The contemporary historical commentator in question was none other than Sir (later Saint) Thomas More. His Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland III was a biography of King Richard III was written with considerable bias twenty years later when More was one of the undersheriffs of London in about 1513.
Whether or not in the long term there was in fact any stain or disgrace for Penketh, King Richard III had less than a year previously interrupted the expected line of succession to succeed his late brother, King Edward IV, on 6th July1483.
For his involvement Penketh is mentioned by William Shakespeare in his drama, Richard III, although his involvement in royal politics was not as significant as Shakespeare intimates.
Four years after Penketh's death, Shakespeare included the name of Thomas Penketh (Penker) in Richard III (Act III, Scene 6):
"Ah, Go, Lovel, with all speed to Doctor Shaw;
Go thou to Friar Penker, bid them both
Meet me within this hour at Baynard'e Castle."
King Henry VII, a son of Edward IV whom Richard III had beat to the throne, held no animosity to the Austin Friars because of the late Thomas Penketh’s previous support of Richard III.
Henry VII stayed at the Austin Friars Priory at Lynn in 1498, and made the French Augustinian, Bernard André O.S.A., tutor to Prince Edward and appointed him poet laureate. Andre retained the latter position during the early reign of Henry VIII, and was reputed to have ghost written In Defence of the Seven Sacraments for Henry VIII (although Sir John Fisher more probably did so).
The previous king, Richard III, who had been the last monarch of the House of York, evidently had personal living quarters built in the house of the Austin Friars at York. Whether these quarters consisted of a separate house, which is probable, or formed part of the Augustinian monastery is not stated; the work was probably stopped after Richard's death at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 21st August 1485.
Penketh was re-elected provincial for the third time in 1484 and was invited to dispute at the General Chapter at Siena, Italy in 1486, a high honour indeed. Sickness prevented him from accepting the invitation.
He died on 20th May 1487 before the completion of his third term as Provincial, and was buried at Austin Friars, London, in the second year of the reign of King Henry VII, and four year’s before Shakespeare’s Richard III was written.
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