Dominic Mancini
Dominic Mancini was an Italian who visited England in 1482-3. He witnessed the events leading to Richard III being offered the English throne. He left in 1483 and wrote an account of the events he witnessed. He called it: De Occupatione Regni Anglie per Riccardum Tercium (The Occupation of the Throne of England by Richard III). The book is a major source of information about the period, which sat unread in a French library until rediscovered in 1934.
Purpose of work
Mancini's report was written for Angelo Cato, Archbishop of Vienne, one of the counsellors of King Louis XI of France and also his doctor and astrologer. Although some historians think Mancini arrived in England at the end of 1482, others believe he got there just before Edward IV died (9 April 1483). He returned to France in July, some time between the coronation of Richard III on (6 July 1483), before the princes disappeared, and the delivery of his report in December.
It is not clear how much English Mancini understood, and much of what was happening in England while he was there had to be translated to him. A possible source was Dr John Argentine, an opponent of Richard who became a member of Henry Tudor's court once he became Henry VII and who spoke Italian. Argentine was the doctor who was treating the elder prince, Edward V, while he was in the Tower and is one of the last persons known to have seen the two princes alive.
