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VI. Remarks on the Manner of the Death of King Richard the Second. By P.W. Dillon, Esq. of Paris; In two Letters addressed to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., F.R.S., Secretary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2012
Extract
I have read with a deep interest the able Dissertations of two of your learned colleagues, Messrs. Webb and Amyot, on that oft controverted point of English history the death of Richard the Second. Both reject the popular account of his murder, by Sir Piers Exton and accomplices, as comparatively unfounded; and maintain, with Thomas of Otterbourn, Hardyng, and, it must be confessed, nearly all the contemporary chroniclers, that he died of starvation.
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References
page 75 note a Archæol. vol. XX.
page 75 note b See Appendix to vol. iii. of Hist, of Scotland.
page 76 note c See Archæolog. vol. XXV.
page 78 note d This conjecture is confirmed by the authority of Biondi and Sir James Mackintosh. See Archæol, vol. XXIII. p. 293.
page 78 note e See page 95.
page 79 note f See page 89.
page 79 note g Dom Morice, Hist, de Bretagne, tom. i. p. 432.
page 80 note h This fact suffices alone to prove that Creton's letter to Richard was written before his pathetic appeal to the Duke of Burgundy, in which he beseeches that Prince to avenge Richard's death. It would be absurd to suppose that any thing short of ocular proof could have effected such a total revolution in Creton's feelings as these two letters indicate. In the first he seems confident of Richard's safety, and declares that he is on the point of crossing the sea to offer him his homages, when, lo! we meet on the very next page another epistle, written about the same time, in which he calls upon the French nobility to avenge his death.
page 81 note i Page 94.
page 82 note k See p. 93.
page 83 note l Since the above was written, my attention has been called to an article by Mr. Amyot in the twenty-third volume of the Archæologia, in reply to Mr. Tytler's statement, in which he dwells at some length on the importance of the evidence in favour of Richard's death, afforded by the fact of Queen Isabella's marriage. It does not, however, appear that Henry ever made a formal demand of her hand for any of his children, as Mr. Amyot asserts. It was the Princess Mary, then in the convent of Poissy, that he demanded in 1406. See Monstrelet, tom. i. chap. 34, and MSS. of Brienne, tom, xxxiv. where Henry's instructions to his ambassadors are given at length. The Princess refused to quit her convent.
page 83 note m The MSS. of the Monks of St. Denys, Royal Libr. Paris, passim.
page 83 note n Le Laboureur, tom. i. p. 423.
page 83 note o The words of Juven. des Ursins are very remarkable: “ Henry fit tant que les serviteurs du Roy Richard et auxquels il se fixit le mirent à mort inhumainement. Et pour ce que plusieurs en ceste matière eu ont écrit on s'en passe en bref. Et trouve-t-on bien les Anglais ont fait autrefois de tels exploits.” Hist, de Charles VI. page 142.
page 89 note p Ces lignes prouvent que ceste epître fut faite avant 1405, epoque du manage d'Isabelle avec le due d Orleans.
page 89 note q Il alia effectivement en Escosse et en fut de retour en 1410. ainsi que l'atteste une quittance donnéc par lui Creton le dit au de la somme de 200 francs pour recompense de sa voyage.
page 91 note r Il etait fils de Jean Roi de France et frère de Charles V.
page 92 note s Ce point peut aider à fixer la dâte de la pièce voir en quelle année les Bretons faict cette offre au due de Bourgogne. Le due Philippe de Bourgogne fut déclaré regent de Bretagne en 1402, le 19 Octob.
page 92 note t En 1402 le Pape Benoît XIII. fut assiégé dans le Château d'Avignon par le Maréchal de Boucicault et se sauva déguisé. C'est evidemment à cette epôque qu'il fait allusion.