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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97082	Alter Britanniæ heros: or The life of the most honourable knight, Sir Henry Gage, late Governour of Oxford, epitomiz'd.	Walsingham, Edward, d. 1663.	1645 (1645)	Wing W648; Thomason E303_6; ESTC R200291	20,449	31

thus alas Great GAGE from earth was cull'd Long time before the hand of nature pull'd Blest Genius if thou be not quite dissolv'd Into that endlesse essence which involv'd All essences or if thou still descry Within the mirrour of the Deity Our wordes and actions if thou take delight To live preserved from Cymmer●an night In humane bosomes Heark●n to the vow Vnto thy happy Ghost I offer now By all the love I bore thy precious breath By all the teares wherein I mourn'd thy death By all the honours that thy vertues Crown'd By all the joyes wherein thou dost abound By all that blisse thou doest possesse and see By all those glories that invelope thee I here protest thy name shall never dye Whilst any thing is mortall that is I. Nay my immortall part shall ever pay Homage to thee in that Eternall day Of endlesse time in which thou shalt descry My love as fresh as immortality Ed Walsingham I have hitherto insisted upon what this noble Gentleman did his Life and Actions give me leave now in briefe to tell you what he was and give you a scantling both of his inward and outward man Sir Henry Gage was of a faire and goodly Stature in Body as in mind above the ordinary pitch of other men To this height he had in all parts a beautifull proportion He was of a faire Complexion very Comely his Comportment was Courteous Gentile and his Presence full of Reverence His Speech discreet and civill his Conversation pleasant very modest and accommodated happily to places times and Persons In fine his gratious outside did every where proclaime what a rich and noble Soule was lodg'd within Those that were pleas'd to take notice of what he said and did continually discovered new proportions of Vertue in him and the stricter their observation was so much the more did they admire his Vertues and Abilities of some whereof at least I have engag'd my selfe to give a short account What was most singular in him was his perpetuall industry and that even when he was not in actuall Service in the field by exercising his Souldiers in the use of their Armes cutting out Townes and Forts in Turfe and teaching his men even by way of recreation how to become expert how to Approach to Scale Retreat how to gaine a Towne by Assault or by a famishing Siedge how to make their Trenches and secure themselves with a Thousand such Souldier-like imployments He had an excellent Pen and that strangely enricht by the variety of the best Languages whereof he was Master Latine English French Italian Spanish were familiar unto him he was not ignorant in Greek and though he was in Dutch not elegant yet he had enough to treat with the Peasants there and such as understood no other language all which is an extreame argument of a strong memory His ability in this kind made him imcomparable gratefull to all for being in a Country where all Languages were spoken he was able to entertaine every one for the most part in his owne Tongue Which made him eminent in a high degree as appeared at the Siedge of St Omers at which time by reason of a Puesto he had Charge of there he having frequent occasions to send sundry Orders and dispatches in severall Languages Prince Thomas of Savoy took speciall notice thereof and perceiving they came alwaies in the same hand enquired who was his Secretary Answer being made that he used none he admired it so farre that to be further assured he sent a Walloon Cavalier called Monseiur Lanoy with some pretended businesse to stay with him though the true end was to take notice whether or no he was his owne Secretary being that his Stile and Language was still so excellent good The truth is there are not many that are able in so severall Languages without affectation to write such naturally elegant and gentile Letters with so much facility and dispatch How patient he was of labour and how carefull of his Charge I need goe no further for an instance then his last imployments the Government of Oxford which appear'd remarkable to all the Inhabitants for after he had so great a trust committed by His Majesty unto him there was no night in which he slept foure houres in his Bed for being busied all day he took the dead of the night to write and contrive his Affaires Which those prudent and Souldier-like instructions he left behind him worthily demonstrate Yet all this serious attention to warlike affaires did not so much possesse him but they left him enough of himselfe to attend to Conversation which was so affable and Courtly that those who were strangers to him dream'd often of nothing lesse then that he was a Commander of so much Courage Experience and Repute As none in the Summer was more active in the field in the times of his imployment then he so none in another kind more industrious in his Winter Garrisons For then he was at Court perpetually soliciting in behalfe of his Souldiers for their Pay accommodations in Garrisons recruits and the like You might see him also frequent in the Courts of Iustice soliciting his right in Law in behalfe of his Wife and Children wherein he was so knowing that all his Lawyers for the most part ingenuously still confest that he needed no better Councell then himselfe had given unto them by way of information in his Case And however many able men hold it action enough to follow any Suit in Law yet he was more industrious then to wast his whole day in this or his Regiments affaires and would steale besides three foure or five close houres to his Book and Pen bestowing himselfe now in reading History or Philosophy then in translating some profitable Bookes and sometimes in writing something of his owne which as they highly deserve may chance ere long to be expos'd in publique and communicated to the World But his chiefe Study was to make himselfe Master of the Theory of Warre wherein though his practice was already eminent yet I may well affirme that none desirous of Philosophy ever studied Aristotle more intensely then he did Fortifications Siedges Mannaging of Battailes and in generall the whole Stratagetick part of Warre Nor was he yet so narrow as with all this action to be Commensurated he found time enough besides twice or thrice a day to Comply with the obligations of a devout Christian and most houres of the day with a great dexterity of his ready Pen to dispatch Military orders and correspond constantly with divers Friends as well remote as neare unto him Insomuch that some wise men stick'd not to affirme him a man made for as much Action as was necessary to mannage the affaires of a great Empire Which may be confirm'd by the greatnesse of his mind and strange liberality which even since his comming hither he hath sometimes practiced Once he was knowne when he had but three and forty shillings in all and knew not how at present to compasse more he sticked not to give forty of it to a decayed Gentleman that begged of him whereupon being advised to husband better his money till his imployments would afford him more plenty he smiling answered When I begin to love money I shall desist to be any more a Souldier for he that loves money loves his life and by consequence fearing danger is unfit to be imploy'd in any gallant Action But this was not the onely generous way he spent his meanes for he laid out very much in Correspondence having excellent good weekly from most parts of Christendome which although it was chargeable to him yet he was wont to say What others spent in Cards Dice and other vaine exercises be might well allow himselfe in this which was so usefull to him and of so great contentment The Honour of his Nation he had still an eye upon when he was abroad as well as his owne and although his Revenue was not great yet no Italian Spaniard or other Cavalier appeared more neat and gallant both in Field and Garrison then he who kept alwayes a constant Table fit at any time to receive the greatest Commander Which was alwayes grac'd with extreame Courtesie and freedome These discreet gallantries gave a lustre to his greater merits and esteeme and that not onely here at home as the World saw with His Majesty the Nobility and all sorts of People but also in the Court of Bruxells and the whole Country Where by reason of his Affability Prudence Valour and other great endowments he was reputed the flower of all our English that had appeared in those parts Though his worth and Person were admir'd and gratefull to all yet to none more then those three Famous Generalls Prince Thomas of Savoy the Duke of Lerma and Count Fountaine all which held with him an extraordinary familiarity and dearnesse won by that chearfull calmnesse and composure in him which invited all men to admire his constant smoothnesse so great that the highest incitements would hardly adde a wrinkle to the severity of his mind to make his passion legible to such as studied him with most attention Thus I have given you a briefe survay of the Famous Gage though I confesse I have afforded you but a glimpse of his inward man and have willingly conceal'd the greatest perfections and excellencies of his richest Soule I have done nothing in saying all men knew him an expert Souldier a great Commander and that his Friends knew him a perfect Linguist an excellent Humanist a sound Philosopher and competently seen in diviner Studies in summe a compleat Scholar insomuch that it may well be doubted whether he was abler at his Pike or Pen. I have added little by affirming him an exact Courtier nay a prudent Statesman as some able judgements have not sticked freely to acknowledge unlesse I did treat of his more inward Vertues and disclose his singular Piety But seeing my selfe unfit unable for to speak him further I here conclude and offer this imperfect Votive of my affection to his happy memory glorying that by this Posterity shall know me so as at least to ranke me amongst the admirers of this excellent Man FINIS

Alter Britanniae Heros OR THE LIFE OF THE MOST HONOVRABLE KNIGHT Sir HENRY GAGE Late Governour of OXFORD Epitomiz'd OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the Vniversitie 1645. Alter Britanniae Heros OR THE LIFE AND DEATH OF The most Honourable Noble Knight Sir HENRY GAGE c. TILL I began seriously to consider the perfections of man in such excellent Persons as are men indeed I took that saying of the great Aquinas to tast more of Passion then Divinity Wherein he averrs That were not those well instructed by Faith who duly weigh man what gifts and graces God hath endow'd him withall what Wonders he hath done to make him great and happy what Beauties he hath instill'd both into Soule and Body and what supereminent delight he takes to be doing good to this Noble Creature They would conclude That Man were the God of God himselfe But now though Faith be to me a precious allay to that extreame Conclusion yet I confesse the sentence to be a certain truth This I was compell'd to acknowledge when I did survey exactly the Excellencies of a Smith or Gage to recount examples to my selfe familiar and such as I may speak of safely under the Character of a gratefull vertue Censure her selfe granting it a Solecisme to flatter the dead Pardon my generous ambition of two such Noble Mottoes as Fidelity and Gratitude afford whereto that I want not some pretence I call you to witnesse O great and happy Geniees of the two forementioned Heroes To peerlesse Smith I have already for both those Titles done that homage which now I am about to pay unto admired Gage Wherein may affection supply what the want of leasure instructions and the times abridge This gallant Gentleman was borne at London about the yeare 1597. of worthy and exemplar Parents both of generous and noble Families his Father being a principall Branch of the Gages of Sussex a house for Antiquity and merit nothing lesse then obscure They were both intent to breed him with the rest of their Children as Gentilely and Civilly as the Exigence of their Estate Consumed and Exhausted by the severity of that difficult time would permit And to this end at ten yeares old sent him with his Brother into Flanders to receive Education where Mr Henry Gage with singular satisfaction past through the severall Schooles of Humanity Which accomplisht he was sent by his Father through France into Italy where under that famous Scholar Picolhomini Vncle to this great Generall the Duke of Amalfi he heard his Philosophy and with great applause did publiquely defend it Thus having laid stately Ground-workes for such Magnificent Structures as after he raised upon them and being ready to write Man he begins to consider in what Channell of the Ocean of this World he had best steer his Course towards the Land of Promise At length the divine directions work upon those Noble faculties of his Soule innate Fortitude and desire of Honour insomuch that between them a firme resolution is begotten to Sayle towards Heaven over the most turbulent part of the Sea in a Man of Warre He designes himselfe for a Souldier and considering that Travaile did much conduce to that end To Flanders France and Italy which he had already view'd he adde● Germany and returnes that way to the Netherlands But least you may judge that of his Travayles he made onely a present delight and fed his Curiosity I must assure you his observation was so strong and punctuall that all men did admire the exact account he was able to render of all things deserving serious memory Mars had now read many bloudy Lectures to the Belgians and that Country of all others in Europe was held his proper Academy Where immediately upon his arrivall at 22 yeares of Age The Gages glory enters himselfe a Souldier in Antwerp Castle There for a Twelve-months space he trayl'd a Pike where his Noble discreet and gallant Carriage brought him such endearments with the Governour and Garrison as was very singular and seldome gain'd by strangers in so high a manner from the Spanish Nation Here his reputation shines with such a splendor that the Earle of Argyle being about to raise a Regiment seeks to win him to him and offers him a Company His Governour to Congratulate his advancement Feasts him in a Princely manner and well presaging what he would arrive to publiquely glories to have been Tutor to so brave a Souldier Bergen ap Some is the first place where he enters into Action at which Siege being divers times Commanded to assault the Enemies Trenches he gallantly performed it till at length he was by one of their Mines blowne up towards those immortall Regions whither his Noble Soule aspired But it pleased God strangely to preserve him so that his hurt was not so dangerous but that admitted of a short recovery The next yeare the Famous Marquesse Spinola laies siege to Breda in all which long and tedious action our youthfull Captain comports himselfe with so much Valour and such Resolution that he merited speciall notice from that Renowned Generall This Siege compleated the English Regiments were both reformed so that for two or three yeares he remained without further Charge and betook himselfe if it were possible to a more excellent imployment The Theory of Warre for his judgement told him practice without Contemplation was an accident without a substance Sometimes for recreation he cast an eye upon Heraldry and soon therein became a great Proficient Sometimes he bestow'd himselfe in translating Bookes which he exceeding well perform'd witnesse the Siege of Breda written by the elegant Hermannus Hugo and Vincents Heraldry the first whereof he translated out of Latine into English The latter out of English into French In this Vacation he began to cast about to find a Consort on whom to place his noblest affections and at length he discovers one Mistris Mary Daniell a Gentlewoman whose worth and beauty made her a deserved object for the Love of so excellent a Person It seemes nature had long before design'd her for him as we may almost conclude by a memorable accident happening when with her Mother shee long before came over to see London the Epitome of this Kingdome Amongst other places in the City which their Curiosity surveid was St Jamese's where in a Gallery adorn'd with divers Pictures they saw one of Sir John Gage's Knight of the Garter and great Grandfather to the Gentleman that now I write of who in Queene Maries dayes had been Lord Chamberlaine of the Houshold Of this Picture the young Gentlewoman took speciall notice as that which onely pleased her and severall times reviewed it presaging as it were that from that strange sympathy and liking would come some strange result as after proov'd by her Match with one descended of his Loynes However then it made so firme an Impresse on her tender fancy being then scarce twelve yeares old that after being married and her Noble