sources, is not altogether accurate. Yet
one remarkable circumstance, told by Hall and other chroniclers, that
the duke of York stood by the throne, as if to claim it, though omitted
entirely in the roll, is confirmed by Whethamstede, abbot of St. Albans,
who was probably then present. (p. 484, edit. Hearne.) This shows that
we should only doubt, and not reject, unless upon real grounds of
suspicion, the assertions of secondary writers.

[451] The abbey of St. Albans was stripped by the queen and her army
after the second battle fought at that place, Feb. 17, 1461; which
changed Whethamstede the abbot and historiographer from a violent
Lancastrian into a Yorkist. His change of party is quite sudden, and
amusing enough. See too the Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 206. Yet the
Paston family were originally Lancastrian, and returned to that side in
1470.

[452] There are several instances of violence and oppression apparent on
the rolls during this reign, but not proceeding from the crown. One of a
remarkable nature (vol. v. p. 173) was brought forward to throw an odium
on the duke of Clarence, who had been concerned in it. Several passages
indicate the character of the duke of Gloucester.

[453] See in Cro. Car. 120, the indictment against Burdett for
compassing the king's death, and for that purpose conspiring with Stacie
and Blake to calculate his nativity and his son's, ad sciendum quando
iidem rex et Edwardus ejus filius morientur: Also for the same end
dispersing divers rhymes and ballads de murmurationibus, seditionibus et
proditoriis excitationibus, factas et fabricatas apud Holbourn, to the
intent that the people might withdraw their love from the king and
desert him, ac erga ipsum regem insurgerent, et guerram erga ipsum regem
levarent, ad finalem destructionem ipsorum regis ac domini principis,
&c.

[454] Rot. Parl. vol. vi. p. 193.

[455] The rolls of Henry VII.'s first parliament are full of an absurd
confusion in thought and language, which is rendered odious by the
purposes to which it is applied. Both Henry VI. and Edward IV. are
considered as lawful kings; except in one instance, where Alan
Cotterell, petitioning for the reversal of his attainder, speaks of
Edward, "late called Edward IV." (vol. iv. p. 290.) But this is only the
language of a private Lancastrian. And Henry VI. passes for having been
king during his short restoration in 1470, when Edward had been nine
years upon the throne. For the earl o