Page:The religious life of King Henry VI.djvu/84

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58
PERSONALITY AND

John Stow, the chronicler, can vouch for the ordinary opinion of England regarding King Henry VI in the latter half of the sixteenth century. In his Annals (ed. 1592) he thus writes: "The one and twentieth of May, King Edward came to London with 30,000 men, and the same night King Henry was murdered in the Tower of London. On the morrow he was brought to St. Paules Church in London, in an open coffin barefaced, where he bled: thence he was carried to the Black Friars and he bled: and thence to Chertsey Abbey in a boat, where he was buried, but since removed to Windsor where he was buried without the chancel at the south door of the choir of Windsor Chapel. Here he was worshipped by the name of holy King Henry: whose red hat of velvet was thought to heal the headache of such as should put it on their heads. There he rested for a time, but now his tomb being taken thence it is not (commonly) known what is become of his body."

"Thus ended the King's transitory life: having enjoyed as great prosperity as favourable fortune could afford, and as great troubles on the other side, as she frowning could pour