PREFACE.

IN giving this second and final volume to the public a few words may seem necessary with regard to the work as a whole, to account for, and in some measure to remedy, the imperfect arrangement of its

contents.

When I first began collecting the materials, it appeared to me they could not possibly exceed the bulk of a moderate-sized volume. I was far from supposing that, even if I had devoted many years to it, I could have made anything like an exhaustive search, so as to feel finally confident that no important letter had escaped me. But the archives from which most was to be expected, the few collections of MSS. likely to yield much fruit to a systematic search, lay within easy reach and comparatively moderate compass. I had also special advantages from other researches prosecuted under the direction of the Master of the Rolls in the Record Office and the British Museum. And when I committed the first sheets to the press, I trusted to have arranged all the materials in true chronological order. As the work advanced, however, I became conscious of omissions. I added appendices, but found important material still; and at the last moment, I sought and obtained permission to publish a second volume.

Contents of this volume.

Character of the

materials.

The additional letters here are mainly derived from the same sources as those in the first volume. A small number however, are from foreign archives. These were chiefly obtained from the copies made for the late Record Commission, but I have had the most important compared with their originals at Paris. The greater part of the volume is similar in character to its predecessor. Avoiding legal and formal documents, the selection has all along been limited to contemporary papers of genuine historic interest. Nothing has been republished of which a full and accurate text had been already printed, except some of the papers in the Appendix to the present volume. A very few that had appeared in the Archæologia and the French Documents Inédits, which were too important to be altogether omitted, have been placed there in small type along with kindred matter, partly derived from foreign publications. In another Appendix are notes of some of the most interesting entries on the Patent Rolls of Henry VII., which, besides other uses, may serve as aids to the chronology of the reign.' Besides these the only matter of a special character is the Scotch correspondence. Of this I shall have occasion to speak a little later.

These materials, it will be generally found, relate to matters almost untouched by the historian, or only slightly mentioned. It may be owned at once they shed very little light on those dark points which have excited greatest curiosity, and that on some of the most important transactions they give no information at all. We have nothing like a continuous correspondence which might fill up missing links in the chain of events; nothing, certainly, like the wonderful diplomatic revelations which Mr. Bergenroth has obtained

For a full summary and index of the Patent Rolls of Edward V. and Richard III., see Ninth Report

of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, Appendix II.

with so much labour from Simancas. Yet many of these papers, too, are of a diplomatic character, and often they contain matter more interesting than diplomacy. Through them, better than through any other medium, we may trace the mental portraits both of Richard and of Henry. We see their hopes and fears, their ways of meeting danger, their demeanor towards their subjects and towards other kings. We see also traces of the internal administration under both these sovereigns. We see the unquiet spirit of the House of York, even after its fall, perpetually writhing and struggling for its mistaken rights. We read the illiterate correspondence of its last representatives, the De la Poles. And while we must always look to chronicles and histories for the events which the time brought forth, it is to these records that we must turn to learn its real character.

I have already spoken in the first volume of the leading features of the two reigns which are the subject of this book. There are points, however, in the documents before us, especially those in the present volume, which it may not be amiss to examine in greater detail.

of York

gundy.

Beginning, therefore, again with Richard III., our Alliance of attention is drawn to the new and interesting point of the House his relations with Maximilian, Archduke of Austria. with BurIt had been the wisest part of the policy of Edward IV. to form a close alliance with Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, with whom he was united not only by community of interest but by a considerable similarity of spirit. He gave the duke his sister Margaret in marriage, took refuge with him when driven from his kingdom, and by his sole, though somewhat grudgingly offered, assistance, was enabled to recover it. As the English had lost France under the rule of the House of Lancaster, it was not the least important cause of the House of York's popula

rity that they maintained the honour of England, and the claims advanced by Edward III. It was their policy to assist Burgundy and Britanny as powerful vassals of Lewis XI., who did not relish the increasing power of their lord; nor was it an unimportant consideration that the duke of Burgundy, who had long possessed the earldom of Flanders, could greatly assist to protect Calais. And though Edward IV. reconquered nothing of the lost territory in France, he compelled the crafty Lewis to pay him tribute, which was accepted as a sufficient acknowledgment of title. It was accepted the more willingly on account of an express stipulation that the dauphin should marry Edward's eldest daughter. The tribute came in regularly; and Edward, who was easily duped, believing he had found a firm ally in Lewis, became a less active friend of Burgundy.

On the death of Charles the Bold his rich dominions fell to his only daughter Mary, who, invaded by France and unable to keep so many turbulent towns and provinces without assistance, gave her hand to Maximilian of Austria, son of the Emperor Frederic III. Poorer match there could not have been for the richest heiress in Christendom; but although the penurious Frederic could not afford his son a penny for his equipage, the relationship to the Empire and the military talents of Maximilian were a real accession to her strength. He entered Burgundy, recovered Beaune, Chatillon, and other places which had submitted to the French, and turning to the Low Countries, besieged and took Terouenne. His success was not unvaried, but the Burgundians were attached to their princes, and the appearance of his armies had recalled many to their allegiance, when in 1482 Mary of Burgundy died. Her death, occasioned by a fall from her horse, was a dreadful blow both for Maximilian and the Low Countries; as none knew so well as Lewis XI.,