31

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of Richard were slain in the battle, such as the Duke ef Norfolk, others were captured, and put to death, such as Catesby. The body of Richard found under a heap of slain, and manged by many wounds was carried into Leicester stripped of the costly attire he had worne, and thrown across the back of a horse behind his herald„Blanc Sanglier“ so that his head and arms were hanging down on one side, and his legs on the other. After having been exposed for some time he was at first burried by the nuns of Leicester, but then, about ten years after, by order of King Henry deposited in the chief church of that town belonging to the order of the Grey Friars(Halsted, Richard III. Pauli, Aufsätze.)

Thus ended the short career of Richard III., in the 33 year of his life, and after a reign of but little more than two years. He fell, not by a general rising of the people as might be presumed, but by the treason of men he had believed to have closely attached to his throne and person by kindnesses and liberalities lavishly bestowed upon them. That hardly any Englishman rose against Richard, and joined Henry of Richmond on his march through the country that he had come to deliver from its bloody tyrant, is a fact which speaks greatly to Richard's favour, and is to be considered, methinks, a proof that he was not hated by far so much as has been said and believed, and that he was not that bloody monster subsequent ages have made of him. Ambition induced him to violate the most sacred laws of our religion, and to shed the blood of his antagonists, but in this he was no worse than his time when a murqder, if it furthered the purpose, was done without hesitation. But Richard was not of a bloody, or cruel, and vindictive a disposition as may be seen from his not persecuting the families of his enemies. And once established upon the throne he meant to be king in the full meaning of the word, and to promote the happy- ness of his people. So he began at once to put an end to the unsettled state of the country by giving good laws, and having strict justice administered throughout the country, encouraged lear- ning by bestowing large sums of money upon several colleges of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, instituted the heraldic office at London, established the first post, and encouraged Caxton's first trials of printing. There is no doubt that, if a longer life had been granted him, he would, have succeeded by and by in reconciling all. minds, that he would perhaps have made forget all the bloody deeds committed to get the crown, and that he would have become one of the best English kings. But after his fall all good qualities, all good intentions, and all good measures and regulations of the fallen foe of Henry VIII. were passed over in silence by his ene- mies, and only his shortcomings, his wickedness and crimes were spoken about without much scrupling whether the accusations brought forth against him were true or not, whether he was guilty of the crimes that were laid to his charge or not. Richard's friends did not dare take his part openly because they would have brought upon themselves severe persecutions and punishments. Again, there was not much chronicling at those unruly times, only here and there some recluse in his lonely cell noted down the facts that came to his knowledge, and only those chronicles dared show themselves that were written for Henry, whilst those that did justice to Richard remained hidden away in the libraries where they were found but lately. A close examination and comparison of all writings concerning the life of Richard has brought to light the curious fact, that the depravity of Richard increases, that his crimes get the more numerous the more the distance increases that separates the writer from Richard's time, and that sometimes the atrocities which the latest writer relates as a fact, are mentioned merely as a rumor by the chronicler from whom