A KING FOR ENGLAND!

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 82, 8 April 1931, Page 9

A KING FOR ENGLAND!

FREE FIGHT IN HEREFORD.

FLIGHT OF CLAIMANT.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, March 3.

The Western Marches of England, on the. borders of rough and fiery Wales, always had a fighting strain, and true to form last Saturday there wa6 a free fight in St. Peter's Square, Hereford, where a certain Mr. Anthony Hall claimed to be a direct descendant from the Tudors and the rightful king of England. This entertaining claimant spurns such mushroom pretenders as Jacobites prefer, mere Stuarts! Mr. Anthony Hall declared that he was in the male line directly descended from the last prince to win the crown on the field of battle, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and added: "George Frederick Guelph is not your lawful king, and is not descended from Henry. I am ■descended from the last king to win the crown at Bosworth, and if Guelph is not he must go. If George Frederick Guelph ie in the right it is his duty to proceed against me for high treason."

It was then that tempers rose, and a man in the audience asserted that the people under the Tudors were no more than serfs. "You are a liar," retorted Mr. Hall, whereupon the interrupter jumped on the platform and, proceeding to harangue the crowd, he was wholeheartedly booed and suddenly disappeared headlong from the platform on being pushed by Mr. Hall.

But this critic of the Tudors came back to the charge, climbed on to the platform again and went for Mr. Hall, whom he sent head first into the midst of the audience. The interrupter was then similarly treated by one of Mr. Hall's retainers. The scene appeared set for a wild melee when luckily the police arrived and this self-named Tudor king, believing discretion to be the better part of valour, disappeared into the depths of a taxi and drove off from the scene of battle.