Jean Plaidy - The Sun in Splendour

There was a heavy pause in the crowd which as Buckingham had predicted filled the Guildhall and spilled into the streets outside.

Then some of Buckingham’s men shouted from the back of the hall: ‘Long Live King Richard.’

Buckingham appeared to be satisfied.

The next day the Parliament met. The facts were presented; the marriage discussed, as was the illegitimacy of Edward the Fifth and of Edward the Fourth and the Duke of Clarence. Buckingham reminded the peers that Edward had been born in Rouen and Clarence in Dublin. Richard was a true Englishman for he had seen the light of day at Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire. Would they agree that a deputation should be sent to Baynard’s Castle and ask Richard to take the crown? They agreed and the following day, Buckingham led the deputation to the castle where Richard, with a show of reluctance, agreed to accept the crown. The reign of Edward the Fifth was over. That of Richard the Third had begun.

Anne had arrived in London with her son Edward. She was uneasy for she was sure that Edward was not fit to travel. However, on such an occasion she must be present and so must their son, for now she was the Queen ... Queen of England. On the journey down from Middleham her apprehension had increased. She had grown accustomed to the quiet life at Middleham; she had wished, naturally, that Richard could be with them, but since the death of his brother she had scarcely seen him. It had been something of a shock to her to learn that he had been offered the crown and for what reason.

She thought often of Queen Elizabeth Woodville and imagined her wrath at the turn events had taken. And here was she, in Elizabeth’s place. She wondered what those who had departed would think if they could look back and see what was happening. She could imagine her father’s delight. His daughter a queen!

Dear father, who had been good to his family when he had time for them, but he had sought the glittering prizes of life and had in time met his death. What were all those prizes worth now? But she smiled to think how he would have rejoiced to see his daughter Queen. He would have thought everything worthwhile and she wished that she could share those feelings. Alas, the prospect filled her only with misgivings.

She knew that Richard would be uneasy too. He would be a worthy King; he had the gift of governing well; but to think that he had come to power through the dishonour of his brother and his young nephew would disturb him greatly she knew.

He brought her into London by barge but as soon as he had greeted her she noticed the fresh furrows on his brow. He was delighted to see her and their son of course though the looks of both of them added to his anxieties.

She had commanded her women to brighten her complexion for she did not want to alarm Richard with her pallor. There was nothing she could do, though, to disguise the boy’s wan looks.

‘So,’ she said, ‘you are the King now. You were a mere Duke when we last met.’

‘It has all happened quickly, Anne. I want to talk to you about it.’

The people cheered them as they sailed up river to Baynard’s Castle. There was little time, Richard explained, for the coronation was fixed for the sixth of July.

‘So soon?’ cried Anne.

‘Coronations should never be delayed,’ answered Richard.

He talked to his son and was at least pleased with the boy’s brightness. It helped to compensate for his frail health.

He sought an early opportunity of being alone with Anne for he could see that she was bewildered by the astonishing turn of events.

‘You have heard the story. Young Edward was a bastard because of my brother’s previous marriage.’

‘The whole country talks of it.’

‘Everyone of good sense wants a stable country and that cannot be with a King who is too young to govern. There are certain to be rivals – different people eager to get the King in their control. If Edward had been of age I should have subdued the fact of his bastardy for my brother’s sake.’

‘Yes, Richard, I believe you would.’

‘It is not that I wish for the crown ... for the arduous duties of a sovereign. Power is enticing but it brings such burdens, Anne. We were happy at Middleham, were we not?’

‘So happy,’ she said. ‘But such happiness does not last.’

‘And you are worried about the boy?’

‘His health is not good.’

‘We will make him Prince of Wales.’

‘I do not think that will improve it.’

‘Anne, he must get well.’

‘I wish we could have more children. I’m afraid I am not a very good wife for you, Richard. You should have had someone fecund, vital ... someone like Elizabeth Woodville.’

‘God forbid. I dislike that woman as much as she dislikes me. I thought Edward demeaned himself by marrying ... or rather going through a form of marriage with her. It was from that that all our troubles started. The Woodvilles ... the cursed Woodvilles ... they brought your father against my brother.’

She laid a hand on his arm. ‘Richard, that is all over now. Don’t let us brood on the past.’

‘You are right. But let me say this one thing, Anne. I was begged by the lords to take the crown. I hesitated but I saw my duty, though if the people had raised a voice against me I would have refused.’

‘Of course the people did not raise a voice against you. They want you, Richard. They want what you can give them ... a stable, prosperous country ... the kind they had when Edward ruled. They cannot get that without you. If it were not for you the Woodvilles would rule the country now. All know their cupidity. They had done nothing but enriched themselves since Edward made Elizabeth his Queen. They want you, Richard. They are determined to have you. And do not forget, because of Edward’s previous contract, you are the rightful King.’

‘I know it, Anne. It is for this reason that I have taken the crown.’

‘Then, let us give our thoughts to the coronation for there is very little time.’

On the day before that fixed for the coronation ceremony the people crowded out on the river bank to see the King with his Queen and his son go by water to the Palace of the Tower.

Edward the Fifth and his brother Richard Duke of York had been transferred from the royal apartments as soon as they had been declared illegitimate and lodged in the Garden Tower. They did not, of course, attend their uncle’s coronation.

There in the precincts of the Tower the son of Richard and Anne was formally created Prince of Wales, and the next day the coronation took place.

It had been short notice but as a great many preparations had been made for the coronation of Edward the Fifth it had been possible to make use of this. A coronation and its festivities would not have to change because the King to be crowned was not the same one for whom all the pomp had been originally created.

The Duke of Buckingham carried Richard’s train while the Duke of Norfolk bore his crown before him. Then came the Queen with the Earl of Huntingdon bearing her sceptre and Viscount Lisle the rod with the dove while the honour of carrying her crown was assigned to the Earl of Wiltshire.

Anne, splendidly clad, weighed down with jewels, felt tired before the ceremony had begun. Walking under a canopy, to each corner of which had been attached a golden bell which tinkled as they moved, she hoped that she did not show how she was longing for it all to be over. But it had only just begun. The anointing had to take place and afterwards the crowning. ‘God Save the King. God Save the Queen.’

The cries rang out clearly and Richard was straining his ears to hear one dissenting voice. There was none.

Afterwards they dined in Westminster Hall, Anne and Richard seated on a dais overlooking the rest of the guests at their tables while the Lord Mayor himself served the King and Queen with sweet wine as a sign of the capital’s desire to do homage to them.

When the champion of England rode into the hall and challenged any to combat who did not agree that Richard was the rightful King, Anne was aware of her husband’s tension; and when there was not a single voice raised against him, she was aware of his sinking back into his seat with an overwhelming relief; and she hoped that had silenced his fears for ever. The people had chosen him. The people wanted him. He was the rightful King; and he must stop thinking of those little boys in the Garden Tower. Their claim to the throne was null and void. The rightful King was at last crowned.

Darkness fell and the torches were brought in and one by one the nobles and their ladies came to the dais to pay homage to the King and Queen.

And when that ceremony was over they could retire to their apartments and make their preparations to depart for Windsor where they would go when the festivities were over.

Richard was already planning a tour of the country. They would go to the North. He had no fear of what his reception would be there. The North was his country. He had served it well and they were with him to a man.

The Duke of Buckingham was displeased. The excitement which he so enjoyed had abated considerably. Richard was King and he had been accepted by a docile people. Secretly Buckingham had been hoping for trouble. He revelled in trouble. He found life dull without it.

Moreover Richard had angered him. It was over the matter of the Bohun estates. These had come to the crown on the marriage of Mary de Bohun and Henry the Fourth and now that he was Lord High Constable of England, which was the ancient hereditary office of the de Bohuns, he believed he had a right to the estates.