The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-20

eyes Of every Roman who set foot in his
kingdom. After he had been excommuni-
Gated and his subjects absolved from their
allegiance. he was compelled to make the
most humiliating submission. Perhaps in
revenge for this defeat he afterwards sent
an embassy to the Emir of Morocco. pro-
posing. as one of his embassy declared to
turn Mohammedan and become the Emir's
vassal 1t was after his reconciliation with
the church that learning OF the death of
a bishop who had been restraint upon his
tyranny, the King swore by Gods feet. an
other OF his favorite oaths, that he ex-
pected to meet the bishop in hell, and that
he had never before been lord and master
OF his realm. The one memorable act of
Johns reign, the signing of the great char
ter is said 10 have been resented by him
with such transports of fury that he
Teamed at the mouth. CRASHED his teeth
and gnawed bits OF wood and straw like
madman. Yet this monster of depravity
who owed his title to murder, became the
founder of the longest uninterrupted sue
cession in English history. lasting just two
hundred years from his accession in 1889,
to the abdication of Richard II, in 1899 The
crown passed from father to son through
Henry III, the three Edwards and the
Black Prince who died before his father,
. to Richard II.
WAR OF THE ROSES.
On the death OF Richard without issue,
preceded by his enforced abdcation. the
crown was seized by Henry w leader of
the revolt against him. He was the oldest
son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,
who was the fourth son of Edward III.
With his reign began the longest and most
complicated struggle over the succession,
har1 hJIn
the sixty years rule of the house of Lam
caster, including the reigns of Henry ",
Y and VI, the real title to the crown, by
right OF primogeniture, was in the descend
ants of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the third
son Of Edward III Lionels daughter, Phil
ippa, transmitted his title to her son. Roger
Mortimer, Earl of March, and he in turn
to a daughter Anne Mortimer, who mar
ried Richard Earl of Cambridge, who was
the second son and heir of Edmund, Duke
of York, the fifth son of Edward III. A son
OF this marriage, and heir to a double de-
scent from King Edward, was Richard
Duke of York. Having clearly better title
to the crown than the house of Lancaster,
and being, besides stout soldier and
shrewd politician, the Duke took advantage
of the mental weakness and ultimate imbe-
cility of Henry VI to press his claim to the
was the result, a war that cost a
hundred thousand lives that doomed to
death on the block or the battlefield
every male of the great houses
of Warwick and Somerset for two genera
tons; that broke the power of the barons
and shattered the traditional veneration for
rank and royalty. 1t was a war of mobiles,
in which they slaughtered, beheaded and
assaSsinated each other to further the ut
terly selfish and INSCRIPTIONS ambition of
a few leaders. Kings were made and I'M
made in a day. Dukes and earls of the
proudest lineage marched to battle with
thousands of retainers, and came out bereft
of lands and titles, If not of life or liberty.
The common people profited by struggles
that weakened their feudal superiors and
strengthened the authority of Parliament.
For twenty-four years, from 1461 to Ass, the
house of York held the throne won by the
sword, and then lost it by the sword, after
that nightmare reign of Richard III, which
Shakespeare has taken out of the province
of history beyond recall The aversion in
spired by his real and imaginary crimes
fought against him at Bosworth, leaving
the holder and better soldier dead on the
field, ard comforting his crown upon one
who had been for the greater part of his
life needy adventurer.
The death of Prince Edward, son Of
Henry W, at Tewksbury, extinguished the
elder house of Lancaster but John of
Gaunt left children by his mistress Cath
arine Swynford, who were legitimized by
act of Parliament The oldest son was
John Beaufort Marquis of Somerset. who
left a son, John, Duke of Somerset, and he
a daughter, Margaret. BY her marriage
with Edmund Tudor Earl of Richmond,
Margaret became the mother of the victor
of Bosworth, Henry VII. While Henrys
title was the best the Lancastrian party
could command it was so obviously inferior
to that of the house of York that Parlia-
nent prayed the new King to put an end
to the long controversy by marriage with
his cousin Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Edward w, and his. heir since the murder
of the young princes in the Tower by their
uncle, Richard. The marriage was accord
ingly consummated and the descendants Of
this union of the red and the white rose
united the heirship derived from three sons
OF Edward III. Years afterward. however,
Henry cast the darkest blot upon his reign
by the execution of the young Earl of War
wick for no crime except being the son Of
Shakspeares Duke OF Clarence, and the last
OF the unbroken male line Of descent from
Edward III.
FOR THE HISTORIANS.
1t is a curious fact, generally disregarded
by historians of the period, that Margaret,
Henry WIS mother, from whom was de-
rived such title as he had, actually
vived him. AS she never formally abd-
Gated in his favor it is hard to see how the
theory of divine right was construed
While there was never any question of Mar
garet's consent to this arrangement, 1t
might have been better for England had
the natural order been followed Marga-
rets is one of the few pleasing and admira-
BILE characters of that wild time. Her life
long influence over her selfish and grasping
son appears always to have been exerted
wisely and benignantly. She was a gen.
erous patron of educational and religious
foundation, and bequeathed nearly all her
large fortune to these objects.
Upon the death of Henry VII, in 1909. the
line of succession not only left the throne,
but the kingdom. for nearly a hundred
years. Henry was a pacific monarch, not
so much from love of peace as from love
of money. In order to avert a threatened
war with Scotland he gave his eldest
daughter, Margaret, in marriage to James
", when she was not yet fourteen years
old. History adds little to the vivid portrait
of lanes in Scott's 'Nfarmion +" ChfvaIrous