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882 [882]

K. Edward. 5. Richard Duke of Gloucester made protectour.

her child, safe to her countrey agayne. MarginaliaEx Latino Codice impresso, cui titulus: Rosacea Mariæ Corona.This boke beyng in Latine and printed, beareth this title: Rosacea Augustissimæ Christififeræ Mariæ Corona: and in the fronte it sheweth the name of Iodocus Bisseleius a noble man of Aquine. And this by the occasion of Pope Sixtus. Which Sixtus, what a maintayner of blind superstition he was, by this it appeareth: how filthie in his lyfe, how cruelly geuen, and all sette vpon warre, and what an hater of peace hee was, partly by that aforespoken, partly by his ende folowyng, it may be sene. MarginaliaThe death of pope Sixtus. 4.For so we read in certeine writers, that after this Pope had vnderstāding that Hercules Estensis, duke of Ferraria, had ioyned peace with þe Venetians agaynst his will, he was so greued therwith, þt for rancour of mind, within v. dayes after, he dyed: Whereunto his Epitaphe following geueth sufficient recorde. MarginaliaHere endeth Platina.About whose time also dyed Platina a man not vnlerned, but yet a shamefull flatterer and bearer with the wicked lyues of the Popes.

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The Epitaphe of Pope Sixtus is this.


Non potuit sæuum vis vlla extinguere Sixtum:
Audito tandem nomine pacis obit.  

Latin/Greek Translations   *   Close
An epitaph on Pope Sixtus
Foxe text Latin

Non potuit sævum ... pacis obit.

Translation

J. Barrie Hall

No force was able to obliterate savage Sixtus. He died finally on hearing the word 'peace'.

¶ An other Epitaphe of the same Pope.


Sixte iaces tandem, nostri discordia secli,
Sæuisti in superos, nunc Acheronta moue.
Sixte iaces tandem, deflent tua busta cinædi,
Scortaq; lenones, alea, vina, venus.  

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Another on the same Pope
Foxe text Latin

Sixte jaces tandem ... alea, vina, venus.

Translation

J. Barrie Hall

At last you, Sixtus, the discord of our age, are brought low. You raged against the gods above: now set Acheron in motion. At last you are brought low, Sixtus, and your death is bewailed by catamites, harlots, pimps, the dice, the drink, and lust.

¶ An other.


Gaude prisce Nero, vincit te crimine Sixtus,
Hic scelus omne simul clauditur, & vitium.  

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Another
Foxe text Latin

Gaude prisce Nero ... et vitium.

Translation

J. Barrie Hall

Rejoice, ancient Nero, Sixtus surpasses you in wickedness. Enclosed here together are every crime and every vice.

But leauyng here Pope Sixtus with his verses, and vices, let vs now procede, as we before promised, to enter the story of Maximilian, kepyng notwithstandyng the order of our kynges here in England: MarginaliaThe death of K. Edward. 4.
1483.
For a litle before the reigne of Maximilian, king Edward the fourth ceased his life. an. 1483. after he had reigned. 22. yeares.  

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Edward V and Richard III

Apart from the description of Richard III's coronation, which is drawn from Hall's chronicle, Foxe's narrative of the brief reigns of Edward V and Richard III is based entirely on Thomas More's History of King Richard III and Polydore Vergil's Anglica historia. (Although Foxe regarded both historians as Catholics and untrustworthy sources on religious history; on secular affairs he preferred their humanist histories to chronicle accounts). For Richard's seizure of the throne, which is covered by both authors, Foxe preferred More's fuller and more dramatic account. For Richard III's reign after Buckingham's rebellion - which Foxe barely mentions - Foxe had to rely on Vergil.

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Thomas S. Freeman
University of Sheffield

MarginaliaBurdet.In the tyme of whiche K. Edward, this also is not to be forgotten, that one Burdet, a marchaunt, dwellyng in Chepeside  
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More alludes to the incident (see The History of the Reign of King Richard III, ed. Richard S. Sylvester, The Complete Works of St. Thomas More 2 [New Haven, CT, 1963], p. 70). But Foxe has details found in no other source; probably he drew on the memories of individual informants.

, at the signe of the crowne, which is the signe now of þe flowre de luse, merely speakyng to his sonne, said that he would make him inheritour of the crowne, meanyng in dede his own house. MarginaliaTyrannye in misconstring a mans wordes.For þe which wordes, when kyng Edward caused to be misconstred, and interpreted, as though he had ment the crowne of the Realme, MarginaliaThe lawes of the realme misconstred for the princes pleasure.within lesse space then. iiij. houres, he was apprehēded, iudged, drawne, and quartered in Chepeside.

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¶ King Edward the. v.

MarginaliaKing Edward. 5.THis king Edward lefte behinde him by hys wife Elizabeth. ij. sonnes, Edward and Richard, and. ij. daughters, Elizabeth and Cicilie. Which. ij. sonnes Edwarde and Richard, for somuch as they were vnder age and not rype to gouerne, a consultatiō was called amōg the peeres, to debate whether the forsayd yong prince and king, should be vnder the gouernment of his mother, or els that Richard Duke of Gloucester, brother to king Edward the fourth, and vncle to the childe, should be gouernour of the kyng, and protectour of the Realme. There hath bene & is an old adage, the woordes whereof, rather then the true meanyng, is wrasted out of Salomon: Væ regno cuius Rex est puer. &c. 1. MarginaliaEccle. 10.Woe to that kingdome, þe kyng wherof is a child. &c. But if I may finde leaue herein to thrust in a glose, I would this adde & say: MarginaliaVæ puero regi in suo regno.Væ illi puero, qui sui regni Rex non est. 1. Wo to that childe, whiche is a kyng in a kyngdome vnruly and ambitious.  

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Foxe is probably adding this gloss so as not to disparage the memory of the boy king, Edward VI.

There was the same season among other noble peeres of the Realme, the Duke of Buckyngham, a mā of great authoritie, who had maryed kyng Edwardes wifes sister. Because this Duke beyng so nere alliaunt to the kyng, had bene vnkyndly (as he thought) of the kyng entreated, hauing by him noauauncemēt nor any great frendship shewed, according to his expectatiō, tooke part therfore with Richard duke of Gloucester, both agaynst the Quene and her childrē, MarginaliaRichard duke of Gloucester made protectour.to make the foresayd Duke, the chief gouernour & protectour. The which thyng beyng brought to passe, by the ayde, assistaūce, & workyng of the duke of Buckynghā, þe Queene tooke sanctuarie with her yonger sonne: MarginaliaThe younge kyng cōmitted to the duke of Gloucester.the elder brother, which was the king, remayned in the custodie of the Duke of Gloucester his vncle  
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Foxe passes over the details of Richard's seizure of Edward V at Stony Stratford, as the young prince was heading from Wales back to London. On hearing the news that her eldest son was in Richard's custody, Elizabeth Woodville, Edward IV's widow, fled with her youngest son into sanctuary at Westminster Abbey.

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. Who beyng now in a good towardnes to obtaine that, which he long looked for, sought all the meanes, and soone compassed the matter, by false colour of dissembled wordes, by periurie, and labour of frendes, MarginaliaThe duke of Buckyngham a great doer for the protectour.namely of the Duke of Buckyngham, and the Cardinall Archbishop of Cāterbury, that the other brother also should be committed to his credite. MarginaliaBoth king Edwardes children in the possession of the protectour.Thus the ambitious protectour and vnnaturall vncle, hauyng the possession of his. ij. nephewes, and innocent babes, thought him selfe almost vp the wheele, where he would clyme: Although he could not walke in such mystes and cloudes, but his deuised purposes began to be espied: whiche caused hym more couertlye to goe aboute to remoue from him all suspicion and to blynde the peoples eyes. But before hee could accomplishe his execrable enterprise, some there were, whom he thought first must be ridde out of his way, as namely the Lord Hastynges, and the Lord Stanley. Who as they were sitting together in counsaile wtin the tower, the protectour (the matter beyng so appointed before) sodeinly rushed in among them, and after a fewe wordes there cōmoned, he sodenly hasted out agayne: his mind belyke, beyng full of mischief and furye, was not quiet. Who within the space of an houre, returned againe into the chamber with a sterne contenaunce and a frownyng looke, and so there set hym downe in hys place. When the Lordes were in great meruell and muse at þe meanyng herof: then he out of a cankered hart thus began to bray, askyng thē what are they worthy to haue, whiche go about to imagine the destructiō of him being so nere to the kynges bloud, and protectour of the Realme? MarginaliaThe deuilishe protectour picketh quarells.At þe which question, as þe other Lordes satte musing, the Lord Hastynges, because he had bene more familiar with him, thus aunswered, that they were worthy of punishment, what soeuer they were. MarginaliaThe Queene and Shores wife, falsely accused of the protectour to bewytche hys arme.Which whē the other Lordes also had affirmed: that is (quoth þe protectour) yonder sorceresse, my brothers wife, meanyng the Queene, and other with her: addyng moreouer, and saying: that sorceresse and other of her counsaile, as Shores wife, wt her affinitie, haue by their witchcraft, thus wasted my body: and therewith shewed foorth his left arme, a werysh wythered thyng, as it was neuer otherwise, as was well knowen. MarginaliaAdultery punished of God.This Shores wife had bene before a concubine to K. Edward, and afterward was kept by the same Lord Hastynges. Moreouer here is to be noted, that by the consent of the sayd Lord Hastyngs, the cruell protectour had deuised about the same tyme, the kindred of the Quene, innocently to be beheaded at Pomfret, of mere despite & hatred. MarginaliaMurder iustly punished of God.Wherfore, this punishement not vndeseruedly, by the iust hande of God, fell vpon the sayd Lord Hastyngs.  
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This is one indication that Foxe is following More, rather than Vergil's account of the same incident. Both authors see Hasting's sudden execution as a providential punishment, but while Vergil claims that that the crime being avenged was participation in the killing of Henry VI's son Edward (see Polydore Vergil, Anglica historia [Isengrim 1555], p. 573), More - and Foxe - feel that the crime was complicity in the executions of Edward V's maternal uncles (see The History of King Richard III, ed. Richard S. Sylvester in The Complete Works of St. Thomas More 2 [New Haven, CT, 1963], p. 52).

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It foloweth thē more in the story, that when þe L. Hastynges heard these false accusations of the tyraunt, whiche he knewe to be vntrue: certainely (my Lorde) sayd hee, if they haue so done, they be worthy of heynous punishement. What, quoth the Protector, doest thou serue me with if and wt and? I tell thee, they haue so done, and that will I make good on thy body traytour: and therewith geuyng a great rappe on the borde (for a token or watchword) one cryed treason without, and forthwith the chamber was full of harneysed men. MarginaliaL. Hastynges arrested for a traytour.The protectour then approchyng to the Lord Hastynges, arrested him as a traitour. An other let flye at the Lord Stanley: who to auoyde the blow shronke vnder the table, or els his head had bene

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