ANNE OF WARWICK. 227 right of his wife, Isabella, the earl's eldest daughter, and he was resolved to remove the Princess Anne from his brother's knowledge, for he had declared his intention of marrying her, and of dividing the earl's inheritance with the Duke of Clar- ence. While the latter prince, in order to promote his own selfish ends, did all he could to prevent this union, the Princess Anne seconded his plans from her aversion to Gloucester, for whom she still felt the utmost abhorrence. She even submitted to hold the place of a menial in a family in London; some assert it was that of a cookmaid, in which office she hoped to elude the search of her detested cousin. But in this project she failed; and the Duke of Gloucester discovered her, even in her disguise, and at once conveyed her to the sanctuary of St. Martin's-le-Grand ; nor did he desist from his purpose until he compelled her to bestow upon him her hand. Some irregularities existed in regard to the forms of this marriage, probably occasioned by the reluctant assent extorted from Anne, who, it was expected, would sue for a divorce; and it was enacted by parliament that, in case the Duchess should obtain a divorce, the Duke should still keep possession of her property. Thus the vast possessions of the family of Warwick were divided between the two daughters of the wid- owed countess, who was left so destitute as to be compelled to seek an asylum in a convent; and the once rich heiress of the noble house of De Spencer and of Warwick, by whose title the great earl, her husband, received his vast estates, was obliged to procure relief in her necessities by the use of her needle. The marriage of the Princess Anne to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, took place at Westminster in the year 1473. Soon after the celebration of these nuptials, the duke carried his bride into Yorkshire, and fixed their abode at Middleham Castle. Here they both continued to reside during the life- time of King Edward the Fourth ; and when we consider the political situation of Richard, as the governor of the northern counties, and his frequent contests with the Scotch, which often compelled him to take the field, we are not, perhaps, wrong in supposing that he was not very often an inmate of his own halls; and little doubt can be entertained that the less he visited them the more cheerful and less unhappy was his disconsolate wife,
