XXIV. must have succeeded in persuading the Solicitor General of CHAP the imprudence of a match which the world would censure and which might hurt his advancement; for we know that the unfortunate lady never was married again, and that she died in the reign of Henry VIII., still bearing the name of Jane Shore. * John Russell continued Chancellor till the 29th of July, 1485, having the Great Seal always in his own custody, except from the 19th of October to the 26th of November, 1483, on the occasion I have referred to. from his We have no information as to the cause of the good Removed Bishop's dismissal from the office of Chancellor. There was office. no party crisis or change of measures at the time, and there was no rival for the office who was to be preferred to him. It is possible that Richard, marching to meet the Earl of Richmond, acted as he had done in his expedition against Buckingham, and desired to take the Great Seal into the field with him, intending to restore it to the former keeper of his conscience when he returned victorious; but, on the other hand, it has been supposed that Richard suspected the Chancellor of being in correspondence with the Earl of Richmond, and that he meditated a dreadful revenge upon him when he had vanquished his enemy. Ex-chancellor Russell retired to his palace at Buckden, His subsewhere he heard of the Battle of Bosworth and the acces- quent history. sion of Henry VII. He mixed no more in politics, and spent the remainder of his days in the care of his diocese and superintending the discipline of the University of Oxford. He is celebrated as the first perpetual Chancellor of that First perpetual learned body. Hitherto the office had been held only for a Chancellor year, and frequently by some resident member of no very of Oxford. high rank. In 1483 when Russell was appointed Chancellor of England, -on account of the inconvenience arising from * She was seen by Sir Thomas More, poor, decrepid, and shrivelled, without the least traces of that beauty which once commanded the admiration of a King and all his court. The story of her dying of hunger in a ditch, supposed, after CHAP. XXIV. His death. His epitaph. annual elections, and the great confidence reposed in him, he was elected Chancellor of the University for life. Tired of the dignity, he resigned it in 1487; but great confusion being likely to arise from this step, "the Academicians earnestly desired him to take upon him the office again, which he promising they proceeded to election.”* A keen contest took place, Peter Courtenay, Bishop of Winchester, being put up against him; but he was re-elected, and held the office till his death, when he was succeeded by Lord Chancellor Cardinal MORTON. In 1488 he published certain "Aulary Statutes for the Government of the University," which were supposed to have made it a model for all universities. He died January 30. 1494, and was buried in his cathedral, at the upper end on the south side, in a chapel where he had founded a chantry, under an altar tomb, with this inscription: Qui sum quæ mihi Sors fuerat narrabo, Johannes Roffa Sacrum primo, Lincolnia condit in unum But the most valuable memorial to his fame is the character given of him by Sir Thomas More, "A wyse mane & a good, & of much experyence, & one of the best learned menne undoubtedly that Englande hadde in hys time."+ He left behind him considerable reputation as an author, his two greatest works being "A Commentary on the Canticles," and a treatise "De Potestate summi Pontificis et Imperatoris." Had they been written a few years later we should have been able to pass judgment upon them; but they never were printed, and they have not come down to us. He appears to have been a great encourager of reviving learning*, but he is more loudly extolled for his "re-edification of the episcopal palace at Buckden." † No other Chancellor was appointed by Richard during the short remainder of his reign. The invasion of the Earl of Richmond was now impending. The discontented were flocking to him, as a deliverer, from all parts of the kingdom; and there was a general feeling among the people, that the man stained with so many crimes ought not longer to be permitted to occupy the throne which he had usurped. The Great Seal was given by Richard into the temporary keeping of Thomas Barrowe, Master of the Rolls t, for the despatch of necessary business, and it probably remained with him till the conclusion of the reign, although some accounts represent that Richard carried it with him when he marched against Richmond, and had it in his tent at Bosworth Field, - in which case it must at once have fallen into the hands of the victor, and, next to the crown worn by Richard in the fight, have been his earliest emblem of royalty. § CHAP. XXIV. Disposal of Great Seal at end of reign of Richard We do not find any equity decisions in these two short Legal-proreigns, although, amidst arms, the laws seem to have been ceedings regularly administered; and there have been handed down to us Reports in the Year Books, beginning "De Termino * On a manuscript of Mathew Paris (Royal MSS. 14. C. vii.) now in the British Museum, there is an inscription in Latin, dated June 1. 1488, in the handwriting and with the signature of John Russell, Bishop of Lincoln, in which whosoever shall obliterate or destroy the Bishop's memorandum respecting the ownership of the volume is solemnly declared to be accursed. Warton's Dissertation on Introduction of Learning into England, p. 111. It appears from an inscription in the author's own hand, to have been a presentation copy from himself, probably to some church or monastery. Sketches of the History of Literature and Learning in England, vol. ii. 168. Knight's Weekly Volume, No. XVIII. † God. de Præs. Linc. Although Lord Chancellor Russell has considerable Walpole's Hist. Doubts Antiq. Bish. during and Rich- 1 CHAP. XXIV. Trinitatis Anno primo Edwardi Quinti." Lord Chancellor Russell appears to have been perplexed by the cases which came before him respecting uses; and, to obviate the necessity for a Bill in Chancery, it was enacted that the person entitled to direct the trustee to convey should himself be entitled to execute a conveyance to carry the estate *; but this new expedient to remedy the inconvenience of uses only produced the additional confusion which must necessarily follow when two persons have an equal legal right to dispose of the same land, and the deduction of title, by tracing the legal estate, on which the security of tenure in England depends, became impossible. * 1 Ric. 3. c. 1. It is remarkable that this is the first statute in the English language, the statutes hitherto having been all in Latin or French, and it was taken as a precedent, for all statutes afterwards are in English. It is curious that in this reign, which we regard with so much horror, not only were laws given to the people of England, for the first time since the Conquest, in their own language, but acts of parliament were for the first time printed.- Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, i. 704. CHAPTER XXV. OF CHANCELLORS AND LORD KEEPERS FROM THE ACCESSION KING Henry VII., returning from Bosworth Field, appointed for his first Chancellor John Alcock, now Bishop of Worcester *, who for a few months, while Bishop of Rochester, had filled the office under Edward IV., and an account of whom I have reserved for this place. He was born at Beverley, in the county of York, of no distinguished family, and raised himself entirely by his own merits. He studied at Cambridge, where he obtained great distinction, particularly for his knowledge of the civil and canon law. He was patronised by Lord Chancellor Stillington, — was extremely useful to him, and, as his deputy, performed most of the duties belonging to the Great Seal. In 1471, as a reward for his services, he was made Bishop of Rochester and Master of the Rolls. He contrived to ingratiate himself equally with Lord Chancellor Rotheram, through whose interest he was translated to Worcester, and intrusted, for a short time, with the Great Seal, under the title of Chancellor. Now was the triumph of his powers of insinuation and versatility; having been brought forward and employed by the House of York, and never having had any open rupture with Richard, he at once gained the confidence of Henry, who hardly ever favoured any one who had not fought with the Lancastrians in the field, or had been engaged in plots to promote their ascendency. There is no record of the day of the delivery of the Seal to him; but in the Parliament Roll of the 1st of Henry VII. it is stated, that "on the 7th of November, in the first year of the King's reign, the Reverend Lord and Father in God. СНАР. A. D. 1485. Alcock, Bishop of first Chan cellor to Hen. VII. |