The story of the 'sleeping Sentinel'. Where does it come from?

I wonder if anyone can help me. There is a famous story about
Richard III at Bosworth, slaying one of his sentries because he found
him asleep. It goes something like this:

Richard was awake at an early hour in the grey dawn and his
attendants unprepared with breakfast. Probably attended by his
Attorney General (Sir William Catesby), his Lord Chamberlain (Lord
Lovell) and Sir Richard Ratcliffe (one of his Privy Counsellors), he
sallied forth into the silent camp of his followers and finding a
sentry asleep at his post, he stabbed him, observing with cruel
irony: "I found him asleep and I left him as I found him".

Does anyone know the original source for this tale? If you do, I'd
be very grateful!

Jane Trump

It sounds better than the hunchback one. I'm curious
though - if it ever happened, it would mean Richard
had a mood disorder just like most of the members of
his family.

Dora

--- Neil <neil.trump@...> wrote:
> I wonder if anyone can help me. There is a famous
> story about
> Richard III at Bosworth, slaying one of his sentries
> because he found
> him asleep. It goes something like this:
>
> Richard was awake at an early hour in the grey dawn
> and his
> attendants unprepared with breakfast. Probably
> attended by his
> Attorney General (Sir William Catesby), his Lord
> Chamberlain (Lord
> Lovell) and Sir Richard Ratcliffe (one of his Privy
> Counsellors), he
> sallied forth into the silent camp of his followers
> and finding a
> sentry asleep at his post, he stabbed him, observing
> with cruel
> irony: "I found him asleep and I left him as I found
> him".
>
> Does anyone know the original source for this tale?
> If you do, I'd
> be very grateful!
>
> Jane Trump
>
>


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At 04:37 PM 10/27/02 -0800, you wrote:
>It sounds better than the hunchback one. I'm curious
>though - if it ever happened, it would mean Richard
>had a mood disorder just like most of the members of
>his family.
>

I don't know about that. If I expected to be fighting the battle of my life
the next day against folks known to be, ummm, sneaky, and I found someone
who was supposed to be guarding me sound asleep I just might want to do
some thing designed to keep everyone else wide awake for a long time.

--
Laura Blanchard
lblancha@... (Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special
Collections Libraries
lblanchard@... (all other mail)
Home office: 215-985-1445 voice, -1446 fax
http://pobox.upenn.edu/~lblancha