of revenge.  Self-security prompted the princes and lords to guard against this reverse, and what was equally dangerous to the queen, the depression of her fortune called forth and revived all the hatred of her enemies.  Her marriage had given universal offence to the nobility, and been the source of all the late disturbances and bloodshed.  The great earl of Warwick, provoked at the contempt shewn to him by King Edward while negotiating a match for him in France, had abandoned him for Henry the Sixth, whom he had again set on the throne.  These calamities were still fresh in every mind, and no doubt contributed to raise Gloucester to the throne, which he could not have attained without almost general concurrence yet if we are to believe historians, he, Buckingham, the mayor of London, and one Dr. Shaw, operated this revolution by a sermon and a speech to the people, though the people would not even give a huzza to the proposal.  The change of government in the rehearsal is not effected more easily by the physician and gentleman usher, “Do you take this, and I’ll seize t’other chair.”

(10) This is confirmed by the chronicle of Croyland, p. 566.

In what manner Richard assumed or was invested with the protectorate does not appear.  Sir Thomas More, speaking of him by that title, says “the protector which always you must take for the Duke of Gloucester.”  Fabian after mentioning the solemn (11) arrival of the king in London, adds, “Than provisyon was made for the kinge’s coronation; in which pastime (interval) the duke being admitted for lord protectour.”  As the parliament was not sitting, this dignity was no doubt conferred on him by the assent of the lords and privy council; and as we hear of no opposition, none was probably made.  He was the only person to whom that rank was due; his right could not and does not seem to have been questioned.  The Chronicle of Croyland corroborates my opinion, saying, “Accepitque dictus Ricardus dux Glocestriae ilium solennem magistratum, qui duci Humfrido Glocestriae, stante minore aetate regis Henrici, ut regni protector appellaretur, olim contingebat.  Ea igitur auctoritate usus est, de consensu & beneplacito omnium dominorum.” p. 556.

(11) He was probably eye-witness of that ceremony; for he says, “the king was of the maior and his citizens met at Harnesey parke, the maior and his brethren being clothed in scarlet, and the citizens in violet, to the number of V.C. horses, and than from thence conveyed unto the citie, the king beynge in blewe velvet, and all his lords and servauntes in blacke cloth.” p. 513.

Thus far therefore it must be allowed that Richard acted no illegal part, nor discovered more ambition than became him.  He had defeated the queen’s innovations, and secured her accomplices.  To draw off our attention from such regular steps, Sir Thomas More has exhausted all his eloquence and imagination to work up a piteous scene, in which the queen is made to excite our compassion in the highest degree,