But to return from this digression. King Edward was a very young prince, and one of the handsomest men of his age, at the time he had overcome all his difficulties; so he gave himself up wholly to pleasures, and took no delight in anything but ladies, dancing, entertainments, and the chase; and in this voluptuous course of life, if I mistake not, he spent about sixteen years, till the quarrel happened between him and the Earl of Warwick. In which contest, though the king was driven out of the kingdom, yet his misfortune lasted not long; for he quickly returned, obtained a victory, and afterwards fell again to his pleasures, and indulged himself in them more recklessly than before. From this time he feared nobody; but he grew very fat, and his excess inclining him to diseases, in the very flower of his age, he died suddenly (as it was reported) of an apoplexy[176], and his family perished after him (as you have heard), as regarded the succession in the male line. In our time also, there reigned two wise and valiant princes, Matthias, King of Hungary[177], and Mahomet Ottoman, Emperor of the Turks.[178] This King Matthias was the son of a very valiant gentleman, called the White Knight of Wallachia[179], a person of great honour and prudence, who for a long time had governed the kingdom of Hungary, and had gained several battles over the Turks, who are neighbours to that country, by reason of the territories which they have usurped in Sclavonia, Bosnia, and Greece. Not long after his death, Lancelot[180] came to man’s estate, who was heir to that kingdom, and to the kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland besides. This Lancelot was advised by some persons (as was reported) to seize upon the two sons of the White Knight, on the pretence that, as their father had obtained and exercised so much power and authority in that kingdom during his infancy, it was not improbable that his sons might do the same. Upon which the said Lancelot resolved to have them both apprehended, which was accordingly done. He put the eldest[181] to death, and sent the other, which was Matthias, a prisoner to Buda, the chief town in Hungary; but he did not remain long in confinement (God Almighty being perhaps pleased with the services of his father), for, awhile after, King Lancelot was poisoned at Prague, in Bohemia, by a lady of quality (whose brother I have seen), with whom he had been in love, and she with him; but being incensed at his intended marriage in France, with the daughter[182] of King Charles VII. (called now the Princess of Vienne), which was contrary to his engagement to her, she poisoned him in a bath, by giving him an apple to eat, and conveying poison into the haft of his knife. Upon the death of Lancelot, the barons of Hungary assembled at Buda for the election of a king, according to an ancient privilege which they have, to elect their king when his predecessor has died without issue. Whilst they were mightily divided, and in great