preceptes Godly examples and sincere educacion as he shall proue a Kyng equal with those whom old histories do moste commend Wherein your graces laude cannot wante beyng so worthie a gouernor of so noble a kyng and muche more if by your pollicie diligēce and circumspeccion he shal at his perfect yeres bee restaured to the whole isle of Britayn wherunto as he is iustely entitled So God the protector of al iust causes shal bryng your attēptes therin to good successe For the furtheraunce whereof I haue declared myne opinion in writyng whiche with humble harte I offre and dedicate vnto your good grace not as a gyfte worthie so greate an estate but yet not vnmete for my purpose ne for the tyme occasion present wherin though I neither perswade my cause so pithihely ne open it so liuely as to so weightie a matter is requisite Yet it maie serue either for a testimonye of myne honest meanyng or minister occasion to better learned men to dilate this argument more largely whereby all warre and hostilitie maie cease and peace and concord take place GOD the verie aucthor of peace euer preserue your grace to the increase of the same and furtheran̄ce of all Godlinesse and graunte to the Kynges Maiestie of England his righteous possession of the whole monarchie of Britayn to thaduauncemēt of Gods glory cōfort to his lieges and confusion of his enemies DIEV ET MON DROVT AN EXHORTACION The cause wher of I treate beeyng so weightie the discourse so large my witte and cunnyng so small to set it furthe I might well be discoraged to entre so greate a ground but that loue to my countrey on the one side and desire of concorde and quietnes on the other side moue me to speake hopyng that the honesty of the matter shall supplie the rude handelyng and the plain veritie to stand in stede of eloquēce and cunnyng For like as in an euill cause muche arte and conueyaunce must be vsed afore it can appere good euen so in a cause true honest and righteous there needeth no subtile perswasions or finesse of woordes but how muche the plainer so muche the better and how muche the more eloquent somuch the more suspicious For truthe is sufficient of her selfe and needeth no colours no more then natural beawty nedeth of paintyng Taking this for my foundacion I maie the more boldely procede without feare of offence seeyng my cause is suche as all good men will further all wise men fauor and all Godly men defende as that whiche beeyng enbraced shall doo good to many and hurt to none and beyng neglected shall hurte a multitude and auayle no man tendyng no lesse to the commoditie of the aduersaries then of the fauorers Thus the ground beyng so true the occasion so honest and the querell so righteous there wanteth nothyng but one that could set the same furth accordyngly And seeyng suche as canne best liste not and that ought moste will not and that wold faynest dare not take this vniuersall cause in hande I beyng simple vnlearned and most barayn of all orators arte and perswasiō yet armed with truth moued with honestie and prouoked by loue towardes God and my countrey as Dauid against Golias entre the felde against the mightie Giauntes enemies of concorde and vnitie desiryng all my countreymen of Scottande whose cause I now specially entreat to geue me pacient hearyng whilest I suade theim to that whiche shal be acceptable to God commendable to the world ioyfull to their frēdes hatefull to their enemies profitable to all parties and to none so muche as to themselfes TO groūd my cause vpō truth as I promised I will sette my foundacion vpon the infallible truthe of Gods woorde takyng this texte for my purpose Omne regnū in se diuisum desolabitur that is to saie euery kyngdō diuided in it self shal be brought to desolacion If this sentence bee well marked and the persone of the speaker considered I shall not nede to bee long in perswadyng you to beleue it The wordes be true for he that spake them cannot lye whiche is Christ himself the aucthor of al truth and veritie But though Christ had not spokē them let vs se whether comon reason dooth not affirme theim and the experience of all realmes and countreis in al tymes and ages hath not approued theim And to fet our examples not out of straunge countreys loke well vpon the Chronicles of this island of Britain and consider the estate thereof from the beginnyng and compare theim with the histories of other nacions and you shal not lightly heare or read of any one countrey sithe the worldes creacion more inuaded wasted and destroyed then this I stande ne of people more often ne more curelly spoyled exiled or afflicted then the inhabiters thereof and all by diuision and discord the sedes wherof beyng laied in by the deuil as pouder vnder a walle after it once toke fire did so terribly shake the foūdaciōs of their common weale that it riued a sunder their Kyngdome and monarchie and diuidyng it into partes broughte the whole at last to ruyne and desolacion which hath not been fully recouered to this daie nor in my iud gement like to be so long as the islande is diuided into two partes and knowen by two names that is to saie England Scotlande and vnder twoo seuerall gouernours The cause whereof though it maie chiefly bee ascribed to the iuste vengeaunce of God prouoked with the synnes of the people as Gildas witnesseth yet is it clere that the onely meane thereof was discord and diuision emong the Insulanes wherby it came to passe whylest euery one striued all were ouer comen and made an easy prey to straūge nacions For althoughe outward enemies vpon tiranny and conquest as the Romayns or els expulsed from their countreys and driuen to seke newe dwellynges as the Pictes or allured with the fertilitie of the soyle as the Scottes inhabityng the north partes of Irelande inuaded this islande Yet could those people neuer haue kepte quiete possession ne reigne so long as thei did but through diuision and discord emong the Britaynes whiche beeyng stiffe necked against God and ingrate eche to other as the said aucthor writeth by their demerites wer not onely ouercome with outwarde inuasions but finally lost their name and Empire whereby the inhabitauntes beyng mixt with straungers haue euer sithe been vexed with intestine warres and ciuill discorde to the irremediable ruine and desolacion therof vntil it shal please Gods goodnesse to haue mercie on the people and to reduce the islande to the firste estate to one Monarchy vnder one kyng and gouernor as it was in the Britons tyme. But if God of his goodnesse without our desertes hath in these latter daies prouided that blessed meane and remedy for the glorie of his name and for our wealth and commoditie and wee for our parte either of stubburnesse will not or of wilfulnesse liste not thankefully to receiue
neither came in by conquest ne reigned ouer any people but occupied a wast part of the land not beynge inhabited as in the thirde Chapiter of his Chronicle appereth But how standeth that with reason that Britayne beyng inhabited by the space of vi C. yeres afore their comyng suche a countrey shoulde lie desert and especially vpon the sea costes Whiche liyng open to other landes and sonest sene by theim that saile muste of likelyhode haue inhabiters before the inner parte of the countrey I saie no more but Mendacem oportet esse memorem He that should tell a lye had nede to haue good memory least his matter appere like a Meremaide beginnyng with a woman and ending with a Fishe as when the ende of the tale is repugnauÌ„t to the beginnyng and the middes agreable to neither of bothe And doubteles it is no smal masterie to hide a lie for apparrell hym neuer so faire his ragges will appeare packe him neuer so close the buÌ„dell will breake write hym or speake hym and his aucthor is bewraied as a Ratte is by squekyng And though he bee allowed for a ceason yet at the ende tyme will trie hym whereof ensueth greate preiudice to the author For though he saâ—e afterwardes true none will beleue hym IF I shoulde here entre into declaracion of the righte title wherby the kynges of England claime to be superior lordes of Scotland I should of some be noted rather a confouÌ„der of our liberties and fredomes then a conseruator which name I had late But for somuche as the same is so exactelie set furthe in an Englishe boke put in Printe in the yere of oure Lorde .1542 at the beginninge of these warres called A DECLARATION conteynyng the iust causes and consideracions of this presente warre with the Scottes wherin alsoo appereth the true and right title that the kynges most royall maiestie hath to the souerayntie of Scotlande as nothynge can be sayde more in so fewe woordes I will referre all indifferent readers to the same booke thinkinge it nedelesse to speÌ„de any more time in a matter so well proued Neuerthelesse I will somewhat touche a point or two to geue occasion to all suche my contreymeÌ„ as minde the honor and quiet of Scotlande to conferre my saiynges with our histories and to iudge the matter without affeccion Whereof settinge a parte the order deuised by Brutus at the first concerning the diuision of Brytayne betwene his sonnes with the Superioritie supposed in the eldest and subiectioÌ„ of the other two pretermitting also the conquest of the whoole Islande by Romaines and the title deriued frome the greate Constantine letting passe also the sundry homages and recognicions of subieccion made to Arthur and other kynges of the Britaynes and after him to Osbright and the Saxon Kynges successiuely whiche be at large expressed in the Englishe and Briton histories and affirmed also by Marianus our countryman whose aurthoritie is not light if all these were of no credite as they must nedes be of great howe soeuer we esteme them yet in my iudgemeÌ„t our awn writers wherin they labor most to impugne the cause of England do moste aduaunce it and therfore in thys parte I will grounde me vpon them They agre al vpon .xviii. homages knowledges of subieccion and allegiauÌ„ce made by the kynges of Scotland successiuely vnto the kinges of Englande and many of them within late memorie Which homages though some of them either folowing their phantaseis or fearing to offende our kynges alledge to haue been done somewhiles for Cumberland somewhiles for the Erledome of HuÌ„tingdon Yet the time coÌ„sidered they declare that such actes were doone by oure kynges afore any of the sayde Erledomes were in their possessioÌ„ wherby they must be vnderstande absolutely done for the realme of Scotlande and in that pointe I referre you vnto the readinge of Marianus And of latter dayes synce that those Erledomes were taken from vs by EnglishmeÌ„ emong other kynge Iames the first did homage to kyng HeÌ„ry the fourthe of Englande The woordes and fourme of whose homage who so liste to peruse shall well perceiue the same to haue been made neither for any of those Erledomes neither yet for any other holde but merely for the crowne of Scotlande whiche aswel he as other knowledged to hold of the king of Englande as superior lorde The recordes remaine the seales subscriptions be so many so auncient and so faire as cannot lightelie be counterfaicte But some peradueÌ„ture will say that many of those homages were done by force and compulsion I aunswere thoughe it might be that some of theim were soo done yet all could not be For our Cronicles specifie that those .xviii. kiÌ„ges were in Englande which no maÌ„ can iudge to haue come all thither by force and all those dyd homage there and those homages well nere all appere to haue been made for the croune of Scotlande if we beleue the recordes of Englande And if any saye that they be counterfeited I thinke it soner said then proued And touching the compulsion and force I saye thoughe some of our kynges might be coÌ„ pelled by feare yet howe coulde all be or coulde an whole Parliament be compelled Is it not manifest that when question arose vpon the title of the croune of Scotlande betwene Balliol Brus and Hastynges was it not decided by Edward the fyrst king of Englande as competent iudge in that case But here it is sayde agayn that he was iudge in that case not of righte but by consente of the parties Then loke well to the woordes of the compromisse which nameth him superior lord of Scotland And this was done in Parliamente by consente of the thre estates which of likelyhoode could not be all compelled In which cause I am partely ashamed of the impudeÌ„t vanitie of our writers whiche raile without reason agaynst the iudgemeÌ„t of Edward in that plea as corrupte false This I saie that if the Iudgement were to be geuen agayne neither Mynos Lycurgus nor Salo mon whose iudgementes in histories be so celebrate dyd euer geue a more true a more perfect or a more rightfull sentence either by the ciuile lawes or by the practise and custome of Scotlande or any other reasonable lawe and take the case euen as they propone it But then we haue an other euasion which is to alledge prescripcion because those homages haue not been done within memorie To that I aunswere that thoughe prescripcion serued in that case as it doth not yet the warres made from tyme to tyme counteruaile a possession thereof In whiche pointe lette vs be well aduised what we saye leaste by fleynge the smoke we fall into the fyre For once admittinge hym superiour kynge no prescripcion wil serue agaynst hym The texte is common and no more common then allowed almoste in all lawes Nullum tempus occurrit Regi Time cannot preiudice a Kyng MOREOVER I note this that the Kynges of Englande would neuer make
his synguler grace and benefite so freely offered what then maie bee thoughte in vs Ought not then all good men thynke as thei dooe in deede that all the mischiefe effusion of bloud hūger and other miseries ensuyng of warre fall vpon vs morthely and by deserte Yes verely And surely in this parte I must desire you my countreymen bothe of pardon and pactence when I shall disclose the cause of this mischief and the long continuaunce thereof to come rather of vs thē of the cōtrary parte whiche iudgemente God is my witnesse procedeth neither of adulacion to English men nor of malice to any estate but as my conscience moueth me and as the truthe to al wisemen maie appere BVT afore I will stirre that vnsauery sinke of tresō and trecherie as one that intendeth to make a greate lepe I muste bee forced to ronne backe to fetche my course wherefore omittyng the mattiers of the tyme presēt I muste repete the estate of this island from the beginnyng and what were the causes of this diuision at the firste and by what waies it hathe continued from tyme to tyme and how it is yet norished to the ende that vpon the causes opened and the persones detected that bee workers therof the remedies maie be the soner founde and simple people beware of those that with fayned fables and lies haue ledde them long blindfold so would kepe them to the perdicion both of their soules and bodies and then shal we se whether this saiyng of Christ afore recited maie not be wel verefied in vs of Britayne In the discourse whereof because the right title whereby the kynges of Englande claime to be superior Lordes of Scotland is incidētly touched I wil vse for the more parte the testimonies either of Scottish chronicles or forein writers and litle of the Englishe onlesse where bothe Scottishe and Englishe do agre or where by apparaunt reason the truthe standeth more on th one side then on the other and all to aduoyde the common cauillacion of suche as say how the Kynges of Englande proue their title to Scotlāde onely by Englishe aucthors THE opinion of moste writers and specially of Latins at whom aswell for auncientie as indifferēcie I take my ground is that this islande of Britayn whiche cōteineth bothe realmes of Englande and Scotland as I saied afore was at the firste called Albion that is to saie the white lande hauyng that name Ab albis rupibus that is to saie of the White Rockes and Cleues whiche appere vpon the sea costes of thesaied islande euen as we at this daie call the countrey from whence the Brasill wood cōmeth Brasilia whiche opinion is more probable then the deuise of a late Welshe Poete ymaginyng how it was called Albion of one Albina eldest of the fiftie daughters of one Dioclesian kyng of Syria whiche hauyng killed fiftie kynges beyng their husbandes wer for the same exiled And after long wanderyng in the seas arriued at laste in this Islande where thei ingendered with spirites brought furth .l. Giaūtes whiche wer Gog Magog and his felowes with suche poeticall fables not onely without good foundacion but also mere cōtrary to all auncient stories and welnere against al possibilitie of nature But as the be ginnyng of all nacions for the more part be fabulous and vncertain some fetchyng their pedegre frō the Goddes and some from the deuils as the Grekes from Iupiter the olde Gaules from Pluto God of helle so the better opinion aswel of the latre writers as also of Gildas a Britayn is that this island was inhabited from the beginnyng by those that were borne in thesame afterward as the world multiplied grewe vnto a greate people and from a people vnto a Kyngdome and gouerned by Kynges as by stories is to bee seen of whom the firste that wee finde was one Brutus whiche whether he came out of Italy or not is not muche materiall but certain it is that suche a one reigned and was firste Kyng of the whole islande whiche beginnyng of the people dooth make muche more with the honor and glory of this islande then to beduce a pedegree either from an outlaw of Italy or a tirauntes sister out of Egipt as Welshe Scottishe Poetes haue phantastically fayned For if wee accompt nobilitie by auncientie of yeres length of tyme as some vse nowe a daies what can bee more auncient more noble more high or honorable then to haue a beginnyng beyond all memory and in processe of yeres from small families to growe into a greate Monarchie kyngdom In whiche poynt the old latins of whom the Romaynes discended sette a greate parte of their glory callyng themselfes Aborigines that is to saie a people from the beginnyng BRVTVS the first Kyng of this whole Islande by whom it was called Britayne the people thereof Britaynes reigned the yere after the creacion of the worlde foure thousande C C. and xlii and as writers affirme had three sonnes Locrinus Albanactus and Camber emong whō he diuided the whole island assignyng the supreme empire with the greatest and moste fruitful part toward the Southe vnto Locrinus his eldest sonne of whom it was called Logres and now England To the second sonne named Albanactus he assigned another part towardes the Northe whiche at this day the Scottes possesse by which Albanactus the coūtrey was called Albania and the people Albanactes as shal be shewed hereafter The .iii. part liyng West towardes the seas of Gaule whiche nowe is called wales he gaue to Cāber his yōgest sonne by whō it was called Cambria the people Cambrians as thei cal thēselfes to this day AND though the island was thus parted betwene the three brethren yet the supreme power and kyngdome remained alwayes in the eldest to whom the other twoo were obedient as to a superior kyng The prose wherof if any bee so curious to require I aunswere that the same histories whiche speake of this particion declare in likewise of the subieccion So that admittyng them in the one thei muste likewise bee admitted in the other For the more corroboraciō wherof the histories bothe of Britōs and Romaines agre that the Islande was vnder kynges at the beginnyng whiche as thei were called Kynges of Britayne so was the general name of the people Brytons neither was there any other state or Kyngdome in the Islande at those daies but onely of Britons In so muche that the Romaines beyng most diligent reporters of the names of Princes by thē subdued and countreys conquered whereas thei make particular menciō of diuerse kynges of the Britaines and of sūdery cities in Britain yet do thei neuer name any people called Scottes ne make mēcion of any suche Princes as is pretended to haue ruled ouer thē whiche if thei had been so glorious bothe in warre and peace as thei be set furthe how should their actes haue been hidden to the Romaines which contended with all men for glory for thirst whereof thei
men were so diuided in thēselfs that to resist an vniuersal peril scarsely twoo or three countreys at the most would agre together so fighting in partes at last the whole was ouercome And by this meane was Britayne fyrste subdued made tributarie to the Romayns vnder whome it cōtinued in fourme of a prouīce vntill the tyme of great Constantine the Emperour by whome it was restored to libertie yet was it not so broughte in subieccion al this tyme but that there were for the most part kinges in Britayne as our stories testifie and likewise the Romayne wherein we reade of Aruiragus whome Iu uenal writing to Nero signifieth to be a Kyng by these woordes Detaemone Britāno excidet Aruiragus that is to saye Aruiragus shall fall frome the stem of Britayne And after hym of Lucius the first christē King whō Elu therius bishop of Rome in one of his epistles calleth kyng of Britaynes and so of Coelus with diuers other Wherefore admitting the state of Britayn to haue been suche at the beginning as the English story affirmeth which we must admitt because the contrarye appeareth not though there happened som interrupciō of the Monarchie by the Romayns or otherwyse yet when the people atteyned their libertie and were gouerned by Kynges of their awne we muste presume that thei obeied them their lawes the people to hold their landes in like course as was ordeyned at the first wherof it muste folowe that if Scottes were in Britayn at those daies they knowledged the kynges of Britayn for their superiors according to the stories In which point I will not muche stycke consideringe the name of Scottes was not then knowen as I said afore And though our writers dreame diuerse thynges to the contrary we cannot admitte their bare allegaciōs in disprofe of so many stories of so graue writers in whō as there is lesse suspicion of parcialitie so was there more certaintie of knoweledge then in the other whiche were vnborne after theim by a great numbre of yeres But admit no suche ordre to haue been prescribed in gouernemēt of the kyngdome as the Englishe storie alledgeth and though there had been yet the interrupcion to be sufficient cause to breake the same and admit the Scottes to haue been then in Britayne as thei were not Let vs se whether we cannot vnite these people by another waie It is certain that after the Romayns had reduced the South and West partes of Britayn into a prouince as mē desirous to enlarge their empire neuer content with part till thei had the whole thei inuaded the Northe partes of Britayne and ceased not till thei came to the Orcades and so in fine brought the whole islande in subieccion their stories herein bee playne AND no lesse plain is it that Constancius thēperor who died at Yorke maried Helene called saincte Helene doughter heire to Coyll kyng of the Britayns of whom he begatte the greate Constantyne afterwardes Emperor not onely of Britayn but also of the whole worlde in whose persone bothe titles aswel that whiche the Romaynes had by conquest as also that which his mother Helene had as heire of Britayn wer vnited knit together and he without al doubt or controuersy was very Emperor of al Britayn wherby the island after long seruitude was at last as it wer by Gods prouidence restored to his former libertie honor themperor beyng begotten in Britayn sōne of her that was heire of Britayne borne in Britayne and create Emperor in Britayne Now if Scottes wer then in Britayn as our writers alledge then wer thei subiectes to Constantine because the stories be euident that he had al Britayn in possession wherunto whether he came by Helene his mother or by Cōstācius his father forceth not much for it suffiseth for our purpose to proue that al Britayn was vnder one Emperor and beeyng vnder one Emperor then was Scotlande and Englande but one Empire In contirmaciō wherof besides the testimony of old histories there be two notable thynges yet obserued in Englande by all the kynges successiuely euen sithe the saied Constantine The one is that thei weare a close crowne Emperiall in token that the lande is an empire free in it self subiett to no superior but GOD. The other is that in al their warres thei beare a banner with a red Crosse for their ensigne in memory of that Crosse whiche appered to themperor Constantine gooyng to battaill when this voyce was heard Constantine in hoc signo vinces that is to saie with this ensigne thou shalt preuaile These twoo monumentes of honor religion in Britayn wer receiued frō that noble emperor EVTROPIVS witnesseth that Britayne rested in libertie duryng the life of Constantyne who left behind hym .iii. sonnes successors of his Empire Constancius Constans and Constātyne to whom beeyng youngest there fell for his porciō Britain Spayne Fraunce and the Orcades This Constantyne was after slayne in Italye by whose beathe the Empire of Britayne came to his brother Constācius whiche reigned twenty yeres in whose bloud it remained .xxiiij. yeres after that is to saie vntil the v. yere of the ii brethren Gracian and Valentinian Emperors what tyme by fauor of the people Maximus was creat emperor in Britain This Maximus as Hector Boctius alledgeth in the .vij. boke of his historie discēded of the bloud of greate Constantine reigned ouer the whole islāde of Britain and the Orcades seuētene yeres without interrupciō And being desirous of more empire with a greate numbre of Britaines entered into Fraunce stewe Gracian the Emperor at Lions and forced Valentinian the other brother to flee to Constantinople for ayde of the Emperoure ther. Neuertheles as al worldly thynges be mutable hys fortune was to be slayne in Italy leuynge behynd hym a sonne named Victor who was slayne in Fraunce whereby the state of Britayne drew euery daye into worse It were longe to reherse the mutacions of thinges happening in Britayn frō the tyme of great Constantine vnto Valentinian the Emperoure in whose dayes the Empire of Roome was inuaded with great multitudes of Barbarous nations And in his tyme did the Scottes beinge a nacyon come oute of Irelāde as Gildas writeth passe ouer into Britayne and finding the lāde destitute of men of warre whiche either were all slayne by tyrauntes or waisted by lōg warres in other countreys entred the Islond makinge league with the Pictes preuayled so at length that they obteyned all the North parte of Britayn in possession callyng the coūtrey Scotlande and themselfes Scottes And this was the thrid nacion that Inuaded this Island First cominge out of Scithia into Irelande and frome Irelande into the North partes of Britayne The Capitayn and leder of this people as Beede witnesseth was one Rewda albeit the late Scottishe Cronicles fet a muche further beginnyng whiche I wyll touch in his place But if we beleue Beede a man for hys liuing and learning reconed in the nūbre of sainctes and