HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. Ill 



rant delivered from the constable of the castle to the 

 hand of Sir Robert Willoughby : and by him with 

 all safety and diligence conveyed to the Tower of 

 London, where he was shut up close prisoner. 

 Which act of the king s, being an act merely of 

 policy and power, proceeded not so much from any 

 apprehension he had of doctor Shaw s tale at Paul s 

 cross for the bastarding of Edward the Fourth s 

 issues, in which case this young gentleman was to 

 succeed, for that fable was ever exploded, but upon 

 a settled disposition to depress all eminent persons 

 of the line of York. Wherein still the king out of 

 strength of will, or weakness of judgement, did use 

 to shew a little more of the party than of the king. 



For the lady Elizabeth, she received also a direc 

 tion to repair with all convenient speed to London, 

 and there to remain with the queen dowager her 

 mother ; which accordingly she soon after did, ac 

 companied with many noblemen and ladies of honour. 

 In the mean season the king set forwards by easy 

 journeys to the city of London, receiving the accla 

 mations and applauses of the people as he went, 

 which indeed were true and unfeigned, as might 

 well appear in the very demonstrations and fulness 

 of the cry. For they thought generally, that he was a 

 prince, as ordained and sent down from heaven, to 

 unite and put to an end the long dissensions of the 

 two houses ; which although they had had, in the 

 times of Henry the Fourth, Henry the Fifth, and a 

 part of Henry the Sixth, on the one side, and the 

 times of Edward the Fourth on the other, lucid in- 



