Anchor a while and claspe up this first Booke with the Relation of his better Fortunes Explicit Lib. I. THE SECOND BOOKE OF THE HISTORY OF KING RICHARD THE THIRD The Argument of the Second Booke THe Earle of Richmond practiseth with Forreigne Princes and with the English Nobles for assistance and Forces to make his first and second invasions of England He came first to Poole with ill successe secondly to Milford cum bonis avibus What Bastards are and whereof they are capable who be of the House of Lancaster how Lancaster and Beaufort or Sommerset differ Bastards of Kings must not take the Sirnames of the King or Kingdome The honourable priviledge of the name of Plantagenet Prince Edward and Queene Anne John de la Poole proclaimed Heire of the Kingdom by Richard the Third Bastards of John Duke of Lancaster made legitimate and capable of Offices Honour and of Heritage by Richard 2 and the Parliament What the Legitimation of the Pope is Armes and Names of Princes Bastards The Nobility of King Henry 7 th He affied not much in the Titles of Yorke and Lancaster The Pope giveth to him the Title de jure belli de domo Lancastriae The greatnesse of the Title of Yorke of Counsell and Connsellours The Prerogative of the King in Iudgements and Controversies The Earle of Richmond landeth at Milford Haven His entertainment there and in Wales His aptnesse for divers wives he marcheth to Bosworth King Richard and he sight Richard is overcome and slaine also the Duke of Norfolke by the Earle of Oxford ut Creditur The Earle of Richmond is straight Crowned King in the field The fatall Errour of King Richard Kings loved Combate The Titles of King Henry 7 th Kings go not now to warâ— Cruelties committed upon the body of King Richard He was attainted of Treason though against the Laws of Nature and of Royall Majesty with many of his followers and servants The Earle of Surrey how released out of prison his Geneology from Hewardus walter de Buck and his Progeny The Second Booke WE left King Richard the Third in the growth of a flourishing and promising Estate and his fate now in the rise of a peacefull and prosperous Raigne of a calme and hopefull presage But Fortune that lends her smiles as Exactors do mony to undoe the Debtor soone cald for the Principall and Interest from this Prince to whom she was meerly Novercall and he might well call her with the expert Heros in Euripides fortuna diurna i. e. fortune of a daies life for in her best mood she is most slippery in her favours and redious in her mischiefes as was aptly considered by a grave man Fortuna adversas res cupido animo inducit secundas parco she is a mother but a little while a stepdame a long time and for ever to some here then we are aggressing into the turbulent and luctuall times which were towards the end and period of his Life and Raigne the formall and finall causes happening from the invasions attempted by the Earle of Richmond I will begin the Second Booke there and may say invasions because he twice invaded the Kingdome though by errour or ignorance of our Vulgar Historians they are confounded and made one which corruptly maimes the Story and conceales and pretermits some very remarkeable agitations particularly the true cause of the Duke of Buckinghams ill successe and defeate is misunderstood or not at all known To come to it therefore more certainly we must take notice of the first preparation by the Earle of Richmond who was resolved to advance his claime that way and unbosomes himselfe to the Duke of Brittaine his possibility and advantage by friends if he could raise but sufficient strength to set him safely in England The Duke gives him all good wishes to his undertaking but opposes against all Arguments of drawing him in first his Amity and League with England which in honour and justice he was not to violate Then his wants by the long Civill and cruell Warres with his Barons that had so exhausted his Coffers as durst he dispense with the former cause yet that might render him excused being unable to furnish him at least in so short a time as his expedition required beyond which answer for the present the Earle thought not fit to presse him But having a prompt and strong affiance in his good fortune makes up to some of the Dukes most honourable and powerfull Friends to lay siege that way to him by private advantages for by his ingenious demeanour he had won the inclinations of many great ones being Master of a pleasant acute wit which was well supplied in him by the straine of all Courtly Acts to those he had the helpe of the French Tongue which he spoke excellently well and to give all the more plausible accesse and influence hee was as Philip de Comines who knew him testifies a very compleat and well featur'd Gentleman which makes the rule certaine and well animating Gratior est pulchro veniens e corpore virtus The beauties of the mind more gratious are When as the bodies features are more faire In the number of those eminent persons he had gained during his faire imprisonment more fortunately he had applyed himself unto the Lady Margaret Dutchesse of Brittaine Daughter of Gaston de Foix a great man in the Westerne parts of France whose Ancestors were well affected to the English and Madam de Bevier the Dutches so farre countenanced him in his designe that she became an earnest suitor unto the Duke her husband and prevailed both for his liberty and aide for caution and pledge herein he was only to kneele at the High Altar before the blessed Sacrament in the Cathedrall Church of Saint Vannes there to make his religious Vow justly and truely to observe what restitution he privately had promised to the Duke and Dutches which protestation made he had three Ships well rigged and furnished with Men Armes and Victuals as my Author relates Au Conte de Richmond furent aux despens du duo trois grosses Navires de Brittannia charges de gens de Armes c. qui se misent in mer. But by the favour of this Brittish Writer the Earle staid many daies at Saint Malo to receive and send intelligence and made it the beginning of October 1484 before he came to Saint Poole in Dorset where he lay some time at Anchor to send his Boates a shore as Explorers or Spies for discovery of the Coasts where the Kings Armie or his friends lay who returned without any particular satisfaction but that there was many Armed men about the Country The Earle who in all things was circumspect and cautiously rimerous resolved immediately to loose from thence but the night following a terrible tempest constrained them with all hast to weigh Anchor and make into the Maine the Storme and darkenesse of the night severing and dispersing their
a Prince and his owne Brother upon so horrid a thing or he indure to heare it Sir Thomas Moore holds King Edward would not ingage his Brother in so butcherly an office there being many reasons that he durst not neither doe his adversaries charge him directly by any credible Author of that time or discover by whom this murther was onely the Prior of Croyland maketh it somewhat suspitious Hoc tempore inventum est corpus regis Henrici sexti exanime in turre Londinarium Parâ—at Deus spatium poenitentiae ei donet quiâ—unque sacrilegas manus in Christum Domini ausus immittere unde agens tyranni patiens gloriosi martyris titulum mereantur Tyrannus in the proper construction being Rex for whosoever is Rex is Tyrannus according to the ancient signification for amongst the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used for a King simply good or bad and this some hold makes against King Edward Richard being Duke of Gloucester then yet so doubtfully as may be refelled by good authority for it is the opinion of very grave men Henry the sixth was not murthered but died of naturall sicknesse and extreame infirmity of body Rex Henricus sextus ab annis jam multis ex accidente sibi aegrituâ—ine quaâ—dam animi incurreret infirmitatem sic aeger corpore impos mentis permansit diutius this considered with the aggravation of his griefe and sorrow in the losse of his Crown and liberty being then a prisoner the overthrow of all his friends and forces in the Battaile of Teuxbury but above all the death of his Sonne the Prince might master a stronger heart and constitution then his in a shorter time which opinion is received and alleadged by a learned and discreet Gentleman The occasion of the murther of King Henry the sixth hath no other proofe but the malitious affirmation of one man for many other men more truly did suppose that he died of meere griefe and melancholy when he heard the overthrow of his cause and friends with the slaughter of the Prince his Sonne And Iohannes Majerus saith it was reported King Henry the sixth died of griefe and thought Concerning the slaughter of the Prince his onely Sonne it is noted to be casuall and made suddaine by his owne insolence not out of any pretended malice or premeditated treachery and so it cannot be called wilfull murther for the King demanding him why he invaded his Kingdome his reply was he might and ought to doe it in defence and preservation of the right which the King his Father and his heires had in the Crowne and maintained this lofty answer so peremtorily and boldly the King in rage strooke him with his fist as some say armed with a Gantlet and instantly the Noblemen attending as George Duke of Clarence Marquesse Dorset the Lord Hastings and others drew their swords upon the Prince and killed him which they would make the particular fact of Duke Richard But to the contrary I have seene in a faithfull Manuscript Chronicle of those times that the Duke of Gloucester onely of all the great persons stood still and drew not his sword the reasons to credit this are first it might be in his meere sence of honour seeing so many drawn upon him there was no need of his or in his respects to the Princes Wife who as Iohannes Majerus saith was in the roome and neare akinne to the Dutchesse of Yorke his Mother and to whom the Duke was also very affectionate though secretly which he soone after demonstrated in marrying her nay this Duke bore such a sence of noble actions in his bosome that mislikeing the obscure and meane buriall of Henry the sixth this Princes Father he caused his corps to be taken from Chertsey and to be Honourably conveyed to the Royall and stately Chappell of Windsor ordained for Kings And Sir Thomas Moore saith further he was suspected to have the contriving part in the Duke of Clarence his Brothers death yet confesseth it was commonly said Richard opposed himselfe against the unnaturall proceedings of the King both privately and publiquely and the truth is it was the Kings owne immoveable and inexplorable doome who thought it justly and necessarily his due for Clarence stood guilty of many treasons and great ones and by his ingratidude had so forfeâ—ted himselfe to the Kings displeasure that no friend durst move in his behalfe this the King did afterward acknowledge with some discontent when his wrath had cooled as we may guesse in this expression of his O infaelicem â—ratrem pro cujus salute neâ—o homo rogavit yet Polidor Virgil doth not rightly understand here as I conjecture by the sequell but let us interpret that a little and take up another accusation which puts into the way That Richard Duke of Gloucester should scandall the birth of the King his Brother with basterdy and alleadge it for a speciall matter in Doctor Shawes Sermon that he should fame King Edward the fourth a bastard and that the Dutchesse his Mother had wanton familiarity with a certaine Gentleman this he might erroneously scatter in the Pulpit and take it up on the like intelligence by which in the same Sermon he called her to whom King Edward was betrothed before his marriage with the Lady Grey Elizabeth Lucy whose name was for a certaine Ellenor Butler alias Talbot so called by King Richard and written in the Records This drift had been too grosse for King Richard to lay an imputation of whoredome upon his owne Mother a virtuous and honourable Lady being it cast also a shame and basterdy upon himselfe for if she offended in one she might as likely offend in another and in the rest And to quit him of it Sir Thomas Moore Richard Grafâ—on Mr. Hall say that King Richard was much displeased with the Doctor when he heard the relation which the Duke of Buckingham also affirmed in his speech to the Lord Mayor of London That Doctor Shaw had incurred the great displeasure of the Protectour for speaking so dishonourably of the Dutchesse his Mother That he was able of his owne knowledge to say he had done wrong to the Protectour therein who was ever known to beare a reverend and filiall love unto her and to cut of all farther doubt and question it was proved and is testified upon records that George Duke of Clarence onely raised this slander in an extreame hatred to the King his Brother many jarres falling between them by which the King had a just cause to take notice of his malice Visus est dux Clarentiae magis ac magis a regis praesentia desuâ—trahere in consilio vix verbum proferre neque libenter bibere aut manducare in domo Regis When Richard even in that calamitous time Henry the sixth had overthrowne King Edward in a battaile recovered the Kingdome and proclaimed Edward an usurper so faithfull was his Brother that
to build little upon any from thence his chiefe conâ—idence and refuge being in England and Ireland where he had a good party and sayled with a prety Fleete into Ireland there hee was welcomed and received as the the second Sonne of King Edward some of the Geraldins and other great Lords in Ireland purposing to make him their King To overtake him betimes there too Doctor Henry Deane Abbot of Lanthory a very wise able man was sent and made Chancellor of Ireland with him went the said Sr. Edward Poynings who so actively bestirred themselves that in short time they drew the Irish from Perkin so that now hee must returne home but by the way was encouraged to apply himselfe to Iames King of Scotland whither forthwith hee directs his hopes and found his entertainment answerable to them the King receiving him very Nobly by his title of Duke of York calls him Cozen with promises to give him strong footing in England and in earnest of his better intents bestowed in Marriage upon him the most Noble and faire Lady Katharine Gordon his neere kinswoman Daughter of Alexander Earle of Huntly This came home very sharpely to King Henry who knew King Iames to bee a Prince so Wise and Valiant that no easy delusion could abuse him And true it is King Iames was very precise in his consideration of this young Duke but very cleerely confirmed before hee would acknowledge him King Henry is very Studious how to thwaâ—t the event of this scene and unfasten the King but casts his conâ—idence againe upon the fortune of his judgement and sends many Protestations with rich promises to King Iames for Perkin for now wee shall so call him with the times which tooke small effect at first but King Henry being a man pregnant to finde any advantage and one whose providence would not let it die remembers the stong affinity and friendship betwixt King Iames and Ferdinando King of Castile one of the most Noble Princes then living At that time too it happened so happily there was a Treaty and intelligence betwixt Henry the Seventh and Ferdinando for proposition of a Marriage of Arthur the Prince of Wales and Katharine Daughter of King Ferdinando this occasion no sooner offered it selfe to his consideration but a Post was dispatcht to Castile with Letters and Instructions to give the King to know what had passed betweene him and King Iames of Scotland urging him to use the Power and Credit hee had with him for the delivery of Perkin to himselfe which Ferdinando undertooke and sends Don Pedro Ayala not one Peter Hialas or Peter Hayles as our vulgar stories have a wise and learned man and of a very Noble house who so ably used his Braine in this imployment that King Iames passed to him his promise to dismisse Perkin to his own fortunes But would by no meanes deliver him to the King Thus Perkin was againe supplanted Virtute vel dolo and of necessity driven into Ireland where hee was formerly received and entertained whilst they were agitating their first Plot of setling him King Charles the French King sends to him Lois de Laques and Estiene Friant to offer him his friendship and ayde with this good newes Perkin hasted into France where hee found his welcome very honorable as befitting a Prince a Guard appointed to attend him of which Monsieur Congre-Salle was Captaine before this King Henry had threatned France with an Army but now upon a better view and deliberation foreseeing what this had in it He propounds very faire Conditions for a Peace with the French King which the French King was as willing to intertaine and so it was concluded Perkin after this began to thinke the King shortned his respects and looked upon him as it were but imagine lusca with halfe a Countenance and fearing there might bee some capitulation in this new League that might concerne his liberty privately quits Paris returning to his Aunt of Burgondy Although Perkin was thus shortned in his forraine expectations hee had those both in England and Ireland that much favored him and his cause making another voyage into Ireland but returned with his first comfort for though they stood constantly affected and were willing the Kings Officers curbed them so they could not stir From Ireland hee sayled into England landing at Bodmin in Cornewall the Cornish and Westerne men thereabouts receiving him very gladly proclayming him King of England and of France c by the Title of Richard the Fourth as Hee had beene proclaimed before in the North parts of England by the Councell and Countenance of the King of Scots Out of Cornewall Hee marches into Devonshire to Exeter to which Hee layd Siege having then about five thousand men in his Army but the Kings being at hand and farre stronger Hee was forc't to rise from the siege upon which those few friends Hee had left finding His want and the King with greater strength approaching forsooke him to provide for themselves thus abandoned no way before him but flight and being well mounted with a traine of some forty or fifty resolute Gentlemen recovers the Abby of Beanely in Hampshire where Hee tooke Sanctuary from which the Kings party who persued Him would violently have surprised Him Which the Abbot and Religious persons would not indure as a thing too foule against their Priviledge The King after sends to him profers of favours and mercy with promises of such Honour and Condition as drew Him to the Court where the King looked upon him with a very Gratious and Bountifull usage as a Noble person But his prompting Jealousies and Feares soone east a dulnesse over this first favours and promises Then a Guard must bee set upon Perkin and his usuall freedome restrained these were harsh presages Hee thought which so justly moved His suspition and discontent that hee thought Sanctuary againe must bee his best safety and passing by the Monastery of Shrene hee suddenly slips into it from his Guard whither the King sends unto him with perswasions of the first Courtly and Honorable tincture But Perkin that had discerned the Hook was not easily to be tempted with the bait this second time Then the King dealt with the Prior for him who would not yeeld him but upon faithfull promise from the King to use him with all favour and grace which was protested although Perkin no sooner came into his power againe but hee was sent to the Tower where his imprisonment was made so hard and rude that it much dejected and troubled him oftentimes in private and with peircing groanes having beene heard to wish himselfe borne the Sonne of any Pesant And indeed every one could tell hee fared the worse for his Name it being an observation of those times that there was three men most feared of the King Edward Plantagenet Earle of Warwicke Perkin alias Richard Plantagenet and Edmond de la Poole Sonne of King Edwards Sister all of
of their Father which was ten moneths after for King Edward dyed in April before and this is plaine in the Records of the Parliament of Anno 1. Rich. 3. where there is mention made of this Prince as then living and Sir Thomas Moore confesseth that they were living long after that time before said But I conjecture Edward the Eldest brother lived not long after but died of sicknesse and infirmity being of a weake and sickly disposition as also was his Brother which the Queene their Mother intimated in her speech to the Cardinall Boursier and the weake constitutions and short lives of their sisters may be a naturall proofe to infer it probable enough this Prince dyed in the Tower which some men of these times are the rather brought to thinke certaine bones like to the bones of a Child being found lately in a high desolate Turret supposed to be the bones of one of these Princes others are of opinion it was the â—aâ—râ—asse of an Apekept in the Tower that in his old age had happened into that place to die in and having clamber'd up thither according to the light and idle manner of those wanton Animals after when he would have gone down seeing the way to be steepe and the precipice so terrible durst not adventure to descend but for feare stayed and starved himselfe and although hee might bee soone mist and long sought for yet was not easily to be found that Turret being reckoned a vast and damned place for the hight and hard accesse no body in many yeares looking into it But it is of no great consequence to our purpose whether it were the Carcasse of a Child or of an Ape or whether this young Prince dyed in the Tower or no for wheresoever hee dyed why should it not be as probable hee dyed of a naturall sicknesse and infirmity as for his young Cozen german the sonne and heire of King Richard many reasons conducing why the qualities and kinde of their death might be the same and neere one time being even parallels almost and in their humane constitutions and corporall habitude sympathizing of one Linage and Family of one blood and age of the same quality and fortune therefore not unlikely of the same Studies Affections Passions Distemperatures so consequently subject to the same infirmities to which may be added equall and common constellations the same compatient and commorient fates and times and then there is reason and naturall cause they might both die of like Diseases and infirmity and were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken away by violence secret or overt for it may with asmuch Argument bee suspected the son of King Richard being in the like danger of secret violence for the same cause as his Cozen was might suffer so But to open the circumstance a little neerer what danger could the lives of those two Princes be to Richard who was accepted King by a just title and his Nephewes declared illegitimate by the high Court of Parliament and whilst they were reputed such by so great and generall a conclusion why should he be lesse secure of them then Hen. 2. was of Robert E. of Glocester base sonne to Hen. 1. or Richard the first of his base Brother Geoffrey Plantagenet So although Iohn of Gaunt left base sonnes aspiring enough yet they were of no danger to the Lancastrian Kings neither did Henry 7. or Henry 8. stand in any jealousy of Arthur Plantagenet and surely Richard the third was as valiant wise and consident as any of his predecessors and had as little cause to dread his Nephewes as they stood adjudged or be more cruell and bloudy neither hath my reading found any Bastards of France or Spaine who have aspired so publickly onely except Don Eurique E. of Trastamara who was drawne into that action by the violent rages of the people and by the perswasions of the revolted states of Castile to put downe a monster of Soveraignty the hatefull tyrant Don Pedro Cruell But being Sir Thomas Moore and our best Chroniclers make it doubtfull whether these two Princes were so lost in King Richards time or no and infer that one of them was thought to be living many years after his death that might be enough to acquit him which opinion I like the better because it mentioneth the survivance but of one of them Neither doe our most credible stories mention the transportation of more then one into Flanders nor had they reason it will bee sufficient if one of them survived him more or lesse time we will follow therefore the examination of his story under the opinion of those times and the attestation of grave and credible men because it will be more conspicuous in the true and simple narration of this one Brother every story being fraught with reports concerning him and few or none of his brother finding no mention of the Elder Bothers being in Flanders but of the youngers much and of his other adventures The prudent and honorable care of sending away this younger Brother by some is ascribed to Sr. Robert Brakenbury by others to the Queene his Mother and it may well be the projection of them both though no doubt there was the advise and assent of other well affected friends And it is the more credible the Queen wrought in it for the story of Sr. Thomas Moore saith shee was before suspected to have had such a purpose which was objected to her by some of the Lords and the Cardinall Boursier told her the maine Reason which made the Protector and Nobles so urgeing to have him sent to his Brother being then in the Tower was a suspition and feare they had shee would convey Him forth of the Realme So then it may be cleerly supposed he was sent into a forraine Country and that Flanders as all our stories testify there commended to a liberall education under the curature of a worthy Gentleman in Warbeck a Towne in Flanders but kept very privately all the life time of his Uncle his Friends not daring to make him of the councell After his death knowing Henry Richmond a cruell enemy to the house of Yorke for his better safety was committed to the care of Charles of Burgundy and his Dutchesse the Lady Margaret Aunt to the Prince as formerly the Dutchesse of Yorke upon a like cause of feare and jealousy had sent thither her two younger sons George and Richard The Dutchesse being very tender to let this young Duke have all Princely and vertuous education in Tornay in Antwerp and after in the Court of the Duke of Burgundy as hee had bin in Warbeck c. And with the greater circumspection because the Dutchesse of Burgundy had as jealous an opinion of Henry the Seventh as the Queene Widdow had of Richard 3. Therefore as yet it was advised to conceale his Name and Quality being not come to the growth nor age to have experience in his own affaires much lesse to undertake an attempt