244 SLINGSBY. 



In the ensuing year, being one of the lords who 

 in the parliament-chamber swore fealty to prince Ed- 

 ward, the king's eldest son, he obtained amongst 

 many other marks of that king's confidence in his 

 allegiance, a license to make castles of his houses 

 in the county of Leicester, and of Slingsby in the 

 county of York. Not long after the lord Hastings 

 was engaged in a transaction which marks the 

 cruelty of the times, and remains one of the foulest 

 Wots upon so great a character. Upon king Ed- 

 ward's victory at Tewkesbury, when prince Edward 

 (son to Henry VI.) was taken prisoner, and brought 

 into that monarch's presence, he demanded of him 

 in a haughty and insulting tone, how he dared to 

 invade his dominions ? The young prince, more 

 mindful of his high birth than of his present fortune, 

 replied, " that became thither to claim his just in- 

 heritance." The ungenerous Edward, insensible 

 io pity, struck him on the face with his gauntlet ; 

 and the dukes of Clarence, and Gloucester, (after- 

 wards the notorious .Richard III.) Lord Hastings, 

 and Sir Thomas Gray, taking the blow as a signal 

 for further violence, hurried the prince into the next 

 apartment, and there dispatched him with their 

 daggers. 



Two years after this, upon peace being concluded 

 between the kingdoms of France and England, Lou- 

 is bestowed 16,000 crowns a year upon several of 

 the king's favourites ; of which sum William Lord 

 Hastings received 2,000, and the Lord Howard and 

 others in proportion ; those great ministers not 

 being ashamed thus to receive wages from a foreign 



