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PRINCE OF WALES, DUKE OF CORNWALL, EARL OF CHESTER, &c.
IT MAY PLEASE YOUR HIGHNESS,
In part of my acknowledgement to your Highness, I have endeavoured to do honour to the memory of the last King of England that was ancestor to the King your father and yourself; and was that King of whom both Unions may in a sort refer; that of the Roses being in him consummate, and that of the Kingdoms by him begun. Besides, his times deserve it. For he was a wise man, and an excellent King; and yet the times were rough, and full of mutations and rare accidents. And it is with times as it is with ways. Some are more up-hill and down-hill, and some are more flat and plain; and the one is better for the liver, and the other for the writer. I have not flattered him, but took him to life as well as I could, sitting so far off, and having no better light. It is true, your Highness hath a living pattern, incomparable, of the King your father. But it is not amiss for you also to see one of these ancient pieces. God preserve your Highness.
Your Highness’s most
humble
and devoted servant,
FRANCIS ST. ALBAN
FTER
that Richard, the third of that name, king in fact only, but tyrant
both in title and regiment, and so commonly termed and reputed in all
times since, was by the Divine Revenge, favouring the design of an
exiled man, overthrown and slain at Bosworth Field; there succeeded
in the kingdom the Earl of Richmond, thenceforth styled Henry the
Seventh. The King immediately after the victory, as one that had been
bred under a devout mother, and was in his nature a great observer of
religious forms, caused Te deum laudamus to be solemnly sung
in the presence of the whole army upon the place, and was himself
with general applause and great cries of joy, in a kind of military
election or recognition, saluted King. Meanwhile the body of Richard
after many indignities and reproaches (the dirges and obsequies of
the common people towards tyrants) was obscurely buried. For though
the King of his nobleness gave charge unto the friars of Leicester to
see an honourable interment to be given to it, yet the religious
people themselves (being not free from the humours of the vulgar)
neglected it; wherein nevertheless they did not then incur any man’s
blame or censure, no man thinking any ignominy or contumely unworthy
of him, that had been the executioner of King Henry the Sixth (that
innocent Prince) with is own hands; the contriver of the death of the
Duke of Clarence, his brother; the murderer of his two nephews (one
of them his lawful King in the present, and the other in the future,
failing of him); and vehemently suspected to have
been the
impoisoner of his wife, thereby to make vacant his bed for a marriage
within the degrees forbidden. And although he were a Prince in
military virtue approved, jealous of the honour of the English nation,
and likewise a good law-maker for the ease and solace of the common
people; yet his cruelties and parricides in the opinion of all men
weighted down his virtues and merits; and in the opinion of wise men,
even those virtues themselves were conceived to be rather feigned and
affected things to serve his ambition, than true qualities ingenerate
in his judgment or nature. And therefore it was noted by men of great
understanding (who seeing his after-acts looked back upon his former
proceedings) that even in the time of King Edward his brother he was
no without secret trains and mines to turn envy and hatred upon his
brother’s government; as having an expectation and a kind of
divination, that the King, by reason of his many disorders, could not
be of long life, but was like to leave his sons of tender years; and
then he knew well how easy a step it was from the place of a
Protector and first Prince of the blood to the Crown. And that out of
this deep root of ambition it sprang, that as well at the treaty of
peace that passed between Edward the Fourth and Lewis the Eleventh of
France, concluded by interview of both Kings at Piqueny, as upon all
other occasions, Richard, then Duke of Gloucester, stood every upon
the side of honour, raising his own reputation to the disadvantage of
the King his brother, and drawing the eyes of all (especially of the
nobles and soldiers) upon himself; as if the King by his voluptuous
life and mean marriage were become effeminate, and less sensible of
honour and reason of state than was fit for a King. And as for the
politic and wholesome laws which were enacted in his time, they were
interpreted to be but the brocage of an usurper, thereby to woo and
win the hearts of the people, as being conscious to himself that the
true obligations of sovereignty in him failed and were wanting. But
King Henry, in the very entrance of his reign and the instant of time
when the kingdom was cast into his arms, met with a point of great
difficulty and knotty to solve, able to trouble and confound the
wisest King in the newness of his estate; and so much the more,
because it could not endure a deliberation, but must be at once
deliberated and determined. There were fallen to his lot, and
concurrent in his person, three several titles to the imperial crown.
The first, the title of the Lady Elizabeth, with whom, by precedent
pact with the party that brought him in, he was to marry. The second,
the ancient and long disputed title (both by plea and arms) of the
house of Lancaster, to which he was inheritor in his own person. The
third, the title of the sword or conquest, for that he came in by
victory of battle, and that the king in possession was slain in the
field.
The first of these was fairest, and most like to give contentment to
the people, who by two-and-twenty years reign of King
Edward
the Fourth had been fully made capable of the clearness of the title
of the White Rose or house of York; and by the mild and plausible
reign of the same King towards his latter time, were become
affectionate to that line. But then it lay plain before his eyes,
that if he relied upon that title, he could be but a King at
courtesy, and have rather a matrimonial than a regal power; the right
remaining in his Queen, upon whose decesase, either with issue or
without issue, he was to give place and be removed. And though he
should obtain by Parliament to be continued, yet he knew there was a
very great difference between a King that holdeth his crown by a
civil act of estates, and one that holdeth it originally by the law
of nature and descent of blood. Neither wanted there even at that
time secret rumours and whisperings (which afterwards gathered
strength and turned to great troubles) that the two young sons of
King Edward the Fourth, or one of them, (which were said to be
destroyed in the Tower) were not indeed murdered but conveyed
secretly away, and were yet living; which, if it had been true, had
prevented the title of the Lady Elizabeth. On the other side, if he
stood upon his own title of the house of Lancaster, inherent in his
person, he knew it was a title condemned by Parliament, and generally
prejudged in the common opinion of the realm, and that it tended
directly to the the disinherison of the line of York, held then the
indubiate heirs of the crown. So that if he should have no issue by
the Lady Elizabeth, which should be descendants of the double line,
then the ancient flames of discord and intestine wars, upon the the
competition of both houses, would again return and revive.
As
for conquest, notwithstanding Sir William Stanley, after some
acclamations of the soldiers in the field, had put a crown of
ornament (which Richard wore in the battle and was found amongst the
spoils) upon King Henry’s head, as if there were his chief title; yet
he remembered well upon what conditions and agreements he was brought
in; and that to claim as conqueror was to put as well his own party
as the rest into terror and fear; as that which gave him power of
disanulling of laws, and disposing of men’s fortunes and estates, and
the like points of absolute power, being in themselves so harsh and
odious, as that William himself, commonly called the Conqueror,
howsoever he used and exercised the power of a conqueror to reward
his Normans, yet he forbare to use that claim in the beginning, but
mixed it with a titulary pretence, grounded upon the will and
designation of Edward the Confessor.
[2.] But
the King, out of the greatness of his own mind,
presently cast the die; and the inconveniences
appearing unto
him on all parts, and knowing there could not be any interreign or
suspension of title, and preferring his affection to his own line and
blood, and liking that title best which made him independent, and
being in his nature and constitution of mind not very apprehensive of
forecasting of future events afar off, but an entertainer of fortune
by the day, resolved to rest upon the title of Lancaster as the main,
and to the use the other two, that of marriage and that of battle,
but as supporters, the one to appease secret discontents, and the
other to beat down open murmur and dispute; not forgetting that the
same title of Lancaster had formerly maintained a possession of three
descents in the crown; and might have proved a perpetuity, had it not
ended in the weakness and inability of the last prince. Whereupon the
King presently that very day, being the two and twentieth of August,
assumed the style of King in his own name, without mention of the
Lady Elizabeth at all, or any relation thereunto. In which course he
ever after persisted: which did spin him a thread of many seditions
and troubles. [3.] The
King, full of these thoughts, before his departure from Leicester,
despatched
Sir Robert Willoughby to the castle of
Sheriff-Hutton, in Yorkshire, where were kept in safe custody, by
King Richard’s commandment, both the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of King
Edward, and Edward Plantagenet, son and heir to George Duke of
Clarence. This Edward was by the King’s warrant delivered from the
constable of the castle to the hand of Sir Robert Willoughby; and by
him with all safety and diligence conveyed to the Tower of London,
where he was shut up close prisoner. Which act of the King’s (being
an act merely of policy and power) proceeded not so much from any
apprehension he had of Dr. Shaw’s tale at Paul’s Cross for the
bastarding of Edward the Fourth’s issues, in which case this young
gentleman was to succeed (for that fable was ever exploded,) but upon
a settled disposition to depress all eminent persons of the line of
York. Wherein still the King, out of strength of will or weakness of
judgment, did use to shew a little more of the party than of the
king.
4. For the Lady Elizabeth, she received also a direction to repair
with all convenient speed to London, and there to remain with the
Queen dowager her mother; which accordingly she soon after did,
accompanied with many noblemen and ladies of honour. In the mean
season the King set forwards by easy journeys to the City of London,
receiving the acclamations and applauses of the people as he went,
which indeed were true and unfeigned, as might well appear in the
very demonstrations and fulness of the cry. For they thought
generally that he was a Prince as ordained and sent down from heaven
to unite and put to an end the long dissensions of the two houses;
which although they had had, in the times of Henry the Fourth, Henry
the Fifth, and a part of Henry the Sixth on the one side, and the
times of Edward the Fourth on the other, lucid intervals and happy
pauses; yet they did ever hang over the kingdom, ready to break forth
into new perturbations and calamities. And as his victory gave him
the knee, so his purpose of marriage with the Lady Elizabeth gave him
the heart; so that both knee and heart did truly bow before him.
5. He on the other side with great wisdom (not ignorant of the
affections and fears of the people), to disperse the conceit and
terror of a conquest, had given order that there should be nothing in
his journey like unto a warlike march or manner; but rather like unto
the progress of a King in full peace and assurance.
6. He entered the City upon a Saturday, as he had also obtained the
victory upon a Saturday: which day of the week, first upon an
observation, and after upon memory and fancy, he accounted and chose
as a day prosperous unto him.
7. The mayor and companies of the City received him at Shoreditch;
whence with great and honourable attendance, and troop of noblemen
and persons of quality, he entered the City; himself not being on
horseback, or in any open chair or throne, but in a close chariot; as
one that having been sometimes an enemy to the whole state, and a
proscribed person, chose rather to keep state and strike a reverence
into the people than to fawn upon them.
8. He went first into St. Paul’s Church, where not meaning that the
people should forget too soon that he came in by battle, he made
offertory of his standards, and had orizons and Te Deum again
sung; and went to his lodging prepared in the Bishop of London’s
palace, where he stayed for a time.
9.
During his abode there, he assembled his counsel and other principal
persons,
in presence of whom he did renew again his promise
to marry with the Lady Elizabeth. This he did the rather, because
having at his coming out of Brittaine given artificially for serving
of his own turn some hopes, in case he obtained the kingdom, to marry
Anne, inheritress to the duchy of Brittaine, whom Charles the Eighth
of France soon after married, it bred some doubt and suspicion
amongst divers that he was not sincere, or at least not fixed, in
going on with the match of England so much desired: which conceit
also, though it were but talk and discourse, did much afflict the
poor Lady Elizabeth herself. But howsoever he both truly intended it,
and desired also it should be so believed (the better to extinguish
envy [in this work, always = unpopularity] and contradiction
to his other purposes), yet was he resolved in himself not to proceed
to the consummation thereof, till his coronation and a Parliament
were past. The one, lest a joint coronation of himself and his Queen
might give any countenance of participation of the title; the other,
lest in the entailing of the crown to himself, which he hoped to
obtain by Parliament, the votes of the Parliament might any ways
reflect upon her.
10. About this time in autumn, towards the end of September, there
began and reigned in the city and other parts of the kingdom a
disease then new: which by the accidents and manner thereof they
called the sweating-sickness. This disease had a swift course, both
in the sick body and in the time and period of the lasting thereof.
For they that were taken with it, upon four-and-twenty hours,
escaping were thought almost assured. And as to the
time of
the malice and reign of the disease ere it ceased, it began about the
one and twentieth of September, and cleared up before the end of
October; insomuch as it was no hinderance to the King’s coronation,
which was the last of October; nor (which was more) to the holding of
the Parliament, which began but seven days after. It was a pestilent
fever, but as it seemeth not seated in the veins or humours; for that
there followed no carbuncle, no purple or livid spots, or the like,
the mass of the body being not tainted; only a malign vapour flew to
the heart, and seized the vital spirits; which stirred nature to
strive to send it forth by an extreme sweat. And it appeared by
experience that this disease was rather a surprise of nature, than
obstinate to remedies, if it were in time looked unto. For if the
patient were kept in an equal temper, both for clothes, fire, and
drink moderately warm, with temperate cordials, whereby nature’s work
were neither irritated by heat nor turned back by cold, he commonly
recovered. But infinite persons died suddenly of it, before the
manner of the cure and attendance was known. It was conceived not to
be an epidemic disease, but to proceed from a malignity in the
constitution of the air, gathered by the predispositions of seasons;
and the speedy cessation declared as much.
On Simon and Jude’s Even the King dined with Thomas Bourchier,
Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal: and from Lambeth went by land
over the bridge to the Tower, where the morrow after he made twelve
knights-bannerets. But for creations, he dispensed them with a
sparing hand. For notwithstanding a field so lately fought and a
coronation so near at hand, he only created three: Jasper Earl of
Pembroke (the King’s uncle) was created Duke of Bedford; Thomas the
Lord Stanley (the King’s father-in-law) Earl of Derby; and Edward
Courtney Earl of Devon; though the king had then nevertheless a
purpose in himself to make more in time of Parliament; bearing a wise
and decent respect to distribute his creations, some to honour his
coronation, and some his Parliament.
12.
The coronation followed two days after, upon the thirtieth day of
October in
the year of our Lord 1485. At which time Innocent the
Eighth was Pope of Rome; Frederick the Third Emperor of Almain
[Germany];
and Maximilian his son newly chosen King of the Romans; Charles the
Eighth King
of France; Ferdinando and Isabella
Kings of Spain; and James the Third King of Scotland: with all of
which kings and states the King was at that time in good peace and
amity. At which day also (as if the crown upon his head had put
perils into his thoughts) he did institute for the better security of
his person a band of fifty archers under a captain to attend him, by
the name of Yeomen-of-his-Guard: and yet that it might be thought to
be rather a matter of dignity, after the imitation of that he had
known abroad, than any matter of diffidence appropriate to his own
case, he made it to be understood for an ordinance not temporary, but
to hold in succession for ever after.
13. The seventh of November the King held his Parliament at
Westminster, which he had summoned immediately after his coming to
London. His ends in calling a Parliament (and that so speedily) were
chiefly three. First, to procure the crown to be entailed upon
himself. Next to have the attainders of all his party (which were in
no small number) reversed, and all acts of hostility by them done in
his quarrel remitted and discharged; and on the other side, to
attaint by Parliament the heads and principals of his enemies. The
third, to calm and quiet the fears of the rest of that party by a
general pardon; not being ignorant in how great danger a King stands from his subjects, when most of his subjects are
conscious
in themselves that they stand in his danger. Unto these three special
motives of a Parliament was added, that he as a prudent and moderate
prince made this judgment, that it was fit for him to haste to let
his people see that he meant to govern by law, howsoever he came in
by the sword; and fit also to reclaim them to know him for their
King, whom they had so lately talked of as an enemy or banished man.
For that which concerned the entailing of the crown (more than that
he was true to his own will, that he would not endure any mention of
the Lady Elizabeth, no not in the nature of special entail), he
carried it otherwise with great wisdom and measure. For he did not
press to have the act penned by way of declaration or recognition of
right; as on the other side he avoided to have it by new law or
ordinance; but chose rather a kind of middle way, by way of
establishment, and that under covert and indifferent words; that
the inheritance of the crown should rest, remain, and abide in the
King, etc.: which words might equally be applied, that the crown
should continue to him; but whether as having former right to it
(which was doubtful), or having it then in fact and possession (which
no man denied), was left fair to interpretation either way. And again
for the limitation of the entail, he did not press it to go farther
than to himself and to the heirs of his body, not speaking of his
right heirs; but leaving that to the law to decide; so as the entail
might seem rather a personal favour to him and his children, than a
total disinherison to the house of York. And in this form was the law
drawn and passed. Which statute he procured to be confirmed by the
Pope’s Bull the year following, with mention nevertheless (by way of
recital) of his other titles both of descent and conquest. So as now
the wreath of three was made a wreath of five. For to the three first
titles, of the two houses or lines and conquest, were added two more;
the authorities Parliamentary and Papal.
14. The King likewise in the reversal of the attainders of his
partakers, and discharging them of all offences incident to his
service and succour, had his will; and acts did pass accordingly. In
the passage whereof, exception was taken to divers persons in the
House of Commons, for that they were attained, and thereby not legal,
nor habilitate to serve in Parliament, being disabled in the highest
degree; and that it should be a great incongruity to have them to
make laws who themselves were not inlawed. The truth was, that divers
of those which had in the time of King Richard been strongest and
most declared for the King’s party, were returned Knights and
Burgesses of the Parliament; whether by care or recommendation from
the state, or the voluntary inclination of the people; many of which
had been by Richard the Third attainted by outlawries, or otherwise.
The King was somewhat troubled with this. For though it had a grave
and specious show, yet it reflected upon his party. But wisely not
shewing himself at all moved therewith, he would not understand it
but as a case in law, and wished the judges to be advised thereupon,
who for that purpose were forthwith assembled in the
Exchequer-chamber (which is the counsel-chamber of the judges), and
upon deliberation they gave a grave and safe opinion and advice,
mixed with law and convenience; which was, that the knights and
burgesses attainted by the course of law should forbear to come into
the house till a law were passed for the reversal of their attainders
15. It was at that time incidentally moved amongst the judges in
their consultation, what should be done for the King himself who
likewise was attainted: but it was with unanimous consent resolved,
that the crown takes away all defects and stops in blood: and that
from the time the King did assume the crown, the fountain was
cleared, and all attainders and corruption of blood discharged. But
nevertheless, for honour’s sake, it was ordained by Parliament, that
all records wherein there was any memory or mention of the King’s
attainder should be defaced, cancelled, and taken off the file.
16. But on the part of the King’s
enemies there were by parliament attainted, the late Duke of
Gloucester, calling himself Richard the Third, the Duke of Norfolk,
the Earl of Surrey, Viscount Lovell, the Lord Ferrers, the Lord
Zouch, Richard Ratcliffe, William Catesby, and many others of degree
and quality. In which bills of attainders nevertheless there were
contained many just and temperate clauses, savings, and provisoes;
well shewing and fore-tokening the wisdom, stay, and moderation of
the King’s spirit of government. And for the pardon of the rest that
had stood against the King, the King upon a second advice thought it
not fit it should pass by Parliament, the better (being matter of
grace), to impropriate the thanks to himself: using only the
opportunity of a Parliament time, the better to disperse it into the
veins of the kingdom. Therefore during the Parliament he published
his royal proclamation, offering pardon and grace of restitution to
all such as taken arms or been participant of any attempts against
him, so as they submitted themselves to his mercy by a day, and took
the oath of allegiance and fidelity to him, whereupon many came out
of sanctuary, and many more came out of fear, no less guilty than
those that had taken sanctuary.
17. As for money or treasure, the King thought it not seasonable or
fit to demand any of his subjects at this Parliament; both because he
had received satisfaction from them in matters of so great
importance, and because he could not remunerate them with any general
pardon (being prevented therein by the coronation pardon passed
immediately before); but chiefly, for that it was in every man’s eye
what great forfeitures and confiscations he had at that present to
help himself; whereby those casualites of the crown might in reason
spare the purses of the subject; specially in a time when he was in
peace with all his neighbours. Some few laws passed at that
Parliament, almost for form sake: amongst which there was one, to
reduce aliens being made denizens to pay strangers’ customs; and
another, to draw to himself the seizures and compositions of
Italians’ goods, for not employment; being points of profit to his
coffers, whereof from the very beginning he was not forgetful;
and had been more happy at the latter end, if his early providence,
which kept him from all necessity of exacting upon his people, could
likewise have attempered his nature therein. He added during
parliament to his former creations the ennoblement or advancement in
nobility of a few others. The Lord Chandos of Brittaine was made Earl
of Bath; Sir Giles Dawbigny was made Lord Dawbigny; and Sir Robert
Willoughby Lord Brooke.
18. The King did also with great
nobleness and bounty (which virtues at that time had their turns in
his nature) restore Edward Stafford eldest son to Henry Duke of
Buckingham, attained in the time of King Richard, not only to his
dignities, but to his fortunes and possessions, which were great; to
which he was moved also by a kind of gratitude, for that the Duke was
the man that moved the first stone against the tyranny of King
Richard, and indeed made the King a bridge to the crown upon his own
ruins. Thus the Parliament brake up.
19. The Parliament being dissolved, the King sent forthwith money to
redeem the Marquis Dorset and Sir John Bourchier, whom he had left as
his pledges at Paris for money which he had borrowed when he made his
expedition for England; and thereupon he took a fit occasion to send
the Lord Treasurer and Mr. Bray (whom he used as counsellor) to the
Lord Mayor of London, requiring of the City a prest of six thousand
marks. But after many parleys he could obtain but two thousand
pounds; which nevertheless the King took in good part, as men use to
do that practise to borrow money when they have no need.
About
this time the King called unto his Privy Counsel John Morton and
Richard Foxe, the one Bishop of Ely, the other Bishop of Exeter;
vigilant men and secret, and such as kept watch with him almost upon
all men else. They had been both versed in his affairs before he came
to the crown, and were partakers of his adverse fortune. This Morton
soon after, upon the death of Bourchier, he made Archbishop of
Canterbury. And for Foxe, he made him Lord Keeper of his Privy Seal;
and afterwards advanced him by degrees, from Exeter to Bath and
Wells, thence to Durham, and last to Winchester. For although the
King loved to employ and advance bishops, because having rich
bishoprics they carried their reward upon themselves; yet he did use
to raise they by steps; that he might not lose the profit of the
first fruits, which by that course of gradation was multiplied.
20. At last upon the eighteenth of January was solemnised the so long
expected and so much desired marriage between the King and the Lady
Elizabeth; which day of marriage was celebrated with greater triumph
and demonstrations (especially on the people’s part) of joy and
gladness, than the days either of his entry or coronation; which the
King rather noted than liked. And it is true that all his life-time,
while the Lady Elizabeth lived with him (for she died before him), he
shewed himself no very indulgent husband towards her though she was
beautiful gentle and fruitful. But his aversion toward the house of
York was so predominant in him, as it found place not only in his
wars and counsels, but in his chamber and bed.
21. Towards the middle of the
spring,
the King, full of confidence and assurance, as a prince that had been
victorious in battle, and had prevailed with his Parliament in all
that he desired, and had the ring of acclamations fresh in his ears,
thought the rest of his reign should be but play, and the enjoying of
a kingdom. Yet as a wise and watchful King, he would not neglect
anything for his safety, thinking nevertheless to perform all things
now rather as an exercise than as a labour. So he being truly
informed that the northern parts were not only affectionate to the
house of York, but particularly had been devoted to King Richard the
Third, thought it would be a summer well spent to visit those parts,
and by his presence and application of himself to reclaim and rectify
those humours. But the King, in his account of peace and calms, did
much over-cast his fortunes: which proved for many years together
full of broken seas, tides, and tempests. For he was no sooner come
to Lincoln, where he kept his Easter, but he received news that the
Lord Lovell, Humphrey Stafford, and Thomas Stafford, who had formerly
taken sanctuary at Colchester, were departed out of sanctuary, but to
what place no man could tell. Which advertisement the King despised,
and continued his journey to York. At York there came fresh and more
certain advertisement that the Lord Lovell was at hand with a great
power of men, and that the Staffords were in arms in Worcestershire,
and had made their approaches to the city of Worcester to assail it.
The King, as a prince of great and profound judgment, was not much
moved with it; for that he thought it was but a rag of remnant of
Bosworth Field, and had nothing in it of the main party of the house
of York. But he was more doubtful of the raising of forces to resist
the rebels, then of the resistance itself; for that he was in a core
of people whose affections he suspected. But the action enduring no
delay, he did speedily levy and send against the Lord Lovell to the
number of three thousand men, ill armed but well assured (being taken
some few out of his own train, and the rest out of the tenants and
followers of such as were safe to be trusted), under the conduct of
the Duke of Bedford. And as his manner was to send his pardons rather
before the sword than after, he gave commission to the Duke to
proclaim pardon to all that would come in: which the Duke, upon his
approach to the Lord Lovell’s camp, did perform. And it fell out as
the King expected; the heralds were the great ordnance. For the Lord
Lovell, upon proclamation of pardon, mistrusting his men, fled into
Lancashire, and lurking for a time with Sir Thomas Broughton, after
sailed over into Flanders to the Lady Margaret. And his men, forsaken
of their captain, did presently submit themselves to the Duke. The
Staffords likewise, and their forces, hearing what had happened to
the Lord Lovell (in whose success their chief trust was), despaired
and dispersed; the two brothers taking sanctuary at Colnham, a
village near Abingdon; which place, upon view of their privilege in
the King’s bench, being judged no sufficient sanctuary for traitors,
Humphrey was executed at Tyburn; and Thomas, as being led by his
elder brother, was pardoned. So this rebellion proved but a blast,
and the King having by this journey purged a little the dregs and
leaven of the northern people, that were before in no good affection
towards him, returned to London.
22. In September following, the Queen was delivered of her first son,
whom the King (in honour of the British race, of which himself was)
named Arthur, according to the name of that ancient worthy King of
the Britons; in whose acts there is truth enough to
make him
famous, besides that which is fabulous. The child was strong and
able, though he was born in the eighth month, which the physicians do
prejudge.