y till the year 1482,
when she died; an admirable princess, but more illustrious by her
undaunted spirit in adversity than by her moderation in prosperity.
She seems neither to have enjoyed the virtues nor been subject to the
weaknesses of her sex, and was as much tainted with the ferocity as
endowed with the courage of that barbarous age in which she lived.

The Duke of Clarence, by all his services in deserting Warwick, had never
been able to regain the King's friendship, which he had forfeited by his
former confederacy with that nobleman. He was still regarded at court as
a man of a dangerous and a fickle character; and the imprudent openness
and violence of his temper, though they rendered him much less dangerous,
tended extremely to multiply his enemies and to incense them against him.
Among others, he had had the misfortune to give displeasure to the Queen
herself, as well as to his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, a prince
of the deepest policy, of the most unrelenting ambition, and the least
scrupulous in the means which he employed for the attainment of his ends.
A combination between these potent adversaries being secretly formed
against Clarence, it was determined to begin by attacking his friends. He
was alarmed when he found acts of tyranny exercised on all around him;
but, instead of securing his own life against the present danger by
silence and reserve, he was open and loud in justifying the innocence of
his friends and in exclaiming against the iniquity of their prosecutors.
The King, highly offended with his freedom, or using that pretence
against him, committed him to the Tower, 1478, summoned a parliament, and
tried him for his life. Clarence was pronounced guilty by the peers. The
House of Commons was no less slavish and unjust; they both petitioned
for the execution of the Duke and afterward passed a bill of attainder
against him.

The only favor which the King granted him after his condemnation was to
leave him the choice of his death; and he was privately drowned in a butt
of malmsey in the Tower--a whimsical choice, which implies that he had an
extraordinary passion for that liquor.

The Duke left two children by the elder daughter of the Earl of Warwick:
a son, created an earl by his grandfather's title, and a daughter,
afterward Countess of Salisbury. Both this Prince and Princess were also
unfortunate in their end, and died violent deaths--a fate which, for many
years, attended almost all t