30 THE HISTOEY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



consequences of the civil war frequentlj^ spoiled the sport, and 

 often rendered hunting altogether out of the question. The 

 history of those dark days is too well known to require much 

 notice at our hands ; but, in order to show how difficult it was 

 to enjoy the pleasure of the chase, a brief allusion to the fate 

 of some of the prominent sportsmen of this period, who kept 

 vast hunting establishments at their feudal seats, may not be 

 out of place. 



In the course of that long and terrible contest thirteen 

 pitched battles were fought, three kings met with untimel}' 

 ends, eighty princes of the blood had fallen, and twenty-six 

 Knights of the Garter perished either by the sword or by the 

 hand of the executioner. The ancient nobility of England 

 was almost entirely annihilated. Of the royal house of 

 Plantagenet, Richard, Duke of York, and his son, the Earl of 

 Rutland, were slain at the battle of Wakefield; the Duke 

 of Clarence died the death of a traitor; Edward V. and his 

 brother, the Duke of York, were murdered in the Tower of 

 London ; and, lastly, their uncle, Richard III., was killed at 

 Bosworth. Of the House of Lancaster, King Henry VI. 

 perished mysteriously in prison; his son Edward, Prince of 

 Wales, was slain at Tewkesbury. Of the kindred of Queen 

 Elizabeth Woodville, the consort of Edward IV., her father, 

 Richard, Earl Rivers, and her brother, Sir John Woodville, 

 were beheaded at Northampton; her husband, John, Lord Grey 

 of Groby, fell at the second battle of St. Albans; her son. 

 Sir Richard Grey, was beheaded at Pomfret ; and on the same 

 scafibld perished her brother, the accomplished Anthony 

 Woodville, Earl Rivers. Of the royal house of Beaufort, 

 Edmund, Duke of Somerset, formerly Regent of France, was 

 slain at the first battle of St. Albans ; Henry, the second duke, 

 was beheaded after the battle of Hexham ; Edmund, the third 

 duke, was beheaded after the battle of Tewkesbury ; and in 

 the same battle was slain Sir John Beaufort, son of the first 

 duke. Of the great house of Stafford, Humphrey, Earl of 

 Stafford, fell at the first battle of St. Albans; his father, 

 Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, fell at the battle of 



