Lady Mary his Sister who afterward was married to the King of France thought it first good to honour him with the Duchy of Suffolk which this year at the feast of Candlemas was performed But how he was frustrated of his hopes and afterward beyond all hope enjoyed her shall be declared hereafter Somerset the natural Son of Henry of the House of Lancaster the last Duke of Somerset took his surname of his Father's Honour whereas he should have been called Beaufort or rather Plantagenet according to the ancient name of our English Kings He being Cousin-german to Henry the Seventh whose Mother was Margaret Sister to the Duke of Somerset and famous for his many Virtues of which that King was a quick and exact Judge and was by him made Lord High Chamberlain of England But having behaved himself very valiantly in this last Expedition against the French wherein Guicciardin untruly reporteth him to have been slain Henry the Eighth added this new Title which his Posterity still enjoyes to his ancient Honours He was great Grandfather by his Son Henry and Nephew William to Edward the now Earl who being one of His Majesties most Honorable Privy Council and Lord Privy Seal doth by his virtues much more ennoble his so noble Ancestors The French King hearing of the overthrow of the Scots perceiving himself deprived of such a Friend and Confederate seeing his Kingdom on fire about his ears and none to rely upon but himself determined if so he might fairly and with credit to renew his League with us Pope Julius the Second the Incendiary of Christendom was lately dead and the French King himself was now a Widower He therefore intends to try whether by marrying the Lady Mary the King's Sister he might secure himself from War on our side and by so near alliance gain the assured Friendship of so potent a Prince Leo the Tenth succeeding Julius the Second did openly side with the French against the Spaniard He therefore earnestly soliciting a reconciliation a Peace was concluded profitable to the French acceptable to us and on the ninth of October the Nuptials were with great pomp solemnized The French King was well stricken in years his Wife a tender Virgin of some sixteen or eighteen years of age but wonderful beautiful Besides the forementioned reasons the desire of Children for he had no Male Issue on his part on her part the good of the publick weal the authority of her Brother so willing and which bears chiefest sway in a Womans heart the supremacy of Honour in the title of a Queen were motives to match so uneven a Pair But many not without cause were persuaded that she had rather have made choice of Brandon for her Husband so her power had been answerable to her will than the greatest Monarch in the World neither was it long before she enjoyed her desire For the King as it often happens to elderly Men that apply themselves to young Women dyed the last of February having scarce three Months survived his Wedding The Queen might then lawfully according to the Articles of agreement return into England which she earnestly desiring the Duke of Suffolk was sent to conduct her who becoming a fresh Suitor unto her so far easily prevailed that before their departure from Paris they were there privately married The Marriage was afterward by the King's consent celebrated at Greenwich the thirteenth day of May of the ensuing year And now we must speak something of Wolsey's sudden and for these our times incredible rising who having as we have related before been invested in the Bishoprick of Tournay was within the year preferred to two other Bishopricks That venerable Bishop of Lincoln William Smith was lately deceased who beside many other Monuments of his Piety having begun in Oxford a College for Students called Brazen-nose-College was immaturely taken away before he could finish so good a work So the See being vacant it is conferred on Wolsey now high in the King's favour He was of very mean parentage a Butcher's Son and Ipswich a Town in Suffolk but of Norwich Diocess where he afterward laid the foundation of a stately College was the place of his Birth He was brought up at Oxford in Magdalen-College and afterward became Master of the Free-School thereto belonging Among other Scholars the Sons of the Marquess of Dorset were committed to his trust and for his care over them the Parsonage of Limington in Somersetshire no very mean one was bestowed on him As soon as he had set footing there he was very disgracefully entertained by Sir Amias Powlet who clapt him in the Stocks a punishment not usually inflicted upon any but Beggars and base people What the matter was that so exasperated him against Wolsey a man not of least account I know not This I know that Wolsey being afterward made Cardinal and Lord Chancellor of England so grievously punished this injury that Sir Amias Powlet was fain to dance attendance at London some years and by all manner of obsequiousness to curry favour with him There remains to this day a sufficient testimony hereof in a Building over the Gate of the Middle Temple in London built by the Knight at the time of his attendance there and decked round about very sumptuously with the Cardinal's Arms hoping thereby somewhat to allay the wrath of the incensed Prelate But these things were long after this year Wolsey whether that he could not brook this disgrace or beating a mind that lookt beyond this poor Benefice left it and became domestick Chaplain to Sir John Nafant Treasurer of Calais by whose means he was taken notice of by Fox Bishop of Winchester a man that knew rightly how to judge of good wits He finding this young man to be very sprightful of Learning sufficient and very active in dispatch of Affairs so highly commended him to King Henry the Seventh who relied much upon Fox's faith and wisdom that he thought it good forthwith to employ him in Affairs of great moment What need many words he so far pleased the King that in short time he became a great man and was first preferr'd to the Deanry of Lincoln and then made the King's Almoner But Henry the Eighth a young Prince coming to the Crown was wholly taken with his smooth tongue and pliable behaviour For when all the rest of his friends advised him to sit every day in person at the Council-Table that so by experience and daily practice he might reap Wisdom and to accustom himself to the managing of Affairs of Estate Wolsey advised him to follow his Pleasures saying That his Youth would not be able to brook their tedious Consultations every Age of man had its Seasons and Delights agreeable They did not do well that would force the King to act an Old man before his time Youth being utterly averse from wrinckled Severity It would come to pass hereafter if God were so pleased that what was now troublesom
have been given for the King Henry having I know not how conceived some hope of the Legates good intents caused a seat to be placed for himself behind the hangings under the covert whereof he might unseen hear whatsoever was spoken or passed in Court The Cardinals being seated the King's Advocates earnestly requiring that sentence might be given on their side Campegius made this Oration well beseeming the constancy of a man not unworthy of the place he supplied I have heard and diligently examined whatsoever hath been alledged in the King's behalf And indeed the arguments are such that I might and ought pronounce for the King if two reasons did not controll and curb my desires of doing his Majesty right The Queen you see withdraws her self from the judgment of this Court having before us excepted against the partiality of the place where she saith nothing can be determined without the consent of the Plaintif Moreover his Holiness who is the fountain and life of our authority hath by a messenger given us to understand that he hath reserved this cause for his own hearing so that if we would never so fain proceed any farther peradventure we cannot I am sure we may not Wherefore which only remaineth I do here dissolve the Court Other than this as the case stands I cannot do and I beseech them whom this Cause concerns to take in good part what I have done Which if they will not although it may trouble me yet not so much as to regard the threats of any one I am a feeble old man and see death so near me that in a matter of so great consequence neither hope nor fear nor any other respect but that of the Supreme Judge before whom I find my self ready to appear shall sway me How the King was pleased at this you may easily conceive It is reported that the Duke of Suffolk knowing the King to be present and conscious of his infirmity in a great rage leaping out of his Chair bountifully bestowed a volley of curses upon the Legates saying It was never well with England since it had any thing to do with Cardinals To whom Wolsey returned a few words saying That it was not in his power to proceed without Authority from the Pope and that no man ought to accuse them for not doing that whereto their power did not extend But the King 's implacable anger admitted of no excuse Wolsey himself must become a Sacrifice to appease it As for Campegius he tasted nevertheless of the King's bounty and had leave to depart But at Calais his carriages were searched by the King's command The pretence was that Wolsey intending an escape had by Campegius conveyed his treasures for Rome But the Bull was the Treasure so much sought after The King could not believe it was burned and if it were found it was enough to countenance his second Marriage But found it was not no nor scarce so much money in all the Cardinal's carriages as had been given him by the King Wolsey his rising and his fall were alike sudden neither of them by degrees but as the Lion gets his prey by leaps Shortly after the departure of his Collegue upon the eighteenth of October the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk in his Majesties name commanded him to surrender the Great Seal But he pleaded That the King had by Patent made him Lord Chancellour during term of life and by consequence committed the custody of the Great Seal to him Nevertheless he would resign his place if his Majesty so commanded But he thought it not fit having received the Seal from the King to deliver it to any other but upon especial Command The Lords returning to Windsor where the Court then was the next day brought the King's Letters whose Mandate the Cardinal forthwith obeyed In this Dignity the six and twentieth of October Sir Thomas More succeeded whose admirably general Learning is so well known to the world that I shall not need to speak any thing of it Wolsey being removed from the Chancellorship is presently after accused of Treason and that which hath been seldom seen in the Parliament that so without hearing he might be condemned by Act. But he perceiving the drist of his Adversaries procured one of his attendants Thomas Cromwel he who afterward became so potent to be elected a Burgess of the Lower House The Cardinal being daily informed by him what things were laid to his charge did by Letter instruct him what to answer Cromwel although no Scholar was very wise and eloquent Which good parts he so faithfully employed in the defence of his Lord that the House acquitted him and himself became famous opening withal by these means a way to those Honours to which the current of a few years advanced him Even they who hated Wolsey honoured Cromwel whose wisdom industry but above all fidelity in defending his dejected Lord was admirable Now the Cardinal because he would not be found a Traytor is faln into a Praemunire Whereupon he is thrust as it were naked forth his own house his great wealth is seized on by the King's Officers and he fain to borrow furniture for his house and money for his necessary expences Judges are sent into the house whereto he was confined to take his answer to the objected crime which was that without leave from the King he had dared so many years to exercise his power Legatine To which calumny for can any man believe it to be other he made this answer I am now sixty years old and have spent my days in his Majesties service neither shunning pains nor endeavouring any thing more than next my Creatour to please him And is this that heinous offence for which I am at this age deprived of my Estate and forced as it were to beg my bread from door to door I expected some accusation of a higher strain as Treason or the like not for that I know my self conscious of any such matter but that his Majesties wisdom is such as to know it little beseems the constancy and magnanimity of a King for a slight fault to condemn and that without hearing an ancient servant for so many years next his Person greatest in his favour and to inflict a punishment on him more horrid than death What man is he who is so base minded that he had not rather a thousand times perish than see a thousand men so many my Family numbreth of whose faithful service he hath had long tryal for the most part to perish before his eyes But finding nothing else objected I conceive great hope that I shall as easily break this machination of combined envy as was that late one against me in the Parliament concerning Treason It is well known to his Majesty of whose justice I am confident that I would not presume to execute my power Legatine before he had been pleased to ratifie it by his Royal Assent given under his Seal which
might not be invested in the Archbishoprick which he himself for the former reasons hoped to attain But while Gardiner was wholly intent to this project Death had a project on him and cut him off by the extremity of a Dropsie which swelling from his Feet and Legs up to his Belly dispatched him on the twelfth of November who was with great Solemnity interred in his Cathedral at Winchester The Emperour Charles the Fifth having determined to resign the Empire and his Kingdom on the five and twentieth of October at Brussels where all the Estates of his Realms were assembled transferred all his Kingdoms and Dominions on his Son Philip whom he had formerly made King of Naples and Sicily and betook himself to the rest of a private life ANNO DOM. 1556. REG. MARIAE 3 4 PHILIPPI 2 3. TO begin the year with its first day on the first of January Nicholas Heath Archbishop of York was made Lord Chancellour In March a Comet in the twentieth degree of Libra was seen from the fifth to the seventeenth of the same month On the thirteenth of March a counterfeit Edward whose true name was William Fetherstone was Executed for a Traytor He being a Miller's Son in stature and lineaments of Body not much unlike the deceased King Edward and his Age also agreeable had been the last year publickly whipped through London for affirming himself to be the King But not sufficiently terrified by the smart of this punishment he again betakes him to the same Imposture privately affirms himself to be King Edward and causes Letters to be cast abroad that King Edward was alive for which he was at length deservedly Hanged And now we are at length come to the narration of the memorable Martyrdom of the Archbishop Cranmer Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester being dead Cardinal Pool as yet the Pope's Legate appointed James Brooke Bishop of Glocester for Cranmer's Tryal forasmuch as they judged it unlawful to punish an Archbishop but by leave from his Holiness John Story and Thomas Martin Doctors of Law Commissioners for the Queen accompanied the Bishop to Oxford that the Authority Royal might countenance the Delegates proceeding In St. Maries Church they had high Seats purposely erected for them Brooke sitting under the place where the consecrated Host did usually hang in a Pix beside him sate Martin and Story but a little lower and Cranmer habited like a Doctor of Divinity not like a Bishop was brought before them Being told that there were those who represented not only her Majesties person but also of the most holy Father the Pope he with due reverence saluted Story and Martin but would not so much as vouchsafe to cast his Eyes toward Brooke and that not as he afterward confessed out of contempt of the man whom he formerly loved but that he might not seem to acknowledge the Pope's Authority he having by Oath to King Henry obliged himself to the contrary especially in England where he could make no pretence of right Then each of them exhorted him to change his Opinion and return to the Union of the Church But he not regarding their admonition they cite him to appear within fourscore days before his Holiness which with her Majesties consent he promised he would But the Pope not expecting his coming within twenty days after by Letters to the King and Queen commanded him to be Condemned and committed to the Secular power After the intercourse of a few days new Authority is by the Pope granted to Boner Bishop of London and Thirlby Bishop of Ely for Cranmer's degradation from Orders both Presbyterial and Archiepiscopal and he then to be delivered over to the secular Magistrate to suffer for Heresie which was accordingly performed on the fourteenth of February Those Saint-like men Cranmer Ridley and Latimer as long as they lived did by Letters exhort each other to a generous Constancy for the maintenance of the truth of the Christian Faith But the other two Champions having made their way to Heaven and left him alone not plied with such firm Exhortations out of desire of longer Life his Constancy began at length to be shaken and that by the subtilty and daily perswasions of a Spanish Frier So being seduced with hope of pardon he retracts what-ever he had before written in defence of his Religion which Retractation was after printed and published But that little availed him For whether that Pool would not be longer excluded from the possession of the Archbishoprick or that which seems more probable the Queens inveterate hate and desire of revenge for her Mothers Divorce which could not be otherwise satiated than with the Blood of this grave man were the cause He being now confident of Life is presently rapt to the place of Execution and there cruelly Burned where Ridley and Latimer had five months before been crowned with Martyrdom On the day appointed for his Execution a Sermon by the appointment of the Cardinal was Preached by Dr. Cole Thither was Cranmer brought and placed conveniently near the Pulpit where Cole exhorted him to a constancy in that Faith which he was now content to acknowledge and that even unto Death which was now by the appointment of the Magistrate to be inflicted on him this very day God's wrath for the Death of Fisher and More could not otherwise be appeased but by his Blood But before his Death would he by a publick Confession testifie his sincere Conversion to the Union of the Church he should do an act most acceptable to God and men If with this unexpected news Cranmer were amazed I do not at all wonder But he recollecting himself stood up and without any sign of fear made a quick Oration to the Assembly wherein having premised many things concerning morality and amendment of life he repeats the principal points of his Doctrine briefly explains his Faith affirmeth That under the authority Papal the Kingdom of Antichrist was contained and established and lastly demonstrates how much he had offended God by the abnegation of the Truth He professeth therefore that he had resolved that his right Hand wherewith he had so horribly sinned by Subscribing to the Doctrine proposed by the enemies of Truth should first feel the smart of punishment when he would have proceeded to speak more the multitude of Romanists whose expectation he had so finely deluded with clamours and scoffs interrupted him and hurried him away presently to the place of Execution There was then to be seen a sad Spectacle and such as would I will not say have extorted pity from his very Enemies but have expressed tears from a Flint The chief Prelate of the Realm lately flourishing by reason of his power and favour of Princes a man of most holy conversation for his age aspect feature learning gravity and rare gifts of mind deservedly most Reverend clad out of intent to expose him to mockery in an obsolete garment for so had the Papists
refrain the Business for that he knew the pretended Plantagenet to be but an Idol But contrariwise he was more glad it should be the false Plantagenet than the true because the false being sure to fall away of himself and the true to be made sure of by the King it might open and pave a fair and prepared way to his own Title With this Resolution he sayled secretly into Flanders where was a little before arrived the Lord Lovel leaving a correspondence here in England with Sir Thomas Broughton a man of great Power and Dependencies in Lancashire For before this time when the pretended Plantagenet was first received in Ireland secret Messengers had been also sent to the Lady Margaret advertising her what was passed in Ireland imploring Succours in an Enterprize as they said so pious and just and that God had so miraculously prospered the beginning thereof and making offer that all things should be guided by her will and direction as the Sovereign Patroness and Protectress of the Enterprize Margaret was second Sister to King Edward the Fourth and had been second Wife to Charles sirnamed the Hardy Duke of Burgundy by whom having no Children of her own she did with singular care and tenderness intend the Education of Philip and Margaret Grand-children to her former Husband which won her great Love and Authority among the Dutch This Princess having the Spirit of a Man and Malice of a Woman abounding in Treasure by the greatness of her Dower and her provident Government and being childless and without any nearer Care made it her Design and Enterprize to see the Majesty Royal of England once again re-placed in her House and had set up King Henry as a Mark at whose Overthrow all her Actions should aim and shoot in-so-much as all the Counsels of his succeeding Troubles came chiefly out of that Quiver And she bare such a mortal Hatred to the House of Lancaster and personally to the King as she was no ways mollified by the Conjunction of the Houses in her Neeces Marriage but rather hated her Neece as the means of the King's ascent to the Crown and assurance therein Wherefore with great violence of affection she embraced this Overture And upon Counsel taken with the Earl of Lincoln and the Lord Lovel and some other of the Party it was resolved with all speed the two Lords assisted with a Regiment of two thousand Almains being choice and veterane Bands under the Command of Martin Swart a valiant and experimented Captain should pass over into Ireland to the new King Hoping that when the Action should have the face of a received and setled Regality with such a second Person as the Earl of Lincoln and the Conjunction and Reputation of Forein Succors the Fame of it would embolden and prepare all the Party of the Confederates and Male-contents within the Realm of England to give them Assistance when they should come over there And for the Person of the Counterfeit it was agreed that if all things succeeded well he should be put down and the true Plantagenet received Wherein nevertheless the Earl of Lincoln had his particular hopes After they were come into Ireland and that the Party took courage by seeing themselves together in a Body they grew very confident of success conceiving and discoursing amongst themselves that they went in upon far better Cards to overthrow King Henry than King Henry had to overthrow King Richard And that if there were not a Sword drawn against them in Ireland it was a sign the Swords in England would be soon sheathed or beaten down And first for a Bravery upon this accession of Power they Crowned their new King in the in the Cathedral Church of Dublin who formerly had been but Proclaimed only and then sate in Council what should further be done At which Council though it were propounded by some that it were the best way to Establish themselves first in Ireland and to make that the Seat of the War and to draw King Henry thither in Person by whose absence they thought there would be great Alterations and Commotions in England yet because the Kingdom there was poor and they should not be able to keep their Army together nor pay their German Soldiers and for that also the sway of the Irish-men and generally of the Men-of-War which as in such cases of popular Tumults is usual did in effect govern their Leaders was eager and in affection to make their Fortunes upon England It was concluded with all possible speed to transport their Forces into England The King in the mean time who at the first when he heard what was done in Ireland though it troubled him yet thought he should be well enough able to scatter the Irish as a Flight of Birds and rattle away this Swarm of Bees with their King when he heard afterwards that the Earl of Lincoln was embarqued in the Action and that the Lady Margaret was declared for it he apprehended the danger in a true Degree as it was and saw plainly that his Kingdom must again be put to the Stake and that he must fight for it And first he did conceive before he understood of the Earl of Lincoln's sayling into Ireland out of Flanders that he should be assailed both upon the East-parts of the Kingdom of England by some impression from Flanders and upon the Northwest out of Ireland And therefore having ordered Musters to be made in both Parts and having provisionally designed two Generals Jasper Earl of Bedford and John Earl of Oxford meaning himself also to go in person where the Affairs should most require it and nevertheless not expecting any actual Invasion at that time the Winter being far on he took his journey himself towards Suffolk and Norfolk for the confirming of those parts And being come to St. Edmonds-bury he understood that Thomas Marquess Dorset who had been one of the Pledges in France was hastning towards him to purge himself of some Accusations which had been made against him But the King though he kept an Ear for him yet was the time so doubtful that he sent the Earl of Oxford to meet him and forthwith to carry him to the Tower with a fair Message nevertheless that he should bear that disgrace with patience for that the King meant not his hurt but only to preserve him from doing hurt either to the King's service or to himself and that the King should always be able when he had cleared himself to make him reparation From St. Edmonds-bury he went to Norwich where he kept his Christmas And from thence he went in a manner of Pilgrimage to Walsingham where he visited our Ladies Church famous for Miracles and made his Prayers and Vows for help and deliverance And from thence he returned by Cambridge to London Not long after the Rebels with their King under the Leading of the Earl of Lincoln the Earl of Kildare the Lord Lovel and Colonel Swart landed at Fouldrey in
from the one out of desire and from the other out of dissimulation about the negotiation of Peace The French King mean-while invaded Britain with great Forces and distressed the City of Nantes with a strait Siege and as one who though he had no great Judgement yet had that that he could Dissemble home the more he did urge the prosecution of the War the more he did at the same time urge the solicitation of the Peace Insomuch as during the Siege of Nantes after many Letters and particular Messages the better to maintain his dissimulation and to refresh the Treaty he sent Bernard Daubigney a person of good quality to the King earnestly to desire him to make an end of the business howsoever The King was no less ready to revive and quicken the Treaty and thereupon sent three Commissioners the Abbot of Abbington Sir Richard Tunstal and Chaplain Urswick formerly employed to do their utmost endeavours to manage the Treaty roundly and strongly About this time the Lord Woodvile Uncle to the Queen a valiant Gentleman and desirous of Honour sued to the King that he might raise some Power of Voluntaries under-hand and without licence or pasport wherein the King might any ways appear go to the ayd of the Duke of Britain The King denyed his request or at least seemed so to do and 〈◊〉 strait Commandment upon him that he should not stir for that the King thought his Honour would suffer therein during a Treaty to better a Party Nevertheless this Lord either being unruly or out of conceit that the King would not inwardly dislike that which he would not openly avow sailed secretly over into the Isle of 〈◊〉 whereof he was Governour and levied a fair Troop of four hundred men and with them passed over into Britain and joyned himself with the Duke's forces The news whereof when it came to the French Court put divers Young bloods into such a fury as the English Ambassadors were not without peril to be outraged But the French King both to preserve the Priviledge of Ambassadors and being conscious to himself that in the business of Peace he himself was the greater dissembler of the two forbad all injuries of fact or word against their Persons or Followers And presently came an Agent from the King to purge himself touching the Lord Woodvile's going over using for a principal argument to demonstrate that it was without his privity for that the Troops were so small as neither had the face of a Succour by Authority nor could much advance the Britains Affairs To which Message although the French King gave no full credit yet he made fair weather with the King and seemed satisfied Soon after the English Ambassadors returned having two of them been likewise with the Duke of Britain and found things in no other terms than they were before Upon their return they informed the King of the state of the Affairs and how far the French King was from any true meaning of Peace and therefore he was now to advise of some other course Neither was the King himself 〈◊〉 all this while with credulity meerly as was generally supposed but his Errour was not so much facility of belief as an ill-measuring of the Forces of the other Party For as was partly touched before the King had cast the business thus with himself He took it for granted in his own judgement that the War of Britain in respect of the strength of the Towns and of the Party could not speedily come to a period For he conceived that the Counsels of a War that was undertaken by the French King then Childless against an Heir-apparent of France would be very faint and slow And besides that it was not possible but that the state of France should be embroyled with some troubles and 〈◊〉 in favour of the Duke of Orleance He conceived likewise that Maximilian King of the Romans was a Prince warlike and potent who he made account would give succours to the Britains roundly So then judging it would be a work of Time he laid his Plot how he might best make use of that Time for his own affairs Wherein first he thought to make his vantage upon his Parliament knowing that they being affectionate unto the Quarrel of Britain would give Treasure largely Which Treasure as a noise of War might draw forth so a Peace succeeding might coffer up And because he knew his People were 〈◊〉 upon the business he chose rather to seem to be deceived and 〈◊〉 asleep by the French than to be backward in himself considering his Subjects were not so fully capable of the reasons of State which made him hold back Wherefore to all these purposes he saw no other expedient than to set and keep on foot a continual Treaty of Peace laying it down and taking it up again as the occurrence required Besides he had in consideration the point of Honour in bearing the blessed person of a Pacificator He thought likewise to make use of the Envy that the French King met with by occasion of this War of Britain in strengthning himself with new Alliances as namely that of Ferdinando of Spain with whom he had ever a consent even in Nature and Customs and likewise with Maximilian who was particularly interessed So that in substance he promised himself Money Honour Friends and Peace in the end But those things were too fine to be fortunate and succeed in all parts for that great affairs are commonly too rough and stubborn to be wrought upon by the finer edges or points of Wit The King was likewise deceived in his two main grounds For although he had reason to conceive that the Council of France would be wary to put the King into a War against the Heir-apparent of France yet he did not consider that Charles was not guided by any of the principal of the Blood or Nobility but by mean men who would make it their Master-piece of Credit and Favour to give venturous Counsols which no great or wise man durst or would And for Maximilian he was thought then a Greater-matter than he was his unstable and necessitous Courses being not then known After Consultation with the Ambassadors who brought him no other news than he expected before though he would not seem to know it till then he presently summoned his Parliament and in open Parliament propounded the Cause of Britain to both Houses by his Chancellor Morton Archbishop of Canterbury who spake to this effect MY Lords and Masters The King's Grace our Sovereign Lord hath commanded me to declare unto you the Causes that have moved him at this time to summon this his Parliament which I shall do in few words craving Pardon of his Grace and you all if I perform it not as I would His Grace doth first of all let you know that he retaineth in thankful memory the Love and Loyalty shewed to him by you at your last Meeting in Establishment of his Royalty freeing and discharging
to the number of eight thousand choise men and well armed who having a fair wind in few hours landed in Britain and joyned themselves forthwith to those Briton Forces that remained after the Defeat and marched straight on to find the Enemy and encamped fast by them The French wisely husbanding the possession of a Victory and well acquainted with the Courage of the English especially when they are fresh kept themselves within their Trenches being strongly lodged and resolved not to give Battel But mean-while to harrass and weary the English they did upon all advantages set upon them with their Light-horse wherein nevertheless they received commonly loss especially by means of the English Archers But upon these Atchievements Francis Duke of Britain deceased an accident that the King might easily have foreseen and ought to have reckoned upon and provided for but that the Point of Reputation when news first came of the Battel lost that somewhat must be done did over-bear the Reason of War After the Duke's decease the principal persons of Britain partly bought partly through faction put all things into confusion so as the English not finding Head or Body with whom to joyn their Forces and being in jealousie of Friends as well as in danger of Enemies and the Winter begun returned home five Months after their landing So the Battel of Saint Alban the death of the Duke and the retire of the English Succours were after some time the causes of the loss of that Duchy which action some accounted as a blemish of the King's Judgement but most but as the misfortune of his times But howsoever the temporary Fruit of the Parliament in their Ayd and Advice given for Britain took not nor prospered not yet the lasting Fruit of Parliament which is good and wholesom Laws did prosper and doth yet continue to this day For according to the Lord Chancellor's admonition there were that Parliament divers excellent Laws ordained concerning the Points which the King recommended First the Authority of the Star-Chamber which before subsisted by the ancient Common-Laws of the Realm was confirmed in certain Cases by Act of Parliament This Court is one of the sagest and noblest Institutions of this Kingdom For in the distribution of Courts of Ordinary Justice besides the High Court of Parliament in which distribution the King's-Bench holdeth the Pleas of the Crown the Common-Place Pleas-Civil the Exchequer-Pleas concerning the King's Revenue and the Chancery the Pretorian power for mitigating the rigour of Law in case of extremity by the conscience of a good man there was nevertheless always reserved a high and preheminent power to the King's Council in Causes that might in example or consequence concern the state of the Common-wealth which if they were Criminal the Council used to sit in the Chamber called the Star-Chamber if Civil in the White-Chamber or White-Hall And as the Chancery had the Pretorian power for Equity so the Star-Chamber had the Censorian power for Offences under the degree of Capital This Court of Star-Chamber is compounded of good Elements for it consisteth of four kinds of Persons Counsellors Peers Prelates and chief Judges It discerneth also principally of four kinds of Causes Forces Frauds Crimes various of Stellionate and the Inchoations or middle acts towards Crimes capital or heinous not actually committed or perpetrated But that which was principally aimed at by this act was Force and the two chief Supports of Force Combination of Multitudes and Maintenance or Headship of Great persons From the general peace of the Countrey the King's care went on to the peace of the King's House and the security of his great Officers and Counsellors But this Law was somewhat of a strange composition and temper That if any of the King's Servants under the degree of a Lord do conspire the death of any of the King's Council or Lord of the Realm it is made Capital This Law was thought to be procured by the Lord Chancellor who being a stern and haughty man and finding he had some mortal Enemies in Court provided for his own safety drowning the envy of it in a general Law by communicating the priviledge with all other Counsellors and Peers and yet not daring to extend it further than to the King's Servants in Check-roll lest it should have been too harsh to the Gentlemen and other Commons of the Kingdom who might have thought their ancient Liberty and the clemency of the Laws of England invaded If the will in any case of Felony should be made the deed And yet the reason which the Act yieldeth that is to say That he that conspireth the death of Counsellors may be thought indirectly and by a mean 〈◊〉 conspire the death of the King himself is indifferent to all Subjects as well as to Servants in Court But it seemeth this sufficed to serve the Lord Chancellor's turn at this time But yet he lived to need a General Law for that he grew afterwards as odious to the Countrey as he was then to the Court. From the peace of the King's House the King's care extended to the peace of Private Houses and Families For there was an excellent Moral Law molded thus The taking and carrying away of Women forcibly and against their will except Female-Wards and Bond-Women was made Capital The Parliament wisely and justly conceiving that the obtaining of Women by force into Possession howsoever afterwards Assent might follow by Allurements was but a Rape drawn forth in length because the first Force drew on all the rest There was made also another Law for Peace in general and repressing of Murthers and Man-slaughters and was in amendment of the Common Laws of the Realm being this That whereas by the Common Law the King's Suit in case of Homicide did expect the Year and the Day allowed to the Parties Suit by way of Appeal and that it was found by experience that the Party was many times compounded with and many times wearied with the Suit so that in the end such Suit was let fall and by that time the matter was in a manner forgotten and thereby Prosecution at the King's Suit by Indictment which is ever best Flagrante crimine neglected it was Ordained That the Suit by Indictment might be taken as well at any time within the Year and the Day as after not prejudicing nevertheless the Parties Suit The King began also then as well in Wisdom as in Justice to pare a little the Priviledge of Clergy ordaining That Clerks convict should be burned in the hand both because they might taste of some corporal Punishment and that they might carry a Brand of Infamy But for this good Acts sake the King himself was after branded by Perkin's Proclamation for an execrable breaker of the Rites of Holy Church Another Law was made for the better Peace of the Countrey by which Law the King's Officers and Farmors were to forfeit their Places and Holds in case of unlawful Retainer or partaking in Routs and
unlawful Assemblies These were the Laws that were made for repressing of Force which those times did chiefly require and were so prudently framed as they are found fit for all succeeding times and so continue to this day There were also made good and politick Laws that Parliament against Usury which is the Bastard-use of Money And against unlawful Chievances and Exchanges which is Bastard-Usury And also for the Security of the King's Customs And for the Employment of the Procedures of Forein Commodities brought in by Merchant-strangers upon the Native-Commodities of the Realm together with some other Laws of less importance But howsoever the Laws made in that Parliament did bear good and wholesom Fruit yet the Subsidy granted at the same time bare a Fruit that proved harsh and bitter All was inned at last into the King's Barn but it was after a Storm For when the Commissioners entred into the Taxation of the Subsidy in Yorkshire and the Bishoprick of Duresm the People upon a sudden grew into great mutiny and said openly that they had endured of late years a thousand miseries and neither could nor would pay the Subsidy This no doubt proceeded not simply of any present necessity but much by reason of the old humour of those Countries where the memory of King Richard was so strong that it lyes like Lees in the bottom of mens hearts and if the Vessel was but stirred it would come up And no doubt it was partly also by the instigation of some factious Malecontents that bare principal stroke amongst them Hereupon the Commissioners being somewhat astonished deferred the matter unto the Earl of Northumberland who was the principal man of Authority in those Parts The Earl forthwith wrote unto the Court signifying to the King plainly enough in what flame he found the people of those Countries and praying the King's direction The King wrote back peremptorily That he would not have one penny abated of that which had been granted to him by Parliament both because it might encourage other Countries to pray the like Release or Mitigation and chiefly because he would never endure that the base Multitude should frustrate the Authority of the Parliament wherein their Votes and Consents were concluded Upon this dispatch from Court the Earl assembled the principal Justices and Free-holders of the Countrey and speaking to them in that imperious Language wherein the King had written to him which needed not save that an harsh business was unfortunately fallen into the hands of a harsh man did not only irritate the People but make them conceive by the stoutness and haughtiness of delivery of the King's Errand that himself was the Author or principal Perswader of that Counsel Whereupon the meaner sort routed together and suddenly assailing the Earl in his house slew him and divers of his servants And rested not there but creating for their Leader Sir John Egremond a factious person and one that had of a long time born an ill Talent towards the King and being animated also by a base Fellow called John A Chamber a very Boutefeu who bare much sway amongst the vulgar and popular entred into open Rebellion and gave out in flat terms that they would go against King Henry and fight with him for the maintenance of their Liberties When the King was advertised of this new Insurrection being almost a Fever that took him every year after his manner little troubled therewith he sent Thomas Earl of Surrey whom he had a little before not only released out of the Tower and pardoned but also received to special favour with a competent Power against the Rebels who fought with the principal Band of them and defeated them and took alive John A Chamber their firebrand As for Sir John Egremond he fled into Flanders to the Lady Margaret of Burgundy whose Palace was the Sanctuary and Receptacle of all Traytors against the King John A Chamber was Executed at York in great state for he was hanged upon a Gibbet raised a Stage higher in the midst of a square Gallows as a Traytor paramount and a number of his men that were his chief Complices were hanged upon the lower Story round about him and the rest were generally pardoned Neither did the King himself omit his custom to be first or second in all his Warlike Exploits making good his Word which was usual with him when he heard of Rebels that He desired but to see them For immediately after he had sent down the Earl of Surrey he marched towards them himself in person And although in his journey he heard news of the Victory yet he went on as far as York to pacifie and settle those Countries And that done returned to London leaving the Earl of Surrey for his Lieutenant in the Northern parts and Sir Richard Tunstal for his principal Commissioner to levy the Subsidy whereof he did not remit a Denier About the same time that the King lost so good a Servant as the Earl of Northumberland he lost likewise a faithful Friend and Allie of James the Third King of Scotland by a miserable disaster For this unfortunate Prince after a long smother of discontent and hatred of many of his Nobility and People breaking forth at times into seditions and alterations of Court was at last distressed by them having taken Arms and surprised the person of Prince James his Son partly by force partly by threats that they would otherwise deliver up the Kingdom to the King of England to shadow their Rebellion and to be the titular and painted Head of those Arms. Whereupon the King finding himself too weak sought unto King Henry as also unto the Pope and the King of France to compose those troubles between him and his Subjects The King accordingly interposed their Mediation in a round and Princely manner Not only by way of request and perswasion but also by way of protestation of menace declaring that they thought it to be the common Cause of all Kings If Subjects should be suffered to give Laws unto their Sovereign and that they would accordingly resent it and revenge it But the Rebels that had shaken off the greater Yoak of Obedience had likewise cast away the lesser Tye of Respect And Fury prevailing above Fear made answer That there was no talking of Peace except the King would resign his Crown Whereupon Treaty of Accord taking no place it came to a Battel at Bannocks-bourn by Strivelin In which Battel the King transported with wrath and just indignation inconsiderately fighting and precipitating the charge before his whole numbers came up to him was notwithstanding the contrary express and straight commandment of the Prince his Son slain in the Pursuit being fled to a Mill situate in the field where the Battel was fought As for the Pope's Embassy which was sent by Adrian de Castello an Italian Legate and perhaps as those times were might have prevailed more it came too late for the Embassy but not for the Ambassador
is and from whom cometh both the will and the Deed. But yet it is agreeable to the Person that he beareth though unworthy of the Thrice-Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church Whereunto he is also invited by the Example in more ancient time of King Henry the Fourth of England the First Renowned King of the House of Lancaster Ancestor though not Progenitor to your King who had a purpose towards the end of his time as you know better to make an Expedition into the Holy Land and by the Example also present before his eyes of that Honourable and Religious War which the King of Spain now maketh and hath almost brought to perfection for the Recovery of the Realm of Granada from the Moors And although this Enterprize may seem vast and unmeasured for the King to attempt that by his own Forces wherein heretofore a Conjunction of most of the Christian Princes hath found work enough yet his Majesty wisely considereth that sometimes smaller Forces being united under one Command are more effectual in Proof though not so promising in Opinion and Fame than much greater Forces variously propounded by Associations and Leagues which commonly in a short time after their beginnings turn to Dissociations and Divisions But my Lords that which is as a Voice from Heaven that called the King to this Enterprize is a Rent at this time in the House of the Ottomans I do not say but there hath been Brother against Brother in that House before but never any that had refuge to the Arms of the Christians as now hath Gemes Brother unto Bajazeth that reigneth the far braver man of the two the other being between a Monk and a Philosopher and better read in the Alcoran and Averroes than able to weild the Scepter of so warlike an Empire This therefore is the King our Master 's memorable and heroical Resolution for an Holy War And because he carrieth in this the person of a Christian Soldier as well as of a great Temporal Monarch he beginneth with Humility and is content for this cause to beg Peace at the hands of other Christian Kings There remaineth only rather a Civil Request than any essential part of our Negotiation which the King maketh to the King your Sovereign The King as the World knoweth is Lord in chief of the Duchy of Britain The Marriage of the Heir belongeth to him as Guardian This is a private Patrimonial Right and no business of Estate yet nevertheless to run a fair course with your King whom he desires to make another Himself and to be one and the same thing with him his Request is That with the King's Favour and Consent he may dispose of her Marriage as he thinketh good and make void the intruded and pretended Marriage of Maximilian according to Justice This my Lords is all that I have to say desiring your pardon for my weakness in the delivery THus did the French Ambassadors with great shew of their King's affection and many sugred words seek to adulce all matters between the two Kings having two things for their ends The one to keep the King quiet till the Marriage of Britain was past and this was but a Summers-fruit which they thought was almost ripe and would be soon gathered The other was more lasting and that was to put him into such a temper as he might be no disturbance or impediment to the Voyage for Italy The Lords of the Council were silent and said only That they knew the Ambassadors would look for no answer till they had reported to the King and so they rose from Council The King could not well tell what to think of the Marriage of Britain He saw plainly the ambition of the French King was to impatronize himself of the Duchy but he wondred he would bring into his House a litigious Marriage especially considering who was his Successor But weighing one thing with another he gave Britain for lost but resolved to make his profit of this business of Britain as a quarrel for War and that of Naples as a Wrench and mean for Peace being well advertised how strongly the King was bent upon that Action Having therefore conferred divers times with his Council and keeping himself somewhat close he gave a direction to the Chancellor for a formal Answer to the Ambassadors and that he did in the presence of his Council And after calling the Chancellor to him apart bade him speak in such language as was fit for a Treaty that was to end in a Breach and gave him also a special Caveat that he should not use any words to discourage the Voyage of Italy Soon after the Ambassadors were sent for to the Council and the Lord Chancellor spake to them in this sort MY Lords Ambassadors I shall make answer by the King's Commandment unto the eloquent Declaration of you my Lord Prior in a brief and plain manner The King forgetteth not his former love and acquaintance with the King your Master But of this there needeth no repetition For if it be between them as it was it is well if there be any alteration it is not words that will make it up For the Business of Britain the King findeth it a little strange that the French King maketh mention of it as matter of well-deserving at his hand For that Deserving was no more but to make him his Instrument to surprize one of his best Confederates And for the Marriage the King would not meddle in it if your Master would marry by the Book and not by the Sword For that of Flanders if the Subjects of Burgundy had appealed to your King as their Chief Lord at first by way of Supplication it might have had a shew of Justice But it was a new form of Process for Subjects to imprison their Prince first and to slay his Officers and then to be Complainants The King saith That sure he is when the French King and himself sent to the Subjects of Scotland that had taken Arms against their King they both spake in another Stile and did in Princely manner signifie their detestation of Popular Attentates upon the Person or Authority of Princes But my Lords Ambassadors the King leaveth these two actions thus That on the one side he hath not received any manner of satisfaction from you concerning them and on the other that he doth not apprehend them so deeply as in respect of them to refuse to treat of Peace if other things may go hand in hand As for the War of Naples and the Design against the Turk the King hath commanded me expresly to say That he doth wish with all his heart to his good Brother the French King that his Fortunes may succeed according to his hopes and honourable intentions And whensoever he shall hear that he is prepared for Grecia as your Master is pleased now to say that he beggeth a Peace of the King so the King will then beg of him a part in that War
was broken up which lasted not long the King went on with his Preparations for the War of France yet neglected not in the mean time the affairs of Maximilian for the quieting of Flanders and restoring him to his Authority amongst his Subjects For at that time the Lord of Ravenstein being not only a Subject rebelled but a Servant revolted and so much the more malicious and violent by the ayd of Bruges and Ghent had taken the Town and both the Castles of Sluyce as we said before And having by the commodity of the Haven gotten together certain Ships and Barques fell to a kind of Pyratical trade robbing and spoyling and taking Prisoners the Ships and Vessels of all Nations that passed alongst that Coast towards the Mart of Antwerp or into any part of Brabant Zealand or Friesland being ever will victualled from Picardy besides the commodity of Victuals from Sluyce and the Countrey adjacent and the avails of his own Prizes The French assisted him still under-hand and he likewise as all men do that have been of both sides thought himself not safe except he depended upon a third Person There was a small Town some two miles from Bruges towards the Sea called Dam which was a Fort and Approch to Bruges and had a relation also to Sluyce This Town the King of the Romans had attempted often not for any worth of the Town in it self but because it might choak Bruges and cut it off from the Sea and ever failed But therewith the Duke of Saxony came down into Flanders taking upon him the person of an Umpire to compose things between Maximilian and his Subjects but being indeed fast and assured to Maximilian Upon this Pretext of Neutrality and Treaty he repaired to Bruges desiring the States of Bruges to enter peaceably into their Town with a Retinue of some number of men of Arms fit for his Estate being somewhat the more as he said the better to guard him in a Countrey that was up in Arms and bearing them in hand that he was to communicate with them of divers matters of great importance for their good Which having obtained of them he sent his Carriages and Harbingers before him to provide his Lodging So that his Men of War entred the City in good Array but in peaceable manner and he followed They that went before enquired still for Inns and Lodgings as if they would have rested there all night and so went on till they came to the Gate that leadeth directly towards Dam and they of Bruges only gazed upon them and gave them passage The Captains and inhabitants of Dam also suspected no harm from any that passed through Bruges and discovering Forces a-far-off supposed they had been some Succours that were come from their Friends knowing some Dangers towards them And so perceiving nothing but well till it was too late suffered them to enter their Town By which kind of Sleight rather than Stratagem the Town of Dam was taken and the Town of Bruges shrewdly blockt up whereby they took great discouragement The Duke of Saxony having won the Town of Dam sent immediately to the King to let him know that it was Sluyce chiefly and the Lord Ravenstein that kept the Rebellion of Flanders in life And that if it pleased the King to besiege it by Sea he also would besiege it by Land and so cut out the Core of those Wars The King willing to uphold the Authority of Maximilian the better to hold France in awe and being likewise sued unto by his Merchants for that the Seas were much infested by the Barques of the Lord Ravenstein sent straightways Sir Edward Poynings a valiant man and of good service with twelve Ships well furnished with Soldiers and Artillery to clear the Seas and to besiege Sluyce on that part The Englishmen did not only coop up the Lord Ravenstein that he stirred not and likewise hold in strait Siege the Maritim part of the Town but also assailed one of the Castles and renewed the assault so for twenty days space issuing still out of their Ships at the Ebb as they made great slaughter of them of the Castle who continually fought with them to repulse them though of the English part also were slain a Brother of the Earl of Oxford's and some fifty more But the Siege still continuing more and more strait and both the Castles which were the principal strength of the Town being distressed the one by the Duke of Saxony and the other by the English and a Bridge of boats which the Lord Ravenstein had made between both Castles whereby Succours and Relief might pass from the one to the other being on a night set on fire by the English he despairing to hold the Town yielded at the last the Castle to the English and the Town to the Duke of Saxony by composition Which done the Duke of Saxony and Sir Edward Poynings treated with them of Bruges to submit themselves to Maximilian their Lord which after some time they did paying in some good part the Charge of the War whereby the Almains and foreln Succours were dismissed The example of Bruges other of the Revolted Towns followed so that Maximilian grew to be out of danger but as his manner was to handle matters never out of necessity And Sir Edward Poynings after he had continued at Sluyce some good while till all things were setled returned unto the King being then before Bulloign Somewhat about this time came Letters from Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain signifying the final Conquest of Granada from the Moors which action in it self so worthy King Ferdinando whose manner was never to lose any virtue for the shewing had expressed and displayed in his Letters at large with all the particularities and Religious Puncto's and Ceremonies that were observed in the reception of that City and Kingdom Shewing amongst other things That the King would not by any means in person enter the City until he had first aloof seen the Cross set up upon the greater Tower of Granada whereby it became Christian ground That likewise before he would enter he did Homage to God above pronouncing by an Herald from the height of that Tower that he did acknowledge to have recovered that Kingdom by the help of God Almighty and the glorious Virgin and the virtuous Apostle St. James and the holy Father Innocent the Eighth together with the ayds and services of his Prelates Nobles and Commons That yet he stirred not from his Camp till he had seen a little Army of Martyrs to the number of seven hundred and more Christians that had lived in bonds and servitude as Slaves to the Moors pass before his Eyes singing a Psalm for their redemption and that he had given Tribute unto God by alms and relief extended to them all for his admission into the City These things were in the Letters with many more Ceremonies of a kind of Holy Ostentation The King ever willing to
Clifford and him he had said That if he were sure that that young man were King Edward's Son he would never bear Arms against him This Case seems somewhat an hard Case both in respect of the Conditional and in respect of the other words But for the Conditional it seems the Judges of that time who were Learned men and the three chief of them of the Privy Council thought it was a dangerous thing to admit Ifs and And 's to qualifie words of Treason whereby every man might express his malice and blanch his danger And it was like to the Case in the following times of Elizabeth-Barton the holy Maid of Kent who had said That if King Henry the Eighth did not take Catherine his Wife again he should be deprived of his Crown and dye the death of a Dog And infinite Cases may be put of like nature Which it seemeth the grave Judges taking into Consideration would not admit of Treasons upon Condition And as for the Positive words That he would not bear Arms against King Edward's Son though the words seem calm yet it was a plain and direct Over-ruling of the King's Title either by Line of Lancaster or by Act of Parliament Which no doubt pierced the King more than if Stanley had charged his Lance upon him in the field For if Stanley would hold that opinion that a Son of King Edward had still the better right he being so principal a person of Authority and favour about the King it was to teach all England to say as much And therefore as those times were that speech touched the quick But some Writers do put this out of doubt for they say that Stanley did expresly promise to ayd Perkin and sent him some help of Treasure Now for the Motive of his falling off from the King It is true that at Bosworth-Field the King was be-set and in a manner inclosed round about by the Troops of King Richard and in manifest danger of his life when this Stanley was sent by his Brother with three thousand men to his Rescue which he performed so that King Richard was slain upon the Place So as the condition of Mortal men is not capable of a greater benefit than the King received by the hands of Stanley being like the benefit of Christ at once to Saye and Crown For which service the King gave him great gifts made him his Counsellor and Chamberlain and some what contrary to his nature had winked at the great Spoils of Bosworth-Field which came almost wholly to this man's hands to his infinite enriching Yet nevertheless blown up with the conceit of his Merit he did not think he had received good Measure from the King at least not Pressing-down and Running-over as he expected And his ambition was so exorbitant and unbounded as he became Sultor to the King for the Earldom of Chester Which ever being a kind of Appennage to the Principality of Wales 〈◊〉 and using to go to the King's Son his Suit did not only end in a Denial but in a Distaste The King perceiving thereby that his Desires were intemperate and his Cogitations vast and irregular and that his former Benefits were but cheap and lightly regarded by him Wherefore the King began not to brook him well And as a little Leaven of new Distaste doth commonly sowre the whole Lump of former Merits the King's Wit began now to suggest unto his Passion that Stanley at Bosworth-Field though he came time enough to save his life yet he stayed long enough to endanger it But yet having no matter against him he continued him in his Places until this his Fall After him was made Lord Chamberlain Giles Lord Dawbeny a man of great sufficiency and valour the more because he was gentle and moderate There was a common Opinion That Sir Robert Clifford who now was become the State-Informer was from the beginning an Emissary and Spy of the King 's and that he fled over into Flanders with his consent and privity But this is not probable both because he never recovered that degree of Grace which he had with the King before his going over and chiefly for that the Discovery which he had made touching the Lord Chamberlain which was his great Service grew not from any thing he learn'd abroad for that he knew it well before he went These Executions and especially that of the Lord Chamberlain's which was the chief strength of the Party and by means of Sir Robert Clifford who was the most inward man of Trust amongst them did extremely quail the Design of Perkin and his complices as well through Discouragement as Distrust So that they were now like Sand without Lime ill bound together especially as many as were English who were at a gaze looking strange one upon another not knowing who was faithful to their Side but thinking that the King what with his Baits and what with his Nets would draw them all unto him that were any thing worth And indeed it came to pass that divers came away by the Thred sometimes one and sometimes another Barley that was Joynt-Commissioner with Clifford did hold out one of the longest till Perkin was far worn yet made his Peace at the length But the Fall of this Great man being in so high Authority and Favour as was thought with the King and the manner of Carriage of the Business as if there had been secret Inquisition upon him for a great time before and the Cause for which he suffered which was little more than for saying in effect That the Title of York was better than the Title of Lancaster which was the Case almost of every man at the least in Opinion was matter of great Terrour amongst all the King's Servants and Subjects Insomuch as no man almost thought himself secure and men durst scarce commune or talk one with another but there was a general Diffidence every where Which nevertheless made the King rather more Absolute than more Safe For Bleeding Inwards and shut Vapours strangle soonest and oppress most Hereupon presently came forth Swarms and Volies of Libels which are the Gusts of Liberty of Speech restrained and the Females of Sedition containing bitter Invectives and Slanders against the King and some of the Council For the contriving and dispersing whereof after great Diligence of Inquiry five mean persons were caught and executed Mean while the King did not neglect Ireland being the Soil where the Musbromes and Upstart-Weeds that spring up in a Night did chiefly prosper He sent therefore from hence for the better setling of his affairs there Commissioners of both Robes The Prior of Lanthony to be his Chancellour in that Kingdom and Sir Edward Poynings with a Power of Men and a Marshal Commission together with a Civil Power of his Lieutenant with a Clause That the Earl of Kildare then Deputy should obey him But the Wild-Irish who were the principal Offendors fled into the Woods and Bogs after their manner and those
the Continent of America towards the North-west And it may be that some Relation of this nature coming afterwards to the knowledge of Columbus and by him suppressed desirous rather to make his Enterprize the Child of his Science and Fortune than the Follower of a former Discovery did give him better assurance that all was not Sea from the West of Europe and Africk unto Asia than either Seneca's Prophesie or Plato's Antiquities or the Nature of the Tides and Land-winds and the like which were the Conjectures that were given out whereupon he should have relyed Though I am not ignorant that it was likewise laid unto the casual and wind-beaten Discovery a little before of a Spanish Pilot who dyed in the house of Columbus But this Gabato bearing the King in hand that he would find out an Island endued with rich Commodities procured him to man and victual a Ship at Bristow for the discovery of that Island With whom ventured also three small Ships of London-Merchants fraught with some gross and sleight Wares fit for Commerce with barbarous people He sayled as he affirmed at his return and made a Card thereof very far Westwards with a Quarter of the North on the North-side of Tierra de Labrador until he came to the Latitude of sixty seven Degrees and an half finding the Seas still open It is certain also that the King's Fortune had a tender of that great Empire of the West-Indies Neither was it a Refusal on the King's part but a Delay by accident that put by so great an Acquest For Christopherus Columbus refused by the King of Portugal who would not embrace at once both East and West employed his Brother Bartholomaus Columbus unto King Henry to negotiate for his Discovery And it so fortuned that he was taken by Pirates at Sea by which accidental impediment he was long ere he came to the King So long that before he had obtained a Capitulation with the King for his Brother the Enterprize by him was atchieved and so the West-Indies by Providence were then reserved for the Crown of Castilia Yet this sharpened the King so that not only in this Voyage but again in the Sixteenth year of his Reign and likewise in the Eighteenth thereof he granted forth new Commissions for the Discovery and investing of unknown Lands In this Fourteenth year also by God's wonderful providence that boweth things unto his will and hangeth great Weights upon small Wires there fell out a trifling and untoward Accident that drew on great and happy effects During the Truce with Scotland there were certain Scottish young Gentleman that came into Norham Town and there made merry with some of the English of the Town And having little to do went sometimes forth and would stand looking upon the Castle Some of the Garrison of the Castle observing this their doing twice or thrice and having not their minds purged of the late ill blood of Hostility either suspected them or quarrelled them for Spies Whereupon they fell at ill Words and from Words to Blows so that many were wounded of either side and the Scottish-men being strangers in the Town had the worst In so much as some of them were slain and the rest made haste home The matter being complained on and often debated before the Wardens of the Marches of both sides and no good order taken the King of Scotland took it to himself and being much kindled sent a Herald to the King to make Protestation That if Reparation were not done according to the Conditions of the Truce his King did denounce War The King who had often tryed Fortune and was inclined to Peace made answer That what had been done was utterly against his will and without his Privity But if the Garrison-Souldiers had been in fault he would see them punished and the Truce in all points to be preserved But this answer seemed to the Scottish King but a delay to make the complaint breathe out with time and therefore it did rather exaspetare him than satisfie him Bishop Fox understanding from the King that the Scottish King was still discontent and impatient being troubled that the occasion of breaking of the Truce should grow from his men sent many humble and deprecatory Letters to the Scottish King to appease him Whereupon King James mollified by the Bishop's submiss and eloquent Letters wrote back unto him That though he were in part moved by his Letters yet he should not be fully satisfied except he spake with him as well about the compounding of the present differences as about other matters that might concern the good of both Kingdoms The Bishop advising first with the King took his Journey for Scotland The meeting was at Metross an Abbey of the Cestercians where the King then abode The King first roundly uttered unto the Bishop his offence conceived for the insolent Breach of Truce by his men of Norham Castle Whereunto Bishop Fox made such an humble and smooth answer as it was like Oyl into the wound whereby it began to heal And this was done in the presence of the King and his Council After the King spake with the Bishop apart and opened himself unto him saying That these temporary Truces and Peaces were soon made and soon broken But that he desired a straiter Amity with the King of England discovering his mind that if the King would give him in Marriage the Lady Margaret his eldest Daughter That indeed might be a Knot indissoluble That he knew well what Place and Authority the Bishop deservedly had with his Master Therefore if he would take the business to heart and deal in it effectually he doubted not but it would succeed well The Bishop answered soberly that he thought himself rather happy than worthy to be an instrument in such a matter but would do his best endeavour Wherefore the Bishop returning to the King and giving account what had passed and finding the King more than well disposed in it gave the King advice first to proceed to a Conclusion of Peace and then to go on with the Treaty of Marriage by degrees Hereupon a Peace was concluded which was published a little before Christmas in the Fourteenth year of the King's Reign to continue for both the Kings lives and the overliver of them and a year after In this Peace there was an Article contained that no English-man should enter into Scotland and no Scottish-man into England without Letters Commendatory from the Kings of either Nation This at the first sight might seem a means to continue a strangeness between the Nations but it was done to lock in the Borderers This year there was also born to the King a third Son who was christned by the name of Edmund and shortly after dyed And much about the same time came news of the death of Charles the French King For whom there were celebrated Solemn and Princely Obsequies It was not long but Perkin who was made of Quick-silver which is hard
of Ill May-day Long Peace having with us begate Plenty the Mother and Nurse both of good and bad Arts allured the most excellent Artificers of forein Nations to partake of our happiness by frequenting the City of London But the giddy multitude not conceiving what good became of communicating their skill unto us took it very heinously that Strangers should be permitted to enjoy the Priviledges of the City and our home-bred Artificers did most especially complain That their means were every day curtalled for as much as no small part was necessarily to be defalked for the maintenance of these Strangers This was now grown the common discourse and had gon so far that one Lincoln a ringleader of this tumultuous rout did not stick to persuade some Preachers publickly in the Pulpit to lay open these common grievances before the Estates of the Realm Our Ladies Hospital in London commonly called the Spittle is famous for the Easter-Sermons one of which was to be preached by Dr. Henry Standish afterward Bishop of St. Asaph a grave and learned man Lincoln had assayed him and had the denial as in a matter the very mention whereof a good Patriot should abhor But Dr. Bell a Divine who was after Standish to preach in the same Place without fear or wit seconding their seditious attempts did publickly in his Sermon read the Bill by them exhibited to him taking for his Text that of the Prophet in the hundred and fifteenth Psalm The heavens even the heavens are the Lords but he hath given the earth to the sons of men Thence most foolishly concluding that England was given to English-men only and that therefore it was not to be endured that Aliens should enjoy any part thereof Many things by him spoken to this purpose were accepted with great applause and approbation of the Vulgar who out of extreme hatred to Strangers breathed nothing but sedition And to add more fuel to this fire it happened that many outrages were about that time committed by some of these Strangers This evil then thus spreading it self Foreiners were every where ill intreated and commonly knockt down in the streets having not offered injury to any man The authors of these riots being by the Lord Mayor committed to prison a sudden rumor ran through the City That on May-day next all Strangers should be massacred This without doubt proceeded from some of this unruly crew and was intended as a watch-word to all the Faction but the Strangers made so good use of it that they had all withdrawn themselves before that time and the Magistrates very carefully attended each occasion endeavouring to crush all Tumultuous Designs in the shell On May-day-Eve therefore the next day being the Feast of the Apostles Philip and Jacob the solemnity thereof is usually augmented by the liberty granted to the younger sort to sport themselves and to make merry the Citizens in general are by Proclamation commanded to keep fast their doors and to restrain their Servants from going abroad until nine of the Clock the next day But before this had been throughly proclaimed an Alderman walking in the streets saw a troop of young men consisting of Apprentices and such like gathered together and playing at cudgels He sharply reproved them for not obeying the King's Edict withal threatning to punish them if they the sooner betook not themselves every one to his home Words not prevailing he laid hold on one or two intending to have committed them But what reckoning they made of Authority their resistance in rescue of their Companions shewed and by outcries giving an Alarm drew together all the rest of their Faction in that quarter of the City The fame of this hurliburly increased their numbers by sending Mariners Gentlemens Servants Beggars and Citizens but the greatest part were Apprentices Sedition like a torrent carried them headlong and animated them to all villany They break open the Prisons set those at liberty that were imprisoned for their outrages on Strangers flie about the City as in a whirlwind rob all Foreiners houses and not content with their goods seek after them for their lives They found their nests but the birds were fled Having thus spent the night in the morning hearing the King's forces to approach most of them slipt away only some three hundred remained whereof eleven were Women and being apprehended supplied their places whom they before had freed They were all arraigned only thirteen designed for death whereof nine suffered on divers Gibbets purposely erected in divers parts of the City Lincoln Sherwin and two Brethren named Bets Chieftains in this sedition were carried to Cheapside where Lincoln was deservedly hanged The Executioner ready to turn off another was prevented by the King 's gracious Pardon The mind of man being prone to pity we may imagine that others were well pleased at the news but certainly the condemned had cause to rejoyce The Queens of England the two Dowagers of France and Scotland both of them the King's Sisters and then at Court became incessant Petitioners to his Majesty and on their knees in the behalf of these condemned persons and at length Wolsey consenting by whom the King was wholly swayed their Petitions were granted to them and to the poor men their lives This was the last Scene of this Tragical Tumult the like whereof this well-governed City had not known in many Ages For the Laws very well provided in that case do under a great penalty forbid Assemblies especially of armed men if not warranted by publick Authority In August and September the Sweating-sickness termed beyond Sea Sudor Anglicus or the English sweat began a disease utterly unknown to former Ages Of the common sort they were numberless that perished by it of the Nobility the Lords Clinton and Grey of Wilton The symptoms and cure you may find in Polydor Virgil in Anno 1. Henr. 7. who as confidently as I believe truly maintains That this disease was never till then known to be much less to be mortal As if there were a concatenation of evils one evil seldom cometh alone A Pestilence succeeded this former mortality and so raged the whole Winter season in most parts of the Realm that the King for fear of infection attended by a few was fain every day to remove his Court from one place to another The eleventh of February was born the Lady Mary afterwards Queen of England ANNO DOM. 1518. REG. 10. THe Peace so long treated of between us and the French was now in September at length concluded on these Conditions That the Daulphin should marry the Lady Mary the King 's only Child and not yet two years old That Tournay should be restored to the French That the French should pay King Henry four hundred thousand Crowns viz. two hundred thousand for his charge in building the Cittadel for the Artillery Powder and Munition which he should leave there and other two hundred thousand Crowns partly for the expence of that
King's Divorce Bearing himself as neuter between the Emperour and the French King he makes them both become jealous of him And War being renewed in Italy he perceives himself likely again to become a prey to the Conquerour Which if it should happen he must betake himself to the King of England of whose help he was certain as long as his cause did uncertainly hang in suspence But if he should determine in the behalf of the King would he in gratitude be as beneficial as hope or fear of offending had made him That he much doubted These thoughts possessing the Pope Caesar's affairs in Italy began to decline almost all the Towns throughout the Realm of Naples out of hatred to the insolent Spaniard and affection to the French making offer of their Keys and receiving Garrisons of French Clement therefore did not now much stand in awe of the Emperour much against whose mind he was intreated to send a Legate into England Lawrence Campegius Cardinal and Bishop of Sulisbury who together with the Cardinal of York should have the hearing of this Cause so long controverted to no purpose And the more to testifie his affection to the King he did by a Decretal Bull but privately drawn pronounce the King's Marriage with Catharine to be void This Bull was committed to the Legate with these instructions That having shewed it to the King and the Cardinal of York He should withal signifie to them that he had authority to publish it but not to give sentence until he received new instructions telling him that he was content the King should enjoy the benefit of it and it may be he was then so minded but that it stood him upon to have this business delayed until he had sufficiently secured himself from the Emperour These were the pretences of the old Fox to the Legate But his meaning was to make use of all seasons and to turn with the weather The ninth of October to London comes the Legate the King having given order to the City for his solemn entertainment But the old man's infirmity frustrated their preparations he was grievously tormented with the Gout and would be privately brought into the City After a few days rest catried in a Chair he was brought to the King's presence to whom his Secretary made a Latin Oration wherein having much complained of the extreme cruelty of the Imperials in the sacking of Rome he used many words to signifie that the King 's pious bounty shewed in his liberally relieving him in so needful a season was most acceptable to the Pope and the whole College of Cardinals To this speech Edward Fox afterward Bishop of Hereford returned an answer in Latin wherein he declared That his Majesty was much grieved at his Holiness calamity for as much as man is naturally touched with a feeling of anothers miseries That He had not only performed what could be expected from him as a man but had also done the part of a friend for a friend and what was due from a Prince to Christ's Vicar on earth He did therefore hope that in regard of his filial obedience to the Holy See if it should happen that He should stand in need of its assistance and authority his Holiness would be pleased readily to grant those things which it might beseem a Son to crave of the common Mother Thus much passed in publick The King and the Legates conferring in private Campegius assured the King of the Pope's forwardness to pleasure him Campegius was indeed no bad man and spake truly what he thought For Clement knowing how difficult a matter it was to deceive a man that was no fool by one conscious of the guile and that was not deceived himself made the Legate believe that in this matter of the Divorce he would be ready to do for the King whatsoever he should demand After these passages the Legates spent six whole months in confultation only concerning their manner of proceeding in the King's Divorce In the mean time the King understanding that among his Subjects but especially the women kind this his action was much traduced as if he took this course more to satisfie his Lust than his Conscience to give a stop to all farther rumours having assembled all the Nobles of the Realm Judges Lawyers and as many of the better fort of Commons as could conveniently attend upon the eighth of November made an Oration to this effect Twenty years have almost run their course faithful and loving Subjects since We first began Our Reign among you In all which tract of time we have by God's assistance so behaved Our Self that We hope We have neither given you cause to complain nor our Enemies to glory No forein power hath endeavoured ought against you but to his own loss neither have We employed Our Arms any where but We have triumphantly erected Our glorious Trophies So that whether you consider the sweet fruits of plentiful Peace or the glory of Our Warlike exploits We dare boldly avouch We have shewed Our Self not unworthy of Our Ancestors whom without offence be it spoken We have in all points equalled But when we reflect upon the necessary end of Our frail life We are surprized with fear lest the miseries of future times should so obscure the splendour and memory of Our present felicity that as the Romans did after the death of Augustus so you may hereafter be forced to wish with tears either that We had never been or might have perpetually lived to govern you We see many here present who in regard of their age might have been parties in the late Civil Wars which for eighty years together so miserably rended this Realm no man knowing whom to acknowledge for his Sovereign until the happy Conjunction of Our Parents did not resolve but took away all cause of farther doubt Consider then whether after Our death you can hope for better days than when the factions of York and Lancaster distracted this Realm We have a Daughter whom we the more affectionately tender because she is Our sole Issue But we would have you know that having lately treated with Our dear Brother of France concerning a match between this Our Daughter and Henry Duke of Orleans his younger Son both of Us were well pleased with this alliance until one of his Privy Council made a question of Our Daughter's birth for it was much to be doubted lest she were to be held illegitimate being begotten of Us and that Mother who had before been married to Our deceased Brother saying it was utterly repugnant to the Word of God that any one should marry his Brother's Widow wherefore he was of opinion that this match with Our most beloved Spouse was to be deemed no other than incestuous How grievously this relation afflicted Us God the Searcher of Our hearts knows For these words did seem to question not only Our dear Consort and Our Daughter but even the very estate of Our Soul
not knowing what course to run And this is thought to be the cause of his so extraordinary liberality toward the French The King being then in progress and hunting at Waltham it happened that Stephen Gardiner Principal Secretary of Estate after Bishop of Winton and Fox the King's Almoner after Bishop of Hereford were billeted in the house of a Gentleman named Cressey who had sent his two Sons to be brought up at Cambridge under the tutelage of Thomas Cranmer Doctor in Divinity a man both very learned and virtuous The Plague then spreading it self in Cambridge Cranmer with his two Pupils betook himself to Mr. Cressey their Father his house Where Gardiner and Fox among other table-talk discoursing of the King's Suit concerning his Divorce which had so many years depended in the Court of Rome undecided Cranmer said that he wondred the King required not the opinions of the most famous learned men that were any where to be found of whom the world had many far more learned than the Pope and and followed not their judgments What Cranmer had as it were let fall by chance they report to the King who suddenly apprehending it said that this fellow whosoever he was had hit the nail on the head and withal demanding his name caused Cranmer to be sent for whom he commended for his but too late advice which course if he had taken but five years before he should now have had an hundred thousand Pounds in his Purse which he had unprofitably in this Suit cast away on the Court of Rome he commands Cranmer to write a Tract concerning this Question wherein having drawn together what Reasons he could for the confirmation of his advice he should conclude with his own opinion Cranmer did it very readily and is thereupon with Sir Thomas Bolen lately created Earl of Wiltshire Carne Stokesley and Benet Doctors of Law with others sent on an Embassie to Rome Cranmer's Book is to be presented to his Holiness and they are commanded to challenge the Court of Rome to a Disputation wherein the Contents of that Book should be maintained the Argument whereof was That by the authority of holy Scripture ancient Fathers and Councils it was utterly unlawful for any man to marry his Brother's Widow and that no such marriage could be licensed or authorized by the Pope's Dispensation This being done the King's intent was they should procure the opinions of all the Universities throughout Europe by whom if he found his former Marriage condemned then without farther expecting the approbation of the See of Rome he was resolved to run the hazard of a second To this the amity of the French seeming very conducible the King had by his former liberality sought to oblige him The Ambassadors came to Rome had audience were promised a publick Disputation whereof they were held so long in expectation that perceiving their stay there to be to little purpose they all returned into England except Cranmer who with the same instructions that he had formerly been sent to the Pope was to go to the Emperour whose Court was then in Germany There this good and learned man hitherto no friend to Luther while he defends his own Book and the King's Divorce against the most learned either of Protestants or Papists is thought to have been seasoned with the leaven of that Doctrine for which after he had been twenty years Archbishop of Canterbury he was most cruelly burned While Cranmer thus laboured abroad the King at home deals with Langey the French Ambassador by whose means with the forcible Rhetorick saith one of some English Angels he obtained of the Universities of Paris with the rest throughout France Pavia Padua Bononia and others this Conclusion That the Pope who hath no power over the Positive Law of God could not by his Dispensation ratifie a Marriage contracted between a Brother and a Brother's Widow it being forbidden by the express words of Scripture The eighth of December the King graced three noble and worthy men with new Titles of Honour Thomas Bolen Viscount Rochfort the King 's future Father-in-Law was created Earl of Wiltshire Robert Ratcliff Viscount Fitz-Walter of the noble Family of the Fitz-Walters Earl of Sussex in which honour his Son Thomas his Nephews Thomas first then Henry Brother to Thomas and now Robert the Son of Henry have succeeded him And George Lord Hastings was made Earl of Huntingdon who left it to his Son Francis Father of Henry who deceased without issue and George Grandfather to Henry the now Earl by Francis who died before his Father ANNO DOM. 1530. REG. 22. VV Illiam Tyndal having translated the New Testament into English and procured it to be printed at Antwerp had secretly dispersed many copies thereof thoughout England Whereat the Bishops and Clergy especially those that were most addicted to the Doctrine of Rome stormed exceedingly saying that this Translation was full of errours and that in the Prefaces and elsewhere it contained many things contrary to the Truth The King being angry with the Pope had long since determined to free himself from his usurped power And therefore admonished the murmuring Clergy to correct this Book not to suppress it for it was a most profitable work and very necessary for the discovery of the deceits of the Court of Rome the tyranny whereof was become intolerable to all the Princes of Christendom Whereupon he giveth order to the Bishops and some other learned men to set forth a new Translation which his Subjects might read with safety and profit The hope of prevailing with the Pope by the French King's means had drawn Henry to send on a second Embassage to the Pope the Earl of Wiltshire Doctor Stokesley Elect of London and Edward Lee Wolsey his Successor in York They found the Pope at Bononia with the Emperour but had no other answer to their demands than that his Holiness when he came to Rome would endeavour to do the King justice Till then he could do nothing Fair means not prevailing the King runs another course By publick Proclamation throughout the Kingdom he forbids all commerce between his Subjects and the Bishop of Rome commanding that no man should receive any thing from or send any thing especially money unto him either by exchange or any other means calling him Tyrant the Harpy of the World the common Incendiary and deeming him utterly unworthy of that glorious title which he had vaingloriously usurped Christ's Vicar This in September But the wealth of the Clergy being very great and considering how they had in the Reigns of his Predecessors strongly sided with the Pope the King was somewhat jealous of them To curb them he condemns the whole Clergy throughout the Kingdom in a Praemunire for that without licence from his Majesty they had been obedient to the authority of the Pope in acknowledging Wolsey for his Legate The Clergy of the Province of Canterbury being assembled in Convocation buy their
pardon at a hundred thousand Pounds and in this Synod he is with much ado by the Clergy of both Provinces declared next under Christ Supreme Head of the Church of England and all forein power or authority whatsoever disclaimed The Province of York is moreover fined at eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty Pounds So this one fault if it may be so accompted it being certain that Wolsey was licenced to exercise his authority Legantine cost the Clergy a hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty Pounds ANNO DOM. 1531. REG. 23. THe only publick memorable occurrents of this year were that the Laity for the most part as deep in a Praemunire as the Clergy were by Act of Parliament pardoned In which assembly Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour and other remarkable speakers related at large the Conclusions of the Universities concerning the unlawfulness of the King's marriage And yet perhaps the notorious villany of Richard Rose Cook to the Bishop of Rochester might crave a place in this History who with poysoned broth killed sixteen of the Bishop's servants The Bishop himself who was especially aimed at that day contrary to his accustomed diet forbearing broth escaped The poisoner according to a Law lately enacted was thrown into a cauldron of boyling water But the offence deserved tortures of a most exquisite strain ANNO DOM. 1532. REG. 24. ON the three and twentieth of August died William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury to whom Thomas Cranmer at that time in Germany about the King's affairs was appointed Successor He was not so ambitious as to aspire to such a dignity and some reasons made him unwilling to accept it being offered He knew before he could be consecrated he must swear obedience to the Pope which with a safe conscience he could not He feared what would be the issue of this abrupt separation from the See of Rome He knew the King's disposition to be violent such sudden changes to be full of danger and the Court although he had not yet purchased the acquaintance of it to be a meer School of fraud and dissembling The King's pleasure must necessarily be obeyed and if he slipped never so little envy the mischievous attendant of great felicity would help him forward to a break-neck Cranmer also having long since lost his Wife whom he had married in his youth had taken a liking to a certain maid Niece to Osiander's Wife whom he intended to make his second Wife yet he knew that the Canon Law permitted not Priests to marry and made them uncapable of holy Orders who had been twice married These considerations made him linger in Germany six whole months after the dispatch of his business hoping that his absence might afford means to some other to work a way to the Archbishoprick But the times were such that they to whom desert might give greatest hopes of attaining it did abhor this still tottering and slippery dignity and even they who were already advanced to the like endeavoured to betake themselves to the safety of meaner fortune As did Sir Thomas More the Lord Chancellour who by his continual earnest petitions obtained leave of the King on the fifteenth of May to resign his place and Sir Thomas Awdley on the fourth of June was in his stead made Lord Keeper Cranmer having privately married his Wife at Norimberg at length returned into England where the King's importunity prevailing beyond all scrupulous difficulties Cranmer is though much against his will made Archbishop of Canterbury the Pope also by his Bull confirming the Election He refusing the Archbishoprick because he must take an Oath to the Pope delivered the Bull to the King protesting that he would never accept of any Bishoprick in England but from the King who was Supreme Head of the Church of England and that he would not take any Oath that should any way derogate from the King's Authority At length the subtil heads of the Lawyers found out a quirk whereby to salve all He must first by a previous Protestation except against this Oath which was to be taken pro formâ that it should not hereafter be any way prejudicial to him Thus ascended Cranmer to the Archiepiscopal See where he sate near about twenty years until Queen Mary the Daughter of repudiated Catharine not only thrust this most innocent grave learned man out of his Bishoprick but with a barbarous cruelty condemned him to the fire as hereafter in its place we shall declare For the Treatise of a more strict League between the two Kings of England and France an interview is appointed between them To this end on the eleventh October the King with a mighty train passed to Calais The tenth day after going to Boloigne he was met half way by the French King and his Sons and conducted to Boloigne where the two Kings divided the Abbey between them Henry staid there four days and then brought Francis in whose company were the King of Navarre some Dukes and Cardinals a great number of Noblemen and of others at least twelve hundred to Calais At St. Joquebert the Duke of Richmond who was not at Boloigne with the King his Father received them After much solemn entertainment and the interchangeable favours from each King to the Princes of each others company from Henry to the King of Navarre or as the French write to Montmorency and Chabot the Admiral by the Order of the Garter From Francis to the Dukes of Narfolk and Suffolk by that of St. Michael these great Monarchs parted Jealousie of the Emperour 's still increasing power had now united these Princes and their natural dispositions wonderful agreeable had made them always prone to a mutual love which by this interview took such deep root that even in their own opinions they rested assured of each other And indeed had they been private persons their friendship in all likelihood had continued inviolable But Princes are not so much to be swayed by their own affections as the consideration of the publick Utility The effect of this interview was an agreement to repress the Turk about that time wasting Hungary to which end they should assemble together by their joint forces an Army of fourscore thousand men whereof there should be ten thousand horse with Artillery requisite for the said Camp A specious pretext For they both knew that the Turk had already retreated But in private they treated of other matters They had both many causes of discontent Francis not without cause was displeased with the Pope and Henry thinking it best to strike while the Iron was hot endeavoured an utter alienation between them Henry complains first of the wrong the Court of Rome did him touching the matter of his Divorce in the suit whereof full six years were now spent and yet at length after all their deceits and mockeries they seek to force him either to go in person to Rome or in a matter of so great importance to send
Deputies who should in the King's behalf follow the Suit An insolent proceeding and injury without example which did concern the French and all other Princes of Christendom For in like cases hapning among Sovereign Princes especially touching the conscience so near it was the usual custom of other Popes to send Judges to the place it being reasonable that the Persons should speak personally and not by their Attorneys and very unreasonable that a Sovereign Prince leaving the rule and government of his Estates should go and plead his cause at Rome Moreover he did complain of the intolerable exactions of the Church of Rome over the Clergy and people of England whereby the yoak before too heavy was now become insupportable neither did he doubt but the same courses were taken in France Germany had begun the way of freedom to the rest of Christendom why should not other Princes follow their example To conclude he did instantly require that they two should send their Ambassadors jointly together to the Pope to summon him to appear at the next general Council there to answer his extortions and by the authority and judgement of the Council to force him to a reformation affirming that there was no Nation in Christendom which did not desire that the insolencies of the Romanists should be repressed To this the French answered that he acknowledged these things to be true but it was not in his power to yield to the King's request yet for the brotherly love which he did bear unto him and the charitable regard of his own Countrey he professed himself ready to undergo all difficulties He wanted not sufficient injuries whereof to complain considering that he having so well deserved of the Apostolick See but more especially of this Pope yet he certainly found that Clement all this notwithstanding was not well affected towards him Clement had very lately suffered his reputation to be violated in his presence and by the Bishop of Verulo had secretly endeavoured to alienate the Suisses his Allies from him France groaned under the burthen of the new and undutiful exactions of the Pope's Officers by means whereof all the treasure was carried out of the Kingdom to the prejudice of his Subjects the Clergy especially who grew poor the Churches were unrepaired and the poor neither cloathed nor fed and if he himself levied any great summ of money the Tributes are longer coming in than usually they were wont But he thought it best before they proceeded to that harsh course to use some milder means whereto there was a fair occasion offered the Pope having by the Cardinal of Grandmont made him a promise of an interview at Nice or Avignon where if he could not obtain reason of him in the behalf of both he would endeavour to prevail by force where he could not by just intreaties In the mean time he desired him to attend the issue of their parley But Francis concealed the true cause of this intended interview for fear lest our Henry not approving it should seek to disswade him from it The French was implacable towards the Emperour against whom to strengthen himself he means to win the Pope by the marriage of his younger Son Henry Duke of Orleans who after reigned with Catharine de Medices Duchess of Urbin the Pope's Niece The Pope could not at first believe this potent Prince intended him so much honour but perceiving the French to be real he most eagerly farthered it appointing time and place for the consummation of it which was after done at Marseilles by Clement himself in the presence of the French King ANNO DOM. 1533. REG. 25. THe King's love brooked no delays Wherefore on the five and twentieth of January privately and in the presence of very few he marrieth the Lady Ann Bolen Shortly after by Act of Parliament the Marriage of the King and the Lady Catharine was declared void and incestuous and a Law enacted wherein all Appeals to Rome were forbidden and that none should stile Catharine other than Princess of Wales and Widow or Dowager of Prince Arthur By virtue and authority of the same Law the Archbishop of Canterbury accompanied with some other Bishops coming to Dunstable six miles from Ampthill where Catharine then resided caused her to be cited before him next under the King chief Judge in all Ecclesiastical causes within the Province of Canterbury to shew what reasons could be alledged why the Marriage not lawfully contracted between the King and her should not be disannulled and pronounced impious incestuous and consequently void To these things by one of her Servants she answered that it beseemed not the Archbishop to thrust his sickle into another's harvest this Cause did yet depend undecided before the Pope Christ's Vicar on earth whose Decree she would obey and other Judge would she acknowledge none Being called fifteen days together and not appearing she is pronounced Contumax and for her contumacy separated from the King's bed and company Whereupon the Lady Ann proclaimed Queen throughout the Kingdom on Easter-eve shewed her self publickly as Queen and was at Whitsontide crowned with as great pomp and solemnity as ever was Queen The particulars I will let pass excepting that prophetical Distich upon one of the Triumphant Arches purposely erected in London where she was to pass Regìna Anna paris Regis de sanguine Natam Et paries populis aurea secla tuis In English Ann thou a Daughter bearest to our King And to thy people golden days shalt bring Wafers also with the same impression were thrown about saith Stow. But I rather believe that this Distich was made after the Queens delivery Whensoever it were he that truly considers the felicity of the four and forty years Reign of this Queens Daughter will think this Oracle could not proceed from any but a Delphian Apollo For the Queen at the time of her Coronation was great with child whereof the seventh of September she was delivered at Greenwich which was that ever famous Queen Elizabeth who after the death of her Brother and Sister so gloriously ruled this Kingdom The Pope was certified of all these passages that his authority in England was abrogated that the late Queen Catharine was put away that Ann Bolen as Queen was taken to the King's bed that the King stiled himself Supreme Head of the Church of England that the Archbishop of Canterbury executed all those Offices which formerly the Pope only did and that not as the Pope's Legate but as Primate of England who under the King claimed chief authority in Ecclesiastical affairs throughout his whole Province Wherewith being netled he seemed to breath nothing but threats and revenge But knowing himself to have been the motive of it and doubtful of the event he was easily perswaded by the French King as yet not to proceed by Excommunication against Henry until he had made trial of some milder course Whereupon Francis by Bellay Bishop of Paris intreats Henry not to withdraw
himself wholly from the obedience of Rome for as much as it was a matter of great danger He would therefore advise him once more by Ambassadors to Rome to signifie that he was not utterly averse from a reconciliation which if he did he made no doubt but all things would succeed to his mind Henry was certain of enjoying his Love and let the Pope decree what he list was resolved to keep her He had been formerly abused by the Court of Rome and was loath to make farther trial of their dilatory proceedings Yet had Bellay prevailed so far with him that he would be content once more to submit himself to the Church of Rome if he could be assured of the Pope's intention to do him equity The Bishop conceiving some hopes of a peace although it were in the Winter time goes himself to Rome gives the Pope an account of his actions and certifies him that the matter was not yet desperate Whereupon a day is appointed by which a Post returning from the King was to give notice of an intended Embassy But the Consistory gave so short a time to have an answer that the Post came short two days at his return The term expired they proceed hastily to the confirmation of their Censures notwithstanding the Bishop's instance to obtain six days more for as much as contrary winds or some other chance might hinder the Messenger and six days would be no great matter considering the King had wavered six whole years before he fell The more moderate thought the Bishop demanded but reason but the preposterous haste of the greater sort prevailed Two days were scarce past after the prefixed time but the Post arriving with ample authority and instructions from England did greatly amaze those hasty Cardinals who afterwards would fain but could not find any means to mend what they had so rashly marred For the matter to please the Emperour was so hudled up as that which could not ritely be finished in three Consistories was done in one So the King and the whole Realm was interdicted the Bull whereof the Messengers not daring to come nearer was brought to Dunkirk The report hereof coming to the King he lays all the blame on the Lady Catharine Whereupon the Duke of Suffolk was sent to lessen her Houshold They who might be any way suspected to have been employed by her in this business are turned away the rest are commanded to take their Oaths to serve her as Princess of Wales not as Queen of England They that refuse are cashiered and they that are content to swear are by her cast off so that for a time she had few or no Attendants In the mean time on the three and twentieth of June died Mary Queen of France the King's Sister and was buried in the Abbey of St. Edmundsbury ANNO DOM. 1534. REG. 26. ABout this time was discovered the grand Imposture of Elizabeth Barton which brought her to a deserved end She had formerly been sick of a strange disease which not only afflicted her inwardly but as often as her fitt took her so wonderfully distorted her mouth and other parts of her body that most were of opinion it could not proceed from any natural cause But Custom growing to a second Nature the continuance of the disease had taught her to distort her body after her recovery in the same manner as when she was sick Hoping to make a profit of this her counterfeit Convulsion she imparted the secret to the Curate of the Parish by whose device after long deliberation between them it was agreed that she should often feign her self to be in an Ecstasie and whereas she was wont when the fitt seised her to lie still without motion as if she had been dead she should now sometimes utter some godly sentences inveigh against the wickedness of the times but especially against Hereticks and broachers of new Opinions and should relate strange Visions revealed by God to her in the time of her Ecstasie By these jugling tricks not only among the Vulgar who termed her the Holy Maid of Kent but among the wiser sort such as were Archbishop Warham Bishop Fisher and others her sanctity was held in admiration The Imposture taking so generally her boldness increased She prefixeth a day whereon she shall be restored to perfect health and the means of her recovery must be procured forsooth by a Pilgrimage to some certain Image of our Lady The day came and she being brought to the place by the like cozenage deceived a great number of people whom the expectation of the Miracle had drawn thither and at last as if she had just then shaken off her disease she appears whole and straight unto them all saying That by especial command from God she must become a Nun and that one Dr. Bocking a Monk of Canterbury there present was ordained to be her Confessor which office he willingly undertook under pretext whereof this Nun living at Canterbury Bocking often resorted to her not without suspition of dishonesty The intended Divorce from Catharine and Marriage with Ann Bolen had much appalled most part of the Clergy for then a necessity was imposed on the King of a divorce from the Papal See in which the Church and all Ecclesiastical persons were likely to suffer The apprehension whereof wrought so with Bocking that making others conscious of the intent he perswaded Elizabeth Barton by denuntiation of God's revealed judgments to deterr the King from his purposed change She according as she was instructed proclaims it abroad That the King adventuring to marry another Catharine surviving should if in the mean time he died not some infamous death within one month after be deprived of his Kingdom The King hears of it and causeth the Impostrix to be apprehended who upon examination discovered the rest of the Conspirators who were all committed to prison until the next Parliament should determine of them Elizabeth Barton Bocking Masters the afore mentioned Curate of the Parish Deering and Risby Monks with Gold a Priest are by the Parliament adjudged to die The Bishop of Rochester and Adeson his Chaplain one Abel a Priest Laurence the Archdeacon of Canterbury his Register and Thomas Gold Gentleman for having heard many things whereby they might guess at the intents of the Conspirators and not acquainting the Magistrate with them are as accessory condemned in a Praemunire confiseation of their goods and perpetual imprisonment Elizabeth Barton and her Companions having each of them after a Sermon at Pauls Cross publickly confessed the Imposture are on the twentieth of April hanged and their Heads set over the Gates of the City By the same Parliament the authority of the Convocation to make Canonical Constitutions unless the King give his Royal assent is abrogated It is also enacted That the Collocation of all Bishopricks the Sees being vacant should henceforth be at the King's dispose and that no man should be chosen by the Chapter or
consecrated by the Archbishop but he on whom the King by his Congé D'eslire or other his Letters had conferred that Dignity And whereas many complained that now all commerce with Rome was forbidden all means were taken away of mitigating the rigour of the Ecclesiastical Laws of Dispensation Papal authority is granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury the King reserving to himself the power of dispensing in causes of greater moment And that all Appeals formerly wont to be made from the Archbishop to the Pope should now be from the Archbishop to the King who by Delegates should determine all such Suits and Controversies Furthermore the King's Marriage with the Lady Catharine is again pronounced incestuous the Succession to the Crown established on the King's Issue begotten on Queen Ann. And all above the age of sixteen years throughout the Kingdom are to be bound by Oath to the observance of this Law Whosoever refused to take this Oath should suffer loss of all their goods and perpetual imprisonment Throughout all the Realm there were found but two who durst refractorily oppose this Law viz. Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More the late Lord Chancellor men who were indeed very learned but most obstinate sticklers in the behalf of the Church of Rome who being not to be drawn by any perswasions to be conformable to the Law were committed to prison from whence after a years durance they were not freed but by the loss of their lives But the King fearing that it might be thought That he took these courses rather out of a contempt of Religion than in regard of the tyranny of the Court of Rome to free himself from all suspition either of favouring Luther or any authors of new Opinions began to persecute that sort of men whom the Vulgar called Hereticks and condemned to the cruelty of that merciless Element Fire not only certain Dutch Anabaptists but many Professors of the Truth and amongst others that learned and godly young man John Frith who with one Hewet and others on the two and twentieth of July constantly endured the torments of their martyrdom The five and twentieth of September died Clement the Seventh Pope in whose place succeeded Alexander Farnese by the name of Paulus the Third who to begin his time with some memorable Act having called a Consistory pronounced Henry to be fallen from the Title and Dignity of a King and to be deposed reiterating withal the thunder of Excommunication with which bugbear his predecessor Clement had sought to affright him But this peradventure happened in the ensuing year after the death of Fisher and More A Parliament is again called in November wherein according to the Decree of the late Synod the King was declared Supreme Head of the Church of England and the punishment of all crimes which formerly pertained to the Ecclesiastical Courts is made proper to him So the Kingdom is vindicated from the usurpation of the Pope who before shared in it and the King now first began to reign entirely Also all Annats or First-fruits formerly paid to the Pope are granted to the King And Wales the seat of the remainder of the true antient Britans hitherto differing from us compounded of Normans and Saxons as well in the form of their Government as in Language is by the authority of this Parliament to the great good of both but especially that Nation united and incorporated to England Edward the First was the first who subdued this Countrey yet could he not prevail over their minds whom the desire of recovering their lost liberty animated to many Rebellions By reason whereof and our suspitions being for two hundred years oppressed either with the miseries of Servitude or War they never tasted the sweet fruits of a true and solid Peace But Henry the Seventh by blood in regard of his Father and birth a Welchman coming to the Crown as if they had recovered their liberty whereto they so long aspired they obeyed him as their lawful Prince So the English being freed of their former jealousies permitted them to partake of their Priviledges since common to both Nations the good whereof equally redounded to both I could wish the like Union with Scotland That as we all live in one Island professing one Faith and speaking for the most part one Language under the government of one and the same Prince so we may become one Nation all equally acknowledging our selves Britans and so recover our true Countrey Britain lost as it were so many hundreds of years by our divisions of it into England Scotland and Wales ANNO DOM. 1535. REG. 27. THe Coronation of the new Queen and other passages of entertainment had exhausted the Treasury The Pope and the Emperour were both enemies to Henry watchfully attending all opportunities to do him mischief Neither in regard that so many sided with the Pope were all things safe at home The King was therefore forced to a course seemingly rash and full of dangerous consequences but very necessary for the time He resolves to demolish all the Monasteries throughout England He is content the Nobility should share with him in the spoil so enriching and strengthening himself by their necessary revolt from the Popish faction To this end they that were thought more especially in maintaining the Pope's authority to withstand the King's proceedings were condemned of high Treason and they that refused to acknowledge the King under Christ Supreme Head of the Church of England are hanged For this cause on the third of May were executed John Houghton Prior of the Charterhouse in London Augustine Webster Prior of Bevaley and Thomas Lawrence Prior of Exham and with them Richard Reignalds a Monk and Doctor of Divinity and John Hales Vicar of Thistlehurst On the eighteenth of June Exmew Middlemore and Nudigate all Charterhouse-Monks suffered for the same cause And four days after John Fisher Bishop of Rochester a man much reverenced by the People for his holy life and great learning was publickly beheaded and his Head set over London Bridge Our Histories hardly afford a president of the execution of such a man But the Pope was the occasion of his death who to ease the burthen of his now a years imprisonment by the addition of a new Title had on the one and twentieth of May created him Cardinal The news whereof hastened him to a Scaffold The sixth of July Sir Thomas More for the same stiffness in opinion with Bishop Fisher suffered the like death This was that More so famous for his Eutopia and many other Works both in English and Latin As for his conversation the most censorious fault him in nothing but his too too jesting I will not say scoffing wit to which he gave more liberty than did beseem the gravity of his person not tempering himself in the midst of his calamity no not at the very instant of death After his condemnation he denied to give
any thing to the Barber that trimmed him affirming That head about which he had bestowed his pains was the Kings if he could prove it to be his that did bear it he would well reward him To his Keeper demanding his upper garment as his fee he gave his Hat Going up the Scaffold he desired him that went before him To lend him his hand to help him up as for coming down he took no care Laying his head upon the block he put aside his beard which was then very long saying The Executioner was to cut off his head not his heard The executions of so many men caused the Queen to be much maligned as if they had been done by her procurement at least the Papists would have it thought so knowing that it stood her upon and that indeed she endeavoured that the authority of the Pope of Rome should not again take footing in England They desired nothing more than the downfal of this virtuous Lady which shortly after happening they triumphed in the overthrow of Innocence In the mean time they who undertook the subversion of the Monasteries invented an Engin to batter them more forcibly than the former course of torture and punishment They send abroad subtil-headed fellows who warranted by the King's authority should throughout England search into the lives and manners of Religious persons It would amaze one to consider what villanies were discovered among them by the means of Cromwell and others Few were found so guiltless as to dare withstand their proceedings and the licentiousness of the rest divulged made them all so odious to the people that never any exploit so full of hazard and danger was more easily atchieved than was the subversion of our English Monasteries ANNO DOM. 1536. REG. 28. THis year began with the end of the late Queen Catharine whom extremity of grief cast into a disease whereof on the eighth of January she deceased Queen Ann now enjoyed the King without a Rival whose death notwithstanding not improbably happened too soon for her For the King upon May-day at Greenwich beholding the Viscount Rochfort the Queens Brother Henry Norris and others running a-Tilt arising suddenly and to the wonder of all men departing thence to London caused the Viscount Rochfort Norris the Queen her self and some others to be apprehended and committed The Queen being guarded to the Tower by the Duke of Norfolk Audley Lord Keeper Cromwell Secretary of Estate and Kingston Lieutenant of the Tower at the very entrance upon her knees with dire imprecations disavowed the crime whatsoever it were wherewith she was charged beseeching God so to regard her as the justness of her cause required On the fifteenth of May in the Hall of the Tower she was arraigned the Duke of Norfolk sitting high Steward to whom were adjoined twenty six other Peers and among them the Queens Father by whom she was to be tryed The Accusers having given in their evidence and the Witnesses produced she sitting in a Chair whether in regard of any infirmity or out of honour permitted to the Wife of their Sovereign having an excellent quick wit and being a ready speaker did so answer to all objections that had the Peers given in their verdict according to the expectation of the assembly she had been acquitted But they among whom the Duke of Suffelk the King's Brother-in-Law was chief one wholly applying himself to the King's humour pronounce her guilty Whereupon the Duke of Norfolk bound to proceed according to the verdict of the Peers condemned her to death either by being Burned in the Green in the Tower or Beheaded as his Majesty in his pleasure should think fit Her Brother George Viscount Rochfort was likewise the same day condemned and shortly after Henry Norris William Brierton and Francis Weston Gentlemen of the King 's Privy Chamber and Mark Smeton a Musician either as partakers or accessory were to run the same fortune The King greatly favoured Norris and is reported to be much grieved that he was to die with the rest Whereupon he offered pardon to him conditionally that he would confess that whereof he was accused But he answered resolutely and as it became the progenitor of so many valiant Heroes That in his conscience he thought her guiltless of the objected crime but whether she were or no he could not accuse her of any thing and that he had rather undergo a thousand deaths than betray the Innocent Upon relation whereof the King cryed out Hang him up then hang him up then Which notwithstanding was not accordingly executed For on the thirteenth of May two days after his condemnation all of them viz. the Viscount Rochfort Norris Brierton and Smeton were Beheaded at Tower-hill Norris left a Son called also Henry whom Queen Elizabeth in contemplation of his Father's deserts created Baron of Ricot This Lord Norris was Father to those great Captains William John Thomas and Edward in our days so famous throughout Christendom for their brave exploits in England France Ireland and the Netherlands On the nineteenth of May the Queen was brought to the place of Execution in the Green within the Tower some of the Nobility and Companies of the City being admitted rather to be witnesses than spectators of her death To whom the Queen having ascended the Scaffold spake in this manner Friends and good Christian people I am here in your presence to suffer death whereto I acknowledge my self adjudged by the Laws how justly I will not say for I intend not an accusation of any one I beseech the Almighty to preserve his Majesty long to reign over you a more gentle or mild Prince never swayed Scepter his bounty and clemency towards me I am sure hath been especial If any one intend an inquisitive survey of my actions I intreat him to judge favourably of me and not rashly to admit of any hard censorious conceit And so I bid the World farewel beseeching you to commend me in your Prayers to God To thee O Lord do I commend my Soul Then kneeling down she incessantly repeated these words Christ have mercy on my soul Lord Jesus receive my soul until the Executioner of Calais at one blow smote off her Head with a Sword Had any one three years before at what time the King so hot in the pursuit of his love preferred the enjoying of this Lady beyond his Friends his Estate his Health Safeguard and his only Daughter prophetically foretold the unhappy fate of this Princess he should have been believed with Cassandra But much more incredible may all wise men think the unheard of crime for which she was condemned viz. That fearing lest her Daughter the Lady Elizabeth born while Catharine survived should be accounted illegitimate in hope of other especially male Issue whereof she despaired by the King now near fifty years old she had lasciviously used the company of certain young Courtiers nay not therewith content had committed Incest with her
own Brother A strange ingratitude in one raised from so low degree even to the height of honour I will not derogate from the Authority of publick Records But an Act of Parliament against her shall not work on my belief Surely it carried so little shew of probability with forein Princes that they always deemed it an act of inhuman cruelty Especially the Estates of Germany Confederates for the defence of the Reformed Religion who having often treated with Fox Bishop of Hereford and other Ambassadors had decreed to make Henry Head of their League and had designed an Embassy by John Sturmius who should have brought with him into England those excellent Divines Philip Melancthon and Martin Bucer with one George Draco who should endeavour that and the Reformation of our Church But having heard of the lamentable and unworthy as they judged it end of the Queen loathing the King for his inconstancy and cruelty they cast off all farther thought of that matter I will not presume to discuss the truth of their opinion But freely to speak what I my self think There are two reasons which sway much with me in the behalf of the Queen That her Daughter the Lady Elizabeth was seated in the Royal Throne where she for so many years ruled so happily and triumphantly What shall we think but that the Divine Goodness was pleased to recompence the unjust calamity of the Mother in the glorious prosperity of the Daughter And then consider but the King 's precipitated Nuptials the very next day after the death of his former Wife yet scarce intorred and with whose warm blood his embrued hands yet reaked Consider this I say and you shall easily be perswaded with me that the insatiable Prince glutted with the satiety of one and out of the desire of variety seeking to enjoy another did more willingly give ear to the treacherous calumnies of the malicious Popelings than either befitted an upright Judge or a loving Husband For it seemeth wonderful strange to me that either the fault of the one or the pleasing conditions and fair language of the other Wife should so far possess the King as that he should procure his Daughter Elizabeth to be by Act of Parliament declared illegitimate the Matrimony contracted with both the former Queens Catharine and Ann to be pronounced invalid and the Crown to be perpetually established on the posterity of the third Wife or if the King had no Issue by her that then it should be lawful for him by Will and Testament to transfer it on whom he pleased Parliaments were not then so rigid but that they could flatter the Prince and condescend to his demands though unjust even in cases which most nearly concerned the publick Weal But servile Fear is oft times more ready than Love which slowly moves by apprehension of Good as the other is quickly forced by the apprehension of Danger On the twentieth of May the King married Jane Seymour Daughter of Sir John Seymour who on the nine and twentieth of May being Whitsonday clad in Royal habiliments was openly shewed as Queen So that the Court of England was now like a Stage whereon are represented the vicissitudes of ever various Fortune For within one and the same Month it saw Queen Ann flourishing accused condemned executed and another assumed into her place both of bed and honour The first of May it seemeth she was informed against the second imprisoned the fifteenth condemned and the seventeenth deprived of her Brother and Friends who suffered in her cause and the nineteenth executed On the twentieth the King married Jane Seymour who on the nine and twentieth was publickly shewed as Queen The death of this innocent Lady God seemed to revenge in the immature end of the Duke of Richmond the King 's only but natural Son a Prince of excellent form and endowments who deceased the two and twentieth of July for whom the King a long time after mourned In the mean time on the nineteenth of July John Bourchier Lord Fitz-waren was created Earl of Bath whose successours in that Honour were his Son John who begat John deceased before his Father whose Son William is now Earl of Bath At what time also Thomas Cromwell a poor Smith's Son but of a dexterous wit whose first rising was in the Family of Cardinal Wolsey in whose service by him faithfully performed he grew famous was made Lord Cromwell many dignities being also conferred on him to the increase of his estate and honour For first he was Master of the Rolls and principal Secretary of Estate then Sir Thomas Bolen Earl of Wiltshire resigning he was made Lord Privy Seal and after that dignified with the unheard of Title of The King's Vicar general in affairs Ecclesiastical For the authority of the Pope being abrogated many businesses daily happened which could not be dispatched without the King's consent who not able to undergo the burthen alone conferred this authority granted him by Act of Parliament on Cromwell not for that he thought a Lay-man fitter for this dignity than a Clergy-man but because he had determined under colour and pretence thereof to put in execution some designs wherein the Clergy in all probability would have moved very slowly and against the hair He was therefore President in the Synod this year Certainly a deformed spectacle to see an unlearned Lay-man President over an assembly of sacred Prelates and such as for their Learning England had in no preceding Ages known the like For indeed Henry is for that much to be commended who would not easily advance any one to place of Government in the Church but whom his Learning should make worthy By the authority of this Synod a Book was set forth wherein many points of Doctrine being proposed to be by the Curates expounded to their Parishioners mention was made of only three Sacraments Baptism the Eucharist and Penance some Holy-days also were abrogated and other things pertaining to Religion and Ecclesiastical discipline somewhat changed wherewith many were offended who preferred prescript Errours before the Truth The same time the Parliament assembled the fourth of January permitted all Monasteries the Revenues whereof exceeded not two hundred Pounds a year to the King's disposal who causing them to be suppressed to the number of three hundred seventy and six entred upon their Lands amounting to thirty two thousand Pounds a year and selling their goods even at very low rates most men accounting it sacrilegious to set to sale the goods of the Church raised above an hundred thousand Pounds These things of themselves were distastful to the vulgar sort Each one did as it were claim a share in the goods of the Church For many who being neither Monks nor relied to Religious persons did receive no profit of Ecclesiastical goods did notwithstanding conceive that it might hereafter come to pass that either their Children Friends or Kindred might obtain the places yet supplied by others
In Autumn the Earl of Rutland with three thousand Lansquenets and some Bands drawn out of the frontier Garrisons arrives at Hadington Who duly considering that this Town could not be kept any longer without the excessive charges of a just Army forasmuch as the Countrey about being miserably forraged it could not be victualled without great difficulty and danger rased the Walls fired the Houses brought away the Artillery and finding no resistance returned in safety to Berwick Buchanan refers it to the ensuing year but I follow the record of our own Historians And having thus far spent the year abroad I at length return home where I find Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in the Tower He was a man very learned and no less subtil adhering to the Popish Faction yet so as that he would be content to accommodate himself to the current of the times King Henry had employed him in many Embassages and that with ample authority under whom he durst not oppose the proceedings confirmed by enacted Laws And under Edward he repressed himself for a time seemingly consenting to the commenced Reformation But his dissimulation was at length manifestly discovered to the Privy Council who had commanded him in a Sermon at Pauls Cross to signifie his approbation of the present estate of the Church which he accordingly did on the nine and twentieth of June but so ambiguously and obscurely that he satisfied them not And being expresly forbidden to speak any thing concerning the Eucharist he knowing that by the Laws nothing was definitively determined in that point did so eargerly assert that Papistical I will not say Capernaitical Corporal and Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament that he wonderfully offended the minds of many but especially of the Lords of the Council Wherefore he was on the thirtieth of June committed and obstinately refusing to acknowledge his errour was two years after deprived of his Bishoprick and as he was of a turbulent spirit lest he should practise any thing against the Estate detained nevertheless in prison until the death of Edward In the mean time Archbishop Cranmer by writing oppugned that gross and carnal assertion of the Church of Rome concerning Christ's Presence in the Sacrament whom Gardiner secretly answered under the fictitious name of M. Constantius Neither did that Blood-sucker Boner Bishop of London who in Queen Maries Reign so heated the Kingdom with the Funeral Piles of so many Saints speed any better than Winchester For being likewise enjoyned to Preach at the Cross he did it so coldly omitting many of those points whereof he was commanded to speak that he was likewise committed deprived of his Bishoprick and so lived until Queen Mary set them both at liberty What the Objections were against Cutbert Tonstall Bishop of Duresm and George Day Bishop of Chichester I do not find but that they ran the same fortune is manifest They were both very Learned Prelates but especially Tonstall a mild man and of most sweet conditions in regard whereof I do not a little wonder that he was so hardly dealt with But the drift of the punishments of such men who in Henry's time were accounted the chief Lights of our Church I conceive to have been that the rest of that Order might by their example be admonished without dissimulation either to resign their Bishopricks to others that were thought more worthy or be induced to conform themselves to the present Reformation of the Church according to the prescript of the Laws in that behalf lately Enacted And yet I would there were not sufficient cause to suspect that this was but a made opportunity the removal of these obstacles making way for the Invasion of these widow Seas For as soon as Tonstall was exautorated that rich Bishoprick of Duresm by Act of Parliament was wrecked the chief revenues and customs of it being incorporated to the Crown and the rest in despight of the Tenants so gelded that at this day it scarce possesseth the third part of its antient Revenues Yet did Queen Mary seriously endeavour the restitution of those religious portions Queen Elizabeth would hardly consent that it should lose any of its plumes yet some it did and King James hath lately enacted against the Alienation of Church-lands yea even to the Crown otherwise than upon reservation of a reasonable Rent and the return of them to the Church after the expiration of three lives or one and twenty years The hungry Courtier finding how good a thing the Church was had now for some years become acquainted with it out of a zealous intent to Prey Neither could the horridness of her sacred Skeleton as yet so work on him as to divert his resolutions and compassionately to leave the Church to her religious poverty Beside the infancy of the King in this incertain ebb and flow of Religion made her opportune to all kind of Sacriledge So that we are deservedly to thank the Almighty Guardian of the Church that these Locusts have not quite devoured the Maintenance of the Labourers in this English Vineyard For we yet retain that antient form of government in the Primitive Church by Bishops who have for the most part wherewith to support their honourable Function as likewise have other those subordinate Prelates Deans Archdeacons and Canons of Cathedral Churches And as for our Preachers of the more polite and learned sort we think him little befriended by Fortune who long liveth in expectation of a competent preferment I would the residue of the Reformed Churches of Christendom had not been pared so near the quick by precise hands that but some few of them might in this kind be paralleled with ours And now behold two Brothers acting their several Tragedies Jealousie Envy and Ambition infernal Furies had armed them against each other and the Pride of the Feminine Sex prepared them for the Lists A lamentable exigent wherein the loss of his Adversary must be the destruction of each wherein the Kingdom must groan at the loss of one both being in the Estate incompatible wherein the King himself must as most suspect he did suffer that he might not suffer Thomas Seymour Lord Admiral had married Catharine Parr the Widow of the deceased King What correspondence there might be between Her who had been the Wife of the late Sovereign and the Duchess of Somerset whose Husband being Protector of the Realm in point of command little differed from a Sovereign and had over his Brother the Admiral the Advantages of Age Dignity and general Esteem if any man cannot without difficulty conjecture I refer him to the first Book of Herodian where let him observe the contentions arising between Crispina the Wife of Commodus and Lucilla who had been formerly married to L. Verus the Emperour But in this the divers dispositions of the Brothers set on edge on the emulous humours of their Wives The Duke was mild affable free open and no way malicious the Admiral was naturally turbulent
fierce ambitious and conceived himself to be of the two the fitter for Publick Government Presently after the death of Henry the Admiral thrust on by the flattery of his overweening conceits resolved to add a lustre to his good parts by marrying the Lady Elizabeth as yet indeed scarce marriageable But the Protector wisely considering how rash and perilous this project was frustrated that design By his after marriage with Catharine a most beautiful and noble Lady and abounding with wealth befitting her dignity moft men were confident that the gulf of his vast desires would have been satisfied but the Law whereby he was condemned though peradventure Enacted by strength of Faction will manifest the contrary What notice I have received and what the publick Records testifie concerning this being perswaded that they swerve not much from the truth I think I may without blame relate The Admiral having now fortified himself with money and friends and deeming his Brother's Lenity Sluggishness began to behold him with the eye of contempt and to cast about how to dispossess him of the saddle and being of like degree of consanguinity to the King to enjoy the seat himself To the furtherance of this project it would be conducible secretly to vilisie and traduce the Protector 's actions to corrupt the King's Servants especially if in any degree of favour by fair words and large promises by degrees to assure himself of the Nobility to secure his Castle of Holt with a Magazin of warlike provision but above all to take care for money the nerves of War and assurance of Peace These things having been ordered with exact diligence and for supply of coin the Exchequer mightily pilled he unmasks himself to some of the Nobility signifying his intent of setling himself at the Stern by forcibly seising on the King's person Nay his madness so far transported him that to one of them conditionally that his assistance were not wanting to the advancement of his designs he promised that the King should marry his Daughter In the mean time the Queen his Wife being in September delivered of a Daughter died in child-bed and that not without suspition of Poison For after her death he more importunately sought the Lady Elizabeth than ever eagerly endeavouring to procure her consent to a clandestine Marriage as was that with the deceased Queen and not until after the Nuptials to crave the assent of the King or the Lords of the Council ANNO DOM. 1549. REG. 3. But the Admiral 's projects being opportunely discovered and a Parliament lately assembled he is by the authority thereof committed to the Tower and without tryal condemned The Parliament being on the fourteenth of March dissolved he is on the sixth day after publickly beheaded having first vehemently protested that he never willingly did either actually endeavour or seriously intend any thing against the Person of the King or the Estate Concerning his death the opinions of men were divers their censures divers Among some the Protector heard ill for suffering his Brother to be executed without ordinary course of trial As for for these faults proceeding from the violence of youthful heat they might better have been pardoned than the King be left destitute of an uncle's help or himself of a Brother's Nay they say there wanted not those that before this severe course taken with the Admiral admonished the Protector to have a heedy regard to this action Some peradventure might be content to let a Brother shed tears to shed his blood when they might prevent it scarce any it was much to be feared lest his Brother's death would be his ruine and the loss of such Friends a hazard to the King Others highly extolled his impartial proceeding whom fraternal affection could not divert from righting his Countrey For if Consanguinity or Alliance to the King should be a sufficient cause to exempt them from punishment who should plot and contrive the change of government in the Estate upon what ticklish terms should we all stand whiles nothing could be certain and sure in the publick government Others maintained the necessity of cutting off the Admiral and that it stood the Protector upon so to do if he either regarded his own or the King's safeguard For at what other mark did the Admiral aim but that having seised on the King's Person removed his Brother from the Protectorship and married the Lady Elizabeth he might by Poison or some other means make away the young King already deprived of his Friends and as in the right of his Wife invest himself in the Regal Throne whereto the Lady Mary although the elder Sister as incestuously begotten could make no claim And thus much was in a Sermon delivered before the King by Hugh Latimer who having ten years since resigned his Bishoprick had also hitherto abstained from Preaching until after the death of King Henry this Light was again restored that by his rays he might illustrate God's Church But how true his conjectures were concerning the Lord Seymour I will not undertake to determine Whether faulty in his ambition or over-born by his envious adversaries thus ended the Admiral his life who was indeed a valiant Commander and not unfit for a Consultation in whose ruine the Protector was likewise involved Not long after this great man's fall the People throughout almost the whole Realm brake out into a Rebellion whereto the frequent usurpations and avarice of the Gentry who in many places enclosed the common and waste grounds for their own pleasure and private profit had incited them The Lords of the Council upon notice of the Peoples discontents and the probability of an Insurrection unless speedy course were taken to appease them dispatched some into Kent the Fountain of this general Uproar who should upon due examination of the causes of the Peoples grievances admonish those that were in that kind faulty by throwing open the Inclosures to restore to the People what had been unjustly taken from them otherwise they should by Authority Royal be forced thereunto and by their punishments serve to deter others from the like insolencies and oppressions The most part obey and a most grateful spectacle to the People cause their new made Inclosures to be again laid open Wherewith Report acquainting the neighbouring Shires the unruly multitude enraged that like restitution had not as yet been made to them not expecting the necessary direction of the Magistrate but as if each one were authorized in his own cause both to judge of and revenge received injuries taking Arms level the Dikes assert the inclosed the Lands and give hope that there their fury would be at a stand But as the Sea having once transgressed the just limits of its shoar by little and little eats its way to an Inundation and is not but with excessive toil to be forced within its usual bounds So these having once transcended the prescripts of the Laws let themselves loose to all kind of licentiousness
him Marquis of Exceter As for Gardiner she not only reseated him in the Bishoprick of Winchester but also on the three and twentieth of August made him Lord Chancellour of England notwithstanding that he had not only Subscribed to the Divorce from Catharine the Queens Mother but had Published Books wherein he had defended King Henry's proceedings On the fifth of August Boner and Tonstall who had been formerly deprived of their Bishopricks the one of London the other of Duresm and shortly after Day of Chichester and Heath of Worcester were enlarged and restored to their Bishopricks the present Incumbents being without due process of Law ejected On the tenth of August were celebrated the Exequies of King Edward Day Bishop of Chichester Preaching executing in English and administring the Sacrament according to the manner and form received in the Reign of Edward For as yet nothing had been determined concerning any change in point of Religion So that when Bourn a Canon of Pauls afterward Bishop of Bath and Wells Preaching at the Cross did inveigh against the Reformation in King Edward's time and did in upbraiding manner argue the Injustice of those times which condemned Bonor to perpetual Imprisonment for matter delivered by him in that place that time four year who was now by a more just Clemency restored to his Liberty and Dignity The People 〈◊〉 to the Protestant Religion could hardly abstain from stoning him and one of them aiming a Poinyard at him missed him very narrowly The affections of the Assembly may by this be conceived that during the Reign of Queen Mary the Author of this bold attempt notwithstanding the diligence of earnest Inquisitors could never be discovered The uproar increasing and divers pressing toward the Pulpit Bourn protected by two Protestant Preachers Bradford and Rogers who were greatly Reverenced by the People and afterward Burned for their Religion was with great difficulty conveyed to the School at Pauls And now at length on the eighteenth of August the Duke of Norfolk sitting as High Steward of England were the Duke of Northumberland his Son the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton Arraigned at Westminster where the Duke of Northumberland pleading that he had done nothing but by authority of the Council his Plea being not admitted for sufficient he was condemned of High Treason The Sentence being pronounced he craved the favour of such a Death as was usually executed on Noblemen and not the other He beseeched also that a favourable regard might be had of his Children in respect of their age Thirdly that he might be permitted to confer with some learned Divine for the setling of his Conscience And lastly that her Majesty would be pleased to send unto him four of her Council for the discovery of some things which might concern the Estate The Marquis of Northampton pleaded to his Indictment that after the beginning of these Tumults he had forborn the Execution of any Publick Office and that all that while inteht to Hunting and other sports he did not partake in the Conspiracy But it being manifest that he was party with the Duke of Northumberland Sentence passed on him likewise The Earl of Warwick finding that the Judges in so great a Cause admitted not excuse of Age with great resolution heard his Condemnation pronounced craving only this favour that whereas the Goods of those who were condemned for Treason are totally Confifcated yet her Majesty would be pleased that out of them his Debts might be discharged After this they were all again returned to the Tower The next day Sir Andrew Dadley Sir John Gates who was thought in Northumberland's favour to have projected the Adoption of Lady Jane Sir Henry Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer were likewise condemned On the two and twentieth of the same month the Duke with the rest having two days before received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper were conducted to the place of Execution Where Northumberland saith that excellent Historiographer thuanas by the perswasion of Nicholas Heath afterward Bishop of York making his own Funeral Oration to the People acknowledged himself guilty and craving pardon for his unseasonable Ambition admonished the Assembly That they should embrace the Religion of their Forefathers rejecting that of later date which had occasioned all the Miseries of the ' fore-passed thirty years And for prevention for the future if they desired to present their Souls unspotted to God and were truly affected to their Countrey they should expel those Trumpets of Sedition the Preachers of the Reformed Religion As for himself whatsoever he might pretend his Conscience was fraught with the Religion of his Fathers and for testimony hereof he appealed to his great Friend the Bishop of Winchester but being blinded with Ambition he had been contented to make wrack of his Conscience by temporizing for which he professed himself sincerely repentant and acknowledged the desert of his death Having spoken thus much he craved the charitable Devotions of the Assembly and commending his Soul to God prepared his Body for the stroke of Ax. This Recantation did variously affect the minds of the multitude who wondred that he should at last Apostatize from that Religion which he had for sixteen years professed and in favour whereof chiefly he perswaded King Edward to endeavour the exclusion of his Sisters from their lawful Succession Some write that being desirous of life he did it craftily out of hope of impunity but that hope being frustrated to have repented it afterwards He was suspected neither were the presumptions small to have administred a Poisonous potion to King Edward but in his Indictment there was no mention of it and that the rather for that the Judges had authority only to inflict Punishment on him for his Conspiracy against the Queen At the same time and place were also Executed Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer Many Bishops also who were thought to have been too too opinionate in point of Religion were sent for to London and there Imprisoned viz. Hooper of Glocester Farrar of St. Davies who were both crowned with Martyrdom and Coverdale of Exceter who at the request of Christiern the Third King of Denmark was Pardoned But the Clergy of what rank soever who would not forsake their Wives or were invested in Livings whereof any one had been for defence of Popery deprived or that would not by Oath promise the defence of the Romish Religion were generally forced to relinquish their Benefices Peter Martyr was then Professor at Oxford who presently upon the Death of King Edward was confined to his House But after some time his Friends so far prevailed that he might come to London where he betook himself to his Patron the Archbishop of Canterbury But he could not prove a Sanctuary to him The Archbishop himself began now to totter The Queen beside that she was wholly swayed by Gardiner who extremely hated him had resolved to wreak her self
of mind to accept of and retain this Benefit which God by his Vicar's Legate did proffer them For now nothing else remained but that he being present with those Keys which should open the Gates of the Church they should also abrogate those Laws which lately Enacted to the prejudice of the Church had rended them from the rest of its Body Having spoken a great deal to this purpose and ransacked Antiquity for examples of our Forefathers devotion to the See of Rome his grave delivery excellent language and methodical contexture of his speech wrought so effectually in the minds of those who were addicted to Popery that they thought not themselves until this day capable of Salvation But many of the lower House who deemed it a rare felicity to have shaken off the yoak of Rome eagerly withstood the readmittance of it But by the endeavours of the King and Queen all things were at last composed to the Cardinal 's liking The Authority which the Popes heretofore usurped in this Realm is restored the Title of Supreme Head of the Church is abrogated and a Petition drawn by the whole Court of Parliament for the Absolution of the People and Clergy of England from Schism and Heresie is by the Bishop of Winchester presented to the Legate who they all kneeling by the Authority committed unto him absolved them This being done they went to the Chappel in Procession singing Te Deum and the next Sunday the Bishop of Winchester in his Sermon at Pauls Cross made a large relation of what had passed These things being thus setled the Queen intends an honorable Embassy to Rome whereof she had at her first coming to the Crown made promise For having resolved to replant the Religion of Rome she had privily written to Pool requiring his advice therein The Pope was therefore pleased to send into England Giovanni Francisco Commendono his Chamberlain afterward Cardinal for the more perfect notice of the estate of the Realm To him the Queen after much private conference did under her Hand promise Obedience to the See of Rome desiring withal that the Kingdom might be absolved from the Interdict for the obtaining whereof she would by a solemn Embassy petition his Holiness as soon as the Estate was setled So now about the end of this year the Bishop of Ely Sir Anthony Brown and Edward Carne Doctor of Law are by the Kings sent to proffer their Obedience to the See of Rome But these costs and pains were fruitless For before they came to Rome the Pope was dead In the mean time the Queen considering all her actions hitherto to have passed with full applause began to treat with the Nobility to condescend that if not the Royal at least the Matrimonial Crown of our Queens might be imposed on Philip. But it being a matter without precedent and that might perchance to an ambitious Prince give some colour for claim to the Kingdom they proved averse and she content to surcease The next care was of restitution of Church-Lands But Henry had so divided them and that among the Nobility that nothing could be done therein Only it was decreed that the First-Fruits and Tenths granted to the King by the Clergy Anno 1534 should be remitted which Decree upon consideration of the Treasuries poverty and of the many Pensions granted by Henry to the ejected Religious Persons was quickly revoked About the same time an absurd I might say ridiculous accident happened by the Queens own credulity and the flattery of fawning Courtiers By reason of a Disease which Physicians term a Mole her Belly began to swell and some other reasons giving her cause to conjecture that she was with Child she not entertaining the advice of any Physicians but of Midwives and old Women believing what she desired should be affirmed that she felt the stirring of the Embryo in her womb To those that are affected with this malady that fleshy and inform substance which is termed Mola doth seem sometimes to move but that slowly and with the general motion of the whole Belly By this and other symptoms Physicians would quickly have discovered her Disease which unless very maturely prevented is commonly incurable So that in process of time her Liver being over-cooled she fell into a Dropsie which as Fuchsius and other Physicians write doth usually happen But these flattering hopes betrayed her to the laughter of the World and to her Grave For on the seven and twentieth of November the Lords of the Council sent some Mandates to the Bishop of London to disperse certain forms of Prayers wherein after Thanks given to God for his Mercies to this Kingdom by giving hopes of an Heir to the Crown and infusing life into the Embryo they should pray for the preservation of the Queen and the Infant and her happy delivery and cause Te Deum to be sung every where Then by Parliament many things were Enacted concerning the Education of the Babe and much clutter was otherwise kept about preparations for the Child's Swadling-clouts Cradle and other things requisite at the Delivery until in June in the ensuing year it was manifested that all was little better than a Dream This year were many Barons created On the eleventh of March William Howard was created Lord Howard of Effingham he was Father to Charles Lord Admiral and late Earl of Nottingham on the fifth of April John Williams Lord Williams of Tame on the seventh of April Edward North Baron of Chartlege on the eighth of April John Bruges Lord Chandois on the fourteenth of May Gerard Fitz-Gerard of whom before Earl of Kildare and on the second of September Anthony Brown Viscount Mountague And in September deceased Thomas Duke of Norfolk ANNO DOM. 1555. REG. MARIAE 2 3 PHILIPPI 1 2. ON the eighteenth of January the Lord Chancellour coming to the Tower with six other Lords of the Council set many brave Prisoners at liberty viz. the Archbishop of York Sir John Rogers Sir James Croft Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Sir Nicholas Arnold Sir George Harper Sir William Sentlow Sir Gawin Carew Sir Andrew Dudley the Duke of Northumberland's Brother William Gibs Cutbert Vaughan Harington Tremaine and others The Archbishop having married a Wife was deprived and Nicholas Heath sometimes Bishop of Worcester but deprived by King Edward and Hooper being ejected and condemned to the Fire lately restored by Queen Mary was substituted in his place Rogers and Croft were afterward Privy Counsellors to Queen Elizabeth under whom they many years flourished in great Authority Throckmorton a subtil man was thought to have been the plotter of Wyat's Rebellion his Head was therefore especially aimed at But being indicted and ten whole hours spent in sifting him he by such witty answers voided the accusation of his Adversary that the Jurors found him Not guilty for which they were afterward soundly fined About the beginning of April the Marquess of Exceter and a little after the Lady Elizabeth were
Conditions of thè League concluded with the Emperour Rhodes taken by the Turk Christiern King of Denmark The Duke of Bourbon revolts The death of Adrian the Sixth Clement the Seventh succeedeth and Wolsey suffereth the repulse Wolsey persuades the King to a Divorce Richard Pacey Dean of Pauls falleth mad The Battel of Pavy Money demanded and commanded by Proclamation The King falls in love with Ann Bolen A creation of Lords Wolsey 10 build two Colleges demolisheth forty Monasteries Sacriledge punished Luther writes to the King The King's Answer A breach with the Emperour The King endeavours to relieve the French King A League concluded with the French King The French King set at liberty The King of Hungary slain by the Turks Wolsey seeks to be Pope Sede nondum vacante Rome sacked Montmorency Ambassador from France War proclaimed against the Emperour The inconstancy of the Pope Cardinal Campegius 〈◊〉 sens into England The King's Speech concerning his Divorce The Suit of the King's Divorce The Queens speech to the King before the Legates The Queen diparteth Reasons for the Divorce Reasons against the Divorce The Pope's inconstancy Wolsey falls The Iegates repair to the Queen Their conference with her Her answer Cardinal Campegius his Oraition Wolsey discharged of the Great Seal Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour The Cardinal accused of 〈◊〉 Wolsey's Speech to the Judges Christ-Church in Oxford Wolfey-falls sick Wolsey is confined to York The Cardinal is apprehended His last words He dicth And is buried His greatness His buildings The Peace of Cambray The first occasion of Cranmer's rising Creation of Earls The Bible translated into English An Embassy to the Pope All comnierce with the See of Rome forbidden The Clergy fined The King declared supreme Head of the Church The death of William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer though much against his will succeedeth him Sir Thomas More resigns the place of Lord Chancellour An interview between the Kings of England and France Catharina de Medices married to the Duke of Orleans The King marrieth Ann Bolen The birth of Queen Elizabeth Mary Queen of France dieth The Imposture of Elizabeth Barton discovired No Canons to be constituted without the King's assent The King to collate Bishopricks The Archbishop of Canterbury bath Papal authority under the King Fisher and More imprisoned Persecution Pope Clement dieth First-fruits granted to the King Wales united to England The King begins to subvert Religious Houses Certain Priors and Monks executed The Bishop of Rochester beheaded Made Cardinal unseasonably Sir Thomas More beheaded Religious Houses visited The death of Queen Catharine Queen Ann the Visconnt Rochford and others committed The Queen condemned with her Brother and Norris Her Execution Lady Elizabeth difintarited The King marrieth Jane Seymour Death of the Duke of Somerset the King 's natural Son Bourchier Earl of Bath Cromwell's Honour and Dignity The beginning of Reformation The subversion of Religious Houses of less note Commotion in Lincolnshire Insurrection in Yorkshire Scarborough-Castle befieged Rebellion in Ireland Cardinal Pool Rebels executed Cardinal Pool writes against the King The birth of Prince Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford Fitz-William Earl of Southampton Powlet and Russel rise The abuse of Images restrained Becket's Shrine demolished * Uniones The Image of our Lady of Walsingham Frier Forest makes good a 〈◊〉 Saint Augustine's at Canterbury Battel-Abbey and others suppressed The Bible translated The Marquess of Exceter and others beheaded Lambert convented and burned Margaret 〈◊〉 of Salisbury condemned The subversion of Religious Houses Some Abbots executed Glastonbury A catalogue of the Abbots who bad voices among the Peers New Bishopricks erected The Law of the Six Articles Latimer and Schaxton resign their Bishopricks The arrival of certain Princes of Germany in England for the treatise of a Match between the King and Lady Ann of Cleve The King marrieth the Lady Ann of Cleve Cromwell created Earl of Essex and within three months after beheaded Lady Ann of Cleve 〈◊〉 The King marrieth Catharine Howard Protestants and Papists alike persecuted The Prior of Dancaster and six others hanged The Lord Hungerford executed Beginnings of a commotion in Yorkshire Lord Leonard Grey beheaded The Lord Dacres hanged Queen Catharine beheaded Ireland made a Kingdom The Viscount Lisle deceased of a surfert of Joy Sir John Dudley made Viscount Lisle War with Scotland The Scots overthrowes The death of James the Fifth King of Scotland Hopes of a Match between Prince Edword and the Queen of Scots The Scottish Captives set liberty The Earl of Angus return-eth into Scotland The League and Match concluded The Scottish shipping detained War with Scotland War with France A League with Emperour Landrecy besieged but in vain The people licensed to eat White Meats in Lent The King 's sixth Marriage William Parr Earl of Essex Another of the same name made Lord Parr The Lord Chancellour dieth An Expedition into Scotland * Alias Bonlamberg The Earl of Hertford Protector Hing Henry's Funerals The Coronation The death of Francis King of France MusselburghField Reformation in the Church The Scots and French besiege Hadinton The Queen of Scots transported into France Humes Castle and Fastcastle gained by the Enemy Gardiner Bishop of Winchester committed to the Tower Gardiner deprived of his Bishoprick Boner Bishop of London committed also Discord 〈◊〉 the Duke of Somerset and his Brother the Lord Admiral The Lord Admiral beheaded An Insurrection in Norfolk and in Devonshire Some Forts lost in Boloignois * Corruptly Bonlamberg Enmity between the Protector and the Earl of Warwick The Protector committed The death of Paul the Third Pope Cordinal Pool elected Pope The Duke of Somerset set at liberty Peace with the Scots and French The Sweating Sickness The death of the Duke of Suffolk A creation of Dukes and Earls The descent of the Earls of Pembroke 〈◊〉 between the 〈◊〉 Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland revived Certain Bishops deprived Some of the Servants of the Lady Mary committed An Arrian burned An Earthquake The Queen of Scots in England The Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget committed The Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor The Duke of Somerset beheaded A Monster The King Sicknoth His Will wherein he disinheriteth his Sisters He dieth His Prayer Cardanus Lib. de Genituris Sir Hugh Willoughby frozen 10 death Commerce with the Muscovite Lady Mary flies into Suffolk Lady Jane proclaimed Queen Northumberland forced to be General * L. qui in provinciâ sect Divus ff de Ris Nupt. L. 4. C. de Incest Nupt. Gloss. ibid. C. cum inter c. ex tenore Extr. qui fil sins legit Northumberland forsaken by his Souldiers The Lords resolve for Queen Mary And to suppress Lady Jane Northumberland proclaims Mary Queen at Cambridge Northumberland and some other Lords taken Queen Mary comes to London Gardiner made Lord Chancellour Diprived Bishops restored King Edward's Funeral The Duke of Northumberland the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton condemned The Duke of Northumberland Bheaded Bishops imprisoned Peter Martyr The Archbishop Cranmer Lady Jane Lord Guilford and Lord Ambrose Dudley condemned The Coronation A Disputation in the Convocation-House Popery restored The Queen inclines to marry The Articles of the Queens Marriage with Philip of Spain * Which as I conceive would have 〈◊〉 in the year 1588. Sir Thomas Wyat's Rebellion Sir John Cheeke is taken and dieth Bret with five hundred Londoners revolts to Wiat. The Duke of Suffolk perswades the People to Arms in vain The Queens Oration to the Londoners Wyat is taken The Lady Jane Beheaded The Duke of Suffolk Beheaded Wyat Executed And Lord Thomas Gray A Disputation at Oxford Cranmer Ridley and Latimer Condemned Additions to the former Nuptial Compacts Philip arrivith in England And is married to the Queen Cardinal Pool comes into England Cardinal Pool's Oration to the Parliament The Realm freed from 〈◊〉 The Queen thought to be with Child Lords created Lady Elizabeth and the Marquess of Exceter set at liberty John Rogers Burned and Bishop Hooper Bishop Ferrar many others and Bishop Ridley and Latimer The death of Pope Julius the Third Paul the Fourth succeedeth Gardiner sueth to be Cardinal Gardiner 〈◊〉 Charles the Emperour resigns his Crowns The Archbishop of York Lord Chancellour A Comet A 〈◊〉 Edward Archbishop Cranmer Burned This year eighty four Burned The exhumation of Bucer and Phagius Cardinal Pool consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury An Embassage to Muscovia The Lord Stourton hanged Thomas Stafford endeavouring an Insurrection is taken and Beheaded War against France proclaimed Pool's authority 〈◊〉 abrogated and restored The French overthrown at St. Quintin St. Quintin taken A nocturual Rainbow Calais besieged by the French Calais yielded The Battel of Graveling The French overthrown Conquet taken and burned by the English The Daulphin married to the Queen of Scot. The death of Cardinal Pool The Queen diesh