His mother, being a widow,
had espoused in second marriage Sir Henry Stafford, uncle to Buckingham,
and after the death of that gentleman, had married Lord Stanley; but had
no children by either of these husbands; and her son Henry was thus, in
the event of her death, the sole heir of all her fortunes. But this was
not the most considerable advantage which he had reason to expect from
her succession: he would represent the elder branch of the house of
Somerset; he would inherit all the title of that family to the crown;
and though its claim, while any legitimate branch subsisted of the house
of Lancaster, had always been much disregarded, the zeal of faction,
after the death of Henry VI., and the murder of Prince Edward,
immediately conferred a weight and consideration upon it.

Edward IV., finding that all the Lancastrians had turned their attention
towards the young earl of Richmond as the object of their hopes, thought
him also worthy of his attention; and pursued him into his retreat in
Brittany, whither his uncle, the earl of Pembroke, had carried him,
after the battle of Tewkesbury, so fatal to his party. He applied to
Francis II., duke of Brittany, who was his ally; a weak, but a good
prince; and urged him to deliver up this fugitive, who might be the
source of future disturbances in England; but the duke, averse to so
dishonorable a proposal, would only consent that, for the security
of Edward, the young nobleman should be detained in custody; and he
received an annual pension from England for the safe keeping or the
subsistence of his prisoner. But towards the end of Edward's reign, when
the kingdom was menaced with a war both from France and Scotland, the
anxieties of the English court with regard to Henry were much increased;
and Edward made a new proposal to the duke, which covered, under the
fairest appearances, the most bloody and treacherous intentions. He
pretended that he was desirous of gaining his enemy, and of uniting
him to his own family by a marriage with his daughter Elizabeth; and he
solicited to have him sent over to England, in order to execute a scheme
which would redound so much to his advantage. These pretences, seconded,
as is supposed, by bribes to Peter Landais, a corrupt minister, by
whom the duke was entirely governed, gained credit with the court of
Brittany: Henry was delivered into the hands of the English agents,
he was ready to embark; when a suspicion of Edward's real design was