Warwick's announcement of his intention to " fight with Pembroke and his followers;" their defeat at Edgecote had already occurred.* We have now+ Warwick and Clarence in the Tower with King Henry, whom they once more acknowledge as king, and who appoints Warwick and Clarence joint protectors. Then says Henry, "Let me entreat, for I command no more, That Margaret your queen, and my son Edward, My joy of liberty is half eclipsed." In February, 1671, the Grand Prior of St. John's of Jerusalem was furnished with money for the conveyance of the queen and prince.§ The Duke of Somerset is also present, having with him the young Earl of Richmond, whom Henry thus addresses: "Come hither, England's hope! if secret powers (laying his hand upon his head.) Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts, This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss. * Cont. Croyl., 551; Rolls, vi. 223. + Activ. Sc. 8. Hol., 300. I believe that Warwick was alone in this commission. See Restoration, p. 8. § Rymer, xi. 693. His looks are full of peaceful majesty ; Make most of him, my lords; for this is he In Holinshed,* it is by his uncle, Lord Pembroke, that Richmond is introduced. The King's speech is thus : 66 Lo, surely this is he, to whom both we and our adversaries, leaving the possession of all things, shall hereafter give room and place." This boy, we all know, was afterwards Henry VII., grandfather to Queen Elizabeth.† In this scene it is repeated that Edward, after his escape from Middleham, had gone over to Burgundy; but in the next,‡ he appears before York, into which city he is admitted upon his bare assertion that he disclaimed the crown. He fled to Flanders; and now instantly falsifies his decla * P. 502. † He was Earl of Richmond from his father, Edmund, son of Owen Tudor and Catherine, the widow of Henry V. Edmund was so created by his half-brother, Henry VI. He married Margaret, daughter of John, first Duke of Somerset. The Somerset introduced into this scene is he of whom I spoke in p. 68. Activ. Sc. 7. § Cont. Croyl., 554. Lingard says (204) that he fled upon receiving information, while he lay at Doncaster, that ration, and calls himself king, at the instigation of a Sir James Montgomery (who refuses otherwise to join him), Gloucester, and his other friends. I apprehend that this is the first scene in which Gloucester, who even now was only nineteen years old, ought to have been mentioned. Until this time he was a boy at the court of Burgundy. We have now once more Henry as king, surrounded by Warwick and other nobles, including Montagu, who, since Edward had expressed apprehensions of his fidelity, had, in fact, been playing rather fast and loose.* Warwick thus appropriately assigns the parts: "In Warwickshire I have true-hearted friends, Not mutinous in peace, yet bold in war; These will I muster up :—and thou, son Clarence, Men well inclin'd to hear what thou commandest : Warwick was approaching, and that 6,000 men, who had hitherto worn the white rose, had, at the instigation of Montagu, thrown away that device, and, tossing their bonnets in the air, cried, God bless King Henry. He refers to Croyl. Cont., Comines, Hearne's Fragment, Stow, and Hall. I cannot find the white rose in any one of the passages to which he refers. * See Restoration, p. 5, 7, 12; and Leland, 503. And thou, brave Oxford, wondrous well beloved Warwick, and all but Exeter, now leave Henry with Exeter alone, to meet the enemy in Warwickshire. The meek Henry now enumerates his own claims upon his people, as giving him a probability of suc cess: 'That's not my fear, my meed has done me fame: I have not stopp'd mine ears to their demands, And, when the lion fawns upon the lamb, The lamb will never cease to follow him." * I do not know why the eastern counties and Kent are assigned to Clarence. The Beauchamps and Nevilles possessed Warwick Castle, as the Grevilles now do. The Montagus have possessions in Northamptonshire, and it is possible that the marquis had some connexion with that property. The De Veres were Earls of Oxford at the time when the title necessarily implied a connexion with the county. How far the mildness of Henry's character affected his government, or whether justice was promptly administered, I know not; there was certainly no extraordinary grant of subsidies in his reign; but expenses of the war and his household occasioned great embarrassment in his finances. the He is cut short in this soliloquy by his rival, who enters with troops, seizes Henry, and sends him to the Tower. And the Yorkists, too, proceed to Coventry, to meet Warwick. But, in truth, the gathering of the two parties in that part of England had taken place without a meeting in the field, before Edward came to London.* Into that city the Yorkist king was admitted by the influence of Archbishop Neville, who deserted the cause which his brother had espoused, and then it was Henry was again made prisoner; though not in the first instance incarcerated, for Edward took him about with his army. In the fifth act we have all parties assembled near Coventry; the Lancastrians being in possession of the city; and Edward soon appearing before it. Warwick is soon joined by Montagu, Oxford, and Somerset ; but Clarence discards his red rose. One of those impossible dialogues occurs which are, perhaps, unavoidable, in dramatising history accord_ * Lingard, 207, from Leland, ii. 508; and see Restora16. tion, P. |