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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. FEB. 12, ma
A Phantom Parliament (11 S. xii. 29, 306).—On account of the supposition put forth by Mr. J. H. Murray in his reply, viz., that the "Phantom Parliament" must refer to the vision seen by Charles XI. of Sweden, I beg to mention the following:—
The said "vision" has been among the most popular of Swedish legends. No less than forty-six special editions of it, printed between 1817 and 1893, are preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm. The contents of the publication, however, differ essentially from the account which Mr. Murray has given of it from the texts quoted by him. Thus it was not a session of the Swedish Parliament which the King is said to have witnessed. What he saw was a young king with his councillors; it was not one, but many persons who had to put their heads under the executioner's axe in the presence of them, &c.; and in the original publication there is nothing whatever to be found that might be applied to the death of Gustavus III. and to the execution of his murderer.
That this publication is a mere fiction needs no proof; it is supposed to have originated about 1740 for the purpose of deterring the elected successor, Adolphus Frederick, from accepting the crown offered to him. The story, again, reproduced by Mr. Murray originates from the celebrated French author Prosper Mérimée, who, in a juvenile work published 1830 in the Revue de Paris, has treated the Swedish anecdote in a free way, and adapted it to later events. In the same review, in 1833, Count G. Löwenhielrn published an article under the title 'Démenti donné à un fantôme.'
That the vision referred to by Mr. Pritchard cannot, indeed, be connected with "a Prussian sovereign" and "a Parliament of about one hundred years earlier" is obvious from the fact that the Prussian Parliament (Landtag) is not yet one hundred years old.
Clerks in Holy Orders as Combatants(11 S. xii. 10, 56, 73, 87, 110, 130, 148, 168, 184, 228, 284, 368; 12 S. i. 77).—Germanus of Auxerre led the band of converts which won the Hallelujah Victory in 429 (?).
The battle of Myton-on-Swale took place in 1320. It affords a very remarkable example of clerical militancy. An army 10,000 strong, formed of all sorts and conditions of men, was raised by the Archbishop of York, William de Melton, to pursue the Scots, who had menaced his city. He himself headed the force, and he had the assistance of Hotham, Bishop of Ely. Holinshed expresses the opinion that they were "much fitter to pray for the success of a battle than to fight it." The attempt came to grief, and, to quote Whellan's 'York and the North Riding,' vol. i. pp. 136, 137:—
"Such a number of ecclesiastics fell (three hundred according to Dr. Lingard) that it was, says Buchanan, for a long time called the 'White Battle,' and is sportively recorded by the Scottish writers, under the title of the 'Chapter of Myton' (or Mitton, as they erroneously call it). The Archbishop himself had a very narrow escape, and had business enough to fill up the vacancies in his church on his return."
HEART BURIAL : WILLIAM KING, LL.D.,
PRINCIPAL OF ST. MARY HALL, OXFORD
(11 S. x. 431 ; 12 S. i. 73, and earlier
references). At 11 S. viii. 353, H. I. B.
writes :
" In the former chapel of St. Mary's Hall (now annexed to Oriel College) at Oxford a heart (I think,
of a former Fellow) is said to be interred During
the latter part of my undergraduate days at Oriel (1897-1901) a nine days' wonder was caused by a ghost story to the effect that, just before midnight every night, the heart was heard to beat." It was, in fact, the clock preparing to strike. This forgotten heart was probably that of Dr. William King.
In ' London and Middlesex,' vol. iv., by J. Norris Brewer, 1816, p. 341, among eminent persons buried at Ealing is
"Dr. William King, Principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, whom we have already mentioned as a native of Stepney. Dr. King died in 1/64, and directed that his heart, enclosed in a silver case, should be deposited in St. Mary Hall, and his other remains be interred at Ealing."
The deposit of Dr. King's heart at St. Mary Hall is not mentioned in ' Memorials of Oxford,' by James Ingram, 1837, vol. ii, in that part which concerns St. Mary Hall. On p. 7 of that part, in a foot-note, is given his long, Latin epitaph, written by himself, and " inscribed on a white marble tablet on the north side of the chapel, under a small vase. ' ' In this the author makes no mention of the destination of his heart, or other remains. Assuming that the copy given by Ingram is correct, it is curious that Dr. King, composing his epitaph about eighteen months before his death, wrote : " Fui Guilielmus King, LL.D. Ab anno MDCCXIX ad annum MDCCLXIV Hujus Aulse Praefectus," and that, according to the additional in- scription in the exergue below the epitaph,, he died Dec. 30, 1763 (not in 1764 as stated by Brewer see above). Probably when he
