 Chapter 28 of Famous Men of the Middle Ages. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kalinda. Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John H. Haran and A.B. Poland. Chapter 28. William Tell and Arnold von Winkleried. Far up among the Alps, in the very heart of Switzerland, are three districts, or cantons, as they are called, which are known as the Forest Cantons, and are famous in the world's history. About 2,000 years ago, the Romans found in these cantons a hardy race of mountaineers who, although poor, were free men and proud of their independence. They became the friends and allies of Rome, and the cantons were for many years a part of the Roman Empire, but the people always had the right to elect their own officers and to govern themselves. When the Goths and the Vandals and the Huns from beyond the Rhine and the Danube overran the Roman Empire, these three cantons were not disturbed. The land was too poor and rocky to attract men who were fighting for possession of the rich plains and valleys of Europe, and so it happened that for century after century, the mountaineers of these cantons lived on in their old, simple way, undisturbed by the rest of the world. In a canton in the valley of the Rhine lived the Habsburg family, whose leaders in time grew to be very rich and powerful. They became dukes of Austria, and some of them were elected emperors. One of the Habsburgs, Albert I, claimed that the land of the Forest Cantons belonged to him. He sent a governor and a band of soldiers to these cantons and made the people submit to his authority. In one of the Forest Cantons at this time lived a famous mountaineer named William Tell. He was tall and strong. In all Switzerland no man had a foot so sure as his on the mountains or a hand so skilled in the use of a bow. He was determined to resist the Austrians. Secret meetings of the mountaineers were held and all took a solemn oath to stand by each other and fight for their freedom, but they had no arms and were simple shepherds who had never been trained as soldiers. The first thing to be done was to get arms without attracting the attention of the Austrians. It took nearly a year to secure spears, swords and battle axes and distribute them among the mountaineers. Finally this was done and everything was ready. All were waiting for a signal to rise. The story tells us that just at this time, Gessler, the Austrian governor who was a cruel tyrant, hung a cap on a high pole in the marketplace in the village of Altorf and forced everyone who passed to bow before it. Tell, accompanied by his little son, happened to pass through the marketplace. He refused to bow before the cap and was arrested. Gessler offered to release him if he would shoot an apple from the head of his son. The governor hated Tell and made this offering hoping that the mountaineer's hand would tremble and that he would kill his own son. It is said that Tell shot the apple from his son's head, but that Gessler still refused to release him. That night, as Tell was being carried across the lake to prison, a storm came up. In the midst of the storm he sprang from the boat to an overhanging rock and made his escape. It is said that he killed the tyrant. Some people do not believe this story, but the Swiss do, and if you go to Lake Lucerne some day, they will show you the very rock upon which Tell stepped when he sprang from the boat. That night, the signal fires were lighted on every mountain and by the dawn of day, the village of Altorf was filled with hardy mountaineers armed and ready to fight for their liberty. A battle followed and the Austrians were defeated and driven from Altorf. This victory was followed by others. A few years later, the Duke himself came with a large army, determined to conquer the mountaineers. He had to march through a narrow pass with mountains rising abruptly on either side. The Swiss were expecting him and hid along the heights above the pass as soon as the Austrians appeared in the pass. Rocks and trunks of trees were hurled down upon them. Many were killed and wounded. Their army was defeated and the Duke was forced to recognize the independence of the forest cantons. This was the beginning of the Republic of Switzerland. In time, five other cantons joined them in a compact for liberty. About 70 years later, the Austrians made another attempt to conquer the Patriots. They collected a splendid army and marched into the mountains. The Swiss at once armed themselves and met the Austrians at a place called Simpach. In those times, powder had not been invented, and men fought with spears, swords, and battle axes. The Austrian soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder, each grasping a long spear whose point projected far in front of him. The Swiss were armed with short swords and spears, and it was impossible for them to get to the Austrians. For a while their cause looked hopeless, but among the ranks of the Swiss was a brave man from one of the forest cantons. His name was Arnold von Winklried. As he looked upon the bristling points of the Austrian spears, he saw that his comrades had no chance to win unless an opening could be made in that line. He determined to make such an opening, even at the cost of his life. Extending his arms as far as he could, he rushed toward the Austrian line and gathered within his arms as many spears as he could grasp. Make way for liberty, he cried, then ran with arms extended wide, as if his dearest friend to clasp, ten spears he swept within his grasp. Make way for liberty, he cried, their keen points met from side to side. He bowed among them like a tree, and thus made way for liberty. Pierce through and through Winklried fell dead, but he had made a gap in the Austrian line, and into this gap rushed the Swiss Patriots. Victory was theirs, and the cantons were free. End of Chapter 28 Recording by Kalinda in Raymond, New Hampshire on January 31st, 2008 Chapter 29 of Famous Men of the Middle Ages This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John H. Horan and A. B. Poland Chapter 29 Tamerlane, lived from 1333 to 1405 Tamerlane was the son of the chief of a Mongolian tribe in Central Asia. His real name was Timur, but as he was lame in battle when a youth, he was generally called Timur the lame, and this was generally changed to Tamerlane. He was born in 1333, so that he lived in the time of the English king, Edward III, when the black prince was winning his victories over the French. He was a descendant of a celebrated Tatar soldier, Genghis Khan, who had conquered Persia, China, and other countries of Asia. When 24 years old, Tamerlane became the head of his tribe, and in a few years he made himself the leader of the whole Mongolian race. He was a tall, stern-looking man of great strength, and although lame in his right leg, he could ride a spirited horse at full gallop and could do all the work of an active soldier. He was as brave as a lion and as cruel. He chose the ancient city of Samarakhand in Turkestan for his capital, and here he built a beautiful marble palace, where he lived in the greatest luxury. After he had enjoyed for some time the honors which fell to him as chief ruler of the Mongolians, he began to desire further conquests. He determined to make himself master of all the countries of Central Asia. As there is but one God in heaven, he said, there ought to be but one ruler on the earth. So he gathered an immense army from all the parts of his dominion, and for weeks his subjects were busy making preparations for war. At length he started for Persia in command of a splendid army. After gaining some brilliant victories, he forced the Persian king to flee from his capital. All the rich country belonging to Persia, from the Tigris to the Euphrates, submitted to the Mongolian conqueror. Tamerlane celebrated his Persian conquest by magnificent festivities which continued for a week. Then orders were given to march into the great Tatar empire of the north. Here Tamerlane was victorious over the principal chiefs and made them his vassals. In pursuing the Tatars he entered Russia and sacked and burned some of the Russian cities. He did not, however, continue his invasion of this country, but turned in the direction of India. At last his army stood before the city of Delhi, and after a fierce assault forced it to surrender. Other cities of India were taken, and the authority of Tamerlane was established over a large extent of the country. Bajazet, Sultan of Turkey, now determined to stop Tamerlane's eastward march. News of this reached the conqueror's ears. Leaving India, he marched to meet the Sultan. Bajazet was a famous warrior. He was so rapid in his movements and war that he was called the Lightning. Tamerlane entered the Sultan's dominions and devastated them. He stormed Baghdad, and after capturing the place, he killed thousands of the inhabitants. And linked the rivals and their armies faced each other. A great battle followed. It raged four or five hours, and then the Turks were totally defeated. Bajazet was captured. Tamerlane then ordered a great iron cage to be made and forced the Sultan to enter it. The prisoner was chained to the iron bars of the cage and thus exhibited to the Mongol soldiers who taunted him as he was carried along the lines. As the army marched from place to place, the Sultan in his cage was shown to the people. How long the fallen monarch had to bear this humiliating punishment is not known. Tamerlane's dominions now embraced a large part of Asia. He retired to his palace in Samarakhand and for several weeks indulged in festivities. He could not, however, long be content away from the field of battle, so he made up his mind to invade the empire of China. At the head of a great army of 200,000 soldiers, he marched from the city of Samarakhand towards China. He had gone about 300 miles on the way when, in February 1405, he was taken sick and died. His army was disbanded and all thought of invading China was given up. Thus passed one of the greatest conquerors of the Middle Ages. He was a soldier of genius, but he could not be called a truly great man. His vast empire speedily fell to pieces after his death. Since his day there has been no leader like him in that part of Asia. End of Chapter 29 CHAPTER 30 Henry V. King from 1413 to 1422 Part 1 Of all the kings that England ever had, Henry V. was perhaps the greatest favourite among the people. They liked him because he was handsome and brave and, above all, because he conquered France. In his youth Prince Howe, as the people called him, had a number of merry companions who sometimes got themselves into trouble by their pranks. Once one of them was arrested and brought before the chief justice of the kingdom. Prince Howe was not pleased because sentence was given against his companion and he drew his sword, threatening the judge. Upon this the judge bravely ordered the prince to be arrested and put into prison. Prince Howe submitted to his punishment with good grace and his father is reported to have said, Happy is the monarch who has so just a judge and a son so willing to obey the law. One of Prince Howe's companions was a fat old knight named Sir John Falstaff. Once Falstaff was boasting that he and three men had beaten and almost killed two men in buckram suits who had attacked and tried to rob them. The prince let him on and gave him a chance to brag as much as he wanted to until finally Falstaff swore that there were at least a hundred robbers and that he himself fought with fifty. Then Prince Howe told the companions that only two men had attacked Falstaff and his friends and that he and another man who was present were those two. And he said that Falstaff, instead of fighting, had run as fast as his legs could carry him. There was real goodness as well as merriment in Prince Howe and so the people found for when he became king on the death of his father he told his wild companions that the days of his wildness were over and he advised them to lead better lives in the future. As Henry V Prince Howe made himself famous in English history by his war with France. Normandy, you remember, had belonged to Henry's ancestor William the Conqueror. It had been taken from King John of England by the French King Philip Augustus in 1203. Soon after his coronation Henry sent a demand to the French King that Normandy should be restored and he made the claim which his great grandfather, Edward III, had made that he was by right the King of France. Of course the King of France would not acknowledge this. Henry therefore raised an army of 30,000 men and invaded France. Before he began to attack the French he gave strict orders to his men that they were to harm no one who was not a soldier and to take nothing from the houses or farms of any persons who were not fighting. Sickness broke out among Henry's troops after they landed so that their number was reduced to about 15,000. Fifty or sixty thousand Frenchmen were encamped on the field of Agincourt to oppose this little army. The odds were greatly against Henry. The night before the battle one of his officers said he wished that many thousand brave soldiers who were quietly sleeping in their beds in England were with the King. I would not have a single man more, said Henry. If God give us victory it will be plain we owe it to his grace. If not the fewer we are the less loss for England. The men drew courage from their King. The English archers poured arrows into the ranks of their opponents and although the French fought bravely they were completely routed. Eleven thousand Frenchmen fell. Among the slain were more than a hundred of the nobles of the land. Part two. Agincourt was not the last of Henry's victories. He brought a second army of forty thousand men over to France. Town after town was captured and at last Henry and his victorious troops laid siege to Rouen, which was then the largest and richest city in France. The fortifications were so strong that Henry could not storm them so he determined to take the place by starving the garrison. He said, I have chosen the meekest of the three. He had trenches dug round the town and placed soldiers in them to prevent citizens from going out of the city for supplies and to prevent the country people from taking provisions in. A great number of the country people had left their homes when they heard that the English army was marching towards Rouen and had taken refuge within the city walls. After the siege had gone on for six months there was so little food left in the place that the commander of the garrison ordered these poor people to go back to their homes. Twelve thousand were put outside the gates but Henry would not allow them to pass through his lines so they starved to death between the walls of the French and the trenches of the English. As winter came on the suffering of the citizens was terrible. At last they determined to set fire to the city, open their gates, and make a last desperate attack on the English. Henry wished to preserve the city and offered such generous terms of surrender that the people accepted them. Not only Rouen, but the whole of Normandy which the French had held for two hundred years was now forced to submit to Henry. The war continued for about two years more and the English gained possession of such a large part of France that at Christmas Henry entered Paris itself in triumph. But, strange to say, the king against whom he had been fighting and over whom he was triumphing sat by his side as he rode through the streets. What did this mean? It meant that the French were so terrified by the many victories of Henry that all, king and people, were willing to give him whatever he asked. A treaty was made that as the king was feeble Henry should be regent of the kingdom and that when the king died Henry should succeed him as king of France. In the treaty the French king also agreed to give Henry his daughter, the Princess Catherine, in marriage. She became the mother of the English king Henry VI. The arrangement that an English sovereign should be king of France was never put into effect for in less than two years after the treaty was signed the reign of the great conqueror came to an end. Henry died. In the reign of his son all his work in gaining French territory was undone. By the time that Henry VI was twenty years old, England, as you will read in the story of Joan of Arc, had nothing left of all that had been won by so many years of war except the single town of Calais. Chapter 31 of Famous Men of the Middle Ages This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by David Kloeperik Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John H. Herron and A. B. Poland Chapter 31 Joan of Arc Joan of Arc lived from 1412 to 1431. One. In the long wars between the French and English, not even the Black Prince or King Henry V gained such fame as did a young French peasant girl, Joan of Arc. She was born in a little village of Doremi. Her father had often told her of the sad condition of France, how the country was largely in the possession of the England and how the French king did not dare to be crowned. And so the thought came to be ever in her mind how I pity my country. She brooded over the matter so much that by and by she began to have visions of angels and heard strange voices which said to her, Joan, you can deliver the land from the English. Go to the relief of King Charles. At last these strange visions and voices made the young girl believe she had a mission from God and she determined to try to save France. When she told her father and mother of her purpose they tried to persuade her that the visions of angels and the voices telling her of the divine mission were but dreams. I tell thee, Joan, said her father, it is thy fancy. Thou hath better have a kind husband to take care of thee and do some work to employ thy mind. Father, I must do what God has willed for this is no work of my choosing, she replied. Mother, I would far rather sit and spin by her side than take part in war. My mission is no dream. I know that I have been chosen by the Lord to fulfill his purpose and nothing can prevent me from going where he proposes to send me. The village priest, her young companions even the governor of the town all tried to stop her but it was in vain. The governor, she said, I must do the work my Lord has laid out for me. Little by little people began to believe in her mission. At last all stopped trying to discourage her and some who were wealthy helped her to make the journey to the town of Sheenan where the French king, Charles VII, was living. Two. When Joan arrived at Sheenan a force of French soldiers was preparing to go south of France to relieve the city of Orleans which the English were besieging. King Charles received Joan kindly and listened to what she had to say with deep attention. The girl spoke modestly but with a calm belief that she was right. Gracious King, she said, my name is Joan. God has sent me to deliver France from her enemies. You shall shortly be crowned in the Cathedral of Rhimes. I am to lead the soldiers you are about to send for the relief of Orleans. So God has directed under my guidance victory will be theirs. The king and his nobles talked the matter over and finally it was decided to allow Joan to lead an army of about 5,000 men against the English at Orleans. When she left Sheenan at the head of her soldiers in April, 1429 she was in her 18th year mounted on a fine war-horse and clad in white armor from head to foot she rode along past the cheering multitude seeming rather it has been said of heaven than earth. In one hand she carried an ancient sword that she had found near the tomb of a saint and in the other a white banner embroidered with lilies. The rough soldiers who were near her left off their oaths and course manners and carefully guarded her. She inspired the whole army with courage and faith as she talked about her visions. When she arrived at the besieged city of Orleans she fearlessly rode round its walls while the English soldiers looked on in astonishment she was able to enter Orleans despite the efforts of the besiegers to prevent her. She aroused the city by her cheerful, confident words and then led her soldiers forth to give battle to the English. Their success was amazing. One after another the English forts were taken. When only the strongest remained and Joanne was leading the attacking force she received a slight wound and was carried out of the battle to be attended by a surgeon. Her soldiers began to retreat wait, she commanded eat and drink and rest for as soon as I recover I will touch the walls with my banner and you shall enter the fort. In a few minutes she mounted her horse again riding rapidly up to the fort touched it with her banner her soldiers almost instantly carried it the very next day the enemy's troops were forced to withdraw from before the city and the siege was at end. The French soldiers were jubilant at the victory and called Joanne the maid of Orleans. By this name she is known in history her fame spread everywhere and the English as well as the French thought she had more than human power. It led the French in several other battles and again and again her troops were victorious. At last the English were driven far to the north of France then Charles urged by Joanne went to Rhimes with twelve thousand soldiers and there with splendid ceremonies was crowned king. Joanne holding her white banner stood near Charles during the coronation. When the ceremony was finished she knelt at his feet and said oh king, the will of God is done and my mission is over let me now go home to my parents. But the king urged her to stay a while longer as France was not entirely freed from the English. Joanne consented but she said I hear the heavenly voices no more and I'm afraid. However she took part in an attack upon the army of the Duke of Burgundy but was taken prisoner by him. For a large sum of money the Duke delivered her into the hands of the English who put her in prison in Rua. She lay in prison for a year and finally was charged with sorcery and brought to trial. It was said that she was under the influence of the evil one. She declared to her judges her innocence of the charge and said God has always been my guide in all that I have done. The devil has never had power over me. Her trial was long and tiresome. At its close she was doomed to be burned at the stake. So in the marketplace at Rua the English soldiers fastened her to a stake surrounded by a great pile of faggots. A soldier put in her hand a rough cross which he had made from the stake that he held. She thanked him and pressed it to her bosom. Then a good priest standing near the stake read to her the prayer for the dying and another mounted the faggots and held toward her a crucifix which she clasped with both hands and kissed. When the cruel flames burst out around her the noble girl uttered the word Jesus and expired. A statue of her now stands in the spot where she suffered. Among all the men of her time none did nobler work than Joanne and hence it is that we put the story of her life among the stories of the lives of the great men of the Middle Ages although she was only a simple peasant girl. End of Chapter 31 Recording by David Kloparek Chapter 32 of Famous Men of the Middle Ages This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John H. Heron and A.B. Poland Chapter 32 Gutenberg Lived from 1400 to 1468 While Joan of Arc was busy rescuing France from the English another wonderful worker was busy in Germany this was John Gutenberg who was born in Mainz. The Germans and most other people think that he was the inventor of the art of printing with movable types and so in the cities of Dresden and Mainz his countrymen have put up statues in his memory. Gutenberg's father was a man of good family. Very likely the boy was taught to read but the books from which he learned were not like ours they were written by hand a better name for them than books is Manuscripts which means Handwritings. While Gutenberg was growing up a new way of making books came into use which was a great deal better than copying by hand it is what is called block printing the printer first cut a block of hardwood the size of the page that he was going to print then he cut out every word of the written page upon the smooth face of his block this had to be very carefully done when it was finished the printer had to cut away the wood from the sides of every letter this left the letters raised as the letters are in books now printed for the blind the block was now ready to be used the letters were inked paper was laid upon them and pressed down with blocks the printer could make copies of a book a great deal faster than a man could write them by hand but the making of the blocks took a long time and each block would print only one page Gutenberg enjoyed reading the Manuscripts and block books that his parents and their wealthy friends had and he often said it was a pity that only rich people could own books finally he determined to contrive some easy and quick way of printing he did a great deal of his work in secret for he thought it was much better that his neighbours should know nothing of what he was doing so he looked for a workshop where no one would be likely to find him he was now living in Strasbourg and there was in that city a ruined old building where long before his time a number of monks had lived there was one room of the building which needed only a little repairing to make it fit to be used so Gutenberg got the right to repair that room and use it as his workshop all his neighbours wondered what had become of him when he left home in the early morning and where he had been when they saw him coming back late in the twilight some felt sure that he must be a wizard and that he had meetings somewhere with the devil and that devil was helping him to do some strange business Gutenberg did not care much what people had to say and in his quiet room he patiently tried one experiment after another often feeling very sad and discouraged day after day because his experiments did not succeed at last the time came when he had no money left he went back to his old home Mainz and there met a rich goldsmith named Faust Gutenberg told him how hard he had tried in Strasburg to find some way of making books cheaply and how he had now no money to carry on his experiments Faust became greatly interested and gave Gutenberg what money he needed but as the experiments did not at first succeed Faust lost patience he quarreled with Gutenberg and said that he was doing nothing but spending money at last he brought suit against him in the court and the judge decided in favour of Faust so everything in the world that Gutenberg had even the tools with which he worked came into Faust's possession but though he had lost his tools Gutenberg had not lost his courage and he had not lost all his friends one of them had money and he bought Gutenberg a new set of tools and hired a workshop for him and now at last Gutenberg's hopes were fulfilled first of all it is thought that he made types of hard wood each type was a little block with a single letter at one end such types were a great deal better than block letters the block letters were fixed they could not be taken out of the words of which they were parts the new types were movable so they could be set up to print one page then taken apart and set up again and again to print any number of pages but type made of wood did not always print the letters clearly and distinctly so Gutenberg gave up wood types and tried metal types soon a Latin Bible was printed it was in two volumes each of which had 300 pages while each of the pages had 42 lines the letters were sharp and clear they had been printed from movable types of metal the Dutch claim that Lorenz Koster, a native of Harlem in the Netherlands was the first person who printed with movable type they say that Koster was one day taking a walk in a beach forest not far from Harlem and that he cut bark from one of the trees and shaped it with his knife into letters not long after this the Dutch say Koster had made movable types and was printing and selling books in Harlem the news that books were being printed in Mainz by Gutenberg went all over Europe and before he died printing presses like his were at work making books in all the great cities of the Continent about twenty years after his death when Venice was the richest of European cities a man named Aldous Manusius established there the most famous printing house of that time he was at work printing books two years before Columbus sailed on his first voyage the descendants of Aldous continued the business after his death for about one hundred years the books published by them were called Alding from Aldous they were the most beautiful that had ever come from the press they were admired and valued to this day End of Chapter 32 Chapter 33 of Famous Men of the Middle Ages this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recorded by Alec Datesman Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John H. Haran and A. B. Poland Chapter 33 Warwick the Kingmaker lived from 1428 to 1471 one the Earl of Warwick known as the Kingmaker was the most famous man in England for many years after the death of Henry V he lived in a great castle with two towers higher than most church spires it is one of the handsomest dwellings in the world and is visited every year by thousands of people the Kingmaker had a guard of 600 men at his house in London meals were served to so many people that six fat oxen were eating at breakfast alone and 110 estates in different parts of England and no less than 30,000 persons were fed deadly at his board he owned the whole city of Worcester and besides this the three islands Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney so famed an hour time for their cattle belonged to him he had a cousin of whom he was fond of as if he were a brother this was Richard, Duke of York who was also a cousin to King Henry VI the son of Henry V one evening as the son was setting to go in to close the gates of the city of York for the night a loud blast of a horn was heard it was made by the century on a wall near the southern gate an armed troop was approaching when they drew near the gate their scarlet coats embroidered with the figure of a boar proved them to be men of the Earl of Warwick the Earl himself was behind them the gate was opened passing through it and on to the castle the Earl and his company were soon within its strong stone walls cousin said the Earl of Warwick Duke of York, as they sat talking before a huge log fire in the great room of the castle England will not long endure the misrule of a king who was half the time out of his mind the Earl spoke the truth every now and then Henry VI lost his reason and the Duke of York or some other nobleman had to govern the kingdom for him the Earl of Warwick added you are the rightful heir to the throne the claim of Henry VI comes through Lancaster the fourth son of Edward III yours through Lionel, the second his claim comes through his father, only yours through both your father and mother it is a better claim and it is a double claim that is true, my cousin of Warwick replied the Duke of York but we must not pledge England into war surely not if we can help it, replied the Earl let us first ask for reform if the king heeds our petition well and good, if not I am determined, cousin of York that you shall sit on the throne of England instead of our insane sovereign the king was soon drawn up and signed and presented to Henry it asked that Henry would do something which would make the people contented the king paid no attention to it then a war began it was the longest and most terrible that ever took place in England it lasted for 30 years those who fought on the king's side were called Lancastrians because Henry's ancestor, John of Gaunt was the Duke of Lancaster the friends of Richard were called Yorkists the Lancastrians took a red rose for their badge the Yorkists a white one for this reason the long struggle has always been called the war of the roses in the first great battle the red rose party was defeated and the king himself was taken prisoner the victors now thought that the Duke of York ought to be made king at once however a parliament was called to decide the question and it was agreed that Henry should be king as long as he lived but that at his death the crown should pass to the Duke of York two most people thought this was a wise arrangement but Queen Margaret, Henry's wife did not like it at all because it took from her son the right to reign after his father's death so she went to Scotland and the north of England where she had many friends and raised an army she was a brave woman and led her men in a battle in which she gained the victory the Duke of York was killed and the queen ordered some of her men to cut off his head over one of the gates of the city of York Warwick attacked the queen again as soon as he could but again she was victorious and captured from Warwick her husband the king whom the Earl had held prisoner for some time past this was a great triumph from Margaret for Henry became king once more but the people were still discontented the York party was determined that Edward, the son of the old Duke of York should be made king so thousands flocked to the white rose standard and Warwick marched to London at their head the queen saw that her only safety was in flight she left London and the kingmaker entered the city in triumph the citizens had been very fond of the old Duke of York and when his party proclaimed his handsome young son King Edward IV the city resounded with the cry God save King Edward brave Queen Margaret was completely defeated in another battle the story is told that after she fled into a forest with her young son a robber met them but Margaret said to him I am your queen and this is your prince I entrust him to your care the man was pleased with the confidence that she showed he took her and the young prince to a safe hiding place and helped them to escape from England in a sailing vessel III Edward IV now seemed to be seated securely upon the throne but trouble was near Warwick wished him to follow his advice Edward thought he could manage without any advice then the king and the kingmaker quarreled and at last became open enemies and fought one another on the field of battle the end of it was that Warwick was defeated and driven out of the country he sailed across the channel and sought refuge in France there whom should he meet but his old enemy Queen Margaret she had beaten him in battle and had beheaded his cousin Richard Duke of York he had beaten her and driven her from her kingdom and twice he had made her husband prisoner and taken from him his crown in spite of all this he soon now became fast friends and the kingmaker agreed to make war upon Edward and restore Henry to the throne he asked assistance from Louis XI King of France who supplied him with men and money so with an army of Frenchmen the kingmaker landed on the shores of England thousands of Englishmen who were tired of Edward flocked to Warwick's standard and when he reached London he had an army of 60,000 men Edward fled without waiting for a battle and escaped to the Netherlands in a sailing vessel the kingmaker had now no one to resist him the gates of London were open to him and the citizens heartily welcomed him marching to the tower he brought out the old king and placed him once more upon the throne but though Edward had fled he was not discouraged he followed the example of the kingmaker and asked aid from foreign friends the Duke of Burgundy supplied him with money and soldiers and he was soon back in England his army grew larger and larger every day people had been very much dissatisfied with Edward and had rejoiced to get rid of him and have Henry for King because if Henry was not clever he was good but in a short time they had found out that England needed a king who was not only good but capable so when Edward and his French soldiers landed most people in England welcomed them the kingmaker was now on the wrong side Edward met him in a battle at a place called Barnett and completely defeated him Warwick was killed and Henry once more became a prisoner in a battle both Margaret and her son were made prisoners the son was brutally murdered in the presence of King Edward Margaret was placed in the tower and King Henry who died soon after the battle of Tuxbury was probably poisoned by order of Edward in 1483 after a reign of 22 years Edward died leaving two sons both were boys so Edward's brother Richard Duke of Gloucester was made regent until young Edward V the older of the two should come of age but Richard was determined to make himself king so he put both the young princes in the tower he then hired ruffians to murder them one night when the little princes were asleep the murderers smothered them with pillows and buried their bodies at the foot of a stairway in the tower and there after many years their bones were found after Richard had murdered his two nephews he was crowned king as Richard III much pleased that his plans had succeeded so well he thought that now nobody could lay claim to the throne but he was mistaken one person did claim it that was Henry Tudor Earl of Richmond Henry's father Edmund Tudor was only a Welsh gentleman but he was the half brother of Henry VI through their mother Queen Catherine Henry's mother was descended from John of Gaunt fourth son of Edward III and thus through his mother he was of royal blood and a Lancastrian when Richard III by his wickedness and cruelty had made all England hate him the Red Rose army gathered about Henry Tudor raised an army and fought against the king in the battle of Bosworth Richard was a bad man but he was brave and he fought like a lion however it was all in vain he was defeated and killed his body was thrown on the back of a horse carried to a church near the field of battle and buried the battered crown which Richard had worn was picked up and placed on Henry's head and the whole Lancastrian army shouted Long live King Henry that Henry Tudor and his heirs should be kings of England not long afterwards Henry married the heiress of the House of York and thus both the Red Roses and the White were satisfied as the king was a Lancastrian and the Queen of Yorkist so the long and terrible wars of the Roses came to an end End of Chapter 33 Recorded by Alec Datesman End of Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John H. Haran and A. B. Poland End of Chapter 33