more accurate sources of information as to motives were available.

Could that fair form, long since dissipated into ashes, be restored by the magic art of the fabled resuscitator of Egypt's king, once more to revisit England's laughing isle, the influence of a refinement, which, notwithstanding adverse circumstances, must have been inherent in the possessor of so exquisite a face, might, in the expansion of a congenial atmosphere around the fair daisy of Provence, have elicited the gentle beauty typified by the flower, have realised in her character the tender radiance of the pearlher emblem gem; like herself soft and yielding, till exposed to the chilly blast, though nursed amidst the billow and the storm; and, by an alchemy greater than all, have transformed her into the brightest ornament in the coronet of female virtue.

A NOTICE OF

THE

LIFE OF ELIZABETH OF YORK,

QUEEN OF HENRY THE SEVENTH.

BY THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON.

ELIZABETH OF YORK was the first offspring of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Woodville, whom his romantic passion elevated to a throne. She was born at the palace of Westminster, in 1466,' and was as warmly welcomed by her parents as if a prince had been granted them. Their satisfaction was not, however, shared by their subjects, for in the troubled times in which she first saw the light a male successor to the throne was felt by the people to be necessary to the maintenance of its strength and dignity, both much endangered by the marriage of her parents and the evils it entailed. Two more daughters followed Elizabeth, to the great discontent of the people; nor was it until they had despaired of a male heir to the crown that one was granted. A year after the birth of Elizabeth her father had embroiled himself with the all-powerful Earl of Warwick, by the resumption of the manors of Penley 2 and Widestone, formerly bestowed on his brother George, archbishop of York; and by depriving him of the Seals, which he bestowed on Robert Stillington, bishop of Bath, whom he made Chancellor of England. The grants conferred

1 Carte, vol. ii. book xiii. p. 772.

2 Idem, p.

773.

on Warwick and his brothers, and particularly these last, though of great importance, were well merited, and the resumption of them being considered as acts of ingratitude, indisposed many towards the king, who could ill afford the loss of any portion of his popularity at that crisis, when the exactions of the queen1 and the vast favour shewn to her family caused such general dissatisfaction.

From the commencement of the acknowledgment of his marriage, Edward had been incited to ill-will against Warwick and his brothers by the Woodvilles, or Widevilles, as they were then called, the family of the queen, who, jealous of the influence of Warwick with the king, sought all means in their power to diminish it. In 1468, Warwick was accused, on the hearsay evidence of a mean person, of favouring the party of Margaret of Anjou, and commissioners were sent to examine the earl at Middleham, where he was then residing. The charge was proved to be wholly unfounded; but the insult was too great to be overlooked by a man whose pride and high sense of honour rendered him peculiarly sensitive to aught that impugned either. The unpopularity of the Woodvilles, to whom this insult was attributed, created such general sympathy in favour of Warwick, that the king, alarmed for the possible result, went in person to Nottingham, attended by a guard of two hundred gentlemen, and effected a reconciliation between the Archbishop of York and the Earl of Rivers, father of the queen, which a little later led to the archbishop's making peace between his brother the Earl of Warwick and Lord Herbert (brother-in-law to the queen), and the Lords Stafford and Audley.3

But though apparently reconciled, Warwick could not forget the injury he had received, nor could those who had inflicted it forgive the humiliation of being defeated in their attempt to destroy him. The king's brother, the Duke of 3 Idem, p. 775.

Carte, vol. ii. book xiii. p. 774.

2 Idem, p. 775.