It was perhaps more guilt after the botched execution that gave him the impetus to endow a new chantry college at Middleham, which housed several priests and choristers who prayed and sang masses daily and exclusively for the saving of the souls of not only himself and Anne, but for his family, both living and dead. These acts of piety somewhat salved his soul and made him less afraid to confront his Maker or his confessor. Moreover, he was often seen slipping into a side chapel during a mass. On his knees, his eyes firmly fixed on the crucified Jesus, he hoped to ease George’s troubled soul to heaven. His own guilty soul, he had no doubt, was destined for hell.

Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

Summer 1482–Spring 1483

The ramparts of the high bastion that was Berwick Castle were bristling with soldiers, the July sun glinting off helmets, shields and weapons and the calm sea beyond. The pale, crenellated curtain wall that encompassed the town swooped down the steep hill and into the estuary like a giant staircase, ending with a square tower jutting into the water, making the castle all but impenetrable. It was easy to see how besieging the fortress on its hill from land or sea had failed many times in its three centuries.

“Whoreson thistle-arses,” Richard muttered under his breath to which insult Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland and Richard’s lieutenant, grunted an assent. His other lieutenant, Lord Stanley, actually guffawed. “If it is the last thing I do, I will take back Berwick for my brother,” Richard vowed. “After Queen Margaret lost it to the Scots twenty years ago, ’tis a matter of pride.”

The three men sat their coursers not far from the drawbridge but out of range of any projectile that might be hurled from the town gatehouse. Behind them, the twenty-thousand-strong English army awaited commands, among them Queen Elizabeth’s oldest son, the marquis of Dorset, and Richard’s friends, Rob Percy and Francis Lovell.

Set a little apart from the trio in front, a stocky man with startlingly red hair and dark red beard watched Richard anxiously. Alexander Stewart, duke of Albany, was counting on the young Gloucester to help him unseat his brother, the weak King James III, and take the throne of Scotland for himself. Berwick was the first test along the path, and he was eager to know if King Edward’s trust in his younger brother was well placed. Little did Albany know that Richard of Gloucester had thought it a harebrained scheme of Edward’s from the start.