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48 To. John Fenn

jealous time of being too partial to his wife's family. There
is another person whom I think it still more likely to repre-
sent, which is Sir Charles Somerset¹, afterwards Earl of
Worcester, of the bastard line as Harry 7th himself was,
and ancestor of the Dukes of Beaufort. I know no man
either in that reign or the subsequent so likely to have
affected that royal badge, both as it flattered the King's and
his own very scanty pretensions to blood royal.

If we suppose it, as I own the dress inclines me to think,
of the reign of Henry 8th, I can find nobody whom it so
probably exhibits as Edward Stafford, the last Duke of
Buckingham, a true prince of the blood, and who aiming
at the crown, and being also, by his grandmother²1 think,
descended from the Somersets, might affect the red rose,
the only royal cognizance of which the Henrys were not
jealous.

I could still hint at another person, supposing the picture
painted in the reign of Henry 7th, who was very likely to
give the cognizance of Lancaster; I mean, his uncle, Jasper
Duke of Bedford.

In short, Sir, I fear we may multiply conjectures, and
yet not ascertain the specific person intended, as there are
only marks enough to furnish guesses, and we have not
lights from that age sufficient to identify the person. I
wish I could have given you better assistance ; but I had
rather leave obscurities in their darkness than, as most
antiquaries do, pronounce rashly. Truth is the sole merit
of most antiquities; and when we cannot discover the truth,
what value is there in dogmatic error about things that have
no intrinsic value ?—and such were all our pictures before

¹ Natural son of Henry Somerset, ² The grandmother of the Duke of
third Duke of Beaufort, whose sur- Buckingham was Lady Joan Beau-
name he assumed. He was created fort, the legitimated daughter of
Earl of Worcester in 1514, and died John of (Jaunt, Duke of Lancaster,
in 1526.



	48 To. John Fenn jealous time of being too partial to his wife's family. There is another person whom I think it still more likely to repre- sent, which is Sir Charles Somerset¹, afterwards Earl of Worcester, of the bastard line as Harry 7th himself was, and ancestor of the Dukes of Beaufort. I know no man either in that reign or the subsequent so likely to have affected that royal badge, both as it flattered the King's and his own very scanty pretensions to blood royal. If we suppose it, as I own the dress inclines me to think, of the reign of Henry 8th, I can find nobody whom it so probably exhibits as Edward Stafford, the last Duke of Buckingham, a true prince of the blood, and who aiming at the crown, and being also, by his grandmother²1 think, descended from the Somersets, might affect the red rose, the only royal cognizance of which the Henrys were not jealous. I could still hint at another person, supposing the picture painted in the reign of Henry 7th, who was very likely to give the cognizance of Lancaster; I mean, his uncle, Jasper Duke of Bedford. In short, Sir, I fear we may multiply conjectures, and yet not ascertain the specific person intended, as there are only marks enough to furnish guesses, and we have not lights from that age sufficient to identify the person. I wish I could have given you better assistance ; but I had rather leave obscurities in their darkness than, as most antiquaries do, pronounce rashly. Truth is the sole merit of most antiquities; and when we cannot discover the truth, what value is there in dogmatic error about things that have no intrinsic value ?—and such were all our pictures before ¹ Natural son of Henry Somerset, ² The grandmother of the Duke of third Duke of Beaufort, whose sur- Buckingham was Lady Joan Beau- name he assumed. He was created fort, the legitimated daughter of Earl of Worcester in 1514, and died John of (Jaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in 1526.