are the chief abettor of that witch, Shore, and are your felf a traitor!" Saying this, he ftruck the table with his hand, when armed men rushed in, and feizing Haftings, hurried him into the court-yard of the tower, where they inftantly beheaded him on a log of timber. The protector, in order to carry on the farce, caufed Jane Shore to be fummoned before the council for forcery and witchcraft; but as no proofs appeared againft her, he directed her to be tried in the fpiritual court, for adultery and lewdness, when fhe did penance in a white fheet at St. Paul's. Born of refpectable parents in London, this lady was well educated, and married to a fubftantial citizen. But views of intereft, rather than her inclinations, having been confulted in the match, fhe proved unable to refift the allurements of the handfome Edward. She made herfelf refpectable, however, by her beneficence, humanity, and many other virtues; though these could not fecure her from languishing out a long life in folitude and indigence.

The arts of violence, exercifed against the nearest connexions of the late king, prognofticated the feverest fate to his defenceless children; and after the murder of Haftings, the protector no longer made a fecret of his intentions to ufurp the crown. He endeavoured to prove the children of Edward illegitimate, as well as his own brother, to the difgrace of his mother, the duchefs of York, who was then living. He next ordered the mayor of London, whom he had gained to his intereft, to call an affembly of the citizens; but though the duke of Buckinghain, a man of great eloquence, harangued them on Richard's title to the crown, and talked of his numerous virtues, no tokens of approbation enfued. A few of the meanest apprenices only, incited by the protector's and Buckingham's fervants, raised a feeble cry of God fave king Richard III!

This being conftrued by the mayor into the voice of the people, they haftened to the protector, to make him a tender of the crown, when Richard, with apparent reluctance, accepted the offered dignity.

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This

This ridiculous farce was foon followed by a fcene truly tragical, the murder of the two young princes. Richard gave orders to Sir Robert Brakenbury, conftable of the tower, to put his nephews to death. Ths gentleman, however, refusing to have any hand in the infamous office, the tyrant commanded him to deliver the keys of the Tower, for one night, A. D. 1483. to Sir James Tyrrel, by whom, and three of his affociates, the young princes were fuffocated, with the bolsters and pillows, as they lay asleep, and their bodies buried, under a heap of ftones, at the foot of the fairs.

The firft acts of Richard's administration were to beflow rewards on those who had affifted him in ufurping the crown, and to gain by favors those whom he fuppofed could beft fupport his future government. But the duke of Buckingham, having formed a confpiracy against him, was encouraged by the fentiments of the people, who thought it was not only a national difgrace to endure fuch a bloody ufurper, but attended with immediate danger to every individual diftinguifhed by birth, merit, or fervices. And as the family of the duke had been devoted to the houfe of Lancafter, he was eafily induced to espouse the cause of that party, in order to restore it to its ancient fuperiority. This being the cafe, he caft his eyes towards Henry, the young earl of Richmond, who was defcended from John of Gaunt, as the only person who could free the nation from the tyranny of the prefent ufurper. A match being alfo agreed on, through the mediation of the duke, between young Richmond and the princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the late king Edward, the queen dowager fent over to the earl, who was at that time in Brittany, à fum of money to levy foreign forces; promising to join him on his first appearance, with all the friends and partizans of her family.

The plan being thus laid, the duke of Buckingham retired into Wales, to raise an army; but at that very time there happened to fall fuch uncommonly heavy rains, as rendered the Severn, and the adjacent rivers, impaflable.

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impaffable. Upon which, the Welshmen, partly moved by fuperftition at this extraordinary event, and partly diftreffed by famine in their camp, fell off from him. Buckingham finding himself thus deferted, put on a disguise, and took fhelter in the house of an old fervant of his family. In a fhort time, however, being detected in his retreat, he was brought to the king at Salisbury, and instantly executed.

At length the earl of Richmond fet fail from Harfleur, in Normandy, with a small army of about 2000 men, and landed, without oppofition, at Milford-haven, in Wales, while Richard, who knew not in what quarter he might expect the invader, had taken poft at Nottingham, in the center of the kingdom. The two rivals, at laft, approached each other at Bofworth, near Leicefter, Henry at the head of 6000 men, and -Richard with an army of above double that number. Soon after the battle began, lord Stanley, who had pofted himself at Atherfion, in order to join either party, as occafion might fuit, appeared in the field, and declared for Richmond. This meafure, which was unexpected to the men, though not to their leaders, infpired unufual courage into Henry's foldiers, and threw Richard's into difmay and confufion. The intrepid tyrant, fenfible of his defperate fituation, fought with unexampled fury to the laft moment, when, overwhelmed by numbers, he perifhed by a A. D. 1485.

fate too mild and honourable for his

multiplied and deteftable enormities. This prince is faid to have been of a small ftature, humpbacked, and of a harsh, difagreeable countenance, fo that his body was no lefs deformed than his mind.

After the battle, the ornamental crown, which Richard wore in battle, being placed upon Henry's head, Long live Henry VII. refounded from all quarters, and was continued with repeated acclamations.Thus ended the race of the Plantagenets, who had fat upwards of 300 years upon the throne of England, and thus the civil wars, which had fo long defolated the kingdom.

CHAP.

CHAP. II.

RELIGION AND ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. A. D. 1399-1489.

THE

HE Lollards, or followers of Wickliffe, greatly increased, during this period, and became formidable both to the church and to civil authority. At the head of this fect, in the reign of Henry V. was Sir John Oldcastle, lord Cobham, a nobleman who had diftinguifhed himself by his valour and military talents. His high character, and his zeal for the fect, pointing him out to the archbishop of Canterbury, as the proper victim of ecclefiaftical feverity, he was convicted and condemned to the flames. Cobham, however, found means to escape from the tower before the day appointed for his execution, when his party, ftimulated by zeal, appointed a general rendezvous, in order to feize the king, and put their perfecutors to the fword. But Henry having got intelligence of their defigns, furprised and took a great number of them, fome of whom were executed. Cobham himself, after a variety of diftreffes, being feized and hanged as a traitor, his body was burnt on the gibbet, in confequence of the fentence pronounced against him as a heretic.

The archbishop now commanded the univerfity of. Oxford to appoint twelve of its moft orthodox members to examine the works of Wickliffe, and extract his heretical doctrines. In compliance with this injunction, 267 erroneous opinions were tranfmitted to the primate, who fent them to the pope, with a requeft to condemn them, and grant him authority to take the body of Wickliffe out of the grave, and throw it on a dunghill, that it might be trampled on by all christians. The pope condemned Wickliffe's doctrines, but would not permit the primate to difturb his afhes:

About this time, John Hufs, profeffor of divinity in the university of Prague, converted to the opinions

of Wickliffe a great number of his countrymen. The council of Conftance had refolved to condemn him unheard, when the emperor of Germany defired them to liften to what he had to fay in his defence. He was accordingly accufed of herefy in 39 articles, part of which he denied, and part he offered to defend. But his voice was drowned by the noise purposely made by the cardinals; and on his refufing to abjure all the articles, he was immediately declared a hardened heretic, and a fower of fedition. As fuch he was degraded by four bifhops, ftripped of his facerdotal habit, and clothed in a lay drefs. His hair being cut in the form of a crofs, a paper mitre was put upon his head, painted with the reprefentation of three devils, and he was delivered over to the fecular judge, who condemned him and his writings to the flames, and fixed the day of his execution. He died with great conftancy. His friend Jerome foon after shared the fame fate.

Great ftrefs was now laid on pilgrimages, proceffions, indulgences, confeffions to priefts, and their pardons. George Neville, archbishop of York, enumerates no fewer than 37 kinds of fin, which none but the pope or a bishop could pardon. The firft and greateft of thefe fins was herefy, and the leaft, in the eftimation of the church, was raifing a fedition, which endangered a state or city.

CHAP. III.

GOVERNMENT AND LAWS. A. D. 1399-1485.

THOUGH the conftitution, government, and laws

of England, had not yet arrived at that excellence to which they have fince attained, they were confiderably improved in the courfe of this period, and much exceeded thofe of any other ftate in Europe. It was ftill, however, an undifputed prerogative of the kings of England to prefs, not only failors and foldiers, but alfo artificers of all kinds, as well as muficians, goldfmiths, and embroiderers into their fervice. They likewife naturalized foreigners by their own authority..