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Early English Chronicles,

PUBLISHED BY THE ENGLISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

A complete set of these valuable Publications, on LARGE PAPER, 29 vols. royal 8vo. finely printed on thick paper, neatly bound in vellum bds. lettered, only £15. Lond. 1838-56

Of the above edition of these valuable Old Chronicles, Histories, and Documents, many of which are now printed for the first time, only 200 copies were printed for the use of the Members of the English Historical Society. Their value cannot be overrated, containing as they do a greater mass of information on our Early History than can be obtained in any other works, and edited as they are by some of the most eminent scholars of the present day.

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CONTENTS:

Venerabilis Bedæ Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum,
edidit Joseph Stevenson.

Venerabilis Bedæ Opera, Historica Minora, ed. Stevenson.
Chronicon Ricardi Divisiensis de Rebus Gestis Ricardi Primi
Regis Angliæ, edidit Stevenson. Never before printed,
Gildas de Excidio Britanniæ, edidit Josephus Stevenson.
Nennii Historia Britonum, edidit Josephus Stevenson.
Codex Diplomaticus Evi Saxonici, opera Johannis M.
Kemble, 6 vols. Never before printed.
Willelmi Malmesbiriensis Monachi Gesta Regum Anglorum
atque Historia Novella, recensuit T. D. Hardy, 2 vols.
Rogeri de Wendover Chronica, sive Flores Historiarum, cum
Appendice, ed. H. O. Coxe, 5 vols. Never before printed.
Adami Murimuthensis Chronica sui Temporis, 1303-1380,
recensuit Thomas Hog.

Gesta Stephani, Regis Anglorum et Ducis Normannorum,
recensuit R. C. Sewell, D.C.L.

Nicholai Triveti, de Ordine Fratrum Prædicatorum, Annales
Sex Regum Angliæ, 1136-1307, recensuit T. Hog.
Chronicque de la Traison et Mort de Richart Deux Roy
d'Engleterre, mise en Lumière d'après un Manuscrit de
la Bibliothèque Royale de Paris, avec les variantes four-
nies par dix autres Manuscrits, des Eclaircissements et un
Glossaire, par B. Williams, F.S.A. Never before printed.
Florentii Wigorniensis Monachi Chronicon ex Chronicis,
ad fidem Codd. MSS. edidit B. Thorpe. 2 vols.
Chronicon Walteri de Hemingburgh de Gestis Regum
Angliæ, ad fidem Codd. MSS., recensuit H. C. Hamilton.
2 vols.
Henrici Quinti Angliæ Regis Gesta, recensuit B. Williams.
Historia Rerum Anglicarum Wilhelmi Parvi, S.T.D. Ordinis
Sancti Augustini Canonici Regularis in Cœnobio Beatse
Mariæ de Novaburgo in Agro Eboracensi, recensuit H.
C. Hamilton. 2 vols.

The cost to each Member, of the above set of works, was upwards of Sixty Guineas.

1856

23-6-190.

that this church was then in a ruinous condition, oc-
casioned by several settlements in the foundation from
time to time; further, that it was in a very dangerous
situation, the cliff having fallen into the sea, by which
the verge of the remaining part was within thirty-six
feet of the foundation; upon these representations, the
demolition of the old and much decayed church was com-
menced in 1754, and the materials used in the new one.
Dorchester, May 2.
JOHN GARLAND.

TRADITION OF RICHARD THE THIRD'S BEDSTEAD.

A paragraph in Current Notes, p. 27, has recalled to my mind a circumstance communicated to me some years since, by an eminent English antiquary, respecting the bedstead on which Richard the Third slept, August 21, 1485, on the night previous to the battle of Bosworth Field, at the Blue Boar Inn, Leicester. The bedstead so occupied by the king, according to my informant, is still extant, the history of which, as related by Sir Roger Twysden, is not a little curious.

When King Richard marched into Leicestershire against Henry Earl of Richmond, he lay at the Blue Boar Inn, in the town of Leicester, where a large wooden bedstead, gilded in some places, after his defeat, the bedding being all taken from it, was either through haste, or as a thing of little value, left to the people of the house. Thenceforward this old bedstead, which was boarded at the bottom, as the manner was in those days, became a piece of standing furniture, and passed from tenant to tenant with the inn. This house, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was kept by one Clarke, who put a bed on this bedstead, which, his wife going to make hastily, and tumbling the bedstead, a piece of gold dropped out, this excited the woman's curiosity: she narrowly examined this piece of furniture, and finding it had a double bottom, took off the uppermost with a chisel, upon which she discovered the space between them filled with gold; part of it coined by King Richard III., and the rest in earlier times. Clarke concealed this good fortune, though by degrees the effect made it known, for from a low condition, he became rich, and in the space of a few years, Mayor of the town, and then the story of the bedstead came to be rumoured by the servants. At his death, he left his estate to his wife, who continued to keep the inn, though she was known to be very rich, which put some wicked persons upon engaging the maid-servant to assist in robbing her. These folks to the number of seven, lodged in the house, plundered it, and carried off some horse loads of valuable things, yet left a considerable quantity of valuables scattered about the floor. As for Mrs. Clarke, who was very fat, she endeavoured to cry out for help, upon which her maid thrust her fingers down her throat, and choaked her, for which act she was burnt, and the seven men who were her accomplices, were hanged at Leicester, some time in the year

1613.

have been secreted where it was subsequently discovered,
by the king himself, to be available for his purposes
after
the battle.
Could Mr. Kelly, or any reader of Current Notes
say what has become of this bedstead, or in whose pos-
session it now remains?

King Richard's body after the battle, was, it is as-
serted, exposed for some time, and then buried in the
church of the Grey Friars, in Leicester. It is also
stated, that King Henry VII. bestowed a monument
upon his rival, which, on the dissolution of religious
houses by Henry VIII., was demolished, and Richard's
stone coffin actually served for a horse trough, at the
White Horse Inn, in Leicester.
Downpatrick, May 1.
JAMES A. PILSON.

The tradition quoted by your correspondent, Mr. J. A. PILSON, is well known in this locality, and generally speaking is, in all its details, as an article of faith, popularly believed. Sir Roger Twysden, in his Decem Scriptores, 1652, first placed these assertions upon record; and he is said to have "had it from persons of undoubted credit, who were not only inhabitants of Leicester, but who saw the murderers executed," and from him, these assertions have been transmitted by subsequent writers, down to Miss Halstead, in whose biography of Richard III., they have been garnished by some slight poetical embellishments. The advance however that has been made of late years in the study of archæology, and the distinguished characteristics of architecture, furniture, and moveables, has been the means of exposing many falsely supposed reliques, and the so long vaunted King Richard the Third's bedstead is among the number. Among the most prominent of those who expressed their doubts on the subject, was Mr. J. G. Nichols, who, proceeding to the opposite extreme, in an article some years since in the Gentleman's Magazine, and more recently in the Literary Remains of Mr. J. S. Hardy, edited by him, endeavoured to prove that the whole tradition, which rested solely on the authority of Sir Roger Twysden, was nothing more than "an old wife's tale," nay, that the king never slept at the Blue Boar at all; and still more, that there was no such inn at Leicester.

Without attempting a thorough investigation of these assertions, I shall content myself with noticing the more salient points of the story, and of Mr. Nichols's doubts. That the Blue Boar Inn at Leicester, was well known in the reign of Queen Elizabeth there are ample documentary proofs; whilst the traditionary story of the murder of Mrs. Clarke, has since the publication of Mr. Nichols's denial of the fact, been confirmed in the main relation, by the discovery in the Borough Munisub-ment Room, of the original depositions of the witnesses in the case, taken before the Justices of the Peace, at the time of the murder. From these documents, the following facts are derived :—

In addition to the foregoing statement by Sir Roger Twysden, I have heard that the bedstead was sequently possessed by one Alderman Drake; I am however of opinion, that it is not at all likely such a piece of furniture would or could be carried about, by a person like Richard III.; it is far more probable that it had been the best in the inn, and that the gold might

Shortly before Christmas, 1603, one Thomas Harrison came out of Staffordshire to Leicester, and lodged

1

for several days at the Blue Boar Inn, then kept by Mrs. | declared that "for his part he did Mrs. Clarke no harm,
Clarke. He there fell in speech with Alice Grumbold,
a maid of the house, in the way of marriage. Where-
upon, she told him, "her mistress had great store of
money in her house, and bade him come again some
night and bring a secret friend with him she might trust,
and there would be means made to get some of her
money." Harrison proceeded to Lichfield, and took into
his confidence Adam Bonus, who communicated the plan
of the robbery to one Edward Bradshaw, and they ar-
ranged to meet at Leicester, and carry it into effect.
Accordingly, Harrison and Bradshaw, on Friday,
ruary 1, 1604, rode to Leicester, and on the following
day, they removed with their horses to the Blue Boar
Inn, lay there all night, and staid all day, on Sunday.
In the mean time Bonus, who had appointed to meet the
others at the Blue Boar, came on Saturday to Leicester,
and after some conversation with Alice Grumbold, in the
absence of Harrison and Bradshaw, determined not to
take part in the intended robbery; and in fact after the
murder, he turned 'king's evidence.'

nor did so much as think to kill or hurt her, but what
Bradshaw did he knew not; for to his knowledge, she
was living at their going away." He added, Alice
Grumbold, "the maid, was the only setter of the match,
for they had not dealt therein but by her procurement."
She however protested, that although she could not clear
herself from the robbery and consenting thereto, she was
clear from the murder of her mistress, and asserted "in
her conscience Bradshaw did murder her."
The plunder bore off by these robbers was never re-
Feb-covered, they declared they did not know what the bags
contained, silver or gold, for in their flight, it was hidden
by them in the bank of a ditch near Pooley park, in
Warwickshire, but they believed, if it consisted of silver,
there was from three to five hundred pounds. Being
apprehended on some other charge and imprisoned,
Bradshaw, through the instrumentality of Lord Stafford,*
was bailed, and on his going to the ditch side for the
money, found it had been removed.

They were subsequently apprehended on the charge of the murder of Mrs. Clarke, and brought to Leicester. The result of the trial appears on record among our Hall papers, in the following notice, on a slip of parchment :

:

Our Assizes holden at Leicester upon Tuesday, March 25, 1606, before Sir Peter Warburton, Knt.; at which Assizes Edward Bradshaw was executed for murthering Mrs. Clarke, and Alice Grumbolde burned for the same murther.' Harrison's fate is not recorded.

Twysden, it is evident, errs in the date assigned by him, and two, not seven men were concerned with the maid Alice, in this diabolical act. The particulars ad

The particulars of the murder are these-Alice Grumbold deposed, that about ten o'clock on Sunday night, Feb. 3, she and her fellow servant, Waters, went into the stable with provender for the horses, and that Bradshaw and Harrison followed them; she then went to the well to draw water for the horses, Bradshaw at the same time returning to the house, where they had left the mistress all alone. On returning to the stable, she found her fellow-servant bound, and Harrison, doubtless according to previous arrangement, seized and bound her also. She was soon however, unbound, and seemingly by force taken by them into the house, to open her mis-vanced however establish the tradition as based on fact. tress's coffers, the first of which was full of linen; the second, full of writings; and the third, contained money. From this last, they took out several bags of money, most of which, having previously brought out their horses, they fastened to the pommels of their saddles. Alice would gladly have gone away with them, whereat they swore by God's wounds, if thou comest with us, thou wilt both hang us and thyself." They then took her into the hall, and there bound her; Harrison at the same time gave her a linen cloth, wherein was money and other things, and said he would in ten days, come again, to fetch her and it. The money she had was 427. 17s., beside two silver rings, and a gold ring. In her second examination, she added, that after she was left bound in the chimney in the hall, her legs not being fast bound, she got up, and went into the buttery to see how her mistress did, where, being unable to get out again, she lay till morning, when one of the neighbours came into the house to light a candle, and unbound her. Beside the plunder carried off, it appears there were seven or eight bags of money or gold,' and certain plate were left behind on Mrs. Clarke's bed. As to the actual perpetration of the murder, no direct evidence appears, possibly the account as narrated by Sir Roger Twisden, may be the fact, and the circumstance of the maid's choaking her mistress, may probably be true. Harrison

The story of King Richard's bedstead, and the discovery of the treasure secreted within it, rests wholly on tradition. That, now recognized as King Richard's bedstead, is indisputably a fine specimen of the late Elizabethan style, and has no concurrent similitude with those constructed more than a century before. Twysden's statement that "from a low condition Clarke soon became rich, and in the course of a few years, Mayor of the Town," would seem to be a recapitulation of some locally accredited belief, while it affords no evidence as to the discovery of the gold in the way related by those who placed credence in the tradition. Thomas Clarke mine host of the Blue Boar Inn, from the mode in which the money and valuables was garnered by Mrs. Clarke, was possibly of thrifty habit, might have inherited property from relations, or from his long and constant success as an innkeeper; still, certain it is that Thomas Clarke was mayor of Leicester, in 1598-9, and was an illiterate character, unable to subscribe his name. By his will, dated June 15, 1603, he bequeathed part of his property to charitable uses, and died a few days later in that month. Search has been made in the Archdeaconry Court for his will, in the hope that the inventory attached to it would afford some fact illustrative of the history of

* Edward Stafford, the third baron, who died in 1625.