Page:Kirby Muxloe Castle near Leicester (1917).djvu/12

6 in Shakespeare's Richard III is well known to everyone. In this connection it is interesting to note the tradition that Jane Shore lived for a time at Kirby. He was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, in the north aisle of the choir, in a chapel which was made for him in his lifetime, doubtless as a mark of the King's friendship, and still exists. He married Katherine, daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and widow of William Bonville, Lord Harington.

Lord Hastings was one of the foremost men of his day, and his reputation was as great abroad as at home.

Philippe de Commines, the French chronicler, described him as a man of honour and prudence and of great authority with his master, and deservedly, upon account of the faithful service he had done him. It was De Commines who in 1471 secured his support for the Duke of Burgundy, by means of a "pension" of 1,200 florins. And when De Commines transferred his allegiance from the duke to Louis XI of France, he advised the King to enlist the sympathies of Hastings on his own side if it could be done. A "pension" of 2,000 crowns proved effective, but Hastings' acceptance of the bribe is a lesson in the art of preserving self-respect while in the pay of a foreign monarch. Louis XI sent his steward, Pierre Cleret, to London with the 2,000 crowns in gold—his "pensions" were always paid in this handsome manner—and with instructions to obtain a signed receipt for them, "that hereafter it might appear upon record that the lord chamberlain, chancellor, admiral, master of the horse, and several other great lords of England, had been at the same time pensioners to the King of France" But Lord Hastings, alone of all the "pensioners," refused to give a receipt, and told the steward that the present proceeded from the French King's generosity, and not from any request of his. "If you have a mind that I should receive it," said he, "you may put it into my sleeve, but neither letter nor acquittance will you get from me: for it shall never be said of me, that the High Chamberlain of England was pensioner of the King of France, nor shall any receipt be ever produced in his chamber of accounts." And to this he stood firm, in spite of Cleret's pathetic representations that Louis would certainly accuse him of embezzling the money if he returned without a receipt. Louis, however, quite appreciated the position, and continued to pay the "pension" regularly, and never asked for a receipt.

Hastings was a man of great wealth, having been enriched by grants of forfeited Lancastrian estates, and in addition drew