Richard III

The great quarrel between the houses of York and Lancaster.--Terrible results of the quarrel.--Origin of it.--Intricate questions of genealogy and descent.--Lady Cecily Neville.--She becomes Duchess of York.--Her mode of life.--Extract from the ancient annals.--Lady Cecily's family.--Names of the children.--The boys' situation and mode of life.--Their letters.--Letter written by Edward and Edmund.--The boys congratulate their father on his victories.--Further particulars about the boys.--The Castle of Ludlow.--Character of Richard's mother.--Spirit of aristocracy.--Relative condition of the nobles and the people.--Character of Richard's mother.--The governess.--Sir Richard Croft, the boys' governor.

The mother of King Richard the Third was a beautiful, and, in many respects, a noble-minded woman, though she lived in very rude, turbulent, and trying times. She was born, so to speak, into one of the most widely-extended, the most bitter, and the most fatal of the family quarrels which have darkened the annals of the great in the whole history of mankind, namely, that long-protracted and bitter contest which was waged for so many years between the two great branches of the family of Edward the Third--the houses of York and Lancaster--for the possession of the kingdom of England. This dreadful quarrel lasted for more than a hundred years. It led to wars and commotions, to the sacking and burning of towns, to the ravaging of fruitful countries, and to atrocious deeds of violence of every sort, almost without number. The internal peace of hundreds of thousands of families all over the land was destroyed by it for many generations. Husbands were alienated from wives, and parents from children by it. Murders and assassinations innumerable grew out of it. And what was it all about? you will ask. It arose from the fact that the descendants of a certain king had married and intermarried among each other in such a complicated manner that for several generations nobody could tell which of two different lines of candidates was fairly entitled to the throne. The question was settled at last by a prince who inherited the claim on one side marrying a princess who was the heir on the other. Thus the conflicting interests of the two houses were combined, and the quarrel was ended.

But, while the question was pending, it kept the country in a state of perpetual commotion, with feuds, and quarrels, and combats innumerable, and all the other countless and indescribable horrors of civil war.

[Illustration: SCENES OF CIVIL WAR.]