Earl of Richmond

“ As he left no sons the honour of Richmond and his other English possessions passed to the king in 1171, though Constance is also loosely spoken of as countess of Richmond in her own right. Constance was three times married, and each of her husbands in turn assumed the title of earl of Richmond, in conjunction with that of count, or duke of Brittany. They were: Geoffrey Plantagenet (1158-1186) , son of Henry II., king of England ”

“ The true heir to the house of John of Gaunt should have been sought among the descendants of his eldest legitimate daughter, not among those of his base-born sons. The earl of Richmond had been selected by the conspirators as their figure-head mainly because he was known as a young man of ability, and because he was unmarried and could therefore take to wife the princess Elizabeth, and so absorb the Yorkist claim in his own. ”

“ Not improbably the seigneur of Aubigny was also the medium of communication with a section of Scots lords who favoured the enterprise of the Earl of Richmond (afterwards Henry VII) against Richard III; and in 1485 he was chosen to command the French troops who accompanied Richmond to England, and assisted him to win his signal victory over his rival at Bosworth Field. ”

“ During the reign of Edward IV he organised his tenants and neighbours into a fighting force of several thousand men. The author of the life in the ‘Cambrian Register’ represents Rhys as favourable to the Earl of Richmond (afterwards Henry VII) at the time of Buckingham's rebellion in 1483, and asserts that Richard III demanded his son as a hostage. ”

“ Enter King Richard and Richmond. They fight. Richard is slain. Then retreat being sounded. Richmond exits, and Richard’s body is carried off. Flourish. Enter Richmond, Stanley Earl of Derby, bearing the crown, with other Lords and Soldiers.
RICHMOND.
God and your arms be praised, victorious friends!
The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead. ”

“ RATCLIFFE.
It is, my lord.
KING RICHARD.
Bid my guard watch; leave me.
Ratcliffe, about the mid of night come to my tent
And help to arm me. Leave me, I say.
[Exit Ratcliffe. Richard withdraws into his tent; attendant soldiers guard it.]
Enter Stanley Earl of Derby to Richmond in his tent.
STANLEY.
Fortune and victory sit on thy helm!
RICHMOND.
All comfort that the dark night can afford
Be to thy person, noble father-in-law.
Tell me, how fares our loving mother?
STANLEY.
I, by attorney, bless thee from thy mother,
Who prays continually for Richmond’s good. ”

“ While keeping his state in Nottingham Castle, Richard heard of Richmond's landing at Milford Haven, and soon after learned, with indignation, that Rice ap Thomas had proved false; that Sir Gilbert Talbot, with two thousand retainers of his nephew, the young Earl of Shrewsbury, had joined the invaders; that, after leaving Shrewsbury, Richmond had pursued his way through Newport to Stafford, and from Stafford to Lichfield, and that men were rapidly gathering to his standard. Vowing vengeance, the king issued orders that his army should forthwith march southward to Leicester. ”

“ It has been asserted that a cannon fired down the streets of Richmond or Pontefract, at any time of the day, would not be likely to entail a coroner’s inquest. Camden gives a curious charter, by which the town of Richmond was conveyed away in the time of William the Conqueror: “I, William, King of England, do give, and grant to thee, my nephew, Alan, Earl of Bretagne,{264} and to thy heirs for ever, all the villages and lands which of late belonged to Earl Edwin in Yorkshire, with the knights’ fees, and other liberties and customs as freely and honourably (?) ”

“ The Earl of Chatham to the Duke of Richmond, April 6, 1778.
Lord Chatham presents his respects to the Duke of Richmond, and desires to express his best thanks for the great honour of the communication of the motion intended by his Grace on Tuesday.
It is an unspeakable concern to him, to find himself under so very wide a difference with the Duke of Richmond, as between the sovereignty and allegiance of America, that he despairs of bringing about successfully any honourable issue. He is inclined to try it, before this bad grows worse. Some weakness still continues in his hands ”

“ If Richmond doth accept mine offer, and if he wins the crown away from the murderous Usurper, then will I make him regent during the minority of my little Richard. All this I have set forth distinctly in my letter to the Earl. I also promised him my daughter Elizabeth's hand in marriage. Such offers, methinks, no sane man would refuse, unless he be a coward, which 'tis not possible for him to be. 'Tis true he belongs to the Lancastrian party, which hath ever been our enemies ”

“ If they are forced into a war, they stand it at the hazard of their heads; if, by an ignominious compromise, they should stain the honour of the crown, or sacrifice the rights of the people, let them look to the consequences, and consider whether they will be able to walk the streets in safety.”—The Duke of Manchester, the Marquess of Rockingham, the Earl of Shelburne, and Lord Lyttleton also supported the Duke of Richmond’s motion, but it was nevertheless negatived by a large majority. ”

“ Yet it could only have been on behalf of Richmond that the Earl of Oxford sought unsuccessfully to invade the kingdom in 1473. He landed first at St. Osyth in Essex, 28 May, but made a speedy retreat on hearing that the Earl of Essex was coming to meet him. ”

“ Some of these, including the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, the Marquis of Worcester, and the Earl of Southampton, remained in England, submitting moodily to the new order of things, and studying opportunities of still being useful to their sovereign. ”

“ So hundreds against thousands have borne head!
You are the men that ever conquered:
If multitudes oppress ye that ye die,
Let's sell our lives, and leave them valiantly.
Courage! upon them! till we cannot stand.
JOHN. Richmond is yonder.
QUEEN. Ay, and, son, I think,
The king is not far off.
CHES. Now heaven forfend!
LEI. Why smite ye not, but stand thus cowardly?
RICH. If Richmond hurt good Leicester, let him die.
LEI. Richmond! O, pardon mine offending eye,
That took thee for a foe: welcome, dear friend!
Where is my sovereign Richard? Thou and he
Were both in Austria. ”

“ Still the state is very much troubled, and a new revolt is expected every day."
"Then we can pause, and rest at Angers," said Richmond, gravely. "If I have many friends at the court of France, I have been obliged to leave many at the court of Britanny. Their safety must be considered at once. I will write to the good duke, before I break bread. I pray you, in the mean time, seek me a trusty messenger. Let him be a Frenchman, for there might be danger to any other." ”

“ The Duke of Richmond has never raised himself to the same sublime elevation; he is one of those poor nobles whose liberalism must be maintained by high and lucrative employments. He is one of those aristocratic worthies, always ready for any sort of military or civil work, and all sort of salaries. ”

“ His firmness during the struggle against the opposition in 1784 is said to have prevented Pitt from resigning in despair, and it was on this occasion that George III is reported to have said ‘there was no man in his dominions by whom he had been so much offended, and no man to whom he was so much indebted, as the Duke of Richmond’ (Memorials and Correspondence of C. J. Fox, 1853, i. 455) . In spite of many previous declarations Richmond now developed into a zealous courtier, and soon grew disinclined to all measures of reform. ”

“ Such an act of justice to an office, which cannot be appreciated by the object, is in very bad taste, considering it is detrimental to the public, who would have felt grateful for a similar regard to its own interests. But the Duke of Richmond's conduct by no means surprised us: he who is only a Tory in disguise was just the man to pretend a contempt for salary before he was in place, and to clutch at it ravenously the moment he got into power. ”

“ In order to strengthen Richmond's party and give him a spice of Yorkism, a marriage was proposed with Elizabeth, of York, on the same principle that beef is sometimes cut with a hammy knife to give it a flavour. Richmond was joined by several nobles hitherto favourable to Richard, and even Buckingham, who had been indebted to him for wealth and office, suddenly turned against him. When Richard heard the news he put a price on the heads of all the leaders of the insurrection ”

“ The night is too nigh for strangers to come in; and what this good man has said will smooth the way for us. I can talk deftly of the good Lord Calverly, and speak of Richard's overwhelming force, and Richmond's little band, as calm and scornfully as Lovell or Catesby, nor ever seem to think that right and justice, and God's vengeful strength, can make head against a glittering army and a kingly crown. ”

“ She was the capital of the Confederate States of America from 1861-65, the hope of the South and the despair of the North for those four long, bloody, heart-breaking years. The best commanders, the most immense armies the Federal government could furnish, hammered, hammered at Richmond, while the South’s bravest hearts and keenest minds stood with their backs often at the very walls of the city, but would not let them pass. No city in America ever has or ever will be again so completely the goal of the whole American people. ”

“ As it was, Richard left nothing undone to fortify his failing cause; he may be thought even to have overdone. He doubled his spies, enlisted fresh troops, erected fortifications, equipped fleets, twice had Richmond at his fingers' ends, twice saw Providence take his side in the dispersion of Richmond's fleet, the overthrow of Buckingham's force; then was utterly ruined by the general treason of his most trusted nobles and his not unnatural scorn of a pusillanimous rival. ”

“ This view of Richmond has been praised so [73] much that one fears disappointment. Yet one is not disappointed. Richmond is not only beautiful: it has that other quality—so much more important than beauty in woman or town—the quality of charm. Richmond is lovable.
It was the Normans who first took advantage of this fine position for a fortress: the Saxon owners of the place were the Earls of Mercia, and had no castle here, for Gilling, their headquarters in the north, was only a few miles away. ”

“ The State Capitol Square (10 acres) is not owned by the city. Half a mile N.W. of the city are the Fair Grounds, where a state fair is held annually.
Of Richmond's public buildings, several have great historic interest. St John's Episcopal church, built in 1740 (and subsequently much enlarged) , is noted especially as the meeting-place of the Virginia Convention of March 1775, before which Patrick Henry made a famous speech, ending, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, Give me liberty, or give me death!” ”

“ Of his illegitimate son, the Duke of Richmond, Henry was extravagantly fond, and at one time thought of making him heir-apparent, which might have been done, for the English dread of a succession war was then at its height. Richmond died in his seventeenth year. Having no sons of a tormentable age, Henry made his daughters as unhappy as he could make them by the harsh exercise of paternal authority, and bastardized them both, in order to clear the way to the throne for his son. ”

“ He spoke for the last time in the House of Lords on 25 June 1804, during the debate on the second reading of the Additional Force Bill, which he condemned as a feeble and inadequate measure (Parl. Debates, 1st ser. ii. 832, 833) . He died at Goodwood, Sussex, on 29 Dec. 1806, in the seventy-second year of his age, and was buried in Chichester Cathedral, his body having been first opened and filled with slack lime, according to his directions.
Richmond was a remarkably handsome man, with a dignified bearing and graceful and courteous manner. As a politician he was both hasty and ambitious. ”

“ Six thousand gentlemen rode with him to Westminster Hall on June 26th, 1483, and a few days afterwards there was a very grand procession to the Abbey, when Richard and his wife were anointed King and Queen of England. Amongst the Queen's train was Margaret of Richmond, little dreaming that within three years her son should be crowned here as Henry VII. But this monarch's real coronation had already taken place, when the crown of England was found in the hawthorn bush on Bosworth Field, and placed on Richmond's head by Lord Stanley. ”

“ Cardinal Wolsey frequently resided here; and Hall, in his Chronicles, says, that "when the common people, and especially such as had been servants of Henry VII., saw the cardinal keep house in the manor royal at Richmond, which that monarch so highly esteemed, it was a marvel to hear how they grudged, saying, 'so a butcher's dogge doth lie in the manor of Richmond!'"1
[pg 242] Queen Elizabeth was prisoner at Richmond during the reign of her sister Mary; after she came to the throne, the palace was her favourite residence; and here she died in 1608. ”

“ When Charles was dying he recommended Richmond to his brother, but James hated the Duchess of Portsmouth, and removed the duke from the mastership of the horse on 6 Feb. 1685, on the alleged ground that the office could not be exercised by deputy. James was more concerned, however, for the youth's spiritual prospects, and made his mother promise to rear him as a Roman catholic. Mother and son passed over to France about August 1685, and remained there for a year. Richmond was duly presented to Louis, and was well received. ”