BRITISH HISTORY

Evening Star, Issue 21742, 9 June 1934, Page 11

BRITISH HISTORY

FRINGES IN THE TOWER STORY IN; MANUSCRIPT. ; LONDON; May 27. ’ Ho,w the boy King, Edward V.,_ while imprisoned, in the .Tower, considered himself a victim ready tor sacrifice and prepared daily, for death by confession and penance, is revealed by contemporary evidence in a Latin manuscript discovered in the Lille Municipal Library, writes C. A. J. Armstrong. The document proves that the English people were convinced of Richard’s guilt, thereby, contradicting recent defences of his character. 1 ■ 1 The author of the manuscript was Dominic . Mancini, ,aa. -Italian priest, who visited England at the request of the Archbishop of - Vienna and probably was commissioned to obtain firsthand information regarding English politics. The manuscript traces the causes , and . methods , of Richard’s usurpation, and gives a new version of the Duke of Clarence’s death. Although subscribing to the tradition that he was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine,, it ascribes his removal to the Queen’s jealousy, but exonerates Richard and records that ho swore a terrible threat of vengeance for his brother’s death. The . narrative describes .Edward IV. as attempting to forget the non-success of his foreign policy in theatrical performances, taking emetics in order to enjoy another meal, and dying of a chill contracted while fishing. The manuscript pathetically, relates the Royal dignity and courage with which the twelve-year-old Edward V., after his arrest, defended his Ministers against Richard and the Duke of Buckingham. ' . ‘ ■ Alter the death of.the Earl of Hastings, it says,' the Princes’ attendants were forbidden to see them. The Princes were removed to another part of the Tower, where at first they were visible behind the bars of the windows. Then they were seen less' often until they did not appear at all, and the public immediately leaped to the conclusion that the Princes had been murdered. Mancini met several who bewailed the Princes’ disappearance, but now it was generally agreed that they were murdered in July or August, after Mancini left, for Erance.