Richard Iii Makers Of History

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A passage from the book...The great quarrel between the houses of York and Lancaster.--Terrible results of the quarrel.--Origin of it.--Intricate questions of genealogy and descent.--Lady Cecily Neville.--She becomes Duchess of York.--Her mode of life.--Extract from the ancient annals.--Lady Cecily's family.--Names of the children.--The boys' situation and mode of life.--Their letters.--Letter written by Edward and Edmund.--The boys congratulate their father on his victories.--Further particulars about the boys.--The Castle of Ludlow.-- Character of Richard's mother.--Spirit of aristocracy.--Relative condition of the nobles and the people.--Character of Richard's mother.--The governess.--Sir Richard Croft, the boys' governor. The mother of King Richard the Third was a beautiful, and, in many respects, a noble-minded woman, though she lived in very rude, turbulent, and trying times. She was born, so to speak, into one of the most widely-extended, the most bitter, and the most fatal of the family quarrels which have darkened the annals of the great in the whole history of mankind, namely, that longprotracted and bitter contest which was waged for so many years between the two great branches of the family of Edward the Third--the houses of York and Lancaster--for the possession of the kingdom of England.

Preface King Richard the Third, known commonly in history as Richard the Usurper, was perhaps as bad a man as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever raised to the throne, or perhaps it should rather be said, as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever made. There is no evidence that his natural disposition was marked with any peculiar depravity. He was made reckless, unscrupulous, and cruel by the influences which surrounded him, and the circumstances in which he lived, and by being habituated to believe, from his earliest childhood, that the family to which he belonged were born to live in luxury and splendor, and to reign, while the millions that formed the great mass of the community were created only to toil and to obey. The manner in which the principles of pride, ambition, and desperate love of power, which were instilled into his mind in his earliest years, brought forth in the end their legitimate fruits, is clearly seen by the following narrative. About the author Jacob Abbott (November 14, 1803 - October 31, 1879) was an American writer of children's books. On November 14, 1803, Abbott was born in Hallowell, Maine to Jacob Abbott II and Betsey Chandler. He attended the Hallowell Academy. Abbott graduated from Bowdoin College in 1820. At some point during his years there, he supposedly added the second "t" to his surname, to avoid being "Jacob Abbot the 3rd" (although one source notes he did not actually begin signing his name with two t's until several years later). Abbott studied at Andover Theological Seminary in 1821, 1822, and 1824. He taught in Portland academy and was tutor in Amherst College during the next year. From 1825 to 1829 Abbott was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Amherst College; was licensed to preach by the Hampshire Association in 1826; founded the Mount Vernon School for Young Ladies in Boston in 1829, and was principal of it in 1829-1833; was pastor of Eliot Congregational Church (which he founded), at Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1834-1835; and was, with his brothers, a founder, and in 1843-1851 a principal of Abbott's Institute, and in 1845-1848 of the Mount Vernon School for Boys, in New York City. He was a prolific author, writing juvenile fiction, brief histories, biographies, religious books for the general reader, and a few works in popular science. He wrote 180 books and was a coauthor or editor of 31 more. He died in Farmington, Maine, where he had spent part of his time after 1839, and where his brother, Samuel Phillips Abbott, founded the Abbott School. His Rollo Books, such as Rollo at Play, Rollo in Europe, etc., are the best known of his writings, having as their chief characters a representative boy and his associates. In them Abbott did for one or two generations of young American readers a service not unlike that performed earlier, in England and America, by the authors of Evenings at Home, The History of Sandford and Merton, and The Parent's Assistant. To follow up his Rollo books, he wrote of Uncle George, using him to teach the young readers about ethics, geography, history, and science. He also wrote 22 volumes of biographical histories and a 10 volume set titled the Franconia Stories. (wikipedia.org)

King Richard the Third, known commonly in history as Richard the Usurper, was perhaps as bad a man as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever raised to the throne, or perhaps it should rather be said, as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever made . There is no evidence that his natural disposition was marked with any peculiar depravity. He was made reckless, unscrupulous, and cruel by the influences which surrounded him, and the circumstances in which he lived, and by being habituated to believe, from his earliest childhood, that the family to which he belonged were born to live in luxury and splendor, and to reign, while the millions that formed the great mass of the community were created only to toil and to obey. The manner in which the principles of pride, ambition, and desperate love of power, which were instilled into his mind in his earliest years, brought forth in the end their legitimate fruits, is clearly seen by the following narrative.

Jacob Abbott (November 14, 1803 - October 31, 1879) was an American writer, born in Hallowell, Maine. He was a prolific author, writing juvenile fiction, brief histories, biographies, religious books for the general reader, and a few works in popular science. Richard III, from Abbott's Makers of History series, is a brief, illustrated history on the life of the English King. Richard III includes chapters on the Lancaster family, the War of the Roses, and the Battle of Bosworth Field.

The mother of King Richard the Third was a beautiful, and, in many respects, anoble-minded woman, though she lived in very rude, turbulent, and trying times.She was born, so to speak, into one of the most widely-extended, the most bitter, and the most fatal of the family quarrels which have darkened the annals of thegreat in the whole history of mankind, namely, that long-protracted and bittercontest which was waged for so many years between the two great branches of thefamily of Edward the Third-the houses of York and Lancaster-for the possessionof the kingdom of England. This dreadful quarrel lasted for more than a hundredyears. It led to wars and commotions, to the sacking and burning of towns, to theravaging of fruitful countries, and to atrocious deeds of violence of every sort, almost without number. The internal peace of hundreds of thousands of families allover the land was destroyed by it for many generations. Husbands were alienatedfrom wives, and parents from children by it. Murders and assassinationsinnumerable grew out of it. And what was it all about? you will ask. It arose from thefact that the descendants of a certain king had married and intermarried amongeach other in such a complicated manner that for several generations nobody couldtell which of two different lines of candidates was fairly entitled to the throne. Thequestion was settled at last by a prince who inherited the claim on one sidemarrying a princess who was the heir on the other. Thus the conflicting interests ofthe two houses were combined, and the quarrel was ended.But, while the question was pending, it kept the country in a state of perpetualcommotion, with feuds, and quarrels, and combats innumerable, and all the othercountless and indescribable horrors of civil war.The two branches of the royal family which were engaged in this quarrel werecalled the houses of York and Lancaster, from the fact that those were the titles ofthe fathers and heads of the two lines respectively. The Lancaster party were thedescendants of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and the York party were thesuccessors and heirs of his brother Edmund, Duke of York. These men were bothsons of Edward the Third, the King of England who reigned immediately beforeRichard the Second. A full account of the family is given in our history of Richardthe Second. Of course, they being brothers, their children were cousins, and theyought to have lived together in peace and harmony. And then, besides being relatedto each other through their fathers, the two branches of the family intermarriedtogether, so as to make the relationships in the following generations so close andso complicated that it was almost impossible to disentangle them. In reading thehistory of those times, we find dukes or princes fighting each other in the field, orlaying plans to assassinate each other, or striving to see which should make theother a captive, and shut him up in a dungeon for the rest of his days; and yet theseenemies, so exasperated and implacable, are very near relations-cousins, perhaps, if the relationship is reckoned in one way, and uncle and nephew if it is reckoned inanother. During the period of this struggle, all the great personages of the court, and all, or nearly all, the private families of the kingdom, and all the towns and thevillages, were divided and distracted by the dreadful f