802 



EDWARD IV. 



Foictiers, at the expiration of which, in 135!), Ed- 

 ward one*- more passed over to Calais with a large 

 army, and desolated the provinces of Picardy and 

 Champagne, but at length consented to a peace, 

 which was concluded in May, 1360. Besides the 

 stipulation of a large ransom tor king John, several 

 provinces and districts in the south-west of France 

 and neighbourhood of Calais were yielded to Ed- 

 ward, who, in his turn resigned his title to the 

 crown of France and duchy of Normandy. The 

 successor of John, Charles V., invaded the provinces 

 intrusted to prince Edward, Uien in the last tage of 

 declining health, and Edward had the mortification 

 of witnessing tiu- gradual loss of all his French pos- 

 sessions, except Bourdeaux and Bayonne, and of all 

 his conquests except Calais. In the decline of life, 

 he was in other respects unfortunate : becoming a 

 widower, lie fell into a species of dotage ; and an 

 artful mistress, named Alice Piers, so abused her in- 

 fluence, that, on a parliamentary remonstrance, he 

 found it necessary to dismiss her. His administra- 

 tion also became unpopular ; and he had the afflic- 

 tion of witnessing his heroic son, Edward, sink a 

 victim to a lingering illness which calamity he sur- 

 vived about a year, dying June 21, 1377, in the 

 sixty-fifth year of his age, and fifty-first of his reign. 



EDWARD, prince of Wales, surnamed the Black 

 Prince ; one of the most chivalric and heroic charac- 

 ters of history, the eldest son of Edward III. and 

 Philippa of 1 1 summit. He was born in 1330, and at 

 the age of fifteen accompanied his father in his in- 

 vasion of France, and received from him the honour 

 of knighthood. The victory of Crecy, which king 

 Edward left principally to the exertions of the force 

 under his son's command, to use that warlike king's 

 language, " showed that he merited his spurs." It 

 was on this occasion that he assumed the motto of j 

 Ich dien (I serve), used by all succeeding princes of 

 Wales, and derived, it is said, from the crest of the 

 king of Bohemia, slain in that battle, which tradition, 

 however, later antiquaries seem disposed to discredit. 

 In 1355, he commanded the army which invaded 

 France from Gascony, and the next year fought the 

 great battle of Poictiers (see Edward ///.), and dis- 

 tinguished himself by the courtesy with which he 

 treated his prisoner, king John. By the peace of 

 Bretagne, his father had obtained the provinces 

 of Poictou, Saintonge, Perigeux, Limousin, &c., 

 which he annexed to Guienne, and formed into a so- 

 vereignty for his son, under the title of the principa- 

 lity of Aquitain. There the prince took up his re- 

 sidence ; and at his court Pedro the Cruel sought 

 refuge, when driven from his throne by his natural 

 brother, Henry of Trastamare. Edward undertook 

 the re-establishment of this tyrant, which he accom- 

 plished, but lost his health in the enterprise. Dis- 

 appointed, by the perfidy of Pedro, of the stipulated 

 reimbursements, the taxes he was obliged to levy 

 oa his new subjects rendered his government unpo. 

 pular; and an appeal was made to the king or 

 France, as his liege lord, who summoned him as his 

 vassal to appear at Paris. " I will come," replied 

 the angry prince, " but it shall be at the head of 

 60,000 men." His health, however, was too far 

 declined to enable him to take the field, when the 

 king of France invaded his dominions ; and, having 

 suffered the mortification of seeing his generals de- 

 feated, he withdrew into England, and after linger- 

 ing some time, died, June 8, 1376, in his forty-sixth 

 year, leaving an only son, afterwards Richard II. 



EDWARD IV., king of England, was born in 

 1441. His father, Richard, duke of York, was 

 grandson of Edward, earl of Cambridge and duke of 

 York,.fourth son of Edward IH., while the Lancaster 

 branch descended from John of Gaunt, the third sou. 



The York line had intermarried with the female 

 descendants of Lionel, the second son, which gavd 

 it the preferable right to the crown. Edward, on 

 the defeat and death of his father at the battle of 

 Wakefield, assumed his title, and, having entered 

 London, was declared king by acclamation in 1-161. 

 Soon after liis accession, he had to fight for his 

 (Town against an army of 60,000 Lancastrians as- 

 sembled in Yorkshire ; and the field of Towton con- 

 firmed his title by a decisive victory. Although the 

 high-spirited Margaret was enabled, by the aid of 

 Louis XI. of France, again to take the field, the re- 

 sult of the battle of Hexham, in May, 1464, obliged 

 her to return to Flanders, and leave her hiisliitiid, 

 the imbecile Henry, a prisoner in the hands of his 

 enemies, who immured him in the Tower of London. 

 Freed from warlike cares, Edward indulged himself 

 in the gallantries too common to his age and station, 

 and, by a marriage of passion with Elizabeth Wood- 

 ville, widow of Sir Jolm Grey of Groby, a Lancas- 

 trian, betrayed himself into very serious difficulties, 

 since, at the same time, he had despatched the earl 

 of Warwick to negotiate a marriage for him \\itlt 

 Bona of Savoy, sister to the queen of France ; so 

 that he at once offended two royal houses, and his 

 powerful friend, Warwick. Aided by France, War- 

 wick, who had contracted his daughter to the Lan- 

 castrian prince Edward, landed with Clarence and 

 some other lords at Dartmouth ; and such was his 

 popularity, that he quickly saw himself at the head 

 of 60,000 men, with whom he marched to encounter 

 Edward. They approached each other near Not- 

 tingham, where the king, by the treachery of the 

 marquis of Montague, in whom he placed great con- 

 fidence, had nearly been betrayed into the hands of 

 his enemies. He had just time to mount on horse- 

 back, and with a few attendants proceed to Lynn, 

 where he instantly embarked, and reached a port in 

 Holland, leaving Warwick in full possession of his 

 kingdom, eleven days after he had set his foot in it. 

 Henry's title was again recognised by parliament, 

 and Warwick and Clarence were declared regents 

 of the kingdom. Edward, who at first had been re- 

 ceived rather coldly by his brother-in-law, the duke 

 of Burgundy, was at length secretly assisted by him 

 with a small squadron of ships, and a force of about 

 2000 men, with which he safely reached Ravenspur, 

 in Yorkshire. Here his forces quickly increased by 

 partisans from all quarters, and he was soon enabled 

 to march to London, where, through the influence 

 of many rich merchants who had advanced him 

 money, he obtained entrance as king, and the un- 

 fortunate Henry again became prisoner. Warwick 

 advanced against him as far as Barnet, where, on the 

 4th of April, 1471, another great battle was fought, 

 which ended in the death of Warwick, and a de- 

 cisive victory on the part of Edward. On the same 

 day, queen Margaret and her son landed at Wey- 

 mouth, and marched into Gloucestershire, where she 

 was met by the victorious Edward, who totally de- 

 feated her at Tewkesbury. The queen and her 

 son Edward, being taken prisoners, and brought into 

 the presence of the victor, Edward asked the latter 

 how he dare to invade his dominions. On receiving a 

 spirited answer, he basely struck the captive prince 

 on the face with his gauntlet the signal for imme- 

 diate massacre by the king's brothers and other 

 nobles attendant. Margaret was thrown into the 

 Tower, where Henry VI. soon after died, but whether 

 by violence or by disease is uncertain. Edward 

 now once more resigned himself to pleasure and 

 gayety, until seized with a desire to make French 

 conquests. Baffled by the arts, intrigues, and money 

 of Louis XI. (which he condescended to accept), these 

 attempts ended in nothing of importance. The latter 



