successful 
 band, at others a wanderer in foreign courts, 
 Perkin Warbeck contrived to keep England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland, in a state of continual 
 agitation. Having at length been taken prisoner, 
 Henry spared his life, under a promise of sub- 
 mission to close imprisonment in the Tower, but 
 being speedily found to be planning his escape, 
 in conjunction with the unfortunate Earl of War- 
 wick, who had been a captive from the period of 
 his father's execution in the reign of Edward IV. 
 he was tried for high treason, and beheaded at 
 Tyburn, in November 1499, the unhappy prince 
 his associate undergoing the same fate on Tower 
 Hill a few weeks after, in the 24th year of his 
 age. By this tragical event, the rebellion was 
 repressed, ! though the fate of the persecuted 
 Warwick will ever remain a blot on the escutscheon 
 of the three monarchs, who, without the shadow 
 
 t Excerpta Hist. p. 123. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 201 
 
 of cause beyond that inspired by jealousy and 
 mistrust, held him in captivity, from the days of 
 his childhood, until he terminated his melancholy 
 life, by the premature and violent death which in 
 some form or other befel all who bore the name 
 of Plantagenet, of which he was the last male 
 descendant. But though peace was restored to 
 the land by Perkin Warbeck's execution, pros- 
 perity was by no means the result. Towards the 
 close of the same year, the plague made its ap- 
 pearance with fearful malignity, completing the 
 desolation that the sword had begun. Henry the 
 Seventh and his queen, after many change of 
 places, were obliged to fly to Calais to avoid its 
 effects, thirty thousand persons having become 
 victims to its fury in the city of London alone. 1 
 
 In the year 1500, her Majesty presented the 
 nation with another Princess, the Lady Mary,* 
 through whom the House of Stanley subsequently 
 became allied by blood as well as by marriage, to 
 the illustrious subject of this memoir ; Margaret, 
 grand- daughter of the Princess Mary, having 
 espoused Henry fourth Earl of Derby. 2 This 
 
 1 Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 196. 
 
 * Grandmother of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey. Tlie 
 sisters of this lamented lady, arc likewise suhjects of great 
 historical interest, especially Lady Kathcrine Grey, who is 
 here noticed from having been committed to the custody of 
 Sir Thomas Gresham. 
 
 - Sec Appendix G. 
 
202 THE LIFE OF 
 
 event was soon followed by the marriage of Ar- 
 thur, Prince of Wales, with the Princess Kathe- 
 rine, the daughter of Ferdinand, and Isabella of 
 Spain. She was a descendant of John of Gaunt's 
 daughter, by Dona Constantia of Castille, and was 
 consequently connected with the House of Lan- 
 caster, and the rejoicings which took place on the 
 occasion prove the general satisfaction felt at the 
 alliance, for they stand unrivalled, in our festive 
 records, for splendour and magnificence ; we might 
 likewise add, also for singularity. Unless authentic 
 documents had been preserved, it would scarcely 
 enter into the imagination to conceive such an 
 extraordinary exhibition ; or to comprehend the 
 possibility of so incongruous a mixture of puerile 
 devices and miscalled religious display. Except- 
 ing that in an historical memoir, all digressions 
 that tend to elucidate the manners and customs of 
 the age, are admissible — nay, essential to the just 
 comprehension of the position of the individual 
 whose career it records, it would scarcely seem 
 within the province of this narrative to describe 
 any of the ceremonies observed on this occasion ; 
 but, as " the Venerable Margaret" was induced to 
 leave the religious seclusion she had chosen, to 
 witness that portion of the festivity esteemed de- 
 votional, and as she farther evinced her gratifica- 
 tion at the alliance, by entertaining the Lord 
 Mayor and civic authorities at Cold Harbour, 
 
MARGARET BEAUFOHT. 203 
 
 which was her temporary city residence ;* it may 
 not be considered irrelevant or altogether uninter- 
 esting to state, that the entrance of the Princess 
 Katherine into London was celebrated amongst 
 innumerable other testimonies of public rejoicing, 
 by the display of a succession of pageants, along 
 the line of procession from London Bridge to St. 
 Paul's Church Yard. 
 
 The first of these dramatic exhibitions was a 
 representation of the Holy Trinity, surmounted by 
 angels offering incense, and supported by St. 
 Catherine and St. Ursula, who addressed the 
 Princess, in long poetical propositions, on her 
 reaching London Bridge. The second pageant 
 exhibited the insignia of the royal family, under 
 the device of a huge castle, above which towered 
 a ponderous portcullis — a fearful red dragon with 
 a crown of gold, and gigantic red roses, half a 
 yard in breadth : in this show, called the " Castle 
 of Portculleys," two knights and a bishop under 
 the names of Policy, Nobleness, and Virtue, deli- 
 vered long harangues. The third exhibition was 
 that of the Moon, with extravagant representations 
 of the starry firmament, in which the bride was 
 compared to Hesperus, and Prince Arthur to 
 Arcturus : above this sphere sat the angel Ra- 
 phael, who also delivered a long proposition in 
 verse, as did characters representing Alphonso 
 
 1 Wilkinson's Loncl. illustrate. 
 
204 THE LIFE OF 
 
 King of Spain (the famed ancestor of the 
 Princess), the prophet Job, and Boethius. The 
 fourth pageant was that of the Sun, typical of the 
 bridegroom, with equally outrageous accompani- 
 ments ; for in all the devices there was a great 
 share of astronomy — a belief in fortunes told from 
 the stars being one of the superstitions of the age. 
 The fifth was called the Temple of God, which 
 with singular profaneness represented " the God- 
 head" surrounded by innumerable angels, and sup- 
 ported by the four Evangelists, and at this pageant 
 the Princess heard a poetical sermon, presumed to 
 be delivered by the Almighty himself! 1 To this 
 same spot the King also had privately repaired, 
 attended by Prince Arthur, the Earl of Derby, and 
 others of the court ; and, in a merchant's cham- 
 ber adjoining, though concealed from general ob- 
 servation, stood the Queen, the young Princesses 
 Margaret and Mary, and the Countess of Rich- 
 mond and Derby, who is said to have " wept mar- 
 vellously at the great triumph of the marriage, in 
 drede that some adversyte might follow." 2 How 
 saddening is it to reflect on the low state of taste 
 and feeling, that could have made kings, prelates, 
 chieftains, and scholars, take part in and feel 
 
 1 Abridged from a MS. in the College of Arms, printed in 
 the Antiquarian Repertory. See also Bacon's Henry VII., 
 p. 205. 
 
 2 Fisher's Funeral Sermon, p. 31. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 205 
 
 profited by such a mixture of the awful and 
 absurd. 
 
 Perverted, indeed, must have been the purity 
 of religion, when, by performances such as these, 
 the fearful mysteries of Heaven could presump- 
 tuously be attempted to be portrayed by man. 
 From so melancholy a picture, it is cheering 
 to observe how pure must have been the faith, 
 how exemplary the practice of the Lady Margaret, 
 when her pious deeds and munificent acts were 
 of so exalted and truly Christian a character 
 as to be no less admirable at the present time 
 than in those days of false devotion in which she 
 flourished. 
 
 The most interesting part of the Countess of 
 Richmond's correspondence seems to belong to 
 this period ; but the only letter of which the 
 date can positively be ascertained, was one 
 written on Saint Anne's day, July. 26th, 1501, 
 apparently the latest extant. Throughout the 
 whole, her tenderness and love for her son is 
 most striking, and her endearing expressions fully 
 prove the harmony and affection that existed 
 between them. 
 
 The claim upon the King of France, so often 
 alluded to, was for money advanced by the 
 Duchess of Somerset — the Lady Margaret's 
 mother, — to the Duke of Orleans, while that 
 Prince was a prisoner in this country ; and her 
 
206 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 right to which, it is shewn, by the following letter, 1 
 she had wholly yielded to her son. 
 
 " My own sweet and most dear King, and all 
 my worldly joy. 
 
 " In as humble manner as I can think, 1 
 recommend me to your grace, and most heartily 
 beseech our Lord to bless you. And my good 
 heart, where that you say that the French King 
 hath at this time given me courteous answer, and 
 written letter of favour to his Court of Par- 
 liament, for the brief expedition of my matter, 
 which so long hath hanged; the which I well know 
 he doth especially for your sake, for the which my 
 
 ly beseech your Grace it to 
 
 give him your favourable thanks, and to 
 
 desire hiim to continue his in...e me. 
 
 And, if it so might like your Grace, to do the 
 same to the cardinal ; which, as I understood, is 
 your faithful, true, and loving servant. I wish 
 my very joy, as I oft have shewed, and I fortune 
 to get this, or any part thereof, there shall neither 
 be that or any good I have, but it shall be your's, 
 and at your commandment, as surely and with as 
 
 1 From the original in the Cottonian MSS. Vespasian F. 
 xiii. fo. CO; — where there is also preserved an order from the 
 Countess of Richmond to Richard Shirley, her bailiff, com- 
 manding him to provide provisions against the arrival of the 
 King at her town of Ware. Written at the manor of Hatfield, 
 the 23rd day of July (Ibid. fo. SI.) 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 207 
 
 good a will, as any ye have in your coffers ; and 
 would God ye could know it, as verily as I think 
 it. But, my dear heart, I will no more encumber 
 your Grace with further writing in this matter, for 
 I am sure your chaplain and servant, Dr. Whyt- 
 ston, hath shewed your highness the circum- 
 stances of the same ; and if it so may please your 
 Grace, I humbly beseech the same, to give fur- 
 ther credence also to this bearer. And our Lord 
 give you as long good life, health, and joy, as your 
 most noble heart can desire, with as hearty bless- 
 ings as our Lord hath given me power to give 
 you. 
 
 " At *Colyweston the 14th day of January, by 
 your faithful, true bedewoman 1 and humble mother, 
 
 " Margaret R." 2 
 
 The annexed letter from King Henry the 
 
 * Colyweston, in Northamptonshire, from whence the above 
 letter is dated, was the favonrite residence and frequent abode 
 of the Lady Margaret. The mansion she there erected was 
 noticed, early in this memoir ; an entry is twice made in the 
 Privy Purse expences of King Henry VII. of his visit to it ; 
 and Leland states, that this dwelling of her venerable grand- 
 mother was selected as the state resting place of the Princess 
 Margaret, when on her progress to espouse James the IV. 
 King of Scotland. 
 
 1 A bedewoman was a person employed in praying ; though 
 generally it implied one who prayed for another. (Paston's let- 
 ters, vol. iii. p. 254.) 
 
 - The signature of this letter was the one selected for the 
 autograph prefixed to the frontispiece of this memoir. 
 
208 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Seventh to his mother, 1 shews that her tenderness 
 was repaid by a degree of filial love and venera- 
 tion rarely exceeded, and which at once bears 
 touching testimony to her worth, and redeems 
 many harsh traits in the character attributed to that 
 monarch by historians. 
 
 " Madam, my most entirely well-beloved lady 
 and mother. 
 
 " I recommend me unto you in the most 
 humble and lowly wise that I can, beseeching 
 you of your daily and continual blessings. By 
 your confessor the bearer, I have received your 
 good and most loving writing, and by the same, 
 have heard at good leisure such credence as 
 he would shew unto me on your behalf, and 
 thereupon have sped him in every behalf without 
 delay, according to your noble petition and desire 
 which resteth in two principal points ; the one for 
 a general pardon for all manner causes ; the other 
 is for to alter and change part of a licence which 
 I had given unto you before, for to be put into 
 mortmain at Westminster, and now to be con- 
 verted into the University of Cambridge for your 
 soul's health, etc.* All which things according to 
 your desire and pleasure, I have with all my heart 
 
 1 Harl. MS. 7039. fol. 34. from the Archives of St. John's 
 College of Cambridge. 
 
 * This letter first regards Christ's College, and afterwards 
 St. John's. (Baker's Appendix to Funeral Sermon, p. 40.) 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 209 
 
 and good-will given and granted unto you. And 
 my Dame, not only in this but in all other things 
 that I may know should be to your honour and 
 pleasure, and weal of your soul, I shall be as glad 
 to please you as your heart can desire it, and I 
 know well that I am as much bounden so to do as 
 any creature living, for the great and singular 
 motherly love and affection that it hath pleased 
 you at all times to bear towards me. Wherefore, 
 my own most loving mother, in my most hearty man- 
 ner I thank you, beseeching you of your good con- 
 tinuance in the same. And, Madam, your said 
 confessor, hath moreover shewn unto me on your 
 behalf, that ye of your goodness and kind dis- 
 position, have given and granted unto me such 
 title and interest as ye have or ought to have in 
 such debts and duties which is owing and due 
 unto you in France, by the French king and 
 others ; wherefore, Madam, in my most hearty and 
 humble wise I thank you. Howbeit, I verily 
 think it will be right hard to recover it without it 
 be driven by compulsion and force, rather than 
 by any true justice, which is not yet as we think 
 any convenient time to be put in execution. 
 
 "Nevertheless it hath pleased you to give us a 
 good interest and mean, if they will not conform 
 them to reason and good justice, to defend or of- 
 fend at a convenient time when the case shall so 
 require hereafter. For such a chance may fall 
 
 p 
 
210 THE LIFE OF 
 
 that this your grant mignt stand in great stead for 
 a recovery of our right, and to make us free, 
 whereas we be now bound, etc. And verily, 
 Madam, and I might recover it at this time or 
 any other, ye be sure ye should have your pleasure 
 therein, as I and all that God has given me, is 
 and shall ever be at your will and commandment, 
 as I have instructed Master Fisher more largely 
 herein, as I doubt not but he will declare unto 
 you. And I beseech you to send me your mind 
 and pleasure in the same, which I shall be full 
 glad to follow with God's grace, which send and 
 give unto you the full accomplishment of all your 
 noble and virtuous desires. Written at Green- 
 wich, the 17th day of July, with the hand of your 
 most humble and loving son. 
 
 H. R. 
 After the writing of this letter, your confessor 
 delivered unto me such letters and writings obli- 
 gatory of your duties in France, which it hath 
 pleased you to send unto me, which I have 
 received by an indenture of every parcel of the 
 same. Wherefore, eftsoons, in my most humble 
 wise, I thank you, and I purpose hereafter, at 
 better leisure, to know your mind and pleasure 
 further therein. Madam, I have encumbered you 
 now with this my long writings, but, methinks, 
 that I can do no less, considering that is so seldom 
 that I do write, wherefore, I beseech you to 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 21 1 
 
 pardon me, for verily, Madam, my sight is nothing 
 so perfeet as it has been ; and I know well it will 
 impair daily ; wherefore, I trust that you will not 
 be displeased though I write not so often with my 
 own hand, for on my faith, I have been three days 
 or I could make an end of this letter." 
 " To my Lady." 
 
 It is evident from the date of the following 
 letter, 1 July 26th, 1501, that the Countess of 
 Richmond was then at Calais; but her reason for 
 going there is not known. The conclusion shows 
 that her son, King Henry the Seventh, was born 
 on the 26th of July, and it is the only autho- 
 rity for that fact. 
 
 " My dearest, and only desired joy in this 
 world : — 
 
 With my most hearty loving blessings, and 
 humble commendations, I pray our Lord to re- 
 ward and thank your Grace, for that it hath 
 pleased your Highness so kindly and lovingly to 
 be content to write your letters of thanks to the 
 French King for my great matter that so long 
 hath been in suit, as Master Welby hath shewed 
 me your bounteous goodness is pleased. 
 
 " I wish, my dear heart, and my fortune be to 
 
 1 Printed in Dr, Howard's collection of Letters, vol. i. 
 p. 155. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 THE LIFE OF 
 
 recover it, I trust ye shall well perceive I shall 
 deal towards you as a kind loving mother ; and if 
 I should never have it, yet your kind dealing is 
 to me a thousand times more than all that good I 
 can recover, and all the French King's might be 
 mine withal. My dear heart, and it may please 
 your Highness to license Master Whitstongs for 
 this time to present your honourable letters, and 
 begin the process of my cause ; for that he so 
 well knoweth the matter, and also brought me the 
 writings from the said French King, with his 
 other letters to his parliament at Paris, it should 
 be greatly to my help, as I think ; but all will I 
 remit to your pleasure ; and if I be too bold in 
 this, or any of my desires, I humbly beseech your 
 grace of pardon, and that your Highness take no 
 displeasure. 
 
 " My good King, I have now sent a servant of 
 mine into Kendall, to receive such annuities as be 
 yet hanging upon the account of Sir William 
 Wall, my lord's 1 chaplain, whom I have clearly 
 discharged ; and if it will please your Majesty's 
 own heart, at your leisure, to send me a letter, 
 and command me that I suffer none of my tenants 
 be retained with no man, but that they be kept for 
 my Lord of York, 2 your fair sweet son, for whom 
 
 i The Earl of Derby. 
 
 2 Her grandson Henry, Duke of York, afterwards King- 
 Henry the Eighth. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 213 
 
 they be most meet, it shall be a good excuse for 
 me to my lord and husband ; and then I may 
 well, and without displeasure, cause them all 
 to be sworn, the which shall not after be long 
 undone. And where your Grace showed your 
 
 pleasure for the bastard of King 
 
 Edward's ;' Sir, there is neither that, or any other 
 thing I may do by your commandment, but I 
 shall be glad to fulfil to my little power, with 
 God's grace. 
 
 " And, my sweet King, Fielding, this bearer, 
 hath prayed me to beseech you to be his good 
 lord in a matter he sueth for to the Bishop of 
 Ely, (now, as we hear, elect, 2 ) for a little office 
 nigh to London. Verily, my King, he is a good 
 and a wise well-ruled gentleman, and full truly 
 hath served you, well accompanied, as well at 
 your first as all other occasions ; and that causeth 
 us to be the more bold, and gladder also to speak 
 for him ; howbeit, my Lord Marquis 3 hath been 
 very low to him in times past, because he would 
 not be retained with him ; and truly, my good 
 King, he helpeth me right well in such matters 
 
 1 Sir Arthur Plantagenet, afterwards created Viscount 
 L'Isle. 
 
 2 Richard Redman, Bishop of Exeter, who was translated to 
 Ely, in September, 1501. This fixes the date of the letter. 
 Bishop Alcock, the former bishop of Ely, died in October, 
 1500. 
 
 3 The Marquess of Dorset. 
 
214 THE LIFE OF 
 
 as I have business within these parts. And, my 
 clear heart, I now beseech you of pardon of my 
 long and tedious writing, and pray Almighty God 
 to give you as long, good and prosperous life as 
 ever had Prince ; and as hearty blessings as I can 
 ask of God. 
 
 " At Calais town, this day of Saint Anne's, that 
 I did bring into this world, my good and gracious 
 Prince, King, and only beloved son, by 
 
 " Your humble Servant, Bedewoman, 
 and Mother, 
 
 " Margaret R." 
 
 The celebrated Hugh Oldham, (the friend of 
 Erasmus, and of the learned Dean Colet, founder 
 of St. Paul's school,) was at this time chaplain to 
 the Countess of Richmond ; and by her held in 
 great favour, from his zeal in the cause of religion, 
 and his efforts for the advancement of literature. 
 She had presented him to the living of Swynested, 
 in the diocese of Lincoln, and through her interest 
 he was eventually advanced to the See of Exeter.* 
 
 * This eminent prelate was the joint founder, with Richard 
 Fox, Bishop of Winchester, of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 
 which they endowed with great revenues. He strenuously 
 promoted the instruction of youth in good and useful learning, 
 and founded and endowed a school at Manchester. Bishop 
 Oldham was remarkable in Ecclesiastical History for his zeal 
 in defending the liberties and prerogatives of the church. 
 Being under sentence of excommunication, at his death his 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 215 
 
 She was likewise the friend and early patron of 
 William Smyth, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, 
 and founder of Brasen-nose College, Oxford. He 
 was educated in her household, with many other 
 scholars of future eminence ; this illustrious lady 
 having in this manner liberally provided for the 
 instruction of young men of promising talents 
 though limited means. 
 
 In the 18th year of her son's reign, the Countess 
 of Richmond instituted two perpetual public lec- 
 tures in divinity, one at Cambridge, and the other 
 at Oxford, endowing each with twenty marks a 
 year, now equivalent to £1000. Dr. John Fisher 
 was appointed her first reader at the former uni- 
 versity, which office was shortly after filled by the 
 learned Erasmus ; but although both these great 
 benefactions bear the date of their final endow- 
 ment, in 1502, it is evident that her intention, as 
 regards Oxford, was formed at a much earlier 
 period ; for in the list of her divinity professors, 
 given by Baker, in his preface to her funeral ser- 
 mon, it seems that Edward Willesford (her con- 
 fessor, after the elevation of Urswicke) read her 
 lecture to the University of Oxford before his set- 
 tlement in 1497- 
 
 body was not suffered to be interred, but absolution being 
 procured from Rome, he was at length buried in his cathedral 
 at Exeter, where his monument yet remains, it having been 
 repaired in the year 1763 by the Provost and Fellows of Corpus 
 Christi, from gratitude to their liberal benefactor. 
 
216 THE LIFE OF 
 
 In this year, the Lady Margaret founded a 
 chauntry in St. George's Chapel at Windsor, for 
 four chaplains to pray for her soul, the soul of her 
 parents, and all faithful souls. 
 
 In 1503 she instituted a perpetual public preach- 
 ership at Cambridge, with a salary of ten pounds 
 per annum ; the duty required was six sermons at 
 least, to be delivered yearly at several churches 
 specified in London, Ely, and Lincoln. The 
 foundation, by royal dispensation, 1 is now altered 
 from six sermons in different dioceses, to the same 
 number annually delivered in the University of 
 Cambridge at the beginning of Easter Term ; so 
 that, to quote the words of the above named able 
 commentator of her collegiate benefactions, " this 
 excellent lady, having taught the ignorant whilst 
 such instruction was wanting, the world being now 
 wiser, she instructs the learned both in the pulpit 
 and the chair." 
 
 The marriage festivities, recently spoken of, 
 were soon to be succeeded by the awful solemnities 
 of death ; a visitation peculiarly appalling when 
 it falls on the first-born of a monarch, the heir- 
 apparent to a throne. Prince Arthur survived his 
 union with Katherine of Spain but five months. 
 He was sent into Wales with a splendid court, to 
 devote his time and attention to the wants and 
 wishes of the principality from whence he derived 
 
 1 Black Book of the University, p. 118. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 217 
 
 his title ; but consumption soon laid prostrate 
 the hopes that had prematurely been raised, both 
 in the minds of his family and his followers, from 
 his singularly amiable disposition, and estimable 
 qualities. He expired at Ludlow Castle before 
 he had attained his sixteenth year, to the great sor- 
 row of the nation generally, but especially of the 
 Welsh, who had ever superstitiously viewed him 
 as " their long-lost Arthur." 
 
 The demise of the Prince of Wales was shortly 
 succeeded by that of his amiable mother, the royal 
 Elizabeth of York, who died in giving birth to a 
 daughter, the Princess Katherine, in the Tower of 
 London, the 11th of February, 1503. 
 
 The Queen was universally beloved for the 
 kindness of her nature, the gentleness of her cha- 
 racter, and for that spirit of forbearance and resig- 
 nation, which, throughout a life of singular trial 
 and difficulty, had won the admiration of her foes, 
 and secured the love and attachment of her friends. 
 She expired on the anniversary of her own birth, 
 at the early age of thirty-seven. Sadness over- 
 spread the land, and grief was visible in every 
 countenance. Pageants and feasts, which had 
 gradually roused a kindlier spirit in the long dis- 
 united realm, were now exchanged for funeral 
 obsequies, equally felt, and equally shared by both 
 factions. 
 
 About this time, and probably occasioned bv 
 
218 THE LIFE OF 
 
 these afflicting events, the venerable parent of 
 Henry the Seventh was commanded to draw up or- 
 ders, yet extant in the Heralds' College, for " great 
 estates of ladies and noble women," relative to 
 their precedence, reformation of apparel, and 
 sumptuary regulations at the time of mourning. 1 
 
 The studious habits so early displayed by the 
 Lady Margaret constituted the great charm of 
 her declining years. Though vowed to increased 
 piety, and more severe penance, her love of litera- 
 ture never deserted her, as was shewn in her 
 continued efforts towards advancing the art of 
 printing, and also in her encouragement of all re- 
 ligious works that issued from the press. In the 
 year 1504, she caused to be published her trans- 
 lation of " Gerson's imitation of, and following 
 of Christ." " The Mirror of Gold" was pro- 
 bably printed about the same time, as the preface 
 proves it to have been in circulation during the 
 life of her son, though the actual date of its ap- 
 pearance is not specified in the work itself. It was 
 printed by Richard Pynson, on fine vellum, beau- 
 tifully ornamented ; though another edition, by 
 Wynken de Worde, was printed after the decease 
 of his liberal patroness. 2 Very few copies are 
 now extant of this curious work. 
 
 The Countess of Richmond became a third 
 time a widow, towards the close of 1504, by the 
 
 1 See Appendix H. 2 Herbert's Typographical Antiquities. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 219 
 
 demise of her noble husband, the Earl of Derby, 
 Lord Stanley, Lord of the Isle of Man, and High 
 Constable of England, who, after an active and 
 distinguished career, departed this life at Derby 
 House, (19th Henry the Seventh). This eminent 
 nobleman bequeathed to his son-in-law the King, 
 a cup of gold, and willed that his lady, then 
 living, should peaceably enjoy all the lordships, 
 manors, &c. assigned for her jointure. He prays 
 his majesty to be a good lord to his sons, as he 
 had been a true servant to him, and charges them, 
 on his blessing, to do the King good service 
 during their whole lives. 1 
 
 Henry appears, indeed, to have thoroughly ap- 
 preciated the noble qualities of his father-in-law, 
 who continued equally to enjoy his confidence, and 
 to be as closely in attendance at court as before his 
 separation from the Lady Margaret, and her vo- 
 luntary retirement from its cares : to her the at- 
 tachment of the noble Earl was strikingly evinced, 
 by his having provided a tomb in the church of the 
 priory of Bourscough, near Lathom, the burial 
 place of his ancestors, with effigies of himself and 
 both his wives, where they were ordered to be 
 prayed for, and had in perpetual remembrance, 
 and where, in accordance with his last testament, 
 dated July, in 1504, he was himself interred. 2 
 
 This period was an eventful one both to the 
 
 1 Collins' Peer, vol.ii. p. 66. 2 Dugdale's Baron, vol.iii. p. 249. 
 
220 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Countess of Richmond and her son ; for it 
 numbered the deaths of many zealous and firm 
 friends. Few perhaps had aided their fortunes 
 more boldly than Sir Reginald Bray, whose 
 faithful services, after frequent rewards, was finally 
 crowned by the brightest honor of British chivalry, 
 the Order of the Garter. The same year re- 
 corded his name, with that of the Lord Derby's, 
 among its illustrious dead. 1 
 
 The Lady Margaret, too, was now soon to be 
 deprived of the solace of her esteemed confessor. 
 Dr. Fisher was nominated to the see of Ro- 
 chester by Henry the Seventh, an unsolicited and 
 voluntary boon, though at the time attributed very 
 naturally to the influence of the Countess of Rich- 
 mond over her son. The letter from the King to 
 his mother being extant 2 is here introduced as an 
 additional evidence of the strong attachment that 
 existed between them, and also as exhibiting the 
 delicacy that prompted him to ask his parent's 
 acquiescence in a preferment that might have been 
 made to appear as the simple reward of merit, in- 
 stead, of resulting, as the letter implies, from the 
 additional claims which the singular virtue, holi- 
 ness, and piety, of the almoner and confessor of 
 Margaret of Richmond, had upon his discerning 
 and approving sovereign. 
 
 1 Tcstamenta Vetusa, p. 446. 
 
 2 Ex. Regist. Coll. Jo. (Published by Baker 1708.) 
 
margaret beaufort. '2*21 
 
 " Madam, 
 "An [if] I thought I should not offend you, which 
 I will never do wilfully, I am well minded to pro- 
 mote Master Fisher your, confessor, to a Bishop- 
 ric ; and I assure you, Madam, for none other 
 cause, but for the great and singular virtue, that I 
 know and see in him, as well in cunning and 
 natural wisdom, and specially for his good and 
 virtuous living and conversation. And by the 
 promotion of such a man, I know well it should 
 corage [encourage] many others to live vertuously 
 and to take such wages as he doth, which should 
 be a good example to many others hereafter. 
 Howbeit without your pleasure known, I will not 
 move him, nor tempt him therein. And therefore 
 I beseech you, that I may know your mind and 
 pleasure in that behalf, which shall be followed as 
 much as God will give me grace. I have, in my 
 days, promoted many a man unadvisedly, and I 
 would now make some recompence to promote 
 some good and virtuous man which I doubt not, 
 should best please God, who ever preserve you in 
 good health and long life." 
 " King Henry, 
 
 " To my Lady Grace his Moder." 
 
 Dr. Fisher had previously taken his doctor's 
 degree, and soon after his elevation to the prelacy 
 
222 THE LIFE OF 
 
 he was elected, in compliment to his benefactress, 
 perpetual Chancellor of the University of Cam- 
 bridge, 1 being the first instance of such a choice. 
 The austere life and studious habits of this 
 divine, had been the means of attracting the 
 learned Erasmus to the same university. 2 And 
 it was also owing to the persuasion and advice of 
 Bishop Fisher, that the Lady Margaret undertook 
 that great work which sheds such glory on her 
 memory, the foundation of Christ's College, Cam- 
 bridge. It was built on the site of an Hostel, 
 called God's house, begun by her kinsman Henry 
 the Sixth, but left incomplete owing to the troubles 
 of his turbulent reign. Its recommencement was 
 graced by the presence of Henry the Seventh, who 
 visited Cambridge 3 in the year 1505 for that pur- 
 pose, and from whom the Countess of Richmond 
 obtained a licence to change its appellation to that 
 of Christ's College. Taking down the former 
 ruinous buildings, she erected the noble edifice 
 that attested to future generations her zeal for the 
 advancement of piety and learning, endowing it 
 liberally with rich manors and valuable lands for 
 the support of a master, twelve fellows, and forty- 
 seven scholars. Superstitious objections having 
 been made in a subsequent reign to this number 
 of fellows, as bearing a reference to our blessed 
 
 1 Baker's Preface, p. x. 2 Jortin's Life of Erasmus. 
 
 3 Fuller's Ch. Hist. Appendix, p. 89. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 223 
 
 Saviour and his twelve disciples, King Edward the 
 Sixth added a thirteenth fellowship and the num- 
 ber has since been augmented to fifteen. l 
 
 The attachment borne by the Lady Margaret to 
 the title she received from her first marriage, and 
 the associations connected with her brief union 
 with the young Earl of Richmond, is rendered ap- 
 parent by two circumstances connected with this 
 institution which are too interesting to be passed 
 over unnoticed. The foundation was to be ex- 
 clusively clerical, and the fellows all to be ad- 
 mitted to priests' orders, as soon as their age 
 would allow. Six were to be chosen North and 
 six South of the Trent, but a special exception 
 was made in favour of candidates natives of Rich- 
 mondshire, "from which county we take our title." 2 
 " Great and good," says Dr. Fuller, "were the lands 
 which this lady bestowed on this college in several 
 counties ; manors, rents, &c. &c, and Manibere, an 
 impropriation in Wales; for being of Welsh affinity, 
 a Tudor by marriage, and having long lived in 
 Wales where her son King Henry the Seventh was 
 born ; she thought fitting in commemoration there- 
 of to leave some Welsh lands to this her founda- 
 tion." The building of Christ's College was com- 
 pleted in 1506, and the Bishop of Rochester 
 appointed visitor for life by the statutes in case 
 
 » Fuller, p. 91. 
 
 2 "De quo comitatu nos nuncupamur." Ord. Stat. 
 
224 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of the demise of the foundress. She lived how- 
 ever to witness the completion of her noble design, 
 and was enabled personally to superintend its 
 progress, as appears from a little incident which 
 has been recorded shewing the kindliness of her 
 disposition. Being one day engaged in giving 
 directions relative to the college, a student who 
 had fallen into disgrace was forcibly taken by the 
 superior authorities past her window to receive 
 correction. " Lente, lente !" she exclaimed, ' an 
 expostulation more suited to academic ears, than 
 an intercession in English, and which, there is 
 little doubt, secured a pardon to the young 
 scholar. Her likeness has been preserved in the 
 chapel of this college by an ancient painting on 
 wood, as have been also the portraits of her son, 
 and other of her kindred, on glass in the east 
 window of the same building. 
 
 This great work was scarcely completed, before 
 the Lady Margaret commenced her last and most 
 magnificent undertaking, that of St. John's Col- 
 lege, for the founding of which she obtained the 
 king's licence early in 1508. Having munifi- 
 cently patronised the University of Cambridge, 
 by her divinity professorship, together with the 
 perpetual preachership, as also by the endow- 
 ment of Christ's College, she had contemplated 
 in accordance with the usage of the time, to devote 
 
 1 Fuller's Church History, Appendix, p. 89. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 225 
 
 the remainder of her abundant riches to charitable 
 donations, or testamentary bequests to West- 
 minster Abbey, the destined place of her burial ; 
 to which holy pile she had in consequence of that 
 intent been a considerable benefactress, having en- 
 dowed it with revenues to the value of eighty-seven 
 pounds per annum. 1 In the Lansdowne MSS. 
 have been preserved indentures made by her at this 
 time with the Abbot of Westminster, to pray for 
 the souls of herself and all her relatives.* Her 
 son, grandchildren, and husbands are separately 
 named, and this document is deserving of notice, 
 because it has always been considered remark 
 able, that in a similar instrument relating to her 
 collegiate foundation of Cambridge, no notice 
 whatever is taken either of her second or third 
 husband ; and the armorial bearings of Sir Henry 
 Stafford, whose Will shews the strongest affec- 
 tion for the Lady Margaret, are wholly omitted 
 amongst the elaborate heraldic embellishments 
 
 1 Baker's Preface, p. viii. 
 
 * The Abbot and Monastery to pray for the souls of the 
 Princess Margaret, the King her son, and his children ; 
 Edmund, Earl of Richmond ; John, Duke of Somerset and 
 his wife, the father and mother of the Princess Margaret and 
 of all her progenitors ; Thomas, Earl of Derby, and Henry 
 Lord Stafford, her late husbands ; Elizabeth late Queen of 
 England and her children, and for all the souls that the said 
 Princess Margaret shall have prayed for. (Lansdowne MSS. 
 441 . Indentures with the Abbot of Westminster.) 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 which ornament her magnificent tomb in West- 
 minster Abbey. ' 
 
 To return however to the subject of her collegiate 
 institutions. She was induced by the influence of 
 the Bishop of Rochester, 2 to bestow attention on 
 a monastic establishment in the diocese of her 
 son-in-law, James Stanley, Bishop of Ely, which 
 had fallen into great discredit from the irregularity 
 and misconduct of its members ; and after satisfy- 
 ing herself of the validity of the arguments of her 
 zealous adviser, she was led to change her design 
 as regarded Westminster, and instead of the cere- 
 monies for the " repose of the soul " after death, 
 enjoined by the Romish clergy, she nobly resolved 
 on appropriating the bulk of her wealth towards 
 erecting and endowing another college for the 
 advancement of true religion and useful learning. 
 
 How refreshing is it to dwell on the enlarged 
 views which influenced the decision of those who, 
 like the great and gifted Margaret, born in a 
 distant age, seemed destined to kindle the torch 
 of knowledge and hand it on to their successors ; 
 especially when, as in her case, the prejudices 
 of education, and the weaknesses of declining- 
 years yielded to enlarged views and energy of 
 intellect. Her resolution once formed, the Lady 
 Margaret took speedy measures for the dissolu- 
 
 1 Masters's Life of Thomas Baker, p. 149. 
 8 Baker's Preface to Funeral Sermon, p. 13. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 227 
 
 tion of the obnoxious monastery, which had 
 originally been an ancient hospital for canons 
 regular, built by Nigel, Bishop of Ely, in 
 1134 ; but subsequently converted by one of his 
 successors, into a priory dedicated to St. John the 
 Evangelist, from whence was derived the appella- 
 tion of the present collegiate establishment, which 
 she erected on the site of the old building ; richly 
 endowing it for the support of a master, fifty 
 fellows, and a proportionate number of scholars. 
 
 Before, however, the necessary instrument could 
 pass through all the legal forms, a heavy affliction 
 awaited the munificent foundress. She was called 
 upon to evince her resignation to the will of 
 Heaven, by submitting with fortitude to the 
 greatest trial she had yet experienced, by the death 
 of her son, King Henry the Seventh, who expired 
 at his palace of Richmond, on the 22nd of April 
 1508, in the fifty-second year of his age, and the 
 twenty-fourth of his reign. 1 He had for some 
 time been suffering from the gout, and his con- 
 stitution was prematurely enfeebled by the harass- 
 ing life, and severe privations which had marked 
 the prime of his days; but that no immediate idea 
 of his dissolution was entertained, is apparent from 
 the treaty of marriage which had recently been 
 contemplated between himself and the Duchess 
 Dowager of Savoy. The grief of his venerable 
 
 1 Bacon's Hen. VII. pp. 229, and 232. 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE LIFE OF 
 
 parent was such as might be imagined from the 
 strong affection which had ever subsisted between 
 the mother and son ; and her vigorous health until 
 then unbroken, except by the severity of her re- 
 ligious mortifications, now became irrecoverably in- 
 jured by the intensity of her sorrow, and her un- 
 ceasing struggles to subdue the feelings of nature, 
 which she believed to be opposed to her earnest de- 
 sire of submittingin all things to the will of her God. 
 The deceased Monarch, who had throughout his 
 troubled reign, manifested the highest respect for 
 the opinions of the Lady Margaret, and is known 
 to have been greatly influenced by her in the 
 tuition of his children, and the regulation of his 
 domestic affairs, evinced to the last his sense of 
 her energetic character by leaving her the exe- 
 cutrix of his Will, 1 styling her " our dearest and 
 most entirely beloved Mother, Margaret Countess 
 of Richmond." 
 
 Her first act justified the high trust reposed 
 in her, and was fully in accordance with that 
 vigour of mind, which never wasted its strength 
 in unavailing sorrow, or weakened its useful 
 powers by selfish and desponding grief. She 
 drew up a list of such personages as were most 
 esteemed and trusted by the late King, out of 
 whom she selected a few of the most exemplary 
 and intelligent, as councillors to her grandson 
 
 1 Testamenta Vetusta, p. 26. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 229 
 
 the youthful monarch, and to influence with 
 their wisdom, and controul by their integrity the 
 opening acts of his reign. 1 
 
 The funeral of King Henry the Seventh, was 
 one of the most pompous and magnificent in the 
 annals of England, and befitting in all respects 
 the sumptuous chapel which that King had prepared 
 in Westminster Abbey for the interment of himself 
 and his family. His successor retired from Rich- 
 mond on the decease of his royal parent, and as a 
 mark of respect to his memory, dwelt privately in 
 the Tower of London 2 until after the funeral obse- 
 quies were performed ; when by reason of his 
 double claim to the crown, in right of his father, and 
 of his mother as the heiress of the house of York, 
 he was proclaimed King by the title of Henry the 
 Eighth. He ascended the throne with brighter 
 promises of excellence than can usually be 
 anticipated at the age of eighteen, principally 
 from the attention which had early been bestowed 
 on his education by the Countess of Richmond. 
 The funeral sermon for the deceased sovereign 
 was preached by the Bishop of Rochester, and 
 the closing acts of his reign were marked 
 by deeds worthy the offspring of so pious a 
 parent. He discharged all persons who were 
 imprisoned for debt under forty shillings, com- 
 
 ] Herbert's Hen. VIII. p. 2 and 4, 
 « Ibid. p. 1. 
 
230 THE LIFE OF 
 
 pleted numerous religious foundations, and gave 
 an increase to his public and private alms ; grant- 
 ing a general pardon throughout his realm, and 
 ordaining by his Will, that restitution should 
 be made to his subjects of all sums which had 
 been unjustly taken by subordinate officers. 1 With 
 such evident proofs of piety and christian feel- 
 ing the son of " the admirable Margaret" sank 
 to rest. 
 
 Few monarchs have had greater injustice done 
 to their memory, — arising from the little allow- 
 ance made for the difficult period in which he 
 was called to the throne — than Henry the Seventh. 
 His early trials and misfortunes, had enabled 
 him to perceive that the ambition and absolute 
 power of the clergy and nobles, united to the 
 servile and debasing vassalage of the popu- 
 lace of England, had been the chief cause of the 
 misery that for so many ages had impoverished 
 and degraded the land. He struck at the root of 
 this evil. Adversity had been his school, and 
 prosperity brought to remembrance the sorrowful 
 days of youth, and the ineffectual struggles of 
 manhood. By endeavouring to deprive the clergy 
 of their abused and miscalled religious sanctuaries, 2 
 and by diminishing with a strong arm the feudal 
 authority and despotic power of the nobles; by 
 
 1 Bacon's Hen. VII. pp. 229 and 231. 
 = See Appendix I. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 231 
 
 seeking to create a more independent spirit in the 
 oppressed people, and to lighten the bondage of 
 the enslaved vassals, King Henry made the two 
 great powers of his realm his avowed enemies, 
 and did not live long enough to reap benefit from 
 those other classes of the community for whom 
 he ultimately procured that independent and 
 glorious liberty, which succeeding generations 
 could alone appreciate, and which the present age 
 enjoy both in church and state. This wise and 
 politic Monarch, moreover, promoted the social 
 arts, and subdued the warlike ferocity of the 
 times by patronizing trade and commerce. He 
 aided his illustrious mother, in fostering by his 
 encouragement, the growth of literature, and 
 thereby most effectually advanced the cause of 
 piety and religion ; and while his subjects, in 
 the romance of by-gone days, anticipated in 
 him, an Arthur, they found that their ruler indeed 
 proved himself to them, — as he has done to suc- 
 ceeding generations, — a second Alfred. 
 
 With the venerable Margaret the charm of 
 life was gone when she resigned into the hands 
 of her Maker, her loved and only son. She had 
 survived parents, husbands, offspring, and kindred : 
 her whole thoughts were now on heaven; and she 
 was solely occupied in making her peace with God, 
 and preparing to join in a better state of existence, 
 those so tenderly loved on earth. Her pious biogra- 
 
232 THE LIFE OF 
 
 pher, in narrating the close of her career, says "that 
 her eyes were spent with weeping and tears, some- 
 times of devotion, sometimes of penitence ; her 
 ears in hearing the word of God and the divine 
 service which daily was kept in her chapel ; that 
 her tongue was occupied in prayer much part of 
 the day, her legs and feet in visiting the altars, 
 and other holy places ; her hands in giving alms 
 to the poor and needy, dressing them when they 
 were sick, and ministering unto them meat and 
 drink." 1 Her public acts were in accordance 
 with these her private and daily preparations for 
 another world. She founded an alms-house near 
 Westminster Abbey for indigent women, 2 en- 
 dowed a similar institution at Hatfield for twelve 
 infirm deserving persons ; 3 and maintained divers 
 poor scholars at Oxford, providing them with a 
 tutor at her sole expense. 4 
 
 In addition to the devotional works already men- 
 tioned, she farther commanded, at this mournful 
 period, the printing of the seven penitential psalms, 
 compiled by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Like- 
 wise, the " Stultifera Navis," 5 or " Ship of Fooles 
 of this World," rendered into prose at her express 
 
 1 Fisher's Funeral Sermon, p. 20. 
 
 2 Stowe's Survey of London, p. 525. 
 
 3 See Countess of Richmond's Will. 
 
 4 Mag. Brit. Oxfordshire, p. 277. 
 
 5 Walpole's Royal Authors. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 233 
 
 command, by Henry Watson, and published by 
 her printer, Wynken de Worde, in 1509.* 
 
 The only remaining temporal anxiety of the de- 
 clining Countess were the legal forms requisite 
 for completing the endowment of St. John's 
 College, which had been delayed by the decease 
 of her royal son. She had amply provided 
 against all evil that might possibly ensue from 
 her approaching death, by means of a codicil 
 to her Will, clearly and carefully securing to this 
 noble institution lands in the counties of Devon, 
 Somerset, and Northampton, amounting to four 
 hundred pounds a- year, exclusive of the revenues 
 of the old priory, with which it was incorporated, 
 and a mortmain of fifty pounds per annum j 1 a most 
 munificent provision at a time, when " twelve 
 pence per week was allowed in commons to a Fel- 
 low, and only seven pence a week to a Scholar." 2 
 Nevertheless, she earnestly desired to. witness the 
 fulfilment of her designs, that she might feel se- 
 cure against those mischances which often frus- 
 trate the views of the best intentioned. But, alas! 
 
 * This very curious work was written by Alexander Bar- 
 clay, to expose and reprobate the indecorous behaviour which 
 was at that time common in churches, where, in defiance of all 
 reverence and religious feeling, individuals would bring into 
 the temple of God their hawks and hounds, disturbing the de- 
 votion of those who came to pray, by noisy and clamorous 
 meetings, and absolute disregard of the sacred precincts. 
 1 Nichol's Royal Wills, p. 395. 2 Baker's Preface, p. xlv. 
 
234 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the web of life had been spun to its utmost. The 
 threads which had snapped asunder, when Henry 
 the Seventh expired, could never be re-united. 
 
 The learned establishment, whose foundation 
 she had so much at heart, was begun, planned, 
 and richly endowed, by its munificent foundress ; 
 but the completion of the work remained for those 
 chosen executors to whom she assigned the great 
 trust, in the full confidence that they would not 
 suffer her pious intentions to remain unfulfilled. 
 She felt her end approaching, but it was by in- 
 creasing bodily infirmities, not by decay of her 
 mental powers, which, to the last, remained un- 
 impaired, but through the testimony of her faith- 
 ful spiritual attendant, 1 we learn that her sufferings 
 were so acute, that her piteous cries would arouse 
 tears in those devoted friends whom her goodness 
 had assembled around her, to minister to her 
 wants, and soften, by their gentle attentions, the 
 rugged path that led to the tomb. 
 
 Full of faith in her Redeemer, and trust in her 
 God, bemoaning the infirmity of her own nature, 
 but dispensing charity to others, even in her dying- 
 hour, the Countess of Richmond expired at West- 
 minster on the 29th of June, 1509, 2 three months 
 only after her son's decease, and in the sixty-ninth 
 year of her age, retaining, to the last moment of 
 
 1 Fisher's Funeral Sermon, p. 21. 
 3 Sandfords Geneal. Hist. p. 328. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 235 
 
 her existence, those high resources and vigo- 
 rous powers, that calm resignation and unsubdued 
 fortitude, which can only result from a religious 
 and well disciplined mind ; from a conscience de- 
 void of reproach, arising from a well spent and de- 
 votional life. She was interred in King Henry 
 the Seventh's chapel, where a superb altar tomb 
 of black marble, enclosed by a grate, and sur- 
 mounted with her statue, is erected to her memory. 
 But Margaret of Lancaster needed no superb 
 tomb, no splendid statue, no pompous record, to fix 
 her remembrance in the minds either of that age, or 
 of those which were to come. She was enshrined in 
 the heart of all good men, of the disinterested pa- 
 triot, the religious churchman, the humble student. 
 But most of all, she lived in the hearts of the suf- 
 fering poor. Yet how could a life of such active 
 benevolence fail of securing to her, at the approach 
 of death, the sympathy and support of friends, 
 whose deep and fervent love survived the revered 
 object who had won their admiration, their respect, 
 and their attachment. Erasmus, the great and learn- 
 ed, who has recorded her virtues and good deeds, 
 wrote the simple epitaph, 1 reciting her charities, 
 which is inscribed round the verge of her tomb. 2 
 
 1 See Appendix, K. 
 
 2 " For the drawing up of which," says Baker, in his pre- 
 face, p. xix. " he had a reward of twenty shillings from the 
 University of Cambridge, as is entered in a Computus, or old 
 Book of Accounts." 
 
236 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The Bishop of Rochester, who, as her con- 
 fessor and spiritual guide, had long been in 
 possession of her most secret thoughts, preached 
 her funeral sermon, and has therein recorded 
 the chief particulars of her private career and 
 domestic virtues. Partial, no doubt, he might 
 have been, for she was his benefactress and 
 personal friend ; but the deeds he describes are 
 corroborated by existing testimonials, which have 
 proved to posterity that her works in public were 
 dedicated to God's glory, rather than to her own, 
 whilst her private charities could not only be best 
 proclaimed by, but in reality could only be known 
 to him, who, as her almoner, and the dispenser of 
 ner secret bounty, was the best witness of the ge- 
 nuine and active benevolence of her heart. She 
 was the friend of the friendless, the comforter of 
 the afflicted, the munificent patroness of learning, 
 the meek, but strenuous supporter of religion. 
 Such were the noble characteristics of the dignified 
 Countess of Richmond and Derby. 
 
 As her actions seem, by their enlightened ten- 
 dency, to have been in advance of the age in 
 which she was born, so did the fame of her virtues 
 outlive the period in which she died. The im- 
 pression which her singular goodness and early 
 precepts had made on the mind of her grandson, 
 Henry the Eighth, induced him, in after life, when 
 pillaging other religious houses, to spare the cathe- 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 237 
 
 dral of St. David's, where the husband of her 
 youth was interred ; to abstain from demolishing 
 the chauntry she had founded at Wimborne min- 
 ster, to perpetuate the memory of her parents ; and 
 to sanction the completion of St. John's College, 
 Cambridge, though he abstracted as much from 
 the wealth with which she had endowed it 
 as his rapacity could legally claim in right of 
 inheritance. 
 
 One of the last acts of his aged grandmother 
 was to commend the youthful monarch's inex- 
 perience to the excellent Bishop Fisher. What 
 a pang was she spared, when, after having wit- 
 nessed the promise of good which he early 
 displayed under her immediate nurture, this King 
 became, in succeeding years, the inhuman mur- 
 derer of the eminent divine, under whose tutelage 
 he imbibed that knowledge which rendered the 
 opening of his reign so auspicious. 
 
 To the latest moment of her eventful life the 
 Countess of Richmond gave proof of her strong 
 judgment and foresight, in leaving the learned 
 prelate one of her executors, and the chief agent 
 in prosecuting her collegiate endowments ; as his 
 zeal and perseverance alone overcame the diffi- 
 culties which were placed in the way of the further 
 progress of the building, and which increased tenfold 
 after the death of the Lady Margaret. Worn out 
 by continued oppositions, the undaunted prelate 
 
238 THE LIFE OF 
 
 at last appealed to the see of Rome, 1 and the Bull 
 granted by Pope Julius the Second was too decisive 
 to be resisted even by the King himself. The 
 charter of the foundation is dated April 9th, 1511, 
 when the building was commenced. It was 
 completed at the then enormous expense of 
 5000/., and at length was opened in great form 
 by its zealous and indefatigable superior in 1516, 
 for a master and thirty-one fellows, but by the 
 liberality of succeeding benefactors they have 
 since been augmented. This college whose foun- 
 dation was the last and the most important of 
 the Countess of Richmond's great deeds, contains 
 three extremely curious portraits of the foundress ; 
 in all of which she is represented in an attitude of 
 devotion, and in the habit of a recluse or nun. 
 Over the entrance, in the first court in a niche, is 
 placed her statue, and few pass on to the hall with- 
 out stopping to gaze on the worn and attenuated 
 figure of the " Venerable Margaret."* 
 
 By her Will she bequeathed ample means for 
 confirming and continuing her many charities ; 
 and four days before her decease, she evinced 
 that confidence in others, and displayed that 
 mistrust of herself which formed so beautiful 
 
 1 Baker's Preface, p. 22. 
 
 * Through the courtesy of the late Master and Fellows of 
 St. John's, a copy of the fine original painting, which adorns 
 the Hall of their college, has been permitted to be engraved for 
 the frontispiece of this Memoir. 
 
MARGARET BEAUFORT. 239 
 
 a feature in her character, by submitting her last 
 testament to the supervision of her Chancellor, 
 Dr. Henry Hornby, in conjunction with Bishop 
 Fox ; that they might alter, add, or diminish as in 
 their sadness they thought convenient." 1 
 
 She left a fine library of books in English, 
 French, and Latin, and on a small tablet near her 
 monument in Westminster Abbey, is a Latin 
 elegy written by John Skelton, the poet lau- 
 reate, dated 16th August, 1516. Her magnifi- 
 cent tomb was the production of the skilful 
 Florentine sculptor, " Pietro Torregiano," the 
 contemporary of Michael Angelo. The " Mor- 
 nynge remembrance" or funeral sermon, preached 
 by Bishop Fisher, was printed by Wynken de 
 Worde shortly after her decease, and was re- 
 published, with a valuable preface, by the Rev. 
 Thomas Baker, the celebrated antiquary and fel- 
 low of her college of St. John's, in 1708. 
 
 Her order of precedence is preserved in the 
 Harleian MSS.; and her Will, which is extremely 
 curious, is deposited in the Prerogative court of 
 Canterbury.* Her public institutions attest the 
 munificence with which she sought to further the 
 advancement of literature, and her wealthy en- 
 
 1 Baker's Preface, p. 50. 
 
 * The most important and most striking portions of the 
 Lady Margaret's Will, are contained in an abstract annexed 
 to this Memoir. 
 
240 THE LIFE OF MARGARET BEAUFORT. 
 
 dowments have enabled hundreds of students to 
 drink deeply at the fountain of knowledge. 
 
 But, to dwell longer on the merits and rare 
 excellence of her character is needless. She has 
 been commemorated by Shakspeare, and her 
 memory has been immortalized by the poet Gray. 
 To such praise it might well have sufficed to have 
 left the subject of this memoir, but, as before 
 said, a more expressive, a more enduring monu- 
 ment than even the poet's eulogy is the simple 
 mention of a great name ; and that eulogy is in 
 a high degree conveyed in the all-sufficient desig- 
 nation of " the Lady Margaret." No expletive 
 is requisite, no further definition required to de- 
 note her who was the earliest of English female 
 authors, and one of the most distinguished of 
 England's noble women ; whose whole life affords 
 a bright example of goodness, religion, and mo- 
 rality, and by whose virtuous career the female 
 sex has been alike elevated, dignified, and adorned. 
 
 Such was the parent of King Henry the 
 Seventh, such the ancestress of our present youth- 
 ful sovereign ; the progenitrix of a long and 
 glorious race, — the benefactress of generations 
 yet unborn ; the noble-minded, but unassuming — 
 the pious — the admirable — the illustrious 
 
 Margaret Beaufort. 
 
THE WILL OF MARGARET BEAUFORT. 
 
 The Countess of Richmond's Will is so remark- 
 able a document, and so illustrative of her cha- 
 racter, that her life can scarcely be considered to 
 have been faithfully recorded, without the inser- 
 tion of this, her last act. Its great length, however, 
 arising from her innumerable charities, and the 
 minute detail of religious observances, connected 
 with the Romish Church, precludes the possibility 
 of the deed being inserted entire in this Memoir. 
 Nevertheless, considering that so valuable a re- 
 cord of the Lady Margaret's justice and munifi- 
 cence ought not to be wholly passed over without 
 notice, her voluminous Testament and Codicil 
 have been attentively examined, and such portions 
 carefully selected, as were considered character- 
 istic of her private and domestic feelings, or inter- 
 esting from their connexion with her public acts. 
 The whole document has been printed literally, in 
 " Nichols' Collection of Royal Wills," with the 
 addition of Explanatory Notes, and a copious 
 Glossary. 
 
242 EXTRACTS FROM THE WILL 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE WILL OF MARGARET COUNTESS 
 OF RICHMOND. 
 
 " In the Name of Almighty God, Amen. 
 
 " We, Margaret Countess of Richmond and Derby, 
 mother to the most excellent Prince King Henry the 
 Seventh, by the grace of God, King of England and 
 of France, and Lord of Ireland, our most dear son, have 
 called to our remembrance the unstableness of this tran- 
 sitory world, and that every creature here living is mor- 
 tal, and the time and place of death to every creature 
 uncertain. And also calling to our remembrance the 
 great rewards of eternal life, that every Christian crea- 
 ture, in stedfast faith of holy church, shall have for their 
 good deeds done by them in their present life. We, 
 therefore, being of whole and good mind, &c. the vi 
 day of June, the year of our Lord God a thousand five 
 hundred and eight, and in the xxiii year of the reign of 
 our said most dear son the King, make, ordain, and de- 
 clare, our testament, and last will, in manner and form 
 following : that is to say, First, we give and bequeath 
 our soul to Almighty God, to our blessed Lady, Saint 
 Mary the Virgin, and to all the holy company in 
 heaven. And our body to be buried in the monastery 
 of Saint Peter of Westminster, in such convenable place 
 as we in our life, or our executors after our decease, 
 shall provide for the same within the Chapel of our 
 Lady, which is now begun by the said our most dear 
 son. Item, we will that placebo and dirige with lauds, 
 and with all divine services, prayers, and observance be- 
 
OF MARGARET BEAUFORT. 243 
 
 longing thereunto, be solemnly and devoutly sung and 
 said in the day of our decease, by all the priests, minis- 
 ters, and children of our chapel in as solemn and 
 
 devout wise, as they can do or devise, and so to conti- 
 nue to sing and say daily, every day from to day, as long 
 as our body shall rest there unremoved toward the said 
 place of interment. Item we will, that our executors, 
 as soon as they conveniently may, after our decease, 
 cause solemnly and devoutly to be sung or said for our 
 soul in every xv parish churches next adjoining to the 
 place of our decease, by all the priests, clerks, and minis- 
 ters of every such church, placebo, dirige, &c. &c. 
 
 " Item, we will, that in the day that it shall please Al- 
 mighty God to call us from this present and transitory 
 life to his infinite mercy and grace, and in the day of our 
 interment, there to be distributed in alms amongst poor 
 people, by the discretion of our executors cxxxiii li. 
 vis. viiid. or more, as it shall be thought convenient by 
 their discretions. And cc li. to be disposed in buying 
 of cloth for our executors and servants, men and women, 
 or other persons, that shall give their attendance upon 
 the conveyance of our body and our said interment, and 
 at our month's day. 
 
 " Item, — We will that our executors, in as goodly 
 haste and brief time as they can or may, after our de- 
 cease, content and pay all our debts. And we will that 
 our said executors cause all our household servants to 
 be kept together, and household kept in all things con- 
 venient for them at and in such convenient place as 
 shall be thought by our executors . most necessary for 
 the same, from the time of our decease by the space of 
 one quarter of a year at the least. And that our exe- 
 
 r 2 
 
244 EXTRACTS FROM THE WILL 
 
 cutors, by all the same time, shall provide and ordain, 
 or cause to be provided and ordained for all our said 
 household servants ; that is to say, for as many of them 
 as will there so tarry and abide by all the said time, 
 meat, drink, and other things convenient for household, 
 as they have used and accustomed to have had hereto- 
 fore in our household. And also to content and pay to 
 every of our household servants, both man and woman, 
 their wages for one-half year next after our decease, as 
 well to them that will depart within the quarter of one 
 year after our decease, as to them that will tarry 
 and abide together in household during all the same 
 
 quarter And of 
 
 this present our testament and last will, we make and 
 ordain our executors, Richard, Bishop of Winchester ; 
 John, Bishop of Rochester; my Lord Herbert, the 
 King's Chamberlain ; Sir Thomas Lovell, Treasurer of 
 the King's Household; Sir Henry Marney, Chancellor 
 of the Duchy of Lancaster; Sir John St. John, our 
 Chamberlain; Henry Hornby, our Chancellor; Sir 
 Hugh Ashton, Comptroller of our household. And we, 
 in our most humble wise, heartily pray and beseech 
 the King, our sovereign Lord and most dear son, that 
 it would please his Highness to be supervisor of this our 
 present testament and last will, and to be good and 
 gracious Lord, and to shew his special favour, help, and 
 assistance to our said executors, and to every of them, 
 in executing and performing, of this our present testa- 
 ment and last will. And also, that it would please his 
 Highness to see and cause as well all the premises afore 
 rehearsed, as all that hereafter is specified in this our 
 present testament and last will, or in the said schedule 
 thereunto annexed, or that shall be contained in any 
 other writing or codicil to be hereafter hereunto an- 
 
OF MARGARET BEAUFORT. 245 
 
 nexed to be well and truly executed and performed in 
 every behalf, for the singular love that we bare, and 
 ever have borne unto his Highness, as he will have our 
 blessing, and be discharged before God, and for the 
 singular trust we have in the same. 
 
 " And forasmuch as the singular laud, praise and 
 pleasure of Almighty God resteth much in this transi- 
 tory world in administration of sacrifices and divine ser- 
 vices, by the ministers of holy church, for remission of 
 our sins, and in the increase of virtue — cunning [know- 
 ledge], and of all Christian faith therefore 
 
 we, intending, with the grace of Almighty God, to 
 cause him to be the more honoured and served, as well 
 within the said monastery, where we intend, with God's 
 grace, our body to be interred, as in the Universities of 
 Oxford and Cambridge, and other places where the laws 
 of God be more specially learned, taught and preached; 
 and scholars to the same intent, to be brought up in 
 virtue and cunning: for the increase of Christ's faith, 
 have provided, ordained, and established, as folio we th : 
 three perpetual daily masses, with divine services and 
 observance, and one perpetual anniversary to be yearly, 
 
 solemnly, and devoutly holden and kept and with 
 
 the distribution of xli. in alms at every such anniver- 
 sary, for the health of our soul perpetually, while the 
 world shall endure, &c. And also have provided, esta- 
 blished, and founden by the King's licence, two perpe- 
 tual readers in holy theology, one of them in the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, and another of them in the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford, and one perpetual preacher of the 
 word of God in the said University of Cambridge. And 
 have licence to found a perpetual chauntry in the 
 church of Wimborne, of one perpetual priest to teach 
 grammar freely to all them that will come thereunto 
 
246 EXTRACTS FROM THE WILL 
 
 perpetually while the world shall endure : 
 
 And also, whereas King Henry Vlth of blessed me- 
 mory, was in mind and purpose to have provided and 
 ordained in a place in Cambridge, called then God's 
 house, scholars to the number of lx, there to learn and 
 study in all liberal science, in which place was never 
 scholars fellows of the same place above the number of 
 four for lack of exhibition and finding, we have now of 
 late purchased and obtained licence of the said King, 
 our most dear son, and by reason thereof have founded 
 and established in the same place a college, called 
 Christ's College, of a master, xii scholars fellows, and 
 xlvii scholars disciples, there to be perpetually 
 founden, and brought up in learning, virtue and cun- 
 ning, according to such statutes and ordinances as we 
 
 have made, and shall make for the same. 
 
 For the exhibition and perpetual finding of the said two 
 perpetual readers in the said Universities of Oxford and 
 Cambridge, to either of the same two readers an an- 
 nuity of xiii li. vis. viiid. yearly. And also to 
 
 the said perpetual preacher an annuity of xli. for his 
 exhibition and perpetual finding in such manner and 
 form as in the deeds more plainly appeareth. 
 
 " Item — We will that our executors, as soon as they 
 conveniently may after our decease, do make, or cause 
 to be made in the chapel there, as our body shall be in- 
 terred, a convenient tomb by their discretions ; and 
 one altar, or two, in the same chapel for the said two 
 chauntry masses there perpetually to be said at the hours 
 and times, and with all such prayers and observances as 
 
 is before rehearsed And we, in our most 
 
 humble wise, also pray the King, our most dear son, to 
 give his gracious assent thereto, to suffer, and assist our 
 
OF MARGARET BEAUFORT. 247 
 
 executors and assignees so to do, as we put our singular 
 trust in his Highness. And we the said Princess, after 
 our debts paid, and after our legacies and bequests spe- 
 cified in this our present testament and last will, and in 
 the schedules thereunto annexed, fully and truly in 
 every thing executed and performed, will, that our exe- 
 cutors, calling into their inward minds and remem- 
 brance Almighty God, and the duties of executors for 
 distribution of goods, to them, in such case committed, 
 to distribute the residue of all our said goods for the 
 wealthe of our soul, in such wise as by their discretion 
 shall be thought most best, meritorious, and convenient. 
 In witness whereof, to these presents we have set to 
 our sign manual and seal of arms, the day and year 
 abovesaid. 
 
 Ultima Voluntas ejusdem D'ne Margaretc. 
 
 Be it remembered. — That it was also the last will of 
 the said Princess to dissolve the hospital of Saint John 
 in Cambridge, and to alter and to found thereof a col- 
 lege of secular persons ; that is to say, a master and fifty 
 scholars, with divers servants; and new to build the 
 said college, and sufficiently to endow the same with 
 lands and tenements, after the manner and form of other 
 colleges in Cambridge': and to furnish the same, as 
 well in the chapel library, pantry, and kitchen, with 
 books and all other things necessary for the same. 
 
 Also, the said Princess willed, that her household 
 servants, which had long continued and done to her 
 good service, should be rewarded with part of her goods, 
 by the discretion of the Rev. Father in God, Richard 
 Bishop of Winchester, upon information given unto 
 him of their good service and merits ; and in likewise 
 
248 EXTRACTS FROM THE WILL 
 
 she would, that by his discretion her executors should be 
 rewarded. Also, the said Princess willed that the num- 
 ber of xii poor men and women, that her grace kept and 
 founded at Hatfield in her lifetime, should be kept and 
 maintained at her costs during all the lives of the said 
 
 poor men and women Also, the said 
 
 Princess willed that Christ's College should, at her costs 
 and charge, be perfectly finished in all reparations, 
 building and garnishing of the same. Also, the said 
 Princess willed that said manor of Malton, in the shire 
 of Cambridge, which belongeth to the said Christ's Col- 
 lege, should be sufficiently builded and repaired at her 
 cost and charge ; so that the said masters and scholars 
 may resort thither, and there to tarry in time of conta- 
 gious sickness at Cambridge, and exercise their learn- 
 ing and studies. Also, the said Princess willed that a 
 strong coffer should be provided in the said Christ's 
 College, at her costs and charge; also, that her execu- 
 tors should put in the same c li. of money, or more, for 
 the use of the said College, to be spended as they shall 
 need. Also, the said Princess willed, that all her plate, 
 jewels, vestments, altar-clothes, books, hangings, and 
 other necessaries belonging to her chapel in the time of 
 her decease, and not otherwise bequeathed, should be 
 divided between her said Colleges of Christ and St. 
 John, by the discretion of her executors. Also, the said 
 Princess willed, the fourth day before her decease, that 
 the Rev. Father in God, Richard, Bishop of Winches- 
 ter, and Master Henry Hornby, her Chancellor, should 
 the same day have the oversight of her said will and tes- 
 tament, and by their sadness and good discretion, should 
 have full authority and power to alter, add to, and dimi- 
 
OF MARGARET BEAUFORT. 249 
 
 nish, such articles in our said will and testament as they 
 thought most convenient, and according to the will of 
 the said Princess. 
 
 Probat' diet' testamenti apud Lambith, xviidie men- 
 sis Octobris, Anno Domini MilPimo Quingentessimo 
 xii? 
 
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APPENDIX. 
 
 GRANT TO THE DUKE OP SUFFOLK OF THE WARDSHIP OF 
 MARGARET BEAUFORT, 22 HEN. VI., 1444. 
 
 (See p. 23.) 
 
 " By the King. 
 " Right reverend Father in God, right trusty and right well- 
 beloved, we greet you well. And forasmuch as our cousin 
 the Duke of Somerset is now late passed to God's mercy, the 
 which hath a daughter and heir to succeed after him of full 
 tender age, called Margaret ; we consider the notable services 
 that our cousin the Earl of Suffolk hath done unto us, and 
 tendering him therefore the more specially, as reason will, 
 have of our grace and especial proper motion and mere delibe- 
 ration granted unto him to have the ward and marriage of the 
 said Margaret, without any thing therefore unto us or our heirs 
 yielding : wherefore we will and charge you that unto our said 
 cousin of Suffolk ye do make upon this our grant, our letters 
 patents sufficient in law, and in due form ; and that yc fail 
 not hereof, as we especially trust you, and as ye desire to do 
 unto us singular pleasure, and that ye send unto us our said 
 letters patents sealed by the bearer of these. 
 
 Letting you wit, that ye shall hereafter, at such time as ye 
 
?54 APPENDIX. 
 
 come unto our presence, have such warrant for your discharge 
 in this behalf as shall be sufficient unto you, and as the case 
 requireth. 
 
 Given under our signet, at our Castle of Berkhampstead, the 
 last day of May. 
 
 To the right reverend father in God, our right trusty and 
 right well-beloved the Archbishop of Canterbury, our Chan- 
 cellor of England. 1 
 
 B. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE PATENT OF LEGITIMATION GRANTED 
 BY KING RICHARD II., FEB. 1397, 2 SHEWING THE INTERLI- 
 NEATION, SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN INSERTED BY HENRY 
 IV., IN 1407, 3 WHEN AT THE REQUEST OF THE EARL OF 
 SOMERSET, HE EXEMPLIFIED AND CONFIRMED THE GRANT. 
 
 (See p. 82.) 
 
 " We do, in the fullness of our royal power, and by the assent 
 of parliament, by the tenor of these presents, empower you to 
 be raised, promoted, elected, assume, and be admitted to all 
 honours, dignities [except to the royal diynity*~\ pre-eminen- 
 ces, estates, and offices, public and private, whatsoever, as well 
 perpetual as temporal." 
 
 Witnessed by the King at Westminster, the 9th day of Feb- 
 ruary. 
 
 1 See the remarks on this subject in the Excerpta Historica. p. 3. 
 
 2 Rot. Pari. 20 Rich. II.— No. 28, Vol. iii. p. 303. 
 
 3 The patent of legitimation was exemplified and confirmed by King 
 Henry IV. on the 10th February, 1407. 
 
 * Interlined in the copy on the patent Rolls, 20 Rich. II., p. 2. m. 6. 
 
APPENDIX. 255 
 
 C. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE WILL OF SIR HARRY STAFFORD, 
 KNIGHT, SON OF THE NOBLE PRINCE HUMPHREY, DUKE 
 OF BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 (See p. 105.) 
 
 " Item. I bequeath to the high altar of the parish church 
 of "Woking, for my tithes and offerings forgotten or with- 
 holden, xs. 
 
 Item. I bequeath to the works of the said church of "Wo- 
 king, xxs. 
 
 Item. I bequeath to my son-in-law, the Earl of Richmond, 
 a trappur, and four new horse harness of blue velvet. 
 
 Item. I bequeath to my brother John, Earl of Wiltshire, 
 my bay courser. 
 
 Item. I bequeath to Reynold Bray, my Receiver-general, 
 my grizzled horse. And the residue of all my goods, catalogues, 
 and debts, wheresoever they be — after my debts that I owe 
 paid, my funeral expenses done, and this my testament ful- 
 filled, — I give and bequeath to mine entirely beloved wife 
 Margaret, Countess of Richmond, she thereof to dispose her 
 own free will for evermore. 
 
 Witnesses, John Geffrey, Walter Baker, vicar of the parish 
 church of Woking, aforesaid. 
 
 Sir Richard Brigge, prior of the priory of Newark. 
 
 Probatum iiij. May m cccc lxxxj. 
 
 Extracted from the Registry of the Prerogative Court of 
 Canterbury. 
 
256 APPENDIX. 
 
 D. 
 
 KING RICHARD NOT DEFORMED. 
 
 (See p. 154.) 
 " As far without the certainty of a proofe, is the pretended 
 deformity of his body which is controverted by many ; some 
 peremptorily asserted he was not deformed, of which opinion was 
 John Stow, a man indifferently inquisitive (as in all their other 
 affairs,) after the verball relations and persons of princes, and 
 curious in his description of their features and lineaments, who 
 in all his inquiry could finde no such note of deformitie in this 
 King ; but hath acknowledged viva, voce that he had spoken 
 with some ancient men, who from their owne sight and know- 
 ledge affirmed he was of bodily shape, comely enough, onely 
 of low stature, which is all the deformitie they proportion so 
 monstrously; neither did John Rouce, who knew him, and 
 writ much in his description, observe any other ; and Archien- 
 bald Qhuitlaw, ambassador unto this King from Scotland, in 
 his oration says, he had corpus exiguum ; not otherwise ; 
 so (to my conceit) Philip de Comines and the Prior de Croy- 
 land (who had seen and knowne this prince,) seeme to cleere 
 him implicatively ; for in all their discourses of him they never 
 directly nor indirectly, covertly or apertly, insinuate this defor- 
 mity, which (I suppose,) they would not have passed. And 
 Sir Thomas More himselfe, doth not certainly affirme the 
 deformity, but rather seemes to take it as a malitious report ; 
 for, saith he, King Richard was deformed as the fame ranne 
 by those that hated him." Buck's Life of Richard III., p. 79, 
 80. See also Polidore Virgil, p. 544. Walpole's Historic 
 Doubts, p. 102. Sharon Turner, vol. iii. p. 477, who, after 
 stating that Richard was short, and his figure weakened by 
 illness, adds " for the hump back and crooked form," I think 
 we have no adequate authority. 
 
APPENDIX. 257 
 
 E. 
 
 TESTIMONY IN FAVOUR OP THE BELIEF THAT PERKIN WAR- 
 BECK WAS RICHARD DUKE OF YORK. 
 
 (Seep. 183.) 
 
 " In vulgus fama valuit filios Edwardi Regis aliqu6 terra- 
 rnm partem migrasse, atque ita superstates esse. Thus, Polidore 
 Virgil (1. 2. 6.) with which Dr. Morton and Sir Thomas 
 More agree in one place. The man (say they) commonly 
 called Perkin Warbeck was, as well with the princes as with 
 the people, English and foreign, held to be the younger son of 
 Edward the Fourth, and that the deaths of the young King 
 Edward, and of Richard his brother had come so far in ques- 
 tion, as some are yet in doubt whether they were destroyed or 
 no, in the days of King Richard. By which it appears they 
 were thought to be living after his death. Another author 
 and more ancient agreeth with them, ' Vulgatum est Regis 
 Edwardi pueros concessisse in fata, sed quo genere interitus 
 ignoratur' (Prior of Croyland). Let us now take a more par- 
 ticular view of those witnesses who stood for Perkin. Sir 
 Robert Clifford served King Edward very neare, and in good 
 credit, so could not but have an assured knowledge of the 
 King's sons, and was therefore the more particularly sent to 
 certific his knowledge, who certainely affirmed him to bee the 
 younger son of Edward IV., and confirmed many with him, 
 such as had likewise served King Edward, and had been ac- 
 quainted with the prince his conveying beyond sea, though 
 much was done to alter Sir Robert's opinion ; the Lord Fitz- 
 Walter was of the same belief, and avowed Perkin, the true 
 Duke of York most constantly unto death ; as resolute was 
 Sir "William Stanley, though he were Lord Chamberlain to 
 Henry VII., and in great favour ; Sir George Neville, Sir 
 Simon Mountford, Sir William Daubeny, Sir Thomas Thwaits, 
 Sir Robert Ratcliffe, Sir John Taylor, Sir Thomas Chaloner, 
 Thomas Bagnall, with many other gentlemen of quality, all 
 
258 APPENDIX. 
 
 maintained him to be the Duke of York, son of Edward the 
 Fourth ; and sundry of the clergy who had been chaplains to 
 the king his father, or otherwise occasioned to attend the court, 
 as Dr. Rochford, Dr. Poynes, Dr. Sutton, Dr. Worsley, Dean 
 of St. Paul's, Dr. Leyborn, Dr. Lesly, with many other learned 
 professors of divinity, who could not endure to hear him called 
 Perkin. The Lord FitzWater, Sir William Stanley, Sir 
 Simon Mountford, Sir Robert Ratcliffe, Sir William Daubeny 
 (as martyrs of state,) confirmed their testimonies with their 
 blood. So did the king's Serjeant Ferrier, who left the king's 
 service, and applyed himself to Perkin for which he was exe- 
 cuted as a traitor ; also Corbet, Sir Quinton Betts, and Gase, 
 gentlemen of good worth, with 200 more, at least, put to 
 death in sundry cities and towns, and about London for their 
 confidence and opinions in this prince. Richard Grafton 
 affirmeth the same ; in Flanders (saith he,) and most of all 
 here in England, it was received for an undoubted truth, not 
 only of the people, but of the nobles, that Perkin was the son 
 of King Edward the Fourth. And they all swore and affirmed 
 this to be true ; the learned and famous Mr. Cambden avoweth 
 there were many wise, grave, and persons of good intelligence, 
 (who lived in that time and near it,) that affirmed confidently 
 this Perkin was second son to King Edward." — Buck's Life 
 of Rich. III., p. 84 and 100. 
 
 F. 
 
 THE LADY MARGARETS VOW. 
 
 (See p. 195.) 
 
 This document is contained in an old register called the 
 " Thin Red Book," and is preserved in the Library of St. 
 John's College, Cambridge. 
 
(i 
 
 TABLE SHEWING THE DESCENT OF EDWARD PRESENT EARL OP DERBY, 
 K. G., FROM MARGARET COUNTESS OF RICHMOND AND DERBY. 
 
 Edmund, 
 
 Earl of Richmond, | 
 1st liufthnnd. 
 
 (Seepage 201.) 
 
 MARGARET BEAUFORT.=Thomas Stanley, ._ Eleanor, 
 
 I 
 King Henry the Seventh. 
 
 Princess Maiy=Charles Brandon, 
 I Duke of Suffolk, 
 K.G. ob. 1545. 
 
 1st Earl of Derby, 
 
 K.G. ob. 1504, 
 
 3d husband. 
 
 George Lord Strange, 
 
 K.G. ob. vita patris, 
 
 1503. 
 
 daughter of 
 Richard Ne- 
 ville, Earl of 
 
 Warwick, 
 1st wife. 
 
 Lady Eleanor— Henry Clifford, 
 Brandon, I Earl of Cumber- 
 daughter and I land, ob. 1569. 
 coheir. 
 
 Ladv Margaret 
 
 Clifford, only 
 
 child. 
 
 James Stanley, 
 a quo. 
 
 Henry Stanley, 
 
 4th Earl of 
 
 Derby, K.G. 
 
 ob. 1592. 
 
 Ferdinand, 5th 
 
 Earl of Deibv, 
 
 ob. 1594, " 
 
 S. P.m. 
 
 William, 6th 
 Earl of Derbv, 
 K.G. ob. 1642. 
 
 ! 
 
 James, 7th 
 
 Earl of Derby, 
 
 K.G. beheaded 
 
 1651. 
 
 Charles, 8th 
 
 Earl of Derby, 
 
 ob. 1672. 
 
 Lady 
 Amelia 
 Stanley. 
 
 William, 9th James, 10th 
 
 Earl of Derby, Earl of Derby, 
 
 ob. 1702, ob. 1736, S. P. 
 S. P. N. 
 
 _ John Marquess 
 of Athol, K.T. 
 ob. 1703. 
 
 Lord Charles 
 Murray, 2nd 
 son. Created 
 Earl of Dun- 
 more, ob. 1710. 
 T 
 Lady Anne __John, 4th Earl 
 Murray, I of Dundonald, 
 ob. 1711. ob. 1720. 
 
 Lady Anne _ James, 5th 
 Cochrane, I Duke of Ha- 
 ob. 1724. I milton, K.T. 
 ob. 1742. 
 
 James, 6th 
 
 Duke of Hamilton, 
 
 ob. 1758. 
 
 Sir Edward Stanley, 
 5th Baronet. Suc- 
 ceeded as 11th Earl 
 of Derby in 1736, 
 ob. 1776. 
 
 Lady Elizabeth = Edward, 12th 
 Hamilton, | Earl of Derby, 
 ob. 1797. ob. 1834. 
 
 Edward, 13th and present 
 EiRL of Derey, K.G. 
 
260 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 H. 
 
 THE COUNTESS OF RICHMOND'S STATUTES FOR REFORMATION 
 OF APPAREL. 
 
 (Seep. 217.) 
 
 A most curious document both as regards the description of 
 dress then in use, and the importance attached to prescribing 
 due limits, to "the wearing of barbes, over the chin and 
 under at funerals." The barbe was a kind of chin cloth of fine 
 linen worn by mourners. No lady under the degree of a 
 baroness was permitted to wear them over the chin. Knights' 
 wives were to wear them under their chins, and esquires' wives 
 and gentlewomen of note wore them beneath their throats. 1 
 The Lady Margaret's ordinance prescribed also the size of the 
 mantle, form of the mourning garment beneath, and fixed the 
 length of the train. These orders it would seem were framed 
 by command of King Henry VII., in consequence of the 
 adoption by mean persons of the costume then exclusively 
 appropriated to women of quality. A countess was allowed to 
 have a "trayne before and another behinde, but a baroness no 
 trayne. The trayne before to be narrow, not exceeding the 
 breadth of eight inches, and must be trussed up before under 
 the girdle, or borne upon her left arm." 
 
 The King's deference for the opinion of his mother was strik- 
 ingly marked throughout his reign. At an earlier period of 
 which, in obedience to his request, she also drew up ordinances 
 relative to the preparations and etiquette to be observed prepa- 
 ratory to the accouchement of the Queen of England, and the 
 christening of the royal infants, their progeny. A relic of 
 antiquity equally curious as the last, composed with great care 
 and attention, and concluding by an order that the honourable 
 ladies in attendance on Her Majesty shall, " be made all man- 
 
 1 Vetusta Momimenta, Vol. II. p. 5. 
 
APPENDIX. 261 
 
 ner of officers, as butlers, stewards, &c. ; the officers they 
 represented being commanded to bring them all needful things 
 unto the greate chambre door, and the women officers to re- 
 ceive it there of them." Amongst sundry other amusing pre- 
 parations is enjoined " a little cradell of tree, of a yard and 
 a quarter large, and twenty-two inches broad, in a frame set 
 forthe by painters crafte, superbly furnished with clothe of 
 golde, ermyn fur, and crimson velute." 
 
 Leland's Collec. Vol. IV. p. 183. 
 Harl. MSS. 6079. 
 
 I. 
 
 RELIGIOUS SANCTUARIES. 
 
 (Seep. 229.) 
 
 Until the reign of King Henry the Eighth, all churches 
 and churchyards were sanctuaries ; and protected traitors, 
 thieves, murderers, &c, if within forty days they acknowledged 
 their fault, and submitted themselves to banishment. The 
 most eminent sanctuaries in England were Westminster ; St. 
 Martin' s-le-Grand ; Rippon, in Yorkshire ; St. John's, of 
 Beverley, and St. Burien's, in Cornwall. 
 
 Paston Letters, Vol. II. p. 79. 
 
262 APPENDIX. 
 
 K. 
 
 EPITAPH INSCRIBED UPON THE TOMB OF MARGARET, COUNT- 
 ESS OP RICHMOND AND DERBY, INTERRED IN HENRY VII. 
 CHAPEL, IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 (See p. 234.) 
 
 MARGARETAE. RICHEMONDIAE. SEPTIMI. HENRICI. 
 MATRI. OCTAVI. AVIAE. QVAE. STIPENDIA. CONSTITVIT. 
 TRIB. HOC. COENOBIO. MONACHIS. ET. DOCTOI. GRAM- 
 MATICES. APUD. WYMBORN. PERQ: ANGLIUM. TOTAM. 
 DIVINI. VERBI. PRAECONI. DVOB. ITEM. INTERPRAETIB : 
 LITTERAR: SACRAR : ALTERI. OXONIIS. ALTERI. CANTA- 
 BRIGIAE. VBI. ET. COLLEGIA. DVO. CHRISTO. ET. IOANNI. 
 DISCIPVLO. EIVS. STRVXIT. MORITVR. AN. DOMINI. M. D. 
 IX. III. KAL. IVLII. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY STEWART AND MURRAY, 
 
 OLD BAILEY. 
 
 
DATE DUE 
 
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