Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/231

 ii s. XL MAR. 20, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

221

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1915.

CONTENTS.-No. 273.

JfOTES : An Incident in the Life of Edward V., 221 Th Levant Company in Cyprus, 222 A Royalist Cryptogram 225 Dickensiana : Yorkshire Schools Sumptuary Law in 1736, 226 Billiard-Rooms and Smoking-Rooms Mis Braddon Bibliography Inscriptions at Hyeres Waterlo and the Franco-German War, 227.

QUERIES : Hardy Bibliography August Diezer Coin John of Gaunt "Et ego in Arcadia vixi" De Quince Puzzle Author Wanted Old Tree in Park Lane, 228 Thomas Warton Author of Poem Wanted " Habbi Simpson " Baird's 'History of Rye, N.Y.' Barbado Filtering Stones Edward King Old Etonians Parke and Elliott Families, 229 'Just Twenty Years Ago' Reference Wanted St. Edmund Rich Paget Heraldr in Lichtield Cathedral, 230 Novels on Gretna Green- Rev. 3. B. Blakeway ' Cecilia Bodenham ' : a Portrait b; Holbein Biographical Information Wanted, 231.

REPLIES : Antonio Vieira, 231 France and Englam, Quarterly The Ayrton Light at Westminster, 232 A Scarborough Warning, 233 Da Costa : Brydges Willyanu John Trusler, 234 -Stars in Lists of India Stockholder. Dr. Johnson and Hannah More French Flag and the Trinitarian Order Families of Kay and Key Old Etonians, 235 De la Croze, Historian Hammersmith- Retrospective Heraldry, 236 Physiological Surnames ^37 Norbury : Moore : Davis : Ward Savery Family D'Oyley's Warehouse Daniel Ecclaston A Vision of the World- War, 238.

INOTES ON BOOKS :-Folk-Lore of Fife-' Register of the Members of St. Mary Magdalen College ' ' Why the War Cannot be Final' 'The Newspaper Press Directory' ' The British Review.'

Notices to Correspondents.

AN INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF EDWAKD V.

IN November, 1472, Dr. John Baker, the Warden of Winchester College, in company "with John Whyte, one of the Fellows, paid a visit to London " pro homagio domino principi faciendo." Such is the phrase which the College Bursars of 1472-3 were content to use in their Accounts to describe the chief object of the journey, and if there is any ambiguity about it, the blame must fall on William Combe and Henry Crocker, the Bursars who used the phrase, and not on the historians of the College who have mis- understood its meaning. Though the his- torians were wrong when they assured us that " dominus princeps " meant Edward IV., and that the occasion of the Warden's homage was the King's renewal to the College of its charter of privileges, the error subtracts nothing from our enjoyment of the dexterity with which their conclusions

were reached. One obstacle to their view of the matter was that the Bursars had said " princeps," not " rex " ; but that, it seems, could be jumped with ease, and in more ways than one. Ingenious as was Kirby's theory (' Annals,' p. 214) that Combe and Crocker were too loyal to the House of Lancaster to give a Yorkist king his proper title, this theory must yield the palm for ingenuity to Mr. A. F. Leach's argument (' History,' pp. 218-19) that

" the Bursars were well enough acquainted with their Classics and Roman Law to know that Princeps was in truth a higher title than king, being that of the Caesars and the favourite title of Augustus."

Disregarding Augustus, however, and the Classics, much as they may be thought to appeal to Winchester, let us come a little nearer to the facts. In the first place, a renewal of the College charter had been obtained from Edward IV. in 1461, during the first year of his reign, by letters patent, which the College still possesses, dated 26 July, 1 Edward IV. ; and there was no need to repeat the renewal, nor was it in fact re- peated, either in 1472 or (as the historians said) in 1473. In the second place, " domi- nus princeps " meant, not the King, but his son Edward, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, the elder of those unfortunate boys who, upon their father's death in 1483, were robbed of their inheritance by their uncle Richard, and murdered in the Tower of London. In November, 1472, Prince Edward was just two years old, and the reason why Warden Baker did homage to the child was that the College at that time owned a moiety of the Hampshire manor of Allington, a property which had been acquired under the will of John Fromond, se chantry stands in the College cloisters. This manor was held as of the honour of Wallingford, which was parcel of the Duchy f Cornwall ; and homage to the Prince as 3uke of Cornwall was the proper formality or acknowledging his rights as overlord.

This explanation of a highly interesting eremony is not based upon conjecture. It ests upon some fairly definite statements vhich our historians seem to have over- ooked, but which occur in the College Accounts of 1471-2, when Edward Thacham nd William Branche were the Bursars :

" Et in Reward o dato Feodario honoris de Yalyngfforde pro Favore suo habendo apud yyngtpn', vis. yiiirf. Et in expensis dpmini ustodis, magistri Johannis Whyte et alioruni quitancium london' in niense Octobris ad com- mnicandum cum consilio domini principis pro materiis concernentibus manerium de Alyngton'