Strelley and was so constant in his Affection that although she dyed in his best Age he made a Religious Vow and became a Knight of the Rhodes his Armes are yet to be seene in the Ruines of the Hospitall of Saint Iohns neaâ—e Smithfield and in the Church of Alhallows at the upper end of Lumbard Street which was repaired and enlarged with the Stones brought from that demolished Caenoby he lived sub rege Edvardo filio Regis Henrici as I have seene by the date of his deed in Herthilâ— Anno 1 Ed. 1. Anno 22. Ed. 1. From this Knight of the Rhodes descended Sir Iohn Bucke who for his too much forwardnesse in charging a Fleet of Spaniards without the leave of the Earle of Arundell Lord Admirall was committed to the Tower testified by the Records there Anno 13. Richard the second Lawrence Buck his Son followed Edward Plantagenet Duke of Yorke and was at the Battel of Agin Court with him when he was slaine Iohn Bucke Knight the Sonne of this Laurence married a Daughter and Heire of the House of Staveley out of which are descended the Barons Parres of Kendall and Rosse Queene Katherine the last wife of King Henry the eighth the Lord Parre Marquesse of Northampton and the Herberts Earles of Pembrooke and Montgomery These Bucks residing for the most part at West-Stanton and Herthill in Yorkeshire and matched into the Families of Strelley or Stirely of Woodhall Thorpe Tilney then of Lincolnshire and Savill by which we have much Noble kindred Sir Iohn Bucke for his service to the House of Yorke especially at Bosworth lost his head at Leicester he married the Daughter of Henry Savill by whom he had Robert Bucke and other Children who were brought into the Southerne parts by Thomas Duke of Norfolke where they have remained ever since for the Children being Orphans were left in miserable estate by the Attainder of their Father But the Duke bestowed two Daughters in marriage one with the Heire of Buck The other with the Heire of Fitz-Lewis very Ancient Families from which Matches divers honourable and Noble Persons are descended The Sonnes were one a Souldier the other a Courtier the third a Priest afterward the Duke bestowed Robert Bucke the Eldest Sonne at Melford Hall in Suffolke and married him into the Families of Higham and Cotton as also did the Blounds of Elwaston the Talbots of Grafton from whom the Barons of Monioy and the late Earles of Shrewsbury descended one of the Daughters of this Bucke Married to Fredericke Tilney of Shelley Hall in Suffolke his nearest Kinsman by the Duchesse his Mothers side But some perhaps must call this my vanity I shall but answer them that I thinke my selfe bound by all the bloud and memory I claime from them to pay them my best Relations and endeavours acknowledging with the great Consulare Philosopher Parentes charissimos habere debemus quod ab ijs vita patrimontum libertas Civit as tradita est And I should thinke there is none who hath an interest in the quality of Gentile or Noble for all is one but lookes backe which some delight to their first Commemoration and finds a strong engagement due to the Vertues and worth of their first Fathers for that expresse charge to honour Father and Mother is not to be understood only of our Parents superstits and living here with us but our forefathers that is beyond our great Grandfather for we have no proper word for them above that degree but Antecessours vulgò Ancestours whom the Romans called Majores and comprehendeth all our Progenitours departed sooner or later for the word Pater and Mater as also Parens Parentes extend very largely and reach up to the highest Ancestours The Ancient Roman Jurisconsults deliver in their Law for an Axiome that Appellatione Parentum omnes in infinitum majores utriusque sexus significantur and the word Parentes yet spreadeth further comprehending all Kinsfolkes and Cosins of our Bloud and Linage being used in that sense by AElius Lampridius by Iulius Capitolinus and other the best Writers in the times of the declined Empire as Isaac Causabonus hath well observed in his Annotations The Italians Spanish and French whose Language is for the most part Romanzi mongrell Latine and broken and corrupted Romane Language use Parenti Parentes and Parents for all their Kinsfolkes and Gentilitious Cosins We English-men being more precise follow the Ancient and Classique Latine Writers holding Parent strictly to the simple signification of Pater and Mater the present and immediate Parents But the using of the word Parentes as those Imperiall Historians use it serveth better for our purpose here And I could most willingly imitate the Pious Gentlemen of Italy Spainâ— and France in their Religious and Charitable indeavours to advance the happinesse of their Parents defunct if those desires could besteed them But where I should crave pardon I become more guilty and extravogant it is time therefore to know good manners and returne home to our proper taske which will be to refell the grosse and blacke Calumnies throwne unjustly upon the Memory and Person of King RICHARD And falls within the Circle of the next Booke Explicit Liber Secundus THE THIRD BOOKE OF KING RICHARD THE THIRD The Contents of this Booke THe Defamations of King Richard examined and answered Doctor Morton and Sir Thomas Moore malevolent to the House of Yorke Their frivolous exceptions against his gestures lookes teeth shape and birth hie vertues depraved The death of King Henry the sixth and his Sonne Edward Prince of Wales The Actors therein The offence of killing an anointed King Valiant men hate treacheries and bloudy acts King Richard not deformed The Slanders of Clarence translated to King Richard The Cause of Clarences execution How the Sonnes of King Edward came by their deaths King Richard Exculpable thereof The story of Perkin VVarbeck compared with Don Sebastian King of Portugall who are Biothanati Counterfeit Prince detected young Prince marvellously preserved Many testimonies for the assertion that Perkin VVarbeck was Richard Duke of Yorke his honourable entertainment with forraigne Princes vox populi Reasons why it is not credible King Richard made away his two Nephewes the force of Confession The evill of Torture the guilt of attempting to escape out of prison what an escape is The Earle of Oxford severe against Perkin and his end The base Sonne of King Richard the third secretly made away The Sonne of the Duke of Clarence put to death The power of furies Demones Genii Apollonii Majestas Quid tibi non vis alteri ne feceris THE THIRD BOOKE OF KING RICHARD THE THIRD THere is no story that shewes the planetary affections and malice of the vulgar more truly then King Richards and what a tickle game Kings have to play with them though his successor Henry the seventh play'd his providently enough with helpe of the standers by yet even those times which had promised the happiest example of a
allatum est id sibi relatum esse putant And if their injustice suffer under the same lash they must know this doome hath the credit of an Oracle quale verbum dixisti tale etiam audies But so much gall and envy is thrown upon King Richards story as cannot possibly fall into the stile of an ingenuous and charitable pen all his virtue is by a malitious Alchymy substracted into crimes and where they necessarily fall into mention either scornefully transmitted or perverted with injurious constructions not allowing him the resemblance of goodnesse or merit If his disposition be affable and curteous as generally it was which their owne relations cannot deny then he insinuates and dives into the peoples hearts so where he expresses the bounty and magnificence of his minde it is a subtle tricke to purchase friendship let him conceale the knowledge of his jujuries and his patience is deepe hypocrisie for his mercy and clemency extended to the highest offendors as to Fogge the Atturney who had made a Libell against him besides the counterfeiting of his hand and seale they were but palliated and his friendship meerely a Court brow They have yet a more captious and subtle calumny reproaching the casting of his eyes motions of his fingers manner of his gesture and his other naturall actions I confesse with Cicero that status incessus sessio occubatio vultus oculi mannum motio have a certaine kind of decorum but he makes it not a vice to erre in any of them nor that any errour committed in them was a vice although in him it must be so defined by the Lawes of Utopia nay they will dissect his very sleepes to finde prodigious dreames and bug-beares accidents frequent to themselves which they dresse in all the fright and horrour fiction and the stage can adde who would have sung Peans to his glory had his sword brought victory from Bosworth field but now their envy is borne with him from his mothers wombe and delivers him into the world with a strange prodigy of Teeth although I am perswaded neither Doctor Morton nor Sir Thomas Moore ever spake with the Dutchesse his Mother or her Midwife about the matter But if true it importeth no reason why those earely and natalatious teeth should presage such horrour and guilt to his birth when we shall remember those many Noble and worthy men who have had the like without any imputation of crime as Marcus Curius sirnamed thereupon Dentatus Cu. Papiene King of the Epirots a Prince much renowned for his victories and virtues Monodas Sonne of Prusias King of Bithynia borne with an intire semicircular bone in their mouthes instead of Teeth then they aggravate the pangs of the Dutchesse in her travaile with him which had not been sufferable without death if so extreame and intolerable as they would have them thought for Quod ferri potest leve est quod non breve est But she overcame them and lived almost fifty yeares after others have died in that Bed yet the children not made guilty of murther Iulia the daughter of Iulius Caesar Wife to great Pompey Iuliola the deare daughter of Marcus Cicero Wife of Dolabella and Iunia Claudilla the Empresse and Wife of Caligula died all of the difficulties and extremity of their childe-bearing so did Queene Elizabeth Wife of King Henry the seventh and since the Mother of that most towardly and hopefull Prince Edward the sixth in travaile of his birth with many thousands more whose deaths much lesse their paines were never imputed to their children The next objection is somewhat of more regard but as farre without the certainty of a proofe which is the pretended deformity of his body controverted by many some peremtorily asserted he was not deformed of which opinion was Iohn Stow a man indifferently inquisitive as in all their other affaires after the verball relations and persons of Princes and curious in his description of their features and lineaments who in all his inquiry could finde no such note of deformitie in this King but hath acknowledged viva voce that he had spoken with some ancient men who from their owne sight and knowledge affirmed he was of bodily shape comely enough onely of low stature which is all the deformity they proportion so monstrously neither did Iohn Rouce who knew him and writ much in his discription observe any other and Archienbald Qhuitlaw Ambassador unto this King from Scotland in his Oration saies he had corpus exiguum not otherwise so to my conceit Philip de Comines and the Prior de Croyland who had seen and knowne this Prince seeme to cleere him implicatively for in all their discourses of him they never directly nor indirectly covertly or apertly insinuate this deformity which I suppose they would not have passed And by his sundry Pictures which I have seen there was no such disproportion in his person or lineaments but all decently compacted to his stature his face of a warlike aspect which Sir Thomas Moore calleth a crabled visage of all the children being said to be most like his Father in favour and composition of shape who though not tall was of an even and well disposed structure And Sir Thomas Moore himselfe doth not certainely affirme the deformity but rather seemes to take it as a malitious report for saith he King Richard was deformed as the fame ranne by those that hated him habemus reuâ— consitentem and surely it had been a strange kinde of confidence and reason in Doctor Shaw to disclaime a thing which must be so palpable openly in the Pulpit at Saint Pauls Crosse whilst the Protector was present before many hundreds of people who had seen and known him before and might then better view and note him In these words the Lord Protector is a very noble Prince the speciall patterne of Knightly prowesse as well in all Princely behaviour as in the lineaments of his body and in the favour of his visage representing the very face of the Noble Duke his Father this is the Fathers owne figure this is his owne countenance the very sure and undoubted Image and expresse likenesse of that Noble Duke Now what can malice extract out of this to upbraid or stigmatize his honour if men of blemisht persons may containe a wise valiant learned liberall and religious soule and be in every part most absolute exampled to us in many famous men and at our home as well in this present age as in the more ancient we have had men of a harsh fabrick most nobly furnisht in the composures of their mindes But because these cavils could not fetch blood from him they will make him guilty of other men and first of King Henry the sixth whose murther they say and very favourably his Brother Edward contrived but wrought him to act it an accusation of very harsh credit that either King Edward so truly noble and valiant a Prince should put
Ships some to the Coasts of Brittaine but the Earle himselfe to the Coasts of Normandy And this was the successe of his first invasion which though it bore an inauspicate face it proved of a friendly event For had he landed about Poole or but stayed till the Kings Ships had come in that lay waiting not far off he had been a lost man every way the King being not only active to meet their contrivements but had some advantage upon them by the close intelligence of a friend and knew that the Forces of the Duke of Buckingham with the Earle of Devon and others were to meet neare Gloucester and march in their full and united strength towards the sea-Coasts of Dorset there to receive the Earle But the King encountred with the Duke of Buckinghams Army beate him and cut off his head before any of the rest could come at him daily putting the ordinary bands of these West Countries in a ready posture for guard of their Coasts and that if the Earle of Richmond or any of his French Forces came a shore they were to be entertained courteously by them pretending themselves of the Duke of Buckinghams Army who had routed the Kings Party and were sent thither to receive and conduct the Earle with his men to London This was the projected end But it is of remarkeable note to look into the various paths of this Earles fortune and how they brought him to his journies end when they appeared most doubtfull and threatning not only gave him advantage by the good successe of his Enterprises but made the most adverse accidents serve as prosperous unto them for was it not happy the storme at Poole drove him from the Coasts of England and no lesse fortunate that the Duke of Buckingham was defeated whereas had the Duke atcheived that day the Earle of Richmond not being there who was to be present in person and Generall of the field we may with reason conjecture his Emulation and Policy would have accumulated the honour and fortune of the Conquest to his owne pretended Title such Spirits like the Sea where they intrude or win making their advantage their right and not easily surrender so much is the engagements of Ambition too strong for all ties of faith and right The example is observable in the Earle of Richmond himselfe who although he knew the Children of the Duke of Clarence and others had better right to the Crowne yet once possest would not resigne no not to his owne Sonne whilst he could hold it nor did he want his Presidents as all men know who know any thing And to take all Relations in our way that may be levell with our Story betwixt this and his second Invasion some other passages offer themselves as an interim and not impertinent to supply the Readers observation Amongst other the Death of the Kings deare and only Sonne at least Legitimate who dyed in the Castle of Middleham in Yorkeshire in the Month of Aprill Anno Dom. 1484 which newes gave such a passionate Charge upon the Nature and Affections of the King and Queene being then in the Castle of Nottingham that as mine Author saith Subitis doloribus insanire videbantur Yet the King being a man of an equall moderation to his courage puts it into the Scale of his other worldly encounters and as it was said of Iulius Caesar that he soone passed the death of his only daughter Iulia most pretious in his affection Et tam facile dolorem hunc quam omnia vicit So King Richard tempered his griefe and businesse so together that the one made him not unsensible nor the other negligent but as the Prior of Croyland telleth did all things gravely and discreetly as before Rex Richardus nihilominus tamen suam partem defensione vacaverit although the Queene could not hold so proportioned a temper over her griefe the tendernesse of her Sexe letting it breake upon her in a more passionate manner and with such an Impression that it became her sickenesse past recovery languishing in weaknesse and extremity of sorrow untill she seemed rather to overtake death than death her which was not long after the Princes and added not a little to the Kings sufferings and sorrowes though traducing Spirits have charged him with shortning her life by poyson or some other practice which are prestigious and blacke Comments falsly plac't in the Margent of his Story and may mere nearely touch the credit of the Authors than his if we judiciously take a view of him and his Actions and looke upon the indulgent and active care for his Country which he gave a constant and sincere expression of instantly after his Sonnes death when by the deliberation and consent of the Barons he was industrious to thinke of a Successour and to nominate such an one whose bloud and worth might make him equally Heire to the Crown and the peoples affection with the highest approbation of the Kingdome and none more neare to either then Sir Iohn de la Poole Earle of Lincolne Sonne and Heire of Iohn de la Poole Duke of Suffolke and of the Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet Duchesse of Suffolke the Sister and Heire of this King Richard who was declared and proclaimed Heire apparant to the Kingdome This was a Contrecarre to the Faction of Richmond and indeed what greater affront could thwart them if those of the House of Lancaster or Beaufort were next Heire to the Crowne as the pretenders affirmed for the Earle of Richmond who would likewise have him to be Caput gentis Lancastriae Princeps familiae though they could scarcely prove him not without question I am sure Membrum illius familiae untill he came to be King for it was a question in those times and much disputed whether the Beauforts or Sommersets were of the House of Lancaster or no most true it is the Children of the House of Lancaster being lawfully borne and after Henry Plantagenet Duke of Lancaster had Conquered and deposed Richard the Second were to be held Princes of the Bloud Royall and capable of the Crowne in their naturall and due Order But those of Beaufort or Sommerset were as the Vulgar hath it filij populi or as the Imperiall Juris-consults say liberi vulgo quesiti who by the old Greeks were termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. sine Patre the Doctors of the Spirituall Law drawing the Originem of such children ab illicito damnato coitu of the polluted adulterous bed and so those Beauforts three males and one female begotten by Iohn of Gaunt as he believed according to the Lawes were to be reputed the children of Sir Otho Swinford begotten upon Katherine his Wife in his life time who was daughter of Sir Payen Rovet a French-man dwelling in Beauforts and was Guyen Herald to the Duke of Lancaster His Dutchesse Dona Constantia a most noble and vertuous Lady daughter of Don Pedro King of Castile was living also
men by their out-sides or as boyes Poetry with a tickled faith through such wide eares and observations crept in that Parasitisme on the one side and Pride and Usurpation on the other side that made the house of Lancaster and the Beauforts alias Somersets all one which whilst the house of York flourished was held to differ as much as Royall and Feudall Soveraignty and Suzeraignty for their modestie at first was very well pleased with that of Beaufort and it seem'd honourable enough untill the children of Iohn de Beaufort the eldest Brother being Earle of Somerset assumed the name of their Fathers greatest honour and Earledome for their Sir-name and the rest following quite left the name of Beaufort and made the other Hereditary From this Iohn de Beaufort Earle of Somerset and Marquesse of Dorset descended Henry Duke of Somerset Father naturall to Charles Somerset created Earle of Worcester by King Henry the eight And it is worth the noting that this Duke Henry left the Faction of Lancaster to follow Edward the fourth The first Beauforts legitimated by the Pope and Richard the second have no other Sir-names but Beaufort in either of the instruments Apostolicall nor any words to give or emure them to any capacitie of Royall Title or state of Soveraignty in the Crown onely purged them by the Popes spirituall power from the foulenesse of Bastardy allowing them as children legitimate and lawfully born but gives them no other title then Ioanna de Beaufort miles Henricus de Beaufort Clericus Thomas de Beaufort Domicellus Ioannus de Beaufort Domicella and more the Pope cannot doe As the Doctors of Sorbone and some of the best Canonists hold who peremprorily affirme That the Pope cannot make Bastards capable to inherit the Hereditary Lands of their Father neither can give them power to Constitute Successours or Heires or hold Offices Dignities or Titles without the Princes speciall dispensation to which the Civill and Imperiall Lawes agree and is Authentick in England as a Learned and eminent Judge reports though others thinke it of too severe a nature and moderately agreeable to reason and Law the Law much observing reason That Bastards being honest and worthy men the rather if they be avowed by their Fathers may be admitted to Honours Dignities Titles Feuds and other Ornaments of rewards and vertue Of this indulgence and connivence wee have examples in England by two worthy and deserving men flourishing in this Age who though Bastards held the greatest Offices in England So Richard the second in his Charter for the legitimation of the Beauforts would have men of desert and avowed by their Fathers capable of Advancement and Honours The Tenor of which Charter and Confirmation of it by Parliament I shall exhibite as it is taken out of the Archives and Tower Records opening the way by a short advertisement That in this Act of Parliament there is an Induction to the Charter made by Doctor Edmond Stafford Brother to the Earle of Stafford and Bishop of Exeter Lord Chancellour of England in the twentieth yeare of Richard the second which intimateth that Pope Vrbanus the sixt at the earnest request of the King vouchsafed to legitimate these Beauforts the base sonnes and the daughter of the Duke of Guyen and Lancaster That the King also having power to legitimate and enable Bastards in the same kind and in as ample manner as the Emperour hath or had for so he pressed and avowed in the Act was pleased at the humble request and suit of the Duke their Father to make them not onely legitimate but also capable of Lands Heritages Titles Honours Offices Dignities c. And that the King for the more authority therof crav'd the allowance and favourable assent of the Barons in Parliament which was granted The Charter runnes thus Charta Legitimationis Spuriorum Ioannis Ducis Lancastriae RIchardus dei gratia Rex Angliae Franciae Dominus Hiberniae charissimis Consanguineis nostris Nohilibus viris Ioanni de Beaufort Militi Henrico de B. Clerico Thomae de Beaufort Domicello Nobili mulieri Ioannae Beaufort domicellae praeclarissimi patrui nostri Nobilis viri Ioannis Ducis Aquitaniae Lancastriae Germanis natis liegis nostris salutem Nos pro honore meritis c. Avunculi nostri Proprio arbitratu meritorum suorum intuitu vos quia magno probitatis ingenio ac vitae ac morum Honestate fulgetis ex regali estis prosapia propagati c. hinc est quod Ioannis c. avunculi nostri genitoris vestri precibus inclinati vobis cum ut asseritur defectum natalium patimini hujusmodi defectum ejusdem qualitates quascunque abolere praesentes vos haberi volumus pro sufficientibus ad quoscunque honores dignitatis praeeminentias status gradus officia publica privata tam perpetua quam temporalia atque Iudicialia Nobilia quibuscunque nominibus nuncupentur etiam si Ducatus Principatus Comitatus Baroniae vel alia feuda fuerint etiamsi mediate vel immediate à nobis dependeant seu teneantur praefici praemoveri eligi assumi admitti illaque recipere pro inde libere ac licite valeatis ac side legitimo thoro nati existeritis quibuscunque Statutis seu Consuetudinibus regni nostri Angliae in contrarium editis seu observatis quae hic habemus pro totaliter expressis nequa quam obstantibus de plenitudine nostrae regalis potestatis de assenssu Parliamenti nostri tenore praesentium dispensamus vosque quemlibet vestrum natalibus restituimus Legitimanus Die Feb. Anno regni 20. R. 2. Here wee find large Graces Honours and Priviledges conferred upon those Beauforts for the King calls them Consanguineos sous and not onely confirmes their Legitimation but makes them by the helpe of the Parliament capable of Baronies Earledomes Dukedomes and Principalities enableth them for all Offices publique and private temporary and perpetuall to take hold of and injoy all Feuds as well noble as other all Lands and Signiories Hereditary as lawfully firmly and rightfully as if they had beene borne in lawfull matrimony but yet conferres no Royall Title nor interest in the Crowne at the least to the observation of those who allow not the claime of the Beauforts and Somersets and say that to reach that there must be words of a higher intent words of Empire Majesty and Soveraigntie such as Regni summa potestas Corona Sceptrum Diadema Purpura Majestas and the like Neither of these nor any importing their extent being in this grant so no Title to the Crowne nor Soveraigntie could passe to them To which the other side replyes That there is a word in the Charter that comprehendeth Empire Raigne and Soveraigntie that is Principatus whereof the King and Parliament make the Beauforts capable Principatus being the State of Princeps a Title of the most absolute Soveraigne Power for the Roman Emperours