In consequence of Sir A. Milman's letter I made another close scrutiny of dates given by various authorities for the same events with important results. I also went very carefully over the ground of the battlefields of Wakefield, Towton, Barnet, Tewkesbury, and Bosworth; and I added some chapters to the work. {ix} The correspondence to which I have referred has led me to the conclusion that students of history are not, as I once believed, unwilling to reconsider the questions which form the subject of the present work, when they are presented from new points of view; and that the well-known arguments which were supposed to suffice for the defence of the Tudor stories in the past are in these days insufficient. The numerous points now raised and submitted for the judgment of students are at all events worth discussing. The present work is about as complete as very frequent revision can make it. [1] She pointed out that the titles of Norfolk and Nottingham, granted by Edward IV. to his second son Richard, were given by Richard III. to Lords Howard and Berkeley, and that, therefore, young Richard must have been dead. The answer is that the grants to Lords Howard and Berkeley were made on June 28, 1483, before it was even pretended that young Richard had been murdered. {xi} CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v _PART I_ CHAPTER I BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD Description of Fotheringhay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Possessions of the Duke of York. Marriage . . . . . . . . 2, 3 Birth of Richard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Letter of Edward and Edmund to their father . . . . . . . 4 Children of the Duke of York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Richard a prisoner of war aged 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Refuge in John Paston's chambers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 CHAPTER II DEATH OF RICHARD'S FATHER AND BROTHER AT THE BATTLE OF WAKEFIELD The Duke of York declared Heir-Apparent . . . . . . . . . 9 The Duke and his family united at Baynard's Castle . . . . 10 March to Sandal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Description of Sandal Castle and its neighbourhood . . . . 12, 13 Battle of Wakefield. Death of the Duke . . . . . . . . . 14, 15 Death of Edmund, Earl of Rutland . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 16 Cruelty and inhuman folly of the Lancastrians . . . . . . 17 Edward's victory at Mortimer's Cross . . . . . . . . . . . 18 George and Richard sent to Holland for safety . . . . . . 18, 19 {xii} CHAPTER III THE CROWNING VICTORY OF TOWTON