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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Effigy of The Boy Bishop is in Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
THIS effigy is not more than three feet in length. From the custom which prevailed of children educated by the church choosing on St. Nicholas's day (6th December), in mock ceremony, a bishop from their number, this figure has obtained the appellation of the Boy or Chorister Bishop.
Some reasonable doubt may however exist whether this be not a memorial for an adult, a real Bishop of the See of Salisbury. The size of the figure alone appears to countenance the legendary tale, and the monument of Athelmar Bishop of Winchester, in the cathedral of that church, of the same age (which was erected to show the spot where his heart had according to his direction been interred), is equally diminutive.