by that time our publick Thieves had cast Lots for the Kings Churches Nobilities and Gentrys Revenues what Boars of other Countrys could have compared with the Riches of our Peasants and their Captain Tyler When there should have been so Straw goes on none left more great more strong or more wise than our selves then we had set up a Law of our own forging at our Pleasure by which our Subjects should have been regulated Necessary it was the old Law should be voted down it condemned them in every Line Then had we created us Kings Tyler for Kent a part too small for the Arch-tyrant and others for other Shires Here was to be Monarchy still not Evil in it self but where it ought to be of Right only the Family was to be changed the ancient Saxon Norman Stemm for an upstart Dunghil Brood of Vipers Tyler to be advanced upon the Ruins of Richard the Cedar to be torn up to make the Bramble Room enough while any of the Royal Off-spring had been in being to claim the Right to have involved the Miserable Perjured Foolish People in an Everlasting Civil War never to have ceased while there had been a Vein of Blood to run The Maintenance of Tylers Wrong his Usurpation not to look farther then the present World would have been more fatal than ten Plagues Iohn adds no Man thwarted these Ends of ours more than the Arch-bishop therefore we hated him to Death and made all the Haste possible to bring him to it In the Evening of that Saturday in which Wat perished because the poorer sort of the Londoners favoured us we intended to have fired the City in four Places and to have divided the Spoils So the faithful Citizens as forward as they were had at last paid for their Love he calls God to witness these Truths The Confessions of many others of the Ingagement agreed with this of Straw The Lawyers and those as one who sled from the Tyranny of the Time durst now shew their Faces Here is Tyranny of the Rout Tyranny of a Savage Clown their Boutefeu whose few Days of cruel Usurpation were more bloody more destroying than the Years of any Caligula any Nero any Domitian whatsoever A Civil War says a Noble Frenchman makes more Breaches as to a Country as to Manners Laws and Men in six Months then can be repaired in six Years What then can be thought or said of those Monsters who against all ties of Nature and Piety shall raise a desperate Civil War meerly with the Intent to overthrow Religion the Church the Government Laws and Humanity out of a cursed divelish Ambition to advance themselves Tylers and Sons of the Earth before to an Height which God as some love to speak never called them to For though Power is of God it is only so when the coming to it is by lawful Means He that ordains the Power allows not the Usurpation of it Tyler had the Power to do Mischief the Power of Rebellion the Power which must have ruined the Church and Common-wealth but whether this be the Power which Christians are to submit to let the next Casuists judge The Septuagint Translation of the Bible says of Abimelech who slew his Seventy Brethren Murder ushers Usurpation in He made himself King by Tyranny The Monk who writes the Lives of the Offa's speaking of Beormred the Mercian Usurper has these Words In the same Region of the Mercians a certain Tyranny rather destroying and dissipating the Nobility of the Realm then ruling c. persecuting banishing c. Lest any one especially of the Royal Blood should be advanced in his Place he vehemently 〈◊〉 The thirty Usurpers in the time of Gallieâ—… are every where called Tyrants Paulus Diacâ—…nus writing of Valentine in the time of Valentinian says He was crushed in Brittany before he could invade the Tyranny and of Maximus that he was Stoâ—… and Valiaâ—… and worthy of the Empire â—…ad he not against the Faith of his Oath raised himself per tyrannidem by Tyranny In other places Engeâ—… Gratian Constance Sebastian created Tyrannis The Words Tyranny and Tyranne and Tyraâ—…ous Party being used often by him are ever opposed to just and Regal Power never used in any other Sense Widdrington to the Example of Athalia urged by Bellarmine against Kings says she was no lawful Queen she had seized the Kingdom as an Usurpress by Tyranny the Kingdom belonged to Ioash in whose Right and by whose Power she was justly â—…lain Our most learned Prelate Bishop Abbot of Sâ—…lisbury tells the Cubs of Loyolaâ—… Athalia had snatched had grasped and held the Kingdom with no Right no Title but by Butchery Robbery Rapine and forcible Entry and that she was thrown down and killed by the common bounden Duty and Faith of Subjects to their Prince Baronius a Cardinal that the Maccabees of Levi or House of the Assamoneans may not be made Usurpers matches them with the Royal Line of David else says he absque labe Tyrannidis without the Stain of Tyranny they could not meddle with the Kingdom Rodolph Duke of Suevia or Suabenland set up for a false Emperor by that devilish Pope Hildebrand against the Emperor Henry the IV. is called by the Germans a Tyranne upon this Score A full Tyranny says one of our Chief Justices speaking of the Papal Power in Church-causes here has two Parts without Right to usurp and inordinately to rule and the Statute 28 of King Henry the 8th against the Papal Authority calls it an usurped Tyranny and the Exercise of it a Robbery and spoyling of the King and his People The Statute 31 Henry the 6th adjudging Iohn Cade another Imp of Hell and Successor of Wat to be a Traitor which are the Words of the Title and all his Indictments and Acts to be void speaks thus The most abominable Tyranny horrible odious and arrant false Traitor Iohn Cade naming himself sometime Mortimer he and Tyler had two Names taking upon him Royal Power c. by false subtile and imagined Language c. Robbing stealing and spoiling c. And that all his Tyranny Acts Feats and false Opinions shall be voided and that all things depending thereof c. under the Power of Tyranny shall be likewise void c. And that all Indictments in times coming in like Case under Power of Tyranny Rebellion c. shall be void in Law and that all Petitions delivered to the King in his last Parliament c. against his Mind by him not agreed shall be put in Oblivion c. as against God and Conscience c. To proceed The King because all these Risings were by the Ringleaders protested to be made for him and his Rights and that the Forces then raised were raised by his Authority and all their Actions owned by him issues out a Proclamation from London to this Effect RIchard c. To all and singular Sheriffs Mayors Bayliffs c. of our County of N.
those who conspired against his Majesty and Authority likes not the Advice the King ought not says he venture his Person among such hoseless Ribaulds but rather dispose things so as to curb their Insolence Sir says he Your Sacred Majesty in this Storm ought to shew how much of a King you can play what you will go for hereafter by your present Carriage you will either be feared for the Future or contemned if you seriously consider the Nature of these rough hewn Savages you will find the gentle Ways pernicious your Tameness will undoe you Mercy will ever be in your Power but it is not to be named without the Sword drawn God and your Right hath placed you in your Throne but your Courage and Resolution must keep you there your Indignation will be Iustice good Men will think it so and if they love you you have enough you cannot capitulate not treat with your Rebels without hazarding your Honour and perhaps your Royal Faith if you yield to the Force of one Sedition your whole Life and Reign will be nothing but a Continuation of Broils and Tumults if you assert your Soveraign Authority betimes not only these Doults these Sots but all Men else will reverence you Remember Sir God by whom Lawful Princes Reign whose Vicegerent you are would not forgive Rebellion in Angels you must not trust the Face Petitions delivered you upon Swords Points are fatal if you allow this Custom you are ruined as yet Sir you may be obeyed as much as you please Of this Opinion was Sir Robert Hales Lord Prior of Saint Iohn of Ierusalem newly Lord Treasurer of England a Magnanimous and stout Knight but not liked by the Commons When this Resolution was known to the Clowns they grow stark mad they bluster they swear to seek out the Kings Traitors for such they must now go for no Man was either good or honest but he who pleased them the Arch-bishop and Lord Prior and to chop off their Heads here they might be trusted they were likely to keep their Words Hereupon without more Consideration they advance towards London not forgetting to burn and raze the Lawyers and Courtiers Houses in the Way to the Kings Honour no doubt which they will be thought to arm for Sir Iohn Froissart and others report this part thus which probably might follow after this Refusal The Rebels say they sent their Knight so they called him yet was he the Kings Knight for Tyler came not up to Dubbing we find no Sir Iohn nor Sir Thomas of his making Sir Iohn Moton to the King who was then in the Tower with his Mother his half Brothers Thomas Holland Earl of Kent after Duke of Surrey and the Lord Holland the Earls of Salisbury Warwick and Oxford the Arch-bishop Lord Prior and others The Knight casts himself down at the Kings Feet beseeches him not to look upon him the worse as in this Quality and Imployment to consider he is forced to do what he does He goes on Sir the Commons of this Realm those few in Arms comparatively to the rest would be taken for the whole desire you by me to speak with them Your Person will be safe they repute you still their King this deserved Thanks but how long the Kindness will hold we shall soon find they profess that all they had done or would do was for your Honour For your Glory your Honour and Security are their great Care they will make you a Glorious King fearful to your Enemies and beloved of your Subjects they promise you a plentiful and unparalell'd Revenue They will maintain your Power and Authority in Relation to the Laws with your Royal Person according to the Duty of their Allegiance their Protestation their Vow their solemn League and Covenant without diminishing your just Power and Greatness and that they will all the Days of their Lives continue in this Covenant against all Opposition They assure you Sir That they intend faithfully the Good of your Majesty and of the Kingdom and that they will not be diverted from this end by any private or Self-respects whatsoever But the Kingdom has been a long time ill governed by your Uncles and the Clergy especially by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury of whom they would have an Account They have found out necessary Counsels for you they would warn you of many things which hitherto you have wanted good Advice in The Conclusion was sad on the Knights part His Children were Pledges for his Return and if he fail in that their Lives were to answer it Which moved with the King he allows the Excuse sends him back with this Answer that he will speak with the Commons the next Morning which it should seem the report of the Outrages done by the Clowns upon his Refusal and this Message made him consent to At the time appointed he takes his Barge and is rowed down to Redriffe the place nearest the Rebels Ten thousand of them descend from the Hill to see and treat with him with a Resolution to yield to nothing to overcome by the Treaty as they must have done had not the Kings Fear preserved him When the Barge drew nigh the new Council of State says our Knight howled and shouted as though all the Devils of Hell had been amongst them Sir Iohn Moton was brought toward the River guarded they being determined to have cut him in peices if the King had broke his Promise All the Desires of these good and faithful Counsellors contracted suddenly into a narrow Room they had now but one Demand The King asks them What is the matter which made them so earnestly sollicite his Presence They have no more to say but to intreat him to land which was to betray himself to them to give his Life and Soveraignty up to those fickle Beasts to be held of them during their good Pleasures which the Lords will not agree to The Earl of Salisbury of the ancient Nobility and Illustrious House of Montacute tells them their Equipage and Order were not comely and that the King ought not to adventure amongst their Troops They are now more unsatisfied and London how true soever to the Cause and faithless to the Prince shall feel the Effects of their Fury Southwark a friendly Borough is taken up for their first Quarters Here again they throw down the Malignants Houses and as a Grace of their Entrance break up the Kings Prisons and let out all those they find under Restraint in them not forgetting to ransack the Arch-bishops House at Lambeth and spoil all things there plucking down the Stews standing upon the Thames Bank and allowed in the former Ages It cannot be thought but that the Idol loved Adultery well enough but perhaps these publick Bawdy-houses were too unclean and might stink in his Nostrils we cannot find him any where quarrelling with the Bears those were no Malignants They knocked not long at the City-Gates which some say were never
conquering Arms and striking his Sword which shewed the present Power on London-stone The Cyclops or Centaur of Kent spoke these Words From this Day or within four Days all Law or all the Laws of England as others shall fall from Wat Tylers Mouth The Kings indeed had bound themselves and were bound by the Laws They were named in them Tyler was more than a King he was an Emperor he was above the Laws nor was it fit the old over-worn Magna Charta should hold him The Supreme Authority and Legislative Power no one knows how derived were to be and reside in him according to the new Establishment Tyler like Homers Mars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a Whirl windâ—… he was Egnatius in Paterculus rather a Fencer a Swash-Buckler that a Senator his right Arm his brutish Force not Justice not Reason must sway all things Tyler will not rule in Fetters his Will his Violence shall be called Law and grievous Slavery under that Will falsly Peace Had those whom no Government never so sweet and gracious will please unless the Supreme Power be given the People seen the Confusion and Dangers the Cruelty and Tyranny of these few days they would quickly have changed this Opinion The Knight performs his Embassy he urges the Idol with great Earnestness to see the King and speedily He answers if thou must be so much for Haste get thee back to the King thy Master I will come when I list yet he follows the Knight on Horse-back but slowly In the Way he is met by a Citizen who had brought sixty Doublets for the Commons upon the publick Faith This Citizen asks him for his Money he promises Payment before Night and presses on so near the King that his Horse touched the Croup of the Kings Horse Froissart reports his Discourse to the King Sir King says the Idol seest thou yonder People The King answers Yes and asks him what he means by the Question He replys they are all at my Command have sworn to me Faith and Truth to do what I will have them He and they had broke their Faith and Truth to their Prince and he thinks these Men will be true to him Here though it be a Digression too much I cannot omit a passage of the late Civil Wars of France begun and continued by the Iesuiced Party to extirpate the Royal Family there Villers Governour of Roüen for the Holy League tells the Duke of Mayen Captain General of the Rebellion That he would not obey him they were both Companions and Spoilers of the State together The King being levelled all Men else ought to be equal The Idol as he that demanded so the Knight nothing but Riot continues his Discourse thus Believest thou King that these People will depart without thy Letters The King tells him He means fairly that he will make good his Word his Letters are near finished and they shall have them But the Glory of the Idol which was meerly the Benefit of Fortune began to fade his Principality was too cruel too violent to be lasting Vengeance here hovered over his Head and he who had been the Destruction of Multitudes hastens nay precipitates his own Fate and ruins himself by his own Fury he puts himself into the Kings Power who should in his first towring had he been wisely wicked like a Vulture of the Game have flown at his Throat The judicious Politick will not begin to give over However will never venture himself in the Princes Hands whom he has justly offended by Treasons against his Government Charles of Burgundy confesses this to be a great Folly his Grandfather Philip lost his Life at Montereau upon the Yonne by it and our Idol shall not escape better Sir Iohn Newton the Knight imployed to fetch him delivered his Message on Horseback which is now remembred and taken for an high Neglect besides it seemeth the Carriage and Words of the Knight were not very pleasing Every Trifle in Omission was Treason to the Idols Person and new State He rails foully draws his Dagger and bellowing out Traitor menaces to strike the Knight who returns him in Exchange the Lye and not to be behind in Blows draws his This the Idol takes for an intolerable Affront but the King fearful of his Servant cools and asswages the Heat he commands the Knight to dismount and offer up his Dagger to the Idol which though unwillingly was done This would not take off his Edge The Prince who yields once to a Rebel shall find Heaps of Requests and must deny nothing The King had given away his Knights Dagger Now nothing will content Tyler but the Kings Sword with which the Militia or Power of Arms impliedly was sought This he asks then again rushes upon the Knight vowing never to eat till he have his Head When the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom whom neither Necessity nor Misery could animate lye down trampled on by these Villaines without Soul or Motion in comes the Mayor of London Sir William Walworth the everlasting Honour of the Nation a Man who over did Ages of the Roman Scaevolae or Curtii in an Hours Action and snatches the King and Kingdom out of these Flames He tells the King it would be a Shame to all Posterity to suffer more Insolences from this Hangman this Lump of Blood This the rest of the Courtiers now wakened by their own Danger for he who destroys one Man contrary to Law or Justice gives all Men else Reason to fear themselves and take heed are Ecchoes to This puts Daring into the young King he resolves to hazard all upon this Chance This Way he could not but dye Kingly at least like a Gentleman with the Sword which God of whose great Majesty he was a Beam gave him in his Hand The only Way left to avoid a shameful Death was to run the Danger of a brave One and a wise Coward I will not say an Honourable One considering the Incertainty of things under that Iron Socage Tenure would think so The King commands the Mayor to arrest the Butcher This was Charge enough and rightly understood indeed there was then no time for Form nor Tryal the Suspension of the Courts was Tylers Act his Crime and he ought not to look for any Advantage from it An Historian says the Duke of Guyse's Power was so much that the Ordinary Forms of Justice could not be observed fair Law is handsome but it is not to be given to Wolves and Tygers Tyler was a Traitor a common Enemy and against such says a Father long agone every Man is a Souldier whosoever struck too struck as much in his own Defence in his own Preservation as the King 's And the Safety of the King and People made this Course â—…ecessary besides Tylers Crimes were publick and notorious The generous Lord Mayor obeys the Sentence which was given by the same Power by which the Judges of Courts sat and acted
popular who says he forgetful of their Profession and Vows greedy and covetous of Mony foster the People in their Errors call good Evil and Evil good seducing the Great Men with Fawning and the Rabble with Lyes So that in those Days thus he proceeds the Argument held in every Mans Mouth This is a Fryer therefore a Lyer as strong as this This is white therefore coloured Here again is Walsingham at a Stand he complains that it is impossible to relate the Villanies of the Rustick Devils done in all parts We will now return to see what the King does next who was not asleep this while After he had cleared the City lately Tylers good Town of the Kentish Fry he commands the Nobility and Gentry who durst now peep abroad all the Kingdom over to repair to him at London well armed and well horsed as they loved him and his Royal Honour Their own Danger and late Fears add Wings to their Haste Within a few Days forty thousand Horse meet at a Rendevouz upon Blackheath whither the young King who had taken his Sequestration off and restored himself to his Blood and Majesty rides daily upon a Royal Courser to view their Order with his Imperial Banner born before him He delighted to be seen and acknowledged for what he was amongst his own Homagers Here he is informed that the Kentishmen a stirring People but with what generous Resolution will soon be found are again in Mutiny a Mutiny however else contemptible not to be sleighted at that time The King commands his Cavalry on Fire as much as himself to march and root out this perfidious Race of Miscreants Here the Nobility and Gentry of the County interpose and become Pledges for the Commons which appeases the King who now disbands his Army and resolves to take no other Course of Justice but such as was ordinary and usual by Judgments upon the known Laws of the Land and by Juries of twelve Men the Ancient Birth-right of the Englishmen Laws which could not have fitted Tylers Courts nor Tryals but which have been ever the Rule in all just and legal Tryals in all calm and pious Ages The Law Martial being proper to an Army marching to be exercised in it If otherwise all Sentences by Colour of it are against the Magna Charta c. and to the manifest Subversion of the Priviledges of Subjects Upon this fair and Kingly Conclusion of Richard Commissions were given and Justices of Oyer and Terminer to hear and determine the Treasons and Fellonies committed in the late Insurrections and principally to enquire who were the chief Authors Fomenters and Incendiaries of the Broils are sent into Kent Essex and the rest of the Provinces in Rebellion The most Honourable Mayor of London with others in Commission with him sate upon those of Kent Essex Norfolk and Suffolk c. who were apprehended in London Straw taken in an old rotten House about London Kirkby Treder Sterling are condemned and beheaded Straws Head being set upon London-bridge with Tylers but Iack Straw who was privy to all the Contrivances and Plots of the Confederacy could give Light into the Mid-night Darkness of Tylers Steps through all the close Windings of his Labyrinths of Treasons is urged the Mayor promising with some honest Citizens to be at the Charge of Masses for his Soul the Good of which they desire him to consider to declare his full Knowledge of the Counsels and Votes passed and to what end they had conjured up the wicked Spirits of those Garboyles Iohn was obstinate at the first and would confess nothing but gained by these Promises and a little penitent which was much to be believed of one possessed with Legions he tells them Because I have hopes of Help from your Suffrages after my Death and because this Discovery may be advantageous to the Common wealth I will confess truly to you what we intended When we met at Black-heath and sent for the King by our Captain-Generals Order we purposed to have massacred all the Nobility and Gentry with him then to have lead the King with us respected and treated Kingly from place to place to bait the vulgar by the Authority of his Presence into our League whom they might so have taken for the Head of our Commotion he being by these Means likely to have been supposed by his own Party too to have trusted us when by the Confluence of all the Counties our Companies had been full and the Supreme Executive Power wholly ours we meant to have purged the Nation to have destroyed the Gentry and first the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem with all the Rags of Royalty which by this time had been but a Rag it self Afterwards to have killed the King whose Name could then have been of no Use to us Their Oath to preserve him could not last longer than their Conveniency and Opinions which had then changed We meant so once but we mean otherwise now had been a satisfactory Excuse They had often sworn and covenanted that they neither meant nor had Power to hurt the Kings Prerogative that they intended to maintain the Kings Authority in his Royal Dignity the free Course of Iustice and the Laws of the Land with infinite Expressions and Protestations of this kind They might answer the Time was when all this was real when they would not have subverted the Government nor have destroyed the ancient Family to which says a Statute which we hope it can be no Treason to Tylers Ghost to recite the Dominions and Rights of the Realm of England c. Ought by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come This we being bounden thus speak the Members heretofore thereunto by the Laws of God and Man do recognise c. The Answer we say might have been easie they would not have done it some time agone they swore and covenanted and covenanted again they would not now they will Tyler is still Tyler but his Liberty false cheating Liberty is every where free both to Will and Dislike as the Safety of the Common-wealth shall require and carry him on This was the Faith and Honesty of that Age by which we may guess at the Cause and Men who acted for it Who were the Undertakers what Trust is to be given to such perfidious Knaves whose Protestations and Covenants of one Day are wiped out by an Inspiration of the next We may say by an Inspiration it was wondrous fit for these Changes Our Proteus should bring Inspiration in All those of Estates and Possessions Bishops Canons Persons of Churches Monks we would have rooted out of the Earth Only the begging Fryars should have been preserved who would have served such Sheep such Shepherds well enough for Church-duties which we may wonder after all these Pranks that they should think of here would have been a very plain Church Questionless after all these Actions the Devotion of these Reformers could not have been much
within which time they were either tyed to agree with the Abby or render up Greyndcob to the Justices again The Townsmen fierce enough still yet earnest to preserve their Worthy are content to part with the Charters but this Greyndcob more Fool-hardy than wise would not consent to Nor does he as knowing the Stifness of his Clowns whine in a Religious Tone never used by him He prays them to consider how Beautiful Liberty is how sweet how Honourable Dangerous Liberty says he is more valuable than safe and quiet Slavery let us live or dye with Liberty in so generous so honest a Contention it will be Glorious to be overcome whatsoever our Fears are worse we cannot be then now we are about to make our Selves Success too doth not so often fail Men as their own Industry and Boldness Fear not for me nor trouble your selves at my Dangers I shall think my self more happy than our Lords if they prosper or their King to dye a Martyr of the Cause with the Reputation of such a Gallantry Let such Courage as would have hurryed you forward to all brave and signal Mischiefs had I lost my Head at Hartford inflame your heavy Sprights Methinks I see the Hero Tylers Ghost chiding our sluggish Cowardice and by the Blazes of his Fire-brands kindled in Hell and waved by Fiends about his Head lead on to noble Villanies Let dreaming Monks and Priests tremble at the airy Sounds of God and Saints he who fears Thunder-bolts is a Religious heartless Coxcomb and shall never climb a Molehill Thus our buskin'd Martyr swaggers after the Raptures put upon him by Walsingham Greyndcob's Stubbornness hardens on the Clowns they now accuse themselves of Baseness that they did not cut off the Knights Head and nail it on the Pillory to the Terror say they of all Judges and false Justices Greyndcob had raised Spirits which he could not lay when he would Three days being expired he is again sent to Hartford Goal where he hears News from his Brother who mediated for him in the Court not very pleasing which he communicates to his Townsmen His Intelligence was to this Effect That Richard of Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Sir Thomas Piercie with a thousand armed Men were appointed to visit S. Albans At this Report the Rebels startle they fall to new Treaties offer the Charters and Book in which the old Pleas betwixt the Abby and the Town were recorded with 200 l. for amends The Book is received the rest put off till the next Day The Earl of Warwick sends only Excuses he heard his own House was on Fire that the Clowns of his own Lordships were up and he leaves all things else to quell them This raises the fallen Courages of those of Saint Albans they now laugh at their late Fears If the Commons say they must quit their Right of Conquest and surrender their Charters yet will not we the Renowned Mechanicks of St. Albans be their President And as in all Tumults which can never be observed too often Lying is necessary and must not be useless whatsoever else is they lay the Blame of their Obstinacy upon the Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford who threaten so they would have it believed to burn their Town if they deliver up their Liberties Which Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford had humbly surrendred theirs before and submitted to the Kings Mercy Thus we find these Rebels of St. Albans again swaggering in their old Rhodomontadoes An Esquire of the Abbots acquaints the King with these Turnings who vows to sit personally in Judgment upon these Everlasting Malecontents The Abbot full of Pity and Charity who had saved some of these Enemies of his House from the Axe by Intercession at London continues his Goodness still He sollicites Sir Hugh Segrave Steward of the Houshold and others of his Friends to mitigate the King's Displeasure and hinder his Journey thither which was not in their Power Now again are the Townsmen dejected and seek by all means to keep off the Tempest which threatned them They fee Sir William Croyser a Lawyer to make their Defence and mediate with the Abbot wherethere was no Danger An Agreement is concluded the Day of the Kings Entry by which they would bind the Abbot not to disclose them or inform against them He promises if they fail not in Performance on their Part not to make any Complaints to the King of them that he would be a Suiter for their Peace if his Prayers may be heard but that here he cannot assure them Pardons were Acts flowing meerly from the Kings Grace No Man had any Power or Authority to pardon or remit Treasons c. but the King and whether he could prevail for them he knew not This Doubtfulness troubles them it seems to call their Innocency too much into Question They tell him his good Will was sufficient and that as to what belonged to the Royal Dignity they should satisfie the King After Vespers the King made his Entry into the Town being met by the Abbot and Covent the Bells rang aloud and the Monks sang merrily his Welcome He was followed by some thousands of Bowmen and Cavaliers In this Train was Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice of the Kings Bench who the next Day being Saturday the 13. of Iuly and first of the Dog-days sat in Judgment at the Moot-hall says Walsingham at the Town-house Greyndcob Cadindon and Iohn the Barber are fetched from Hartford and laid fast till Munday against which time new Jury-men are chosen and charged to be ready with their Verdicts Prophet Baal the Sergius of the new Alcoran the Priest of the Idol and his Calves the Martin of the Yoak of pure Discipline of the Eldership was taken by the Townsmen of Coventry brought to St. Albans the Day before and this Saturday condemned by the Chief Justice to be Drawn Hanged Beheaded Imbowelled and Quartered which was done on the Munday following He confessed to the Bishop of London to whose Christian Piety he ought the two last Days of his Life which were begged for his Repentance that certain hot and powerful Pastors of the Separation Brethren of simple Hearts called by the Spirit he named six or seven had covenanted and engaged to compass England and Wales round as Itinerant Apostles to propagate the Gospel beat down all Abomination of the outward Man Antichristian Hierarchy and Tyranny of the Nimrods of the Earth to cry up the great and Holy Cause and to spread the Law Principles and Heresies of Baal which Disciples says this Rabbi unless they be prevented and taken off will destroy the Realm in two Years He might have said two Months and been believed as to the Civility Humanity Order and Honour never intermitted but in the Confusion of a barbarous impious Age which made England Glorious they had been destroyed and torn up in a less time A few licentious ill Acts easily beget a Custom and an hundred ill Customs quicklier
when Justice flowed down from the Fountain in the ordinary Channel and which the Damm Head being thus troubled by this Wolf could flow no otherwise which was Authority sufficient by this Power Richards Captains must fight when he has them and kill those whom the Courts of Justice cannot deal with Tyler faints and shrinks to what he had been he was as cowardly as cruel and could not seem a Man in any thing but that he was a Thief and a Rebel He asks the brave Mayor in what he was offendedly him This was a strange Question to an honest Man he finds it so The Mayor says Froissart calls him false stinking Knave and tells him he shall not speak such Words in the Presence of his natural Lord the King The Mayor answers in full upon the accursed Sacrilegious Head of the Idol with his Sword He struck heartily and like a faithful zealous Subject Dagon of the Clowns sinks at his Feet The Kings Followers inviron him round Iohn Standish an Esquire of the Court alights and runs him into the Belly which thrust sent him into another World to accompany him who taught Rebellion and Murder first Event was then no Sign of a good Cause All History now brands him for a Traitor which by some will be attributed to his Miscarriage without Doubt had he prospered in the Work he had had all the Honours which goe along with Prosperity The King had been the wrong Doer and his Afflictions if nothing in so much Youth could have been found out had been Crimes we must over-power those whom we would make guilty Henry the Great of France under the Popes Interdict is told by a Gentleman Sir if we be overcome we shall dyne condemned Hereticks if your Majesty conquer the Censures shall be revoked they will fall of themselves He who reads the Mischiefs of his Usurpation will think he perished too late Now I come to an Act of Richards the most glorious of his History which the Annals past can no where parallel here his Infancy excells his after Man-hood Here and in the Gallantry of his Death he appears a full Prince and perhaps vies with all the Bays of his Usurpers Triumphs Alexander the Monarch of the World not more wondered at for his Victories than for that suppressing the Sedition of his Macedons in Asia tired and unable to march whither his Ambition carried him on Wings leaps from his Throne of State into the Battels of his Phalanges enraged seizes Thirteen of the Chief Malecontents and delivers them to the Custody of his Guards knows not what he should impute this Amazement of the Seditious to every Man returning upon it to his old Duty and Obedience and ready to yield himself up into the same Hands It might be says he the Veneration of the Majesty of Kings which the Nations submitted under Worship equally with the Gods or of himself which laid the Tempest That Confidence too of the Duke Alessandro of Parma in a Mutiny of the German Ruiters at Namurs is memorable who made his Way with his Sword alone through the Points of all their Lances into the middest of their Troops and brought thence by the Collar one of the Mutineers whom he commanded to be hang'd to the Terror of the rest The Youth of Richard begat rather Contempt than Reverence of which too these Clowns Breasts were never very full When the Fall of the Idol was known to the Rout they put themselves into a Posture of Defence thunder out nothing but Vengeance to the King and his whom they now arraign of Murder and Tyranny He is guilty of Innocent Blood a Tyrant a Traitor an Homicide the publick Enemy of the Common-wealth Richard Plantagenet is indicted in the Name of the People of England of Treason and other heinous Crimes He is now become less than Tylers Ghost a Traitor to the Free-born People His Treason was he would not destroy himself he would not open his Body to Tylers full Blow They roar out our Captain General is slain treacherously let us stand to it and revenge his precious Blood or dye with him I cannot pass this place without some little Wonder had these Ruffians with whom Kings hedged about by Holy Scripture and Laws Humane are neither Divine nor Sacred been asked whether Tyler the Idol of their own Clay and Hands might have been tryed touched or struck according to their resenting this Blow here Let his Tyrannies his Exorbitances have been what they would they would have answer'd no doubt in the Negative Though Richard might have been struck thorough and thorough Tyler who had usurped his Power must have been Sacred it must have been Treason to touch him Phocas must not be hurt In Tylers Case Straw would allow the old Text again The Powers were to be obeyed Their Bows were drawn when the King gallops up to them alonae and riding round the Throng asks them what Madness it was that armed them thus against their own Peace and his Life whether they would have no end of Things or Demands He tells them If Liberty be their only Aim as hitherto they have pretended they may assure themselves of it and that it is an extreme Folly to seek to make that our own with the Breach of Faith of Laws with Impieties violating God and Man which we may come by fairly But they trod not the Path to Liberty that where every Man commands no Man can be free the Liberty too they fancy cannot be had the World cannot subsist without Order and Subjection Men cannot be freed from Laws If they were there could be no Society no Civility any where Men must be shunned as much as Wolves or Bears Rapine and Blood-shed would over-run the World the Spoyler must fear the next Comer like savage Beasts who hurt others and know not it is ill to hurt them Men would devour Men the stronger Thief would swallow up the rest No Relations would be Sacred where every Man has the Power of the Sword the aged Sire could there be any such must defend his silver Hairs from the unnatural Violence of his own Sons He adds if there can be any just Cause of Sedition yet is the Sedition unjust which outlasts it which continues when the Cause is yielded to and taken away that if his Prerogative has been sometimes grievous his Taxes heavy and any of those they call evil Counsellors faulty they ought to remember in their first Risings and all along in all their Oaths and Covenants they swore continually not to invade the Monarchy nor touch the Rights of his free Crown You ought to remember your own Remonstrances you once declared that you acknowlegded the Maxim of the Law The King can doe no wrong if any ill be committed in Matters of State the Counsellors if in Matters of Law the Iudges must answer for it My Person was not to be violated He expects they should deal with him as the honest
our Way Both these Counsels are approved William Greyndcob an Hind who had eaten the Bread of the Monastery for the most part of his Life is elected with others and sent on this Errand to the King before whom he kneels six times out of Zeal to prevail This Loâ—… too was made principal Prolocutor says our Monk or Speaker to the Idol before whose sordid Excellency and his unclean Counsel he complains of the grievous Tyranny of the Abbot and Prior some few Monks are thrust in to make up the Number of the Oppressures of the Commons of witholding the Wages of poor Labourers the Design was to rouze the Wolf Tyler meant not to leave London yet he promises if need be to send Twenty Thousand of the Saints who shall not fail to shave the Beards of the Abbot and the rest which signified in plain English cutting off their Heads The gracious Captain General was yet more kind he vows if it be convenient to assist them in his own Person He gives them Directions and Orders to govern themselves by and makes their Obedience here a Condition of his Love These Orders were generally enjoyned by our English Mahomet through all the Provinces of his Conquest and were framed according to the Law of his bloody Alchoran He swears them to omit nothing either in his Commands or Doctrine A Servant of the Abbot one of the Spies upon the Townsmen rides in full Career to S. Albans and gives Intelligence to the Abby of the Exploits of the new Masters at London He tells them in what manner that Dirt of a Captain Tyler fullyed and polluted with the Blood of the Nobless had butchered the English Patriarch and the Lord Treasurer That London the Den of these ravenous Beasts falsly called the Chamber of her Kings was likely now to become the Charnel-house of Richard and his Loyal Vassals That these Fiends who would goe for Saints and the only good Patriots commit the Acts of Thieves and Murtherers neither reverencing Religion nor Laws And that the Conquering French who makes fair War nay the barbarous Scot broke out of the Fastness of his own Desart mortal Enemies of the Nation could not spoil nor ruin with more Cruelty and Villany No Mercy says he yield who will upon Mercy no Favour no Goodness can be expected from this Rout of Wolves He bids those pointed at and named by Greyndcob to Tyler shift for themselves which they are not long in resolving of The Prior four Monks and some of their Servants one part horsed another on Foot fly for their Lives not assuring themselves till they got to Tynmouth a Priory of this Monastery of Saint Albans in Northumberland William Greyndcob and William Cadindon a Baker on Fryday had hastened to S. Albans that they might make the Honour of the Atchievement theirs by first appearing in the Action These brag aloud of the Prosperity of Affairs that they were no more Drudges and Slaves but Lords for the time to come that they had brought about great and wonderful Feats against the Abby they propose first to defie the Abbot to renounce all Amity and Peace with him then to break down his Folds and Gates in Fauconwood Eywood and his other Woods and to pull down the Under-Bowsers House standing over against the Fish-market and hindering the Prospect of the Burgesses and Nobility of the Town this is their own Style a Nobility scarce to be parallel'd in the World discovered unless we fetch in the Man-eaters of Brasil who have neither Letters nor Laws acknowledge neither God nor Prince This Night the first Scene of the Tragedy is acted the next day being Saturday fatal to the Hangman Tyler the Upstart Nobility of Churls assemble and make Proclamation That no Man able to serve his Country presume to slight the Lieutenants of the Idol but that every Man furnish himself with such Arms as he can provide to attend them the Lieutenants in his own Defence The Crew summoned are commanded to press the Gentry for the Service and to cut off the Heads of those who would not joyn with them and swear to be faithful to them beheading burning Houses Forfeiture of Goods were menaced to all that would not assist the Forces raised by Tyler and fight the Lords Battels that is for the Cause This says our Monk was the Charge of their Lord and Master Wat this was his Rubrick of Blood Next with great Pomp they march to Fauconwood to level the slips of their Haste and Night-work something they feared might be left whole upon Review when Root and Branch were pared and torn up they retire The other Growtnolls of the Neighbourhood subject to the Distress or Seigniory of Saint Albans wait for them these were cited upon the same Threats to meet and promised Belly-fulls Cart Loads of Liberties Now or never for the Liberty of the Subject and the Power of Godliness This Supply swells them into huge Hopes it puffs them up Greyndcob and Cadindon more haughty now than ever lead their Battalias blustering with surly Pride and Disdain to the Gates of the Monastery which with the same Loftiness they command the Porter to set open Some of the Company Friends of the House had given private Intelligence to the Abbot of the Contrivances against him who had instructed his Servants how to carry themselves toward this Tag and Rag of Swains they observe them punctually That they may seem pious in their Entrance they free the publick Malefactors out of the Abbots Prison but so that they should owe Faith hereafter and Grace of the Benefit to the Commons a Name the most Honourable and which must swallow up all things else and inseparably stick to them One of the Offenders whom they suppose unworthy of Liberty or Life grown Judges and Executioners by the same Inspiration and Spirit they behead on the Ground before the Gates then fix his Head upon the Pillory roaring with that devilish Cry they had learnt at London This was plain Murther by the Law whatsoever this Mans Crime was these Rogues were guilty in a most high Nature so that besides the Baseness of their Condition they were incapable of any Jurisdiction by the ancient fundamental Laws of England as being Traitors and out of the Kings Faith But to wave all this by these ancient Laws every Prisoner might demand Oyer hearing of the Judges Commission these Villains had neither Authority nor Commission but from Tylers Sword which was but a Derivative of his Usurpation No Act of which can be just the Foundation of his Tyranny this Way in being just and illegal at the first From the Idols first Entrance no Act of Confirmation or Grant was done could any such Act be done and valid to establish or make a Right by the Power which had that Right to bestow he asked for a Commission of Life and Death but was refused and his Arbitrary Acts were only a Continuance of his
Women who cast themselves into the fiery Pits where their dead Husbands are consumed of Vassals who stab themselves to follow their Prince into the next World of Otho's Praetorians of the Saguntines burning in their Cities Flames What can be so honourable as to dye for or with our Country or Faith our Religion or Honesty to dye with that which gave us Life and Liberty and Sense of these Litsters Hog-herds vow to burn Norwich unless this Knight will come out to them which he does well mounted and forsakes his Horse to please them They seem to honour him highly and offer him a fair Canton of the new Common-wealth if he will command their Forces The faithful Cavalier abhorred the proposition and could not dissemble his Dislike He tells them he will not to his eternal dishonour renounce his Soveraign whom all good Men obeyed to engage with the veryest perfidious Traitors living in their Villanies He attempts to horse himself again but fails it was Treason to speak against the Government The Commons grow furious they cry out Treason against Treason and Rebellion Thousands of Hands are lifted up against him as if they all moved by the same Nerves and Sinews they hew him down but he crushes some of them with his Ruin whosoever stood within his Reach lost either Head Legs or Arms he kills twelve of them at length a Villain of his own beats out his Brains Then do the Infernal Curs rush in with full Mouths and mangles him to bits who says Walsingham would have driven a Thousand of them before him had he had fair Play This amazes the rest of the Gentry they strive for Vassalage with the same Emulation others do for Liberty they observe Litster they receive his Commands upon their Knees who in all things imitates the State and Pomp of Kings Sir Stephen of Hales a Knight of Honour carves before him and tasts his Meats and Drinks the rest of the miserable Courtiers are imployed in their several Offices But when the Fame of the Kings good Fortune began to go strong and of his Preparations to assert his Right and Authority Litster sends on Embassy from North-Walsham the Throne of his Tyranny to London the Lord Morley and Sir Iohn Brews with three of the confiding Commons to obtain Charters of Manumission and Pardon with great Summs of Mony squeezed out of the Citizens of Norwich under Pretence of preserving the City from Slaughter Fire and Spoil or as others raised by an ordinary Tribute to Litster Which Monyes were sent for Presents to the King to win him to grant them Charters more ample and beneficial than had been given to any others These Messengers are met at Ichlingham near New-Market by Henry le Spencer Lord Bishop of Norwich of a noble Family stout and well-armed He had been at his Mannor of Burleigh near Okeham and there heard of the Tumults in Norfolk and was now hasting thither to see how things were carryed with eight Lances only in his Company and a few Archers He charged the Lord Morley and Sir Iohn upon their Allegiance to tell him whether any of the Commons the Kings Traitors were with them They look upon the Bishop as a young rash Man and the Awe of their Masters was so prevalent he could hardly wrest the Secret from them After many Words they discover it and the Bishop causes the Heads of the Clowns to be struck off and fixed on a publick place at New-Market Then taking with him that Lord and Knight he posts for North-walsham The Gentry hearing of the Bishops Arrival in his Coat of Male with his Helmet upon his Head his Sword by his side and his Lance upon his Thigh croud in to him the Bishop quickly found himself in a Gallant Equipage and as quickly reaches North-walsham the sink of the Rebellion Litster was intrenched he had fortified his Ditch with Pales Stakes and Doors and shut himself in behind with his Carts and Carriages The Heroick Bishop like another Maccabeus charges bravely through the Ditch into the midst of the Rebels when all the Barons of England hid themselves so suddenly that the Archers could not let an Arrow fly at him and came to handy Blows As the French Historian de Serres observes in Affairs of the World oftentimes he that is most strong carrys it a good Fortune and a good Mind seldom go together Otho tells his Souldiers often times where the Causes of things are good yet if Judgment be wanting I may put in where the Counsels are unsound the Agents faithless where Money Arms and Men are wanting the Issue must be pernicious The Goods and Honours of this World which follow the Triumphers Chariots are common to the good and bad Grace Charity and Love are the Marks of a pious Man not Success to brag of which becomes rather a Spartacus or Mahomet who carry Faith and Law upon the Swords point than a Christian The God of the Christians is not the God of Robbery and Blood But things here fell out as could be wished the Innocency of the side prevailed and the righteous weak side overcame the strong unjust Litster touched with the Conscience of his Mischiefs struggles to the utmost to avert his Danger at length gives Ground and attempts to shift for himself by leaping over his Carriages in the Rere The Bishop pressed forward so fiercely that this Course proved in vain most of the unhappy Clowns are laid along upon the place Litster and the Captains of the Conspiracy are taken and condemned to be drawn hanged and beheaded which was done Others of the chief Conspirators dispersed over the Country are searched out and executed The Monk here tells us It was apparent by the Works of these Demoniacks by their Fruits that they had conspired he speaks of the whole not only the Destruction of the Church and Monarchy but of the Christian Faith too School-Masters were sworn by them never to teach Grammar more and whosoever was taken with an Inkhorn about him never saved his Head Our Monk attributes these Calamities to the remisness of the Bishops to the Conceits and Fangles of Presbyter Wycliff which if they be truly registred by the Monks his mortal Enemies were pestilential and damnable Indeed Presbyter Wycliff was then living but is not named in these Commotions as one busie in them by the Monk though busie he might be we shall find Sir Iohn Old-Castle Lord Cobham and others of Wycliffs Disciples Rebels and Traitors too too busie in Henry the Fifths Beginning Baal and Straw and Wraw were Priests of the Idol and his Lieutenants and might serve the turn to imbroil without fetching more Aid in He attributes too these Mischiefs to the licentious Invectives of the Clowns against their Lords generally to the Sins of the Nation inclusively taking in the Orders of Mendicants or Begging Fryers like factious Lecturers wâ—… had nothing of their own and were obliged 〈◊〉 flatter the People and make themselves