George Buck
Sir
George Buck (died
1622) was an
antiquarian who served as
Master of the Revels to King
James I of England. Sir George was a descendant of Sir John Buck, an adherent of Richard III who had been executed following the
Battle of Bosworth Field. It was Buck who discovered the copy of the act of parliament,
Titulus Regius, which brought King
Richard III of England to the throne. He found it in the
Croyland Chronicle, one of the sources for his
History of King Richard III, published in
1619. Buck also claimed to have seen a letter written by
Elizabeth of York to
John Howard,
Duke of Norfolk, shortly before the death of Queen
Anne Neville, in which Elizabeth declared her love for King Richard and her hope of becoming his wife.
In Buck's words, the letter asks Norfolk "to be a mediator for her to the King, in behalf of the marriage propounded between them", who, as she wrote, was her "onely joy and maker in this world", and that she was his in heart and thought: "withall insinuating that the better part of February was past, and that she feared the Queen would never die." The letter, if it ever existed, is now lost. Buck fell from favour, was overwhelmed by debt, and died insane.