Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1: Or, Memoirs of the Life and Character of Henry the Fifth, as Prince of Wales and King of EnglandTyler, James Endell
History
Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1: Or, Memoirs of the Life and Character of Henry the Fifth, as Prince of Wales and King of England
Tyler, James Endell
Henry V, King of England, 1387-1422
[Footnote 84: Mr. Tytler, in his History of
Scotland, maintains with much ingenuity the
paradoxical position, that Richard escaped from
Pontefract, made his way in disguise to the Western
Isles, was there recognised, and was conducted to
the Regent; that, taken into the safe keeping of
the government, and sick of the world and its
disappointments, he lived for many years in
Stirling Castle; and that he there died, and there
was buried. It falls not within the province of
these Memoirs to examine the facts and reasonings
by which that writer supports his theory, or to
weigh the value of the objections which have been
alleged against it. The Author, however, in
confessing that the result of his own inquiries is
opposed to the hypothesis of Richard's escape, and
that he acquiesces in the general tradition that he
died in Pontefract, cannot refrain from making one
remark. Whilst he is persuaded that Glyndowr, and
many others, believed that Richard was alive in
Scotland, yet he thinks it almost capable of
demonstration that Henry IV, with his sons and his
court, in England; and Charles VI, with his court
and clergy, and Isabella herself, and her second
husband, had no doubt whatever as to Richard's
death. If they had, if they were not fully assured
that he was no longer among the living, it is
difficult to understand Henry IV.'s proposals to
Charles VI. for a marriage between Isabella and one
of his sons; or how, on any other hypothesis than
the conviction of his death, the Earl of Angouleme,
afterwards Duke of Orleans, would have sought her
in marriage; how her father and his clergy could
have consented to her nuptials; or how she could
for a moment have entertained the thought of
becoming a bride again. She had not only been
betrothed to Richard, but had been with all
solemnity married to him by the Archbishop of
Canterbury in the face of the church; and she had
been crowned queen. Yet she was married to
Angouleme in 1406, and died in childbed in 1409.
Had she believed Richard to be still alive, she
would have been more inclined to follow the bidding
which Shakspeare puts into her husband's mouth at
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