of distinction, who might stand forth against him,
and give a voice to those sentiments of general detestation which arose
in every bosom. Were men disposed to pardon these violations of public
right, the sense of private and domestic duty, which is not to be
effaced in the most barbarous times, must have, begotten an abhorrence
against him; and have represented the murder of the young and innocent
princes, his nephews, with whose protection he had been intrusted,
in the most odious colors imaginable. To endure such a bloody usurper
seemed to draw disgrace upon the nation, and to be attended with
immediate danger to every individual who was distinguished by birth,
merit, or services. Such was become the general voice of the people;
all parties were united in the same sentiments; and the Lancastrians, so
long oppressed, and of late so much discredited, felt their blasted
hopes again revive, and anxiously expected the consequences of these
extraordinary events. The duke of Buckingham, whose family had been
devoted to that interest, and who, by his mother, a daughter of Edmund,
duke of Somerset, was allied to the house of Lancaster, was easily
induced to espouse the cause of this party, and to endeavor the
restoring of it to its ancient superiority. Morton, bishop of Ely, a
zealous Lancastrian, whom the king had imprisoned, and had afterwards
committed to the custody of Buckingham, encouraged these sentiments;
and by his exhortations the duke cast his eye towards the young earl of
Richmond, as the only person who could free the nation from the tyranny
of the present usurper.[*]

* Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 568.

Henry, earl of Richmond, was at this time detained in a kind of
honorable custody by the duke of Brittany; and his descent, which seemed
to give him some pretensions to the crown, had been a great object of
jealousy both in the late and in the present reign. John, the first duke
of Somerset who was grandson of John of Gaunt, by a spurious branch but
legitimated by act of parliament, had left only one daughter, Margaret;
and his younger brother, Edmund, had succeeded him in his titles, and in
a considerable part of his fortune. Margaret had espoused Edmund, earl
of Richmond, half brother of Henry VI., and son of Sir Owen Tudor and
Catharine of France, relict of Henry V., and she bore him only one
son, who received the name of Henry, and who, after his father's death,
inherited the honors and fortune of Richmond.