ner, Richard III, p. 45). But Mr. Cokayne assumes too much when he says that Clarence was condemned chiefly through the influence of Gloucester (Complete Peerage, ii. 272).
A petition by the commons for justice on the duke gave the king the appearance at least of yielding to outside pressure in ordering the carrying out of the sentence. He waived a public execution, either from personal scruples and motives of prudence, or at the instance of their mother, the widowed Duchess of York (Commines, ii. 147, ed. Lenglet). It was therefore carried out secretly within the Tower on 17 or 18 Feb. 1478. The well-informed Croyland chronicler, a member of Edward's council, does not mention the manner of his death, implying that various rumours were abroad. But three contemporaries, writing somewhat later—two of them English and one French—agree that he was drowned in a butt of malmsey wine, the much-prized vintage of Malvasia in the east of the Morea (‘London Chronicle,’ in MS. Cott. Vitellius, A. xvi. fol. 136; Fabyan, p. 666; Commines, i. 69, ii. 147, ed. Dupont; cf. Busch, England under the Tudors, Engl. transl. i. 406). It may have been only a London rumour. Lingard (iv. 211) dismisses it rather too contemptuously as a ‘silly report.’ Mr. Gairdner suggests that the choice of this mode of death may have been accidental. Shakespeare represents the murderer as finding the butt of malmsey conveniently at hand to complete his work (Richard III, p. 40). Clarence was buried in Tewkesbury Abbey with his wife.
The king, though now rid of the last of the ‘idols to whom the people had been accustomed to look for revolution,’ did not escape the pangs of remorse for this fratricidal execution; when besought to use his prerogative on behalf of malefactors, he would exclaim bitterly, ‘O unfortunate brother, for whose life not one creature would make intercession!’ (Croyl. Cont. p. 562; Grafton, p. 468). Yet we have no sufficient grounds for holding Clarence guiltless of the ingratitude and treason alleged against him. His previous record of weakness and treachery discourages the more charitable view. In person he shared some of the physical advantages of Edward, but he lacked the conspicuous ability of his two brothers.
By Isabella Neville, Clarence had four children, of whom two only survived infancy: Margaret Plantagenet (afterwards Countess of Salisbury, and wife of Sir Richard Pole, born 14 Aug. 1473) [see Pole, Margaret]; and Edward Plantagenet [see Edward, Earl of Warwick], born 25 Feb. 1475. The son, unnamed, born at sea in the spring of 1470, and Richard Plantagenet, born in December 1476, both died quite young.
[Rotuli Parliamentorum; Rymer's Fœdera, orig. edit.; Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas; William Worcester, at end of Stevenson's Wars in France, in Rolls Ser. and ed. Hearne; Warkworth's Chronicle, Arrivall of Edward IV, and Polydore Vergil (Camden Soc.); Chronicles of the White Rose, 1845; Bentley's Excerpta Historica, 1831; Grafton (embodying More) with Hardyng, and Fabyan, ed. Ellis, 1811–12; Croyland Continuator, ed. Fulman, 1684; Commines, ed. Lenglet du Fresnoy, 1747, and Mdlle. Dupont, 1840; Dugdale's Baronage; Complete Peerage, by G. E. C[okayne]; Ramsay's Lancaster and York; other authorities in text.]
PLAT or PLATT, Sir HUGH (1552–1608), writer on agriculture and inventor, baptised at St. James's, Garlickhythe, on 3 May 1552, was third son of Richard Plat or Platt, a London brewer, who, owning property in St. Pancras, London, bequeathed much of it to the foundation and endowment of a free school and six almshouses at Aldenham, Hertfordshire, and was buried at St. James's, Garlickhythe, on 28 Nov. 1600 (Clutterbuck, Hertfordshire, i. 86; Stow, London, ed. Strype, bk. iii. p. 11). Hugh's mother, Alice, was daughter of John Birtles, of Birtles, Cheshire. Plat matriculated as a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, on 12 Nov. 1568, and graduated B.A. in 1571–2. Soon afterwards he became a member of Lincoln's Inn. Amply provided for by his father, he devoted his early years to literary studies. In 1572 he made his first appearance in print as the author of ‘The Floures of Philosophie, with Pleasures of Poetrie annexed to them, as wel plesant to be read as profitable to be folowed of al men,’ London, 12mo, 1572; dedicated to Anne Dudley, countess of Warwick. ‘The Floures of Philosophie’ comprises 883 short sentences from Seneca; ‘The Pleasures of Poetry’ is a collection of miscellaneous poems of a pedestrian order. The only known copy is imperfect (Censura Literaria, iii. 1–7). This work was followed by a similar undertaking, entitled ‘Hvgonis Platti armig. Manuale sententias aliquot Diuinas et Morales complectens partim è Sacris Patribus, partim è Petrarcha philosopho et Poeta celeberrimo decerptas,’ London, 16mo, 1584; new edit. 1594 (Brit. Mus.)
But Plat soon developed active interest in natural science, mechanical inventions, domestic economy, and especially in agriculture. To the last subject he devoted most of his later life. He corresponded with all lovers of gardening and agriculture in the country, and his investigations into the effects of various manures, especially salt and marl,
