Princes in the Tower Read Online Free

the one man who could have known the truth about some of the events of which More writes: More speaks of his 'deep insight into political worldly drifts'. However, the notion that More's information came from Morton was not mooted until 1596, when Sir John Haryngton suggested in The Metamorphosis of Ajax that Morton might even have been the author of More's book. This theory was later embellished by Richard Ill's apologist, Sir George Buck, but both Buck and Haryngton incorrectly assumed that More was an adult when he was in Morton's service. There is no contemporary evidence to suggest that Morton had anything to do with the work, and no serious historian nowadays believes that anyone other than More wrote it. The style of the work alone argues strongly in favour of his authorship.
    There were many other sources that More could -- and probably did -- make use of. His own father, a judge of the King's Bench, had been a keen political observer in Richard's reign. Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, More's 'singular dear friend' according to More's son-in-law William Roper, could have told More about the involvement of his family in the events of the time. It is perhaps significant that More makes hardly any reference to these important persons in his book, even though they had been prominent at court: to have done so would have been to compromise both the Duke and More's friendship with him. More may also have obtained information from Dr John Argentine, Robert Fabyan, Polydore Vergil (whose work he knew in manuscript form), Richard Fitzjames, Bishop of London -- Edward IV's chaplain and friend -- Sir Thomas Lovell, Speaker of the Commons under Henry VII and a friend of More, Sir John Cutte -- Richard Ill's receiver of crown lands in six counties and More's predecessor as Under Treasurer -- Sir John Roper, Richard's commissioner of array for Kent, and Sir Reginald Bray and Christopher Urswick, both of whom were involved in the plot to depose Richard and set Henry Tudor on the throne; Urswick was another friend of More's. As a lawyer and Under-Sheriff of London, More had access to the legal records of Richard Ill's reign. He also used the Great Chronicle.
    More wrote both English and Latin versions of his history. A 'corrupt and altered version' was first printed by Richard Grafton in 1543 in Hardyng's Chronicle; it appeared again in Hall's Chronicle in 1548. The full Latin text was printed by More's nephew William Rastell in 1557, with a note that it was taken from a holograph manuscript found by Rastell amongst More's papers; the original text is in the College of Arms, London (MS. Arundel 43). More's Richard III was widely read and became very popular, and it was the chief inspiration for Shakespeare's Richard III, with which, of course, dramatic liberties were taken.
    Above all, More gives a credible and consistent portrayal of Richard that can hardly have been based on fiction; anyone reading his manuscript, which was privately circulated amongst his friends, some of whom had known Richard III, could have spotted any inconsistencies. And More himself had several means of checking his facts.
    Later Tudor chroniclers such as Hall and Holinshed all relied on Vergil and More. But in 1611 the antiquary John Speed discovered a draft of the suppressed Act 'Titulus Regius', which outlined the grounds on which Richard III had claimed the throne. This discovery shed what appeared to be new light on the fate of the Princes. Speed printed the original draft of the Act that year, and six years later Sir William Cornwallis published The Encomium of Richard III, the first of the revisionist works, which was in effect a defence of Richard against the charge that he had murdered the Princes.
    Cornwallis's theme was taken up even more enthusiastically in 1619 by Sir George Buck, who was described by William Camden as 'a man of distinguished learning'. Buck was of an old Yorkist family, the great-grandson of John Buck, a member of Richard