Chapter II: Introduction: The Plantagenets

About the middle of the ninth century a warrior named Tertullus, having rendered signal services to the King of France, married Petronella, the king's cousin, and had a son who flourished as Count of Anjou. The descendants of Tertullus and Petronella rose rapidly, and exercised much influence on French affairs. At length, in the twelfth century, Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, surnamed Plantagenet, from wearing a sprig of flowering broom instead of a feather, espoused Maude, daughter of Henry Beauclerc, King of England; and Henry Plantagenet, their son, succeeded, on the death of Stephen, to the English throne.

Having married Eleanor, heiress of Aquitaine, and extended his continental empire from the Channel to the Pyrenees, Henry ranked as the most potent of European princes. But, though enabled to render great services to England, he was not an Englishman; and, indeed, it was not till the death of John, at Swinehead, that the English had a king who could be regarded as one of themselves. That king was Henry the Third, born and educated in England, and sympathizing with the traditions of the people over whom he reigned.

Unfortunately for Henry, he was surrounded by Continental kinsmen, whose conduct caused such discontent that clergy, barons, citizens, and people raised the cry of England for the English; and Simon de Montfort, though foreign himself, undertook to head a movement against foreigners. A barons' war was the consequence. Henry, defeated at Lewes, became a prisoner in the hands of the oligarchy; and there was some prospect of the crown passing from the house of Plantagenet to that of Montfort.

At this crisis, however, Edward, eldest son of the king, escaped from captivity, destroyed the oligarchy in the battle of Evesham, and entered upon his great and glorious career. Space would fail us to expatiate on the services which, when elevated to the throne as Edward the First, that mighty prince rendered to England. Suffice it to say that he gave peace, prosperity, and freedom to the people, formed hostile races into one great nation, and rendered his memory immortal by the laws which he instituted.[1]

For the country which the first Edward rendered prosperous and free, the third Edward and his heroic son won glory in those wars which made Englishmen, for a time, masters of France. Unhappily, the Black Prince died before his father; and his only son, who succeeded when a boy as Richard the Second, departed from right principles of government. This excited serious discontent, and led the English people to that violation of "the lineal succession of their monarchs" which caused the Wars of the Roses.

Besides the Black Prince, the conqueror of Cressy had by his queen, Philippa--the patroness of Froissart--several sons, among whom were Lionel, Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; and Edmund of Langley, Duke of York.[2] Lionel died early; but John of Gaunt survived his father and eldest brother, and was suspected of having an eye to the crown which his young nephew wore. No usurpation, however, was attempted. But when John was in the grave, his son, Henry of Bolingbroke, returning from an irksome exile, deposed Richard, and sent him prisoner to Pontefract Castle, where he is understood to have been murdered.

On the death of Richard, who was childless, Henry the Fourth, as son of John of Gaunt, would have had hereditary right on his side, but that Lionel of Clarence had left a daughter, Philippa, wife of Mortimer, Earl of March, and ancestress of three successive earls. Of these, Edmund, the last earl, was a boy when Henry of Bolingbroke usurped the throne; and his sister, Anne Mortimer, was wife of Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cambridge, second son of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. "This was that princely branch," says Sandford, "by the ingrafting of which into the stock of York, that tree brought forth not only White Roses, but crowns and sceptres also."

Henry the Fourth regarded young March with jealousy, and had him vigilantly guarded. But Henry the Fifth completely won the earl's loyalty, and made him a most zealous adherent. March showed no ambition to reign; and the nation, intoxicated with Agincourt and glory and conquest, cared not an iota for his claims. At the time when the hero-king expired at Vincennes and the Earl of March died in England the dynastic dispute was scarcely remembered, and it would never, in all probability, have been revived had the Lancastrian government not become such as could not be submitted to without degradation. It was when law and decency were defied, and when Englishmen were in danger of being enslaved by a "foreign woman," that they remembered the true heir of the Plantagenets and took up arms to vindicate his claims.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE MONK-MONARCH AND HIS MISLEADERS 17

II. THE DUKE OF YORK AND THE KING-MAKER 27

III. THE CAPTAIN OF KENT 35

IV. THE RIVAL DUKES 46

V. THE KING'S MALADY 53

VI. THE BATTLE OF ST. ALBANS 60

VII. THE QUEEN AND THE YORKIST CHIEFS 67

VIII. THE CITY AND THE COURT 76

IX. A YORKIST VICTORY AND A LANCASTRIAN REVENGE 80

X. THE BATTLE OF NORTHAMPTON 88

XI. YORK'S CLAIM TO THE CROWN 94

XII. THE QUEEN'S FLIGHT AND RETURN 99

XIII. THE ANJOUITE'S VENGEANCE 105

XIV. A PLANTAGENET AND THE TUDORS 118

XV. BEFORE TOWTON 125

XVI. TOWTON FIELD 131

XVII. THE QUEEN IN ADVERSITY 145

XVIII. THE WOODVILLES 160

XIX. THE LANCASTRIANS IN EXILE 174

XX. WARWICK AND THE WOODVILLES 190

XXI. DESPOTISM, DISCONTENT, AND DISORDER 203

XXII. THE SIEGE OF EXETER 218

XXIII. LOUIS THE CRAFTY 224

XXIV. "THE STOUT EARL" IN EXILE 232

XXV. THE EARL'S RETURN AND EDWARD'S FLIGHT 244

XXVI. THE EARL OF WORCESTER 253

XXVII. THE BANISHED KING 262

XXVIII. QUEEN MARGARET'S VOYAGE 276

XXIX. THE BATTLE OF BARNET 282

XXX. BEFORE TEWKESBURY 299

XXXI. THE FIELD OF TEWKESBURY 312

XXXII. THE VICTOR AND THE VANQUISHED 325

XXXIII. WARWICK'S VICE-ADMIRAL 337

XXXIV. ESCAPE OF THE TUDORS 347

XXXV. ADVENTURES OF JOHN DE VERE 353

XXXVI. A DUKE IN RAGS 362

XXXVII. LOUIS DE BRUGES AT WINDSOR 368

XXXVIII. THE TREATY OF PICQUIGNY 372

XXXIX. A DOMESTIC TRAGEDY 381

XL. KING EDWARD'S DEATH 390

XLI. THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER 396

XLII. THE PROTECTOR AND THE PROTECTORATE 399

XLIII. THE USURPATION 415

XLIV. RICHARD'S CORONATION 420

XLV. THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER 423

XLVI. A MOCK KING-MAKER 427

XLVII. THE COMING MAN 432

XLVIII. FROM BRITTANY TO BOSWORTH 439

XLIX. RICHARD BEFORE BOSWORTH 444

L. BOSWORTH FIELD 451

LI. AFTER BOSWORTH 465

LII. THE UNION OF THE TWO ROSES 469

THE WARS OF THE ROSES.