LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP and Other Early Works also spelled LOVE AND FREINDSHIP

which the Picture we have here given of him, and his undaunted

Behaviour in marrying one Woman while he was engaged to another,

are sufficient proofs. His Wife was Elizabeth Woodville, a Widow

who, poor Woman! was afterwards confined in a Convent by that

Monster of Iniquity and Avarice Henry the 7th. One of Edward’s

Mistresses was Jane Shore, who has had a play written about her,

but it is a tragedy and therefore not worth reading. Having

performed all these noble actions, his Majesty died, and was

succeeded by his son.

EDWARD the 5th

This unfortunate Prince lived so little a while that nobody had

him to draw his picture. He was murdered by his Uncle’s

Contrivance, whose name was Richard the 3rd.

RICHARD the 3rd

The Character of this Prince has been in general very severely

treated by Historians, but as he was a YORK, I am rather inclined

to suppose him a very respectable Man. It has indeed been

confidently asserted that he killed his two Nephews and his Wife,

but it has also been declared that he did not kill his two

Nephews, which I am inclined to beleive true; and if this is the

case, it may also be affirmed that he did not kill his Wife, for

if Perkin Warbeck was really the Duke of York, why might not

Lambert Simnel be the Widow of Richard. Whether innocent or

guilty, he did not reign long in peace, for Henry Tudor E. of

Richmond as great a villain as ever lived, made a great fuss

about getting the Crown and having killed the King at the battle

of Bosworth, he succeeded to it.

HENRY the 7th

This Monarch soon after his accession married the Princess

Elizabeth of York, by which alliance he plainly proved that he

thought his own right inferior to hers, tho’ he pretended to the

contrary. By this Marriage he had two sons and two daughters,

the elder of which Daughters was married to the King of Scotland

and had the happiness of being grandmother to one of the first

Characters in the World. But of HER, I shall have occasion to

speak more at large in future. The youngest, Mary, married first

the King of France and secondly the D. of Suffolk, by whom she

had one daughter, afterwards the Mother of Lady Jane Grey, who

tho’ inferior to her lovely Cousin the Queen of Scots, was yet an

amiable young woman and famous for reading Greek while other

people were hunting. It was in the reign of Henry the 7th that

Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel before mentioned made their

appearance, the former of whom was set in the stocks, took

shelter in Beaulieu Abbey, and was beheaded with the Earl of

Warwick, and the latter was taken into the Kings kitchen. His

Majesty died and was succeeded by his son Henry whose only merit

was his not being quite so bad as his daughter Elizabeth.

HENRY the 8th

It would be an affront to my Readers were I to suppose that they

were not as well acquainted with the particulars of this King’s

reign as I am myself. It will therefore be saving THEM the task

of reading again what they have read before, and MYSELF the

trouble of writing what I do not perfectly recollect, by giving

only a slight sketch of the principal Events which marked his

reign. Among these may be ranked Cardinal Wolsey’s telling the

father Abbott of Leicester Abbey that “he was come to lay his

bones among them,” the reformation in Religion and the King’s

riding through the streets of London with Anna Bullen. It is

however but Justice, and my Duty to declare that this amiable

Woman was entirely innocent of the Crimes with which she was

accused, and of which her Beauty, her Elegance, and her

Sprightliness were sufficient proofs, not to mention her solemn

Protestations of Innocence, the weakness of the Charges against

her, and the King’s Character; all of which add some

confirmation, tho’ perhaps but slight ones when in comparison

with those before alledged in her favour. Tho’ I do not profess

giving many dates, yet as I think it proper to give some and

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