He slept easily for he had drunk rather more deeply than usual in that affable company, but before retiring he had given instructions that he was to be awakened just before dawn. He must leave then and set out for Stony Stratford where young Edward would be waiting for him. And then ... off to London and the coronation.
When he awoke the first streaks of light were in the sky. He rose startled. He should have been awakened by now. Hearing a murmuring below and with a sudden feeling that all was not as it should be he went to the window and looked out. Soldiers appeared to be surrounding the inn.
Throwing a cloak about himself he went to the door. He was confronted by a guard.
‘What means this?’ he cried.
‘You are under arrest, my lord.’
‘What? This is nonsense. Under arrest. For what reason? Who has arrested me?’
He saw the badge of the Boar on the men’s livery and he knew because the man replied: ‘On the orders of the Lord Protector, my lord.’
Rivers stepped back into the room. What a fool ‘I’ve been! he thought. How could I have been so duped? I should have stayed at Stony Stratford. I should at this moment be on my way to London with the King.
He dressed hurriedly and said that he wished to speak with the Duke of Gloucester. He sent for his most trusted squire and told him to go at once to the inn where the Duke had his headquarters and tell him that Lord Rivers desired to speak to him without delay.
‘And get a message to my nephew, Lord Richard Grey, who is with the King. Tell him to leave at once with the King for London.’
‘It is not possible, my lord. No one is allowed to leave the town. The Protector’s men are posted on all roads.’
‘It is too late then,’ said Anthony. ‘Then I must see the Duke.’
‘I will go at once my lord, and ask if he will see you.’
In a state of great mortification and extreme anxiety Rivers waited and in due course his messenger returned and said he was to conduct him to the Duke of Gloucester.
Richard regarded him sardonically.
‘It was not very clever,’ he said. ‘There was no room for you all in the town! You should have done better than that, Rivers.’
‘My lord Gloucester, it was so ...’
Richard held up a hand. ‘I do not wish to parley with you. I know full well what you planned to do ... you and the Queen. You disregarded my brother’s wishes. You sought to keep me in ignorance of his death until you had crowned the King and established yourselves as rulers of the land. That is not to be, Lord Rivers.’
‘I assure you, my lord Duke, that the people wish the King to be crowned.’
‘Assuredly the people wish their rightful King to be crowned, but in due course, and not in such a manner which will make the most hated family in the country rulers of it. The King will be crowned, I assure you, but it will not be on the fourth of May as you planned.’
‘My lord, the King himself may wish ...’
‘The King I have no doubt will wish what his uncle tells him to. He is young. Perhaps he is not aware of the scheming ambitions of that self-same uncle. Nay my lord, your schemes have been foiled. There is one thing the people do not want and that is to be ruled by the Woodvilles. They shall have their King and a proper Council to support him.’
‘Headed by my lord of Gloucester I doubt not.’
‘Headed, my lord, by the man selected by the late King to do so.’
‘I came in peace.’
‘Then how do you explain the arms in your baggage?’
‘A natural precaution.’
‘Precaution against those who seek justice for the King and the realm?’
‘Ask the King whom he wishes to guide him.’
‘The King has been well primed by his mother’s relations. All know that. The King is a child. Children cannot rule. Enough of this. I granted you this interview and now it is over.’ He called to the guards. Take Lord Rivers away. He is under arrest. He shall be lodged in Sheriff Hutton until such a time as his case can be judged.’
Protesting, Rivers was hustled away.
Richard with Buckingham beside him and their men behind them rode over in the dawn’s early light to Stony Stratford.
The young King, with Lord Richard Grey and his old chamberlain, Sir Thomas Vaughan, was eagerly watching for the arrival of Lord Rivers. He had said that he would come in the early morning when they must all be prepared to leave for London without a moment’s delay.
Lord Richard had arrived only the previous day with messages from the Queen to her son. She was longing to see him, she said. He was her King now and she knew that he would understand how important he had become. She had lost his dear father and she needed him to protect her now.
Edward was overcome with emotion. The idea of protecting his beautiful mother, who always seemed so well able to take care of herself, seemed to him a great task and one he was impatient to undertake. Uncle Anthony would tell him what he had to do. His mother would too, and Lord Richard as well. He need not be afraid with so many to help him.
Lord Richard was a little anxious because his uncle had not yet arrived. He had been so insistent that they leave as soon as it was light. He had said he would be arriving from Northampton in the very early morning. But where was he?
Richard said they should all be ready for when Lord Rivers did come it was certain that he would be in a great hurry and would want them to start off without delay.
Lord Richard was in a quandary. The Queen wanted her son in London for the coronation was fixed for a few days ahead. He decided that they would have to leave without Lord Rivers. They had left the inn and the King had mounted his horse with Richard Grey beside him when there was the sound of horses’ hoofs in the distance.
‘He is here,’ cried Lord Richard. ‘Thank God. And I am sure that he will wish to leave without delay.’
Orders were being shouted. No one was to leave the town.
Then into their midst rode the King’s paternal uncle instead of his maternal one and with him was the Duke of Buckingham.
Gloucester and Buckingham came straight to the King, dismounted and bowed low before him with the utmost respect.
‘Where is Lord Rivers?’ asked the King rather shrilly.
‘I have news for you of my Lord Rivers,’ said Richard. ‘Let us retire into the inn that we may talk in quiet.’
Bewildered the King dismounted and Lord Richard Grey and Sir Thomas Vaughan went with him into the inn. Gloucester and Buckingham followed.
Richard commanded that they be taken to a room and when they were there and the door shut he knelt and kissed Edward’s hand.
‘The greatest calamity which could befall us and this nation has come about,’ he said. ‘Your father, my brother, is dead and you, my lord, are now the true and rightful King of England.’
Edward nodded. There were tears in his eyes. He was frightened. His uncle Gloucester had always had that effect on him. He was wondering where Uncle Anthony was and why he had not come as he promised.
‘It is said,’ went on Gloucester, ‘that your father might be alive today if he had not given way to excesses. There were certain men surrounding him, notably your half-brother the Marquess of Dorset, who encouraged him in these excesses. It is my intent, as your guardian, named to be such by your father, that you shall be saved from these evil influences.’
Lord Richard Grey cried out: ‘My lord ... I protest. I and my uncle have never had anything but the King’s welfare at heart.’