ment; 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 ever upon the side of honour,1 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,2 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

3

1 Pacem pro viribus impugnasset, et a parte honoris stetisset.

2 Inescationes et lenocinia: baits and panderings.

8 Verum obedientia subditorum vinculum: jus scilicet ad regnum legitimum: the true bond which secures the obedience of subjects - a right to the throne.

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 pact1 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.2 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 3 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 decease, either with issue or without issue,

1 Such pact implying that it was in her right he should reign; as is more fully expressed in the Latin translation. "Primus erat titulus reginæ suæ Elizabethæ: cui etiam accesserat pactum illud, quo se proceribus quorum auxiliis regnum adeptus est obstrinxerat, de nuptiis cum illa contrahendis, quod illum in jure ejus regnaturum haud obscure subinnuebat."

2 In the Latin translation this expression is materially qualified. Quarum alteri, Lancastriæ scilicet, ipse se pro hærede gerebat: to which he considered himself as heir.

3 Opinionem penitus imbiberant.

4 Sir T. Meautys, in a letter to Bacon of 7th Jan. 1621-2, mentions, as one of the verbal corrections made in the MS. by the King, "mild instead of debonnaire." This is probably the place. Compare the expression in Perkin's proclamation further "the blessed and debonair government of our noble father King Edward in his last times."

on,

he was to give place and be removed. And though he should obtain by Parliament to be continued,1 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 disinherison of the line of York, held then the indubiate 2 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 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 crnament 4 (which Richard wore in the battle and was found amongst the spoils) upon

1 Licet magna spes subesset quod comitiorum suffragiis regnum in persona sua durante vita sua continuare et stabilire posset.

2 So in original.

8 The original edition has when, which is manifestly wrong.

4 Non imperialem illam, sed quam ornamenti et ominis causa Ricardus secum in bellum attulerat.

VOL. XI

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 disannulling 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,1 but mixed it with a titulary pretence, grounded upon the will and designation of Edward the Confessor. 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 liking2 that title best which made him independent, and being in his nature and constitution of mind not very apprehensive or 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 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

1 Verbo tamen abstinuerit, neque hoc jure se regnum tenere unquam professus sit, sed illud titulari quodam prætextu velaverit.

2 In the translation it is put thus: Sive amori erga familiam suam reliqua posthabens, sive fc.

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. 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,1 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,2 (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.

For the Lady Elizabeth, she received also a direction to repair with all convenient speed to London, and

1 Whom he had agreed to marry:- Edvardi filia ad nuptias Henrico

destinata.

2 Proximus fuisset regni hæres: would have been next heir of the Crown.

L