Excerpt from Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, Vol. 2 IN giving this second and final volume to the public a few words may seem necessary with regard to the work as a whole, to account for, and in some measure to remedy, the imperfect arrangement of its contents. When I first began collecting the materials, it appeared to me they could not possibly exceed the bulk of a moderate-sized volume. I was far from supposing that, even if I had devoted many years to it, I could have made anything like an exhaustive search, so as to feel finally confident that no important letter had escaped me. But the archives from which most was to be expected, -the few collections of mss. Likely to yield much fruit to a systematic Search, lay within easy reach and comparatively moderate compass. I had also special advantages from other researches prosecuted under the direction of the Master of the Rolls in the Record Office and the British Museum. And when I committed the first sheets to the press, I trusted to have arranged all the materials in true chronological order. As the work advanced, however, I became conscious of omissions. I added appendices. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III. And Henry VII The additional letters here are mainly derived from the same sources as those in the first volume. A small number however, are from foreign archives. These were chiefly obtained from the copies made for the late Record Commission, but I have had the most important compared with their originals at Paris. The greater part of the volume is similar in character to its prede cessor. Avoiding legal and formal documents, the selec tion has all along been limited to contemporary papers of genuine historic interest. Nothing has been re published of which a full and accurate text had been already printed, except some 'of the papers in the Appendix to the present volume. A very few that had appeared in the Archwologia and the French Documents I Md'its, which were too important to be altogether omitted, have been placed there in small type along with kindred matter, partly derived from foreign publications. In another Appendix are notes of some of the most interesting entries on the Patent Rolls of Henry VII., which, besides other uses, may serve as aids to the chronology of the reign.1 Besides these the only matter of a special character is the Scotch correspondence. Of this I shall have occasion to speak a little later. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

English Historical Documents is the most ambitious, impressive and comprehensive collection of documents on English history ever published. An authoritative work of primary evidence, each volume presents material with exemplary scholarly accuracy. Editorial comment is directed towards making sources intelligible rather than drawing conclusions from them. Full account has been taken of modern textual criticism. A general introduction to each volume portrays the character of the period under review and critical bibliographies have been added to assist further investigation. Documents collected include treaties, personal letters, statutes, military dispatches, diaries, declarations, newspaper articles, government and cabinet proceedings, orders, acts, sermons, pamphlets, agricultural instructions, charters, grants, guild regulations and voting records. Volumes are furnished with lavish extra apparatus including genealogical tables, lists of officials, chronologies, diagrams, graphs and maps.