II. THE KING'S FATE.
On the evening of the day on which the Battle of Bosworth Field had been lost and won, both the protagonists of the drama arrived at Leicester; Henry riding in triumph with Richard's crown upon his head, and the body of the fallen King ignominiously thrown naked across a horse, with the feet hanging down on one side and the head and arms on the other. "The dead corps of King Richarde was as shamefully caryed to the Towne of Leycestre," wrote Holinshed, "as he gorgeously the day before with pompe and pryde departed out of the same Towne." It seems certain that the conqueror allowed the corpse to be exposed publicly for two days, in order, probably, to advertise and demonstrate the fact of Richard's death. This exhibition was generally supposed by the historians of Leicester, Throsby, Nichols and Thompson, to have taken place at the old Guild Hall in Blue Boar Lane, but this has been disproved by Kelly, on the strength of a document from the Harleian MSS, published in Hutton's "Bosworth Field," which points to the Collegiate Church of Our Lady of the Newarke as the place of exhibition, "They brought King Richard thither that night as naked as ever he was born, and in the Newarke was he laid that many a man might see." Kelly might also have quoted the popular ballads which were composed after this event, and which may be considered respectable authorities on a point of this kind. In one of these ballads it is said that, after Richard had been "dungen to death with many derfe strokes," he was cast on a "capull," or horse (caballus, cheval), and carried to Leicester, "and naked into Newarke." Or, as the author of the ballad of "Bosworth Field" puts it:—
"Then they rode to Lester that night
With our noble Prince King Henerye ;
They brought King Richard thither with might,
As naked as he borne might be,
And in Newarke Laid was hee,
That many a one might look on him.
Thus ffortunes raignes most marvelouslye
Both with Emperour and with King."
After this public exhibition, the body was buried, without any funeral solemnities, in the Church of the Grey Friars. The
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