astical privileges were originally intended only to give
protection to unhappy men persecuted for their debts or crimes; and were
entirely useless to a person who, by reason of his tender age, could lie
under the burden of neither, and who, for the same reason, was
utterly incapable of claiming security from any sanctuary. But the two
archbishops, Cardinal Bourchier, the primate, and Rotherhand, archbishop
of York, protesting against the sacrilege of this measure, it was agreed
that they should first endeavor to bring the queen to compliance by
persuasion, before any violence should be employed against her. These
prelates were persons of known integrity and honor; and being themselves
entirely persuaded of the duke's good intentions, they employed every
argument, accompanied with earnest entreaties, exhortations, and
assurances, to bring her over to the same opinion. She long continued
obstinate, and insisted that the duke of York, by living in the
sanctuary, was not only secure himself, but gave security to the king,
whose life no one would dare to attempt while his successor and avenger
remained in safety. But finding that none supported her in these
sentiments, and that force, in case of refusal, was threatened by the
council, she at last complied, and produced her son to the two prelates.
She was here on a sudden struck with a kind of presage of his future
fate: she tenderly embraced him; she bedewed him with her tears; and
bidding him an eternal adieu, delivered him, with many expressions of
regret and reluctance, into their custody.[*]

The duke of Glocester, being the nearest male of the royal family
capable of exercising the government, seemed entitled, by the customs of
the realm, to the office of protector; and the council, not waiting for
the consent of parliament, made no scruple of investing him with that
high dignity.[**]

* Sir Thomas More, p. 491.

** Hist. Croyl. Cont, p. 566.

The general prejudice entertained by the nobility against the queen and
her kindred, occasioned this precipitation and irregularity; and no
one foresaw any danger to the succession, much less to the lives of the
young princes, from a measure so obvious and so natural. Besides
that the duke had hitherto been able to cover, by the most profound
dissimulation, his fierce and savage nature, the numerous issue of
Edward, together with the two children of Clarence, seemed to be an
eternal obstacle to his ambition; and it