The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 715 pages of information about The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3).

The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 715 pages of information about The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3).

“So after that,” said Sir William [Midsummer, 1532], “I went to Oxford, intending that my brother George and I should kill a buck with Sir Simon Harcourt, which he had promised me; and there at Oxford, in the said Jones’s chamber, I did see certain stillatories, alembics, and other instruments of glass, and also a sceptre and other things, which he said did appertain to the conjuration of the four kings; and also an image of white metal; and in a box, a serpent’s skin, as he said, and divers books and things, whereof one was a book which he said was my Lord Cardinal’s, having pictures in it like angels.  He told me he could make rings of gold, to obtain favour of great men; and said that my Lord Cardinal had such; and promised my said brother and me, either of us, one of them; and also he showed me a round thing like a ball of crystal.

“He said that if the King’s Grace went over to France [the Calais visit of October, 1532], his Grace should marry my Lady Marchioness of Pembroke before that his Highness returned again; and that it would be dangerous to his Grace, and to the most part of the noblemen that should go with him; saying also that he had written to one of the king’s council to advise his Highness not to go over, for if he did, it should not be for his Grace’s profit.”

The wizard next pretended that he had seen a vision of a certain room in a tower, in which a spirit had appeared with a coat of arms in his hand, and had “delivered the same to Sir William Neville.”  The arms being described as those of the Warwick family, Sir William, his brother, and Jones rode down from Oxford to Warwick, where they went over the castle.  The wizard professed to recognise in a turret chamber the room in which he had seen the spirit, and he prophesied that Sir William should recover the earldom, the long-coveted prize of all the Neville family.

On their return to Oxford, Jones, continues Sir William, said further, “That there should be a field in the north about a se’n-night before Christmas, in which my Lord my brother [Lord Latimer] should be slain; the realm should be long without a king; and much robbery would be within the realm, specially of abbeys and religious houses, and of rich men, as merchants, graziers, and others; so that, if I would, he at that time would advise me to find the means to enter into the said castle for mine own safeguard, and divers persons would resort unto me. None of Cadwallader’s blood, he told me, should reign more than twenty-four years; and also that Prince Edward [son of Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou, killed at Tewkesbury], had issue a son which was conveyed over sea; and there had issue a son which was yet alive, either in Saxony or Almayne; and that either he or the King of Scots should reign next after the King’s Grace that now is.  To all which I answered,” Sir William concluded, “that there is nothing which the will of God is that a man shall obtain, but that he of his goodness will put

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The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.