notwithstanding I cannot now produce that and all my goods as you well know being taken from me Neither indeed if I could would I produce it For to what end should I contend with the King Go therefore and tell his Majesty that I acknowledge all that I have but alas what speak I of what I have who indeed have nothing left me or whatsoever I had to be derived from his Royal Bounty and do think it good reason that he should revoke his gifts if he think me unworthy of them Why then do I not remit my cause to his Majesty's arbitrement at his pleasure to be either condemned or absolved To him then if you will have me acknowledge my fault behold I will make short work with you I confess it The King knows my innocency so that neither my own confession nor the calumnies of of my adversaries can deceive him I am therefore content to confess my self guilty His Majesty from the fountain of his natural Clemency doth often derive the streams of his mercy to the delinquent And I know though I should not desire it He will regard my innocency Upon his confession the penalty of the Law was forthwith inflicted only he was not as the Law requires committed to perpetual imprisonment The furniture of his house of infinite value incredible store of Plate and great Treasure had been already seised to the King's use There remained nothing but the Lands wherewith he intended to endow his Colledge the greatest part whereof were his own purchase the rest were the demesnes of the demolished Monasteries These Lands amounted to above four thousand pounds per annum and were all confiscated But God would not suffer so brave a work to perish The King afterward bestowed on the Colledge in Oxford called Christ-Church revenues for the maintenance of a Dean eight Prebendaries a hundred Students twelve Chaplains and Singing men and four and twenty Alms-men for which this Colledge acknowledgeth Henry the Eighth for its Founder But the King arrogated to himself what was truly to be ascribed to the Cardinal who was now in the case of the poor Mouse whom the Cat intends to devour The King had marked him out for destruction yet permitted him to live but so as that he could never escape and yet never despair of escaping Scarce any day throughout those few months passed wherein he endured not something or other that would have animated a sensless thing with anger neither was the Cardinal composed of patience yet did he never despair His sorrows were always tempered with some mixture of joy For he was often visited from the King but that very secretly and commonly by night often certified of the King's affection towards him in token whereof the Visitants did sometimes from the King present him with a Jewel or some such thing willing him to be of good comfort for that shortly they would assure him he should be raised to his former degree of favour and power Adversity at length prevailing he fell into a disease from the extremity whereof few expected his recovery And the King demanding of one of his Physicians whose patient the Cardinal was what disease Wolsey had the Doctor replied What disease soever he hath if you desire his death you may be secure for I promise you he will not live to see the end of three days more The King striking the table with his hand cryed out I had rather lose twenty thousand Pounds than he should dye Make hast therefore you and as many other Physicians as are about the Court and by all means endeavour his recovery The Physician then certifying him that he was sick more in mind than body the King dispatched away a Gentleman with a Ring which Wolsey had formerly given to him willing him withal to tell the Cardinal that the King's anger was now past who was sorry that he had so long given ear to detraction and that he should shortly find that the King's affection towards him was no less than when he flourished most in the sun-shine of his favour The same comfortable words being again and again ingeminated by divers others sent for that purpose the Cardinal in a few days recovered his former health At Court each one aspired to rise by Wolsey his fall But now jealous lest the King intended a real and sincere reconciliation and fearing revenge from him whom they had injured work all their wits to supplant him At or about London he was too near the Court some trick must be had to send him farther Winchester the Bishoprick whereof he held in Commendam was not far enough off Why then should he not said they being not detained at London as Lord Chancellor betake himself to the government of his Archbishoprick of York So having a thousand Pounds assigned him by the King whose Council thought Marks sufficient about the end of March in the ensuing year he set forward towards York Of all his Livings they leave him only the Archbishoprick of York wherewith to maintain him the revenues whereof might be valued at four thousand Pounds per annum The speech of Seneca concerning Apicius why may I not apply it to the present state of Wolsey How great was his Luxury who deemed the income of four thousand Pounds poverty And now it were requisite that we should proceed to the year 1530. But let us first behold the end of this great Cardinal That Summer he spent at Cawood a Mannor-house belonging to the See of York where by his mildness justice and liberality he did so win the hearts of his Diocesans that he was both admired and loved He seemed to be much delighted with this solitary confinement for that having hitherto been tossed in the Court to and fro as in a tempest he had now escaped not from shipwrack to a Rock but to his desired Haven of repose Yet notwithstanding upon any the least hope of recovering his former power although he professed that converted by an Anchorire of Richmond he had bid adieu to the vanities of the World he could not conceal the greatness of his joy That he failed of his hopes which indeed were none of the least I cannot assent to them who impute it to the importunity of his potent Adversaries For to what end served so many messages full of gracious and reconciliatory promises but ever intermixed with insufferable disgraces the forerunners of a dire Catastrophe Certainly to no other than that he might be wrought one way or other to approve of and give sentence for the King's Divorce at least as Archbishop Cranmer after did But this course not prevailing they intend a second accusation of Treason To this purpose the Earl of Northumberland is sent to apprehend and as he was amazed at this sudden change bring him to his answer to London But by the way he fell sick of a disease which at Leicester-Abbey secured him from all other Being near his end it is reported Sir
but contrariwise professing and giving out strongly that he meant to proceed with that Match And that for the Duchess of Britain he desired only to preserve his right of Seigniory and to give her in Marriage to some such Allie as might depend upon him When the three Commissioners came to the Court of England they delivered their Ambassage unto the King who remitted them to his Council where some days after they had Audience and made their Proposition by the Prior of the Trinity who though he were third in place yet was held the best Speaker of them to this effect MY Lords the King our Master the greatest and mightiest King that reigned in France since Charles the Great whose Name he beareth hath nevertheless thought it no disparagement to his Greatness at this time to propound a Peace yea and to pray a Peace with the King of England For which purpose he hath sent us his Commissioners instructed and enabled with full and ample power to treat and conclude giving us further in charge to open in some other business the secrets of his own intentions These be indeed the pretious Love-tokens between great Kings to communicate one with another the true state of their Affairs and to pass by nice Points of Honour which ought not to give Law unto Affection This I do assure your Lordships It is not possible for you to imagine the true and cordial Love that the King our Master beareth to your Sovereign except you were near him as we are He useth his Name with so great respect he remembreth their first acquaintance at Paris with so great contentment nay he never speaks of him but that presently he falls into discourse of the miseries of great Kings in that they cannot converse with their Equals but with Servants This affection to your King's Person and Virtues GOD hath put into the Heart of our Master no doubt for the good of Christendom and for purposes yet unknown to us all For other Root it cannot have since it was the same to the earl of Richmond that it is now to the King of England This is therefore the first motive that makes our King to desire Peace and League with your Sovereign Good affection and somewhat that he finds in his own Heart This affection is also armed with reason of Estate For our King doth in all candour and frankness of dealing open himself unto you that having an honourable yea and a Holy purpose to make a Voyage and War in remote parts he considereth that it will be of no small effect in point of Reputation to his Enterprize if it be known abroad that he ulin in good peace with all his Neighbour Princes and specially with the King of England whom for good causes he esteemeth most But now my Lords give me leave to use a few words to remove all scruples and miss-understandings between your Sovereign and ours concerning some late Actions which if they be not cleared may perhaps hinder this Peace To the end that for matters past neither King may conceive unkindness of other nor think the other conceiveth unkindness of him The late Actions are two that of Britain and that of Flanders In both which it is true that the Subjects swords of both Kings have encountred and stricken and the ways and inclinations also of the two Kings in respect of their Confederates and Allies have severed For that of Britain The King your Sovereign knoweth best what hath passed It was a War of necessity on our Masters part And though the Motives of it were sharp and piquant as could be yet did be make that War rather with an Olive-branch than a Laurel-branch in his hand more desiring Peace than Victory Besides from time to time he sent as it were Blank-papers to your King to write the conditions of Peace For though both his Honour and Safety went upon it yet he thought neither of them too precious to put into the King of England's hands Neither doth our King on the other side make any unfriendly interpretation of your King 's sending of Succours to the Duke of Britain for the King knoweth well that many things must be done of Kings for satisfaction of their People and it is not hard to discern what is a King 's own But this matter of Britain is now by the Act of GOD ended and passed and as the King hopesh like the way of a Ship in the Sea without leaving any impression in either of the Kings minds as he is sure for his part it hath not done in his For the Action of Flanders As the former of Britain was a War of Necessity so this was a War of Justice which with a good King is of equal necessity with danger of Estate for else he should leave to be a King The Subjects of Burgundy are Subjects in Chief to the Crown of France and their Duke the Homager and Vassal of France They had wont to be good Subjects howsoever Maximilian hath of late distempered them They fled to the King for Justice and deliverance from Oppression Justice he could not deny Purchase he did not seek This was good for Maximilian if he could have seen it in people mutined to arrest Fury and prevent Despair My Lords it may be this I have said is needless save that the King our Master is tender in any thing that may but glance upon the Friendship of England The amity between the two Kings no doubt stands entire and inviolate And that their Subjects swords have clashed it is nothing unto the publick Peace of the Crowns it being a thing very usual in Auxiliary Forces of the best and straitest Confederates to meet and draw blood in the Field Nay many times there be Ayds of the same Nation on both sides and yet it is not for all that A Kingdom divided in it self It resteth my Lords that I impart unto you a matter that I know your Lordships all will much rejoyce to hear as that which importeth the Christian Common-weal more than any Action that hath hapned of long time The King our Master hath a purpose and determination to make War upon the Kingdom of Naples being now in the possession of a Bastardship of Arragon but appertaining unto his Majesty by clear and undoubted right which if he should not by just Arms seek to recover he could neither acquit his Honour nor answer it to his People But his Noble and Christian thoughts rest not here For his Resolution and Hope is to make the Re-conquest of Naples but as a Bridge to transport his Forces into Grecia and not to spare Blood or Treasure if it were to the impawning of his Crown and dis-peopling of France till either he hath overthrown the Empire of the Ottomans or taken it in his way to Paradise The King knoweth well that this is a design that could not arise in the mind of any King that did not stedfastly look up unto GOD whose quarrel this
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
the King remits himself to your grave and mature Advice whereupon he purposeth to rely This was the effect of the Lord Chancellor's Speech touching the Cause of Britain For the King had commanded him to carry it so as to affect the Parliament towards the Business but without engaging the King in any express Declaration The Chancellor went on FOR that which may concern the Government at home the King hath commanded me to say unto you That he thinketh there was never any King for the small time that he hath reigned had greater and juster cause of the two contrary Passions of Joy and Sorrow than his Grace hath Joy in respect of the rare and visible Favours of Almighty GOD in girting the Imperial Sword upon his side and assisting the same his Sword against all his Enemies and likewise in blessing him with so many good and loving Servants and Subjects which have never failed to give him faithful Counsel ready Obedience and couragious Defence Sorrow for that it both not pleased God to suffer him to sheath his Sword as he greatly desired otherwise than for Administration of Justice but that he hath been forced to draw it so oft to cut off Trayterous and disloyal Subjects whom it seems God hath left a few amongst many good as the Canaanites among the People of Israel to be thorns in their sides to tempt and try them though the end hath been always God's Name be blessed therefore that the Destruction hath faln upon their own Heads Wherefore his Grace saith That he seeth that it is not the Blood spelt in the Field that will save the Blood in the City not the Marshal's Sword that will set this Kingdom in perfect Peace But that the true way is to stop the Seeds of Sedition and Rebellion in their beginnings and for that purpose to devise confirm and quicken good and wholsom Laws against Riots and unlawful Assemblies of People and all Combinations and Confederacies of them by Liveries Tokens and other Badges of Factious dependance that the Peace of the Land may by these Ordinances as by Bars of Iron be soundly bound in and strengthned and all Force both in Court Countrey and private Houses be supprest The care hereof which so much concern eth your selves and which the nature of the Times doth instantly calls for his Grace commends to your Wisdoms And because it is the King's desire that this Peace wherein he hopeth to govern and maintain you do not bear only'unto you Leaves for you to sit under the shade of them in Safety but also should bear you fruit of Riches Wealth and Plenty Therefore his Grace prays you to take into consideration matter of Trade as also the Manufactures of the Kingdom and to repress the bastard and barren Employment of Moneys to Usury and unlawful Exchanges that they may be as their natural use is turned upon Commerce and lawful and Royal Trading And likewise that Our People be set on work in Arts and Handy-crafts that the Realm may subsist more of it self that Idleness be avoided and the draining out of our Treasure for Foreign Manufactures stopped But you are not to rest here only but to provide further that whatsoever Merchandize shall be brought in from beyond the Seas may be employed upon the Commodities of this Land whereby the Kingdoms stock of Treasure may be sure to be kept from being diminished by any over-trading of the Foreiner And lastly because the King is well assured that you would not have him poor that wishes you rich he doubteth not but that you will have care as well to maintain his Revenues of Customs and all other Natures as also to supply him with your loving Ayds if the case shall so require The rather for that you know the King is a good Husband and but a Steward in effect for the Publick and that what comes from you is but as Moisture drawn from the Earth which gathers into a Cloud and falls back upon the Earth again And you know well how the Kingdoms about you grow more and more in Greatness and the Times are stirring and therefore not fit to find the King with an empty Purse More I have not to say to you and wish that what hath been said had been better exprest But that your Wisdoms and good Affections will supply GOD bless your Doings IT was no hard matter to dispose and affect the Parliament in this Business as well in respect of the Emulation between the Nations and the Envy at the late growth of the French Monarchy as in regard of the Danger to suffer the French to make their approaches upon England by obtaining so goodly a Maritim Province full of Sea-Towns and Havens that might do mischief to the English either by Invasion or by interruption of Traffick The Parliament was also moved with the point of Oppression for although the French seemed to speak Reason yet Arguments are ever with multitudes too weak for Suspitions Wherefore they did advise the King roundly to embrace the Britons Quarrel and to send them speedy Ayds and with much alacrity and forwardness granted to the King a great rate of Subsidy in contemplation of these Ayds But the King both to keep a decency towards the French King to whom he 〈◊〉 himself to be obliged and indeed desirous rather to shew War than to make it sent new solemn Ambassadors to intimate unto him the Decree of his Estates and to iterate his motion that the French would desist from Hostilitiy or if War must follow to desire him to take it in good part if at the motion of his People who were sensible of the cause of the Britons as the ancient Friends and Confederates he did send them Succours with protestation nevertheless that to save all Treaties and Laws of Friendship he had limited his Force to proceed in ayd of the Britons but in no wise to war upon the French otherwise than as they maintained the possession of Britain But before this formal Ambassage arrived the Party of the Duke had received a great blow and grew to manifest declination For near the Town of Saint Alban in Britain a Battel had been given where the Britons were overthrown and the Duke of Orleance and the Prince of Orange taken Prisoners there being slain on the Britons part six thousand men and amongst them the Lord Woodvile and almost all his Souldiers valiantly fighting And of the French part one thousand two hundred with their Leader James Galeot a great Commander When the news of this Battel came over into England it was time for the King who now had no subterfuge to continue further Treaty and saw before his Eyes that Britain went so speedily for lost contrary to his hopes knowing also that with his People and Foreiners both he sustained no small Envy and disreputation for his former delays to dispatch with all possible speed his Succour into Britain which he did under the Conduct of Robert Lord Brook
to the number of eight thousand choise men and well armed who having a fair wind in few hours landed in Britain and joyned themselves forthwith to those Briton Forces that remained after the Defeat and marched straight on to find the Enemy and encamped fast by them The French wisely husbanding the possession of a Victory and well acquainted with the Courage of the English especially when they are fresh kept themselves within their Trenches being strongly lodged and resolved not to give Battel But mean-while to harrass and weary the English they did upon all advantages set upon them with their Light-horse wherein nevertheless they received commonly loss especially by means of the English Archers But upon these Atchievements Francis Duke of Britain deceased an accident that the King might easily have foreseen and ought to have reckoned upon and provided for but that the Point of Reputation when news first came of the Battel lost that somewhat must be done did over-bear the Reason of War After the Duke's decease the principal persons of Britain partly bought partly through faction put all things into confusion so as the English not finding Head or Body with whom to joyn their Forces and being in jealousie of Friends as well as in danger of Enemies and the Winter begun returned home five Months after their landing So the Battel of Saint Alban the death of the Duke and the retire of the English Succours were after some time the causes of the loss of that Duchy which action some accounted as a blemish of the King's Judgement but most but as the misfortune of his times But howsoever the temporary Fruit of the Parliament in their Ayd and Advice given for Britain took not nor prospered not yet the lasting Fruit of Parliament which is good and wholesom Laws did prosper and doth yet continue to this day For according to the Lord Chancellor's admonition there were that Parliament divers excellent Laws ordained concerning the Points which the King recommended First the Authority of the Star-Chamber which before subsisted by the ancient Common-Laws of the Realm was confirmed in certain Cases by Act of Parliament This Court is one of the sagest and noblest Institutions of this Kingdom For in the distribution of Courts of Ordinary Justice besides the High Court of Parliament in which distribution the King's-Bench holdeth the Pleas of the Crown the Common-Place Pleas-Civil the Exchequer-Pleas concerning the King's Revenue and the Chancery the Pretorian power for mitigating the rigour of Law in case of extremity by the conscience of a good man there was nevertheless always reserved a high and preheminent power to the King's Council in Causes that might in example or consequence concern the state of the Common-wealth which if they were Criminal the Council used to sit in the Chamber called the Star-Chamber if Civil in the White-Chamber or White-Hall And as the Chancery had the Pretorian power for Equity so the Star-Chamber had the Censorian power for Offences under the degree of Capital This Court of Star-Chamber is compounded of good Elements for it consisteth of four kinds of Persons Counsellors Peers Prelates and chief Judges It discerneth also principally of four kinds of Causes Forces Frauds Crimes various of Stellionate and the Inchoations or middle acts towards Crimes capital or heinous not actually committed or perpetrated But that which was principally aimed at by this act was Force and the two chief Supports of Force Combination of Multitudes and Maintenance or Headship of Great persons From the general peace of the Countrey the King's care went on to the peace of the King's House and the security of his great Officers and Counsellors But this Law was somewhat of a strange composition and temper That if any of the King's Servants under the degree of a Lord do conspire the death of any of the King's Council or Lord of the Realm it is made Capital This Law was thought to be procured by the Lord Chancellor who being a stern and haughty man and finding he had some mortal Enemies in Court provided for his own safety drowning the envy of it in a general Law by communicating the priviledge with all other Counsellors and Peers and yet not daring to extend it further than to the King's Servants in Check-roll lest it should have been too harsh to the Gentlemen and other Commons of the Kingdom who might have thought their ancient Liberty and the clemency of the Laws of England invaded If the will in any case of Felony should be made the deed And yet the reason which the Act yieldeth that is to say That he that conspireth the death of Counsellors may be thought indirectly and by a mean 〈◊〉 conspire the death of the King himself is indifferent to all Subjects as well as to Servants in Court But it seemeth this sufficed to serve the Lord Chancellor's turn at this time But yet he lived to need a General Law for that he grew afterwards as odious to the Countrey as he was then to the Court. From the peace of the King's House the King's care extended to the peace of Private Houses and Families For there was an excellent Moral Law molded thus The taking and carrying away of Women forcibly and against their will except Female-Wards and Bond-Women was made Capital The Parliament wisely and justly conceiving that the obtaining of Women by force into Possession howsoever afterwards Assent might follow by Allurements was but a Rape drawn forth in length because the first Force drew on all the rest There was made also another Law for Peace in general and repressing of Murthers and Man-slaughters and was in amendment of the Common Laws of the Realm being this That whereas by the Common Law the King's Suit in case of Homicide did expect the Year and the Day allowed to the Parties Suit by way of Appeal and that it was found by experience that the Party was many times compounded with and many times wearied with the Suit so that in the end such Suit was let fall and by that time the matter was in a manner forgotten and thereby Prosecution at the King's Suit by Indictment which is ever best Flagrante crimine neglected it was Ordained That the Suit by Indictment might be taken as well at any time within the Year and the Day as after not prejudicing nevertheless the Parties Suit The King began also then as well in Wisdom as in Justice to pare a little the Priviledge of Clergy ordaining That Clerks convict should be burned in the hand both because they might taste of some corporal Punishment and that they might carry a Brand of Infamy But for this good Acts sake the King himself was after branded by Perkin's Proclamation for an execrable breaker of the Rites of Holy Church Another Law was made for the better Peace of the Countrey by which Law the King's Officers and Farmors were to forfeit their Places and Holds in case of unlawful Retainer or partaking in Routs and
The Male-contents of his own Kingdom have not been Base Popular nor Titulary Impostors but of an higher nature The King of Spain doubt ye not will 〈◊〉 with us not knowing where the French King's Ambition will stay Our Holy Father the Pope likes no Tramontanes in Italy But howsoever it be this matter of Confederates is rather to be thought on than reckoned on For God forbid but England should be able to get Reason of France without a Second At the Battels of Cressy Poictiers Agent-Court we were of Our selves France hath much People and few Soldiers They have no stable Bands of Foot some good Horse they have but these are Forces which are least fit for a Defensive War where the Actions are in the Assailant's choice It was our Discords only that lost France and by the Power of GOD it is the good Peace which we now enjoy that will recover it GOD hath hitherto blessed my Sword I have in this time that I have Reigned weeded out my bad Subjects and tryed my good My People and I know one another which breeds Confidence And if there should be any bad Blood left in the Kingdom an Honourable Forein War will vent it or purifie it In this great Business let me have your Advice and Ayd If any of you were to make his Son Knight you might have ayd of your Tenants by Law This concerns the Knighthood and Spurs of the Kingdom whereof I am Father and bound not only to seek to maintain it but to advance it But for matter of Treasure let it not be taken from the Poorest sort but from those to whom the Benefit of the War may redound France is no Wilderness and I that profess good husbandry hope to make the War after the Beginnings to pay it self Go together in GOD's Name and lose no time for I have called this Parliament wholly for this Cause THus spake the King But for all this though he shewed great forwardness for a War not only to his Parliament and Court but to his Privy Council likewise except the two Bishops and a few more yet nevertheless in his secret intentions he had no purpose to go through with any War upon France But the truth was that he did but traffick with that War to make his Return in money He knew well that France was now entire and at unity with it self and never so mighty many years before He saw by the tast that he had of his Forces sent into Britain that the French knew well enough how to make War with the English by not putting things to the hazard of a Battel but wearing them by long Sieges of Towns and strong fortified Encampings James the Third of Scotland his true Friend and Confederate gone and James the Fourth that had succeeded wholly at the devotion of France and ill affected towards him As for the Conjunctions of Ferdinando of Spain and Maximilian he could make no foundation upon them for the one had Power and not Will and the other had Will and not Power Besides that Ferdinando had but newly taken breath from the War with the Moors and merchanded at this time with France for the restoring of the Counties of Russignon and Perpignian oppignorated to the French Neither was he out of fear of the Discontents and ill blood within the Realm which having used always to repress and appease in person he was loth they should find him at a distance beyond Sea and engaged in War Finding therefore the Inconveniences and Difficulties in the prosecution of a War he cast with himself how to compass two things The one how by the declaration and inchoation of a War to make his Profit the other how to come off from the War with saving of his Honour For Profit it was to be made two ways upon his Subjects for the War and upon his Enemies for the Peace like a good Merchant that maketh his gain both upon the Commodities Exported and Imported back again For the point of Honour wherein he might suffer for giving over the War he considered well that as he could not trust upon the ayds of Ferdinando and Maximilian for supports of War so the impuissance of the one and the double proceeding of the other lay fair for him for occasions to accept of Peace These things he did wisely fore-see and did as artificially conduct whereby all things fell into his lap as he desired For as for the Parliament it presently took fire being affectionate of old to the War of France and desirous afresh to repair the dishonour they thought the King sustained by the loss of Britain Therefore they advised the King with great alacrity to undertake the War of France And although the Parliament consisted of the first and second Nobility together with principal Citizens and Townsmen yet worthily and justly respecting more the People whose Deputies they were than their own private Persons and finding by the Lord Chancellor's Speech the King's inclination that way they consented that Commissioners should go forth for the gathering and levying of a Benevolence from the more able sort This Tax called Benevolence was devised by Edward the Fourth for which he sustained much Envy It was abolished by Richard the Third by Act of Parliament to ingratiate himself with the people and it was now revived by the King but with consent of Parliament for so it was not in the time of King Edward the Fourth But by this way he raised exceeding great summs Insomuch as the City of London in those days contributed nine thousand pounds and better and that chiefly levied upon the wealthier sort There is a Tradition of a Dilemma that Bishop Morton the Chancellor used to raise up the Benevolence to higher Rates and some called it his Fork and some his Crotch. For he had couched an Article in the Instructions to the Commissioners who were to levy the Benevolence That if they met with any that were sparing they should tell them That they must needs have because they laid up and if they were spenders they must needs have because it was seen in their port and manner of living So neither kind came amiss This Parliament was meerly a Parliament of War for it was in substance but a Declaration of War against France and Scotland with some Statutes conducing thereunto As the severe punishing of Mortpayes and keeping back of Soldiers Wages in Captains The like severity for the departure of Soldiers without licence Strengthning of the Common Law in favour of Protections for those that were in the King's service And the setting the gate open and wide for men to Sell or Mortgage their Lands without Fines for Alienation to furnish themselves with Money for the War And lastly the avoiding of all Scottish-men out of England There was also a Statute for the dispersing of the Standard of the Exchequer throughout England thereby to size Weights and Measures and two or three more of less importance After the Parliament
handling of that service and gave them all thanks and in private promised Reward to some particulars Upon the sixteenth of November this being the Eleventh year of the King was holden the Serjeants-Feast at Ely-Place there being nine Serjeants of that Call The King to honour the Feast was present with his Queen at the Dinner being a Prince that was ever ready to grace and countenance the Professors of the Law having a little of that That as he governed his Subjects by his Laws so he governed his Laws by his Lawyers This year also the King entred into League with the Italian Potentates for the defence of Italy against France For King Charles had conquered the Realm of Naples and lost it again in a kind of Felicity of a Dream He passed the whole length of Italy without resistance so that it was true which Pope Alexander was wont to say That the French-men came into Italy with 〈◊〉 in their hands to mark up their lodgings rather than with Swords to fight He likewise entred and won in effect the whole Kingdom of Naples it self without striking stroke But presently thereupon he did commit and multiply so many Errours as was too great a task for the best fortune to overcome He gave no contentment to the Barons of Naples of the Faction of the Angeovines but scattered his rewards according to the mercenary appetites of some about him He put all Italy upon their Guard by the seizing and holding of Ostia and the protecting of the Liberty of Pisa which made all men suspect that his purposes looked further than his Title of Naples He fell too soon at difference with Ludovico Sfortia who was the man that carried the Keys which brought him in and shut him out He neglected to extinguish some reliques of the War And lastly in regard of his easie passage through Italy without resistance he entred into an over-much despising of the Arms of the Italians whereby he left the Realm of Naples at his departure so much the less provided So that not long after his return the whole Kingdom revolted to Ferdinando the younger and the French were quite driven out Nevertheless Charles did make both great threats and great preparations to re-enter Italy once again Wherefore at the instance of divers of the States of Italy and especially of Pope Alexander there was a League concluded between the said Pope Maximilian King of Romans Henry King of England Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain for so they are constantly placed in the Original Treaty throughout Augustissimo Barbadico Duke of Venice and Ludovico Sfortia Duke of Millan for the common defence of their Estates Wherein though Ferdinando of Naples was not named as principal yet no doubt the Kingdom of Naples was tacitly included as a Fee of the Church There dyed also this year Cecile Duchess of York Mother to King Edward the Fourth at her Castle of Barkbamstead being of extreme years and who had lived to see three Princes of her body crowned and four murthered She was buried at Foderingham by her Husband This year also the King called his Parliament where many Laws were made of a more private and vulgar nature than ought to detain the Reader of an History And it may be justly suspected by the proceedings following that as the King did excell in good Common-wealth Laws so nevertheless he had in secret a design to make use of them as well for collecting of Treasure as for correcting of Manners and so meaning thereby to harrow his People did accumulate them the rather The principal Law that was made this Parliament was a Law of a strange nature rather just than legal and more magnanimous than provident This Law did ordain That no person that did assist in Arms or otherwise the King for the time being should after be impeached therefore or attainted either by the course of the Law or by Act of Parliament But if any such Act of Attainder did happen to be made it should be void and of none effect For that it was agreeable to reason of Estate that the Subject should not enquire of the justness of the King's Title or Quarrel and it was agreeable to good Conscience that whatsoever the fortune of the War were the Subject should not suffer for his Obedience The spirit of this Law was wonderful Pious and Noble being like in matter of War unto the spirit of David in matter of Plague who said If I have sinned strike me but what have these sheep done Neither wanted this Law parts of prudent and deep fore-sight For it did the better take away occasion for the People to busie themselves to pry into the King's Title for that howsoever it fell their safety was already provided for Besides it could not but greatly draw unto him the love and hearts of the People because he seemed more careful for them than for himself But yet nevertheless it did take off from his Party that great Tye and Spur of necessity to fight and go Victors out of the field considering their lives and fortunes were put in safety and protected whether they stood to it or ran away But the force and obligation of this Law was in it self Illusory as to the latter part of it by a precedent Act of Parliament to bind or frustrate a future For a supreme and absolute Power cannot conclude it self neither can that which is in nature revocable be made fixed no more than if a man should appoint or declare by his Will that if he made any Latter Will it should be void And for the Case of the Act of Parliament there is a notable President of it in King Henry the Eighth's time Who doubting he might dye in the minority of his Son procured an Act to pass That no Statute made during the minority of the King should bind him or his Successors except it were confirmed by the King under his great Seal at his full age But the first Act that passed in King Edward the Sixth his time was an Act of Repeal of that former Act at which time nevertheless the King was Minor But things that do not bind may satisfie for the time There was also made a shoaring or under-propping Act for the Benevolence to make the summs which any person had agreed to pay and nevertheless were not brought in to be leviable by course of Law Which Act did not only bring in the Arears but did indeed countenance the whole business and was pretended to be made at the desire of those that had been forward to pay This Parliament also was made that good Law which gave the Attaint upon a false Verdict between Party and Party which before was a kind of Evangile irremediable It extends not to causes Capital as well because they are for the most part at the King's Suit as because in them if they be followed in Course of Indictment there passeth a double Jury the Indictors and the Tryers and so
beyond Seas But whatsoever else was in the Man he deserveth a most happy Memory in that he was the principal Mean of joyning the two Roses He dyed of great years but of strong health and Powers The next year which was the Sixteenth year of the King and the year of our Lord One thousand five hundred was the year of Jubile at Rome But Pope Alexander to save the Hazard and Charges of mens Journeys to Rome thought good to make over those Graces by exchange to such as would pay a convenient Rate seeing they could not come to fetch them For which purpose was sent into England Jasper Pons a Spaniard the Pope's Commissioner better chosen than were the Commissioners of Pope Leo afterwards employed for Germany for he carried the Business with great wisdom and semblance of Holiness In so much as he levied great summs of Money within this Land to the Pope's use with little or no Scandal It was thought the King shared in the Money But it appeareth by a Letter which Cardinal Adrian the King's Pensioner wrote to the King from Rome some few years after that this was not so For this Cardinal being to perswade Pope Julius on the King's behalf to expedite the Bull of Dispensation for the Marriage between Prince Henry and the Lady Katherine finding the Pope difficil in granting thereof doth use it as a principal Argument concerning the King's merit toward that See that he had touched none of those Deniers which had been levied by Pons in England But that it might the better appear for the satisfaction of the Common people that this was Consecrate Money the same Nuncio brought unto the King a Brief from the Pope wherein the King was exhorted and summoned to come in Person against the Turk For that the Pope out of the care of an Universal Father seeing almost under his eyes the Successes and Progresses of that great Enemy of the Faith had had in the Conclave and with the Assistance of the Ambassadors of forein Princes divers Consultations about an Holy War and a General Expedition of Christian Princes against the Turk Wherein it was agreed and thought fit that the Hungarians Polonians and Bobemians should make a War upon Thracia the French and Spaniards upon Gracia and that the Pope willing to sacrifice himself in so good a Cause in Person and in Company of the King of England the Venetians and such other States as were great in maritim Power would sail with a puissant Navy through the Mediterrane unto Constantinople And that to this end his Holiness had sent Nuncio's to all Christian Princes As well for a Cessation of all Quarrels and Differences amongst themselves as for speedy Preparations and Contributions of Forces and Treasure for this Sacred Enterprize To this the King who understood well the Court of Rome made an Answer rather Solemn than Serious Signifying THat no Prince on Earth should be more forward and obedient both by his Person and by all his possible Forces and Fortunes to enter into this Sacred War than himself But that the distance of Place was such as no Forces that he should raise for the Seas could be levied or prepared but with double the charge and double the time at the least that they might be from the other Princes that had their Territories nearer adjoyning Besides that neither the manner of his Ships having no Galleys nor the Experience of his Pilots and Mariners could be so apt for those Seas as theirs And therefore that his Holiness might do well to move one of those other Kings who lay fitter for the purpose to accompany him by Sea Whereby both all things would be sooner put in readiness and with less Charge and the Emulation and Division of Command which might grow between those Kings of France and Spain if they should both joyn in the War by Land upon Grecia might be wisely avoided And that for his part he would not be wanting in Ayds and Contribution Yet notwithstanding if both these Kings should refuse rather than his Holiness should go alone he would wait upon him as soon as he could be ready Always provided that he might first see all Differences of the Christian Princes amongst themselves fully laid down and appeased as for his own part he was in none And that he might have some good Towns upon the Coast in Italy put into his hands for the Retrait and safeguard of his Men. With this Answer Jasper Pons returned nothing at all discontented And yet this Declaration of the King as superficial as it was gave him that Reputation abroad as he was not long after elected by the Knights of the Rhodes Protector of their Order All things multiplying to Honour in a Prince that had gotten such high Estimation for his Wisdom and Sufficiency There were these two last years some proceedings against Hereticks which was rare in this King's Reign and rather by Penances than by Fire The King had though he were no good School-man the Honour to convert one of them by Dispute at Canterbury This year also though the King were no more haunted with Sprites for that by the sprinkling partly of Blood and partly of Water he had chased them away yet nevertheless he had certain Apparitions that troubled him still shewing themselves from one Region which was the House of York It came so to pass that the Earl of Suffolk Son to Elizabeth eldest Sister to King Edward the Fourth by John Duke of Suffolk her second Husband and Brother to John Earl of Lincoln that was slain at Stockfield being of an hasty and Cholerick disposition had killed a man in his fury whereupon the King gave him his Pardon But either willing to leave a Cloud upon him or the better to make him feel his Grace produced him openly to plead his Pardon This wrought in the Earl as in a haughty stomack it useth to do for the Ignominy printed deeper than the Grace Wherefore he being discontent fled secretly into Flanders unto his Aunt the Duchess of Burgundy The King startled at it But being taught by Troubles to use fair and timely Remedies wrought so with him by Messages the Lady Margaret also growing by often failing in her Alchymy weary of her Experiments and partly being a little sweetned for that the King had not touched her name in the Confession of Perkin that he came over again upon good terms and was reconciled to the King In the beginning of the next year being the Seventeenth of the King the Lady Katherine fourth Daughter of Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain arrived in England at Plimouth the second of October and was married to Prince Arthur in Pauls the fourteenth of November following The Prince being then about fifteen years of age and the Lady about eighteen The manner of her Receiving the manner of her Entry into London and the Celebrity of the Marriage were performed with great and true Magnificence in regard of Cost
agreeable to him for Society such as was Hastings to King Edward the Fourth or Charles Brandon after to King Henry the Eighth he had none Except we should account for such Persons Fox and Bray and Empson because they were so much with him But it was but as the Instrument is much with the Work-man He had nothing in him of Vain-glory but yet kept State and Majesty to the height Being sensible That Majesty maketh the People bow but Vain-glory boweth to them To his Confederates abroad he was Constant and Just but not Open. But rather such was his Inquiry and such his Closeness as they stood in the Light towards him and he stood in the Dark to them Yet without Strangeness but with a semblance of mutual Communication of Affairs As for little Envies or Emulations upon Forein Princes which are frequent with many Kings he had never any but went substantially to his own Business Certain it is that though his Reputation was great at home yet it was greater abroad For Foreiners that could not see the Passages of Affairs but made their Judgments upon the Issues of them noted that he was ever in Strife and ever A-loft It grew also from the Airs which the Princes and States abroad received from their Ambassadors and Agents here which were attending the Court in great number Whom he did not only content with Courtesie Reward and Privateness but upon such Conferences as passed with them put them in Admiration to find his Universal Insight into the Affairs of the World Which though he did suck chiefly from themselves yet that which he had gathered from them all seemed Admirable to every one So that they did write ever to their Superiours in high terms concerning his Wisdom and Art of Rule Nay when they were returned they did commonly maintain Intelligence with him Such a Dexterity he had to impropriate to himself all Forein Instruments He was careful and liberal to obtain good Intelligence from all parts abroad Wherein he did not only use his Interest in the Liegers here and his Pensioners which he had both in the Court of Rome and other the Courts of Christendom but the Industry and Vigilancy of his own Ambassadors in Forein parts For which purpose his Instructions were ever Extreme Curious and Articulate and in them more Articles touching Inquisition than touching Negotiation Requiring likewise from his Ambassadors an Answer in particular distinct Articles respectively to his Questions As for his secret Spials which he did employ both at home and abroad by them to discover what Practices and Conspiracies were against him surely his Case required it He had such Moles perpetually working and casting to undermine him Neither can it be reprehended For if Spials be lawful against lawful Enemies much more against Conspirators and Traytors But indeed to give them Credence by Oaths or Curses that cannot be well maintained for those are too holy Vestments for a Disguise Yet surely there was this further Good in his employing of these Flies and Familiars That as the use of them was cause that many Conspiracies were revealed so the Fame and Suspition of them kept no doubt many Conspiracies from being attempted Towards his Queen he was nothing Uxorious nor scarce Indulgent but Companiable and Respective and without Jealousie Towards his Children he was full of Paternal Affection Careful of their Education aspiring to their High Advancement regular to see that they should not want of any due Honour and Respect but not greatly willing to cast any Popular Lustre upon them To his Council he did refer much and sate oft in Person knowing it to be the Way to assist his Power and inform his Judgment In which respect also he was fairly patient of Liberty both of Advice and of Vote till himself were declared He kept a strait hand on his Nobility and chose rather to advance Clergy-men and Lawyers which were more Obsequious to him but had less Interest in the People which made for his Absoluteness but not for his Safety In so much as I am perswaded it was one of the Causes of his Troublesom Reign for that his Nobles though they were Loyal and Obedient yet did not Co-operate with him but let every man go his own Way He was not afraid of an Able Man as Lewis the Eleventh was But contrariwise he was served by the Ablest Men that were to be found without which his Affairs could not have prospered as they did For War Bedford Oxford Surrey Dawbeney Brook Poynings For other Affairs Morton Fox Bray the Prior of Lanthony Warham Urswick Hussey Frowick and others Neither did he care how Cunning they were that he did employ For he thought himself to have the Master-Reach And as he chose well so he held them up well For it is a strange thing that though he were a Dark Prince and infinitely Suspitious and his Times full of Secret Conspiracies and Troubles yet in Twenty-four Years Reign he never put down or discomposed Counsellor or near Servant save only Stanley the Lord Chamberlain As for the Disposition of his Subjects in General towards him it stood thus with him That of the Three Affections which naturally tye the Hearts of the Subjects to their Sovereigns Love Fear and Reverence he had the last in height the second in good measure and so little of the first as he was beholding to the other Two He was a Prince Sad Serious and full of Thoughts and secret Observations and full of Notes and Memorials of his own hand especially touching Persons As whom to Employ whom to Reward whom to Enquire of whom to Beware of what were the Dependencies what were the Factions and the like keeping as it were a Journal of his Thoughts There is to this day a merry Tale That his Monkey set on as it was thought by one of his Chamber tore his Principal Note-Book all to pieces when by chance it lay forth Whereat the Court which liked not those Pensive Accompts was almost tickled with sport He was indeed full of Apprehensions and Suspitions But as he did easily take them so he did easily check them and master them whereby they were not dangerous but troubled himself more than others It is true his Thoughts were so many as they could not well always stand together but that which did good one way did hurt another Neither did he at some times weigh them aright in their proportions Certainly that Rumour which did him so much mischief That the Duke of York should be saved and alive was at the first of his own nourishing because he would have more Reason not to reign in the Right of his Wife He was Affable and both Well and Fair-spoken and would use strange Sweetness and Blandishments of Words where he desired to effect or perswade any thing that he took to heart He was rather Studious than Learned reading most Books that were of any worth in the French Tongue Yet he understood the Latin as
Lady Mary his Sister who afterward was married to the King of France thought it first good to honour him with the Duchy of Suffolk which this year at the feast of Candlemas was performed But how he was frustrated of his hopes and afterward beyond all hope enjoyed her shall be declared hereafter Somerset the natural Son of Henry of the House of Lancaster the last Duke of Somerset took his surname of his Father's Honour whereas he should have been called Beaufort or rather Plantagenet according to the ancient name of our English Kings He being Cousin-german to Henry the Seventh whose Mother was Margaret Sister to the Duke of Somerset and famous for his many Virtues of which that King was a quick and exact Judge and was by him made Lord High Chamberlain of England But having behaved himself very valiantly in this last Expedition against the French wherein Guicciardin untruly reporteth him to have been slain Henry the Eighth added this new Title which his Posterity still enjoyes to his ancient Honours He was great Grandfather by his Son Henry and Nephew William to Edward the now Earl who being one of His Majesties most Honorable Privy Council and Lord Privy Seal doth by his virtues much more ennoble his so noble Ancestors The French King hearing of the overthrow of the Scots perceiving himself deprived of such a Friend and Confederate seeing his Kingdom on fire about his ears and none to rely upon but himself determined if so he might fairly and with credit to renew his League with us Pope Julius the Second the Incendiary of Christendom was lately dead and the French King himself was now a Widower He therefore intends to try whether by marrying the Lady Mary the King's Sister he might secure himself from War on our side and by so near alliance gain the assured Friendship of so potent a Prince Leo the Tenth succeeding Julius the Second did openly side with the French against the Spaniard He therefore earnestly soliciting a reconciliation a Peace was concluded profitable to the French acceptable to us and on the ninth of October the Nuptials were with great pomp solemnized The French King was well stricken in years his Wife a tender Virgin of some sixteen or eighteen years of age but wonderful beautiful Besides the forementioned reasons the desire of Children for he had no Male Issue on his part on her part the good of the publick weal the authority of her Brother so willing and which bears chiefest sway in a Womans heart the supremacy of Honour in the title of a Queen were motives to match so uneven a Pair But many not without cause were persuaded that she had rather have made choice of Brandon for her Husband so her power had been answerable to her will than the greatest Monarch in the World neither was it long before she enjoyed her desire For the King as it often happens to elderly Men that apply themselves to young Women dyed the last of February having scarce three Months survived his Wedding The Queen might then lawfully according to the Articles of agreement return into England which she earnestly desiring the Duke of Suffolk was sent to conduct her who becoming a fresh Suitor unto her so far easily prevailed that before their departure from Paris they were there privately married The Marriage was afterward by the King's consent celebrated at Greenwich the thirteenth day of May of the ensuing year And now we must speak something of Wolsey's sudden and for these our times incredible rising who having as we have related before been invested in the Bishoprick of Tournay was within the year preferred to two other Bishopricks That venerable Bishop of Lincoln William Smith was lately deceased who beside many other Monuments of his Piety having begun in Oxford a College for Students called Brazen-nose-College was immaturely taken away before he could finish so good a work So the See being vacant it is conferred on Wolsey now high in the King's favour He was of very mean parentage a Butcher's Son and Ipswich a Town in Suffolk but of Norwich Diocess where he afterward laid the foundation of a stately College was the place of his Birth He was brought up at Oxford in Magdalen-College and afterward became Master of the Free-School thereto belonging Among other Scholars the Sons of the Marquess of Dorset were committed to his trust and for his care over them the Parsonage of Limington in Somersetshire no very mean one was bestowed on him As soon as he had set footing there he was very disgracefully entertained by Sir Amias Powlet who clapt him in the Stocks a punishment not usually inflicted upon any but Beggars and base people What the matter was that so exasperated him against Wolsey a man not of least account I know not This I know that Wolsey being afterward made Cardinal and Lord Chancellor of England so grievously punished this injury that Sir Amias Powlet was fain to dance attendance at London some years and by all manner of obsequiousness to curry favour with him There remains to this day a sufficient testimony hereof in a Building over the Gate of the Middle Temple in London built by the Knight at the time of his attendance there and decked round about very sumptuously with the Cardinal's Arms hoping thereby somewhat to allay the wrath of the incensed Prelate But these things were long after this year Wolsey whether that he could not brook this disgrace or beating a mind that lookt beyond this poor Benefice left it and became domestick Chaplain to Sir John Nafant Treasurer of Calais by whose means he was taken notice of by Fox Bishop of Winchester a man that knew rightly how to judge of good wits He finding this young man to be very sprightful of Learning sufficient and very active in dispatch of Affairs so highly commended him to King Henry the Seventh who relied much upon Fox's faith and wisdom that he thought it good forthwith to employ him in Affairs of great moment What need many words he so far pleased the King that in short time he became a great man and was first preferr'd to the Deanry of Lincoln and then made the King's Almoner But Henry the Eighth a young Prince coming to the Crown was wholly taken with his smooth tongue and pliable behaviour For when all the rest of his friends advised him to sit every day in person at the Council-Table that so by experience and daily practice he might reap Wisdom and to accustom himself to the managing of Affairs of Estate Wolsey advised him to follow his Pleasures saying That his Youth would not be able to brook their tedious Consultations every Age of man had its Seasons and Delights agreeable They did not do well that would force the King to act an Old man before his time Youth being utterly averse from wrinckled Severity It would come to pass hereafter if God were so pleased that what was now troublesom
at length he must brag of the Jugler's promises as he did to a Gentleman named Charles Knevet to whom he boldly unmasked himself and gave a reason of his actions Upon Knevet's accusation he was arraigned and condemned the thirteenth of May and on the seventeenth publickly beheaded His death was lamented by many and the rather for that he was no way faulty but in his vanity and pride which overthrew him Being a child I have heard antient men say that by his bravery of Apparel and sumptuous Feasts he exasperated the King with whom in these things he seemed to contend But he could by no means bear with the intolerable pride of the Cardinal whose hatred not improbably proved fatal unto him rather than did the King's displeasure for many times Princes are with less danger offended than their Mignons There goes a tale That the Duke once holding the basin to the King the Cardinal when the King had done presently dipped his hands in the same water the Duke disdaining to debase himself to the service of a Priest shed the water in his shooes The Cardinal therewith incensed threatned him that He would sit upon his skirts The Duke to shew that he slighted his threats and withal that the King might take notice of the Cardinal's malice came the next day to Court richly as he usually was apparelled but without skirts to his Doublet The King and many others demanding what he meant by that strange fashion he answered readily That it was done by way of prevention for the Cardinal should not now sit upon his skirts He thought he had put a jest upon the Cardinal to whose informations as proceeding from envy and spleen he hoped the King would hereafter give the less credit But he missed his mark for most men were of opinion that the Cardinal's malice crushed him rather than did the weight of his own offences It was the saying of Charles the Emperour upon the report of his death That the Butcher's Dog had killed the fairest Hart of England Howsoever it came to pass the King who had hitherto ruled without bloodshed induced by the former reasons so the Records run permitted his hands to be stained with the blood of this poor Prince many lamenting that the indiscreet credulity of one man having not attempted ought against the Estate should be the overthrow of so noble a Family If I might lawfully pry so far into God's judgments which are indeed inscrutable I would be bold to impute the punishment of the Son to the Father's treachery who conspired with the Usurper against his lawful Prince Edward the Fifth who by his assistance was deprived of his Life and Kingdom But forasmuch as that being touched in conscience he manifestly repented this fact for seeking to oppress the Tyrant whom he himself had raised he perished miserably the Divine Justice I think so far regarded his repentance that his posterity are nevertheless Peers of the Realm by the title of Lord Stafford The first point of Wisdom is not to run into Errour the next quickly to amend it The King having written a Book against Martin Luther sent it as a Present to Pope Leo the Tenth This Leo not yet thirty eight years old was by the combination of the Junior Cardinals elected Pope In which dignity he behaved himself according to his years profusely spending the Treasures of the Church in hawking and hunting and other pleasures not deemed over-honest Need began at length to pinch him and money must be had Whereupon he resolves to make use of his Keys against the most subtil locks and strongest bars ever yet held prevalent Indulgences of all sorts without distinction of time or place must now publickly be set to sale St. Peter's Church this was the pretence was out of repair towards which a certain summ of money given would purchase Pardon of Sins not only for the Living but for the Dead also whose Souls should thereby be redeemed from the pains of Purgatory But whatsoever was pretended every one palpably saw that these Pardons were granted to get money for his own relief And forasmuch as the Commissioners demanded it after an impudent and shameless manner they in most places incurred the dislike and indignation of the people especially in Germany where they saw this faculty of redeeming Sould from Purgatory was either sold for little or nothing or played away in their Taverns But what speak I of the Commissioners That which made the Germans most impatient was that the heedless Pope had given to his Sister Magdalen the profit of the exactions of Indulgences in many parts of Germany and that so openly that every one must needs know it For all Germany spake it 〈◊〉 this money was not gathered for the Pope or the Treasury of the Church whereby peradventure some part of it might be employed to good uses but was exacted to satisfie the greediness of a Woman At that time lived Martin Luther a Doctor of Divinity and an Augustine Monk one who under a religious Habit did not consecrate himself to idleness but to God It is reported how truly I know not that recreating himself in the fields his companion with whom he then discoursed was suddenly stricken dead with Thunder He thereupon falling into due consideration of the uncertainty of death and of judgement left the study of the Civil Law to which he then applied himself and renouncing the world betook himself to a Cloister where for his deportment he was beyond exception for Learning especially divine he was scarce matchable Upon this horrible abuse of the authority of the Keys being inflamed with a pious zeal he could not contain himself but boldly and bitterly inveighed against this gross impiety Neither stayd he there but storm the Pope never so much proceeds to other enormities in the Church of Rome some whereof that Church hath since reformed the rest religious Princes by Luther awakened out of their dead sleep of Superstition notwithstanding the practices of Rome have God be thanked exploded New opinions especially in matters of Religion are of themselves always odious Henry being offended with Luther's new as the world then deemed them Tenets thought it would prove to his honour by writing against Luther to manifest his Learning and Piety to the world Hereupon under his name a Book was set forth better beseeming some antient and deep Divine than a youthful Prince whom although he earnestly endeavoured it yet his affairs would not permit to bury himself among his Books which many thought to have been compiled by Sir Thomas Moor some by the Bishop of Rochester and others not without cause suspected to be the work of some other great Scholar Whosoever wrote it Luther replied in such sort that although his holy zeal were approved by many yet those many could have wished him more temperate and respective of the Majesty of Kings This Book was so acceptable to the Pope that according to the example of Alexander
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