BRITISH HISTORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22285, 11 June 1934, Page 8

BRITISH HISTORY

PRINCES IN THE TOWER STORY IN MANUSCRIPT. LONDON, May 27. How the boy king, Edward V, while in-prisoned in the Tower, considered himself a victim ready tor sacrifice and prepared daily for death by confession and penance, is revealed by contemporary evidence in a Latin manuscript tis covered in the Lille Municipal Library, writes 0. A. J, Armstrong. The document proves that the English people were convinced of Richard’s guilt, thereby contradicting recent defences of his character. The, author of the manuscript was Dominic Maiiciui, an Italian priest, who visited England at the request of the Archbishop of Vienna, and probably was commissioned to obtain first-hand information regarding English politics. The manuscript traces the causes and methods of Richard’s usurpation, and gives a new version of the Duke of Clarence’s death. Although subscribing to the tradition that he was drowned in u butt of Malmsey wine, it ascribes his removal to the Queen’s jealousy, but exonerates Richard and records that he swore a terrible threat of vengeance for his brother’s death. The narrative describes Edward IV as attempting to forget the non-success of his foreign policy in theatrical pe"formancus, taking emetics in order to enjoy another meal and dying of a chill contracted while fishing. The manuscript pathetically relates the royal dignity ’ and courage with which the 12-year-old Edward V, after his arrest, defended his Minister t against Richard and the Duke of Buckingham. After the death of the Earl of Hastings, it says, the Princes’ attendants were forbidden to see them. The Princes were removed to another part of tl,e Tower, where at first they were visible behind the bars of the windows. Then they were seen less often until they did not appear at all and the public immediately leaped to the conclusion that the Princes had b6en murdered. Mancini met several who bewailed the Princes’ disappearance, but now it was generally agreed that they were murdered in July or August, after Mancini left for France.