heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

102 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
noticed figures introduced amidst the foliage, which Mr. Browne has ingeniously
demonstrated to be the history of the imprisonment of Edmund
Mortimer and the murder of Scrope. I have not space to enter into them
at length here, but, though coarse, they are vigorous and full of significance,
and in those days, when few could read books, we can well imagine how the
savage representations of Henry and his myrmidons, and the quaint and
touching, though rude, figure of the young Edmund in captivity, must have
gone to the hearts of those who glanced at them as they passed by to lay
their offerings on the grave of Archbishop Scrope, and returned only the
more resolute to remain faithful to the interest of the house of Mortimer
and York, and revenge on the house of Lancaster the violent and impious
act of the fourth Henry.
In 1461 Henry VI. was deposed and ; by the accession of Edward IV.
the house of Mortimer became at last supreme, and an early
made by, I suppose, the Yorkist sympathisers in the Chapter, to do
distinguished honour to the Archbishop's memory. For on Monday,
March 2ist, the Chapter was summoned to "consider the holy work of
" canonization and translation of Richard, of blessed and pious memory,
" sometime Archbishop of York," when, " having held a long and earnest
" deliberation of and concerning the matter for which the convocation was
effort was
" made," it was adjourned to the following day, and then further adjourned ;
and then, after several adjournments, it was finally determined that the
Chapter should assemble on the 6th of 1 August next ensuing but then
;
no mention was made of the matter in fact, it was evidently allowed to
drop.* And the solution of this is not far to seek ; for, on the one hand, I
find amongst those who called the first Chapter the name of John Pakenham
as treasurer of the Cathedral Church, who was probably the moving spirit
in the transaction, for the only daughter and heir of Sir John Pakenham, of
Lordington, had married Sir Geoffrey Pole, second son of Sir Richard Pole
by the Lady Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, daughter of
George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV. On the other hand,
Richard Andrew, the Dean, had been private secretary to Henry VI.
indeed, had erected the Choir screen, and placed the statue of that monarch
therein ;
and therefore, while he did not openly oppose the new regime, he
would be scarcely prepared to agree
to that which would be most offensive
to the Lancastrians.*
But, nevertheless, the time-serving Archbishop, Lawrence Booth (who
had changed sides more than once, and who succeeded George Nevill as
Archbishop, 1476, the isth year of Edward IV., and was for the moment a
partisan of that King), professed to be very much scandalized at the
veneration paid to the statue, and directed Master William Poteman, his
* Browne's York Afiiister.