Richard III: His Life & Character, Reviewed in the Light of Recent ResearchMarkham, Clements R. (Clements Robert), Sir
History
Richard III: His Life & Character, Reviewed in the Light of Recent Research
Markham, Clements R. (Clements Robert), Sir
Great Britain -- Kings and rulers -- Biography; Richard III, King of England, 1452-1485
Morton, Polydore Virgil, Rous, and Fabyan will be found to be dishonest
and untrustworthy narrators, who can be shown to use deception
deliberately, with a full knowledge of the truth. The second
continuation of the Chronicle of Croyland Abbey occupies an entirely
different position. There is every reason for believing that the monks
who wrote it, though the first was prejudiced, and the second was
credulous and easily deceived, intended to relate what they believed to
be true. This continuation long remained in manuscript, in which state
it was seen by Sir George Buck. It was not printed until 1684. It
occupies twenty-eight folio pages.[15]
The first part of the continuation bears internal evidence of having
been written by one monk who concludes with some local notices
respecting the abbey and its inmates. Then another monk took up the
chronicling pen, and ends his part in the same way. It is capable of
absolute proof that this continuation of the Croyland Chronicle was
written by at least two monks. In referring to the death of Henry VI.,
the first monk prays that the tyrant who caused it may be given time
for repentance. This part must, therefore, have been written while the
tyrant in question was alive, whether Edward IV., Richard, or Lord
Rivers the Constable (who was really the responsible person) {176} is
intended. The second monk says at the end, that the work was finished
on April 30, 1486, and that it was written in ten days. Edward,
Richard and Rivers were all dead in April 1486. Consequently these two
passages must have been written by different hands.
The first of these monks was the more judicious of the two, and he had
probably once mixed in the world. He mentions a councillor of Edward
IV. who was doctor of canon law, and who was sent to Abbeville on an
embassy to the Duke of Burgundy in 1471. In the margin there is a note
to the effect that the same man compiled that part of the chronicle.
If this note is to be relied on, the first monk had once been in the
service of Edward IV., but he had Lancastrian sympathies like Morton.
He refers to the executions after Tewkesbury as vindictive, and he
hints at a rumour that Henry VI. met his death by order of his
successor. His part of the chronicle includes ten pages, and covers
the period from 1471 to the death of Edward IV.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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