(31) This singular curiosity was first mentioned to me by the lord bishop of Carlisle.  Mr. Astle lent me an extract of it, with other usual assistances; and Mr. Chamberlain of the great wardrobe obliged me with the perusal of the original; favours which I take this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging.

Let no body tell me that these robes, this magnificence, these trappings for a cavalcade, were for the use of a prisoner.  Marvellous as the fact is, there can no longer be any doubt but the deposed young king walked, or it was intended should walk, at his uncle’s coronation.  This precious monument, a terrible reproach to Sir Thomas More and his copyists, who have been silent on so public an event, exists in the great wardrobe; and is in the highest preservation; it is written on vellum, and is bound with the coronation rolls of Henry the Seventh and Eighth.  These are written on paper, and are in worse condition; but that of king Richard is uncommonly fair, accurate, and ample.  It is the account of Peter Courteys keeper of the great wardrobe, and dates from the day of king Edward the Fourth his death, to the feast of the purification in the February of the following year.  Peter Courteys specifies what stuff he found in the wardrobe, what contracts he made for the ensuing coronation, and the deliveries in consequence.  The whole is couched in the most minute and regular manner, and is preferable to a thousand vague and interested histories.  The concourse of nobility at that ceremony was extraordinarily great:  there were present no fewer than three duchesses of Norfolk.  Has this the air of a forced and precipitate election?  Or does it not indicate a voluntary concurrence of the nobility?  No mention being made in the roll of the young duke of York, no robes being ordered for him, it looks extremely as if he was not in Richard’s custody; and strengthens the probability that will appear hereafter, of his having been conveyed away.

There is another article, rather curious than decisive of any point of history.  One entry is thus; “To the lady Brygitt, oon of the daughters of K. Edward ivth, being seeke (sick) in the said wardrobe for to have for her use two long pillows of fustian stuffed with downe, and two pillow beres of Holland cloth.”  The only conjecture that can be formed from this passage is, that the lady Bridget, being lodged in the great wardrobe, was not then in sanctuary.

Can it be doubted now but that Richard meant to have it thought that his assumption of the crown was only temporary?  But when he proceeded to bastardize his nephew by act of parliament, then it became necessary to set him entirely aside:  stronger proofs of the hastardy might have come out; and it is reasonable to infer this, for on the death of his own son, when Richard had no longer any reason of family to bar his brother Edward’s children, instead of again calling them to the succession, as he at first projected or gave out he would, he settled the crown on the