, as
sumptuous as those of his father, Edward III., at Westminster, and his
son, Henry IV., at Canterbury.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of Henry IV., was
appointed guardian of his infant nephew, Henry VI., on his father's
death; but partly though the intrigues and squabbles of the royal
family, partly by his own mismanagement, he lost the confidence of the
nation. His wife, Jacqueline, had been persuaded by a sorcerer that
her husband would be king, and she joined him in acts of witchcraft
in order to bring this about. She was condemned (October, 1441) to do
penance by walking three successive days in a white sheet and carrying
a lighted taper, starting each day from St. Paul's and visiting
certain churches. Her husband, says the chronicler Grafton, "took all
patiently and said little." Still retaining some power in the Council,
he lived until 1447, when he died and was buried at St. Albans. He was
an unprincipled man, but a generous patron of letters and a persecutor
of Lollards; and hence, in after years, he got the name of "the good
Duke Humphrey," which was hardly a greater delusion than that which
afterwards identified the tomb of Sir John Beauchamp in St. Paul's as
Duke Humphrey's. But the strange error was accepted, and the aisle in
which the said tomb lay was commonly known as "Duke Humphrey's Walk,"
and it was a favourite resort of insolvent debtors and beggars, who
loitered about it dinnerless and in hope of alms. And thus arose
the phrase of "Dining with Duke Humphrey," _i.e._, going without; a
phrase, it will be seen, founded on a strange blunder. The real grave
is on the south side of the shrine of St. Alban's.

Richard, Duke of York, swore fealty in most express terms to Henry VI.
at St. Paul's in March, 1452. He had been suspected of aiming at
the crown. But the government grew so unpopular, partly through the
disasters in France, partly through the King's incapacity, that York
levied an army and demanded "reformation of the Government." And on
May 23rd, 1455, was fought the battle of St. Albans, the first of
twelve pitched battles, the first blood spilt in a fierce contest
which lasted for thirty years, and almost destroyed the ancient
nobility of England. York himself was killed at Wakefield, December
23rd, 1460. On the following 3rd of March his son was proclaimed
King Edward IV. in London, and on the 29th (Palm Sunday) he defeated
Henry's Queen Margaret at Towton, the bloodiest ba