From Preface: "It is written that we are to praise no man before his death, but that in the end shall be the exposing of his works: hence, now that every obstacle to sincere praise is out of the way, and inasmuch as the heavens declare the glory of Almighty God, and all things that the Lord hath made praise Him by the fashion of them, I have therefore thought fit to treat of some matters to the praise of God and of the serene prince King Henry VI now deceased; whom, though I be of little skill, I have taken in hand to celebrate; and this especially because to praise the saints of God, (in the register of whom I take that excellent king to be rightly included on account of the holy virtues by him exercised all his life long) is to praise and glorify Almighty God, of whose heavenly gift it cometh that they are saints. Now of his most noble descent, how he was begotten according to the flesh of the highest blood and the ancient royal stock of England, and how in the two lands of England and France he was crowned as the rightful heir of each realm, I have purposely said nothing, as of a matter plainly known to all, and not least known because of that most unhappy fortune which befell him against all expectation in after-times."