Note 195a — Chapter IX · THE FIELD OF THE BATTLE OF STOKE. [177a]

Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford, in his work, called Historic Doubts, has attempted to disprove the charge against Richard III. of the murder of his nephews, the two princes, in the Tower of London. The work is curious and interesting; but that author seems to have failed in removing from Richard, the stigma of this shocking crime. “Si l’on a fait de lui, des jugemens téméraires, c’est lui, qui en est coupable. Il est certain qu’il enferma ses neveux dans la Tour; ils ne pararent plus, c’est à lui d’en répondre;” [195b] and perhaps few persons can read the remarks on the Historic Doubts, published by the Rev. Dr. Milles, and the Rev. Robert Masters, in the 1st and 2nd vols. Archæologia, pp. 361 and 198, without perceiving, that what the author of the Historic Doubts relies on as proofs of Richard III.’s innocence, are very ably rebutted by those writers; and that what he terms the coronation roll of King Richard III., in which are items for robes, &c. for King Edward V. (from which he would infer, that the latter monarch was alive, and even present at the coronation of the former), is only a wardrobe account of Piers Curteys, the king’s wardrober, kept from the time of the death of Edward IV., of which the deliveries for the expected coronation, of course, form a considerable part; but that the robes, &c., alluded to were prepared for the use of Edward V., at his own intended coronation, and not at that of his uncle, who took effectual measures, that, notwithstanding Piers Curteys’s arrangements, they should never be used for the purpose which he contemplated. That idea receives a strong confirmation from Sir Thomas More, who, in his History of the Life and Reign of Edward V., mentions the preparations for his coronation.