The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the WestRogers, W. H. Hamilton (William Henry Hamilton)
History
The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West
Rogers, W. H. Hamilton (William Henry Hamilton)
Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603; Great Britain -- History -- Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485
"he promised me at Baynards-Castle, laying his hand on mine, that
the two young Princes should live and be provided for, to mine
and everyone's satisfaction. When he was in possession of the
throne he forgot his friends, and the assurances he had given
them, and denied to grant my petition for part of the Earl of
Hereford's lands, which his brother wrongfully detained from me.
And when I was certainly informed of the death of the two
innocent Princes, to which (God be my judge) I never consented,
my blood curdled at his treason and barbarity, I abhorred the
sight of him, and his company much more."
This statement as to the refusal of Richard to give him the portion of
the Earl of Hereford's lands, does not accord with Dugdale's account
to which we shall refer, nor with Richard's bitter exclamation of
reproach when he heard of Buckingham's defection.
The Duke then continues to narrate how on his way homeward to
Brecknock, he "meditated" how he might dethrone Richard, and that "had
I assumed the supreme power, I thought there was nobody so likely to
carry it as myself," that he sojourned two days at Tewkesbury brooding
over the matter, but considered altogether "that to pretend to seat
myself on the throne would not do," as in that case both the houses of
York and Lancaster would join themselves against him, although he
remembered,--
"that Edmund, Duke of Somerset, my grandfather, was with king
Henry VI. in two or three degrees from John, Duke of Lancaster,
lawfully begotten, my mother being Duke Edmund's eldest daughter,
I looked on myself as next heir to Henry VI. of the house of
Lancaster. But as I further journied between Worcester and
Bridgenorth, I met the Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond, at
present wife to the Lord Stanley, who is the rightful and sole
heir of John, Duke of Somerset, my grandfather's elder brother,
whose title I had forgot until I saw her in my way, and then I
remembered that both her claim, and her son the Earl of
Richmond's, were bars to mine, and forbad my pretending to the
crown of England."
At this interview it was proposed by the Countess that her son should
marry one of king Edward's daughters, and "conjured" Buckingham, "by
the memory of Duke Humphrey, his grandfather," to do his utmost to
forward the match, to be eventually a solution to the present
troubles, and he came to a resolution to "spend his life and fortune"
in forwarding such a "glorious design," by which, if effected, he
doubted not "the proud boar, whose tusks have gored so many innocent
persons, shall soon be brought to confusion, the rightful and
indubitate heir enjoy the crown, and peace be restored to this
distracted kingdom."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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