William of Worcester's Chronicle of England
William of Worcester, born around 1415, and died around 1482 was secretary to John Fastolf, the renowned soldier of the Hundred Years War, during which time he collected documents, letters, and wrote a record of events. Following their return to England in 1440 William was witness to major events. Twice in his chronicle he uses the first person: 1. when writing about the murder of Thomas, 7th Baron Scales, in 1460, he writes '… and I saw him lying naked in the cemetery near the porch of the church of St. Mary Overie in Southwark …' and 2. describing King Edward IV's entry into London in 1461 he writes '… proclaimed that all the people themselves were to recognize and acknowledge Edward as king. I was present and heard this, and immediately went down with them into the city'. William’s Chronicle is rich in detail. It is the source of much information about the Wars of the Roses, including the term 'Diabolical Marriage' to describe the marriage of Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s brother John’s marriage to Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he aged twenty, she sixty-five or more, and the story about a paper crown being placed in mockery on the severed head of Richard, 3rd Duke of York.
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Wriothesley's Chronicle 1549 is in Wriothesley's Chronicle.
20th March 1549. Memorandum: the xxth daie of March, 1549, Sir Thomas Seymor. Lord of Sidley1 and High Admirall of England, and brother to my Lord Protector, was beheaded at the Towrehill, which said Lord Admirall was condemned of high treason by the hole Perliament2, as by an Act made by the same more plainelie appeareth3.
Note 1. Baron of Sudley.
Note 2. On the 4th of March a message came from the King to the Commons stating that "he thought it was not necessary to send for the Admiral, but that the Lords should come down and renew before them the evidence they had given in their own House;" and thereupon the Bill of Attainder was agreed to in a House of about four hundred members, not more than ten or twelve voting in the negative.-See Burnet, ii. p. 99.
Note 3. Strype, in his notes to Hayward, pp. 301-3, has given a full account of these proceedings from the Journals of the two Houses, to prove "how fairly the admiral was judged and dealt with in the Parliament." The journals notice that the Lord Protector was present at each reading of the Bill.