Note 66 — II. The Necessity for Dissolution.

Riley, for instance, thought it probable that Whethamstede was the Duke of Gloucester’s political adviser, and that his resignation of the abbacy in 1440 was due to the waning of ‘Good Duke Humphrey’s’ popularity before the rising star of Beaufort. ‘When ... the contending rivals had been alike removed by the impartial hand of death, we find him emerging from his comparatively obscure position as a pensioned monk of the Abbey, and on the first opportunity attaining the Abbacy once more’ (Amundesham II, liv).