The prisoners beheaded. "heritage! haile duke and prince without people or possessions!" And at length, hauing thus scorned him with these and diuerse other the like despitefull words, they stroke off his head, which (as yee haue heard) they presented to the queene. York is at last slain by the hands of Clifford and Margaret, whereupon the Queen cries (11. 179-180): Off with his Head, and set it on Yorke Gates; So Yorke may ouer-looke the Towne of Yorke ! [Hol. iii. 659/2/65. Halle, 251.] After this victorie by the queene, the earle of Salisburie and all the prisoners were sent to Pomfret, and there beheaded; whose heads (togither with the duke of Yorkes head) were conueied to Yorke, and there set on poles ouer the gate of the citie, in despite of them and their linage. Act II. sc. i.-"A March. Enter Edward, Richard, and their power." The brothers are talking of their father-of whose fate they are ignorant-until Richard says (11. 21, 22): See how the Morning opes her golden Gates, Ed. Dazle mine eyes, or doe I see three Sunnes ? And takes her farwell of the glorious Sunne! Rich. Three glorious Sunnes, each one a perfect Sunne; Edward answers (11. 39, 40): What ere it bodes, hence-forward will I beare After collecting an army on the borders of Wales, Edward had begun his march thence when newes was brought to him, [Hol. iii. 660/1/14 Halle, 251.] that Iasper earle of Penbroke, halfe brother to king Henrie, and Iames Butler, earle of Ormund and Wilshire, had assembled a great number of Welsh and Irish people to take him: he, herewith The battell quickned, retired backe and met with his enimies in a faire plaine neere to Mortimers crosse, not far from Hereford east,1 on Candle of Mortimers crosse. 1 "The field of the battle of Mortimer's Cross is in the parish of Kingsland, five miles north-west by west from Leominster, close to the fifth mile-stone of the turn-pike road, leading from Leominster to Wigmore and Knighton," . Brooke's Visits to Fields of Battle, 1857, p. 74. 1 masse daie 1 [Feb. 2, 1461] in the morning. At which time the sunne (as some write) appeared to the earle of March like three sunnes, and suddenlie ioined altogither in one. Upon which sight he tooke such courage, that he, fiercelie setting on his enimies, put them to flight and for this cause men imagined that he gaue the of the sunne in his full brightnesse for his badge or cognisance. The arrival of a messenger, who brings news to Edward of York's death, is soon followed by the entry of Warwick with an army. From Warwick Edward hears of the Yorkist defeat at the second battle of St. Albans, fought on February 17, 1461.2 As the combined forces of Edward and Warwick reached London on February 26, 1461,3 their meeting-dramatized in this scene-must have taken place on some historic day between these dates. After Warwick's defeat at St. Albans, the Lancastrians purposed marching to London, but they retired to the north of England when [Hol. iii. 661/1/33. Halle, 252.] true report came not onelie to the queene, but also to the citie; that the earle of March, hauing vanquished the earles of Penbroke and Wilshire, had met with the earle of Warwike (after this last battell at saint Albons) at Chipping Norton by Cotsold; and that they with both their powers were comming toward London. Warwick gives an account of what happened after he had received tidings of the conflict at Wakefield (11. 111-121): The sace [the] bright sunne. [Meeting of Warwick.] Edward and 1 According to Chron. Rich. II.-Hen. VI. (110) the three suns were seen about 10 a.m., on February 2, 1461; and the battle of Mortimer's Cross was fought on the following day. In Greg. (211) and Three Chronicles (S. E. C., 77) the battle and the appearance of three suns are dated February 2. 2 Rot. Parl., v. 476/2. 3 Greg., 215. Fab., 639. Three Chronicles (S. E. C., 77). February 27.— Three Chronicles (B. L. C., 172). February 28.-Chron. Rich. II.—Hen. VI., 110. Edward and Warwick met at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.— Wyrc., 488. 113. And thought] T. T. Not in 3 Hen. VI. [Margaret intending to [The Yorkist But the Lancastrians prevailed; So that we fled; the King vnto the Queene (1. 137); Halle relates (252) that, after the battle of Wakefield, Queen Margaret still came forwarde with her Northren people, entendyng to subuerte and defaict all conclusions and agrementes enacted and assented to in the last Parliament. And so after her long iorney she came to the town of sainct Albons; wherof the duke of Northfolke, the erle of Warwycke, and other, (whom the duke of Yorke had lefte to gouerne the kyng in his absence,) beyng aduertised, by the assent of ye kyng, gathered together a great hoste, and set marched to forward towarde saincte Albons, hauyng the kyng in their company, accompanied as the head and chefetayn of the warre; and so, not myndyng to differre the tyme any farther, vpon shrouetuesday, early in the [Defeated by mornyng, set vpon their enemyes. Fortune that day so fauored they forsook the Quene, that her parte preuayled, & the duke and the erle were discomfited, and fled, leauing the king [gathered an army, and St. Albans, by Henry.] Margaret, Henry and fled.] [Henry had [Henry advised to join the northern (Lancas trian) lords.] The Yorkist soldiers might (Warwick conjectures) have been dispirited by the coldnesse of the King, ... 122 Who look'd full gently on his warlike Queene, Holinshed says that, when the soldiers, who had charge of Henry, fled from the field, the Yorkist [Hol. iii. 660/2/14.] nobles that were about the king, perceiuing how the game went, and withall saw no comfort in the king, but rather a good will and affection towards the contrarie part, withdrew leauing the king . . . Now after that the noble men and other were fled, and the king left in maner alone without anie power of men to gard his person, he was counselled by an esquier called Thomas Hoo, a man well languaged, and well seene in the lawes, to send some conuenient messenger to the northerne lords, aduertising them, that he would now gladlie come vnto them, (whome he knew to be his verie freends, and had assembled themselues togither for his seruice,) to the end he might remaine with them, as before he had remained vnder the gouernement of the southerne lords. [The Lancastrian lords conveyed Henry to Clifford's tent], and Henry, and Prince brought the queene and hir sonne prince Edward vnto his [Meeting of presence, whome he ioifullie receiued, imbracing and kissing them Margaret, in most louing wise; and yeelding hartie thanks to almightie God, Edward.] whome it had pleased thus to strengthen the forces of the northerne men, to restore his deerelie belooued and onelie sonne againe into his possession. Warwick tells Edward (11. 145-147) that George-afterwards Duke of Clarence was lately sent From your kinde Aunt, Dutchesse of Burgundie, 1 Isabella of Portugal, a grand-daughter of John of Gaunt, and consequently a distant cousin of Edward, was Duchess of Burgundy in 1461. A passage derived by Holinshed from Halle (253) shows that George was not in England during the historic time of sc. i., Act II. [Hol. iii. 661/1/45.] The duches of Yorke, seeing hir husband and sonne slaine, and not knowing what should succeed of hir eldest sonnes chance, sent hir two yonger sonnes, George and Richard, ouer the sea, to the citie of Utrecht in Almaine, where they were of Philip duke of Burgognie well receiued; and so remained there, till their brother Edward had got the crowne and gouernement of the realme. Act II. sc. ii.-Henry, at Margaret's bidding, knights Prince Edward (1. 61). The Prince was knighted on an earlier historic date than that which must be assigned to this scene. After the second battle of St. Albans Queen Margaret [Hol. iii. 660/2/64. Halle, 252.] caused the king to dub hir sonne prince Edward, knight; with thirtie other persons, which the day before fought on hir side against his part. A messenger now warns the Lancastrians that Edward and Warwick "are at hand" (1. 72). In the preceding scene Warwick said that the Lancastrians had gone to London, and he therefore proposed marching thither to give them battle (II. i. 174-185). But before sc. i. ended he learnt from a messenger sent by Norfolk that The Queene is comming with a puissant Hoast; . . . 1 Daughter of John I., King of Portugal. Her mother Philippa was the daughter of Blanch of Lancaster, John of Gaunt's first wife. The dramatist may have been thinking of Edward IV.'s sister, Margaret Duchess of Burgundy, who assisted the adventurer known as Perkin Warbeck, for the real or ostensible reason that he was her nephew, Richard Duke of York. [Edward's George and were brothers, Richard, received at Utrecht by the Duke of Burgundy.] Prince Edward made knight. Edw. Hall presence brought defeat.] [A rumour that Prince not King Henry's 66 Scene ii. is laid at the gates of York (11. 1-4, cp. I. iv. 179). We may suppose perhaps that Margaret, being refused an entrance into London, turned northwards, and, on her march to York, passed near the Duke of Norfolk's position; which was some six miles off" the place where Warwick met Edward (II. i. 144). Advised by Norfolk of the Queen's change of plan, Edward and Warwick followed her, and in scene ii. they reach York. The historic facts are that the Lancastrians withdrew to the north, after the second battle of St. Albans, but Edward and Warwick made for London, where Edward was elected King. Soon after his election Edward marched northwards and won the battle of Towton, which established him on the throne.1 No sooner has the near approach of Edward and Warwick been announced than Clifford breaks forth (11. 73, 74): I would your Highnesse would depart the field! The Queene hath best successe when you are absent.2 Holinshed took from Halle (252) a remark that Queen Margaret was [Hol. iii. 660/2/60.] fortunate in hir two battels [Wakefield and 2nd St. Albans], but vnfortunate was the king in all his enterprises for where his person was present, the victorie still fled from him to the contrarie part. The wrangle which succeeds the entry of Edward, Richard, and Warwick admits of little illustration from historical sources. A spirited utterance of the Prince invites Richard's comment (11. 133, 134): Who euer got thee, there thy Mother stands ; For, well I vvot, thou hast thy Mothers tongue; and Edward suggests that her "Husband may be Menelaus" (1. 147). When Prince Edward was born, Queen Margaret [Hol. iii. 641/1/54. Halle, 230.] susteined not a little slander Edward was and obloquie of the common people, who had an opinion that the king was not able to get a child; and therefore sticked not to saie, that this was not his sonne, with manie slanderous words, greatlie sounding to the queenes dishonour; much part perchance vntrulie.3 son.] 1 Greg., 214-216. 2 While watching the battle of Towton, Henry says (3 Hen. VI., II. v. 16-18): "For Margaret my Queene, and Clifford too, 3 much. . . vntrulie.] Hol. which here nede not to be rehersed.] Halle, 231. "the common people" said that Prince Edward "was not the naturall sone of Kynge Henrye, but chaungyd in the cradell."-Fab., 628. Another slanderous rumour circulated "that he that was called Prince was nat hir [? his, i. e. Henry's] sone, but a bastard goten in avoutry."— Chron. R. II.—Hen. VI., 79. |