e dreadful affray, and trampled in the dust.

Lord Stanley, one of the chieftains who had abandoned Richard's cause
and gone over to the enemy, picked up the crown, all battered and
bloodstained as it was, and put it upon Richmond's head. From that
hour Richmond was recognized as King of England. He reigned under the
title of Henry the Seventh.

[Illustration: KING HENRY VII.]

The few followers that had remained faithful to Richard's cause up to
this time now gave up the contest and fled. The victors lifted up the
dead body of the king, took off the armor, and then placed the body
across the back of a horse, behind a pursuivant-at-arms, who, thus
mounted, rode a little behind the new king as he retired from the
field of battle. Followed by this dreadful trophy of his victory, King
Henry entered the town of Leicester in triumph. The body of Richard
was exposed for three days, in a public place, to the view of all
beholders, in order that every body might be satisfied that he was
really dead, and then the new king proceeded by easy journeys to
London. The people came out to meet him all along the way, receiving
him every where with shouts and acclamations, and crying, "King Henry!
King Henry! Long live our sovereign lord, King Henry!"

For several weeks after his accession Henry's mind was occupied with
public affairs, but, as soon as the most urgent of the calls upon his
attention were disposed of, he renewed his proposals to the Princess
Elizabeth, and in January of the next year they were married. It seems
to have been a matter of no consequence to her whether one man or
another was her husband, provided he was only King of England, so that
she could be queen. Henry's motive, too, in marrying her, was equally
mercenary, his only object being to secure to himself, through her,
the right of inheritance to her father's claims to the throne. He
accordingly never pretended to feel any love for her, and, after his
marriage, he treated her with great coldness and neglect.

His conduct toward her poor mother, the dowager queen, Elizabeth
Woodville, was still more unfriendly. He sent her to a gloomy
monastery, called the Monastery of Bermondsey, and caused her to be
kept there in the custody of the monks, virtually a prisoner. The
reason which he assigned for this was his displeasure with her for
abandoning his cause, and breaking the engagement which she had made
with him for the marriage of her daughter to him, and also