Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/88

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Edward IV
82
Edward V

and the town soon surrendered, though the castle still held out. The invasion was made easier by the revolt of the Scotch nobles, who hanged James's favourite ministers, shut up James himself in Edinburgh Castle, concluded a treaty with Gloucester and Albany, and bound the town of Edinburgh to repay Edward the money advanced by him for the Princess Cecily's dower, the marriage being now annulled. Nothing, however, was said about Albany's pretensions to the crown, and the Scotch lords undertook to procure his pardon. The invading army withdrew to the borders, and the campaign ended by the capitulation of Berwick Castle on 24 Aug.

Scarcely, however, had the difference with Scotland been arranged, when the full extent of the French king's perfidy was made manifest. The Duchess Mary of Burgundy was unexpectedly killed by a fall from her horse in March 1482, leaving behind her two young children, Philip and Margaret, of whom the former was heir to the duchy. Their father, Maximilian, being entirely dependent for money on the Flemings, who were not his natural subjects, was unable to exercise any authority as their guardian. The men of Ghent, supported by France, controlled everything, and compelled him to conclude with Louis the treaty of Arras (23 Dec. 1482), by which it was arranged that Margaret should be married to the dauphin, and have as her dower the county of Artois and some of the best lands in Burgundy taken from the inheritance of her brother Philip. Thus the compact for the marriage of the dauphin to Edward's daughter was boldly violated, with a view to a future annexation of provinces to the crown of France.

It was remarked that Edward kept his Christmas that year at Westminster with particular magnificence. But the news of the treaty of Arras sank deep into his heart. He thought of vengeance, and called parliament together in January 1483 to obtain further supplies. A tenth and a fifteenth were voted oy the commons, not as if for an aggressive war, but expressly 'for the hasty and necessary defence of the kingdom. The clergy also were called on for a contribution. But while occupied with these thoughts he was visited by illness, which in a short time proved fatal. He died on 9 April 1483, as French writers believed, of mortification at the treaty of Arras.

Commines speaks of Edward IV as the most handsome prince he ever saw, and similar testimony is given by others to his personal appearance. When his coffin was opened at Windsor in 1789 his skeleton measured no less than six feet three inches in length. Although latterly he had grown somewhat corpulent, his good looks had not deserted him, and his ingratiating manners contributed to render him highly popular. The good fortune which attended him throughout life may have been partly owing to this cause as well as to his undoubted valour, for though he never lost a battle, nothing is more astounding than his imprudence and the easy confidence with which he trusted Somerset, Warwick, Montague, and others, all the while they were betraying him. Careless and self-indulgent, he allowed dangers to accumulate; but whenever it came to action he was firm and decisive. His familiarity with the wives of London citizens was the subject of much comment, and so were his exactions, whether in the shape of parliamentary taxations, benevolences, or debasement of the currency, to which last device he had recourse in 1464. His queen, Elizabeth Woodville, bore him ten children, of whom only seven survived him, two of them being sons and five daughters.

[English Chronicle, ed. Davies (Camden Soc.); Wilhelmi Wyrcester Annales; Venetian Cal. vol. i.; Paston Letters; Hist. Croylandensis Continuatio in Fulman's Scriptores; Warkworth's Chronicle; Collections of a London Citizen; Three Fifteenth-century Chronicles; History of the Arrival of Edward IV (the last four published by the Camden Soc.); Leland's Collectanea (ed. 1774), ii. 497-509; Fragment, printed by Hearne. at end of T. Sprotti Chronica(1719); Jeban do Wavrin, Anchiennes Croniques, ed. Dupont; Ezcerpta Historica, 282-4; Commines; Polydore Vergil; Hall's Chronicle; Fabyan's Chronicle. Besides these sources of information, Habington's History of Edward IV (1640) may be referred to with advantage.]

J. G.

EDWARD V (1470–1483), king of England, eldest son of Edward IV by his queen, Elizabeth Woodville [q. v.], was born in the Sanctuary at Westminster on 2 or 3 Nov. 1470, at the time when his father was driven out of his kingdom (see Gentleman's Magazine for January 1831, p. 24). He was baptised without ceremony in that place of refuge, the abbot and prior being his godfathers and Lady Scrope his godmother. On 26 June 1471 his father, having recovered the throne, created him Prince of Wales (Rolls of Parl. vi. 9), and on 3 July following compelled the lords in parliament to acknowledge him as undoubted heir of the kingdom, swearing that they would take him as king if he survived himself (Rymer, xi. 714). The slaughter of another Edward prince of Wales, the son of Henry VI, at Tewkesbury just two months before, had cleared the way for this creation. Five days later, on 8 July, King