irg. Hall, fol. 240. Holingshed, p. 703.
Habington p. 474. Grafton, p. 742.

But the match was rejected with disdain;[*] and Edward, resenting this
treatment of his brother-in-law, permitted France to proceed without
interruption in her conquests over his defenceless ally. Any pretence
sufficed him for abandoning himself entirely to indolence and pleasure,
which were now become his ruling passions. The only object which divided
his attention was the improving of the public revenue, which had been
dilapidated by the necessities or negligence of his predecessors; and
some of his expedients for that purpose, though unknown to us, were
deemed, during the time, oppressive to the people.[**] The detail of
private wrongs naturally escapes the notice of history; but an act of
tyranny of which Edward was guilty in his own family, has been taken
notice of by all writers, and has met with general and deserved censure.

* Hall, fol. 240.

** Hall, p. 241. Hist. Croyl. Cont. p, 559.

The duke of Clarence, by all his services in deserting Warwick, had
never been able to regain the king's friendship, which he had forfeited
by his former confederacy with that nobleman. He was still regarded at
court as a man of a dangerous and a fickle character; and the imprudent
openness and violence of his temper, though it rendered him much less
dangerous, tended extremely to multiply his enemies, and to incense them
against him. Among others, he had had the misfortune to give displeasure
to the queen herself, as well as to his brother, the duke of Glocester,
a prince of the deepest policy, of the most unrelenting ambition, and
the least scrupulous in the means which he employed for the attainment
or his ends. A combination between these potent adversaries being
secretly formed against Clarence, it was determined to begin by
attacking his friends; in hopes that, if he patiently endured this
injury, his pusillanimity would dishonor him in the eyes of the public;
if he made resistance, and expressed resentment, his passion would
betray him into measures which might give them advantages against him.
The king, hunting one day in the park of Thomas Burdet, of Arrow, in
Warwickshire, had killed a white buck, which was a great favorite of the
owner; and Burdet, vexed at the loss, broke into a passion, and wished
the horns of the deer in the belly of the person who had advised
the king to commit that insult upon him. This natural expressi