CHAPTER V

HENRY TUDOR IN THE DOCK

Description of Henry VII. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 His lawless executions after Bosworth . . . . . . . . . . 247 Responsible for the lives of royal children . . . . . . . 248 Henry's character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Necessity to strengthen his position . . . . . . . . . . . 250 His Parliament of outlaws. Unjust attainders . . . . . . 251 Loyal men attainted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Silent about the late King's nephews. Were they missing? 253 If alive, Henry's marriage necessitated their deaths . . . 254 Henry's treatment of other victims in his way . . . . . . 255 The fate of the princes, if alive, was sealed by the marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Imprisonment of the Queen Dowager . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Henry put forward a story, in Polydore Virgil . . . . . . 258 A more detailed story, published by Rastell and Grafton 260-263 Rewards alleged to have been given by Richard to murderers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264, 265 Confession of Tyrrel and Dighton fabricated . . . . . . . 267 Genesis of these stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Some account of Sir James Tyrrel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Henry's grant to John Green. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Tyrrel taken into favour. His two pardons . . . . . . . . 269 Murder of the two Princes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Relations silenced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270-271 Hush money to 'Black Will' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Reward to Dighton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 Rewards and employments for Tyrrel . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 Treacherous arrest and hurried execution of Tyrrel . . . . 273 Dighton to reside at Calais . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 The story put forward and generally accepted . . . . . . . 274 {xix} Judicial murder of the Earl of Warwick . . . . . . . . . . 275 Henry's remorse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Elizabeth saw the cruel treatment of her mother and cousin Her death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Henry's design to kill the Earl of Suffolk . . . . . . . . 277 His death. Successful as this world counts success . . . 278 Things unexplained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279, 280