the king's prefence by his three upftart favourites, A. C. 1482. who had rendered themselves odious to the whole nation, they were fo exafperated, that they held a confultation, to deliberate upon means for removing these evil counsellors; and resolved to facrifice them to the public good without further delay. This refolution being taken, they feized the three delinquents in the king's chamber, to which they had fled for refuge, and dragging them to the bridge of Lauder, hanged them in fight of the whole army. James, terrified at this execution, promifed to reform his conduct; but in a few days retired to the caftle of Edinburgh: and the army being left without a chief, the nobles returned to their own habitations.

Gloucester

Mean while the duke of Gloucester, having The duke of taken the town of Berwick, and left fome troops marches to to befiege the castle, advanced without oppofition Edinburgh. to the city of Edinburgh, which he entered in triumph, and expreffed a defire of having a conference with James; but this prince declining the interview, the duke published a proclamation by found of trumpet, importing, that if the king of Scotland fhould not before the month of September fulfil his engagements, he would lay walte the country with fire and fword. These engagements were the observation of the truce, and the reftitution of the money which he had received as part of the dower of the princefs Cecilia, betrothed to the prince of Scotland; and to thefe, Gloucefter added the re-establishment of the duke of Albany in the poffeffion of his estate and offices. James made no reply to this proclamation; but the nobility, reaffembling at Haddington, fent deputies to affure the duke of Gloucefter, that they wished for nothing more ardently, than for the accomplishment of the marriage between young James and the princefs Cecilia; and that it was not their fault if the L. 2

truce

Rymer.

A. C. 1482 truce was not exactly obferved. This meffage proBuchanan. duced a negotiation between Richard and the Scottifh nobility, managed by the duke of Albany; and, after fome difputés, both fides agreed, that the citizens of Edinburgh fhould give fecurity for the repayment of the money which James had received, provided the match fhould mifcarry; that the castle of Berwick fhould be delivered to the English; that the duke of Albany should be appointed regent of Scotland. The archbishop of St. Andrew's, the bishop of Dunkeld, the chancellor, and the earl of Argyle, obliged themselves to procure his pardon; and the duke promised to acknowledge his brother as his fovereign, and take the oath of allegiance to him a-new. This agreement being ratified, the duke of Gloucefter marched back to England; and the duke of Albany reftored his brother James to the exercise of his royalty, without ftipulating any thing but an amnefty in his own favour. That prince, however, could not forgive him for the part he had acted: he refolved to feize the first opportunity of fecuring his perfon; and the duke being apprized of his intention, retired to the caftle of Dunbar, which he furrendered to the English, after having renewed his former treaty with Edward: but feeing no appearance of being fuccoured according to his expectation, he repaired to the court of Lewis, where he was accidently killed by the splinter of a launce in a tournament with the duke of Orleans, who afterwards afcended the throne of France by the name of Lewis XII.

Heiress of

A¿C. 1483. Now that the war with Scotland was terminated, The young Edward turned all his attention towards the profeBurgundy is cution of the revenge he had vowed against Lewis; betrothed to but the conjuncture was not fo favourable to his deof France fign, as it had been before his rupture with James. Mary dutchefs of Burgundy having died in confequence of a fall from her horfe, her husband

the dauphin

Maxi

Maximilian retained fo little credit with the Fiem- A. C. 1483.
ings, that he was obliged to let his children remain
in the hands of the inhabitants of Ghent; and
Lewis, by his artful infinuations, obtained the con-
fent of that people to the marriage of the dauphin
with Margaret daughter of their deceased dutchefs,
to whom the counties of Artois, Burgundy, Ma-
connois, Auxerre, and Charolois, were affigned as
a portion. This negotiation was fo privately car-
ried on, that Edward had not the leaft intimation
of it, until the young dauphinefs, about two years
of age, arrived at Paris, where the ceremony of
her betrothal was performed with great pomp and
magnificence.

Biondi.

Edward IV.

The king of England was equally astonished and Death of incensed at this event, which he looked upon as an king of unpardonable affront offered to his family in the England, person of his daughter Elizabeth, who had for fome time been diftinguished by the appellation of the Dauphinefs, in which fhe was now fupplanted by an infant. Edward did not confider that Lewis, on this occafion, had done nothing more than retort his own behaviour in the cafe of the lady Bona. He liftened to the fuggeftions of his refentment only, which, however, he could not obey with any profpect of fuccefs; for he was now deprived of the affiftance of the Flemings, who favouredLewis; and the duke of Bretagne was oppreffed with melancholly to fuch a degree, that he could no longer manage his own affairs. In spite of all these difadvantages, the king of England refolved to carry war into the bowels of France: he convoked a general affembly of his nobles, who approved of his refolution; and the whole nation rejoiced as much at the prospect, as if they had already obtained a victory. He forthwith began to levy troops for this expedition; and his people contributed towards the expence with the utmost alacrity but

L 3

in

Argentré,

A. C. 1483

in the midst of his preparations he was seized with a violent fever, produced by some excefs, and died a penitent on the ninth day of April, in the fortyfecond year of his age, and in the twenty-third of his reign *. He was a prince of the most elegant perfon, and infinuating addrefs; endowed with the utmoft fortitude and intrepidity; poffeffed of uncommon fagacity and penetration: but, like all his ancestors, was brutally cruel and vindictive, perfidious, lewd, perjured, and rapacious; without one liberal thought, without one sentiment of humanity.

By his wife Elizabeth he had three fons and feven daughters; namely, Edward who fucceeded him on the throne e; Richard duke of York; George, who died in his infancy; Elizabeth, who in the fequel, married Henry VII. king of England; Mary, betrothed to the king of Denmark, who died before marriage; Cecilia, first married to John viscount Willes, and afterwards to Sir John Kyme; Margaret, who died an infant; Anne, married to Thomas Howard, the third duke of Norfolk, of that name;

Bridget, who took the veil, and died in the nunnery at Dartford; Cathe rine, married to William Courtenay earl of Devonshire. His natural children were Arthur Plantagenet viscount Lifle, born of Elizabeth Lucy; and Elizabeth Plantagenet, married to Thomas lord Lumley; another Eliza beth by Catherine, daughter of Sir Robert Clavenger; and Ifabel Mylbery, married to a brother of the lord Audely.

Rymer, Dugdale, Anftis.

EDWARD

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