Non lethum timeo, genus aut miserabile lethi:
Demite naufragium; mors mihi munus erit.
Est aliquid fatove suo, ferrore cadentem
In solida moriens, ponere corpus humo:
Est mandata suis aliquid sperare sepulchra,
Et non æquoreis piscibus esse cibum.
[19] Lew Leew, “Process. Criminal.”
[20] _King Henry IV._, Act i. sc. 1.
[21] Husenbeth, “Emblems of Saints,” edit. 1882.
[22] Chauncy, “History of Hertfordshire,” vol. ii. p. 274.
[23] F. A. Gasquet, “Henry VIII. and the Monasteries,” vol. ii. p. 164.
[24] The Chancellor’s Roll states that the cost of Wallace’s execution,
and transmitting the quarters to Scotland, was 61s. 10d. “He was take
and broute onto London, hanged, and drawn, and quartered; his hed
sette on London brigge; his body dyvyded in iiij quarteres and sent to
foure tounes in Scotland” (Capgrave’s “Chronicles”). Wallace was hung,
cut down alive, opened, his bowels, &c., burnt, beheaded, and finally
quartered. Newcastle had his brave right arm, the left went to Berwick,
Perth received the right leg, and Aberdeen the left. Thus the patriot
was broken up.
[25] “Enormiter, pertitiose, et crudeliter, sine judicio et responsione,
suspensus, distractus, et in quatuor partes divisus fuit; et in nostra
ecclesia diu postea sepultus” (Tewkesbury _Register_).
[26] The battle of Shrewsbury was fought July 21, 1403, and the four
quarters of Hotspur were divided between London, Shrewsbury, Chester,
and Newcastle. York had the head. Four months later, namely, November
3rd., a writ was directed to the mayor and sheriffs of York, as
follows:--
“The King to the Mayor and Sheriffs of the city of York,
greeting.--Whereas of our special grace we have granted to our Cousin
Elizabeth, who was the wife of Henry de Percy, Chivalier, the head and
quarters of the same Henry to be buried: We command you that the head
aforesaid, placed by our command upon the gate of the city aforesaid,
you deliver to the same Elizabeth, to be buried according to our grant
aforesaid. Witness the king at Cirencester, this 3rd day of November.”
By writ of Privy Seal:--
“The King to the Mayor and Sheriff of the town of Newcastle-on-Tyne,
greeting.--Whereas (&c., &c., as above) you deliver to the said
Elizabeth a certain quarter of the said Henry placed upon the gate”
(&c., &c., as above).
Similar writs were directed to the Mayor and Bailiffs of Chester, and
to the authorities at Shrewsbury for other several quarters of the same
Henry, and to the Abbot of Shrewsbury a writ was addressed directing
him to bury the body of Hotspur, thus again brought together, in his
church of St. Peter at Shrewsbury. The fourth quarter, that sent to
distant London, does not appear to have been forthcoming, for reasons
which will be apparent. See Rev. C. H. Hartshorne’s “Feudal and
Military Antiquities of Northumberland and the Scottish Borders,” p.
296.
[27] “History of Penrith,” 1858, p. 95.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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