Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Makers of History Richard III. By JACOB ABBOTT WITH ENGRAVINGS NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1901 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. Copyright, 1886, by BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT, AUSTIN ABBOTT, LYMAN ABBOTT, AND EDWARD ABBOTT. [Illustration: THE ROYAL CHAMPION.] PREFACE. King Richard the Third, known commonly in history as Richard the Usurper, was perhaps as bad a man as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever raised to the throne, or perhaps it should rather be said, as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever _made_. There is no evidence that his natural disposition was marked with any peculiar depravity. He was made reckless, unscrupulous, and cruel by the influences which surrounded him, and the circumstances in which he lived, and by being habituated to believe, from his earliest childhood, that the family to which he belonged were born to live in luxury and splendor, and to reign, while the millions that formed the great mass of the community were created only to toil and to obey. The manner in which the principles of pride, ambition, and desperate love of power, which were instilled into his mind in his earliest years, brought forth in the end their legitimate fruits, is clearly seen by the following narrative. CONTENTS. Chapter Page I. RICHARD'S MOTHER 13 II. RICHARD'S FATHER 33 III. THE CHILDHOOD OF RICHARD 57 IV. ACCESSION OF EDWARD IV., RICHARD'S ELDER BROTHER 67 V. WARWICK, THE KING-MAKER 89 VI. THE DOWNFALL OF YORK 118 VII. THE DOWNFALL OF LANCASTER 137 VIII. RICHARD'S MARRIAGE 165 IX. END OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD 182 X. RICHARD AND EDWARD V. 208 XI. TAKING SANCTUARY 221 XII. RICHARD LORD PROTECTOR 236 XIII. PROCLAIMED KING 258 XIV. THE CORONATION 279 XV. FATE OF THE PRINCES 291 XVI. DOMESTIC TROUBLES 301 XVII. THE FIELD OF BOSWORTH 320 ENGRAVINGS. Page