[31] 'I cannot believe a man so cunning in declining envy and winning honour to his name, would have undertaken such a business and executed it with his own hand. Nor did this concern the Duke of Gloucester so particularly as to engage him alone in the cruelty.'--Habington, in _Kennet_, p. 455. [32] Gairdner, p. 22. [33] Sharon Turner, iii. p. 323. Anne had been contracted to Edward of Lancaster in July 1470, she being only fourteen, and he sixteen; but she was never married to him. The marriage was not to take place unless certain conditions were complied with by Anne's father, the Earl of Warwick. The conditions were not fulfilled, and the contract, _ipso facto_, was null and void. [34] Rous, p. 215. 'Durante vita sua incarceravit.' The Countess out-lived Richard III. [35] _Paston Letters_, iii. p. 92. [36] Mr. Gairdner quotes a letter from William Dengayn to William Calthorp (_Third Report of Hist. MSS. Commission_, p. 272), from which it appears that the Countess of Warwick was actually with the Duke of Gloucester in June 1473.--Gairdner's _Richard III._ p. 27 (_n_). [37] _Rot. Parl._ vi. 124. [38] Gloucester was in London at the opening of Parliament on January 16, 1478; but there is no evidence where he was in February, the month of Clarence's death. He was certainly at Middleham in March. Mr. Gairdner pronounces Gloucester 'guiltless of his brother's death' (p. 40). [39] Morton did this so successfully that his imitators soon began to make a direct accusation. The slander grew and prospered until at last we find the following passage in Sandford: 'He was drowned in a butt of malmsey, his brother the Duke of Gloucester assisting thereat with his own proper hands!' He refers to Hall, p. 246.--_Genealogical History_ (London, 1707), p. 438. {205} CHAPTER III FURTHER CHARGES AGAINST RICHARD III 7. Execution of Hastings. 8. Execution of Rivers, Vaughan, Grey, and Haute. 9. The 'Usurpation.' 10. Refusal of Buckingham's petition. 11. Second coronation at York. 12. Poisoning of his wife. 13. Intended marriage with Elizabeth of York. 14. Intended execution of Lord Strange. The most elaborate and detailed part of the indictment against Richard III. refers to the so-called 'usurpation,' including the period from his arrival in London to his coronation. The events of the interregnum had to be represented in such a way as that it should appear that Henry Tudor was righteously superseding an unscrupulous usurper. This was a matter of vital importance to the intruding dynasty. Accordingly much art was devoted to the preparation of a plausible story, while careful but not always effectual efforts were made to destroy all documents that would contradict it. [Sidenote: Archbishop Morton]