BOOK THE FIFTH. (continued 3)
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This bishop discovered to the Duke of Gloucester that; his brother King Edward had been formerly in love with a beautiful young lady[639], and had promised her marriage, upon condition he might lie with her; the lady consented, and, as the bishop affirmed, he married them when nobody was present but they two and himself. His fortune depending upon the court, he did not discover it, and persuaded the lady likewise to conceal it, which she did, and the matter remained a secret. After this King Edward married the daughter of an English gentleman, called the Lord Rivers; this lady was a widow, and had two sons. The Bishop of Bath, as I said before, discovered this matter to the Duke of Gloucester, and gave his assistance in the execution of the barbarous designs of the duke, who murdered his two nephews, and made himself king, by the name of Richard III.[640] He caused the two daughters to be declared illegitimate by parliament[641], took their coats of arms from them, and put all his brother’s faithful servants to death, at least all he could get into his power. But his cruel reign did not last long; for, being at the height of his pride, in greater pomp and authority than any King of England for a hundred years before, when he had beheaded the Duke of Buckingham[642], and assembled a numerous army under his own command, God Almighty raised him up an enemy that destroyed him, and that was the Earl of Richmond, a person of no power, and one who had been long prisoner in Bretagne; but he is now King of England, and is of the house of Lancaster, though, as I am informed, not the next heir to the crown.
This Earl of Richmond told me, not long before his departure from this kingdom, that from the time he was five years old he had been always a fugitive or a prisoner. He had endured an imprisonment of fifteen years or thereabouts in Bretagne, by the command of the late Duke Francis, into whose hands he fell by extremity of weather, as he was escaping out of France with his uncle the Earl of Pembroke.[643] I was at Duke Francis’s court at the time when they were seized; the duke treated them very handsomely for prisoners, and at King Edward’s death, supplied the Earl of Richmond liberally both with men and ships; and having intelligence with the Duke of Buckingham (who died for it afterwards) he sent him to land his forces in England; but, meeting with foul weather and contrary winds, he was driven into Dieppe, and from thence went back by land into Bretagne. Being returned into Bretagne, he was afraid, having 500 English in his train, of becoming burdensome to the duke, and feared he might thereby induce him to make some agreement with King Richard[644], to his prejudice and disadvantage, for he had some intimation that there were secret practices on foot to that purpose; and therefore, he and his whole retinue went away privately, without taking leave of the duke. Not long after, our present king paid for the passage of 3000 or 4000 men, gave him and his companions a considerable sum of money, and some pieces of artillery, and sent him out of Normandy to land in some part of Wales, where he was born. King Richard marched immediately to fight him, but an English gentleman, called the Lord Stanley, who had married the Earl of Richmond’s mother, joined the earl with 26,000 men. They came to a battle[645], and the issue was, King Richard was slain, and the Earl of Richmond crowned King of England on the field of battle, with the crown that King Richard had brought along with him. Will you say this is fortune? Certainly it is the just judgment of God. But, to make it the more evident, not long after the murder of his nephews, as you have heard, he lost his wife[646], (some say he made her away); he had but one son, and he died presently after. This would have come in more properly hereafter when I shall have to speak of King Edward’s death (for he was alive at the time of the occurrences of this chapter), yet I thought it not unseasonable here, as being pertinent to my discourse.
In like manner, it is not many years since we have seen as strange revolutions in Spain, upon the death of the late King Henry of that kingdom, who was married to the late King of Portugal’s sister, and by her had a beautiful daughter; yet that daughter was not suffered to succeed to the throne, but was deprived of the crown under pretence of illegitimacy. But this business did not pass over without controversy and blood; for the King of Portugal, assisted by several of the nobility of Castile, took part with his niece: but King Henry’s sister carried the kingdom in spite of all their opposition, and enjoys it to this very day, having married the son of John, King of Arragon; so that this judgment and decree was made in heaven, where many of the same nature are undoubtedly made.
You have seen likewise, not many years since, the King of Scotland[647] at war with his son[648], who was not above thirteen or fourteen years of age. The son won the battle, and the king was killed upon the spot. This king was accused of having caused the death of his brother and several other persons of quality. You see also the duchy of Guelders out of the right line, and you have heard of the late duke’s unnatural usage of his father. I could instance many other cases of the like nature, that might easily be known to be Divine chastisements, which are the sources of war, and from whence proceed mortality and famine; and all evils arise from want of faith. It must therefore be acknowledged (considering the wickedness of mankind, and especially of great persons, who neither know themselves, nor believe there is a God) that there is a necessity that every prince or great lord should have an adversary to restrain and keep him in humility and fear, or else there would be no living under them, nor near them.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
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