A. C. 1485. Ratcliff, and Sir Robert Brackenbury, met with the fame fate; the earl of Surry, fon to the duke of Norfolk, was taken prisoner and confined in the Tower of London, from which, however, he was foon fet at liberty. The earl of Northumberland, and several partifans of Richard, were taken into favour; and others had the good fortune to escape but Catefby, the infamous minifter and confident of the tyrant, who had fo villainoufly betrayed Haftings, having fallen into the hands of the victors, was executed in two days after the battle, at Leicester, with fome others of the fame ftamp, who had devoted themfelves to the fervice of Richard. Immediately after the engagement, the earl of Richmond fell down on his knees in the open field, and thanked the Almighty for the bleffing he had beftowed on his arms: then riding up to an eminence, he applauded the foldiers for their valiant behaviour, and promised to reward them according to their deferts. Richard's crown being found among the fpoils of the field, was, by the lord Stanley, placed upon the head of Henry, who was faluted as king by the whole army; and from that moment he affumed the title. Richard's body being ftripped ftark naked, and covered with wounds, filth, and blood, was thrown over a horfe's back, with the arms on one fide and the legs on the other, and carried to Leicester, where, after having been expofed two days, and treated with the utmost indignity, it was buried in the abbey-church in a private manner; though Henry, in refpect to his family, ordered a tomb to be erected over his grave. Holingfhed. Hall, Buck. Richard's character. Such was the end of Richard III. the most cruel, unrelenting tyrant that ever fat on the throne of England. He feems to have been an utter stranger to the fofter emotions of the human heart, and entirely deftitute of every focial fentiment. ruling paffion was ambition, for the gratifica His tion of which he trampled upon every law, both 4. C. 1485. human and divine: but this thirft of dominion was unattended with the leaft mark of generofity, or any defire of rendering himself agreeable to his fellow-creatures: it was the ambition of a favage †, not of a prince; for he was a folitary being, altogether detached from the reft of mankind, and incapable of that fatisfaction which results from private friendship and difinterested fociety. We muft acknowledge, however, that, after his acceffion to the throne, his adminiftration in general was conducted by the rules of juftice; that he enacted falutary laws, and established wife regulations; and that, if his reign had been protracted, he might have proved an excellent king to the English nation. He poffeffed an uncommon folidity of judgment, a natural fund of eloquence, the moft acute penetration, and fuch courage as no danger could difmay. He was dark, filent, and reserved, and fo much mafter of diffimulation, that it was almost impoffible to dive into his real fentiments, when he wanted to conceal his defigns. His ftature was fmall, his afpect cloudy, fevere, and forbidding; one of his arms was withered, and one fhoulder higher than the other, from which circumstances of deformity he acquired the epithet of Crook-Back. Richard III. was the last of the Anjevin race furnamed Plantagenet, which had poffeffed the crown of England for the space of three hundred and thirty years but he was not the last male of that family in England; for the earl of Warwick, fon to his brother Clarence, was still He was often characterised by the name of the boar. And he and his three favourites Catesby, Radcliff, and Lovel, were included in a fatirical Couplet which was frequently repeated in his life-time. The cat, the rat, and Lovel the dog, Richard left one natural fon, a minor, alive, A. C. 1485 alive, and the only remaining branch of all the numerous pofterity of the third Edward, which had been almost totally extinguished in the civil war; a war which had raged for thirty years, and was terminated by the battle of Bofworth, after having coft the lives of above one hundred thousand Englishmen, including a great number of princes of the houses of York and Lancaster. OF OF THE CHURCH. From the Death of EDWARD III. to the ICKLIFF had gained fuch a number of A. e. 13776 W profelytes, that although the church was Wicklif fummoned alarmed at the progrefs of his doctrine, it to appear could not proceed to extremities with the author, before the fynod. who had not only acquired great popularity, but was, in a particular manner, patronized by the duke of Lancaster and the lord Piercy, who at that time engroffed the whole administration. Pope Gregory XI, directed a bull to the univerfity of Oxford, complaining of that body's conniving at the doctrine of Wickliff; and another to the bishops, commanding them to examine and suppress the opinions of this archheretic. He was accordingly fummoned to a synod at Lambeth, where he explained away in an aukward manner, three of his capital pofitions, which gave the greatest offence to the clergy: namely, that dominion was founded on grace; that the temporal power might feize upon the patrimony of the church; and that no ecclefiaftics ought to be vefted with a coercive power. In the midst of the fynod's deliberations, one Lewis Clifford, a man of fome distinction, entered the affembly, and in a peremptory manner, forbad them to proceed to cenfure against Wickliff. He was followed by a great number of that reformer's adherents; fo that the bishops found it convenient to act with moderation, and to difmifs the culprit, after having enjoined him filence. To this injunction, however, he payed no fort of regard; and his doctrine continued to gain A. C. 1382. gain ground, under the favour of John duke of Walfing. Courtney Lancafter. At the death of Gregory XI. there was a comfucceeds to petition for the papacy between Urban VI. and the archbi Clement VII. and both being elected by different fhopric of Canterbury. factions of cardinals, a fchifm in the church enfued. The king of France declared for Clement; and Urban's title was recognized by the English clergy. In the parliament that preceded this schism, a statute had been enacted in favour of the clergy, empowering them to bring actions of trespass against purveyors who fhould give them disturbance, and entitling them to treble damage; exempting them from indictments and imprisonment, for holding pleas in the fpiritual court; and subjecting to imprisonment and payment of damages, any minifter of the king or other perfon, who should arreft or interrupt a clergyman in the exercise of his function. We have, in the civil history, mentioned the ftatute enacted by the parliament at Westminster against papal provifions, in which there was a claufe, prohibiting any Englishman from farming the living of an alien, without the king's particular licence. At this period, William Courtney fucceeded to the archbishopric of Canterbury; and celebrated the king's marriage, without having received the pall from Rome, which he looked upon as a ceremony that did not at all affect the rights of his metropolitan function. Wickliff and his fol lowers profecuted. Pofitions of In the course of the fame year, fresh articles were condemned exhibited against Wickliff and his followers, partias heretical, cularly Nicholas Repyingdon, whofe books, together with the tenets of Wickliff, underwent a fynodical cenfure. Thefe doctrines were espoused by Philip Repyingdon doctor in divinity, and John Afhton, both of the univerfity of Oxford: though the name of Lollards was indifferently given to the followers of Wickliff, and the profelytes of one' William |