Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A38478
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The English princess, or, The duchess-queen a relation of English and French adventures : a novel : in two parts.; Princesse d'Angleterre. English
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Préchac, Jean de, 1647?-1720.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing E3115; ESTC R31434
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74,999
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258
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The English PRINCESS OR THE Dutchess-Queen A RELATION OF ENGLISH and FRENCH ADVENTURES A NOVEL In Two PARTS LONDON Printed for Will. Cademan and Simon Neale at the Popes-Head in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange and at the Three Pidgeons in Redford-street in Covent-Garden 1678. THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The First PART THE Monarchy of England having been long in dispute betwixt the two Roses the Red of the House of Lancaster and the White of that of York fell at length to the peaceable inheritance of the former and never appeared in greater splendour than in the time of Henry the Eighth This Prince being of a most sharp and piercing wit by study and learning advanced daily more and more in knowledg and was no sooner at the age of eighteen Crowned King but that he seemed already to hold in his hands the Fate of all Europe All that was to be blamed in him was his love of pleasures which in progress of time got the Dominion over him and some kind of sickleness the blemish of several of his Family he had a delicate and well-proportioned body a countenance of singular beauty and shewed always such an Air of Majesty and Greatness as inspired both love and reverence in all that beheld him At his Assumption to the Crown when his heart was not as yet subjected to the pleasures of sense it was but a meer scruple of conscience that made him unwilling to marry Catharine of Spain his Brothers Widow to whom the late King his Father had betrothed him three years before his Death no engagements in love with any other Mistresses at that time being any ways the cause of his aversion But two of his chief Ministers who had been formerly private Pensioners of Isabel of Castile having represented to him the losses that he was likely to sustain by a mis-understanding with Spain easily cleared all his doubts so that at length he made use of the dispensation which with much difficulty had been obtained at Rome for his marriage and the League which at the same time King Ferdinand his Brother-in-law proposed to him with Pope Julius the Second the Emperour Maximilian and the Swisses against Louis the Twelfth King of France filled him with so high an opinion of himself that there hath been nothing more lovely than the first years of his marriage and Reign And indeed he gave himself so wholly to jollity and mirth amidst the great designs which he contrived that his Example being a pattern to his Court it became so compleatly gallant that the Ladies themselves thought it no offence to decency publickly to own their Votaries The Princess Mary his younger Sister as she excelled in Quality so she exceeded the rest in Beauty Margaret the eldest married to the King of Scotland had only the advantage of her in Birth for in Beauty her share was so great that there was never any Princess who deserved more to be loved The qualities of her mind and Character of her Parts will sufficiently appear in the sequel of this discourse and as to her body nothing was wanting that might render it perfect her complexion was fair her soft skin enriched with that delicate whiteness which the Climate of England bestows commonly on the Ladies of that Countrey and the round of her face inclining near to a perfect Oval Though her eyes were not the greatest yet they possessed all that could be desired in the loveliest eyes in the World They were quick with mildness and so full of love that with a single glance they darted into the coldest breasts all the flames that sparkled in themselves Her mouth was not inferiour to her eyes for being very little and shut with lips of a perpetual Vermilion in its natural frame it presented an object not to be parallel'd for Beauty and when again it opened whether to laugh or speak it always afforded thousands of new Charms What has been said of her pretty mouth may be likewise said of her fair hands which by their nimbleness and dexterity in the smallest actions seemed to embellish themselves but more might be spoken of the Soveraign Beauty of her Neck which when age had brought it to perfection became the master-piece of Nature Her Stature was none of the tallest but such as Ladies ought to have to please and delight and her gate address and presence promised so much that it is no wonder that the Charms of Nature accompanied with a tender and passionate heart gained her before the age of fifteen the Conquest of most of her Fathers Subjects Before she was compleat twelve years of age she was promised in marriage to Prince Charles of Austria heir to the Kingdom of Castile and since named Charles the Fifth For Lowis the Twelfth of France having frustrated that young Prince of the hopes of marrying the Princess Claudia his daughter by designing her for the Duke of Valois his presumptive heir notwithstanding the natural aversion that Anne of Brittanie his Queen had against him Henry the Seventh no sooner understood that the alliance of the house of Austria with France was unlikely to succeed but he began to think on means of contracting it with England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester was therefore sent to Calais to negotiate in his name that marriage with the Deputies of Flanders who thereupon concluded a Treaty to the satisfaction of all Parties But the alteration of the King changed all these measures Henry the Eighth having in a manner against his will married the Aunt of the young Arch-Duke found not in that second Union with Spain all the advantages which his Father seemed to foresee and whether it was already an effect of repentance as some termed it or that he had in it the particular design which men had ground to suspect since he many times in discourse approved the ancient custom of his Kingdom of not giving in marriage the Daughters or Sisters of the Kings out of the Island for which he was so applauded by all that even those of his Council who were the least complaisant made it by little and little as he did a reason of State to forget the proposals of Calais So that now the Princess Mary being free from the engagement of the late King her Father and the great Men of England eying her as a blessing to be enjoyed by the most happy she found her self amidst a croud of lovers who in the peace and quiet of the Kingdom made it their whole business to disquiet themselves Amongst the most sparkling and assiduous pretenders Edward Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset and Henry Bourchier Son to Thomas Earl of Essex appeared the chief Charles Son to Sir Charles Sommerset Lord High Chamberlain came next and Thomas Howard Son to Thomas Earl of Surrey Lord High Treasurer with William Talbot Son to George Earl of Shrewsbury Steward of the Kings Houshold put in amongst the rest These five Rivals being already very considerable by
that fatal Rancounter beg'd leave to serve in the same Army and Sommerset went to Scotland upon some pretext of his own So that there remaining none but Bourchier whose wound kept him long from the publick Brandon found himself in a few days delivered from all his Enemies But in their absence they did him more mischief than they had done in person and whether it was an effect of their malice or of the sequel of things which being with difficulty concealed time brings to light at length men began to speak more openly than they had been accustomed to do of the Amours of the Princess and Brandon The King was so far from being offended herewith that he seemed rather to applaud it some who impertinently discourse of the carriage of Princes wherein there is not always so great ground of reasoning as is believed imagined that all that he did that way was a politick fetch to break the Grandees of his Kingdom of the designs they might have for his Sister others who are not always willing to infect the Court with false notions kept themselves to what they saw and more wisely believed that it was only out of a natural complaisance that he entertained for all sorts of gallantry But though all that was said of the Princess and Brandon redounded still to his Honour yet he reaped nothing from it but vexation and grief neither could his truly generous and noble soul relish that honour which he received at the cost of what he loved He was far more affected with the reproaches that the Princess Mary might have talkt of him though indeed she never made any of him On the contrary he having sometimes expressed himself to her concerning these things in a very sorrowful manner she had always the goodness to tell him that he should follow the example and not trouble himself with the discourse of people But 〈…〉 this obliging carriage served only to encrease his pain and as two hearts that are truly smitten are unwilling to be behind in duty to one another so he concerned himself the more in the glory of the Princess that she seemed to slight it for the love of him Insomuch that falling very pensive and melancholick notwithstanding the pains that she took to comfort him and having no other thoughts but to leave the Kingdom that he might remove the occasions of detraction he acquainted my Lord Hastings his Uncle to whom he told all his affairs with his design He being a fierce Old Soldier took him at first up sharply for the little Courage he made shew of afterward falling in discourse about the Earls of Surrey and Essex he told him that the race of Howards and Bourchiers was indeed ancient and raised to vast Estates and eminent Dignities by the merits of many predecessors but that yet they were not the only nobles who could brag of as great antiquity and the glory of as many heroical Actions nor that they had any such advantages as might give them ground to insult over the Brandons and Hastings and that therefore it behoved him not at all for the railery of some jealous Rivals to abandon the Prospects which both the King and Princess did countenance However all this made no great impression on the mind of Brandon He adhered to his resolution and had already taken his measures for withdrawing when at length the good Old man Hastings being unable to retain him by his reasons found himself obliged to discover to him what he had promised never to reveal The resolution was doubtless great and cost the Old man dear besides the weakness of old age he had more reason than any other to be dismayed which made him long complain of the violence that his Nephew put upon him before he began that dangerous discourse And that he might in some manner prepare him for it having brought out a manuscript of all Merlins Prophesies he made him read that which was the cause of the death of the Duke of Clarence conceived in these words When the White Rose shall the Red subdue G. Of that race shall change its Hue And the Red o're it shall bloom anew There shall remain of the White slock But one bud fallen on Hemlock Yet too much zeal doth oft annoy For an inn'cent maid shall it destroy When he had read the Prophesie the ancient Gentleman tracing matters as far back as was necessary explained to him the beginning of the prediction according as the event had made it evident In the first verse he let him see the Victory of Edward of York designed by the White Rose over HENRY the Sixt of Lancaster who carried the Red. In the second he discovered to him the deplorable mistake of that Victorious Prince who having caused his younger Brother George Duke of Clarence to be put to death in a pipe of Malmsey because the first letter of his name was a fatal G. gave his other Brother Richard Duke of Glocester of whom he had no suspicion by his last will opportunity of murthering his two Sons and in the third he shewed him th◠return of Prince Henry Earl of Richmont who in the blood of that Tyrant made the red Roses flourish again But having thus interpreted the three first verses which had given matter of much discourse in that time Hastings his countenance changed colour and being deeply affected with the importance of the secret that he was about to reveal concluding in a fret what with reason he had begun he told him that the world had indeed sufficiently understood by the event of things the beginning of the Prophesie of Merlin but that few understood the rest That though the flatterers of the late King had perswaded him that by the death of the only Son of Richard the Tyrant which happened by a fall the prediction was fulfilled and explicated because that he having fallen in a place where Hemlock grew an inconsiderate person who came running after thinking to wipe and stop the blood of his wound with that herb had hastened his death yet that he understood somewhat more than these flatterers knew and that the cruel death of the poor Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence had not fulfilled the Prophesie either but that that unfortunate Prince having escaped from the superstitious scrupulosity of one of his Uncles and being confined to a Castle by the other was secretly married to a Daughter of Charles Hemlock Brother-in-law to himself who commanded in that place by whom he had a Son and that not to hold him long in suspense he was that Son At these words Brandon cried out as if he had been struck with Thunder and the Lord Hastings his Uncle in vain endeavoured to perswade him that though he had reason to be surprised at the relation yet he ought to believe it for he still maintained that it was but a tale devised to excite in him greater Courage At length Hastings by reason of the sensible danger