Exception may perhaps be made of the rich and elderly widow, who was so pleased with the King’s handsome face that she willingly handed him a 20 pounds (a large sum in those days); and when the jovial monarch gallantly kissed her out of gratitude for her generosity, she at once, like a true and loyal subject, doubled the donation.  Edward’s course of life was not conducive to length of days, even if the times had favored a long reign.  He died early, leaving a son, Prince Edward, to succeed him.

308.  Summary.

The reign was marked by the continuation of the Wars of the Roses, the death of King Henry VI and of his son, with the return of Queen Margaret to France.  The most important event outside of the war was the introduction of the printing press into England by William Caxton.

Edward V (House of York, White Rose)—­1483

309.  Gloucester appointed Protector.

Prince Edward, heir to the throne, was a lad of twelve (S307).  His position was naturally full of peril.  It became much more so, from the fact that his ambitious and unscrupulous uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had been appointed Lord Protector of the realm until the boy should become of age.  Richard protected his young nephew as a wolf would protect a lamb.

He met the Prince coming up to London from Ludlow Castle, Shropshire, attended by his half brother, Sir Richard Grey, and his uncle, Lord Rivers.  Under the pretext that Edward would be safer in the Tower of London than at Westminster Palace, Richard sent the Prince there, and soon found means for having his kinsmen, Grey and Rivers, executed.

310.  Murder of Lord Hastings and the Two Princes.

Richard shortly after showed his object.  Lord Hastings was one of the council who had voted to make him Lord Protector, but he was unwilling to help him in his plot to seize the crown.  While at the council table in the Tower of London Richard suddenly started up and accused Hastings of treason, saying, “By St. Paul, I will not to dinner till I see thy head off!” Hastings was dragged out of the room, and without either trial or examination was beheaded on a stick of timber on the Tower green.

The way was now clear for the accomplishment of the Duke’s purpose.  The Queen Mother (Elizabeth Woodville, widow of Edward IV) (S305) took her younger son and his sisters, one of whom was the Princess Elizabeth of York, and fled for protection to the sanctuary (S95) of Westminster Abbey, where, refusing all comfort, “she sat alone, on the rush-covered stone floor.”  Finally, Richard half persuaded and half forced the unhappy woman to give up her second son to his tender care.

With bitter weeping and dread presentiments of evil she parted from him, saying:  “Farewell, mine own sweet son!  God send you good keeping!  Let me kiss you once ere you go, for God knoweth when we shall kiss together again.”  That was the last time she saw the lad.  He and Edward, his elder brother, were soon after murdered in the Tower, and Richard rose by that double crime to the height he coveted.