Jean de Waurin's Chronicle of England Volume 6 Books 3-6: The Wars of the Roses
Jean de Waurin was a French Chronicler, from the Artois region, who was born around 1400, and died around 1474. Waurin’s Chronicle of England, Volume 6, covering the period 1450 to 1471, from which we have selected and translated Chapters relating to the Wars of the Roses, provides a vivid, original, contemporary description of key events some of which he witnessed first-hand, some of which he was told by the key people involved with whom Waurin had a personal relationship.
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Shot himself is in Suicide.
On 4th September 1701 Charles Granville 2nd Earl Bath (age 40) shot himself; he was found dead in a chair in his bedroom, wounded in the head, with two pistols, one of which had been fired. His son William (age 9) succeeded 3rd Earl Bath, 3rd Baron Granville of Kilkhampton and Biddeford.
On 1st January 1755 Henry Bromley 1st Baron Montfort (age 49) shot himself. He was buried at the Trinity Chapel, Conduit Street. Baron Montfort of Horseheath extinct. He left debts of £30,000 with an estate out of repair and in a very ruinous condition.
In 15th August 1776 John Damer (age 32) shot himself at the Bedford Arms Covent Garden being heavily in debt.
On 13th February 1818 Richard Croft 6th Baronet (age 56) shot himself as a consequence of the death of Princess Charlotte Augusta Hanover to whom he had been physician during her labour. A copy of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost was found open with the passage (Act V, Scene II): "Fair Sir, God save you! Where is the Princess?". He was buried at St James' Church, Piccadilly.His son Thomas (age 19) succeeded 7th Baronet Croft of Croft Castle in Herefordshire.
On 17th January 1848 Henry St John-Mildmay 4th Baronet (age 60) shot himself. His reason for committing suicide believed to be financial difficulties. His son Henry (age 38) succeeded 5th Baronet St John-Mildmay of Farley in Southampton.
On 14th January 1891 Francis Russell 9th Duke Bedford (age 71) shot himself as a result of insanity at 81 Eaton Square, Belgravia. His son George (age 38) succeeded 10th Duke Bedford, 10th Marquess Tavistock, 14th Earl Bedford, 14th Baron Russell of Cheneys, 12th Baron Russell of Thornhaugh, 10th Baron Howland of Streatham. Adeline Marie Somers Duchess Bedford (age 38) by marriage Duchess Bedford.
Monument in the Bedford Chapel, St Michael's Church, Chenies erected by Elizabeth Sackville-West Duchess Bedford (age 72) in 1892.
On 4th February 1941 John Lambton (age 20) shot himself.
Sydney Morning Herald, 5th February 1941: "Viscount Lambton, who was found shot on the lawn of his family's home in Northumberland on Tuesday, was found by the coroner to have committed suicide while temporarily unbalanced. It was stated in evidence that he had been an abnormal child and had tried to turn night into day, sleeping in the daytime and working at night.
On 3rd March 1952 Vivian Tyrell Champion de Crespigny 8th Baronet (age 44) shot himself in the head at Pulau Brani near Singapore. Baronet Champion de Crespigny of Champion Lodge in Surrey extinct.
On 22nd October 1983 Thomas Craven 7th Earl Craven (age 26) shot himself. His brother Simon (age 22) succeeded 8th Earl Craven in Yorkshire, 8th Viscount Uffington, 14th Baron Craven of Hamstead Marshall in Berkshire.
Montreal Gazette: "Earl of Craven fears olf curse and kills himself. Eastbourne, England (AP). The seventh Earl of Craven — who lived in fear of a curse that all the males of his family would die young — has killed himself at age 26, police said. Thomas Robert Douglas Craven fatally shot himself at the home of his mother, Countess Elizabeth Craven, police reported. His body was found Saturday. None of Craven's direct ancestors going back to the 17th century reached the age of 60. His father, the sixth earl, drowned at age 47 when he fell off a yacht during a party in 1965. Leukemia killed his grandfather, the fifth earl, at age 35. The reputed curse says that all Craven boys will die before their mothers, Residents in the earl's village of Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire, said it was uttered by a village mother whose daughter was made pregnant by a Craven ancestor. 'They were a family that over the years never mixed closely in village affairs and I think the curse developed because of the antagonism between them and the local folk,' said one elderly man. The young earl was unmarried. Anne Nicholson, his former girlfriend and mother of their seven-year-old son, Thomas, was quoted last year as saying: 'The curse of the Cravens does worry him (the earl) a lot. He rarely discusses it, but it's at the back of his mind most of the time. It's an awful thing because it seems tp have come true in the past. It makes me worry about our little Tommy.' The earl's only son will not inherit the earldom because he is illegitimate. The title passes to the earl's 22-year-old brother, Simon George Craven, The Cravens can trace their line back to William the Conqueror, who invaded England and won its crown in 1066. The Craven estates were once among the largest in Britain, embracing 8,000 hectares in Berkshire alone, but they have dwindled to a few properties."
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On 22nd April 1998 John Arscott Molesworth-St Aubyn 15th Baronet (age 71) shot himself. He was buried at Egloshayle Church [Map]. His son William (age 39) succeeded 16th Baronet Molesworth of Pencarrow in Cornwall.
The Independent of Ireland reported:
A millionaire aristocrat killed himself after becoming depressed by the huge task of managing his country estates. Lieut-Col Sir Arscott Molesworth-St Aubyn, 71, shot himself in the butler's pantry at his Georgian mansion as his wife Lady Iona slept upstairs.
He had property worth an estimated £41m but struggled with the workload involved in generating enough income to keep 12-bedroom Pencarrow House, near Wadebridge, Cornwall, and its 1,500 acres.
An inquest heard how Sir Arscott and Lady Iona, 63, had battled for years to improve the estate, which he inherited 30 years ago. A suicide verdict was returned after a jury heard the baronet had a 14-year history of depression.
On 25th February 2024 Thomas Kingston shot himself while under the adverse effects of antidepressants.
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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Captain Clarence Trelawny shot himself.