Note (37) — Chapter III

In Yorkist official language the three Lancastrian Kings were usurpers, and Duke Richard was de jure, though not de facto, King. Henry the Sixth is, in the Act of 1461, “Henry Usurpour, late called Kyng Henry the sixt.” The claim of the House of York was through an intricate female descent from Lionel Duke of Clarence, a son of Edward the Third older than John of Gaunt. A claim so purely technical had never been set forth before; but we may be quite sure that it would not have been thought to have much weight, if Duke Richard had not been, by another branch, descended from Edward the Third in the male line, and if he had not moreover been the ablest and most popular nobleman in the country.