Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third

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Historic Doubts on the Life and
Reign of King Richard the Third

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of King
Richard the Third, by Horace Walpole
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Title: Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third
Author: Horace Walpole

Release Date: December 28, 2005 [eBook #17411]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIC
DOUBTS ON THE LIFE AND REIGN OF KING RICHARD THE
THIRD***

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HISTORIC DOUBTS OF THE LIFE AND REIGN OF KING
RICHARD THE THIRD.
by
MR. HORACE WALPOLE.

L'histoire n'est fondee que sur le tomoignage des Auteurs qui nous l'ont
transmisse. Il importe donc extremement, pour la scavoir, de bien
connoitre quels etoient ces Auteurs. Rien n'est a negliger en ce point; le
tems ou ils ont vecu, leur naissance, leur patrie, le part qu'ils ont eue
aux affaires, les moyens par lesquels ils ont ete instruits, et l'interet
qu'ils y pouvaient prendre, sont des circonstances essentielles qu'il n'est
pas permis d'ignorer: dela depend le plus ou le moins d'autorite qu'ils
doivent avoir: et sans cette connoissance, on courra risque tres souvent
de prendre pour guide un Historien de mauvaisse foi, ou du moins, mal
informe. Hist. de l'Acad. des Inscript. Vol. X.
LONDON
First Published 1768
PREFACE
So incompetent has the generality of historians been for the province
they have undertaken, that it is almost a question, whether, if the dead
of past ages could revive, they would be able to reconnoitre the events
of their own times, as transmitted to us by ignorance and
misrepresentation. All very ancient history, except that of the
illuminated Jews, is a perfect fable. It was written by priests, or
collected from their reports; and calculated solely to raise lofty ideas of
the origin of each nation. Gods and demi-gods were the principal actors;
and truth is seldom to be expected where the personages are

supernatural. The Greek historians have no advantage over the
Peruvian, but in the beauty of their language, or from that language
being more familiar to us. Mango Capac, the son of the sun, is as
authentic a founder of a royal race, as the progenitor of the Heraclidae.
What truth indeed could be expected, when even the identity of person
is uncertain? The actions of one were ascribed to many, and of many to
one. It is not known whether there was a single Hercules or twenty.
As nations grew polished. History became better authenticated. Greece
itself learned to speak a little truth. Rome, at the hour of its fall, had the
consolation of seeing the crimes of its usurpers published. The
vanquished inflicted eternal wounds on their conquerors--but who
knows, if Pompey had succeeded, whether Julius Caesar would not
have been decorated as a martyr to publick liberty? At some periods the
suffering criminal captivates all hearts; at others, the triumphant tyrant.
Augustus, drenched in the blood of his fellow-citizens, and Charles
Stuart, falling in his own blood, are held up to admiration. Truth is left
out of the discussion; and odes and anniversary sermons give the law to
history and credulity.
But if the crimes of Rome are authenticated, the case is not the same
with its virtues. An able critic has shown that nothing is more
problematic than the history of the three or four first ages of that city.
As the confusions of the state increased, so do the confusions in its
story. The empire had masters, whose names are only known from
medals. It is uncertain of what princes several empresses were the
wives. If the jealousy of two antiquaries intervenes, the point becomes
inexplicable. Oriuna, on the medals of Carausius, used to pass for the
moon: of late years it is become a doubt whether she was not his
consort. It is of little importance whether she was moon or empress: but
'how little must we know of those times, when those land-marks to
certainty, royal names, do not serve even that purpose! In the cabinet of
the king of France are several coins of sovereigns, whose country
cannot now be guessed at.
The want of records, of letters, of printing, of critics; wars, revolutions,
factions, and other causes, occasioned these defects in ancient history.

Chronology and astronomy are forced to tinker up and reconcile, as
well as they can, those uncertainties. This satisfies the learned--but
what should we think of