39 - 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 nine of the Houses of Lancaster and York
by James Gerdner. This librovox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Pamelinagami, Chapter ten, Richard the Third Part one
the Royal Progress Murder of the Princes. From what has

(00:22):
been already said, it will be seen that the accession,
or as it is commonly called, the usurpation of Richard
the Third, was the result of a struggle between different
parties among the nobility, in which the ablest and the
most high handed carried the day. Dislike of the Woodvilles
was the one common bond by which the greater part

(00:45):
of the nobles could be united, and Richard, with his
ally the Duke of Buckingham, made use of it for
his own purposes. But though this feeling was strong and
general enough to give him a complete victory over his
appoint there was no real sympathy between him and the
greater part of those who for the moment supported him,

(01:08):
And it was inevitable that, when he had attained the crown,
feelings of a different kind should begin to show themselves.
And so we are told expressly by one writer of
the time, that as soon as he had become king,
he lost the hearts of his nobility, insomuch that such
as before loved and praised him, and would have jeopardized

(01:32):
life and goods with him if he had remained still
as protector, now murmured and grudged against him, in such
wise that few or none favored his party, except it
were for dread, or for the great gifts that they
received of him by mean, whereof off he won diverse

(01:52):
to follow his mind the which after deceived him. Yet,
looking merely to the circumstances of his ac session, Richard
was not a usurper in the strict sense of the word.
He did not cease, but was invited to assume the crown,
and the body by which he was invited so to

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do had all the weight and dignity of a regular parliament.
His coronation, which was fixed for July sixth, fourteen eighty three,
just ten days after his accession, was celebrated with peculiar magnificence,
and preceded by a gorgeous procession the day before, in

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which the greater number of the nobility took part. At
this time he made great professions that he should rule
with clemency, a day or two before his coronation, he
entered the court of King's Bench and sat down in
the seat of the Chief Justice, from which he proclaimed
a general amnesty for all offenses against himself. In token

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of his sincerity, he also sent for one na Sir
John Fogg, who had notoriously incurred his displeasure and taken
refuge in a neighboring sanctuary. Fogg had been a member
of his brother, King Edward's council, and had filled the
office of Treasurer of the household during his reign. On

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being sent for, he came out of sanctuary, and Richard,
in the presence of all the people, took him openly
by the hand, to confirm the good impression which these
and other acts were calculated to make upon his subjects.
Richard then set out upon a progress through the Midland
and Northern counties. His course lay in the first place,

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through Windsor, Reading and Oxford, to Woodstock and Gloucester. At
Oxford he met with a magnificent reception in which Bishop Waynefleet,
the founder of Maudlin College, took a leading part. At Gloucester,
the city offered him a handsome present or benevolent sun solicited,

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and the same was done at Worcester, which was the
next place he visited. Both of these gifts he declined,
as he had already done a similar offer from the metropolis,
declaring he would rather have the hearts of his subjects
than their money. He went on to Warwick, where he
received ambassadors from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and from

(04:24):
thence by Coventry, Lester and Nottingham. He went on to York,
where the citizens had prepared for him a reception of
more than ordinary splendor. It has been said that he
was crowned a second time in this city, but the
truth seems to be merely that he and his queen,
who had joined him at Warwick, with the Prince Edward,

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their son, whom he that day created Prince of Wales,
walked in a grand procession through the streets with crowns
upon their heads. All this display tended to increase his popularity,
especially in the North, where he had been a long
time resident before he became king. But in London and

(05:06):
the southern counties people began to be uneasy about his
conduct toward the young princes his nephews. It is true
King Edward himself out of a confidence which was certainly misplaced,
had appointed Richard the guardian of his children after his death,
but the mode in which he exercised his rights was

(05:28):
exceedingly suspicious. The two young princes were never seen out
of the tower, and nobody appears to have known anything
about them. Their five sisters remained with their mother in
the sanctuary of Westminster, but Richard had caused the sanctuary
to be surrounded with a band of armed men, lest

(05:50):
any of them should make their escape beyond sea, for
it appears that plans had begun to be formed for
carrying off one or more of them in disguise. Doubts
being already entertained whether their two brothers would not be
cut off by violence. At length, it was announced that

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even the Duke of Buckingham, who had hitherto been so
strong a partisan of Richard, was interested in behalf of
the young princes, and would put himself at the head
of a confederacy for their liberation from the tower. But
scarcely had this news got abroad when it was made
known that the object of the proposed rising was hopeless,

(06:34):
for the princes were no more. No one could tell
how or when they had been put to death, But
that they had been murdered was the current rumor of
the time, and it was not, for it could not
be contradicted. The circumstances of the crime seem, in fact
to have remained a secret for nearly twenty years, but

(06:57):
at length, by the confession of some of them murderers,
they were found to be briefly as follows. Some time
after Richard had set out upon his progress, he sent
a messenger named John green to Sir Robert Brackenbury, the
constable of the Tower, commanding him to put his two
young nephews to death. This order Brackenbury would not obey,

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and Greene returned to his master at Warwick. Richard was
greatly mortified, but sent one Sir James Tyrell to London
with a warrant to Brackenbury to deliver up to him
for one night all the keys of the tower. Tyrrel
thus took the place into his keeping, and engaged the
services of Miles Forest, one of those who kept the

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Prince's chamber, and John Dighton, his own groom, to carry
out the wishes of the tyrant. These men entered the
chamber when the two unfortunate lads were asleep and smothered
them under pillows, then, having called Sir James to see
the bodies, buried them at the foot of a staircase. Brackenbury,

(08:08):
it was supposed, caused them afterwards to be removed and
buried secretly in some more suitable place, but as he
was dead long before the story got abroad, the place
could never be ascertained. The fact, however, appears to have
been that they were not removed at all. For nearly
two hundred years later, two skeletons corresponding to the age

(08:32):
of the murdered youths were found in the very position
where they were said to have been originally buried, at
the foot of a staircase in the tower. Unscrupulous as
Richard was, the remorse that overtook him after this dreadful
crime appears to have been very terrible. Indeed, I have heard,

(08:53):
wrote Sir Thomas Moore, by credible report of such as
were secret with his chamberers, that after this abominable deed done,
he never had quiet in his mind. He never thought
himself sure when he went abroad. His eyes whirled about,
his body privily fenced, his hand ever on his dagger,

(09:16):
his countenance and manner like one always ready to strike again.
He took ill rest At nights, lay long, waking and musing. Sore,
Wearied with care and watch, he rather slumbered than slept.
Troubled with fearful dreams suddenly sometimes started. He up leapt

(09:38):
out of his bed and ran about the chamber. So
was his restless heart continually tossed and tumbled with the
tedious impression and stormy remembrance of his most abominable deed
and of Section thirty nine