MISCELLANY 41
THE P1TIFULL LIFE
OF KYNG EDWARD THE. V.
VI: Denouncing the Princes
Richard now announces that
Edward V’s Coronation is to be postponed, to the great puzzlement of the
citizenry. He then uses a tame priest to
preach a sermon stating that Edward and his brother are illegitimate and that
he, Richard, is therefore the king. In
one of only two slightly lighter moments of the account, Hall describes how the
preacher was supposed to proclaim Richard at just the moment that Richard
himself was coincidentally ‘discovered’ in the listening crowd, which
would allow him to say There’s the real
king, miraculously appearing among us. But
Richard turned up late, and the preacher had gone past that bit of his sermon,
and though he repeated it word for word, the magic moment was lost
.Admire the wonderfully charming homespun sailing/surfing analogy in which Hall, right
at the beginning of this chapter, describes what had just happened, the bloody
execution of several members of the king’s family and supporters: they had rid
(or ridden) out of the wave. This is presumably the forebear of our saying: to get rid of someone or
something.
When the lord Hastynges and these
other lordes and knightes were thus beheaded and ryd out of the wave, then the
protectour caused it to be proclaymed that the coronacion for diuers great and
vrgent causes should be deferred till the seconde daye of Nouember, for then
thought he, that whyle men mused what the matter meant, and while the lordes of
the realme were about him, out of their awne strengthes, and whyle no man wyste
what to thynke nor whom to truste, or euer they should haue tyme and space to
digest the matter, and make partes, it were best hastely to pursue his purpose
and put hym self in possession of the croune, or menne could haue tyme to
deuyse any wyse to resyste. But nowe was all the study, this matter beyng of it
selfe so heynous might be first broken to the people in suche wyse as it might
well be taken. To this counsaile they toke diuerse such as they thought mete to
be trusted and likely to be enduced to that parte and hable to stand theim in
steade, eyther by powre or by polycye. Enong whom, they made a counsaile Edmond
Shaa then Mayre of London, whiche vpon trust of hys awne auauncement, where he
was of a proude harte highly desirous, toke on him to frame the cytie to their
appetite. Of spirituall men they toke suche as had wytte, and were in
aucthority emongest the people for opinion of their learnyng, and had no
scrupulous conscience. Emongest these had, they toke Raffe Shaa clearke brother
to the Mayre, & Freer, Pynkie prouinciall of the Augustine Freers, bothe doctours
in diuinitie, bothe great preachers, bothe of more learnyng then vertue, of
more fame then learnyng, & yet of more learnyng then trueth. For they were
before greatly estemed emong the people, but after that, neuer none of these
two were regarded. Shaa made a sermonde in prayse of the Protectour before the
coronacion, and Pynkye made one after the coronacion, bothe so full of tedious
fla tery, that no good mans eares coulde abyde them, Pynkye in his sermonde so loste his voyce
that he was fayne to leaue of and come doune in the iniddest, Doctoure Shaa by
his sermonde loste his honesty, and sone after his lyfe, for very shame of the
worlde, into the whiche he durst neuer after muche come abroade, but the Freer
forced for no shame, and so it harmed hym the lesse. Howbtit, some doubt and
many thynke that Pyn- key was not of counsaill before the coronacion, but after
the common maner fell to flat- tery after, namely because his sermond was not
incontinent vpon it, but at sainct Mary Spittle the Easter after. But certayne
it is that doctourShaa was of counsail in the beginnyng, in so much that they
determyned that he should fyrst breake the matter in a sermond at Poules
crosse, in whiche he should by the aucthoritie of hys preachyng induce the
people to encline to ye protectours ghostly purpose. But now was all the
laboure and study in the deuise of some conuenient pretexte, for which the
people should be content to depose the prince & accept the protectour for
kyng. In which diuerse thinges they deuised, but the chief thyng, & the
weight of all that inuencion rested in this, that they shoulde allege bastardy
in kyng Edwarde hym selfe, or in his chyldren, or bothe, so that he should seme
disabled to enherite the croune by the duke of Yorke and the prince by him. To
lay bastardy in kyng Edward sounded openly to the rebuke of the protectours
awne mother, whiche was mother to them bothe. For in that poinct could be none
other coloure, but to pretende that his awne mother was an adoutresse, but
neuerthelesse he would that poinct should be lesse and more fynely &
closely handled, not euen fully playne and directely, but touched a slope
craftely, as though men spared in that poinct to speake all the trueth for
feare of his displeasure. But that other poincte concernyng the basterdy they
deuised to surmysse in kyng Edward his chyldren, that would [and] should be
openly declared and enforced to the vttermost.
Nowe it was by the protector and
his counsaill concluded that this doctor Shaa should in a sermon at Paules crosse
signifie to the people that neither king Edwarde hymselfe nor the sduke of
Clarence were lawefully begotten, nor wer the very children of the duke of
Yorke, but begotten vnlawefully by other persones by aduoutry of the duches
their mother. And that dame Elizabeth Lucy was the very wife of king Edward,
and so prince Edward and all tbe children begotten on the quene wer baslardes.
And accordyng to this deuise, doctor Sha the sondaie after at Paules crosse in
a greate audience (as alwaie a great numbrc assembled to his preaching) came
into the pulpit takyng for his Theme, Spuria vitulamina no dabunt radices
altos. Sapien. iiii. that is to saie bastarde slippes shall neuer take depe
rootes: wherupon when he had shewed the great grace that God geueth & secretely
infoundeth in right generacion after ye lawes of matrimony, then declared lie
that those children [bastards]commenly lacked ye grace (& for the
punishment of their parentes) were for ye most part vnhappy which wer gotten in
baste, and specially in aduoutry, of which (though some by the ignorauncie of
the worlde and the truthe hid from knowlege) haue enherited for a season other
mennes landes, yet God alwaie so prouideth that it continueth not in their
bloude longe, but the truethe commynge to lighte the rightefull enheritoures be
restored, and the bastard slippes plucked vp or yt can he rooted depe. And when
he had laied for the proofe and confirmacion of this sentence, examples taken
out of the olde testamente and other aunciente histories, then began he to
discend to the praise of the lord Richard duke of Yorke, callyng him father to
the protectour and declared his title to the croune bi inheritaunce and also by
entaile authorised by parliament alter ye death of kynge Henry the sixte. Then
shewed he that the Iorde protector, was onely the righte heire of his body
lawfully begotten. Then declared he that kyng Edward was neuer lawfully maried
to ye quene, but his wife before God was dame Elizabeth Lucy, and so his
children wer bastardes. And besides that, that neither kyng Edward hym sclfc
nor the duke of Clarence (emongest them that wer secrete in the duke of Yorkes
houshoulde) were neuer reconed surely to be the children of the noble duke as
those that by their fauoures more resembled other knowen menne then hym, from
whose verteous conditions he saied also, that king Edwarde was far of. But the
lord protector (quod he) that veraye noble prince, the speciall patrone of
knightly prowes, aswell in all princely bchaucour as in the liniamentes and
fauour of his visage representeth the very face of ye noble duke his father.
This is (quod he) the fathers awne figure, this is his awne countenaunce, the
verie print of his visage, the sure vndoubted ymage, the playne expresse
likenesse of that noble duke.
Now was it before deuised that in
the speakynge of these wordes, the protector shoulde haue conie in emongest the
people to ye sermond ward, to thende that these wordes so metynge with his
presence, might haue been taken emongest the hercrs, as though the holy ghost
had put theim in the preachers mouthe, and shoulde haue moued the people euen
there to haue cried, kynge Richard, that it might haue been after sayed that he
was specially chosen by God, and in maner by miracle: but this deuise quayled,
either by the protectoures negligence or the preachers ouer hasty diligence.
For while the protectoure, founde by the waye tariynge, leaste he shoulde haue
preuented these woordes, the doctour fearynge that he shoulde come or his
sermon could come to those woordes hastynge his matter thereto, he was come to
theim and paste theim, and entred into other matters or the protectour came,
whom when he beheld commynge, he sodninly lefte the matter whiche he had in
hand, and without any deduccyon therunto out of all ordre, and out of all frame
began to repete those woordes agayne. This is the very noble prince the
especiall patrone of knightely prowes, whiche aswell in all princely behaueoure
as in the liniamentes and fauour of his visage representeth the veraye face of
the noble duke of Yorke his father. This is the fathers awne figure, this is
his owne countenaunce, thc very print of his visage the sure vndoubted image,
the plain expresse likenesse of that noble duke, whose remembraunce can neuer
die while he liucth. While these wordes were in speakynge, the protectour
accompaignied with the duke of Buckyngham, went through the people vp into the
place where the doctors stand where they harde oute the sermond: but the people
wer so far from criynge kynge Richard that they stoode as they had been turned
into stoones for wonder of this shamefull sermonde: after whiche once ended ye
precher gat hym home and neuer after durst loke out for shame but kept him out
of sighte as an owle and when he asked any of his old frendes, what the people
talked of him, although that his awne conscience well shewed hym that they
talked no good, yet when the other answered hym, that there was in euery mannes
mouthe of hym muche shame spoken it so strake him too the harte that in fewe
dayes after he withered awaie.
Further base shameful stratagems from Richard next
week
