About this season, through great mishap, the sparke of priuie malice was newlie kindled betwixt the king and his brother the duke of Clarence, insomuch that where one of the dukes seruants was suddenlie accused (I can not saie whether of truth, or vntrulie suspected by the dukes enimies) of poisoning, sorcerie or inchantment, and thereof condemned, and put to execution for the same; the duke which might not suffer the wrongfull condemnation of his man (as he in his conscience iudged) nor yet forbeare but to murmur and reproue the dooing thereof, mooued the king with his dailie exclamation to take such displeasure with him, that finallie the duke was cast into the Tower, and therewith adiudged for a traitor, and priuilie drowned in a butt of malmesie, the eleuenth of March, in the beginning of the seuententh yeare of the kings reigne.
Prophesies diuelish fantasies.
Some haue reported, that the cause of this noble mans death rose of a foolish prophesie, which was, that after K. Edward one should reigne, whose first letter of his name should be a G. Wherewith the king and quéene were sore troubled and began to conceiue a gréeuous grudge against this duke, and could not be in quiet till they had brought him to his end. And as the diuell is woont to incumber the minds of men which delite in such diuelish fantasies, they said afterward, that that prophesie lost not his effect, when after king Edward, Glocester vsurped his kingdome. Other alledged, that the cause of his death was for that the duke, being destitute of a wife, by the meanes of his sister the ladie Margaret, duchesse of Burgognie, procured to haue the ladie Marie, daughter and heire to hir husband duke Charles.
Which marriage king Edward (enuieng the prosperitie of his brother) both gaine said and disturbed, and thereby old malice reuiued betwixt them: which the quéene and hir bloud (euer mistrusting, and priuilie barking at the kings linage) ceassed not to increase. But sure it is, that although king Edward were consenting to his death; yet he much did both lament his infortunate chance, & repent his sudden execution: insomuch that when anie person sued to him for the pardon of malefactors condemned to death, he would accustomablie saie, & openlie speake: "Oh infortunate brother, for whose life not one would make sute." Openlie and apparantlie meaning by such words that by the meanes of some of the nobilitie he was deceiued and brought to confusion.
Edward erle of Warwike sonne & heire to George duke of Clarence.
Margaret duchesse of Salisburie.
This duke left behind him two yoong infants begot of the bodie of his wife, the daughter of Richard late earle of Warwike: which children by destinie as it were, or by their owne merits, following the steps of their ancestors, succéeded them in like misfortune and semblable euill chance. For Edward his heire, whome king Edward had created earle of Warwike was thrée and twentie yeares after, in the time of Henrie the seauenth, atteinted of treason, and on the Tower hill lost his head. Margaret his sole daughter maried to sir Richard Pole knight, and by Henrie the eight restored to the name, title, & possessions of the earldome of Salisburie, was at length for treason committed against the said Henrie the eight atteinted in open parlement; and sixtie two yeares after hir father had suffered death in the Tower, she on the gréene within the same place was beheaded. In whose person died the verie surname of Plantagenet, which from Geffrie Plantagenet so long in the bloud roiall of this realme had florished and continued.
A great pestilence.
After the death of this duke, by reason of great heat and distemperance of aire, happened so fierce & quicke a pestilence, that fiftéene yeares warre past consumed not the third part of the people, that onelie foure moneths miserablie and pitifullie dispatched & brought to their graues. So that if the number had béene kept by multiplieng of vnities, & out of them to haue raised a complet number, it would haue mooued matter of verie great admiration. But it should séeme that they were infinit, if consideration he had of the comparison, inferred for the more effectuall setting foorth of that cruell and ceaselesse contagion. And suerlie it soundeth to reason, that the pestilence should fetch awaie so manie thousands, as in iudgement by proportion of fiftéene yeares warre one maie gather; and manie more too. For euerie man knoweth that in warres, time, place, persons, and meanes are limited: time of warre begun and ended; place circumscribed; persons imbattelled, and weapons also whereby the fight is tried: so that all these haue their limitations, beyond which they haue no extent. But the pestilence, being a generall infection of the aire, an element ordeined to mainteine life, though it haue a limitation in respect of the totall compasse of the world; yet whole climats maie be poisoned: and it were not absurd to saie, that all and euerie part of the aire maie be pestilentlie corrupted; and so consequentlie not limited: wherefore full well it maie be said of the pestilence (procuring so great a depopulation) as one saith of surfetting:
Auson.