Dickens, Charles – A Child’s History of England

struck at his retainers and dependents, and accused some of them of

magic and witchcraft, and similar nonsense. Successful against

this small game, it then mounted to the Duke himself, who was

impeached by his brother the King, in person, on a variety of such

charges. He was found guilty, and sentenced to be publicly

executed. He never was publicly executed, but he met his death

somehow, in the Tower, and, no doubt, through some agency of the

King or his brother Gloucester, or both. It was supposed at the

time that he was told to choose the manner of his death, and that

he chose to be drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. I hope the story

may be true, for it would have been a becoming death for such a

miserable creature.

The King survived him some five years. He died in the forty-second

year of his life, and the twenty-third of his reign. He had a very

good capacity and some good points, but he was selfish, careless,

sensual, and cruel. He was a favourite with the people for his

showy manners; and the people were a good example to him in the

constancy of their attachment. He was penitent on his death-bed

for his ‘benevolences,’ and other extortions, and ordered

restitution to be made to the people who had suffered from them.

He also called about his bed the enriched members of the Woodville

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family, and the proud lords whose honours were of older date, and

endeavoured to reconcile them, for the sake of the peaceful

succession of his son and the tranquillity of England.

CHAPTER XXIV – ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE FIFTH

THE late King’s eldest son, the Prince of Wales, called EDWARD

after him, was only thirteen years of age at his father’s death.

He was at Ludlow Castle with his uncle, the Earl of Rivers. The

prince’s brother, the Duke of York, only eleven years of age, was

in London with his mother. The boldest, most crafty, and most

dreaded nobleman in England at that time was their uncle RICHARD,

Duke of Gloucester, and everybody wondered how the two poor boys

would fare with such an uncle for a friend or a foe.

The Queen, their mother, being exceedingly uneasy about this, was

anxious that instructions should be sent to Lord Rivers to raise an

army to escort the young King safely to London. But, Lord

Hastings, who was of the Court party opposed to the Woodvilles, and

who disliked the thought of giving them that power, argued against

the proposal, and obliged the Queen to be satisfied with an escort

of two thousand horse. The Duke of Gloucester did nothing, at

first, to justify suspicion. He came from Scotland (where he was

commanding an army) to York, and was there the first to swear

allegiance to his nephew. He then wrote a condoling letter to the

Queen-Mother, and set off to be present at the coronation in

London.

Now, the young King, journeying towards London too, with Lord

Rivers and Lord Gray, came to Stony Stratford, as his uncle came to

Northampton, about ten miles distant; and when those two lords

heard that the Duke of Gloucester was so near, they proposed to the

young King that they should go back and greet him in his name. The

boy being very willing that they should do so, they rode off and

were received with great friendliness, and asked by the Duke of

Gloucester to stay and dine with him. In the evening, while they

were merry together, up came the Duke of Buckingham with three

hundred horsemen; and next morning the two lords and the two dukes,

and the three hundred horsemen, rode away together to rejoin the

King. Just as they were entering Stony Stratford, the Duke of

Gloucester, checking his horse, turned suddenly on the two lords,

charged them with alienating from him the affections of his sweet

nephew, and caused them to be arrested by the three hundred

horsemen and taken back. Then, he and the Duke of Buckingham went

straight to the King (whom they had now in their power), to whom