37 - Houses of Lancaster and York with the Conquest and Loss of France by James Gairdner

Explore the tumultuous era of the Wars of the Roses, a dramatic culmination of the Hundred Years War. Following the death of the formidable King Edward III in 1377, his young grandson Richard II ascends the throne, only to face challenges due to his misrule. The rise of the Lancastrians culminates in the downfall of Richard, while Henry Vs legendary victory at the Battle of Agincourt is overshadowed by his untimely death, leaving a vulnerable child king in his wake. As the specter of madness looms over Henry VI, the stage is set for a bitter internal conflict that will engulf the realm. (Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section thirty seven of the Houses of Lancaster and York
by James Gardner. This librovox recording is in the public domain.
Read by pamelin Nagami, Chapter eight, Part eight Fate of Clarence,
the Scotch War Death of Edward, it might have been

(00:22):
supposed that the House of York was now securely seated
upon the throne, and so far as regarded Edward himself,
nothing more occurred to disturb his possession. But the family divisions,
which had already sprung up, pursued that house ultimately to
its ruin. The breach between the King and his brother Clarence,

(00:44):
it soon appeared, was only superficially healed over. A quarrel
also took place between Clarence and his other brother, Richard,
Duke of Gloucester, after the death of Edward, Prince of Wales,
the son of King Henry, at Tewksbury. His widow, Anne,
who it will be remembered, was a daughter of Warwick,

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the Kingmaker, was sought by Gloucester in marriage, but Clarence,
who had married her elder sister, opposed his suit and
attempted to conceal her. Richard, however, discovered her in London
in the disguise of a cook maid, and had her
removed to the sanctuary of Saint Martin's. When Clarence was

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no longer able to prevent the match, he still refused
to divide with his brother the inheritance of their father
in law, the Earl of Warwick. By the mediation of Edward,
the matter was at length settled, and an act was
passed in Parliament making a division of Warwick's lands between
the royal brothers, with very little consideration for the rights

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of his surviving countess. But in the course of a
few years, symptoms of the ill will broke out between
the Duke of Clarence and Edward himself. On the death
of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, Clarence, who was then a widower,
was desirous to marry his daughter and heiress Mary. Such

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a match would have made him a powerful continental prince,
and his suit was favored by his sister, Margaret, the
widow of the Duke, But Edward threw every obstacle in
the way. This, in addition to some former injuries, real
or supposed, embittered Clarence against his brother in a way

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he did not care to conceal. At last some gentlemen
of his household, having been accused of sorcery, condemned and executed.
Clarence before the King's Council, protested his belief in their innocence.
This step was treated by the King as dangerous to
the administration of justice, and he caused his brother to

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be a r rested and committed to the tower. When
parliament met in the beginning of the year fourteen seventy eight,
Clarence was impeached of treason by his own brother before
the House of peers. No other accuser stepped forward but
the King himself. But the whole of his past intrigues

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and rebellions were now brought up against him. It was
related in the indictment how he had been already pardoned
the most serious offenses, and yet had conspired again against
his brother. It was set forth also how at one time,
for the gratification of his ambition, he had not hesitated

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to cast a stigma upon his own mother, declaring his
brother Edward illegitimate and himself the true heir to his father.
With these, a number of other circumstances were related, all
tending to show that he made it still his aims
to supplant King Edward. The Lords found Clarence guilty, and

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he was condemned to death on February seventh, fourteen seventy eight.
Execution of the sentence was, however, delayed for several days,
until the Speaker of the House of Commons, coming to
the bar of the Lords, desired that the matter might
be brought to a conclusion. Shortly afterwards, the Duke was

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put to death within the tower, in a manner so
very secret that, although the day was known, the kind
of death he suffered was a matter of uncertainty. A
singular report, however, got abroad that he had been drowned
in a butt of malmsey wine. Perhaps the very secrecy
of the execution, if such it might be called, was

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owing to Edward's reluctance to carry out the sentence, for
there is reason to believe, after all, that the whole
proceedings were painful to him. After the death of Clarence,
it is said, when any man besought the King for
the pardon of an offender, he would exclaim, oh, unfortunate brother,

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that no man would ask pardon for thee. But whatever
the effect on Edward's peace of mind. The removal of
Clarence contributed to the quiet of his kingdom, for he
had been beyond all question, factious and turbulent in the extreme.
Yet he had some qualities which won him the favor

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of the multitude and made him a popular idol. His popularity, too,
was all the more dangerous to Edward, because, according to
an Act of Parliament passed during the restoration of Henry
the sixth, Clarence ought to have been the legitimate king
after the death of Edward, Prince of Wales. Of this

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Act of Parliament, of course, Edward did not recognize the authority,
but he felt it necessary now to get his parliament
to repeal it. There is little else that is memorable
in Edward's reign, except a war with Scotland that broke
out at the close of it. To strengthen his family
upon the throne, Edward had arranged marriages for most of

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his children with foreign princes, and while his eldest daughter
Elizabeth was contracted by treaty to the dauphin Cecily the
third was engaged to Prince James, the eldest son of
James the third of Scotland. In consideration of this latter match,
Edward had agreed to give with his daughter a dower

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of twenty thousand marks, of which three installments had already
been paid in advance, though the parties had not yet
arrived at a marriageable age. Some misunderstanding, however, broke out
between the two kings, partly, as it is supposed, through
the intrigues of Louis the eleventh, who, as the time

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drew near when the Dauphin ought to have claimed his bride,
showed a great disposition to evade his own obligations to England.
But whatever may have been the exact cause, Edward and
James each accused the other of unfair dealing, and James,
in the spring of fourteen eighty actually marched an army

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across the borders into Northumberland. The King of England, for
his part, commissioned his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to
lead his forces against the invader. At the same time,
the domestic state of Scotland gave Edward great advantages. James
the Third was the king distinguished for a love of

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art and science, which his nobles held in great contempt.
His court was the resort of musicians and architects, by
whose advice he was supposed to be governed in matters
affecting the weal of his kingdom. His own brothers were
disaffirs him. One of them, the Earl of mar Is,

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said to have been put to death by his orders.
The other, Alexander, Duke of Albany, escaped to France, but
was invited over to England by Edward, with whom he
entered into a treaty of assistants to make himself King
of Scotland, pretending that his brother was illegitimate. June eleventh,

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fourteen eighty two, he engaged on obtaining his kingdom to
deliver up Barrack to the English, and he went with
the Duke of Gloucester to lay siege to that town,
which surrendered with very little resistance. James meanwhile was advancing
at the head of his forces to make a new
inroad on the English border, but having arrived at Lauder,

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a conference was held in the church by his discontented lords,
who in the end seized seven of the detested faith
fits and hanged them over the bridge. The Scotch army
was then disbanded and the king conveyed back to Edinburgh.
By the nobles, who extorted from him a full pardon
for what he had done. Albany and Gloucester then marched

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on to Edinburgh and were received within the city as friends.
But Albany was well aware that his title to the
Crown of Scotland would not be supported within the realm itself.
A compromise was therefore arranged, and a peace was concluded
between all parties. The sums advanced by Edward for his

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daughter's dowry were repaid, and Barrick was given up to England. Albany, however,
very soon afterwards, renewed his intrigues with Edward, as a
consequence of which he was attainted by the Parliament of Scotland.
As for Edward, he had scarcely composed this dispute with

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Scotland when he met with a cruel mortification at the
hands of Louis the eleventh of France. It is evident
that that wily monarch had never really intended the match
between the Dauphin and the Princess Elizabeth to take effect. Edward,
on the other hand, had been induced by the prospect

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of this alliance to make peace with Louis on more
easy terms. Perhaps than he might otherwise have granted. Time
passed away, however, and Louis took no steps to bring
the matter to a conclusion till at last a great
opportunity presented itself of violating his engagement openly. Charles the Bold,

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Duke of Burgundy had been defeated and slain at Nancy
in fourteen seventy seven. He left an only daughter, Mary,
to inherit his rich dominions, which included not only Burgundy
but a great part of the Low countries. Her territories
were invaded by Louis, but she married Maximilian of Austria,

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son of the Emperor Frederick the Third, who, though the
poorest prince of Europe, was a very good soldier and
recovered for her several places that had submitted to the French.
The Duchess Mary, however, was unexpectedly cut off in March
fourteen eighty two by a fall from her horse. She

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left two young children, Philip and Margaret, of whom the
former was heir to the duchy, but their father, Maximilian,
was despised by the Flemings and had no means of
making his authority respected. The men of Ghent, who were
secretly encouraged by Louis, took possession of his children and

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compelled him to govern as they pleased, till in the
end he was driven to conclude with the French king
a treaty at Arras, by which Margaret was to be
married to the Dauphin and to have as her dower
some of the most valuable lands in Burgundy taken from
the inheritance of her brother Philip. This treaty was concluded

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on December twenty third, fourteen eighty two. The mortification it
gave to Edward was extreme, and French writers say that
he died of the disappointment. Whether that be the case
or not, he did not survive at four months, for
he died on April ninth, fourteen eighty three. With many

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great defects in his character. He was a king more
in sympathy with his people than any sovereign that had
been seen in England since the days of Edward the Third.
Handsome in person and affable in manner, he was always
easy to be approached. He was a great favorite with
the citizens of London, and rather too much so with

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their wives. Careless and self indulgent, he was greatly given
to licentiousness, and forgot the affairs of his kingdom in
pursuing his own pleasures. He was a good soldier, but
a bad general, a jovial companion, but a poor statesman.
His personal influence with his subjects was higher, perhaps than

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that of any of his predecessors, but he cannot be
regarded as, by any means a great king. End of
Section thirty seven.