with a mantle Who hoping that the worst was now past and his life in no further danger called unto her and sayd Give mee I pray thee a little water for my travaile hath made me very thirsty who fetched presently a bottle of milke and gave him to drinke with which having sufficiently refreshed himselfe he layd him downe againe and she againe covered him and as shee was departing from him hee called once more unto her saying stand I pray thee in the doore of the Tent and if any shall come and inquire of thee and say is any man here thou shalt answer him and say nay which having spoken being weary and over tyred in his flight he fell suddenly into a deepe and dead sleepe for so indeede it proved for he never awakned after Which she perceiving and being in heart an Israelite howsoever for necessities sake they with their whole Tribe complide with the Gentiles shee would not let slip so good an advantage but unwilling to let one of Gods enemies escape out of her hands like a bold virago shee tooke a nayle of the Tent in her hand and in the other an hammer and comming softly towards him she strooke the nayle into his temples and fastned it into the ground peircing his skull unto the braine with which wound he instantly expired Now Barak after the great hoast was defeated having intelligence which way Sisera was fled Iael came out to meete him and bespake him thus Come in with mee and I will shew thee the man whom thou seekest who entring with her into the Tent she discovered unto him the body of Sisera which lay groveling on the earth dead and the nayle still sticking in his temples which object put him in mind of the words of Deborah when he denied to go into the field without her company that the honour of great Siseras death should be taken from him and bee conferd upon a woman which accordingly happened For Deborah in her song of thanksgiving after that great and miraculous victory over Sisera and his hoast giveth unto her this extraordinary character Iael the wife of Heber the Kenite shall be blessed above other women blessed shall she bee above women dwelling in Tents He asked water and shee gave him milke shee brought him butter in a Lordly dish shee put her hand to the nayle and her right hand to the workemans hammer with the hammer smote she Sisera shee smote off his head after shee had wounded and peirced his temples hee bowed him downe at her feete hee fell downe and lay still at her feet hee bowed him downe and fell and when hee had suncke downe hee lay there dead By which so often iteration of the same words she strived both to magnifie her act and eternize her memory Neither did this great honour done unto Iael any way take off or derogate from the merit and magnanimity of Deborah that any man need question which of them did better deserve the name of a Worthy The precedence and priority undoubtedly belonging to her who was a Prophetesse a Iudgesse and a mother in Israel the other onely a secondary minister and agent to have the will of the Almighty executed Deborah in person out-braving danger and standing the brunt of the battell against many thousands living Armed and awake and Iael onely taking the advantage of one single man flying trembling with feare and after to kill him sleeping I conclude of her with her owne words in her holy song after so glorious a conquest So let all thine enemies perish O Lord but they that love him shall be as the Sunne when he riseth in his might After which great discomfiture the Land had rest forty yeares IVDETH THe great Assyrian King puft up with pride Because no Prince was able to abide His potency in battle having subdu'd By his scarce to be numbred multitude All bordring Kingdomes at his mighty cost An hundred twenty dayes feasted his Host Then his chiefe Captaine Olophernes sent With a most puissant army with intent To sweepe all flesh from earth who had denayd To send him in his last great battle ayde He seekes to invade Iudea 'mongst the rest When of all other Cities most distrest Bethalmi was where Iudeth made abod Who in their great'st dispaire cald upon God And more their nations honour to advance Did undertake their free deliverance And when the spirits of the souldiers faild Put on a masculine spirit and prevaild Match me this woman amongst men who dar'd Against an Host invincible prepar'd For her whole nations ruine to invade That potent army singly with her maid And in her bold adventure so well sped To cut off and bring thence the Generals head OF IVDETH A SECOND WORTHY WOMAN AMONGST THE IEWES KING Nabuchodonosor and King Arphaxad were Contemporaries two mighty potent Princes the one raigned in Ninevey the great City over the Assyrians the other in Echbatane over the Medes A place as well strongly munified as most gloriously beautified It happened that King Nabuchodonosor purposed to make warre against King Arphaxad in the great Champian Countrey in the Coasts of Ragan and to that purpose hee assembled all those that dwelt in the Mountaines and by Euphrates Tigris and Hidaspes the Countries of Arioche the Elimeans the streames of Chelod with many other Nations and Languages He sent also into Persia and to all that dwelt in the West to Cilicia Damascus Libanus Antilibanus and all those that dwelt by the Sea coast and to all the people that are in Carmel in Galahaad in hither Galilee and the great field of Esdrelam and to all in Samaria and the Cities thereof and beyond Iordan unto Ierusalem c. But all the Inhabitans of these Countries despised the commandements of the King of the Assyrians neither would they come with him unto the battle but sent away his Embassadours sleightly and with dishonour therefore he was greatly incensed against all these Nations and swore by his Throne and Kingdome he would be avenged upon them and destroy all their inhabitants with the edge of the sword In which interim he marched in battle aray against the King of the Medes in the seventeenth yeare of his raigne and prevailed against him For he overthrew all the power of King Arphaxad his Infantry Horsemen and Chariots he woone all his Cities and entring Echbatâ—ne tooke the Towers defaced the streetes ruined the walls and turned the beauty thereof into shame Hee also surprised the King in the mountaines of Ragan and caused him to be thrust through with darts after which great victory he returned unto his owne City Ninivey Both he and all his Princes and Souldiers which were a great multitude where he passed the time in pleasure and jollity and banqueted his Hoast an hundred and twenty dayes During which triumphall feasting he communicated with those Princes and Nobles which were of his intimate counsell to destroy all flesh from the
seeming friends both to the Israelites and the Canaanites so temporizing and complying betwixt the Gentiles and the Iewes that which way so ever the streame ranne or the winds blew hee sayled without damage for if the one prevailed he was safe if the other he was likewise secure yet was his heart wholly inclined to the good of the Children of Israel Now the flattering of an enemy is like the melody which the Syrens make who sing not to stirre up mirth but rather allure unto mishap and as a learned Philosopher observeth It is much better to have an open foe than a dissembling friend as appeared in the fall of this great Captaine Sisera Warre is of two sorts Civill and Forraigne that which they call Civill is meerely seditious and is indeed a speedy overthrow of all estates Kingdomes and Monarchies and the very seminary of all kinde of evils though never so execrable For it abandoneth all reverence to God and obedience to Magistrates it bredeth corruption of manners change of lawes and contempt of Iustice c. But Forraigne warre is that which Plato calleth a more generous or rather honourable contention and is then onely lawfull when it is undertooke either in the defence of true religion or to establish peace Indeed nothing can make warre just but necessity nor lawfull but when it is warranted by the word either for a Prince or people to defend their owne right or to repulse Gods enemies who are ever the opposites of truth I conclude with the Poet Nulla salus bello pacem te possimus omnes All Generals of Armies ought to have their courages guided by wisedome and their discretion armed with courage neither must their hardinesse darken their judgement nor their judgement extenuate their hardinesse besides they ought to bee valiant as not fearing death and confident as not wont to be overcome their feete ought to bee steddy their hands diligent their eyes watchfull and their hearts resolute all which this godly Matron and gratious mother in Israel with sweete oratory and her presence in the fields being a president of her unparraleld magnanimity had deepely imprest in the heart of Barak Now concerning Iabin the King of the Canaanites it proved to his great dishonour so that he had better to have studied to defend his owne Country by Iustice then to have sought to subdue other nations by Tyranny and it little profiteth any Prince to bee Lord of many kingdomes if on the otherside he become bond slave to many vices besides it is not possible that to a man of much pride fortune should bee long friendly The desire of coveting and having more is a vice common to such great men breding in them for the most part a brutish nature tempered with unsaciable cruelty Ambition eateth gold and drinketh blood seeking to climbe so high by other mens heads till at the length it breaketh its owne necke It may not altogether unproperly bee compared to a vapor which ascendeth high and being at the full height disapeareth and vanisheth into nothing for commonly those that strive to suppresse and supplant others in stead of honour and superiority purchase to themselves shame and indignitie So much touching the King Now thus briefly of his Captaine That Generall who is bloody minded and thirsteth after revenge is for the most part either sold by his souldiers or slaine by his enemies but I shorten this digression and come to the matter now in handling When Sisera had by his skouts and espials understood that Barak had gathered his forces and was gone up to Mount Tabor and there pitched his Tents hee like a carefull and vigilant Generall called for all his Chariots even nine hundred Chariots of Iron assembling all the people even from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river Kishon Now by the number of his Chariots it is easie to guesse of what an infinite multitude his Army did consist who confident in his owne strength and despising the weakenesse of the enemy waited in the vallies their descent from the Mount thinking to defeate and over runne them at an instant but the event happened quite contrary to his expectation For the Heroicke and masculine spirited Championesse knowing that the Lord never failed his owne people if they left their wicked wayes and turned unto him with unfaigned repentance came unto Barak and said seest thou this great and seeming invinceable Army which cover the plaines Country that invirons us feare not their foote their horse nor their Chariots up therefore for this is the day that the Lord hath delivered Sisera and the hoast of the Canaanites into thine hand Is not hee himselfe gone before thee to fight his owne battell Which words inspired such courage both into him and his souldiers howsoever weakely accommodated for so dangerous an adventure that with an unanimous resolution as if so many mil-stones had beene precipitated from an high hill they hurried downe Mount Tabor and fell upon the campe of the Gentiles with a sudden and violent assault being upon them ere they could scarse imagine them to bee neere them which strooke them with such a terror and amazement God having a hand therein that they were so farre from assaulting their enemies that they had not the power to use their weapons to defend themselves For too much feare openeth the way to desparation being destitute of reason and turning the greatest courage into pusillanimity and cowardize according to that of the Poet nos auxius omnia cogit quae possunt firei fact a putare timor Where feare once taketh impression in the heart what is easie to be done it maketh to appeare impossible In briefe Barak with his small Army of ten thousand rowted the great and puisant hoast of the Canaanites who destroyed all their Chariots of Iron and pursued the enemy even to Haroshoth with such an infinite slaughter that they all fell by the edge of the sword and not oneâ— them escaped alive In which tumultuous flight Sisera was compeld to alight from his Chariot and cowardly to save his desparate life fled away on foote and finding no place wherein to hide or shelter himselfe from the pursute of the Israelites he came at length tâ— the Tent of Iael the wife of Heber for peace was betwixt Iabin being of Hazor and betweene the families of the Kenites who looking out from her Tent and espying the great Commander Sisera late attended by so many Chariots now forced to goe upon his feete and hee that led into the field such an innumerable Army to have neither servant or so much as a Page to waite on him And no doubt having heard the successe of the battell shee went out to meete him and said Turne in to me my Lord turne in and feare not who glad of so good an opportunity to bee secured from the pursute of his enemies accepted of her friendly offer and entering into the Tent she covered him
earth which had not obeyed his commandement and to that purpose called unto him Olophernes his chiefe Captaine and gave him a strickt Commission to execute the will of the great King and Lord of the whole earth for so he stiled himselfe Then went forth Olophernes from the presence of his Lord and called together all the Governours Captaines and Officers of the army of Ashur and selected an hoast of an hundred and twenty thousand foote with twelve thousand Archers on Horse backe besides Camels and Asses for burdens and Sheepe Goates and Oxen without number and victuall for every man in the army besides great store of treasure out of the Kings house with multitudes of strangers like swarmes of Grasse-hoppers which attended on the Army and to pertake with the Assyrians in the spoyle Who from the upper Cilicia even to Damascus overrunne many Nations robbed their Cities laid waste their Countries and put all their young men to the edge of the sword so that feare and trembling fell upon all the inhabitants of the Sea coasts who sent Ambassadors unto him and laid themselves prostrate to his mercy and after received him with Crownes Timbrels and Dances into their borders and Cities notwithstanding which he cut downe their woods set Garrisons in their chiefe Cities and tooke out of them their chosen men of warre destroyed all their gods commanding them to worship Nabuchodonosor onely and that all tongues and Tribes should call upon him as their God Now when the children of Israel who dwelt in Iudea had hard what was done unto the Nations they were greatly troubled for Ierusalem and the Temple for they were but newly returned from the Captivity therefore they sent into all the Coasts of Samaria and the bordering Cities And tooke all the toppes of the high mountaines and walled in their Villages and put in vittailes for the provision of warre And â—oachim the High Priest sent to them of Bethulia and the adjacent Cities exhorting them to keepe the passages of the mountaines for by them was an entry into Iudea but so narrow was the passage that two men could but elbow there at the most Then cryed they unto the Lord even every man of Israel their wives and their children all with one consent and fell downe before the Temple in sacke-cloath and ashes on their heads praying that hee would not give their children for a prey nor their wives for a spoyle nor the Cities of their Inheritance to destruction nor the sanctuary to pollution and reproach and a derision to the Heathen the High Priest also and the Levites stood before the Alter their loynes giâ—t with sacke-cloath and ashes upon their Miters and called upon the Lord who heard their prayer In this interim it was declared to the great Captaine of the Assyrian army that the Israelites had prepared for warre and shut the passage of the mountaines and laid impediments in the champion Country where with being exceedingly mooved he assembled all the Princes of Moab and the Captaines of Ammon and all the Governours of the Sea coast and demanded of them who that people were what their Cities and what the multitude of their army and why they alone have not come downe to submit themselves more then all the inhabitants of the West To whom Achior Captaine of the Ammonites replyed Let my Lord heare the words of his servant and I will declare unto thee the truth concerning this people and gave him a free relation of their estate from the beginning rehearsing punctually all those great wonders that God had done for them in delivering them from the Aegyptians slavery In dividing the red Sea and overwhelming Pharaoh and his hoast and destroying the nations before them c. Adding moreover that when they sinned not before their God they prospered but when they departed from his way they were destroyed in many battles and led Captives into strange Countries but now saith hee they are turned unto their God and are come up from the scattering wherein they were scattered and possesse Ierusalem where their Temple stands and dwell in the mountaines which were desolate therefore if they have now againe sinned they shall be easily overcome But if there be none iniquity found in this people let my Lord passe by them least the Lord whom they serve defend them and we become a reproch before all the world Whose words were no sooner ended but all the Captaines of the Hoast began greatly to murmur And would in their fury have slaine him but when the tumult was appeased Olofernes said unto Achior because thou hast prophesied amongst us this day that the people of Ierusalem is able to fight against us because their God is able to defend them and who is God but Nabuchodonosor therefore will I destroy them from the face of the earth and their God shall not deliver them but we will destroy them all as one man And thou Achior because thou hast spoken these words in the day of thine iniquity thou shalt see my face no more till I take vengeance of that people which is come from Aegypt and then shall the Iron of mine army and the multitude that serve mee passe through thy sides and thou shalt fall amongst their slaine nor shalt thou perish till thou beest destroyed with them Then commanded hee his servants concerning Achior that they should bring him before Bethulia bound and deliver him into the hands of the Israelites which was accordingly done then came the men of the City and loosed him and brought him into Bethulia and presented him unto the governours of the place which were Ozias the sonne of Micha of the Tribe of Simeon and Chabris the sonne of Gothoniel and Charmis the sonne of Melchiel who demaunded of him of all that was done of which he gave them ample satisfaction declaring unto them the purpose of Olofernes and the words he had spoken in the midst of the Princes of Ashur For which having first praysed God they comforted Achior and commended him greatly and Ozias tooke him into his house and made a feast to the Elders calling upon the God of Israel The next day Olophernes removed his whole army neere unto Bethulia and cut off all their Springs of water thinking without the hazard of his people to make them perish by thirst for so he was counselled and besieged the City for the space of foure and thirty dayes in which time all their places of water failed and their Cisternes were empty insomuch that they had not supply for one day so that their children swouned and their wives and young men failed and fel downe in the streetes so that they murmured against the Elders desiring them to deliver up the City to the enemy for it is better for us said they to be a spoyle unto them then to dye of thirst since the Lord hath delivered us into their hands which they prest upon them so urgently
but like a Mandrakes Apple faire in shew and poyson in taste it is the seale of Grace the staffe of Devotion the glory of life the comfort in death which when it is joyned with Humility and Charity they may be called the three vertues of the soule I come now to the thirteenth of this King Edwards raigne and the first or second at the most of her Widdow-hood at which time a great Navy of Danes which in the time of King Alured were beaten from the coast and forced to flye into France now returned and sayled about the West Country and landing in diverse places tooke sundry preies at their best advantage and then retyred themselves into their shippes againe and amongst other of their direptions they spoyled a towne called Irchinfield from which place they tooke a Bishop and carryed him aboord their ships whom they soone after ransomed for forty pounds sterling but as soone as the King and his Noble Sister had intelligens of these out-rages he assembled his Forces and they sped them West-ward by Land and sent out a Navy by Sea of which the Danes hearing they cowardly quit the Land and fled into Ireland And therefore to prevent the like inconveniences to which the Realme in those dayes was much subject the King by the advise of his fellow Championesse built a Castle at the mouth of the River Avon and another at Buckingham and a third neare unto it and after returned into Northamptonshire and gave battle to the Danes who had there planted themselves under a great Duke cald Turbetillus whom they utterly defeated and had of them an honourable victory It is further Recorded of this Martiall Virago that she without the ayde of her Brother gathered her Knights together and where the Welsh-men made invation into the Land about Brecknocke shee valiantly opposed them in all violent Hostility and amongst other prisoners and preyes surprised the Queene of their Country who came in person to the field and thinking to aspire unto her fame came farre short of her Forture The yeare following which was the foureteenth of the Kings raigne hee caused to be erected or at the least reedified the Townes of Torsetor and Wigmore Vtterly demolishing a strong and famous Castle which the Danes for their security and defence had built at Temesford The same yeare also this Noble Lady won the Towne of Derby from the power of the Danes in which assault they put her to that hard adventure that foure Knights which were called the guardians of her Corps were slaine close by her yet shee notwithstanding by her great valour escaped and after so many perils hazards battles and conflicts in all which both for magnanimity and action shee out did the most and equalled the best death which durst not looke upon her in her Armour as being frighted at the terrour of her angry countenance stole upon her unawares when her plumed helmet victorious sword and impenetrable Curace was laid by arrested her by the hand of his minister sickenesse and then taking the advantage of her infirmity and weakenesse strucke her dead about the Summer Solstice which is the middle of Iune Who was much lamented by the King and the Commons and her body with great solemnity interred in the Monastery of Saint Peters which the Duke her Lord and shee had before erected in Glocester which was after in the troublesome combustions of the Danes quite raced and demolished but in the processe of time againe reedified by Aldredus Bishop both of Yorke and Worcester who was loath that the memory of so magnanimous a Lady should be drowned in Lethe and not her monument remaine to all posterity This excellent Lady being dead her young daughter Elswina was possessed of all her seigniory for a season having a like principality with her mother who preceaded her and was stiled Princesse of Mercia or middle England but the King her Vnckle taking the affaire into his more mature consideration by the advice of his Nobles thought it to be too great a burden for her to support especially her indisposition comming so farre short of the wisedome and valour of her Mother and therefore discharged and dispossessed her thereof annexing it to the Crowne and making it a prime limbe of the body of his Kingdome which though it was done with some contention and difficulty yet the King prevailed in his purpose allotting unto her the Townes of Notingham Tom-woorth and Derby expecting shee would have defended them in as brave and warlike a manner as her Mother before her had done but finding the contrary he tooke them also from her and reduced them into his owne subjection Henry Arch-bishop of Huntington an Histriographer and Poet such as those times afforded wrote much of the Chronicles of England and composed many Elegies and Ditties of this noble Lady Elpheda of which these ensuing are a part Caesars triumphs were not so much to praise As was of Elpheda that shields so oft did raise Against her enemies this noble vanqueresse Virago whose vertues can I not expresse These amongst others are remembred by Fabiam one of our English Chronologers whom in this briefe tractate for the contractednesse used in his Annals I have strived to imitate King Edward in the death of his Royall sister Elpheda having lost his chiefe supportresse yet notwithstanding builded a new Towne directly over against old Nothingham and made a faire Bridge to make a passage betwixt them of whom Marianus the Scot William of Malmsbury and Henry of Huntington further report that he subdued the two Kings of Scotland and Wales who about the twentieth yeare of his raigne elected and acknowledged him for their Lord and Patron Hee also in the North part of Mercia by the River Merce built a City or Towne called Thylwall and after repaired the City of Mouchester which had beene much defaced by the Danes after which and many other his structures and noble atchievements which would appeare too tedious here to relate He finally expired having raigned in great honour and trouble at Tarringdon in the twenty fourth yeare of his raigne and from thence his body was conveighed to Winchester and interred in the Monastery of Saint Swithine leaving behinde him divers Sonners of which Ethelstane was the eldest and succeeded in the Throne Imperiall who began his raigne over the greatest part of England in the yeare of grace nine hundred and twenty five and in the third yeare of Rodolphus King of France this Ethelstane much beautified the tombe of his Aunt Elpheda and is said to be the first annointed King of this Land c. QVEENE MARGARET QVeene Margarets Father as all pens agree King of Ierusalem and Sicilee Had neither Crowne nor Country th' Annals say And what 's command where none are to obey Yet those meere timpanous Titles Suffolke drew Twixt her and the sixt Henry to pursue A speedy match mauger the prae-contract Tweene
the whole Land And now was great expectation for the landing of Queene Margaret and her Sonne Prince Edward and great provision made through all the coast to oppose King Edwards landing who in a Parliament then called was proclaimed usurper of the Crowne and the Duke of Glocester his younger Brother Traytor and both of them attainted by the said Parliament then the Earle of Warwicke rid to Dover to have received Queene Margaret but was disappointed for the wind was to her so contrary that shee lay at the Sea side tarrying for a convenient passage from November till Aprill so that he was forced to returne without effecting his purpose In the beginning of which moneth Aprill King Edward landed in the North with a small number of Flemmings and others all which could scarse mâ—ke up a thousand and sped him towards Yorke making his Proclamations in the name of King Henry and protested to the people as he went that hee came for no other intent but to claime his antient inheritance the Dukedome of Yorke notwithstanding which the City denyde him admittance till he tooke an oath which having done they opened their gates unto him when after he had refreshed his Souldiers he held his way on towards London and having passed either favor of faire words the Lord Marquesse Montacut who lay with an Army in the way to interdict his journey seeing that his strength was greatly increased and that the people dayly flockt unto him hee then made proclamations in his owne name as King of England and held on his way to London where he was releeved and the same day hee rode to Saint Pauls Church and offred at the Altar which done hee went to the Bishops pallace where hee found King Henry allmost alone for all the Lords and others to save their owne lives had utterly forsaken him Then King Edward lodged himselfe where King Henry lay and committed him to strict keeping and rested himselfe till Easter Eve who hearing of his brothers comming and the other Lords with him with a strong host unto Saint Albones hee sped him thither and lay that night at Barnet whether the Duke of Clarence contrary to his oath made to the French King came with all the strength he had and reconciled himselfe to his Brother at which the Lords were much daunted yet by the comfort and incouragement of the Earle of Oxford they marched on to Barnet the foresaid Earle leading the van and there they strongly embattelled themselves Vpon the morrow being the foureteenth of Aprill and Easterday very earely in the morning the two hosts defied each other upon the one party were two Kings Edward and Henry who brought him with him to the battle Clarence and Glossester the Lord Barnes c. And upon the other was the Duke of Exeter the two Earles of Warwicke and Oxford the Marquesse Mountacute with many other men of note and name In which fight the Earle of Oxford quit himselfe so manfully that he quite routed that part of the field which hee set upon insomuch that newes was carryed to London King Edward had lost the day and if his Souldiers had kept their rankes and not falne to rifling most likely it had beene so But after long and cruell fight King Edward got the victory having slaine of his enemies the Marquesse Mountacute the Earle of Warwicke his brother with many others on the Kings party the Lord Barnes and upon both parties to the number of fifteene hundred and upwards the same after noone came King Edward to London and made his offring at Saint Pauls and after rode to Westminster and there lodged and King Henry was againe committed to the Tower where he remained till his death And now great preparation was made against the landing of Queene Margaret and her sonne who all this while had beene nere to the Sea side expecting a winde which after blew for her most infortunately yet was shee safely landed with an Army of French men and others and entered so farre within the Realme till shee came to a place called Teuxbury where the King met with her and after some resistance distressed and chased her whole company in which conflict many were slaine and their bodyes found dead in the place and shee her selfe with her sonne Edward both taken Prisoners and brought to the King whom shee fronted with a bold and an undaunted countenance and forgetting what shee was then a prisoner boldly spake to him as what shee had beene a commanding Princesse which the King not having the patience to indure commanded her from his presence The Prince also the true heire to his Mothers magnanimous spirit being not onely reprooved but somewhat villified by the King whose blood was not yet cooled since the late battle replyed unto him in a language best suiting his birth and the Sonne of such a Mother at which King Edward being highly mooved and beyond all patience incensed having then his Gantlet on for he had not yet put of his armour strucke him upon the face which blow was no sooner given but he was instantly dragged from the Kings presence and by the Duke of Glocester as same reports most tyrannously murthered and this hapned upon the fourth day of May. When the Queene heard of the death of her Sonne and the manner thereof the more to aggravate it great no question was her griefe but much greater and altogether inexpressible her rage and fury not having power to revenge her selfe upon her enemies this more tormenting her then the durance of the King her husband her owne captivity or the losse of her kingdome yet outwardly shee is said to have borne all these disasters with an incomparable magnanimity who was first conveighed to London and from thence with small attendance and lesse estate sent over into her owne Country and upon Assention Eve next ensuing the body of Henry the sixth late King was brought unreverently from the Tower through the high streetes of the City to Saint Pauls and there left for that night and the next morrow with bills and glaves as he was the day before brought from the Tower thither conveighed to Chertsey and without any sollemnity at all there interred of the manner of whose death there be divers reports but the common fame went that he was stab'd to death with a dagger by the bloody hand of Richard Duke of Glocester QVEENE ELIZABETH THis Virgin Soveraigne of our Maiden Isle On whom blind Fortune did both frowne and smile Great Honour and great Horrour did indure Not safe being Subject not being Queene secure Examine both It is not easily guest In which of them she did demeane her best And of those double Fates t is hard to know In which she did most dangers undergoe Had I more heads then Spanish Gerion he Who to one body had no lesse them three More hands then great Briareus to be wondred
infinites to make this pocket booke rather voluminus then portable let these nine serve to vindicate the entire number For whose greater honour and dignitie the seven liberall sciences the sences all Cities and Countries The Cardinall vertues the foure parts of the world the Muses the Graces the Charities are all figured and delivered in the portrackt of women and even Sapientia wisdome her selfe is of the same gender who in her creation was not taken from the head of Adam least she should presume to overtop him nor from his soote least she should be vilified by him but from a ribbe neare unto his heart that she might be ever deare and intire unto him which showes the alternate love that ought to bee betwixt man and wife In the composure of bodies Philosophers say some consist of parts sejunct as an Army by Land or Navy by Sea others of parts compact as an house a Shippe and the like others of parts vnite or in one nature concreate as man beast and other Animals so wedlocke consisting of naturall and reciprocall love hath reference to that composed of parts concreate Children or issue to the compact friends and alliance to the sejunct and as Physitians hold that humors in the body are totally in the totall so in the true conjugall tie the persons or bodies riches friends or what else ought to preserve that unanimitie consanguinitie and correspondencie to be all in all and wholly in the whole which I wish to every one of that honorable order and consocietie for venare juvitis non facile est Canibus Fare yee well TO THE GENERALL READER GEnerous Reader for all the Iudicious are so know that History in generall is either Nugatory as in all comicall Drammae's or adhortatory as in the Fables of Aesop Poggius c. or fictionary as in poeticall narrations or Relatory such as soly adheare to truth without deviation or digression of which onely the ancient Gramarians admitted as worthy the name and in which ranke I intreate thee to receive this following tractate Of History there be foure species either taken from place as Geography from time as Chronologie from Generation as Geneologie or from gests really done which not altogether unproperly may be called Annologie The Elements of which it consisteth are person place time manner instrument matter and thing It is defined Rerum gestarum expositio a declaration of such things as have beene done Budaeus in his Greeke commentaries derives Historia from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is I narrate I looke I see I inquire aske know seeke learne dictate c. besides whatsoever is gravely explicated my goe under the name of History Simon Grinaeus speaking of the utilitie that ariseth unto us from the reading of History hath words to this purpose What can be thought more pleasing or profitable then in this spatious Theater of humane life for a man to instruct his understanding by searching to know whatsoever is marvelously carried in all the parts thereof To view the danger of others without any perill to himselfe thereby to make him the more wise and cauâ—elous to make happy use of forreigne presidents and examples by applying them to his owne perticulars to be as it mere private with the greatest men in their gravest counsells and not onely privie to the purpose but partaker of the event To be acquainted with all the passages of state the qualitie of times the succession of Ages the vicessitude of both The situation of countries the originall of nations the rare lives of good Princes the lamentable ends of Cruell Tirants To make all that hath beene precedent as familiar with us as the present forreigne lands as well knowne unto us as that wherein we live The acts of our fore fathers as visible unto our eyes as were they now in being As ours if we shall doe ought worthy remembrance commended to all the posteritie briefly such is the benefit of History that comparing what is past with the present we may better prepare our selves for the future Further to the exact composure of History there belongs such an accurate curiositie that whosoever shall attaâ—ne to the true method and manner may boast he hath transcended Herodatus Xipheline Dio Trogus Pompeius Justine Livy Curtius Tacitus Swetonius and even Caesar in his Commentaries To all which I must ingeniously confesse I am so many degrees inferiour that I dare not list my selfe in the number of the History-graphers being now rather a remembrancer or collector of some passages concerning the persons now in agitation But my discourse at this present is of women and women onely intimating to my selfe that it is a kinde of duty in all that have had mothers as far as they can to dignifie the Sex which in my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or History of Women I have strived to doe with my utmost minerva but that was a meare miscelaine of all ages sexes qualities complexions conditions dispositions of rich poore learned unlearned faire foule well featured deformed barraine bearing matron meretrix and all in generall from the Scepter to the sheepe booke From the Court to the Cottage But in this tractate I have onely commemorated the lives and memorable Acts of nine â—alluding to the number of the Muses Three Iewes three Gentiles three Christians Courteous Reader what is here proposed to thy view peruse without prejudice What thou findest worthy just taxation correct without mallice which granted the Nine worthy Women going before it may bee presumed that the Nine worthy Men may at some small distance follow Constantly devoted to thy content THO. HEYVVOOD To his much respected Friend Mr. Thomas Heywood concerning his Worke of the Nine Women Worthies IS 't Natures wonder that the dead revive You worke a wonder then make dead alive Nor can you being too much create them new Yet doe you being enough their being renew Who had existance by eternall will Have quasi-co-Existance by your Quill That gave them severall worth and you joyne now Their worths in one your worke where when and how This worke as theirs speakes your deserving praise Raysing their worthes in these our worthlesse dayes It intimates dull spirits rouse for shame Behold nine Trophies all of female fame Whom ye your selves if not deject may see Honours high towring Pyramidds to be Which justice ever distributing dew Makes Tripartite to Christian Gentile Iew. William Ball alias Bennet Esquire To his learned loving Friend Mr. Thomas Heywood upon his History of the Nine Women worthies IS 't not presumption for a Penscarce knowne To write in praise of him that of his owne Has Volumes of Eternallizing lines Such as have fathom'd ev'n the deepest mines Of Poetrie and Historie weigh'd downe With all Arts Plummets to bring up renowne And fix it on his head will not men say I light my Taper in a Sunshine day Sure such a censure would not seeme unjust And yet ther 's a necessitie I
no sooner were those Iudges dead but they fell againe into their former rebellion and whoring after Idols For the Lord who knew them to bee a perverse and stiffe-necked generation had sayd I will no more cast out before them any of the nations which Iosuah left when he dyed that through them I may prove Israel whether they will keepe my way to walke â—herein as their Fathers kept it or no But they had soone forgot the God of their Fathers and bâ—wed to the gods of the Gentiles Baalim and Ashcroth so that his wrath was kindled against them and hee gave them into the hands of Cushan rishathaim King of Aram which is Mesopotamia whom they were compelled to serve for the space of eight yeares but groaning under so great a burden and in this their great affliction crying unto the Lord hee raysed up Othniel the sonne of Kenaz Calebs younger brother who Iudged the people and went to warre overcomming the King of Aram in battell by whose valour the whole land was in rest forty yeares But Othniel no sooner slept with his Fathers but they fall againe into their former Idolatries in so much that the Lord stirred and strengthned Egion King of Moab against them who gathering unto him the Ammonites and Amalekites smote Israel with a great slaughter and held them under his subjection for the space of Eighteene yeares But when they had againe submitted themselves and repented them of their evill wayes The Lord stirred up Ehud the sonne of Gera the son of Geinni a man lame of his right hand who slew the King of Moab in his summer parlour and after caused a trumpet to bee blowne in Mount Ephrim where assembling the people he slew of the Moabites ten thousand of the strongest and most valiant men After which victory the land was in security and quietnesse fourescore yeares A third Deliverer they also had called Shamgar the sonne of Anath who with an Oxe-goad slew six hundred of the Philistines Ehud and Shamgar yeilding to nature were no sooner layd in their Fathers sepulchers but this refractory and disobedient people altogether unmindfull of their so great and miraculous deliverances like the dogge returned to their owne vomit and defiled themselves with all their former abhominations and therefore the Lord sold them againe into the hands of Iabin King of Canaan who raigned in Hazor and whose grand Captaine was Sisera who dwelt in Haroshoth of the Gentiles This potent King had for twenty yeares sore grieved and vexed the Children of Israel Imposing upon them great taxes and tributes and kept them in intollerable servitude and slavery and the greater terror he stroke into them was that besides innumerable strong and valiant souldiers he had ready at all assayes no lesse than nine hundred Chariots of Iron which kept not onely them but all the adjacent nations in awe so that his power was held to be unresistable and so indeede it was in all humane understanding But there is a Lord of Hoasts and God of battels who resisteth the proud and at his pleasure is able to suppresse the fury of the greatest Tyrants whatsoever Whilst these things were thus in agitation and the Israelites were in this dejection there lived Deborah who was a Prophetesse a woman of great sanctity and excellent knowledge to whom the people resorted not onely to heare those sacred and divine Oracles which she spake from God but they also brought before her all differences and controversies how dificult and doubtfull soever which by her great wisedome she reconciled and ended in so much that she lived as a Princesse or governesse For as the Text reporteth of her shee Iudged Israel This excellent woman dwelt in Mount Ephraim under a Palme tree betweene Ramah and Bethel whether as to our Courts of Iustice all the people of what condition or estate soever customably came to have their causes heard and by her great wisedome decided She as I before related being inspired wiâ—h the true spirit of prophesie sent to call unto her Barak the sonne of Abinoham from Kedesh of Nepthali who presenting himselfe before her be spake him after this manner Hath not the Lord God of Israel now at the last commiserating the great affliction of his people out of all others selected and made choyse of thee commanding thee saying Goe Barak and draw towards Mount Tabor and take with thee ten thousand men pickt out of the two Tribes of Nepthali and Zebulon and I will draw unto thee neere unto the river Kishon Sisera the great Captaine of mighty Iabins Army with all his Iron Chariots and multitudes of men and deliver them as a prey and spoyle into thine hands which having thus spokâ—n unto him shee kept silence expecting his answer Who whether distrusting in Gods almighty power and providence or doubting whether this were uttered from divine inspiration or meerely begot in her owne womanish fancy or else dispairing in his owne weaknesse and disability hee thus replyd If Deborah thou thy â—elfe in person wilt associate me I will take on me this great and hazardous enterprize but if thou deniest me thy presence and that I shall not have thy company in this adventure impose this charge on whom so ever else thou pleasest for I for mine owne part will not bee the undertaker She not well pleased with so cold an answer put on a masculine spirit and said againe Yes Barak that thou mayst know how little I feare or distrust the successe of this businesse I will goe foot by foot with thee and pertake with thee in all damage whatsoever can happen But â—hat thou mayst know that I am a Prophetesse and that I spake unto thee was from the Lord know further that though thou undoubtedly prevailest over the enemy yet shall not this journey be alâ—ogether for thine honour for the Lord shall sell Sisera the Captaine of the King of Canaans Army into the hands of a woman which having spoke she instantly accommodated her selfe and after some words of comfort and incouragement she went up wiâ—h Barak unto Kedesh who made a present muster of the two Tribes of Nepthali and Zebulon the nearest unto them out of whom he made choyce onely of ten thousand fighting men for no greater was his Army For he who is the great God of battels disposeth not of the victory unto strength or number for with an handfull of men he can subdue a multitude as you may reade in the warres of the Maccabees and else where that his great power and stretched out arme may not onely be feared but magnified amongst the nations At this time Heber the Kenite who was one of the posterity of Hobab the father in law to Moses had left his owne Country and removed from the Kenites and pitched his tent as farre as from Zanaim unto Kedesh which contained a great part of that Country hee and his family living as neuters and
then any of the masculine gender yet it is certainely my last resolution rather then live basely to dye bravely The Romans are Foxes and Hares the Brittaines are wolves and Greyhounds At which word she suffered the Hare to slip out which had all that time beene hid in the folds of her skirt which they taking for a lucky Omen spent their mouthes in an universall shout making both heaven and earth to eccho againe to the name of Bunduca she accepts of their loving and hearty acclamation and after thankes given to Audate the goddesse to whom she was chiefely devoted and the same which Victoria was amongst the Romans she recommended her cause to her speciall protection and when her Orisons and other Rites were finished she rideth and leadeth them fiercely on utterly to extirpate and roote out with sword and fire and all the extremities of warre whatsoever was Roman in Brittaine against which for the present there could be no prevention or stop the suddaine Torrent grew so great and violent and Camolodunum felt the first mischiefe of that tempest and perisht under it Now Paulinus Suetonius being absent as before was said in the conquest of Anglesee he like a provident Governour tooke not all his Forces along with him to that undertaking but he left both the Provinces and their Borders full of Legionary Souldiers and of their Aydes three men are named to have remained behind Catus Decianus Principall as being the Steward Atturney and Auditor generall of all Caesars profits in Brittaine and the Romans call such a man Procurator Petilinus Cerealis who commanded over the ninth Legion and was quartered about Gilsborrow and Daintree the third Paenius posthumus Campemaster of the second Legion surnamed Augusta and these two seates of Legions Ostorius Scapula ordained when hee was Generall here under Claudius Caesar The twentieth Legion as some are of opinion was not transported hither till after Neroes dayes yet Tacitus writes that the Vexillaries which some read the Vicesimarians themselves that is the twentieth Legion were with Suetonius at the great battaile as for the foureteenth Legion of all other in Brittaine the most renouned there is scarcely any word mentioned concerning it till the battle against Bunduca now all the Countries were full of Roman Castles Holds and Forts full of dwellings and inhabitants all over and not at Camolodunum London and Virolam onely though they be soly named for their singular misfortunes other stayes and affiances they also had which consisted not in Armed power but in amity for the Romans were too provident to relye themselves where they came upon their owne strength wholly and for that cause made themselves as many Confederates and Friends as they could possibly with their honour In this famous place of Camolodunum Claudius Caesar had placed a Colony of old Souldiers who did not onely thrust the Natives out of their permitted dwellings and dispossest them of their Lands but heightned these wrongs with revilings tearming them captives and slaves wherein they much mistooke For the Brittaines were conquered to yeeld but not to be trod upon for though force had mastered their strength yet their naturall indignation remained and looke how many old souldiers so many new Lords there were this bred so deepe an hatred that they began to side with Bunduca as foreseeing that it was no short bondage they were likely to undergoe but in the purpose of the Romans a perpetuall this Towne at that season lay open on all sides having neither wall ditch trench or pallisad onely the Majesty of the Roman name which was reputed as a wall of Brasse for the defence thereof This place Bunduca suddenly assaulted as also all other of the Roman Souldiers who lay scattered here and there upon the Frontiers in Forts and Castles and fencing the Garrisons rusht over them with such violence into the bosome of the Country as a Sea at a breach making up with all speede to the Colony it selfe the maine object of their greatest fury now the Roman party upon the first appearance of danger had sent to Catus Decianus for ayde who onely spared them two hundred Souldiers and those not compleatly armed The Colony it selfe with their Wives Children and Servants could not amout to above 20000. yet it was that brave and noble Legion surnamed Gemina Martia victoria first planted there by Claudius Caesar and by him stiled Victricensia but these auncient Souldiers for the space of ten years living secure and in peace had abandoned the use of Armes and being over mellow with ease and pleasure held it enough to watch up and downe with Warders and trouncheons in their hands a fashion of honour The Souldiers being so suddenly and violently assaulted seeing no hope left for a common defence quit the streetes and market place and thronged themselves within the great temple built by Claudius which in veneration of him was held as a sanctuary but the name of Nero the present Emperour was voyde of all honour yet all was to no purpose for Bunduca being Mistresse of all the Towne at an instant did suddenly sacke and fire whatsoever lay without the walls of the Temple the assault whereof was never intermitted till it was wonne which hapned upon the second day of the siege then all went to wracke therein as in the rest sword fury and fire concurring in the execution neither was any thing which might be called Roman which force spoyled not or revenge devoured not The Brittaines were so flesht with this bloody handsell that Bunduca or Bondicia understanding how Petilius Cerealis who commanded the ninth Legion was marching to the succour of the Colony shee encounters him giving in with so round and home a charge that utterly unable to resist hee was beaten from his ground and compelled to flye away upon the spurre with his troops of Horse onely the Infantry of the Legion being thus left naked and immediately overlaid was driven to the earth and cut in peeces and not any one taken to mercy shee then fell upon such places as had the fattest booties and least defenses upon which they committed many insolent and bloody outrages Whilest these things were thus in agitation Suetonius Paulinus sensible of the danger the whole land stood in at that time he left off the Conquest of Nerva or Anglesee and through many difficulties with an admirable constancy through swarmes of enemies got safe to London but by reason of the weakenesse of his Forces not able to mainetaine the place at the rumour of Bunduca's approach he was forced to abandon it who had no sooner quit the place but shee suddenly became absolute Mistresse therof and all therein then the wild uplandish crew of her irregular troopes spared nothing quicke or dead thirst of revenge in her and rapine in them banisht all humanity the streetes and houses were filled with miserable murders The wares and goods found
and say In their blind errour they were much misled Or had they either Quintus Curtius read Or Iustine both Historians they 'd confesse Their Learning to be small their Iudgement lesse But leaving them now thus much understand Concerning this Virago now in hand This Amazon though many were of name May 'bove the rest a just Precedence claime The first brave Championesse observed in field Arm'd with a Polleax and a Mooved shield And shall a lasting memory injoy For ayding Priam in the warres of Troy OF PENTHISILAEA THE SECOND FAMOVS CHAMPIONESSE AMONGST THE HEATHEN ALL these Heroyicke Ladies are generally called Viragoes which is derived of Masculine Spirits and to attempt those brave and Martial Enterprises which belong to the honour of men in which number this Penthisilaea hath prime place amongst the ancient remembrancers we read of many warlike Women of the like condition and quality of some few of them I will give a particular denomination Camilla Queene of the Volscians gave manifest signes of her future eminence in armes even from her Infancy not being effeminately educated with carefull and indulgent Nurses but brought up in the Woods and Forrests and fed with the milke of wilde beasts for so she was disposed of by her Father Metabus who growing to maturity cast aside the action of those common exercises whose practise belong to women as the Needle the Web and the like but cloathing her selfe in the skinnes of savage beasts she followed Hunting and the Chase using the Iavelin the Bow and Quiver and to outstrip the Hart in running and in the warres betwixt Turnus and Aeneus she sided with the Rutilians against the Trojans of whom Virgil giveth a notable Character Hilerna also the Daughter of Ianus her Father being dead raigned by the River Tiber taking upon her the sole soveraignety which before her time belonged to the men onely Semiramis ambitious of soveraignety demanded the guidance of the Scepter for five dayes onely in which interim she commanded the King her Husband to be first imprisoned and after slaine then taking the whole Principallity upon her she raigned over the Assyrians who at least royally repaired if nor really built the Walls about Babilon Zenobia Queene of the Palmireans after the death of her Husband Odenatus tooke upon her the Soveraignty of all Syria neither feared she to take up armes against the Emperour Aurelianus of whom being vanquisht and led in triumph after his victorious chariot it being objected unto him as a dishonour that he being so potent an Emperour would triumph over a woman made answer that it was no shame for him being over such a woman who was inspired with a more then masculine spirit and Hipsicratea the wife of Methridates in all the dangers of warre never left the side of her Husband but cut her haire short lest it might be any impediment to the sitting close of her Helmet Tomyris Queene of the Scithians opposed in battle great Cyrus the most puissant King of the Persians and in revenge of her siers death rifled his Tents spoyled his Campe and slew him and after cutting off his head caused it to be cast into a great vessell brimmed with blood saying after humane blood thou ever thirsted in thy life and now drinke thy fill thereof in death and Teuca the wife of Argon Queene of the Illyrians in person in sundry battles opposed the Romans and became victresse overthem Maria Puteolana who had that namē conferd upon her from Puteolis a City of Campania the place of her discent flourisht in the time of the famous Italian Poet Francis Petrarch by whom shee is thus deciphered she was patient in all labour and travaile sparing of dyet and abstinent from Wine Never applying her selfe to any of those chares belonging to Women but was wholly exercised in the practise of armes delighting in the Bow the Dart the Helmet and shee was so vigilant that she would watch some nights together with out sleepe and that little rest which shee tooke was not upon a bed but the bare earth her head instead of a pillow being laide upon her Target and though she was alwayes conversant amongst Souldiers and armed men for which some might have laid upon her the aspertion of impudence and incontinence yet she studyed nothing more then Virginall Chastity in which she continued even to death and was worthily ranked in the life of the Heroicke Ladies Let these suffice for the present and being to discourse of an Amazonian Championesse it shall not be altogether impertinent to the Story now in hand if I speake something of their Originall The Scythians a warlike nation having spent many yeares in opposing Xexores King of Egypt and after staying long in the subduing of Asia their wives sent unto them that if they made not speedy hast home they would provide themselves of issue from their neighbour Nations in processe of time two Princely youths of the Scythians Plinos and Scolopytus by a decree of the Optimates being exilde their Country tooke with them along a great number of young men to seeke a new fortune planting a new Colony upon the Borders of Capadocia neere to the River Thermodoon and having subdued the Temiscerians occupyed their grounds these having long tyrannized over the bordering Nations were at the last insidiated by the enemy and treacherously slaine which their Wives at home hearing tooke Armes to defend their owne territories which was not without good and great successe and finding the sweetenesse of liberty and soveraignty added they refused to take Husbands either of friends or enemies accounting Matrimony no better then a miserable servitude Notwithstanding they not onely without the ayde of men maintained their owne but trencht upon others holding the masculine sex in meere contempt and because they would beare a like fortune and that no one should be held more happy than the other they slew all those Husbands which yet remained amongst them and now after many conflicts having setled peace lest their posterity shold fal they desired congres with their neighbours all the male children borne unto them they strangled but the female they preserved and brought them up in the practise of Armes searing of their right paps least otherwise it might be an impediment unto them in the use of the Bow or the Speare of which they had the denomination of Amazones or Vnimammae Of these were two Queenes Marthesia and Lampedo who the more to increase their Dignity and Authority proclamed themselves to be the Daughters of Mars and having subdued a great part of Europe invaded Asia also erecting diverse famous Cities as Ephesus and others and having sent part of their Army with great preyes and booties into their Country the rest who stayed to mainetaine the Empire of Asia under the Command of Marthesia were with her selfe by the Barbarians miserably slaine In her place succeeded Orythia
who for her martiall discipline and many glorious victories and for her constant vow of Virginity as she was much famed so shee was much honoured Two of foure sisters raigned at once Orythia whom some call Otreta and Antiope In whose time Hercules with many of the prime Heroes of Greece invaded their confines at such a time of their security that their troopes were carelesly scattered abroad by taking which advantage hee slew many of them and tooke other prisoners amongst which were two of those Princely sisters Antiope whom Hercules ransomed for her golden baldricke and Menalip of whom Theseus after her surprisall grew inamoured and tooke her to wife by whom he had issue Hippolitus Orithia taking grievously this affront done to her sisters purposed to make warre upon Greece and to that end she negotiated with King Sagillus who then raigned over the Scythians solliciting his aide who sent to them his sonne Penegagaras with a mighty army of Horsemen but the Amazones and he falling to dissention by which the Grecians set upon them disbanded them and were victorious over them yet they had before fortified so many places by the way that in their retreate unto their Country they were not dammaged by any nation through whose Provinces they were compelled to make their passage Orythia deceasing Penthisilaea succeeded she for the great love she bare unto the fame of Hector came with a thousand armed Viragoes to take part with the Trojans against the Greekes but Hector being before cowardly slaine by Achilles and his Myrmidons and Achilles soone after shot by the hand of Paris in the Temple of Apollo where hee should have marryed Polixna the daughter of Priam and Hecuba And now Pyrrbus otherwaies called Neoptolemus the Sonne of Dejademeia the daughter of Lycomedes remaining the sole Champion of hope upon the party of the Greekes she marked out him as the maine ayme of her revenge shee is said to be the first that ever devised the Pole-axe and therefore because she much practised that weapon shee was called securigera as bearing an Axe she was also called Vexillifera as bearing upon her Lances point a flagge or Ensigne and Peltifera from those shields made in the forme of halfe Moones which the Amazones used to weare Of her Virgil in the first of his Aeneiids thus writes Ducit Amazonidum lunatis Agmina peltis Penthisilaeaâ—urens â—urens mediisque in millibus ardet Arm'd with their Moony sheilds the Queene her Amazonians leads And raging seemes to burne amidst those thousands where she treades Of her rare beauty added to her valour diverse Authours give ample testimony and amongst them not the least Propertius in these words Ausa feroxab e quo quondam appugnare sagitis Moetis Danaum Penthisilaea rates Aurea cui posi quam nudavit Cassida frontem Vixit victorem candida forma virum Thus paraphrased The bold Penthisilaea durst the Danish fleete oppose And from her steede sharpe arrowes shoote to gall her armed foes No sooner was the battaile done Her golden helme laid by But whom by armes she could not take she captiv'd with her eye Valerius Flaccus lib. 5 Statius lib. 12. Hor. lib. 4. and Ovid in his Epistles of Phaedra to Hippolitus useth these words speaking of her Prima securigeras inter virtute puellas Shee is also by him remembered in his second booke De Ponto and the third booke De Arte Amandi he sportively begins thus Arm'd at all points the Greeke to field is gone To encounter with the naked Amazon Behold like weapons in my power remaine For thee Penthisilaea and thy traine c. Some thinke her to have beene slaine in single combat by Achilles but the most are of opinion that she fell by the hand his sonne Neoptolemus about the beginning of the tenth and last yeare of the siege after whose death the Trojans altogether unable to resist the fury of the enemy where forc't to immure themselves and keepe close within their walles till after the Grecians entered the City by stratagem as you may read it fully and excellently delivered by the Prince of Poets Virgil To whom I referre you Penthisilaea thus dead and many of her Ladies perishing with her those few which remained alive retyred themselves with much difficulty into their Country where they had much adoe to defend their Frontiers and support themselves against their bordering Nations and others overwhom they had for a long time tyrannized in which incertaine state they remained untill the time of Alexander the Great over whom Minothaea or Monithaea called also Thalestris then raigned she in admiration of his great conquests made earnest suite unto him to enjoy his company in bed for the space of foureteene nights together which shee obtained at his hands and so returned with her traine unto her owne Country in great hope that her expected issue would equall the fame and fortunes of the Father but the successe it seemes came short of her hope for after her decease the Amazonian Nation with their name were quite swept away from the face of the earth Generaâ—ly of the Nation of the Scythians their manners and their customes from whence the Amazonians claime their discent it is further left thus recorded their dwelling houses are but small not built upon he earth but lifted and reared upon Waines and Waggons to shift and remoove from place to place as the necessity of occations or their private fancies leade them Horrace cals them Campestres and Lucan calls them Errantes wanderers for they are never constant to one place but remove according to the nature of the seasons By the vertue of one herbe called Spartiana the taste thereof giveth them ability to abstaine from meate and drinke for the space of twelve daies together they are bold and much glory in the thundring of their Horses hoofes There custome is at Cessant times to drinkeÌ„ deepe as being naturally much addicted that way but when they finde themselves to have transgressed order and tooke their cups too much they strike hard upon the strings of their bent Bowes by which they make an harmony and such a kinde of musicke as weaneth them from their voluptuousnesse and recalleâ—h them to their Pristime continence sometimes but that of necessity they have not spared to feede on humaine flesh and such strangers as have been accidentally cast upon their coasts they have sacrifized to Mars and after kept their skulls to make their quaffing bowles they are for the most part pale of complection and of condition bold and hardy for so much the nature of the climate under which they live being very cold implies the beads of their Arrowes they dip in the blood of Man and Vipers mixt together the least wound racing but the skinne being irrecoverable and necessitous death The Scythians live by theft nor will they labour of themselves but feede onely upon the prey which they can gaine from
finisht lasted threescore and eighteene yeares with sixe moneths added Pliny writeth that King Cleopes consumed upon the workemen in one of them one thousand and eight hundred talents in nothing else but Leekes Onions and Garlike by which may easily be conjectured how great and prodigious his expense was in their meate when their sallets cost him so much the scituation thereof tooke up eight acres of ground which unheard of prodigality so exhausted his treasure and drew him to that penury that he was forced to prostitute the fairest of his daughters to supply his present necessities Herodotus in his Eutirpe speaketh of diverse others too long to recite in this place one of which but the least was erected by the famous strumpet Rhodope once the Mistresse of Esopus samius still knowne to us in his excellent fables with the great riches shee gathered together by her Meretrician practise of these Lucan speaketh in his eight Booke as also Martiall in these words Barbara Pyramidum sileat Miracula memphis A second Wonder was that excellent structure built at the charge of Ptolomeus the great in the Isle of Pharos for no other use but to continue a lampe all the night long to direct Navigators in their course and how to avoide the rockes shelves and Quicke-sands frequent in those places It is said to have cost eight hundred talents of which Sostratus was the famous Architector in the most eminent place whereof he left his name inscribed In the rancke of these miraculous Edisicees are numbred the walls of Babilon either first renued or royally repaired by Queene Semiramis in height two hundred foote and in breadth fifty upon the top Chariots might meete without jetting one against the other they had moreover three hundred Towers and more should have had but that the Marishes and Fennes were of the one side a sufficient defence for the City In this worke three hundred thousand workemen were for some yeares imployed at once Herodatus writeth that these walls were two hundreth cubits in height and fifty cubits in thicknesse and that there were an hundred gates of brasse that mooved upon hinges the swift River of Euphrates running through the Towne To the former is added the magnificent Temple of Diana in Ephesus to which all Asia contributed towards the buildings which was ere it was fully perfected the space of two hundred and twenty yeares the foundation whereof was laid in a Marish or Fenny ground because it should not be subject to any earth-quake it was in longitude three hundred twenty and five foote according to the standard and in latitude two hundred and twenty being supported by two hundred and seven and twenty Collumnes every one of those pillars being at the charge of a severall King of which number twenty seven were curiously and most artificially carved and graven of which glorious worke Câ—esiphon is nominated to be the prime overseer A fifth Wonder was the Colossus at Rhodes being the figure or Image of Apollo made of Brasse and of that magnitude that it bestrided a small arme of the Sea betweene whose legges ships might saile without vayling their maine tops it was in height threescore and ten cubits which after it had stood by the space of fifty and sixe yeares was utterly demolisht by an earthquake one of his thumbes a man could scarcely fadome and his fingers were like large statues yet not one joynt about it which was not proportionably suiting with the size thereof this Colossus was lined with stones of an extraordinary bignesse with smaller intermixed amongst them it was twelve yeares in composing and the charge thereof amounted to three hundred talents The chiefe Artifex was Chares Lyndius the Scholler of Lysippus The Souldan of Aegypt invading Rhodes Laded Nine hundred Camels with the brasse thereof from this Colosse The Rhodians were called Colossians and the Island it selfe Colossicula A sixth to these was the Image of Iupiter which Phidias the most excellent Artist made of Ivory Gold and other precious materialls for the Aelians of which Propertius the excellent Poet speakes lib. I. in these words Nam neque Pyramidum sumptus ad sidera ducti Nec Iovis Elaei caelum imit at a Domus For not the least of the great Pyramids Even to the starres elate Nor the Elean house of love Which Heaven did imitate Some ranke with this the Pallace of Cyrus King of the Medes and Persians all the stones whereof were simmond with gold whereas others are done with plaister of which Memnon was the Architector but having occasion to speake of this sixth wonder though I make a small deviation I hope no Iudiciall Reader but he will say it is somewhat to purpose It thus followeth Amongst the Grecians there was a generall Law enacted of which every particular province tooke notice that whosoever should rob the statue of any of their heathen gods or any Temple dedicated unto him it was held sacriledge in the highest degree and he must imiaedtely upon his apprehension forfeit his hands to be cut of it so fell out that the senate of Elis having a purpose to erect the Image of Iupiter sent to the Arerpagita who were the optimates of Athens to borrow of them the most excellent Artist Phidias who was at that time the choyse and prime workeman of the World they willing to further so pious a worke for so they thought it as to make a god assented to the motion and delivered Phidias unto them but upon condition that they should returne him backe the worke being perfected every way as sound and compleate as they received him from them or else to forfeit an hundred Talents Which contract being drawne and concluded upon betwixt these two famous Cities Phidias is sent to undertake the worke and finisheth it which was done with such inimitable Art that it begot in them infinite admiration insomuch that they ambitiously covetous to engrosse so excellent a peece to themselves knowing it was not to be paralleld through the world and presuming that he who had done that was able to compose the like or perchance a better having now before him so faire a president therefore to prevent all such doubts and feares they laid unto his charge that he having received from them such a quantity of gold and so much Ivory with sundry other costly and precious materialls had detained a great part of them not bestowing all upon the same and therefore reserving somewhat to his owne peculiar use had incurred the due penalty belonging to a sacrilegious person for which he was convented convicted and by the Senate condemned so that Manus tanquam sacrilego praeciâ—erunt they cut off his hands as a punishment imposed on him who had committed sacriledge and so sent him backe handlesse unto the Athenians Who with great sorrow and pitty commiserating the wretched estate of their dismembred Country man
Sonne and the Father distinguisheth betwixt the Sister and the Brother for they which had lived in great familiarity now meete not but at distance which proceeded not from his will but the Majesty of state the death of the Father which raised him to the Crowne Remooved her from the Court into the Country in which retirement being nobly attended by divers voluntary Ladies and Gentlewomen as also her owne traine and houshold servants shee led there though a more solitary yet a more safe and contented life and being there setled shee received to adde unto her revenue many private gifts with often visits sent from the King who was very indulgent over her honour and health Scarse was shee full foureteene yeares of age when her second Vnckle Seymor Brother to the Lord Protector and Lord High Admirall of England brought her a Princely suiter richly habited aud nobly attended who after much importunity both by himselfe and friends finding himselfe by her modest repulses and cold answers crost in his purpose setled in his minde though not satisfied in her denyall retyred himselfe into his Country The first unwelcome motion of marriage was a cause why she studyed a more retyred life as being seldome seene abroad and if at any time the King her Brother had sent to injoy her company at Court shee made there no longer stay then to know his Highnesse pleasure and make tender of her duty and service and that done with all convenient speede tooke her journey backe into the Country where shee spent the entire season of her Brothers raigne who the sixth day of Iuly in the sixteenth yeare of hiâ— age and the seventh of his Princely governement departed the world at Greenewich The two Vnckles of the King the onely Supporters on which the safety of his Minority leaned being cut off by violent deaths It was a generall feare through out the Kingdome that the Nephew should not survive long after them which accordingly happened for the two great Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolke being in the prime and sole authority concluded a match betwixt the Lord Guildford Dudley Sonne to Northumberland and the Lady Gray Daughter to Suffolke thinking thereby to disable both the Sisters Mary and Elizabeth from any claime to the Crowne and therefore the fourth day after the Kings death the Lady Iane was proclaimed Queene The Lady Mary being then at Framingham was much perplexed with that newes especially when shee heard it was done by the consent of the whole Nobiliâ—y to whom the Suffolke men assembled themselves offring her their volentary assistance to attaine unto her lawfull inheritance which bruited at Wort The Duke of Northumberland having a large and strong Commission granted him from the body of the whole Counsell raised an Army to suppresse both her and her Assassinates which was no sooner advanced but the Lords repenting of so great an injury done to the late Kings Sister â—ent a Countermaund after him and when he thought himselfe in his greatest security the nobility forsaking him and the Commons abandoniâ—g him being at Cambridge saving his sonnes and some few servants he was left alone where he proclaimed the Lady Mary Queene in the open Market place Notwithstanding he was arrested in Kings Colledge of high Treason and from thence was brought up to the Tower where upon the Hill at the common Execution place he lost his head the twelfth of August next ensuing the like fate happened to the Duke of Suffolke not many weekes after as also to the sweete young couple the Lord Guilford Dudly and the Lady Iane Grey of whose much lamented deathes I cannot now insist The Lady Mary was proclaimed by the Suffolkemen Queene at Framingham the twentyeth of Iuly and the third of August next went by water to take possession of the Tower her sister the Lady Elizabeth whom shee had before sent for out of the Country accompanying her in the Barge from the Tower shee rode through London towards the Pallace at Westminster The Lady Elizabeth to whom all this time shee showed a pleasant and gracious countenance rid in a Chariot next after her drawne by six white Horses trapt in cloath of Silver the Open Chariot being covered over with the same in which sate onely to accompany her the Lady Anne of Cleave The first day of October Mary was crowned Queene at Westminster by Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester the Lady Elizabeth being most Princesse-like attended and present at her sisters Coronation I come now to her troubles and notwithstanding her many and miraculous dangers and deliverances being an absolute Princesse yet greater were the difficulties shee past being a Prisoner then those the which the Pope menac'st her with his Bulls abroad now the Popes agents seeke to supplant her with their power at home and then her adversaries were Alians now her opposites are natives Then forraigne Kings sought to invade her now a moderne Queene laboureth to intrap her they strangers she a sister She lived then at freedome and without their jurisdiction shee lives now a captive subject to an incensed sisters indignation she was then attended by her Nobilitie and grave Counsellours she hath now none to converse with her but Keepers and Jaylours she in her soveraigntie never stirred abroad without a strong guard of tall Yeomen and Gentlemen Pentioners shee now is kept within close prisoner waited on onely by rude and unmannerly white and blacke coate Souldiers But having before published a tractate of this excellent Lady intituled from her cradle to her Crowne I will now onely give you a briefe nomination of these passages most pertinent to this project now in hand referring the Reader for his better satisfaction to the discourse before remembred Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and other Romists offended with her Religion laboured not onely to supplant her from the Queenes love but if possible to deprive her of her life possessing the Queene that shee was consenting unto Sir Thomas Wyats insurrection therefore a strict Commission was sent downe to Ashridge where she then sojourned and lay extreamly sicke where the Lords the Commissioners besieged the house with Souldiers entred her Bed-chamber without leave And notwithstanding two learned Doctors affirmed she could not bee removed without danger of life the next morning hoysted her into an Horslitter towards London Being arived at Court for foureteene dayes confin'd to her chamber no acquaintance to confer with her no friend to comfort her whereafter she was strictly examined and sharpely reprooved and notwithstanding nothing could be proved against her commanded to the Tower by water and at such a time when in shooting the Bridge the Barge grated against the Arches being in great danger of splitting her landing at the Traytors staires her churlish entertainment her keeping close prisoner her Family dissolved her servants discharged her frights by day her terrours by