S. Iohn Champneys Iohn Baker Esquier Reignold Scot. Iohn Guldeford Thomas Kempe Edward Thwaites William Roper Anthonie Sandes Edwarde Isaac Perciuall Harte Edward Monyns William Whetnall Iohn Fogg Edmund Fetiplace Thomas Hardres William Waller Thomas Wilforde Thomas Moyle Thomas Harlakenden Geffrey Lee. Iames Hales Henrie Hussey Thomas Roydon ¶ The names of suche as be likewise prouided for E. 6. Ca. Syr Robert Southwell S. Iames Hales S. Walter Hendley S. George Harper S. Henrie Isley S. George Blage. Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebirie Iohn Colepeper of Ailesforde William Twisden Tho. Darrell of Scotney Robert Rudston Thomas Roberts Stephan Darrell Richard Couarte Christopher Blower Thomas Hendley Thomas Harman Thomas Louelace Thomas Colepeper The names of suche as be specified in the acte made for the like cause 5. Elizabeth Cap. Thomas Browne of Westbecheworthe in Surrey George Browne It were right woorthie the labour to learne the particulars and certeintie if it may be of all suche possessions as these men had at the times of these seuerall Statutes for that also wil be seruiceable in time to come Alexander Neuil Norwicus Sir Thomas Moore Knight in the hystorie of King Richard the thirde Mathewe Parker Archebishop of Canterbury in his Preface to the Booke de rebus gestis Aelfredi Regis The Brytaines The Scots pictes The SaxoÌ„s Iutes and Angles The Normans The seuen kingdomes Three sorts of Lawes in olde time The Lawes of our time These thinges be all handeled in the induction to the Topographical Dictionarie The author determined to haue written this treatise in latine Scituation of Kent Kent why so named The Aire The Soyle The Corne The Poulse The Pasture The woods fruits The Cattel Deere and Conyes No mynes The fishe The people Socage and Knightes seruice The Gentlemen The yeomeÌ„ The Artificers The first in habitation of England The errour of those whiche say that the Brytons weare Indigenae That is to say Ryders and to Ride An. mundi 2219. An. ante Christum 1142. Kent the first inhabited part of England Foure Kings in Kent But one King in Kent The first wasseling cuppe The issue of an vngodly mariage The Kings of Kent Ethelbert the King of Kent Eadric the King of Kent First name of Englishmen Beginning of Shires Lathes Hundreds Tythings Bosholder Tithingman Kent keepeth her olde customes Gauelkyn Meeting 〈◊〉 Swanescombe The Lathe of S. Augustines The Lathe of Scray or Sherwinhope The Late of Aylesford The Lathe of Sutton at Hone. Geffray of Monmouth Polydore The order of this description Flamines turned into Bishops LondoÌ„ spoiled of the Archebishopricke The increase of the Archebishopricke ConttentioÌ„ for the Primacie The Archebishoppes place in the generall counsell Wrastling for the primacie The end of the strife for the supremacie The ordre of this description of Kent No snakes in Tanet For Seax in their language signifieth a sword or axe or hatchet The occasion of the building of Minster Abbay For it was called Roma of Ruma a pappe or dugge S. Mildredâ— miracles Ippedsflete Stonor Earle Godwine and his sonnes The cause of Goodwyn Sandes The death of Earle Godwyne 1. Cursed bread The visions of Edward the confessour Epimenides did slepe 75 yeares 1. Loue Ly. or game for the whetstone Richeborow was sometime a Citie Sandwiche is not Rutupi The antiquitie of the Portes Whiche be the Fiue Portes â—â—iâ—â— wâ—re â—â—led 〈◊〉 â—lde 〈◊〉 ContentioÌ„ betweene Yarmouth and the fiue Portes Winchelsey first builded The good seruice of the .5 ports Muris ligneis querendam salutem The priuiledges of the 5. Ports The names of the Wardeins of the Fiue Portes Reliques of great price The auncient estate of Sandwiche Sandwiche spoyled brent The schole at Sandwiche The whole hystorie of the Danishe doings in England The continuance of the Danes in England The Danes all slaine in one night Saint Martins drunkeÌ„ feast Sweyn the Dane Hoctuesday Prouision of armour A Courtlie Sycophant A right popishe miracle King Henrie the 8. fortifieth his Realme Sandowne walmere The towne of Douer Godwine resisteth the King. Douer Castell Iuuenal in the ende of his 4. Satyre Odo the Earle of Kent Fynes the first Constable of Douer Castell and the beginning of Castlegard Estimatioâ— of Douer Castell Hubert of Brough a noble captaine Reparation of Douer Castell S. Martines in Douer ContentioÌ„ betweene the Râ—ligious persons for trifles Longchamp the lustie bishop of Ely. Religious houses in Douer The order of the Templers when it began The Pope and king Iohn fall our for Stephan Langton The Golden Bull. S. Eanswide and her miracles A popishe policie Folkestone spoiled The Hundred The Manor The Pontifical iusice of William Courtney the Archbishop Ostenhangar The Cause of the decay of Hauens in Kent Hyde miserably scourged The shortest passage betweene England Fraunce Thomas Becket grauÌ„teth a petition after his death Lord Wardein of the Portes Shipwey sometime a Hauâ—n towne The HaueÌ„ Limene the Towne Lymne The Riuer Limen now Rother Apledore The holy Maide of Kent Chap. 12. Butler the CoronatioÌ„ Pryorie at Bylsington Thomas Becket The Popes authoritie was abolished in England in the time of King Henrie the second Rumney Marâ—he The three steppes of Kent The order of this description The Danes doe spoile Fraunce England at one time The course of the Ryuer Lymen nowe Rother The first Carmelites in England Kent why so called The Weald was sometime a wildernesse This Benerth is the seruice which the tenaÌ„t doth with his Carte Ploughe The boundes of the Weald Fermes why so termed Townes named of the Riuers The College The Palaicâ— The Schole The Riuer of Medway and wherof it tooke the name The Riuer Aile or Eile The name of Harlot whereof it beganne Odo the Earle of Kent The auncient manner of the triall of right The Cleargie haue in croched vpon the Prince in the punishment of adulterie Abbaies do beget one another The vngrations Rood of Grace S. RuÌ„wald and his miracles For none might enter into the Temple of Ceres in Eleusis but such as were innocent The Natiuitie of S. Rumwald Kemsley Downe The Popish manner of preaching Popish purgatorie is deriued out of Poetrie Doncaster in the North CouÌ„trie The English shepe and wooll King Henry the eight fortfieth his Realme Monkes do contend with the King forceably The names of Townes framed out of the mouthes of Riuers The corruption of our English speach The Riuer called WaÌ„tsume The order of this description The decay of the olde Englishe tongue The Archebishops were well housed Prouision of armourâ— The names of Lathes and of Wapentakes The Priuileges of high waies The order of this description S. Gregories in Canterburi first builded Reliques King Iohn yealdeth to the Pope The Barons warre The Popes reuenue in England A ParleameÌ„t without the Cleargie The traiterous behauiour of Robert of Winchelsey the Archebishop Polidore was the Popes creature King Edward the first claymeth supremacie ouer the Clergie The olde and newe manner of wrecke
the Kings fauour their owne power pollicie and possession contemned all other and forgate them selues abusing the simplicitie of the King by euill counsel treading vnder foote the nobilitie by great disdaine and oppressing the common people by insatiable rauine extortion and tirannie So that immediatly and at once they pulled vpon their heades the heauie displeasure of the Prince the immortall hatred of the noble men and the bitter execration and curse of the common sort Whereupon the king for a season banished them the nobles neuer after liked them and the poore people not onely railed vpon them while they liued but also by deuised tales as the manner is laboured to make them hatefull to all posteritie after their death And amongst other things touching Godwyne him selfe they feygned that he was choked at Winchester or Windsore as others say for liers can not lightly agrée with a morsel of bread and that this his land in Kent sonke sodainly into the Sea. Neyther were these things continued in memory by the mouths of the vnlearned people only but committed to writing also by the hands and pens of Monkes Frears and others of the learned sort So that in course of time the matter was past all peraduenture and the things belieued for vndoubted veritie But whatsoeuer hath bene heretofore thought of these matters hauing now iust occasion offered mee to treate of the thing I wil not spare to speake that which I haue red in some credible writers and whiche I doe thinke méete to be beléeued of all indifferent readers Siluester Giraldus in his Itinerarie of Wales and many others doe write that about the end of the reigne of King William Rufus or the beginning of Henrie the first there was a sodaine and mightie inundation of the Sea by the which a great part of Flaunders and of the lowe countries thereabout was drenched and lost so that many of the inhabitants being thereby expulsed from their seates came ouer into England and made suite to the same King Henrie for some place of dwelling within his dominion The King pitying their calamitie and séeing that they might bee profitable to his Realme by instructing his people in the art of clothing wherein at that time they chiefly excelled first placed them about Carlile in the North countrie and afterwarde vpon cause remoued them to Rosse and Hauerford in Wales Now at the same tyme that this happened in Flaunders the like harme was done in sundry places bothe of England and Scotland also as Hector Boethius the Scottishe hystoriographer moste plainly writeth affirming that amongst other this place being sometyme of the possession of the Earle Godwine was then first violently ouerwhelmed with a light sande wherewith it not onely remayneth couered euer since but is become withall Nauium gurges vorago a most dreadfull gulfe and shippe swalower This thing as I cannot but marueil how it hath escaped the penns of our own countrie writers the rather for that some of them liuing about that time haue mention of that harme in the lowe countrie so I sticke not to accept it for assured trueth considering either the auctority of the writer him selfe being a diligent and learned man or the circumstances of the thing that he hathe left written beeing in it selfe both reasonable likely And thus I might wel make an end but because I haue alredy takē occasiō to accuse thē of forgerie which affirme Godwine to haue bene choked at the bourde I trust it shal be no great offence though beside purpose yet for declaration of the trueth to rehearse shortly what some credible storiers haue reported of that matter also And to the end that the trueth may appeare by collation of the diuers reportes I will first shewe what the common opinion and tale of his death is and then afterward what these other men write concerning the same Ealred the Abbat of Ryuauxe who tooke paynes to pen the hystorie of the same King Edwardes whole life and of whom all others as I thinke learned this tale saith that while the King and Godwyne sate at the table accompanied with others of the Nobilitie it chaunced the Cupbearer as he brought wyne to the bourd to slip with the one foote and yet by good strength of his other legge to recouer him self without falling whiche thing the Earle earnestly marking sayde pleasantly that There one brother had wel helped another mary quoth the King so might me mine ne haddest thou bene Earle Godwine casting in his dishe the murder of his brother Alfred which was done to death at Elie by the counsell of Godwine as hereafter in fitte place for it shall appeare Hereat the Earle was sore moued and thinking it more then time to make his purgation tooke a morsell of bread into his hand and praying with great and vehement obtestation that it might choke him if he by any meanes caused the slaughter or consēted thereto he put the bread into his mouth and was immediatly strangled therewithall Some write that this bread was before accursed by Wulstane the holy Bishop of Worcester after a certain manner then vsed called Corsned as in the table to the Saxons lawes is to be séene But this Ealred affirmeth that after the woords spoken by the Earle the King him selfe blessed the bread with the signe of the crosse And therfore these men agrée aswel together as blessing and cursing be one like to another But letting that and them passe heare I beséech you what Alfred of Beuerley a learned man that liued in the time of King Henry the first somewhat before this Abbat Ealred saith touching this matter Godwinus graui morbo ex improuiso percussus ac Regi ad mensam Wyntoniae assidens mutus in ipsa sede declinauit ac postea in camerā Regis a filijs deportatus moritur Quidam autem dicunt c. Godwine being sodainly strickē with a grieuous disease as he sate at the table with the King at Winchester fel down from his stoole and was carried by his sonnes into the Kings chamber where he dyed but some say that he was choked c. And to the same effect writeth Marianus the Scot. Simeon also the Chaunter of Durham whiche liued about the time of this Alfred or rather before him treating of this matter hath these wordes Godwinus graui morbo percussus in ipsa sede declinauit post horas quinque moritur Godwyne being taken with a grieuous disease dropped down from the place where he sate and dyed within fiue houres after Thus these men reporte another manner of his death the one vsing no mention at all of any accursed breade and the other reciting it but as a tale And for the more plaine detection of the deceipt of this Abbat he that wil read the second booke of William Malmes De Regibus shall finde that the occasion and introduction of this matter I meane the slipping of the Kings Cupbearer and the speache that procéeded
therof namely that One brother had wel helped another is woorde for woord stollen from thence for William whiche liued before Ealred reporteth that king Ethelstane by persuasion of one that was his cupbearer had banished Eadwine his owne brother for suspicion of treason and had committed him to the Seas and windes in an olde shaken and fraile vessel without saile oare or companion saue one Esquier only in whiche exile he perished and that afterward the King vnderstanding his brothers innocencie and sorowing his owne rashnesse tooke occasion by sight of his cupbearers foote slipping to be auenged of the false accusation euen as it is here tolde of King Edward But Ealred forsoothe was so fully disposed to magnifie King Edward bycause he so muche magnified the Monkishe and single life that he sticked not at greater matters then this affirming boldely that the same King while he hearde Masse at Westminster sawe betwéene the Priestes handes Christe blessing him with his fingers That at another Masse he sawe the seuen sleapers at Ephesus turne them selues on the one side after they had sleapt seuentie yeares together on the other which séeing it was within fiue yeares of so many as Epimenides sleapt Ealred in my phansie is worthy to haue the seconde game at the whetstone Furthermore that S. Iohn Baptist sent to King Edward a King of Golde from Ierusalem whiche he him selfe had sometime before giuen to a poore man that asked almes of him in the name of S. Iohn And suche other matters of like credite whiche bothe for the vanitie of the things them selues being méete to haue place in Philopseudes of Lucian and for the desire that I haue to kéepe order I will pretermit and returne to my purpose Richeborowe in Latine Vrbs Rutupina in Saxon ReptacHester the name being forged as I coniecture either of the Bryttishe woord Rwyd whiche signifieth a net in token that it stoode by fishing or of Rwydd whiche signifieth speede bycause from thence as some thinke is the moste shorte and speedy cutte ouer the Seas MAthew the Monke of Westminster Authour of the woorke called Flores Hystoriarum taketh the place whiche Beda Ptolome and others call Rutupi to be Sandwiche and therefore he applieth to the one whatsoeuer he findeth of the other but bicause Iohn Leland a man generally acquainted with the antiquities of the Realme affirmeth in his worke whiche hee intituled Syllabus in Genethliacon Eaduerdi Rutupi to haue been where Richeborowe now is to whiche opinion I rather incline I thinke good to giue them seuerall titles and to speake of Richeborowe by it selfe leauing to fit place for Sandwiche also suche matter as of right belongeth therevnto The whole shoare of Kent therefore that lyeth ouer against Dunkircke Calaice and Boloigne is of Caesar Iuuenal Lucan Ptolome Antoninus and others called Rutupiae or Rutupinum littus and that place of England whiche Beda taketh to be nearest to the Morines a people of Gallia Belgica whiche at this day comprehendeth Picardie Boloigne Artoys and some parte of the lowe countries is of Iohn Leland interpreted to be Richeborowe not paste halfe a myle distant from Sandwiche toward the East The same man also persuaded partly by the viewe of the place it selfe and partly by the authoritie of one Gotcelinus supposeth that Richeborow was of auncient time a Citie of some price and that it had within it a Palaice where King Ethelbert receiued Augustine As for the title of a Citie I doubt not but that if the ruines of the auncient walles yet extant or the remenants of the Romane coyne often found there did not at all inforce the likelyhoode yet the authoritie of Beda alone which calleth it plainly a citie would suffice But whether it were the Palaice of King Ethelbert when he entertained Augustine he that shall aduisedly read the first Chapter of Beda his first boke of the Ecclesiastical storie shall haue iust cause to doubt for asmuch as he sheweth manifestly that the King came from his Palaice in the Continent out of Thanet to Augustine Leland himselfe confesseth that Richeborow was then within Thanet although that since that time the water hath chaunged his course and shut it cleane out of the Island Now where some men as I said haue taken it to bée Sandwiche I take them to bee greatly deceaued For Richeborowe being corruptly so sounded for Reptsborowe hathe remayning in it the very rootes as I may speake it of Reptachester And Reptachester saith Beda and Rutupi Portus are all one So then Chester being tourned to Borow whiche be in deede two wordes but yet in manner of one signification and effect Rept and Riche haue ome affinitie the one with the other but neyther Riche Repta nor Rutupi can haue with Sandwiche any manner of similitude Thus muche of the name and antiquitie of this poore Towne whiche was in tyme of the olde Brytons of great price and the common Port or place of arriuall out of Fraunce whereof we finde no other note in latter hystorie either bicause the same was long since before the comming of the Saxons neglected when as the Romanes had lost their interest within this Realme Or else for that soone after their arriuall it decayed by reason that the water chaunged his course and lefte it dry So that nowe most aptly that may be sayde of this towne neare to the Isle Thanet whiche Virgil some time wrate of Tened it selfe Diues opum Priami dum regna manebant Nunc tantum sinus statio malè fida carinis A wealthy land while Priams state and kingdome vpright stoade But nowe a bay and harbour bad for ships to lye at roade But nowe I will make towarde Sandwiche the first of the Portes as my iourney lyeth and by the way speake somewhat of the Fiue Portes in generall The Cinque Portes I Finde in the booke of the general suruey of the realme whiche William the Conquerour caused to be made in the fourth yere of his reigne to be called Domesday bycause as Mathew Parise saieth it spared no man but iudged all men indifferently as the Lord in that great day wil doe that Douer Sandwiche and Rumney were in the time of King Edward the confessour discharged almoste of all maner of impositions and burdens whiche other towns dyd beare in consideration of suche seruice to bee done by them vpon the Sea as in their speciall titles shall hereafter appeare wherevpon although I might groūd by reasonable coniecture that the immunity of the hauē Townes which we nowe cal by a certaine number the Cinque Portes might take their beginning from the same Edward yet for as muche as I read in the Chartre of King Edward the first after the conquest whiche is reported in our booke of Entries A recitall of the grauntes of sundrie Kinges to the Fiue Portes the same reaching no higher then to William the Conquerour I will leaue my coniecture and leane to his
Chartre contenting my selfe to yéelde to the conquerour the thankes of other mens benefites séeing those whiche were benefited were wisely contented as the case then stoode to like better of his confirmation or second gift then of King Edwardes first graunt and endowment And to the end that I may proceede in some manner of array I will first shew which Townes were at the beginning taken for the Fiue Portes what others be now reputed in the same number secondly what seruice they ought did in times passed lastly what priuiledges they haue therefore by what persons they haue been gouerned If I should iudge by the commune and rude verse Douer Sandwicus Ry Rum Frigmare ventus I might say that Douer Sandwiche Rie Rumney and Winchelsey for that is Frigmare ventus be the Fiue Portes Againe if I should bee ruled by the Rolle whiche reciteth the Ports that send Barons to the Parleament I muste then adde to these Hastings Hyde for they also haue their Barons as wel as the other and so should I not onely not shewe whiche were the first Fiue but also by addition of two others increase bothe the number and doubtfulnes Leauing the verse therefore for ignorance of the authour and suspition of his authoritie and forsaking the Rolle as not assured of the antiquitie I will flye to Henrie Bracton a man bothe auncient learned and credible which liued vnder King Henrie the third and wrote aboue thrée hundreth yeares since learnedly of the lawes of this Realme He I say in the third booke of his worke and treatise of the Crowne taking in hand to shewe the articles inquirable before the Iustices in Eire or Itinerant as wee called them bycause they vsed to ride from place to place throughout the Realme for administration of iustice setteth foorth a speciall fourme of writtes to bee directed seuerally to the Baylifes of Hastings Hithe Rumney Douer and Sandwiche commaunding them that they should cause twentie and foure of their Barons for so their Burgesses or Townesmen and the Ciâ—â—â—â—ns of London likewise were wont to be termed to appeare before the Kings Iustices at Shipwey in Kent as they accustomed to doe there to enquire of suche pointes as should bee giuen them in charge Whiche done he addeth moreouer that for so muche as there was oftentimes contention betwéene them of the Fiue Portes and the inhabitants of Yarmouth in Norfolke and Donwiche in Suffolke there should be seuerall writtes directed to them also retournable before the same Iustices at the same day and place reciting that where the King had by his former writtes sommoned the Plées of the Fiue Ports to be holden at Shipwey if any of the same townes had cause to complaine of any beeing within the liberties of the saide Portes he should be at Shipwey to propounde against him and there to receaue according to lawe and iustice Thus muche I recite out of Bracton partly to shew that Shipwey was before King Edward the firsts time the place of assembly for the Plees of the Fiue Portes partly to notifie the difference and controuersie that long since was betweene these Portes and those other townes But purposely and chiefely to proue that Hastings and Hithe Douer Rumney and Sandwiche were in Bractons time accompted the Fiue principall hauens or Portes whiche were endowed with priuiledge Neither yet will I deny but that soone after Winchelsey and Rye might be added to the number For I finde in an olde recorde that King Henrie the third tooke into his owne handes for the better defence of the Realme the townes of Winchelsey and Rye whiche belonged before to the Monasterie of Fescampe in Normandie gaue therfore in exchaunge the Manor of Chiltham in Gloucester shyre diuers other landes in Lincolne shyre This he did partly to conceale from the Priors Aliens the intelligence of the secrete affairs of his Realme partly bycause of a great disobedience and excesse that was committed by the inhabitants of Winchelsey against Prince Edward his eldest Sonne And therefore although I can easely be led to thinke that he submitted them for their correction to the order and gouernance of the Fiue Portes yet I stand doubtfull whether he made them partners of their priuiledges or no for that had been a preferment and no punishment but I suspect rather that his Sonne King Edward the first by whose encouragement and aide olde Winchelsey was afterward abandoned and the now Towne buidled was the first that appareiled them wyth that preeminence By this therefore let it appeare that Hastings Douer Hithe Rumney Sandwiche were the first Ports of priuiledge which bycause they were Fiue in numbre bothe at the first gaue and yet continue to all the residue the name of Cinque Portes although not onely Winchelsey and Rye be since that time incorporated with them as principals but diuers other places also for the ease of their charge be crept in as partes lims and members of the same Now therefore somewhat shal be saide as touching the seruices that these Portes of duetie owe and in déed haue done to the Princes wherof the one I meane with what numbre of vessels in what manner of furniture and for howe long season they ought to waite on the King at the Sea vpon theyr owne charges shall partly appeare by that whiche wée shall presently say and partly by that whiche shall follow in Sandwiche and Rumney The other shal be made manifest by examples drawn out of good hystories and bothe shal be testified by the woordes of King Edward the first in his owne Chartre The booke of Domesday before remembred chargeth Douer wyth 20. vessels at the Sea whereof eache to be furnished with one and twentie men for fiftéene dayes together and sayth further that Rumney and Sandwiche aunswered the like seruice But nowe whether this like ought to be vnderstoode of the like altogether bothe in respect of the number and seruice or of the like in respect of seruice according to the proportion of their abilitie onely I may not hereby take vpon me to determine For on the one side if Rumney Sandwiche and the residue should likewise find twentie vessels a péece then as you shall anone sée the fiue Portes were subiect to a greater charge at that time then King Edward the first layd vpon them And on the other side if they were only chargeable after their proportion then know I not howe far to burthen them séeing the Record of Domesday it selfe bindeth them to no certeintie And therfore leauing this as I finde it I must elsewhere make inquisition for more lightsome proofe And firste I will haue recourse to King Edwarde the firste his Chartre in which I read that At ech time that the King passeth ouer the sea the Portes ought to rigge vp fiftie and seuen ships whereof euery one to haue twentie armed souldiers and to mainteine them at their own costes by the space of fifteene
imprisoned not the Bishop of Borieux but the Earle of Kent The King liked well the conceit and causing Odo to be apprehended caste him into prison whence he was not deliuered during al the time of his reigne That done he made diligent inquisitioÌ„ for the hourdes of golde and by feare of torture caused the Bishops seruants to bewray the whole treasure Then also tooke he new order for the gouernement of this Shyre and bycause he was persuaded that nothing within the same was of more importance then Douer Castell he seised it into his handes foorthwith fortified it and chose out a noble maÌ„ called Iohn Fynes of whose prowesse and fidelitie he had made good tryal and committing vnto him not only the custodie thereof but the gouernment of the rest of the Portes also by gift of inheritaunce he named him Constable of Douer and Wardein of the Cinque Portes And to the end that he shoulde be of sufficient abilitie to beare the charge of the defence thereof he gaue him to the number of sixe and fiftie Knightes fees of lande and possession willing him to communicate some partes of that gift to suche other valiaunt and trustie persons as he should best like of for the more sure conseruation of that his most noble and precious péece He accordingly called vnto him eight other worthie Knightes and imparting liberally vnto them of that whiche he had receiued of the King bounde them by tenure of their lande receiued of the King to mainteine one hundreth and twelue souldiours amongest them whiche number he so diuided by monethes of the yeare that fiue and twentie were continually to watche and warde within the Castell for their seuerall stintes of time and all the rest ready at commaundement vpon whatsoeuer necessitie The names of these eight were WilliaÌ„ of Albrance Fulbert of Douer William Arsicke Galfride Peuerell William Maynemouth Robert Porthe Robert Creuequer called in the Latine Records De crepito corde that is Crackt harte And Adam Fitz Williams Eche of al whiche had their seuerall charges in sundry towres turrets bulworks of the castel and were contented of their owne dispence to mainteine and repaire the same in token wherof diuers of them beare the names and titles of these newe chosen Captaines euen till this oure present time And thus Douer being dispatched of a busie Bishop fenced by the Kings appointment furnished fraught and planted with a moste faithfull Constable vigilant Captaines and diligent warders gayned and reteined the opinion and name of a most important commodious and necessarie péece not only with the natiue Princes and Nobilitie of our owne Realme But also with suche foreigne Potentates as had warre and contention with vs in so muche as in sundry troubles ensuing at sundry times afterwarde within this Realme it did plainely appeare that this Castell was the chiefe marke whereat eche man directed his shot For King Stephan in the contention that arose betwéene him and Maude the Empresse for the title of the Crowne thought that no one thing stoode him more in hande then to get the possession of Douer Castell and therfore he neuer ceassed to sollicite Walkelm that theÌ„ had the custodie thereof till he had obteyned it Lewes also the French Dolphine which by the instigatioÌ„ of the Pope inuitating of the Nobilitie inuaded King Iohn vpon such cause as shall hereafter appeare hauing gained partly by tenure partly by surrender of the Barons that were of his faction almost al the Castels and Holdes lying on the Southe parte of the Realme coulde not yet thinke him selfe assured onlesse he had Douer also For his Father Philipe hearing that he had the possession of sundry other strong places and that he wanted Douer Sware by Sainct Iames arme whiche was his accustomed othe that he had not gayned one foote in Englande and therefore he made thither with all his power and besieged it streightly But that noble Captaine Hubert of Borroughe of whome I lately spake whiche was in his time Constable of the Castell Wardein of the Portes Earle of Kent and chiefe Iustice of all Englande defended it with suche couragious coâ—stancie that it was bothe a comforte to the Englishe subiecte and a wonder to the Frenche enemie to beholde it in so muche as I can not worthely impute the deliuerie of this Realme from the perill of forreigne seruitude wherein it then stoode to any one thing so muche as to the magnanimitie of this man Of whome also by the waye I thinke good to tell you this that in his time of Constableship at Douer and by his meanes the seruice of Castlegarde there whiche had contayned as I shewed before from the time of William the Conqueroure was with the assent of King Henrie the thyrde conuerted into a payment of money the lande béeing charged with tenne shillings for euerie Warder that it was bounde to finde and the owners thereby discharged of their personall seruice and attendaunce for euer At whiche time also he caused the same King to release by his frée Chartre the custome of Forrage due to this Castell and that done him selfe instituted newe lawes amongst the watchemen and increased the number of the Warders But nowe to my purpose againe Simon the Earle of Leycester and leader of the Barons warre againste King Henrie the thirde euen at the first wrested the Castell of Douer out of the Kings possession and kéeping the same during all his life vsed to sende thyther as vnto a place of most assuraunce all suche as he had taken prysoners After his ouerthrowe Edwarde then Prince and afterwarde the first King of that name assayled it with all speede and by the ayde of the prisoners within whiche had taken the great towre to his vse obteined it There lefte he prisoned Guy the sonne of this Simon but he escaped sone after by corruption of his kéepers To make an ende the Nobilitie of that time were fully persuaded that bothe the safetie and daunger of the whole Realme consisted in this one Castell And therefore saythe Mathewe Parise at suche time as King Henrie the thirde called ouer from beyonde the Seas his owne brother Richarde then King of the Romanes the Noble men who had him in some Iealouzie would not agrée that he or any of his should once enter within this Castell Not without good cause therfore hath Douer by greate préeminence béene reported the chiefe of the Fiue Portes assigned by lawes of Parleament as a speciall place for passage and eschaunge and by auncient tenure acknowledged for Lady and Maistresse of many Manors To it alwayes some man of great apparaunce is appoynted as Captaine and gouernour To it sundry Gentlmen of the Shyre paye yet money for the auncient duetie of their attendance and seruice And to it sinally the countrey men in all times of trouble haue an especiall eye and regarde As concerning the mayntenaunce of this Castell in fortification and building I finde not
of this gallant brought to shame and confusion his Pecockes feathers pulled his black féete bewraied his fraude vnfoulded his might abated and him selfe in the ende suffered to sayle ouer with sorowe and ignominie Besides this Pryorie of S. Martines which was valued at a hundreth fourscore and eight poundes by yeare there was lately in Douer also an Hospitall rated at fiftie nyne poundes An other house of the same sorte called Domus Dei or Maison Dieu reputed worth one hundreth and twentie pounds And long since a house of Templers as they call it the which together with al other of the same kind throughout the Realme was suppressed in the reigne of King Edwarde the seconde The foundation of any of these I haue not hitherto founde out and therefore can not deliuer therof any certaintie at all Onely as touching this Temple I dare affirme that it was erected after the time of Conquest for as muche as I am sure that the order it selfe was inuented after that Godfrey of Bolein had wonne Ierusalem whiche was after the cōming in of the Conquerour To these also may be added for neighbourhoode sake if you will the Monasterie of S. Radegundes on the hyll two myles off valued at fourescore and eightéene pounds by yeare And here hauing perused the Towne Castle and religious buildings I woulde make an ende of Douer saue that Mathewe Parise putteth me in mynde of one thing not vnworthy rehearsall that was done in this Temple I meane the sealing of that submission whiche King Iohn made to Pandulphe the Popes Legate wherin he yealded his Realme tributarie and him selfe an obedienciarie and vassall to the Bishop of Rome And bycause this was almost the last acte of the whole Tragedie and can not well be vnderstoode without some recourse to the former parts and beginning and for that some men of late time haue taken great holde of this matter to aduaunce the Popes authoritie withall I will shortly after my manner recount the thing as it was done and leaue the iudgement to the indifferent Reader After the death of Hubert the Archebishop of Canterbury the Monkes of Christes Church agréed among them selues to chose for their Bishop Reginald the Subpryor of their house King Iohn hauing no notice of this election wherein no doubt he receiued greate wrong since they ought to haue of him their Conge deslier recommended vnto them Iohn Graye the Bishop of Norwiche a man that for his wisedome and learning he fauoured muche Some part of the Monkes taking soudaine offence at Reginalde for that he had disclosed a secrete out of their house and being glad to satisfie the Kings desire elected this Graye for their Bishop also Hereof grewe a great suite at Rome betwéen the more part of the Monkes on the one side and the Suffraganes of Canterbury and the lesse number of the Monkes on the other side The Pope vpon the hearing of the cause at the first ratifieth the election of Iohn Graye Howbeit afterwarde he refuseth bothe the electes and preferreth Stephan Langton whom the Monkes bycause the matter was not before litigious enough elected also Nowe King Iohn hearing that not only the election of Graye contrarie to the Popes owne former determination was made frustrate but that there was also thruste into his place a man familiarly entertained by the Frenche King his great enemie disliked much of the choice forbad Stephan the elect to enter the Realme The Pope againe who as Mathewe Parise writeth sought chiefly in this his choice Virum strenuum a stoute man that is in plaine speache a man that could exact of the Clergie kéep in awe the Laitie and encounter the King and Nobilitie séeing his champion thus reiected beginneth to startle for anger first therefore he moueth the King by minacing letters to admitte Stephan not so preuailing he enterditeth him his whole Realme And finally bothe prouoketh al Potentates to make open warre vpon him and also promiseth to the King of Fraunce full and frée remission of all his sinnes and the kingdome of England it self to inuade him this done he solliciteth to rebellion the Bishops nobilitie and cōmōs of the Realme loosing thē by the plenitude of his Apos to like power from al duetie of allegiaunce toward their Prince By this meanes diuine seruice ceassed the King of Fraunce armed the Bishops conspired the nobilitie made defection and the common people wauered vncertaine to what part to incline To be short King Iohn was so pressed with suspition feare of domesticall forreigne enemies on al sides that notwithstāding he was of great and noble courage and séemed to haue forces sufficient for resistance also if he might haue trusted his souldiers yet he was in the end compelled to set his seale to a Chartre of submissiō wherby he acknowleged himselfe to holde the Crowne of England of the Popes Mitre promised to pay yerely for the same and for Ireland 1000. Markes to the holy father his successours for euer this Chartre because it was afterward with great insultation and triumph closed in Golde was then commonly called Aurea Bulla the Bull of Golde Thus omitting the residue of this storie no lesse tragical and troublesome then that which I haue alreadie recited I report me to all indifferent men what cause Paulus Iouius or any other popishe parasite hathe by colour of this Bull to claime for the Pope superioritie Dominion ouer the King of this Realme since Iohn without the assent of the estates I meane his nobilitie and commons could not in such a gifte either binde his successours or charge the kingdome And for plaine declaration that his submission proceaded not with their consent I read in a treatise of one Simon de Boraston a Frier Preacher in the time of King Edward the third the which he wrote concerning the Kings right to the Crowne of Ireland that in the reigne of Henrie the third whiche next of all succeaded King Iohn there were sent from the King the nobilitie and the commons of England these Noble men Hughe Bigod Iohn Fitz Geffray William Cantlowe Phillip Basset and a Lawier named William Powicke to the generall Counsel then assembled at Lions in Fraunce of purpose and with commission to require that the saide Bull sealed by King Iohn might be cancelled for as muche as it passed not by the assent of the Counsel of the Realme and the same Authour writeth that the Pope for that tyme did put them of by colour of more waightie affaires whiche the Counsel had then in hand I know that it may wel be thought néedlesse to labour further in confuting a litle so weightles for it is true that Aristotle saith Stultum est absurdas opiniones accuratius refellere It is but a follie to labour ouer curiously in refelling of absurdities And therefore I will here conclude the treatise of Douer and procéede particularly to the rest of the places that lye on
petition exhibited by Richarde then Earle of Arundale and Surrey in whiche the same Earle claimed the office of chiefe Butler and recognised him self ready to perfourme the same Wherevpon foorthwith one Edmund Staplegate exhibited another petition and likewise made his claime to this effect That whereas he the sayde Edmund helde of the King in chiefe the Manor of Bylsington in Kent by the seruice to be his Butler at the Coronation as plainely appeared in the booke of Fées and Sericancies in the Exchequer And whereas also by reason of that tenure the late King Edwarde the thirde had both seised the landes of that petitioner for so much as he was in his minoritie at the time of the death of Edmund Staplegate his father and had also committed the custodie of his body to one Iefferay Chawsier to whō he payde 104. l. for the same he nowe proffered to doe that seruice and praied to be admitted to the office therof with alowance of the fées that belonged therevnto These claimes and the replies also bothe of the Earle and of Staplegate being hearde and considered It was then order partly for the shortnesse of the time whiche would not permit a full examination of the matter and partly bycause that on the Earles side it was proued that his auncestors had béene in possession of that office after the alienation of the Manor of Bylsington whereas on the other part it appeared not that the auncestors of Staplegate had euer executed the same that for the present Coronation the Earle shoulde be receiued and the right of Staplegate and all others shoulde be neuerthelesse to them saued Thus muche of the Manor of Bylsington whiche lyeth here on the right hande I thought méete to impart with you to occupy vs withall in our way to Rumney for as touching the Pryorie that there was althoughe I suppose it to haue begon by the liberalitie of some of the Earles of Arundale yet can I assure you of nothing touching it saue onely of the yearely value whiche you shall finde in the Particular of this shyre amongst the rest of the suppressed houses Rumney called in Saxon Rumen ea that is to say The large watrie place or Marishe It is written in the Records corruptly Rumenal and Romual THE participation of like Priuilege might wel haue moued me to haue placed the Portes together but the purpose of myne order already taken calleth me another way and byndeth me to prosecute them as they lye in order of my iourney There be in Kent therfore two townes of this name the Olde and the New Rumney as touching the latter whereof I minde not to speake hauing not hitherto founde eyther in Recorde or Hystorie any thing pertaining therevnto but that little whiche I haue to say must be of olde Rumney whiche was long since a principal Port and giueth cause of name to the new towne as it selfe first tooke it of the large leuell and territorie of Marishe grounde that is adioyning This Towne sayth the Recorde of Domesday was of the possession of one Robert Rumney and holden of Odo then Bishop of Borieux Earle of Kent and brother to King William the Conquerour in the which the same Robert had thirteene Burgesses who for their seruice at the Sea were acquitted of all exactions and custome◠of charge excepte fellonie breache of the peace and forstalling It was sometyme a good sure and commodious Hauen where many vessels vsed to lye at Roade For Henrie the Archedeacon of Huntingdon maketh report that at suche time as Godwine Earle of Kent and his Sonnes were exiled the Realme vpon suche cause of displeasure as hathe alreadie appeared in Douer they armed vessels to the Sea and sought by disturbing the quiet of the people to compell the King to their reuocation And therfore among sundry other harmes that they did on the Coast of this Shyre they entred the hauen at Rumney and lead away all suche shippes as they found in the Harborow Thomas Becket the Archebishop hauing by froward disobedience and stuborne pertinacitie prouoked King Henrie the second to indignation against him and fearing to abide the triall of ordinarie Iustice at home determined to appeale to the Popes fauour at Rome for whiche purpose he secretly tooke boate at Rumney minding to haue escaped ouer but he was driuen backe by a contrary wynde and so compelled to land againste his will. The vnderstanding of whiche matter so exasperated the King against him that foorthwith he seased his goods and gaue commaundement by his writte to the Sheriffes of all coastes to make arrest of al such as for any cause prouoked to the Pope He caused also his subiectes from twentie yeares of age vpward through out the whole Realme to renounce by othe all wonted obedience to the Sée of Rome and sollicited earnestly the Emperour Frederic and Lewes the Frenche King to haue ioyned with him in deposing Pope Alexander for that he so commonly receaued runnegates and suche as rebelled against their lawfull Princes But suche was eyther the enimitie of Lewes the Frenche King againste King Henrie the second or his dull sight in discerning the profit of the whole Christian common weale that he refused to assist the other twain by meanes whereof both Frederic the Emperour was afterward compelled to yéelde him to the Pope King Henrie the second glad withall submission to reconcile himselfe to the Archebishops fauour Rumney Marshe is famous throughout the Realme as wel for the fertilitie quantitie of the soile leuell as also for the auncient and holesome ordinances there vsed for the preseruation and maintenance of the bankes and walles against the rage of the Sea. It conteineth as by due computation it may appeare 24000. Acres For the taxation of Rumney Marshe onely not accompting Walland Marshe Guilford Marshe c. amounteth to 50. pounds after the rate of one halfe peny the Acre and it is at this day gouerned by certaine lawes made by one Henrie Bathe a Iustice and Commissioner for that purpose in the time of King Henrie the third Of whiche his statutes experience in time hath begotten suche allowance and liking that it was afterward not onely ordered that all the lowe groundes betwéene Tanet in Kent and Pemsey in Sussex should be guided by the same But they are also nowe become a paterne and exemplar to all the like places of the whole Realme to be gouerned by The place is not muche inhabited bycause it is Hyeme malus Aestate molestus Nunquam bonus Euil in Winter grieuous in Sommer and neuer good As Hesiodus the olde Poet somtime saied of the Countrie where his Father dwelt And therefore very reasonable is their conceite whiche doe imagine that Kent hathe thrée steps or degrées of whiche the first say they offereth Wealth without healthe the second giueth bothe Wealth and healthe and the third afoordeth healthe onely and no Wealthe For if a man minding to passe through
make demaunde of his right to the Crowne of Fraunce first quieted Scotland by force then entered amitie with his neighbours of Holland Seland and Brabant and lastly fortifying at this place for defence of the Thamise made expedition by Sea and lande againste the Frenche King and moued warre that had long continuaunce wherin neuerthelesse after sundry discomfitures giuen before Sluse Cressey Calaice and Poitiers he was in the ende right honourably satisfied During this building William of Wickam surnamed Perot a man not so plentifully endowed with good learning as aboundantly stored with Ecclesiasticall liuing for he had nine hundreth poundes of yearely reuenue fourtéene yeares together and was afterwarde by degrées aduaunced to the kéeping firste of the priuie and then of the broade Seale was Surueyour of the kings workes whiche is the very cause as I coniecture that some haue ascribed to him the thanke of the building it selfe This platforme was repayred by King Henrie the eight at suche time as he raised Blockhouses along the Sea coastes for the causes already rehearsed in Dele Of Quinborowe Leland sayth thus Castrum Regius editum recipit Burgus fulmina dira insulanos Tutos seruat ab impetu vel omni A Castle highe and thundring shot At Quinbrought is nowe plaste Whiche keepeth safe the Ilanders From euery spoyle and waste The name is fallen as you sée by deprauation of speache from Kingesborowe to Quinborowe howbeit the Etymologie is yet conserued both in our ancient hystories in the style of the Court or Lawday there I may adde that in memorie of the first name the Ferrie or passage from the I le to the maine lande is yet called The Kings ferrie also Feuersham in Saxon fafresHam AS it is very likely that the Towne of Feuersham receiued the chiefe nourishment of her increase from the Religious house So there is no doubt but that the place was somewhat of price long time before the building of that Abbay there For it is to be séene that King Ethelstane helde a Parleament and enacted certeine lawes at Feuersham about sixe hundreth and fortie yeares agoe at which time I thinke it was some Manor house belonging to the Prince the rather for that afterwarde King William the Conquerour to whose handes at length it came amongst other thinges gaue the aduowson of the Church to the Abbay of S. Augustines and the Manor it self to a Normane in recompence of seruice But what time king Stephan had in purpose to build the Abbay he recouered the Manor againe by exchaunge made with one William de Ipre the founder of Boxley for Lillychurch and raysing there a stately Monasterie the temporalties whereof did amount to a hundred fiftie fiue poundes he stored it with Cluniake Monkes This house was firste honoured with the buriall of Adelicia the Quéene his wife Then with the Sepulture of Eustachius his only sonne and shortly after him selfe also was there interred by them I reade none other thing worthy remembraunce touching this place Saue that in the reigne of King Iohn there brake out a great controuersie betwéene him and the Monkes of S. Augustines touching the right of the Patronage of the Churche of Feuersham For notwithstanding that King William the Conquerour had giuen it to the Abbay as appeareth before yet there wanted not some of whiche number Hubert the Archebishop was one that whispered King Iohn in the eare that the right of the Aduouson was deuoluted vnto him which thing he beléeuing presented a Clarke to the Churche and besides commaunded by his writ that his presentée should be admitted The Abbat on the other side withstoode him for the more sure enioying of his possession not onely eiected the Kings Clarke but also sent thither diuers of his Monkers to kéepe the Church by strong hand When the King vnderstoode of that he commaunded the Sheriffe of the Shyre to leuie the power of his countie and to restore his presentée Which commaundement the officer endeuoured to put in execution accordingly But suche was the courage of these holy hoorsons that before the Shefiffe coulde bring it to passe he was driuen to winne the Churche by assault in the which he hurt and wounded diuers of them and drewe and haled the reste out of the doores by the haire and héeles Nowe it chaunced that at the same time Iohn the Cardinall of Sainct Stephans the Popes Legate into Scotland passed through this Realme to whome as he soiourned at Canterbury the Monks made their mone and he againe both incouraged them to sende their Pryor to Rome for remedie furnished them with his own Letters in commendation of their cause In whiche amongst other things he tolde the holy father Innocentius plainly that if he would suffer Monkes to be thus intreated the Apostolique authoritie wold soone after be set at nought not only in England but in al other countries also Here vpon the Pope sent out his commission for the vnderstanding of the matter but the Monks being now better aduised tooke a shorter way and sending to the King two hundreth marks in a purse and a faire Palfrey for his owne sadle they bothe obteyned at his handes resâ—itution of their right also wan him to become from thencefoorth their good Lord and Patrone But here I praye you consider with me whether these men be more likely to haue béen brought vp in the Schole of Christe and Paule his Apostle who teach Ne resistatis malo vincatis bono malum Or rather to haue drawne their diuinitie out of Terence Comedie where the counsell is Malumus nos prospicere quam hunc vlcisci accepta iniuria yea and out of the worste point of all Tullies Philosophie where he permitteth Lacessitis iniuria inferre vim iniuriam seing they be so ready not of euen ground onely but before hande not to aunswere but to offer force and violence euen to Kings and Princes themselues I wis they might haue taken a better lesson out of Terence him selfe who aduiseth wise men Consilio omnia prius experiri quam armis and therefore I pitie their beating so muche the lesse But by this and suche other Monkishe partes of theirs you may sée Quid otium cibus faciat alienus Genlade and Gladmouthe BEda hathe mention of a water in Kent running by Reculuers whiche he calleth Genlade This name was afterward sounded Yenlade by the same misrule that geard is nowe Yard geoc Yoke gyld Yeeld gemen Yeomen and suche other Henrie of Huntingdon also reporteth that King Edward the Sonne of Alfred builded at Gladmouth This place I coniecture to haue stoode at the mouthe of that Riuer and thereof to haue béene called first Genlademouthe and afâ—erward by contraction and corruption of speach Glademouthe For to compound the name of a Towne out of the mouthe of a Riuer adioining was most familiar with our auncestours as the name Exmouthe was framed out of the Riuer Ex Dartmouthe of the water
abiured should not be molested while they be in the highe wayes may euidently appeare I finde in Hystorie that this Watlingstreete hath heretofore not onely serued for the frée passage of the people but that it hath béen at times also a marke and bounder betwéene some Kings for the limits of their iurisdictions and authoritie For so it was betwéene Edmund and Anlaf Alfred and Guthrum and others But bycause these matters reache further then this Shyre extendeth I will reserue them to fit place and shew you in the meane while what I count note worthy on both sides of this way till I come to the Diocesse of Rochester Lyminge ON the South side of Watlingstreete and vnder the Downes Lyminge is the first that offereth it selfe concerning the which I haue found a note or twaine that make more for the antiquitie then for the estimation of the place for I reade in the Annales of S. Augustines of Canterbury that Eadbald the sonne of King Ethelbert the firste Christened King of Kent gaue it to Edburge his sister who foorthwith clocked together a sorte of simple women whiche vnder her wing there tooke vpon them the Popishe veile of widowhood But that order in time waxed colde and therefore Lanfranc the Archebishop at suche time as he builded Sainct Gregories in Canterbury as we haue touched in Tanet before reckoning it no small ornamēt of his dotation to bestowe some renouned Relique that might procure estimation to his worke translated the olde bones of Edburge from Lyminge to Sainct Gregories and verefied in Papistrie the olde Maxime of Philosophie Corruptio vnius generatio alterius Baramdowne in the Saxon BarHamdune That is to say the hill where the Bores do abide AS this place is of it selfe very fit by reason of the flat leuel and playnesse therof to array an heast of men vpon So haue we testimonie of thrée great armies that haue mustred at it The one vnder the conduict of Iulius Caesar who landing at Dele as we haue before shewed surueyed his hoast at Baramdowne and marching from thence against the Britons so daunted their forces that he compelled them to become tributarie No lesse infortunate but muche more infamous to this countrie was the time of the seconde muster whiche happened in the reigne of King Iohn who hearing that Philip the king of Fraunce had by incitation of the Pope as hath already appeared in Douer prepared a great army to inuade him and that he was ready at Calaice to take shipping determined to incounter him vpon the Sea and if that assay succéeded not then to giue him a battaile on the lande also For whiche seruice he rigged vp his shippes of warre and sent to the Sea the Earle of Salisburie whome he ordeined Admirall and calling together fit men from al the parts of the Realme he found by view taken at this place an armie of sixtie thousande men to incounter his enemies besides a sufficient number of able and armed souldiours to defende the lande withal Now whilest he thus awaited at Baramdown to heare further of his aduersaries comming Pandulph the Popes Legate sent vnto him two Knightes of the order of the Temple by whose mouthe he earnestly desired the King to graunt him audience The King assented and the Legate came vnto him and sayde in summe as followeth Beholde O Prince the King of Fraunce is in armes against thée not as against a priuate enemie to him self alone but as an open and common aduersarie bothe to the Catholike Church to the Popes holynesse to whole Christendome and to God him self Neyther commeth he vpon opinion of his owne power and strength but is armed with great confidence of Gods fauourable ayde accompanied with the consent of many great Princes furnished with the presence of suche as thou haste banished out of thy Realme and assured by the faythful promises of sundry of thyne owne Nobilitie whiche nowe are present in person with thée Consider therefore in what daunger thou standest and spare not to submit thée while space is leaste if thou persist there be no place left of further fauour The King hearing this and being vpon causes knowne to him selfe more distrustfull of Traitours at home then fearefull of enemies abroade agréed to serue the time and taking the Legate to Douer with him sealed the Golden Bull of submission whereby Englande was once againe made a tributarie Prouince to the Citie of Rome and that in so muche the more vile condition then it was before as an vsurped Ierarchie is inferiour to a noble lawfull and renoumed Monarchie For it is truely sayd Dignitate domini minus turpis est conditio serui Now when the Frenche King on the other side of the Seas had worde hereof he retired with his armie in a great choler partely for that he was thus deluded but chiefly bycause he had lost his Nauie whiche the Earle of Salisbury had set on fire in the hauen at Calaice Simon Mountfort the Earle of Leycester that was elected by the Barons of this Realme general of that armie which they raysed against King Henrie the thirde arrayed thirdly a very great hoast of men here at suche time as he feared the arriuall of Eleonar the Quéene who being daughter to the Earle of Prouince and then lefte in Fraunce behinde the King and the Earle whiche also had béen bothe there a litle before to receiue the Frenche Kings rewarde touching their controuersie ceassed not by all possible meanes to sollicite the King of Fraunce and to incite other her friendes and allies to ayde King Henrie against the Nobilitie But whether it were that presently they could not for their owne affaires or that at al they durst not knowing that their comming was awayted they serued not her desire by meanes whereof the Lordes waxed strong and soone after gaue the King a battayle in Sussex wherein they bothe tooke him and his brother Richard and his eldest sonne prisoners But as touching the originall procéeding and euent of these warres I willingly spare to speake muche in this place knowing that I shall haue opportunitie often hereafter to discourse them Nowe therefore let vs consider a few other places and then haste vs to Canterbury Charteham AFter suche time as King Iohn had made him selfe the Popes tenant of the Crown and Realme of England as euen now I tolde you the Clergie of this countrie was so oppressed with Romishe exactions that they were become not onely vnable but thereby vnwilling also to relieue the necessitie of the Prince with any prest of money as in times paste they had accustomed to do Wherat the King on the one side taking offence pressed them many times very hard not ceasing till he had wroong somewhat from them And on the other side appealing to their holy fathers ayde procured by their great coste many sharp prohibitions and proud menacies against him So that sundry times in the reigne of King Henrie the thirde this Balle
of ouerthrowne Houses and Mynsters were called Knolles Miters he returned into England and meaning some way to make himselfe as well beloued of his Countrie men at home as he had béen euery way dread and feared of Straungers abroade by great policie maistred the Riuer of Medwey and of his owne charge made ouer it the goodly work that now stādeth with a chappel Chauntrie at the end died ful of yeares in the midst of the Reigne of King Henrie the fourth Stroude aunciently called Strodes of the Saxon worde Strogd which signifieth Scattered bicause it was a Hamlet of a few houses that lay scattered from the Citie ABout the beginning of the Reigne of King Henrie the third Gilbert Glāuille the Bishop of Rochester of whom you haue already heard foūded an Hospitall at Stroude whiche he dedicated to the name of the blessed Virgin and endowed with liuelyhode to the value of fiftie and two pounds by yeare A name or familie of men sometime inhabiting Stroude saith Polydore had tailes clapped to their breeches by Thomas Becket for reuenge and punishment of a dispite done to him in cutting of the taile of his horse The Author of the new Legend saith that after Saint Thomas had excomunicated two Brothers called Brockes for the same cause that the Dogges vnder the table would not once take Bread at their handes Suche belike was the vertue of his curse that it gaue to brute beastes a discretion and knowledge of the persons that were in daunger of it Boetius the Scotishe Chronicler writeth that the lyke plague lighted vpon the men of Midleton in Dorsetshyre Who bicause they threwe Fishe tailes in great contempt at Saint Augustine were bothe themselues and their posteritie stricken with tailes to their perpetuall infamie and punishment All whiche their Reportes no doubt be as true as Ouides Hystorie of Diana that in great angre bestowed on Acteon a Deares head with mightie browe anthlers Muche are the Westerne men bound as you sée to Polydore who taking the miracle from Augustine applieth it to S. Thomas and remouing the infamous reuenge frō Dorsetshyre laieth it vpō our men of Kent But litle is Kent or the whole English Nation beholdding either to him or his fellowes who amongst them haue brought vpon vs this ignominie note with other Nations abrode that many of them beleue as verely that we haue long tailes be monsters by nature as other men haue their due partes and mēbers in vsual nūber Polydore the wisest of the company fearing that issue might be taken vpon the matter ascribeth it to one speciall stocke and familie whiche he nameth not and yet to leaue it the more vncertain he saith that that family also is worne out long since and sheweth not when And thus affirming he cannot tel of whome nor when he goeth about in great earnest as in sundrie other things to make the world beléeue he cannot tell what he had forgotten the Lawe wherevnto an Hystorian is bound Ne quid falsi audeat ne quid veri non audeat That he should be bolde to tell the trueth and yet not so bolde as to tell a lye Howbeit his Hystorie without all doubte in places not blemished with suche folies is a worthie work but since he inserteth them many times without all discretion hee must of the wiser sorte be read ouer with great suspicion wearines For as he was by office Collector of the Peter pence to the Popes gaine and lucre so sheweth he himselfe throughout by profession a couetous gatherer of lying Fables fained to aduaunce the Popish Religion Kingdome and Myter ¶ Halling in Saxon Haling that is to say the holsome lowe place or Meadowe I Haue séene in an auncient booke conteining the donations to the See of Rochester collected by Ernulphus the Bishop there intituled Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi a Chartre of Ecgbert the fourthe christened King of Kent by the which he gaue to Dioram the Bishop of Rochester ten ploughlandes in Halling together with certeine Denes in the Weald or common wood To the which Chartre ther is amongst others the subscription of Ieanbert the Archbishop and of one Heahbert a King of Kent also as is in that booke tearmed Which thing I note for two speciall causes the one to shewe that aboute that age there were at one time in Kent moe Kinges then one The other to manifest and set fourth the manner of that time in signing subscribing of Déedes and Charters a fashion much differēt from the insealing that is vsed in these our dayes and as touching the firste I my selfe woulde haue thought that the name King had in that place béen but onely the title of a second Magistrate as Prorex or viceroy substituted vnder the very King of the countrie for administratiō of iustice in his aide or absence sauing that I read plainly in an other Chartre of another donation of Eslingham made by Offa the king of Mercia to Eardulfe the Bishop of the same See that he proceeded in that his gift by the consent of the same Heahbert the king of Kent and that on Sigaered also by the name of Rex dimidiae partis prouinciae Cantuariorum both confirmed it by writing and gaue possession by the deliuery of a clod of earth after the maner of seison that we yet vse Neither was this true in Heahbert onely for it is euident by sundrie Chartres extant in the same Booke that Ealbert the King of Kent had Ethelbert another Kinge his fellowe and partener who also in his time was ioyned in reigne with one Eardulfe that is called Rex Cantuariorum as well as hée So that for this season it should séeme that eyther the kingdome was diuided by discent or els that the title was litigious and in controuersie though our hystories so farre as I haue séene haue mencion of neyther This old manner of signing and subscribing is in my fantasie also not vnworthy the obseruation wherein we differ from our auncestors the Saxons in this that they subscribed their names commonly adding the signe of the crosse togeather with a great number of witnesses And we for more suertie both subscribe our names put our seales and vse the help of testimonie besides That former fashion continued throughout vntill the time of the conquest by the Normans whose manner by litle and litle at the length preuailed amongst vs For the first sealed Chartre in England that euer I read of is that of King Edward the confessours to the Abbey of Westminster who being brought vp in Normandie brought into this Realme that and some other of their guises with him And after the comming of William the Conquerour the Normans liking their owne countrie custome as naturally all nations doe reiected the maner that they found héere and reteyned their owne as Ingulphus the Abbat of Croyland which came in with the conquest witnesseth saying Normanni cheirographorū confectionē cum crucib
great cost vpon it that he might be thought rather to haue raised a new house in the place then to haue repayred the olde for he left nothing of the firste worke but onely the walles of a hall and a chapell Thus farre out of Erasmus Wherein first by the waye you may espie the reason that moued King Henrie the eight to take that house by exchaunge from the Archebishop namely bicause Warham not contented to continue it a plaine house fit to withdrawe him selfe vnto for contemplation and prayer had so magnificently enlarged the same that it was nowe become méete to make a Palaice for a Kings habitation and pleasure But let vs come to our matter You sée here that Erasmus maketh this house the matter and motiue of all the contention that was betwéene the King and the Archebishop whiche if it be so then haue not I faythfully dealt in laying the cause thereof to be suche as appeareth in Canterbury before and consequently I haue too too much abused the Reader But for a short aunswere hereto I do eftsoones auowe that not onely William of Newburgh Roger Houeden and Mat. Parise whome chiefly I haue followed in this storie and which al were eyther meÌ„ liuing when the matter was in hande or borne immediatly after do plainely testifie with me that the ordinaunces made at Clarendune were the very subiect and motiue of all that strife but also the whole number of our hystoriens following yea and the very authours of the Quadriloge it selfe or song of foure parts for they yealde a concent though it be without Harmonie do all with one pen and mouth acknowledge the same Amongst the râ—ste Polydore sheweth him selfe excéeding angry with some that had blowne abroad some such like sound of the cause of this great hurley burley for he sayth plainely that they were Amentiae pleni qui deblaterabant Thomam conseruandarum possessionum causà tantum iniuriarum accepisse starke madde which babbled that Thomas did receiue so many iniuries for sauing of his possessions But for all this to the ende that it may fully appeare bothe that Erasmus hath said somwhat and also from whence as I suppose this thing was mistaken I praye you heare the Quadriloge or storie of his life it self for that onely shall suffice to close vp the matter It appeareth by the authors of that worke that after suche time as the King and the Bishop had long contended and that with great heate about the Statutes of Clarendune that the Bishop vpon great offence taken had made thrée seuerall attempts to crosse the Seas towarde the Pope and was alwayes by contrarie winde repulsed and driuen to the lande againe The King in his iust indignation sought by all possible meanes to bridle his immoderate peuishnesse therefore first resumed into his owne handes al such honors and castles of his own as he had committed to the Bishops custodie TheÌ„ called he an assembly of al his Nobilitie bishops to NorthaÌ„pton castle where before them all he first charged Thomas with .500 l. that he had long before lent him for the repaiment wherof he ther coÌ„pelled him to giue fiue seueral sureties This done he called him to an account for .30000 Markes receiued of the reuenues of the crown during the time that he was Chancelour Now whiles the Archbishop was much troubled with this matter sometime denying to yeald any account at al somtime crauing respite to make a resolute aunswere but alwayes delaying the time and meditating howe to shifte the place there commeth on a time into his lodging the Bishops of London and Chichester who finding him at supper sayde vnto him worde for worde of the Quadriloge as followeth that is That they had founde out a way for peace and when the Archebishop had required vnder what forme they answered There is a question for money betweene you and the King If therefore you will assigne vnto the King your two Manors Otford and Wingham in the name of a pledge we beleue that he being therwith pacified will not only resigne you the Manors againe and forgiue you the money but also a great deale the sooner receiue you to his fauour To this the Archebishop replied The manor of Heche was somtime belonging to the Church of Canterburie as I haue hard which the King now hath in demeane And albeit that the only challenge of the thing is sufficient cause to haue it restored to the Church of Canterbury yet I do not loke that it will be doone in these times Neuerthelesse rather then I wil renounce the right which the church of Canterbury is sayd to haue in that Manor either for the appeasing of any trouble whatsoeuer or for recouerie of the Kings fauour I will offer this head of mine and touched it to any hazarde or daunger what soeuer it be The Bishops being angrie with this weÌ„t out from him and tolde the King of all and his indignation was sore kindled with it Thus muche out of the Quadriloge faithfully translated Nowe vpon the whole matter it appeareth first that the quarell was for the lawes of Clarendùne whiche yet depended and then that euen as a fire being once kindled the flame séeketh all about and imbraceth whatsoeuer it findeth in the way So the King being offended with the rebellion of this Bishop left no stone vntaken vp that might be hurled at him therefore brought in against him bothe debts accompts and whatsoeuer other meanes of annoyaunce Moreouer that this matter of Otford and Wingham for as you nowe sée it was not Otford alone was not at all tossed betwéene the King and the Archebishop but only moued by the pacifiers these two Bishops as a méete meane of reconciliation in their owne opinion and iudgement or if it may be thought that they were sent and suborned by the King himselfe with that deuise yet is it manifest that the right of the houses themselues were not desired but onely that they might remaine as a paine till the account were audited Neither if the gifte of this house would haue made an end of the strife doth it by and by followe that the contention was moued at the first about it And therfore as on the one side you may sée that Erasmus his reporte is but matter of Preface and no Gospell So yet on the other side it is euident that of such and so lustie a stomacke was this Archebishop that if former cause had not béene yet he could haue found in his hart to fall out with his Prince for this or a smaller matter For what would he not aduenture for a Manor or twaine in lawfull possession that would not sticke to hazard his head before he would release that right whiche he thought he had to a piece of land and that but only by hearesay or supposition But it is more theÌ„ time to make an end and therefore leauing Thomas and his house in the bottome let vs climbe the Hill
toward Sennocke Holmes Dale that is to say the Dale betweene the wooddie hilles THere are as yet to be séene at Reigate in Surrey the ruines of an auncient Castle somtime belonging to the Earles of Surrey whiche Alfrede of Beuerley calleth Holme and whiche the Countrie people do yet terme the Castle of Holmesdale This tooke the name of the Dale wherin it standeth whiche is large in quantitie extending it selfe a great length into Surrey and Kent also and was as I coniecture at the first called Holmesdale by reason that it is for the moste part Conuallis a plaine valley running betwéene two hilles that be replenished with stoare of woode for so muche the very woord Holmesdale it selfe importeth In this Dale a part of whiche we nowe crosse in our way to Sennocke the people of Kent being encouraged by the prosperous successe of Edward their King the Sonne of Alfrede and commonly surnamed Edward the Elder assembled thēselues and gaue to the Danes that had many yeares before afflicted them a moste sharpe and fierce encountre in the which after long fight they preuailed and the Danes were ouerthrowne and vanquished This victorie the like euent in an other battaile giuen to the Danes at Oxford which stādeth in this same valley also begate as I gesse the cōmon by word vsed amongst the inhabitants of this vale euen till this present day in whiche they vaunt after this manner The vale of Holmesdale Neuer wonne nor neuer shal Sennocke or as some call it Seauen oke of a number of trees as it is coniectured ABoute the latter end of the reigne of King Edward the third there was foūd lying in the stréetes at Sennocke poore childe whose Parents were vnknowne and he for the same cause named after the place where he was taken vp William Sennocke This Orphan was by the helpe of some charitable persons brought vp and nourtured in such wise that being made an Apprentice to a Grocer in London he arose by degrées in course of time to be Maior and chiefe Magistrate of that Citie At whiche time calling to his minde the goodnes of Almightie God and the fauour of the Townesmen extended towardes him he determined to make an euerlasting monument of his thankfull minde for the same And therefore of his owne charge builded bothe an Hospitall for reliefe of the poore and a Frée Schoole for the education of youthe within this Towne endowing the one and the other with competent yearely liuing as the dayes then suffered towards their sustentation maintenance But since his time the Schoole was much amended by the liberalitie of one Iohn Potkyn whiche liued vnder the reigne of King Henrie the eight now lately also in the reigne of our souereigne Ladie through the honest trauaile of diuers the inhabitants there not only the yearely stipend is much increased and the former litigious possessions quietly established but the corporation also chaunged into the name of two Wardeins and foure assistants of the frée Schoole of Quéene Elizabeth in Sennocke The present estate of the Towne it selfe is good and it séemeth to haue béene for these many yeares together in no worse plight And yet finde I not in all hystorie any memorable thing concerning it saue onely that in the time of King Henrie the sixt Iack Cade and his mischeuous meiny discomfited there Syr Humfrey Stafford and his Brother two Noble Gentlemen whome the King had sent to encounter them Eltham ANthonie Becke that Bishop of Durham whiche in the reignes of King Henrie the third of King Edward his Sonne builded Aucland Castle in the Bishopricke of Durham Somerton Castle in Lincolneshyre and Durham place at London was by the report of Iohn Leland either the very Author or the first beautifier of this the Princes house here at Eltham also It is noted of that man that he was in all his life and Port so gay glorious that the Nobility of the Realme disdained him greatly therefore But they did not consider belike that he was in possession Bishop of Durham which had Iura Regalia the Prerogatiues of a petie Kingdome and that he was by election Patriarche of Ierusalem whiche is néere Cousin to a Popedome in whiche respectes he might well inoughe be allowed to haue Domus splendidas luxu Regali his houses not only as gay as the Noble mens but also as gorgeous as the Kinges To say the trueth this was not to builde vp the spirituall house with liuely stones resting on the chiefe corner to Heauen and to Godward but with Mammon and Material stuffe to erect warrelyke Castles for the nourishment of contention and stately Palaces for the maintenaunce of worldly pride and pleasure towardes Hell and the Deuill Howbeit this was the whole studie of Bishops in the Popishe Kingdome and therefore letting that passe let vs sée what became of this piece of his building King Henrie the third saith Mat. Parise toward the latter end of his reigne kept a Royall Christmas as the manner then was at Eltham being accompanied with his Quéene and Nobilitie and this belike was the first warming of the house as I may call it after that the Bishop had finished his worke For I doe not hereby gather that hitherto the King had any property in it forasmuch as the Princes in those days vsed commonly both to soiourne for their pleasures and to passe their set solemnities also in Abbaies and Bishops houses But yet I beléeue verely that soone after the deathe of that Bishop the house came to the possession of the Crowne for proofe wherof I pray you heare and marke what followeth The wyfe of King Edward the second bare vnto him a Sonne at this house who was therof surnamed Iohn of Eltham What time King Iohn of Fraunce whiche had béen prisoner in England came ouer to visite King Edward the third who had moste honourably intreated him the King and his Quéene lay at Eltham to entertaine him King Henrie the fourth also kept his last Christmas at Eltham And King Henrie his Sonne and successour lay there at a Christmas likewise when he was faine to depart soudainly for feare of some that had conspired to murder him Furthermore Iohn Rosse writeth plainely that King Edward the fourthe to his greate cost repaired his house at Eltham at whiche time also as I suppose he inclosed Horne parke one of the thrée that be here and enlarged the other twaine And it is not yet fully out of memorie that king Henrie the seauenth set vp the faire front ouer the mote there since whose reigne this house by reason of the néerenesse to Greenewiche whiche also was muche amended by him and is through the benefite of the Riuer a seate of more commoditie hath not béen so greatly estéemed the rather also for that the pleasures of the emparked grounds here may be in manner as well enioyed the Courte lying at Greenewiche as if it were at this house it selfe These be
Gregorie the Pope had appointed Mathew of Westminster saith that Merlin had prophecied Dignitas Londoniae adornabit Dorobriniam William Malmesbury writeth that he did it Sedulitate Regis hospitis meaning King Ethelbert châ—ritate ciuium captus But I thinke verely that he ment thereby to leaue a glorious monument of his swelling pride vanitie wherevnto I am the rather led by the obseruation of his stately behauiour vsed towards the Bryttish Bishops and some other of his acts that sauour greatly of vaineglory ambition and insolence Whatsoeuer the cause were that moued him thus to apparell Canterbury with the Archebishop of Londons Palle at Canterbury hath it continued euer sithence sauing that at one time Offa the King of Mercia or midle England partly of a disposition to honour his owne countrie and partly of a iuste displeasure conceaued againste Lambright or Ianbright as some copies haue it the thirtéenth Archebishop for matter of treason translated the honour of the See eyther wholly or partly to Lichefield But there it remained not long for after the death of King Offa Kenulsus his successour restored Ethelard to his place at Canterbury againe The whole Prouince of this Bishopricke of Canterbury was at the firste diuided by Theodorus the seuenthe Bishop into fiue Diocesse only howbeit in processe of tyme it grewe to twentie and one besides it selfe leauing to Yorke which by the first institution should haue had as many as it but Durham Carleil and Chester only And whereas by the same ordinance of Gregorie neither of these Archebishoppes ought to be inferiour to other saue only in respect of the prioritie of their consecration Lanfranc thinking it good reason that he should make a conquest of the Englishe Clergie since his maister King William had vanquished the whole nation conteÌ„ded at Windsore with Thomas Norman Archebishoppe of Yorke for the primacie and there by iudgement before Hugo the Popes Legate recouered it from him so that euer since the one is called Totius Angliae primas and the other Angliae primas without any further addition Of which iudgement one forsooth hathe yeelded this great reason that euen as the Kentish people by an auncient prerogatiue of manhoode doe chalenge the first fronte in eache battaile from the inhabitants of other countries So the Archbishop of their shyre ought by good congruence to be preferred before the rest of the Byshops of the whole Realme Moreouer whereas before time the place of this Archebishop in the generall Counsell was to sit next to the Bishop of sainct Ruffines Anselmus the Successour of this Lanfranc for recompence of the good seruice that hee had done in ruffling againste Priestes wyues and resisting the King for the inuestiture of clerkes was by Pope Vrbane endowed with this accession of honour that hee and his successours should froÌ„ thencefoorth haue place in all generall counsels at the Popes right foote who then said withall Includamus hunc in orbe nostro tanquam alterius orbis Papam And thus the Archebishops of Canterbury by the fraude of Augustine by the power of Lanfranc and by the industrie of Anselme were muche exalted but how much that was to the greeuous displeasure and pining enuie of the Archbyshops of Yorke you shall perceiue by that whiche followeth King Henry the firste kept vpon a time a stately Christmas at Windsore where the maner of our kings then being at certeine solemne times to weare their crownes Thurstine of Yorke hauing his crosse borne vp before him offered to set the crowne vpon the kings head But William of Canterbury withstoode it stoutly and so preuayled by the fauoure of the king and the helpe of the standers by that Thurstine was not onely disappointed of his purpose but he and his crosse also thrust cleane out of the doores William of Yorke the next in succession after Thurstine both in the Sée and Quarell perceiuing that the force of his predecessor preuayled nothing attempted by his own humble meanes first made to the king and after to the Pope to winne the coronation of king Henry the seconde from Theobald the nexte Archbyshop of Canterbury But when he had receiued repulse in that sort of suite also and found no way left to make auengement vpon his enemie he returned home al wrothe and mixing poyson in the chalice at his Masse wreaked the anger vpon himselfe After this another hurley burley happened in a Synode assembled at Westminster in the time of king Henry the second before Cardinal Hugo Pope Alexanders Legate betwéen Richard and Roger then Archbishops of these two Sées vpon occasion that Roger of York comming of purpose as it should séeme first to the assembly had taken vp the place on the right hande of the Cardinall which when Richard of Canterbury had espyed he refused to sit downe in the second roome complayning greatly of this preiudice done to his Sée whervpon after sundry replies of speache the weaker in disputation after the maner of shrewd schole boyes in LoÌ„don streats descended froÌ„ hote words to hastie blowes in which encounter the Archbyshop of Canterburie through the multitude of his meiney obteined the better So that he not onely plucked the other out of his place and trampling vpon his body with his his féete al to rent and tare his Casule Chimer and Rochet but also disturbed the holy Synode therwithal in suche wise that the Cardinall for feare betooke him to his féete the company departed their businesse vndone and the Byshops themselues moued suite at Rome for the finishing of their controuersie By these such other successes on the one side the Byshops of Canterburie following tooke suche courage that from thencefoorth they woulde not permit the Byshops of Yorke to beare vp the crosse either in their presence or prouince And on the other side the Byshops of Yorke conceiued suche griefe of heart disdaine and offence that from time to time they spared no occasion to attempt both the one the other Wherevpon in the time of a Parleament holden at LondoÌ„ in the reigne of King Henrie the third Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury interdicted the Londoners bycause they had suffered the Byshop of Yorke to beare vp his crosse whiles he was in the citie And much to doe there was within a few yeeres after betwéene Robert Kylwarby of Canterburie and Walter Giffard of Yorke bycause he of Yorke aduaunced his crosse as he passed through Kent towardes the generall Counsell The like happened also at two other seuerall times betwéene Friar Peckam Archebyshop of Canterburie and William Winkewane and Iohn de Roma Archbyshops of Yorke in the dayes of King Edwarde the firste At the length the matter being yet once more set on foote betwéene Simon Islepe the Archebishop of this countrie and his aduersarie the incumbent of Yorke for that time King Edward the third in whose reigne that variance was reuined resumed the matter into his owne hande and made a finall
composition betwéene them the which he published vnder his broade seale to this effect first that eache of them should fréely and without empeachement of the other beare vp his crosse in the others Prouince but yet so that he of Yorke and his successours for euer in signe of subiection should within two monethes after their inthronization either bring or sende to Canterbury the Image of an Archebishop bearing a crosse or some other Iewell wrought in fine golde to the value of fourtie poundes and offer it openly there vpon Sainct Thomas Beckets shryne then that in all Synodes of the clergie and assemblies where the King should happen to be present he of Canterbury should haue the right hand and the other the lefte finally that in broade streetes and highe wayes their crossebearers should go togeather but that in narrowe lanes and in the entries of doores and gates the crossier of Canterbury should go before and the other followe and come behinde So that as you sée the Bishoppes of Canterbury euermore preuayling by fauour and obstinacie they of Yorke were driuen in the end to giue ouer in the plain field for very dispaire wanhope and weerinesse But heare by the way I woulde faine for my learning knowe of these godly Fathers or rather since themselues can not now make answer of some of their vngodly fauourers whether this their Helena this crosse for the bearing whereof they contended so long and so bitterly that a man might doubt with the Poet Peceat vter Cruce dignius whether I say it were exalted as the signe of that Crosse whereon Christ triumphed ouer the Diuel or els but for a flagge and antsigne of their owne pride whereby they sought to triumphe and insult the one ouer the other And againe if it were Christes crosse then why they did forbid it to bee aduaunced at any time by any person or in any place Or if it were but their owne then why they did and yet doe commaund vs simple soules not only with greate humilitie but with diuine honour also to prostrate our selues and to adore it I am sure they may be ashamed to affirme it to bee the one I thinke they wil be ashamed to confesse it to be the other I wil ceasse therfore to vrge it any further wil prosecute the Catalogue of the Archebishoppes of this See since the arriual of Augustine In the which the first seuen be of that number which Pope Gregorie sent hither out of Italie The next twentie thrée and Stigande were Saxons all the residue Normanes Englishmen And bycause there is some variance as touching the times of their continuance and sitting I purpose to shew vnder one view the opinion of two sundrie authours so farre foorth as they haue spoken therof that is to say William of Malmesbury and an auncient Chronicler of Couentrie whose name I haue not hytherto learned and in the residue to follow our owne late and receaued writers The beginnings of their gouernements after the Annales of Canterbury The yeres of their Continuance in gouernment after the opinion of An. Do.  Wil. Malm. Chro. Couen 599. Augustine whome our Louanistes call the Englishe Apostle 16. 16. 612. Laurence 5. 5. 617. Mellite 5. 5. 624. Iustus 3. 9. 626. Honorius 26. 20. 653. Deusdedit or Deodat the first Saxon. 10. 9.  Wighard whiche dyed at Rome before his consecration   668. Theodore a Graecian borne and the last of those that came out of Italie 22. 22. 691. Brightwald 37. 38. 731. Tatwine 3. 4. 737. Nothelinus or Iocelin 5. 7. 741. Cuthbert the first that was buryed in Christeschurche and that obteined churchyards for England 17. 17. 759. Bregwine 3. 3. 774. Lanbright or Ianbright in his time the See was translated to Lichefield 17. 17. 790. Aethelwardus he recouered the See to Canterbury againe  23.  Wulfredus or Wifred 28. 28. 830. Fegeldus or Swithredus thrée monethes 831. Celnothus or Eilnothus 41. 41. 890. Etheredus or Etheldredus 18. 18.  Pleimundus one of the learned men that instructed king Alfred 34. 34. 925. Athelmus 12. 13. 947. Wulfhenius or Wulfhelmus 13. 14. 956. Odo or Odosegodus 5. 20. 958. Elfsius or Elfsinus or Elsinus whiche dyed before his consecration in his iourney towardes Rome in reuenge as they say bicause he came in by Simonie and sporned at the Tumbe of his predecessor    Brithelmus was elected but king Edgar reiected him   970. Dunstanus the famous Iuggler  26. 989. Ethelgarus 1. 1. 991. Siricius by his aduice King Etheldred gaue to the Danes a great summe of money 5. 5. 996. Alfricus   1004. Aelfegus hee was slaine by the Danes 6. 6. 1012. Liuingus or Ethelstanus 7. 7.  Eilwardus   1020. Egelnothus 18. 18. 1038. Eadsius or Edsinus who for siknes cōmitted the charge to Siwardus the Abbat of Abingdon after Bishoppe of Rochester whiche neuerthelesse vouchesafed not to finde him necessaries 11. 11. 1050. Robertus Gemeticensis the first Norman aduaunced by King Edward the confessor 12. 12. 1053. Stigandus deposed by the conquerour 17. 17. 1072. Lanfrancus in his time the Bishoppes Sees were first remoued from villages to Cities 19. 19 1093. Anselmus in his time lawe was first made to diuorce Priestes from their wiues 16. 16. 1114. Radulphus Roffensis surnamed Nugax  9. 1122. Willimus de Corueil he crowned Stephan against his fayth giuē to Maude the Empresse  15. 1138. Theobaldus he was endowed firste with the title of Legatus Natus by Pope Innocent the second  23. 1162. Thomas Becket the first Englisheman after the Conquest  8. Robertus the Abbat of Bec was elected but he refused it   1173. Richardus the Pryor of Douer  9. 1183. Baldwinus the bishop of Worcester he dyed in the expedition that king Richard the first made into Syria was before at great contention with the Monkes  7. Reginaldus he dyed before consecration   1193. Hubertus  13. 1205. Stephanus de Langton the cause of the trouble of king Iohn  21. 1228. Gualterus de Euesham elected but refused bothe by the King and Pope for the insufficiencie of learning   1229. Richardus Magnus  8. 1233. Iohannes the Sub-prior of Christs churche was elected after the Pope had refused one Ralph Neuel but this Iohn resigned in whose place Iohn Blund was chosen but that election also was repealed   1234. Edmundus de Abingdon the one twentie Bishop of Cant. that the Popes had canonized He departed the realme died for anger of a repulse  7. 1244. Bonifacius vncle to Elenor the wife of Henrie the thirde  16. 1270. Willelmus de Chillenden elected but he resigned to the Pope who chose Kilwardby   1272. Robertus Kilwardby Friar preacher  6. 1278. Iohannes Burnel Bishop of Bathe elected but the Pope refused him and appoynted Friar Peckam   1279. Iohannes de Peckam a friar Minor born in Sussex  13. 1292.
dayes together And thus it stoode with the Portes for their generall charge in the sixte yeare of his reigne for then was this Chartre sealed But as touching the particular burthen of eche one I haue séene two diuers testimonies of whiche the first is a note in Frenche bearing the countenance of a Record and is intituled to haue bene renued in the two and twentie yeare of the Reigne of the same King by Stephan Penchester then Constable of Douer Castle in whiche the particular charge is set downe in this manner The Port of Hastings ought to finde thrée ships The lowie of Peuensey one Buluerhithe and Petit Iahn one Bekisborne in Kent seuen Grenche in Kent two men and armour with the ships of Hastings The towne of Rye fiue To it was Tenterdene annexed in the tyme of King Henrie the sixt The towne of Winchelsey ten The Port of Rumney foure Lydde seuen The Porte of Hythe fiue The Port of Douer ninetéene The towne of Folkstone seuen The towne of Feuersham seuen The Port of Sandwiche with Stonor Fordwich Dale c. fiue These Ships they ought to finde vpon fourtie dayes summons armed and arrayed at their owne charge and in eche of them twentie men besides the Maister of of the Mariners all whiche they shall likewyse maynteine fiue dayes together at their owne costes giuing to the Maister sixe pence by the day to the Constable vj. pence and to eache other Mariner iij. d. And after those fiue dayes ended the King shall defray the wages The other is a Latine Custumall of the towne of Hyde the whiche although it pretend not so great antiquitie as the first yet séemeth it to me to importe as muche or more likelyhode and credit It standeth thus These be the Fiue Portes of our soueraigne Lord the King hauing liberties which other Portes haue not Hasting Romenal Hethe Douer Sandwiche the chiefe Townes The seruices due by the same Hasting shal finde .21 ships in euery ship .21 men and a Garcion or Boye whiche is called a Gromet To it perteine as the members of one towne the Seashore in Seford Peuenshey Hodeney Winchelsey Rye Ihame Bekesbourne Grenge Northie Bulwerhethe Romenal 5. ships In euery ship .21 men and a Garcion To it perteine as members thereof Promhell Lede Eastwestone Dengemareys olde Rumney Hethe .5 ships as Romenal before To it perteineth the Westhethe Douer .21 ships as Hasting before To it perteine Folkstane Feuersham and Sainct Margerets not concerning the land but for the goods and cattailes Sandwich .5 ships as Romenal and Hethe before To it perteine Fordwiche Reculuer Serre and Dele not for the soyle but for the goods Summe of the Ships 57. Summe of the men 1187. and 57. Garcions This seruice the Barons of the Fiue Portes do acknowledge to owe to the King vpon summons yearely if it happen by the space of .15 dayes together at their owne costes and charges accounting that for the first day of the .15 in whiche they shall spread their sayles to goe towards those partes that the King intendeth and to serue so long after .15 dayes as the King will at his owne pay and wages Thus muche out of these auncient notes whereby your self may easely discerne the difference but whether the one or the other or by reason of some latter despēsation neither of these haue place at this day I must referre to them that be priuie of counsell with the Ports and so leauing this also vndecided holde on the waye wherein I am entred This dutie of attendance therfore being deuised for the honourable transportation and salfe conduct of the Kings owne person ouer the narrow Seas the Portes haue not onely most diligently euer since that time performed but furthermore also valiantly behaued them selues against the enemie from time to time in sundry exploits by water as occasion hath ben proffered or the necessitie of the Realme required And amongest other feates not vnworthy perpetuall remembrance after such time as Lewes the French Dolphen had entered the Realme to ayde Stephan Langton the Archebishop and the Nobilitie in the life of King Iohn and had sent into Fraunce for newe supply of souldiers after his death Hubert of Borough then Captaine of Douer following the opinion of Themistocles in the exposition of the Oracle of the wooden walles by the aide of the Port townes armed fourtie tall ships and méeting with eightie saile of Frenchmen vpon the high Seas gaue them a most courageous encounter in whiche he tooke some sounke others and discomfited the rest King Henrie the thirde also after that he came to riper age had great benefite by the seruice of the Cinque Portes And King Edward the first in his Chartre maketh their continuall faythfull seruice and especially their good endeuour then lately shewed againste the Welshmen the principall cause and motiue of that his liberall graunt Furthermore about the midst of the reigne of the same King a hundreth sayle of the Nauie of the Ports fought at the Sea with a fleete of .200 Frenchmen all whiche notwithstanding the great ods of the number they tooke and slewe and sounke so many of the Maryners that Fraunce was thereby for a long season after in manner destitute both of Seamen and shipping Finally and to conclude this part in the dayes of King Henrie the fourth the Nauie of the Fiue Portes vnder the conducte of one Henrie Paye surprysed one hundreth and twentie Frenche Ships all laden with Salte Iron Oyle and no worse Merchandize The priuiledges of these Portes being first graunted by Edward the Confessour and William the Conquerour and then confirmed and increased by Williā Rufus Henrie the second Richard the first Henry the third king Edward the first be very great considering either the honour and ease or the freedome and exemption that the inhabitaunts haue by reason of the same For they sende Burgesses to the Parleament whiche by an honourable name be called Barons They beare the foure staues of the Canapie ouer the Kings head at the time of his coronation and they dyne at the vppermost table in the great hall on his right hand They themselues be exempted from all payments of subsidie And theyr Heires fréed from wardship of body notwithstanding any tenure They bée empleadable in their owne Townes also and not elsewhere They haue amongst themselues in eache Porte their particular place of iustice and at Shipwey the general courte of their assemblie where the Lord Warden taketh his othe at his first entrie into the office where they ought of right to holde all their generall Plées also although they sit now for the moste part at Douer They haue power if iustice be not done them to take the inhabitaunts of other Townes and Cities in Withernam to gouerne Yarmouth by their Baylife for one season of the yeare to doe iustice vpon criminall offendours To holde Plée in Actions reall and personall to take Conusance by fine to
William Becley in the reigne of King Henrie the sixt But nowe lately to repaire the losse of that dissolution Maister Roger Manwoode a man borne in the Towne and aduaunced by vertue and good learning to the degrée of a Serieant at the Lawe hathe for the increase of Godlinesse and good letters erected and endowed a faire Free Schoole there from whence there is hope that the common wealth shall reape more profite after a fewe yeares then it receaued commoditie by the Carmelites since the time of their first foundation This only is that whiche I had to say either of the present or passed estate of this place whiche done I will procéede to the narration of suche other thinges as long since happened thereaboutes partly for the illustration of the antiquitie of the towne partly for the setting forth of the cōmoditie of the hauen but chiefly for the obseruation of the order whiche I haue beegonne whiche is to pretermitte nothing woorthie note that I finde in stoarie concerning the place that I take in hand But bycause that whiche I haue to say dependeth altogether or for the greater parte vpon the Hystorie of the Danes whiche many yeares together disquieted this land it shal bée fitte aswell for the better explication of the thinges presently in hand as also for the more easie vnderstanding of other matters that must hereafter followe to disclose so compendiously as I may the first beginning procéeding and ending of the Danishe affaires warres and troubles within this Realme Aboute the yeare after Christe seuen hundreth foure score and seuen thrée vessels of the Northe East Countrie men whose ancestors had before within the compasse of one hundrethe and fourtie yeares sacked Rome in Italie foure seuerall times and whose ofspring afterward wonne Normandie from the Frenche King shewed them selues vpon the westerne shoare of England being sent before hand as it is supposed to espie the cōmoditie of the hauens the aduauntage of arriual the wealthe and force of the inhabitants to the end to prepare the way for greater powers then were appoin to followe These had no sooner set some of their men on lande but the Reeue or officer or Beorhtricke or Brictricke then King of the West Saxons had knowledge therof who came vnto them and demaunding the cause of their arriual would haue carried them to the Kings presence but they in their resistance slewe him wherevpon the people of the Countrie adioyning addressed themselues to reuenge and assembling in great numbers beate them backe to their ships not without the losse of some of their company And this was the first attempt that euer the Danes for so our hystories cal by one general name the Danes Norwais Gottes Vandals others of that part made vpon England after whiche tyme what horrible inuasions miseries calamities and oppressions followed shall appeare anone Not long after this enterprise a fewe ships of them made the lyke assay in Scotland and within short space after that also some other of them entred Tynemouth Hauen in the North parte of England and taking some small booties retourned to their vessels Now by this experiment they had gained sufficient knowledge of that for whiche they first came therefore thinking it fit tyme to assay further they rigged vp a greater numbre of ships armed more store of chosen souldiers entred the Riuer of Thamise with fiue and thirtie sayle landed in despight of the people fired spoyled herried and preuailed so farre that Egbert who then had the Monarchie ouer all England was faine to come with all his power to the reliefe and rescue But suche was the will of God for the punishement of Idolatrie and superstition which then ouerwhelmed this Realme that the Danes in stead of being discomfited by the Kings repaire were merueilously encouraged by his misfortune For after that they had once gotten the better in the field against him they were so embouldened therby that notwithstanding he afterward and some other valiant Princes following by great prowesse abated their furie in parte yet adioyning themselues to the Britons that then were in great emnitie with the Saxons and swarming hither out of their owne Countrie in such flightes that the number of the slaine was continually supplied with greate aduauntage they neuer ceassed to infeste the Realme by the space of thrée hundreth yeares and more during the reignes of fiftéene seuerall Kings till at the last they had made Etheldred flye ouer into Normandie leaue them his Kingdome During all whiche time howe mightely their forces increased vnder Hinguar Hubba Halfden Guthrum Aulaf and Hasten their Nauie being rysen from thrée ships to thrée hundrethe and fiftie at the least howe pitiously the East West Southe and Northe parts of the Realme were wasted the townes Cities religious houses and Monasteries of eache quarter being consumed with flames howe miserably the common people were afflictted men women and children on all sides going to wracke by their tempestuous furie howe marueilously the Kings were amased the arriualles of these their enemies being no lesse sudaine then violent howe barbarously the monuments of good learning were defaced the same suffering more by the immanitie of this one brutishe Nation then by all the warres and conquestes of the Pictes Scots Romanes and Saxons and finally how furiously fire and swoord famine and pestilence raged in euery place God and men Heauen and the elements conspiring as it were the fatall destruction of the Realme I may not here stand to prosecute particularly but leauing eache thing to fitte place I will procéede with King Etheldred and so to my purpose This man aboue all other was so distressed by their continual inuasions that since he wanted force to make his longer defence he thought it best to giue money for their continuall peace And therefore charging his people with importable tributes he first gaue them at fiue seuerall payes 113000. l. afterward promised thē 48000. yearely hoping that for asmuch as they seemed by the manner of their warre rather to séeke his coyne then his kingdome to rob then to rule at the least this way to haue satisfied their hunger but like as the stone called Syphinus the more it is moisted the harder it waxeth so no giftes could quenche the golden thirste of these gréedie raueners but the more was brought to appease them the more stonie and inexorable they shewed thēselues neuer ceassing euen against promises othes hostages to execute their accustomed crueltie Herevpon King Etheldred hauing nowe exhausted the whole treasure of his Realme and therefore more vnable then euer he was either by power or praier to help himself or to relieue his subiectes determined by a fine policie as he thought to deliuer bothe the one and the other For whiche purpose by the aduise of one Huna the generall of his armie he wrote letters to eache part of the Realme commaunding that vpon S. Brices day which is the morowe after Sainct
Martins night the Englishe men should all at once set vpon the Danes before they had disgested the surfaite of that drunken solemnitie and so vtterly kyll and destroy them This his commaundement was receaued with suche liking entertained with such secreacie and executed with such spéede and celeritie that the Danes were sodainly in a manner wholly bothe men women and children like the Sonnes in Lawe of Danaus oppressed at once in a night only a fewe escaped by Sea into Denmarke and there made complaint of King Etheldreds boucherie For reuenge whereof Sweyn their King bothe armed his owne people waged forreigne aide and so preparing a houge armie tooke shipping and arriued first here at Sandwiche and after in the Northe Countrie the terrour of whose comming was suche that it caused the Countrie people on all sides to submitte them selues vnto him in so muche that King Etheldred séeing the cause desperate and him selfe destitute fled ouer into Normandie with his wife and children friendes familie After whiche his departure although both he him selfe returned and put Canutus the next King of the Danes to flight and Edmund his Sonne also fought sundrie great battailes with him yet the Danes preuailed so mightely vpon them that thrée of them in succession that is to say Canutus Haroldus and Hardicanutus reigned Kings here in England almoste by the space of thirtie yeares together so muche to the infamous oppression slauery and thraldome of the English Nation that euery Dane was for feare called Lord Dane and had at his commaundement wheresoeuer he became bothe man and wyfe and whatsoeuer else he found in the house At the lengthe God taking pitie vpon the people tooke sodainly away King Hardicanute after whose death the Nobilitie CoÌ„mons of the Realme ioyned so firmely and faithfully both hartes and hands with their naturall and Liege Lord King Edward that the Danes were once againe and for euer expulsed this Countrie in so much that soone after the name Lord Dane being before tyme a woord of great awe and honour grewe to a terme and bywoord of foule despight and reproche being tourned as it yet continueth to Lourdaine besides that euer after the common people in ioye of that deliuerance haue celebrated the annuall day of Hardicanutus deathe with open pastime in the streates calling it euen till this oure time Hoctuesday in steade as I thinke of Hucxtuesdaeg that is to say the skorning or mocking Tuesday And nowe thus muche summarily being saide as concerning the trueth of the Danes being here who ruled in this land almoste thirtie yeares and raged without all rule aboue three hundreth and fiftie I will returne to Sandwiche disclosing therein suche occurrents of the Danishe doings as perteine to my purpose In the yeare eight hundreth fiftie and one after Christ Athelstane the Sonne of Ethelwulfe King of Kent whome Mathewe of Westminster taketh or rather mistaketh for a Bishop fought at the Sea before Sandwiche against a great Nauie of the Danes of whiche he tooke nine vessels discomfited the residue Against another Fléete of the Danes whiche landed at Sandwiche in the yeare one thousand and sixe King Etheldred made this prouision that euerie thrée hundreth and ten Hydes of Land whiche Henrie Huntingdon Mathewe Parise and others expound to be so many plowlands should be charged with the furniture of one ship and euery eight Hydes should finde one iacke and sallet for the defence of the Realme By whiche meane he made redy a mighty nauie to the Sea But what through the iniurie of sudaine tempest and what by the defection of some of his Nobilitie he profited nothing King Canutus also after that he had receaued the the woorse in a fight in Lincolneshyre whiche drewe to his ships that laye in the hauen at Sandwiche there moste barbarously behaued himselfe cutting of the handes and féete of suche as he had taken for hostage and so departed al wrothe and melancholike into Denmarke to repaire his armie The same man at his returne hither tooke land with his power at this towne and so did Hardicanutus his sonne after him Furthermore in the dayes of King Edward the confessour two Princes or rather principall Pirates of the Danes called Lochen and Irlinge landed at Sandwiche and laded their ships with riche spoyle wherewith they crossed ouer the seas to Flaunders and there made money of it At this place landed Lewes the FreÌ„ch Dolphine that ayded the Englishe Nobilitie against King Iohn as we shall hereafter haue cause to shewe more at large Finally in the reigne of King Richard the seconde certeine Frenche ships were taken at the Sea whereof some were fraught with the frame of a timber Castle suche another I suppose as WilliaÌ„ the Conquerour erected at Hastings so soone as he was arriued whiche they also ment to haue planted in some place of this Realme for our anoyaunce but they failed of their purpose for the Engyne being taken from them it was set vp at this Towne vsed to our great safetie and their repulse Eastrye HAuing somewhat to say of Eastrye I trust it shal be no great offence to turne oure eye a little from the shoare and talke of it in our way to Deale It is the name of a Towne and Hundreth within the Last of Sainct Augustines and hath the addition of East for difference sake from Westrye coÌ„monly called Rye nere to Winchelsey in Sussex Mathewe of Westminster maketh report of a murther done at it which because it tendeth much to the declaration of the auncieÌ„t estate of the town I will not sticke to rehearse so shortly as I can After the deathe of Ercombert the seuenth King of Kent Egbert his Sonne succéeded in the kingdome who caused to be vertuously brought vp in his Palaice which was then at this Towne two young Noble men of his own kinred as some say or rather his owne Brethren as William of Malmesbury writethe the one being called Ethelbert and the other Etheldred these Gentlemen so prospered in good learning courtlike manners feates of actiuitie méete for men of their yeares and parentage that on the one side they gaue to all wel disposed persons and louers of vertue great expectation that they would become at the length men worthie of muche estimation and honour and on the other side they drewe vpon them the feare mislyking and vtter hatred of the naughtie wicked and malicious sort Of the whiche nuÌ„ber there was one of the Kings owne houshold called Thunner who as vertue neuer wanteth her enuiers of a certaine diuelishe malice repyning at their laudable increase neuer ceassed to â—lowe into the Kings eare moste vntrue accâ—sations against them And to the end that he might the rather prouoke the King to displeasure he persuaded him of great daunger toward his estate and person by them and for as muche as the common people who more commonly worship the Sunne rising then going downe
at the Kings handes The King hearing the complaint ment to make correction of the fault but the Townesmen also had complained themselues to Godwine who determining vnaduisedly to defend his clients and seruauntes opposed himselfe violently against the King his Leige Lord and Maister To bee short the matter waxed within a while so hote betwéene them that either side for maintenance of their cause arraied and conducted a great armie into the field Godwine demaunded of the King that Eustace might be deliuered vnto him the King cōmaunded Godwine that armes laide aside hee would answere his disobedience by order of the Lawe and in the ende Godwine was banished the Realme by the sentence of the King and Nobilitie wherevpon hee and his Sonnes fled ouer the Sea and neuer ceassed to vnquiet the King and spoyle his subiects til they were reconciled to his fauour and restored to their auncient estate and dignitie This towne was so sore wasted with fire soone after the comming in of King William the Conquerour that it was wholly saue onely nine and twentie dwelling houses consumed and brought to ashes And in the time of King Edward the first also whiles two of the Popes Cardinales were here in the treatie of an attonement to be made betwéene England and Fraunce the Frenchemen landed at Douer in a right and burned a great part of the towne and some of the religious buildings So that in those times it was muche empayred by those misfortunes But nowe in our memorie what by decay of the hauen whiche King Henrie the eight to his great charge but that all in vayne sought to restore and what by the ouerthrowe of the religious houses and losse of Calaice it is brought in maner to miserable nakednesse and decaye whiche thing were the lesse to be pitied if it were not accompanyed with the ruine of the Castell it selfe the decay whereof is so much the more grieuous as the fame therof is with our ancient stories aboue al other most blasing glorious The Castell of Douer sayth Lidgate and Rosse was firste builded by Iulius Caesar the Romane Emperour in memorie of whome they of the Castell kept till this day certeine vessels of olde wine and salte whiche they affirme to be the remayne of suche prouision as he brought into it As touching the whiche if they be natural and not sophisticate I suppose them more likely to haue béene of that store whiche Hubert de Burghe layde in there of whome I shall haue cause to say more hereafter But as concerning the building bycause I finde not in Caesar his owne Commentaries mention of any fortification that he made within the Realme I thinke that the more credible reporte whiche ascribeth the foundation to Aruiragus a King of the Britons of whome Iuuenal the Poet hath mention saying to the Emperour Nero in this wise Regem aliquem capies aut de temone Britanno Excidet Aruiragus c. Some King thou shalt a captaine take or els from Bryttishe wayne Shall Aruiragus tumble downe And of whome others write that he founde suche fauour in the eye of Claudius the Emperour that he obtained his daughter to wife But whosoeuer were the authour of this Castell Mathewe Parise writeth that it was accounted in his time which was vnder the reigne of King Henry the third Clauis Repagulum totius Regni the very locke and key of the whole Realme of England And truly it séemeth to me by that which I haue read of King William the Conquerour that he also thought no lesse of it For at suche time as Harold being in Normandie with him whether of purpose or against his will I leaue as I finde it at large made a corporall othe to put him in possession of the Crowne after the death of King Edwarde It was one parcell of his othe that he should deliuer vnto him this castell and the Well within it The same King had no soner ouerthrowne Harolde in the fielde and reduced the Londoners to obedience but foorthwith he marched with his armie towarde Douer as to a place of greatest importaunce and spéede in that iourney as is already declared Not long after whiche time also when he had in his owne opinion peaceably established the gouernment of this Realme and was departed ouer into Normandie of purpose to commit the order of that countrie to Robert his sonne diuers of the shyre of Kent knowing right well howe muche it might annoy him to lose Douer conspired with Eustace the Earle of Boloine for the recouerie and surprise of the same And for the better atchieuing of their desire it was agréed that the Earle should crosse the seas in a night by them appointed at whiche time they woulde not faile with all their force to méete him and so ioyning handes soudainly assayle and enter it They met accordingly and marched by darke night toward the Castell well furnished with scaling ladders but by reason that the watch had discried them they not only fayled of that whiche they intended but also fell into that whiche they neuer feared for the Souldiours within the Castell to whome Odo the Bishop of Borieux and Hughe Mountfort which then were with the King in Normandie had committed the charge thereof kept them selues close and suffered the assaylants to approche the wall and then whiles they disorderly attempted to scale it they set wide open their gates and made a soudaine salie out of the péece and set vpon them with suche furie that they compelled Eustace with a fewe others to returne to his Shippe the reste of his companie béeing eyther slayne by the sworde destroyed by fall from the Clyffe or deuoured by the Sea. The same King also béeing worthely offended with the disobedience auarice and ambition of Odo his bastarde brother whome he had promoted to the Bishopricke of Borieux and to the Earldome of Kent for that he had not onely by rauine and extortion raked together greate masses of Golde and treasure whiche he caused to be grounde into fine pouder and filling therewith dyuers pottes and crockes had sounk them in the bottomes of Riuers intending therwithall to haue purchased the Papacie of Rome But also bycause he refused to render vnto him the Countie of Kent and was suspected for aspiring to the Crowne of this Realme consulted with Lanfranc the Archebishop of Canterburye and a professed enemie to Odo howe hée might safely and without offence to the Ecclesiasticall estate for that hée was a Bishoppe bothe conteyne that treasure within the Realme and also deteyne hys person from going into Italie whether warde he bothe addressed him selfe with all speede and gathered for his trayne great troupes of valiaunt and seruiceable men out of euerie quarter Lanfranc counseled the King to commit him to safe custodie and for his defence armed him with this pretie shift If it be layde to your charge quoth he that you haue layde violent handes vpon a sacred Bishop Say that you
this shoare Folkstone in Saxon folcestane Id est Populi Lapis or else flostane whiche signifieth a rocke or a flawe of stone AMongest the places lying on this shoare worthy of note nexte after Douer followeth Folkstone where Eanfled or rather Eanswide the daughter of Eadbalde the sonne of Ethelbert and in order of succession the sixte King of Kent long since erected a religious Pryorie of women not in the place where S. Peters Churche at Folkstone nowe standeth but Southe from thence where the Sea many yeares agoe hath swalowed and eaten it And yet least you shoulde thinke S. Peters Parishe churche to be voyde of reuerence I must let you knowe of Noua Legenda Angliae that before the Sea had deuoured all S. Eanswides reliques were translated thither The author of that worke reporteth many wonders of this woman as that she lengthened a beame of that building thrée foote when the Carpenters missing in their measure had made it so muche too shorte That she haled and drew water ouer the hilles against nature That she forbad certain rauenous birdes the countrey which before did muche harme there abouts That she restored the blynde caste out the Diuel and healed innumerable folkes of their infirmities And therefore after her deathe she was by the policie of the Popishe priestes and follie of the common people honoured for a Sainct And no maruail at all for it was vsuall in Papistrie not onely to magnifie their Benefactours of all sortes but to edifie also so many of them at the leaste as were of noble Parentage knowing that thereby triple commoditie ensued the first for as muche as by that meane they assured many great personages vnto them secondly they drewe by the awe of their example infinite numbers of the common people after them And lastly they aduentured the more bouldly vnder those honourable and glorious names and titles to publishe their pouishe and pelting miracles And this surely was the cause that Sexburge in Shepie Mildred in Tanet Etheldred at Elye Edith at Wilton and sundrie other simple women of Royall blood in eache quarter were canonized Saincts for generally the Religious of those tymes were as thankfull to their Benefactors as euer were the heathen nations to their first Kings and founders The one sort Sanctifying suche as did either builde them houses or deuise them orders And the other Deifying suche as had made them Cities or prescribed them Lawes and gouernement This was it that made Saturne Hercules Romulus and others moe to haue place in common opinion with the Gods aboue the starres and this caused Dunstane Edgar Ethel would and others first to be shryued here in earth and then to sit amongest the Saincts in Heauen But let me now leaue their policie and returne to the Hystorie The Towne of Folkestone was sore spoyled by Earle Godwine and his Sonnes what time they harried that whole coast of Kent for reuenge of their banishment as we haue often before remembred The Hundred of Folkstone conteined in the time of King Edward the Confessour a hundrethe and twentie ploughe landes it had in it fiue Parishe Churches it was valued at a hundrethe and ten poundes belonged to the Earle Godwine before named The Manor was giuen to William Albranc of whome I made mention in Douer with condition to finde one and twentie warders toward the defence of that Castle and it grewe in time to be the head of an honour or Baronie as in the Records of the Exchequer remaineth as yet to bée séene Saltwood THat Saltwood was long sithence an Honor also it may appeare by an auÌ„cient writ directed by King Henrie the second from beyond the Seas to King Henrie his Sonne for the restitution of Thomas Becket the Archebishop to all suche goodes landes and fées as were taken from him during the displeasure betwéene them whiche writ bothe for shewe of the auncient forme and bycause it conteineth the matter of hystorie I wil not stick to exemplifie word for woord as Mathewe Parise hathe recorded it Sciatis quod Thomas Cant. Episcopus paceÌ„ mecum fecit ad voluntatem meam ideo praecipio tibi vt ipse omnes sui pacem habeant faciatis ei habere suis omnes res suas bene in pace honorifice sicut habuerunt tribus meÌ„sibus antequaÌ„ exirent Angliae faciatisque venire coraÌ„ vobis de melioribus antiquioribus militibus de honore de Saltwood eoruÌ„ iurameÌ„to faciatis inquiri quid ibi habetur de feodo Archiepiscopatê° Cant. quod recognituÌ„ fuerit esse de feodo ipsius ipsi faciatis habere valete But if this Recorde of the Kings suffise not to proue the honour of this place then here I pray you a woorde of the honourable or rather the Pontificall dealing of William Courtney the Archbishop who taking offence that certaine poore men his Tenants of the Manor of Wingham had brought him rent hay and littar to Canterbury not openly in cartes for his glorie as they were accustomed but closely in sackes vpon their horses as their abilitie would suffer cited them to this his castle of Saltwood and there after that he had shewed himself Adria iracundiorem as hote as a toste with the matter he first bound them by othe to obey his owne ordinauÌ„ce then inioyned them for penance that they should each one marche leisurely after the procession bareheaded barefooted with a sacke of hey or strawe on his shoulder open at the mouthe so as the stuffe might appeare hanging out of the bag to all the beholders Nowe I beséeche you what was it els for this proude Prelate thus to insult ouer simple men for so small a fault or rather for no fault at all but Laureolam in Mustaceis querere and no better Thus muche at this present of the Place for as touching the first matter concerning Thomas that shall appeare at large in Canterbury following And therefore leauing on our right hand the stately partes of Syr Edward Poynings vnperfect buylding at Ostenhangar let vs sée what is to be said of Hyde Hyde is written in Saxon Hyþe that is the Hauen and called of Leland in Latine Portus Hithinus in some Recordes Hethe THe name of this place importing as it should séeme by the generalitie therof some note of worthinesse and the long continued priuileges therevnto belonging it self being long since one of the fiue principal Portes at the first led me and happely may hereafter moue others also to thinke that it had béene of more estimation in tyme past then by any other thing nowe apparant may well be coniectured Howbeit after that I had somewhat diligently searched the Saxon antiquities from whence if from any at all the beginning of the same is to be deriued had perused the booke of Domesday wherein almoste nothing especially that might bée profitable was pretermitted and yet found litle or in manner nothing concerning
they haue chalenged from the Laitie with suche pertinacie and whiche they haue punished bothe in the Laitie and clergie with suche lenitie that not onely the Princes commoditie is thereby greatly decreased but also incontinencie in his subiects intollerably augmented Neither is it to be proued by this testimonie only that suche was the order in olde time but by the booke of Domesday it selfe also where it is plainly said De adulterio Rex habebit hominem Archiepiscopus mulierem In case of adulterie the King shall haue the man the Archebishop the woman c. But to returne to Pinnendene the commoditie of the situation it selfe and the example of this notable assemblie haue béen the cause that not only the Sheriffes vse to holde their Countie Courtes but also to appoint the méeting for choise of Knights to the Parleament most coÌ„moÌ„ly at this place Boxley may take the name eyther of the Saxon word boxeleage for the store of Box-trees that peraduenture sometime grewe there or of bucesleag whiche is as muche to say as a place lying in Vmbelico in the midst or Nauell of the Shyre as in deede this Boxley dothe AS touching the foundation of Boxley Abbay I finde an obscure note in auncient Chronicles of S. Wereburges in Chester where it is thus reported Anno 1146. fundata est Boxleia in Cancia filia Clareuallis propria Whiche I call obscure bycause it appeareth not to me by the word filia whether it be ment that Boxley were erected by the liberalitie of the Monasterie of Clareualley or else instituted onely after the possession rule and order of the same For the like notes I finde in the same Chronicle of diuers other houses within England to whiche the same Monasterie of Clareuale and others also were like good mothers and amongst the rest that not many yeares after this Monasterie of Boxley it selfe was deliuered of suche another spirituall childe called the Abbay of Robertsbridge in Sussex Neuerthelesse I make coniecture that the authour ment by filia nothing else but that one Abbay eyther furthered by exhortation the building of another or else furnished it after the building with Monkes of her own broode And for more likelyhoode that this shoulde be his minde Heare I pray you what he sayth in another place Comes Cornubiae fundauit Hayles filiam Belliloci in Anglia whiche his wordes distinguishe plainely betwéene the founder that bare the charge of the buylding and the Abbay after the order and patterne wherof it was instituted But leauing to comment any longer vpon that doubtfull texte I will take to witnesse the Chronicles of Rochester whiche putting the matter out of doubt saye plainely that one William de Ipre a noble man and Lieuetenant to King Stephan in his warres againste Maude the Empresse founded the Abbay of Boxley and planted it with a Couent of white Monkes And so haue you at once the name of the Authour the time of the foundation and the rule of the profession at Boxley wherevnto if you shall adde the yearely value whiche I reade in the Recorde to haue béene two hundreth and foure poundes you haue all that I finde written concerning the same But yet if I shoulde thus leaue Boxley the fauourers of false and feyned Religion woulde laughe in their sléeues and the followers of Gods trueth might iustly crye out and blame me For it is yet freshe in mynde to bothe sides and shall I doubte not to the profite of the one be continued in perpetuall memorie to all posteritie by what notable imposture fraud Iuggling and Legierdemain the sillie lambes of Gods flocke were not long since seduced by the false Romishe Foxes at this Abbay The manner whereof I will set downe in suche sorte onely as the same was sometime by them selues published in printe as it is sure for their estimation and credite and yet remayneth déepely imprinted in the mynds and memories of many on liue to their euerlasting reproche shame and confusion It chaunced as the tale is that vpon a time a cunning Carpenter of our couâ—trey was taken prysoner in the warres betwéene vs and Fraunce who wanting otherwise to satisfie for his raunsome and hauing good leysure to deuise for his deliueraunce thought it best to attempt some curious enterprise within the compasse of his owne Art and skill to make him selfe some money withall And therefore getting together fit matter for his purpose he compacted of wood wyer paste and paper a Roode of suche exquisite arte and workmanship that it not onely matched in comelynesse and due proportion of the partes the beste of the common sorte but in straunge motion varietie of gesture and nimblenesse of ioyntes passed all other that before had béene séene the same being able to bowe downe and lift vp it selfe to shake and stirre the handes and féete to nod the heade to rolle the eyes to wagge the chappes to bende the browes and finally to represent to the eye bothe the proper motion of eche member of the bodye and also a liuely expresse and significant shewe of a well contented or displeased mynde byting the lippe and gathering a frowning frowarde and disdainefull face when it woulde pretende offence and shewing a most mylde amyable and smyling cheare and countenaunce when it woulde séeme to be well pleased So that now it néeded not Prometheus fire to make it a liuely man but onely the helpe of the couetous Priestes of Bell or the ayde of some craftie College of Monkes to deifie and make it passe for a very God. This done he made shifte for his libertie came ouer into the Realme of purpose to vtter his Merchandize and layde the Image vpon the backe of a Iade that he draue before him Nowe when he was come so farre as to Rochester on his waye he waxed drye by reason of trauaile and called at an alehouse for drinke to refreshe him suffering his horse neuerthelesse to goe forwarde alone thorowe the Citie This Iade was no sooner out of sight but he missed the streight westerne way that his Maister intended to haue gone and turning Southe made a great pace towarde Boxley and being driuen as it were by some diuine furie neuer ceassed til he came at the Abbay church doore where he so beate and bounced with his heeles that diuers of the Monkes hearde the noyse came to the place to know the cause and marueiling at the strangenesse of the thing called the Abbat and his Couent to beholde it These good men seing the horse so earnest and discerning what he had on his backe for doubt of deadly impietie opened the doore whiche they had no sooner done but the horse rushed in and ranne in great haste to a piller which was the verie place where this Image was afterwarde aduaunced and there stopped him self and stoode still Nowe while the Monkes were busie to take off the loade in commeth the Carpenter that by great inquisition had followed and he chalengeth his owne
can they not their sinnes nor so rowes all poore soules of shake Nor all contagious fleshly from them voides but must of neede Muche things congendred long by won derous meanes at last out spread Therefore they plagued beene and for their former faultes and sinnes Their sundrie paines they bide some highe in aire doe hang on pinnes Some fleeting bene in floodes and deepe in gulfes themselues they tyer Till sinnes away be washt or clen sed cleane with purging syer Eche one of vs our paenance here abide that sent we bee To Paradise at last wee fewe these fieldes of ioye do see Till compasse long of time by per fect course hathe purged quite Our former cloddred spots and pure hathe left our Ghostly Sprite And senses pure of soule and sim ple sparkes of heauenly light Nowe therefore if this Bishops Poetrie may be allowed for diuinitie me thinketh that with great reason I may intreate that not onely this woorke of Virgils Aeneides But Homers Iliades Ouides Fastes Lucians Dialogues also may be made Canonicall for these al excell in suche kinde of fiction Tong Castle or rather Thong Castle in Saxon þƿangceastse in Brittish Caerkerry of Thwang and Karry both whiche woords signifie a Thong of leather THe Brittish Chronicle discoursing the inuitation arriuall interteinment of Hengist and Horsa the Saxon captaines mentioneth that among other deuises practised for their owne establishmēt and securitie they begged of King Vortiger so muche land to fortifie vpon as the hyde of a beast cut into thonges might incompasse and that thereof the place should bee called Thongraster or Thwangraster after suche a like manner as Dido long since beguiling Hiarbas the King of Lybia builded the Castle Byrsa conteining twentie and two furlonges in circuit of whiche Virgil spake saying Mercatique solum facti de nomine Byrsam Taurino possint quantum circundare tergo c. They bought the soile Byrsa it cald when first they did beginne As muche as with a Bul hide cut they could inclose within But Saxo Grammaticus applieth this Act to the time of the Danes affirming that one Iuarus a Dane obteined by this kinde of policie at the handes of Etheldred the Brother of Alfred to build a fort And as these men agrée not vpon the builder so is there variance betwéen writtē storie cōmon spéeche touching the true place of the building for it should seem by Galfrid Hector Boctius Ric Cirencester the it was at Doncaster in the North Countrie bicause they lay it in Lindsey whiche now is extended no further thē to the North part of Lincolne shyre But common opinion conceaued vpon report receaued of the elders by tradition chalengeth it to Tong Castle in this Shyre Wherevnto if a man do adde that both the first planting and the chief abiding of Hengist and Horsa was in Kent and adioyne thereto the authoritie of Mathewe of Westminster which writeth plainly that Aurelius Ambrose the captaine of the Britons prouoked Hengist to battaile at Tong in Kent he shall haue cause neither to falsifie the one opinion lightly nor to faithe the other vnaduisedly And as for mine owne opinion of Doncaster which is taken to be the same that Ptolome calleth Camulodunum I thinke verely that it was named of the water Done whereon it standethe and not of Thong as some faine it Whiche deriuation whether it be not lesse violent and yet no lesse reasonable then the other I dare refer to any resonable and indifferent Reader To this place therefore of right belongeth the storie of King Vortigers Wassailing whiche I haue already exemplified in the generall discourse of the auncient estate of this Countrie and for that cause do thinke it more méete to referre you thither then here to repeate it Tenham in Saxon TynHam that is to say a Towne or Hamlet often houses as Eightam had the name of EaHtHam a Hamlet or Towne of eight dwellings AT Tenham was long since a mansion house pertaining to the Sée of Canterbury where in the time of King Iohn Hubert the Archebishop departed this life as Mathewe Parise reporteth who addeth also that when the King had intelligence of his death he brast foorth into great ioy and sayde that he was neuer a King in deede before that houre It séemeth that he thought him selfe deliuered of a shrewe but litle forsawe he that a shrewder shoulde succéede in the roome for if he had he woulde rather haue prayed for the continuaunce of his life then ioyed in the vnderstanding of his deathe For after this Hubert followed Stephan Langton who brought vpon King Iohn suche a tempestious Sea of sorowfull trouble that it caused him to make shipwracke bothe of his honour crowne and life also The storie hath appeared at large in Douer before and therfore needeth not nowe eftsoones to be repeated Shepey in Latine Insula ouium Oninia in Saxon Sceapige the I le of Sheepe SExburga the wife of Ercombert a King of Kent folowing the ensample of Eanswide the daughter of King Ethelbald erected a Monastery of women in the I le of Shepey called Minster whiche in the late Iust and generall suppression was founde to be of the yerely value of an hundreth and twentie pounds This house and the whole Ile was scourged by the Danes whome I may well call as Attila the leader of the like people called him self Flagellum Dei the whip or flaile of God thrée times within the space of twentie yeares and a litle more Firste by thirtie and fiue sayle of them that arriued there and spoyled it Secondly and thirdly by the armies of them that wintered their ships within it Besides all whiche harmes the followers of the Earle Godwine and his sonnes in the time of their proscription landed at Shepey and harried it It shoulde séeme by the dedication of the name that this Ilande was long since greatly estéemed eyther for the number of the Shéepe or for the finenesse of the fléese although auncient foreigne writers ascribe not muche to any parte of all Englande and muche lesse to this place eyther for the one respect or for the other But whether the Shéepe of this Realme were in price before the comming of the Saxons or no they be nowe God be thanked therefore worthy of great estimation bothe for the excéeding finenesse of the fléese whiche passeth all other in Europe at this daye and is to be cōpared with the auncient delicate wooll of Tarentum or the Golden Fleese of Colchos it selfe and for the aboundant store of flockes so incresing euery where that not only this litle Isle whiche we haue nowe in hande but the whole realme also might rightly be called Shepey Quinborowe called in Latine Regius Burgus in Saxon CyningburH That is to say The Kings Castle AT the West ende of Shepey lyeth Quinborowe Castle the occasion of the first building whereof was this King Edward the third determining aboute the thirtéenth yeare of his reigne to
which was wont to be commonly said Vnicum Arbustum non alit duos Erythacos For in déede one whole Citie nay rather one whole Shyre and Countrie could hardly suffice the pride and ambitious auarice of such two Religious Synagogues The which as in all places they agréeed to enrich them selues by the spoyle of the Laitie So in no place they agréed one with another But eche séeking euerie where and by all wayes to aduaunce them selues they moued continuall and that moste fierâ— and deadly warre for landes priuileges reliques and suche like vaine worldly préeminences In so muche as he that will obserue it shall finde that vniuersally the Chronicles of their owne houses conteine for the moste parte nothing else but suing for exemptions procuring of reliques strugling for offices wrangling for consecrations pleading for landes and possessions For proofe wherof I might iustly alledge inumerable brawles stirred betwéen the Religious houses of this Citie wrastling sometime with the Kings sometime with the Archbishops oftentimes the one with the other â—l which be at large set forth by Thomas Spot the Chroniâ—ler of S. Augustins But for asmuch as I my self delighâ— litle in that kind of rehersal do think that other men for the more part of the wiser sort be sufficiently persuaded of these their follies I wil lightly passe theÌ„ ouer labor more â—argely in some other thing And bycause that the Monasâ—erie or Priorie of Christes Churche was of the more fame I will first begin with it After that Augustine the Monke whiche was sent from Rome had found suche fauour in the sight of King Ethelbert that he might fréely Preache the Gospell in his Countrie he chose for assembly and prayer an olde Churche in the East part of this Citie whiche was long time before builded by the Romanes and he made therof by licence of the King a Churche for himselfe and his successours dedicating the same to the name of our Sauiour Christ whereof it was called afterward Christes Churche After his death Laurence his successor brought Monkes into the house the head whereof was called a Pryor whiche woord howsoeuer it soundethe was in déede but the name of a second officer bicause the Bishop himselfe was accompted the very Abbat For in olde time the Bishops were for the moste part chosen out of suche Monasteries and therefore moste commonly had their Palaces adioyning and gouerned as Abbats there by meanes whereof it came to passe that suche Abbies were not only muche amplified in wealth and possessions but also by fauour of the Bishoppes their good Abbates ouerloked all their neere neighbours as hereafter in further course shall better appeare I finde not that any great coste was done vpâ—n this Churche till Lanfrancs dayes who not only buided it almoste wholy of newe and placed Benedictâ— Monkes therein the number of whiche hee aduaunced from thirtie to one hundreth and fourtie but also erected certaine Hospitals whiche hee endowed with one hundreth and fourtie poundes by yere and repaired the walles of the Citie it selfe And here by the way it is to be noted out of Mathewe Westminster that there were Monkes in this house euer since the time of Laurence the second Archebishop although some reporte that Elfricus was the first that expulsed the Seculer Priestes and brought the Monkes in place Not long after Lanfrancs time succéeded William Corboile during whose gouernment this lately aduaunced building was blasted with flame but he soone after reedified it of his owne purse and dedicated it with great pompe and solemnitie in the presence of the King and his Nobles After him followed Theobaldus whome Pope Innocent the second honoured with the title of Legatus natus and then commeth Thomas Becket the fift in order after Lanfranc by whose life death and burial the estimation of this Church was aduaunced beyond all reason measure and wonder For not withstanding that it had beene before that time honoured with the arme of S. Bartholmew a Relique that King Canutus gaue with the preseÌ„ce of Augustine that brought in Religion with the buriall of eight Kentishe Kings that succéeded Wightred and of a great number of Archebishops after the time of Cuthbert Likewise afterward with the famous asseÌ„bly at the homage done by the Scottishe King William to King Henrie the second and at the Coronation of King Iohn with the seueral Mariages also of King Henrie the third and King Edward the first and finally with the interrements of that Noble Edward called commonly the Blacke Prince of King Henrie the fourth yet the death of this one man not martyred as they feigne for the cause only and not the death maketh a Martyr but murdered in his Churche brought therevnto more accesse of estimation and reuerence then all that euer was done before or since For after his death by reason that the Pope had canonized his soule in Heauen and that Stephan Langton had made a Golden shrine for his body on earth and commaunded the Annuall day of his departure to bee kept solemne not only the Lay Common sort of people but Bishops Noble men and Princes as well of this Realme as of forreigne partes resorted on Pilgrimage to his tumbe flocked to his Iubile for remission In so muche that euery man offering according to his abilitie and thronging to see handle and kisse euen the vilest partes of his Reliques the Churche became so riche in Iewels and ornaments that it might compare with Midas or Craesus and so famous and renowmed euery piller resounding Saint Thomas his miracles praiers and pardons that now the name of Christ was cleane forgotten and the place was commonly called Saint Thomas Churche of Canterbury I passe ouer the stately buildings and monuments I meane Churches Chapels and Oratories raised to his name the lewde bookes of his lyfe and iestes written by foure sundrie persons to his praise The blasphemous Hymnes and collectes deuised by churchemen for his seruice and sundrie suche other thinges whiche as they were at the first inuenâ—â— to strike into the heades of all hearers and beholders more then wonderfull opinion of deuotion and holynes So now the trueth being tried out and the matter well and indifferently weighed they ought to worke with all men an vtter detestation both of his and all their hypocrisie and wickednesse For as touching himself to omitte that which truely might be spoken in dispraise of the former part of his lyfe and to beginne with the very matter it selfe whervpon his death ensued it is euident bothe by the testimonie of Mathewe Paris a very good Chronicler that liued vnder King Henrie the third and by the foure Pseudo Euangelistes themselues that wrote his Iestes that the chiâ—fe cause of the Kings displeasure towardes him grew vpon occasion that he opposed himself against his Prince Gods lawfull and Supreame minister on earth in maintenance of a moste vile and wicked murther The matter stoode thus Within a fewe of
Norton Wilmus de Sutton For such as we call nowe Iohn Norton and William Sutton and amongst the Gentlemen of Chesshyre euen to this day one is called after their maner Thomas a Bruerton another Iohn a Holcrost and suche like for Thomas Bruerton Iohn Holcrost c. as we here vse it Thus muche shortly of mine owne fantasie I thought not vnmeete to impart by occasion of the name of Norwood and now forward to my purpose againe Leedes in Latine of some Lodanum of others Ledanum Castrum RObert Creuequer was one of the eight that Iohn Fynes elected for his assistance in the defence of Douer Castle as we haue already shewed who taking for that cause the Manor of Leedes and vndertaking to finde fiue Warders therefore builded this Castle or at the least an other that stoode in the place For I haue read that Edward thē Prince of Wales and afterward the first King of that name being Wardein of the Fiue Portes and Constable of Douer in the life of Henrie the third his Father caused Henrie Cobham whose ministerie he vsed as substitute in bothe those offices to race the Castle that Robert Creuequer had erected bicause Creuequer that was then owner of it Heire to Robert was of the number of the Nobles that moued and mainteined warre against him Whiche whether it be true or no I will not affirme but yet I thinke it very likely bothe bicause Badlesmere a man of another name became Lord of Leedes shortly after as you shall anone sée and also for that the present woorke at Leedes pretendeth not the antiquitie of so many yeares as are passed since the age of the conquest But let vs leaue the building and goe in hand with the storie King Henrie the first hauing none other issue of his bodie then Maude first married to Henrie the Emperour whereof she was called the Empresse and after coupled to Geffray Plantaginet the Earle of Angeow fearing as it happened in déed that after his death trouble might arise in the Realme about the inheritance of the Crowne bycause she was by habitation a straunger and farre of so that she might want bothe force and friends to atchieue her right And for that also Stephan the Earle of Boloine his sisters sonne was then of greate estimation amongst the noble men and abiding within the Realme so that with great aduauntage he might offer her wrong he procured in full Parleament the assent of his Lordes and Commons that Maude and her heires shoulde succéede in the kingdome after him And to the ende that this limitation of his might be the more surely established he tooke the fidelitie and promise by othe bothe of his Clergie and Laytie and of the Earle of Boloine him selfe Howbeit immediatly after his decease Stephan being of the opinion that Si ius violandum est certe regnandi causa violandum est If breache of lawes a man shall vndertake He must them boldly break for kingdomes sake Inuaded the Crowne and by the aduice of William the Archebishop of Canterbury who had first of al giuen his fayth to Maude by the fauour of the common people whiche adheared vnto him and by the consent of the holy father of Rome whose will neuer wanteth to the furtheraunce of mischiefe he obtained it whiche neuerthelesse as William of Newborowe well noteth being gotten by patterne he held not past two yeres in peace but spent the residue of his whole reigne in dissention warre and bloudshed to the great offence of God the manifest iniurie of his owne cousine and the grieuous vexation of this countrie and people For soone after the beginning of his reigne sundry of the Noble men partely vpon remorse of their former promise made and partly for displeasure conceiued bycause he kepte not the othe taken at his Coronation made defection to Maude so soone as euer she made her challenge to the Crowne So that in the end after many calamities what by her owne power and their assistaunce she compelled him to fall to composition with her as in the storie at large it may be séene Nowe during those his troubles amongst other things that muche annoyed him and furthered the part of Maude his aduersarie it was vpon a time sounded by his euil willers in the eares of the cōmon sort that he was dead And therewithall soudenly diuers great men of her deuotion betooke them to their strong holdes and some others seised some of the Kings owne Castles to the behalfe of the Empresse Of whiche number was Robert the Earle of Gloucester and bastarde brother to Maude who entred this Castle of Leedes mynding to haue kept it But King Stephan vsed against him suche force and celeritie that he soone wrested it out of his fingers King Edwarde the seconde that for the loue of the two Spensers incurred the hatred of his wife and Nobilitie gaue this Castle in exchaunge for other landes to Bartilmew Badelesmere then Lorde Stewarde of his housholde and to his heires for euer who shortly after entering into that troublesome action in whiche Thomas the Duke of Lancaster with his complices maugre the King exiled the Spensers bothe loste the Kings fauour this Castle and his life also For whilste he was abroade in ayde of the Barons and had committed the custodie thereof to Thomas Colpeper and left not onely his chiefe treasure in money but also his wife and children within it for their securitie It chaunced that Isabell the Kings wife mynding a Pilgrimage towards Cāterbury and being ouertakē with might sent her Marshal to prepare for her lodging ther. But her officer was proudly denyed by the Captaine who sticked not to tell him that neyther the Quéene ne any other shoulde be lodged there without the commandement of his Lord the owner The Queene not thus aunswered came to the gate in person and required to be let in But the Captain most malepertly repulsed her also in so much that shee complained greauously to the king of the misdemenour and he forthwith leuied a power and personally sumoned and besieged the peice so straightly that in the end through want of rescue and victuall it was deliuered him Then tooke he Capitaine Colpeper and houng him vp The wife and children of the Lord Badelesmere he sent to the Towre of London The treasure and munition he seised to his owne vse and the Castle he committed to such as liked him But as the last acte of a Tragedie is alwayes more heauie sorowful thē the rest so calamitie woe increasing vpō him Badelesmere him self was the yere folowing in the company of the Duke of Lancaster and others discomfited at Borowbrig by the Kings armie and shortly after sent to Canterbury and beheaded I might here iustly take occasion to rip vp the causes of those great and tragicall troubles that grewe betwene this King his Nobilitie for Peter Gaueston these two Spensers the rather for that the common sort of
fathers seate So that he woulde agrée to come accompanied with a smal number of strangers The which condition was deuised bothe for their owne excuse and for the yong Princes safetie For before this time after the deth of king Canutus they had likewise sent for the same Edwarde Alfred his elder brother that then was on liue putting them in like hope of restitution to which request the duke their grandfather assēted and for the more honourable furniture of their iourney gaue them to company diuers yong Gentlemen of his own Country whom he ment to make from thenceforth parteners of theyr prosperitye as they had before tyme béen companions of their misfortune But when they were come into the realme the Earle Godwine who sought more the aduauncement of his own house to honour then the restitution of the Englishe bloude to the crowne perceiuing that by no meanes he could make a marriage betwéene Alfrede the elder of the two and Edgith his daughter and yet hauing hope that Edward the younger woulde accept the offer if he might bring to passe to set the garlande vpon his heade he quarelled at the company which came ouer with them insinuating to the péeres of the Realme that Alfrede ment so soone as he should obtaine the crowne to place in all roomes of honour his Normane Nobilitie and to displace the Englishe his owne countrey men Whiche suspicion he bet so déepely into the heades of many of the Noble men and especially of his nearest friends and allies that foorthwith vpon his persuasion they fell vpon the straungers at Gillingham and firste killed nyne throughout the whole number of the company reseruing on liue eche tenth mā only And afterward thinking the remainer to great tythed the number also sleaing in the whole about sixe hundred persons As for Alfred the elder of the yong Princes they apprehended and conueyed him to the Isle of Ely where first they put out his eyes and afterwarde moste cruelly did him to death But this Edwarde fearing their furie escaped their handes and fled into Normandie Howbeit being nowe eftsoones as I sayde earnestly sollicited by Godwine and more faythfully assured by the Noble men he once againe aduentured to enter the Realme and taking Godwines daughter to wife obtained the Crowne and enioyed it all his life long I am not ignoraunt that Simeon of Durham and diuers other good wryters affirme this slaughter to haue béene committed at Guylford in Surrey and some other of late tyme and of lesse note at Guild downe a place neare Lamberhirst in the edge of this Shyre but bycause I finde it expressely reported by Thomas Rudborne and also the authour of the Chronicle of Couentrie to haue béen done at Gillingham Iuxta Thamesim I sticke not being nowe come to that place to exemplifie it giuing neuerthelesse frée libertie to euery man to lay it at the one or the other at his owne frée will and pleasure Onely my desire is to haue obserued that in this one Storie there doe lye folded vp bothe the meanes of the deliuerie of this realme of England from the thraldome of the Danes and the causes also of the oppression and conquest of the same by the Normanes For as touching the first it pleased the Almightie nowe at length by this manner of King Hardicanutus death whiche I haue shewed to breake in sunder the Danish whip wherwith he had many yeares together scourged the English nation and by the meane of drinke the Danishe delight to worke the deliuery of the one people and the exterminion of the other euen in the midst of all their securitie and pleasaunce In which behalfe I can not but note the iust iudgemēt of God extended against those déepe drinkers and in their example to admonishe all such as doe in like sort most beastly abuse Gods good creatures to his great offence the hurte of their owne soules and bodies and to the euill example of other men For whereas before the arriuall of these Danes the Englishe men or Saxons vsed some temperaunce in drinking not taking thereof largely but only at certain great feasts and chearings and that in one only wassailing cup or boule which walked round about the boorde at the midst of the meale much after that manner of intertainment whiche Dido sometime gaue to Aeneas and is expressed by Virgil in these verses Hic Regina grauem auro gemmisque poposcit Impleuitque mero pateram quam Belus omnes A Belo soliti Tum facta silentia tectis Iupiter hospitibus nam te dare iura loquuntur Et vos O caetum Tirij celebrate fauentes Dixit Et in mensam laticum libauit honorem Primaque libato summo tenus attigit ore c. The Queene commaunds a mightie Bolle Of golde and precious stone To fill with wine whom Belus King And all King Belus line Was wont to holde than through them all Was silence made by signe O Ioue quoth she for thou of hostes And gestes both great and small Men say the lawes haste put giue grace I pray and let vs all O you my Moores nowe do our best These Troians for to chere Thus sayd she and when grace was done The Bolle in hand she clipt And in the liquor sweete of wine her lips she scantly dipt But now after the comming in of the Danes and after such time as King Edgar had permitted them to inhabite here and to haue conuersation with his own people Quassing and carowsing so increased that Didoes sipping was cleane forsaken and Bitias bowsing came in place of whome the same Poet writeth Ille impiger hausit Spumantem pateram pleno se proluit auro And he anon The fomie bolle of gold vpturnd And drewe till all was gon So that King Edgar him self seing in his own reigne the great outrage wherevnto it was growne was compelled to make lawe therefore and to ordaine drinking measures by publique Proclamation driuing certaine nayles into the sides of their cups as limits and bounds which no man vpon great payne should be so hardie as to transgresse But this vice in that short time had takē such fast roote as neyther the restraint of law nor the expulsiō of the first bringers in therof could supplant yet For William of Malmesburie comparing the manners of the Englishe men and Normanes together complayned that in his time the Englishe fashion was to sit bibbing hole houres after dinner as the Normane guise was to walke and iet vp and downe the streates with great traines of idle Seruing men folowing them And I woulde to God that in our time also we had not iust cause to complaine of this vicious plant of vnmeasurable Boalling which whether it be sprong vp out of the olde roote or be newely transported by some Danish enemie to all godly temperaunce and sobrietie let them consider that with pleasure vse it and learne in time by the death of Hardicanute and the expulsiō of his
people to forsake it which if they will not God in time either graunt vs the lawe of the Heluetians whiche prouided that no man shoulde prouoke other in drinking or else if that may for courtesie be permitted bycause as the prouerbe is Sacra haec non aliter constant yet God I say styrre vp some Edgar to strike nayles in our cuppes or else giue vs the Gréekishe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Potandi arbitros Cup Censors as I may call them that at the leaste we maye be dryuen to drinke in some manner of measure For it is not sufferable in a Christian Countrie that men shoulde thus labour with great contention and striue for the maistrie as it were to offende God in so wilfull waste of his gratious benefits In this Hystorie is couched also as I haue already tolde you the firste cause of the displeasure receyued by the Normanes against this Realme and consequently the cause of their inuasion succéeding the same For whereas after this crueltie executed by the instigation of Godwine it happened Harolde his sonne to arryue at Pountion against his will by occasion of a soudaine perry or contrarie winde that arose while he was on seaboorde whether for his owne disporte onely as some write or for the execution of the Kings message as others say or of purpose to visite Wilnote and Hacun his brother and kinseman as a thirde sorte affirme or for what so euer other cause I will not dispute But vpon his arriuall taken he was by Guy the Earle of Pountion and sente to William the Duke of Normandie where being charged with his fathers faulte and fearing that the whole reuenge shoulde haue lighted vpon his owne heade he was dryuen to deuise a shifte for his deliueraunce He put the Duke in remembraunce therefore of his neare kinred with Edwarde the King of Englande And fed him with greate hope and expectation that Edwarde shoulde dye without issue of his body by reason that he had no conuersation with his wife So that if the matter were well and in season séene vnto there was no doubte as he persuaded but that the Duke through his owne power and the ayde of some of the Englishe Nobilitie might easily after the Kings deathe obtaine the Crowne For the atchieuing wherof he both vowed the vttermost of his owne help and vndertooke that his brethren his friends and allies also should do the best of their indeuour The wise Duke knowing wel Quam malus sit custos diuturnitatis metus How euil a keper of cōtinuance feare is And therfore reposing much more suretie in a frendly knot of alliance thē in a fearful offer procéeding but onely of a countenaunce accepted Haroldes othe for some assuraunce of his promise but yet withall for more safetie affied him to his daughter to be taken in marriage And so after many princely gifts and much honorable enterteinement bestowed vpon him he gaue him licence to depart But Harolde being nowe returned into England forgetteth cleane that euer he was in Normandie and therefore so soone as King Edward was deade he violating both the one promise and the other reiecteth Duke Williams daughter and setteth the Crowne vpon his owne heade Hereof followed the battaile at Battel in Sussex and consequently the Conquest of this whole Realme and Countrie In contemplation whereof we haue likewise to accuse the olde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inueterate fiercenesse and cancred crueltie of this our English nation against foreignes and straungers which ioyning in this butcherly sacrifice with bloudie Busyris deserued worthely the reuenging club of heauenly Hercules whiche fearing without cause great harme that these fewe might bring vnto them did by their barbarous immanitie giue iust cause to a great armie to ouerrunne them And whiche dreading that by the arriuall of this small troupe of Norman Nobilitie some of them might lose their honorable roomes and offices prouoked the wrath of God to sende in amongst them the whole rable of the Norman slauerie to possesse their goods inheritances It were worthy the consideration to call to memorie what great Tragedies haue béene stirred in this Realme by this our naturall inhospitalitie and disdaine of straungers both in the time of King Iohn Henrie his sonne King Edward the seconde Henrie the sixte and in the dayes of later memorie But since that matter is parergon and therefore the discourse woulde proue tedious and wearisome and I also haue beene too long already at Gillingham I will rather abruptly end it onely wishing that whatsoeuer note of infamie wee haue heretofore contracted amongst Forreigne wryters by this our ferocitie against Aliens that now at the least hauing the Light of Gods Gospell before our eyes and the persecuted partes of his afflicted Church as Guestes and Straungers in our Countrie wée so behaue our selues towards them as we may both vtterly rubbe out the olde blemishe and from hencefoorth staye the heauie hand of the iuste Iupiter Hospitalis whiche otherwise must néedes light vpon such stubburne and vncharitable churlishnesse Chetham ALthoughe I haue not hytherto at any time read any memorable thing recorded in hystorie touching Chetham it self yet for so muche as I haue often heard and that constātly reported a Popish illusion done at the place for that also it is as profitable to the keping vnder of fained superstitious religiō to renew to minde the Priestly practises of olde time which are declining to obliuiō as it is pleasāt to reteine in memorie the Monuments antiquities of whatsoeuer other kinde I thinke it not amisse to commit faithfully to writing what I haue receiued credibly by hearing concerning the Idols sometime knowen by the names of our Lady and the Roode of Chetham and Gillingham It happened say they that the dead Corps of a man lost through shipwracke belike was cast on land in the Parishe of Chetham and being there taken vp was by some charitable persons committed to honest burial within their Churchyard which thing was no sooner done but our Lady of Chetham finding her selfe offended therewith arose by night and went in person to the house of the Parishe Clearke whiche then was in the Stréete a good distance from the Churche and making a noyse at his window awaked him This man at the first as commonly it fareth with men disturbed in their rest demaunded somewhat roughly who was there But when he vnderstoode by her owne aunswere that it was the Lady of Chetham he chaunged his note and moste mildely asked the cause of her comming She tolde him that there was lately buryed neere to the place where she was honoured a sinfull person whiche so offended her eye with his gastly grinning that vnles he were remoued she could not but to the great griefe of good people withdrawe her selfe from that place and ceasse her wonted miraculous working amongst them And therefore she willed him to go with her to the
reigne of King Henrie the first the King him self and a great many of the Nobilitie and Bishops being there present and assembled for the consecration as they call it of the great Churche of Sainct Andrewes the whiche was euen then newly finished And it was againe in manner wholy consumed with flame about the latter ende of the reigne of King Henrie the seconde at whiche time that newely builded Churche was sore blasted also But after all these calamities this Citie was well repaired ditched about in the reigne of King Henrie the third As touchinge the castle at Rochester although I finde not in wryting any other foundation therof then that which I alledged before recon to be mere fabulous yet dare I affirme that ther was an old Castle aboue eight hundreth yeres agoe in so much as I read that Ecgbert a king of Kent gaue certeine landes within the walles of Rochester castle to Eardulfe then Bishop of that See And I coniecture that Odo the bastard brother to king William the Conqueror whiche was at the first Bishop of Borieux in Normandie and then afterwarde aduaunced to the office of the chiefe Iustice of Englande and to the honour of the Earledome of Kent was eyther the first authour or the best benefactour to that which now standeth in sight and herevnto I am drawne somewhat by the consideration of the time it selfe in whiche many Castles were raysed to kéepe the people in awe and somewhat by the regarde of his authoritie whiche had the charge of this whole Shyre but most of all for that I reade that about the time of the Conquest the Bishop of Rochester receiued lande at Ailesford in exchaunge for grounde to builde a Castle at Rochester vpon Not long after whiche time when as William Rufus our Englishe Pyrrhus or Readhead had stepped betwéene his elder brother Robert and the crowne of this realme and had giuen experiment of a fierce and vnbridled gouernment the Nobilitie desirous to make a chaunge arose in armes againste him and stirred his brother to make inuasion And to the ende that the King shoulde haue at once many yrons as the saying is in the fire to attende vpon some moued warre in one corner of the Realme and some in another But amongst the reste this Odo betooke him to his castle of Rochester accompanied with the best both of the English and the Norman nobilitie This whē the king vnderstood he sollicited his subiects specially the inhabitants of this country by al faire meanes and promises to assist him so gathering a great armie besieged the Castle and strengthened the Bishop and his complices the defendants in suche wise that in the ende he and his company were contented to abiure the Realme and to leade the rest of their life in Normandie And thus Odo that many yeres before had béene as it were a Viceroy and second person within this realme was now depriued of al his dignitie driuē to kéepe residence vpon his benefice till suche time as Earle Robert for whose cause he had incurred this daūger pitying the cause appointed him gouernour of Normandie his owne countrie After this the Castle was much amended by Gundulphus the Bishop who in consideration of a Manor giuen to his Sée by King Williā Rufus bestowed thrée score poundes in building that great Towre whiche yet standeth And from that time this Castle continued as I iudge in the possession of the Prince vntill King Henrie the first by the aduice of his Barons graunted to William the Archebishop of Canterburie and his successours the custodie and office of Constable ouer the same with frée libertie to builde a Towre for him selfe in any part therof at his pleasure By meanes of which cost done vpon it at that time the Castle at Rochester was muche in the eye of suche as were the authors of troubles folowing within the realme so that from time to time it had a parte almost in euery Tragedie For what time King Iohn had warre with his Barons they gotte the possession of this Castle and cōmitted the defence therof to a noble man called William Dalbinet whome the king immediatly besieged through the cowardise of Robert Fitz Walter that was sent to rescue it after thrée monethes labour compelled him to render the péece The next yere after Lewes the Frenche Dolphine by the ayde of the Englishe Nobilitie entered the same Castle and tooke it by force And lastly in the reigne of King Henrie the thirde Simon Mountford not long before the battaile at Lewes in Sussex girded the citie of Rochester about with a mightie siege and setting on fire the wooden bridge a Towre of timber that stoode thereon wanne the firste gate or warde of the Castle by assaulte and spoyled the Churche and Abbay But being manfully resisted seuen dayes together by the Earle Warren that was within and hearing soudainly of the Kings comming thitherwarde he prepared to méete him in person and lefte others to continue the siege all whiche were soone after put to flight by the kings armie This warre as I haue partly shewed before was specially moued against strangers whiche during that kings reigne bare suche a sway as some write that they not onely disdayned the naturall borne Nobilitie of the Realme But did also what in them lay to abolishe the auncient lawes and customes of the same In déede the fire of that displeasure was long in kindeling therfore so much the more furious when it brast foorth into flame But amongst other things that ministred nourishment therto this was not the least that vpon a time it chaunced a Torneament to be at Rochester in which the English men of a set purpose as it should séeme sorted them selues against the strangers and so ouermatched them that following the victory they made them with great shame to fly into the Towne for couert But I dwel to long I feare in these two parts I will therefore nowe visite the Religious building and so passe ouer the bridge to some other place The foundation of the Churche of S. Andrewes in Rochester was first layd by King Ethelbert as we haue touched before at suche time as he planted the Bishops chaire in the Citie and it was occupyed by Chanons till the dayes of Gundulphus the Bishop who bycause he was a Monke and had hearde that it was sometimes stored with Monkes made meanes to Lanfranc the Archebishop and by his ayde and authoritie both builded the Churche and Pryorie of newe threwe out the Chanons and once more brought Monkes into their place following therein the example that many other Cathedrall Churches of that time had shewed before And this is the very cause that William of Malmesburie ascribeth to Lanfranc the whole thanke of all that matter for in déede bothe he and Anselme his successour were wonderfully busied in placing Monks and in diuorcing Chanons and Secular Priests from their wiues the whiche in contempte
aureis alijs signaculis sacris in Anglia firmari solitam in cerae impressionem mutant modumque scribendi anglicum reijciunt The Normans doe chaunge the making of writinges which were woont to be firmed in Englande with Crosses of golde and other holie signes into the printing with wax and they reiect also the manner of the English writing Howbeit this was not done all at once but it incresed came forward by certen steps degrées so the first and for a season the King onely or a few other of the Nobilitie besides him vsed to seale Then the Noble men for the most parte and noâ—e other whiche thinge a man may sée in the Hystorie of Battell Abbie where Richard Lucy chiefe Iustice of Englande in the time of King Henrie the second is reported to haue blamed a meane subiect for that he vsed a priuate seale when as that perteined as he saide to the King and Nobilitie onely At which time also as Iohn Rosse noteth it they vsed to ingraue in their seales their owne pictures and counterfeits couered with a longe coate ouer their armours But after this the Gentlemen of the better sort tooke vp the fashion and because they were not all warriours they made seales of their seueral cotes or shéelds of armes for difference sake as the same author reporteth At the length about the time of King Edwarde the third Seales became very common so that not onely suche as bare armes vsed to seale but other men also fashioned to them selues signetes of their owne deuise some taking the letres of their owne names some flowers some knots flowrishes some birds or beastes and some other things as we now yet dailye beholde in vse I am not ignoraunt that some other manner of sealings besides these hath béene hearde of amongst vs as namely that of King Edward the third by which he gaue To Norman the Hunter the hop and the hop towne withe all the boundes vp side downe And in wittnes that yt was soothe He bi tt the wax withe his fong toothe And that of Alberie de veer also conteining the donation of Hatfield to the which he affixed a short black hafted knife like vnto an olde halpeny whitle in stead of a seale and such others of which happely I haue séene some heard of moe But all that notwithstanding if any man shall thinke that these were receiued in common vse and custome and that they were not rather the deuises and pleasures of a few singular persons he is no lesse deceaued then such as déeme euery Chartre and writing that hath no seale annexed to be as ancient as the Conquest wheras indeede sealing was not commonly vsed tyl the time of King Edward the third as I haue alreadie tolde you Thus farre by occasion of this olde Chartre I am straied from the hystorie of Halling of which I fynde none other report in wryting saue that in the reigne of king Henrie the second Richard the Archbishop of Canterburie and imediat successour to Thomas the Archtraytour of this Realme ended his lyfe in the mansion house there which then was and yet continueth parcell of the possessions of the See of Rochester The circumstaunce and cause of which his death and departure I wyll reserue tyll I come to Wrotham where I shall haue iust occasion to discouer it ¶ Ailesforde or Eilesforde called in some Saxon copies Egelesford that is the Foorde of passage ouer the Riuer Egle or Eyle In others Angelesford which is the passage of the Angles or Englishe men It is falsly tearmed of some Alencester Allepord Aelstrea by deprauation of the writers of the sundrie copies as I suspect and not otherwise WIthin a few yeares after the arriuall of the Saxons the Britons perceiuing that Vortiger their Kinge was withdrawne by his wyfe from them and drawne to the parte of their enemies made election of Vortimer his sonne for their Lorde and leader by whose manhood and prowesse they in short time so preuailed against the Saxons that sleying Horsa one of the Chieftaines in an encounter geuen at this place discomfiting the residue they firste chased them from hence as farre as Tanet in memorie of whiche flight happely this place was called Anglesford that is the passagâ— of the Angles or Saxons and after that compelled them to forsake the land to take shipping toward their countrie and to seeke a new supplie And truly had not the vntimely death of Kinge Voâ—timer immediately succéeded it was to be hoped that they should neuer haue returned But the want of that one man both quayled the courage of the Britons gaue new matter of stomack to the Saxons to repaire their forces and brought vpon this Realme an alteration of the whole Estate and Gouernment There landed within the Realme in the time of Alfred two great swarmes of Danish Pyrates wherof the one arriued neare Winchelsey with two hundreth and fiftie sayle of Shippes and passing along that Riuer fortified at Apledore as we haue shewed before The other entred the Thamise in a fléete of eighty saile wherof parte encamped themselues at Midleton on the other syde of Kent and part in Essex ouer against them These latter King Alfred pursued and pressed them so hardly that they gaue him both othes hostages to depart the Realme and neuer after to vnquiet it That done he marched with his army against those other also And because hee vnderstoode that they had diuided themselues and spoyled the Countrie in sundrie partes at once he lykewise diuided his army intending the rather by that meane to méete with them in some one place or other which when they harde of and perceiued that they were vnméete to incounter him in the face they determined to passe ouer the Thamise and to ioyne with their countremen in Essex of whose discomfiture they had as yet receiued no tideings But when they came at a place in this parish called both now and aunciently Fernham that is the ferny Towne or dwelling one part of the Kings power couragiously charged them and finding them geuen to flight folowed the chase vppon them so fercely that they were compelled to take the Thamise without Boat or Bridge in which passage there were a great number of theÌ„ drowned the residue hauing inough to doe to saue their owne liues and to conuey ouer their Capitaine that had receiued a deadlye wounde No lesse notable was that other chase wherein many yeares after Edmond Ironside most fiercely pursued the Danes from Otforde to this towne in whiche also as some write he had geuen them an irreparable ouerthrow had he not by fraudulent and trayterous persuasion of one Edric then Duke of Mercia or midle England and in the Saxon speach surnamed for his couetousnesse Streona that is to say the Getter or gatherer withdrawne his foote spared to follow them No doubte but that it is many times a part of good wisdome and warlyke policie
that chaunced in the time of King Richard the second whereof you heard some what in Blackheath before was giuen at this Towne by occasion that a naughtie fellowe being appointed to leuye the groates that were by Parleament taxed vpon euery Polle dishonestly intreated a young Damosel Daughter to one Iohn Tyler that dwelt in Dartford which thing when the Father heard of he fell at wordes with the Officer and from woordes to worse so that in the end he slewe him This done the Cōmon people of the Towne partly for grudge at the imposition partly for maintenance of the thing whiche they thought well done and partly to eschewe the punishment that by execution of Iustice might fall vpon them assembled their neighbours and growing to some number made this Tyler their Capitaine named him Iacke Strawe and did further as you in part heard before and may at more large read almost in euerie English Chronicle This Towne as Crayford before hath the name of the water running by cōmonly called Derent but corruptly after the opinion of Lelande who thinketh the true name to be Dorquent which in Brittish soundeth the Cleere water It springeth at Titsey in the edge of Surrey and taketh in the way Westram where Iohn Frith was borne Otford Ainsford and Darent wherto it leaueth the name and comming to this Towne carrieth Craye with it into the Thamise ¶ Grauesende in Saxon Gerefesend in Latine Limes Praetorius THe originall cause of the name of this place lyeth hidde in the vsuall name of the officer lately created in the Towne He is commonly called Portreue but the worde aunciently and truely sounded is Portgereue that is to say the Ruler of the Towne For Porte descending of the Latine woorde Portus signifieth a Porte Towne and Gereue being deriued of the Saxon verbe gereccan to rule was first called gerecfa and then gerefa and betokeneth a Ruler So that Portreue is the Ruler of the Towne and Greuesend is as much to saye as the Limit Bounde or Precinct of such a Rule or Office. Of the very same reason they of the lowe and high Germanie whence our language first discended call one ruler Burgreue another Margreue and the thirde Landsgreue And of the same cause also our Magistrat nowe called a Sherif or to speake more truely Shyrereue was at the first called Shyre gereue that is to say Custos Comitatus the Reue or Ruler of the Shyre The head officer of Maydston long since had this name yea the chiefe gouernour of the citie of London likewise before the time eyther of Maior or Baylife there was knowne by the name of Portreue as in the Saxon Chartre of King William the Conqueroure sundry examples wherof be yet extant may appeare It began thus pilliam cyng greit ƿilliam bisceop godfreges portgerefan ealle þa burHƿaren þe on lunden beon William the King greeteth William the Bishop and Godfrey the Portreue and all the Citizens that in London be c. To make short in auncient time almost euery Manor had his Reue whose authoritie was not onely to leuie the Lords rents to set to worke his seruaunts and to husbande his Demeasnes to his best profit and commoditie but also to gouerne his tenants in peace and to leade them foorth to warre when necessitie so required And although this name and so muche of the authoritie as remained was after the comming in of the Normanes transferred to another whiche they called Baylife yet in sundry places of the Realme especially in Copiholde Manors where old custome preuaileth the worde Reue is yet well inoughe knowne and vnderstanded Neyther ought it to séeme any what the more straunge bycause I call nowe Reue that whiche in olde time was Gereue for as muche as this particle Ge was in processe of time in some places chaunged in sounde to y and in some other partes cleane lost and forgotten As for example wheras the Saxons vsed to say he was Geboren they of the West countrie pronounce it he was yborne and we of the countries nearer London he was borne Thus farre the Etymon of the name Greues end hath carried me out of the Hystorie whereto I did the rather yealde bycause I had not muche to write concerning the place it selfe Howbeit I reade that in the beginning of the reigne of King Richarde the seconde whilst the Lorde Neuel was by the Kings appointmēt entred into Fraunce with a great company of English souldiours the Frenchmen entred the Thamise with their Gallies and brent diuers townes and at the last comming to Grauesend spoyled and set it on fire also The feare of the like harme to followe caused the noble King Henrie the eight to builde a platforme at the same towne and thrée or foure others in places adioyning euen at suche time as he fortified along al the coastes of the Realme vpon suche cause as we haue already opened ¶ Cliffe at Hoo written commonly in auncient Bookes Cloueshoo for CliofesHoo which is as much to say as Clifs hoo or Cliffe at Hoo. THeodore the seuenth Archebisshop of Canterburie and the first in the opinion of William Malmsb that exercised the autoritie of an Archbishop which appeared as others say in that he tooke vpō him to depose Wilfrid of Yorke called together a Synode of bishops at Hereford in which it was agreed amongst them that for the more spéedie reformation of abuses that might créepe into the Churche they should all assemble once euery yeare at Cloueshoo vpon the Kalends or first day of August By vertue of which decrée Cuthbert the eleuenth Archbishop somoned the bishops of his Prouince to the same place and there amongst other things worthy note it was enacted that priests themselues should first lerne and then teach their parishoners the Lords prayer and the Articles of their beléefe in the English tongue To which decrée if you list to adde the testimonie of King Alfred who in his preface vpon the Pastoral of Gregorie that he translated saith that whē he came first to his kingdome he knew not one prieste on the South side of the riuer of Humber that vnderstoode his seruice in Latine or could translate an Epistle into English And if you wil adioyne the also which Alfric writeth in his Proeme to the Grammar that is to say that a litle before the time of Dunstane the Archebishop there was neuer an english priest the could other endite or vnderstād a latine epistle Then I doubt not but you shall euidently see howe easie it was for the Diuell and the Pope to créepe into the Churche of Englande when whole ages together the Clergie was so well fed and so euill taught But to our matter againe By vertue of the same decrée and ordinance also two other Councelles were holden at Cliffe at Hoo one vnder Kenulph the King of Mercia or midle England and the other in the reigne of Beornwulfe his successour This place would I haue coniectured
of the first and second point of their assertion doe builde vpon the wordes of our written Custome where it is saide Del heure que ceux heirs de Gauelkinde soient ou ount passe lage de 15. ans list a eux lour terres tenementes Doner Vender in whiche the wordes Ceux Heires doe restraine the Infant that commeth in by Purchase And Doner Vender in the copulatiue for so they lye in déede though the imprinted booke haue thē disiunctiuely doe of necessitie implye a recompence for as muche as Vendere cannot be Sine precio And for maintenance of the third matter they haue on their part besides the common vsage of their owne Countrie the common lawe of the whole Realme also which expoundeth the word Doner to meane a Feoffment as I haue before shewed and whiche not onely disaloweth of any gifte made by an infant but also punisheth the taker in trespas vnlesse he haue it by liuerie from the infantes owne handes Thus haue I runne ouer suche customes as by meane of this Gauelkinde tenure doe apperteine eyther to the Lorde or the Tenant the husbande or the wife the childe or the Gardein To these I will adde as I promised confusedly a fewe other things of the whiche some belong generally to the Kentishe man throughout the whole Shyre Some to the inhabitants of some particular quarter of the countrie and some to the tenants in Gauelkinde onely and to none other It appeareth by claime made in our auncient treatise that the bodyes of all Kentishe persons be of frée condition whiche also is confessed to be true .30 E. 1. in the title of Villenage 46. in Fitzherbert Where it is holden sufficient for a man to auoide the obiection of bondage to say that his father was borne in the Shyre of Kent But whether it will serue in that case to saye that him selfe was borne in Kent I haue knowne it for good reason doubted It séemeth by the same treatise that suche persons as helde none other lande then of Gauelkinde nature be not bounde to appeare vpon Sommons before the Iustices in Eire otherwise then by their Borsholder and foure others of the Borowe a fewe places only excepted The like to this Priuilege is inioyed at this day in the Sherifes Lathe where many whole Borowes be excused by the onely apparance of a Borsholder and two foure or sixe other of the inhabitants Furthermore I haue read in a case of a written report at large of .16 E. 2. whiche also is partly abridged by Fitzherbert in his title of Praescription that it was tried by verdite that no man ought to haue commen in landes of Gauelkinde Howbeit the contrarie is well knowne at this day and that in many places The same booke sayeth that the vsage in Gauelkind is that a man maye lawfully inchase or driue out into the highe way to their aduenture the beastes of any other person that he shal finde doing damage in his land and that he is not compellable to impounde them which custome séemeth to me directly against the rule of the common lawe But yet it is practised till this present daye The Parleament 15. H. 6. 3. minding to amplifie the Priuileges of Gauelkinde graunted to the tenants of that lande exemption in Attaints in suche sort as the inhabitants of auncient demeane and of the Fiue Ports before had But within thrée yeares after vpon the complaint of some of the Gentz of the Countrie whiche infourmed the Parleament house that there was not in the whole Shyre aboue the number of 30 or 40. persons that helde to the value of 20. li. land out of Gauelkinde who in default of others and by reason of that exemption were continually molested by returnes in Attaintes that Acte was vtterly repealed The Satute .14 H. 8. Cap. 6. giueth libertie to euery man hauing high way through his Land in the Weald that is worne déepe and incommodious for passage to lay out an other way in some suche other place of his land as shal be thought méete by the viewe of two Iustices of the Peace and twelue other men of wisedome and discretion Finally the generall Lawe made 35. H. 8. 17. For the preseruation of Copies woodes thorough out the Realme maketh plaine exception of all woodes within this Weald vnlesse it be of suche as be common Thus muche concerning the customes of this oure Countrie I thought good to discourse not so cunningly I confesse as the matter required nor so amplie as the argument would beare for so to doe it asketh more art and iudgement then I haue attained But yet sufficiently I truste for vnderstanding the olde treatise that handleth them and summarily inough for comprehending in manner whatsoeuer the common or Statute lawe of the Realme hath litterally touching them whiche is as muche as I desired Now therefore to the end that neither any man be further bound to this my discourse vpon these customes then shal be warranted by the Customes thēselues neither yet the same customes be henceforth so corruptly caried about as hitherto they haue béene but that they may at the length be restored to their auncient light and integritie I will set downe a true and iust transcript of the very text of them takē out of an auncient and faire written roll that was giuen to me by Maister George Multon my Father in lawe and whiche some time belonged to Baron Hales of this Countrie I wil adioyne also mine owne interpretation in the English not of any purpose to binde the learned vnto it but of a desire to infourme the vnlearned by it Kent Ces These sount are les the vsages vsages les and custumes customes les the ques which le the comunaute comunalty de of Kent Kent cleiment claimeth auer to haue en in the tenementz Tenements de of Gauylekende Gauelkinde e en in gentz the men of Gauilekendeys Gauelkind * allowes en Eire Iohn de allowed in Eire before Iohn of Berewike Berwike e sos compagnions and his cōpanions Iustices the Iustices en in Eire Eire en in Kent Kent le the 21. 21. an yeare le of Roy Ed. fitz le Roy Henrie * Cestascauoir que toutes les King E. the Sonne of King Henrie * That is to say that all the cors bodies de of Kenteys Kentishe seyent men frācz be free auxi aswell come as les the autres other fraūz free bodies cors of Dengleterre England Et que ilz ne duiuent le eschetour le Roy And that they ought not the Eschetor of the King to elire chuse ne nor vnkes euer en in nul any temps time ne fesoint mes le Roy prengne ou did they But the King shall take or face prendre tiel come luy plerra de ceo qui soit cause to be taken suche an one as it shall please him to serue him mistier a luy seruir Et