the Sixth who entituled the King of Spain Catholick and of that Pope whosoever he were that gave the French King the title of Most Christian he decreed to grace King Henry and his Successors with that honorable one of Defender of the Faith Which several Titles are by these Princes retained to this day But Leo long survived not his gift about the end of the year dying as is suspected by poison In the mean time the exulcerated minds of the Emperour and the French King according to the nature of ambitious hatred that for its own ends makes all causes just burst out into open Wars for the composing whereof each of them had formerly agreed to refer themselves if any differences should arise to the arbitrement of Henry He therefore sends to each of them Ambassadors the Cardinal of York the Earl of Worcester and others who should if it were possible reconcile these enraged Princes All they could do proved but an endeavour for when they thought they had compassed their desires sudden news came that the Admiral Bonivet had by force taken Fuentaraby a Town of the Emperour 's in Biscay The Emperour would not then ratifie the Agreement unless this Town were redelivered which the French denying to do all fell to pieces again and the War was renewed After their devoir in this cause our Ambassadors went directly to Bruges to the Emperour of whom for a fortnight which was the time of their stay there they had Royal entertainment But he held the Cardinal in so great esteem that it was apparent he was not ignorant how powerful the Cardinal was with his Prince And here perhaps it would not be amiss in regard of these times to let the Reader know the pomp and state of this Cardinal how many Gentlemen attended him apparelled with Velvet and adorned with Gold-chains and then how many were cloathed in Scarlet-coats the skirts whereof were guarded with Velvet the full bredth of a hand But let him guess Hercules stature by the length of his foot Such was the bravery of his attendants that in Christiern King of Denmark and other Princes then residing at Bruges it bred amazement It was also reported that he was by Gentlemen of the best rank served on the knee a kind of state which Germany had yet never known He spent a huge mass of money in that Ambassage and that as it is thought not against his will For he by all means sought the Emperour's favour hoping that Leo although much younger either cut off by treachery or his own intemperance might leave the world before him And then were it no hard matter for him being under-propped by the Emperour and our King to be advanced to the Papacy Wherefore at the first bruit of his death he posted away Pacey the Dean of Pauls into Italy with Mandates to certain Cardinals whom he thought respected him that they should do their best in his behalf But before he could reach Rome he was certainly informed that Adrian sometimes Tutor to the Emperour and then Viceroy of Spain was already elected by the name of Adrian the Sixth ANNO DOM. 1522. REG. 14. VV Olsey nevertheless was as full of ambitious hope as ever For Adrian was a decrepit weak old man and therefore not likely as indeed he did not to survive him In the mean time he might make an ascent by which his ambition might climb He therefore seeks to advance the Emperour's designs more than ever and to that end he persuadeth Henry to denounce War against the French for that he denied to surrender Fuentaraby and had broken the Covenants made between them in not standing to the Arbitrement of Henry as both Charles and Francis had compromised at what time it was likewise decreed that Henry should declare himself an Enemy to the obstinate refuser The French discerning the storm before it came arrests all English Ships commits the Merchants to prison and seizeth their goods to his own use stops all Pensions due either to Henry for Tournay or to his Sister the Dowager of France for her Joincture The French Ships and Merchants in England find the like entertainment the Hostages given by the French for the ' foresaid summs are committed to close prison and the French Ambassador confined to his house Levies are made throughout England and great preparations for another Expedition into France To which the King being wholly bent Ambassadors suddenly arrive from the Emperour whose request was That he would joyn his forces with the Imperials and that if it so pleased him Charles would within few days be in England that so they might personally confer and advise what course they were best to run Many reasons moved the Emperour by the way to touch at England His Grandfather Ferdinand being dead his presence was necessarily required in Spain whither he must pass by England He feared lest this breach betwixt us and France might easily be made up he being so far distant He had an Aetna in his breast which burned with extreme hatred toward the French and was confident that his presence would raise our sparkle to a flame They might personally treat and conclude more safely and securely than by Agents and Posts of whom in matters of moment no wise man would make use unless forced by necessity But the chief cause as I conjecture of this his second coming into England was that he was weary of Wolsey with whom he saw it was impossible long to continue friend For the Cardinal by his importunity one while for the Papacy another while for the Archbishoprick of Toledo did much molest him who had determined to afford him nothing but good words He disdained not in his Letters to a Butcher's Son to use that honorable compellation of Cousin and whether present or absent he afforded him all kind of honour whatsoever But when the Cardinal craved any earnest of his love some excuse or other was found out to put him by yet so as still to entertain him with hopes But Wolsey was subtil and of a great spirit And these devices were now grown so stale that they must needs be perceived Charles therefore neglecting his wonted course by Wolsey studies how to be assured of the King without him For this no fitter means could be thought of than this Interview The King was naturally courteous loved the Emperour exceedingly and reposed great confidence in him Charles therefore hoped that by the familiarity of some few weeks he might make the King his own But Henry he thought would not long continue so unless he could some way lessen his favour toward the Cardinal This he hoped might be effected by admonishing the King that he was now past the years of a child and needed no Tutor that it was not fit he should suffer himself to be swaied by a Priest one in all reason better skilled in the mysteries of the Altar than of State against which in this respect besides the abuse of his power
although he after seemed a little to lift up his head yet was he never able to stand on his feet Nay the King being once alienated from him would never after admit him to his presence Behold the power of base Detraction yet I will not exclude the greatness of the Cardinal's wealth already devoured in conceit which wipes away the remembrance of the faithful service of so many years and the consideration of so great glory purchased to the King by Wolsey's labours I am not ignorant what things were objected against him But they carry so little shew of probability that I should much suspect his judgment that would give any credit to them Until it was known that the King enraged at the slow proceedings in the cause of his Divorce did day and night breathe out against him threats and revenge no man ever preferred Bill against him which considering the usual severe courses held by our Parliaments must needs acquit him of Abuse of Power As for the causes of the King's anger we will derive them rather from his own discontents than Wolsey's faultiness The King by this time knew the treachery of the dissembling Pope He had near five years wandered in the Labyrinth of the Court of Rome and could find no clew to lead him out He therefore determined to make a way where he could not find one and like Alexander by force to undo that Gordian Knot which by wit and labour he could not To Wolsey therefore he communicated his intent of marrying another whether the Pope were willing or no wishing him withal to find out some course or other whereby Campegius his Collegue notwithstanding the late Mandates to the contrary might be drawn to give sentence on his side Many things might be pretended to excuse the deed but chiefly the fear of the King 's high displeasure which peradventure he should feel too unless he assented to the King 's just request Wolsey his answer to this I cannot relate But this is certain that Wolsey whether for that he did not approve of the King 's intended course seeming as the times were then full of rashness and insolence or that he would not undertake the attempting of his Collegue or that as Sleidan writes the King had notice that the Cardinal had advised the Pope not to approve of the Divorce from Catharine forasmuch as the King was then resolved to marry another infected with Lutheranism Wolsey I say was so sharply taken up and threatned by the King that even then you might read in his face and gestures the symptoms of his waining fortune For the Cardinal at that time returning from the Court by water the Bishop of Carlile being with him in the same Barge complained of the heat which was then extraordinary to whom Wolsey replied My Lord if you had been but now in my place you would have found it hot indeed And as soon as he came home he put off his clothes and went sick to bed Before he had reposed himself an hour and half the Viscount Rochfort came to him and in the King's Name willed that he and his Collegue should instantly repair to the Queen and exhort her not to contend any longer with the King for that it would be more for her good and the honour of them both to submit her self to the King's pleasure than to undergo the disgrace of a publick judgment For it was now brought to that push that longer deferred it could not be The Cardinal advertised of the King's pleasure did arise and with his Collegue went to the Queen who having notice of their coming went forth and met them After mutual salutations the Cardinals desired she would vouchsafe a few words in private but the Queen refused to entertain any conference with them but where she might have witnesses of what passed Wolsey then began to speak in Latin but the Queen interrupted him willing that although she understood Latin yet he should speak in English So in the names of both Legates he began a Speech in English wherein he professed a great deal of observance and duty to her and that they came to no other end but to advise her for her good The Queen answered them much after this manner As for your good will I thank you as for your advice I will give you the hearing But the matter I believe about which you come is of so great importance that it will require a great deal of deliberation and the help of a brain surpassing that of feminine weakness You see my employments shewing them a skain of white thred hanging about her neck in these I spend my time among my Maids which indeed are none of the greatest Counsellors yet I have none other in England and Spain where they are on whom I dare rely God wot is far enough hence yet I am content to hear what you have to say and will give you an answer when we can conveniently So taking the Cardinal by the hand she brought them into a withdrawing Room where having attentively heard out their message she made this reply That now after twenty years the lawfulness of my Marriage should be questioned I cannot sufficiently wonder especially when I consider who were the Authors of it Many of them are yet alive both in England and Spain and what kind of men the rest were who are now dead the world knows Henry and Ferdinand our Parents the most sage Princes of their time and their Counsel such without doubt who for their wisdom were approved of as fit servants for so judicious Masters besides the Pope whose Dispensation I have to shew and which was procured by my Father at no small rate But what thing is there so sincere and firm which envy will not seek to blast Of these my miseries I can accuse none but you my Lord of York Because I could not away with your monstrous pride excessive riot whoredom and intolerable oppression therefore do I now suffer And yet not only for this for some part of your hatred I am beholding to my Nephew the Emperour whom for that he did not satisfie your insatiable ambition by advancing you to the Papacy you have ever since maligned You threatned to be revenged on him and his Friends and you have performed your promise for you have been the only incendiary and plotter of all the mischief and Wars against him these late years And I am his Aunt whom how you have persecuted by raising this new doubt God only knows to whose judgment only I commend my cause This she spake in French as it seemed very much moved and would not endure to hear Wolsey speak in defence of himself but courteously dismissed Campegius It was now June and the Harvest drawing on the Legates thought it high time to make an end of this Suit A day therefore being prefixed many of Nobility and a multitude of the Commonalty repaired to the Court verily expecting that judgment should
Lieutenant-general in the Netherlands who having speedily out of the neighbour Garrisons of Betune St. Omer Aires Burburg and others assembled an Army of fifteen thousand puts himself between Dunkirk and Calais Termes had hitherto expected the Duke of Guise but upon notice that the Countrey was up in Arms he somewhat too late bethought himself of a retreat He was now every way enclosed and passage not to be gained but by dint of Sword The French therefore valiantly charge their Enemies and overthrow some Squadrons of Horse indeed despair animated them to do wonders and the Flemings were set on fire by the desire of revenging late Injuries The Spanish Troops renew the fight which was with equal order long maintained on both sides In the heat whereof ten English Men of War fortunately sailing by for De Termes had for his security betaken him to the shoar hoping that way with much less hazard to have gained passage upon discovery of the French Colours let fly their Ordnance furiously among the French making such a slaughter that they began to give ground were at last routed and overthrown The French in this Battel lost five thousand Their chief Commanders were almost all taken the Marshal himself was hurt and taken with d'Annebalt the Son of Claud the late Admiral the Earl of Chaune Senarpont Villebon Governour of Picardy Morvilliers and many others Two hundred escaped to our Ships whom they might have drowned but giving them Quarter they were brought Captives into England This Battel was fought on the thirteenth of July The Queen desirous by some action or other to wipe out the stain of the ignominious loss of Calais about the same time set forth a Fleet of one hundred and forty Sail whereof thirty were Flemings the main of the Expedition being from Brest in Bretaigne But the Lord Clinton Lord High Admiral of England finding no good to be done there set sail for Conquet where he landed took the Town sacked it and set it on fire together with the Abbey and the adjacent Villages and returned to his Ships But the Flemings somewhat more greedy after prey disorderly piercing farther into the Countrey and regardless of Martial discipline which commands obedience to their General being encounted by the Lord of Kersimon came fewer home by five hundred Philip about the same time lodging near Amiens with a great Army Henry with a far greater attended each motion of his They encamp at last Henry on the North of the River Somme Philip on the South of the River Anthy so near to one another that it might be thought impossible for two such spirited Princes commanding so great Armies to depart without a Battel But divers considerations had tempered their heat Philip being the weaker of the two saw no reason why to engage himself Henry had an Army which had twice felt the other victorious and was therefore loath on them to adventure his already shaken estate Wherefore they so entrenched themselves and fortified their Camps with Artillery as if they expected a Siege from each other Some months thus passed without any other exploits than Inroads and light Skirmishes At length they mutually entertain a motion of Peace both of them considering that their Armies consisting of Strangers the fruits of the Victory would be to the Aliens only but the calamity and burthen of the Defeat would light on the shoulders of the Vanquished or which comes all to one pass of the Subjects These motives drew together for a Treaty on Henry's side the Constable the Marshal of St. Andrew the Cardinal of Lorain Morvilliers Bishop of Orleans and Aubespine Secretary of Estate For Philip the Duke of Alva the Prince of Orange Puyz Gomes de Silva Granvell Bishop of Arras and others Much altercation was had about the restoring of Calais which the French were resolved to hold and Philip would have no Peace unless it were restored to Mary whom in point of Honour he could not so forsake But this difference was ended by the death of Mary a little before whom on the one and twentieth of September died also the Emperour Charles the Fifth which occasioned both the change of place and time for another Treaty And if the continual connexion of other memorable Affairs had not transported me I should ere this have mentioned the Marriage celebrated at Paris with great pomp on the eight and twentieth of April between the Daulphin Francis and Mary Queen of Scots But the fruits thereof were not lasting For two years after died Francis the Crown by the death of his Father Henry having been first devolved to him and left his Bed to a more auspicious Husband Henry the eldest Son to the Earl of Lenox Of these Parents was born our late Sovereign of ever sacred memory who was Nephew by his Mother to James the Fifth by Margaret the eldest Daughter Nephew to that wife King Henry the Seventh who the Issue of Henry the Eighth being extinct as the next undoubted Heir most happily united the Crowns of England Scotland and Ireland But now at length to draw nearer home this Autumn was very full of Diseases Fevers especially quartan reigning extraordinarily in England whereby many chiefly aged persons and among them a great number of the Clergy perished Of the sole Episcopal rank thirteen died either a little before the Queen or some few months after her Among the rest Cardinal Pool scarce survived her a day who having been for some weeks afflicted by this kind of Disease and brought to extreme weakness of Body as if he had at the news of the Quens death received his deaths wound expired at three a Clock the next morning His Corps inclosed in Lead was buried in his Cathedral at Canterbury with this brief Elogy on his Tomb instead of an Epitaph Depositum Cardinalis POLI. He was a man admirably learned modest mild of a most sweet disposition wise and of excellent dexterity in the managing of any affairs so that he had been incomparable if corrupted with the Religion of the Church of Rome he had not forced his nature to admit of those cruelties exercised upon the Protestants The Queen died at St. James on the seventeenth of November some few hours before day She was a Lady very godly merciful chast and every way praise-worthy if you regard not the errours of her Religion But her Religion being the cause of the effusion of so much innocent Blood that of the Prophet was necessarily to be fulfilled in her Blood-thirsty men c. shall not finish half their days For she was cut off in the two and fortieth year of her age having reigned only five Years four Months and eleven Days whereas her Sister who succeeded her most happily in a more mild Government ruled nine times as long and almost doubled her age Concerning the cause of Queen Maries Death there are divers conjectures To relate what I find in approved Authors it is reported that in the
thus To many who perhaps will not at first consider that this work is but a Translation or seek advantages to expend their Censures his may seem impertinent But let them know that these Annals were first written In gratiam Exterorum Res nostras noscendi cupidorum So much witnesseth the first Latin Edition Peruse it and find it I am but an Interpreter of whom I hope thou wilt not expect a dictionaryTranslation Neither quarrel the omission of some things the knowledge whereof is to our Natives so innate that now to insert them were as bad as to farce with tautologies and make this little Volume nauseous Yet hath it lost nothing of its bulk whatsoever it hath of its splendour those defalcations being here and there in the course of the History supplied with not unnecessary additions whereto the Author's approbation and consent was not wanting As for errours of the Press blame the Printer not me If thou by this reap either profit or pleasure thank the Author whose benefit it is that thou hast it and that not tongue-tied but more than single-languaged Good is of it self diffusive and be participates so much of it that be cannot endeavour an envious confinement of it Farewel The Author's Epistle Dedicatory To my most Gracious Sovereign CHARLES King of Great Britain France and Ireland The most invict Defender of the Faith Most Royal Sir THese Commentaries containing the Acts of three Princes began about some ten years since under the Protection of Your most August Father to breathe the common air and but for so Gracious an Aspect had suffered even at the instant of their Birth For the errours of the Press had made them such as might have deterred even extreme Impudence from so presumptive a Dedication Yet such as they were they found Acceptance and Favour at His Royal Hands Hence am I encouraged to consecrate this second but corrected Edition to Your Majesty Who inherit as well Your Father's Virtues as his Kingdoms Neither indeed can it befit any other after KING JAMES of ever Sacred Memory Most humbly therefore beseecheth Your Majesty to daign it the like Gracious Acceptance who with the same Loyalty and Observance dedicateth and consecrateth to Your Majesty himself and his Your Majesties most humble Chaplain FR. HEREFD. The AUTHOR'S Preface to the READER AMong the many who have in Latin compiled the History of our Nation Polydor Virgil in the opinion of most excelleth not that he hath written either more truly or copiously than many others but more politely and latest of any that have taken pains in this kind For indeed it could not be that a Foreiner an Italian well gone in years even at his first arrival in England where being made Archdeacon of Wells he long survived not should not often erre in the delivery of our Affairs and in regard of his mere ignorance in the English tongue in silence bury many worthy passages recorded by our English Writers only It being therefore to be wished and is much desired that some one versed in our Antiquities would as Learned Master Camden hath already done for the description of the Island consecrate part of his learned labours to the Eternity of Britain not in reforming than obsolete Virgilian History but in composing a new one Our Antiquaries may justly be taxed of Sloth I had almost said slothfulness who had rather suffer the famous Acts of their Ancestors to dye eternally in silence and so as much as in them lieth defraud their Countrey of its true and deserved Glory than bestow any the least pains in commenting that so the examples of most eminent Virtues whereof the harvest here hath ever been most plentiful might not want the Record of their due Monuments This I hope some or other will in good time perform In the mean time others drawing back although I was never endued with such eloquence as that I should dare adventure the writing of an History but now especially vires ultra sortemque senectae when having passed the age of fifty long desuetude may have dulled my faculty of penning yet have I thought it might prove pains-worthy to undertake briefly in three small Commentaries to set forth the deeds of three Princes immediate Successors to Henry the Seventh so far forth as I have had notice of them And that partly that by touching at the fountain as they say I might stir up the wits of others partly that the desires of Foreiners might in some sort be satisfied who not without cause complain that these times than which for a thousand years we have had none more memorable in regard of their divers and remarkable changes are not described by any otherwise than slightly and as if they had not intended any such thing As for Polydor Virgil he hath written either nothing or very little concerning them and that little so false and misbeseeming the ingenuity of an Historian that he seemeth to have aimed at no other end than by bitter invectives against Henry the Eighth and Cardinal Wolsey to demerit the favour of Queen Mary already more than befitted incensed against both for the Divorce of her Mother I have therefore written friendly Reader and so written that although many things I will not deny conducing to an Historian may be wanting in me yet am I confident that this my endeavour will find acceptance with many Other Writers may here have as it were a store-house from whence they may if I be not deceived furnish themselves with some matter which may help to raise an everlasting Monument Foreiners also ignorant of the English tougue may have a tast of these times until some one arise who can and will compile a History of our Nation worthy the majesty of the British name I have in this work been so observant of Impartiality Simplicity and Truth that I fear nothing so much as a Domestick anger for not being pious enough because I would not be over-pious Many contend that a good Prince should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This I think no man will affirm of an Historian though some seem to opine it So that he shall come short of his duty either to God or his Countrey who in the delivery of an History will not be at the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and who by affirming incertainties and known truths shall not yield much to his affections so they be joyned with the love of Religion and Countrey But how much do they injure Truth who from lies and falshood beg helps to underprop her Avant We have no need of them And had we yet would it not much profit us to rely on such weak advantages one pious lye detected proving more hurtful than a thousand others although so artificially contrived that they avoid discovery can prove profitable For example whereof seek no farther than the Papists whose feigned Miracles Impostures and Legends patched up of lyes have brought to pass that even in those things which are true they
put himself into the consort or Choir of all Religious actions and naturally affecting much the King of Spain as far as one King can affect another partly for his virtues and partly for a counterpoise to France upon the receipt of these Letters sent all his Nobles and Prelates that were about the Court together with the Mayor and Aldermen of London in great solemnity to the Church of St. Pauls there to hear a Declaration from the Lord Chancellor now Cardinal When they were assembled the Cardinal standing upon the uppermost step or half-pace before the Chair and all the Nobles Prelates and Governours of the City at the foot of the stairs made a Speech to them letting them know that they were assembled in that Consecrate place to sing unto God a New-song For that said he these many years the Christians have not gained new ground or Territory upon the Infidels nor enlarged and set further the Bounds of the Christian-world But this is now done by the prowess and devotion of Ferdinando and Isabella Kings of Spain who have to their immortal Honour recovered the great and rich Kingdom of Granade and the populous and mighty City of the same name from the Moors having been in possession thereof by the space of seven hundred years and more For which this Assembly and all Christians are to render laud and thanks unto God and to celebrate this noble Act of the King of Spain who in this is not only Victorious but Apostolical in the gaining of new Provinces to the Christian Faith And the rather for that this victory and Conquest is obtained without much effusion of blood Whereby it is to be hoped that there shall be gained not only new Territory but infinite Souls to the Church of Christ whom the Almighty as it seems would have live to be converted Herewithal he did relate some of the most memorable particulars of the War and Victory And after his Speech ended the whole assembly went solemnly in Procession and Te Deum was sung Immediately after the Solemnity the King kept his May-day at his Palace of Shein now Richmond Where to warm the blood of his Nobility and Gallants against the War he kept great Triumphs of Justing and Tourney during all that Month. In which space it so fell out that Sir James Parker and Hugh Vaughan one of the King's Gentlemen-Ushers having had a controversie touching certain Arms that the King at Arms had given Vaughan were appointed to run some Courses one against another And by accident of a faulty Helmet that Parker had on he was stricken into the mouth at the first Course so that his tongue was born unto the hinder part of his head in such sort that he died presently upon the place Which because of the Controversie precedent and the Death that followed was accounted among the Vulgar as a Combat or Tryal of Right The King towards the end of this Summer having put his Forces wherewith he meant to invade France in readiness but so as they were not yet met or mustered together sent Urswick now made his Almoner and Sir John Risley to Maximilian to let him know that he was in Arms ready to pass the Seas into France and did but expect to hear from him when and where he did appoint to joyn with him according to his promise made unto him by Countebal his Ambassador The English Ambassadors having repaired to Maximilian did find his power and promise at a very great distance he being utterly unprovided of Men Money and Arms for any such enterprize For Maximilian having neither Wing to flie on for that his Patrimony of Austria was not in his hands his Father being then living And on the other side his Matrimonial Territories of Flanders being partly in Dowre to his Mother-in-law and partly not serviceable in respect of the late Rebellions was thereby destitute of means to enter into War The Ambassadors saw this well but wisely thought fit to advertise the King thereof rather than to return themselves till the King 's further pleasure were known The rather for that Maximilian himself spake as great as ever he did before and entertained them with dilatory Answers so as the formal part of their Ambassage might well warrant and require their further stay The King hereupon who doubted as much before and saw through his business from the beginning wrote back to the Ambassadors commending their discretion in not returning and willing them to keep the state wherein they found Maximilian as a Secret till they heard further from him And mean while went on with his Voyage Royal for France suppressing for a time this Advertisement touching Maximilian's poverty and disability By this time was drawn together a great and puissant Army into the City of London in which were Thomas Marquess Dorset Thomas Earl of Arundel Thomas Earl of Derby George Earl of Shrewsbury Edmond Earl of Suffolk Edward Earl of Devonshire George Earl of Kent the Earl of Essex Thomas Earl of Ormond with a great number of Barons Knights and principal Gentlemen and amongst them Richard Thomas much noted for the brave Troops that he brought out of Wales the Army rising in the whole to the number of five and twenty thousand Foot and sixteen hundred Horse Over which the King constant in his accustomed trust and employment made Jasper Duke of Bedford and John Earl of Oxford Generals under his own person The ninth of September in the eighth year of his Reign he departed from Greenwich towards the Sea all men wondering that he took that season being so near Winter to begin the War and some thereupon gathering it was a sign that the War would not be long Nevertheless the King gave out the contrary thus That he intending not to make a Summer-business of it but a resolute War without term prefixed until he recovered France it skilled not much when he began it especially having Calice at his back where he might winter if the reason of the War so required The sixth of October he embarqued at Sandwich and the same day took land at Calice which was the Rendezvonz where all his Forces were assigned to meet But in this his Journey towards the Sea-side wherein for the cause that we shall now speak of he hovered so much the longer he had received Letters from the Lord Cordes who the hotter he was against the English in time of War had the more credit in a Negotiation of Peace and besides was held a man open and of good faith In which Letters there was made an overture of Peace from the French King with such Conditions as were somewhat to the King's tast but this was carried at the first with wonderful secrecy The King was no sooner come to Calice but the calm winds of Peace began to blow For first the English Ambassadors returned out of Flanders from Maximilian and certified the King that he was not to hope for any ayd from Maximilian for that he was
honour not to suffer a Pretender to the Crown of England to affront him so near at hand and he to keep terms of Friendship with the Countrey where did set up But he had also a further reach for that he knew well that the Subjects of Flanders drew so great commodity from the Trade of England as by this Embargo they would soon wax weary of Perkin and that the Tumults of Flanders had been so late and fresh as it was no time for the Prince to displease the People Nevertheless for forms sake by way of requital the Archduke did likewise banish the English out of Flanders which in effect was done to his hand The King being well advertised that Perkin did more trust upon Friends and Partakers within the Realm than upon forein Arms thought it behoved him to apply the Remedy where the Disease lay and to proceed with severity against some of the principal Conspirators here within the Realm Thereby to purge the ill humours in England and to cool the hopes in Flanders Wherefore he caused to be apprehended almost at an instant John Ratcliff Lord Fitz-water Sir Simon Mountford Sir Thomas Thwaites William Daubigney Robert Ratcliff Thomas Chressenor and Thomas Astwood All these were arraigned convicted and condemned for High-Treason in adhering and promising ayd to Perkin Of these the Lord Fitz-water was conveyed to Calice and there kept in hold and in hope of life until soon after either impatient or betrayed he dealt with his Keeper to have escaped and thereupon was beheaded But Sir Simon Mountford Robert Ratcliff and William Daubigney were beheaded immediately after their Condemnation The rest were pardoned together with many others Clerks and Laicks amongst which were two Dominican Friers and William Worseley Dean of St. Pauls which latter sort passed Examination but came not to publick Tryal The Lord Chamberlain at that time was not touched whether it were that the King would not stir too many humours at once but after the manner of good Physicians purge the Head last or that Clifford from whom most of these Discoveries came reserved that Piece for his own coming over signifying only to the King in the mean time that he doubted there were some greater ones in the business whereof he would give the King further account when he came to his presence Upon All-hallows-day-even being now the tenth year of the King's Reign the King 's second Son Henry was created Duke of York and as well the Duke as divers others Noblemen Knights-Batchelors and Gentlemen of quality were made Knights of the Bath according to the Ceremony Upon the morrow after Twelfth-day the King removed from Westminster where he had kept his Christmas to the Tower of London This he did as soon as he had advertisement that Sir Robert Clifford in whose Bosom or Budget most of Perkin's secrets were laid up was come into England And the place of the Tower was chosen to that end that if Clifford should accuse any of the Great-ones they might without suspition or noise or sending abroad of Warrants be presently attached the Court and Prison being within the cincture of one Wall After a day or two the King drew unto him a selected Council and admitted Clifford to his presence who first fell down at his feet and in all humble manner craved the King's Pardon which the King then granted though he were indeed secretly assured of his life before Then commanded to tell his knowledge he did amongst many others of himself not interrogated appeach Sir William Stanley the Lord Chamberlain of the King's Houshold The King seemed to be much amazed at the naming of this Lord as if he had heard the news of some strange and fearful Prodigy To hear a man that had done him service of so high a nature as to save his Life and set the Crown upon his head a man that enjoyed by his favour and advancement so great a fortune both in Honour and Riches a man that was tyed unto him in so near a band of Alliance his Brother having married the King's Mother and lastly a man to whom he had committed the trust of his Person in making him his Chamberlain That this Man no ways disgraced no ways discontent no ways put in fear should be false unto him Clifford was required to say over again and again the Particulars of his Accusation being warned that in a matter so unlikely and that concerned so great a Servant of the King 's he should not in any wise go too far But the King finding that he did sadly and constantly without hesitation or varying and with those civil Protestations that were fit stand to that that he had said offering to justifie it upon his soul and life he caused him to be removed And after he had not a little bemoaned himself unto his Council there present gave order that Sir William Stanley should be restrained in his own Chamber where he lay before in the Square Tower And the next day he was examined by the Lords Upon his Examination he denyed little of that wherewith he was charged nor endeavoured much to excuse or extenuate his fault So that not very wisely thinking to make his Offence less by Confession he made it enough for Condemnation It was conceived that he trusted much to his former Merits and the interest that his Brother had in the King But those helps were over-weighed by divers things that made against him and were predominant in the King's nature and mind First an Over-merit for convenient Merit unto which reward may easily reach doth best with Kings Next the sense of his Power for the King thought that he that could set him up was the more dangerous to pull him down Thirdly the glimmering of a Confiscation for he was the richest Subject for value in the Kingdom there being found in his Castle of Holt forty thousand Marks in ready Money and Plate besides Jewels Houshold-stuff Stocks upon his grounds and other Personal Estate exceeding great And for his Revenue in Land and Fee it was three thousand Pounds a year of old-Rent a great matter in those times Lastly the Nature of the Time for if the King had been out of fear of his own Estate it was not unlike he would have spared his life But the Cloud of so great a Rebellion hanging over his head made him work sure Wherefore after some six Weeks distance of time which the King did honorably interpose both to give space to his Brother's Intercession and to shew to the world that he had a conflict with himself what he should do he was arraigned of High-Treason and condemned and presently after beheaded Yet it is to this day left but in dark memory both what the Case of this Noble Person was for which he suffered and what likewise was the ground and cause of his defection and the alienation of his heart from the King His Case was said to be this That in discourse between Sir Robert
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
the Judges and chief Lawyers of the Realm at his left hand sate the Temporal Lords and behind them the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Lambert being brought to the Bar Day Bishop of Chichester by the King's appointment made an Oration wherein he declared the cause of this meeting saying That Lambert having been accused of Heresie before his Ordinary had made his Appeal unto the King as if expecting from his Majesty more favour for Heresie than from the Bishop So that he now found it to be true whereof he had been oft informed That the credulous People were verily perswaded that his Majesty abhorring the Religion of his Ancestors had embraced the new Tenets lately broached in Germany True it was the tyranny of the Court of Rome had been troublesom to his Predecessors but to Him intolerable and therefore had He shaken it off That Religion might no longer patronize Idleness He had expelled Monks who were no other than Drones in the Bee-hive He had taken away the idolatrous worship of Images had permitted to his Subjects the reading and knowledge of God's Word hitherto prohibited by the Church of Rome lest their wiles and cozenages should be discovered And had made reformation in some other things peradventure of less moment which no man could deny would much redound to the good both of Church and Commonwealth But as for other things He had determined there should be no change in the Church during his Reign Which his Resolution He now intended publickly to manifest His Majesty's desire was That the Delinquent renouncing his Errours should suffer himself to be received into the bosom of the Church To which end partly and partly to shew that He thirsted not after any one's blood out of his elemency He had procured the presence of those Grave and Learned men meaning the Bishops who by Authority and force of Arguments should if it were possible bring back this strayed Sheep into the Fold of the Church But if he perversly oppugned the Truth and all perswasions notwithstanding became immoveable He would by this man's exemplary punishment make known what others should in the like Case expect and instruct the Judges and Magistrates what they ought to do therein The Bishop having ended the King demanded of Lambert What he thought of the presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament Whose answer being little to the King 's liking reasons and arguments were produced as if a Disputation in the Schools and not a Justiciary Session had been appointed Five whole hours this Disputation lasted the King being as it were Prior Opponent Archbishop Cranmer also and nine other Bishops forcibly pressing upon poor Lambert But neither this course nor the battery of threats and terrours prevailing against his constancy the King commanded the Lord Cromwell to pass sentence of condemnation upon him by virtue whereof within a day or two after he was burned Neither this dreadful Sentence nor his torturing death did any way appale him which he so little regarded that going to his death he merrily took his Breakfast with some Gentlemen into whose company he chanced as if he had been going to some sportful Game rather than his Execution ANNO DOM. 1539. REG. 31. ON the third of March Sir Nicholas Carew Knight of the Garter and Master of the Horse was beheaded for being of Counsel with the Marquess of Exceter and the Lord Mountague And on the eight and twentieth of April a Parliament began wherein Margaret Countess of Salisbury Mother to Cardinal Pool and Daughter to George Duke of Clarence who was Brother to Edward the Fourth was attainted of high Treason and condemned without hearing and with her the Cardinal her Son Gertrude Widow to the Marquess of Exceter Sir Adrian Fortescue and Sir Thomas Dingley Dingley and Fortescue were beheaded on the tenth of July and the Countess being then aged threescore and ten years suffered two years after In the same Parliament it was Enacted That the King might erect new Episcopal Sees in opportune places of the Realm For the performance whereof and of some other things no less specious the late dissolution of those Abbeys whereon the King seised was confirmed and all Religious Houses as yet unsuppressed were granted to the King for ever Upon notice whereof many either out of guilt of conscience or desirous to purchase the King's favour surrendred their charge even before they were required And first of all the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans the first Abbot of the Realm as St. Alban was the first Martyr which Honour was conferred on this House by Pope Adrian the Fourth whose Father had long lived a Monastical life therein forsake their rich Abbey seated near the ruins of Verolamium once a great and antient City and leave it to the mercy of the Courtiers Which dereliction afforded matter of example to many other few enjoying that security of conscience that they durst lay claim to their own Only three were found whose innocence made them so regardless of threats promises or reward that they could never be induced to betray the goods of their Churches to the merciless impiety of sacrilegious Harpies Which three were John Bech Abbot of Colchester in Essex Hugh Faringdon Abbot of the Abbey of Reding built by Henry the First for the place of his Sepulture and Richard Whiting Abbot of Glastonbury one of the stateliest and antientest Monasteries of Europe being first builded by Joseph of Arimathea who buried the Body of our Saviour Christ and is himself there interred as is also beside some Saxon Kings that most renowned King Arthur whose glorious Acts had they been undertaken by a fit Historian would have ranked him among the antient Worthies without the help of a fabulous Romance Against these men therefore other courses not availing that one was taken of administring the Oath of Supremacy which they refusing are as enemies to the Estate condemned of high Treason Bech was hanged at Colchester and Faringdon with two Priests named Rug and Ognion at Reding Whiting a man very aged and by reason thereof doating scarce perceiving that he had been condemned returning from the place of Judgment which was in the Bishop's Palace at Wells distant from Glastonbury four miles with conceit that he was restored to his Abbey was suddenly rapt up to the top of the Tor a Hill that surveys the Countrey round about and without leave of bidding his Convent farewel which he earnestly begged was presently hanged the stain of ingratitude sticking fast to the authors of this speedy execution of whom the poor Abbot is reported to have better deserved With Whiting were two Monks also executed named Roger James and John Thorn their Bodies all drawn and quartered and set up in divers places of the Countrey The punishment of these few so terrified the rest that without more ado they permitted all to the King's disposal The number of those that were supprest is not easily cast But the names of
admitted to intimate familiarity and made use of their counsels and endeavours as if he had advanced them to no other end but to depress them Wolsey had his turn Cromwell succeeds whose sudden downfal there want not those who attribute to God's Justice inflicted on him for the Sacriledge whereof he was reported to be the Author committed in the subversion of so many Religious Houses And indeed even they who confess the rouzing of so many unprofitable Epicures out of their dens and the abolishing of Superstition wherewith the Divine Worship had by them been polluted to have been an act of singular Justice and Piety do notwithstanding complain of the loss of so many stately Churches dedicated to God's service the goods whereof were no otherwise employed than for the satisfaction of private mens covetousness and although many have abused the Vail of Religion yet was that Monastical life instituted according to the pious example of antient Fathers that they who found themselves unfit for the execution of worldly affairs as many such there are might in such their voluntary retirements spend their days in Divine Writings or Meditations and are verily perswaded that for the taking away of these things God was offended both with the King and Cromwell But Sleidan peradventure comes nearer the matter touching the immediate cause of his death About this time saith he the King of England beheadeth Thomas Cromwell whom he had from fortunes answerable to his low parentage raised to great Honours repadiates the Lady Ann of Cleve and marrieth Catharine Howard Daughter to the Lord Edmond Howard who was Brother to the Duke of Norfolk Cromwell had been procurer of the Match with Ann. But the King loving Catharine is thought to have been perswaded by her to make away Cromwell whom she suspected to be a Remora to her advancement The actions of Kings are not to be sifted too nearly for which we are charitably to presume they have reasons and those inscrutable But let us see the process of this Divorce Six months this conjugal band lasted firm without scruple the King and Queen giving daily testimonies of their mutual love On the twentieth of June the Queen is willed to remove from London where the King stayed by reason of the Parliament to Richmond a place pretended in regard of the situation and air to be more for her health On the sixth of July Reasons are proposed by certain Lords purposely sent to the lower House of Parliament demonstrating the invalidity of the King's Marriage with the Lady Ann so that it was lawful for them both to marry where they pleased The same reasons are alledged in the Convocation-House and generally approved Whereupon the Queen also whether forced or willing consenting the Parliament pronounced the Marriage void What the allegations were is uncertain Some relate disability by reason of some defects to be objected to her which seems the more probable for that in her Letters wherein she submitted her self to the judgment and determination of the Parliament she affirmed that the King never knew her carnally Whether for this or for that Nature having not over-liberally endowed her with Beauty but a private woman she became and as such not enduring to return to her friends with dishonour she lived upon some Lands assigned her by the King who always used her respectively until the fifteenth of July Anno 1557 at what time she ended her discontented life and lieth buried at Westminster on the South side of the Quire in a Tomb not yet finished Scarce had the resolution of the Convocation-House and the Decree concerning it passed both Houses when this lusty Widower with as good success as before marrieth his fifth Wife Catharine Howard When their Nuptials were celebrated is not known but on the eighth of August in Royal habiliments she shewed her self as Queen The fautors of Reformation were much dismayed at the sudden unqueening of Ann fearing not without cause lest it proving occasion of enmity between Henry and the Princes of Germany he must of necessity rely on them who misliked our divorce from Rome But the King proceeding still in the course he had begun like a torrent bearing all before him not only caused three Anabaptists to be burned but also many sincere Professors of the Truth for not subscribing to the Six Articles Among whom three Divines were most eminent viz. Robert Barnes Doctor of Divinity Thomas Gerard and William Jerome Bachechelors who by Parliament unheard being condemned for Heresie were on the one and thirtieth committed to the torments of the merciless fire At the same time and place three other Doctors of Divinity viz. Powel Able and Fetherston were hanged for denying the King's Supremacy the sight whereof made a French-man cry out in these words Deus bone quomodo hic vivunt gentes suspenduntur Papistae comburuntur Antipapistae Good God how do the people make a shift to live here where both Papists are hanged and Antipapists burned In August the Prior of Dancaster and six other for defending the Institution of the life Monastical a crime now become as capital as the greatest being also condemned by Act of Parliament were hanged The same day with the Lord Cromwell the Lord Hungerford was also Beheaded As their causes were divers so died they alike differently Cromwell's conscience quietly welcomed death to the other suffering for that most unnatural crime of Sodomy death presented it self with that horror that the apprehension of it made him as impatient as if he had been seised with a frenzy ANNO DOM. 1541. REG. 33. THe late Yorkshire Rebellion was not so throughly quenched but it again began to shew it self but by the punishment of the chief Incendiaries it was quickly suppressed Fourteen of the Conspirators were put to death Leigh a Gentleman Thornton a Yeoman and Tattershall a Clothier at London Sir John Nevil and ten others at York Which Commotion whether raised in favour of Religion or being suspected that it had any abettors beyond the Seas is thought to have hastened the death of the long since condemned Countess of Sarisbury who on the seven and twentieth of May was Beheaded in the Tower The eight and twentieth of June the Lord Leonard Grey Deputy of Ireland did on the Tower Hill publickly undergo the like punishment He was Son to the Marquis of Dorset near allied to the King and a brave Martial man having often done his Countrey good service But for that he had suffered his Nephew Gerard Fitz-Gerard Brother to Thomas lately executed proclaimed enemy to the Estate to make an escape and in revenge of some conceived private injury had invaded the Lands of the King's friends he was arraigned and condemned ending his life with a resolution befitting a brave Souldier The same day Thomas Fines Lord Dacres of the South with some other Gentlemen for the death of one Busbrig slain by them in a fray was hanged at Tyburn Many in
who must slip down a narrow Channel where but few Ships could go in front and the like number opposed might easily defend it Where they could not enter but with the Tide and Wind and the first Ships repulsed in their falling back would have disordered the rest of the Fleet where of necessity they must fight under the favour of our Forts and Cannon which would easily have hindered their approach The Enemy being put off here consult of fortifying the Isle of Wight where at St. Helens Point they land two thousand men resolve forsooth to make that the Seat of the War and there to build three Forts but the valour of the Inhabitants made them change their design and forced them again to their Ships Thus every where affronted to their loss without any memorable act they set fail for Normandy The French Fleet consisted of a hundred and three Sail of all sorts ours of only sixty so that it was no way safe for us to encounter them Some light proffers were made on both sides wherein we always came off with the better As for the Mary Rose a Ship which with her loss buried Sir George Carow the Captain and seven hundred men the French do well to make use of casualties to their own glory But it was not the valour of the French or fury of their Cannons that sunk her but the supine negligence of the Mariners being wrecked in the very Haven in the presence of the King Boloign was not idle the while Upon hope of a Fort to be built by the Marshal of Biez Francis had made great preparations for an Enterprize upon Guisnes but was diverted by the death of the Duke of Orleans his younger Son and the lost hopes of his intended Fort near Boloigne and having for a while encamped at Mont-Lambert retired at last toward Amiens The nearness of the King's Camp at Mont-Lambert did daily invite both Nations to make trial of their valour the English sometimes sometimes the French having the better One day among the rest the English hotly charging the French the Duke of Aumale comes to relieve them who being strook with a Lance under his right Eye it breaks in pieces and leaves the Trunchion half a foot within his Head It was a token of an excellent spirit in this young Nobleman that for so rough a charge he lost not his stirrups and endured the torture whereto they put him in drawing out the three square head with such an invincible constancy as if they had picked a Thorn from out his Finger and beyond all expectation of the Chirurgions recovered The Victory remained to the English who could not long brag of it afterward seeking to cut off a Convoy of the Enemies defeated by the Rhinegrave with the loss of sixteen Captains and seven or eight hundred men The Earl of Surrey who led them saved himself by flight And were it not discourtesie in us not to requite the late visit of the French The Lord Admiral therefore landed six thousand men at Treport in Normandy burned the Town and Abbey with thirty Ships and a Barque in the Haven and returned with the loss of only fourteen men Neither were our employments less or fewer in Scotland than among the French Scotland had so many enemies at home that it needed not any abroad But their home-bred dissentions had caused War from us and the way to set them at Peace was to invade them In the beginning of March Sir Ralph Evers by the death of his Father Lord Evers with an Army entred Scotland making all the Countrey desert about Jedbury and Kelson Thence marching to Coldingham fortified the Church and Tower and leaving a Garrison there departed The Garrison partly out of covetousness partly to distress the Enemy if he should lay siege to them pillaged and wasted all the neighbouring Countrey The Regent according to their expectation besiegeth the Church with eight thousand men and batters it a whole day and a night But suddenly making none of the Nobles partakers of his determinations whether out of fear to be betrayed by his Army or some other cause took horse and posted away to Dunbar which occasioned the disbanding of the Army and the freedom of the besieged Our often success having emboldened us we adventure upon another impression the fury whereof disburdened it self in Merch Teifidale and Lauden the Inhabitants being either forced to yield or flie and leave their goods to be seiled on by Bellonas Harbingers The Scots at length make head and although of more than equal number they betake themselves to stratagems They understand by their Scouts of our approach and to deceive us by the advice of Walter Scot send their Horses to the adjoyning Hills Neither indeed was the place so advantageous for Horse as for Foot The Horses backed by the Grooms that kept them did from the Hills make shew of an Army and that flying We advance as loath to let our enemies escape in the pursuit of whom we unawares fall among the whole Army not disorderly flying but prepared to receive us It is not unusual to encounter men but if Heaven and the Elements oppose us how can we hope for victory We find the number of our adverse Army great beyond our expectation the Sun far declining to the West darted his rays in our faces and a violent wind drives the smoak of the shot into our mouthes which not only made the most necessary sense unuseful but with a foul stench corrupted the Air and hindred the breathing of the already panting Souldiers The many advantages give them the Victory We leave two hundred in the place and among them the Lord Evers a thousand are taken whereof Alderman Read was one A little after this Victory Francis sent into Scotland a supply of five hundred French Horse and three thousand Footmen under the command of the Lord of Lorges Earl of Montgomery not so much to cross our attempts against the Scots as to distract our Forces that the violence of them united might not at once fall on France This year among other accidents is also memorable through the death of the King's Brother-in-Law Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk a man of a mighty spirit yet so tempering it with mildness and fair demeanour that he was generally beloved both of Prince and people Who in that height of favour carried him so evenly as to die quietly in his Bed A happiness under this Prince rare even to Fortunes and His Favourites A Parliament assembled in November granted the King the Disposal of all Colledges Chantries and Hospitals the demesnes salaries and stipends thereto belonging or given to Priests to say Mass for the Souls of the departed The King personally gave thanks to both Houses promising to have a care that they should be employed to the honour of God and the publick good But we find not the effect of his promises ANNO DOM. 1546. REG. 38 ultimo VVE are now come to
October 1549 had been already exautorated All of them for fear of practising against the Estate were deteined in Prison And on the last of October Francis Inglefield Walgrave and Rechester Servants to the Lady Mary as also Francis Mallet Doctor of Divinity her Chaplain were committed I cannot speak any thing certain of the causes of any of their Imprisonments excepting Doctor Mallet's only At the Emperour's request he was permitted to celebrate Mass but with this limitation In the presence of the Lady Mary not otherwise for adventuring to Celebrate in her absence it was thought fit he should be punished for his presumptuous Transgression With the Lady her self all means had been used to conform her to the Times the King himself had taken much pains with her by often suasory Letters the Council had done the like and personally to satisfie her with Reason divers Learned men had been employed But their labours were vain for hatred to our Religion for her Mothers for her own sake and some politick respects for by the Decrees of our Religion she was made Illegitimate and consequently cut off from the Succession to the Crown if he Brother should die Issueless confirmed her in that Superstition which she had sucked from her Mother On the fourteenth of April one George Paris a German was at London burned for Arrianism On the five and twentieth of May Croydon and seven or eight other Villages in Surrey were terribly shaken with an Earthquake Toward the beginning of November Mary Dowager of Scotland arriving at Portsmouth sent to the King and craved leave to pass through England into Scotland Which being granted and she invited to London entred the City on the second of November where her Entertainment was general and Royal. On the sixth of November she departed for Scotland and had the Charges of her whole Retinue born until she arrived there in safety About the same time also the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget were but for what causes is uncertain committed to the Tower In the ensuing April the Garter was taken from the Lord Paget and conferred on the Earl of Warwick the Duke of Northumberland's eldest Son As for the Earl of Arundel he was on the third of December in the next year set at liberty On the one and twentieth of December was the Lord Rich removed from the Chancellorship and Thomas Goodrich Bishop of Ely made Lord Chancellor ANNO DOM. 1552. REG. 6. THe Duke of Somerset had now continued two Months in Prison since his Condemnation At length the violence of his Enemies notwithstanding the King's desire to save his Uncle under whose Tuition he had passed his Childhood drew him to the Scaffold Being on the twenty fourth of January brought to the place of Execution he in this manner bespake the Assembly Being by the Law condemned I here willingly submit my self by exemplary punishment to satisfie its Rigour That God hath been pleased to grant me so long a Preparative to my End I humbly thank his Eternal Goodness But in that he hath been farther pleased to inspire me with the Knowledge of his Truth and to make me an Instrument for the propagation of the same I can never sufficiently magnifie his Mercies In this do I rejoice in this only do I triumph beseeching him that his Church in this Realm being now reformed according to the Institution of the antient Primitive the Members thereof may conform their lives to the purity of its received Doctrine More he would have said but a strange tumult and sudden consternation of the Assembly mterrupted him The People possessed with a Panick terror as it were with an unanimous consent cryed out Fly quickly fly insomuch that of that infinite multitude which the expectation of the Duke's death had drawn together as many as well could seeking to shift for themselves many are troden to death and others in the throng as unfortunately 〈◊〉 the rest amazedly expect their own destruction when their own fears were the greatest danger The cause of their fears no man could certainly speak one said he heard a terrible crack of Thunder another the noise of a Troop of Horse and some over credulous according to the sway of their Affections joyfully affirmed that Messengers were come with a Pardon for the Duke But certain Halberdiers appointed to guard the Duke to the Scaffold but coming tardy and crying to their Fellows Away away were more probably the occasion of this Tumult The true meaning of this amphibological word which commandeth haste to and from being mistaken and withall a company of Armed men bending themselves as was supposed against the multitude filled all with terrour and confusion The affrighted People being at length with much ado pacified the Duke intreating them for a while to contain themselves that he might with a more setled mind depart out of this World by Prayer commended his Soul to God and then suffered with admirable constancy neither by voice gesture nor 〈◊〉 shewing himself any way dejected or moved at the apprehension of Death unless peradventure you might take this for a token of fear that when he covered his Eyes with his Handkerchief his Cheeks had a little more tincture of red than usual That his Death was generally lamented is manifest Many there were who kept Handkerchiefs dipped in his Blood as so many sacred Relicks Among the rest a spriteful Dame two years after when the Duke of Northumberland was led Captive through the City for his opposition against Queen Mary ran to him in the streets and shaking out her bloody Handkerchief before him Behold said she the Blood of that worthy man that good Uncle of that excellent King which shed by thy treacherous machination now at this instant begins to revenge it self upon thee And Sir Ralph Vane who on the twenty sixth of February was with Sir Miles Partridge hanged at the same place where the Duke had suffered at what time also Sir Michael Stanhop and Sir Thomas 〈◊〉 were there beheaded going to his Execution said that His Blood would make Northumberland's Pillow uneasie to him These four Knights being to be Executed did each of them take God to witness that they never practised any thing against the King nor any of his Council To return to the Duke such was his End As for his Life he was a pious just man very zealous in point of Reformation very solicitous of the King's safety every way good and careful of the Weal publick only a little tainted with the Epidemick of those times who thought it Religion to reform the Church as well in its exuberancy of Means as of superstitious Ceremonies whereof not a few of our Cathedrals to this day complain Many Prodigies ensued his death whereby many did presage the Calamities of succeeding times In August six Dolphins a Fish seldom seen in our Seas were taken in the Thames three near Quinborough and three a little above Greenwich where
ascended the fatal Scaffold seeing the Instruments of Death before his Eyes and having composed himself for another World did with sincere protestations and religious asseverations acquit the Lady Elizabeth and the Lord Courtney from being any the least way conscious to his practices On the seven and twentieth of April Lord Thomas Gray was Beheaded for having by perswasions as it were thrust on his irresolute Brother the Duke of Suffolk to partake with Wyat in his Seditious attempts On the sixteenth of May the Lady Elizabeth was removed from the Tower to Woodstock and the Marquess of Exceter to Foderingay the place only being altered and nothing remitted of the strictness of their Imprisonment About the same time that Reverend Cranmer yet Archbishop of Canterbury Nicholas Ridley lately deprived of the Bishoprick of London and Hugh Latimer who so long ago resigned his Bishoprick of Worcester were removed from the Tower to Windsor and thence to Oxford there solemnly to Dispute with the Divines of both Universities concerning the Eucharist Their usage was extreme almost beyond belief Two days only were allotted them for their preparation and those two days were they in straight custody in several either Dungeons or places little differing debarred both the conference of any but their Gaoler and the use of their own Papers and Books In the Schools the behaviour toward them was as barbarous as their usage had been tyrannical Shouts and outcries were the chiefest Arguments many opposing one without Order without Manners without Modesty On the fourteenth of April from the Prison they were brought to St. Maries and commanded to Abjure upon their refusal a day is prefixed for publick Dispute Cranmer's day was the sixteenth Ridley's the seventeenth Latimer's the eighteenth of April each in their course to answer all Opponents which each of them performed and that so that notwithstanding they were amazed with rude clamours and distracted with variety of Opponents all urging and craving answer at the same time although they were scoffed at reviled and over-born with multitude yet did they force their Adversaries to admire them Cranmer did learnedly and according to the dignity wherein he so many years flourished gravely Ridley acutely and readily Latimer with a pleasant tartness and more solidly than could be expected of a man so near the age of fourscore The Disputation ended they are again on the twentieth of April brought to St. Maries and demanded whether they would persist in their Opinions upon their reply that they would they were declared Hereticks and condemned to the Fire Their Constancy was the more manifest by their contempt of Death Latimer was scarce capable of the joy he conceived that God was pleased he should end his long life whereto Nature would shortly set a period with so happy a clause As for their Martyrdom it falls in with the next Year and thither we remit it Presently after those forepassed Tumults the Queen sends forth Summons for a Parliament to begin the second of April In this Parliament she proposeth two things her Marriage and Subjection to Rome in matters Ecclesiastical this last she could not for a while obtain the other was assented unto upon conditions That Philip should not advance any to any publick Office or Dignity in England but such as were Natives of England and the Queens Subjects He should admit of a set number of English in his Houshold whom he should use respectively and not suffer them to be injured by Foreiners He should not transport the Queen out of England but at her intreaty nor any of the Issue begotten by her who should have their Education in the Realm and should not be suffered but upon necessity or some good reasons to go out of the Realm nor then neither but with the consent of the English The Queen deceasing without Children Philip should not make any claim to the Kingdom but should leave it freely to him to whom of right it should belong He should not change any thing in the Laws either publick or private the Immunities and Customs of the Realm but should be bound to confirm and keep them He should not transport any Jewels or any part of the Wardrobe nor alienate any of the Revenues of the Crown He should preserve our Shipping Ordnance and Munition and keep the Castles Forts and Block-houses in good repair and well manned Lastly that this Match should not any way derogate from the League lately concluded between the Queen and the King of France but that the Peace between the English and the French should remain firm and inviolate Only it should be lawful for Philip out of other Kingdoms and Dominions belonging to his Father the Emperour to send Aids unto him either for propelling Injuries or taking revenge for any already received All things being thus transacted and no further impediment interposing between these Princes Philip setting sail from the Groin on the sixteenth of July with a good Southern gale within three days arrived at Southampton with a Fleet of one hundred and sixty Sail whereof twenty were English and other twenty Flemings Having rested himself there the space of three days attended by a great company of the English and Spanish Nobility on the four and twentieth of July being a very wet day he came to the Queen at Winchester The Feast-day of St. James the Tutelary Saint of Spain was destined for the Nuptials which were Celebrated at Winchester with great pomp There Don Juan Figueroa for the Emperour resigned the Kingdoms of Naples and and Sicily and conferred all his right thereto on Philip and the Heralds proclaimed their Titles in Latin French and English About the beginning of August these two Princes came to Basing and thence to Windsor where the King was installed Knight of the Garter On the eleventh of August they came to London where the Citizens received them with most magnificent Solemnity On the eleventh of November another Parliament began at Westminster about the beginning whereof Cardinal Pool who by King Henry had been proclaimed Enemy to the Estate was created Cardinal by Paul the Third had himself been Pope if he had but consented in time and in the opinion of many was thought a fit Husband for the Queen arrived in England Having been put beside the Papacy by others default more than his own craving leave of the new Pope Julius he withdrew himself to a Monastery in the Territory of Verona called Maguzano the Religious whereof were Benedictine Monks of which Order he himself while he continued at Rome had been Patron Having decreed there to hide himself and spend the remainder of his days the fame of King Edward's Death and Queen Maries advancement to the Crown drew him again out of the Cloister to Rome He was not ignorant how Mary stood affected to the See of Rome and therefore hoped not without good cause that Julius who much favoured him having by his delays attained the Papacy
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
that it shall not remain undetected And the Queen although blindly misled in matter of Religion was so exact a fautrix of Justice that she was utterly averse from all mention of pardon So this Nobleman had the punishment due to his offence only in this preferred before other Murtherers and Parricides that he was not strangled with an Halter of Hemp but of Silk The seven and twentieth of April Thomas Stafford landing in the Northern parts of the Realm having raked together a small company of Exiles and some Foreiners surprized Scarborough Castle then as in time of Peace utterly destitute of provision for resistance Having thus seized on a place of defence he makes Proclamation that Queen Mary having her self no right to the Crown had betraied it to the Spaniard exhorting the people with him to take Arms for the recovery of their lost Liberty But by the diligence of Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury then Ambassador for their Majesties with the French all his designs were revealed to the Council before his arrival in England So by the industry of the Earl of Westmerland he was within six days taken brought to London and on the eight and twentieth of May Beheaded Strechley Proctor and Bradford the next day following him but in a more due punishment being drawn hanged and quartered whom they had followed in their treacherous attempts The Emperour Charles having bequeathed the inheritance of his hate to France with his Crown Mary could not long distinguish her Cause from her Husbands Wherefore on the seventh of June the Queen set forth a Proclamation to this effect that Whereas the King of France had many ways injured her by supporting the Duke of Northumberland and Wyat in their Rebellions against her and that his Realm had been a receptacle for Dudley and Ashton who with the privity of his Ambassador had in his house contrived their treacherous designs and after their escape into France had been relieved by Pensions from the King as also for having lately aided Stafford with Shipping Men Money and Munition thereby if it were possible to dispossess her of the Crown She gave her Subjects to understand that they should not entertain Traffick with that Nation whose Prince she accounted her Enemy and against whom upon farther grievances she determined to denounce War Although these things were true yet had she abstained from denunciation of War had not the five years Truce between Philip and Henry by the Pope's instigation been lately broken by the French and so War arising between them she would not make her self and her Husband two For the Pope having long since maligned the Emperour knowing that he after the resignation of his Estates to his Son Philip had withdrawn himself into Spain by the Cardinal of Lorain still solicited the French King to arms against the Spaniard promising to invest him in the Kingdom of Naples Henry upon these fair hopes undertakes it and Mary resolves to assist her Husband That Mary took arms in the behalf of her Husband Pope Paul was much displeased And being he could not be revenged on her who indeed was the sole cause of our breach with France he determined to pour out his wrath on Pool whom he ever hated but now he thought he had more cause to manifest it because Pool knowing that this War was set on foot by the Pope had by Letters and Ambassadors sought to appease him and that though with most humble reverence yet roundly and according to his Conscience Having abrogated Pool's Legation he repeals him to Rome and for supply of his place he creates one Francis Petow a Franciscan Frier Cardinal and Legate and a little after designed him Bishop of Sarisbury The Queen having intelligence of these proceedings took especial care that Pool might have no notice of them prohibiting not only this new Cardinal to enter the Realm but all others whom she suspected to bring any Mandates to that purpose and with exact diligence causing his Letters to be intercepted by her Orators at Rome certified his Holiness what a hazard the Catholick Religion not yet fully established would incur if he should endeavour the disgrace of so great a man whose authority had been much availeable for the conversion of the Nation But while there is this intercourse between the Pope and the Queen concerning this matter Pool having some way or other had an inkling of it abstained from having the silver Cross the Ensign of his Legation born before him neither would he afterward exercise his authority Legantine until by the intercession of Ormaneto the Pope's Datary in England he was restored to his dignity By this time the War was very hot on both sides Philip besieging St. Quintin in Picardie with thirty five thousand Foot and twelve thousand Horse which number was after increased by a thousand Horse four thousand Foot and two thousand Pioners out of England under the Command of the Earl of Pembroke For the managing of this War Philip set sail out of England on the seventh of July On the tenth of August the French endeavouring to put Succours into the Town are overthrown The Spaniard chargeth the Constable Montmorency in his retreat routs the French and kills two thousand five hundred A Victory not so great in the execution as in the death and captivity of many brave men The Constable was wounded and taken Prisoner with his Son as also the Dukes of Montpensier and Longueville Ludovico Gonzaga Brother to the Duke of Mantua the Marshal of St. Andrew the Rhinegrave Roche-du-Maine the Count Rochfoucault the Baron of Curton with many other men of mark The chief of them that were slain were John of Bourbon Duke of Anguien the Viscount of Turen N. Tiorcellin Son to Roche-du-Maine the Lords of Chandenier Pontdormy and many others and in a manner all the Foot-Captains Philip lost only fifty men The eighth day after this Victory an assault is given and the Town carried by force wherein were taken the Admiral Coligny with his Brother d'Andelot who shortly after made an escape Jarnac St. Remy Humes and many other persons of quality the Son of the Lord of Fayette Salevert Ogier Vicques La Barre Estang and Gourdes were slain Of the English in this assault few of note were lost beside Lord Henry Dudley youngest Son to the Duke of Northumberland and Sir Edward Windsore who were the first that advanced Ensign on the Walls This year is alike memorable for the extreme dearth and contemptible cheapness of Corn. A little before Harvest Wheat was sold at four Marks the Quarter within the current of a month it fell to the low rate of five Shillings Wherein I rather admire the ensuing cheapness than the dearth having my self in the year 1597 paid double the former dear price But that which I shall now relate I should deem far more memorable had I not in later times my self seen the like On the night which ensued