palace, that Henry VI. sent Mr. Tur-, place in London 1453.-Glass Manunour, his master of the robes, with fuctures introduced into England.Mr. Caxton, to Haarlem, to induce Glasgow University founded 1450. one of Gutenberg's men secretly to The lord rector of this learned body is come to England: one Corsellis was annually chosen; and of late years it at length bribed, and conveyed from has been customary to elect to that disHolland forthwith to Oxford, where a tinguished office persons celebrated for military guard was put over him, that their political as well as scholastic he might not effect his escape before talents, of either Scotland or England; he had fulfilled his agreement. So insomuch that the political bias of Scotthat printing began at Oxford; and land is usually gathered from the tenets this before there was either press or of the lord rector of Glasgow.-The printer in France, Spain, Italy, or Vatican Library founded at Rome.Germany, save in the city of Mentz. Pawnbrokers first allowed in England, The king then set up a press at St. 1457, to lend money to distressed perAlban's, and another at Westminster, sons, on depositing their goods as a his majesty himself having the emolu- security for repayment with interest.— ments arising from all the books in the Eton College founded, near Windsor, kingdom printed. In the latter press, by Henry VI., to give gratuitous eduit seems, Mr. Caxton was engaged. cation to a certain number of youths, Before 1465, the uniform character now augmented to seventy: he also was the old Gothic or German, whence erected King's college, Cambridge, for our Black Letter was formed; but in the purpose of receiving as fellows, and that year an edition of Lactantius was wholly maintaining, a portion of the published in a kind of semi-gothic, of scholars so educated.-The Cape de great elegance for that day, and ap- Verde and Azore Islands discovered by proaching nearly to the present RoMAN the Portuguese. type; which last was first used at Rome in 1467. Towards 1500, Aldus invented the Italic character, but especially distinguished himself by the beauty of his Greek works; for, previously to his time, it was a common practice to mix up all such English letters with the type, as were similar to the characters of that language. From this period, up to the close of the last century, printing has gradually improved, especially in France and this country but England bears the palm at the present moment; and the labours of M. König, a German, aided by the improvements of Mr. Applegarth and Mr. Dryden, to effect printing by machinery, have combined rapidity of execution with accuracy in so remarkable a manner, that little further ingenuity appears necessary for the final perfection of the art.

The first Lord Mayor's Show took

SOVEREIGNS. Eastern Empire. 1391, Manuel II.; 1425, John VI. Paleologus; 1448, Constantine XII. Paleologus; 1435, Fall of the Eastern Empire of the Romans to the Turks. Turkish Sultans. 1453, Mahomet II. Popes. 1417, Martin V.; 1431, Eugene IV.; 1439, Felix V.; 1447, Nicholas V.; 1455, Calixtus III.; 1458, Pius II.; 1464, Paul II.; 1471, Sixtus IV. Scotland. 1890, Robert III.; 1424, James I.; 1437, James II.; 1460, James III. France. 1422, Charles VII.; 1461, Louis XI. Denmark and Norway. 1412, Eric IX.; 1440, Christopher III.; 1448, Christian I.; 1464, Charles Knutson; 1465, Christian I. restored. Portugal. 1383, John; 1433, Edward; 1438, Alphonso V. Germany (or West). 1410, Sigismund; 1438, Albert II., the grave, of Austria; 1440, Frederick IV.

1471 TO 1483-12 YEARS.

Personal History. Edward IV. was a prince of fine person and insinuating
Louis XI., after his interview with
address. He was born at Rouen, 1443.
He was endowed

him at Pecquigni, owned that his beauty was irresistible.
with fortitude, penetration, and sagacity; but a more vindictive and merciless
man never lived. Few in his high station have made so light of promises, or
been so prone to break treaties; and it was the unceasing, though fruitless
labour, of his paramour, the unhappy Shore, to reform him in these particulars.
His queen was Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Woodville, and widow of Sir
John Gray of Groby: and he was the first king since the conquest who had
married a subject. By Elizabeth he had ten children, amongst whom were
Elizabeth, who eventually married Henry VII.; Edward V., and Richard,
duke of York.

Political History. Edward found himself without a rival after the death of Henry; and following the bent of his disposition, entered upon a course of pleasure which at first gained him much popularity. The jovial festivity of his court served to divert the public mind from a contemplation of the miseries of the previous reign; and men were commonly heard to rejoice at the downfal of a family, which had not only harassed the country with civil commotions, but had given that strength to the lower estate of parliament, which, while liberty was so ill-understood, operated on the nation as an insupportable The tyranny. Seized on a sudden with the desire of making French conquests, Edward hastened to join Charles the Bold in his attack upon Louis XI. duke, however, had changed his design when Edward landed on the continent; upon which the latter, not to have his preparations fruitless, laid claim to France, by virtue of the treaty of Troyes. Louis, affecting to listen to his appeal, granted him an interview at Pecquigny, on a bridge across which a close rail had been drawn, with no larger interval than would allow the arm to pass; and with his usual policy, brought over to his interest all the men of influence in his rival's suite, and put an end at once to his pretensions.

It was in 1478 that a domestic occurrence placed the character of Edward in its true and most degrading light. Happening in a hunting excursion to kill the favourite buck of a gentleman named Burdet, that person, in the heat of his resentment, observed that he wished the horns of the deer in the belly of the man who had advised the king to that insult.' When a tale-bearer related this speech to the king, he most cruelly ordered Burdet to be seized, and after a mock trial, executed; and when the duke of Clarence, Edward's own brother, protested against his conduct in the affair, he commanded him also to be arrested, obtained his condemnation in like manner, and gave him only the choice of his death. The duke, whimsically desiring to be drowned in a butt

of malmsey, his favourite beverage, the sentence was carried into effect in the Tower without delay, 1478.

This tyrannical and cruel prince was preparing a fresh invasion of France, in consequence of the dauphin's refusal of his daughter's hand, when he was seized with an ague, which put an end to his life 1483, in the forty-first year of his age. He was buried in St. George's chapel, Windsor, which he had greatly embellished: and his tomb is yet to be seen, having on a black marble slab the words, Edward IV. and his queen Elizabeth Woodville.' An aperture was discovered in the side of the vault by some workmen, 1789; and upon its being enlarged by order of the canons, the skeleton of Edward was found in a leaden coffin, enclosed in one of wood.

CHIEF DOMESTIC EVENTS.

King Edward's tyrannical Spirit. A tradesman was reported to have said he would make his son heir to the crown, alluding to the sign of his house; and Edward construing this into a design to dethrone him, put the man to death. Signs were then com

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monly used by the tradesmen of London, and were by no means the exclusive appendage of taverns.

Two Plagues, by which thousands died in a short time, visited England, 1472 and 1478.

CHIEF FOREIGN EVENTS.

Expulsion of the Monguls from tile, whom his people had deposed, to Russia. When John Basilovitz was bestow the throne upon her. Ferdiczar of the Russes, Novogorod, the nand and Isabella were persons of city in and around which the Tartar great prudence, and mainly contritribes had settled, was regained by his buted by their wise ordinances to conbrave generals, 1477, and their troops solidate the power of Spain, which forced back into Tartary. No less from this period owned but one gothan 300 cart-loads of gold and silver, vernment,-Navarre being rather a and other valuable effects, became the province of France than an indeprize of the Russians on this occasion. pendent territory. They held sepaThe Union of Castile and Arragon rate courts, notwithstanding the marwas effected 1479, by the marriage of riage; and carried on the affairs of Ferdinand, prince of Arragon, with their respective states, without interIsabella, sister of Henry IV. of Cas-fering with each other.

EMINENT PERSONS.

Jane Shore, the mistress of Edward IV., was, notwithstanding her degradation, a woman of many virtues. She employed her money in assisting the needy; and turned her influence over the king to the advantage of the deserving. Her efforts to soften the character of Edward were unremitting, though fruitless. After the king's death, she suffered every indignity and neglect; and is said to have expired in the streets of that city, through which she had often passed in all the splendour of a queen.

William Caxton, who, if not the

first English printer, has the renown of establishing the first authorized press in Westminster Abbey, 1471.

Regiomontanus, a German astronomer, who settled at Nuremberg, and having assisted pope Sixtus IV. to reform the calendar, was made archbishop of Ratisbon; but died of the plague at Rome, when only forty, 1476. His mechanical skill was such, that he constructed a wooden eagle and an iron fly, of whose performances wondrous tales are told. They belonged, after his death, to the emperor Maximilian; the former would

fly from the city, when he was riding beyond its boundaries, turn upon meeting him, and fly back with him to his palace; and the latter, being let loose from his hand, would flutter round the apartment several times, and then return to his hand again.

Theodore Gaza, a restorer of Greek literature in Italy, who left Constan

tinople on the entrance of the Turks, and was patronized by Cardinal Bessarion; Trapezuntius, also a Greek exile, who supported the peripatetic doctrines against the Platonists with great zeal; Guarino, an Italian, who passed a long life in translating the Greek authors into Latin, and was the discoverer of the poems of Catullus.

INVENTIONS, &c.

The Title of Most Christian Ma- ful. - Aberdeen University founded, jesty was given by the pope to Louis 1477.-The Coast of Guinea discoXI., because he repealed the ordi-vered by the Portuguese, 1482. nance of his predecessor, Charles VII. SOVEREIGNS. Turkey. 1453, (called the pragmatic sanction of Mahomet II.; 1481, Bajazet II. Bourges), which had abolished the Popes. 1471, Sixtus IV. Scotland. pope's right to first-fruits (the first 1460, James III. France. 1461, year's revenue of a benefice), and to Louis XI.; 1483, Charles VIII. church appointments. The French Denmark and Norway. 1465, Chriskings have ever since retained the tian I. restored; 1481, John I., who title. The Spanish sovereign has been, also ruled Sweden. Portugal. 1438, on some like occasion, dignified with Alphonso V.; 1481, John II. Gerthe title of Catholic; and the Por-many. 1440, Frederick IV. tuguese king with that of Most Faith

SECTION II.

EDWARD V., KING OF ENGLAND.

1483.

Personal History. Edward V. was born in 1470, and was thirteen when his father died. He was nominal king little more than a month, from April to the beginning of June, 1483. He is said to have been a fine youth; and the manner in which he remonstrated with his uncle Gloucester, when he so abruptly tore him from the guardianship of his mother's brother, lord Rivers, proves that he was by no means deficient in manly spirit.

Political History. The people, during the latter years of Edward IV., content with an immunity from the actual dangers of civil war, had little concerned themselves with court proceedings; and only united in the hope that they might never hear more of the distinctions of York and Lancaster. Amongst the governing party, however, had existed strong hostility, arising from the rivalship of the queen's party and the ancient nobility. The earl of Rivers and the marquis of Dorset, the brother and son of the queen, headed the one party; and the duke of Buckingham, whose influence, alliances, and good birth gave him vast weight, led the other, seconded by Lord Hastings. The duke of Gloucester, who had been appointed protector during the minority of his nephew, secretly supported the ancient peers; and no sooner was his brother dead, than he resolved on possessing himself of the person of young Edward, then residing with his maternal uncle, lord Rivers, in Wales. Rivers, suspecting danger, applied to the parliament for a guard of soldiers to escort his pupil to London, preparatory to his coronation: and Gloucester and his

partisans, who had vehemently opposed the project in the house, met the suite of Rivers on its way to the metropolis, and seized the young monarch at Stony-Stratford. Rivers was hurried off with several of his friends to Pomfret, and beheaded, on a charge of treason; and little Edward was carried by his relentless relative to the Tower, in vain remonstrating against so cruel and unjust a separation. The queen, in alarm, fled to the sanctuary of Westminster with her other son, the duke of York: but being forced to give him up, she, with the most awful presages of his fate, bid him an eternal farewel.

Gloucester now boldly proposed to Buckingham to set aside his nephew's claim to the crown, on the ground of illegitimacy: he even went so far as to raise proofs that both Edward IV. and the duke of Clarence were born out of wedlock. Buckingham, induced by great offers, promised his assistance; but lord Hastings was not accessible by such means. The protector hereupon called a council in the Tower, at which Hastings and other lords attended; and having left the chamber for a few minutes, returned, as if disturbed by some sudden ill news from without, exclaiming that he had been bewitched, and asking what punishment they ought to receive who had been guilty of plotting the destruction of the lord protector of the realm ?' He then bared his arm, all shrivelled and decayed, an infirmity which many present were aware had attended him from his birth, and repeating his question, was answered by lord Hastings that if any one had been wicked enough to work such an evil, he ought to be severely punished.' 'Do you answer me with ifs and ands ?" exclaimed Gloucester in a rage: 'you my lord, and Shore, are the main instruments in the plot; and, by St. Paul, I will not dine before your head be brought me!' He struck the table, and armed men rushing in, seized the unhappy nobleman, and decapitated him on the first block of wood they found in the court below. Shore was allowed to escape with her life; but her goods were confiscated, and she was compelled to walk through the public streets in penance, clad in a sheet, and holding a taper, to St. Paul's, there to confess her crimes.

The ulterior designs of the protector were now unmasked. One Dr. Shaw, his creature, called on the congregation from the pulpit, in his presence, to make the duke of Gloucester their king; and this not succeeding, Shaw's brother, who happened to be mayor, called a council of the citizens, that the duke of Buckingham might propound the same question in the common hall. With the utmost difficulty, a cry was raised of God save king Richard!' amongst the retainers of the duke, who hereupon declared Gloucester unanimously elected by the citizens. Richard affected to revolt at first at so strange a proceeding; but at length he assented with feigned reluctance, and was proclaimed at Westminster without further delay. In a few days after this farcical proceeding, a tragedy of the deepest die was acted. Orders were given, it is said by Richard, to the governor of the Tower, Sir Robert Brackenbury, to put the sons of Edward IV. to death in any way he conceived best but as the knight refused to perform so heinous a deed, Sir James Tyrrel was appointed to the task. With three associates, Slater, Dighton, and Forest, this infamous man smothered the two innocent youths as they lay asleep in their bed. Their bodies were directly buried at the foot of the narrow staircase leading to their apartments; and it was not until the reign of Charles II. that their bones were discovered, and honoured with a marble tomb.

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