I. RICH. III. of every well-disposed people ;-WE, therefore, de- CHAP. sire and require you, that according to the charge of your profession, ye see, within the authority of your REIGN OF jurisdiction, all such persons as set apart virtue, and promote the damnable execution of sin and vices, to be reformed, repressed and punished; not sparing for any love or favor, whether the offender be temporal or spiritual.” 31 With this avowed desire of impartial reformation, when he visited Kent, he published a patriotic proclamation, in which he stated, "The king's highness is fully determined to see administration of justice to be had throughout his realm, and to reform and punish all extortion and oppressions in the same. Therefore he wills, at his coming into Kent, that every person dwelling therein, that findeth himself grieved, oppressed, or unlawfully wronged, make a bill of his complaint, and put it to his highness, and he shall be heard; and without delay have such convenient remedy as shall accord with the laws.” He adds, “for his grace is utterly determined, that all his true subjects shall live in rest and quiet, and peaceably enjoy their lands and goods according to the laws. He therefore chargeth, that no man, of whatever condition, trouble, hurt, or spoil any of his said subjects, or their bodies or goods, on pain of death; that none make or contrive quarrels; nor take any victuals without paying for them, nor vex any farmer," &c. 31 Harl. MS. p. 281. 32 Harl. MS. This, and the preceding, have been printed in the notes to Kennet's Hist. v. 1. p. 576. So in his proclamation for the apprehension of several who had taken arms against him, he declared his intent to administer strict justice to all his subjects: and forbidding several evil practices. MS. ib. p. 128. BOOK RICH. III. On these principles he also acted, when, on receiving information that a constable had been grievREIGN OF Ously maimed at Gloucester, by three riotous gentlemen, he dispatched a mandate from London, on the 6th of December 1484, directing the imprisonment of the assailants; and prohibiting retainers, liveries and their insignia, which united men into bands, following great leaders.33 He even extended his reforms to the offices of his ministers; and would not allow their minor situations to be purchased, to the prejudice of the fair system of rising by seniority. 34 These were all laudable acts, beneficial to his subjects, and fairly announcing his own desire to contribute to the happiness and to increase the morality of his people; but they were not likely, as he was circumstanced, to add to his popularity. Reformation of political grievances, whether real or imaginary, is always a source of reputation, because it affects the distant government, with which few are in immediate contact; while it leaves the individual critic and supporter untouched. But reformation of the private conduct and manners is never popular, unless it originates from the most unquestionable and commanding virtue. It interferes too much with our daily habits, tempers, interests, pursuits, amusements, and inclinations, to be cordially welcomed; and from a man of one great and known crime, would be always suspected to be hypocrisy and art. The rudest mind could say, what all would feel, "Murderer of 33 Harl. MS. p. 127. your 34 Thus, he ordered a person to be discharged from his place in the office of the privy seal, to which he had been admitted by giving of great gifts, and other sinister and ungodly ways, to the great discouraging of the under-clerks, which have long continued therein, to see a stranger, never brought up in the said office, put them by from their promotion.' MS. ib. p. 123. I. RICH. III. nephews! do you preach to us!" And when the CHAP. powerful found him to be repressing their injustice and oppressions, would they not think or ask, What REIGN OF wrongs they had done or could do, which he had not exceeded! They could but seize lands or goods, or one heiress, maid, or widow; but he had usurped from its lawful possessor a throne; and even while he lectured and coerced them, was only able to do so, by keeping the mighty spoil which he had seized. Hypocrisy would be the general charge upon him for all his efforts, however sincere, to produce those moral amendments in society, by which he endeavored to atone for his own errors. He had brought himself into the dilemma, that all his wrong actions would be deemed tyrannical, and his good ones hypocritical; and this evil has pursued his memory, as it abridged his life. tyrant. The strong outcry of tyranny, which has been Why raised against Richard, and under reigns, when the called a liberties of the subject were little respected, seems to have arisen not so much from actual cruelties committed, which, in common language, convert a king into a tyrant, but rather from those severe and repeated exertions of legal power, by which he endeavored to crush and extinguish discontent.35 Not exceeding some former precedents of kingly authority, he often used its antient privileges, with a precipitation, a frequency, a publicity, an unqualified 36 35 Thus, when after the rebellion in the west, he indicted four persons of distinction, as principals in treason, and above five hundred others, as accessories, of whom only two were taken and suffered, and the rest fled, he is said, by the chronicler, to have tyrannically persecuted them.' Holling. 746. It was unwise severity, but not tyranny. Thus, he beheaded Buckingham, without arraignment or judgment. Holling. 744; but Edward IV. and queen Margaret had done so with many revolting nobles. V. REIGN OF BOOK display, and a rigorous impartiality, which, tho not contrary to the prior and permitted practice of the crown, was justly becoming offensive to the improving reason, the more observing sense of justice, the rising prosperity, and the wonted privileges of the nation. Arbitrary government, even for good purposes, was neither expedient nor palatable. No one desired to abase the local despotisms of the aristocracy, to set up that of the monarchy instead. Hence, when Richard sent his mandates to seize ships, mariners, soldiers, artificers, artists, victuals, materials, conveyances and goods, whenever he wanted them for his purposes, public or private;" -when he, even in his earnestness to have proper persons in the provincial magistracies, charged the bailiffs, &c. of Tamworth to have no regard to a custom of choosing their bailiffs out of their burgesses and freeholders, but to regard the suffisaunce of the person's goods only; "-when in pursuance of his habit of acting vigorously, on the first moment of any alarm, he signed a command to assist a yeoman of the crown, in attacking certain persons in sundry places of the west parts of England, " which he detected of certain things that they should do and attempt, against their natural duty and liegance; when what he wanted for gunpowder, was thus 939 37 As Warrant to aid and assist the king's clerk and counseller, A. L. in taking up all vitaille, souldeours, mariners, artificers, labourers, carts, boats, and all other stuff; as horses, waynes, and all such timber and stones as he shall think necessary, for the king's use;' dated 31 July 1485. Harl. MS. p. 179. And Warrant to aid and assist J. P. in taking up, at the king's price, suche and as many mariners, souldeours, &c. to do the king service in certayne of his shippes; and vitaille, and other things behoveful for the same;' dated Scarborough, 30 June 1484. Ib. These kind of mandates abound in this volume, and for all kinds of purposes. 38 Harl. MS. p. 190; dated at Nottingham, 12 Oct. 1484. 39 Ib. p. 189. 40 I. RICH. III. forcibly taken, the nation was displeased at this CHAP. peremptory use of the royal authority. So his quick and immediate pursuit and orders to seize all who REIGN OF attempted any insurrections against him; and his unhesitating confiscation and granting away their possessions, without waiting for legal sentences or parliamentary attainders, occasioned great reprobation to him.41 The number of respectable men, crowded into one proclamation, startled the reader; and by such formidable enmity being displayed, his own government was arraigned and endangered.42 His policy outshot its own object, in confessing, that so many men of their character and importance, had combined against him. The number of thinking minds and feeling hearts, which began to perceive what good government ought to be, and of what evils this manner of ruling would be productive, were increasing every year. They perceived, that such despotic powers were grievances, which no tempo 40 Warrant to assist J. C. yeoman of the crown, to take, in the king's name, all manner of stuff necessary for making of certain great stuff of gunpowder, which John Bramburgh, a stranger-born, had covenanted with the king to make for him ; and for the same to agree and make prices with the owners.' 28 Jan. 1484. p. 145. "There are many commissions and warrants of this sort, in the Harl. MS.; as those to lord Stanley, to seize, to the king's use, the lands of St. Leger, p. 134; others, to seize the lands and goods of sir W. Brandon, 143; of bishop Morton, 137; sir Roger Tocot, 145; and a great many more. They were sometimes so general, as 'Warrant for the delivery of all manner of sheep, horses, oxen, kine, swyne, and other cattle, to the king, appertaining by the forfeiture of his rebels and traitors, within the counties of Somerset and Dorset;' 6 Jan. 1484, p. 137; and Warrant for selling the hay and corn, except wheat, of the said rebels,' 138. What a latitude for oppression, in the execution of these mandates, must there have been! 42 Thus, a proclamation was issued for the taking of sir John Gilforde, sir Thomas Lewknor, sir William Hawte, sir William Cheyney, Richard Gilforde, Reynold Pympe, sir Edward Poynings, sir Thomas Fenys, sir William Brandon, John Wingfelde, Anthony Kene, Nicholas Gaynesforde, and several others, the king's rebels and traitors; offering 300 marcs, or 10. of land, for taking any of the first six, and 1007. or ten marcs of land, for any of the rest. IÏarl. MS. p. 128. |