culated that Henry VI died of grief, as had formerly been reported of Richard II; but the writers under the next dynasty all agree in stating that he was murdered, if not by the hand, at all events by the direction, of Richard, duke of Gloucester.

4. contriver of the death of the duke of Clarence. The reason why this has been laid at the door of the duke of Gloucester is doubtless because of the disputes between him and Clarence about the disposal of the wealth of the earl of Warwick, one of whose daughters they had each married, Clarence the eldest, and Gloucester the younger.

5. his two nephews, i. e. Edward V and Richard duke of York.
7. failing of him should he die without issue.
8. impoisoner of his wife.

Richard's wife was Anne the younger
She died 16th March, 1485.

daughter of Warwick the king-maker.
It was rumoured that her death was by poison, and that Richard wished
to marry his niece Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV. It
is said that in the festivities of the previous Christmas the princess
Elizabeth had been dressed in robes of the same fashion and colour as
those of the queen. Ratcliffe and Catesby, the king's confidants, are
credited with having represented to Richard that this marriage of so
near a kinswoman would be an object of horror to the people, and
bring on him the condemnation of the clergy.

9. degrees forbidden, i. e. degrees of kinship or affinity within which marriages are forbidden to take place.

IO. in military virtue approved. Even the writers who are loudest in the praise of Henry VII, do not deny to Richard the merit of great bravery.

jealous...lawmaker. In his address to his parliament Richard is reported to have said, "We be determined rather to adventure and commit us to the peril of our life and jeopardy of death, than to live in such thraldom and bondage as we have lived long time heretofore, oppressed and injured by extortions and new impositions against the laws of God and man, and liberty, old policy and laws of this realm wherein every Englishman is inherited." Among his good laws may be mentioned one against the arbitrary exactions of money under the name of "Benevolences" which had been so common in the reign of Edward IV. He regulated the laws relating to bail, and enacted that the goods of suspected persons should not be seized before their conviction. He made good laws to secure the rights of buyers to any property which they had purchased, and facilitated the transfer of landed property by the act known as "the Statute of Fines."

13. parricides. This word derived from pater, a father, and cado, to kill, was originally applied to the murder of parents, but even in Latin its signification was extended till it came to be used of any murder.

21. trains and mines, schemes and underhand plans. For trains cf. Shaksp. Macbeth, 1V. 3. 118:

Macbeth by many of these trains hath sought to win me. 24. disorders riotous living. Lingard sums up this part of the character of Edward IV thus:-"The love of pleasure was his ruling

passion. Few princes have been more magnificent in their dress, or inore licentious in their amours; few have indulged more freely in the luxuries of the table." His voluptuous life is again mentioned by Bacon, p. 7. Towards the latter part of his life he became very unwieldy in body, and incapacitated for any active exertion.

31. Piqueny. (Modern orthography Picquigny.) On the Somme, a little N.W. of Amiens. The treaty made at this place was in 1475. Edward the IVth had been urged by Charles, duke of Burgundy, to prosecute his claims on France, and aid from Burgundy had been promised him. But the duke was far from fulfilling his promises, and Louis XI found means to persuade the King of England to return home. The treaty was made on a wooden bridge hastily thrown over the Somme, on which two lodges were erected for the royal interview. There was much murmuring in England at the turn of events, the King was accused of avarice, and his counsellers of having suffered themselves to be bribed by Louis. These are the circumstances of which Bacon states that Richard took advantage.

P. 7, line 3. mean marriage. The wife of Edward IV was Elizabeth Wydeville, daughter of Sir Richard Wydeville, Lord Rivers, and his wife Jaquetta duchess of Bedford. She had previously been married to Sir John Grey a Lancastrian who was killed at the second battle of St Albans. Her marriage with Edward was kept secret from May 1464 till the following September. When the King acknowledged his wife there were many who murmured, and could ill disguise their jealousy at the elevation to the throne of one whose father a few years ago was no more than a simple knight. Sir Richard Wydeville had been created Lord Rivers in 1448. For further notice of this queen and her family see pp. 28, 29, and the notes thereon.

7. brocage. This word is from the same root as broker. It was applied in contempt to the mean trafficking of a petty dealer, and then came to be applied to any mean arts or practices, as here to the designing conduct of the duke of Gloucester. Cf. Warner, Albion's England, VIII. 41:

And should he know (I shame he should)
Of this your brokage base,

He would acquaint you what it were
Your sovereign to disgrace.

13. able to trouble, i. e. enough to trouble, calculated to trouble. Latin posset perturbare. Cf. Bacon's Essays (the edition by Mr W. Aldis Wright is that which is always referred to, and I here acknowledge a multitude of obligations to his valuable volumes which it would be endless to mention as they recur). Essay XXIX. p. 129, "Donatives and largesses upon the disbanding of the armies were things able to enflame all men's courages."

19. precedent pact, i. e. previous compact or agreement. See p. 8, line 30. A compact of this kind had been known to the duke of Buckingham before his revolt against Richard III. The crown was

to be settled on Henry earl of Richmond and Elizabeth daughter of Edward IV, now the nearest representatives of the Houses of Lancaster and York. See Dugdale, Vol. 1. p. 168. For an account of the first movement in this compact and of the Lady Margaret's consent thereto in the name of her son, see Lingard IV. pp. 119, 120. Grafton (p. 864) says that Henry when in Brittany took an oath to Elizabeth queen of Edward IV to marry her eldest daughter.

21. by plea and arms. The plea which had always been put forward on behalf of the Lancastrian line was that there had been a wrong succession since the time of Edward I. The line of descent was as follows:- :

Edward I

Henry III

John of Gaunt married

Henry IV.

Henry, duke of Lancaster

Blanche, duchess of Lancaster

It was pretended that Edmund earl of Lancaster was the elder of the sons of Henry III, but being deformed, had been set aside by his own consent. Yet through Edmund's great-granddaughter Blanche Henry IV might on this ground claim to be the rightful heir, and set aside any of the children of Edward III, of whom only the family of Lionel duke of Clarence could claim before him.

The claim by arms was through the de facto Kings Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI.

30. plausible, here not used in any derogatory sense, but meaning praiseworthy. Cf. Earle's " Microcosmographie (Arber's Reprints), p. 101: "All men put on to him (the poor man) a kind of churlisher fashion, and even more plausible natures [are] churlish to him.

33. at courtesy, i.e. by sufferance. We now call the titles given

in compliment to younger sons of nobility courtesy titles.

P. 8, line 6. civil act of estates. The parliament was (and is) spoken of as the three estates of the realm, which were in these times Lords, Commons, and Convocation. A King by an act of estates is

therefore a King by act of parliament

16. a title condemned by parliament. This condemnation of the title of the House of Lancaster took place in the parliament which met in November, 1461, after the coronation of Edward the IVth. Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI were declared late, in fact, but not of right, Kings of England. A bill of attainder was passed at the same time whereby all the distinguished supporters of the House of Lancaster, as well as the King and his kinsfolk were adjudged to suffer the penalties of treason, the loss of their honours, the forfeiture of their estates and an ignominious death. Rot. Parl. Vol. v. pp. 463, 476, 486.

=

19. indubitate undoubted. It is worth while to notice the number of Latin words which were, by the revival of learning, imported into the English of this and the previous century, with a mere modification of termination. As the language advanced in vigour these fell away and had their places supplied by other words, less Latin in form. Cf. casualties, 17, 28: prejudge, 21, 30: person (in the sense of character), 23, 14: office, 38, 6, and many more.

25. Sir William Stanley, brother of Thomas, Lord Stanley, and so uncle to Lord Strange. Sir William Stanley was chamberlain of North Wales under Richard III and engaged in concert with Lord Strange and Sir John Savage to join the army of the earl of Richmond, which they eventually did, though they continued to wear the appearance of hostility till the field of Bosworth because Richard had possession of the person of Lord Strange. More particulars concerning Sir William Stanley will be found on pp. 124, 125, and the notes thereon.

28. and was found, i. e. and which (crown) was found. Both relatives and personal pronouns were frequently omitted in Bacon's time, though a sentence containing another nominative intervened between the pronoun and its verb, where now for greater clearness we repeat them. Cf. infra, p. 24, line 18: "She was a busy negociating woman, and in her withdrawing-chamber had the fortunate conspiracy for the King against King Richard the third been hatched; which the King knew, and remembered perhaps but too well: and was (where now we should say and she was)... extremely discontent with the King." Cf. also p. 72, line 16, where to make the sense clear there are must be inserted before no middle people.

P. 9, line 5. forbore to use that claim. William the Conqueror put forward his claims to the English crown on the right he had by the bequest of Edward_the_Confessor and also his personal claim on Harold as his sworn man. See Freeman's Norman Conquest, Vol. III.

P. 431.

8. cast the die. This phrase in the active form is rare in English. The passive form, the die was cast, is common enough. Cf. North's Plutarch, p. 549: "Crying out...let the die be cast...he (Julius Cæsar) passed over with his army.'

10. interreign. The more completely Latin form interregnum has, contrary to most other instances, won its way to general acceptance. 15. an entertainer of fortune by the day, one who took fortune as it came without great attempts at provision for the distant future. three descents, i. e. Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI, the three successive monarchs of the house of Lancaster.

21.

30. Sir Robert Willoughby, created in 1485 Lord Willoughby of Brook (p. 18). This nobleman commanded the forces sent over in 1488 to the aid of the duke of Brittany. See page 60.

33. Edward Plantagenet. It may be convenient to give here a genealogical table which will make plain the relationship of all those persons who were interested in the succession to the crown at the death of Edward the IVth and afterwards at the death of Richard III.