Duke of York

“ Then, when York found it was of no use to wait, he began to make war, backed up by Warwick, and, after much fighting, they made the king prisoner, and forced him to make an agreement that he should reign as long as he lived, but that after that Richard of York should be king, and his son Edward be only Duke of Lancaster. This made the queen furiously angry. She would not give up her son's rights, and she gathered a great army, with which she came suddenly on the Duke of York near Wakefield, and destroyed nearly his whole army. He was killed in the battle ”

“ Thus came the young Duke of York at the head of his victorious army, after the crowning victory of Towton; the first thing to meet his gaze his father’s head, fixed on the topmost turret, and crowned in mockery with a paper crown by the fierce Lancastrians under whose swords he had fallen at the battle of Wakefield, three months before. Filial piety could not in those times rest content with removing the head from its shameful eminence, and so the Duke caused the Earl of Devon and three others among his prisoners to be immediately beheaded and their heads to be placed there instead. ”

“ She regarded the Duke of York as a big baby, not out of his leading-strings, and the Prince of Wales as an idle sensualist, with just enough of brains to be guided by any laughing, well-bred individual who would listen to stale jokes and impudent ribaldry. ”

“ Which answer come to the Duke of York, the which Duke, by the advice of the Lords of his Council, said unto them these words: "The King our sovereign Lord will not be reformed at our beseeching nor prayer, nor will not understand the intent that we be come hither and assembled for and gathered at this time; but only his full purpose, and there none other way but that he will with all his power pursue us, and if taken, to give us a shameful death, losing our livelihood and goods, and our heirs shamed for ever. ”

“ The internal state of the country at the opening of
1827
exhibited the most lowering prospects; for when the people are suffering from oppressive enactments and injurious policy, the country cannot possibly wear a smiling countenance. Some of the milk-sop daily journals, notwithstanding, were very profuse in their complimentary language to royalty, and announced, as a matter of wonderful importance, the kindness and brotherly affection manifested by the king to the Duke of York, as his majesty had spent nearly two hours with his brother at the residence of his Grace of Rutland! ”

“ Hail, glorious edifice, stupendous work!
God bless the Regent and the Duke of York! ”

“ ILLNESS OF THE DUKE OF YORK. Four months since I have written anything. The Duke of York has been dangerously ill, and it is still doubtful whether he will recover. I was with him at Frogmore before Ascot; we went with the King to see Windsor Castle. His Majesty has since been very much annoyed about the Duke, cried a great deal when he heard how bad he was, and has been twice to see him.
The elections have been particularly violent and the contests very numerous. A batch of Peers has been made; everybody cries out against Charles Ellis’s peerage [5] (Lord Seaford) ”

“ Speak out, thou coward loon.”
“Madam, Robert was cut down by the Lord Clifford beside the Earl of Rutland. ’Tis a lost field! I barely ’scaped with a dozen men. I came but to bear the tidings, and see whether you needed an arm to hold out the castle for young Bernard. Or I would be on my way to my own folk on the Border, for the Queen’s men will anon be everywhere, since the Duke is slain!”
“The Duke! The Duke of York!” was the cry, as if a tower were down.
“What would you. We were caught by Somerset like deer in a buck-stall. Here! Give me a cup of ale, I can scarce speak for chill.” ”

“ It was construed as being in itself an evidence of his disloyalty. But the popular complaints as to his treatment were both just and reasonable, for it was a matter that concerned the public weal. The rank, wealth, and lineage of the Duke of York, his connection with the blood-royal, his large possessions, and finally his well-proved ability both as a general and an administrator—all marked him out as one who ought to have been invited to take a leading part in the government of the realm ”

“ Published by T. Tegg.—The Duke of York, arrayed in his canonicals as Prince Bishop of Osnabrück, has turned his back on his mansion and on his wife; he has travelled a long stride upon the 'road to destruction' and passed the 'stumbling-block' on his path. He is trampling under foot 'Thoughts on Connubial Happiness' and the Commandments, and is just turning the corner of Gloucester Place, saying, 'Now for a meeting with my dearest dear.' Mrs. Clarke and a female friend are looking out of window, and signalling the Duke's arrival. ”

“ Clarendon State Papers. Marquess of Ormond to E. H. Brussels, 21st June 1657: “The Duke of York will take exceedingly in the army. He is as brave and as little troublesome as any prince can be.”
It may be that neither England nor France was in favour of the Princes taking service in the Spanish army, a circumstance which would have some force in determining James, who very probably was quite willing to fling a defiance in the teeth of Cromwell. ”

“ Her claims on the Dunster estates had drawn York into litigation under Henry IV (Archæological Journal, xxxvii. 164) . She survived her third husband, by whom she had no issue; but her remarriage with Sir Walter (or Robert) Fitzwalter, which has passed from Dugdale into so many accounts, is a confusion with her first marriage. She died in 1431, and was buried in Westminster Abbey (Complete Peerage, iii. 370, v. 322; Wylie, ii. 48) . York was succeeded in the title and his great estates by his nephew, Richard, duke of York (1412–1460) [q. v.] ”

“ About the end of August, 1451, a rumor reached the court of Westminster that the Duke of York had suddenly left Ireland. The queen was naturally somewhat alarmed; for, during Cade's insurrection, the duke's name had been used in such a way as to test his influence, and no doubt remained of the popularity he enjoyed among the commons. ”

“ We then entered the Palace, where Richard called a council to decide what measures should be taken in order that the Duke of York might be brought to keep company with his brother.
"For," said Gloucester, "'tis an insult to his Majesty, to thus fly from him as though he had the plague. Indeed his Royal Highness of York must be returned at once to his proper place, beside his brother. If this news be bruited abroad," continued he, "'twill make England precious ridiculous in the eyes of all Europe."
Cardinal Bouchier and the Bishop of York were present at this council. ”

“ But let us talk of your Cardinal Duke of York [1] : so his folly has left his brother in a worse situation than he took him up! York seems a title fated to sit on silly heads—or don't let us talk of him; he is not worth it.
[Footnote 1: Cardinal York was the younger brother of Charles Edward. He lived in Italy; and, after the death of his brother, assumed the title of King of England as Henry IX. After the confiscation of the greater part of the Papal revenues by Napoleon, his chief means of livelihood was a pension of £4,000 a year allowed him by George IV. out of his private purse.] ”

“ In the struggle of dynasties from which England suffered so severely during the fifteenth century, the drama of ambition shifted its scenes from London and York to Calais and Dublin. The appointment of Richard, Duke of York, as Lord Lieutenant, in 1449, presented him an opportunity of creating a Yorkist party among the nobles and people of "the Pale." ”

“ York became a royal duchy in 1385 when Richard II created his uncle, Edmund Langley, Duke of York. Shortly afterwards Henry of Lancaster (Henry IV) seized the throne, deposed Richard II, and imprisoned him in Pontefract Castle, where Richard was afterwards murdered. Plots were hatched against Henry, for example in 1403 the Percies rebelled but were defeated at Shrewsbury. ”

“ He had many of those qualities which form a good citizen: even some of those which, had they not been swallowed up in bigotry and arbitrary principles, serve to compose a good sovereign. In domestic life, his conduct was irreproachable, and is entitled to our approbation. Severe, but open in his enmities, steady in his counsels, diligent in his schemes, brave in his enterprises, faithful, sincere, and honorable in his dealings with all men; such was the character with which the duke of York mounted the throne of England. ”