Eliud left little or nothing behind him worthy memory and when he had been King five yeers departed this life Galfridus reckoneth 3 other Kings Three Kings by some Authors not admitted successively to follow Eliud namely Dedacus Cloterus and Gurginetus but Lanquet an Author well approved will not admit them into his Chronicle I therefore proceed with the rest It is agreed by all that Merianus was King and two yeares enjoyed the principality but of what condition Merianus hee was there is left no memory to posteritie Four yeers also reigned his successor Bledinus whom some call Bladunus a man raised to that honor by his Bledinus valor but being discended from obscure parentage therefore not knowing himself wel in his greatnes as is commonly seene by many it was the cause of shortning both of his life sovereignty for he was slain by the treason of his owne servants of whose treacherous murder Capenus taking advantage being Capenus a potent Lord and in great opinion with the people hee so far insinuated into their affections that with an unanimous suffrage they proclaimed him King for his predecessor died and left no heire behind him in which authority hee demeaned himself like a royall and worthy Prince and when hee had swayed the Scepter thâ—… years he died being very aged and much lamented Him succeeded one Owen a Cambrian Britain who Owen though hee could neither claime the priviledge of bloud birth or title yet being valiant prosperous in all his martiall employments as managing the wars under Capenus by whom he was greatly honoured being also politick and wise and a good souldiouâ—… so a discreet statesman he was thought the worthiest then in the Kingdome to take upon him the Dominion of the Realm and so ended some troubles raised in his predecessors days by his valor and wisdom he brought to a happy issue and so died a single man after he had two years governed the Kingdome next him was inaugurated Sisillius otherwise called Cecilius Cecilius who bore himselfe with great humanity and affability during the time of his living a subject studying popularity and by sundry ways insinuating himself into the hearts of the people but when hee came to the Regall Title and that the power and soveraignty was wholly in his owne dispose he then began to expresse his naturall avaritious conditions by exacting on the Commons imposing divers taxes and tributes upon them by which they were sore vexed and grieved in so much that a rumour was raised amongst them which they first only whispered but at length animated by their intolerable impositions they feared not to clamour aloud that their former King died not without suspition of poyson of which they spaâ—…ed not to accuse him not only as an accessary but the prime causer and procurer thereof and therefore rising in armes against him they drove him to that â—…rrow exigent that he was forc't to fly fâ—…om one place of refuge to another who at length gathering some few forces about him gave them battail in which he was slain after he had governed the Kingdom two yeers after whom Blegabredus 〈◊〉 reigned in his stead this man had in him more musicke then majesty for he was held most excellent both in minstrelsie and poesie so that hee seemed to be son or at least minion of Apollo for hee not only composed his own Hymnes and Dities but set them and then sung and playd to them and because it was an art rarein those times practised by few especially by any of generous condition quality being excellent and eminent in a Prince he was therefore by it the more honored and admired who having swayd the Scepter 20 yeers departed this life leaving to succeed him his brother Archemail who was of a more stern robustuous nature a man unlettered Archemail and therefore a contemner of all Arts and Sciences who after he had governed the Realm two yeeres but with more austerity and rigouâ—… then his brother before him had done in a full age expired After him reigned Eldon or Eldol no sonne but a kinsman for the two brothers died issuless who was Eldol a man of peace and therfore the more indeered unto the hearts of his subjects under whose Reigne they lived in great rest prosperity gathering great store of wealth about them during the foure yeers of his Reigne after which season he changed this life for a new being much lamenâ—…d of his people after whose death stept up into the â—…hrone Rodrech or Rodian Rodrech alias Rodian a man not like his predecessor beloved as being litigious and alwayes in contention with the Commons as holding them in contempt only favouring the Nobility and Genâ—…ry and to prefer and advance them greatly oppressed the other extorting from them by sundry exactions for which hee grew into great hatred amongst them of which having intelligence he thought severely to punish them by arms but was prevented by death after hee had governed the kingdome not fully 4 yeers In his place reigned Samuel Pennisel Samuel Pennisel whom some Writers would make two men but their judgments are not altogether approved this man with great care industry sought and laboured to pacifie the tumults and combustions before raised to that purpose kept the Nobility and Gentry more short so that he suffered them not as before to insult and tyrannize over the Country but granted to them sundry immunities and privileges for which he was greatly beloved by them but left the world after he had 5 yeers swayd the Scepter whom Pyrpyrhus next succeeds a man much affected Pyrpyrhus by the people and fortunate in all things saving his short Reigne who died after two yeers sovereignty Capoyr came next to the Crown governed an equall Capoyr time with them of whom no memorable thing is recorded for in two yeeres Reigne a Prince hath scarcely time to express himself what maner of King he would be whether a tyrant or father of his people whether addicted to peace or war he left one to succeed him named Gligurt Divill who was a Prince very sober and discreet in all his actions and was an upright Iusticer maintaining good Laws in his Dominions but reigned four yeers only his son Hely succeeded him before spoken of so that all the time of Hâ—…ly the father of King Lud. these severall Kings Reigns â—…y those who writ contemporaries of the passages of seasons and sought to reconcile them by their computation amounteth to 124 yeers Thus desiring the Reader to excuse this necessary digression without which there must needs be a great maym in the Chronicle I now fall punctually upon Merlin's Prophesies continuing them and confirming their truth by Chronologie from the time in which he uttered them to the Reign of King Charles our royall Lord and Sovereigne c. A true Historie of the strange Birth of Ambrosius
Merlin came to be known to King Vortiger of the combat betwixt the red and the white Dragon and his prophesie thereof c. p. 18 Chap. 4. Merlins former prophesie explained sundry prestigious acts done by him to delight the King His prophesie of the Kings death c. p. 25 Chap. 5. Uterpendragon succeedeth his brother Aurelius He is enamoured of Igerna wife to the Duke of Cornwall whom by the art of Merlin he enjoyes of whom he begot King Arthur pag. 32 Chap. 6. Merlins former prophesie made plain concerning king Arthur with sundry other occurrences pertinent to the English History pag. 41. Chap. 7. Of the conception and birth of these 7 pious and religious brothers And being sent to death how preserved educated and doctrinated Merlins prophesies and their explanation p. 49 Chap. 8. He prophesieth of the civill wars that shall be in Britain in the time of Cadwallo And of the great dearth and desolation in the Reigne of Cadwallader c. p. 58 Chap. 9. Of divers bloudy battails fought betwixt Canutus and Edmund Their great opposition ended in a single Duell They make peace and equally divide the kingdome betwixt them p. 68 Chap. 10. Merlins prophesie of Hardy Canutus and Earle Goodwin which accordingly hapned his many Tyrannies amongst other his tithing of the Norman Gentlemen c. p. 76. Chap. 11. The landing of Duke William with the Normans The battaile betwixt him and Harold in which Harold is slain being the last King of the Saxon bloud Wil. conquereth c. p. 87 Chap. 12. The prediction of the two Dragons made good by the subsequent History in Robert and William the two sons of the Conquerour who the Lion of Iustice was and what was meant by his Alchymy c. p. 96. Chap. 13. A briefe relation of the troublesome Reign of King Stephen and his opposition against Mawd the Empresse of Henry Short Mantle and his proceedings with a continuance of our English History c. p. 106 Chap. 14. Divers remarkable passages during the Reigne of Henry the second his numerous Issue and how they were affected towards him his vic◅ and vertues his good and bad fortune all which were by this our Prophet predicted p. 116 Chap. 15. The Inauguration of Richard the first sirnamed Cordelion a prediction of his Reigne His wars in the Holy Land his imprisonment by the Duke of Austria his brother Iohns usurpation his second Coronation with his unfortunate death c. p. 127 Chap. 16. The rest of the prophesie made good in the subsequence the troublesome Reign of K. Iohn his losse of Normandy his Land interdicted by the Pope to whom hee is compeld to resigne his Crown his death c. p. 137 Chap. 17. A continuance of some passages in King Iohns Reign Henry the third succeedeth his Father a prediction of his Reign his brother Richard made king of the Romans Henries long Reign the mad Parlament p. 147 Chap. 18. The death of Henry the third and Richard Earle of Cornwall king of the Romans Prince Edwards victories in the Holy Land His Coronation the prophesie of his reign c. p. 157 Chap. 19. The right that the Kings of England have anciently had to the Crown of Scotland for which they did them homage K. Edwards victorious wars in Scotland The prophesie fulfilled His death And coronation of his son c. p. 167 Chap. 20. The Kings unfortunate wars in Scotland The battail of Banno◅urn c. Barwick betrayed to the Scots The pride and insolencie of the Spencers Their misleading the K c. p. 178 Chap. 21. The deposing of Edward 2d his repentance his death his son Edward made K◅g A prophesie of his reign His great victory over the Scots with the taking of Barwick His famous victory at Sea over the French c. p. 189 Chap. 22. The famous battaile of Poytyers fought by Edward the Black Prince in which hee took Iohn the French King prisoner His conquest in Spaine The memorable act of William VVal worth Lord Major c. p. 201 Chap. 23. The Duke of Glocester by a Parlament reformeth the Common-wealth Iohn of Gaunt claims his title in Spain King Richard marrieth the French Kings daughter Difference betwixt the King and Glocester His murder in Calice The murmur of the Commons c. p. 213 Chap. 24. The coronation of Henry the 4 with his great Feast held in VVestminster Hall A great conspiracy intended against him but prevented the lamentable murder of King Richard the second in Pomfret Castle by Sir Pierce of Exto◅ His valour at his death His Epitaph The great riches found in his treasury c. p. 224 Chap. 25. The Coronation of Henry the fift A prophesie of his reign His victorious battail over the French at Agencourt His second Voyage into France His victories by Sea and Land He is made heir by the marriage of his wife to the Crowne of France His third Voyage into France The birth of Pr. Henry The death of Henry the fift p. 236. Chap. 27. The Duke of Glocester made Protector The Duke of Bedford Regent of France of Ioan de pasil a Sorceresse Henry the sixt crowned in Pa◅is A prophesie of his reign the death of the D. of Gloster The death of the Marquis of Suffolk The insurrection of the Commons under Iacke Cade His proceedings and death the Duke of Somerset gives up Normandy The Duke of Yorke taketh arms his person seised against the Kings promise and for feareset at liberty p. 248. Chap. 28. The ambition of Queen Margaret The battail at Saint Albons Yorke made Protector The Queens practice against the Lords The battail at Northampton York proclaimed heire to the Crowne York slain in the battail at Wakefield Henry deposed and Edward Earle of March made king A prophesie of his Reigne The battaile at Exham King Henry taken and sent to the Tower The marriage of Edward Hee flies the Land Henry again made king p. 259. Chap. 29. Edward proclaimed usurper of the Crown and Glocester traytor his landing at Ravēsport the battail at Barnet the battail at Teuxbury king Henry murdered in the Tower and after him the Duke of Clarence The death of Edward the fourth Gloster takes upon him to bee Protector of the young king c. p. 272. Chap. 30. Dissention betwixt the King and the Duke of Buckingham Richard insidiateth the life of Richmond Buckingham takes armes against the King and is beheaded Banister perfidious to his Lord Queene Annes policy and tyranny His Lawes Richmond landeth at Milford Haven The battaile at Bosworth The death of Richard Richmond made King A prophesie of his Reigne c. p. 283 Chap. 31. The Earle of Northumberland slain by the Commons The Matchevilian plots of the Dutchesse of Burgundy to disturbe the peace of king Henry Perkin Warbeck her Creature hee is nobly marryed in Scotland and taken for the Duke of Yorke the death of the Lord Standley and others Divers insurrections about Perkin his
death with the yong Earle of Warwicke the death of the king A prophesie of the reigne of Henry the eighth p. 293 Chap. 32. Prince Henry married to his brothers wife hee winneth Turwin and Turney in France Floden-field with the famous victory against the Scots Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke marrieth the French Queen the kings sister The Emperour Charles the fift made knight of the Garter c. p. 304. Chap. 33. The death of Henry the eighth Edward the sixt crowned a calculation of his reigne Musse Iborow field won by the Lord Protector c. p. 315. Chap. 34. The Lady Iane proclaimed Q. Northumberlands Commission to suppresse the Lady Mary He is arrested of high treason The Coronation of Q. Mary A prediction of her Reigne The Romish Religion restored The death of Northumberland Of Suffolke Of Guilford Dudley Of the Lady Iane Gray her character The death of Cranmer Ridley and Latimer The life of Cardinall Poole twice elected Pope c. p. 326 Chap. 36. King Philips entertainment into the Land presented with the Garter Hee is made K. of Naples and Hierusalem the great solemnity of the King and Queens Marriage at Winchester Their titles their riding through London The Queen rumoured to be with Child King Philips cautelous proceedings hee favoureth the Lady Elisabet He leaveth the Land Queen Maries discontent at his departure The losse of Callis p. 336 Chap. 37. A brief nomination of her troubles wrought by the Popish Clergie Her passage through London to her coronation with the speeches spoke in the pageants A short remembrance of the prime passages in her reign The former prediction fulfild her death other predictions fathered upon Merlin explained c. p. 347 Chap. 38. The title of King Iames to the Crown His comming into England A prophesie of his Reigne The first treason attempted against him The Gunpowder treason and what the conspirators were The king of Denmarke twice commeth into England King Charles proclaimed King his Fathers Funerals c. p. 361 A Chronographical History of the Kings of Britaine from the first plantation of this Island by Brute and his Cousin Corinaeus to the Reigne of King Vortiger In whose time Ambrosius Merlinus began to utter his Predictions CHAP. 1. Brutes first plantation in this Island How hee divided it amongst his three sonnes of several famous Cities builded here by sundry Kings and how divers Rivers took their first name of all the remarkable passages that hapened in their reignes A Catologue of the Kings continued from Brute to the end of his Line and off-spring FOr the better illustration of this present worke intended it shall not be amisse to shew you a briefe progresse of all the memorable passages of the time before wee come to the Prophesie with a Catalogue of the Kings of this Island and what Remarkable things happened in their reigne To begin with the first Brute who was of the ancient and noble bloud of the Trojans discended from Aeneas and Creusa the How Brute was discended daughter of King Priam These had a sâ—…nne called Ascanius after his Father King of Italy Brute was the sonne of Sylvius Aenaeas the son of Ascanius This Brute at fifteene yeares of age being hunting by the unfortunate glanceing of an Arrow slue his father and had beene also in his birth the death of his mother but for the last disasterous act hee willingly exiled himselfe and taking with him a choice company of adventurers thought to discover some new plantation To omit his many troubles both by Land and Sea in which hee was still most victoriously prosperous at length hee incountred with a small navy of ships of which a Trojane and his neare kinseman was Captain whose name was Corinaeus who joyning their Corinaeus cousin to Brute forces together and after divers and sundry perills landed in this Island of the white and chalky Cliffes called Albion where finding none but Giants of mighty stature he destroyed the most part of them of whom the greatest both in bulke and command was called Gogmagog with whom Corinaeus wrastling to prove their triall of strength Gogmagog in his gripe broke a rib in the side of Corinaeus at which he being inraged gathering all his spirits about him cast him downe the high Rocke of Dover the place where they proved the mastery which is called the fall of Gogmagog unto this day for which and other his valiant acts before The fall of Gogmagog atchieved hee gave him that intire Province which from his name beareth the title of Cornwall Brute then taking full view of the Island The building of Troynovant since called London searching up the River of Thames built upon it a City which in remembrance of the late subverted Troy he called Troynovant or new Troy now London this done he put his Souldiers to tilling of the Earth and governed the Realme peaceably for the space of twenty foure yeares He had by his wife Ignogen the daughter of Pandrusus three sonnes betwixt whom in his life time he divided his Kingdome to How hee divided the Kingdome Locrine the eldest hee gave all that is called England but then Logria after his name To the second Cambrius or Cambre hee left the Countrey of Wales at first from him called Cambria To the third Albanact hee gave the North part of the Land then titled from him Albania now Scotland That done hee expired The death of Brute and was buryed at Troynovant and this happened in the yeare of the world foure thousand fourescore and seven Locrine being King of Britaine hearing that a King of Scythia had invaded his brother Albanacts Dominions and having slaine him in battaile governed in his stead Hee with his brother Cambre assembled a mighty Hoast to avenge his death and in a sharpe conflict discomfited his whole Army and so hotly pursued him in his flight that this Scythian which was called Humber was drowned in that River Plow the River Humber came to be so cald which runneâ—…h up from Ravenspurn up to Hulâ—… which hath since borne his name even to this day After which victory Locrin who had espoused Guendolina daughter to Corinaeus Duke of Cornwall grew inamoured of Estrild a beauteous Lady and Daughter to the aforesaid Humber by whom He had a Daughter named Sabrina of which his Queene having intelligence the accited her Father and friends to make Warre upon her Husband and flew him in fight when hee had governed the Realme for the space of twenty yeares then the Masculine spirited Lady tooke his Concubine Estrild with her beautifull young daughter Sabrina and caused them to bee both drowned in that River which parteth England and Wales and from Sabrina is called Severne to all posterity The River Severne whence called Then Guendolina took upon her the government of the Land till her young Son Madan came to mature age and then resigned it up intirely into his owne hands after shee had
Soveraigniz'd fifteen yeares Madan began his Réigne in the yeare of the World foure thousand one hundred twenty two of whom is little left worthy memory but that hee tyrannized over his Subjects and in the fortieth of his Reigne being at his disport of Hunting and lost by his Traine hee The death of Madan was devoured of Wolves which were then plenteous in the Land leaving two Sons Memprisius and Manlius These two brothers were at mortall enmity till in the end Memprisias the elder caused the other to bee traiterously slain after which he fell into all kinde of vices and abandoning the bed of his lawfull wife used the company of many prostitutes and Concubines and then into the brutish sin of Sodomitry for which hee grew hated both of God and man whose body also was in hunting torn to pieces by wild beasts leaving behind him one The death of Memprisius sonne begotten in lawfull wedlâ—…cke named Ebrank Hee beganne his Reigne in the yeare of the World foure thousand one hundred fourescore and two hee had one and twenty wives of whom hee received twenty sonnes and thirty daughters The eldest of which was Gualeu al of Anumerous issue them he sent to Alba Silvius the eleventh King of Italy and sixt of the Latins to have them maried to the blâ—…ud of the Trojans Hee was a great Warriour and conquered in Germany and els-where he builded Caerbranke now called Yorke one hundred and forty yeares after the The building of York erecting of London hee built also in Scotland the Castle of Maidens now called Edenborough Edenborough Castle Castle And after with a strong army pierced Gallia returning thence with great triumph and riches who when hee had reigned sixty yeares died and was buried in Yorke leaving his eldest sonne Brute Greenshield to succeed him in the Kingdome of whom is left no memory worthy the recitall but that he expired and lyeth buried by his Father whose successour was his sonne Leil or Leir who built Careleir or Carleil The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 who in the latter end of his Reigne gave himselfe wholly to sloth by which divers uprores grew in the Realme not at his death appeased whom succeeded his sonne Lud sirnamed Hurdebras who was inaugurated in the yeare of the world foure thousand two hundred The building of Canterbury Winchester Shaftsbury threescore and nineteen he prudently appeased those combustions begot in his fathers days He builded the Town of Kaerkin now called Canterbury and Caerguent now Winton or Winchester and another titled Mount Palatine now Sexton or Shaftsbury hee reigned thirty nine yeares and left a sonne called Bladud This Bladud professed himselfe a great Astrologer and studied the art of Necromancy he builded the Towne of Caerbadon now called Bath and was the first founder of the hot Baths Bathe and the hot Baths this King attempting to flie from the top of Apollo's Temple to the ground his art failing him he broak his neck in the fall when hee had raigned twenty yeares leaving his sonne Leir to The death of Bladud succeed him Leir was of noble conditions and kept the Land in peace and tranquillity hee built the City of Caerleir now Leicester hee Leicester had no sonne but three only daughters Gonovilla Ragan and Cordeilla the youngest whom he best loved who being grown in age desired to know which of his daughters affected him most the first protested she loved him better then her owne soule the second swore her love was inexpressible for shee preferr'd his love before all things under the Sunne which answers Leirs three daughters much pleased him then hee demanded the like of the youngest who told him shee could not flatter like her sisters but she loved him as far as he was worthy to be beloved and as much as a childe ought to love a father which answer much distasting him hee maried his eldest daughter to the Duke of Cornwall and the second to the Duke of Albania and betwixt them divided his Land after his disease but for the younger he reserved no dowre at all Notwithstanding which Aganippus a King amongst the Galls hearing of her great beauty and vertue came into this Kingdome and took her to wife to whom her father would neither part with gold nor jewels nor any remembrance of his love but glad to be so rid of her It was not long after that the two sisters grieved that he liv'd so long incited the two Dukes The ingratitude of the two sisters their husbands called Maâ—…glanus and Hemminus who rose up in armes against him and divided his Dominion betwixt them so that of force he was compeld to flie into France to bee relieved of his youngest daughter whom hee hâ—…d before so much despised whom shee no sooner saw but she exprest unto him all the filiall duty that could be expected from a father so that hee now began to distinguish betwixt flattery and faire words and naturall and pious indulgence briefly shee animated her Husband to The love of Co deilla to her Father take his quarrell in hand who entred into the Land with a puissant army and re-instated him in his thrâ—ne who after he had ruled the Kingdome forty yeeres died and was buried at Caerleil leaving his daughter Cordeilla to inherit the Kingdome who by the generall assent of all the Peeres and Commons was admitted as Queen who for the space of five yeares governed the Land with great prudence and the generall love of the multitude til Morgan and Cunedagius the sons to her two elder sisters invaded her Kingdome and surprising her put her into close prison which servitude her great spirit not able to endure shee with her owne hands slue her The death of Cordeilla selfe These two Nephews to Cordeilla Morgan and Cunedagius divided the Land betwixt them and so continued in great amity for the space of two yeares when some evilly disposed persons whispered in the eares of Morgan that it was a great dishonour unto him being descended from the elder sister Gonewilla and her Husband Maglanus should part from any of his right to Cunedagius sonne to Ragan the second sister and her Hemminius and not possesse himselfe of the whole principality therefore hee made war upon his cousin who sent to him messengers to intreat of amity and unity to which hee would by no meanes condescend Therefore Cunedagie compeld to an unwilling war gave him battaile and rowted his whole army and after chaced him into Wales where in a second field Morgan was slain which place is to this day called Glamorgan or Morgans Glamorgan Land after whose death the victor possessed the sole soveraignty of whom nothing is left worthy memory but that after he had reigned three and thirty yeares hee was buried at Troynovant leaving to succeed him a sonne called Rivallo Rivallo Hee governed the Realme honourably for the space of forty six yeares in
which time the greatest thing of remark is that in the two and thirtieth yeare of his Reigne Rome was first The first building of Rome builded in the yeare of the World foure thousand foure hundred threescore and ten after the first erecting of Troynovant or London foure hundred and seven Solary yeares After Sisilius Rivallo reigned his sonne Sisilius forty nine yeares and was buried at Caerbadon or Bath leaving no heire of his body lawfully begotten Him Iago his Nephew succeeded hee Reigned Iago five and twenty yeares died without issue and lyeth buried by his Uncle Rivallo at Caerbrank or Yorke Kinimachus his brother governed the Land after him for the space of fifty foure yeares and lyeth buried by the two fore-named Kings hee left behind him a sonne called Gorboduc in whose time as in the Reigne of the foure last Kings nothing hapned deserving the remembrance of a Chronicle but that hee governed Gorboduc the Realme threescore and three yeeres dyed and was buried at London and left behind him two sonnes called Ferrex and Porrex These two brothers were made joynt Sovereignes Ferrex and Porrex of this Kingdome in the yeere of the world foure thousand seven hundred and eleven and continued in great fraternallamity for a certain time which expired Porrex being ambitious after the sole and entire sovereignty gathered a strong power unknowne to his brother purposing to supplant him from all Regall dignity so that being unprovided of an army he was forced to flye into France where hee implored the aid and assistance of a potent The death of Ferrex Duke named Gunhardus or Swardus who furnished him with souldiers sufficient so that hee re-entred the Land with his Host of Gauls of which Porrex hearing met him with his Britans and gave him battaile in which Ferrex was unfortunately slaine after which victory retyring himselfe to his palace where Widen or as some Authors name her Iudon his mother remayned she setting aside all motherly pity entred his chamber and by the helpe of her women in the dead of night when hee was fast sleeping A crueâ—…t mother The death of Porrex most cruelly slue him and after not sated with his death shee cut his body into small pieces Thus died the two brothers when they had ruled the Land in war and peace five yeers and in them ended the Genealogicall Line of Brute with whom also I conclude this first Chapter CHAP. 2. A Continuation of the History of the British Kings unto the time that Iulius Caesar made conquest of the Island The building of divers Cities and Townes Two things especially remarkable in an indulgent mother and a most naturall brother sundry other passages worthy observation The City of Troynovant how called London AFter the deaths of these two Princes the Nobles of the Land fell into great dissention amongst them selves all hating the memory of Gorbodue and his issue in regard that one brother slue the other and the most unnatural mother was the death of the surviver and because none of Brutus Line was left alive the Land was divided in foure parts so that in Albania Britain goverred by foure Dukes was one Waler called Staterius Pinnor governed Loegria or middle Britain Rudanlus guided Wales and Clotenus Cornwall whom the Britains held to be the most rightfull Heire and all these called themselves Kings to which some adde a fift Yevan King of Northumberland Briefely Munmutius Donwallo Dunwallo re duceth it into a Monerchy sonne to Clotenus Duke of Cornwall by vanquishing the rest became sole Soveraigne of this Island in the yeare of the World foure thousand seven hundred forty eight Hee was in all his actions very noble and built within London a famous structure which he cald the Temple of Peace which some hold to bee the same now called Blackwell Hall He instituted many good and wholsome Lawes Hee gave great priviledges to the maintaining of Temples Cities Ploughes c. He began the foure high waies of Britaine which were perfected by his sonne Belinus Hee built the two Townes of Malmsbury and the Vies and was the first that made for himselfe a Diadem of Gold with which hee was crowned with great solemnity Insomuch that some Writers name him the first King of Donwâ—…llo the first crowned King of Brit. Britaine stiling all his predecessors only Dukes Rulers and Governours Hee when hee had well and honourably governed the Land for the terme of forty yeares dyed and was buried in the foresaid Temple of Peace within London leaving to succed him two sonnes Belinus and Brennus These two brothers divided the land betwixt them and continued in great fraternall unity for the space of five yeares after which terme Beliuns and Brennus Brennus ambitious to have more Land or all made mortall warre against his Brother who vanquished him in battaile so that hee was forced to forsake the land and arrived in Armorica now called Little Britaine some write into Norway Howsoever by the supply and assistance of forraigne Princes he made many inroads into the Land too long here to relate to the great disturbance of his brother At length he assembled a strong and puissant Army against whom Belinus came with a mighty hoast as his manifest and mortall enemy But as their armies were ready to joyne battaile their Mother whose name was * or Corniven na Corneway of An indulgent mother a more indulgent and penetrable nature than the cruell and savage Widen before named exposed her selfe in person betweene the two Hoasts and in a discreet manner and motherly demeanour using withall such passionate and moving Oratory to her two sonnes that at length shee setled a steadfast unity and peace betwixt them After which accord made they joyned both their hoasts and with them Conquered a great part of Gallia Italy and Germany which done Belinus returned into Britaine Where when he came hee repaired old and decaied Cities and also built a new one upon The City of Legions Carleon the River of Vske neare unto Severne called Careuske and after the City of Legions because in the time of Claudius Caesar divers Roman Legions were there billited and lodged now called Carleon Hee built also an harbour or small Haven for ships to ride in in Troynovant in the Summet or top whereof stood a vessell of Brasse in which after his death his burnt ashes were inclosed which still retaines the name of Belingsgate In which interim The building of Belliâ—…sgate Brennus desirous to win fame and honour abroad with an hoast of Senonensian Galls so called because they dwelt about the City of Sena built in Italy and Gallia these Cities following Cities builded by Brennus Mediolanum or Milleine Papia or Pavie Burganum Sena Comum Brixia Verona Vialcnza Cremona Mautua c. Hee overcame the Romans at the River Albia eleven miles from Rome and tooke the City all save the Capitoll to which they layd
siege and one night whilst the Guardians thereof were asleep they undermined the earth and were likely to have wonne it but a noble Roman named Manlius Torquatus waking by the crie of Geese and Ganders prevented the Galls and saved the Capitoll For which cause the Romans for a long time after on the first day of Iune The feast of Ganders did annually celebrate the feast of Ganders But Brennus and his people held the Romans so short that they slew many of the Senators and compelled the survivers to lay him downe a thousand pound weight in Gold besides they took the spoyle of the City so that they were inforced to call backe Furius Camillus whom they had before most ungratefully banisht from Ardea and created him the second time Dictator who gave strong battaile to the Galls and won from them all the gold and jewells which they had taken from the Romans Therefore Bren neâ—… his Army towards Greece entering Brennus inva deth Greece Macedonia and dividing his people into two hoasts the one he retained with himselfe and sent the other into Galatia which after was caled Gallograecia and lastly from Gallograecians the Nation were termed Galathians Then Bren conquered Macedonia and overcame their Duke or King Sosthenes and after spoyled the gods of their Temples and said in sport Rich gods ought to contribute towards men some part of their wealth Thence hee came to Delphos where the Oracle was and robbed the Temple of Apollo upon which there was a great Earthquake and Haile-stones of mighty weight and bignesse which destroyed some part of his Hoast and upon the rest an huge part of the rockie mountaine fell and buried them in the Earth and Bren being wounded and despairing of safety drew his Sword and killed himselfe And his â—…rother Belinus after hee had honourably governed the The death of Brennus Kingdome of Britaine with his brother and alone for the space of twenty sixe yeares expired and was buried at Belingsgate leaving a Sonne behinde him called Gurguintus Barbarosse or Gurguint with the red Beard Gurguintus Hee beganne his Reigne in the yeare of the world foure thousand eight hundred thirty foure he conquered Denmarke and forced from them an annuall Tribute of one thousand pound Denmarke made tâ—…butary to England After which victory hee sayled towards England in great triumph but in his course upon the sea hee met with a Fleet of thirty Sayle who haliâ—…g them and demanding of what Countrey they were and the purpose of their Navigation they answered him Their people were called Balenses and that they were exiled from Spaine and with their wives and children had long sayled upon the sea beseeching the King to have compassion of them and to grant them within his large dominions some place to inhabit and they would bee his true and faithfull subjects The King commiserating their estate by the advice of his Barons granted them a wide and vast The first plantation of Ireland Countrey which is the farthest of the westerne Islands which of their Captaine Irlomall was called Ireland and that was the first plantation of that Countrey And after this Gurguintus had established the Lawes of his fore-fathers and exercised justice amongst his Subjects for the space of nineteene yeares he dyed and was buried at Troynovant leaving a sonne called Guintolinus Hee with great honour and clemency guided the Land taking to wife an honourable and learned Lady called Marcia who added to the former Lawes of the Land other wholesome statutes and decrees which were greatly imbraced continued long of efficacy and force which Alured long after King of England caused to be translated out of the British into the Saxon tongue and called them Marthe he lege or the Marcian Lawes to this woman for her great wisedome the government of the Kingdome was committed with the Guardianship of his sonne Cecilius for the space of twenty Cecilius sixe yeares after which time the King expired and was buried at London of this Cecilius there is little or nothing remembred but that he governed the Realm 15 years leaving to succeed him his son Kimarus who was a wild yong Kimarus man and irregular both in his private life and publicke government who when he had reigned three yeares being in his disport of hunting was trayterously slaine by his servants Him succeeded his son Elanius who expired in the second Elanius of his reigne whom succeeded his bastard sonne called Morindus begotten of his Concubine Faugrestela Morindus He was made King in the yeare of the world foure thousand eight hundred fourescore and ten who was a Prince of great valour and courage but given to wrath and cruelty of goodly presence comely personage but a mervailous strength above all the Nobles of the Realme In his time came the King of Mauritania and invaded his Realme whom he incountred with a puissant army and chased to sea taking many of his Souldiers prisoners whom he caused in his owne view to be put to many cruell and tormenting deaths at length riding upon the Sea Strand he espyed an huge Monster which the waters cast up alive which out of his great courage and ambitious of glory purposing to slay with his owne hands he was by it devoured after he had governed the kingdome eight years leaving behinde him five sonnes Gorbomannus Archigallo Elidurus Vigenius and Peridurus Gorbomannus being the first begotten sonne of Gorbomanus Morindus succeeded his Father being a just Prince in whose time was more riches and plenty than in any of the dayes of his predecessors who to the great sorrow both of his Peeres and people dyed without issue after hee had reigned eleven yeares after whom his second brother Archigallo was instated in the Soveraignty Archigallo this Prince was of a contrary condition to the former who gave himselfe to dissen ion and strife imagining causes against his Nobles to deprive them of their possessions and dignities and raising men of base and sordid birth and quality to office and honour And so he could inrich himselfe not caring how hee impoverisht his subjects For which by one assent of the Nobility and Commons he was deposed from all regall dignity after hee had tyrannized five yeares In whose stead was instated the third brother Elidurus Elidurus in the yeare of the world foure thousand nine hundred and fifteene who was so milde and gentle to his Subjects that they added to him a sirname and called him Elidure the meeke To expresse the goodnesse of his condition it happened that hunting in a Wood called Calater neare untâ—… Yorke hee found his banisht brother wandring in the thicke of the Forrest whom he no sooner saw but dismounted Aâ—…are president in a brother from his Steed and imbraced him in his armes and so conveighed him into the City privately where hee concealed him for a time and at length feigning himselfe sicke hee so
wrought with his Nobility severally and apart that hee had won them to re-instate his brother Archigallo in the Throne after he himselfe had governed for the terme of five yeares who being againe advanc't to the supreme power and Majesty hee changed his former Conditions ordering all things according to equity and Iustice during his naturall life and then dyed after he had lastly reigned ten yeares and lyeth buryed at Yorke Then was Elidurus againe The death of Archigallo made King against whom his two yonger brothers Vigenius and Peridurus had great indignation because for his vertue and piety he was so much beloved of the Britons therefore they conspired against him and tooke him prisoner in battaile when the second time hee had reigned two yeares committing him unto safe custodie These two Brothers were then joyntly made Kings and divided the Land betwixt them Vigenius dyed after he had governed his part of the Kingdome seven yeares after whose death Peridurus seized the whole under his Dominion who ruled with great Temperance and Prudence insomuch that hee was praised above his other brethren and Elidurus quite forgot who after he had reigned with his brother and alone for the terme of nine yeares expired after whom Elidurus was fetcht from prison Elidure the third time made King and the third time instated in the Throne who continued in his former sincerity and integrity and lastly being of a good age ended his life when hee had this last time governed foure yeares and was buried at Carleil leaving a Son called Gorbomannus who began his raigne in Gorbomanus the second the yeare of the World foure thousand nine hundred forty five after whom succeeded Margan and after Margan his brother Emerianus Margan Emerianus who was deposed for his cruelty and tyranny after whom successively raigned twenty Kings of whom small or no mention is made by any approved Author the last of which was called Blegabridus a cunning Musitian who Blegabridus for his excellency in that faculty was called of the Britains god of Glee-men or Minstrells After whom succeeded nine Kings of whom there is left neither name or memory saving that the last of them was named Hely who governed King Hely the Kingdome forty yeares wanting seven months which time of thirty three successive Kings that is from Elidure to the last yeare of Hely amounted to one hundred fourescore and sixe yeares This Hely left behind him three sons Lud Cassibeline and Nennius King Lud. Lud the eldest sonne of King Hely began his Reigne in the yeare of the world five thousand one hundred thirty one who in all his actions shewed himselfe honourable repaired old Temples and builded new and so of Cities and Townes but especially in Troynovant hee caused sundry structures to bee made both for the inlarging and beautifying of the City walling it round and ditching it about and in the west part of the Wall made a strong gate and commanded it to be called after his name Luds-gate Luds Towne now London and for he much affected the City as the place where he most frequented hee changed the name thereof from Troynovant to Caerlud or Luds Towne now London Hee was strong and mighty in subduing his enemies liberall given to hospitality and much loved and feared of the Britains who reigning in great peace and prosperity eleven yeares then dyed and was buryed in Port-Lud or Ludgate leaving two Sons Androgeus and Tenantius In regard of the pupillage and minority of Cassibelan made King of Britaine the two young Princes Cassibelan their Vncle and brother to King Lud was made King in the yeare of the world 5142. This man was of great wisedome and courage exercising Iustice mixt with mercy amongst his subjects insomuch that they favoured him greatly above his Nephewes yet he provided that they were royally educated according to their births and when they came to yeares of discretion he gave to Androgeus the City of London and the Earledom of Kent and to Tenantius the Dukedome of Cornwall c. CHAP. 3. The first conquest of this Land by Iulius Caesar Britaine made tributary to the Romans the birth of our Saviour under Cimbeline King of Britaine How Southampton came to bee so called and the Citie of Glocester and Coilchester Vespatians conquest of the Isle of Wight of Catnesse in Scotland of Lucius the first Christian King of the Britaines and of other Roman Governours CAius Iulius Caesar being imployed by the Senate of the famous City of Rome with Lucius Publius his Collegue in the warres of Gallia now called France being on the Sea side at Callis beholding the white Cliffes and Rocks of Britaine Iulius Caesar ambitious to Conqeur Britaine demanded of the Natives what manner of people inhabited this Island and being fully satisfied concerning the people and commodities thereof he was ambitious to adde it to the Roman Empire and to that purpose sent Messengers to Cassibelan then King to make him and his Land tributary to Rome At which he being highly moved sent him backe peremptory answer that every Soveraigne was bound to keep his Subjects from slavery and servitude and maintaine them in their Franchises and liberties and that hee would doe to his utmost ability and power With this answer Caesar who was of an invincible Courage much incensed instantly made ready his Navy and sayled towards Britaine with purpose to adde His first attempt and successe this Kingdome to his conquest of France but the Britaine 's had piâ—…cht stakes on the shore which much hindred their landing whilst Cassibelan gathering a strong Host gave the Romans battaile and beat them backe unto their ships but after he had new rigged and repaired his Navy and furnisht himselfe with a sufficient Army â—…e returned againe the second time and His second attempt was likewise beaten backe to his great dishonour For which victory twice obtained by the Britaines he assembled all his Lords and made a great triumph at London where were sundry martiall exercises performed in the performance of which one of Androgeus his Knights having slain one of the Kings Kinsmen whom hee much loved hee sent to have him stand to the tryall of the cause but Androgeus denyed to give up to the censure of the Law and departed Difference betwixt the 〈◊〉 and Androgeus in secret without taking leave from the Court which gave Cassibelan great cause of incensement against him Whose indignation Androg us justly fearing sent Letters unto Caesar that if hee would make a third attempt upon this Countrey hee with all his whole power would bee reâ—…dy to assist him against his Uncle pretending that he not onely usurped his right in the Crowne but had done to him divers other affronts and injuries Caesar glad of so good an opportunity after Hostages given for his fidelity which were his sonne Sceva with thirty others of the sonnes of his Nobility and Gentlemen a third time
the Romans Coil King of Britaine by which reason there grew great affinity and friendship betwixt the two Nations for he became their willing Tributary Hee was very bountifull to all men by which hee purchased great love both from the Lords and Commons Hâ—…e built the Towne in Essex called Coilchester and when he had peaceably governed the Realme for the space of foure and fifty yeares he dyed and was buried at Yorke leaving a sonne called Lucius who was inaugurated in the yeare of grace one hundred and foure Lucius the first Christian King in Britaâ—…ne score who had the honour to be called the first Christian King of this Island who being a man devoutly given sent to Eleutherius then Bishop of Rome to be instructed in the true faith who to that purpose imployed two learned men called Fuganus and Dimianus who were honourably received by this King Lucius and by whom hee and a great part of the Britaine 's were converted from Paganisme and Idolatry to the true Christian beliefe which hapned in the eighth yeare of his Raigne who after his conversion ordained that all the Idolatrous Arch-Flamins and Flamins should bee made Arch-bishops and Bishops to the number of three Archbishops and twenty eight Bishops and should have the government of the Church lately establisht These being confirmed by the fore-named Bishop of Rome he indowed them with lands and possessions and consecrated all the Pagan Temples to the worship of Christ and when hee had peaceably governed the Land for the space of twelve yeares hee left this earthly Tabernacle for a better and was buryed at Glocester who because hee dyed without Heire the Land grew into great combustion for Lucius dyeth without issue the terme of fifty yeares in which none had the absolute nomination of King or Soveraigne Then Severus the Roman Emperour tooke upon him the government of the Realme in the Severus named himselfe King of Britaine yeare of grace two hundred and eight and ruled the Kingdome five yeares in which time he caused a Ditch and Wall to bee made of Turves and stakes of an hundred and two and twenty Miles in length from Durham to the Scotch Sea during which the Picts with their Duke or Leader Fulgenius came out of Scotland with a strong army and destroyed much of the Countrey beyond Durham against whom Severus for his Conquest of Parthia sirnamed Parthicus assembled a great Hoast of Romans and Britaines and gave them battaile neare unto York in which he was slain and his army discomfited and in that City lyeth interred leaving behinde him two sons namely Geta and Bassianus This Bassianus was the sonne of Severus a British woman Bassianus made King of Britaine and he had Geta by a Roman Lady the Britaine 's therefore made the son of their Country-woman their Soveraigne in the yeare of Grace two hundred and twelve But the Romans held for Geta For which mortall war grew betwixt the two brothers in which Geta was slain and Bassianus who was after made Emperor having incestuously married his stepmother for which many other tyrannies exercised by him on the natives he grew into great hatred of the people and was slaine at a place called Edessa after hee had beene Emperour for the space of seven yeares Carassius aspireth to the Crowne In this interim of his Reigne one Carassius 〈◊〉 Britain of low birth but eminent in armes and the practice of Martiall Exercises obtained of the Senate the keeping of the Coasts and Frontiers of the Land and to oppose the invasion of all strangers so that he drew to him many hardy Knights of the Britans promising unto them many donatives with honour and office if they would make him King of the Land which so far prevailed with them that they with an unanimous consent proclaimed him their Sovereigne and King against whom Bassianus moving battaile and to suppresse them as rebels was slaine by this Carassius who tooke upon him the Regall Dignitie in the yeare of the Incarnation of Christ two hundred and eighteene When the Romans had notice of the death of Alectus made Ruler of Britain their Emperour Bassianus they sent into Britain a great Captain cald Alectus with three Legions to punish the pride and rebellion of Carassius to which Captain Fortune was so favorable that he chaced him from place to place and in the end slue him in battaile after he had eight years usurped This Alectus for his good service done was made Consul of Rome and Governour of the Land who hotly pursued divers British Lords who had tooke part with Carassius against the Romans and exercised great tyranny amongst them so that hee grew into great hatred and contempt of the Natives And therefore they accited one Asclepiodotus Duke of Cornwall who gathered a great hoast of the Britains and made warre against the Romans chasing them from place to place and Country to Country so that at the last Alectus was glad to retire himselfe within the fortifications of London whither Asclepiodotus pursued him and laid siege about the City provoking him to battaile who at length issuing out with his forces many were slaine on both sides but in the end Alectus was slaine after hee had sixe yeares The death of the Roman Alectus governed the Land When Livius Gallus a Roman Captain understood the death of their Generall hee with the survivours of the Army retyred into the Citie for his best security where for a while I leave him CHAP. 4. The Duke of Cornwall made King of Britaine how Walbrook took first name Constantius the Roman marrieth with Helena daughter to King Coill and is made King His Reigne and buriall His sonne Constantine made King after him who was cald the Great and was the first Christian Emperour His great Devotion and after falling into Heresie Octavian his Deputy in Britain usurpeth and after made King Maximinus a Roman by Marriage with his daughter succeeds him c. ASclepiodotus Duke of Cornwall began Asclepiodorus King of the Britains his Dominion over the Britans in the yeare of Grace two hundred thirty two who entred the City of London before by him besieged where he slue this Livius Gallus neere unto a Brook which ran then through a part of the City from Whence Walbrook took the name whom it was called Gallus or Wallus brook and the street VVal-brooke even unto these times Thus having quite vanquished the Romans hee governed the Realme in great peace exercising Iustice exalting meriting and good men and punishing the refractory and evilly disposed till at length a great discontent sâ—…rred up by wicked and seditious persons was raised betwixt him and Coillus or Coil who was then Earle or Duke of Kaircollin or Colchester so that they assembled their severall forces and met in battaile in which conflict Asclepiodotus was slaiâ—…e after hee had governed the Realme according to the most Writers thirty yeares Then Coil
began his Dominion over the Land in the yeare of the Incarnation two hundred Coil made 〈◊〉 Britains threescore and two who governed peaceably for a time for the Senate of Rome were glad of the death of the former King who had beene a great enemy and persecutour of theiâ—… Nation being then in great trouble amongst themselves could not conveniently send over fresh forces in the Land but at length their domestick discords being compounded and the State setled in peace Hearing that this Coil also denied them tribute they sent hither a Noble Constantius first comming into Britain prudent Prince cald Constantius with a puissant army against whom Coil assembled his Britains but greatly dreading the power of this Roman President he sent to him to commune and treat of peace with the acknowledgment of the Tribute due unto the Senate of which assurance being given and taken on both sides Coil died within a moneth after having governed the Britains for the tearme of twenty seven yeares Constantius at the intercession of the Nobles of the Land tooke to wife Helena the daughter Constantius married to Helena of the late King with the entire possession of the Realme and was inaugurated in the yeare two hundred fourscore and nine This Helena was held to be the fairest Lady in the whole land withall very well verst in literature and language by whom hee received a sonne called Constantine This Constantius being of great courage and valour ambitious to adde unto his Dominion subdued the Almains or Germans and slue of them in one battail threescore thousand and after many other victories the two Emperours Dioclesianus and Maximinianus resigned up their Imperiall Dignitie to Constantius Constantius made Emperor making one Galerius a partner with him in the Empire which these two Caesars divided betwixt them Galerius governed in the East that is Illiricum and all Graecia with the Ilands and Constantius Italy and the Westerne Kingdomes after he subdued Spain and a great part of Gallia or France of which two Kingdomes he made his son Constantine President and Governour in the time that Constantius was King of Britaine under the two foresaid Emperours S. Albon was martyred at Verâ—…m in the tenth persecution of the Church which began in the eighteenth yeer of Dioclesian and endured for the space of ten yeares which was so violent and cruell that in the space of one moneth were martyred seventeene thousand holy men and women for the faith of Christ This Noble Prince Constantius after he had governed Britaine and the West part of the Empire for This Constan tius lyeth buried at York the terme of thirty yeares leaving his Successor Constantine his sonne by the famous Queene Helena Who began his Reigne in the yeare of Grace three hundred and nineteen and at the decease Constantine made King of Britain of his Father was busied in the wars of Gallia but hearing the report of his death came over into Britain and was made King Hee was off a noble and affable condition who though hee â—…ere a Pagan and misbeliever yet hee used no â—…yrannie towards his subjects neither compeld them to the worship of Idols but to use their own laws with the liberty and freedome of conscience whilst he thus governed Britain with the Westerne part of the Empire one Maxentius sonne to Herculeus Maximianus who was parrner with Dioclesian in the Imperiall purple Maxâ—…s was by assent of the Senate chosen Caesar who first insinuated with all cunning affability into the hearts of the plebeian multitude but when he found himselfe strong in their opinions hee exercised all tyranny that could be possibly devised especially against the Christians He likewise expelled hâ—… Father Maximianns from Rome who sought to be again Emperour with other great oppressions used against the Senate and Prime Nobility of which Constantine having intelligence he assembled a strong hoast of Brâ—…tains and Galls to suppresse his great pride and insolence leaving in his absence a great Duke called Octavius or Octavian to governe Octavian made Dâ—…puty Governour of Britain the Land of Britain as his Vicegerent or Deputy Constantine having setled the State here being on his journy he saw as in a Vision being upon his bed a Crosse shining in the firmament held by an Angell who said unto him Constantine iâ—… hoc signo vinces that is of Constantine under this signe or banner thou shalt have victory After which awaking and considering well of his vision or dream hee called his chiefe Captains about him and acquainted them therewith presently giving order that the Crosse should be The Crosse first used in any Imperiaâ—… Ensigne portrayed in all his Ensignes Escutcheons and Banners being thus accommodated he marched against the Tyrant Maxentius and met him at a bridg called Pont Milvium where after long fight he chaced him and his whole army where Maxentius drowned a great part of them were drowned in the River with himselfe also when hee had ruled as Caesar about five yeares after which victory Constantine marched to Rome where hee was received of the Senate and people with great honour and triumph soone after he received the Christian Faith and was baptized by Sylvester the first of that name Bishop of Rome which done he opened the prisons destroyed the Temples of the false gods and dedicated others to the true everliving God pulling down their idols and opening those Christian Oratories as had beene shut commanding divine service to bee said in them He was the first also that gave any possessions to the Church of Rome and ordained that the Bishop of Rome should be a chiefe Bishop Constantinus great devot on and zeale and all others to be obedient unto him which was before any superstition crept into the Church hee also bore clay and stones upon his shoulders to the foundation of the great Church dedicated to Saint Peter Whilst Constantine thus laboured to plant the Christian Faith his mother Hellen being then Hellen the mother of Constantine in Britain sent unto him commendatory Letters gratulating his great victories in which shee seemed to rejoyce that hee had suppressed Idols and demolisâ—… their Temples but wondred that hee had chosen for his God a man who had been nayled to a Crosse c. to which hee returned her answer that hee would sufficiently prove the God whom hee honoured and worshipped was the Creatour of Mankind and Maker of the World and all the creatures therein and not man only but God and Man c. For proof of which after she had assembled a Synod of Iews to the number of sevenscore Sylvester with other Christian Clerks were appointed to dispute with them concerning the Faith and Gospel in which arguing the Iews were confounded and she converted and was a constant professour of the true Faith and Religion all her life time after I leave what the Legend relates concerning her seeking and
finding the true Crosse and the nayles with which our blessed Saviour was fastned thereto and returne to Hellena sindeth 〈◊〉 Cressâ—… her sonne the Emperour who greatly inlarged the famous City Bizantium and beautified it with stately and sumptuous buildings and for the pleasure which hee tooke in the situation thereof made it his Royall Seat and caused it to be called after his name Constantinople which is the City of Constantine He was also of such power and might in armes that hee purchased to himselfe the Title of Constantine the Great Constantine the Great Hee was moreover stiled the first Christian Emperour and did many things for the upholding of the Faith of which seven by a learned Authour are especially noted First that Christ our blessed Saviour should bee worshipped as God throughout his whole Dominions Secondly Seven Derees made by Constantine to the honour of his Saviour that what man or woman soever spake any blasphemy against him hee should be most severely punished Thirdly that person who did any violence or injury to a Christian man because he was of that belief should forfeit half his goods and possessions Fourthly that as the Emperor of Rome is Head of all temporall Princes so the Bishop of Rome should be chief of all Ecclesiasticall Prelats Fiftly that who so fled to a Church for refuge and made it his Sanctuary should be there free from molestation and danger Sixtly that no man should offer to erect any Church or Temple without the leave and licence of the Bishop of that Diocesse Seventhly that every Prince should give the tenth part of his Revenues toward the mayntenance of Churches and Temples which law for example sake hee confirmed by contributing unto them from his own possessions after all which care of his to establish the true Faith and Gospell hee fell into the detestable Heresie of the Arrians banished Bishop Sylvester beforenamed and persecuted many zealous and godly professors Constantine infated with the Aâ—…rian heresie after which as mine Author affirmeth hee was strook with an incurable Leprosie But now I return to Octavian whom hee left his substitute in Britain Who during the long absence of the Emperour ruled the Land to the great content of the Natives but when hee had throughly invested himselfe into the hearts of the people and thinking his Lord so far remote and could not easily be drawne from so great a charge as the government of both the East and Westerne Octavian usurpeth the Crowne of Britain Empires He thought to usurpe the Title of King and to that purpose distressed such Romans as Constantine had left heere in the Land and so took upon him the sole Soveraignity of which when the Emperour had notice hee sent hither in all haste a Prince called Traherne who was uncle to his mother Helena with three Legions of Romans every Legion consisting on six thousand six hundred and six Knights whom Octavian met in battaile neare unto Portchester or as some Authors write neere Winchester and Trahernesent into Britain compeld Traherne to forsake the field and flie towards Scotland whither Octavian pursued him and gave him a second battaile where hee and the Britains were discomfited and himselfe with some few took shipping and sailed to Norway but not long after he returned into England with a strong Armâ—… of Britains and Norwayes in which interim a British Earle who greatly loved Octavian slue Traherne so that with little difficulty hee subdued the rest of the Commons who were left without a Commander and repossessed the Land which was from the time that Constantine made him Governor or Protector of the Land ten years Octavian thus re-instated gathered great Octavian made absolute K. of Britain riches and treasure in so much that hee feared not the power of any forreigne Prince and ruled the Nation in great peace and quietnesse who being growne aged and full of yeares by the counsell of some of his British Noble men he sent one Mauritius son to Caradock Duke of Cornwall unto Rome For an hopefull young Gentleman called Maximian who was neere allyed to Helena the mother of Constantine that he would come into this Land and by marrying his only daughter enjoy the Kingdome of Britain after him though divers perswaded him to confer that honour upon Conan Meriadock his neere Cousin but the former motion prevailed Conon Meriadock And Maximian the sonne of Leonine brother to Hellen and Uncle to Constantine the Great was sent over with the beforenamed Mauritius and with a sufficient guard of Romans landed safely at the port of Southampton which Conan Meriadock hearing hee gathered a company of his friends and kinsmen and because the other came Maximians first entrance into Britain to dispossesse him of that whicâ—… hee held to be his right Her purposed to ambush him in the way and give him battaile which being told to the King he by his wisdome and power pâ—…evented it so that Maximian came peaceably to Court unto whom the King gave his daughter and the Land with her for her Dower and dyed soon after when he had nobly and peaceably governed the Kingdome for the space of fifty foure yeares CHAP. 5. Maximian made King of Britaine and after Emperour How Armorica came to be called Little Britaine and this Britaine the Great Of Ursula and the eleven thousand Virgins Gratian the last Roman that was King of the Land The great distresses of the Kingdome the cessation of their Tribute paid to Rome Constantine brother to Aldroenus made King of the Realm his death and issue MAximian the sonne of Leonine and Cousin German to Constantine the great was made King of Britaine Maximian K. of Britaine in the yeare of Grace three hundred fourescore and two who proved a valiant and victorious Prince but somewhat proud and withall a persecutor of the Christians And first there was great strife betwixt him and Conan with sundry Conflicts in which they sped diversly but at length they were reconciled and made friends so that he raigned for a time in great peace in which interim he gathered together much treasure and riches At last he was accited to move warre against the Galls and landed with a great Hoast in Armorica now Armorica first called Litle Britaine called Little Britaine which after hee had subdued by the sword hee gave it to Conon Meriadock to hold of him and of the Kings of great Britaine for ever commanding from that time Armorica to be called Little Britain and this Land Britaine the great For which victory and others his Knights proclaimed him Emperour which increased both his pride and tyranny so that he invaded the Lands of the Empire and conquered a great part both of France and Germany which was contrary to his Oath before sworne to the two Emperors Gratian and Valentinian to whom when tydings was brought of this his invasion Gratian prepared to resist him but fearing his power
and potency fled to Lyons where hee was Maximian breaketh his oath which was to be true to the Empire slaine and Valentinian compelled to forsake Rome and flie to Constantinople Then Maximian made his sonne Victor fellow with him in the Empire During whose warres in Italy Conon Meriadock not willing that hee or his people should marry with any of the French Nation sent Messengers to Dionotus Duke of Cornwall and governour of the Kingdome under Maximian to send him his daughter Vrsula with a certaine number of Virgins to bee coupled to him and his Knights in marriage who according to his request sent his daughter with eleven thousand maids towards Britaine to that purpose who by the way were taken at Sea and piâ—…eously Urfula with eleven thousand Virgins murdered who so will know the manner thereof I referre them to the Legend of Saints Maximian thus tyrannizing in Italy to great Commanders called Guanus and Melga were sent into Britaine to chastise all such as favoured the party of Maximian who did here much outrage upon the Natives afflicting them with great strage and massacre Against whom the Emperour sent a great Captaine called Gracianus or Gracian with two Legions who so knightly behaved himselfe that hee chaced them in short space into Ireland holding the land in peace for Maximian In this interim Maximinian continuing wars against the Empire to be absolute Caesar Theodosius sirnamed the elder then Emperour of the east part of the world hearing the death of the first Gracian and the chacing of Valentinian he with a mighty hoast sped himselfe to meete with Maximian and gave him battaile at Aquilea a great City in Italy in which Maximians forces were utterly discomfited and himselfe tooke prisoner whose head Theodosius commanded to be cut off of whose death Gracian his deputy in Britain The death of the tyrant Maximian having knowledge he seized the Land to his owne use after that Maximian had governed the same by the terme of eight yeares Gracian who of some writers is called Gracian King of Britaine Municeps which word may bee diversly taken either for an hired or waged Knight or for a keeper of Presents and Gifts or bearing chiefe rule in a City or Province beganne his dominion over the Britaine 's in the yeare of grace three hundred fourescore and ten Hee exercised great exaction and tyranny on his subjects for which hee was very much hated and despised amongst them so that they sundry wayes laboured his supplantation and hourely insidiated his life but after many dangers escaped they with a common assent invaded his Palace and slew him when he had reigned or rather usurped for the space of The death of Gracian foure yeares Of whose death Guanus and Melga having Guanus and Melga knowledge they returned out of Ireland and with fire and sword made great havocke in the Land of which the Romans understanding because the Realme was then under their Tribute and tuition they sent one Constantine to have the rule of the Land and the Regions about Constantine but being found to bee an enemy to the Empire for divers outrages done by him during his Regency in France therefore by the commandement of Honorius then Caesar they sent against him a valiant Captaine named Constantius who slew him neare to a Towne called Constantius Arelat after which the Britaines were much distressed by the Picts the Scots and other strange Nations by reason whereof they were againe constrained to send to Rome for aide with a covenant that they would all continue subjects and servants to the Senate Upon which request and promise the Emperour Honorius The 〈◊〉 Honorius himselfe came hither in person and chaced hence all their forraigne enemies and leaving the Land in peace returned to his greater affaires in Italy Who was no sooner departed but the same enemies againe invaded them to whom Honorius sent a second deliverance exhorting them withall to be manly and couragious But in regard of the remotenesse of the place and the great troubles the Empire was then in to trust to their owne valour and fortune but to expect no more supplyes either from Caesar or Senate The Britaine 's for saken of the Romans the Roman supplyes being then took out of the Land to maintaine the Imperiall warres the Natives were worse distressed than before for the Picts and Scots came out of their Dens and Caves where they had concealed themselves and invaded them by multitudes insomuch that by the enemies spoyles and robberies they were brought to that extremity of poverty and misery that they were inforced to pilfer and steale one from another in which sundry murthers were also committed so that The great distâ—…esse of the Britaines the ground lay unsowed or manured upon which great Dearth and hunger immediatly insued Which to prevent and withall to rid them from these great extremities the best amongst them petitioned unto Aetius who was Master of the Chivalry of Honorius the Emperour Aetius denies them succour and at that time governed France to commiserate their estate which to him they most passionatly expressed but all was to no purpose for hee slightly put them off with a peremptory denyall to lend them any succour at all still their calamities augmented and the famine increased so that lastly the noblest and discreetest amongst them especially the Arch-bishop Guethelinus Arch-bishop of London of London whose name was Guethelinus whom our English Chronicles call Gosseline concluded to send an Embassy to the King of little Britaine whose name was Aldroenus which this Arch-bishop beeing learned and well spoken in person undertooke who delivered their calamities and distresses with such passionate efficacy that it wrought great commiseration and compassion in the King who after advice taken of his Lords granted them a supply of sufficient forces to recover their Franchises and liberties upon condition that if God who is Aldroenus commiserates the Britaines the Lord of Hoasis gave them victory they should Crown his brother Constantine King of Great Britaine acknowledging him their Liege and Soveraigne which conditions they gladly accepted and swore to performe with all truth and fidelity Now it appeareth from the time of Gratian the last Roman that was King of the Lâ—…nd the How loâ—…g Britain wâ—…s without a Kâ—…ng Nation of the Britaine 's during their multiplicity of miseries were without a Monarch or sole Soveraigne for the space of thirty nine yeares till the comming in of the forenamed Constantine brother to Aldroenus King of Litle Britain It is further to bee observed that here ended The end of the tribute and government of the Romans the Tribute and Dominion of the Romans neither had any of that Nation any rule over the Land after that time which Tribute lasted and was paid to Rome from the ninth yeare of King Cassibelan to the dayes of the Emperour Severus amounting to two hundred and
is fulsilled the prophesie of Sibylla Cumana so called from Cuma once a famous Citie in Greece where she was borne hee Sibylla Cumana further proceedeth Magnus ab integro seclorum volvitur ordo Iam redit virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Iam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto Intimating in those words that by revolution the great order and course of the World should feele a change which was not from the beginning and that now the Celestiall Maid which figured Iustice or the mother of the most righteous â—…hat Prophet could come neerer to the truthâ—… should returne and that wee should see againe those innocent and blessed dayes which were in the reigne of Saturne which was called the golden World and that a new birth should be sent down to the earth from the highest heaven meaning our blessed Saviour God and man born of the immaculate Virgin Mary nay further in the two subsequent Verses hee implyes that he came to take away the sins of the world which are these Quo duce si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras So much for Virgil there are divers other prophets of the Gentiles both men and women as Cassandra Chrysis Phiomaene c. and what shall we think of Balaam whose Oracles Moses Other Prophetesses Balaam the sonne of Bosor inserted in the sacred Text and whose prophesies the great Clerkes and Doctours of the Church have expounded in large voluminous Works yet for his person some have held him for no better than a Southsayer or a Wisard and hired for a reward to curse the children of Israel Gods selected people and they by his counsell after inticed to fornication and idolatry of whom the blessed Apostle Saint Peter in the second Chapter of his second Epistle and fourteenth Verse gives him this character speaking of such whose hearts were exercised in covetousnesse and children of the curse who forsaking the right way have gone astray following the way of Balaam the sonne of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse but hee was rebuked for his iniquitie for the dumbe beast speaking with mans voice forbade the foolishnesse of the prophet These former examples may beget an hesitation or doubt by which of the two spirits the good or bad our Country-man Merlin uttered his predictions But whosoever shall make question of the true events of his prophesies I shall referre him A just siâ—…tion of the truth of Merlins prophesiâ—…s Dâ—…ctor Alanus de Insulis to the reading of that most excellent Oratour â—…olyhistor and Theologist of his time Alanus de Insulis a German Doctour for his admirable and multifarious Learning sirnamed Vniversalis and Rector of the Parisian Academy in his Explanation or Comment upon Merlins Prophesies the originall being extracted out of Ieffery of Monmouth part of his words are these In all his prophesies I find nothing dissonant incongruous or absurd nor any thing forreigne or averse from truth And those who shall live in ages to come shall finde those his predictions as constantly to happen in their dayes according to the limit of time as wee have hitherto found them certaine and infallible even to the age in which we now live And for these signes and tokens which before the consummation of the World shall appeare he divineth and foretelleth of them in the Sun and Moâ—…ns and the other five Planets Iuno Mars Mercury Venus Satnrne and other stars how they shall confound and alter their courses which they had His predict on from the Planets in the Creation according to that in the holy Evangelist Saint Luke cap. 21. v. 25. Then there shall be signes in the Sun and the Moon and in the stars and upon the earth trouble amongst the Nations with perplexity the Sea and the waters shall roare and mens hearts shall faile them for feare and for looking after those things which shall come in the World for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken c. But of the new heaven and the new earth and the resurrection of the dead to new life how truly he spake according to the Propheticall Evangelicall and Apostolicall Traditions it is manifest that hee no way deviated or erred from the orthodoxall Christian Faith and so much Doctor Alanus concerning the truth of his prophesies with whom I conclude this first Chapter CHAP. 2. In whose Reigne Merlin was borne How the state of Brittaine stood in those days with divers necessary occurrences pertinent to the story THe better to illustrate this our History of Merlin the subject now in agitation it is necessary that I shew you in what Kings Reigne he was borne in what state the Kingdome stood at that time and how our prophet came to bee first knowne in Court He was born in the reigne of King Vortiger who by usurpation aspired to the Crown who being a potent Duke of the Merlin born in the reigne of King Vortiger Brittaine after the death of Constantius took his sonne Constantins out of a Monastery being a simple man and uncapable of so great a charge and made him King so that Duke Vortiger being a popular man had the whole government of the Land and Constantine only the name of King who taking advantage of his Sovereigns easie nature and milde disposition cast in his thoughts how by the death of his Lord and Master to compasse the Crown to himselfe and Vortigers ambition to the Crown to accomplish his ambitious designe he placed as a guard about him an hundred Picts and Scots whom hee so bribed with continuall gifts and rewards that they feared not openly to say that Vortiger better deserved the Imperiall dignity then Constantine in which interim he got into his possession all the treasure howsoever divers thereat grudged and the strangers in hope to purchase his greater favour took their opportunity to lay violent hands upon the King and presented his head to Vortiger being King Constantine slâ—…ine by his guard then at London Who in his Crocodile comming and to blinde the eyes of the Britaines to make them think he had no hand in his death wept exceedingly and made great shew of sorrow and to expresse his great justice caused all those honoured Knights to bee beheaded according to the Treason rewarded Lawes of the Kingdome by which he was held both by the peeres and people innocent of the Treason but those that had the Guardianship of the Kings two younger brothers Aurelius and Vter the one sirnamed Ambrosius the other Ambrosius and Vtâ—…r the Kings younger brothers Pendragon fearing the power and potencie of Vortiger fled with them into little Britaine where they continued yet it pleased God otherwise to dispose of them Then was Vortiger by a generall and unanimous consent crowned King in the yeere of the Vortiger crowned King Incarnation of our blessed Saviour foure hnndred fortie eight but it was not long ere the Picts
and Scots having knowledge of the death of their countrymen invaded the Land with great hostilitie in so much that hee was no way able to withstand their malice and fury in this great distresse retyring himselfe to Canterbury newes was brought him of theer great ships full of Ammunition and armed men landed in the Isle of Tenet at first hee feared that they were the late Kings brothers Ambrose and Vter who came to lay claime to the Kingdome but finding them to be strangers hee sent to know of what Nation they were and the purpose of their landing Who returned him answer that they were Saxons so called of a Province in The first landing of the Saxons Germany who came to seek adventures abroad and since fortune had brought them into this Land they besought him to receive them into service as being both ready and able to be his faithfull souldiers and to fight for him in the defence of his Country against all forreigne invaders and their Captaines were two brothers Hengist and Horsus The King in regard of his present necessitie which much moved him to correspondencie was exceeding glad of their liberall proffer and accepted of them yet sorry that they were Miscreants and of the Pagan beliefe for as Reverend Bede hath left recorded with Gulielmus de Regibus They at that time worshipped an Idoll or false god called Woden and a Goddesse named Fria in the honour of which god they called one day of the week Wodens-day which When Wednesday and Friday had their appâ—…llation we terme Wednesday and another in the honour of the Goddesse Fria Frisday by us still continuing the name Friday But it followeth in the story Vortimer by the ayde of these Saxons having freed his Land from all forreigne enemies Hengist in reward of his former service demanded of the King so much ground as the hide of a Bull would compasse which request appeared to the King so reasonable that hee easily granted it which skin hee caused to be cut into small and slender thongs with which hee measured a large circuit of earth upon which hee builded a great and strong Fort which he called The building of Thonge Castle Thonge Castle which standeth in the County of Lyndsee When news arrived in Germany of the plenty and goodnesse of this Land with all the commodities thereto belonging they came hither in multitudes covenanting with the Britains that they should only intend their Tillage and Husbandry and themselves would as their souldiers defend the Land from all incursiâ—…ns and invasions demanding for that service only competent means and wages in which interim Hengist The policy of the Saxons sent for sixteen saile more well furnisht with men and all necessary provision In which fleet came also his daughter Rowen a beautiful Lady concerning whom to cutoff all circumstances Hengist invited the King to his new Castle where his faire daughter gave him entertainment with whose beauty hee became so surprised and perditely enamoured that for her sake he repudiated his lawfull wife by whom he had three noble sonnes Vortimerus Catagrinus and Pascentius to marry with this young Saxon Lady and that hee might enjoy her gave to her Vortimer forsaketh his Queen to mary with Rowen the daughter of Hengist Father the Dukedome or Province of Kent though Garagonus then Lord thereof with divers other of the British Peeres thereat much grudged For which and many other honours and revenues conferred upon the Saxons as also that hee left his owne Christian Consort to marry with an Infidel and that Hengist had sent for his sonne Octa to come over with a fresh supply of his Countrymen The Lords of Britaine considering An assembly of the British Lords what dangers were like to fall upon the Land assembled themselves and comming to the King laid open to him the inconvenience and perill which was likely to fall both upon himselfe and the Kingdome by the multitude and strength of these strangers humbly beseeching him for their generall securitie to banish them all or the greatest part of them the Land But the King was deaf of that eare for the Saxons were in such favour with him by reason of his beautifull young Queene that hee preferred them before the love of his owne wife sonnes subjects kinsmen and friends wherefâ—re the Britains with one will and assent crowned his eldest sonne Vortimer King depriving him of all Regall dignity when hee had fully King Vortiger deposed reigned after the consent of the best Histories sixteen yeeres A word or two by the way of our new King Vortimer who assisted by the resolute Britaines Vortimers many brave victories over the Saxons in all haste pursued the Saxons and gave them a great battaile upon the River of Darwent in which the Saxons Hoast was quite discomfited He fought with them a second upon the Foord called Epiford or Aglisthorpe in which fight Catrignus the brother of Vortimer and Horsus the brother to Hengist meeting in the battaile fought together a brave combat and slue each other in which the Britaine 's also were Victors He gave them a third neere unto the Sea-side in which the Saxons were chaced and forced to take the Isle of Wight for their refuge and likewise a fourth mayne battaile upon Colemore which was long and couragiously maintained by the Saxons by reason that they now closed a great part of their Hoast so defensively that the Britaine 's could but with much difficulty approach them for the danger of their Vortimer conquered the Saxons in seven severall battails shot yet in the end they were rowted and many of them drowned and swallowed in the Moore And besides these foure principall and mayne battailes hee had divers other conflicts with them one in Kent another at Thetford in Norfolke a third in Essex neer unto Colchester from all which fields hee departed a glorious Victor neither did he leave their pursuite till he had deprived them of all their possessions in the Land saving the Isle of Tenet which he continually assaulted with his Navy by Sea which when his step mother Rowen saw and how much her Father Hengist with his Saxons by his Martiall Vortimer poysoned by his stopdame Rowen prowesse were distressed shee used such meanes that he was poysoned after hee had victoriously governed the Kingdome for the space of seven yeeres All which time Vortiger the Father of the late dead Vortimer lived privately in Chester where hee so well demeaned him towards the King his sonne by aiding him with his counsell and otherwise that by the Britains generall assent he was againe restored to the Kingdome Hengist againe pierced the Land with a mighty Vortiger restored to the Kingdome Hoast of his Countrymen which Vortiger hearing made towards him with his Army of Britains But Hengist who had before tasted of their hardnesse and courage made means of a treaty for peace whence lastly it was concluded that
a proverbe wee retaine from Antiquity as that day hopt without their heads Now concerning the pride of the Danes and their incredible tyranny exercised throughout The pride and insolency of the Danes over the Britains the whole Kingdome which was the occasion of this their universall slaughter our English Historians have thus recorded of them they caused the Farmers and Husbandmen to plow sow and eare the ground and to doe all the servile labour that belonged to agriculture and husbandâ—…y whilst they kept their wives and commanded their daughters and servants at their pleasure and when the Master of the house came home hee was forced to salute his superintendent Dane as his Lord and whilst the Usurper eate and fed of the best the poore oppressed owner could scarcely have his fill of the worst besides for feare and dread they called them in every house where they had rule Lord Dane which after when the English had attained to their former honour grew to a title of great opprobry and contempt for when Lord Dane turned into Lurdain any one would rebuke or revile an other hee would in scorne call him Lurdan a word in the Countrey in use euen to this day But now comes in the Eagle by which is intended Swanus K. of Denmark who surpriseth both that is subdueth the Saxons the other Almans or Germans whom they had admitted into the land and after infinite devastations depopulations and spoils with his broad wings soared over the whole Kingdome and made prey in every province thereof the particulars would aske much time and paper who in conclusion tooke from the White Dragon the Saxons after they had held the sovereignty by many successive Kings both Crown and Scepter but before this happened the unfortunate King whose onely fight was with money to impoverish his owne people and inrich the enemy for hee often bought his peace which prov'd to no purpose Edricus crea ted Duke of Mercia hee made Edricus whom Merlin calleth the Snake Duke of Mercia who was of low and base birth and parentage yet had attained to great wealth and rich possessions false of tongue subtle of brain and eloquent in speech and persidious in purpose and promise which will more at large appeare hereafter In this interim Swanus so farre prevailed The King with his Queene forc't to flye the Land that the King fearing the continuall persecution of the Danes first sent Emma his Queene with his two younger sonnes which were Alfred and Edward to Richard the second of that name and fourth Duke of Normandy who was her naturall brother and after was compeld to flie thither in person with a slender traine of followers of which when Swanus had notice he grew inflamed with greater pride and insolence and amongst other of his Tyrannies hee fired the City of Canterbury and slue nine hundred religious persons tithing them as killing nine and saving the tenth with 8000 women children and because the reverend Bishop would not or could not pay him downe three thousand pounds hee kept him prisoner seven moneths The Bishops name was Elphigus and caused him after at Greenwich foure miles from London to be stoned to death and wheresoever hee came hee reserved all the women to be vitiated and defloured aswell the religious as others robbing the Shrine of Saint Edmond not leaving any cruelty which could finde a name unperformed At length upon the day of the Purification of the blessed Virgin in the yeere one thousand and fourteen he died miserably howling and crying three dayes and nights together before his death whom succeeded The death of the Tyrant Swanus his sonne Canutus And two yeeres after at one thousand sixteen expired at London King Edelfred and was buried in the Church of Saint The death of Edelfredus Paul whom succeeded his sonne Edmund sirnamed Ironside and these two Princes were the two Lions spoken of in the former prophesie of whom you shall heare more in the ensuing Chapter CHAP. 9. Of divers bloudy battails fought betwixt Canutus and Edmund their great opposition ended in a single Duel They make peace and equally divide the Kingdome betwixt them the trayterous death of Edmund Canutus revengeth it upon the murderer with other occurences pertinent to the story c. EDmund sirnamed Ironside the sonne of Egelredus and Canutus the sonne of Swanus King of Denmarke began to rule the English Nation Anno 1016 and in the twenty ninth yeere of Robert King of France the Londoners with some of the English Nobles favouring Edmund but the greater part of the Nobility and Clergie adhering to Canutus betwixt which yong and valiant Princes were fought sundry cruell and bloudy battails too long here to reherse In which infinite both of the Natives and Strangers fell by the sword one of which was fought in Dorsetshire besides a Towne called Gillingham another in Worcestershire which continued from morning till night when they surceased In which battail Canutus was overcome by Edmund fight either for great wearinesse or for want of light when both Hoasts joyned the next morrow early and eagerly in which battaile the Traytour Edricus perceiving the fortune of the day to encline towards Edmund pitcht a The treason of Eldricus dead mans head upon a speare and calling to his Countrymen cryed out with this acclamation Fly you Englishmen and preserve your lives for behold this is the head of Edmund your King of which the Prince being warned hasted to that part of the field and plucking off his Helmet to shew that he was living so comfortably and couragiously demeaned himself among his souldiers that in the end hee had the better of the day In the preparation of another field when both the Hoasts were ready to joyne battaile upstarted This Commander was of K. Edmunds party one of the Commanders and appearing betweene the two Armies in the Front of either spake aloud as followeth You Princes both to you I declare my selfe you see how we daily perish for neither of you gaine an absolute victorie Edmund cannot bee overcome because of his great strength and courage and Canutus cannot be subdued being also much favoured by Fortune what then shall be the finall successe of this inveterate malice and contention when all your Knights souldiers are slain shall you not bee then inforced either to compound your enmity or to fight hand to hand betwixt your selves If this must bee the end why do you not one of these two For the first Is not this Kingdome now sufficient for two which before contented seven or if your spleen be so great that it cannot be reconciled by an equall division of the Land why doe not you two fight alone that strive to be Lords alone For if we all perish who shall be left either to serve you or to keepe forreigne invaders out of the Land Which words were so emphatically delivered and tooke such
impression both in the Princes themselves and both their Armies that a Truce being made they agreed to end the warre betwixt them in a single Duell for which was assigned an Isle called Olkney neere Gloster incompast with the water of Severne which makes good the prophesie Two Lions shall a dreadfull combat make And have their Lists incompast by a Lake In which place at the day prefixed the two worthy and warlike Champions compleatly armed singly met the two Hoastsstanding without the Isle where first they encountred with sharpe The combat betwixt Edmund and Canutâ—…s Lances on Horsback breaking them even to the very Truncheons then they alighted and fought long on foote with their keene swords till their armours were broken in divers places and they both were dangerously wounded when retyring for breath by the first motion of Canutus they made an accord betwixt themselves Canutus made the first motion of peace embracing one another as brothers to the great rejoycing of both Armies After which they made an equall partition of the Land and Canutus married Emma the mother of Edmund but the Snake Edricus whom his Lord had not only pardoned for his former Treason but promoted unto further dignity by creating him Earle of Kent notwithstanding which he corrupted his sonne then attending the King who awaited his opportunity and as he was doing the necessiites of nature strooke him with a Speare into the fundament of which mortall wound hee dyed soone after at Oxford Edmund slaine by the traytour Edricus Then Edricus posted in haste to Canutus and saluted him by the Title of sole Sovereigne of the Kingdome insinuating that for his love and honour hee had removed his Competitour and told him the manner how which Canutus having truly understood and that the Treason was uttered from his owne mouth and in his personall hearing like a just and wise Prince he replyed unto him Forasmuch ô Edricus as for my love thou hast slaine thy naturall Lord whom I entirely affected I shall exalt thy head above all the Lords of England and presently commanded his head to be struck off and pitcht A traytours just reward upon a pole and set upon the highest gate of London and his body to bee throwne into the River of Thames yet Marianus and others write otherwise concerning the manner of his death which makes good what is formerly spoken that a speckled Snake Ayming at high things shall his Lord betray Poysoning the Royall Nest in which he lay Meaning the Kings Treason in which the Traitor was closeted as one whom hee most favoured and honoured Canutus being now sole Monarch the white Canutus sole Monarch of England Dragon was forced to stoop to the Eagle that is the Saxons were compeld to bee under the subjection of the Danes by whom they were so miserably opprest that scarce the tenth part of them were left in the Land and these that remayned were forced to tithe their goods and pay it as a tribute to the Danes therefore saith the Prophet Of the white Dragon so the Fates agree A Decimation in the end shall bee It followeth in the History in a great assembly made of the King and his Barons a question was propounded whether in the composition made betwixt Edmund and Canutus there was any mention made of Edmunds children to have the inheritance of their Father after his death that was in halfe part of the Kingdome to which a great part of them thinking thereby to insinuate unto the Kings favour answered Nay but it hapned unto them contrary to their expectation for knowing them to be naturall Englishmen and before sworn to King Edmund and his heires hee hated them for their perjury never trusting them after but some hee exiled The Kings conscionable justice and some were slaine and others being strooke with the hand of God died suddenly It was likewise ordered by the foresaid Counsell that the two sonnes of Ironside Edmund and Edward should be sent to Swanus the elder brother of Canutus King of Denmarke the purpose is diversly reported some say to be slaine What became of the sons of Edmund Ironside and that Swanus abhorring the Act sent them to Salomon then King of Hungary where Edmund died of a naturall death but his brother Edward in the processe of time married Agatha the daughter of Henry the fourth of that name Emperour and by her besides daughters had a sonne sirnamed Ethelinge This Edward of our English Chronologers is named the Out-law because he never returned into England his native Country In this interim died Swanus King of Denmarke and the Crowne fell to Canutus so that he was sole Sovereigne of both Nations the English and the Danes Canutus landed in Denmarke with a strong Army to possesse himselfe of his lawfull Inheritance and to oppose the Vandals who had pierced that Land and when the King was otherwise negotiated Earle Goodwin with a band of Englishmen set upon the Invaders by night and rowted their whole Army for which noble act the King had him in great favour and the English Nation ever after This King was greatly beloved of his subjects for many of his vertues as being very charitable and devout a great repayrer and decorer of Churches especially of divers Cathedrals which hee caused to be richly beautified with gilding their Altars and Roofs more gloriously then in former ages thereby confirming that part of the prophesie What time the red shall to his joy behold The rooffs of all the Temple shine with gold Meaning the red Dragon Some attribute the cause of his devotion to a noble care he had to repaire what his tyrannicall Father had before ruined that the memory of his Atheisticall cruelty might bee quite forgot others that it was at the Altar of Emma his Queen the Widow Dowager of Egelredus and mother of Ironside who was a Lady of great religious sanctity Hee made also a Voyage to Rome where hee was pontifically received by Bennet the eight of that name and demeaned himselfe with great magnificence and honour It is further reported of him that after his great entertainment there and return from rhence he was so tumoured with pride that standing by the Thames side at a flowing tyde hee charged the water that it should presume no further nor dare to touch his feet which was so farre from obeying his command that he stil keeping his ground from his ankles it came up to his knees at which suddenly stepping backe out of Vaine pride soone repented of the River he blushing said By this all earthly Kings may know that their powers are vaine and transitory and that none is worthy of that name but he who created the Elements and to whom they only obey This Canutus married his eldest daughter by his Wife Elgina the daughter to the Earle of Hampton to Henry sonne of the Emperour Conradus The death of Canutus the second of that name
or by the extremity of tempests hee was driven upon the province of Pountithe and there surprised and sent as prisoner to William Duke of Normandy who some say forced him to take an oath to marry his daughter and keep the Kingdome of England to his behoofe but that which carrieth more shew of trueth is that Harold to insinuate into the Dukes favour in whose power hee now was told him that his King in the presence of his Baronry had selected him his Heire and covenanted with him that if hee survived his sovereigne hee would keepe the Crowne to his use for which Meaning the Duke the Duke gave him his daughter in contract with promise of a large dowry but she was yet in her minority not ripe for marriage in confirmation of which Duke William gave him also his brothers sonne Hucon one of the Hostages and kept the other and after sent him over with rich gifts all which at his returne to England he acquainted the King with who expired the fourth day of Ianuary when hee had reigned twenty three yeeres seven months and The death of Edward the Confessor odde dayes and lyes buried in the Monasterie of Westminster which he before had much beautified and repaired After whom succeeded in the Throne Harold the second son of Earle Goodwin and last King Harold crowned King of England of the Saxons who began his Reigne over England in the yeere one thousand forty six the ambition to gain a Crowne making him forget his oath and promise made to Duke William In the beginning of his Reigne his Land was invaded by his brother Tostius who was beat out of the Kingdome by Edwin and Malcharus Earles of Mercia and Northumberland then Harold Hafagar King of Denmarke and Norway whom Guido the Historiographer calleth the sonne of Canutus hearing of the death of Edward with an Army of three hundred England invaded by the Danes ships entred the mouth of the River Tyne pretending to conquer England as his right and lawfull inheritance which Harold hearing sent the two aforesaid Earles of Mercia and Northumberland till he himselfe had gathered sufficient forces who gave the Danes a strong battaile but being overset with multitudes they were forced to give backe so that the enemy entred further into the Land which the King hearing Harold made haste with his powers And met them at a place called Stratford bridge In which Interim Tostius came out of Scotland and tooke part against his brother Betwixt these two Hoasts was fought a bloudy A bloudy battail in which Harold was victor and cruell battaile In which many brave Knights breathed their last and amongst them Tostius the two Harolds of England and of Denmarke met and fought hand to hand in which combat Harold of Denmarke fell under the hand of Harold of England who was likewise Master of the field in which Olanus brother to Harfagar and Paulus Duke of the Orcades were taken prisoners of whom Harold took sure pledges for their fidelity and homage CHAP. 11. The Landing of Duke William with the Normans the battaile betwixt him and Harold in which Harold is slaine being the last King of the Saxon bloud William remayneth Conquâ—…rour and is crowned King of England His death and the successe of the Prophesie HArold ambitiously puft up with this great victory divided not the spoyle Some think it was a great cause of his losse of the battail against William from the enemy taken equally but avaritiously kept the greatest part to his owne use and the remainder hee distributed not to those who had best fought but to those whom hee most favoured by reason whereof hee lost the Harolds answer to Duke William hearts of many of his Knights in this Interim died the Daughter of Duke William before contracted to Harold by which hee thought himselfe fully discharged of his former duty and promise But Duke William was of a contrary minde and by divers messengers mixing faire termes with menaces put him in remembrance of the breach of both to which Harold gave a slight answer that rash and unadvised covenants might bee as well violated as kept that it was not in his power to dispose of the Crowne and Kingdome without the assent of the Peeres and Barons of the Realme besides oaths and promises made either by feare or force were of no validity and therefore left him to take what course hee pleased according to his best direction for that was his peremptory answer At which Duke William being much incensed gathered a selected Army which hee caused to be shipt with all things necessary for so great Duke William â—…ndeth in England an Enterprize and launching from the port of Saint Valery In shorttime landed neer Hastings in Sussex at a place called Penusy making three Three pretenses for his Invasion pretences for his invasion The first and chiefe was to challenge his right to the Crowne as next Heire and moreover bequeathed unto him by his Nephew Edward the Confessor upon his death-bed The second was to vindicate the bloudy murder of his Cousin Alfred and brother of the late King committed by E. Goodwin upon Guildowne which was done as hee pretended by the especiall instigation of Harold The third was to revenge the banishment of Archbishop Robert before remembred in the accusation of Queene Emma with which also hee chargeth Harold as the sole animatour of his exile and hitherto Merlins Prophesies admit no contradiction when he faith Iron men in wooden Tents shall here arrive And hence the Saxons with the Eglets drive By the Iron-men meaning the Normans in The prophesie explained Iron Casks and Corslets by wooden Tents their Navigable Vessels who in Harold extinguisht the bloud of the white Dragon the Saxons and expelled the Eglets who were the Danes the brood of Swanus in that Princely bird so emblematized the story followeth Duke William landing one of his feet slipt and the other stuck fast in the sand which one of his Knights observing A good Omen cried aloud A good Omen now William England is thine owne and thou shalt change the title of Duke into King at which he smiled and piercing further into the Land hee made proclamation that no man should take any prey or make any spoyle or doe any violence to the Natives saying it were no reason that hee should offer outrage to that which should be his owne Harrold was at that time in the North who hearing the Normans were landed gathered his forces by the way as he came to supply his army which was much weakned by reason of the last battaile fought against the Danes and Norways and sending spies into the Dukes host to Harold sends spyes into the Dukes Hoast discover their strength word was brought him that his souldiers were all preists and lawyers as having their upper lips chins and cheeks shaven which was their custom then and the English used to weare
others of the Clergie and Nobility who met at a place called the water of Vrme they were kept from A peace mediated betwixt the King and the Duke present hostility some endevouring peace others labouring warre as their humours and affections guided them After which the King took his way towards Ipswich in Suffolke the Duke towards Shrewsbury in which interim died and was drowned Eustace the sonne of King Stephen and was buried at Feversham in Kent in the Abbey which his Father before The death of Prince Eustâ—…ce had founded After which Theobald with others ceased not to bring these two Princes to an attonement which was so earnestly laboured that a peace was concluded upon the conditions following namely that the King having now no heire should continue in the sole Sovereignty during his life and immediately after the conclusion and establishing of that Edict Henrie should be proclaimed Heire apparant in all the chiefe Cities and Borâ—…ughs of England and that the King should take him for his sonne by adoption as immediate Heire to the Crowne and Kingdome wherein that part of the prophesie is fulfilled which saith She failing will a Lions whelpe appeare Whose rore should make the Centaure quake with feare But when the two shap't Monster shall be tam'd By gentle means the whelpe shall be reclaim'd By the Centaure and two shap't Monster or the Sagittary which are all one meaning the King and by the Lions whelpe Henry Duke of Normandy The death of King Stephen c. and after King of England In the end of this yeere died King Stephen when hee had reignâ—…d eighteen yeeres and odde moneths and was buried by his sonne Eustace at Feversham This King spent his whole Reigne in great vexation and trouble which as some conjecture hapned because hee usurped the Crowne contrary to his Oath made to Henry the first that hee should maintaine the inheritance of his daughter Mawd the Empresse this Stephen Vpon what grounds Stephen pretended his title to the Crown was the sonne of Eustace Earle of Bulloigne and of Mary sister to Mawd who was married to his predecessor Henry these two are the daughters of Margaret the wife of Malcolm King of Scots which Margaret was the sister to Edgar Etheling and daughter of Edward the outlaw who was sonne to Edmund Ironside Mawd the Empresse daughter to Henry Beauclarke had by her second husband Ieffery Plantaginet this Henry the second of that name by whom the bloud of the Saxons againe returned to the Crowne partly by King Stephen but more fully by him so that consequently the bloud of the Normans continued but threescore The Norman bloud in sixty yeeres extinguished and ten yeeres accounting from the first yeere of William the Conquerour to the last of the reigne of Henry first compleating those words the prophesie And when the iron brood in the land shall fail The bloud of the red Dragon must prevail CHAP. 14. Divers remarkable passages during the Reigne of Henry the second his numerous issue and how they were affected towards him his vices and vertues his good and bad fortune all which were by this our Prophet predicted HEnry the second sonne of Ieffery Plantaginet The Coronation of King Henry the second and Mawd the Empresse began his Reigne over England in the moneth of October and the yeere of our Lord God one thousand one hundred fifty five of whom before it was thus prophesied The Eglet of the Flawde league shall behold The prophesie of his Reâ—…gne The Fathers of her prime bird shine in gold And in her third nest shall rejoyce but hee Who from the height of the great Rocke may see The Countries round both neer and far away Shall search amongst them where hee best can pray Some of whose numerous ayrie shall retaine The nature of the Desert Pelican The all commanding keys shall strive to wrest And force the locke that opens to his nest But break their own wards of all flowers that grow The Rose shall most delight his smell and so That least it any strangers eyes should daze Hee 'l plant it close in a Dedalian Maze Fortune at first will on his glories smile But fail him in the end alack the while The first words of this Prophesie seeme to reflect Part of the prophesie explained upon the Empresse his Mother by rejoycing her third nest may be intended that having three sonnes Henry Ieffery and William the two later failing as dying in their youth shee might rejoyce in him whose Father being King she saw to shine in gold or else being first espoused to Henry the Emperour and next to Ieffery Plantaginet shee might in her death rejoyce in her third espousall with her Saviour but againe where hee stiles her the Eglet of the Flawde or Borbon League It may bee conferd upon the Queen who being first married to the King of France and through neernesse of bloud divorced from him and sent to her Father and after married to this King being then Duke of Normandy she may be said first to have built her nest in France secondly in Normandy and thirdly and last in England This Prince as the Chronicle describes him The Kings Character to us was somewhat high-coloured but of a good aspect and pleasant countenance fat full chested and low of stature and because hee grew somewhat corpulent hee used a sparing and abstinent diet and much exercised Hunting He was well spoken and indifferently learned Noble in Knighthood and wise in counsaile bountifull to strangers but to his familiars and servants gripple-handed and where hee loved once or hated constant and hardly to be removed he had by his wife Eleanor six sonnes and three daughters The names of five of them His Issue were William Henry Richard Godfery and Iohn of which two came to succeed him in the Throne Richard and Iohn of the sixt there is small or no mention the eldest of his daughters hight Mawd and was married to the Duke of Saxony the second Eleanor to the King of Spaine the third named Iane to William King of Sicily This King was prosperous in the beginning of his Raigne but unfortunate in the end as the sequell will make apparant he was of such magnanimity and courage that hee was often heard to say that to a valiant heart not a whole World sufficeth and according to his words hee greatly augmented his Heritage and much added The Kings Dominions to his Dominions For hee wonne Ireland by strength and in the seventh yeere of his Reigne for divers affronts offered him by William King of Scotland he made such cruell warre upon him that in the end hee tooke him He taketh the Scots King prisoner prisoner and compeld him to surrender into his hands the City of Carlile the Castle of Bamburch the new Castle upon Tyne with divers other holds and a great part of Northumberland which William before had wonne from the
that his Lords were acquitted of their allegiance and in what danger his souls and his peoples were hee and his whole Nation standing accursed he at length condiscended to submit himselfe to whatsoever the Court of Rome should determine The Articles proposed by the Pope and by him to be performed were these following Peaceably to suffer Stephen Langton to enter The Articles that hee should yield to into the Land and to enjoy the primacy and profits of his Archbishoprick that these whom hee had banisht should be repeald and their goods whom hee had rifled should be to them restored and that he should yield up his absolute right and title to the Crowne of England and he his heirs thence-forward to hold it of the Pope and his successors to which having granted and he and his Lords being sworne to observe Iohn delivers up his Crowne to the Popes use the same Hee kneeling tooke the Legâ—…te to him the Crowne from his head and delivered it to the Popes use saying these words I here resigne up the Crowne of the Realmes of England and Ireland into the hands of pope Innocent the third and put my selfe wholly into his power and mercy then Pandolph as Deputy for the Pope tooke the Crowne and kept it five dayes in his possession and then the King received it from him againe First having sealed and delivered up an Instrument or writing the effect was that he could challenge no power but by permission of the Pope and further to pay unto the Apostolicke See yeerly a thousand Marks of silver seven hundred for the Crowne of England and three hundred for the Kingdome of Ireland for the payment of which Tribute yeeâ—…ly paid by King Iohn to Rome tribute but the Peter-pence were after gathered and this confirmes the premisses exprest in the prophesie Then shall those keyes whose power would awe the fates For along time lock up his Temple gates Vnburthen him of all the charge he beares And wrest from him the Lawrell that he wears Woes me that from one Leopard should be torne What many Lions in their pride have worne It is made so plaine that it needs no further Interpretor In those days lived one called Peter Peter of Pomfret of Pomfret a Bard and such then were held as Southsayers and prophets who predicted divers of the Kings disasters which fell out accordingly amongst which one was that hee should reigne but fourteene yeeres but when the King had entred the fifteenth hee called him into question for a false prophet to which hee answered that whatsoever hee had foretold was justifiable and true For in the fourteenth yeer hee gave up his Crowne unto the pope and hee paying unto him an annuall tribute the pope raigned and not hee notwithstanding which apology he caused him as a Traytour to be hanged and quartered After which he bore himselfe so aversly towards his Barons that the greatest part of them Lewis sonne to the French King called in to England by thâ—… Barons fell from his Allegiance and called in Lewis son to the French king into the Land covenanting to make him king who was received with his whole Army and possessed of London the Tower and many other strong holds in the kingdome betwixt whom and the king were sundry conflicts and skirmishes in which they diversly sped during which dissention in the seventeenth yeere of his Reigne he expired as the Authour of Polychron saith at Newarke of The death of King Iohn a bloudy flix But by the relation of our English Chronicle to which we give more credit as also by the authority of Master Fox in his Martyrologie he was poysoned by a Monke having been a great Rifler of their Monasteries and dyed at Swinsted Abbey in Lincolnshire this Monke being of the same House and his body was after buried in the Cathedrall Church at Winchester which fatall accident hapned unto him the day after Saint Luke being the eighteenth of October after hee had reigned sixteen yeeres six moneths and odde days leaving behind him two sonnes Henry and Richard In his death verifying He that did all he might the Kirke despise Against his life shall a base Kirkman rise Not forgetting the former which was predicted of Lewis comming into the Land Hither the French flower would it self transpose Where must spring after many a glorious Rose Henry the third of that name and eldest son Henry the third crowned King to King Iohn at the age of nine yeeres beganne his Reigne over the Realme of England the twentieth of October in the yeere of Grace one thousand two hundred and sixteene Philip the second being then king of France this king reigned the longest and did the least of remarkable memory of any of his predecessours Of whom it was thus predicted Dreame shall the Leopards issue in the throne The Prophesie Crudled in rest carefull to keep his owne Nor forcing ought from others changing then His Leopards spots a Lion turn agen Abroad the second whelpe for prey will rore Beyond the Alps to Ioves bird restore rage Her decayde plumes the King of beasts whose His youth conceal'd shall rowse him in his age Against the Boare the Talbot and the Beare The Mountain Cat Goat with whom cohere Of fowls the Falcon Hearn the Peacock Swan With Fishes too prest from the Ocean With whose mixt blouds the Forest shal be dyde Till love unite what discord did divide Presently upon the young Kings Coronation the greatest part of the English peeres revolted The English Lords revolt from Lewis to Henry from the French party and acknowledged him their sole King and Soveraigne so that within a short season they quit both him and all the Aliens and Strangers out of the Land in the eight yeare of his Raigne was held a Parlament The first granting of Wards in which was granted to the King and his successor Kings the Wardship and Mariage of all the Heires which act was called by wise men of that age Initium Malorum In the thirtieth yeare of his Raigne dyed Frederick the Emperour who had before maried Isabell the Kings sister who for his contempt of the church of Rome was accursed of The death of the Emperour Frederick whom was made this Epitaph Fre sremit in Mundo De deprimitalta profundo Ri res rimatur cus cuspide cuncta minatur Which though it cannot sound so well in our English tongue yet is thus paraphrased Free frets the world De Height which depth confounds Ri searcheth all things Cus with the weapen wounds After whose death the Electors could not agree in the choise of a successor some nominated the Duke of Thoring others the Earle of Holland and some againe stood for Richard Earle of Cornwale the Kings brother but in the end Rodulphus Duke of Habspurg was inaugurated by Pope Gregory the ninth so that great variance and strife continued for the space of 27 yeares to
the fight continued the greatest part of the day at last the victory fell to the Barons so that were taken the King the King of the Romans and prince Edward The King taken prisoner with the King of the Romans and P. Edward with five and twenty Barons and Bannerets and the people slaine on both sides amounted to above twentythousand These royall prisoners being put in safe keeping a peace was after debated and at length concluded and they released but it proved to small purpose for many battailes were after fought betwixt them in which sometimes the King sometimes the Barons had the better the circumstances are too long to relate in which Prince Edward bore himselfe bravely in processe the five fiftieth yeer of this Kings Reign the King of the Romans made attonement betwixt the King his brother and Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester who had continued the wars of the Barons upon condition that hee should take a Voyage into the Holy Land for the King for which hee should have towards his charge eight thousand Marks in hand and when hee was on shipboard foure thousand more and to bee ready the first day of May next following but this failing in him Prince Edward undertooke it in his stead and the yeere after abâ—…ut the end of March dyed Richard Emperour of The death of Richard K. of the Romans Almaine King of the Romans and Earle of Cornwall being the Kings brother after hee had governed the Empire betwixt fifteen and sixteene yeeres and was buried at Hales an Abbey of white Monks which hee had before time founded and the yeere following upon the sixteenth day of November died Henry the Third King of England after he had governed the Realme fifty The death of Henry the third six yeeres and twenty seven days leaving for his Heire Prince Edward who was then in the Holy Land and another sonne called Edmund Crowch-backe His body was buried in the Abbey of Westminster and over him inscribed Tertius Henricus jacet hic pietatis amicus His Epitaph Ecclesiam stravit istam quam post renovavit Reddat ei munus qui regnat trinus unus Thus Englished Third Henry here doth rest Of Piety possest Down first this Church he threw And after did renew O grant him thy immunity Thou Trinity in Vnitie The premisses confirme the prophesie of his Reigne towards the latter end of his time which was turbulent and troublesome to the exhausting of the Kings treasure the deaths of many of his Noble Barons and almost to the destruction and desolation of the whole Realm therefore it was truly said of him The King of beasts whose rage His youth conceal'd shall rouze him in his age Against the Boare the Talbot and the Beare The Mountaine Cat and Goat with whom cohere c. By the Lion the King is personated and by the rest of the beasts and birds named the severall Crests and Emblazons in the Barons Armes and Scutchions by which they were distinguisht Prince Edward his sonne was at the time of his death in the Land of Palaestine Of whom also it was thus predicted An Occident all Dragon bright as noone The Prophesie Shal breathing flames dark the Oriental Moon The Cambrian Wolves he through their Woods shall chace Nor cease till hee have quite extirpt their race Then from the North shall fiery Meteors threat Ambitious after bloud to quench their heat The Dragons bloud at which his Crest wil rise And his scales flame and where he treads as flyes Fright all shal him oppose the Northern Dyke Passe shall hee then and set his foot in Wyke After which showers of bloud will fall upon And barren the faire fields of Caledon Then having ended what he took in hand Die in the Marches of another Land Hee in the yeere one thousand two hundred Prince Edwards expeditioâ—… to the Holy Land threescore and eleven and in the yeere of his fathers Reigne fifty five upon the twentieth of August tooke shipping at Dover and sailed thence to Burdeaux but because the French Army bâ—…und upon the same adventure was removed thence he sped after and met with them at Tunis and from theâ—…ce he took shipping for the Holy Land and arrived with some French forces joyned with his owne At Acris or Acon what time the Christians possessed that City only and the City of Tyre holding some few Castles to preserve them from the rage of the Soldan There he was honorably received and with great joy after whose being there the Soldan or Saladine who had wonne all the Countrey there about came thither with an Hoast of an hundred threescore thousand Sarazens and besieged the City and made many bold and bloudy assaults But the Prince so Prince Edwards valour in defending Acris valiantly demeaned himselfe that hee defended the City the Castles belonging to it and all the Territories about that notwithstanding the multitude of the Soldans Army hee was compeld to forsake the siege to his great shame and dishonour Even the French Chronicles whose custome The French Chronicles testifie of P. Edwards valour is to write boastingly of themselves and sparingly of others bestow on him a character of invincible courage and that in all his stratagems and martiall exploits hee so honourably behaved himselfe that his very name was a terrour to the Turks for many yeers after who seeing his great boldnesse and that they were not able to stand him in battaile they plotted how to take away his life by Treason and to that purpose when he was resident in Acon they sent to P. Edward traitcrously wounded him a Sarazen in the name of a Secretary who in delivering unto him a counterfeit message wounded him in the arme with an empoysoned Knife which he wresting from the Infidels hand slue with the same weapon so that he died incontinently Then hee cald for a Surgeon and with incomparable sufferance commanded him to cut out all the putrified and corrupted flesh even to the scaling of the bone without the least shrinking or alteration of countenance of which base treachery hee was after revenged upon them to their great detriment and damage and thus The Occidentall Dragon bright as noon Did breathing flames dazle the orienial moon Hee is called Occidentall as being bred in this our Westerne Island and the Soldan is figured in the Orientall Moone being a Prince in the Easterne part of the World and bearing the semicircled Moone in his Banner Prince Edward during his aboad there had by the Princesse his wife a daughter called Ioane who tooke a His wife was Isabell of Spain Ioan of Acris name from the place and was called Ioane of Acris because there born and was after married to the Earle of Glocester After his being there some two yeeres and upward his father dying hee was called home to take possession of the Crowne of England Edward the first of that name and sonne of
beside Saint Iohns Towne and slue of them seven thousand at the first encounter and the rest fled In this battaile was taken Sir Simon Frizell and sent to London where hee was drawne hanged and quartered there suffered also Iohn Earle of Athelus and Iohn brother to VVilliam King Edwards last victory over the Scots VVallis but Robert le Bruce fled from Scotland into Norway to the King who had married his sister When King Edward had thus abated the pride of his enemies he returned again Southward and a great sicknesse took him at Bozroes upon Sands in the Marches of Scotland beyond Carlile and when he knew hee should die hee called unto him Aymer de Valence Earle of Pembroke Sir Henry Piercy Earle of Northumberland Sir Henry Lacie Earle of Lincolne and Sir Robert Clifford Baron and swore them to crowne his sonne Edward of Carnarvan after his death then hee called his sonne charging him with many things upon his blessing but The Barons sworne to the successour especially that hee shall never receive Pierce Gavestone his old companion before banisht into the Kingdome and so dyed upon the seventh of Iuly when hee had reigned foure and thirty yeeres seven moneths and odde dayes and The death of K. Edward the first thence his body was conveighed to Westminster and there buried approving the prophesie After which showres of bloud will fall upon And barren the faire fields of Caledon Then having ended what he took in hand Die in the Marches of another Land Upon whose Tombe this Distich was inscribed Dum vixit Rex valuit sua magna potestas His Epitaph Fraus latuit pax magna fuit regnavit honestas Thus in those dayes Englisht VVhile lived this King by his power all things VVas in good plight For guile was hid great peace was kid And honesty had might Of his sonne Prince Edward the Prophesie runs thus A prophesie of the Reigne of Edward the second A Goat shall then appeare out of a Carr VVith silver hornes not Iron unfit for warre And above other shall delight to feed Vpon the flower that life and death doth breed A Cornish Eagle clad in plumes of gold Borrowed from others shall on high behold What best can please him to maintain his pride Whose painted feathers shall the Goat misguide Who at length ayming to surprise the Beare Him shall the rowzed beast in pieces teare Two Owles shall from the Eagles ashes rise And in their pride the Forest beasts despise They forc't at first to take their wings and flie Shall back returning beare themselves so hie T' out-brave both birds and beasts and great spoyls winne By the Goats casing in a Lions skin But after be themselves depriv'd of breath By her they scorn'd the flower of life and death And the crown'd Goat thinking himself secure Shall after all a wretched end endure To confirme which Edward the second of that name and sonne of Edward the first borne at Carnarvan a Town of VVales began his Reigne over England the eighth of Iuly in the yeere of Grace one thousand three hundred and seven and was crowned at Westminster the fourteenth day of December whose Fathers Obsequies were scarcely ended but forgetting the great His Coronation charge and command layed upon him in his death hee sent in haste for his old friend and familiar Pierce Gauestone out of France whom hee received with great joy then sayling into Pierce Gavestone revoked from banishment France the fifteenth of Ianuary following at Bolloigne in Picardy espoused Isabell the His marriage daughter of Philip the Faire and returned with her into England where soone after hee made Gaveston Earle of Cornwall and gave him the Gaveston made Eâ—…le of Cornwall Lordship of VVallingford to the great displeasure of the Barons who were sworne to his father not to suffer him to come into the Realm In the second of his Raign remembring the complaint that Steph. Langton Bishop of Chester had made of him and Gaveston for sundry ryots committed in his fathers dayes for which he was banished he sent him prisoner to the Tower where he was strictly kept and ill attended The Bishop of Chester sent to the Tower for which end seeing how by this Pierce the kings treasury was howrely exhausted the Barons assembled themselves and contrary to the Kings pleasure banished him into Ireland for a Gaveston bani shed into Ireland yeere where the King gave him the Dominion over the whole Land but so mourned and lamented his absence that by the consent of Lords he was shortly call'd back again where he demeaned himselfe with greater pride and insolence then at first despising the Lords and chiefe peeres of the Land calling Sir Robert of Clare Earle of Gloster whoreson the Earle of Gavest abuseth the peeres Lincolne sir Henry Lacy Burstenbelly sir Guy Earle of Warwick black dog of Arderne and the noble Earle Thomas of Lancaster churle and moreover having the keeping and command of all the kings treasure he tooke out of the Iewell-house a table of Gold and tressels of the same which once belonged to King Arthur with many other invaluable Iewels and delivered He robs the Kings treasury them to a merchant called Amery of Friskband to beare them over into Gascoigne which was a great losse to the kingdome and further by his loose and effeminate conditions he drew the King to many horrible vices as adultery as some think sodomitry with others therefore the Lords againe assembled and maugre the king banisht him into Flanders In the first yeere upon the day of saint Brice He is banisht into Flanders being the 13 day of November was born at Winsor the first and eldest sonne of King Edward that after his father was king of England named The birth of Edward the third Edward the third and the same yeere Gaveston was called out of Flanders by the king and restored to all his former honours and then he demeaned himselfe more contemptuously toward the Barons then before who besieged him in the Castle of Scarborough and won it and tooke him and brought him to Gaversed The death of Pierce Gavest besides Warwick and there smote off his head which was done at the instigation of Thomas Earle of Lancaster whom Merlin calls the bear and this approveth the premisses A Cornish Eagle cladin plumes of gold Borrowed from others shall on high behold what best can please him to maintain his pride whose painted feathers shall the Goat misguid who at length aiming to surprise the Beare Him shall the rowzed beast in pieces teare CHAP. 20. The Kings unfortunate wars in Scotland The battle of Bannocsbourn c. Barwick betrayed to the Scots The pride and insolency of the Spencers Their misleading the King Their hate to the Queen she is sent over into France Her victorious return with the Prince The King and his Minions taken the death of the
two Spencers c. BY the Cornish Eagle in the former Chapter is meant Pierce Gavestone Earle of Cornwall by his plumes of gold his pride and riches borrowed and extorted from others by the Goat the King who was given to all intemperate effeminacie by the Beare Thomas Earle of Lancaster c. This King was of a beautifull aspect King Edwards Character and excellent feature of a strong constitution of body but unstedfast in promise and ignoble in condition as refusing the company of men of honour to associate himselfe with lewd and vile persons he was much addicted to bibacity and apt to discover matters of great counsell and of stupration and adultery perswaded thereto by his familiars the French men for whose death the King vowed an irreconciliable revenge against the Barons which he after performed indeed so unking-like was his misgovernment that a base Villaine called Iohn Tanner named himself the son of Edward the Iohn Tanner an Impostor first and that by the means of a false nurse hee was stoln out of his cradle and this Edward being a Carters son was laid in his place which the people for the former reasons were easily induced to believe but the Impostor was discovered and by his own confession judged to be hanged and quartered In the seventh yeere of his Reigne Robert le Robert le Bruce wars against England Bruce King of Scots whom his Father made flye into Norway hearing of the misguiding of the Kingdome and the dissention betwixt him and his Barons warre strongly against him and his friends in Scotland and wonne from them Castles and Holds howsoever well munified to the great damage of the English who were interessed The Kings power against Scotland in the Land For which affront the King assembled a great power and invaded Scotland by Sea burning and destroying all such Townes and Villages as were in his way which Robert le Bruce hearing he hasted with a strong Army and upon S. Iohn Baptists day both Hoasts met at a place called Estrivelin neere unto a fresh River called Bannoksburne where betwixt them was fought a cruell battaile in which the English were compeld to forsake the field For which in derision of the English the Scots made this Ryme Doggerill Maidens of England sore may you mourn The Scots derision of the English For the Lemans you have lost at Bannocksborn With a heave and hoe What weened the King of England so soone to have wonne Scotland With a Rumby low In his ninth yeere Barwick was betrayed to the Scots by one Peter Spalding whom the King had Barwick betrayed to the Scots made Governour of the Town and Castle and in the eleventh yeâ—…re the Scots entred the borders of Northumberland most cruelly robbing and burning the Country even the houses of women who lay in Childbed not sparing age The cruelty of the Scots nor sex religious nor other therefore the King raised a new Army and laid siege to Barwick in which interim the Scots past the River of Swale and leaving the Coast where the Kings people lay came into the Borders of Yorkeshire to whom the Archbishop with Priests and ploughmen unexercised in armes gave battail but were discomfited in which so many Priors Clerks Canons and other Clergymen were slaine that they called it the white battaile when The white battaile the King heard of this overthrow hee broke up his siege and retyred to Yorke and soone after to London After this nothing was done without the advice of the two Hugh Spencers the father and the sonne and in a Counsell held at Yorke Hugh Spencer the sonne maugre the Lords was made high Chamberlain of England who bore him as haughtily as ever did Gavestone but let The pride of Hugh Spencer the sonne me take the prophesie along A Goat shall then appeare out of a Carr VVith silver hornes not Iron unfit for warre And above other shall delight to feed Vpon the flower that life and death doth breed By the Goat is figured lascivious Edward therefore said to appeare out of a Car as born in Carnarvan his hornes of silver and not of Iron denotes his effeminacie being unserviceable for warre as may appeare in his successe against the Scots by the Flower of life and death is intended his Queene Isabel the Flower of France at first deare to him as life but in the end as most Writers have suspected with Mortimer accessary to his death but to proceed with the History The Barons to a great number seeing how The assembly of the Barons the Spencers misled the King and misgoverned the affaires in the Land assembled themselves and tooke a solemne and unanimous vow to remove them out of the Kingdome and as their first attempt certain of them appointed to that purpose entred upon the Mannors and Castles of the Spencers in the Marches of Wales spoyling and ruining them to the earth of which riot they complained to the King who summoned them to appeare before his Counsell which The petition of the Barons to the King they refused to doe but gathered unto them a stronger Hoast and sent to his Majesty humbly beseeching him to remove from his person the two Spencers which daily did to him great dishonour and to the Common-weale which damage with humble request the King hearing and doubting his owne safety called a Parliament to be held at London to which the Barons came with a great Hoast all suited in demy-parted Iackets of yellow and greene with a list of white cast overthwart for which the common The Parlament of white-bands people called it the Parliament of white-bands in which the two Spencers were banished the Kingdome for ever But the yeere following the King revoked the Acts made in the former Parliament and called them into England contrary to the will of the Barons and set them in greater authority then before to the great disturbance and almost utter subversion of the Realme for now the whole Land was in combustion and the King animated by the Spencers tooke on him the shape of a Lion and ceased not till hee had cut off the chiefe and prime Nobility of the Land For besides those that were slaine none was brought to the Barre but was thence led to the blocke who having got the better of his Barons he called a Parliament at Yorke in which Hugh Spencer the Father was made Earle of Hugh Spencer the father made Earle of Winchester Winchester and soone after was one Robert Baldock a follow of debaucht life and condition made Chancellour of England Then forfeits Robert Baldock made Chancellour and sines were gathered without sparing of priviledged places or other till a mighty summe of money was gathered towards another expedition into Scotland and then his Army consisted according to Caxton and others of an hundred thousand men but hee sped in that as in the former for on Saint Lukes day at a
into Wales who took the King the Earle of Arundell Hugh Spencer the son and the Chancellour and brought them all prisoners to Hereford in which interim the Citizens The tower of London taken by the Citizens of London won the tower of London and kept it to the Queenes use Upon the morrow after the feast of Simon and Iude the same day that the L. Major takes Hugh Spenâ—… the father put to death his oath was Hugh Spencer the father put to death and after buried at Winchester and upon Saint Hughs day following being the eighteenth Hugh the son drawn hanged and quâ—…rtered day of November was Sir Hugh the son drawne hanged and quartered at Hereford and his head sent to London and set upon the Bridge making good They after be themselves depriv'd of breath By her they scorn'd the flower of life and death The common fame went that after this Hugh was taken hee would take no manner of sustenance and that was the cause he was the sooner put to death of whom was made this Distich following Funis cum lignis à te miser ensis ignis Hugo securus equus abstulit omne decus Rope gallows sword and fire with a just knife Took from thee Hugh thy honour with thy life Foure dayes after was the Earle of Arondell put to death and Robert Baldock the Chancellour being committed to Newgate dyed miserably Baldock the Chancellour dyes in Newgate in prison then the Queene with the Prince her son with the rest of the Lords were with great joy the fourteenth day of December received at London and thence conveighed to Westminster where a Parliament was called the effect whereof expect in the following Chapter CHAP. 21. The deposing of Edward the second his repentance his death His sonne Edward made King A Prophesie of his Reigne His great victory over the Scots with the taking of Barwicke His famous victory at Sea over the French Hee layes claime to the Crowne of France instituteth the Order of the Garter His victory at Cressie His taking of Calice c. FRom this Parliament were Messengers sent to the King then prisoner in Kenelworth Castle three Bishops three Earles two Abbots two Barons two Iudges with Sir William Trussell Procurator of the Parliament to depose him of all Kingly dignity who the five and twentieth of Ianuary in the presence of the aforesaid Lords from the body of the whole House delivered unto him these words following I William Trussell in the name of all men of King Edward deposed from all Kingly power this Land of England procurator of this Parliament resigne to thee Edward the homage that was sometimes made to thee and from this time forth deprive thee of all Kingly power and I shall never be attendant on thee as King after this time And thus was Edward the second deposed and his sonne Edward made King when hee had raigned full eighteene yeeres sixe moneths and odde dayes who during his imprisonment first at Kenelworth and after at Barckley Castle grew greatly repentant of his former course of life finding at length what it Edward greatly repentant was to be misled by upstarts and people of mean condition many of whose penitentiall fancies are still extant And amongst the rest this following Most blessed Iesu Root of all vertue Grant I may thee sue In all humilitie Sen thou for our good List to shed thy blood And stretch thee on the Rood For our iniquitie I thee beseech Most wholsome leech That thou wilt seech For mee such grace That when my body vile My soule shall exile Thou bring in short while It in rest and peace Edward the third of that name sonne of Edward the second and Philip sole daughter of Philip Edward the third made King the Faire at fifteene yeeres of age began his Reigne his father yet living the six and twentieth of Ianuary in the end of the yeer of Grace one thousand three hundred and twenty six and was crowned at Westminster upon the day of the Purification of our Lady next ensuing at what time the earth yielded plenty the Ayre temper the Sea quietnesse and the Church peace hee confirmed the Liberties and Franchises of London and gave Southwarke to bee under the Lord Majors rule and government Of whose Reigne it was thus predicted The spirits of many Lions shall conspire To make one by infusion so intire He by his mighty courage shall restore What his sire lost and Grandsire wonne before Neptune his Navall triumphs shall advance His Coat he quarters with th' Flower of France And after mauger the Canicular Tyke Tweed shal he passe and win again the Wyke A numerous issue shall his Lionesse bring Black shall the first be and though never King Yet shall he Kings captive but ere mature Dye must this brave Whelp of a Calenture And then behind him shall he leave a Kid To undo all both sire and grandsire did The effect of all these will succeed in their order in the first yeere of this Kings Reigne the late King Edward was miserably slaine and put to a most cruell death by the meanes of Sir Roger The death of K. Edward Mortimer who notwithstanding in the Parliament after was made Earle of March the same yeere the foure and twentieth of Ianuary the young King married the Lady Philip daughter to the Earle of Henault in the City of Yorke A Parliament held at Northampton and soone after cald a Parliament at Northampton to which by the meanes of Sir Roger Mortimer and the old Queene an unprofitable and dishonorable peace was made with the Scots who caused the King to release them of all fealty and homage and delivered up to them all the old Writings sealed by their Kings and chiefe Lords of their Land with all Charters and Patents and many rich Iewels which had before beene wonne from them by the Kings of England amongst which the blacke Crosse of Scotland is especially named and the yeere following David the son of Robert le Bruce King of Scots married Iane sister to the King of England whom they after to the derision of the English called Iane make peace and amongst other The Scots taunt the English taunting Songs made of our Nation this was one Long beards heartlesse Painted bodies witlesse Gay coats gracelesse Maketh England thriftlesse But these merry and jigging tunes were turned to their most lamentable Aymee's within few moneths after During the Kings minority all the affaires of the Realme were managed by Sir Roger Mortimer The pride of Sir Roger Mortimer and the Mother Queene And the great persons appointed to that purpose were vilified and not set by which Sir Roger in imitation of K. Arthur was said to keep a round Table to which many noble Knights belonged to his infinite cost and expence But howsoever in the Articles objected by the Parliament against Mortimer third yeere of the King the said Sir Roger
Calenture And then behind him shall he leave a Kid To undoe all both sire and grandsire did By the Kid is intended the Prince Richard his sonne who succeeded his grandfather in the Throne and therefore so cald because of his condition so suiting with the nature of his predecessour Edward the second whom the prophet for his dissolutenesse of life and inability to manage a State called a Goat not a Lion but to come to the story King Edward left behind him foure sonnes Lionel Duke of K. Edwards Royall Issue Clarence Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Edward of Langley Duke of Yorke and Thomas of Woodstock Earle of Cambridge taking their sirnames from the places where they had their birth by whom and the rest of the Nobility his body was conveyed from Richmond to Westminster and there solemnly and sumptuously interred over whose Tombe hung this inscription Hic decus Anglorum flos Regum praeteritorum Forma futurorum Rex clemens pax populorum His Epitaph Tertius Edwardus regni complens Inbilaeum Invictus pardus pollens bellis Machabaeum Which for the better understanding of the vulgar I give you thus paraphrased in English Here lyes our honour flower of Kings forepast Pattern to future making peace to last Edward the third who raign'd a jubilee In strength a pard valour a Machabee Richard the second of that name and sonne of Edward sirnamed the blacke prince eldest Richard the second of that â—…ame made King sonne to Edward the third a childe of the age of eleven yeers began his Reign over the Realme of England the two and twentieth of Iune in the yeere of Grace one thousand twenty seven and upon the fifteenth of Iuly being the day of Saint Swithen ensuing he was crowned at Westminster in the first yeer of whose Reigne about Aprill landed in Kent Anne the Daughter of Charles the fourth Emperour of that name late dead and sister to Wenceslaus then Emperour who by the Major and Citizens of London was honourably met upon Black-heath and with great triumph conveyed vnto Westminster and His Royall mariage the eight day of May solemnely espoused to King Richard of whom it is thus predicted Sport shall the young Kid in his youth and play A prediction of his Reigne 'Gainst whom shall rise the Hedg-hog and the Gray And then the hobnayle and the clowted shoone Shall the Kids glory strive to eclipse at noone But by a Daulphin of the City lov'd That black disastrous cloud shall be remov'd And Phoebus in his wonted or be shine cleare Who when he shall in his full strength appeare Foure princely Lions were to him allyde Gall shall he with his horns in his great pride At length a Fox clad in a skin of gold Shall snatch the Kid from midst of all his fold The yeere before which was the fourth of The insurrection of the Commons his Reign was a great insurrection of the Commons throughout the Land especially in Kent and Essex the reason was because in the third yeere at a parliament held at Westminster there was granted to the king a Groat of every person male or female above the age of fourteene yeeres The chiefe Captains and Leaders of the The Captains of the Rebels Rebels Army were Iack Straw William Wawe Wat Tyler Iack Shepherd Tom Miller and Hob Carter these gathered great multitudes of the Commons and assembled themselves upon Blackheath three miles from London and upon the eleventh of Iune entred the Tower of London where the King was then lodged and took Thâ—…y take the Tower thence perforce Doctor Sudbury Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Hales prior of Saint Iohns and a white Frier Confessor to the King whom with a mighty acclamation and voice they drew to the Tower-hill and there cut off their heads Then by boats and barges they returned into Southwarke and robbed all strangers of what Their robberies in Southwarke In Westminster Nation soever thence they went to Westminster and took thence all the Sanctuary men and came unto the Savoy which was the Duke of In the Strand Lancasters house and first pilladge it and after set it on fire and then to the palace of Sr. Iohn neere Clerkenwell and spoyled it After they searched the Temples and Innes of Court making havock of all burning their Law books The Innes of Court and killing as many Lawyers and Questmongers as they might find that done they went to St. Martins le Grand releasing there all that had Their mighty insolencies there took Sanctuary with the prisoners of Newgate Ludgate the two Counters tearing their Registers and Books The like they did to the Kings Bench and Marshalses in Southwarke and moreover they did thorow the whole City of London according to their own wils and pleasures When Iack Straw who was prime Commander above the rest had executed all these The pride of the Captain insolencies and saw no resistance against him he was suddenly so tumoured with pride that he thought no man worthy to be his peere in so much that hee rode againe to the Tower where he found the King but weakly attended and in a manner compeld him to ride through divers parts and streets of the City and so conveyed him into Smithfield where in the Kings presence to whom hee did small or no reverence at all hee caused a proclamation to bee made though using his Majesties name yet to his owne wicked end and purpose which William Walworth Fishmonger and then Lord Major seeing and not able to endure his so great presumption and insolency he stept towards and first with a blow on the head stounded him with his Mace and after with a short Dagger which he wore by his side he wounded him to death then with a Sword strook off his The death of Iack Straw head and lifted it upon the point of a Speare and shewing it to the Rebels Cryed out alowd King Richard God save King Richard who when they saw their chiefe Captaine slaine they fled in great disorder of which many were taken and some slaine and the remnant were chaced so that both City and Suburbs were voided of them that night being the fifteenth The Rebels disperst of Iune making good what was predicted Sport shall the young Kid in his youth and play 'Gainst whom shal rise the Hedghog the gray And then the hobnail and the clowted shcon Shall the suns glory strive to eclipse at noon But by a Daulphin of the City lov'd This black disastrous cloudshall be removd c By the young Kid is intended the wanton King by the Hedghog and the gray beasts frequent in the Country Iack Straw VVat Tyler and the rest of the Captaines and Commons by the Daulphin VVilliam VValworth who was free of the Fishmongers and they give the Daulphin in their Escutchion c. CHAP. 23. The Duke of Glocester by a Parliament reformeth the Common wealth
Iohn of Gaunt claymes his title in Spain King Richard marrieth the French Kings Daughter Difference betwixt the King and Glocester His murder in Calice The murmur of the Commons against the present government The pride of the Dukes Court The Dukes of Hereford and Norfolke banished King Richard deposed and Henry Duke of Hereford and Lancaster made King WHen the King saw the great manhood and courage of the Lord Major The Lord Major and divers Aldermen Knighted by the King and his Brethren the Aldermen his assistants hee in his own person Knighted the said William Walworth with Nicholas Bremble Iohn Philpot Nicholas Twiford Robert Laundor and Robert Gayton Alderman and moreover in the memory of that Noble Act added to the Armes of the City the bloudy Dagger as it remayneth to this day In the eleventh yeere of this King Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester and Uncle to the King the Earle of Arundell with the Earles of Warwicke Darby and Nottingham taking into their consideration how much the land was misgoverned and his Majesty mislead by some Sycophants neere about him they met in counsell at a place A Parliament to rectifie the Commonweale called Radecockbridg and having assembled a strong power came to London and there caused the King to call a Parliament whereof hearing Alexander Nevell Archbishop of Yorke Lionel Vere Marquesse of Divelin Michael de la Poole Earle of Suffolke and Chancellour of England fearing the censure of that high Court â—…ed the Land and dyed in forreigne Countries Then the King by counsell of the fore-said Lords caused to be apprehended Sir Robert Tresilian chief Iustice of England Sir Nicholas Brembre late Major of the City Sir Iohn Salisbury of the Persons judged to death Kings Houshold Sir Iohn Beauchampe Steward of the House Sir Simon Burleigh Sir Thomas Bernes Sir Robert Belknap with one Iohn Vske Serjeant at Arms all which by the foresaid Parliament were convict of Treason and put to death some at Tyburne some at Towerhill and all such as fled with those that forsook the land by the authority of that high Court banished for ever In the thirteenth yeare Iohn a Gaunt Duke Iohn a Gaunt clayms his title in Spain of Lancaster with a strong army sailed into Spaine to claime the Kingdome in right of Lady Constance his wife the daughter of Don Peter with whom joyned the King of Portugall with his forces so that of necessity the King of Spain was forced to treat with the Duke of peace and amity the conditions were that the King of Spaine should marry the Dukes eldest daughter named Constance and moreover should give unto the said Duke to recompence the charges of his warre so many wedges of gold as should load eight Chariots and moreover during the lives of the said Duke and his wife hee should at his proper cost and charges deliver unto the Honourable conditions of peace Dukes Assignes yearely ten thousand Markes of gold within the towne of Bayon which conditions being ratified and assurance given for the performance thereof the Duke departed with the King of Portugall to whom shortly after hee married his second daughter the Lady Anne so that the elder and the younger were made the two Queenes of Spaine and Portugall King Richards first wife being dead after hee K. Richards second marriage maried Isabel the daughter of Charles the sixt K. of France who was but 8. years of age at whose espousalls in the French kings Court many rich interchangable gifts passed betwixt them as first the king of England gave the French king a Bason of gold and Ewer who returned him three standing Cups of gold with covers and a Enterchangeable gifts betwixt the two Kings ship of Gold garnished with pearle and stones at a second meeting Richard gave him a curious Oâ—…ch set with rich stones valued at five hundred Markes then the French King gave him two Flagons of gold and a Tablet of gold set with Diamonds and in it the picture of St. Michael a Tablet of gold with a Crucifixe another with the image of the Trinity and a fourth with the image of Saint George all of them set with stones of great splendor Richard then presented him with a Belt or Bauldricke set with great Diamonds Rubies and Emeraulds which for the riches thereof the King wore upon him so often as they met together many other presents past betwixt them and a full peace was concluded betweene them for thirty yeares Peace concluded betwixt England and France and amongst other things King Richard delivered up Brest which had beene long held by the English The yeare after in the Moneth of February the King held a magnificent Feast at Westminster Hall whither pressed divers Souldiers lately discharged from Brest whose mindes when the Duke of Gloster rhe Kings Vncle understood he went to his Majesty and said Sir doe you take notice of you Souldiers who asked him again what they were The Duke replyed these be your subjects souldiers cashiered from Brest who have done you good service and have now no meanes to live upon who have been ill paid and now are worse rewarded To whom the King answered it was my will they should have been well paid but if ought have failed therein let them petition to our Treasurer at length the Duke said but it savoureth of small discretion to deliver up a strong Fort with ease which was got with great difficulty by your Progenitors The Duke of Glosters bold replye to the King at which the King changed countenance and said Vncle how spake you these words which the Duke with great vehemency uttered againe whereat the King being more moved replyed Thinke you I bee a Merchant or foole to sell my Land by St. Iohn Baptist nay c. For these words thus uttered on both sides great ranâ—…or was kindled betwixt the King and Duke which was never extinguished till by the consent of the K. his uncle was basely murdered For the Duke purposing to remove some who were potent about the king called to him A second purpose for reformation the Earles of VVarwicke of Arundel and of Nottingham who was Marshall of England and of the Clergy the Arch-bishop of Canterbury with the two Abbots of St. Albans and VVestminster and these were solemnly sworne to supplant from their authority the Duke of Lancaster the Duke of Yorke with others prejudiciall to the good of the kingdome But Nottingham contrary to his oath revealed all to the king A persidious act in the Earle of Notingham who presently whilst the other thought themselves secure called another Councell in which it was decreed that the Earles of Arundell and Warwicke shâ—…uld bee censured and brought to the King who in person arrested his Vncle Sir Thomas of VVoodstock some say at Plashy in Essex others at Greenwitch in the night time and taking him in his bed first sent him to the Tower and
thence had him secretly conveyghed to Callis where he was pireously murthered After The murder of the Duke of Gloster the 2 Earles of Arundel Warwick were judged and executed After was called a parliament in which divers of the Nobility had more honourable titles conferred upon them And other upstarts neither of birth nor quality were advanced to office and honour in which parliament also many true heires were dis-inherited c. For which the people greatly murmured against the King and his Councell pretending that the revenues of the Crowne were wasted The rumour of the Commons and the causes thereof upon unworthy persons for which divers exactions were put upon the Commons that the chiefe rulers about the King were of low birth and little reputation and men of honour kept out of office and favour that the Duke of Gloster was secretly murdered without processe of Law and the Earles of Arnndel and Warwicke put to death contrary to the Kings owne proclamation with divers others to the number of eight and thirty severall Articles all which at his deposing were publickly protested against him Harding the Chronologer reports that King Richard was prodigall ambitious and luxurious The estate of the Kings Court. to whose Court resorted at their pleasures ten thousand persons pretending businesse there that in his kitchin were three hundred Serviters and in every office to the like number of Ladies Chamberers and Landresses three hundred who exceeded in costly and sumpâ—…uous apparell and farre above their degrees The very groomes and yeomen were cloathed in silke sattin and damaske scarlet imbroydery The great pride of the court gold chaines and Gold smiths worke were then common such was the pride then in the Court It was also commonly voyc'd that hee had let to farme the revenues of the Crowne to Bushy Baggot and Green which caused the Nobility also with the Commons to grudge against the King and his government And this yeare being the one and twentieth of his reign died Iohn a Gaunt the Duke of Lancaster at The death of Iohn a Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the Bishop of Elyes Palace in Holborne and was buried on the North side of the Quire in Paules where his Tombe remaineth to this day This yeare also fell a great difference betwixt Differences betwixt the two Dukes of Hereford and Norffolke the two Dukes of Hereford who was sonne to Iohn a Gaunt and the Duke of Norfolke the cause was after some Writers that the two Dukes riding from the Parliament the Duke Norfolke said unto the other Sir you see how unstedfast the King is in his word and how shamefully hee putteth his Kinsmen to death exiling some and imprisoning others and no doubt what hath hapned to them may in time fall upon us c. of which words the Duke of Hereford accused him unto the King which the one affirming the other denying a day of battaile was appointed them at Coventry upon the eleventh of September where the King and the greatest part of the Nobility were present where both appearing in the Lists and ready for the Combat the King threw down his warder and staid the fight and forthwith banished The two Dukes banished the Realme the Duke of Hereford for ten yeeres and the Duke of Norfolke for ever upon which sentence Hereford sayled into Britaine and Norfolke after passing divers Countries lastly came to Venice and there ended his life In his two and twentieth yeere the common fame ran that he had farmed the Realm of England to Sir VVilliam Scroop Earle of VViltshire and Treasurer and to Sir Iohn Bushy Sir Iohn Bagot and Sir Henry Green and in the moneth of Aprill the King with a potent Host sayled into Ireland leaving for his Pro-rex in England The Kings iourney into Ireland his Uncle Edmund Langley Duke of Yorke In which Voyage he prospered well and quieted the realme to his pleasure and whether it were for some noble act done or out of his grace and bounty I cannot say hee there Knighted Henry sonne to the Duke of Hereford then in exile which Henry after his Fathers death was crowned King of England by the name of Henry the first Whilst King Richard was thus busied in Ireland the Duke of Hereford late banisht with the Archbishop of Canterbury who had before left the Realme and Thomas sonne to the Earle of Arondell late beheaded these with others being a small company in number landed at Ravenspurre in the North and under pretence of The Duke of Hereford lanâ—…s at Ravenspurre laying claime to the Dukedome of Lancaster due to him by Iohn of Gaunt his Father deceased he raised the people as hee went to whom multitudes assembled being weary with the misgovernment of King Richard who hearing how the estate in England then stood made speedy returne from Ireland and in the beginning of September landed in Milford Haven and sped him thence to Flint-castle in VVales intending thither to gather more strength to oppose The King lands in Wales the Dukes proceedings Who in the interim proclayming himselfe Duke of Lancaster in the right of his Father Iohn a Gaunt came to Bristow where without resistance hee seised upon Sir William Scroope Earle of Wiltshire and Treasurer of England Sir Iohn Bushy and Sir Henry Green with Sir The Earle of Wiltshire with others executed Iohn Bagot who escaped and fled into Ireland but the other he there judged and put to execution which the King being then in Flint Castle hearing he much doubted his safety and so did all these who were then about him therefore Sir Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester and Steward of the Kings Houshold contrary to his Allegiance broke his white Staffe openly in the Haâ—…l willing every onâ—… to shift for himselfe by reason of which the King was forsaken of all his people and soone after surprized and presented The King taken and presented to the Duke to the Duke who put him under safe keeping and himselfe hasted towards London Who comming neere to the City sent the The hate of the Commons to the King King secretly to the Tower of which some ill disposed persons ambusht him in the way and would have slain him because of his former misgovernment but the Citizens enformed of their malicious purpose rescued him from their fury then the Duke comming to London by consent of the King a Parliament was begun the thirteenth of September In which many accusations and Articles concerning his misruling the Realme to the number of eight and thirty the King was charged with and for which the King subscribing willing as it was then given out to his owne deposement hee was deprived from all Kingly Majesty the manner of the proceedings therein were too long to relate which sentence being publisht and openly read in Parliament Henry Duke of Hereford and now of King Richard deposed Lancaster rising from the place where hee before sate and
standing where all might behold him first making the signe of the Crosse upon his forehead and after on his brest silence being commanded he spake as followeth In the name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost I Henry of Lancaster Clayme the Realme of England with the Crowne and all the appurtenances thereto belonging as I am rightly discended from the right Line of the bloud comming from that good Lord K. Henry the third and through the right that God of his grace hath sent me with the help of my kinred and friends to recover the same which was in point to be undone for default of good governance and justice c. Which having spoken hee sate downe in his The Duke of Hereâ—…ord claymes the Crowne place then every one hearing his clayme spake what hee thought and after some distance of time the Archbishop of Canterbury knowing the minds of Lords stood up and asked the Commons if they would assent with the Nobility in their election which they thought to be needfull and for the good of the Kingdome to which with an unanimous voice they said yea yea after which the Archbishop approching the Duke uttered some words to him in private which done hee arose and taking him by the hand led him unto the Kings Seat and placed him therein after made a long Oration to that noble Assembly the effect whereof was to prove the Dukes Title to the Crowne and to justifie the deposing of the King verifying what was before predicted of him Foure Princely Lions were to him allide Gall shall be with his horns in his great pride At length a Fox clad in skin of gold Shall snatch the Kid from midst of all his fold By the foure Lions are figured his foure Princely Uncles sonnes to Edward the third whom he severally injured preferring men raised from nothing to be eminent above them both in honour and office and by the Fox Henry of Balwarke who clothed himselfe with all the golden ornament of Regall Majesty and snatcht him from the midst of all the fold that was from amongst his own subjects and people and after caused him to bee put to a violent and cruell death CHAP. 24. The Coronation of Edward the fourth with his great Feast held in Westminster Hall A great Conspiracy intended against him but prevented the lamentable murder of King Richard the second in Pomfret Castle by Sir Pierce of Exton his valour at his death His Epitaph The great riches found in his treasury A prosecution of sundry passages in the Reigne of King Henry He prepares a journey for the Holy land but is prevented by death HEnry the fourth of that name and sonne to Iohn a Gaunt Duke of Lancaster tooke possession of the whole Dominion of England upon the last day of September in the yeere of Grace one thousand three hundred fourescore and nineteene after which he made new Officers cleane through the Kingdome One and forty Knights of the Bath made and then gave order for his Coronation and the Eve before hee in the Tower made 41 knights of the Bath of which three were his owne sonnes and three Earles and five Lords c. Then the morrow after being Monday the thirteenth of October he was crowned at Westminster King Henries Coronation by the Archbishop of Canterbury after which solemnity ended a great and sumptuous feast was held in the great Hall where the king being sate in the middest of the table the Arch-bishop The manner of his great feast in Westminster Hall of Canterbury with three other Prelates were placed at the right hand of the same table and on the left hand the Arch-bishop of York with foure other of the Clergy Henry the kings eldest sonne stood by his Father on his right hand with a sword poyntlesse and the Earle of Northumberland new made Lord Constable with a poynted sword on his left hand both swords being held upright Before the king stood all dinner time the dukes of Aumerl of Surry and of Exceter with two other Earles and the Earle of Westmerland late made Marshall rov'd about the Hall with many Tip Staves to make roome that the Officers with more ease might serve the Tables Of which the chiefe upon the right side of the hall was begun by the Barons of the Cinque ports and at the Table next the Cupboord upon the left hand sate the Lord Major and the Aldermen of London which Major being Drewe Barendine Goldsmith was presented according to the custome with a cup of gold after the second course came in Sir Thomas Dimocke armed at all poynts and sitting upon a The Kings Champion good Steed road to the higher part of the Hall and before the King caused a Herald to make Proclamation that whosoever would affirme King Henry was not lawfull inheritour to the Crown and Kingdome of England he was there ready to wage battaile against him which Proclamation hee caused to bee made after in three other parts of the Hall in French and English with many more observances at such solemnities exercised and done which feast being ended the morrow after being tuesday the parliament was againe begunne of this King and his reigne it was thus predicted The Foxe being earth'd according to his mind In the Kids den a Magazine shall finde The prophesie of his reigne Yet all that treasure can his life not save But rather bring him to a timelesse grave Meane time shall study many a forrest beast By a new way to kill the King in jest But crafty Rainold shall the plot prevent And turne it all to their owne detriment Wales and the north against him both shall rise But he who still was politicke and wise Shal quell their rage much trouble he 'll indure And after when he thinks himselfe secure Hoping to wash the Kids bloud from his hand Purpose a voyage to the Holy Land But faile Yet in Hierusalem shall dye Deluded by a doubtfull augury In the former parlament were many Challenges of the peers one against the other which came to none effect but onething was there confirmed What was done in the Parliament that whosoever had hand in the good Duke of Glosters death should dye as traitors For which divers found guilty after suffered moreover sundry acts made in the time of Richards reigne were disannulled and made voyd and others held more profitable for the kingdomes good and Common-weales enacted in their stead Then was King Richard removed from the Tower and thence conveighed to Leedes and King Richard removed to Pomphret after to the Castle of Pomphret there was provision made for the King to keep his Christmas at Windsor in which interim the Dukes of Amerle of Surrey and of Exeter with the Earles of Salisbury and of Gloster with others of their affinity Lords Knights and Esquires made great provision for a Maske to be presented before the King upon Twelfth night which grew neere and
our Lady after whose death notwithstanding the incomparable valour of the Lord Talbot whose name was so The death of the D. of Bedford regent terrible in France that with it women frighted their children to still and quiet them the Earle of Arundell and others yet fortune for the most part was averse to the English c. and though there were many Treaties of peace to bee made betwixt the two Kingdoms yet they came to no effect and thus for divers yeeres it continued During which passages divers murmurs and grudgings beganne to breake out betwixt the Duke of Glocester Lord Portectour and Uncle to the King and divers persons neere about the Court amongst which was chiefe the Earle of Suffolke which in the end was the confusion Suffolk seeketh to supplaâ—…t the Duke of Glocester of them both For in the one and twentieth yeere the said Earle of Suffolke who had broke off a Mariage concluded by the English Embassadors betwixt King Henry and the daughter to Earle Arminacke went over into France and made a match betwixt him and the Kings daughter of Hierusalem and Cicily who had the bare titles thereof and was indeed a king Suffolks proceedings without a Country to compasse which mariage he delivered to the said king the Duchie of Anjou and Earldome of Maine which were called the keyes of Normandy to the great prejudice and dishonour of the English Nation For which service done he was created Marquesse of Suffolke and soone after with his wife and others pompously accommodated brought her into England where shee was espoused to the King at a place called Southwick in Hampshire The King marrieth the Lady Margaret whence after she was convayed to London and thence to Westminster and thereupon the 30 of May being Trinity Sunday solemnly crowned With which match it seemes God was not well pleased for after that day fortune began to forsake the King who lost his Friends in England and his revenues in France for soone after Q. Margaret causeth many miseries the whole State was swayed by the Queene and her Counsell to the dishonour of the king the Realmes detriment and her owne disgrace for thereby fell the losse of Normandy the division of the Lords the rebellion of the Commons The king deposed her sonne slaine 〈◊〉 and she banisht the Land for ever all which â—…iseries fell as some have conjectured for the breach of that lawfull contract first made betwixt the king and the daughter to the Earle of Arminacke In his five and twentieth yeere was a Parliament called at Saint Edmondsbury in Suffolke which was no sooner begun and the Lords assembled but Humphrey Duke of Glocester was The Protectour arresteâ—… aâ—…d after murdered in his bed arrested by Viscount Beaumond then high Constable of England the Duke of Buckingham and others and the sixt day after found dead some say murdered in his bed of whose death the Marquesse of Suffolke was most suspected whose body after it was publikely showne was conveighed to Saint Albons and therehonourably interred and soon after five of the principall of his Houshold hang'd and drawne but by the kings mercy not quartered In his eight and twentieth yeere was called The Marquesse of Suffolke arrested another Parliament in which the Marquesse of Suffolke was arrested and sent to the Tower where hee lived a moneth at his pleasure and was after set at large to the discontent of some Lords but all the Commons For he was charged with the delivery of Amiens and Maine and the murder of Duke Humphrey called the good Duke of Glocester upon which ensued a rebellion of the commons of which one Blew-beard Blew-beard cald himselfe Captain but they were soon supprest and the chief of them put to death the Parliament was then adjourn'd to Leicester whither caâ—…e the King and with him the Queens great Favourite the Duke of Suffolke Then the Commons made petition to the king that all such as had hand in the delivery of Anjou and Maine and the death of the Protector might be severely punished of which they accused as guilty the Marquesse of Suffolke the Lord Say The Marquesse of Suffolk banisht for five yeeres the Bishop of Salisbury one Damiall a Gentleman and one Trivillian with others to appease whom Suffolke was exiled for five yeeres and the Lord Say Treasurer of England with the rest were put a part for a while and promist that they should bee imprisoned and Suffolke taking shipping in Norfolke to have sailed into France was met by a ship of Warre called the Nicholas of the Tower and being knowne by the Captain he tooke him into his owne Vessell and brought him backe to the port of Dover where on the side of the Boat he caused his head to be struck off and cast it with the body on the The death of Suffolk sands and so went again to sea In this yeere also being the Iubilee the commons of Kent assembled themselves in great multitudes under a Captaine called Iacke Cade The insuâ—…rection of â—…ck Cade who named himselfe Mortimer and Cousin to the Duke of Yorke against him the King raised a strong Hoast and sent Sir Humphrey Stafford and William his brother with certain forces to subdue them but the Rebels prevailed against them and left the two Noble brothers dead in the field after which victory the Captaine put on him Knights apparell with Briganders set with gilt nayls and Helmet with gilt Spurs To The Captains pride whom was sent the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Buckingham who had conference with him and found him very discreet in his answers but not to bee wonne to lay by his armes and to blinde the eyes of the people the more hee used great justice in his Campe at length he came to Southwarke at which time the commons of Essex lay with an army at Mile-end and when hee approched the draw-bridge he hewed the ropes and chains asunder with his Iack Cade enters London sword and so entred London where hee made proclamâ—…tions in the Kings name that no man on pain of death should rob spoyle or take from any man but to pay for whatsoever hee cald for which drew unto him the hearts of many of the Citizens and when he came to London stone His cunning to delude the people he strook upon it with his sword and said Now is Mortimer Lord of this City after hee caused the Lord Say to bee fetcht from the Tower and without any just processe at the Standard in Cheape commanded his head to be His Iustice. cut off and another called Cromer who had bin high Sheriffe of Kent he also commanded to be beheaded then pitcht their heads upon two poles and as they passed the streets in divers places caused the poles to joyn so that the dead mouthes kissed each other Thus hee had free recourse into the Citie by day and at night returned
lodging at Westminster and soon after was King Henry brought riding in a long gown of Blue Velvet and conveyed through Cheape unto Westminster and thence to King Henry again committed to the tower the Tower where he remayned all his life time after thus we find by the premisses The Beare who th'exil'd Tigresse meets in France Vowes the suppressed Lambe againe to advance And from the Coop where he hath long bin pent To raise him to his former government All which hapned according to the former prediction as also the sequell The Lion the land flying with a small And slender train the ragged Staffe sways all But the Bears fiereenesse shall be soon all aid As one that is halfe conquered halfe betraid That is half conquered by the prowesse of King Edward and betraid by his perfidious brother the D. of Clarence Edward thus having repossest the Kingdome provided against the landing of Queen Margaret and her sonne who notwithstanding with an army of Frenchmen entred the Land as farre as Teuxbury where the King met her and chaced her house and slue The battaile at Teuxbury many of them in which battaile was taken her sonne Edward and brought to the King who demanding some questions and he not answering him to his minde the King strook him over the face with his Gauntlet upon which hee was drag'd into a withdrawing room and there slaine by the Duke of Glocester In the same The murder of P. Edward yeere upon Ascension eve was the corps of Henry the sixt late King brought unreverently from the Tower through the high streets of the City unto Pauls and there left for that night and on the morrow conveyed with bils and staves and King Henry stabd to death in the tower the like weapons unto Chelsey and there without any solemne ceremony enterred who was stabd with a Dagger in the Tower by the hands of the foresaid Richard Duke of Glocester So that the Lambe the Beare did late restore Again coopt up was murdred by a Bore For the Bore was the Cognizance belonging to the said Duke when King Edward had thus subdued his enemies He sent over the miserable and distressed Queene Margaret into her owne Countrey whence shee never returned into this Kingdome after In the seventeenth yeere of the King the Duke of Clarence his second brother The murder of the Duke of Clarence was for some displeasure taken against him committed to the Tower where hee not remayned long but hee was secretly drowned in a But of Malmsey as it was commonly voic'd by the instigation of the Duke of Glocester I let passe the rest of this Kings Reigne in which hapned no great matter of remarke or consequence so that after his many victories for hee was never The death of K. Edward the Fourth conquered in any battaile hee governed the Realme in great tranquillity and quietnesse and expired the eleventh of Aprill in the yeere of the Incarnation of our Lord one thousand foure hundred fourscore and three after he had raigned full two and twenty yeeres and as much as from the fourth of March to the eleventh of Aprill whose corps was conveyed to VVindsor and there with all due and solemne Ceremony interred leaving two sonnes Prince Edward the eldest and Richard Duke of Yorke the younger with three Daughters Elizabeth after Queene Sicily and Katharine Edward the fift of that name and sonne to Edward the Fourth at eleven yeeres of age began his Reigne the eleventh of Aprill in the beginning of the yeer of our Lord God one thousand foure hundred fourescore and then of whom and his Uncle Richard Duke of Glocester the prediction followeth The Prophesie From the Herculean Lion lately sphear'd And in his Orbe to Iove himself indear'd Shall shine two stars without eclipse or cloud But they as to some sacred offering vow'd Shall perish on the Altar ere they grow To that full splendor which the world they owe A bunch-back'd monster who with teeth is born The mockery of art and natures scorn Who from the wombe preposterously is hurld And with feet forward thrust into the world Shall from the lower earth on which he stood Wade every step he mounts here deep in blood He shall to th' height of all his hopes aspire And cloth'd in state his ugly shape admire But when he thinks himself most safe to stand From forreigne parts a native Whelpshal land Who shall the long divided blood unite By joyning of the Red Rose with the white Edward the Fourth yielding his due to nature Hatred betwixt the King and Queenes kindred the long concealed grudge betwixt the King and the Queenes Allies began to vent it self for the Marquesse Dorset brother to the widowed Queene with others of her proximity had then the Guardianship of the young King who being in the Marches of VVales conveyed him towards London to make provision for his Coronation but the Duke of Glocester who intended otherwise attended with a company of Northern Gentlemen all in mourning met with the King at Stony-stratford and after a dissembled greeting betwixt him and the Marquesse dischardged him of his Office and Marquesse Dorset discharged of his Guardianship tooke upon himselfe the government of the king and thence accompanied with the Duke of Buckingham who was in great favour with the people brought him with all honour toward London whereof hearing Queene Elizabeth mother to the King and fearing the sequel she with her younger sonne the Duke of Yorke and her daughter Elisabeth tooke Sanctuary at VVestminster meane time the king was royally met by the Citizens of London and through The Queene taketh Sanctuary the City brought to the Bishop of Londons palace and there lodged Then the Duke of Glocester so wrought with Bouchier Archbishop of Canterbury that hee went with him to the Queene who upon the Archbishops faith and promise of his safety delivered The young Duke of York delivered to the Archbishop and Duke of Glocester to them the D. of Yorke then the Duke caused the king and his brother to be removed to the Tower and the Duke lodged himselfe in Crosby House in Bishopsgate street and great preparation was made for the yong kings Coronation in which time the Duke of Glocester being made Protector caused Sir Anthony VVoodvile Lord Scales the Queenes brother the Lord Richard the Queenes son Sir Richard Hawt and Sir Thomas to be beheaded at Pomfret more out of his owne tyranny then any The protectors tyranny trespasse by them committed next to further his aspiring purpose Hee covertly sounded the hearts of the Nobility how they stood affected and to that end cold many counsailes and amongst others he found the Lord Hastings then Lord Chamberlaine constant to the supporture of king Edward the Fourths Issue Upon the thirteenth of Iune being in the Counsel Chamber at the Tower with the Duke of Buckingham the Earle of Derby the Lord A
counsell held at the Tower Hastings and others Hee caused an out-cry of Treason to be made in the next roome at which the Lords were amerc'd and he himselfe went to the doore and received such persons in as he had before appointed who laid hand upon the Lord Hastings in which stirring the Earle of The death of the Lord Hastings Derby was hurt in the face and for a while committed to safe custody but the Lord Chamberlaine in all haste was led to the Hill within the Tower and without judgement or long confession his head laid upon a log and cut off by the Executioner after which cruelty thus done all such as he suspected would oppose him in his claime to the Crowne hee put in hold whereof the Archbishop of Yorke and the Bishop of Ely were two but the Earle of Derby for feare his sonne Lord Strange should have raised the Cheshire and Lancashire men hee set at liberty to goe where he pleased Upon the sunday following himselfe and the Duke of Buckingham being present with others of the Nobility Doctor Ralph Shaa in the time of his Sermon laboured to prove the children The effect of D. Shaaâ—… Sermon at Pauls â—…osse of Edward the Fourth illegitimate and not right beires to the Crowne preferring the title of the Protector at whom was flung a dagger which stucke in the post close by his face but none knew or at the least would acknowledge from whence it came which Doctor who before had a great opinion of learning having by this Sermon lost all his reputation dyed as some say distracted not many days after Upon the Tuesday following the Commons of the City were assembled at Guild-hall whither The Duke of Buckinghams oration in the Guild hall was sent by the Protectour the Duke of Buckingham with other Lords by whom was rehearsed to the Major the rest what title the Lord Protectour had to the Crowne before his Nephews which in an excellent Oration was delivered by the Duke of Buckingham whom they applauded for the manner but no way approved the matter of his speech for it took no effect amongst them all departing silent and keeping their thoughts to themselves then the Tuesday succeeding being the twentieth day of Iune the Protector of himselfe took upon him as King and Governour of the Realme and rode The Protectour takes upon him to be King in great state to Westminster and in the great Hall placing himselfe in the seat Royall with the Duke of Norfolke who was before Lord Howard on the right hand and the Duke of Suffolke on the left after the royall Oath taken hee called before him the Iudges and giving them a long exhortation for the executing of his Lawes administring justice with other Ceremonies being done hee was conveyed to the kings palace and there lodged and upon friday The protector proclaimed King by the name of Richard the third being the two and twentieth of Iune throughout the City of London hee was proclaimed king of England by the name of Richard the Third Yet thought he himselfe in no security whilst his two Nephewes in the Tower were living concerning whose death as some have reported hee tasted the Duke of Buckingham but finding him averse to his purpose as in his noble Buckingham not accessary to the Princes deaths spirit abhorring an act so unnaturall and execrable he after sought all advantages how to insidiate his life though hee had been the onely means to raise him to that height of Sovereignty and knowing that it was in vaine to worke any noble or generous mindes to such a bloudy and inhumane purpose hee at length had observed a melancholy and discontented Gentleman called Iames Tirrell to whom some have given the title of a knight and him hee moulded to his owne ends who having the keyes of the Princes lodgings delivered unto him hee hired two bloudy Ruffians who when they were fast asleepe fell upon them and smothered them in their beds But in what place their bodies were buried it is uncertain and thus The murder of the two princes in the tower From the Herculean Lion lately sphear'd And in his Orbe to Iove himself indear'd Two luminous stars without eclipse or cloud As had they been unto some offering vow'd Are perisht on the Altar ere they grow To that full splendor which the world they owe. By the Herculean or Cleomaean Lion is figured the victorious and invincible King Edward the Fourth lately spheared that is by death lately translated above the Spheares to the Celestiall Orbe Heaven and by two shining stars Edward the sift and Richard Duke of Yorke c. the rest needeth no comment CHAP. 30. Dissention betwixt the King and the Duke of Buckingham Richard insidiateth the life of Richmond Buckingham takes armes against the King and is beheaded Banister perfidious to his Lord Queen Annes policy and tyranny His Laws Richmond landeth at Milford Haven The battaile at Bosworth The death of Richard Richmond made King A prophesie of his Reigne c. RIchard the Third of that name son to Richard Duke of Yorke and youngest brother to Edward the Fourth late King began his Dominion over the Realme of England the twentieth day of Iune in the yeere of the Incarnation of our Lord one thousand foure hundred fourescore and three with whose Reigne I proceed Some say the Noble Duke of Buckingham Difference betwixt the King and the Duke of Buckingham came to demand of him the Earle of Herefords Land promised him before he was King which hee not onely denied him but gave him rough and harsh language which the Duke in regard of his former courtesies done unto him and not only knowing his ingratitude but with all his malicious spleene against any that should in the least oppose him in his bloudy and most cruell designes he therefore retyred himselfe from Court and after some discourse held with Bishop Morton who was the Kings prisoner and in his custody he was brought to have intelligence from the Queen and the Countesse of Derby by whose instigation hee after laboured to bring in Henry Richmond then a banisht man in the Court of the Duke of Britaine but from Buckinghams plots against the King the house of Lancaster the next heire to the Crown Whilst these things were in secret agitation the King laboured by all meanes possible of friends gifts promises and the like to take away the life of the Earle whose projects and Richard labors to supplant Richmon pursuits too long here to rehearse he miraculously escaped only comforted by some Noble Englishmen some compulsively banisht others voluntarily exiling themselves all partners in one and the same calamity in which interim the Duke of Buckinghams intent of innovation some think by his perfidious servant Banister was discovered to the King therefore for his Buckingham taketh arms owne security he was forced to take armes but many of his friends failing
and the indisposition of the weather warring against him for by reason of the Land slouds hee could not joyne his forces together hee therefore was compeld to dissolve his Army and suffer every man to shift for his best safety himselfe retyring to the house of his Secretary and servant Banister who in hope of a thousand pounds reward to him that could bring forth the Duke promist only but never paid betrayde him to the King who caused him to bee had to Salisbury and on a scaffold in the Market place to have his head The death of the Duke of Buckingham cut off and such was the tragicall end of that honourable person Of this Banister and how his falsnesse to his Banisters persidiousnesse punished Lord was punisht in him and his posterity much hath been spoken as that his wife died distracted his sonne was found strangled with a cord his daughter found drowned in a shallow puddle of water and hee suffered on the gallows for a robbery and that since that day even to this age none of that House and Family but have some orother of the name beene troubled with the falling sicknesse a good caveat for all corrupt and perfidious servants King Richard though hee had removed all or most of his potent enemies Buckingham the Queenes Kindred and others yet knowing hee was hated for his many murders especially for the two Princes in the Tower and that hee was moreover suspected for causing Queen Anne his wife to bee poysoned who dyed suddenly in hope to have married the Lady Elizabeth daughter to the Queen Dowager who after the death of her two brothers was immediate heire Q. Anne poysoned to the Crowne hee to stop the mouthes of the multitude and as farre as might be to insinuate himselfe into the hearts of the Commons made many good and profitable Lawes to the benefit â—…ing Richards policy of the Common-wealth which are yet called the wholsome Laws of the Kingdome but this he did not that hee so much loved their good but that he so well affected his owne safety and because he was loth to leave the World without some worthy character behind him hee strived to bee reputed the best of Kings though hee knew himselfe to be the worst of men Amongst other pieces of his justice it was laid to the charge of one William Collingborne a Gentleman that hee was authour of a libell the effect whereof was this The Cat the Rat and Lovell the Dog Collingborns Libell Rule all England under an Hog By the Cat meaning Catesby by the Rat Ratcliffe and by Lovell the Dog the Lord Lovell all which were Court Favourites and ruled the Land under the King who bore the white Bore for his Cognisance for which Rime and other matters pretended against him he was arraigned convicted and condemned and after suffered on a new paire of Gallows on the Tower-hill where he was no sooner cast off the ladder but cut down and his bowels ript out of his belly The tyrannous death of M. Collingborne and thrown into the fire and lived till the bloudy Hangman thrust his hand into the bulk of his body to grope for his heart and even then hee was heard to say aloud O Lord Iesus yet more trouble and so died to the great compassion of much people During which passages Henry Earle of Richmond the Lord Marquesse Dorset brother to Henry Earle of Richmond the Queene and Sir Iames Blont then Keeper of the Castle of Guines who brought with him Iohn the brave and valiant Earle of Oxford who had been kept prisoner in that Castle ever since the field fought at Barnet These with other of their noble friends with a small company of English French and Britains landed in Milford His landing in Milford Haven Haven in the month of August which Earle no sooner sat his feet on shore but he incontinently kneeling upon the earth with a sober and devout countenance began the Psalme Indica me Domine discerne causam meam c which when hee had finished and kissed the ground he rose up and commanded such as were about him boldly and in the name of God to set forward of whose landing the King hearing he set it light making no haste to oppose them as despising them in regard of their small number But when the arrivall and returne of this Prince was rumoured abroad through the land many drew unto him aswell Sanctuary men as others so that his Army greatly increased which the King hearing hee then gathered a strong Hoast and so sped him that upon the two and twentieth day of the same moneth August and The Kings Hoast the beginning of the third yeere of his Reigne He met with Prince Henry neere unto a Village called Bosworth besides Leicester where betwixt them was fought a sharpe and cruell battaile for The battaile at Bosworth the time which more bloudy had beene if the Kings party had beene fast and constant to him for some left him and fled to his enemy and others stood hovering as Neuters to see unto whom the victory would fal of which the Lord Stanley Father in law to the Earle of Richmond with a strong band of Cheshire and Lancashire-men was chief Some were of opinion that the King lost the battaile by his owne foole-hardinesse and The Kings rashnesse in the field head-strong spleene for when the fight was begunne and he mounted on a white Steed was in the center of his Army to give directions for the field upon any occasion upon the suddaine hee cal'd to know what part of the adverse ground Richmond then maintained who being poynted to the place suddenly without any directions left or any substitute to command in his place sprung out of his hoast and made thither and calling aloud for Richmond was knowne by his Guard who seeking to presse through them wounding some and killing others was himselfe with his horse broached upon their Halberds The newes of the Kings death being blowne abroad his army stood The death of King Richard at a stand onely defending themselves but not offending any insomuch that the glory of the day fell to the Earle of Richmond and his partisans upon the Kings party were slaine Iohn Duke of Norfolke before his late creation Lord Howard with Brakenbury Lievtenant of the Tower but no other of name or quality where was taken the Earle of Surrey sonne to the Duke of Norfolke who was sent to the Tower The Earle of Surrey taken and there remained prisoner a long time after Then was the body of King Richard despoyled of his Armes and stript naked and then disgracefully cast behind a man riding upon a leane Iade the body being almost wholly covered with mire and dirt and so unreverently carryed to the Friers at Leicester where after a season he had laine openly that all men might behold him with little reverence and lesse mourning he was cast
Perkin proclaims himselfe K. of England under which title they marched as farre as Exeter and laid siege to the City making against it many violent assaults to rescue which and to remove the siege the King came with a strong Army at whose approach the multitude submitted themselves for their Captaine Perkin had forsooke them and tooke Sanctuary at Bewdley and of the Kings free grace were pardoned King Henry loath to violate the priviledge of Sanctuary would not take him thence perforce but upon promise of life he yeelded Perkin taken by the K. himselfe to the king who after he had confessed unto him all the manner of his jugling and from whence it came he brought him up with him towards London where by the way hee was made a scorne and mockery of the people upon the eight and twentieth of November he was committed to the Tower and after set at large and was at free liberty in the Court From Again sent to the Tower whence he made a second escape and being againe taken his life was againe pardoned and he sent to the Tower But for that delicate Lady Katherine Gordon the wife of this counterfeit his Majesty much The Kings bounty to the Lady commiserating that the noblenesse of her blood should be so much abused heega◅e unto her the meanes of a Marchionesse a yearely revenue answerable to so noble a birth and rare a beauty Whilest the Dutchesse of Burgundies creature was thus in the Tower hee plotted with the young Earle of Warwicke who had beene there a prisoner from his infancy who had so farre prevailed with the Lievtenants servants that upon promise of reward they had plotted by killing of their Master to make themselves keepers of the keyes and set the two prisoners at liberty which plot being discovered before it came to proofe upon the sixteenth of November in White-hall at West minster for the former predictory practice were arraigned Perkin Warbeck and three others and being convicted of capitall Treason Perkin and one Iohn Awater were soone after hanged at Tyburne and Perkin hanged at Tyburne soone after the young Earle of Warwick sonne to the Duke of Clarence was beheaded at Tower Hill and the same day one Blewet and another The young Earle of Warwick beheaded on Tower-hil Astwood executed at Tyburne Thus you see how the Dutchesse of Burgundies plots were confounded in the death of this Perkin Concerning whom it was thus long before predicted That Mercury should though it might seeme rare Consult with Cassiopeia in her Chaire To fashion new impostures c. And then the former discoursed of never were any that carryed such countenance to the deluding of so many forraigne Princes the Prophet in Cassiopeia with whom Mercury consulted meaning the factious Dutchesse who by all her endevours studied to disturbe the peace of that prudent prince King Henry who was able to over-match her in policy and therefore Merlin fore seeing her future jugling by impostures and adulteration yet seeming Heires to the Crowne as also his sundry Troubles in the North raised by Scots and qualified againe by the valour of the noble Earle of Surrey the Kings Lievtenant and others the sequell is verified But warres god By sword nor Hermes by his charming rod Shall ought prevail where power and prudence And when Religion shall devotion greet meet Where all these foure at once predominant are Vain are th' attempts of stratagem or warre But he who of the former is possest Shall be abroad renowm'd and at home blest This Cassiopeia was the daughter of Aeolus the Cassiopeia and where the allusion grew wife of Cepheus and mother of Andromeda who in her pride of beauty comparing with the Nereides was after translated amongst the Stars in whom the prophet allegorically compreheuds the Burgundian Dutchesse I am loth to enter into a further discourse of the passages in this Kings Reigne being excellently and judicially exprest by Sir Francis Bacon Lord Chancellor in prose and in an accurate and ingenious poeme by Master Charles Allein Briefly this worthy and wise Prince expired the Saturday before Saint Georges day being the one and twentieth of Aprill at his Mannour of Richmond The death of Henry the seventh when hee had raigned three and twenty yeeres and eight moneths wanting but one day in whose prayse no pen can bee too prodigall who studied rather to end his warres by policy then the profuse effusion of Christian bloud In so much that all his Neighbour Princes laboured to have with him peace and alliance and because in all Temporall policies he farre exceeded all the Christian Princes in his time reigning Three sundry Popes Alexander the sixt Pius the Third and Iulius the second every of them during the time they held their Ecclesiasticall Soveraignty by the unanimous consent of their spirituall Counsels admitted him for a chiefe K. Henry much favoured by the Bishops of Rome Defender of the Church above all others and for a confirmation of the same sent unto him by three severall famous Embassadours three rich Swords and three Caps of Maintenance who notwithstanding his many costly buildings and infinite expences as well in forreigne parts as to pacifie the domestick Tumults and Seditions in his owne Kingdome left behind him a mighty His great riches at his death magazin of Treasure with riches innum◅rable complying with the prophesie Fame afar off his glorious acts shall tell And Plutus neere hand make his coffers swell Him succeeded his sole son after the decease of Prince Arthur Henry the Eighth of that name the true and rightfull inheritour to the two Crownes of England and France Who began his Soveraignty of this Realme the two and twentieth day of Aprill in the yeere of the Incarnation of our blessed Lord and Saviour one thousand five hundred and nine and was crowned at Westminster on the day of the Feast of Saint Iohn Baptist or Decollations This Royall Prince was joyfully received as the successour The Coronation of K. Henry the eighth to so worthy a Prince as his Father who was both famous and fortunate from the beginning to the end of his Reigne of whom it was thus predicted Rouze him shall this fierce Lion in his den The prophesic of Henry the Eighth Be favoured of the gods and fear'd of men Gallia shall quake Albania stand in aw And Caesars stoop when he but shews his paw To league with him Hesperia shall take pride Those whom the Africke Moores halfe blacke had dyde He by his art shall fashion Musicall grounds From th' untun'd Harp that discords only soūds And further from the sceptarchy of Hils That Europe aws and triple-crown that fils The Christian world with terror take the power And bring it home unto his British bower Blunting the horns of all the Bashan Buls And rooting from the Land the razord skuls O're Glastenbury for the eye that 's dim May at that day behold a Whiting swim
But none without their faults since Adams fal He shall have many vertues but not all Who never spares for who can fraeilty trust Man in his rage or woman in his lust CHAP. 32. Prince Henry married to his brothers wife Hee winneth Turwin and Turney in France Floden-Field with the famous victory against the Scots Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke marrieth the French Queene the Kings sister The Emperour Charles the fift made Knight of the Garter Peace with France Both Kings defie the Emperour The death of Cardinall Wolsey Henry divorced from his first wife Marrieth the Lady Anne Bulloigne Her death He marrieth the Lady Iane Seimour He revolteth from Rome The Earle of Hartfords victories in Scotland Bulloigne besieged and wonne HEnry the Seventh who was loth to part with the Dower of the Spanish princesse wrought so by a Dispensation from the pope that his sonne prince Henry was married to the late Widdow of his own brother prince Arthur deceased who comming to the Crown some say by the counsell of his Father on his death-bed put to death Empson and Dudley who had gathered a great masse of money into the Kings treasury by exacting and extorting from the Commons of whom they were extreamly hated for which piece of justice he wonne the hearts of the people and soone after was borne at Richmond upon New yeares The birth and death of prince Henry day prince Henry the Kings sonne who died upon S. Matthews day the yeere following and soon after was the Lord Dacres sent into Spaine to aide the King against the Moores and Sir Edward Poynings into Gelderland to aide the prince of Castile And in his fourth yeere the King in person invaded France and tooke Turwin and Turney having discomfited the French King Henry aydeth Spaine invadeth France Floden Field in which the K. of Scots was slain Hoast at a place called Blewmy during which time the Scotch King raised against England an hundred thousand men whom the Earle of Surry the Kings Lievtenant encountred at a place called Flodden in which battaile the King himselfe was slaine with eight Bishops and eleven Earles besides of the common souldiers innumerable for which service by him done King Henry created him Duke of Norfolke and his sonne Earle of Surrey In his sixt yeere a peace was concluded betwixt England and France and in the seventh Peace betwixt England and France yeere the French King espoused the Lady Mary the Kings sister in the moneth of Iune and died upon New yeares day next ensuing wherefore The birth of the Lady Mary Charles Brandon married to the French Queen Mary the kings sister the King sent for her againe by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke In February was borne the Lady Mary the Kings Daughter at Greenwich and in Aprill the French Queene came over into England and was married to the foresaid Duke of Suffolke in which yeere also Margaret Queene of Scots the Kings sister fled into England and lay at a place called Hare-bottle where she was delivered of a daughter called Margaret and came to London in May and tarried here a whole yeer and upon the eighth of May following returned again into her Country In October the tenth yeer of the King the Admirall An enteâ—… view betwixt the Kings of England and France of France came into England and Tournay was delivered againe to the French King whom after Henry met between Arde and Guiens where were great Triumphs after there was a solemne meeting betwixt the Emperour and Charles the fift and the King of England who went with him to Graveling and after hee went to Calice with the King where hee was royally entertained and feasted who in the thirteenth of the King the sixt of Iune was honourably received Charles the fift Emperor made Knight of the Garter into the City of London by the Lord Major the Aldermen and the Communalty who from London went to meet the King at Windsore where he was made Knight of the Garter which was done with great solemnity and then from Southampton hee sailed into Spain soone after Christian King of Denmarke came into England and had Royall entertainment from the King During these passages the Earle of Surrey Lord Admirall who before had appeased the tumults and manifold combustions stirred up in Britain Picardy France invaded by the English Ireland burnt divers Townes in Britaine and Picardy and the Duke of Suffolke invaded France with 10000 men and passing the River of Some spoyled many Towns and Villages and returned without opposition and the Duke of Albany in Scotland who before had made a vain e attempr against England besieged the Castle of Wark but hearing of the Earle of Surreys marching towards him he fled into his Countrey In the eighteenth yeere of the King Cardinall Cardinall Wolsey Embassadour into France Wolsey went over into France pompously attended where he concluded a league betwixt the King of England and the French King who both defied the Emperour and sent an Army into Italy to make war against him and upon the nineteenth of October the great Master of England and France defied the Emperour France came over to England to ratifie the League made betwixt the two Kings all which verifie that part of the prediction Rouze him shall this fierce Lion in his den Be favoured of the gods and fear'd of men Gallia shall quake Albania stand in awe And Caesars stoop when he but shews his paw To league with him Hesperia shall take pride Those whom the Africke Moores halfe blacke have dyde By Albania is meant Seotland so called from Albanactus the second sonne of Brute the first King thereof and by Hesperia Spaine who after the African Moores had long possessed the greatest part of the Land by enterchangable merceage betwixt them and the Natives the Spaniards are black and tawny even to this day In the one and twentieth yeare the King having cast his eye upon a new Mistris pretending A divorce sought by the King betwixt him and Queen Katherine a matter of conscience hee began to consider with himselfe that hee had long incestucusly lived with his brothers wife for which cause the Legats of Rome met with the King at Black Fryers about the lawfulnesse or unlawfulnesse of that marriage Amongst the rest Cardinall Wolsey standing stiffe against a Divorce in October following was discharged of his Chancellourship and presently after was a peace concluded betwixt the Emperour and the King and in the yeere after the great Cardinall who had been arrested of high Treason and by that meanes forfeited his infinite estate to the The death of Card. Wolsey King died on Saint Andrews in a poore Fryery not without suspition of poyson After by a legall course and due processe of Law the king was divorced from the Lady Katherine his brothers wife and soone after married to the Lady Anne Bulloigne who upon The King married
to the Lady Anne Bolloigne Whitsunday was crowned Queene and on Midsommer day following dyed the French Queene Mary the kings sister and wife to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke And on the Eve of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin following was born the Lady Elizabeth at Greenwich in which The birth of the Lady Elizabe◅h yeere as an happy presage of her future love unto the Gospell it was enacted that no man should sue any appeale to Rome In Ianuary the seven and twentieth of the King died the Lady Katherine princesse Dowager The death of Q. Katherine late wife to the King and in the 28 of his Reigne Queene Anne Bolloigne with her brother the Lord Rochford Noris Weston Breerton and Marks were attainted of high Treason and The King married to the Lady Iane Seymour beheaded and soone after the King married the Lady Iane Seymour in the yeere one thousand five hundred thirty seven on Saint Edwards eve in Iune Prince Edward was borne at Hampton The birth of Pr. Edward Court and the three and twentieth of October following died Queene Iane and lyeth buried at Windsore then was the Bishop of Rome with all his usurped power quite abolished out of the Realme and the King assumed to himselfe the supremacy over the Church in England and Ireland to whom were granted the first-fruits before The death of Sir Thomas Moore c. paid to the pope with the Tenths of all spirituall possessions For denying of whose Supremacy that famous and learned Gentleman Sir Thomas Moore Lord Chancellour of England with the Bishop of Rochester were beheaded and presently after three Monks of the Charterhouse for the some offence Then followed the dissolution of all the Abbeys Fryeries and Nunneries through the whole Realme when the Masse and all Romish Superstitions were forbidden and divers Images that had Engines to make their eyes open and shut and their other limbes to move and stirre were broken to pieces and defaced and all Fryers Monks Canons and Nuns were forced to change their Habits and forsake their Cloysters A proclamation also was made which hath beene since establisht as a Law that the English Bible should bee read in every Church The English Bible commanded to bee read in Churches throughout the Realme and that no Holydayes should be solemnized and observed except our Ladydayes the Apostles the Evangelists Saint George and Saint Mary Magdalen and that Saint Marks Eve and Saint Lawrence Eve should not be kept as fasting days And that children should not goe decked and garnished as they doe on Feasting dayes upon Saint Nicholas Saint Katherine Saint Clements and the holy Innocents and the like all which comply with the prophesie He from the sceptarchy of Hils That Europe aws and triple-crown that fils The Christiā world with terror takes the power And brings it home unto his British bower Blunting the horns of all the Bashan Buls And rooting from the Land the razord skuls By the Sceptarchy of Hils meaning the seven Hils on which the City Rome standeth and further The prophefie explained taking on himselfe to be the supreme Head of the Church within his own Dominions he takes away that power from the Popes Triple-crowne to which all the Christian Kingdomes else were in vassallage By blunting the hornes of the Bashan Buls meaning the Popes Writs of Excommunications Interdictions Anathemaes or Cursings which are called his Buls the terrour whereof hee now vilifies and sets at nought by rooting the rozard sculs from the Land is meant the suppression of Fryers Divers who suffered for denying the Kings Supremacie and Monks who had the upper part of their heads alwayes shaven c. Many were those who suffered for denying the Supremacie as Fryer Forrest who was hanged and burnt in Smith-field with the Image of Darvell Gathren in Wales and for the same offence suffered the Abbots of Reading of Colchester and the great rich Abbot of Glastenbury whose name was Whiting whom the King commanded to be hanged upon the top of the Tower an eminent place and visibly afarre for which way soever a man travels towards that Towne it may be seene twenty miles distant now it seem'd a thing impossible that the Sea with his greatest inundation should swell so high that any Fish should float over or upon it yet so saith the prophesie and all such are mystically delivered parabolically or in allegoricall figures O're Glastenbury for the eye that 's dim May at that day behold a Whiting swim The place being so conspicuous and apparant that one with halfe an eye might see his body waving betwixt the two Elements of Earth and Aire After diverse rebellions in Ireland for which Rebellions in Ireland the Earle of Kildare was committed and died a naturall death during his imprisonment in the Tower and that his sonne made a new insurrection and slew the Bishop of Develin and that for another Rebellion Thomas Fitzgarret with five of his Vncles were drawne hanged and quartered and that the Lord Leonard Gray was beheaded on the Tower-hill for divers Treasons done in Ireland during the time hee was there Deputy for the King yet the King so wisely and discreetly demeaned himselfe towards that Nation that in the thirtieth third yeare of his reigne the Earle of Desmond and the great Oneile submitted themselves to his mercy and grace after which the great Oneile The great Oneile made Earle of Tyron was created Earle of Tyron and his son Baron of Doncannon Thus you see He by his Art could fashion Musicall grounds From th' untun'd harp that discords only sounds By the Harpe which is the Armes of the kingdome meaning Ireland it selfe c. For Treason also were beheaded at the Tower-Hill Thomas Cromwell Earle of Essex and Vicar generall The death of Cromwel Earle of Essex of England who had beene once a faithfull servant to Cardinall Woolsey and after entertained and raised by the King who as it is commonly voyc't put it first into the kings head to pull downe the Abbyes and make a dissolution of the Monasteries and with him dyed the Lord Hungerford In the thirty fift yeare of the king the Earle of Hartford being made Livetenant Generall for his warres in Scotland in regard of divers affronts given him the fourth of May he landed at Leith burning and destroying the Countrey sparing neither Castle Towne Pile nor The Earle of Hartfords voy age into Scotland village for hee ransacked and laid waste the Borrough and towne of Edenborrow with the Abbey called Holy rood house and the Kings Palace neare adjoyning the Towne of Leith also with the Haven and Pire the Castle and Village of Cragmiller the Abbey of New Bottell with part of Muskelborrough Towne the Chappell of the Lady of Lauret Preston Town the Castle of Harinton Towne with the Friers and Nunnery a Castle of Oliver Sanckers the Towne of Dundbarre Laureston with the Grange Vrilaw
parish Church throughout England that no Coarse should be buryed before sixe a Clocke in the morning nor after sixe at night and that when any dyed the Bell should ring three quarter of an houre at least In this Interim the two great Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolke Dudly and Gray privately murmuring and openly maligning that The two Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk the Kings two Uncles should beare such great authority in the Kingdome by which their glories seemed not onely eclipsed but quite darkned the elder brother commanding the Land the younger the Sea the one Lord Protector the other Lord High Admirall so that the whole Dominion and Soveraignty of the kingdome the kings name excepted was divided betwixt them And further considering that it was in vaine for them to attaine to their owne ambitious ends but by sundring this fraternall tye and unloosing this Gordian knot Their plots gainst the Protector and Admirall of Consanguinity which had beene so long inseparably continued betwixt them they therefore projected betwixt themselves how this almost impossible thing might be brought to passe and doubting the event if they should attempt to worke by their servants as to corrupt them with Bribes or the like they therefore tooke a nearer and more safe course to practise it by their Wives and to draw their balas from out of their owne bosomes and The Wives made themcans to betray the Husbands most successively to their purpose thus it happened Sir Thomas Seimer Lord High Admirall having married the Queene Dowager whose good Fortune it was of all the rest of the kings wives to survive her Husband contested with her sister in law for precedence and priority of place to which the Protectors wife standing upon her prerogative could by no meanes bee wonne to give way This emulation betwixt the two sisters fitly sorting to the Dukes purposes for the one challenged the right hand as once being Queene and the other claimed it as wise to the present Protector To this new kindled fire the two Dukes bring fuell Dudly incourageth the one secretly Gray the other privately so that the Wives set the Husbands at oddes by taking their parts so that by the instigation of those emulous and incensed Ladies a mortall hatred grew betwixt the two brothers insomuch that in the third year of the King the Admirall was questioned for the ill managing his Office and sundry Articles preferred in Court against him so that he was condemn'd in Parliament and his head The death of the Lord high Admirall strooke off the Protector his brother signing the Warrant for his death The one being thus removed there was the lesse difficulty to supplant the other for in the same Month of February in which the Admirall lost his head was the Protector committed to the Tower by the Lords of the Counsaile of which the two Dukes were chief and many Articles of Treason and ill government of the state commenced against him but about a yeare after his confinement by his submission to the Lords and intercession made for him by the K. upon the sixt of February hee was released injoy'd his former offices honors but all this was but a lightning before death for his two great potent adversaries stil prosecute their malice against him insomuch that not long after calling him to a second account when he had nobly acquit himself at the Barre of all treason objected against him he was in the Guild Hall of London not by a Iury of his peeres by The Lord Protector put to death for felony twelve men convicted and condemned of Felony for which on a Scaffold on Tower-Hill hee suffered death verifying what was before spoken of the young King Vpright he shall betweene two Bases stand One in the sea fixt th' other on the land These shall his pupillage strongly maintaine Secure the continent and scoure the maine But these supporters will be tane away By a Northumbers Wolfe and Suffolks Gray It is so manifest it needs no Comment This Edward Seimour was the sonne of Sir A Character of the L. Protector Edward Seimour knighted by Henry the eight who had married the Lady Iane his naturall sister He after created him Viscount Beauchamp in the yeare one thousand five hundred thirty sixe and the yeare following Earle of Hereford after that he was installed Knight of the Garter His honours and offices made Lord great Chamberlain of England one of the honourable privy Counsail much favoured of the eighth Henry who in his last Testament instituted him one of the chiefe of his sixteene Executors after this King Edward created him Baron de sancto Mauro then Duke of Somerset He was next by a generall voyce of parliament made Protector over the Kings person and of all his Kingdomes and Dominions Governour and Lord Generall of all the Kings forces by Land and Sea He was moreover Lord high Treasurer and Earle Martiall of England Captaine of the two Islands of Gernsie and Iersie and Chancellour of the University of Cambridge In all which Offices and Dignities he demeaned himselfe The Duke of Somerset catalogu'd amongst the English Martyrs with such Honourable bounty and singular piety that some have not doubted to Catalogue him amongst our English Martyrs But to returne to the History by this protectors meanes who was a constant Protestant Images were puld downe through all Churches of England Marriage of priests made lawfull The suppressing of the Romish Religion by parliament and Doctor Bonner with other Romish Prelates deposed from their Bishopricks and other of the Reformed Church supplyed their places making good what was before calculated of the young King By birth a Caesar and in hopes as great Shall next ascend unto th' Imperiall seat Who ' ere mature cropt in his tender bloome Shal more against then Caesar could for Rome He th' Aristocracy Monarchall makes This from the triple Crowne the Scepter takes This needs some explication Hee is called young Caesar as being produced into the world The prophesie explained by the cutting or ripping up of his mothers wombe from which the great Roman Iulius borne after the same manner had added to him the name of Caesar which Title hee left as Hereditary to all the succeeding Emperours after him who as hee reduced the Aristocracie which was the government of the Senate and Optimates into one entire monarchall Diadem placing the Empire in Rome so of the contrary this young King from the great Pontifex of Rome who in time wearing a Triple Diademe and thereby challenging power in Heaven potently upon earth regency and predominance over Hell and moreover making earthly Kings and Emperours to acknowledge unto him a preheminence and supremacie making them to kisse his feet with other servil officeâ—… â—…e by opposing this Soveraignty and shrinking his head out of so extreame a servitude may bee truly said to have done more against Rome in
and stratagems abroad French machins and the Italianated god The Spanish Engins Porteguized Iew. The Iesuitick mines and politick crew Of home-bred Traytors let their menaces come By private pistoll or by hostile Drum c. Yet notwithstanding over these and many others strengthened and protected by the hand of the Almighty shee was miraculously victorious whose fame can never faile or Her memory perish and therefore I draw my present conclusion from the premisses Though all these Dogs chace her with open cry Live shall she fear'd and lov'd then Sainted die Many other prophesies have beene disperst abroad under the name of Merlin of which I will give you the tast of one onely and that 's this When Hemp is ripe and ready to pull A prophesie conferd on Merlin Then Englishman beware thy scull In this word Hemp be five Letters H. E. M. P. E. now by reckoning the successive Princes from Henry the Eighth this Prophesie is easilie explaned H. signifieth Henry before named E. Edward his sonne the sixth of that name M. Mary who succeeded him P Philip of Spain who by marrying Queene Mary during the time of her life participated with her in the English Diadem lastly by E. Qu. Elizabeth after whose death there was great feare that some troubles might have rose about the Crowne or that King Iames her successour of like blessed memory might have come in after an hostile manner and so to have made that good Then Englishman beware thy scull Yet proved this augury true though not according to the former expectation or imagination for after his happy and peaceable proclamation and Inauguration there was great mortality not in London only but through the whole Kingdome from which the Nation was not quite clean in seven yeeres after CHAP. 38. The title of K. Iames to the Crown His comming into England A prophesie of his Reigne The first treason attempted against him The gun-powder treason and what the conspirators were The K. of Denmark twice commeth into England An Epitaph upon Prince Henry One of the Duke of Richmond and Lenox Another of Q. Anne An Epitaph upon K. Iames K. Charles proclamed King his Fathers Funeralls c. UPon Thursday being the twenty fourth of March about two of the clock in the morning deceased Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory at her palace of Richmond being aged three score and ten yeares and having reigned forty foure yeares five moneths and King Iames his lineall title to the Crown of England c. odde dayes and the same day about eleven of clock in the forenoone was proclaimed Iames the sixth King of Scotland King of England Scotland France and Ireland at the high Crosse in Cheapside with the Title of Defonder of the Faith being lineally descended from Margaret eldest daughter to King Henry the seventh by Elizabeth his wife who was the eldest daughter to King Henry the fourth the same Margaret was married to King Iames the fourth of that name King of Scotland in the yeare of Grace one thousand five hundred and three who had issue Iames the fifth who was Father to Mary Queene of Scotland Mother to Iames the sixth Monarch of great Britain and King of France and Ireland of whom ere I further proceed to speake any more let me acquaint you with one thing most remarkable A thing worthy to be observed namely how ominous the Thursday hath beene to King Henry the Eighth and to all his posterity for hee himselfe died upon Thursday the eight and twentieth of Ianuary his sonne King Edward the sixth on Thursday the sixth of Iuly Queen Mary on Thursday the seventeenth of November and Queene Elizabeth on Thursday the twenty fourth of March but I returne to King Iames and the prediction made of him and his prosperous Reigne On Boreas wings then hither shall be borne Through Week o're Tweed a Princely Vnicorn The prophesie of K. Iames. Who brought into the world his own fair crest A rampant Lion figured on his brest And to his Armes six Lions more shall quarter With six French Flowers inviron'd with the Ioyning by fates unchangable dispose Garter The Northern Thistle to the Southerne Rose He shall the true Apostolike Faith mayntain With pious zeale During the blessed Reigne Of this faire sprig deriv'd from Richmonds stock No Noble head shall stoop unto the block Yet shall from th' old Lupanar Wolves be sent To undermine both Crown and Government Striving in Hell to register their names By blowing up the State in powder flames Ah wo the while Rebellion and prestigion Should masque themselves in visors of religion All which the holy book meerly gain-says But man's corrupt God Iust in all his wayes Witnesse their wretched ends but happy they Who keep for that an annuall holiday That King shall be a second Salomon Whom all Kings else with wonder gaze upon Who as to an Oracle to him shall come And when he speaks be silent all and dumbe Peace shall he keep within him and without him Whilst all lands else combustions are about him Him shall a second issue male succeed Gracious in word victorious in his deed Though divers adulterate copies something alluding to this purpose have been frequent in the mouths of many yet this best agreeing with the Authors meaning ought to be first received which though it need no explanation at all yet thus much briefly for the satisfaction of the vulgar By Boreas is meant the North-wind upon whose wings the Vnicorne is borne is implide King Iames who gives the Unicorne in The Vnicorne part of the Scottish Arms. Heraldry Through Week over Tweed that is he came through Barwick over the River Tweed which parteth England and Scotland Hee King Iames born with a Lion on his brest was also borne with the exact portraiture of a Lion upon his brest presaging that the white Lion of Scotland should have a proximity and alliance with the three red Lions of England quartered with the three Flower delyces of France the noble remembrance of Edward sirnamed the Black Prince sonne to Edward the Third who by taking the King prisoner in battaile added them to the Arms of England which are incompast by the Garter an Order first made by the aforesaid Edward the Third Theâ—…e came into the peaceable possession of King Iames who also brought the Thistle part of the Arms of Scotland to joyne The Thistlâ—… joyned with the Rose with the two united Roses the White and Red figuring of the two divided Houses York and Lancaster to make one perfect Damaske I omit the manner of his Majesties comming out of Scotland and his Royall entertainment into this Kingdome with joyfull acclamations of the people and the unanimous suffrage of the whole Nation with his Inauguration Coronation and solemne and pompous passing from the Tower through the City of London to Westminster with the severall pageants and showes his Creating of Barons Viscounts and Earles and making of Knights
an oath all which were convicted condemned drawne hanged and quartered also upon Friday the twentie eight of March in the fourth yeare of the King Henry Garnet the Henry Garnet provinciall of the Iesuits executed provinciall or principall of the English Iesuites was arraigned at Guild Hall in London upon the same Treason and condemned and after drawn from the Tower to the West end of Pauls was executed like the former Traitors Thus wee see That from the old Lupanar Wolves were sent To undermine both crown and government Striving in Hell to register their names By blowing up the State in powder flames c. The word Lupanar comes from Lupa a shee Wolfe or Prostitute so was the wife of Fanstulus the Nurse to the two Infants Romulus and Lupanar shee was also called Acca Laneratia Remus the first erectors of Rome called from Lupa comes also Lupanar that is a brothelhouse and Idolatry is called fornication almost through the whole Scripture and from Rome had these Arch-traytors their Incendiary c. Amongst other Royall Visitants Christianus the fourth of that name King of Denmarke came into England royally attended to see his The King of Denmarke commeth into England brother in law King Iames and his naturall sister Queene Anne whom the King in person met a shipboord with Prince Henry The Duke of Lenox and divers of the Nobility and dined with him in his Cabin the two Kings afterward rode triumphantly through the City of London the Embassadors of France Spaine and Venice being spectatours of the solemnity Here Hee was royally and magnificently entertained and feasted till his returne c. who liked his welcome so well that hee came hither the second time And in all the passages of His Majesties Reigne where was nothing seen but peace tranquillity and quietnesse there is no subject to write on but of sundry Plantations during his Reigne as in Virginia Bermudas or the Summer Islands c. Of men raised to Office and Honour of his severall Embassies into Forreign Countries to make peace and attonement betwixt divided Kingdomes and his enterchangeable entertayning of their Embassadours of the mariage of the Lady Elizabeth to the prince Palatine of the death of that most hopefull plant of Honour and Royalty Prince Henry of whom I have read this Epitaph In Natures law 't is a plain case to die No cunning Lawyer can demurre on that An Epitaph upon Prince Henry For cruell death and fat all destinie Serve all men with a finall Latitat tryde So brave Prince Henry when his cause was Confest the action paid the debt and dyde I may also put you in remembrance of the new erecting of the Artillery Garden of the New River brought to London of the building of the New Exchange in the Strand and Hicks Hall of Censures in the Star-chamber in the High Commission Court the burning of the Banquetinghouse c. of Sir W. Raleigh's execution at Westminster c. the creating of George Villiers Gentleman Duke his Mother Countesse of Buckingham with infinite other peaceable passages but these are now out of my road In the year one thousand six hundred and eighteene upon Wednesday the eighteenth of November ablazing Starre appeared and upon Tuesday the second of March following at Hampton Court dyed Queene Anne of whom was made this Epitaph The death of Queen Anne Her to invite the great God sent his star Whose friends and kindred mighty Princes are Who though they run the race of men and die Death seems but to refine their majesty So did this Queen frō hence her Court remove And left the earth to be inthron'd above Then she is chang'd not dead no good Prince dyes But like the day-star only set to rise Upon Monday the sixteenth of February one thousand six hundred twenty three the King with the Nobility prepared to goe to the Parlament House but that morning dyed Lodowick Duke of Richmond and Lenox at Vpon the death of the Duke of Richmond and Lenox his lodging at the Court in White Hall who is worthily remembred in this Epitaph following Are all diseases dead or will death say She could not kill this prince another way Yes it was so for time and death conspired To make his death as was his life admired The Commons were not summond now I see Meerly to move laws but to mourne for thee No lesse then all the Bishops could suffice To wait upon so great a sacrifice The Court the Altar was the Waiters peeres The mirrh and frankineense great Cosins tears A braver offering with more pompe and state Nor time nor death could ever celebrate Of King Iames his wisdome integrity bounty his study of peace which hee made good in his Motto Beati Pacifici and for all his other singular vertues He with a superarrogative overplus made good what was before for many yeares predicted of him all which may be included in this one Epitaph made upon him Can Christendomes great Champion sink away Thus silently into a bed of clay Can such a Monarch die and not to have An Earthquake at the least to ope his grave Did there no Meteors fright the Vniverse Nor Comet hold a torch to light his Herse Was there no clap of thunder heard to tell All Christendom their losse and ring his knell Impartiall Fates I see all princes then men Though they liv'd Gods yet they must die like And the same passing bell may toll for them Which rung but now the beggers requiem When such a soule is from the earth bereaven Me thinks there should be triumph made in Heaven The stars should run at tilt at his decease To welcome him into the place of peace Who whilst hee liv'd in peace liv'd and did Being in peace to keepe peace still alive strive No widows curses and no Orphants cryes Shall interrupt his hallowed obsequies For their slain husbands or their fathers lost In bloudy war to wake thy peacefull ghost Let thy great predecessors boast the pryse Of glorious and yet bloudy victories Let them upon their sepulchers expose Triumphs of war and spoyle of forreigne foes And glory to have turn'd the harvest field To a pitcht Campe and ploughshare to a shield So that on bloudy furrows there were born As many blades of steele as now of corne Yet shall thy prayse be greater since thy joy Was to plant nations rather then destroy And though no mortall trophy speak thy prayse Because no drop of bloud hath staind thy dayes Yet this sure truth their greatest fame controls They subdu'd bodies thou hast conquered souls Truth was thy banner the thrice sacred word Thy target and thy pen a two edg'd sword But lo when Spanish coast Romes canon shot False Gowries treason Cateshy's powder-plot Could not destroy all these thy fate did brave A Fever would needs bring thee to thy grave For being mortall fate could not invent His passage by a nobler instrument Then his own bloud which made him compre VVithin himselfe the glory of his end hena Like to a circle this rich Diamond must Be cut by no means else then it 's owne dust Thus is our Sun set never to return Pay therefore tri◅ute to his funerall urn All peacefull souls and with true sorrows sence Give unto him your hearts benevolence Of pious teares then turn you from the VVest To see the new Sun rising in the East King Charles the first of that name King of Prince Charles proclaymed King England began his Reigne on Sunday the twenty seventh of March one thousand six hundred twenty five and the next day after commanded by proclamation that all Officers and Magistrates of what degree or quality soever through out his whole Dominions should sti◅l use and exercise all such power and authoritie as they held from his Father of blessed memory untill his pleasure were further knowne and on Saturday the seventh of May next ensuing were performed the Funerall rites of his Father King The Funerall of King Iames Iames and his corps with all magnificence and state carried from Denmark house in the Strand to VVestminster Abbey Church King Charles being the chiefe and principall Mourner artended with all the Nobility Clergy and Iudges with sundry Embassadors and all his officers and domesticke servants in mourning habits His Herse being more royally adorned and attended then any of his predecessour Kings in which magnificent solemnity his corps was interred in the Chappell Royall c. I should now pr◅ceed to the Reigne of the high mighty and invincible Prince Charles concerning whose sacred person my rude pen dare not be so bold nor with any of his just and Of Prince Charles royall proceedings but am rather content to leave them to those of more knowing and bet ter approved judgements and more frequently verst in state businesse and the laws and limits that belong to History and Chronologie then my selfe yet thus farre according to my weake Talent and crassa Minerva let me borrow leave to confer on him though far short of his great meed and merit a briefe character Hee is a Prince wise and just crowned with all the especiall gifts of nature and fortune but which farre transcends the rest plenteously endowed with all heavenly graces Blest in a Royall chast and beautifull Consort blest with a most hopefull and numerous Issue conspicuous in the four Cardinall vertues Iustice Prudence Temperance and Fortitude grounded in the three Theologicall Graces Faith Hope and Charity illustrious in all other Vertues which generally adorne men but make a Prince greatly admired and gloriously eminent whom with his incomparable Queen the unparalleld Prince his sonne with the rest of his Royall Issue God Almighty in his great providence and infinite mercy continue in long life health prosperity and happinesse c. FINIS