[[7]] Plumpton Correspondence. Letter dated December 13, 1485 (p. 49).
[[8]] Translation by Mr. Gairdner in his Henry VII. (p. 38).
[[9]] 11 Henry VII. cap. 1 (1496). It was enacted that no person serving the King and Sovereign Lord of the land for the time being shall be convicted of high treason, nor suffer any forfeiture or imprisonment. In the previous year the usurper, also no doubt from fear of public opinion, had paid 10l. 1s. to James Keyley for King Richard's tomb (Excerp. Hist. p. 105).
[[10]] Grant to John of Gloucester of an annual rent of 20l. during the King's pleasure, from the revenues of the manor of Kingston Lacey, parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster in the county of Dorset. March 1 1486.—Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII. i.
[[11]] 'About the same time there was a base-born son of King Richard III. made away, having been kept long in prison.'—Buck, p. 105, from Chron. MS. in 4to. apud Dr. Rob. Cotton.
[[12]] Rymer, xii. p. 265.
[[13]] A critic, after reading this work, objected that partiality was shown by the fact that while the older writers are blamed for blackening Richard's character in other ways, in order to make the charge of murdering the princes more plausible, precisely the same thing is done with Henry VII. But the other charges against Henry are proved and acknowledged facts. Those against Richard have been disproved. The older writers are justly blamed for inventing calumnies.
[[14]] Fabyan.
[[15]] Polydore Virgil. Lord Bacon observes, in his Life of Henry VII., 'which proceeding, being even at that time taxed for rigorous and undue makes it probable there was some greater matter against her, which the King, upon reason of policy, would not publish.' Undoubtedly, there was; she knew too much.
[[16]] Dr. Lingard (iv. 279 and 286n) and Nicolas (p. lxxviii) bring forward a negotiation with the King of Scots, in November 1487, in which Henry proposed that James III. should marry the Queen Dowager, as a proof that he never deprived her of liberty. If he suspected her, they argue, he would not have given her the opportunity of plotting against him, which her situation as Queen of Scotland would have afforded her. Although Henry may have momentarily entertained the idea of getting rid of a woman who knew too much by this expatriation, he soon changed his mind. She was safer in his power. The negotiations were broken off, and James was killed in the following year.