The Eternal Strife

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In the middle of the fifteenth century, when the Wars of the Roses were dividing England against herself, there lived in London a prosperous mercer, Master Winstead, who had a daughter, Jane. Jane Winstead was endowed by nature, not only with extraordinary beauty but also with charm of mind, and probably received more education than usually fell to the lot of a girl in her station. She married early Matthew Shore, a goldsmith of good position. When King Edward IV first set eyes upon Jane, he fell under the enchantment of her loveliness. Forgetting his duty to his lawful wife, he besought the mercer's daughter to become his mistress. But Jane repelled his advances, not even the dazzling attentions of a king being able to blind her eyes to her love for Matthew, her husband. However, by a skillful ruse, Edward caused Matthew to be imprisoned on conviction of treason, and Jane was offered her choice between her husband's life at the price of her own honor. She sacrificed herself for the man she loved. Later, hearing that her husband had been killed in battle, she entered with a bitter heart into her position at court as the favorite of the king. Sir Thomas More said of her: "She never abused her privilege to any man's hurt, but used it to many a man's comfort and relief." Her life was one of great splendor, but being a woman of gentle disposition and unparalleled generosity, she distinguished herself by acts of charity and mercy, and seems to have been exceedingly popular with all classes at that time. When the king died, his brutal successor, Richard III, singled out this unhappy woman as a butt for his vengeance and spite. She was stripped of power, position, wealth, sentenced to walk barefoot and thinly clad through the crowded streets of London, and then condemned to beggary, the king making it a criminal offense throughout the realm for anybody to offer her food, clothing or shelter. From Queen to starveling represents a violent contrast. Not all tragic fiction has to offer us a life-story so remarkable as that of Jane Shore, "in beauty, in generosity and in misfortune alike unrivaled."