espoused lady Elizabeth Talbot, widow of lord Butler, and daughter of the earl of Shrewsbury. This idle tale was believed; his marriage with Elizabeth was declared illegal, and Richard assumed the crown. The deposed monarch and his brother were confined in the tower, and murdered by the orders of the usurper. The estates of the

queen-mother were confiscated, and that unfortunate princess, reduced to poverty and overwhelmed with disgrace, had no other alternative than to leave the sanctuary, and put herself and her five daughters into the hands of the usurper of her son's throne. Richard took a solemn oath in the house of peers, that they should be in no danger of their lives; that he would allow her seven hundred marks a year, give to each of her daughters a portion of two hundred marks, and marry them to gentlemen.

Thus reduced to the state of a private gentlewoman, Elizabeth looked forward with hopes to the preparations of the earl of Richmond, and promised to bestow her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, on him, who was considered as chief of the Lancaster party. But while she was secretly abetting this plot against the usurper, Richard, well aware that the whole success of Richmond's plan depended on his marriage with the princess, and being a widower by the death of his wife Anne, · formed the design of defeating the scheme of his enemies, by espousing his niece Elizabeth; and as kings court the fair with great advantage, and the lustre of a crown is apt to dazzle the brightest eyes, both the young princess and the queen her mother consented to this unnatural alliance with a man who had done them the most cruel injuries, but now enticed them by the most tempting promises. The queen communicated the de

sign to her son, the marquis of Dorset, who was at Paris with the earl of Richmond, and entreated him to return to England to receive the honours that had been promised him by Richard.This conduct cannot be justified, unless we suppose, what is not improbable, that Elizabeth, in whose cabinet was first laid the plan of the great confederacy, which overthrew the throne of Richard, deceived the king by false promises, and was continuing her negotiations with the earl of Richmond, and urging him to hasten his invasion at the moment she affected to accept the alliance of Richard. Richmond, alarmed with the news of this intended marriage, hastened his preparations, landed in England, and being joined by numerous bodies, who flocked to his standard from all parts, he defeated and killed Richard at the battle of Bosworth field, and seated himself on the throne, under the name of Henry the se venth.

Elizabeth seemed now to have attained the height of human felicity. She saw the man who had injured her own honour, usurped her son's throne, and murdered her family, dethroned by the earl of Richmond, who had promised to marry her daughter, and by uniting the two roses, she gave peace and tranquillity to her distracted country, so long torn to pieces by civil discord.

But the chagrin of Elizabeth was only to be terminated with her life. Instead of expressing gratitude to Elizabeth, for having first laid the plan of the greatest confederacy, to which he owed his elevation, the gloomy and malignant Henry never forgave her consent to the alliance with Richard, and treated her with coolness and reserve. Unwilling to appear as if he owed his crown to his marriage with the heiress of the

house of York, he delayed two years the celebration of that ceremony. The general joy which his subjects testified at his marriage, filled him with displeasure. His suspicious disturbed his tranquillity, bred disgust towards his queen, poisoned all his domestic enjoyments; and the malignant ideas of party prevailed in his sullen mind, over all the sentiments of gratitude to the queen-dowager, and affection towards his virtuous and obsequious consort.

The queen-dowager seeing her daughter treated with severity, herself excluded from the smallest share of authority, her friends in disgrace, and her party persecuted, conceived against Henry the most violent resentment. As she was preparing again to discover that character of ambition and intrigue which she had betrayed during the reign of her husband, and the usurpation of Richard, she was suddenly arrested and imprisoned in the abbey of Bermondsey. In excuse for so arbitrary an act, it was alledged that notwithstanding a secret agreement to marry her daughter to Henry, she had yielded to the solici tations and menaces of Richard, and delivered that princess and her sister into the hands of the tyrant. This crime, if such it could be called, now become obsolete, was supposed not to be the real cause of the severity with which she was treated; and it was credited, or at least Henry himself believed, that she secretly countenanced. the report that the duke of York had escaped from the tower, and that she abetted the imposture of Lambert Simmel, who personated the earl of Warwick, and was publicly proclaimed king at Dublin, under the name of Edward the sixth. These suspicions were afterwards the more confirmed, when it was found that the unfortunate

queen-dowager, though she survived this disgrace several years, was never treated with more lenity; her large estates were confiscated, and she ended her life, which had been chequered with such various fortunes, (as lord Bacon in his life of Henry seventh says,) "in prison, poverty and solitude.”

The merit of Elizabeth consisted in her prudent and virtuous conduct towards Edward, before she became his wife; in her compliance with his temper after marriage; and patience under his numerous infidelities; in her humanity towards the dethroned queen Margaret; and in the eminent protection she afforded to literature, by founding Queen's college, in the university of Cambridge. Her principal defects were a restless ambition, and too great a partiality to her relations, which was the cause of all her misfortunes.

CATHARINE OF ARRAGON,

QUEEN CONSORT OF HENRY THE EIGHTH.

IF any woman could ever derive elevation of mind from high birth and dignity of connexions, that woman was Catharine of Arragon:-Her father, Ferdinand, was king of Arragon, Naples, and Sicily; her mother, Isabella, was queen of Castile; and her nephew, so well known under the name of Charles the fifth, was emperor of Germany.

Catharine was born in 1485, and before she had attained the age of sixteen, married Arthur, prince of Wales, who was scarcely fifteen, and in less than half a year became a widow.

In 1502, by means of a dispensation from the pope, she was bethrothed to Henry, the brother of Arthur, then only twelve years of age. This match was so contrary to the inclination of the young prince, that he did not agree to it till he was compelled by the positive commands of his father, Henry the seventh, whose avarice rendered him averse to return so considerable a dowry' as Catharine had brought into the kingdom.

But as the nation in general was prejudiced against the marriage of such near connexions, the king, though he had been so eager to have the espousals solemnized, gave evident proofs of his intention to annul them. He ordered the young prince, as soon as he came of age, to enter a protestation against the marriage; and on his death bed he charged him as his last injunction, not to finish so unlawful an alliance.

At the accession of Henry the eighth, a council was summoned to deliberate on this momentous affair. On the one hand her former marriage with the king's brother, and the inequality of their years, were strong objections. On the other, the propriety of the match was supported by Catharine's known virtue, mild temper, and affection to the king, by the necessity of returning her large dowry, by the expediency of fulfilling the engagements of the late king, and the dread of offending two such powerful sovereigns as Ferdinand and Isabella; whose alliance, in case of a rupture with France, was of so great importance. Henry followed the advice of his council, and solemnized the marriage. Her person being handsome, and her manner agreeable, Henry behaved to her with affection; and as she possessed sound judgment, he treated her with