The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1921-09-16

read today because the characters
who play so large a part in enc of the
great human struggles toward liberty
are all human beings and not mere
puppets. The story IS one of intrigue
and of battle, centering nominally in
the Wars Of the Roses and the strug-
giles of the two great houses of York
and Lancaster; yet the interest Is far
larger than q mere dynastic one; the
rise of the middle class to power at
the expense OF the barOnial, the
growth of a national spirit in place
of mere individual loyalty to a feudal
chieftain, is the important thing in this
manifestation of class-cOnsciousness,
the plain people uniting with the trad
ing townsmen against the mobiles.
The great earl, who had made Ed
ward the Fourth king, found himself
for very personal reasons trying to
unseat that prince and to put In his
place another Edward, Of the house Of
Lancaster. heir to Henry the Sixth,
whom Edward OF York was holding a
prisoner in the Tower. Yet Warwick's
path was not an easy one; while his
younger daughter was married to Ed
ward of Lancaster, his other daughter,
Isabel, was the wife Of the kings
younger brother Clarence, who was as
yet the male heir to the throne. How
ever things might 20, a Warwick might
some day sit upon the throne Of Eng
1nn ana did MT tnLn .x "
the possibilities that lay hidden behind
the inscrutable smile Of the kings
youngest brother, Richard, duke Of
Gloucester. But Warwick was at
heart. fighting the battle of aristocracy,
whilefthe king was with the current
which was converting an agricultural
into a trading population. With War
wick was his powerful fighting broth
er. Montagu; with hlm-or against
him, who could tell?-was his other
brother, the facile archbishop who
aspired to be a pope, whose mansion
was at once a school for youth, a court
for middle life. an asylum for age,
whittier as to a Medici fed the let
tersN and the arts.
In the end Warwick found himself
placed upOn the throne. The impetu-
Gus and fiery temperament of Edward
the Fourth was rendered yet more
fearful by the indulgence of every In
temperance. His very virtues strength |
ened his vices: his courage stifled ev-
-- oA ,.- 90 10
he loved to provoke a danger for the
pleasure it gave his brain to battle or
his hand to crush II. n yet he had
a shrewd policy which perhaps drew
him knowingly into the quarrel with
Warwick, which merely his evil pas
seemed to provoke. 81 wish to |
raise a fresh nobility" he said, ito
cOunteract the pride of the old only
upon new mobiles can a new dynasty
This was the YOrkist principle
Of humbling the barOnial and raising
the middle class. 1t was easy of exc
at a period when a martial aris-
tocrncy was beginning to merge into
a voluptuous court.
Warwick was defending freedom for
the barons. Robin Hilyard was strug>
Cling to win freedom for the people as
against king and mobiles. Yet the earl
and Robin found themselves fighting
In the same army. Neither white
rose nor red shall be on my banner"
cried Hilyard, but our standard shall
be the CORY head of the first oppressOr
can place upon a pole. We are
faxed, ground, pillaged. plundered-i
sheep, maintained to be sheared for
on peace or butchered for your war"
Through the cause Of the gentle Henry
the Tower Robin saw greater free
for the people.
War is not the only theme of the
book, however. The intrigues Of the
queens family, the patient diplomacy
IF the bitter and revengeful Margaret
# Aniou, queen of the king in the
rower, the love Of the gentle Anne
for Margaret's son Edward, the
influence of royal marriages on the
ate of nations, the struggles of the
IOllardS, predecessors of the Puritans
Who caused Charles the First so much
rouble: the fine Italian hand Of Rich
lrd, duke of Gloucester; the long and
,atieDt toll Of Adam Warner, scholar
Who dreamed of Harvesting steam to
his machine Eureka to do the work Of