Bec, 18. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



S8B 



of none. In reply to a previous question, he had 

 stated that it was a common error to confound 

 martial law with military law, the latter being the 

 ■written code to be found in the Mutiny Act and 

 the articles of war, by which the land forces are 

 Tegulated ; whereas martial law is unwritten, and 

 is merely the exercise of authority by the con- 

 trolling military force during the interval when, in 

 the judgment of the executive, it becomes neces- 

 sary to suspend the ordinary functions of the civil 

 power. Military law applies to the army alone ; 

 martial law embraces all persons, civil as well as 

 military ; it has no precedents nor fixed practice, 

 but adapts itself to the necessities of the moment 

 as to form, whilst aiming to administer substan- 

 tial justice. In a newly conquered country mar- 

 tial law is the discretion of the occupying force 

 previous to the establishment of a civil jurisdiction ; 

 in a disorganised country it is the substitute for a 

 civil jurisdiction for the moment during which the 

 functions of the latter are paralysed : and being 

 the only protection for life or property, it is an 

 object of resort in civil as well as in military 

 matters. 



Perhaps the most graphic definition of martial 

 law was that given by the Duke of Wellington in 

 the House of Lords in 1851, on the occasion of 

 the defence of his government of Ceylon, made by 

 Viscount Torrington, viz. that " martial law means 

 no law at all, but the will of the general" till the 

 ordinary law can be either established or restored. 



W.W.E.T. 



Belgrave Square. 



KICHAKD III. 



(Vol. vi., p. 486.) 



This monarch is said to have had three natural 

 children, of whom Richard Plantagenet — the sub- 

 ject of Mr. Chadwick's inquiry — was assuredly 

 the eldest, as he was fifteen or sixteen years of age 

 at the time of the king's death, which happened 

 when he was only thirty-two. 



The story of Richard Plantagenet is told in 

 Peck's Desiderata Curiosa ; and although the Rev. 

 Robert Masters, in his " Remarks on Walpole's 

 Historic Doubts," printed in the Archceologia, 

 vol. ii. p. 198., discredits the relation, it is substan- 

 tially corroborated by the Rev. Samuel Pegge, one 

 of the ablest antiquaries that England had ever to 

 boast of; and in Drake's Eboracum, p. 117., it is 

 stated that Richard knighted this son, when a 

 youth, at York. 



The story is briefly this : When Sir Thomas 

 Moyle was building his house at Eastwell in Kent, 

 he observed his principal bricklayer, whenever he 

 left off work, to retire with a book. This circum- 

 stance raised the curiosity of Sir Thomas to know 

 what book the man was reading, and he at length 

 found that it was Latin. Upon entering into 



further conversation with his workman, Sir Thomas 

 learnt from him that he had been tolerably edu- 

 cated by a schoolmaster with whom he boarded in 

 his youth ; and that he did not know who his 

 parents were till he was fifteen or sixteen years 

 old, when he was taken to Bosworth field, and 

 introduced to King Richard ; that the king em- 

 braced him, and told him he was his son, and 

 moreover promised to acknowledge him in case of 

 the fortunate event of the battle ; that after the 

 battle was lost he hastened to London, and, that 

 he might have means to live by his honest labour, 

 put himself apprentice to a bricklayer. 



Upon hearing this story, Sir Thomas is said to 

 have allowed him to build a small house for him- 

 self upon his estate, and there he continued till 

 his death, which, according to the register of the 

 parish of Eastwell, took place in the year 1550, 

 when he must have been eighty or eighty-one. 

 years of age. 



Here it may be observed, that this story of the 

 interview on Bosworth field but ill accords with 

 Drake's assertion that the king knighted his son at 

 York. More particulars relating to Richard Plan- 

 tagenet may be seen in the GenUemans Magazine., 

 vol. xxxvii. pp. 344. 408., and vol. Ixiii. p. 1106. 



Another natural son of Richard III. was John 

 of Gloucester, as is shown by a charter printed in 

 Rymer's Fcedera, vol. xii. p. 215., and quoted hy 

 Rapin, who says Richard had only one natural son : 

 " John of Gloucester was yet a minor, when the 

 king his father died. Some months before he had 

 made him governor of Calais, Guisnes, and of all 

 the marches of Picardy, belonging to the crown." 

 This son is also mentioned in J'he History of the 

 Civil Wars between York and Lancaster, — a scarce 

 work, of which I beg to be allowed to say a few 

 words below. 



Besides these two sons, Richard had a natural 

 daughter, Katherine Plantagenet, who is men- 

 tioned in Sandford's Genealogical History (p. 335., 

 edit. 1707). And in Banks' Dormant and Extinct' 

 Baronage, vol. ii. p. 273., under the title of Her- 

 bert, Earl of Huntingdon, it is stated that on the 

 15th Nov., 1 Ric. III., the earl entered into cove- 

 nant with the king to take his daughter Katherine 

 Plantagenet to wife before Michaelmas next en- 

 suing, &c,, " but, the lady dying, in early years, the 

 marriage did not take effect." 



The History of the Civil Wars between York and' 

 Lancaster: comprehending the Lives of Edward IV. 

 and his Brother Richard III. Illustrated with- 

 Notes and Copperplates. This work was printed 

 for the author, by W. Whittingham, of Lynn in 

 Norfolk ; and sold by R. Baldwin, London, 1792, 

 8vo. The former part of the work was written, as 

 the title-page informs us, by Edward Spelman,, 

 Esq.; and the latter, with the notes, by the Rev. 

 George William Lemon, rector of Geyton Thorpe, 

 and vicar of East Walton in Norfolk, The work 



