William Heseltine's 'The Last of the Plantagenets' 1829

 

Smith, Elder and Co. 2nd edition - 1829

This is the first of some forty or so Historical Novels on Richard III I am pledged to read over the next six months - a daunting task! In fact, Heseltine's work appeared pretty daunting in itself, being 408 pages of densely packed text with not an illustration in sight. I needn't have worried, as I found the novel more than interesting. It is the story of Richard Plantagenet, who is brought up in the monastery of St. Mary, Ely. On the evening prior to the Battle of Bosworth, he is brought to Richard III's tent, where the king tells him that he is his father, and that his mother Matilda, the king's betrothed, had died shortly after his birth. The king intends to name him his heir, but counsels him, if Tudor is victorious, to go into hiding and keep his identity secret. The boy is wounded whilst watching the battle, but is rescued by the Jew Rabbi Israel who, with his wife, nurses him back to health. A variety of adventures follow, often being supported by loyal Yorkists. Eventually, he becomes a builder for Thomas Moyle at Eastwell in Kent. He reveals his identity to Moyle, who builds him a cottage on his estate. He was buried in Eastwell church.' 

There is a very favourable portrait of Richard III - his face...was marked with much serious anxiety...his step and demeanour were full of pomp and royalty; who has nothing but contempt for Tudor and his force - this drove of famished clowns, the scum of France, and the very refuse of its gaols and 'spital houses. I found the 'interlude' of the Jewish couple, Israel and Naomi, sat rather uneasily within the rest of the narrative, but it was very favourable to them. Warbeck is dismissed as fictitious; Francis Lovel escapes the Battle of Stoke and is helped by young Richard to his home at Minster Lovel, where he dies in the famous underground chamber. Richard's travels take him to Brittany, then to Margaret of Burgundy's court (she thinks he looks suspiciously like his father!) and back to England - to Walsingham Abbey as a religious recluse for seven years. Earlier, in London, Richard had first come across Lady Bridget (or Bride as he afterwards always refers to her) Plantagenet, the youngest daughter of Edward IV. She becomes the love of his life - so beauteous was her hair of paly gold, so mild were her eyes of clear blue, and such a heavenly bright look had she of innocence and devotion, while her stature was fair and erect, and much beyond her years. However, she was destined for the veil. He saves her not once, but twice, first from a collapsing scaffold and then from a fire outbreak; and is also at her deathbed (she is now a Lady Prioress) in Dartford Priory where, as Brother Ricardus, he not only listens to her confession but it is made plain to him that she has always returned his love. When the tyrant Henry VIII embarks on the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Richard luckily has a second skill - bricklaying. Thus he is able to work, firstly at Walsingham and finally at Eastwell. One comfort in his declining years is a copy of Wycliffe's New Testament, which Prioress Bride had given him - leading to a spiritual liberation.

However, his final writing is rather depressing: I have ever stood alone in the crowd of those with whom at divers times I consorted, and have never ceased to feel myself as a link severed from the great chain of living men; since but few have mourned with me in my sorrows, and joys have I had none to share with any; and albeit I have suffered much from the cruelty of man, never have I been soothed by the tender cares of woman. There was only Lady Bride, and she was dead. Well, before too long he can be happy when he joins her in the hereafter.

Heseltine's novel was based on Hull's Richard Plantagenet (I am lucky to have a copy), published by J. Bell in 1774. This narrative poem of 81 four-line stanzas (Heseltine calls it a well-known legendary tale in plaintive ballad-measure) was dedicated to David Garrick to whom we owe a livelier idea of Richard the Third, than either Historian or Painter ever gave. 

Heseltine's work, in turn, gave birth to a novel by Richard Hodgetts - Richard IV, Plantagenet (1888), whilst Caroline M. Keteltas published a 56 page Drama in Three Acts in 1830 founded on the romance of that name by William Heseltine of Turret House, South Lambeth, London.