PREFACE. 



He sent copies of the history, to the Queen of 

 Bohemia, and to the Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Williams, 

 his successor. 



&quot; To the Queen of Bohemia. 

 &quot; It may please your Majesty, 



&quot; I find in books, and books I dare alledge to 

 &quot; your majesty in regard of your singular ability to 

 ts read and judge of them even above your sex, that 

 &quot; it is accounted a great bliss for a man to have 

 &quot; leisure with honour. That was never my fortune, 

 (f nor is. For time was, I had honour without 

 &quot; leisure ; and now I have leisure without honour. 

 t And I cannot say so neither altogether, consider- 

 &quot; ing there remain with me the marks and stamp 

 &quot;of the king s, your father s, grace, though I 

 &quot; go not for so much in value as I have done. 

 tf But my desire is now to have leisure without 

 &quot; loitering, and not to become an abbey-lubber, 

 &quot; as the old proverb was, but to yield some fruit 

 &quot; of my private life. Having therefore written 

 the reign of your majesty s famous ancestor, King 

 &quot; Henry the Seventh, and it having passed the file 

 &quot; of his Majesty s judgment, and been graciously 

 &quot; also accepted of the prince, your brother, to whom 

 r&amp;lt; it is dedicated, I could not forget my duty so far 

 &quot; to your excellent majesty, to whom, for that I 

 &quot; know and have heard, I have been at all times so 

 &quot; much bound, as you are ever present with me, 

 both in affection and admiration, as not to make 

 &quot; unto you, in all humbleness, a present thereof, as 

 &quot; now being not able to give you tribute of any ser- 

 vice. If King Henry the Seventh were alive again, 



