His brother the King, meanwhile, was in sad decline. War had kept him in superb condition; with peace he had grown self-indulgent. Always strongly sexed - and despite the considerable charms of his mistress, Jane Shore, whom he had first taken to his bed as early as 1470 - he had now also become a compulsive womanizer. 'Married and unmarried,' writes Mancini, 'noblewomen and wenches, he made no distinction, He drew the line only at rape: Edward 'made all his conquests through money and promises, and having had his way with them bade them farewell.' Had fornication been his only vice, it might have done him little enough physical harm; but he was also an equally compulsive glutton. As a result, the man who was once the handsomest prince in Europe had by the age of forty become immensely fat and prematurely aged by drink and debauch. The end came at Easter, 1483. Already on Good Friday he had suffered an agonizing fit of indigestion brought on, we are told, by a surfeit of fruit and vegetables; a day or two later, during an afternoon's fishing expedition on the river, he caught a chill which was followed soon afterwards by what seems to have been a stroke. He died on 9 April, less than three weeks before his forty-first birthday.
Edward's eldest son by Elizabeth Woodville — the new King Edward V - was now twelve. Eight years before, during his father's absence on the French expedition, the Woodvilles had ruled England; and they had every intention, during the young King's minority, of doing so again. Their leader Lord Rivers, the Queen's brother, was already his official Governor, while her eldest son by Sir John Grey, now Marquess of Dorset, was in charge of the Royal Treasury. The Lord Chamberlain, Lord Hastings, pointed out that the late King had insisted in his will that Gloucester should be made Protector; the Woodvilles merely replied that final authority must He with the Council - on which, it need hardly be said, they enjoyed a comfortable majority.
But they had underestimated their adversary. Richard had plans of his own, and they did not include the Woodvilles. His principal ally was to be Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. A nephew of the third and fourth Dukes of Somerset who had been executed within seven years of each other, Buckingham was not only a Beaufort: he was also handsome, rich and highly intelligent. No wonder Edward IV had mistrusted him. Moreover, having been forcibly - and disastrously -married to one of the Queen's innumerable sisters at the age of eleven, he detested the whole Woodville clan and was prepared to go to almost any lengths to destroy them. He and Richard now set about the systematic suborning of all members of the 'old nobility' and their adherents, alerting them to the threat of a complete Woodville takeover and deliberately spreading rumours, true and false, of the family's iniquities. Meanwhile Richard wrote to the Council in the most cordial and respectful terms, stressing his absolute loyalty to the new King but reminding them also of the terms of his brother's will and of his own just claim to a place in any future government. This letter he took care to have circulated as widely as possible throughout the kingdom, and since he was at this time at the peak of his popularity — his Scottish exploit in the previous year had not been forgotten — it had its effect.
With public opinion on his side, action could no longer be delayed. The coronation had already been fixed for Sunday 4 May. Once Edward V were crowned, the Woodvilles could claim that no Protectorate was necessary, since - as had happened after the crowning of Henry VI -the Protector's powers would automatically devolve on the Council. The ceremony must clearly be prevented at all costs. Fortunately for Richard, Edward was at Ludlow, a good week's journey from London; and more fortunately still the boy's uncle, Lord Rivers, who was to escort him to the capital, had decided to celebrate St George's Day before their departure. This meant that they could not leave Ludlow till 24 April; the Duke of Gloucester had plenty of time to make his plans. He wrote to Edward saying that he and Buckingham would naturally wish to accompany him on his formal entry into London, and would therefore meet him at Northampton to continue the journey together.
When the two Dukes reached Northampton on the 29th, they found that the royal party was already at Stony Stratford, fourteen miles further south; but Rivers and Lord Richard Grey - the Queen's younger son by her first marriage and thus the King's half-brother — immediately rode back to explain that they had gone on only because there was insufficient accommodation in Northampton for both retinues. That evening all four men had a convivial supper together before Rivers and Grey retired to bed in the next-door inn; they awoke early the next morning, however, to discover that all the outer doors were locked and that bands of the Dukes' men were blocking the road to the south. When they had finally freed themselves they sought out Richard and demanded an explanation; he replied by accusing them of turning his nephew against him, and had them both put under arrest. He and Buckingham then hurried to Stony Stratford, took possession of the King and rode back with him to Northampton, where they explained to him that the Woodvilles had deliberately destroyed his father and were determined to destroy him in the same way. Tearfully young Edward tried to defend his mother and her family, but to no avail. The noblemen around him were arrested, the serving men and women dismissed. Rivers himself, with certain of his colleagues, was sent to Richard's castle of Sheriff Hutton; later he was transferred to Pontefract, where he was executed, apparently without trial, on 25 June. He did not deserve his fate. His support for his own family was natural and perfectly legitimate. A man of wide culture, he had travelled extensively in Italy; he was also a writer and poet, several of whose works were to be produced by William Caxton — one of them, his translation of The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers (from Jean de Teonville's French version of the Latin original) being the first book ever printed in England. At the time of his execution he was found to be wearing a hair shirt next to the skin.
Richard of Gloucester, his nephew Edward V and their entourage reached London on 4 May to find that the news of the coup had arrived before them. The Queen, with her nine-year-old son the Duke of York and her five daughters, had already taken sanctuary in the Abbot's Lodgings at Westminster, bringing with her a vast quantity of furniture and all her possessions that could somehow be accommodated. But the ordinary citizens too were growing nervous. The Duke's men seemed to be everywhere — standing in threatening groups at key points in the city, roaming the streets, even patrolling the river in boats. And rumours, as always at such moments, were spreading fast: that Richard was planning to seize the throne, and that he was acting not only against the Woodvilles but against the young King himself.
The Londoners were reassured, first by the universally respected Hastings who told them, in absolute good faith, that they had nothing to fear, and then, a few days later, by Richard himself in the King's ceremonial procession to St Paul's Cathedral. Riding beside the beautiful, fair-headed youth, he would repeatedly bow low to the crowds lining the streets, calling to them as he did so: 'Behold your Prince and Sovereign Lord!' Impressed by the obvious pride that he showed in his nephew, they once more took him to their hearts. At the next meeting of the now seriously depleted Council, the Duke of Gloucester was confirmed as Protector of the Realm and of the King. Meanwhile a new date, 22 June, was fixed for the long-awaited coronation.
It could be claimed, with all the wisdom of hindsight, that Richard gave the first sign of his true intentions when, some ten days after his arrival in the capital, he removed the young King from the palace of the Bishop of London adjoining St Paul's and transferred him to the Tower. As we have seen often enough in this history, the Tower was not, in the fifteenth century, the grim prison of popular imagination; it too was a palace, boasting a fine banqueting hall and several sumptuously furnished apartments in which most of the Plantagenet kings had lodged at one time or another. But it also contained other, less desirable accommodation; and its formidable walls effectively cut it off from the outside world. With Edward safely installed, Richard's next concern was to bring his younger brother to join him. The little Duke of York was, after all, technically heir to the throne: it would be poindess to dispose of one of the two Princes wit
hout the other. The difficulty was their mother. The Queen and her family were still in sanctuary at Westminster, and she would not let him out of her sight. It was explained to her that the King was lonely without his brother; that he was calling for him again and again; that it was doing the boy no good to be virtually incarcerated in the Abbey in the exclusive company of 'old and ancient persons'; and that sanctuaries were designed for criminals rather than for princes of the blood. Elizabeth refused to listen. It was only when the Archbishop of Canterbury, the seventy-nine-year-old Cardinal Bourchier, went personally to see her, pointed out that her son would anyway have to be released to attend his brother's coronation and finally suggested that, if she maintained her attitude, he might have to reconsider the question of her own sanctuary, that she yielded at last.
With the two boys now together in the Tower, Richard's position was immeasurably strengthened; but there remained one further potential obstacle to the realization of his plans. The Lord Chamberlain, Lord Hastings, had no particular love for the Woodvilles, but as Edward IV's closest friend he would certainly have been prepared to ally himself with them or anyone else on behalf of the young King. Another friend, Lord Stanley, seems to have warned him of possible danger, but Hastings remained unconcerned; he and Richard, he claimed, had always been on excellent terms. Besides, he was constantly kept informed by one of his most trusted retainers - a certain William Catesby, who enjoyed Richard's confidence - of all the Duke's regular meetings with his associates, and was certain that nothing could be plotted against him without his knowledge. Here, unfortunately, he deceived himself: Catesby was in fact a double agent, who was being paid good money by Richard to keep his master in ignorance until the plot was sprung.
It was Friday 13 June when the Duke of Gloucester summoned a meeting at the Tower to discuss the final details of the coming coronation. By this time he was increasingly reluctant even to sit down with the Woodvilles, and had consequently split the Council into two parts. This particular gathering consisted largely of his own adherents; also present were Hastings and Stanley, together with Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, and John Morton, Bishop of Ely.1 Richard arrived at about nine in the morning in what appeared to be a genial mood, asking Morton to get him some strawberries from the garden of his palace in Holborn. Soon after the discussion had begun, however, he suddenly left the room, reappearing an hour and a half later frowning and withdrawn. The table fell silent. What did people deserve, he asked very quietly, for having plotted 'the destruction of me, being so near of blood unto the King, and Protector of his royal person and his realm'? Hastings replied at once such men should be punished as traitors. Only then did the Duke identify those to whom he referred: 'yonder sorceress, my brother's wife, and others with her . . . You shall all see,' he continued, 'in what wise that sorceress and that other witch of her counsel, Shore's wife, with their affinity have by their sorcery and
1. Morton later became Archbishop of Canterbury and a Cardinal. It was almost certainly his eyewitness account of the meeting which formed the basis for that of Sir Thomas More, the fullest and most circumstantial that we have.
witchcraft wasted my body.' With that he pulled up his left sleeve to show his withered arm.
Had Richard been seriously concerned to prove his sincerity, this would have been a serious mistake: all those present were well aware that his arm had been damaged since his birth. But perhaps he hardly cared. Suddenly he turned on Hastings who, having kept Jane Shore for some years as his mistress, had ill-advisedly attempted to defend her. 'They have so done!' he shouted. 'And that will I make good upon thy body, traitor!' His fist crashed down on the table; outside there were cries of 'Treason!'; and a body of armed men burst into the chamber. One attacked Stanley, who dived under the table, blood streaming down his face. He was arrested, together with Rotherham and Morton. But Richard's eyes were on Hastings, whom he told to find a priest and confess himself at once, 'for by St Paul I will not to dinner till I see thy head off.' The poor man was beheaded within the hour, on Tower Green.1 As to the other accused, the Queen was still in sanctuary and could not be touched; Jane Shore was arrested and put on trial, first for witchcraft and then - when not a shred of evidence could be found against her - for harlotry, where admittedly she was on somewhat weaker ground. She was condemned, as the Duchess of Gloucester had been condemned forty-two years before,2 to walk barefoot through the streets of London carrying a lighted taper in her hand; but the punishment seems to have misfired. She looked so beautiful that every male heart in the crowd went out to her; and it was Richard of Gloucester, rather than Jane Shore, whose reputation suffered.
Having dealt to his satisfaction with the Woodvilles and with the two little Princes now firmly in his power, Richard could proceed with the second half of his plan. His first action was once again to postpone his nephew's coronation. The next task - a good deal harder - was to persuade the people that he, Richard of Gloucester, was their rightful King. Since there could be no doubt that Edward V was the legitimate heir of Edward IV, this meant accusing the latter - his own brother -of bastardy, even at the cost of dishonouring their mother, the old
1. Hastings was buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor, in a tomb close to that of Edward IV - as the King had specifically asked.
2. See Chapter II, p. 228-9.
Duchess of York, who was still very much alive. The propaganda campaign began with a sermon preached at St Paul's Cross, just outside the cathedral, on Sunday 22 June 1483 by a certain Dr Ralph1 Shaa, or Sha, or Shaw, brother of the mayor of London. Dr Shaa, not content with claiming that Edward IV, Rudand and Clarence had all been bastards and that only Richard was legitimate, also held that Edward's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid, he having already plighted his troth to Lady Eleanor Butler, the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had borne him a child. Both Lady Eleanor and the child were long since dead, but they had been alive at the time of the marriage to Elizabeth and canon law in those days held the ceremony of 'troth-plight', unless formally dissolved, to be as binding as matrimony itself; it would certainly have been enough to have invalidated the marriage.
Several other noted preachers took up the theme, but the Londoners as a whole were not persuaded. They disliked being patronized; and Shaa's allegations were, so far as they were concerned, an insult to their intelligence. They at least could no longer fail to see Richard for what he was: a man devoid of conscience or principle, who would stop at nothing to achieve his ambition. He might dress as regally as he liked, parade through the city with a dazzling retinue of a thousand men or more, entertain hundreds every day to his table; his popularity evaporated until it was as if it had never been. Two days after Shaa's sermon, Buckingham himself addressed the mayor, aldermen and all the leading citizens at Guildhall, telling them of the injustices and iniquities they had suffered during the previous reign, blaming Edward IV for the recent wars as well as for the murder of his own brother Clarence, and castigating him for his endless womanizing from which, he maintained, no female in the city had been safe. Would not now all his dear friends present stand up and call for 'this noble prince, now Protector,' to be their King? They would not. The only sound to be heard in the great hall was a low whispering, 'as of a swarm of bees'.
But there was no going back now: if Richard could not make himself King by popular acclamation, he would have to do so without it. On Wednesday 25 June Buckingham and his principal followers, together with the Mayor and corporation — who by this time were well aware
1. More and Holinshed call him John, but Ralph - or Raffe, according to Hall and Fabyan - seems to have been his proper name.
of what was expected of them and of what was in store for them if they failed to deliver - visited Richard at his London palace, Baynard's Castle. The Protector feigned first astonishment, then reluctance; he impressed all those present with his histrionic abilities, though he deceived no one. At last, with much hesitation he gave his consent. That evening, to confirm and rat
ify the agreement, a formal petition was drawn up by the lords, knights and burgesses who had come to London for the now-cancelled Parliament. Its words are hard indeed to reconcile with what we know of the ordered and peaceable later reign of Edward IV:
. . . the prosperity of this land daily decreased, so that felicity was turned into misery . . . [Owing to the] murders, extortions and oppressions, namely of poor and impotent people ... no man was sure of his life, land nor livelihood, nor of his wife, daughter nor servant, every good maiden and woman standing in dread to be ravished and defouled . . .
The said King Edward during his life and the said Elizabeth lived together sinfully and damnably in adultery against the law of God and of his Church ... It appeareth evidently and followeth that all the issue and children of the said King Edward be bastards and unable to inherit or to claim anything by inheritance by the law and custom of England.
That same day, Earl Rivers with three of the principal Woodville supporters - Lord Richard Grey, Sir Thomas Vaughan and Sir Richard Haute - were beheaded on the Protector's orders at Pontefract; their naked corpses were thrown into a common grave.
The final stage of the coup took place on Wednesday 26 June, when Richard rode in state from Baynard's Castle to Westminster Hall. On his arrival, in the presence of the assembled Justices of King's Bench and of Common Pleas, he formally seated himself on the marble throne — that same traditional seat of the King as dispenser of justice to which his father had vainly stretched out his hand twenty-three years before. There he took the royal oath, after which he delivered what must have seemed to his audience a remarkably sanctimonious lecture, charging them to administer justice without fear or favour and reminding them that all men were equal in the sight of the law. The reign of King Richard III had begun.
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