Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/485

 HISTORY OF KIN(HENRY manner: for the king received him in state in his chamber of presence, accompanied with divers of his nobles. And Perkin well attend* &amp;lt;!. as well with those that the king had sent before him, as with his own train, entered the room where the king was, and coming near to the king, and bowing a little to embrace him, he retired some paces back, and with a loud voice, that all that were present might hear him, made his declaration in this manner: &quot; High and mighty king, your grace, and these your nobles here present, may be pleased benignly to how your ears to hear the tragedy of a voung man, that by right ought to hold in his han6 the ball of a kingdom; but by fortune is made him self a ball, tossed from misery to misery, and from place to place. You see here before you the spectacle of a Plantagenet, who hath heen carried from the nursery to the sanctuary ; from the sanctuary to the direful prison; from the prison to the hand of the cruel tormentor ; and from that hand to the wide wilderness, as I may truly call it, for so the world hath been to me. So that he that is born to a great kingdom, hath not ground to set his foot upon, more than this where he now standeth by your princely favour. Edward the Fourth, late King of England, as your grace cannot but have heard, left two sons, Edward, and Richard, Duke of York, both very young. Edward, the eldest, succeeded their father in the crown, by the name of King Edward the Fifth: but Richard, Duke of Gloucester, their unnatural uncle, first thirsting after the kingdom through ambition, and afterwards thirsting for their blood, out of desire to secure himself, em ployed an instrument of his, confident to him, as he thought, to murder them both. But this man that was employed to execute that execrable tragedy, having cruelly slain King Edward, the eldest of the two, was moved, partly by remorse, and partly by some other mean, to save Richard his brother; making a report nevertheless to the tyrant, that he had performed his commandment for both brethren. This report was accordingly believed, and published generally; so that the world hath been possessed of an opinion, that they both were barbarously made away ; though ever truth hath some sparks that fly abroad, until it appear in due time, as this hath had. But Almighty God, that stopped the mouth of the lion, and saved little Joash from the tyranny of Athaliah, when she massacred the king s child ren; and did save Isaac, when the hand was stretched forth to sacrifice him; preserved the second brother. For I myself, that stand here in your presence, am that very Richard, Duke of York, brother of that unfortunate prince, King Edward the Fifth, now the most rightful surviving heir male to that victorious and most noble Ed ward, of that name the fourth, late King of Eng land. For the manner of my escape, it is fit it should pass in silence, or at least in n nvr relation; for that it may concern some alive, and the memory of some that are dead. Let it Millie*- to think, that I had then a mother living, a queen, and one that expected daily such a commandment from the tyrant, for the murdering of her children. Thus in my tender age escaping by God s mercy out of London, I was secretly conveyed over sea ; where after a time the party that had me in charge, upon what new fears, change of mind, or practice, God knoweth, suddenly forsook me. Whereby I was forced to wander abroad, and to seek mean conditions for the sustaining of my life. Wherefore distracted between several pas sions, the one of fear to be known, lest the tyrant should have a new attempt upon me ; the other of grief and disdain to be unknown, and to live in that base and servile manner that I did ; I resolved with myself to expect the tyrant s death, and then to put myself into my sister s hands, who was next heir to the crown. But in this season it happened one Henry Tudor, son to Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, to come from France and enter into the realm, and by subtile and foul means to obtain the crown of the same, which to me rightfully appertained : so that it was but a change from tyrant to tyrant. This Henry, my extreme and mortal enemy, so soon as he had knowledge of my being alive, imagined and wrought all the subtile ways and means he could to procure my final destruction ; for my mortal enemy hath not only falsely surmised me to be a feigned person, giving me nicknames, so abusing the world ; but also, to defer and put me from entry into England, hath offered large sums of money to corrupt the princes and their ministers, with whom I have been retained ; and made im portune labours to certain servants about my per son, to murder or poison me, and others to forsake and leave my righteous quarrel, and to depart from my service, as Sir Robert Clifford, and others. So that every man of reason may well perceive, that Henry, calling himself King of England^ needed not to have bestowed such great sums of treasure, nor so to have busied himself with importune and incessant labour and industry, to compass my death and ruin, if I had been such a feigned person. But the truth of my cause being so manifest, moved the most Christian King Charles, and the Lady Duchess Dowager of Burgundy, my most dear aunt, not only to acknowledge the truth thereof, but lovingly to assist me. But it seemeth that God above, for the good of this whole island, and the knitting of these two kingdoms of England and Scotland in a strait concord and amity, by so great an obli gation, hath reserved the placing of me on the imperial throne of England for the arms and su&amp;lt;. cours of your grace. Neither is it the first time that a King of Scotland hath supported them thai were bereft and spoiled of the kingdom of En:-