The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-11-21 00:00:00

INTERESTING HISTORICAL INCIDENT

The Standard (on Tuesday) published the following :
Sir —I send you the following account of "a son of
Richard III.," which I lately met with. It gives
some further particulars than those given from the
pen of 1)r. Thomas Brett, in 1733, as told to him by
the Earl of Winchelsea in 1720, and related by you in
the Standard of Nov. 12, 1874, and yet the account I
send in a sense stands alone. Perhaps some of your
numerous readers may be able to reconcile the two
accounts by Dr. Brett as in Peck's "Desiderata
Curioes" and that I now enclose; or may we hope
that some member of the Dering family may throw
light on the Latin manuscript of which Richard's son
is the reputed author. Some years back I found con-
firmatory evidence of the fact of a natural son of
Richard 111., with some few particulars in his account
given of the battle of Bosworth in Nichols' History of
Leicestershire.—l am, Sir, faithfully yours,
JOHN E. A. INcr., Rector of Athelington, Suffolk.
Athelington Rectory, Wickham Market, Suffolk, Nov. 13.
_ "A SON OF RICHARD 111,
.

"It is on the authority of an anonymous French
writer that I relate the following anecdote. I do not
think it has been noticed by any historis.n. In rebuild.
big Sir Edward Dering's house, situated iu the county
of Kent, there was found among the ruins a Latin
manuscript, the author of which was Richard M.'s
son. The contents of it are to this effect. Richard's
son was brought op privately in the country. lie
neither knew his birth nor fortune. The evening pre-
ceding the battle of Bosworth the King ordered him to
come to his tent, where
•he revealed to him the
important secret of his birth, and presenting him
with fifteen hundred pounds said, "My son, the
success of to-morrow's battle must decide your fate.
If fortunately I should be victorious I will give you a
dukedom. If, on the contrary, I am conquered, forget
what you are, and choose some retreat where the sum
which I have given to you will enable you to live.'
The King's sou concealed himself in a place near the
spot where the battle was fought. Richard- was defeated.
Tbe young Prince immediately departed for London
and bound himself apprentice to a celebrated architect.
lie was now sixteen years of age; but the gracefulness
of his person, his elegance of manners, and his niffile
actions announced him to be of illustrious birth. It
was not long before his master perceived that he pos-
sessed an uncommon genius, and entrusted to him the
execution of the most difficult work. This house
of Sir Edward Bering, in the ruins of which this
manuscript was found, required some repairs, and our
young prince was employed to overlook the workmen,
in which situation he acquired Sir Edward's good
opinion so much that he permitted him to build a
small hermitage on his grounds. In this retreat he
consecrated all his time to reading and contemplation ;
his knowledge, his mildness, and modest behaviour
gained him the esteem of all the neighbourhood. It
VIM in this place that he wrote these memoirs; and
the manuscript, says our author, is now in the posses-
sion of the Bering family, who probably will not favour
the public with a communication of the whole."