ENGLAND. 
Devon, Somerfet, and Gloucefter, (he uicreafed her army 
on each day’s march ; but was at lad overtaken by the 
rapid and expeditious Edward at Tewkefbury, on the 
banks of the Severn. The Lancaftrians were here totally 
defeated; the earl of Devoafhire and lord Wenloc were 
killed in the field; the duke of Somerfet, and about 
twenty other perfons of diftinCtion, having taken (belter 
in the church, were dragged out and beheaded ; and the 
army entirely difperfed. 
Queen Margaret and her unfortunate fon being taken 
prifoners, and brought before the king, he afked the 
prince, in an infulting manner, how he dared to invade 
his dominions? The young prince, more mindful of his 
high birth than of his prefent fortune, replied, that he 
came thither to claim his juft inheritance. The ungene¬ 
rous Edward, indignant at his anfwer, and infenfible to 
pity, (truck him on the face with his gauntlet; and the 
dukes of Clarence and Gloucefter, lord Haftings, and fir 
Thomas Gray, taking the blow as a (ignal for further 
violence, hurried the prince into the next apartment, and 
there difpatched him with their daggers. Margaret was 
thrown into the Tower ; where her degraded confort had 
expired a few days after the battle of Tewkefbury ; but 
whether he died a natural or a violent death, will remain 
forever uncertain. It is pretended, and was generally 
believed, that the duke of Gloucefter, afterwards Rich¬ 
ard III. killed him with his own hands; but the univer- 
fal odium which that prince incurred, inclined the nation 
perhaps to aggravate his crimes, by adding furmifes to 
faffs. 
Edward, now firmly eftabliflied on the throne, A. D. 
1472, began to devote himfelf to libidinous pleafures ; 
but he was foon roufed from his folly by the profpeff: of 
foreign Conquefts. He formed a league with the duke of 
Burgundy to invade France ; for this purpofe he obtained 
from parliament a tenth of rents, or two fhillings in the 
pound ; which produced only 31,460k and they added to 
this fupply a whole fifteenth, and three quarters of an¬ 
other : but, as the king deemed thefe fums dill unequal 
to the undertaking, lie attempted to levy money by way 
of benevolence ; a kind of exaction which, except during 
the reigns of Henry III. and Richard II. had not been 
pradtifed in former times, and which, though theconfent 
of the parties was pretended to be gained, could not be 
deemed eivirely voluntary. With thefe aids, in 1475, 
the king patted over to Calais, at the head of an army of 
fifteen hundred men at arms, and fifteen thofifand archers ; 
but all his hopes of conqueft were damped, by finding 
that the conftable, St. Pol, on whole revolt he depended, 
neither received him into the towns of which he was maf- 
ter, nor did the duke of Burgundy bring him the fmalleft 
abidance. This defection gave him great difguft, and in¬ 
clined hint to liften to the pacific propofals of Louis XI. 
who confented to pay Edward feventy-five thoufand 
crowns, on condition that he fhould immediately with¬ 
draw his army from France; and promifed to pay him 
fifty thoufand crowns a year during their joint lives. It 
was farther ftipulated that the dauphin, when of age, 
fhould marry Edward’s eldeft daughter ; and thefe arti¬ 
cles were folemnly ratified in a perfonal interview which 
the two monarchs had near Amiens. 
Such were the principal articles of this treaty, which 
refleffed but little honour to either party. Louis, how¬ 
ever, did himfelf forne credit by ftipulating for the liberty 
of queen Margaret, who, though, after the death of 
Henry, and of her fon, (he could no longer be formidable 
to government, was (fill confined in the Tower by Ed¬ 
ward. Louis paid fifty thoufand crowns for her ranfom; 
and that princefs, who had been fo affive on the ftage of 
the world, and who had experienced fuch a variety of 
fortune, paffed the remainder of her days in privacy, till 
the year 1482, when (lie died. 
Though Edward had fo little reafon to be fatisfied with 
the conduct of the duke of Burgundy, he referved to that 
prince a power of acceding to the late treaty; but Charles, 
Voj.. VI. N0.377. 
621 
when the offer was made him, haughtily replied, that he 
was able to fupport himfelf without the afti fiance of Eng¬ 
land, and that he would make no peace with Louis till 
three months after Edward’s re; urn into his own coun¬ 
try. This prince poffelfed all the ambition and courage 
of a conqueror; but, being defeffive in policy and pru¬ 
dence, perilhed at laft in battle agninft the Swifs; a peo¬ 
ple whom he defpifed, and who, though brave and free, 
bad hitherto been in a manner overlooked among the na¬ 
tions of Europe. 
For fome time Edward had relapfed into his fatal love 
of pleafure, from which he Teemed only to awake to ex- 
ercife an aft of difgraceful tyranny on his own family. 
The duke of Clarence, after all his fervices in deferting 
Warwick, had never been able to regain the king’s con¬ 
fidence. He was alfo an objeff of difpleafure to the 
queen, as well as to his brother the duke of Gloucefter, 
a prince of the deeped policy, and the mod unrelenting 
ambition. The execution bf feveral of his friends on the 
moft trivial offences, warned him of the combination 
againft himfelf; but, inftead of fecuring his life by fi- 
lence and referve, he was open and loud in his refent- 
ments. The king, Highly offended with his freedom, or 
lifting that pretence, committed him to the Tower, ftuin- 
moned a parliament, and tried him for his life before the 
houfe of peers, on charges too frivolous to deferve the 
name of crimes. A fentence of condemnation, however, 
was procured againft Him ; and the only favour which 
the king granted his brother, was to leave him the choice 
of His death ; and he was privately drowned in a butt of 
malmefey in the Tower; a whimiical choice, which im¬ 
plied that he had an extraordinary predilection for that 
liquor. The duke left two children by the elder daugh¬ 
ter of the earl of Warwick ; a fon, created an earl by his 
grandfather’s title; and a daughter, afterwards countefs 
of Salifbury. Both this prince and princefs were unfor¬ 
tunate in their end, and died a violent death ; a fate 
which for many years attended almoft all the defeendants 
of the royal blood in England. 
All the energies of Edward’s reign feem to have ter¬ 
minated with the civil wars : his fpirit afterwards funk 
into indolence and dilTipation. There was no objeff on 
which he was more intent, than to have his daughters 
fettled in fplendid marriages ; but moft of thefe princeffes 
were yet in their infancy, and a chain of accidents fruf- 
trated his views. His eldeft daughter Elizabeth was con¬ 
tracted to the dauphin; but Louis XI. who paid no re¬ 
gard to treaties, found his advantage in affiancing tHe 
dauphin to the princefs Margaret, daughter of the em¬ 
peror Maximilian. Edward, however, notwithftanding 
his depravity, prepared to avenge the infult: when the 
French monarch, to divert the blow, by a proper diftri- 
bution of prefents in the court of Scotland, incited James 
to make war upon England. 
This prince, who lived on bad terms with his own no¬ 
bility, and whole force was always unequal to the enter- 
prife, levied an army ; but, when he was ready to enter 
England, the barons, confpiring againft bis favourites, 
put them to death without trial ; and the army prefently 
difbanded. The duke of Gloucefter, attended by the 
duke of Albany, James’s brother, who had been baniffi-ed 
his country, entered Scotland at the head of a powerful 
army, took Berwick, and obliged the Scots to accept of a 
peace, by which they refigned that garrifon to Edward. 
Tliis fuccefs determined the king to think more leriotifly 
of a French war ; but, while he was making preparations 
for that enterprife, an enemy againft whom there is no 
defence foon put a period to all his projeffs. He died at 
Weftniinfter, April 9, 1482, in the forty-firft year of his 
age, and the twenty-third of his reign ; but of what dif- 
eafe is not certainly known. He had iffue by his queen 
three fons and feven daughters, of whom one fon and two 
daughters died before him ; and two fons and five daugh¬ 
ters furvived him ; viz. Edward, his eldeft fon and ftic- 
ceffor; Richard duke of York; Elizabeth, courted by 
7 T Richard 
