decided to stay his hand no longer, and, with the general approbation of his subjects, prepared to settle his account, once and for all, with Louis. He was in the midst of his preparations when he died on April 9th, 1483.
The reign of Edward's young son, Edward V., lasted for less than three months, and was, not unnaturally, barren of naval incident. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle, formally accepted the crown on June 26, 1483, and was crowned on July 6th, following,[1] the late king, and his younger brother, the Duke of York, disappearing soon afterwards, having been, as is generally believed, murdered in their prison in the Tower by Richard's orders.
Richard III., who had been Lord High Admiral for many years, surrendered the office immediately after his accession to John Howard, first Duke of Norfolk, the "Jockey of Norfolk" of the ancient couplet.
The naval events of the reign are almost entirely connected with the efforts of Henry, Earl of Richmond, to secure the crown. These may be briefly narrated.
Henry was, at the time of Richard's accession, in Brittany, as guest of the Duke Francis, a weak potentate with a strong minister in the person of Pierre Landais, who, being of low origin, was very unpopular with the Breton nobility. Landais knew of Henry's aspirations, and of the project for marrying him to the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and for thus uniting the Houses of Lancaster and York; and he seems to have believed that if he aided Henry to win a throne, Henry would help him to crush the nobles who troubled him. He therefore enabled Henry to procure a squadron of forty ships and about five thousand men, with which an abortive attempt at invasion was made in 1483. Sir Thomas Wentworth was at that time in command of a strong force of English ships in the Channel, and vessels from the Cinque Ports were cruising to observe the movements of the Bretons. Moreover, craft to assist in the defence of the country had been specially procured by Richard from Spain; so that the invader had everything against him. To make things worse, his squadron was dispersed by a gale, and as the coast was found to be carefully guarded, Henry was obliged to return.[2] In the meantime, Richard had
