Civil wars from 1640 to 1660.

Correfpondence dange

At a more recent æra of fimilar complexion, though less fanguinary (from 1640 to the Reftoration), how few private letters have appeared; and confequently how few have probably reached the present hour, when the taste for hiftoric anecdotes is awake, and would have invited publication!

In the heat of civil difcord, familiar correfpondence rous in times is undoubtedly circumfpect; and when hoftile parties ravage the country, the moft intimate friends are cautious of trusting their fentiments to paper.

of civil diffenfions.

Civil wars

between the

Charles himself, perhaps, added to the number of those who were determined on his deftruction, by the discovery of fome intentions of his, trusted to a letter, which he fent to the Queen in the most guarded manner, as he thought; but which fell into the hands of his enemies.

From a remoter and far more barbarous age, we could two Rofes. little expect to attain notices of public occurrences, or details of domestic life; and when we know fo little of the interior of that great theatre, to which curiofity and interest are most attentive, the court; when the councils and meafures of Henry VI. or rather of his courageous queen and her favourites, of Edward IV. and of Richard III. have been fo imperfectly unravelled; was it probable that a large intercourse between respectable perfons, not ill informed in that dark season, should have been treasured up; and after fo long an interval, be laid before the public?

Original

Letters.

Authenticity of them.

Such a valuable depofit did actually exist, and is now prefented to the reader in the following pages.

Every criterion of authenticity accompanies the ori

ginal

ginal documents; no novel or fufpicious anecdote will ftagger credulity; no new hypothefis is to be established, or even proposed; no inveterate faith in received history is to be fhaken; no eccentric genius is to appear, and call for admiration of talents, that exceeded his means of improving or difplaying them.

The artless writers of these letters here communicate their private affairs, or relate the reports of the day; they tell their tale in the plain and uncouth phrase of the time; they aim not at fhining by art or eloquence, and bespeak credit by total careleffness of correction and ornament.

fatisfaction to

The principal fatisfaction of the reader will arife from Sources of two fources. He will hear the events of the moment from the reader. perfons living at the time; and will fee the manners and ufages of that age, painted in the most familiar language, undisguised and unadorned.

The actors, as in Shakspeare's historic plays, will be, by turns, the victorious prince, the martial peers, the defeated and facrificed ministers, or persons of inferior rank.

The meek and religious Henry, the reflefs Warwick, the loyal Beauforts, will attract attention, whether they become victorious or fink in defeat; Edward himself will now force battle upon his foes, now haften to his coronation, now post to the North to refift new foes; and each letter, like a change of decoration, will present him in a different scene.

The politic Richard will take every bold measure to fecure that crown, which, conscience tells him, totters on his head..

4

We

Henry VI.

Edward IV.

We shall not learn many new exploits, but we shall feem to see these princes and their peers, acting the details of their own times; and though the details are fometimes cursory and meager, it is a queftion whether, being thus brought under the eye, they will not interest us more than the barren and doubtful narrations, which we already poffefs of those reigns.

Henry VI. will here appear the mild and ductile image of a king; this day, guided by the active and undaunted spirit of his queen; to-morrow, acting under the direction of the haughty and ambitious Warwick.

Weak in mind and indolent in body, this prince might have been comfortable in the peaceful walk of private life; in the exalted rank of sovereignty he must at all times have been miferable; without a will, or even a wifh, to act for himself, he lived a puppet, and he died a victim to the ambition of others.

Edward IV. as foon as profperity and pleasure had fatisfied and enervated his ambition, funk into the arms of luxurious indolence; and his activity, as fovereign magistrate, awaked only to rapid starts of cruelty, as often as his repofe was disturbed by contradiction.

The pursuit of his right to the crown excepted, there was as little justice as mercy in his proceedings; the axe intimated his displeasure, and his obdurate heart spared a brother no more than a Lancastrian; he married his wife because she would not be his mistress; and took another man's wife for his mistress, who was willing to be so. Obliged to conquer his fubjects before he could be their

King,

King, he discovered neither spirit nor policy in dealing with foreign enemies; and yet, perhaps, there was more confiftence in his conduct than in that of most other heroes: Edward acquired because he wished to enjoy; had he fucceeded peaceably to the crown, and could have enjoyed without acquiring, he perhaps would never have fought to make an acquifition.

He preferred being paid for his own tranquillity by Louis XI. to facrificing his tranquillity, his treasure, and the blood of his people, in pursuit of glory, at the risk of his repose he did little for fame, and fame has done as little for him; the fuperficial memorials of his vigour contained in the following sheets, will therefore be the more acceptable.

We gain scarcely any fresh lights respecting the doubtful Richard III. character of that ambitious prince Richard III. except that in his dispute with his brother, Clarence was the aggressor.

As fovereign, his own proclamation, and the letters of his favourite Norfolk fhew us, he was making every warlike preparation against his enemies, and stimulating his subjects to their loyalty by an appeal to them; we are, therefore, the more furprised to find that any, fuperftitious regard to the festival of our Lady fhould, for a moment, prevent his setting forward to meet the invader of his kingdom, or delay his perfonal attention to his military operations in a fituation fo critical.

However the ferocious policy of the times may palliate fome of his actions, those who think beft of him, must ever condemn his cruel and illegal conduct in beheading Hastyngs, Rivers, Vaughan, and Gray.

VOL. I.

b

Had

General remark.

Reflections

on our own

bleffings.

Had his path to the throne been strait, he might have shone in history as a good prince; for he certainly underftood the duty of a king better than his predeceffor.

His genius was enterprising, and his temper liberal; if his conduct in the day of battle did not point him out as a confummate general, it exhibited him as a courageous foldier; for when he found all was loft, he fought his competitor, and braved death by acts of heroism.

The sufferings of warriors, the diftreffes of private life, occafioned by fo tempeftuous a season, and the concise rapidity of the narratives, will present a truer picture of that turbulent period than could be exhibited by the artful pencil of a fedate hiftorian.

May we, who live in a time of national tranquillity, under a form of government defined and limited, with a prince upon the throne, whose public and private virtues claim every mark of our loyalty and respect, be truly fenfible of our own happiness!

May the present bleffings which we experience, contrafted by the dreadful calamities pourtrayed in the dif tracted period of history here presented to our view, make us humbly thankful to the great Disposer of all human events, and inspire us with such a becoming moderation in the enjoyment of these bleffings, that we may merit a continuance of them to ourselves, and to our pofterity!

Authenticity

Ir will now be neceffary to fatisfy the reader of the of the letters authenticity of the letters here laid before him, by pre

1

fenting