[1206] Bereue my lyfe by any. 1578.
[1207] Nay butcher I may rightly say. 1578.
[1208] Tower, commaundinge all away. 1578.
[1209] In the xvii yere of king Edward, there fel a sparcle of priuy malice betwen the king and his brother the duke of Clarence: whether it rose of old grudges before tyme passed, or were it newly kyndled and set a fyre by the quene or her bloud, which were euer mistrustyng and priuely barkyng at the kynge’s lignage, or were he desirous to reigne after his brother: to men that haue thereof made inquisicion, of suche as were of no small authoritie in those daies, the certayntie therof was hyd, and coulde not truely be disclosed, but by coniectures, which as often deceyue the imaginacions of fantastical folke, as declare truthe to them in their conclusion. The fame was that the kyng or the quene, or bothe, sore troubled with a folysh prophesye, and by reason therof began to stomacke and greuously to grudge against the duke. The effect of which was, after kyng Edward should reigne, one whose firste letter of his name should be a G. and because the deuel is wont with suche wytchcraftes, to wrappe and illaqueat the myndes of men, which delyte in such deuelyshe fantasyes, they sayd afterward that that prophesie lost not his effect, when after king Edward, Glocester vsurped hys kyngdome. Other allege this to be the cause of his death: that of late, the olde rancor betwene them beyng newly reuiued (the which betwene no creatures can be more vehement then betwene bretheren, especially when it is fermely radicate) the duke beyng destitute of a wife, by the meanes of lady Margaret duches of Burgoyn, hys syster, procured to haue the lady Marye, doughter and heyre to duke Charles her husbande, to bee geuen to hym in matrimony: whiche mariage kyng Edward (enuyenge the felicitie of hys brother) bothe agayne sayed and disturbed. Thys priuy displeasure was onely appeased, but not inwardly forgotten, nor outwardly forgeuen, for that notwythstandyng a seruaunt of the duke’s was sodainly accused (I can not saie of truth, or vntruely suspected by the duke’s enemies) of poysonyng, sorcery, or inchaunmente, and thereof condempned, and put to take the paynes of death. The duke, whiche might not suffer the wrongfull condemnacion of hys man (as he in hys conscience adiudged) nor yet forbere, nor paciently suffer the vniust handelyng of hys trusty seruaunt, dayly dyd oppugne and wyth yll woordes murmur at the doyng thereof. The kyng muche greued and troubled with hys brother’s dayly querimonye, and contynuall exclamacion, caused hym to be apprehended, and cast into the Towre, where he beyng taken and adjudged for a traytor, was priuely drowned in a but of Malmesey. Hall.
[1210] All, omitted. 1578.
[1211] T’eschue. N.
[1212] Like blasts of winde which. 1578.
[1213] Without signature, by W. Baldwin.
[1214] Be now come. 1578.
[1215] Fowerth hys raygne. 1559, 63.