The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West

Excerpt: ...enterprises, holden, sustained, and set forward, above all God's forbode. And this account is corroborated by documents in the Stafford MSS., quoted by the historian of Shrewsbury. The passage on the subject is as follows:- And so all the gentlemen of Harrefordshire weare send for by Privy Seale to King Richard to Salisburie, and by that time Duke Henry of Buckingham, was brought by Sir James Tyler, the third daye, wheare he was pittifullie murdered by the said Kinge, for raisinge power to bring in King Henrie the Seventh. The Duke having been thus summarily disposed of, what became of the wretch that betrayed him? One account narrates,- Banister and his whole family were destroyed by the surprizing judgments of the Almighty. The Usurper refused to pay him the thousand pounds promised in the Proclamation, saying, 'He that would betray so good a Master, would be false to any other.' But according to another, and truer version, the informer received his reward, and,- with the king's commendation of his service in his letters patent; for he gave him the Manour and Lordship of Ealding in Kent, late belonging to the Duke of Buckingham. So the letters ran,-' Richard &c.,-to al and singular the Officers, &c.,-Wit ye, that in consideration of the true and faithful service which our well beloved servant Rauf Banistre Esq, now late hath done unto us, for and about the taking and bringing of our said great Rebel into our hands, we have given unto the said Rauf, and to his heirs male, the said Manour for ever.' Both giver and receiver a congenial pair, and the gift that passed a characteristic one, being a portion of the spoil of their victim. Of such men it may be said,- Shame and Desolation sit By their graves ever. But where was Buckingham buried, after he had been thus condemned and executed in such summary way, on a new scaffold erected in the Market-place of Salisbury. A tomb to his memory is...