d conspiracies
against the house of Lancaster, and many insurrections and wars, and
many cruel deeds of violence and murder grew out of the quarrel. At
length, to strengthen their alliance more fully, Richard, the second
son of Edmund of York, married Anne, a descendant of the Clarence
line. The other children, who came before these, in the two lines,
soon afterward died, leaving the inheritance of both to this pair.
Their son was Richard, the father of Richard the Third. He is called
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. On the death of his father and
mother, he, of course, became the heir not only of the immense estates
and baronial rights of both the lines from which he had descended, but
also of the claims of the older line to the crown of England.

The successive generations of these three lines, down to the period of
the union of the second and fourth, cutting off the third, is shown
clearly in the table.

Of course, the Lancaster line were much alarmed at the combination of
the claims of their rivals. King Henry the Fifth was at that period on
the throne, and, by the time that Richard Plantagenet was three years
old, under pretense of protecting him from danger, he caused him to be
shut up in a castle, and kept a close prisoner there.

Time rolled on. King Henry the Fifth died, and Henry the Sixth
succeeded him. Richard Plantagenet was still watched and guarded; but
at length, by the time that Richard was thirteen years old, the power
and influence of his branch of the royal family, or rather those of
the two branches from which, combined, he was descended, were found to
be increasing, while that of the house of Lancaster was declining.
After a time he was brought out from his imprisonment, and restored to
his rank and station. King Henry the Sixth was a man of a very weak
and timid mind. He was quite young too, being, in fact, a mere child
when he began to reign, and every thing went wrong with his
government. While he was young, he could, of course, do nothing, and
when he grew older he was too gentle and forbearing to control the
rough and turbulent spirits around him. He had no taste for war and
bloodshed, but loved retirement and seclusion, and, as he advanced in
years, he fell into the habit of spending a great deal of his time in
acts of piety and devotion, performed according to the ideas and
customs of the times. The annexed engraving, representing him as he
appeared when he was

[Illustration: HENRY V