by the same Titles This was as bitter as short and doubly ill taken First because it came with a Repulse Next because it seemed to proceed from a suspition and as a tax of his Loyaltie and begets another pretence of exception in the Dukes bosome which he called a breach of promise in the King for not joyning the Prince his Sonne in Marriage with the Lady Anne Stafford his Daughter but all those Colours were but to give complexion to the face of his defection the true cause was well devined and found out by the King his Ambition and aime to be Soveraigne rays'd by an overweening of that Royall Blood he supposed to be in his descent from the said Thomas de Woodstock c. Sonne of a King and yet he was not resolutely determined to make his Claime to the Crowne this way nor to attempt the Kingdome by Armes untill those embers which as it were lay but luke-warme in his thoughts were quickned and revived by the animation of Doctor Morton Bishop of Ely then a Privie Counsellour though he stood in some umbrage and disgrace in the Court with the King for his practises against him and was at this time in the custody of the Duke of Buckingham as a Prisoner more expressely for that being a Privie Counsellour he had given secret advertisement to the Earle of Richmond of what passed in the secret Councells of the King To this advantage he applyes that which he had wittily drawne from the Dukes discontent and passionate discourses at times passed By which perceiving the glance of his Ambition and that deriv'd from the great opinion of his Royall Blood he pregnantly tickles and feeds that humour untill he had soothed him past his owne strength or retyrement for his secret drift was to apt and prepare the Duke to a Rebellion at any hand though not to set his owne Title on foot yet layes open the advantage of the present times to it proposing flat usurpation and tyranny against the King Regnant and the strong likelyhood of his Deposing This lifts the Duke something higher in his owne opinion But comming to a pause and perceiving Richmond was the man they had aimed at for this great blow who had conditioned by Oath to marry the Lady Elizabeth for the Countesse of Richmond had by the meanes of Doctor Lewis conciliated the friendship of the Queene Mother to that Alliance and to draw as many of the House of Yorke into the Action as were at her Devotion that many Potent Lords and some Forraigne Princes had promised their ayds he began to retreat and conceive he had taken the wrong path to his journyes end for his Title and Claime must be nothing if those of Yorke and Lancaster were united And that the Earle who stood betweene him and his Aimes was not onely resolute to attempt but strongly ayded for it himselfe not able upon such an instant to raise a power able to encounter much lesse give check unto his violent Ambition therefore concludes all against himselfe and that it would fall out farte better to side with the times a consideration which doubtlesse would highly stirre a spirit where so much greatnesse of opinion and ambition was And the Doctor discerning this disgust and that he was startl'd in his hope and resolusion to recover him an intire man not let him stand by an idle spectator in so meritorious an action he opens a private way of honour and satisfaction suggesting him the first and greatest man the Kingdome was to know next the King And finding his particular distasts to King Richard of quickest sense and argument to him he freshly urges and as it were refricates each particle to the greatnesse of his spirit and discontent the Duke replyes not much at that time but busie in his thoughts leaves him and presently fashions a visite to the Countesse of Richmond a Lady of a politick and contriving bosome to know the credit of his intelligence which she insinuates with arguments so full of circumstance and honour besides her Sons indearment to him their hearnesse of blood affirming the Dukes Mother a Somerset the reciprocall affinitie betweene her Father and his and then the bravery and Religion in the Cause that the Duke now forsakes himselfe and fully gives up his resolution and promise to her thus prepar'd he finds out the Lord Stanley the Marquesse of Dorset Edward Courtney Earle of Devonshire and his Brother the Bishop of Exeter Sir Iohn Bowrchier Sir Iohn Wells Robert Willowby Edward Woodvill Thomas Arundel who had severally raised forces and intended their Rendezvous neere Glocester so to march for Dorsetshire there to receive the Earle and the Duke with his Welchmen But the King was early in his preparation to prevent them before they could unite or the Earle of Richmond arrive there else they had fastened a most dangerous Blow upon him And at this full stop in these progresses me thinkes wee may observe how uncertainely in our strongest valuations we are our owne and that our greatest Confidences and humane Policies are but heavie weights hung at trembling Wyers while our expectations are apt to be flattered and out-goe themselves but are overtaken in their Successe and Fates as was this great Mans for their Forces neither met by Sea nor Land the English being scatter'd by a suddaine and huge inundation that so dangerously over-flowed all passages they could not joyne nor passe the River Severne while the suddainnesse and strangenesse of it stroke the Souldiers with such alteration that most part of them forsooke the Duke and left him to himselfe The Earle of Richmond was as unfortunately met at Sea by a great tempest upon the coasts of England The King took the advantage this accident offered and pursued the Duke not only with a galloping Army but with Edicts Proscriptions that promised a thousand pounds in mony whereunto some Writers adde so much Lands as was worth one hundred pounds per annum to any that should bring in the Duke who was betrayed and brought to the King then at Salisbury by Humphry Banister an eternall brand having lived by this mans service and now thought treacherously to subsist by his Ruine The Duke being examined freely confessed all and for it lost his head in the field according to Marshall Law used by Armies in November An. Dom. 1484. An. 2 Rich. 3. And here if wee view him in the figure of his Ambition or Fate wee shall find Doctor Morton his Caput Argoll or the malignant Planet of his fortune who as Sir Thomas Moore confesseth and affirmeth by his Politick Drifts and Pride advanced himselfe and brought the Duke to this ruine The rest fled some into Sanctuaries others into Brittaine to the Earle of Richmond and some into Flanders all their Plots being now how to be safe And thus farre King Richard in the Voyage of his Affaires had a promising Gale wee will therefore here cast
proceeding from the vanity and obstinacy of the Prince the other from the peoples opinion of him and his vices And then he must neither raigne nor live any longer Ennius said with Cicero quem oderunt perijsse expetunt And soe all that was practised upon the fortune fame and person of King Richard was by this rule though in the judgment and equity of the most knowing in those times their cunning translatio Criminis could take noe hold of him neither appeares it probable that the Earle of Richmond himselfe when he had got all justice and power in his hand did hold King Richard guilty of the murder and Subornation of those fellowes nor them the Assasines for doubtlesse then being so wise and religious a Prince he would have done all right to the lawes divine and humane And that I beleeve in the extreamest and publick'st way of punishment to make it more satisfactory and terrible to the people and times but they freely inioyed their liberty with security to naturall deaths without any question or apprehension Tirrell excepted who suffered for treason not long after committed by him against King Henry himselfe Neither was Iohn Greene named a party in this murder ever called in question nor doe the Historians of those times though meere temporizers charge him with this practise against his Nephewes untill after his Coronation some say they survived King Richard and giveing this respiâ—e of time there was no cause why after that he should make them away being then secure in his Throne and Title and they longe before pronounced uncapable First by the ecclesiasticall Iudges then by the Barons and Parliament and where was the cause of feare but if King Richard had beene of that bloody constitution the man whose life could be most prejudiciall unto him was the Erle of Warwicke lawfull Sonne of George Plant agenet Duke of Clarence Elder Brother to King Richard now there was a necessitie for the Lancastrian faction if they must have a King of that family to take those Princes away not to leave King Richard or his Sonne nor yet any legitimate issue of Lancaster for all those were before any of the house of Beauforts in the true order of Succession and stood in their way so did the Progeny of Brotherton of Woodstocke of both the Clarencies Glocester c. Though they feared few or none of those Titulare Lords being modest men not affecting Soveraignty but content with their owne private fate and feudall estate when all was one with the Lancastrians who were so vehement in their royall approaches that besides King Edward the Fourth and his two Sonnes King Richard and his Son the Prince of Wales there was afterward and as occasion served The Earle of Warwicke and Duke of Suffolke and others both male and female of that princly family laid in their cold vrnes and it must be so else there could be no place for the Beauforts and Somersets their turnes being last the Kings of Portugall of Castile and other being before them if not excluded by Act of Parliament In this Tragedy there was a Scene acted by Iohn de Vere Earle of Oxenford which may be worthy of our observation for example sake and makes not against the cause of Perkin This Earle of Oxenford much affected and devoted to King Henry the Seventh was a great enemie to this Richard Alias Perkin and I thinke the onely enemie he had of the great Nobility how this dislike grew I cannot say whether out of ignorance or incredulity or out of malice hateing King Edward and all that had a neare relation to that family or else to applyhimselfe to the honour of the King but he and the Cardinall are said to be the châ—ife vrgers of Perkins dispatch and hee being high constable pronounced the sentence against the young Earle of Warwicke which much distasted the Country and ne're to Heveningham Castle that was his cheifest Seate there lived in the woods an old Hermit a very devoute and holy man as the fame of those times admit him who seem'd much troubled to heare this newes for the love he bare to the ancient and Noble family of Oxenford of much anguish of Spirit saying the Earle and his house would repent and rue that guilty and bloody pursuite of the innocent Princes for the event of which prophesy this hath bine observed Not long after the Earle was arrested for an offence so small that no man considering his merit and credit with the King could have thought it worth the question for which he was fined at thirty thousand pounds in those dayes a kingly sum after this he lived many yeares in great discontent and dyed without issue or any child lawfully begotten by him and in much shorter time then his life time that great and stately Earldome of Oxenford with the opulent and Princly patrimony was utterly dissipated and como sal in agna as the Spaniard saith in the refran yet this Earle was a very wise magnificent learned and religious man in the estimation of all that knew him and one more like to raise and acquire a new Erledome But it thus fell and was wasted the Castles and Mannors dilapidated the Chappell wherein this Iohn de Vere and all his Ancestors lay intombed with their monuments quite defaced to the ground their bones left under the open Aire in the feilds and all this within lesse then threescore yeares after the death of the said Earle Iohn about the same time these unhappie Gentlemen suffered there was a base sone of King Richard the Third made away having beene kept long before in Prison The occasion as it seemeth was the attempt of certaine Irishmen of the West and South parts who would have got him into their power and made him their cheife being strongly affected to any of the house of Yorke were they legitimate or naturall for Richard Duke of Yorkes sake sometimes their viceroy and thus much in breife of that Now to resolve a question why the King deferred so long the death execution of the Earle of Warwick Perkin and tooke so much deliberation after he had resolved it one reason and the cheifest brought by some is That in regard Perkin was an Alien and in the allegeance of a Forraigne Prince therefore he could not be condemned nor executed for felony nor treason by our lawes which is a ridiculous evasion for we have frequent examples in our stories that the naturall subjects of France of Scotland Spaine Portugall Germany and Italy have had judgement and execution by our lawes for felony and treason as Peter de Gaveston a French man Sir Andrew Harcley a Scot and lately Dr. Lopez a Portugall therefore apparantly that was not the cause the King so doubtfully and as it were timerously deferred their Arraignments Executions The Heathens perhaps would have defined it some inward awe or concealed scruple such as they called Eumenides and
traditory opinion more then justice and reason but equally examine his slanders they shall finde Malice and ignorance have been the Kings greatest accusers which can onely lay Suspition to his charge and Suspition in Law is no more guilt then Imagination for though Suspition many times lay a great blame upon a man men holding him to be guilty whom men suspect to be so though injuriously yet the Law holds it not a Crime because Suspition many times supposeth those to be culpable which are not for an Instrument may as easily be condemned as a Malefactor being an evil grown from the errour of men Wherefore Suspition of it self bringeth no sentence by Law Natural or Moral Civil or Divine according to that of the old Minographus Suspitio grave est hominibus malum And the Divine Chrysostome saith A good man hardly suspecteth another to be evil but an evil man scarcely supposeth any to be good far from the counsel of this Epigram Culparem quoquam quae non sunt nota malignum est Presertim si quam cognita sint bona sunt Non pateant faciles duris rumoribus aures Quae nescire juvat credere non libeat Linquantur secreta Deo qui quicquid opertum est Inspicit nullis indiget indicibus Accuse no man of faults to thee unknown And much lesse him from whom good fruits have grown Lend not thine ears to scandalous reports Believe not that which known nought thee imports Leave secret things to God who knows all hearts And hath no need of the Promoters arts But as Iulius Caesar who had many excellent Observations was wont to say Vir bonus tam suspicione quam crimine carere oportet That a good man must be as well without suspition as crime Yet none so innocent but may fall under the lash of the malicious for such like the Polypus will take any colour or make any tincture of a Crime to serve their ends Of such a vertue is the never-understanding Vulgar that like Kytes and Daws can digest nought but stench and filth their Ignorance being their Faith and that drawn from loose Pamphlets and the vomits of mercinary and mimick pens to which and their uncurable fits I leave them Explicit Liber quartus THE FIFTH BOOK OF THE HISTORY OF KING RICHARD the Third The Contents WHat a Tyrant is and how a Tyrant and King Richard differ The destruction of the Plantagenets The daughters of King Edward the Fourth how bestowed The death of the Queen their Mother The Vertues of King Richard the Third The Elogie of the three Brothers King Edward the Fourth George and Richard The Magnificent Publike and Charitable Buildings of King Richard the third His good Laws and other good works That to die in the Wars is no Dishonour but an Honour Artes Regiae Crimen regale His Comparison with other Kings accounted good King James his gracious demeanour to his Cousins A Character and Elogie of King Richard the third The title of the Norman Race and of York defended The sundry titles of King James The Wedding King of England Lapis Regno fatalis King Richards Sepulchre and Epitaph The Authors Scope Peroratio Votum THE FIFTH BOOK OF King Richard The Third WE will next endeavour to understand that Vocable or term Tyrannus that is a Tyrant or an evil King cast upon King Richard which indeed comprehendeth all scandals and impieties whatsoever Tyrannus est qui suis propriis Commodis studet publicis adversatur And Tyrannus est qui dominatu crudeliter abutitur A Tyrant is by another wise man compared to a Dragon who becometh not a Dragon until he hath devoured many Serpents of which Conceit this Epigram was wittily framed Post plures Coluber Serpentes Dracosit esos Gust at â humanâ carne fit homo Lupus The Dragon which doth many Serpents eat Becomes a Dragon of huge shape and strength And so the man which makes his flesh mans meat Transformed is unto a Wolf at length Another Philopher differeth not much from these who saith that of all tame beasts the flatterer is most pernicious and of all wilde the Tyrant who forbeareth not for any respect of good or ill but studies Oppressions Wrongs Exactions Robberies Sacriledges Blood-shed Murder Adultery Incest Rape Riot Gluttony Luxuriousnesse Prodigality and all manner of Excesses These be his arts of raigning and these be his vertues Invident Tyranni claris fortesque trucidant Another saith Tyrannus miserum vetat perire foelicem jubet So it was truely said by the famous Orator of Athens Liberalitas Tyranni nihil aliud est quam translatio pecunâ—arum a justis Dominis ad alienos idque indignos His thirst and covetousnesse for his largitious riots and lusts are so inordinate that nothing can quench it Non Tartessiaris illum satiaret arenis Tempestas pretiosa Tagi non stagna rubentis Aurea Pactoli totumque exhauserit Hermum Arde bit majore siti c. Quicquid conspicuum pulchrumque ex Equore toto Res sisci est c. These may serve for the notions of a Tyrant to any of which Impieties our King Richard was very little or not at all obnoxious For first Whereas a Tyrant imposeth many grievous Taxes and Oppressions upon his Subjects he took away such grievances and particularly by Act of Parliament a hateful Tax though disguised with the name of a Benevolence forbearing to impose any upon the people Then A Tyrant doth not onely rapine his Subjects but spoils and robs Churches and Church-men But King Richard did many good things both for the publike good advancing Gods service and maintenance of his Ministers and Church-men Tyrannum pium esse non est facile as Sophocles well observed And the Oracle pronounced Portae foelicitatis ad Tyrannidem clausae Tyrants be cruel and bloody but this King by the testimony of his enemies was very merciful and milde who confesse he was of himself gentle and assably disposed These be their own words Therefore where tyrannical acts be objected against him they must be conceived done by other men or by their practice or else before he was King and what he did then was not nor could be properly called Tyranny Amongst those they impute to him when he was King which are called Tyrannies the beheading Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham was the chiefest yet that act the cause and just motives of it being well perused cannot be censured Tyranny rather due and necessary Justice for if the King had not put down the Duke the Duke would have put down the King Then it is objected He bare a tyrannical hand over his nephew Edward Earl of Warwick True it is he sent him to Shery-Hutton a goodly and pleasant house of his own in York-shire where he had liberty large diet all pleasure and safety and if that were imprisonment it was a prison Curtoise as Iohn Froisard saith yet this must not be lesse
the King might beleeve he was forward to come as near his desires as in honour could be he engaged himselfe to keep so carefull and vigilant a watch upon them that they should have no more power to endanger him then if they were in strict Prison This being returned though not agreable to the Kings hope and wishes yet bearing such a Caution of Honour and Wisdome he remained satisfied and so it paused for the space of eight yeares as I conjecture for the King made this demand in the twelfth yeare of his Raigne 1472 all which time he was very intent to preserve the League with good Summes of Mony and costly Presents In the twentieth of his Raigne 1480 he received intelligence that the Earle of Richmond had stird up fresh Embers and new friends in the French Court to blow them and that the French King had dealt by solicitation of the Earle of Pembrook and others privately to get the Earl of Richmond and offered great Sums to the Duke of Brittaine This gave new disturbance and the King must now by the best meanes he could renue his former sâ—te to the Duke of Brittaine for which employment he intrusts Doctor Stillington Bishop of Bath his Secretary a man of a Wise Learned and Eloquent endeavour of good acquaintance and credit with the Duke of Brittaine who gave him an honourable and respective entertainement The Bishop after he had prepared him by the earnest of a very rich present tenders the Summe of his Employment not forgetting what he was now to Act and what to promise on the Kings part And for a more glorious insinuation tells him how the King had elected him into the noble Society of St. Georges Order as the most honourable intimation he could give of his love to qualifie all exceptious too and jealousies assures him the King had no intent to the Earle of Richmond but what was answerable to his owne worth and quality of the Kings Kinsman having declared a propensity and purpose to bestow one of his daughters upon him The Duke well mollified and perswades delivered the Earle by a strong Guard to the Bishop at St. Maloes Port a change of much passion and amazement to him whose sufferings tooke hold upon the affable disposition of the Noble Peir de Landois Treasurer to the Duke who had the Earle in Charge and Conduct to St. Malo He urges the cause from him of his so altered and present condition with Protestation of all the aide he could The Earle thus fairely and happily provoked and perceiving the sparkles of his sorrow had hapt into a tender bosome freely exposed himselfe and with such an overcomming Countenance of teares and sighes framed his own Story and prest Landois that it so wrought upon his temper he perswaded the Earle to put on clearer hopes assures him there should some meanes be found to shift the Tempest thereupon writes a sad Relation to the Duke to move his compassion and favour and knowing the Baron Chandais a great man in credit with him well affected to the Earle by a long and reciprocall affection he repaired to his house neare Saint Malo and prevailed with him to use his power with the Duke for returning the Earle who posted to Vanes where the Court was then and tooke the Duke at such an advantage by suggesting his credulity abused and cunningly drawne into this contract by the King that there was a Post dispatcht to stay the Earle In that interim Landois had not been Idle to find a way to let the Earle escape into the Abbey Church of St. Malo where he claimed the benefit of the holy Asyle which was easily contrived by corrupting his Keepers But the Duke to stand cleare of the Kings suspition sent over Maurice Brumell to satisfie him that the Earle according to promise was sent to Saint Malo there delivered to his servants deputed whose negligence let him escape and that he had demanded him of the Covent who denyed to render him without security caution that he should be continued a prisonerin Vanes with as much courtesie as formerly Now being it was falne into those strict and peremptory termes and within the contumacie of such lawlesse persons where he could not use power he yet faithfully protested no suite from the French King or any other should draw him from his former promise All which he religiously performed whilst King Edward lived the space of twelve yeares after Phillip de Comines in which circle of time it may with admiration be observed through what changes and interchanges of hazards dangers and difficulties he was preserved Soone after King Edwards decease King Richard renewed and continued the Treaty by Sir Thomas Hutton of Yorkshire receiving the same satisfaction in Answer but was failed in the performance and so dishonourably that it then appeared the Duke had kept in with Edward more for feare then for love or honour the name of Edward and the Earle of March being indeed accounted terrible where his victorious sword was drawne which breach of the Dukes was not left unpunished at least as that age then guessed by a divine revenge for having married Margaret Daughter and Co-heire of Francis de Mountford Duke of Brittaine she dying without issue he married Margaret Daughter of Gaston de Foix King of Navarr by whom he had one only daughter Anne married to the French King Charles 8. Thus Duke Francis dyed without issue male the Dutchy being swallowed up and drowned in the Lillies or Crapands of France and with his Family of Brittaine irrecoverably lost and absorpted Thus much for the jealousie and feares of those two Kings now to the progresse of ouâ— Story where the Barons and Commons with one generall dislike and an universall negative voice refused the sonnes of King Edward not for any ill will or malice but for their disabilities and incapacities the opinions of those times too held them not legitimate and the Queene Elizabeth Gray or Woodvill no lawfull Wife nor yet a Woman worthy to be the Kings Wife by reason of her extreame unequall quality For these and other causes the Barons and Prelates unanimously cast their Election upon the Protector as the most worthiest and nearest by the experience of his owne deservings and the strength of his Alliance importuning the Duke of Buckingham to become their Speaker who accompanied with many of the chiefe Lords and other grave and learned persons having Audience granted in the great Chamber at Baynards Castle then Yorke-house thus addrest him to the Lord Protector SIR May it please your Grace to be informed that after much grave Consultation amongst the Noble Barons and other worthy persons of this Realme it stands concluded and resolved that the sons of King Edward shall not raigne for who is not sensible how miserable a fortune and dangerous estate that Kingdome must be in where a childe is King according to the Wise man Vaetibi
against the Sonnes of King Edward And therefore being certaine there is no man to whom the Crowne by just Title can be so due as to our selfe the rightfull Sonne and Heire of our most deare and Princely Father Richard Duke of Yorke to which Title of blood and nature your favours have joyned this of Election wherein wee hold our selfe to be most strong and safe And having the lawfull power of both why should I endure my professed Enemy to â—surpemy right and become a Vassall to my envious Subject The necessitie of these causes as admitting no other remedy urges me to accept your offer and according to your request and our owne right we here assume the Regall Praeheminence of the two Kingdoms England and France from this day forward by us and our heires to Govern and defend the one and by Gods grace and your good aydes to recover and establish the other to the Ancient Allegeance of England desiring of God to live no longer then wee intend and endeavour the advancement and flourishing Estate of this Kingdome at which they all cry'd God save King Richard And thus he became King But yet his Detractors stick not to slander and accuse all that was said or done in these proceedings of State for meer dissimulation by which justice they may as well censure At siâ— Reverentia dictum all the Barons worthy and grave Commons which had their Votes therein which would fall a most impudent and intolerable Scandall upon all the High Court of Parliament for in short time after all that was alledged and acted in that Treatie and Colloquy was approved and ratified by the Court of Parliament so that their Cavills onely discover an extreame malice and envy For it was not possible therefore not credible he could upon such an instant as it were by any practice attaine to that power and credit with all the Barons Spirituall and Temporall and Commons to procure and perswade them from the Sonnes of King Edward so unanimously to become his Subjects and put the Crowne upon his head with such Solemnitie and publicke Ceremonies Whilst those matters had their current the Northerne Gentlemen and his Southerne Friends joyned in a Bill Supplicatory to the Lords Spirituall and Temporall earnestly expressing their desires for the Election of the Lord Protector with the former causes urged Also that the blood of the young Earle of Warwicke was attainted and his Title confiscate by Parliament This Bill was delivered to the Lords Assembled in the great hall at Westminster the Lord Protector sitting in the Chaire of Marble amongst them upon the 26 of June some six or seven dayes after he was Proclaimed the tenor of the Bill was thus written in the Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland PRotector eodem die quo Regimen sub titulo regii nominis sibi vendicarit viz 26 o die Iunii Anno Dom. 1483. se apud Magnam Aulam Westmonasterii in Cathedram Marmoream Immisit tum mox omnibus proceribus tam Laicis quam Ecclesiasticis Caeteris assidentibus astantibus c. ostendebatur rotulus quidam in quo per modum supplicationis in nomine procerum populi Borealis exhibita sunt Primum quod silii Regis Edwardi erant Bastardi supponendo illum praecontraxisse matrimonium cum quadam Domina Elianora Boteler antequam Reginam Elizabetham duxisset in uxorem deinde quod sanguis alterius Fratris Georgii Scil Clarensiâ— ducis fuisset Attinctus Ita quod nullus certus incorruptus sanguis Linealis ex parte Richardi Ducis Eboraci poterat inveniri nisi in persona Richardi Protectoris Ducis Glocestriae jam eidem Duci suplicabant ut jus suum in Regno Angliae sibi assumeret Coronam acciperet But the Barons were all accorded before this Bill came both sides moving with an equall and contented forwardnesse And in July next following 1483. was Crown'd and receiv'd with as generall Magnificence and Acclamations as any King in England many years before For as a grave man writeth Fuit dignissimus regno c. non inter malos sed bonos principes Commemorandus That he was most worthy to Reigne and to be numbred amongst the good not bad Princes The Queene his Wife was Crowned with him and with no lesse State and Greatnesse Accompanied him from the Tower to Westminster having in their Traine besides the Nobilitie of the South parts foure thousand Gentlemen of the North. Upon the 19. of June 1483. in the 25. yeare of Lewis the French King he was named King of England the morrow Proclaimed and rode with great Solemnitie from London to Westminster where in the seat Royall he gave the Judges of the Land a strickt and religious charge for the just executing of the Lawes then departed towards the Abbey being met at the Church doore with Procession and the Scepter of King Edward delivered to him by the Abbot so Ascended to Saint Edwards Shrine where he offered the Monks in the meane time singing Te Deum From thence he return'd to the Palace where he lodged untill his Coronation Upon the fourth of July he went to the Tower by water with the Queene his Wife and the next day Created Edward his onely Son about ten yeares old Prince of Wales He Invested Sir Iohn Howard who was made Lord Howard and Knight of the Garter 17. Edward 4. in the Dukedome of Norffolke in a favourable admission of the right of the Lady Margaret his Mother Daughter of Sir Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norffolke and an heire generall of the Mowbrayes Dukes of Norffolke and Earles of Surrey descended from the Lord Tho. Plantagenet of Brotherton a younger Sonne of King Edward the first and Earle of Norffolke This King also made him Marshall and Admirall of England he was as rightfully Lord Mowbray Lord Segrave Lord Bruce as Lord Howard as I have seene him Stiled by Royall Warrant in a Commission for Treatie of Truce with Scotland His eldest Sonne Sir Thomas Howard was at the same time Created Earle of Surrey and made Knight of the Garter Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham was made Constable of England for terme of life but he claimed the Office by inheritance Sir Thomas Moore writes That Sir Thomas Howard Executed the Office of Constable that day William Lord Berkley was Created Earle of Nottingham Francis Lovel Viscount Lovel and Chamberlain to the King the Lord Stanley restor'd to liberty and made Steward of the Household Thomas Rotheram Chancellour and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury having beene committed for delivering the Great Seale to the Queene Widow receiv'd to grace and many Knights Addubbed of the old Order and some of the new or habit of the Bath whose names I have set downe to shew what regard was had of their Family and in those times accused of so much Malignity Sir Edward De-la-Poole Sonne to the Duke of Norfolke George Gray Sonne to the Earle of Kent William Souch Sonne to the
which indeed struck a great discouragement in the expectation of all his Favourers and made his welcome the colder to the Duke of Brittaine the rather also because he had beene with the French King before he came to him which was taken but ill although the Earle could not otherwise doe being forc't upon the Coasts of Normandy And comming into the Road at Deipe landed to refresh himself and company From thence he intended to Roan which being so neare Paris ingaged him thither to the King being as Philip de Comines saith followed in a very honourable Port by 500 Englishmen In his stay there to shew us how much interest a provident and active spirit hath in fortune he so heightned and sweetned his behaviour to the Court as conciliated the favour and respect of the Greatest and Noblest Persons to him But most happily the faire opinion and esteeme of the Princely Lady Anne de France eldest Sister to King Charles the eight who had such an influence upon him in his minoritie that she out-pitched Lewis Duke of Orleance chiefe Prince of the Blood In envy or mis-like whereof he tooke Armes and raysed a Civill Warre in France as Iohn Tillet and others write she was wife to Pierce de Bourbon Lord of Beaujen after Duke de Bourbon but Beaujen being his most stately and honourable Signiory he was called Mounâ—ieur de Beaujen and this Lady had so flexible an inclination to the Earle of Richmonds Cause that she importuned the King to aide him with a good summe of mony and 3000 men but odde fellowes For Philip de Comines saith they were trois mille hommes les plus meschants que lux peut trouver no better then Rogues and Trewans men of base qualitie and as low courage Whilst these were Levying the Earle thriftie of all opportunities and as diligent to adde what advantage of time and ayde he could visits the Duke of Brittaine to the same purpose The Duke propounds it to his Councell which Peter Landois his Treasurer and chiefe Counsellour objects against with this reason That if the Enterpize succeeded well yet the event must fall out unhappily and ill to him the Earle having now interested himself to the favour and assistance of Charles King of France And this would be the first linke of so strong an ingagement that the Earle and his Confederacy must be lost to Brittaine when he came to be King being respectively tyed to lend the King of France ayde against them if any cause should happen which the King of France had a prepared stomack for and had not beene nice to seeke any provocation that might countenance a Quarrell against the Dutchy of Brittaine which was beyond his spanne so long as they continued in League with England that being untwisted and France and England Contracted how easie was it for the French to envade and swallow up both him and his Dukedome To make the present advantage therefore as profitable as safe his advice was to stay the Earle the Duke knowing his Coffers at that time very lanke and that the King of England would offer well for him approved the Counsell and resolved to be led by Landois whose respects notwithstanding were very affectionate to the Earle But whether by the secret caution of some friends or suggested to him by his better genius Sure it is by some unknowne meanes he had knowledge of it and yet this was determined but at night and designed for the morning But before midnight or the knowledge of their flight he and twelve Gentlemen his followers had left Vannes and recovered Aniow under the French Kings protection from thence to the French Court againe the King being still very pliable and constant to his promise concerning those French forces under his owne charge The next thing he works at is how to enlarge the Earl of Oxford out of the Castle of Hammes committed thither by Edward the fourth and in this he uses or rather followed indeed the contrivement of Doctor Morton who held good quarter with the Earle of Oxford and by his frequent visits had a familiar and easie doore open'd which the Earl readily tooke the opportunitie of least it might be shut againe by some miscarriage for Richmond thought or found the constitution of his Designe not a little strengthned by the Earle of Oxfords coâ—federacy nor did he mistake himselfe in his accompt when he set him downe of speciall use knowing him a man of an eminent power wisely and valiantly temper'd And to give him the stronger presumptions and confidence one that most mortally hated Edward the fourth and all the house of Yorke To begin therefore an Obligation the Earle of Richmond makes a Complementall journey to Hammes where the Earle of Oxford was then under the charge of Sir Iames Blound He finds all honourable and respective entertainment with fit libertie and occasion to propound himselfe unto the Earle who had beene partly prepar'd by Doctor Morton and therefore met him the nearest way engaging himselfe solely to the premises and by vertue of an indefatigable confidence sets upon his Keeper winnes him to the Faction and to Paris with them By which time all preparations were in readinesse and whilst they make this stay in the French Court the Earle of Richmond receives a faire excuse and protestation from the Duke of Brittaine with offer of Auxiliary Forces This supply came very acceptably and however he resented the Dukes late purpose upon him his wisedome told him he must now convert his anger into thanks which he returns with a reciprocall Protestation and Order to send the Troopes to Harflew where his Shipping lay and was the Rendezvous for his Souldiers In the end of July 1485. he tooke leave of the King and his most Noble Cousin Madam de Beaujen departing for the â—ort of Harflew in Normandy where he met with two thousand Brittaines from the Duke honourably accommodated But by the way he made some stay at Roven and had newes which much distemper'd him That the Lady Elizabeth was forthwith to be married to King Richard this quickned his hast for England presuming his landing would forbid the Banes otherwise he might sit downe with folded hands for upon this marriage insisted the maine hope and consequence of his Fortune without her all his great praetexts would faint yet seemed to heare it as a thing that could not concerne him so much having so present and provident a wit that in any chance he wanted not Councell and determination in himselfe for all Fortunes instantly resolving to apply his suit to her Sister the Lady Cecily but ere he could perfectly fashion these intents they were also counterchecked by the next packet which assured him the Lady Cecily was lately married neither did that after some Collection seeme much to discompose him but quickely varying his disposition to his fortune he would now fixe himselfe upon some choice in Brittaine Amongst his nobler friends for the most part
the Family of Yorke but most of all Perkin being of a more active spirit so more sensible of his wrongs then the other and cost the King more Consultation and Treasure in the working him into his hands Therefore answerably aggravated his miseries and disgraces which now beganne to exceede for hee was not onely sharpely restrained in the Tower but the fame was the Question or Gehenne was given Him sometimes he was taken forth and carried in most ignominious manner abroade to bee set in the Pillory otherwhile in the Stockes after all these bitter and cruell punishments to pull downe his stomacke there was sent some unto Him of purpose to perswade his submission to the Kings mercy and by renowncing His Blood Birth and Title to confesse himselfe no other but Perkin Warberk the Sonne of a base Flemming which Hee scorning and denying His sufferings were made more rigorous and Hee lodged poorely and basely as meanely fedde worse cladde untill at length by Torments and Extremities Hee was forc't to say any thing and content to unsay what they would have Him to accuse Himselfe by a forc't Recantation of his Family Name and Royall Parentage this must bee compell'd too under His hand then to bee brought by the Officers unto the most publique places of London and Westminster to suffer as before related and with a loud voyce to reade the same which might passe at present with the multitude for current who knew not how it was forcd from Him nor had judgement enough to know and consider that Racks and Tortures have made very able men accuse themselves and others unjustly Seneca telleth of a man who being suspected of Theft was inforced by torture to confesse the theft and his fellow Theeves but haveing none hee accused the good and just Cato to avoyd the torture nay which is a thing of more horror it maketh men by false Oaths to blaspheme God Therefore Saint Augustine inveigheth sharply against the cruell use of it and amongst many other sins which hee findeth in it this is one Tortus si diutius nolet sustinere Tormenta quod non commisit se commisisse dicit The tortured gladly doing this the sooner to exchange those torments with death as the far lesse pain And therefore this young Man may bee excusable in what hee did against himselfe his youth being ignorant of these high points of Honour and could not yet bee confirmed in any brave and firme resolution nor happily in Religion and the worse also by the reason of his long imprisonment and heavy trouble having no Councell to strengthen him nor so much as in Charity to comfort Him but left a miserable desperate forlorne Man and feared to bee so for ever and at the best And if learned grave Men Men of grace having large Talents of Spirit and Science for feare of such punishments have denyed some chiefe points of Christian Faith yet have beene excused for the torture sake of which wee have testimony in the Ecclesiasticall Stories what may a tender and unexperienced youth doe For which just causes the best Doctors of the Civill Law and also of Theology condemne and aborre the use of Torture as having a further mischiefe in it and is Arcanum Gehennae a secret of Torture or of Hell For when the Prisoners body by exteame toment is brought into any mortall State or symptome of death or made incurable and deadly then to avoyde the imputation of Murder the prisoner by a short and private processe is condemned of some capitall crime and presently executed whilst there is yet some life in him And to that censure Perkin at last came for nothing could serve but his blood his confession being only extorted from him to perswade the People hee was an impostor and because they could not lay hold of his Life by the Course of Law or Justice being not attainted nor condemned of any capitall crime This scraple being a little considered there was found out a way to remove that and matter enough to make him guilty of a capitall offence for which purpose it was devised there should a practise of escape bee offered him and because the case of Edward Plantagenet Earle of VVarrwicke was like unto his and as well wisht being not attainted of any crime hee also must desire to escape that devise being the onely matter of guilt or capitall crime which was wanting and might bee as it were created for them the more colorably to effect their executions there not wanting instruments for that purpose to betray their innocent considence whose inprisonment had layne so heavily and cruelly upon them that they were easily perswaded to catch at any hope of liberty Some say the Earle of Warwicke at his arraignment was charged with perswading the other to make this escape but sure it is they both gladly hearkened to the motion of it And were soone after accused as guilty of practise and Conspiracy to escape out of the Tower so for the same arraigned and condemned to die though gâ—eat difference was put in their processe and execution for the Earle of Warwick was tryed by his noble Peeres and had the supplice of a Noble man in an honorable place the Tower of London Perkin alias Richard by a Common Jury who are men many times of little honesty and to suffer at the common and infamous place Tyburne by the name of Perkin Warbecke to confirme the People Hee was what they condemned him for For this Nick-name was supposed to have utterly disnobled Him and as it were divested Him of all his Noble Bloud and Titles the condition of an impostor serving best for a cloke against that purple shower which was at the fall and cruell usage of this miserable Prince It may bee thought the Earle of VVarwicke had as shamefully suffered if the Wit and Malice of the Cardinall could have reacht to have made him a counterfeit But all men knew Hee was not onely a true and certaine Prince but free from all practise yet Hee was restrained of his liberty and a prisoner the most paâ—t of Hislife from the time of his Fathers attainder untill He Suffered this was after they had survived King Richard their Unckle about fifteen years Now for their Offence the learned Judges will tell us of what Nature and Quality it is called in Law Some holding an escape to bee but an errour a naturall dislike of bondage or a forfeit of simplicity proceeding from a naturall and very tolerable desire of liberty which opinion is contingent to right And the cause of these two Princes may also bee the better received if it bee well considered that this Plot of their escape was not projected by themselves but cunningly propounded to them by proper instruments being young and unexperienced to intangle them in some capitall offence and so of Death of which kinde of offences they stood cleere before not once accused haveing never beene indicted
Eurinnies and beleeved haunted those men that had purposed or acted a wickednesse upon which the Poet said well Patiturque unos mens saucia Manes And assigned to every man his protecting Spirit whom the Greekes called Doemones the Latines Genios concluding that when the Genius of him against whom the mischiefe aimes is stronger and more active then his who is to act it there the Plot hardly taketh effect For example produce the mortall enmity betweene Octavianus Caesar and M. Antonius in which Anthony could never prevaile by any Attempt who consulting with his Soothsayers they give the reason to beethe power of Octavians Genius above his It is reported the great Philosopher Appollonius had such a secret protection and so strong that the Emperour Domitian had no power over his life though hee studied meanes to take it Suidas adding that this Philosopher in confidence of his Genius when he left the Emperour added this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Me non occides quia fataliter protectus sum which is that Flamius Vopiscus calleth Majestatem Apollonij as I ghesse and with it the Profestors of Christian Religion agree in the effects not in the causes for those whom the Heathen call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemones c. Genios the Christian Theologues call Angels or Spirits whereof they hold good and bad But to returne to the matters further Allegate Probate The industrious Antiquary Master Iohn Stow being required to deliver his opinion concerning the proofes of this murther affirmed it was never proved by any credible evidence no not by probable suspitions or so much as by the Knights of the Post that King Richard was guilty of it And Sir Thomas Moore being puzelled with his Equivocations sayes that it could never come to light what became of the bodies of these two Princes Grafton Hall and Hollinshead agreeing in the same report that the trueth hereof was utterly unknowne Then where is their farre seeing knowledge that will have them transported into Forraign Countreyes or drowned or their giganticke proofes that say peremptorily they were both murthered and buryed in the Tower by those foure named before if so we need go no further for the truth But these are splenitick reaches and the Parachronisme is too groste as the Comaedian said Quod dictum indictum est Quod modo ratum irritum est Besides if Perkin were not the second Sonne of King Edward he must bee nothing for the Flemish French and Wallons acknowledged no such Noble young man to be borne in Warbecke or in Tourney but make honourable mention of a young Sonne of the King of England who was brought to the Dutchesse of Burgundy his Aunt being then in Flanders and how hee was in France and in other Kingdomes And surely so many Noble and discreet English if they had not knowne him to be the same by most certaine tokens and evidence would not so confidently have laid downe their lives to confirme their knowledge of him or hazarded their judgements and honours upon an Imposture or vanity especially those who had places of Quality and Eminency neare the King then living and were in favour at Court Therefore I would be resolv'd from our Anti-Richards what aim those Noble-men could have in averring him the Son of Edward the Fourth by the hazard of their lives and Estates if the KING pleased and how could they expect lesse for though they were enough to justifie it a truth they were too few to maintaine it against him there could be no aime or hope to super-induce young Richard to be King but meerly I am perswaded in point of truth and honour as they thought themselves bound to doe they freely tendred their lives to make good what their Conscience knowledge witnessed for it would be an Imposture of a miraculous Deception so many worthy and wise persons both of the Nobility and Clergy some of them having served the King his Father and himselfe that they all in their particular and generall intelligence and understandings should be mistaken and cheated I say it was a strange delusion if it could bee so but indeede those that would have it so leave it in question and know not well what to make of their own relations or how to resolve his History and if wee marke Sir Francis Bacon in the life of Henry the Seventh though his speculation be tender and as favourable as hee can that way touching the History of this young Duke hee gently slides from it Explicit liber tertius THE FOVRTH BOOKE OF THE HISTORY OF KING RICHARD the Third The Contents UPon what occasion the sentence of Bastardy was given upon the Children of King Edward the 4 th and why The sundry Loves Wooings Contracts and Marriages of King Edward the Fourth His divers Concubines His device of the Fetterlock and the Faulcon His wooing the Lady Elianor Talbott alias Butler the Lady Bona of Savoy and the Lady Elizabeth Gray widdow his marriage with her His former Marriage or Contract with the said Elianor her wrongs and her death Kings must not marry the daughters of their Vassalls nor other without the consent of their Barons Doctor Stillington Bishop of Bath Imprisoned for speaking of King Edwards Marriage with the Lady Elianor Talbott Spuria vitulamina How King Edward might have salved those Errors and prevented all the mischiefes following them The Children of King Edward the Fourth declared and adjudged illegitimate King Edwards death suspected by poyson the mortality of the Plantagenets The Authority of Parliament Parliaments how so called and derived Parliaments against Parliaments The first Parliament of King Henry the seventh what Treason is whether Soveraigne Princes may be said to commit Treason against their Subiects The treaty of Marriage between K. Richard the third and the Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet and cheifely sought by her selfe and the Queene her Mother The entertainement of the Lady Elizabeth at the Court the first Libell of Divorse the scruples of the Lady Elizabeth King Richard never meant to marry her The marriages of Neeces allowed by the Pope and usuall the true cause of Sir Thomas Moores Condemnation and execution The FOVRTH BOOK OF King Richard The Third THe Title King Richard the Third had to the Crown acâ—rued to him by the illegitimacie of the Children of King Edward the Fourth and the Attainder of the Duke of Clarence with the Corruption of his Blood and forfeiture of the Title in him and in his Heirs of which there was no question but of the forfeiture and disheritage of the sons of Edward the Fourth there hath been much The true cause hath not nor cannot be well known without the Narration of King Edward's sundry Loves and Wooings specially his Contracts and Marriages I shall not need to intimate how amorous and wanton this King was his many Mistrisses or Amasia's he kept in several private places whereof the most famous was Katharine de Clarington
wives for conversing with men that were not of their lâ—inred and for going to see Playes and Cirque Spectacles their husbands not being with them or if the wife were unquiet or curst of her tongue c. Henry the Eighth put away Queen Katharine of Castile and Queen Anne of Cleve the one because she was too old and cold for pleasure the other because she was not fruitful or wanton enough Sometimes men have put away their wives for being Sluts for having unsavoury breaths or some infectious disease without a necessity of taking away their lives and it was lawful for either of them to marry when they would Pope Clement the Seventh so ratified the Divorce of King Henry the Eighth against Katherine of Castile as he defied all Laws Divine and Humane that should contradict and impugn his Power and Dispensation in these words Non obstante Iure Divino nec Humano nec quibuscunque Constitutionibus repugnantibus aut in contrarium Edictis Ther was a formal Bill or Libel of Separation prescribed by Moses with the manner of Divorces and Repudiations in this tenour as Andreas Osiander who translated it out of Hebrew into Latin affirmeth which for the rarity I have here transcribed Die tertia Hebdomadis 29 die mensis Octobris Anno ab orbe condito 4349. EGo Ioachim cognominatus N. filius Nathanis qui consisto hodie in urbe N. in Regno N. Te. N. uxorem meam cognominatam N. filiam N. quae fuisti uxor mea ante hac nunc demisi liberavi repudiavi te tibi ut sis tui juris domina animae tuae ad abeundum ut ducaris abs quolibet viro quem volueris ne vir quisquam prohibeat quo minus sis in manu tua ito hoc die in aeternum Et ecce permissa es unicuique viro hic esto tibi a me datus Libellus repudii Epistola dimissoria Instrumentum libertatis juxta Legem Mosis Israelis But the Answer which was made in the name of the King to the Lady Elizabeth concerning his Queen was That she could be no impediment of long continuance being a very weak woman in a Consumption and past hopes of recovery her Physitians giving their opinions she could not live past the middle of February next following nor ghessed they much amisse for the died in the next month March When the midst and last of February was past the Lady Elizabeth being more impatient and jealous of the successe then every one knew or conceived writes a Letter to the Duke of Norfolk intimating first that he was the man in whom she most affied in respect of that love her Father had ever bore him c. Then she congratulates his many courtesies in continuance of which she desires him to be a mediator for her to the King in the behalf of the Marriage propounded between them who as she wrote was her onely joy and maker in this world and that she was his in heart and thought withall insinuating that the better part of February was past and that she feared the Queen would never die All these be her own words written with her own hand and this is the sum of her Letter which remains in the Autograph or Original Draft under her own hand in the magnificent Cabinet of Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey by which it may be observed that this young Lady was ignorant that a man having a wife living might marry another and suffer her to live But the truth is the King had no real intent to make her his wife from the beginning onely in policy entertained this Treaty as it appeared afterward when his Queen was dead and he had all fit accesses without any impediment to marry her yet did not professing he wooed her not to that end but for some other causes and made Protestation in the great Hall at Saint Iones neer Smithfield before all the Knights of Malta and a great Assembly of Noble-men the Lord Maior Aldermen and many Citizens being present that he had no purpose nor intent to marry the Lady Elizabeth avowing Quodeares viz. Voluntas contrahendi Matrimonium cum Consanguinea Germana sua nunquam â—i venerat in mentem for so it is testified by the Prior of Croyland Yet it may not be denied he pretended love to her and a proffer of Marriage which he projected in policy to divert her affection from Richmond whose party the King apprehended privately wrought that way of which the said Author thus saith Non aliter videbat Richardus Rex regnum sibi confirmari neque spem competitoris sui aufferri posse nisi in Matrimonio cum dicta Elizabeth contrahendo vel simulando And it is most likely the King had no other aim but meerly of Prevention neither was there any cause had he been so wicked to do it by blood nor any just reason to frame so hard an argument against him being always so affectionately inclined to his wife that he was rather thought uxorious then otherwise which appeared unfeignedly at her death in the expression of sorrow and magnificent Exequies for her Non eum immorte honore quam Reginam dicunt as the Prior of Croyland testifieth Let us look therefore with clearer consideration upon the motion or pretence of this Marriage to call it detestable and cruel is ignorant and malicious though she were so neer of kin to him for Marriages between Uncles and Neeces have been very frequent and allowed in other Countreys by the Church In our time the daughter and heir of Duke Infantasgo in Spain was married to his brother Don Alde Mendoza and more lately the Earl of Miranda married his brothers daughter In the House of Austria Marriages in this kinde have been very usual and thought lawful the Pope dispensing with them for they say in Spain Que el padre santo quiere Dios loquire Therefore how could it be so highly unlawful in King Richard Or if his intents had been so forward where was the Bar when his wife was dead and he absolute unlesse the Ladies aversenesse But that suggestion is answered by her own Letter and other testimonies So the Account will be if rightly summed by what hath been produced that he had never any serious determination of Marriage onely took the advantage of his gain by looking into her hand then no cause to make away his Queen which his accusers themselves directly and peremptorily charge him not with but doubtfully say The Queen however it fortuned departed out of this life the 16 of March in the Lent season But although he had the commendations of a loving and indulgent husband I say not he lived always continently for I finde he had some bastards two of them I have mentioned yet peradventure he might have them before his Marriage and then the fault was lesse So then let them that affect not blinde and
Hen. 7. and dies of greife 143. Elizabeth daughter of Ed. 4. desired by her letter to marry with Richard 3. 128. 129. Elianor Talbot alias Butler married to E. 4. 116. her wrongs death 122. Escape what the offence is 100. F. FAulcon Serrure a French devise of obseen signification 115. Faulconbridge a famous Pyrate apprehended by a wile 9. Flattery and Flatterers 52. 133. 78. Fortune inconstant 41. Vertuous Master of her 57. Fortitude a notable example in Rio. 3. 59. 60. 61. Friends and friendship 52 best known in adversity Ib. French King payes a tribute of 75000. crownes to K. Edw. 4. and rich pensions to diverse Noble men 29. G. GAston de Foix K. of Navarr 19. Gray Woodvile and others of the Reginists executed at Pomfret for treachery 13 Glocester City rewarded by Rich. 3. for their loyalty 28. Gâ—mot what it is 125. Genius or Angell Guardian 106. H. HAstings his affection to Edw. 4. his children 13. Is betrayed and executed in the Tower ibid. Henry 2. K. of England his great descent and spacious Empire 4. his penance for Tho Beckets death 5. Sirnamed du Court Mantea why 4. Henry 4. King of England caused his soveraigne Rich. 2. anointed King to bee Murthered 14. Entailes the Crowne to his heires 50. Henry 6. K. of England not murthered by Rich. 3. but dyed a naturall death of griefe and melancholy 80 81. Henry Teâ—dor Earle of Richm. borne in Pembrooke castle 16. His noble descent 144 145. by his mother 50. by his Grand-mother and Father Ib. His escape into France 16. And there detained prisoner 17 18 19. His various and doubtfull fortunes Ib. 43. 57. Is attainted of high Treason 30. A description of his Person and qualities 42 58. 144. A wise provident a religious Prince 58. 144. Laies claime to the Crowne of England 17. Made good by marriage 53. And the Popes Bull 55. And act of Parliament 145. His title de jure belli or of conquest confirmed by the Pope and distasted by the Barons 54 55. Invades England with ill successe 43. His 2. invasion by aid of the French 56 57. 59. Overthrowes K. R. 3. at Redmore heath and is crowned by the name of Henry 7 th 62. His vow at the high Altar in Vannes 42. Is very covetous 88. too partiall and credulous 51. Unkinde and severe to his Wife 143. And to the Wife and Children of Edw. 4. Ib. His pretence against the Ea of Warwick 105. 141. And Perk. Warbeck alias Rich. Plantag 95. His breach of promise 93. He feared 3. men specially Ib. His reach upon the Duke of Burgundy 142. His charge to his son upon his death-bed ib. Henry the first K. of England sirnamed Beauclerke 16. Or the good Clerk His ambition and covetousnesse 141. cruelty to his elder Brother ib. Heralds whence the name derived 138. a Colledg of Heralds founded by R. 3. ibid. Herbertus Chamberlaine to W. Rufus Ancestor to the Herberts of Pemb. and Mountgom founder of that name 16. Historians their great partiality 134 135. 143. The errours of vulgar Historians 41. Howards their great Nobility alliance and discent from Hewardus or Herewardus the story of him 66. signification of the name ib. of Hawardus 67. Tho Howard Barl of Surrey escapes Bosworth field 64. A notable speech of his showing his integrity ibid. Is advanced by Henry 7. ib. Triumphator Scotorum 67. Sir Charles Howard Lord Admirall in 88. His noble fame 67. I. IAmes the 4 th King of Scotland denies his tribute to England 10. An army is sent to recover it ib. But a Truce concluded ibid. James the 5 th of Scotland challenges Thomas Earle of Arundel in Campe fight 62. James King of Great Brittaine his Noble elemency to some regall Titulars 135. Jane Shore King Edw. 4. his Concubine 115. 135. Jerusalem a barren soile 6. Imperiall Ensigns of England their signification 26. Ingratitude ex 59 60. John King of England charg'd with the murther of his Nephew 141. K. KAtherin wife of Sir Otho Swinford Mother of the Beauforts 44. Kings have their bounds 29. Their prerogatives in Iudgments and Controversies 54. Cannot commit high Treason 63. May not marry their Subjects 119. A King deposed for so doing ib. Kings and kingdomes in Gods disposing 63. changed by him why 140. Two evils especially the overthrow of Kings and kingdomes 103. To kill an Anoynted King a sacrilegious offence p. 80. Knights and Lords created 25. L. LAncaster and Beaufort how they differ 30. 44. 47. Legitimation What the Popes legitimation is and what the Princes 47 48. Liars need of good memories 84. Lancaster escheated to Edward 4. 35. 47. Don Duart de Lancastro 45. Laws good Laws made by R. 3. Lawes against Bastards 48. Loyalty a rare example 64. M. MArgaret Plantag daughter of Geo. Duke of Clarence put to dearh 143 Matilda or Maud the Empress daughter and heir of H. 1. 4. Anglor Dom. ibid. Malice malitious 130. Height of malice 75. Marble stone or fatall stone prophesie of it 146. Brought out of Scotland into England by Edward the 1. And placed at Westminster ib. The stone that Jacob laid his head upon ib. Marriage not lawfull between those that have lived in adultery 45. Between Uncles and Nieces frequent in other Countreys 129. Monasteries supprest with the true cause of it 77. Monuments of the British Empirâ— 146 Sir Thomas Moore a great enemie of R. 3. 76. Came short of the learning is ascribed to him dyed scoffing ib. Lord Chancellor of Eng. 77. And a sworn vassall to the Pope 76. Morton Bishop of Ely a subtle man 15. A great enemie of K. R. 3. ib. 75 76 77. A temporizer 52. His extreame pride and covetousnesse 53. Lord Chancellor of Eng. 77. N. NAmes taken from Offices other occasions 5 6 66. Nandick a conjurer Parl. 1. H. 7. Natural Father natural sons daughters why so called Naturall daughters may take the sirname of France 46. Noblenesse of nature Examp. 61. c. O. OFficers of State 25. 32. Oxford Iohn de Vene Earl of Ox. fevere against nick-named Perkin Warb 105. he gave sentence of death gainst the innocent Earl of Warwick ib. Strange dissipation of a mighty estate ib. Oppression many examples of it 99. 141. and pastime alibi P. PArasites the nature of them p. 27. 78. Parliaments their power authority 124. From whence the word is derived ib. A Court of great antiquity 125. Called by the Saxons Witengemot the meeting of wise men ibid. The honour and obedience due unto them 126. Parl. 1. R. 3. Many good Lawes enacted Pater mater parentes or parents words of larger signification among other Nations then among us 69. Perkin Warbeck his story 84. Confirmed by many noble and learned men 100 101. Philip Duke of Burgundy K. of Castile driven by a storm with his Qu upon the coast of England 141 142. His entertainment ib. Plantaganest or Plantagenet original occasion of that