Page:The Queens of England.djvu/253

ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 215 in the Sanctuary at the time, the unfortunate Elizabeth and her infant son would have been utterly destitute of proper at- tendance in this hour of pain and peril. Soon after his birth the little prince was baptized, with the utmost privacy and simplicity, at Westminster Abbey ; the Abbot of Westminster, the Duchess of Bedford, and Lady Scrope standing sponsors. He was named Edward, after his father. From this period until the month of April following, the queen remained shut up in the Sanctuary, when the king, who had landed in England in March, and had, almost unopposed, made his way to the capital, which instantly surrendered to him, came to release her from her long and painful imprison- ment, for such in fact it was. Great was his joy once more to behold her, and to greet his first-born son ; and nobly did he reward the few friends who had faithfully assisted her dur- ing the dark and disastrous times she had gone through. From the Sanctuary, Edward carried his wife and children to Baynard Castle, a place of enormous strength, where she remained until the fortunes of the house of York were assured by the battle of Barnet, and the deaths of Warwick and Mon- tague ; but all danger for her was not yet over ; for being lodged in the Tower, previous to the battle of Tewkesbury, it was, during the king's absence threatened by Falconbridge ; but Anthony Woodville repelled the impending danger. The sun of fortune smiled once more on the house of York. The royal pair, long separated by misfortune and hardship, now resolved to enjoy the pleasures of peace and prosperity ; and feasts, banquets, and amusements of all kinds took the place of mourning, alarm, and distress. Edward, who was not in general wanting in gratitude to those who had aided him in misfortune, rewarded those who had been kind to his queen while in the Sanctuary, and also invited to his court Louis of Bruges, governor of Holland, who had received him most kindly the previous year; and this guest the king treated with the most princely hospitality, and created Earl of Winchester. In the year 1477, the queen's second son, Richard, Duke of York, then five years old, was married to Anne Mowbray, heiress of the Duke of Norfolk, a child barely three; but neither youth nor age were considered any obstacles by Eliza- beth where wealth and ambition were concerned, as was evinced in the marriages she made for some of her brothers and sisters in the beginning of her reign.