[193a] Sir John Neville (commonly called John Lord Neville), was the brother and heir presumptive of Ralph Neville, second Earl of Westmoreland.—Dugdale’s Baronage, vol. i. pp. 290, 299, 300; Lel. Coll. vol. ii. p. 715 [498]; act of attainder, 1 Edward IV. (1461), Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 476; act of reversal of the attainder, 12th and 13th Edward IV., Rot. Parl. vol. vi. p. 24. A remarkable error exists in Hall’s, Holinshed’s, and Fabyan’s Chronicles, in which it is stated, that the Earl of Westmoreland perished at the battle of Towton; but, in fact, the first Earl of Westmoreland of that family, died in 4th Henry VI., and the second Earl of Westmoreland, in 2nd Richard III.—Dugdale’s Baronage, vol. i. pp. 290, 299, 300. Sir John Neville, commonly called John Lord Neville, married Anne, the widow of his nephew, John Neville (the son and heir apparent of Ralph, second Earl of Westmoreland), who died before his father.—See Chap. VI.
[193b] It is stated by Dugdale, in vol. i. p. 248, that John Tibtoft, Earl of Worcester, married her niece, Cecily, daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and widow of Henry de Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick, and was executed on Tower Hill, in 1470; but that is scarcely reconcileable with what Dugdale afterwards states of his marriage in vol. ii. p. 41.
[194a] He is called William Bonvile, Lord Harrington, in the Catalogue of Nobility, by Ralph Brooke, p. 205; and William Lord Harrington, by Dugdale, in his Baronage, vol. iii. p. 236; and William Lord Bonvile, in the same work, vol. i. pp. 581 and 585. He was the son of William Bonvile, and Elizabeth his wife, daughter and heiress of William Lord Harrington, and the grandson of William Lord Bonvile, who was put to death by Queen Margaret and the Lancastrian leaders, after the second battle of St. Alban’s, in 1461.—See Chaps. IV. and VI.
[194b] Catalogue of Nobility, &c., by Ralph Brooke, p. 174; and Dugdale’s Bar. vol. i. p. 304. A descrepancy is, however, apparent in Dugdale’s work, as he, in another place, erroneously states, that the Earl of Oxford married Katherine Neville—vol. i. p. 198.
[195a] Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford, in his work, called Historic Doubts, has attempted to disprove the charge against Richard III. of the murder of his nephews, the two princes, in the Tower of London. The work is curious and interesting; but that author seems to have failed in removing from Richard, the stigma of this shocking crime. “Si l’on a fait de lui, des jugemens téméraires, c’est lui, qui en est coupable. Il est certain qu’il enferma ses neveux dans la Tour; ils ne pararent plus, c’est à lui d’en répondre;” [195b] and perhaps few persons can read the remarks on the Historic Doubts, published by the Rev. Dr. Milles, and the Rev. Robert Masters, in the 1st and 2nd vols. Archæologia, pp. 361 and 198, without perceiving, that what the author of the Historic Doubts relies on as proofs of Richard III.’s innocence, are very ably rebutted by those writers; and that what he terms the coronation roll of King Richard III., in which are items for robes, &c. for King Edward V. (from which he would infer, that the latter monarch was alive, and even present at the coronation of the former), is only a wardrobe account of Piers Curteys, the king’s wardrober, kept from the time of the death of Edward IV., of which the deliveries for the expected coronation, of course, form a considerable part; but that the robes, &c., alluded to were prepared for the use of Edward V., at his own intended coronation, and not at that of his uncle, who took effectual measures, that, notwithstanding Piers Curteys’s arrangements, they should never be used for the purpose which he contemplated. That idea receives a strong confirmation from Sir Thomas More, who, in his History of the Life and Reign of Edward V., mentions the preparations for his coronation.
[195b] Essai sur les Mœurs et l’Esprit des Nations, Œuvres de Voltaire, tome 18me, p. 48.
[196a] Hall, Bacon, Baker; Catalogue of Nobility, &c. by Ralph Brooke; Dugdale’a Bar., Sir T. More, Hutton, Pol. Virgil, Sandford, Banks, Walpole; Acts of Attainder, Rot. Parl. 17 Edward IV., 1 Richard III., 1 Henry VII., and 3 Henry VII.—See Pedigrees, Nos. 1, 2, and 3.
[196b] She outlived her husband, Richard Duke of York, thirty-five years, died at the Castle of Berkhampsted, on the 31st of May, 1495, an. 10th of Henry VII., and was interred by the body of her husband, at Fotheringay.—Sandford’s Genealogical History, p. 369.
[197] Precis du Siècle de Louis XV., Œurres de Voltaire, tome 22, pp. 210 and 223.
[204] It will perhaps occur to the reader, from what has been already mentioned, that the words “Near this spot,” would be more appropriate and correct, than “On this spot.”