civil act of estates, and one that holdeth it originally by the law of nature and descent of blood. Neither wanted there even at that time secret rumours and whisperings (which afterwards gathered strength and turned to great troubles) that the two young sons of King Edward the Fourth, or one of them, (which were said to be destroyed in the Tower,) were not indeed murdered but conveyed secretly away, and were yet living: which, if it had been true, had prevented the title of the Lady Elizabeth. On the other side, if he stood upon his own title of the house of Lancaster, inherent in his person, he knew it was a title condemned by Parliament, and generally prejudged in the common opinion of the realm, and that it tended directly to the disinherison of the line of York, held then the indubiate 1 heirs of the crown. So that if he should have no issue by the Lady Elizabeth, which should be descendants of the double line, then the ancient flames of discord and intestine wars, upon the competition of both houses, would again return and revive.

As for conquest, notwithstanding Sir William Stanley, after some acclamations of the soldiers in the field, had put a crown of ornament 3 (which Richard wore in the battle and was found amongst the spoils) upon King Henry's head, as if there were his chief title; yet he remembered well upon what conditions and agreements he was brought in; and that to claim as conqueror was to put as well his own party as the rest into terror and fear; as that which gave him power of disannulling of laws, and disposing of men's fortunes and estates, and the like points of absolute power, being in themselves so harsh and odious, as that William himself, commonly called the Conqueror, howsoever he used and exercised the power of a conqueror to reward his Normans, yet he forbare to use that claim in the beginning, but mixed it with a titulary pretence, grounded upon the will and designation of Edward the Confessor. But the King, out of the greatness of his own mind, presently cast the die; and the inconveniences appearing unto him on all parts, and knowing there could not be any interreign or suspension of title, and preferring his affection to his own line and blood, and

So in original.

2 The original edition has when, which is manifestly wrong.

Non imperialem illam, sed quam ornamenti et ominis causa Ricardus secum in bellum attulerat.

▲ Verbo tamen abstinuerit, neque hoc jure se regnum tenere unquam professus sit, sed illud titulari quodam prætextu velaverit.

liking' that title best which made him independent, and being in his nature and constitution of mind not very apprehensive or forecasting of future events afar off, but an entertainer of v fortune by the day, resolved to rest upon the title of Lancaster as the main, and to use the other two, that of marriage and that of battle, but as supporters, the one to appease secret discontents, and the other to beat down open murmur and dispute; not forgetting that the same title of Lancaster had formerly maintained a possession of three descents in the crown; and might have proved a perpetuity, had it not ended in the weakness and inability of the last prince. Whereupon the King presently that very day, being the two and twentieth of August, assumed the style of King in his own name, without mention of the Lady Elizabeth at all, or any relation thereunto. In which course he ever after persisted: which did spin him a thread of many seditions and troubles. The King, full of these thoughts, before his departure from Leicester, despatched Sir Robert Willoughby to the castle of Sheriff-Hutton, in Yorkshire, where were kept in safe custody, by King Richard's commandment, both the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward, and Edward Plantagenet, son and heir to George Duke of Clarence. This Edward was by the King's warrant delivered from the constable of the castle to the hand of Sir Robert Willoughby; and by him with all safety and diligence conveyed to the Tower of London, where he was shut up close prisoner. Which act of the King's (being an act merely of policy and power) proceeded not so much from any apprehension he had of Dr. Shaw's tale at Paul's Cross for the bastarding of Edward the Fourth's issues, in which case this young gentleman was to succeed3, (for that fable was ever exploded,) but upon a settled disposition to depress all eminent persons of the line of York. Wherein still the King, out of strength of will or weakness of judgment, did use to shew a little more of the party than of the king.

For the Lady Elizabeth, she received also a direction to repair with all convenient speed to London, and there to remain with the Queen dowager her mother; which accord

1

In the translation it is put thus: Sive amori erga familiam suam reliqua posthabens, sive &c.

2 Whom he had agreed to marry:— Edvardi filia ad nuptias Henrico destinata.

1 Proximus fuisset regni hæres : would have been next heir of the Crown.

ingly she soon after did, accompanied with many noblemen and ladies of honour. In the mean season the King set forwards by easy journeys to the City of London, receiving the acclamations and applauses of the people as he went, which indeed were true and unfeigned, as might well appear in the very demonstrations and fulness of the cry. For they thought generally that he was a Prince as ordained and sent down from heaven to unite and put to an end the long dissensions of the two houses; which although they had had, in the times of Henry the Fourth, Henry the Fifth, and a part of Henry the Sixth on the one side, and the times of Edward the Fourth on the other, lucid intervals and happy pauses; yet they did ever hang over the kingdom, ready to break forth into new perturbations and calamities. And as his victory gave him the knee, so his purpose of marriage with the Lady Elizabeth gave him the heart; so that both knee and heart did truly bow before him.

He on the other side with great wisdom (not ignorant of the affections and fears of the people), to disperse the conceit and terror of a conquest, had given order that there should be nothing in his journey like unto a warlike march or manner; but rather like unto the progress of a King in full peace and assurance.1

He entered the City upon a Saturday, as he had also obtained the victory upon a Saturday; which day of the week, first upon an observation, and after upon memory and fancy, he accounted and chose as a day prosperous unto him.

The mayor and companies of the City received him at Shoreditch; whence with great and honourable attendance, and troops of noblemen and persons of quality, he entered the City; himself not being on horseback, or in any open chair or throne, but in a close chariot; as one that having been sometimes an enemy to the whole state, and a proscribed person, chose rather to keep state and strike a reverence into the people than to fawn upon them.

He went first into St. Paul's Church, where, not meaning that the people should forget too soon that he came in by battle, he made offertory of his standards, and had orizons and Te

1 Sed potius itineris pacifici, quali reges animi causa provincias suas peragrantes uti solent. "Progress" is used in its technical sense.

2 Major in original.

Deum again sung; and went to his lodging prepared in the Bishop of London's palace, where he stayed for a time.

During his abode there, he assembled his counsel' and other principal persons, in presence of whom he did renew again his promise to marry with the Lady Elizabeth. This he did the rather, because having at his coming out of Brittaine given artificially for serving of his own turn some hopes, in case he obtained the kingdom, to marry Anne, inheritress to the duchy of Brittaine, whom Charles the Eighth of France soon after married, it bred some doubt and suspicion amongst divers that he was not sincere, or at least not fixed, in going on with the match of England so much desired: which conceit also, though it were but talk and discourse, did much afflict the poor Lady Elizabeth herself. But howsoever he both truly intended it, and desired also it should be so believed (the better to extinguish envy and contradiction to his other purposes), yet was he resolved in himself not to proceed to the consummation thereof, till his coronation and a Parliament were past. The one, lest a joint coronation of himself and his Queen might give any countenance of participation of title; the other, lest in the entailing of the crown to himself, which he hoped to obtain by Parliament, the votes of the Parliament might any ways reflect upon her.

About this time in autumn, towards the end of September, there began and reigned in the city and other parts of the kingdom a disease then new2: which by the accidents and manner thereof they called the sweating-sickness. This disease had a swift course, both in the sick body and in the time and period of the lasting thereof. For they that were taken with it, upon four-and-twenty hours, escaping were

In the edition of 1622 this word is in this place spelt counsell: in other places it is spelt councell; which is almost always the spelling of the MS. According to modern usage it would of course be spelt here council. But the modern distinction between council and counsel, councillor and counsellor, was not observed in Bacon's time; at least not marked in the spelling. Some wrote both words with an s; some both with a c; some either with either. But the rule by which the several forms of the word are appropriated to its several meanings, - counsel being used for advice, counsellor for a person who gives advice, council for a board of counsellors, councillor for a member of such board, this rule was not yet established; and as it sometimes happens that the point or effect of the sentence depends upon the ambiguity, and is lost by marking the distinction, I have thought it better to retain the same form in all cases: and I have chosen that form which represents in modern orthography the original word.

2 Morbus quidam epidemicus, tunc temporis novus; cui ex naturâ et symptomatibus ejus, &c.

Tam in morbi ipsius crisi, quam in tempore durationis ipsius.

thought almost assured. And as to the time of the malice and reign of the disease ere it ceased, it began about the one and twentieth of September, and cleared up before the end of October; insomuch as it was no hinderance to the King's coronation, which was the last of October; nor (which was more) to the holding of the Parliament, which began but seven days after. It was a pestilent fever, but as it seemeth not seated in the veins or humours; for that there followed no carbuncle, no purple or livid spots', or the like, the mass of the body being not tainted; only a malign vapour flew to the heart, and seized the vital spirits; which stirred nature to strive to send it forth by an extreme sweat. And it appeared by experience that this disease was rather a surprise of nature, than obstinate to remedies, if it were in time looked unto. For if the patient were kept in an equal temper, both for clothes, fire, and drink moderately warm, with temperate cordials, whereby nature's work were neither irritated by heat nor turned back by cold, he commonly recovered. But infinite persons died suddenly of it, before the manner of the cure and attendance was known. It was conceived not to be an epidemic disease2, but to proceed from a malignity in the constitution of the air, gathered by the predispositions of seasons3; and the speedy cessation declared as much.

On Simon and Jude's Even the King dined with Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal: and from Lambeth went by land over the bridge to the Tower, where the morrow after he made twelve knights-bannerets. But for creations, he dispensed them with a sparing hand. For notwithstanding a field so lately fought and a coronation so near at hand, he only created three: Jasper Earl of Pembroke (the King's uncle) was created Duke of Bedford; Thomas the Lord Stanley (the King's father-in-law) Earl of Derby; and Edward Courtney Earl of Devon; though the king had then

The Latin translation adds non pustulæ.

The word epidemic is mentioned by Sir T. Meautys as one of the verbal corrections made by the King in the original MS. This part of the MS. is unluckily lost; we cannot therefore ascertain whether this be the place where that word was introduced, or what the word was for which it was substituted. Bacon's meaning however is fully explained in the Latin translation, in which it has already been described as an epidemic disease. Opinio erat morbum istum neutiquam ex epidemicis illis qui simul contagiosi sunt et de corpore in corpus fluunt fuisse: sed a malignitate quadam in ipso aere, &c. Using the words in their modern sense, we should say that it was thought not to be a contagious but an epidemic disease.

The translation adds "and frequent and unhealthy changes of weather."