this latter instrument, as well
as by that of the preceding year, the duke's office was to cease upon
the prince of Wales arriving at the age of discretion.

[Sidenote: Duke of York's claim to the crown.]

But what had long been propagated in secret, soon became familiar to the
public ear; that the duke of York laid claim to the throne. He was
unquestionably heir general of the royal line, through his mother, Anne,
daughter of Roger Mortimer earl of March, son of Philippa, daughter of
Lionel duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III. Roger Mortimer's
eldest son, Edmund, had been declared heir presumptive by Richard II.;
but his infancy during the revolution that placed Henry IV. on the
throne had caused his pretensions to be passed over in silence. The new
king however was induced by a jealousy natural to his situation to
detain the earl of March in custody. Henry V. restored his liberty; and,
though he had certainly connived for a while at the conspiracy planned
by his brother-in-law the earl of Cambridge and Lord Scrope of Masham to
place the crown on his head, that magnanimous prince gave him a free
pardon, and never testified any displeasure. The present duke of York
was honoured by Henry VI. with the highest trusts in France and Ireland;
such as Beaufort and Gloucester could never have dreamed of conferring
on him if his title to the crown had not been reckoned obsolete. It has
been very pertinently remarked that the crime perpetrated by Margaret
and her counsellors in the death of the duke of Gloucester was the
destruction of the house of Lancaster.[445] From this time the duke of
York, next heir in presumption while the king was childless, might
innocently contemplate the prospect of royalty; and when such ideas had
long been passing through his mind, we may judge how reluctantly the
birth of prince Edward, nine years after Henry's marriage, would be
admitted to disturb them. The queen's administration unpopular, careless
of national interests, and partial to his inveterate enemy the duke of
Somerset;[446] the king incapable of exciting fear or respect; himself
conscious of powerful alliances and universal favour; all these
circumstances combined could hardly fail to nourish those opinions of
hereditary right which he must have imbibed from his infancy.

The duke of York preserved through the critical season of rebellion such
moderation and humanity that we may pardon him that bias in favour of
his own pretensi