heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE STAFFORDS. 241
Dugdale says (Baronage, p. 168, g) that (on his reminding the King
of his promise) he signed a brief to that effect less than a month after
his coronation. Holinshead tells us that (through some coolness between
himself and the King) Buckingham retired to Brecknock, and commenced
plotting with Morton, Bishop of Ely, to place Henry
throne.
of Richmond on the
Richard first tried to bring him back with promises, then with
threats ; and Buckingham, taking alarm, raised an army in Wales, and
marched on Richard at Salisbury.
But while they waited for the flooded waters of the Severn to subside
for their crossing, his army melted away. Buckingham fled, and Richard
having offered ^1,000 for his arrest, he was betrayed by Humphrey
Bannister, his servant. But the King declined to pay the money, grimly
remarking that " He who would betray so good a master, would be false
"to all others."*
Taken to Salisbury, and examined by the King in council, on the
morrow (without any arraignment of peers) he was beheaded in the
market-place. Shakespeare says, on All Souls day, and puts these very
appropriate words into his mouth on his way to execution (alluding to
his words in Act II. Sc. i)
:
"This is the day, which (in King Edward's time)
I wished might fall on me, when I was found
False to his children, or his wife's allies :
This is the day, wherein I wished to fall
By the false faith of him whom most I trusted :
This, this All Souls day, to my
fearful soul
Is the determined respite of my wrongs ;
That high All-seer, which I dallied with,
Hath turned my feigned prayer on my head,
And given in earnest what I
begged in jest.
Thus doth He force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points on their masters' bosoms :
Thus Margaret's curse falls heavy on my neck
' '
When He,' quoth she, shall split thy heart with sorrow,
Remember, Margaret was a prophetess.'
Come, sirs, convey me to the block of shame,
Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame."t
By Catherine, his wife, daughter of Richard Widvile, Earl Rivers, he
had issue three sons :
Edward, his heir ;
Henry, afterwards Lord Wiltshire,
who married Muriel, sister, and eventually heiress, of John Grey, Viscount
Lisle and ;
Humphrey, who died young.
Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham,
is another of those
characters which stand out prominently on the page of history; and he
is one of the four main characters in Shakespeare's play of Henry VIII.
* Atkyn's Gloucestershire. \ Act V. Sc. I.