Footnote 153: Hall says, "Because no chronicle save one makes mention what was the cause and occasion of this bloody battle, in the which on both parts were more than forty thousand men assembled, I word for word, according to my copy, do here rehearse." He then gives the heads of the manifesto, from which Hume has drawn his account.[(back)]
Footnote 154: The fact is, that Hardyng's character is assailable, especially on the point of forging documents. "Several writers have considered Hardyng a most dexterous and notable forger, who manufactured the deed for which he sought reward."[154-a] The first manuscript, the Lansdown, containing no allusion to this said manifesto, comes down to 1436. The Harleian copy, which contains it, comes down to the flight of Henry VI. for Scotland. In the Lansdown copy not one word is said about the oath sworn on Bolinbroke's landing, nor about the manifesto. [(back)]
Footnote 154-a: See Sir H. Ellis's Introduction to his edition of Hardyng.[(back)]
Footnote 155: Adhuc. [(back)]
Footnote 156: Acts of Council, vol. i. p. 185. [(back)]
Footnote 157: Monk of Evesham and Sloane, 1776.—In the passage relating to Mortimer's marriage in Walsingham's history, the word "obiit" is evidently an interpolation by mistake. It does not occur in the corresponding passage in his Ypodig. Neust. [(back)]
Footnote 158: Acts of Council, vol. i. p. 207. [(back)]
Footnote 159: Original Letters, Second Series. [(back)]
Footnote 160: Those documents, with the Author's remarks and reasonings upon them, will be found in the Appendix. [(back)]
Footnote 161: Quoted by Scott in his Notes on Marmion from a poem by the Rev. G. Warrington, called "The Spirit's Blasted Tree." [(back)]