entered perforce and put many to the Sword and taking the rest razed the Castle to the ground which Victory did so please the Prince that he forgat his doleful accents and solitary retirement and fell to his accustomed pastimes About this time Cadelh Meredyth and Rees the sons of Gruffith ap Rees ap Theodore did conduct their forces against the Castle of Gwys which after they perceived they could not win they sent for Howel the son of Owen Prince of North-VVales to their aid who for his prowess and valour in the field and his discretion in consultation was esteemed the flower of Chivalry whose presence was thought also onely sufficient to overcome any Fortress He being desirous to purchase honour gathered his men and came to these Lords before the Castle of Gwys Granados not yet in request whom they received with general acclamations and great expressions of joy When he had viewed the place he caused Engines to be made to batter the Walls with force of men and others to cast great stones to their enemies The strong Castle of Gwyl taken by the Brittains thereby to disquiet the Garrison which preparations when they within beheld their hearts failed and forthwith they yielded the Fort which done Howell returned home with great honour Shortly after there fell a great dissension betwixt Howell and Conan Prince Owens sons and Cadwalader their Uncle whereupon they rallied their Forces and entred the Countrey of Merloneth which caused the people to fly to Sanctuary for security of their lives These two young Lords made Proclamation that no man should hurt such as would submit themselves whereupon the people which had fled returned to their houses without any dammage or hurt Thus they brought by fair means all the Countrey under their wished subjection and led their Army unto the Castle of Cynvael which Cadwalader had built and fortified wherein was the Abbot of Tuygwyn or Whitehouse to whom the Lord had committed the defence of the Castle A Crosier fitter for an Abbot than a Corslet Howell and Conan summoned the Fort with great threatnings but they within defied them whereupon Howell and Conan promised the Abbot Meruni great rewards to let them have the house But he like a faithful servant whom neither terrible menaces nor gilded promises could move to betray a trust continued faithful and denied them entrance chusing rather to dye with honour than to live with shame with which answer the young Lords were greatly offended that a Priest should stay their prosperous proceedings and thereupon gave an assault to the Castle so terrible that after they had beaten down the Walls they entred by force and slew and wounded all in the Garrison saving the Abbot who escaped privately by means of friends which he had in Howells Army In the year 1147. died Bohthred Bishop of Landaff Mr. Godwyn called him Vthryd and saith he had a daughter before he was Bishop married to Jorwerth ap Owen ap Caradoc Lord of Carleon upon Vsk a great and mighty man in those parts Godwin in Landaff fol. 426. but he affirmeth that he died 1141. Powell saith whom Nicholas ap Gurgant succeeded but Godwyn tells us that H. Jorwerth was his successor who died Anno 1153. In the year 1148. died Barnard Bishop of Davids or Menevia of this Barnard thus writeth Godwyn Barnard a Norman Chaplain unto K. Hen. I. and Chauncellour unto his Queen was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury July the 12. 1115. Godwin Cat. Episco in Landaff fol. 418. not chosen by the Clergy of Wales as hitherto hath been accustomed but forced upon them by the King who had then newly conquered Wales This man being in great favour with the King and presuming upon the goodness of his cause began to take upon him the title of Archbishop and caused his Cross sometime in Wales to be carried before him After long sute and much money spent in this cause betwixt him and the Archbishop of Canterbury Barnard had prevailed at the last as Giraldus Camb. seemeth to perswade had not two suborned Witnesses deposed a flat untruth in the presence of the Pope Giraldus doubteth not confidently to pronounce that the power and wealth of the Archb. of Cant. hath out-born the poor Bishop of St. David in this matter without all right This Bishop saith Giraldus was a man in some other respect praise-worthy but unreasonable proud and ambitious as most of the English-men were in those times who were thrust into Bishopricks again he was a very ill husband to his Church alienating divers lands and letting others for the tenth penny of that his predecessors had made of them so thinking to make a way by gratifying of Courtiers unto some better Bishopricks in England he was deceived of his expectation having been Bishop of St. Davids about 33 years he died 1148. Of this old Menevia in succeeding times called St. David you may read before in this History but I think it not amiss to set down the Succession of that See having now fit opportunity according to Godwin Godwin fol. 413. in St. David The British Histories do all report that in this Island at the first planting of Christian Religion here there were established 28. Episcopal Sees Of these 28. three were Archbishopricks London York and Carlegion or Caerleon upon Vsh in Monmothshire At Caerleon which was then a great and populous City in the time of King Arthur sate Dubritius the son of Eurdila a Gentle-woman of great birth but who was her father it was never known He was a man of excellent learning and singular integrity in regard whereof when first he had taken great pains many years as well in teaching and reading unto his Schollars whereof he had a great number as in preaching unto the people he was appointed first Bishop of Landaff and having stayed there no long time was made Archbishop of all Wales by Germanus and Lupus two Bishops of France that were entreated by Aurelius Ambrosius King of Brittain to come over and yield their best help for the extinguishing of the Palagian heresie that had taken great root in this Countrey Aurelius Ambrosius being dead he crowned Vther Pendragon and afterwards that great Arthur King of this Iland and waxing old he resigned his Bishoprick unto David a Disciple of his he died and was buried in the I le of Enlhi now called Bardsey where he led a solitary life many years October 14. Ann. 612. his bones were after removed to Landaff by Vrbanus Bishop there May 7. 1120. 1. St. David David before named was Unkle unto K. Arthur and son of Xanthus a Prince of VVales begotten upon one Melearta a man very learned eloquent and of incredible austerity of life and conversation he was also very tall of stature and of a comely personage by his diligence Palagianisme was quite rooted out and many earnest professors of the same converted unto the Truth with the consent of K. Arthur he removed
the said Prince should accomplish the age of 14. years which was performed by them accordingly in all leases dispositions and grants of the revenues of the said prince The said K. Edw. by another Charter composed in English and bearing date 10 of Novem. 13o. regni appointed the said E. Rivers being brother unto the Queen to be governour of the person of the said prince and to have the education and institution of him in all vertues worthy his birth and to have the government and direction of his servants King Edward the fourth having reigned full 22. years left this mortal life 24. regni at VVestminster and was enterred at VVindsor Edward his Son and Heir then being at Ludlow neer the Marches of Wales for the better ordering of the Welsh under the Government of the Lord Rivers his Unkle on the Mothers side and upon the death of his Father drawing towards London to prepare for his Coronation fell into the hands of his Unkle by the Fathers side Richard D. of Glocester and the said Lord Rivers being upon his way to London Dulce vennum regnum was intercepted and lost his head at Pomfret for what cause I know not other then this that he was thought to be too great an obstacle between a thirsty Tyrannous desire and the thing that was so thirstily and Tyrannously desired Edward the 5. King of England for so he was although he enjoyed it not long being thus surprised under the power of his natural or rather most unnatural Unkle and mortal enemy was brought to London with great solemnity and pompe and with great applause of the People flocking about to behold his person as the manner of the English Nation is to do whose new joyes cannot endure to be fettered with any bonds His said Unkle calling himself Protector of the King and his realm but indeed was a wolfe to whom the lamb was committed for having thus surprised the Kings person he laboured by all means to get into his possession also the younger brother being D. of Yorke knowing that they both being sundered Vindex nocentes sequitur a tergo Deus the safety of the younger would be a means to preserve the elder and therefore by all sinister perswasions and fair pretences having obtained the younger D. from his mother the King and the D. both for a time remained in the Tower of London Ed. v. upon his return to England and there shortly after both in one bed were in the night smothered to death and buried in an obscure and secret place unknown how or where untill one of the Executioners thereof after many years being condemned to dye for many other his manifold crimes confessed also his guilty fact in this tragical business and the circumstance thereof of which by reason of the secresie and incertainty divers had before diversly conjectured And by this means all for the Coronation of Innocent Edward served the turn to set the Crown upon the head of Tyrannous Richard Out of which by the way I cannot but observe how hatefull a bloody hand is to Almighty God the King of Kings who revenged the bloodshed of those civil broyles whereof Edward the Father had been the occasion and the breach of his oath upon these his two Innocent Infants Edward Son of Richard III. This Tyrant and stain of the English story Inter warr ad magnum sigillum in Cancellaria Henricus rosas Richard D. of Glocester usurped the Kingdom by the name of Richard the third and became King yet as our Records of Law witness de facto non de jure and in the first year of his reign created Edward his son being a child of ten years of age Prince of Wales Lieutenant of the Realm of Ireland But for that the prosperity of the wicked is but as the florishing of a green tree which whiles man passes by is blasted dead at the roots and his place knoweth it no more so shortly afterwards God raised up Hen. Earl of Richmond the next heir of the house of Lancaster to execute justice upon that unnatural and bloody Usurper and cast him that had been the rod of Gods Judgment upon others into the fire also for in the third year of his reign at the battail of Bosworth whereunto the said Richard entered in the morning crowned with all Kingly pomp he was slain and his naked carkass with as much despight as could be devised was carried out thereof at night and the said Henry Earle of Richmond the Solomon of England Reigned in his stead by the name of King Henry the Seventh Arthur Son of K. Henry VII Henry the VII took to wife Elizabeth the eldest daughter and after the death of her brothers the Relict heir of King Edward IV. by which marriage all occasions of contention between those two noble Families of York and Lancaster were taken away and utterly quenched and the red Rose joyned with the white The said K. Henry the seventh by his letters patents dated the first day of December 5. regni created Arthur his Eldest son heir apparent being then about the age of three years Prince of Wales But before we proceed any further treating of the Princes of Wales let us consider from whence this Arthur descended and admire the goodnesse and providence of the highest and great God towards the VVelsh nation to bring the honour and principality to one descended of the Ancient Welsh or British blood I will bring the pedegree ascendent the noble Prince Arthur was son to Henry the VII Arthur The King of England from the Welsh blood first thus Henry VII Elizabeth Eldest Daughter to K. Edward IV. Edmund Earle of Richmond Margaret Daughter and Heir to John Duke of Somerset Sr. Owen Tudor Katherine Queen Dowager to K. Henry the V. Meredyth son to Tudor Tudor son to Grono Grono son to Tudyr Tudyr son to Grono Grono son to Ednivet Ednivet Vachan married Gwenlhian daughter to Rees Prince of Southwales Gruffith King of Southwales Rees ap Tudyr King of Southwales Whose Armes were Gules a Lyon Ramp within a border indented Or. I could deduce this family from several English matches as Holland Tuckets Norris but I should be too prolix and seem to exspaciate beyond my bounds and therefore I will return to our Prince of whom we now speak Dodridge fol. 28. Also there was a Charter of the Grant of the Lands of the said principality Earledom of Chester and Flint dated the 20 of February in the said fift year of the said King made unto the said Prince The said King Henry the VII by his Charter bearing date the 20. day of March in the eight year of his reign did constitute and appoint the said Prince Arthur to be his Justice in the County of Salop Inter war ad magnum sigillvm in Cancellaria Hereford Glocester and the Marches of Wales adjoyning to the said Shires to enquire of all liberties priviledges and
Tegengl bought their Offices for 30 Marks of the King but afterward Reginald Grey spoiled them of their Offices and money contrary to the Laws and Customs of England 13. Seven Gentlemen were wrongfully killed by the Englishmen but as yet the Parents of the Gentlemen can have no amends and though the offenders were taken yet the said Constable let them go without punishment 14. The Constable of Ruthlan kept two of the Kings souldiers in prison for that they took an Englishman who had wounded a man All these things contained in these Articles are contrary to the priviledge liberty and right of the said men and contrary to the Laws and Customs of Wales neither dare the Inhabitants send their Complaints to the King for fear of Reginald Grey which fear any constant man might have because the said Reginald said openly that if he could come by any such their messengers he would cut off their heads as it is certainly told us by one of his Councel further neither tongue can tell nor pen write how cruelly the men of Tegengl have been ordered Humbly complaineth to your Lordship my Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England Lhewelyn ap Gruffith ap Madoc of the Constable of Oswalds Cross the King and of the men of that Town who have spoiled the said Lhewelyn of the third part of a Town called Lhedrot and his fathers house without any Law or Right or Custom of the Countrey Further the said Constable and his Complices have against the Laws and Customs of the Countrey spoiled the said Lhewelyn of his Common and Pasture which he and his predecessors have used time out of mind and further condemned the said Lhewelyn for the said Pasture in 70 Marks And further the King of England granted certain Letters to a Bastard called Gruffith Vachan of Cynlhaeth to law with the said Lhewelyn for his whole Lordship and possessions by the occasion of the which Letters the said Lhewelyn hath spent 200 l. of good money Also the said Constable compelled the said Lhewelyn to send two Gentlemen to him whom when they came to him he caused to be hanged which Gentlemen ought not by right to have been hanged whose parents had rather have given him 300l Afterward the said Constable imprisoned 60. of the Men of the said Lhewelyn no cause alledged but that a certain Page spake a word who could not be delivered out of prison untill every one of them paid 10 s. When the Men of the said Lhewelyn came to the said Town to sell their Oxen the said Constable would cause the beast to be driven to the Castle neither would he restore the beasts nor mony for them Further the said Constable and his men took away the Cattle of the said Lhewelyn from his own ground and did their will with them Further the Kings Justices compelled the said Lhewelyn contrary to the law and custome of Wales to deliver to the Sons of Eneon ap Gruffith a certain Town which both he and his Ancestors ever had held The said Constable took the horse of Lhewelyns Baliffe when the said Baliffe owed him nothing who could never get his horse again nor any satisfaction for it Furthermore when the said Lhewelyn should have gone to a Town called Caerlheon to appear there as he was appointed the Sons of Gruffith ap Gwenwynwyn and the Soldiers of Robert Strange by the Councel of the said Roger took the said Lhewelyn and his Men and imprisoned them to their great damage which the said Lhewelyn would not for 300 l. starling who could by no means be delivered untill they had found sufficient sureties The Archbishop receiving these and other Articles came to the King and requested him to consider these wrongs and to cause amends to be made or at the least excuse the Welshmen having so just cause of grief who answered that the Welshmen were to be excused yet he said he was ever ready to do Justice to all them that complained Whereupon the Archbishop besought the King again that the Welshmen might have free access to his Grace to declare their griefs and to seek remedy the King answered they should freely come and depart if it should seem that by Justice they deserved to depart The Archbishop hearing this went and came to the Prince of Wales in Snowdon that he might move him and his Brother David and the other company to submit themselves whereby he might incline the King to admit them to which after much talke and conference with the Archbishop the Prince answered that he was ready to submit to the King reserving two things that is to say his conscience which he ought to have for the rule and safe-guard of his people and also the decency of his State and calling which answer the Archbishop brought and reported to the King At the which the King said that he would not any other treaty of peace then that the Prince and his people should simply submit themselves But the Archbishop knowing well that the Welshmen would not submit themselves but in form aforesaid or in other form to them tolerable and of them liked requested the King that he might have conference in this matter with all the Noble Englishmen then present who after much conference agreed to all these Articles following The which Articles the Archbishop did send in writing to the Prince by John Wallensis These are to be said to the Prince before his Councel 1. First that the four Cantreds and the Lands by the King given to his Nobles and the Isle of Anglesey we will have no treaty of 2 Item Of the Tenants of the four Cantreds if they will submit themselves he purposeth to do as becometh a Kings Majesty and we verily believe he will deal with them mercifully and to that end we will labour and trust to obtain 3. As touching the Lord Lhewelyn we can have none other answer but that he shall submit himself simply to the King and we believe certainly he will deal mercifully with him and to that end we travail all we can and verily believe to be heard The following are to be said to the Prince in secret 1. First that the Nobility of England have conceived this form of a favourable peace That the Lord Lhewelyn should submit himself to the King and the King should honourably provide for him 1000l starling and some honourable County in England so that the said Lhewelyn would put the King in quiet possession of Snowdon Durum telum necessitas and the King will provide honourably for the daughter of Lhewelyn according to the State and condition of his own blood and to these they hope to perswade the King 2. Item if it happen that Lhewelyn marry a wife and so have by her any heir Male they trust to intreat the King that the same heir Male and his heirs for ever shall have the same 1000l and County 3. Item to the people subject to the said Lhewelyn the
and ten poor people with a Collegiat Church a Dean twelve Canons Prebendaries as many Vicars sufficiently provided for with Revenues wherein himself lyeth buried and it was the greatest ornament of that City untill the hand of King Henry the eight lay over heavy upon all the like foundations and laid their lofty tops at his own feet In this City also was buried another Crouch-back viz. Richard the third in the Church of the Gray-Friers but now nothing remains of his Monument but only the stone chest wherein he was laid a drinking Trough now for horses in a common Inne This place hath given the Titles of honour to many Honourable Families year 1057 1057. 1. Algar the Saxon. year 1103 1103. 2. Edwin died 1071. 3. Robert de Bellamonte Gules a cinquefoyle Ermine 4. Robert de Bellamont 5. Robert de Bellamont L. Steward 6. Robert de Bellamont L. high Steward 7. Simon de Montfort married Amicia sister and coheir to the last Earl Robert L. high Steward 8. Simon de Montfort L. high Steward Gules a Lion rampant his tail double forked salteir wise Argent 9. Edmond Earl of Lancaster L. high Steward 10. Tho. Earl of Lancaster L. high Steward 11. Hen. D. of Lancaster L. high Steward 12. Henry D. of Lancaster L. high Steward England a Label of 5. points Ermine 13. William of Bavaria Earl of Heinalt married the Lady Maud of Lancaster Bendis losengè Argent and Azure 14. John of Gaunt D. of Lancaster L. high steward Henry D. of Lancaster Lord high steward Quarterly France and England a Label of 3. points Ermine Robert Dudleigh Lord Denbigh c. Or a Lyon rampant his tail double forked Vert. Robert Sidney Viscount Lisle descended of a sister of the said Robert Robert Sidney Earl of Leicester Or a Phaon Azure CORDEILLA THis Heroine Lady after just revenge taken upon her two sisters husbands and her fathers and husbands death by the consent of most Writers by the joynt suffrages and votes of the Brittains was admitted to the Royal Scepter in the year from the worlds creation four thousand three hundred and ninety eight years she governed her people and subjects for the space of five years with great applause and general liking but the two sons of her sisters Morgan of Albania and Cunedagius of Cambria and Cornwal envying her prosperity and thinking themselves injured in their birth-right their grandfather Leir having divided the kingdom equally betwixt their Mothers upon their Marriages conspire together and mustering their forces invade Cordeilla and reduce her to that necessity that she is taken prisoner and by her merciless Nephews cast into Gaol which she patiently a while endured but perceiving no hopes to regain her freedom or repossess her kingdom scorning to be any longer a slave to her insulting enemies seeing she could not free her body from bondage with true Trojan and masculine Heroick Spirit she makes a divorce between her purer soul and encaged carcass giving it free power to pass into another world leaving those parts which participated of drossie mold to be interred again in the earth from whence at first it came at Leicester in the Temple of Janus by the Sepulchre of her father Cunedagius and Morgan THe obstacle which hindered the designs of these two aspiring Princes Cordeilla the gallant Brittish Amazon and Virago being by violent death perpetrated by her own hand taken out of the way divide the kingdom betwixt them and became both kings in the year of the world four thousand four hundred and three but this gallantry lasted not long for the Court-Gnats whose life is a perpetual buzzing of news and flatteries fall upon the ear of Morgan and so fill his head with projects that he highly conceives he is injured by the equal dividing of the kingdom and thus discourses with himself And am not I the son of Gonorilla and she the eldest daughter of my Grand-father to me then as lawfull Heir Brittains Crown belongs Why then do I admit a corrival competitor and co-equal one firmament admits not two Suns nor one kingdom two kings no reason I should lose my birth-right no I am resolved I will not Cunedagius shall know that Morgan can rule the Brittains without his help this fire once kindled his flattering parasites bring fewel enough to augment it Cunedagius must bear rule no longer a private life or none at all must content him it is no small policy for Princes to have Spies in neighbouring Courts Cunedagius is quickly enformed of all the passages of his Cozen Morgan and thinks there is no security in delays and therefore puts himself into a posture as well to offend as defend yet to make his case the better and to ingratiate himself with the subjects he sends Messengers to Morgan who is already firing and destroying his Territories to Treat of a reconciliation and atonement but Morgan puft up with his imagined good success and thinking the offer of his kinsman to proceed either from fear or want of ability to resist him lends a deaf ear to the Treaty of peace and will have no other Arbitrator but the sword Cunedagius now resolved comes into the field and offers battell to his enemy his cause being just the Celestial powers seem to second his attempts and he who would have all or nothing is put to flight where the Conqueror makes use of his advantage and taking occasion by the foretop to prevent all hopes of recruiting and rallying again so hotly pursues his victory that Morgan is chased from place to place from Province to Province till being beaten into Cambria now Wales a Territory belonging to his Mortal Foe and there being most sharply put to it lost his life yet with this honour that that Country ever since from him hath had the appellation of Glanmorgan which is as much as to say in the vulgar tongue Morgans Land and thus after two years joyntlie reigning with his kinsman Morgan departed this life leaving Cunedagius to rule alone Cunedagius to shew an humble thankfulness to his Gods for so great a Victory having fully setled his Kingdom erects a stately Temple to Mars at Perth which is now St. Johns town in Albania now abusively called Scotland then a part of Brittannia and inhabited by the Brittish Nation We finde saith my Author in several Authors and Antiquaries to speak in their words that 800. years before the coming of Christ Cunedagius King of all Brittain Mr. Broughton fol. 336. 6. builded a Temple of Mars at Perth that is now St. Johns town in Scotland and placed there a Flamen Therefore we may not singularly deny unto this old city a Flamens Seat which Antiquaries generally grant unto all such in this time to have been changed into a Bishops See If any one ask what I have to do with Scotland my Scene being only the Brittish History I answer that to the great glory of the Brittains that which is now called Scotland was formerly
were all marvellous glad Thus came Camillus to take this Charge of General upon him and found there were twenty thousand good fighting men abroad and well Armed Then got he further ayd also of their Allies and Confederates and prepared daily to go and set upon the enemies So was Camillus chosen now Dictator the second time and went into the City of Veies where he spoke with the Romane Souldiers that were there and leavied a great number of Allies besides to go fight with the enemies as soon as he could But whilst Camillus was thus preparing certain of the Gauls in Rome walking out by chance on that side of the Capitol where Pontius Cominius had gotten up the night before spied in divers places the prints of his feet and hands as he had griped and gotten hold stiâ—l digging to get hold and saw the weeds also and herbs growing upon the Rocks and the earth also in the like manner flat trodden down whereupon they went presently unto the King to let him understand the same who forthwith came to view the place and having considered it well did nothing at that time but when dark night was come he called a company of the lightest Gauls together and that used most to dig in Mountains and said unto them our enemies themselves do shew us the way how to take them which we could not have found out but by themselves for they having gone up before us do give us easily to understand that it is no impossible thing for us to clime up also wherefore we were utterly shamed having already began well if we should fail also to end well and to leave this place as invincible for if it were easie for one man alone by digging to clime up to the top thereof much less is it hard for many to get up one after another so that one do help the other Therefore Sirs I do assure you those that do take the pains to get up shall be honourably rewarded according to their just desert when the King had spoken these words unto the Gauls they fell to it lustily every man to get up and about midnight they began many of them to dig and make steps up to the Rock one after another as softly as could possibly with catching hold the best they could by the hanging of the Rock which they found very steep but nevertheless easier to clime then they took it at the beginning so that the foremost of them being up to the top were now ready to take the wall and to set upon the Watch that slept for there was neither man nor dog that heard them It chanced then there were holy Geese kept in the Temple of Juno which at other times were wont to be fed till their crops were full But victuals being very strait and scant at that time even to finde the men the poor Geese were so hardly handled and so little regarded that they were in a manner starved for lack of meat This Fowl indeed naturally is very quick of hearing and so also very fearfull by nature and being in a manner almost famished with their hard allowance they were so much the more wakefull and easier to be afraid upon this occasion therefore they heard the coming of the Gauls and also began to run up and down and cry for fear with which noise they did wake those that were within the Castle The Gauls being bewrayed by these foolish Geese left their stealing upon them and came in with all open noise and terrour they could The Romans hearing this Alarm every man took such weapon as came first to hand and they run suddenly to rescue that place from whence they understood the noyse amongst those the foremost man of all was Marcus Manlius a man that had been Consull who had a lusty body and as stout a heart His hap being to meet with two of the Gauls together as one of them was lifting up his Ax to knock him on the head he prevented him and struck off his hand with his sword and clapt his Target on the others face so fiercely that he threw him backward down the Rock and coming afterwards unto the Wall with others that ran thither with him he repulsed the rest of the Gauls that were gotten up who were not many in number Thus the Romans having escaped this danger the next morning they threw the Captain down the Rocks from the Castle who had charge of the Watch the night before and gave Manlius in recompence of the good service he had done a more honourable then profitable reward which was this every man of them gave him half a pound of the Country Wheat which they call Far and the fourth part of the measure of wine which the Grecians call Cotile and this might be about a Quart being the ordinarie allowance of every man by the day After this Repulse the Gauls began to be discouraged partly for that their victuals failed them and durst no more forrage abroad in the fields for fear of Camillus and partly also for that the Plague came amongst them being lodged amongst heaps of dead bodies lying in every place above ground without burial and amongst burnt houses destroyed where the ashes being blown very high by the wind and vehemency of heat did give a dry piercing ayr that did marvellously poyson their bodies when they came to draw in the breath of it But the greatest cause of all their mischief was the change of their wonted Diet who coming out of a fresh Country where there were excellent pleasant places to retire unto to avoid the discomodity of the parching heat of the Summer were now in a naughty plain Country for them to remain in in the later season of the year All these things together did heap diseases upon them besides the long continuance of the siege about the Capitol for it was then about the 7. moneth by reason whereof there grew a marvellous death in their Camp through the great numbers of them that died daily and lay unburied But notwithstanding all the death and trouble of the Gauls the poor besieged Romans were nothing holpen and the Famine still did grow upon them And because they could hear nothing of Camillus they were almost grown into despair and send unto him they could not the Gauls kept so strait a watch upon them in the City whereupon both parties finding themselves in hard estate first the Watch on each side began to cast out words of peace amongst themselves and afterwards by consent of the heads Sulpitius Tribune of the Souldiers came to parley with Brennus In which parley it was articuled that the Romans should pay a thousand pound weight of gold and that the Gauls should incontinently after the Receit of the same depart out of their City and all their Territories this decree being passed by oath from both the gold was brought And when it came to be weighed the Gauls at the first privily began to deal falsely with
Archigallonem Eboracum deque suo Capite demptum Diadema imponit Fratri A quo rarae pietatis erga Fratrem exemplo cognomentum adeptus est ut apud omnes homines Elidurus merito Pius cognominatus est Elidurus the third Son of Morindus was chosen King of Brittain who ruled as many years as his Brother had done before him but of a far more excellent temper and behaviour nothing in condition like him Archigallo being now expell'd his Kingdome flies to the Provincial and Neighbouring Princes and there craves Aid and auxiliary Forces to reestablish him in his Throne but finding each ear close shut and deaf to his demands and desires is constrained to return into his native Country being attended or accompanied by only ten Persons there he visits those whom he supposeth to be his Friends casually travelling through the great Wood Calaterium where it fortuned that his Brother was taking his pleasure in Hunting who suddenly and beyond his expectation beholding Archigallo struck with a brotherly love and affection he with tender embraces expresseth how welcome is his Company taking him along with him in his Presence to the City Alcluid Here Elidurus falls into most serious consultations with his Nobles for the Restitution of his Brother to his Regal dignity but they all give the Italian shrug and shake their Heads having no conceit or opinion that ever any good can be hoped or expected from Archigallo The King in esse Summons all his Wits together to bring his designed purpose to perfection and counterfeiting a sudden and dangerous sicknesse he sends for his Nobles one by one and as they come he useth all possible perswasion and fearing not to prevail he addeth Threats and Comminations whereby to induce them to reenstall his Brother and causing them to be secured and closely kept severally in several places he perswades them through fear to him who formerly had been their King and by a perswasive Speech and Oration in the behalf of his Brothers reforming all former Errours and a future happy Government prevails so far with them as to promise faithful Allegiance and Subjection and having obtained what he so cordially desired coming to York takes the Diadem from his own Head and setts it upon his Brothers By which heroick Act he purchast to himself eternal fame with the Title of Elidurus Pius Elidure the Pious ARCHIGALLO ARCHIGALLO being thus by the unparallel'd affection of his Brother Elidure the Pious re-enthron'd made good what was promised on his behalf he suffered not his whispering Parasites to abuse his Ear but with singular care employed all his endeavours to the right administration of his Affairs and the good of his Kingdome and in short time by doing justice and right to all became so beloved amongst the Brittains as if he never had been the man that had wronged them Afflictions oft bring Mortals to the true knowledge of themselves for it tempereth and setleth the exorbitant humours of men who so abound commonly in continual prosperity that their judgements are greatly blinded and hindered thereby in which respect the famous Lady Queen Katharine of England and Daughter to Fardinand King of Spain was wont wisely to say that if she must needs make choice either of continual prosperity or continual adversity she would choose the latter For in affliction said she nâ— good man can want consolation whereas in prosperity most men want wit Iterum regnat Archigallo decem annos tells us Comes Palatinus quibus assumit viros genere virtuteque claros ad Reipublicae munia capessenda obscuro loco natos qui minus idonei sunt ad res gerendas repellit quodque est suum cujusque id unicuique liberum esse permittit in omnes denique homines justitiae officium aequitatis exercet tandem languore quodam extinctus Leircestriae sepelitur Archigallo admitted again reigneth ten years making choice of Gentlemen sprung from ancient families and eminent for their education and virtues to supply the places of Government in the Kingdome utterly excluding base-born brats from intermedling in matters of honour and consequence as altogether unworthy of such preheminence and being furnisht with such worthy Assistants Archigallo buried at Leicecester or rather York he gives to every one what belongs unto him makes justice flourish and every man enjoy what is his own and in this glory he finished his dayes being seized upon by a disease which stop't his vital spirits His body was buried at Leircester or as the English Chronicle saith at Caer Ebrank or York and so also saith Howes ELIDVRVS ELIDVRVS once more for his admirable and singular virtue which he shewed in his first Government is now the second time though as Fabian saith much against his will for well he knew Regnum to be but dulce venenum a sweet and gilded poison by the general Votes and Suffrages advanced or rather thrust into the Throne of this Land But Quota pars moritur tempore fati Quos foelices Cynthia vidit Vidit miseros abitura dies Seneca Rarum est foelix idemque senex The two younger Brothers intoxicated with ambition and desire of Princely Rule not like Elidurus who freely surrendered the Scepter to his displaced Brother Vigenius and Peredurus sollicit tell their Friends and what with present Advance-mony and what with fair Promises raise an Army and in a most mutinous and rebellious way lay violent hands upon their Brother and cast him Prisoner into the Tower of London after which unworthy Act they divide Brittany betwixt them Vigenius is to enjoy all from Humber that famous River to the remotest angle Westward and Peredurus Albania And thus for seven years space they Reign in amity peace and mutual League and concord After which time Peredurus Vigenius being dead becomes Lord and Master of all and so continues his Reign two years longer and with so great applause of all sorts by reason of his equity and indulgence towards his Subjects that he is extolled above all the rest of his Brethren whose praise is in every mans mouth nothing to be heard but his Panegyricks insomuch that even the Name of Elidurus the godly or Elidurus Pius is lockt up in the greatest darknesse and obscurity of Oblivion Such is the vanity and inconstancy of the Vulgar varium semper mutabilo vulgus the best Princes are soonest forgot and no longer thought upon then their present Fortunes cause them to be present and remembred This Peredurus builded the Town of Pickering in Yorkshire Cambden speaking of this place saith Memorandum nihil occurrit nisi Pickering Lancastrensis patrimonii oppidum non parvum colli affixum veteri Castello munitum ad quod plurimi circumsiti viculi spectant unde vulgi Pickering-Leith libertas de Pickering Forresta de Pickering quam Edmundo filio suo minori Lancastriae comiti Rex Hen. 3. elargitus est regio adjacens nominatur Nothing occurs here worth memory except Pickering belonging to the
with his Countrymen by working their subversion to his own dishonour and advantage of a Forraign enemy His Father Imanentius having been sometime chief Ruler of the City of Trinobantes and well esteemed among them was slain by Cassibelin the present Governour against whom the Citizens desired Caesar to protect Mandubratius and to commit unto him the Government of that City which Caesar granted upon delivery of a certain number of Pledges and a sufficient proportion of Victuals for provision of his Army Hereupon divers petty states thereabout sent Embassadors and yielded themselves to Caesar who understood by them that Cassibelina his Town being well stored with Men and Cattle was not far from thence this Town was only a circuit of ground inclosed with wood and marshes or else entrenched with a Ranger of Earth about it Caesar coming with his Legion to this place which he found very strong as being fortifyed Naturally and also by the industry of man began to assail it on both sides The Brittains having expected a while the event of the enterprise and perceiving themselves unable to withstand the assault issued out at a back way where many of them being slain and some taken as they fled the Town it self and all the provisions within it were left as a spoil to the Romans while these things were doing among the Trinobants Cassabelin dispatched messengers into Kent or Cantium that lyes upon the Sea The Inhabitants of these parts were better furnished to make War then any other of the Isle the Country at that time was Governed by four Kings as Caesar himself calleth them either for that they had among them a kind of absolute Government in several or else for that being the Register of his own Acts he supposed it would be more for his glory to be reputed a Conqueror of Kings their names were Cingetorix Carvilius Taximugulus and Segonax whom Cassibelin then required to raise all the power they could make and on the sudden to assail the Roman Forces that Guarded their ships at the Sea side This was attempted accordingly but with ill successe for that the Romans having timely advertisement of their purpose prevented the execution thereof by setting upon them as they drew near the Roman Army and so after a great slaughter made of the Brittains Cingetorix a Noble Captain and one of the Princes being taking prisoner the Romans returned safe to their Camp Cassibelin hearing of the unhappy issue of his enterprize after so many losses sustained on his part his Country being wasted with War and himself in a manner forsaken by the revolt of the Cities round about which most of all discâ—uraged him sent Embassadors to Caesar by Comius of Arras offering to submit himself upon reasonable conditions Caesar determining to winter in Gallia the state of his affairs there requiring it and the summer being almost spent commanded that he should deliver certain pledges for assurance of his obedience and that he should offer no wrong nor give cause of offence to Mandubratius or the Troynobants whom he had taken into special protection and then having imposed a Tribute to be paid yearly by the Brittains to the people of Rome he marched towards the sea side where he embarked his Forces and arrived with them safely in the Continent Thus Caesar having rather shewed some part of Brittain to the Romans then made a Conquest of the whole supposed he had done sufficiently for his own glory in undertaking a matter so rare and difficult in those Times At his coming to Rome he presented there certain Captives which he had taken in the Brittish Wars whose strangenesse of shape and behaviour filled the peoples eyes both with wonder and delight He offered also in the Temple of Venus Genetrix a Surcote embroidered with Brittish Pearl as a Trophy and spoil of the Ocean leaving to posterity a perpetual remembrance of his Enterprize in this Iland to the honour both of his own Name and of the Roman Nation After the death of Julius Caesar by reason of the civil Wars among the Romans the Isle of Brittain was for a time neglected and Augustus Caesar being setled in the Empire which was then grown to such greatness as it seemed even cumbred therewith accounted it good policy to contain the same within it known bounds Besides the attempt was like to prove dangerous and a matter of very great expence to send an Army so far off to make War with the Brittish Nation for desire of glory only no special cause besides moving thereto Howbeit as some Writers Report above Twenty years after Julius Caesar's first Entrance Augustus intended a Voyage hither in person alledging for pretence of the War the wrong offered to the Roman State by such Princes of the Isle as had for certaine years witheld the Tribute which Caesar his Praedecessor had imposed upon them intelligence whereof being got the Brittains sent over Embassadours who meeting the Emperour in a The Countrey between the Rivers Garony and Seinin France Gallia Celtica declared their submission and desired pardon And the better to win favour they had carried over certain gifts of good value to be presented as offerings in the Roman Capitol having already learned the Art to flatter for Advantage and to appease Princes by rewards Hereupon a conditional peace was granted them and the Emperour having pacifyed some troubles in Gallia returned to Rome then began the Ilanders to pay Tribute and Custome of all kind of Wares which they exchanged with the Gaules as namely Ivory boxes Iron chaines and other trinkets of Amber and Glasse which were Transported Too and Fro both out of Gallia and Brittain The year following the Brittains having failed in performance of Conditions he prepared for another expedition but being set forward on his Voyage the revolt of the b The Biscayans Cantabrians and c The Inhabitants between Gallicia and Portugal Assyrians stayed him from proceeding any further therein after which time the Brittains were left to themselves to enjoy their Liberty and use their own Laws without molestation of forraign Invaders for that the Romans having found the sweetnesse of peace after long civil Wars sought rather to keep in obedience such Provinces as had been before time brought under subjection then by attempting new Conquests to hazard the losse of that they had already gotten In those dayes the Countrey of the Troynobants in Brittain was Governed by Conobelin who kept his residence at a Malden in Essex Camalodunum he began first to reclaim the Brittains from their ill customes and to make his state more respected he afterwards caused his own Image to be stamped on his Coyne after the manner of the Romans a custome never used by the Brittains before his dayes and but then newly received by the Romans themselves for before that time the Brittains used Rings of Iron and little plates of Brasse of a certaine weight instead of Coyne During the time of his Government
shall we give way to our own wrongs shall we hope for reformation of these abuses nay we have hoped too long and by patient bearing of one injury we have drawn on another why should we not rather seek to redresse them for if we enter into due consideration of our selves what are the Romans more then we our bodies are as strong as theirs our numbers greater we have agility of body our women no lesse then our men to run to leap to swim and to perform all warlike exercises for which indeed we are naturally more fit then for the spade plough or handy-crafts and howsoever the Romans may seem fortunate by the folly or weaknesse of other Nations yet are they not comparable to us whom nature hath framed to endure Hunger Cold and Labour and to be content with things necessary only for to us every herb and root is meat each river and spring yieldeth us drink while we seek no further then to appease hunger and quench thirst each tree serves for shelter against stormes in winter and for shadow against the parching heat of Summer we need no other beds then Earth nor coverings then the Heavens whereas they must have their joints suppled with hot Baths sweet Oyntments and soft Couches and their bodies pampered with Wine dainty fair and all kind of effeminate nicenesse and delicacy these be the properties wherein they imitate their Master Nero who hath only the shape of a man being indeed a woman or rather neither man nor woman but a monster of nature a Singer a Fidler a Stage-player a Murderer and one that excelleth other men as far in Vice as he doth in preheminence of degree Besides all this the cause of our War is just and the Divine powers that favour justice have made our first attempt prosperous and me thinketh that the necessity of our Case were able even to make Cowards valiant your Ancestors could make Head against Julius Caesar and the Emperors Caligula and Claudius The Germans have lately freed themselves by that memorable overthrow of the Roman Legions under the Conduct of Quintilius Varus And shall not we who scorn to be reputed Inferiour to the Germans in Valour be confident in our own strength and boldly adventure considering that if we prevail we recover our lost liberty if we be forced to retire we have Woods Hills and Marishes for our Refuge and if we die we do but sell those lives with Honour which we cannot possesse with Safety For mine own part you shall find me no lesse ready to execute when time serves then I am now to Advise and Exhort you my self having determined either to Vanquish or die if any of you be otherwise minded then live and be slaves still With these and the like Speeches she inflamed the hearts that were already kindled and perswading the Brittains to pursue their Enemies as Dogs and Wolves doe fearful Hares and Foxes she let slip out of her lap a quick Hare at whose running through the Camp the Brittains shouted apprehending it as a matter ominous and fore-signifying the Romans flight And thereupon they cried that they might be speedily led to the Colony it self as the seat of their slavery which at the coming they surprised killing spoiling and consuming all with Sword and Fire except the Temple onely into which the Souldiers fled as a Sanctuary though it could not protect them from the Violence of the furious multitude Petilius Cerealis the Lieutenant of the Ninth Legion coming to succour the Garison had all his Footmen slain and himself with a few Horse hardly escaped Catus the Procurator knowing himself to be odious to the Brittains by reason of the extortions he had committed in his Office fled secretly into Gallia Suetonius upon Intelligence of the Revolt returned out of Mona and led his Army with some difficulty towards London a place not known at that time by the Name of a Colony but Famous only for concourse of Merchants and Traffick there he stayed a while as doubting what course to take the small number and ill successe of Cerealis making him more wary and he supposed it would be a work well worth his labour if with the losse of one Town he could preserve the rest that were likely to Revolt Whereupon furnishing his defective Companies with such able men as were then in the Town although the Londoners with tears implored his Aid and desired his aboad there for their own Defence yet he marched forward leaving behind him all such as either by reason of their age sex The Inhabitants of London put to the sword by the Brittains themselves or other infirmities could not follow or else for love of the place as being bred and born there would not abandon it The Town being thus weakly guarded was taken by the Brittains and the people therein put all to the Sword The like calamity befel the free Town of * An ancient City with whose ruines St. Albans was built A great slaughter by the Brittain of such as sided with the Romans Verulamium by reason that divers of the Brittains finding their own strength forsook their Forts and assailed the most notable and wealthy places enriching themselves with the spoil of their Enemies whom they hanged burned and crucified exercising all kinds of Cruelty that a mind enraged with desire of revenge could devise They took no prisoners either to preserve for ransome or to exchange according to the Laws of War but slew both Citizens and Confederates to the number of above Seventy thousand Suetonius with the Fourteenth Legion seconded by the Standard-bearers of the twentieth and some Auxiliaries made haste to encounter the Brittains and resolved without further delay to try the chance of a set Battle Then he pitched in a place that had a narrow entrance with a thick Wood for a Defence behind him and a fair wide plain before his Camp The Legionary Souldiers were marshalled together in thick ranks the light Harnessed enclosing them about and the Horsemen making wings on both sides Poenius Posthumus the Camp-Master of the second Legion was appointed to lead the fore-ward but he contemptuously refused the charge In the mean time the Brittains ranged abroad in great Troops triumphing for their late good Successe and being encouraged by the Example of Voadica their General were fiercely bent to assail the Roman Camp supposing now that no Force was able to resist them And they brought their Wives with them in Waggons about the utmost parts of the plains who were not dismayed to be the Beholders of their valiant Acts and Witnesses of their expected Victory Suetonius being now ready to joyn battel though he perceived that his Souldiers with the sight of so great Numbers scattered upon the plain were not dismayd yet he supposed it not unnecessary to use some Speech unto them by way of Exhortation And therefore began in this manner SVETONIVS his Exhortation to his Souldiers I Cannot use many words to exhort you
there seemed to fear and reverence him and the causes of his coming were diversly reported at the first But the Brittains derided him for as men being born free they knew not till that time the power of the Libertines men made free but rather marvelled that a Captain and an Army which had atchieved so great an enterprize could be brought to obey and yield an account of their actions to a base bond-slave as they termed him These things howsoever they were censured by others yet they were reported to Nero in such manner as the reporters thought might best content him And Suetonius after the losse of some of his shipping was commanded the War being not yet finished to deliver up his Army to Petronius Turpilianus who had but even a little before given up his Counselship Turpilianus was a man of a soft spirit and being a stranger to the Brittains faults was more tractable and ready to remit them by which means having composed his former troubles he delivered up his charge to Tribellius Maximus whose unfitnesse for action and want of experience in military matters gave the more boldnesse to the Brittains that began now to discover the defects of the Governours having learned both to flatter and dissemble in confirming themselves to the present time and occasion for their advantage and for the most part yielding themselves to those pleasures which security useth to endanger even in minds well-disposed by Nature For Trebellius besides his insufficiency abused the authority of his place to enrich himself by polling the common Souldiers and Roscuis Caelius Lieutenant to the twentieth Legion whetted them on against him as against an ancient Enemy so that in the end they brake out into hainous terms the one objecting matter of crime against the other Trebellius charged Caelius with factious behaviour Caelius again Trebellius with beggering the Legions and the discord between them grew so far that Trebellius being despised as well by the Hides as the Legions both of them sorting themselves to Caelius his side was in great fear of his life the danger whereof he sought to prevent rather by flying away then by executing any exemplary justice upon offenders in the mean time the Souldiers neglecting the ancient discipline of War fell to Mutiny and all kind of Riot as men that had rather be doing ill then doing nothing Afterwards Trebellius taking again his former place as it were by capitulation seemed to govern onely at the discretion of the Souldiers who finding his weaknesse and want of judgement to use his Authority took upon them to do what they listed and herewith also the Lieutenant himself seemed contented as being now given over altogether to a sloathful kind of life terming it peace and quietnesse for which the death of Nero the Emperour and the civil discord at that time between Otho and Vitellius contending for the Soveraignty ministred some colour of excuse Not long before this time the fourteenth Legion famous for many great attempts and growing now more insolent then the rest was revoked out of the Isle to have been sent to the streights about the Caspian Sea though afterwards upon intelligence of the revolt in Gallia Spain when Julius Vindex took Armes against Nero it was retained about the City of Rome for a safeguard to those parts in the turbulent times that ensued Nero's death it took part with Otho against Vitellius at the battle near Bebriacum where Otho was overthrown and Vitellius after the victory suspecting the Souldiers of that Legion as knowing their great stomachs and ill affection towards him thought it expedient to joyn to them the a Bands of Hollanders Battanian Cohorts that by reason of the inveterate hatred between them they might one oppose the other and himself in the mean time remain more secure Vectius Bolanus a man not much unlike Trebellius in some respects was sent over by Vitellius during the time of whose Government the like disorders still continued in the Camp Vitellius was third after Nero for Galba succeeded him and continued Emperor for six months and a little more him Otho slew whose Empire continued a lesse time for being in the fourth battle which he fought with Vitellius Mr. Br. f. 763. conquered by him having had victory in the three former impatient of his dishonour killed himself bearing the name of Emperour but three months and Vitellius which triumphed over him enjoyed as short and imperial a life onely eight months or thereabouts and his death for his cruel wickednesse was dishonourable stabbed to death cast into the River Tiber and wanting burial Cum Vitellius multa crudeliter ac nequiter Romae ageret minutissimorum ictuum punctionibus est excarnificatus ad ultimum in Tiberim mersus communi caruit sepultura saying that Bolanus by the mildnesse of his nature being not touched otherwise in his reputation had purchased love and good will instead of fear and disobedience in this time divers choice men of War taken out of the Legions in Brittain were conducted to Rome by Hordonius Flaccus in aid of Vitellius but when Vespasian made War for the Empire Bolanus refused to send Vitellius any sucour by reason that the Brittains finding the Romans state encumbred with civil dissension began to revolt in divers places of the Isle and some of them also shewed openly in favour for Vespasian who had carried himself honourably in Brittany when Claudius was there and seemed now by many ominous predictions to be a man specially marked for the Empire The death of Vitellius quenching the flame of civil broyles among the Romans confirmed the possession of the Empire to Vespasian who shewed the care and respect he had to the Isle of Brittain by employing great Captaines and good Souldiers there of this Vespasian saith that grave Author Mr. Broughton Mr. Brough fol. 166. we find in ancient Histories Manuscripts and others written divers hundred years since that this Vespasian being miraculously cured of a natural incurable disease by the power of Christ did plainly acknowledge him to be the Sonne of God Fuist le filz de Dieu and promised thereupon to revenge his death upon the Jewes which he performed when he sacked Jerusalem and slaved that people for executing which justice of God and desolation of the Jewish Nation from this Kingdome of Brittain though so far distant thence were present there Joseph Bengor apud Rich. Hakluit praef l. Naviga Ang. as both Hebrew and English Writers witnesse 20000 souldiers I read saith a learned Author in Joseph Bengorion a very Authentical Hebrew Author a testimony of passing of twenty thousand Brittains valiant Souldiers to the siege and fearful sacking of Jerusalem under the conduct of Vespasian and Titus the Roman Emperours Therefore so many thousands going so great a journey to fight under so Christianly minded a General and for the quarrel of Christ we cannot think but many of these were in judgement also act or both Christian And so
we may worthily Register Brittain for one of the first believing Nations though so far distant from the place of the life death and first preaching of Christ and boldly say it was the first chiefest principal and onely Kingdome that sent so great Forces and so far off through so great difficulties to execute the just revenge of God upon his enemies And the Christian either publick profession or known disposition of many Brittish Souldiers there mixed with the Roman under Vespasian must needs be a motive to justifie his words for true to force Josephus to these forcible complaints to the Jews at that time That they could not expect any help from God for as they had forsaken him so he also had forsaken them and he that was wont to defend them Ora. Josephi ad Judaeos Egesip l. 5. excid Hierosol c. 15. was gone to the Romans their enemies who then worshipped the true God whom the Jews had offended the true God was with the Romans Au praesidium speratur divinum atque auxilium de penetralibus sed qui nos defendebat ad hostem migravit quoniam quem nos colebamus Romani venerantur nos offendimus Quis autem ignorat cum illis esse Deum So that whithersoever we go where Brittains were in that time either in Jury about Hierusalem or at Rome in Italy or in Brittain then termed by Josephus and Egesippus another world Quid asseram Brittannias interfuso Mari à toto orbe divisas à Romanis in orbem terrarum reductas We find there were many Christians among them and their chief Rulers even in temporal Affairs not unchristianly minded as Vespasian in Jury King Marius in Brittain at Rome Coillus a great Friend to Christians both there and in Brittain when he came to Rule The Lieutenantship which was assigned to Petilius Cerealis a man that had given good proof of his sufficiency in former services upon his first entrance into office he invaded the Country of the Brigants the most populous state of the whole Province the greatest part whereof after many bloody Battels was either conquered or wasted and the hope of the Brittains greatly abated when as Julius Frontinus whose reputation was nothing impared by the Fame of his Predecessor took upon him the charge which he afterwards executed with great commendation in subduing the strong and warlike Nation of the Silures The praise of the South-wales men among whom he seemed to fight not onely with men whose strength and valour was able to make opposition against his Attempts but also with mountains straits and places of very great and difficult accesse In this Estate Julius Agricola having been trained up for the most part in the Brittish war did find the Province at his first coming thither He crossed the narrow seas about the midst of Summer at which time as though the season of the year had been past to begin a new War the Roman souldiers attended an end of their travel and the Brittains a beginning of an annoyance to their enemies The a North-wales men Ordovices a little before he had landed had almost cut in pieces a Troop of Horsemen that lay in their borders upon which Attempt the Country being awaked as desirous of war allowed the example and some then staid to see how the new Lieutenant would take it Agricola in the mean time although the Summer was spent and the Bands lay dispersed in the Province his Souldiers presumed of rest for that year and divers Officers of the Army being of opinion that it were better to assure and keep the places suspected then to make any new attempt yet all this notwithstanding he resolved directly to encounter the danger and gathering together the Ensignes of the Legions and some few Auxiliaries because the Ordovices durst not descend into indifferent ground himself first of all to give others like courage marched up to begin the assault And having in that Conflict destroyed almost all the whole Nation of the Ordovices and knowing right well that Fame must with instance be followed for as the rest should fall out so the rest would succeed he deliberated to conquer the Isle of Mona from the possession whereof Paulinus had been formerly revoked by the general Rebellion of Brittany But Ships being then wanting as in an enterprize not intended before the policy and resolutenesse of the Captain devised a speedy passage for he commanded the most chief of the Aids to whom all the shallows were known and who after the use of their Country were able to swim in their armour if need were to lay aside their carriage and putting over at once suddenly to invade it which thing so amazed the Inhabitants who supposed that the Romans would have a certain time for Ships and such like provision by sea that now believing nothing could be hard or invincible to men which came so minded to make war they humbly intreated for peace and yielded the Iland This Agricola at his first entrance into office which time others used to consume in vain ostentation and ambitious seeking of Ceremonies entring withall into labours and dangers became famous indeed and of great reputation Howbeit he abused not the prosperous proceedings of his Affairs to vanity or braving in speeches for he esteemed it an action not worthy the name of a Conquest to keep in order onely persons subdued by force neither decked he with laurel his Letters of Advertisement but stopping and suppressing the same of his doings he greatly augumented it when men began to discourse upon what great presumptions of future successe he should make so light an account of so great actions lately performed As touching the civil Government Agricola knowing how the Province stood affected and being taught of others that Armies avail little to settle a new conquered State if violence and wrongs be permitted determined at the first to cut off all causes of War and Rebellion and beginning at home he first of all reformed his own house a point of more hardnesse to some men then to govern a Province He committed no manner of publick Affairs to Bondmen or Libertines he received no Souldier near his person upon private affection of partial Suiters nor upon commendation or intreaty of Centurions but elected the best and most serviceable He would look narrowly into all things yet not exact all things to the very most light faults he would pardon and the great severely correct not alwayes punishing Offenders but ofttimes satisfied with repentance choosing rather not to prefer to office such as were likely to offend then after the offence to condemn them The augmentation of Tribute and Corn he tempered with equal dividing of burdens cutting away those petty extortions which grieved the Brittains more then the Tribute it self for the poor people in former times were constrained in a mockery to wait at the barn-doors which were locked againg them first to lay Corn and after to sell at a low price
a Parish Church bearing the name of Saint Dervian as a Church either by him Founded or to him Dedicated so likewise is there another in Glamorganshire called Saint Fagans where every year is a very great Fair continuing many dayes where also my honoured Patron the Right Noble William Lewes of the Van Esq Son to Sir Edward Lewes and the Right Honourable Lady Beauchamp Daughter of the Earl of Dorset hath a stately Habitation and if I mistake not is Lord of the Mannor Betwixt this Elutherius and King Lucius many Letters passed and the said Bishop granted many priviledges to Universities and places of learning in Brittain as to Cambridge Stanford Cricklade or Greeklade and in Glamorganshire I suppose this place was either Caerwent or Caerleon for all which is now called Monmouthshire was then called Glamorgan where they say learning flourished as well as at Cambridge before the coming of Julius Caesar Mr. Bro. f. 270. and the Schoole of Glamorgan being so near Caerleon upon Vsk in that Countrey where one of the three great Idolatrous Temples of Brittain and seat of the Archflamen of those Western provinces was and thereby a Nursery of Paganisme which those holy men laboured by all means to root out and for that cause where Archflamens were Archbishops were placed and where Flamens Bishops The Brittish Histories Ponticus Virunnius and others say of these Prelates that they delivered the Brittains from Idolatry and converted them to Christ Radulphus de Diceto in his manuscript History proveth as much that they converted all the Cities of Brittain as well as their Flamens and Archflamens by whom they were directed in their Idolatrous worship as others And the principal states and members of this Kingdome King Lucius his Nobles Universities Philosophers Flamens and chiefe Priests and Teachers of the Pagan Subjects and their chief places of commorancy and command being thus converted the conquest over the Vulgar sort was easie and soon effected The Author of the Brittish History testifyeth Mr. Br. f. 271. that so soon as the people of Brittain knew that their King was a Christian they gathered themselves together to be Catechised and received Baptisme and that those holy Legates did blot out Paganisme almost through all the Island and Ponticus Virunnius saith that they baptized all the people of Brittany all this may easily be confirmed by divers Authors but I will conclude with Harding Eluthery the first at supplication Of Lucius sent him two holy Men That called were Fagan and Dungen That Baptized him and all his Realm throughout With hearts glad and labour devout There were then twenty eight Flamens and three Arch-flamens to whose power other Judges were subject and these by the command of the Pope his Legates delivered from Idolatry and where there were Flamens they placed Bishops where Arch-flamens Arch-bishops The Seats of the Arch-flamens were in the three most noble Cities London York and the City of Legions which the old Walls and Buildings do witnesse to have been upon the River of Vsk in Glamorgan King Lucius sent to Elutherius not only for his assistance in spiritual matters but also in his temporal Mr. Br. f. 301. 6. Bridges defence l. 16. p. 1355. Galf. Mon. l. 2. c. 17. Bro. Virunnius Stow Hollinshed as the governing his people and making wholsome Lawes The Lawes which were established here were the old Brittains Lawes ascribed for their greatest part to Mulmutius Dunwallo corrected and made conformable to holy Christian Religion We have all kind of Antiquities Brittish Saxon French Italians Ancient and Modern for Witnesses These Lawes were translated out of Brittish into Latine long before this time by the ancient Gildas that lived about the time of the Birth of CHRIST as many both ancient and late Writers agree and continued here till late time and in divers respects at this present King Lucius being thus informed and secured in conscience by Saint Elutherius his Letters and by his Declaration that the whole Kingdome of Brittain with the Ilands belonged to his temporal charge and government and that so much as he could he was to win his Subjects to the Faith and Law of Christ and his holy Church and provide for the peace and quiet of the same and the Members thereof he did first in receiving and admitting these new corrected Lawes by the advice of the Clergy and Nobles of his Kingdome see them so qualified that they were for the defence and propagation of Christian Religion and further Founded many godly costly and memorable Monuments as Churches Universities or Schools Monasteries and other such comforts helps and furtherances of that holy end So that as he was the first King that publickly with his Kingdome professed Christ so he won the honour to be the first Nursing Father among Kings of his holy Church as the Prophet had foretold Kings shall be thy Nursing Fathers He was also first among Kings called properly the Vicegerent of God being the first King which so religiously performed his will And that Title which the Pope gave to King Henry the 8. when he was better then he proved after Defender of the Faith was among Kings the first due and right of King Lucius for his so heroical and Religious fortitude and magnanimity in defending the Faith and Church of Christ Being now come to celebrate the day of the death of our glorious King Lucius for the joy that he enjoyed thereby Mr. Br. f. 346. 1. and bewail it for the unspeakable losse this Nation received thereby we are to fall into some difficulties both of the time and place thereof William of Malmesbury in his Manuscript-History of Glasten and other old Antiquities do prove that St. Damianus and Faganus after they had converted this Kingdome continued nine years at Glastenbury at the least King Lucius still living and reigning here Polidor Lilly Hollinshed Stow and others cleave to this Opinion A great Controversie ariseth where this King died many Forreign Authors say That he forsook his Crown and Kingdome and became a Clergyman went into Germany to convert that Nation was Bishop of Curre and there was Martyred the day of his death is agreed upon by all to have been on the third day of December but if those Authors who transport this our blessed King into Germany look but upon what hath been said before they shall find that it was not Lucius who was actually King of Brittain and converted by the means of St. Elutherius but another Lucius who was indeed Son of a King of Brittain and might have been King himself had he not been banished for the reason before related and this was that St. Lucius who with his sister St. Emerita were both Crowned with the glorious Crown of Martyrdome in Germany That our first Christian K. Lucius could not be Bishop of Curre is evident for having been so long King here he was so disabled for Age that he was nor capable of such a journey Further they which
overthroweth the other that she was a stranger and basely born for excepting those that wander in that Tract all agree she was the sole daughter and heir of the Noble Brittish King Coel far from being either an Alien or of base parentage and descent and the more easily to overthrow them it first fighteth with and so overthroweth it self Some which encline to this errour say that she did secretly fly out of her Countrey and went to Rome and there was so familiar with Constantius the Emperour but it is evident by all Histories that Constantius at the first acquaintance with Helena was not Emperour nor long after neither was he at Rome but in Brittain in this time sent hither by Aurelianus the Emperour in the year of Christ 273 and as both Zosimus and Suidas say lived most here and being sent hither by Aurelianus the Emperour as so many agree to have long imployment and great cause to stay here he must needs come hither about that time Marti Polo Coxton fol. 38. Hollinshed Hist of Eng. l 4. Capg in St. Helen Nicep l. 7. c. 18. Andre Chesne l. 4. Hist Marie l. 2 aetat 6. in Const Flor. Wigorn. Chronico Regi in an 243. Mar. Polo In supputa an 307. Otto Frigen l. 3. c. 45. Bede l. Hist c. 8. Martin Polo sup an 309. col 66. Papinian l. prefect F. de ritu Nuptiarum Joan. Capg in Catal in praefat in vita S. Helenae M. Aurelius Cassidorus in Chron. Zosimus Comes in Constantine l. 2. Mari. an 292. c. 301. Maria. l. 2 aetat 6. an 305. col 303. Bede Hist l. c. 8. Floren. Wig. Chron. an 328. 306. Galli Orat. Panyg ad const apud Baron Tom. 2. an 306. Hen. Spond ibid Harris Hist eccl Tom. 4. Nichol. Vignier Billiosh Histor ad an 306. Pompo Laelus in camp Hist Rom. in Const Max. Eutropius l. 10. Hist Rom. Constan Manasses l. Annal Hanibald apud Frithem l. de orig Franc. Euseb Cron. an 294 Eutrop. l. 9. Hist Rom. Victor in Diocle Maximi for by all Antiquities Aurelianus died soon after and was Emperor but a short time so that neither Constantius nor Queen Helena could be either at Rome or in any place but in Brittain at this time Nicephorus and some later after him would have her to be born in Bithinia at Drepanum and the Daughter of an Inkeeper there with whom Constantius passing that way to the Persians fell in done but this is made unpossible by that is said before of the being of both Constantius and Helena in Brittain so remote from any part of Bithinia at that time and neither of them coming to or neer Drepanum or any part of Bithinia at or after this time but when she an holy Widdow many years after Constantius death passed by Greece in her pilgrimage to Hierusalem as is evident in all kind of Antiquaries and will most manifestly appear in its due place Others there be which do term this renowned Empress by the name of Concubina as Marianus and Florentius Wigorniensis as they have been lately published and Regino without speaking any thing of her parentage or country and Martinus Polonus who confesseth she was Daughter to the King of Brittain but it is evident that either Martinus or his publisher hath with gross Ignorarance abused the Readers for he saith that Constantine not Constantius begot Constantine the great in the year of Christ 307. when by common opinion Constantius was dead before And not content with this they bring in Constantine the great to be Emperor in the year 309. when by their account he could not be two years old The other three if their Publishers have not abused them speak in the phrase of the Pagan Romans who in those times called all the Wives of their Lieutenants taken for strangers though never so lawfully joyned in true marriage by the rude term of Concubine as their old Pagan Decree is still witness against them when I shall make it as clear as the Sun that St. Helen was from the beginning the only true lawfull wife to Constantius This I have written here to answer these frivolous Cavils against that blessed woman and with John Capgrave call their Allegations no better then dreams and to speak still in his words That opinion doth not only blemish the fame of so holy a Woman but maketh that most Noble Constantine to be a Bastard begot out of marriage and so disableth him to have been the Heir of Constantius either King or Emperor when all Men know he came to the imperial Dignity by right of Inheritance And thus he taxeth the Authors of Ignorance these things pleased them because they knew not the truth Ipsos forsan qui ista scripserunt talia placuerunt quia potiara veriora invenire minime potuerunt Divers forraign Historians as Baronius Spondanus and others write as plainly in this matter and may with great warrant for as Cassiodonus is an able witness it is but a Pagan report and raised first by Zosimus that most malicious Ethnick and Rayler against Constantine for professing and advancing of Christian Religion and renouncing Idolatry and this is evident by the best learned Authors themselves which in any sense called St. Helena by that name for they do plainly confess as namely Marianus that St. Helen was the true wife of Constantius and he forced by Maximian the Emperor to put her away and take Theodora his wifes Daughter And further saith Constantine was the true Son and heir of Constantius and by that title succeeded him in the Kingdom and Empire which could not be truly said if Helen had not been his lawfull wife neither could Constantius by this learned and holy Author be named a Religious Father if he had not begot his Son lawfully in true marriage And St. Bede confesseth from Eutropius that Constantine succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of Brittain and so by him also must needs be his lawfull son Florentius Wigorn writeth in the same manner and confesseth St. Helen to have been here in Brittain long after her son Constantine was Emperor yet these be the chiefest Authors that in any sense have termed St. Helen by that name It is evident by all histories not only of Christians that St. Helen was a most chast and holy Woman and that Constantius also lived in conjugal chastity marrying when he was but young but also even by the Pagan writers themselves as witnesseth Gallicanus the Orator that lived in this time in his publick oration to his son Constantine and others therefore St. Helen being the first woman that was thus wedded unto him in marriage she must needs be his true lawfull wife by their own testimonies And the same Author witnesseth before Constantine at the publick solemnity of his marriage with Fausta in most plain and express words that Constantine was born in Brittain so testifie divers Authors even of the Roman History among whom one plainly saith that Constantine was
words either of Marianus or any Learned Antiquaty such as he was confessing S. Helen to have been at this time in Brittain as he doth for neither at this time nor divers of hundreds of years after St. Helen her death there is mention in Histories of any Jewes at all to have been in this Kingdome then much more it must needs be Historically a thing impossible and altogether untrue that there should be one hundred forty and one of the most Learned of the Jewes here and St. Helen should bring them with her to Rome from hence as seemeth by some to be set down in the Relation of the Dispute between St. Sylvester and the Jewes before Constantine and St. Helen But quite otherwise it is proved that St. Helen was wholly Christian when she was in this Nation before her going to Rome and at the time of her writing to her Son Constantine there after his baptism when in the other sence that St. Helen wrote to her Son to Congratulate his Baptism encouraged him constantly and religiously to profess Christian Religion to be a Friend to the Servants and Friends of Christ and a Suppressor of Jewes and whosoever their Enemies we have her own Religious Education and all the Christian Clergy and Nobility of Btitrain a Christian Kingdom and her native Countrey so calling upon her and neither Jew nor Pagan of note learning or power for any thing we read continuing here either to hinder her in this or advise her to the contrary to the favour either of Jews or Gentiles in their proceedings The like I may answer to then which although they with the truth acknowledge S. Helen to have been the Daughter of King Coel of Brittain and born in this Nation yet they say she went hence with Constantine towards Rome at what time he went against Maxentius the Tyrant and with the Children of Constantine travelled to Byzantium and dwelling there was perverted by the Jewes and so leaving off the Baptism of Constantine in that City of Bithynia did write to him from thence commending him for renouncing Idolatry but reproving him for reproving the Jewish Religion and being a Christian but this is evidently confuted before when by so worthy Authorities and many Arguments it was proved that St. Helen was in Brittain Mr. Brought fol. 481. so far distant from Bizantium at this time Math. West an 321. Baro. Spon Annal. an 314 Severin Binnius Annot. in Conc. Arlesat Tom. 1. Com. Epist Const ad Chrest supr Conc. Roman Can. 1. Hist Tripart l. 3. c. 2. l. 2. c. 3. Mr. Br. f. 855. And what man of judgement can think this Empress having been so fully instructed in the Mysteries of Christian Faith to have fallen into Judaism nothing but envy it self could invent such a Fiction In the time of this our great Constantine was held the first great Councel of Arles in France consisting of as Nicephorus Ado and others say 600 Bishops as Baronius Spondanus and others from Antiquity do gather in the year of Christ 314 and the 9. of this Emperor Constantine in this Councel was present and subscribed Restitutus Arch-Bishop of London and in probable judgement divers others of this our Brittain and in this time of the meeting of the Bishops at the two Councels of Arles especial care being taken by our renowned Emperor that they should at his charge and cost be safely conveyed with their due attendance to that place where these Councels were to be assembled and there also to be provided for during the time of the Councels at his cost Nor did this Heroick Emperor confine his love and favours towards Christian Religion unto the Christians of his own the West Empire but unto all as God by an holy Angel before revealed both ancient and modern Authors so acknowledging the Christians in the whole world should be at peace and Idolatry was to be generally overthrown by this noble Emperor Bap. Mont. l 2. de vita S. Blasii Joan. Bel. l. 2. de actis Pont. Roman in Sylvest 1. Nunc bonus expulsis Romana in Regna Tyrannis Adveniet Princeps sub quo placabitur Orbis Et finem accipiet veterum cultura Deorum A Prince shall rule whose power shall quite expell Those Tyrants who against Rome did rebell The World by him shall quiet peace enjoy And he the Pagan gods shall all destroy As concerning Christian Churches they which were large enough and had been ruinated in the time of persecution were repaired others were builded higher and with honour made greater where there were none before new were erected even from the Foundation and the Emperor out of his Treasury afforded money thereto and wrote both to the Bishops and Presidents of every Province to the Bishops that whatsoever they would they should command and to the Presidents that they should diligently do what they commanded And so with the prosperous estate of his Empire Religion greatly encreased Out of the Lands of his own Tribute in every City he took a certain pension that was accustomed to be paid into the Treasurie and distributed it to the Churches and Clergy and by Law decreed that his Gift to be perpetual He caused the sign of the Cross to be made upon the Armour of his Soldiers to accustom them thereby to serve God He builded a Church in his Palace Mr. Br. f. 488 and used to have carried with him when he went to war a Pavilion after the manner of a Church that both he and his Army being in the field might have a Church wherein to pray unto God and receive the sacred mysteries Priests and Deacons which according to the Institution of the Church should execute those Duties continually followed that Tent. He took away by Law the old Punishment of the Crosse used by the Romans he caused that sign to be made on his own Image whether impressed on money or painted on a Table The Brittish History saith that Constantine residing at York Brittish Hist fol. 138. although he seemed at first unwilling to accept the Imperial Title and protested openly against it yet when the Senate had confirmed the Election he took upon him the Government of those Provinces which his Father had held in the West parts and with an Army of Brittains and other Nations he first setled France and Germany being then in Arms against him and afterwards subdued Maxentius Maximianus Son that usurped the Empire in Italy Then with like success he made war upon Licinius his Associate who persecuted the Professors of Christianity in the East parts of the World by which means Constantine alone enjoyed the Empire and for his many and glorious Conquests was worthily surnamed The Great In this time the form of the Government in Brittain both for Civil and Martial Causes was altered and new Lawes established The Civil Government of the Province he committed to Pacatianus who ordered the same as Deputy to the Praefectus Praetorio of Gallia
those Strangers into Wales who openly went with his power to them and did lead them to the Isle of Anglesey which thing when Gruffith and Cadogan perceived they sailed to Ireland mistrusting the Treason of their own people Then the Earls spoiled the land and slew all that they found in the Isle and at the very same time Magnus the son of Haroald came with a great Navy of Ships towards England minding to lay faster hold upon that Kingdome then his Father had done and being driven by chance to Anglesey would have landed there but the Earl impeached his landing there and there Magnus with an arrow stroke Hugh Earl of Salop in the face that he dyed thereof and suddenly either part forsook the Isle and the Englishmen returned home and left Owen ap Edwyn Prince thereof who had allured them thither year 1098 In the year 1098. returned Gruffith ap Conan and Cadogan ap Blethyn from Ireland and made peace with the Normans and gave them part of their Inheritance for Gruffith remained in Môn and Cadogan had Caerdigan and a parcel of Powis Land About this time the men of Brercnock slew Lhewelyn the son of Cadogan then Howel ap Ithel of Tegengel went to Ireland Also Rythmarck the Arch-Bishop of Saint Davids dyed the godliest wisest and greatest Clerk Sulien except that had been in VVales many years before About this time also dyed Crono ap Cadogan and Gwyn ap Gruffith year 1101 In the year 1101. Robert de Blesmo son to Roger de Montgomery Earl of Salop and Anulph his Brother Earl of Pembroke did rebel against the King which when the King heard he sent for them to come unto him but they made blinde excuses and gathered their strength and fortified their Castles and then gave great gifts and made large promises to the sons of Blethyn ap Cadogan and Jorwerth Cadogan and Meredyth and inticed them to joyn their powers with them Robert fortified four Castles Arundel Tekinhill Shrewsbury and Brugg which Castle was the cause of the War For Robert had erected it without the Kings leave and Arnulph fortified his Castle of Pembroke Then they entred the Kings Land and burned and spoiled it carrying away rich booties And Arnulph to have more strength sent Gerald his Steward to Murchard King of Ireland to desire his Daughter in marriage which he obtained with promises of great succours which did encourage him the more against the King but Henry the First gathered a great Army and first besieged the Castle of Arundel and took it as also he did Tekinhil and then led his power before Brugg which for the scituation and depth of the ditches being also well mann'd and victualed the King doubted the speedy winning thereof There he was counselled to send privately to Jorwerth ap Blethyn promising him great gifts if he would forsake the Earl and serve him recounting what wrongs the Earls Father Roger and his Brother Hugh had done to the VVelshmen Also the King to make him more willing to stick unto him gave him all such Lands as the Earl and his brother had in VVales without Tribute or Oath which was a Moity of Powis Caerdigan and Dynet and the other half had the son of Baldwyn with Stradtywy and Gwyr Jorwerth being glad of these offers received them willingly and then coming himself to the King he sent his powers to the Earls Land which doing their Masters command destroyed and spoiled all the Countrey for the Earl had caused his people to convey all their cattel and goods to VVales little remembring the mischiefs that the VVelshmen had received at his and his Brothers hands When these tydings came to the Earl to Cadogan and Meredyth Jorwerths Brethren they were all amazed and despaired to be able to withstand the King for Jorwerth was the greatest man of power in VVales And at this time Arnulph was gone to Ireland for his wife and succour also a little before Magnus again had landed in Anglesey and received of Gruffith ap Conan and hewed down as much Timber trees as was needfull for him and so returning to the Isle of Môn which he had won he builded three Castles there and sent to Ireland to have the Daughter of Murchard in marriage for his son which he obtained and made his son King of Môn The Earle Robert hearing this sent to him for aid but obtained none therefore seeing no remedy he sent to the King desiring him that he might forsake the realm which the King granted and he sailed to Normandy And likewise the King sent word to his brother Arnulph that either follow his brother and depart the land or yield himself to the Kings mercy and pleasure but he chose the former proposition he should and so went away Things thus transacted the King returned home and Jorwerth took his brother Meredyth and sent him to the Kings prison for his brother Cadogan agreed with him to whom Jorwerth gave Caerdhyth and a piece of Powis Then Jorwerth himself went to the Kings Court to put the King in remembrance of his promise but Henry when he saw all quiet forgot the service of Jorwerth and his own promise and contrary to the same took Dynet from Jorwerth and gave it to a Knight called Saer and Stradtiwy and Gwyr he gave to Howel ap Grono and Jorwerth was sent home empty At this time K. Henry gave divers Castles and Lordships in Wales to Normans and Englishmen of whom there is mention oftentimes in this history This year died Grono the son of Rees ap Theodore in prison And in the end of this year the King sent divers of his Councel to Shrewsbury and willed Jorwerth ap Blethin to come to meet them there to consult about the Kings business and affairs but when he came thither all the consultation was against him whom contrary to all right and equity they condemned of treason because the King feared his strength and that he would revenge the wrongs which he had received at the Kings hands and so he was committed to prison About this time as Bale noteth the Church of St. Davids began to be subject to the See of Canterbury being alwaies before the Metropolitan Church of Wales since the Pall was carried from Caerleon upon Vsk year 1103 In the Year 1103 Owen ap Edwyn died after great Misery and long sickness Then also Richard the son of Caldwin did fortifie the Castle of Ridcors and chased Howel ap Grono out of that Country to whom the King had given the custody of that Castle who nevertheless returned shortly after and burned all the country houses corn and hay and slew a great number of the Normans as they returned homeward and kept all the Country in his subjection except the Castles and Garrisons At this time the King took the rule of Dynet from Saer to whom he committed the same and gave it to Gerald who had been sometimes Steward there under Arnulph Then the Normans who were in the
Bishop of Hereford and moreover complained that they had usurped on the jurisdiction of these places Gwhyr Cedwely Cantref Bychan Ystrad Yw and Ergeng upon deposition of 6 witnesses that all these were of the Diocess of Landaff they were so adjudged by the Popes definitive sentence who also writ unto the King and Archbishop to restore that right unto the Bishop of Landaff and to the Inhabitants to yield obedience to him and his successors as their Diocesan Howbeit how it cometh to pass I know not those places are now and long have been esteemed part of the Diocess of St. Davids and part of Hereford and none of them of Landaff This Bishop died beyond Sea travelling betwixt this and Rome anno 1133. Vacat sedes annos 6. 31 Vchtred that succeeded had a daugter married before he had orders to Jorworth ap Owen ap Caradoc Lord of Caerlbeon upon Vsk a great and mighty man in those parts he died an 1141. 32 Geffry died 1153. 33 Nicolas ap Gurgant died 1183. 34 William de Salso Marisco 35 Henry Prior of Burgavenni was Founder of 12 Prebends in the Church of Landaff he died 1218. 36 William Prior of Goldeliff in Monmothshire died January 28 an 1229. 37 Elis de Radnor died May the 6 1240. 38 William de Burgo Chaplain to King Henry the 3d. was consecrated the year 1244. and died June 11 1253. having lived blind 7 years before his death 39 John de la Ware Abbot of Margan died about the end of June 1253. 40 William de Radnor died January the 9 1265. 41 William de Brews died in the end of March 1287. he lyeth buried under a Marble engraven in the East end of the Church of Landaff towards the North wall Vacat sedes annos 9. 42 John de Monmoth Doctor of Divinity was consecrated Feb. 10. 1296. at Canterbury and died April 8 1323. he lyeth in the midst of the East end of the Church Celceuliere commonly called our Ladies Chappel under a flat Marble having a French inscription now somewhat defaced 43 John de Egliscliff a Fryer Preacher was consecrated at Rome and came to his Diocess of Landaff upon the eve of Trinity sunday 1223. he died at Lankadwaladar Jan. 2. 1346. and was buried at Caediff 44 Iohn Paschall Doctor of Divinity a Carmelite of Ipswich was a Gentleman born in Suffolk of a Family yet remaining there and brought up in the University of Cambridge by William Bateman Bishop of Norwich was made a titulary Bishop and his Suffragan by the name of Episcopus Scutariensis from that Imaginary See he was translated by the Pope to Landaff an 1347. died 1361. and was buried at Landaff he was a man of great learning and left divers Monuments thereof in writing behind him 45 Roger Cradoc a Fryer Minor 46 Thomas Rushook a Fryer Preacher and Doctor of Divinity was translated to Chichester 47 William de Betlesham made Bishop of Bethelem by the Pope was translated first to Landaff and after to Rochester 48 Edmund de Bromfield was a Dr. of Divinity and Monk at Burie where being known for a a man of a very pragmatical and stirring humour that he might not trouble them at home the Covent thought good to maintain him at Rome for the dispatch of their ordinary business there taking first a corporal Oath of him never to seek any office or preferment of their house without their privity and direction This Oath notwithstanding when shortly after it fell out that the Abbot died he found means that the Pope should intitle him to the Abbotship whereunto the Covent with the Kings good liking had now already elected another man far more meet called Iohn Tymworth For this bad kind of dealing as also because as those provisory Bulls had been forbidden by Parliament he was committed to the Tower and there lay prisoner a long time but in the end the Bishop of Landaff ut ante being translated to Rochester he was preferred to that See 49 Tydemannus Abbot of Beaulieu succeeded Bromfield and if I mistake not was that Tydemannus de Winchcomb that anno 1395 became Bishop of Worcester 50 Andrew Barret Doctor of Law 51 Iohn Burghyll a Frier Preacher being Bishop of Landaff and Confessour unto the King was translated to Liechfield in Sept. 1398. 52 Thomas Peverel a Carmelite and Doctor of Divinity was first Bishop of Ossery in Ireland translated thence to Landaff 1399 and thence to Worcester 1407. 53 Iohn la Zouche a Fryer Minor and Doctor of Divinity It should seem that this man built either a great part or else happily all of the house at Mathern near Chepstow The Bishops house of Matherne built the only house that is now left the Bishop if there be any such to put his head in his armes fixed in divers places of the walls and windows to my judgement import so much viz. Gules ten besants 432. and 1 a Canton Ermine encircled with a girdle of St. Francis to show his Order 54 Iohn Wellys was likewise a Minorite and Doctor of Divinity 55 Nicholas Ashbie Prior of Westminster 56 Iohn Hunden a Minorite Doctor of Divinity and Prior of Kings Langley 57 John Marshall Doctor of Divinity sometime Fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxford was consecrated 1479 and was I take it translated to London the year 1489. 58 John Ingleby sometime Prior of Sheen a Carthusian 59 John Smith Doctor of Divinity died October 16 1511. and was buried at Christ-Church in London in the Chapel of All-Saints on the North side of the Altar 60 Miles Salley sometimes Almoner to the Abbey of Abington and afterwarde Abbot of Eynsham 61 George de Attigna a Spaniard a Fryer Preacher and Doctor of Divinity was consecrated March the 8 1516. 62 Robert Holgate Doctor of Divinity was consecrated March the 25 1537. and 1544 was translated to York 63 Anthony Kitchin alias Dunstan Doctor of Divinity and sometimes Abbot of Eynsham was consecrated May 3 1545. and enduring all the tempestuous changes that hapned in the mean time continued till the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth and then died and high time having first so impoverished the Bishoprick by unreasonable demises of whatsoever was demiseable that there was no great cause he should live any longer He is called Kitchin though he might have rather been called Schullian yet indeed he made his Church a Kitchin and like a Schullian swept all away leaving poor Daff without Lan or land Sedes vacabat annos 3. 64 Hugh Jones Batchelour of Law was made Bishop May the 5 1556. 65 William Blethyn Batchelour of Law was appointed Bishop April the 17 1575. I observe few Families sprung from Bishops to prosper or continue long yet such as do in my judgement should not be so averse as to eradicate all spiritual function 66 Gervage Babington Doctor of Divinity was placed in that See Aug. 29 1591. from thence translated to Exceter and after to Worcester 67 William Morgan Doctor in Divinity was appointed
said Justice had no jurisdiction in those patts and not being contented to get Timber there for building as well of Ruthlan as of other places but also destroyed the same Woods sold it and carried it into Ireland 4. Item Where the said David took certain Out-lawes and Rovers in the Woods and caused them to be hanged yet the said Justice accused David to the King for succouring and maintaining the Thieves aforesaid which was not like to be true seeing he caused them to be hanged 5. Item It is provided in the peace that all the Welshmen and their causes should be judged after the Lawes of Wales This was in no point observed with the said David and his people Of these aforesaid griefs the said David required often amends either according to the Laws and Customs of Wales or of special favour but he could never obtain any of them both at his hands Further the said David was warned in the Kings Court that as soon as Reginald Grey should come from the Court Good service ill requited the said David should be taken and spoiled of his Castle of Hope his Wood should be cut down and his Children taken for Pledges who seeing he had taken great pains and peril for the King in all his wars as well himself as his people both in England and Wales and had lost thereby the most part of the Nobility of his Countrey and yet nevertheless could obtain neither Justice Amends nor favour at his hands having such great wrongs offered unto him and fearing his own life and his Childrens or else perpetual prison being enforced as it were against his will began to defend himself and his people Griefs and Injuries offered by the King and his Officers to the men of Ros. 1. This is the Form of peace which the King of England did promise the men of Ros before they did him homage which he promised them to observe inviolably That is to say That the King should grant to every of them their Right and Jurisdiction as they had in time of King Henry according as the said men do report that they had in the time of King Henry 2. Item The Lord the King did promise the same men that they should have Justice in their Suites after granting of the which Articles the said men did homage unto the King And then the King promised them with his own mouth faithfully to observe the said Articles This notwithstanding a certain Nobleman passing by the Kings high way with his wife in the Kings peace met certain English Labourers and Masons going to Ruthlan where they did then work A notorious ouragious murther and iniustice committed against the Welsh who attempted by force to take away his wife from him and while he defended her as well as he could one of them killed his wife and he who killed her with his followers were taken and when the kindred of her who was slain required Law at the Justice of Chesters hands for their kinswoman they were put in prison and the murtherers delivered 3. Item A certain man killed a Gentleman who had killed the son of Grono ap Heilyn and was taken but when certain of the kindred required justice before the Justice of Chester certain of them were imprisoned and the Offender set at liberty and justice denied to the kindred A profitable Judge to himself but unjust to the oppressed 4. Item Certain Gentlemen claimed some lands and offered the King a great sum of money to have justice by the Verdict of good and lawful men of the Countrey then the lands being adjudged to the Claimers Reginald Grey took the same lands corn goods and all upon the ground so that they lost their lands money corn and cattel 5. Item It is our right That no stranger should cut our Woods without our leave yet this notwithstanding A hard case there was a Proclamation at Ruthlan That it should be lawful for all other men to cut down our Woods but to us it was forbidden 6. Item Where divers honest men had lands of the gift of the said David the Justice taketh the said mens lands away A slavery worse than Jewish 7. Item When any cometh to Ruthlan with Merchandize if he refuse whatsoever any Englishman offereth he is forthwith sent to the Castle to prison and the Buyer hath the things and the King hath the price then the Souldiers of the Castle first spoil and beat the party and then cause him to pay the Porter and let him go 8. Item If any Welshman buy any thing in Ruthland and any Englishman do meet him he will take it from him and give him less than he paid for it 9. Item The King contrary to his promise made to the men of Ros hath given the Territory of Maynan Penmayn and Lhysuayn 10. Item Certain Gentlemen of the Cantref of Ros bought certain Offices and paid their money for the same yet the Justice of Chester took the said Offices from them without cause 11. Item Grono ap Heilyn took to Farm of Godfrey Marliney the Territory of Maynan and Lhysuayn for the term of four years yet Robert de Cruquer with Horses and Armes and 24 Horsemen came to vex the said Grono so that he had no safe going neither to Ruthlan nor Chester without a great guard of his kindred and friends 12. Item Certain Gentlemen were arrested for trespasses done before the wars and imprisoned and could not be delivered until they had paid 16 Mark which was contrary to the peace concluded 13. Item Our causes ought to be decided after the custome of our Lawes but our men be compelled to swear against their Consciences else they be not suffered to swear Furthermore we spent 300 Marks in going to the King for justice in the aforesaid Articles Sr. Reginald Gâ—ey a cruel Tyrant over the Welsh And when we believed to recover full justice the King sent to our parties the Lord Reginald Grey to whom the King hath set all the land to farm to handle the men of the said Cantref as it pleaseth him who compelled us to * To swear by his hand whereas we should swear by the hand of the King swear in his name whereas we should swear in the Kings name and where the Kings Cross ought to be erected he caused his Cross to be erected in token that he is the very true Lord and the said Reginald at his first coming to those parts of Wales sold to certain servants of the King Offices for 60 Marks which the said servants bought before of the King for 24 Mark which Offices ought not to be sold at the choice of the Lord. 14. Item The King gave Meredyth ap Madoc a Captainship for his service Reginald Grey took it from him neither could he get any remedy at the Kings hand for the same 15. Item One of the Councel of the said Reginald Cynwric Vachan told us by mouth that as soon as the
great credit and favour between whom and the Lord Grey of Ruthin happen some discord about a piece of Commons lying between the Lordship of Ruthin and the Lordship of Glyndourdwy whereof Owen was owner and thereof took the sirname of Glindour during the reign of K. Richard Owen was too hard for the Lord Grey being then a servitour in court with K. Rich. with whom he was at the time of his taking in the castle of Flint by the Duke of Lancaster but after that K. Richard was put down the Lord Grey being now better friended then Owen entred upon the said Commons whereupon Owen having many friends and followers in his country as those that be great with princes commonly have put himself in armour against the Lord Grey whom he meeting in the field overcame and took prisoner The Welsh ever addicted to believe prophesies This was the very beginning and cause Owens rising and attempts upon the taking of the Lord Grey and spoyling of his Lordship of Ruthin many resorted to Owen from all parts of Wales some thinking that he was now as well in favour as in K. Richards time some other putting in his head that now the time was come wherein the Brittains through his means might recover again the honour and liberty of their ancestours A caveat for Mr. Pugh and such as are over credulous in prophesies These things being laid before Owen by such as were very cunning in Merlins prophesies and the interpretations of the same for there were in those dayes as I fear there be now some singular men which are deeply overseen in those mysteries and hope one day to mete velvet upon London bridge with their bowes brought him into such a fools paradice that he never considering what title he might pretend or what right he had proceeded and made war upon the Earle of March who was the the right Inheritor as well to the principality of Wales as appeareth formerly as to the Crown of England after the death of K. Rich. being descended from the elder brother next to Edw. Prince of Wales father of K. Rich. of which insurrection rebellion there ensued much mischief unto the Welshmen for the King conceiving great hatred against them shewed himself a manifest opressour of all that nation making rigorous lawes against them whereby he took in a manner all the liberties of subjects from them Cruel Lawes against the Welsh probibiting all Welshmen from purchasing lands or to be chosen or received Citizens or Burgesses in any City Burrough or market towns or to be receied or accepted to any office of Maior Bailiffe Chamberlain Constable or Keeper of the gates or of the goale or to be of the Councel of any City Burrough or Town or to bear any manner of armour within any City c. And if any suit happened between a Welshman an Englishman it was by law ordained that the Englishman should not be convict unlesse it were by the judgment of English Judges and by the verdict of the whole English Burgesses or by Inquests of English Burroughs and Towns of the signiories where the suit lay also that all Englishmen that married Welshwomen should be disfranchized of their liberty no congregation or meetings in councel was permitted to Welshmen but by licence of the chief Officers of the said signiory and in the presence of the same Officers That no victualls nor armour should be brought into Wales without the special licence of the King or his Councel That no Welshman should have any Castle Fortresse or house defensive of his own or of any other mans to keep no Welshman to be made Justice Chamberlain Chancellour Treasurer Sheriff Steward Constable of Castle Receiver Eschetor Coronor nor chief Forrester nor other Officer nor Keeper of Records nor Lieutenant in any of the said Offices in no part of Wales nor of the councel of any English Lord notwithstanding any patent or licence made to the contrary That no Englishman which in the time to come shall marry any Welshwoman be put in any Office in VVales or in the Marches of the same These with other lawes both unreasonable and unconcionable such as no prince among the Heathen ever offered to his subjects were ordained and severely executed against them Neither was it any reason that for the offence of one man his complices all the whole nation should be so persecuted whereby not only they that lived in that time but also their children and posterity should be brought to perpetual thraldom and misery A law more cruel then that Julian the Apostate for these lawes were not ordained for their Reformation but of meer purpose to work their utter ruine and destruction which doth evidently appear in that they were forbidden to keep their children at learning or to put them to be apprentises to any occupation in any Town or Burrough in this realme Let any indifferent man therefore judge and consider whether this extremity of law where Justice it self is meer injury and cruelty be not a cause and matter sufficient to withdraw any people from civility to barbarisme 〈…〉 This Hen. dyed in the 10th year of his reign leaving a son behind him being an infant of ten moneths who by reason of his tender age was not as by any word extent can be proved ever created prince but was proclaimed King immediately after the death of his father by the name of Henry the Sixt. Edward of Westminster Henry the sixt by the advice of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal given to him in his Parliament holden in the 31 year of his reign did afterwards by his charter bearing date 15 day of March 32. Regni created Edward his son born at Westminster by one and the self same patent to be both prince of Wales and Earle of Chester and invested him therein His Creation with the usual Ensignes of that dignity as had been in former time accustomed TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said dignities to him and his heirs Kings of England Sr. J. Dodridge which Charter is recited in the Act of Parliament holden at Westminster 9. Julii anno 33. regni In the which Act of Parliament is also recited another Charter likewise confirmed by the said Parliament whereby the said King did give unto the said Prince the said principality of Wales together with all the Lordships and lands Castles and Tenements by speciall names above mentioned and all in the former Charters granted and conveied to the former Princes and the said Fee Farms and Rents of 113 l. 13 s. ob out of the Lordship and Town of Buelht and the said 56l 13s 4d out of the Lordship Castle and Town of Montgomery likewise mentioned in the Charters of the former Prince To have and to hold to him and his heirs Kings of England By the same Act of Parliament also it was enacted because the said prince was then of tender years and there was assigned unto him a certain
them were created Princes of Wales or whereby any of the Revenues of the said principality were given or conferred unto any of them so that it seemeth they were princes generally by their birth and not princes of Wales by any creation or investure for in a record of an account of the Duke of Cornwal in the time of the said Edward he is called by the name of prince of England and not by the name of prince of Wales And thus much touching the succession or ranks of the princes of Wales which I have drawn in an Historical though in a plain and homely manner thereby the better to take the harshnesse of the particularities of records intermingled therewith which of themselves although they offer profitable knowledg yet they do carry with them small delight but also for that the variety of things in those succeeding ages in the sundry occurrences and accidents thereof do yield good matter of observance and worthy memory representing as it were the English state for the time of more then 200 years Now therefore do rest nevertheless three things concerning the said principality to be further considered of First in what manner and order the said principality and Marches of Wales were governed and directed under the said prince Secondly what Officers as well Domestical as others the said princes had about them and their Fees as far forth as I could come to any certain knowledge thereof And thirdly an abstract of the Revenues of the said principality as they lately stood Whereby it may be perceived what in time past the said Revenues have been The manner of Government of the Principality of Wales The said principality being under the government of the princes of the Welsh blood whose ancient patrimony yet remained untill the conquest thereof by K. Ed. I. as hath allready been shewed was guided governed and directed by their own municipal lawes and the customs of the country most of which had their commencement from the constitutions of one of their ancient Princes called Howel Dha as their Historians report but being reduced under the yoak of the said King Edward he divided certain parts of that Territory into Shires he caused the Welsh Lawes to be perused some whereof he did allow and approve some others he did abbrogate and disanul and in their place appointed new altogether according to the English manner of executing Justice He caused to be devised certain briefs writs or formula juris and he instituted their manner of processe pleadings and course of their judicial proceedings All which things do manifestly appear by the Act of Parliament made at Ruthlan in Wales called therefore Statutum Walliae and when they want a writ of form to serve the present case then use they the writ of Quod ei deforciat which supplieth that defect and although the Principality of Wales as hath appeared by some of the Records were devided into 3 Provinces Northwales Southwales and VVestwales for so in some of the former patents they are mentioned yet for the Jurisdiction thereof it was divided into two parts Northwales and Southwales for a great part of VVestwales was comprehended within the Shire of Pembrock which is a very ancient Shire of Wales and the territory thereof conquered by the English in the time of William Rufus long time before the general conquest of Wales by Richard Strongbow being English and the Earle thereof and called also by some Earle of Strigulia or Chepstow or rather Strigul Castle was the first that attempted the conquest of Ireland in the dayes of Hen. II. The Province of Northwales and Southwales were governed by law in this manner The Prince had and used to hold a Chancery and a Court of Exchequer in the Castle of Gaernarvon for Northwales and had a Judge or Justice which ministred Justice there to all the inhabitants of Northwales and therefore was called the Justice of Northwales The like Courts of Chancery and Exchequer he held in the Castle of Caermardhyn for Southwales where he had a Justice likewise called the Justice of Southwales 3. Ed. 3. â—9 in le novel prin 63. a 7. Hen. 35 6. and the Courts of the Justices or Judges so held within the several Provinces were called the great Sessions of those Provinces and sometimes those Justices were Itenerant and sat in every of the several Counties of his province In those great Sessions the causes of greatest moment real personal and mixt and pleas of the Crown concerning life and members were heard and determined Ministers accompts 18. H 7. In these great Courts also upon creation of every new Prince there were granted by the people of that Province unto the Prince nomine recognitionis ad primum adventum principis certain summes of money as it were in acknowledgement or relief of the new Prince which summes of money are called by them Mises these mises or summes of money were granted by the people unto the prince for his allowance of their lawes and antient customes and a general pardon of their offences sinable or punishable by the prince and that summe of those mises for the Shire of Caermardhyn only amounted unto 800. marks and for the Shire of Cardigan the total summe of the mises amounted unto 600 marks as by sundry Records doth appear these summes of money were paid at certain dayes by several portions such as were appointed and in the said Sessions agreed upon Also in every Shire of every the said provinces there were holden certain Inferiour Courts called therefore County Courts and Shire Courts and Tourns after the manner of England and which by some were also called the petty Sessions and there were also Courts inferiour in sundry Counties for ending of causes of lesse moment and importance and if any wrong Judgment were given in any of those leferiour Courts 19. H 6. 12. b. 21. H. 7. 33. a. the same was redressed by a writ of false Judgement in the Court Superiour And if any erroneous judgment were given in the great Sessions which was the supreme Court of Justice that error was either redressed by the judgment of penal Justices Itenerant or else in Parliament and not otherwise in any the Courts of Justice now at Westminster A noble policy of William Conq. good for himself but destructive to the Welsh As touching the government of the Marches of Wales it appeareth by divers ancient monuments that the Counquerour after he had conquered the English placed divers of his Norman Nobility upon the Confines and Borders towards Wales and erected the Earldom of Chester being upon the borders of Northwales to a Palatinate and gave power unto the the said persons thus placed upon those borders to make such conquest upon the Welsh as they by their strengh could accomplish holding it a very good policy thereby not only to encourage them to be more willing to serve him but also to provide for them at other mens costs And hereupon further
aliquo metu adducti Deos placandos esse arbitrâ—â—tur humanis hostiis eorum aras ac Templa funestant ut ne Religionem quidem colere possint nisi eam ipsam scelere violarint Quis enim ignorat eos usq ad hunc diem retinere illam immanem barbaram consuetudinem hominum immolandorum Quamobrem quali fide Cicero in Orai pro Marc. Fonteio quali pietate existimatis eos esse qui etiam Deos immortales arbitrentur hominum scelere sanguine facilè posse placari Can any thing be accounted holy and religious with those men who when they are afraid of any thing and would have their Gods pacified do prophane their Altars and Temples with sacrificed men so that they cannot exercise their Religion except they first violate it with wickednesse For who is ignorant that even to this day they retain that savage and barbarous custome of sacrificing Men Therefore can you think those men to have any Religion or Piety who think the immortal Gods may be easily appeased with the wickedness and blood of Men The like hath Dio Cassius Amianus Marcellinus and others among the Gentils all crying out against those most barbarous proceedings and yet termed with them Religion and to fill up the measure of this their most inhumane irreligion as Julius Caesar with others testifieth These men had Idols of huge greatnesse whose members being made of wands they filled full of men alive and so setting them on fire burned them Immani magnitudine simulachra habent quorum contexta viminibus membra vivis hominibus complent quibus succensis circumventi flamma exanimantur homines And Pliny with others is witnesse that they were so far from doing any homage or duty unto God that they bestowed all such upon the Divels his enemies and were so far and so long time in his dayes practised in Magick and Invocation and worshipping Divels that he supposeth the Persians so far distant and given over then to that most horrible dishonouring of God had learned it and received it from hence where the chief Masters and Practisers thereof remained These Druids permitted many wives to one man for Caesar saith Caesar bell Gall. li. 6. Vxores habent deni duodeni inter se communes maxime fratres cum fratribus parentes cum liberis the like hath Zonoras and in this Country the people went naked nudi degunt mulieribus promiscuè utuntur and this was accounted a vertue and an honour amongst them as Queen Bunduice did publickty professe in her prayer to her Goddesse Audraste or Audaste qui cum caeter ae omnia tum liberes uxores communes inter se putant they think wives and children and all things Common Thus much of the Druids their Antiquity and Institution with their abominable sacrifices and superstitions of whom as occasion shall serve we shall speak more hereafter Grantham built by Gorbomannus Gorbomanuus is reported to have Founded Grantham in Lincolnshire of which place Mr. Cambden maketh onely this mention post Paunton visitur Grantham oppidum non infrequens Schola à Richardo Foxo Wintoniensi Episcopo Templo specioso exornatum cujus sacrae Pyramis admirandam in altitudinem surgit fabulis est famigerata Grantham a Town well peopled and adorned with a free School built by Bishop Fox and a very fair Church whose Broach or Steeple is of such height that it is spoken of far and near The same Gorbomannus builded as the English Chronicle seems to affirm Cambridge anciently called Granta Cambridge supposed by some to have been built by Gorbomannus Caer Grant and Grantchester yet Mr. Broughton out of other Authors saith that Cambridge was Founded by Cantaber a Spaniard many hundred years before Christ and walled about by Grantinus Sintque Doctores Scholares illius celeberrimae matris Philosophiae civitatis Cantabrigiae â Cantabro aedificatae nec non à Grantino Comite honorabiliter muratae ab omni calumnia inquietatione scandalo liberi Let the Masters and Scholars of that famous Mother of Philosophy the City of Cambridge built by Cantaber and walled about by Count Grantinus be free from all Calumny molestation and disturbance whatsoever which divers Oxford Men and Antiquaries though no Friends to the glory of Cambridge yield unto But of this place more hereafter in the Lives of Lucius Morpen-dragon Arthur and Cadwalader ARCHIGALLO ARCHIGALLO the Son of Morindus after his Brother had Reigned by consent of most Writers the space of eleven years ascended the Throne of Brittain in the year of the worlds Creation four thousand nine hundred and ten This Prince in the English Chronicle is called Artogail who utterly forsaking the model of exact Government which his Brother had left behind him for him to follow he lent too facile an ear to flatterers and sycophants and where no just cause could be found faults were contrived and invented whereby to entrap the Nobles and new Plots discovered which never were thought upon but by the Contrivers whose Machiavillian brains hatch'd them for the destruction of the valiant and wealthy were they never so innocent a point of policy so palpably manifest in these latter dayes that the weakest judgement may see it but the greatest dare not gain-say it These state tricks pleased Archigallo the ancient Nobility are thrust out of all command and power in the Commonwealth Delinquency laid to their charge or at least a disaffection to the present Government and upon these pretences many are secured and more utterly ruined either being put to such an intolerable Composition for their Estates that they never after recâ—er the losse or else are utterly thrust out of them and new Upstarts put in whose Predecessor never knew how to write himself Gentleman nor ever bore Coat unlesse a thred-bare one in which peradventure he held an other mans Plough or used some poor and sordid mechanick Trade but by these sinister means Archigallo cram'd his Coffers and raised to dignities such as best suted with his disposition so that Beggars ride on horse back and Nobles go on foot And set a Beggar on horse-back and ride to the divel but too much of one thing is good for nothing and the poorest Worm trod upon will turn again The Nobles and Commons begin to grow sensible of their just sad Condition and heavy Taxes and Impositions after which followeth a general grudging and murmuring when presently dispair sends fury amongst them and furor arma ministrat the intolerable yoak will be no longer endured all joyn in an association to take revenge upon the common Enemy Archigallo whom they suddenly set upon and before he could provide means to defend himself he is unking'd and quite difrobed of all princely Command after he had worn the purple by consent of most Writers five years It concerns Princes and great Commanders to make choice of Counsellors who not only have the reputation of vertue and Religion but also that
be indeed truly vertuous religious For two Causes The first thereby to obtain the assistance of God's grace which how necessary it is for the illumination of mans understanding in all matters of Counsel is most evident to all good Men. The second Cause why it behoveth a Counsellor to be truly religious and vertuous is for that such is the force of vertue that it giveth credit to the Possessors thereof and maketh them the more easily believed and their Counsel better accepted And therefore we see that all men of discretion and judgement do demand Counsel rather of those who are reputed wise and vertuous then of wicked men who have onely the reputation of wisdom For as St. Ambrose saith Amb. li. de offi 2. c. 10. Where wisdom and vertue are conjoyned Magna erit Consiliorum salubritas there is all good and wholsome counsel to be had and all men are willing to hear the wise and vertuous man as well for the admiration of his wisdome as for the love of his vertue In which respect he also saith that men addresse themselves commonly for Counsel to those who are more vertuous then themselves for no man hath reason to think him who is inferior to himself in manners to be his superior in Wisdom and Counsel Furthermore such is the dignity and authority of vertue that evil men bear a reverend respect thereto and stand as it were in awe of good men whereof we have an Example in Herod who although he held St. John Baptist in prison and would not follow his counsel in the matter of his divorce yet for the reverence he bore to his vertue he consulted many other things with him and followed his advice therein and as the Scripture also saith metuebat eum be feared him and no doubt but wise and vertuous Princes much more esteem and respect the Counsel of wise men that are vertuous then of others of equal wit and judgement that are vicious and wicked knowing that as Solomon saith Consilia impiorum fraudulenta the counsels of wicked men are fraudulent Pro. c. 12. and that he who hath no care of his Conscience will have no care of his Duty towards Men. Basilius the Emperor advised his Son to choose those for his Counsellors who had given Proof and Experience of their Wisdome in the good Conduct and Direction of their own private Affairs and it is very necessary that Counsellors in Conference with their Prince use all sincerity truth and plainnesse without flattery for although the common Proverb say Obsequium amicos Veritas odium parit Flattery gaineth Friends and Truth hatred Yet as there is nothing more pernicious to Princes then flattery so by consequence there is nothing more unfit to be used of Counsellors whose Office is and special care should be to undeceive their Prince in all things wherein they are any way deceived and to labour therein so much the more by how much less other men do it seeing one of the greatest infelicities of Princes is that all or most men flatter and sooth them in all things in which respect Seneca saith Quid omnia possidentibus deest ille qui verum dicat What wants he who hath all marry one to tell the truth And Quintus Curtius saith Regum opes The States of Princes are oftener overthrown by Flattery then by Force But this must be done with great moderation and discretion for commonly those do offend in this kind I mean of being forward and rigorous in admonishing who presume over much either of their own wits and power or of their Princes weaknesse or of his over great favour and familiarity or of the need he hath of them or else perhaps are of nature severe insolent or passionate for such sometimes do forget themselves yea and take a pride in contradicting or admonishing their Princes with less duty respect then were convenient and such an one was Callisthenes of whom Arrianus writeth that he made himself odious to Alexander the Great Tum ob intempestivam libertatem tum ob superbam stultitiam both for his unseasonable liberty of speech and also for his proud folly But Haephestion Counsellor to the same Alexander avoided that error for he alwayes admonished him discreetly and freely as occasion served yet he ever did it in such sort that it seemed rather to be Alexander's Will and Pleasure that he should so doe then that he challenged any right to himself yea a Councellor though he should fear to incur displeasure for his plainness Plutarch in Themist yet he ought to discharge his Conscience and to say as Themistocles said to Euribiades who took up a staffe to strike him for his free speech strike me so you hear me after Seneca most excellently saith Sunt duo contraria Consilio festinatio ira Two things are contrary to Counsell haste and anger And again saith he Deliberandum est diu quod statuendum est femel The thing that is once to be determined is to be deliberated by leisure And Aristotle tells us That a wise Man ought to counsel slowily and execute speedily Had Archigallo followed with his Councellors these Rules and Principles he had not been thrust out of his Throne ELIDVRVS ELIDVRVS third Son to Morindus and Brother to Archigallo was by common consent and applause of all the States of the Brittains chosen and crowned King in the year of the World four thousand nine hundred and fifteen This Prince in the English Chronicle is called Hesider or Esodir he was of such a temperate and mild disposition that his Subjects called him Elidure the Meek but I suppose this Appellation of Meek in Latine Pius came upon another occasion for the Count Palatine thus delivers unto us the Kings life Elidurum tertio natum Morindi statuunt Regem qui totidem annos Rempublicam sed diversa ratione humanitatis benevolentiae fratri sc per omnia dissimilem tenebat Archigallo jam privatus imperio à provincialibus Regnis ad quae proficiscitur auxiliares copias petit Nusquam auditus pro animi disiderio redit donium militibusque decem tantum modo comitatus visit eos quos nuper habebat amicos transit nemus Calaterium in quo Rex venebatur qui forte temerè casit Fratrem non speratum intuens pietate motus amplectitur eum secum ad Arcluidam perducit Ibi concilium cum proceribus capit de fratre restituendo in Regnum quam ejus cogitationem graviter iniquo animo omnes tulerunt quod nihil pro sano ab Archigallione sperarent usus igitur arte quad am fingendi morbum vocat ad se singulos secreto ingredientibus persuadet ac minatur etiam nisi Archigallioni ut tanquam Regi suo fidem spondeant deinde per alia Cubicula educi singillatim custodiri quibus ita concitatis fratri per terrorem suaque oratione confirmatis de morum ejus commutatione ducit Elidrus
an Officer entituled by him with a limitation of place and restriction of that power which the ancient Praefectus Praetorio had under the first Emperors Then Constantine intending to make war in Persia either to defend or enlarge the limits of the East Empire removed the Emperial Seat from Rome to the City of Bizantium which he re-edified and caused the same to be called of his own Name Constantinople drawing thither the Legions in Germany that guarded the Fronteers of the Western Empire which was thereby laid open to the Incursions of those barbarous People that afterwards assayed it and in the end possessed the greatest part thereof The borders also of the Province in Brittain were weakened by removing the Garrisons there into other Cities and Towns which being pestered with Soldiers for the most part unruly Guests were abandoned by the ancient Inhabitants There be Authors that write Hollin Hist of Engl. f. 92. that Constantine conveyed over Sea with him a great Army of Brittains by whose Industry obtaining Victory as he wished he placed a great number of such as were discharged out of pay and licensed to give over the War in a part of Gallia toward the West Sea coast where their posterity remain unto this day and marvellously encreased afterwards somewhat now differing from our Brittains the Welshmen in manners and language Among those Noblemen which he took with him when he departed out of this Land as our Writers do testifie were the three Uncles of his Mother Helen Hoelus Trabernus and Marius whom he made Senators in Rome After the wars betwixt Constantine and the Persians Mr. Br. fol. 532. the King of Persia sent Embassadors unto Constantine to procure peace and he writ back unto King Sapores that the Christians in his Dominions which were there in great numbers might live at liberty and freedom for their Religion And if we may believe Eusebius then living Euseb lib. 4. Sozom. lib. 2. Hist cap. 14. and best knowing the affairs and proceedings of this most noble Emperor after all these things were compassed and brought to an end he began that glorious and renowned work and Foundation of the most sumptuous Church of the twelve Apostles in Constantinople where it is evident by this then living Author and witness that he did not begin to build this Church till long after his triennial Feast And yet the glory and stateliness of that work as it is described by the same Writer was such that it could not be effected and finished under many years and yet that it was finished before his death it is certain for he there erected a Tomb for his own body to be buried in and there was interred There he erected saith Eusebius twelve Monuments to the honour and memory of the twelve Apostles and in the midst between them he placed his own Tomb with six Apostles encompassed on either side surely as I have said before considering with discreet Councel Euseb ut sup that the Tabernacle of his dead body should worthily and decently rest there when he had considered these things long time before he dedicated the Church to the Apostles thinking that their memory would bring much profit to his soul And both Baronius and Spondanus confess that Constantine did not begin this great and wonderfull work until the 336. Baronius Spond Annal. in ann 336. year of Christ and after his concluding peace with the Persians had not before so much as resolved it Therefore this Church being so costly and magnificent as these men confess and Eusebius at large proveth and yet Constantius lived to see it roofed and quite finished he must needs live a longer time than until the next year the 337. of Christ which they limit unto him to live and much more longer than Socrates their Author continueth his life for by his reckoning setting down his death the same year wherein the Persian Embassadors came to him for peace we must be forced to say this admirable Church was quite finished in the space of seven weeks or if we should adventure as Baronius doth to make Socrates our Author and yet add unto his account a whole year as he doth it must needs be yielded unto by such calculation that it was not begun or any materials prepared for it and yet quite finished within the space of one year and seven weeks for as before it was not begun at the Feast of Easter and yet ended the same year by Socrates before the Feast of Pentecost when by Eusebius Constantine died and by Socrates about the eleventh of the Calends of June the 22. day of May and by Baronius before the Feast of Pentecost and the 22. day of May the year following which is morally impossibly to be true for besides the amplitude thereof and Ornaments therein Euseb lib. 4. de Vit. Const c. 64. Socr. l. 1. c. ult Eusebius who had seen it and knew the building of it saith that Constantine erected it to an infinite altitude and made it from the ground with all variety of Stones even to the top the Roof was curiously wrought and within covered with Gold throughout and covered above with Brasse and much Gold And therefore Nicephorus also a Greek Author who had diligently examined Socrates and citeth his very words of this matter before related affirmeth plainly and constantly notwithstanding that opinion that Constantine did not die until the 342. year of Christ in the Feast of Pentecost Euseb lib. 4. de vit Const c. 64. Cap. 66. sup towards the end of it about noon time of the day to speak in Eusebius his words this Emperor was received to his God leaving his mortal part like to other mortal men to the earth but joyning his Intelligence and Divine part of his Soul unto God He dying in Bethinia his Soldiers enclosing his Body in a Golden Coffin covered it all over with Purple and conveyed it to Constantinople and placed it in the Emperial Palace adorned with Emperial Robes Purple and a Diadem Lights set upon Golden Candlesticks round about it which gave such an admirable shew unto the Beholders as was never seen All the Nobles of his Army which worshipped him whilst he lived kept their old manner and custom at certain times entring in and prostrating themselves on the ground saluted the Emperor after his death lying in his Coffin as if he had been still living The Senate and all other Magistrates worshipped his Body with like reverence All sorts of people even Women and Children in infinite number came to see the solemnity and these things were performed many daies This blessed Emperor was he alone which reigned when he was dead Euseb Ca. 66. and to him alone God himself being Author thereof all honors which were wont to be given when he lived were given after his death For he being the only Emperor which in all the actions of his life piously and religiously worshiped God the King of