Richard and The Queen’s Brother (Part one.)
Caxton particularly lauded Anthony Woodville for his ballads against the Seven Deadly Sins, saying Rivers undertook the work as a good deed. As Caxton explained, since Rivers understood the mutability and instability of this life, desired spiritual salvation himself, hated the "damnable sins" of Pride, Greed, etc., he wished to make the "readers and hearers" recognize themselves and amend their own living, lest they lose the chance to save their soul. One cannot help wondering if Anthony had his kinfolk in mind as he wrote the ballads for which Caxton said he should be "commended and singularly remembered with our good prayers."
Though he enjoyed the trappings of wealth and was drawn to the pleasures of the senses, Anthony Woodville's desire for riches, like his desire for power, never matched that of his mother, or father, or his sister the Queen, or his debauched nephew, the Marquess of Dorset. No doubt they considered him flawed, since he had scruples where they had none, for unlike them, Anthony's fine mind conceived of ideas and embraced ideals, and his curiosity about the world he lived in-and the one to come-drove him to peruse the philosophers and devotional works. His fascination with mysticism kindled doubts about the heedless pursuit of worldly gain and led him to ponder their cost to his soul, further widening the gap between himself and his kinfolk. He made pilgrimages to Rome, Naples, France and Spain, and he penned the first book printed in England by William Caxton's press, The Dictes and Sayings of Philosophers, a translation of a French manuscript he acquired on his pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella. The Dictes was a miscellany of advice from ancient philosophers on truth and falsehood, living well, and on how to treat friends and foes, wage war and govern wisely. In his prologue, Anthony writes about the "storms of Fortune" he had known and of being sustained in adversity by his faith in God. Little did he guess how fiercely, and how soon, those storms were to blow for him again.
Nevertheless, while Anthony Woodville lived life with one eye on Heaven, the other was fixed firmly on this world. Earl Rivers always traveled with an impressive retinue. He enjoyed ceremony and was fond of the joust where he sought to dazzle the crowd with his skill in arms, good looks and magnificent costumes. During the tournament celebrating the marriage of
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