Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/449

 HISTORY OF KING 1IENUY VII. let matter against her, which the king, upon rea son of policy, and to avoid envy, would not pub lish. It is likewise no small argument that there v;is some secret in it, and some suppressing o examinations, for that the priest Simon himself, after he was taken, was never brought to execu tion ; no, not so much as to public trial, as many clergymen were upon less treasons, but was only shut up close in a dungeon. Add to this, tlu nfter the Earl of Lincoln, a principal person of th house of York, was slain in Stockfield, the king opened himself to some of his council, that he was sorry for the earl s death, because by him, he said, he might have known the bottom of his danger But to return to the narration itself: Simon did lirst instruct his scholar for the part of Richard, Duke of York, second son to King Edward the Fourth ; and this was at such time as it was voiced that the king purposed to put to death Edward Plantagenet, prisoner in the Tower, whereat there was great murmur. But hearing soon after a ge neral bruit that Plantagenet had escaped out of the Tower, and thereby finding him so much beloved amongst the people, and such rejoicing at his es cape, the cunning priest changed his copy, and chose now Plantagenet to be the subject his pupil should personate, because he was more in the present speech and votes of the people ; and it pieced better, and followed more close and hand somely, upon the bruit of Plantagenet s escape. But yet doubting that there would he too near looking, and too much perspective into his dis guise, if he should show it here in England ; he thought good, after the manner of scenes in stage plays and masks, to show it afar off; and there fore sailed with his scholar into Ireland, where the affection to the house of York was most in height. The king had been a little improvident in the matters of Ireland, and had not removed officers and counsellors, and put in their places, or at least intermingled, persons of whom he stood assured, as he should have done, since he knew the strong bent of that country towards the house of York ; and that it was a ticklish and unsettled state, more easy to receive distempers and muta tions than England was. But trusting to the re putation of his victories and successes in England, he thought he should have time enough to extend his cares afterwards to that second kingdom. Wherefore through this neglect, upon the com ing of Simon with his pretended Plantagenet into Ireland, all things were prepared for revolt and sedition, almost as if they had been set and plotted beforehand. Simon s first address was to the Lord Thomas Fitz-Gerard, Earl of Kildare, and deputy of Ireland ; before whose eyes he did cast such a mist, by his own insinuation, and by the carriage of his youth, that expressed a natural princely be haviour, as joined perhaps with some inward va pours of ambition and affection in the earl s own mind, left him fully possessed that it was the true VOL. I. 41 Plantagenet. The earl presently communicated the matter with some of the nobles, and others there, at the first secretly; but finding them of like affection to himself, he suffered it of purpose to vent and puss abroad ; because they thought it not safe to resolve, till they had a taste of the peo ple s inclination. But if the great ones were in forwardness, the people were in fury, entertain ing this airy body or phantasm with incredible affection; partly, out of their great devotion to the house of York ; partly, out of a proud humour in the nation, to give a king to the realm cf Eng land. Neither did the party, in this heat of af fection, much trouble themselves with the attain der of George, Duke of Clarence ; having newly learned, by the king s example, that attainders do not interrupt the conveying of title to the crown. And as for the daughters of King Edward the Fourth, they thought King Richard had said enough for them ; and took them to be but as of the king s party, because they were in his power and at his disposing. So that with marvellous consent and applause, this counterfeit Plantage net was brought with great solemnity to the cas- tie of Dublin, and there saluted, served, and ho noured as king; the boy becoming it well, and doing nothing that did bewray the baseness of his condition. And within a few days after he was proclaimed king, in Dublin, by the name of King Edward the Sixth ; there being not a sword drawn in King Henry s quarrel. The king was much moved with this unexpect ed accident when it came to his ears, both be cause it struck upon that string which ever he most feared, as also because it was stirred in such a place where he could not with safety transfer his own person to suppress it. For partly through natural valour, and partly through a universal suspicion, not knowing whom to trust, he was ever ready to wait upon all his acheivements in person. The king therefore first called his coun cil together at the Charter-house at Shine ; which council was held with great secrecy, but the open decrees thereof, which presently came abroad, were three. The first was, that the queen-dowager, tor that she, contrary to her pact and agreement with those that had concluded with her concerning the marriage of her daughter Elizabeth with King Renry, had nevertheless delivered her daughters out of sanctuary into King Richard s hands, should ie cloistered in the nunnery of Bermondesy, and b -feit all her lands and goods. The next was, that Edward Plantagenet, then close prisoner in the Tower, should be, in the most public and notorious manner that could be devised, showed unto the people: in part to dis charge the king of the envy of that opinion and ruit, how he had been put to death privily in the Tower; but chiefly to make the people see the evity and imposture of the proceedings of Ire*