FROM HARDINGE 17 JULY 1780 607

'The figure of every hero and heroine of the family is delineated in colours. The person of Richard III, who married the heiress6 of this family, is represented as erect, graceful, and genteel. His sonV face is like his own. Under the father's portrait is this character: "The moost myghty Prynce Rychard, by the grace of God, Kynge of Ynglond and of Fraunce, and Lord of Irelond, by verrey matrimony uithout dicontynewance or any defylynge yn the lawe by eyre male lineally dyscendynge fro Kynge Harre the Second—all avaryce set a syde, rewled his subjectys yn hys realme full commendabylly, pun- ishyng offenders of hys lawes, specially extorcioners and oppressers of hys comyns and chereschyng tho that were vertues, by the whyche dyscrete guydynge he gat gret thanke of God and love of all his sub­ jettys, ryche and pore, and gret laud of the people of all other landys about hym." ' Is not this an extraordinary character, given of Richard III after his death and in the reign of VII? Carte,8 I am told, in his new history, vindicates Richard (as Bucks has done before him) from at least many of the crimes imputed to him, and has attempted to demonstrate that Perkin Warbeck10 was really the Duke of York, brother of Edward V. The portrait of Richard III in this genealogy is a confirmation of Lady Desmond's11 report, and the character is a great coincidence in his favour. I am aware of all that you have said relative to this author in your Historic Doubts; and yet I cannot help thinking that such a character, drawn by him in the reign of Henry VII and for the Earl of Warwick12 or his family, an evidence of some weight. It proves, first,tha t Richard III could not have maltreated Anne Beauchamp,^ his mother-in-law, else this character

6. Anne Neville (1456-85), dau. of Rich- son of Edward IV. ard Neville (1428-71), 16th E. of Warwick, 11. Catherine Fitzgerald (d. 1604) m. called 'the king-maker'; she m. 1 (1470) (between 1505 and 1534) Thomas Fitz- Edward, Prince of Wales (son of Henry thomas Fitzgerald, 11th E. of Desmond, VI), 2 (1472) Richard, , 1529. She was said to have danced with later (1483-5) Richard III, K. of England. Richard III whom she described as 'very 7. Edward (1473-84), Prince of Wales. well-made' (HW to Charles O'Hara 17 8. Thomas Carte (1686-1754), author of Sept. 1757). the General History of England, 1747-55. 12. Edward Plantagenet (1475-99), 2d 9. Sir George Buc or Buck (d. 1623), E. of Warwick, n.c, was the only male Kt; author of the History of the Life and holder the Warwick title in Henry VII's Reigne of Richard the Third, 1646. On reign. p. 79 he defends Richard from the charge 13. Anne Beauchamp (ca 1426-92), m. of deformity (COLE ii. 153, n. 12). (i434) Richard Neville, 16th and 1st E. of 10. (1474-99). who Warwick; she was cr. (1450) Cts of War- claimed the English throne as being wick, s.j. Her daughter Anne married Richard (1473-83 to 85), Duke of York, Richard III.