Robert Nixon was born in 1467 in the English town of Cheshire, the son of an impoverished farmer. The boy was born mentally retarded. Robert had an unusually large head, and his bulging eyes made him an object of ridicule.
Usually all his conversations were limited to only the words "yes" and "no". He had a spiteful disposition and constantly chased the neighbors' children to beat them. But despite this, Robert went down in history as a Cheshire prophet.
Predictions come true
A grimy, barefoot boy in tatters threw the reins onto the plow handles, falling into a frenzy: he jumped along the fresh furrows and shouted at the top of his voice. They continued to work in the neighboring fields: for them it was the usual next trick of a foolish son from the family of illiterate Nixons.
However, this case was much more complicated: Robert Nixon turned out to be a rare combination of idiocy and clairvoyance - phenomena that are obscure or completely incomprehensible.
An overseer from Bridge House Farm in Cheshire, England, noticed the eccentricities of young Nixon, but, since these eccentricities dragged on, wanted to send him back to work. Approaching the boy, he stopped to listen to what the feeble-minded man was talking about.
Earlier, there were rumors that two huge armies were ready to go to battle with each other and that they were stationed at Bosworth Field, far from Cheshire. Taskmaster recalled that Nixon had said several weeks ago that King Richard would fight Henry, Earl of Richmond, at Bosworth.
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The boy seemed completely mad with excitement: his eyes were burning, he was waving his arms wildly. It is good that the overseer kept his distance wisely, as Nixon shouted heartbreakingly, swinging and flicking a long whip.
- Richard attacks! - shouted Nixon. - Go! Go ahead!
He suddenly fell silent and stood rooted to the spot, staring into the distance.
- Heinrich takes over! The whole army is advancing! Come across the moat, Heinrich! Across the moat and the battle is won!
By this moment, several plowmen approached and silently stood behind the overseer, gazing and listening to what this possessed man was saying. They saw that he suddenly fell silent, his eyes seemed to be glazed, foam caked on his lips, his mouth twisted in convulsions.
Then a smile crossed the boy's face.
He noticed for the first time that a frightened crowd had gathered around him.
“The battle is over,” Nixon said, “and Henry won!
With these words, he picked up the reins and set to work as if nothing had happened.
The overseer sent the plowmen to work, and he himself ran to report everything to his masters to the Lords Cholmondel. Gentlemen have already heard that this unfortunate guy somehow learns about events taking place at a distance, and also predicts future events.
Robert Nixon correctly predicted the death of one member of the Cholmondel family. Within two weeks, he predicted that a terrible storm would break out, and announced that Richard and Henry would fight at Bosworth. And now he says that the battle has taken place … and that Richard is defeated and deposed. Time will tell.
Two days later, the messengers of the new king arrived in the village to inform the taxpayers of this news, and they, it turns out, already knew about Henry's accession to the throne. Where from? Yes, from the fool Nixon, who is able to see what is happening over the horizon, and predicts the future. The messengers marveled and went on to carry the news further.
I will starve to death in the king's palace
Two weeks after the departure from the village of the king's messengers, Robert Nixon ran from one house to another, begging to hide him. The king's servants are coming here to take him to the palace, Nixon sobbed, and if he went to the palace, he would starve to death!
Despite all his pleas and tears, no one hid him. The whole village laughed until it fell: what had it taken into the head of a fool that the king wanted to take him to his palace? The king only lacks this village idiot. They made fun of Nixon and hooted after him.
And yet he was right in his premonition that he would be summoned to the palace. Once he was working in the kitchen and, turning to his mother, said:
- I have to go. The king's servants are not far away. I will never return here.
When the messengers arrived, they found this strange guy ready to leave. The king also prepared for the meeting: he was skeptical about all the rumors about the boy's amazing abilities. King Henry hid the ring, and when Nixon was brought in, he told him that he had lost the ring and wanted the boy to reveal to him where it was.
Nixon immediately replied:
- He who hid, he will find!
The king laughed, and with him the whole court. He ordered to attach a scribe to Nixon for eternity in order to write down possible predictions of a fool and present them to the court.
Thanks to the king's order, many of Nixon's predictions from the 15th century have come down to us. Its history was studied by Lady Cowper in 1670, and then by the Bishop of Eli.
In 1845, new materials were added to the Nixon case in the form of a puffy manuscript of his prophecies found among hereditary heirlooms. He made hundreds of prophecies, most of which had little historical significance.
But almost all of them came true both in relation to people and in relation to events. So far, two prophecies, very gloomy, remained unconfirmed: "Foreigners will invade England with snow on their helmets … For a long time the bear was chained to a pole, but it will break the chains and cause great destruction."
And here's another: "Although there will be peace in the world and the peoples will go to sleep with a peaceful message, but in the morning they will be awakened by war!"
Robert Nixon, an imbecile from the tiny village of Auvers, became the king's favorite. He received the right to use the palace as his home and could ask the king for anything he liked, but he rarely used his position and did not demand anything.
Locked in a room
Everything was going well until the king was about to go on a hunt, in which Nixon, in the king's opinion, had nothing to do. As soon as the boy heard about this, he rushed to the king with a plea to take him with him or to let him go while the king was away.
When the king asked why Nixon so wanted to leave the palace, he told him that he was afraid of starving to death in the absence of the king, to which the monarch laughed loudly. To allay the boy's fears, the king specially appointed a person personally responsible for the well-being of Robert Nixon in his absence.
This man took his duties very seriously. And as soon as some of the servants began to tease the feeble-minded boy, he locked Nixon in a room, the key to which only he had, warning everyone else, on pain of severe punishment, to avoid entering the room.
When he was forced to leave by order of the king, he forgot to entrust the care of the boy, locked in a room, the entrance to which was strictly forbidden for all others.
Two weeks later, the king returned to the palace. But Nixon was already dead, since he had neither bread nor water. Nixon's most absurd prophecy has come true. He starved to death in the king's palace.