Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/444

 316 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. thereunto. In which course lie ever after persist ed : which did spin him a thread of many sedi tions and troubles. The king, full of these thoughts, hefore his departure from Leicester, despatched Sir Robert Willoughby to the castle of Sheriff Hutton, in Yorkshire, where were kept in safe custody, by King Richard s command ment, both the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward, and Edward Plantagenei, son and heir to George, Duke of Clarence. This Edward was, by the king s warrant, delivered from the &quot;constable of the castle to the hand of Sir Robert Willoughby : and by him, with all safety and diligence conveyed to the Tower of London, where he was shut up close prisoner. Which act of the king s, being an act merely of policy and power, proceeded not so much from any ap prehension he had of Doctor Shaw s tale at Paul s cross for the bastarding of Edward the Fourth s issues, in which case this young gentle man was to succeed, for that fable was ever ex ploded, but upon a settled disposition to depress all eminent persons of the line of York. Wherein still the king out of strength of will, or weakness of judgment, did use to show a little more of the party than of the king. For the Lady Elizabeth, she received also a direction to repair with all convenient speed to London, and there to remain with the queen- dowager, her mother; which, accordingly, she soon after did, accompanied with many noblemen and ladies of honour. In the mean season, the king set forwards, by easy journeys, to the city of London, receiving the acclamations and ap plauses of the people as he went, which, indeed, were true and unfeigned, as might well appear in the very demonstrations and fulness of the cry. For they thought generally, that he was a prince, as ordained and sent down from heaven, to unite and put to an end the long dissensions of the two houses ; which, although they had had, in the times of Henry the Fourth, Henry the Fifth, and a part of Henry the Sixth, on the one side, and the times of Edward the Fourth on the other, lucid intervals and happy pauses; yet they did ever hang over the kingdom, ready to break forth into new perturbations and calamities. And as his victory gave him the knee, so his purpose of marriage with the Lady Elizabeth gave him the heart ; so that both knee and heart did truly bow oefore him. He on the other side with great wisdom, not ignorant of the affections and fears of the people, to disperse the conceit and terror of a conquest, had given order, that there should be nothing in his journey like unto a warlike march or manner; but rather like unto the progress of a king in full peace and assurance. He entered the city upon a Saturday, as he had also obtained the victory upon a Saturday ; which day of the week, first upon an observation, and after upon memory and fancy, he accounted and chose as a day prosperous unto him. The mayor and companies of the city received him at Shoreditch; whence with great and ho nourable attendance, and troops of noblemen and persons of quality, he entered the city ; himself not being on horseback, 01 in any open chair or throne, but in a close chariot, as one that having been sometimes an enemy to the whole state, and a proscribed person, chose rather to keep state, and strike a reverence into the people, than to fawn upon them. He went first into St. Paul s church, where, not meaning that the people should forget too soon that he came in by battle, he made offertory of his standards, and had orisons and &quot; Te Deum &quot;* again sung; and went to his lodging prepared in the Bishop of London s palace, where he stayed for a time. During his abode there, he assembled his coun cil and other principal persons, in presence of whom, he did renew again his promise to marry with the Lady Elizabeth. This he did the rather, because having at his coming out of Britain given artificially, for serving of his own turn, some hopes, in case he obtained the kingdom, to marry Anne, inheritress to the Duchy of Britain, whom Charles the Eighth of France soon after married, it bred some doubt and suspicion amongst divers that he was not sincere, or at least not fixed in going on with the match of England so much de sired: which conceit also, though it were but talk and discourse, did much afflict the poor Lady Elizabeth herself. But howsoever he both truly intended it, and desired also it should be so be lieved, the better to extinguish envy and contra diction to his other purposes, yet was he resolved in himself not to proceed to the consummation thereof, till his coronation and a parliament were past. The one, lest a joint coronation of himself and his queen might give any countenance of participation of title; the other, lest in the entail ing of the crown to himself, which he hoped to obtain by parliament, the votes of the parliament might any ways reflect upon her. About this time in autumn, towards the end of September, there began and reigned in the city, and other parts of the kingdom, a disease then new : which by the accidents and manner thereof they called the sweating sickness. This disease had a swift course, both in the sick body, and in the time and period of the lasting thereof; for they that were taken with it, upon four and twenty hours escaping, were thought almost assured. And as to the time of the malice and reign of the disease ere it ceased ; it began about the one and twentieth of September, and cleared up before the end of October, insomuch as it was no hin- derance to the king s coronation, which was the last of October; nor, which was more, to th&amp;lt;* holding of the parliament, which began but seven