Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

given and a new engagement to be arranged before leaving the former.

COMMERCE.-Regular and rapid progress. Ships of 900 tons belonging to the Canynges of Bristol. Improvement in the manufacture of woollen cloth. Establishment of glass manufactory in England, 1457. Pawnbroking introduced, 1458. Incorporation of Cutlers, Brewers, Leathersellers, Haberdashers, and Girdlers. INVENTIONS.-The Roller Printing Press, 1450. Engraving on copper, 1459.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES.-By the Portuguese, Senegal River, 1440, and the Azores, 1448. By the Genoese, Cape Verde Islands, 1449.

INSTITUTIONS.-Lincoln College, Oxford, 1428, and Magdalen College, 1458. King's College, Cambridge, 1441, and Queen's

College, 1448. Eton College, 1440.

WARS AND BATTLES.-I. France. (1) 1422-1444: Crevant, 31 July 1423; Verneuil, 16 Aug. 1424; siege of Orleans, Oct. 1428-8 May 1429; Battle of the Herrings--Rouvrai, 12 Feb. 1429; Jargeau, 17 June; Patay, 18 June; Paris, 1436. (2) 1449-1453; Rouen, 4 Nov., 1449; Castillon, 23 July 1453.

II. Scotland. (1) Scots at Crevant and Verneuil in first French War. (2) Roxburgh, Aug. 1460.

III. Civil Wars. (1) Jack Cade's Rebellion, 1450; Seven Oaks, 24 June, and London Bridge, 5 July. (2) The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485); first battle of St. Alban's, 22 May 1455; Bloreheath, 23 Sept. 1459; 'Northampton, 10 July 1460; Wakefield, 31 Dec.; Mortimer's Cross, 2 Feb. 1461; second battle of St. Alban's, 17 Feb. 1461.

TREATIES. I. France. (1) Two years' Truce, 1444. (2) Four years' Truce, 1446.

II. Scotland. (1) Nine years' Truce, 1437. (2) Truce, 1449. EMINENT MEN. Abp. Chichele, d. 1443; cardinal Henry Beaufort, d. 1447; John, duke of Bedford, d. 1435; Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, d. 1447; Edmund, duke of Somerset, d. 1455; Humphrey, duke of Buckingham, d. 1460; Edmund, earl of March, d. 1425; Richard, duke of York, d. 1460; John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, d. 1453; William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, d. 1450; Sir John Fastolf, d. 1459. Authors-judge Sir John Fortescue; John Capgrave, theologian and historian, d. 1464; Thomas Walsingham, historian.

[blocks in formation]

Born at Rouen, 29 April 1441. Eldest son of Richard Plantagenet, duke of York (the great-great-grandson of Lionel, duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III.), who fell at Wakefield, 31 Dec1460. Married privately, 1469, Elizabeth (daughter of Sir Richard Woodville [by Jacquetta of Luxembourg, duchess dowager of Bedford], and widow of Sir John Gray-both Lancastrians of note), by whom he had three sons,-Edward (V.), Richard, duke of York, and George, duke of Bedford (d. in infancy), and seven daughters -Elizabeth (wife of Henry VII.), Cecilia, Anne, Bridget, Mary, Margaret, and Catherine. The line of York or Clarence [see under "Henry VI.," A.D. 1425] was of course the elder branch: but Hallam and other high constitutional authorities argue that the House of Lancaster had obtained a prescriptive right to the throne (see under "A.D. 1455," p. 100).

[ocr errors]

Edward IV. was "a prince of dissolute and imperious character" (Macaulay). "His love of pleasure, his affability, his courage, and beauty, gave him a credit with his subjects which he had no real virtue to challenge (Hallam). "The shortest and yet fullest account of his character is, that he yielded to the impulse of every passion. His ambition was as boundless as his revenge was fierce. These furious passions together made him cruel, faithless, merciless, and lawless. Nothing restrained him in the pursuit of sensual gratification. He squandered on his mistresses the foreign bribes which were the price of his own dishonour. To fear and its abject train alone was he a stranger. It can scarcely be said with truth that he was exempt from any other species of vice; unless we except avarice, which would have bridled him more than his impetuous appetites could have brooked" (Mackintosh).

A.D.

1461. EDWARD IV. (at. 19) proclaimed king, 3 March: defeats the Lancastrians under Queen Margaret and the duke of Somerset at Towton, 29 March: flight of Margaret and Edward, Prince of Wales, to Scotland, and thence to France. Edward IV. crowned, 29 June. Parliament re

A.D.

cognises Edward IV., 4 Nov., declares the Lancastrian kings usurpers, and attaints the Lancastrians.

1463. Queen Margaret lands in Northumberland with 2,000 men from France.

1464. The Yorkists under Lord Montague defeat the Lancastrians at Hedgley Moor, 25 April, and Hexham, 15 May: duke of Somerset taken and executed. Henry VI. escapes he is again sent to the Tower. Margaret escapes to Flanders. Edward IV. makes a treaty with

Scotland for 15 years. He privately marries Elizabeth, daughter of the Lancastrian Sir Richard Woodville, and widow of Sir J. Grey: Warwick "the king-maker" estranged.

1467. Warwick deserts the Yorkists from the betrothal of Margaret, sister of Edward IV., to Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy.

1468. Edward IV. and Warwick apparently reconciled, July. 1469. Insurrection in Yorkshire under Robin of Redesdale, July the insurgents demand reduced taxes and the re

:

moval of the Woodvilles from court: they take and execute earl Rivers (Sir Richard Woodville), and his brother.

:

1470. Insurrection in Lincolnshire under Sir Robert Welles victory of Edward IV. at Stamford, 12 March: George, duke of Clarence (brother of Edward IV.) and the earl of Warwick are declared traitors: Warwick received by Louis XI. of France. Treaty of Amboise, between the ex-queen Margaret and Warwick-the earl to aid the Lancastrians, and his second daughter to marry Edward, Prince of Wales. Reconciliation of Edward IV. and the duke of Clarence. Warwick lands in Devon, Sep., and proclaims Henry VI. restored : Edward IV. sails from Lynn for the Hague, 3 Oct. Edward (V.) born, 4 Nov.

1471. Edward IV. lands with 1,500 Flemings at Ravenspur, 14 March enters London: Henry VI. again sent to the Tower, 11 April. Edward IV. totally defeats the Lancastrians at Barnet, 14 April (Easter-day): Warwick "the king-maker" slain

A. D.

"the last of the Barons" (Bulwer Lytton): "the last of the feudal chiefs whose bands of personal retainers amounted to small standing armies: and whose revenues exceeded those of Royalty itself" (Creasy). "The name of King-maker' given to him by the people, well expresses his love of turbulence for its own sake, and his preference of the pleasure of displaying power to that of attaining specific objects of ambition " (Mackintosh).

Queen Margaret and Edward, Prince of Wales, land at Weymouth, 14 April: are totally defeated and captured at Tewkesbury, by Edward IV., 4 May. Edward, Prince of Wales, murdered, and Queen Margaret imprisoned in the Tower (till 1475). Edward IV. enters London, 22 May corpse of Henry VI. (at. 49), exposed in St. Paul's.

1475. Edward IV. claims the crown of France: invades France : truce for seven years by the Treaty of Pecquigny, Aug. the Dauphin betrothed to Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and Queen Margaret released for a

ransom.

Edward IV. " was too dissipated and too indolent to be fond of war" (Hallam).

1478. The duke of Clarence, on a charge of treason, drowned in a butt of malmsey:

66

a sort of murder not indeed substantiated by proof, but very characteristic of that frolicsome and festive cruelty which Edward practised in common with other young and victorious tyrants" (Mackintosh).

1479. A pestilence desolates England. [The crowns of Aragon and Castile united by Ferdinand and Isabella.]

1480. War declared against James III. of Scotland.

1482. Treaty of Fotheringay with the Scottish exiled duke of Albany, who cedes Berwick, June: repudiated by the Scots.

1483. Louis XI. repudiates betrothal of the Dauphin to the Princess Elizabeth. Edward IV. (at. 41), dies, 9 April.

STATE OF SOCIETY. Notwithstanding the pestilence of 1479, and the Wars of the Roses, which chiefly affected the upper classes, the country was on the whole in a good position, and the government was far from being unpopular.

But to the upper ranks it was "a reign of terror. One half of the noble families had been thinned by proscription; and, though generally restored in blood by the reversal of their several attainders-a measure certainly

deserving of much approbation-were still under the eyes of vigilant and inveterate enemies" (Hallam).

Postal communication between London and Edinburgh by changes of horsemen every 20 miles. Caxton's first book printed

1474. Disuse of the Judicial combat.

PARLIAMENTS AND LAWS.

"The reign of Edward IV. is the first during which no statute was passed for the redress of grievances or the maintenance of the subject's liberty" (Hallam).

Though tonnage and poundage were granted the king for life and he had acquired a vast sum by forfeitures of estates, he raised without consent of Parliament money under the name of Benevolences.

"These came in place of the still more plausible 'Loans' of former monarchs, and were principally levied on the wealthy traders. The illegality was undoubtedly felt and resented" (Hallam). For trade statutes of 1463 and 1478, see "Commerce."

COMMERCE.

"The commerce of England grew to a far greater height than it ever before had attained; and the general condition of the trading classes was remarkably prosperous" (Creasy).

Importation of

Acts for regulating the woollen trade, 1463.
manufactured articles, "wares ready wrought," forbidden by
Statute, 1463 and exportation of coin or plate, without the Royal
permission, made felony. Ships of 900 tons burden. Caxton's
Printing Press set up at Westminster, 1471: first book printed in
England ("Game and Playe of Chesse") issued in 1474. Incorpo-
ration of Ironmongers, Merchant Taylors, Dyers, Pewterers, Car-
penters, Clothworkers, and Waxchandlers.

INSTITUTIONS.-St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, 1473.
WARS AND BATTLES.-I. France, 1475.

II. Scotland (1) 1461-1464. (2) 1480-1482.

III. Civil (1) Wars of the Roses [1455-1485] continued: Towton, 29 March 1461; Hedgley Moor, 25 April 1464 ; Hexham, 15 May; Barnet, 14 April 1471: Tewkesbury, 4 May 1471. (2) Insurrection of Robin of Redesdale, 1469. (3) Insurrection of Welles, 1470; Stamford, 12 March.

TREATIES.-I. France. Treaty of Pecquigny, Aug. 1475France to purchase (1) peace by the payment of 75,000 crowns at once, and an annuity to Edward IV. of 50,000 crowns, and (2), the release of Queen Margaret for 50,000 crowns; and (3) the Dauphin to be betrothed to the Princess Elizabeth.

« AnteriorContinuar »