On a reference to the following Pedigrees, although they only give some portions of the descents and alliances of the illustrious Houses of Plantagenet and Neville, the reader will observe the degree of consanguinity or connection in which each of the before-mentioned distinguished but unfortunate personages stood, with reference to Cecily Duchess of York. It would be foreign to the object of this work, and would be an undertaking of great labour and difficulty, to give on a more extensive scale, the pedigrees of either of those Houses.
After perusing such a list of frightful calamities, occurring in the lifetime of a single individual, to the members of her own family, the reader may rejoice in living in a civilized age, under the mild and gentle sway of a Sovereign of the House of Brunswick, and may well exclaim of the Duchess of York, in the language of Voltaire, whilst narrating the misfortunes of the Royal House of Stuart:—“Il n’y a pas d’exemple sur la terre d’une suite de calamités, aussi singulières et aussi horribles, que celles qui avaient affligé toute sa maison.”
“Que les hommes privés, qui se plaignent de leur petites infortunes, jettent les yeux sur ce prince, et sur ses ancêtres.” [197]
