the wars of the roses and the third

royal builder

little henry vi. was not crowned till he was nine years old, and one old writer says that "so small was he, he could not wear the crown, and a bracelet of his mother's was placed on his head." he was a dreamy, gentle boy, and, far from being excited or happy on his coronation day, we hear how "very sadly and gravely he beheld all the people round about him, at the sight of which he showed great humility." his mother, katherine, had married a welshman named owen tudor, much to the anger of those about the court and the nobles, who considered that by so doing she had demeaned herself, and after this she was allowed to see very little of her son, who was therefore left entirely to his uncles, the duke of bedford and the duke of gloucester. like edward the confessor, henry was fit for a cloister but not for a crown, and he was called to reign in troublous times, when strength of will and purpose were more needed in a king than saintliness or simplicity of life. his uncles, who realised his weakness, arranged that he should marry margaret of anjou, a woman who was brave, ambitious, and masterful; but the fact that she soon got henry completely under her control only brought about in the end his destruction and hers. in france the english lose all that they had won, for a deliverer of france had arisen in the girl joan of arc, who gave fresh courage and hope to her fellow-countrymen and led them on to victory as though she had been a saint sent by god. then back to england came those many thousands of soldiers who had been fighting abroad all these years, and they were not inclined to settle down to a peaceful life; they wanted adventure, excitement, and plunder, and they were ready to flock round any leader who could promise them the chance of a fight. you will remember how, when you looked at edward iii.'s tomb, with the figures of his sons kneeling round, i told you that the descendants of those sons brought civil war upon england; and it was in the reign of henry vi. that this terrible war broke out. henry, as you know, was descended from john of gaunt, duke of lancaster, and his grandfather, henry iv., had gained the throne by will of parliament and by right of conquest, but not by right of inheritance. now there was living richard, duke of york, who was descended from the duke of clarence, the elder brother of john of gaunt, and when, owing to henry's weakness and the jealousies of the great nobles, two parties gradually began to form themselves, these parties naturally became divided into those who supported the king, that is to say, the house of lancaster, and those who supported the house of york. at first there was no thought of civil war; these two parties merely opposed each other and schemed one against the other; but before long feeling ran so high that open warfare became inevitable, and each side took as its badge a rose.

so began the wars of the roses, and there followed those terrible battles of northampton, wakefield, st. albans, towton, barnet, and tewkesbury, in which thousands of englishmen were slain (20,000 at towton alone), the victory resting first on one side and then on the other, though finally with the yorkists. the duke of york had been killed early in the campaign, but his place had been filled by his young son, edward, and at last, after the battle of tewkesbury, king henry and queen margaret were taken prisoners, their son edward having been killed in battle or murdered afterwards. both were taken to the tower, and one night, between eleven and twelve, king henry was put to death, the duke of gloucester and divers of his men being in the tower that night. so edward of york ascended the throne, the fourth king of that name, and the first stage of the war of the roses was ended.

henry was not buried at westminster; in the darkness of the night his body was carried from the tower, put on to a lighted barge, and, "without singing or saying," conveyed up the dark waters of the thames to his silent interment at chertsey abbey. and yet this gentle, humble king had loved the abbey well, and had greatly longed to lie near to st. edward, by his father and his ancestors, having chosen the spot where the relics had been kept, as a "good place."

edward iv. reigned for twelve years, but he did not reign in peace; and once his wife elizabeth was in such distress and danger that, with her three little girls, elizabeth, mary, and cicely, and one faithful attendant, lady scrope, she fled to westminster for sanctuary, and threw herself on the mercy of abbot mylling. in this gloomy place of refuge her son was born, she being tended by a certain mother cobb, who also lived in sanctuary, while the abbot sent her some few things for her comfort, and a kind butcher named gould provided "half a beef and two muttons every week."

it was a strange birthplace for an english prince; but his christening, which took place in the abbey, was not without honour, though the ceremony was carried out as though he were a poor man's son. he was given the honoured name of edward, the abbot was his godfather, and the duchess of bedford with lady scrope stood as his godmothers. when peace was restored, edward iv. at once came to westminster to comfort his queen, and he did not forget to reward those who had helped elizabeth in the hour of her distress. to nurse cobb he gave ￡12 a year; from the butcher he ordered a royal shipful of hides and tallow; while the abbot, for "his great civility," was made a privy councillor, and afterwards bishop of hereford.

but though elizabeth left the sanctuary, she was once more to return to its kindly shelter. she had always a mistrust of her husband's favourite brother, the duke of gloucester, and when king edward died in 1473, she at once went back to westminster with her daughters and her second son, the duke of york. her eldest boy, edward, was already in his uncle's power and in the tower, although the duke of gloucester had made him enter london in state, he riding bare-headed before him, and saying to the people loudly, "behold your prince and sovereign." but the queen was not to be deceived by this. "woe worth him," she said bitterly; "he goeth about to destroy me and my blood."

this time elizabeth and her children were given room in the abbot's palace, probably in the dining-hall, and there the archbishop of york came to her to deliver up, for the use of her son, the great seal, entrusted to him by edward iv. he found her sitting on the floor, "alone on the rushes, desolate and dismayed, and about her was much rumble, haste, and business with conveyance of her household stuff into sanctuary. every man was busy to carry, bear, and convey these stuffs, chests, and fardels, and no man was unoccupied." in the distance could be heard the noise of the workmen already beginning the preparations for the coronation of king edward, which the duke of gloucester was apparently pushing forward with all haste. but as the archbishop looked out of his window on to the thames, he saw the river covered with boats full of the duke of gloucester's servants, keeping a watch over the queen's hiding-place.

richard of gloucester's next move was to get possession of the little duke of york, and as he was now appointed protector, having altogether deceived the council as to his real intent, this was no very difficult matter. and the poor queen had only a mother's love and a mother's fears to set against these mighty men and the fair sounding argument "that the little king was melancholy and desired his brother for a playmate."

"i deliver him into your keeping, my lord," she said to the archbishop of canterbury, her face white, her voice trembling, "of whom i shall ask him again before god and the world. and i pray you, for the trust which his father reposed in you, that as you think i fear too much, so you be cautious that you fear not too little."

then she threw her arms round the boy and covered him with kisses.

"farewell, mine own sweet son," she sobbed; "god send you good keeping. and god knoweth when we shall kiss together again."

her worst fears were realised. she never saw her boys again, never knew how they were murdered in the tower, or even where they were buried. and from her dwelling-place within the sanctuary precincts she could see and hear all the preparations that were being made for the coronation of richard iii., while she "sobbed and wept and pulled her fair hair, as she called by name her two sweet babes, and cried to god to comfort her."

for nearly a year she remained where she was, then richard, having taken an oath before the lord mayor and the council to protect her and her daughters, she moved out of sanctuary into some humble lodgings near westminster, where her one friend seems to have been a doctor named lewis, who was also a priest, and apparently something of a politician too, for he began to plan with the queen for the marriage of her eldest daughter, elizabeth, with harry of richmond, who, through his mother, margaret beaufort, was the hope of the lancastrian party.

richard iii. was already hated in england, and as the story of the way in which he had caused his little nephews to be murdered became generally known, the hatred increased tenfold. so the lancastrian party thought the moment had come for them to make another effort. harry richmond landed at milford haven from france with 3000 men, and soon an eager, willing army flocked to his standard. at bosworth field he met richard in battle.

"let courage supply the want of our numbers," he cried. "and as for me, i propose to live with honour hereafter, or die with honour here."

evening found him the victor of the day; richard lay dead on the field, and his crown, which he had worn into battle, was found hanging on a bush. there on the scene of his triumph the crown was set on henry's head, while the soldiers shouted joyfully, "god save king henry vii.," and then burst into a solemn te deum.

in october henry was formally crowned in the abbey, and in the abbey, too, a few months later, he married the princess elizabeth, once the helpless, homeless sanctuary child. so were the houses of york and lancaster made one; so were the red roses and white roses grafted together, and the people of london celebrated the happy event with bonfires, dancing, songs, and banquet. cardinal bourchier, himself of plantagenet stock, performed the marriage ceremony, and so, as an old writer prettily puts it, "his hand held the sweet posie wherein the white and red roses were first tied together."

not till a year later was elizabeth crowned, and by then a little son had been born to her, named arthur at his father's wish, in memory of the stainless king arthur, whom henry vii. claimed as an ancestor through his welsh grandfather, owen tudor.

it was about this time that a great change came over the people of england in regard to their opinion of henry vi. they had begun by pitying him for his misfortunes; then they had called to mind his patience and humility, his kind deeds, his love of learning, and his pure life, till at last in their eyes he became nothing short of a saint. richard iii. had caused his body to be removed from chertsey to windsor, much to the anger of the priests at chertsey, who had spread abroad stories of wonderful miracles performed at his tomb, which stories, being readily believed, had drawn many pilgrims to the place. and pilgrims never came empty-handed.

henry vii. came under the influence of this feeling, and he resolved that honour should now be done to this king, whom men had liked and pitied, but had never honoured in life. he had already decided to build a new chapel to the virgin mary in the abbey, or rather to entirely rebuild the lady chapel of henry iii., and here he intended henry vi. should be reburied under a costly tomb. he went so far as to petition the pope to add king henry's name to the list of saints; but the pope would only agree to do so for an extravagant sum of money, and henry tudor thought the money could be more profitably spent in other ways. so the matter was allowed to drop, and although the council which had been summoned to decide where henry should finally be buried—in windsor, chertsey, or westminster—gave their judgment in favour of westminster, it is very doubtful if his body was ever moved to the abbey at all. certainly no monument was raised to his memory. however, the building of the lady chapel went on apace, only its purpose was changed. it was no longer to be the chantry of henry vi., but the chapel of henry vii., the burying-place of the tudor kings and queens of his race.

henry was a curious mixture of a desire to hoard up money, and a desire to build what he undertook on a very lavish scale. he saved more money than any other english king, and he certainly spent less, for he was simple in all his tastes, a silent, gloomy man. but he has left behind him in westminster abbey a piece of work as beautiful as wealth and art could make it, a building "stately and surprising, which brought this church to her highest pitch of glory," and though his original ideas as to its purpose were frustrated, his longings that here "three chantry monks should say prayers for his soul so long as the world endured," being ruthlessly disregarded by his own son, henry viii., his chapel still stands, so that with edward the confessor and henry iii. he ranks among the three great royal builders of the abbey.

before you go into this chapel stand for a minute in king edward's shrine, with its stately simplicity; then pass under the chantry of henry v., simple too, but telling of strength, of life, and vigour; walk up the steps of henry's chapel into the dark entrance, and then stay still in the doorway to drink in the matchless beauty before your eyes. here, simplicity is a word unknown; everywhere, inside and out, is a wealth of carving; no spot or corner was deemed too hidden away to be ornamented; roof and walls alike are covered with delicate lacework and rich embroidery made out of stone.

"they dreamed not of a perishable house who thus could build."

the foundation-stone was laid one afternoon in the january of 1502 by islip, "that wise and holy man who was abbot of the westminster monks," and the building was solemnly dedicated to the blessed virgin mary by order of henry vii., king of england and france and lord of ireland. the work went on quickly, for money was not lacking. abbot islip was a man of action, and henry was feverishly anxious that the building should be completed in his lifetime. here it was that he meant to be buried, for just because his claim to the throne was not a very good one, he was doubly anxious to link himself on by many different ways to the kings of the past. everywhere in his chapel, round his tomb, on the roof, and on the doorways, you will find his different badges set up, as if to say, "each one of these badges gave me the right to be king of england." you will see over and over again the york and lancaster roses; the portcullis and the greyhound, both of them beaufort badges, which had come to him through his mother, margaret beaufort, the direct descendant of john of gaunt, duke of lancaster; the red dragon of cadwallader of wales, the last british king, whom henry alone of all the english kings proudly claimed as his ancestor, through owen tudor, his father; and the lion, which always figured in the royal arms of england. these badges, everywhere carved, were henry's challenge to any one who might dispute his claim.

"we will," said henry, "that this chapel be wholly and perfectlie fynished with all spede; and the windows glazed with stories, imagies, badgies, and cognoisants; that the walles, doors, archies, windows, vaults, and imagies, within and without be painted, garnished, and adorned in as goodly and rich manner as such a work requireth and as to a king's work appertaigneth."

but in spite of all the speed the king died before the work was finished, and never saw his chapel in all its costly beauty. only a few days before his death he gave the abbot ￡5000 more, "in redy money by the hande," for the carrying on of the work, and his will showed how deep his interest lay, for he solemnly charged his executors to advance whatever money was needful, and to choose for the high altar "the greatest image of our lady we have in our juel house; a crosse of plate of gold upon tymber, chalices, altar suits, vestments, candlesticks, and ornaments," all of them to bear the royal badges. "and for the price and value of them," he concluded, "our mynde is, that thei bei of suche as appertaigneth to the gifte of a prynce; and therefore we wol that our executours in that partie have a special regarde to the lawe of god, the weal of our soule and our honour royal."

queen elizabeth had died some years before her husband, and had been impressively laid in some side chapel of the abbey. now, on henry's death, both were buried together in the tomb which the king had ordered should be in the middle of the chapel by the high altar, and about which he had left minute instructions as to the images of himself and the queen, the inscription, the tabernacles round the tomb with the images of saints and angels, and the grating of copper and gilt for its protection.

certainly the tomb was made worthy of the exquisite chapel which enshrined it, and henry's wishes were faithfully carried out in this respect. an italian, torregiano, made the images of the king and queen in gilt bronze, and torregiano was something of a genius, for all his images have a wonderful life of their own. yet he must have been anything but a pleasant visitor to the monastery precincts, for he was a bold man, with a loud voice, frowning eyebrows, and fierce gestures, who daily boasted of his feats among the beasts of englishmen, and told how he had broken the nose of his rival michael angelo; or how he had shattered to pieces an image of the virgin, because there was some dispute about the price to be paid him. however, we must forgive him his violent temper out of gratitude for his beautiful work.

the grating round the tomb was made by english workmen, and here again you will see everywhere the king's badges. and i want you to notice, too, the little angels who stand round the king and queen, for they look as if they had just flown there for a moment, so lightly are they poised. then you must look at the carvings round the tomb, those saints whom the king had chosen to be his guardians: the virgin mary with christ in her arms and st. michael at her side; st. john the baptist pointing to a picture of the lamb of god; st. john the evangelist holding his gospel in his hand, an eagle standing at his feet; st. george of england standing on the vanquished dragon, and with him st. anthony dressed as a monk; mary magdalene with her box of precious ointment; st. barbara holding a three-windowed tower; st. christopher bearing on his shoulder the christ child, and st. edward the confessor crowned in glory.

just outside the screen must have stood a beautiful altar, also the work of torrigiano, an altar of white marble, gilded with fine gold, enriched by inlay and carving, the central figure being "an image, erth coloured of christ dead;" but this was wrecked by a fanatic named marlow in the time of the commonwealth, whose "ignorant zeal was such that he brake it into shivers, though it was a raritie not to be matched in any part of the world."

as you stand in the chapel i want you to gaze up at the vaulted roof, which seems as though it hung in mid air, so wonderful is the design with its fairy grace and lightness; for here you see a beautiful example of that fan-tracery vaulting which was peculiarly english in its style, and which in this case was probably the work of two english masons, john hyharn and william vertue. then you must look around at the army of saints and martyrs who guard the walls; king, apostle, saint confessor, all are here, and the niches in which they stand are delicately carved and decorated. and you must try to imagine the glory of the windows in those early days when, filled with "goode, clene, sure, and perfyte glasse of oryent colours, and the imagery of the story of the olde lawe and the new lawe," they reflected their rich hues around. now only one little part of those many painted windows remains, but that is a figure of henry vii., who looks down over the chapel which he raised.

the carved oaken stalls intended for the monks were not all finished at this time, and as is so often the case with such stalls, there is nothing sacred about the character of the ornaments carved on them. on the contrary, they aim at being amusing; and you will find quaint figures of monkeys winnowing corn; of foxes in armour riding on the backs of cocks; of fiends seizing a miser; of turkeys chasing a boy; a bear playing on bagpipes, and so on. in the year 1725 george i. reconstructed the old order of knights of the bath, and as from the days of richard ii. it had been the custom only to create such knights at a coronation and when a prince of wales was created, the order had many associations with westminster. so this chapel of henry vii. was set apart as the chapel of the order, just as the chapel of st. george's, windsor, was set apart for the order of the garter; and here for nearly a hundred years every knight was installed; here was hung his banner; and here was fastened up over his stall the plate on which was emblazoned his coat of arms. but gradually the order became so large that the many ceremonies connected with it had to cease, and now only the banners which hang here tell us of bygone days.

gates of henry vii.'s chapel.

gates of henry vii.'s chapel.

as you come out, take a last look at the massive gates of oak and metal serried with badges, and then stand once more in the middle of the sixteenth century, when that mass of carving was made yet more rich and beautiful by the colours which blazed everywhere, from the crimson, blue, and purple of the windows; the gold and silver vessels on the altar; the gleaming brass of the images; the gorgeous vestments of the priests; the dazzling whiteness of the marble; the glitter of the tapers round the tomb. think of how abbot islip must have gloried in this new gem of dazzling beauty now added to the abbey, already so rich in treasure; for islip was of "a wakeful conscience" and held himself the steward of the house of god, so that he too did some building to this place, and evidently won the confidence of the king, who made him paymaster of the workmen.

as for henry himself, the chapel has become a far greater memorial of him than he can ever have deemed possible. it matters little to us now what was his real motive in raising it, even if it were possible to point to any one unmixed motive which inspired him. for us it is enough that the chapel stands, and though we need not, with fabyan the chronicler, wax enthusiastic over "the excellent wysdome, sugared eloquence, wonderfull dyscression, the exceedynge treasure and rychesse innumerabyll" of this silent, almost gloomy king, let us with the same chronicler "remember his beautyfull buildyngs and his liberell endowments at westminster, and pray that he may attain that celestyall mansion whych he and all trew christen soules are inheritors unto, the whyche god hym graunt."