in old time a very small village it is at this day containing in it scarce foureteene dwelling houses and those but little ones and hath no monument of antiquitie to shew beside an ancient mount which they call Old-burie For on the one side Atherstone a mercate towne of good resort where there stood a Church of Augustine Friers now turned into a Chappell which neverthelesse acknowledgeth Mancester Church for her mother and Nun-Eaton on the other side by their vicinity have left it bare and empty Close unto Atherstone standeth Mery-Vale where Robert Ferrars erected a Monastery to God and the blessed Virgin Mary wherein himselfe enwrapped in an Oxe-hide for a shrouding sheet was interred Beyond these Northeastward is Pollesworth where Modwena an Irish Virgin of whom there went so great a fame for her holy life built a religious house for Nuns which R. Marmion a Noble man repaired who had his Castle hard by at Stippershull Neere unto this place also there flourished in the Saxons daies a towne that now is almost quite gone called then SECANDUNUM and at this day Seckinton where Aethelbald King of the Mercians in civill warre about the yeere of our Lord 749. was stabbed to death by Beared and soone after Offa slew Beared so that as by bloudy meanes he invaded the Kingdome of Mercia he likewise lost the same suddainely It remaineth now that we reckon up the Earles of Warwick for to passe over Guare Morind Guy of Warwick of whose actes all England resoundeth and others of that stampe whom pregnant wits have at one birth bred and brought forth into the world Henry the sonne of Roger de Beau-mont and brother to Robert Earle of Mellent was the first Earle descended of Normans bloud who had married Margaret the daughter of Ernulph de Hesdin Earle of Perch a most mighty and puissant man Out of this Family there bare this Honourable title Roger the sonne of Henry William the sonne of Roger who died in the thirtieth yeere of King Henry the Second Walleran his brother Henry the sonne of Walleran Thomas his sonne who deceased without issue in the sixe and twentieth yeere of King Henry the Third leaving behinde him Margery his sister who being Countesse of Warwicke and barraine departed this life yet her two husbands first Iohn Mareschal then John de Plessetis or Plessey in their wives right and through their Princes favour mounted up to the Honourable dignitie of Earles of Warwicke Now when these were departed without any issue by that Margery Waller and Uncle unto the said Margery succeeded them After whom dying also childlesse his sister Alice enjoyed the inheritance Afterwards her sonne William called Malduit and Manduit of Hanslap who left this world and had no children Then Isabell the said William Malduits sister being bestowed in marriage upon William de Beauchamp Lord of Elmesly brought the Earledome of Warwicke into the Familie of the Beauchamps who if I deceive not my selfe for that they came of a daughter of Ursus de Abtot gave the Beare for their cognisance and left it to their posteritie Out of this house there flourished sixe Earles and one Duke William the sonne of Isabell John Guy Thomas Thomas the younger Richard and Henry unto whom King Henry the Sixth graunted this preheminence and prerogative without any precedent to be the first and chiefe Earle of England and to carry this stile Henricus Praecomes totius Anglia Comes Warwici that is Henry chiefe Earle of all England and Earle of Warwicke he nominated him also King of the Isle of Wight and afterwards created him Duke of Warwicke and by these expresse words of his Parent graunted That he should take his place in Parliaments and elsewhere next unto the Duke of Norfolke and before the Duke of Buckingham One onely daughter he had named Anne whom in the Inquisitions wee finde entituled Countesse of Warwicke and shee died a child After her succeeded Richard Nevill who had married Anne sister to the said Duke of Warwicke a man of an undaunted courage but wavering and untrustie the very tennisse-ball in some sort of fortune who although he were no King was above Kings as who deposed King Henry the Sixth a most bountifull Prince to him from his regall dignitie placed Edward the Fourth in the royall throne and afterwards put him downe too restored Henry the Sixth againe to the Kingdome enwrapped England within the most wofull and lamentable flames of civill warre which himselfe at the length hardly quenched with his owne bloud After his death Anne his Wife by Act of Parliament was excluded and debarred from all her lands for ever and his two daughters heires to him and heires apparant to their mother being married to George Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Glocester were enabled to enjoy all the said lands in such wise as if the said Anne their mother were naturally dead Whereupon the name stile and title of Earle of Warwicke and Sarisbury was graunted to George Duke of Clarence who soone after was unnaturally dispatched by a sweet death in a Butte of Malvesey by his suspicious brother King Edward the Fourth His young sonne Edward was stiled Earle of Warwicke and being but a very child was beheaded by King Henry the Seventh to secure himselfe and his posteritie The death of this Edward our Ancestors accounted to be the full period and finall end of the long lasting warre betweene the two royall houses of Lancaster and Yorke Wherein as they reckoned from the twenty eight yeere of Henry the Sixth unto this being the fifteenth of Henry the Seventh there were thirteene fields fought three Kings of England one Prince of Wales twelve Dukes one Marques eighteene Earles with one Vicont and twenty three Barons besides Knights and Gentlemen lost their lives From the death of this young Earle of Warwicke this title lay asleepe which King Henry the Eighth feared as a fire-brand of the State by reason of the combustion which that Richard Nevill that whip-king as some tearmed him had raised untill that King Edward the Sixth conferred it upon Iohn Dudley that derived his pedigree from the Beauchamps who like unto that Richard abovesaid going about in Queene Maries daies to turne and translate Scepters at his pleasure for his Traiterous deepe ambition lost his head But his sonnes first Iohn when his father was now Duke of Northumberland by a courteous custome usually received held this title for a while and afterwards Ambrose a most worthy personage both for warlike prowesse and sweetnesse of nature through the fauour of Queene Elizabeth received in our remembrance the Honour of Earle of Warwick to him and his heires males and for defect of them to Robert his brother and the heires males of his body lawfully begotten This Honour Ambrose bare with great commendation and died without children in the yeere one thousand five hundred eighty nine shortly after his brother Robert Earle of Leicester
Saint Peter and be yeelded up without delay for ever unto the Abbot and to the Monkes there serving God yet King William the Conquerour cancelled and made voide this Testament who reserving a great part of it to himselfe divided the rest betweene Countesse Iudith whose daughter was married to David King of Scots Robert Mallet Oger Gislebert of Gaunt Earle Hugh Aubrey the Clerk and others And unto Westminster first he left the Tithes afterwards the Church onely of Okeham and parcels thereunto appertaining This County hath not had many Earles The first Earle of Rutland was Edward the first begotten Sonne of Edmund of Langley Duke of Yorke created by King Richard the Second upon a singular favour that he cast unto him during his Fathers life and afterwards by the same King advanced to the honour of Duke of Aumarle This young man wickedly projected with others a practise to make away King Henry the Fourth and streight waies with like levity discovered the same But after his Fathers death being Duke of Yorke lost his life fighting couragiously amid the thickest troupes of his enemies in the battaile of Agincourt Long time after there succeeded in this Honour Edward the little young Sonne of Richard Duke of Yorke and he together with his Father during those deadly broiles of civill warre was slaine in the battaile fought at Wakefield Many yeeres after King Henry the Eighth raised up Sir Thomas Mannours to be Earle of Rutland who in right of his Grand-mother Aeleonor was possessed of a goodly and faire inheritance of the Barons Roos lying in the countries round about and elsewhere In his roome succeeded his Sonne Henry and after him likewise Edward his Sonne unto whom if I should say nothing else that commendation of the Poet was most aptly and truly appliable Nomen virtutibus aequat Nec sinit ingenium nobilitate premi His name so great with vertues good he matcheth equally Nor suffreth wit smuthring to lie under Nobility But he by over hasty and untimely death being received into Heaven left this dignity unto John his Brother who also departing this life within a while hath for his successor Roger his Sonne answerable in all points to his ancient and right noble parentage This small Shire hath Parish Churches 48. LINCOLNIAE Comitatus vbi olim insederunt CORITANI LINCOLNE-SHIRE VPon Rutland on the East side confineth the County of LINCOLNE called by the English-Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the Normans Nicol-shire after their comming into the Land with some transposition of letters but usually LINCOLNE-SHIRE A very large Country as reaching almost threescore miles in length and carrying in some places above thirty miles in bredth passing kinde for yeeld of Corne and feeding of Cattaile well furnished and set out with a great number of Townes and watered with many Rivers Upon the Eastside where it bendeth outward with a brow fetching a great compasse the German Ocean beateth on the shore Northward it recheth to Humber an arme of the sea on the West side it butteth upon Nottingham-shire and on the South it is severed from Northampton-shire by the River Welland This whole Shire is divided into three parts whereof one is called Holland a second Kesteven and the third Lindsey Holland which Ingulph termeth Holland lyeth to the sea and like unto that Holland in Germanie it is so throughly wet in most places with waters that a mans foote is ready to sinke into it and as one standeth upon it the ground will shake and quake under his feet and thence it may seeme to have taken the name unlesse a man would with Ingulph say that Holland is the right name and the same imposed upon it of Hay which our Progenitours broadly called Hoy. This part throughout beareth upon that ebbing and flowing arme of the Sea which Ptolomee calleth METARIS instead of Maltraith and wee at this day The Washes A very large arme this is and passing well knowne at every tide and high sea covered all over with water but when the sea ebbeth and the tide is past a man may passe over it as on dry land but yet not without danger Which King John learned with his losse For whilest he journied this way when he warred upon the rebellious Barons the waters suddenly brake in upon him so that at Fosse-dyke and Welstream he lost all his carriage and princely furniture as Matthew of Westminster writeth This Country which the Ocean hath laied to the land as the Inhabitants beleeve by sands heaped and cast together they it terme Silt is assailed on the one side with the said Ocean sea and in the other with a mighty confluence of waters from out of the higher countries in such sort that all the Winter quarter the people of the country are faine to keepe watch and ward continually and hardly with all the bankes and dammes that they make against the waters are able to defend themselves from the great violence and outrage thereof The ground bringeth forth but small store of corne but plenty of grasse and is replenished abundantly with fish and water-fowle The Soile throughout is so soft that they use their Horses unshod neither shall you meet so much as with a little stone there that hath not beene brought thither from other places neverthelesse there bee most beautifull Churches standing there built of foure square stone Certaine it is that the sea aforetime had entred farther up into the Country and that appeareth by those bankes formerly raised against the waterwaves then in-rushing which are now two miles off from the shore as also by the hils neere Sutterton which they call Salt-Hils But of fresh water there is exceeding great want in all places neither have they any at all but raine water and that in pits which if they be of any great depth presently become brackish if shallow they dry up as soone Neither are there Quicksands wanting which have a wonderfull force to draw to them and to hold fast as both Shepheards and their poore Sheepe also finde other whiles not without danger This Holland or Hoiland whether you will is divided into two parts The Lower and the Higher The Lower hath in it soule and slabby quavemires yea and most troublesome Fennes which the very Inhabitants themselves for all their stilts cannot stalke through And considering that it lieth very low and flat fenced it is of the one side against the Ocean on the other from those waters which overwhelme the upper part of the Isle of Ely with mighty piles and huge bankes opposed against the same Of which Southybanke is of greatest name which least it should have a breach made through it with that infinite masse of water that falleth from the South part when the Rivers swell and all is overflowne by inundation the people watch with great care and much feare as against a dangerous enemy And yet for the draining away of this water the neighbour Inhabitants at the common charges
solemne investure and a kisse in full Parliament upon his eldest Sonne who gloriously bare the name of King Henry the Fifth His Sonne King Henry the Sixth who at his Fathers death was an Infant in the cradle conferred likewise this honour which he never had himselfe upon his young Sonne Edward whose unhappie fortune it was to have his braines dashed out cruelly by the faction of Yorke being taken prisoner at Tewkesbury field Not long after King Edward the Fourth having obtained the Crowne created Edward his young Sonne Prince of Wales who was afterwards in the lineall succession of Kings Edward the Fifth of that name And within a while after his Unkle King Richard the Third who made him away ordained in his roome Edward his owne Sonne whom King Edward the Fourth had before made Earle of Salisburie but he died quickly after Then King Henrie the Seventh created his eldest sonne Arthur Prince of Wales and when he was dead Henrie his other Sonne well knowne in the world by the name of King Henrie the Eighth Every one of these had the Principality of Wales given unto them by the foresaid solemne investure and delivery of a Patent To hold to themselves and their Heires Kings of England For Kings would not bereave themselves of so excellent an occasion to doe well by their Eldest Sonnes but thought it very good policie by so great a benefit to oblige them when they pleased Queene Mary Queene Elizabeth and King Edward the Children of King Henrie the Eighth although they never had investure nor Patent yet were commonly named in their order Princes of Wales For at that time Wales was by authoritie of Parliament so annexed and united to the Kingdome of England that both of them were governed vnder the same Law or that you may reade it abridged out of the Act of Parliament The Kings Country or dominion of Wales shall stand and continue for ever incorporated united and annexed to and with the Realme of England and all and singular person and persons borne and to be borne in the said Principalitie Country or Dominion of Wales shall have enioy and inherit all and singular freedomes liberties rights priviledges and Lawes within this Realme and other the Kings Dominions as other the Kings Subiects naturally borne within the same have enioy and inherit and the Lawes Ordinances and Statutes of the Realme of England for ever and none other shall he had used practised and executed in the said Country or Dominion of Wales and every part thereof in like manner forme and order as they be and shall be in this Realme and in such like manner and forme as heereafter shall be further established and ordained This Act and the calme command of King Henrie the Seventh preparing way for it effected that in a short time which the violent power of other Kings armes and especially of Henrie the Fourth with extreame rigour also of Lawes could not draw on in many yeeres For ever sithence the British Nation hath continued as faithfully and dutifully in their Loyall Allegiance to the Crowne of England as any other part of the Realme whatsoever Now am I to returne out of Wales into England and must goe unto the Brigantes BRIGANTES BRITAINE which hitherto hath as it were launched out with huge Promontories looking on the one side toward Germanie on the other side toward Ireland now as if it were afraid of the Sea violently inrushing upon it withdraweth it selfe farther in and by making larger separations of lands retireth backe gathered into a farre narrower breadth For it is not past one hundred miles broad from coast to coast which on both sides passe on in a maner with straight and direct shores Northward as farre as to Scotland All this part well neere of the Island while the Romane Empire stood upright and flourished in Britaine was inhabited by the BRIGANTES For Plinie writeth that they dwelt from the East Sea to the West A nation this was right valiant populous withall and of especiall note among ancient Authors who all doe name them BRIGANTES unlesse it be Stephanus onely in his booke Of Cities who called them BRIGAE in which place that which he wrote of them is defective at this day in the bookes by reason that the sentence is imperfect If I should thinke that these were called Brigantes of Briga which in the ancient Spanish tongue signified A Citie I should not satisfie my selfe seeing it appeareth for certaine out of Strabo that it is a meere Spanish word If I were of opinion with Goropius that out of the Low Dutch tongue they were termed Brigantes as one would say Free-hands should I not obtrude upon you his dreames for dainties Howsoever the case standeth our Britanes or Welsh-men if they see any of a bad disposition and audaciously playing lawlesse and lewde parts use to say of them by way of a common merry quippe Wharret Brigans that is They play the Brigants And the French-men at this day alluding as it seemeth to the ancient language of the Gaules usually terme such lewde fellowes Brigans like as Pirats Ships Brigantins But whether the force of the word was such in old time in the Gaules or Britanes language or whether our Brigantes were such like men I dare not determine Yet if my memory faile me not Strabo calleth the Brigantes a people about Alpes Grassatores that is Robbers and Iulius a Belgian a young man of desperate boldnesse who counted power authority honestie and vertue to be nothing but naked names is in Tacitus surnamed Briganticus With which kinde of vice our old Brigantes may seeme to have been tainted when they so robbed and spoiled the neighbour inhabitants that the Emperour Antoninus Pius for this cause tooke away a great part of their Country from them as Pausanias witnesseth who writeth thus of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Antoninus Pius cut the Brigantes in Britaine short of a great part of their Country because they began to take armes and in hostile maner to invade Genunia a Region subject to the Romanes Neither will any I hope take this as a reproach Surely I should seeme farre unlike my selfe if I fell now to taxe ignominiously any private person much lesse a Nation Neither was this counted a reproachfull imputation in that warlike age when all Nations reckoned that their right which they could winne or hold by might and dint of sword Roberies saith Caesar among the Germans are not noted with infamie such I meane as are committed without the borders of every State and they allow the practise thereof to exercise their youth withall and to keepe them from idlenesse And for a reason not unlike the Paeones among the Greekes are so called quia Percussores that is because they were cutters The Quadi among the Germans and the Chaldaei likewise are reported to have gotten those names because they used to robbe and kill Now in that Florianus Del-Campe a Spaniard hath
Alice his onely daughter being wedded unto Richard Nevill augmented his honour with the title of Earle of Salisburie who siding with the house of Yorke was in the battell fought at Wakefield taken prisoner and beheaded leaving to succeede him Richard his sonne Earle of Warwicke and Salisburie who delighting in dangers and troubles enwrapped his native countrey within new broiles of Civill warre wherein himselfe also left his life The one of his daughters named Isabell was married unto George Duke of Clarence brother to King Edward the Fourth and shee bare him a sonne called Edward Earle of Warwicke who being a very child and innocent was by King Henrie the Seventh beheaded like as his sister Margaret suffered the same death under King Henrie the Eighth An usuall pollicie and practise among suspicious Princes For the securitie of their own persons and their posteritie by one occasion or other that evermore are soone offered and as quickly pickt to make away or keepe under the next of their bloud Anne the other daughter of Richard Nevill Earle of Warwick and Salisburie became wife to Richard Duke of Glocester brother to King Edward the Fourth and brought him a sonne whom his uncle King Edward in the 17. of his reigne created Earle of Salisburie and Richard his father usurping the kingdome made Prince of Wales But he departed this life in his tender yeares about that time that his mother also died not without suspition of poison King Henry the Eighth afterward about the fifth yeare of his raigne in a full Parliament restored and enabled in bloud Margaret daughter to George Duke of Clarence to the name stile title honour and dignitie of Countesse of Salisburie as sister and heire to Edward late Earle of Warwick and Salisburie And about the 31. yeare of the said King she was attainted in Parliament with divers others and beheaded when she was 70. yeares old Since which time that title of honour was discontinued untill in the yeare of our Lord 1605. our Soveraigne Lord King Iames honored therewith S. Robert Cecill second sonne of that Nestor of ours William Cecill upon whom for his singular wisedome great employments in the affaires of State to the good of Prince and Countrey he had bestowed the honorable titles of Baron Cecill of Essendon and Vicount Cranburn Thus much of the Earles of Salisburie Lower still and not far from this Citie is scituate upon Avon Dunctone or Donketon a burrough as they say of great antiquitie and well knowne by reason of the house therein of Beavois of Southampton whom the people have enrolled in the number of their brave worthies for his valour commended so much in rhyme to posteritie This Salisburie is environed round about with open fields and plaines unlesse it be Eastward where lieth hard unto it Clarindon a very large and goodly parke passing fit for the keeping and feeding of wild beasts and adorned in times past with an house of the Kings Of which parke and of the twentie groves inclosed therein Master Michael Maschert Doctor of the Civill lawes hath prettily versified in this wise Nobilis est lucus cervis clausura saronam Propter a claro vertice nomen habet Viginti hinc nemorum partito limite boscis Ambitus est passus mille cuique suus A famous Parke for Stag and Hind neere Salisbury doth lie The name it hath of one faire downe or hill that mounts on hie Within the same stand xx groves enclos'd with severall bound Of which in compasse every one a mile containes in ground Famous is this Clarindon for that heere in the yeare 1164. was made a certaine recognition and record of the customes and liberties of the Kings of England before the Prelates and Peeres of the Kingdome for the avoiding discentions betweene the Clergie Iudges and Barons of the Realme which were called The Constitutions of Clarnidon Of the which so many as the Pope approved have beene set downe in the Tomes of the Councels the rest omitted albeit Thomas Becket then Archbishop of Canterburie and the rest of the Bishops approved them all Heereby is Jvy Church sometime a small Priory where as tradition runneth in our grandfathers remembrance was found a grave and therein a corps of twelve foote and not farre of a stocke of wood hollowed and the concave lined with lead with a booke therein of very thicke parchment all written with Capitall Roman letters But it had lien so long that when the leaves were touched they fouldred to dust S. Thomas Eliot who saw it judged it to be an Historie No doubt hee that so carefully laied it up hoped it should be found and discover somethings memorable to posteritie Toward the North about sixe miles from Salisburie in these plaines before named is to bee seeene a huge and monstrous piece of worke such as Cicero termeth Insanam substructionem For within the circuit of a Ditch there are erected in manner of a Crowne in three rankes or courses one within another certaine mightie and unwrought stones whereof some are 28. foote high and seven foote broad upon the heads of which others like overthwart pieces doe beare and rest crosse-wise with a small tenents and mortescis so as 〈◊〉 le frame seemeth to hang whereof wee call it Stonehenge like as our old 〈◊〉 â—â—rmed it for the greatnesse Chorea Gigantum The Giants Daunce The 〈…〉 whereof such as it is because it could not be so fitly expressed in 〈…〉 caused by the gravers helpe to bee portraied heere underneath as it 〈…〉 weatherbeaten and decaied A. Stones called Corsestones Weighing 12. tunne carrying in height 24. foote in breadth 7. foote in compasse 16. B. Stones named Cronetts of 6. or 7. tunne weight C. A place where mens bones are digged up Our countrie-men reckon this for one of our wonders and miracles And much they marvaile from whence such huge stones were brought considering that in all those quarters bordering thereupon there is hardly to be found any common stone at all for building as also by what meanes they were set up For mine owne part about these points I am not curiously to argue and dispute but rather to lament with much griefe that the Authors of so notable a monument are thus buried in oblivion Yet some there are that thinke them to bee no naturall stones hewne out of the rocke but artificially made of pure sand and by some glewie and unctuous matter knit and incorporate together like as those ancient Trophies or monuments of victorie which I have seene in Yorkshire And what marvaile Read we nor I pray you in Plinie that the sand or dust of Puteoli being covered over with water becommeth forthwith a very stone that the cesternes in Rome of sand digged out of the ground and the strongest kind of lime wrought together grow so hard that they seeme stones indeed and that Statues and images of marble chippings and small grit grow together so compact and firme
answered for him at his Baptisme Then Ceadwalla King of the West-Saxons when the said Edelwalch was slaine and Aruandus the petty King of the Island made away annexed to it the Dominion and in a tragicall and lamentable massacre killed every mothers child almost of the inborne Inhabitants and the fourth part of the Isle to wit as much land as contained 300. Hides hee gave unto Bishop Wilfrid The first that instructed the Islanders in the knowledge of Christian religion But these matters Beda will informe you best writing as he doth in these words After then that Ceadwalla had obtained the kingdome of the Gevissi hee wonne also the Isle of Wight which unto that time had beene wholly given to Idolatrie and then endeavoured what he could to make a generall massacre and tragicall slaughter of all the native Inhabitants thereof and instead of them to plant there people of his owne province binding himselfe with a vow although he was not yet regenerate and become Christened and in case he wonne the Isle he would give unto God a fourth part both of it and also of the whole booty Which vow he so paied as that he offered this Isle unto Wilfrid the Bishop who being of his nation hapened then to come thither be present to the use and glory of God The measure of the same Island according to the English mens estimation is proportionable to one thousand and two hundred hides of land Whereupon the Bishop had possession given him of so much Land as rose to three hundred Hides But hee commended that portion which hee received unto one of his Clarkes named Bernwin and his sisters sonne he was giving unto him a priest named Hildila for to minister unto all that were desirous of salvation the word and laver of life Where I thinke it not good to passe over in silence how for the first fruits as one would say of those who of the same Isle were saved by their beleife two young children brethren of the Royall bloud to wit the sonnes of Arvandus King of the Isle were by the especiall favour of GOD crowned with martyrdome For when the enemies approached hard unto the Island these children slipt secretly out of the Isle and were remoâ—ved into the province next adjoyning where being brought to a place called Ad Lapidem when they had committed themselves upon trust to be hidden from the face of the King that was conquerour betraied they were and commanded to be killed Which when a certaine Abbat and Priest named Cynbreth heard who not farre from thence had his monasterie in a place named Reodford that is the Ford of reed hee came unto the King who then in those parts lay secretly at cure of those wounds which hee had received whiles hee fought in the Isle of Wight and requested of him that if there were no remedie but that the children must bee murthered they might yet bee first taught the Sacraments of Christian faith before their death The King granted his petition and hee then having catechised them in the word of truth and bathed them in the fount of salvation assured them of their entrance into the everlasting Kingdome of heaven And so within a while after when the executioner called instantly for them they joyfully suffered that temporall death of the body by which they made no doubt of their passe unto the eternall life of their soules In this order and manner therefore after all the Provinces of Britaine had embraced the faith of Christ the Isle of Wight also received the same in which notwithstanding for the calamitie and trouble of forraine subjection no man tooke the degree of Ministerie and See Episcopall before Daniell who at this day is the Bishop of the West Saxons and the Gevissj Thus much Beda From this time forward our writers for a great while have not one word of Wight unto the yeare of our Lord one thousand sixtie six in which Tostie Hing Haralds brother with certaine men of warre and Rovers ships out of Flanders in hatred of his brother invaded it and after he had compelled the Islanders to pay him tribute departed Some few yeares after as we read in the old booke of Cares broke Priorie which Master Robert Glover Somerset shewed me who carried as it were the Sunne light of ancient Genealogies and Pedigrees in his hand Like as saith this booke William the Bastard conquered England even so William Fitz Osbern his Mareschal and Earle of Hereford conquered the Isle of Wight and was the first Lord of Wight Long after this the Frenchmen in the yeare 1377. came suddenly at unawares under saile invaded and spoiled it and the same French in the yeare 1403. gave the like attempt but in vaine For valiantly they were drived from landing even as in our fathers daies when the French Gallies set one or two small cottages on fire and went their way As touching the Lords of this Isle after that William Fitz-Osbern was forth-with slaine in the warre of Flanders and his sonne Roger outlawed and driven unto exile it fell into the Kings hands and Henrie the First King of England gave it unto Richard Ridvers otherwise called Redvers and de Ripariis Earle of Denshire and withall the Fee or Inheritance of the Towne Christ-Church Where like as at Caresbroke that Richard built certaine Fortresses but Baldwin his sonne in the troublesome time of King Stephen when there were in England so many Tyrants as there were Lords of Forts and Castles who tooke upon them every one to stampe money and challenged other rights of Regall Majestie was by Stephen disseized and expelled from hence Howbeit his posteritie recovered their ancient right whose Genealogie wee have already put downe when wee treated of the Earles of Denshire But in the end Isabell widow to William de Fortibus Earle of Albemarle and Holdernesse sister and heire of Baldwin the last Earle of Devonshire of that house after much intreatie was overcome to make over by charter all her right and interest and to settle it upon King Edward the First with the Manours of Christ-Church and Fawkeshaul c. For foure thousand Markes Ever since which time the Kings of England held the Isle and Henry de Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke was by King Henrie the Sixth unto whom hee was most deere crowned King of Wight and afterwards nominated The first or principall Earle of all England But together with him this new and unusuall title died and vanished quite Afterwards Richard Widevile Earle Rivers was by King Edward the fourth stiled Lord of the Isle of Wight Sir Reginald Bray took it of King Henry the Seventh with whom he was most inward in Fee farme for a rent charg'd of three hundred markes yearely to be paid Also beside these Lords this Isle had a noble Familie named de Insula or Lisle out of which in the raigne of King Edward the Second one was summoned unto the Parliament by the
seeing that it answereth backe againe with the encrease of an hundred fold that which is sowne Here may you see the high wayes and common lanes clad with apple-trees and peare-trees not set nor graffed by the industry of mans hand but growing naturally of their owne accord The ground of it selfe is enclined to beare fruits and those both in taste and beautie farre exceeding others whereof some will last a whole yeare and not wither and rivell so that they are serviceable untill new come againe for supply There is no countrey in all England so thicke set as this Province with Vine-yards so plentifull in encrease and so pleasant in taste The very wines thereof made affect not their mouthes that drinke of them with any unpleasing tartnesse as being little inferiour in sweetnesse and odour to the French wines The houses in it are almost innumerable the Churches passing faire and the townes standing very thicke But that which addeth unto all these good gifts a speciall glory is the river Severne than which there is not any one in this land for channell broader for streame swifter for fish better stored There is in it a daily rage and fury of the waters which I know not whether I may call a gulfe or whirle poole of waves and the same raising up the sands from the bothome winding and driving the same upon heapes commeth with a forcible violence and reacheth no further then to the bridge Sometimes also it overfloweth the bankes and when it hath roved about a great way it retireth backe as a conquerour of the land Vnhappy is that vessell which it taketh full upon the side The Water-men well ware hereof when they see that Higra comming for so they call it in English turne the vessell affront upon it and so cutting through the middest of it checke and avoide the violence thereof But that which hee saith of the hundred fold increase and yeeld of the ground doth not hold true Neither for all that would I thinke with these whining and sloathfull husbandmen whom Columella taketh up for it that the soile is now wearied and become barren with too much fruitfulnesse and over-free bearing in former ages Howbeit hereby if I should say nothing of other things it is to bee seene that wee have no cause to wonder why many places in this countrey and else-where in England are called Vine-yards seeing it hath affoorded wine and surely it may seeme to proceed rather of the Inhabitants idlenesse than any distemperature and indisposition of the ayre that it yeeldeth none at this day But why in some places within this Countrey as wee reade in our Statutes by a private custome which now is become of strong validitie as a law the goods and lands of condemned persons fall into the Kings hands for a yeare onely and a day and after that terme expired contrary to the custome of all England beside returne to the next heires let law-students and Statesmen looke to that for no part it is of my purpose to search thereinto Now I will take a superfiall survey such as I can of those three parts whereof I spake orderly one after another The part that lyeth more West beyond Severne which the Silures in old time possessed along the river Vaga or Wye that parteth England and Wales was wholy bespred with thicke tall woods we call it at this day Deane-forrest The Latine writers some name it of the Danes Danica Sylva the Danes wood others with Girald the Wood of Danubia But I would thinke if it had not this name of Dean a little towne adjoyning that by short cutting the word it was called Deane for Arden Which terme both Gauls and Britans in ancient times may seeme to have used for a wood considering that two mighty great woods the one in that part of Gaule called Gallia Belgica and the other among us in Warwick-shire are by one and the selfe same name termed Arden For this was a wonderfull thicke Forrest and in former ages so darke and terrible by reason of crooked and winding wayes as also the grisly shade therein that it made the inhabitants more fierce and bolder to commit robberies For in the reigne of Henry the sixt they so infested all Severne side with robbing and spoiling that there were lawes made by authority of the Parliament for to restraine them But since that rich Mines of Iron were heere found out those thicke woods began to wax thin by little and little In this Forrest upon the foresaid river stood Tudenham and Wollaston two townes of good antiquity which Walter and Roger the brethren of Gislebert Lord of Clare wrested out of the Welch-mens hands about the yeare 1160. As also Lidney is adjoyning to them where Sir William Winter Viceadmirall of England a renowned Knight for Sea-services as his brother Arthur slaine in Orkeney-Isles built a faire house But the most ancient towne of all others is ABONE or AVONE mentioned by Antonine the Emperour in his Iourney-booke which having not lost that name altogether is at this day called Aventon a small towne indeed but standing upon Severne just nine miles as hee writeth from VENTASILVRVM or Caer-went And seeing that Avon in the Brittish tongue importeth A River it shall be no strange thing if we thinke it so called of the river for in the very same signification that I may omit the rest we have Waterton Bourne and Riverton as the Latines had Aquinum and Fluentium And I suppose the rather that it tooke name of the river because people were wont at this place to ferry over the river whereupon the towne standing over against it is by Antonine called TRAIECTVS that is a passage or ferry but without doubt the number in that place set downe is corrupted For he maketh it nine miles betweene TRAIECTVS and ABONE whereas the river is scarce three miles broad It may seeme then to have beene utterly decaied or turned rather into a village either when as passengers began to ferry over below or when Athelstane thrust out the Welsh Britans from hence For hee was the first that drave them as William of Malmesbury witnesseth beyond the river Wye And where as before his time Severne was the bound betweene the English and Welshmen hee appointed Wye to be the limit confining them both Whence our Necham writeth thus Inde vagos vaga Cambrenses hinc respicit Anglos To Wales on this side looketh Wie On that againe our England he doth eye Not farre from Wye amongst blind by-wayes beset with thicke plumps of trees appeareth Breulis Castle more than halfe fallen downe remarkable for the death of Mahel youngest sonne of Miles Earle of Hereford For there his greedy devises bloody crueltie and covetousnesse ready to pray upon other mens estates for which vices hee is much blamed in Writers were overtaken with a just revenge from heaven For as Girald hath written being entertained guest-wise by
Sir Walter Clifford in this Castle when the house was all on a light fire hee was killed with a stone that from the top of an high Turret fell upon his head and brained him Neither have I any thing else to be recounted in this wood-countrey beside Newnham a pretty mercate and Westbury thereby a seate of the Bainhams of ancient descent But that Herbert who had wedded the sister of the said Mahel Earle of Hereford in her right was called Lord of Deane froÌ„ whom that Noble house of the Herberts fetcheth their pedigree out of which family came the Lords of Blanleveney and of late daies the Herberts Earles of Huntingdon and Pembroch with others From hence also if wee may believe David Powell in his historie of Wales was descended Antonie Fitz-Herbert whose great learning and industrie in the wisedome of our law both the judiciall Court of Flees wherein he sate Iustice a long time and also those exact bookes of our common law by him exquisitely penned and published doe sufficiently witnesse But other have drawne his descent and that more truly if I have insight therein from the race of the Fitz-Herberts Knights in Derby shire The river Severn called by the Britains HAFFREN after it hath run a long course with a channell somewhat narrow no sooner entereth into this shire but entertaineth the river Avon and another brooke comming from the East Betwixt which is seated Tewkesbury in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by others Theoci Curia taking the name from one Theocus who there did lead an Eremites life It is a great and faire towne having three bridges to passe over standing upon three rivers famous for making of Wollen cloath and the best mustard which for the quicke heate that it hath biteth most and pierceth deepest but most famous in times past by reason of an ancient Monastery which Dodo a man of great power in Mercia founded in the yeare 715 where before time he kept his royall court as is testified by this inscription which there remained long after HANC AVLAM REGIAM DODO DVX CONSECRARI FECIT IN ECCLESIAM THIS ROIAL PALACE DVKE DODO CAVSED TO BE CONSECRATED FOR A CHVRCH And Odo his brother endowed the same which being by continuance of time and the fury of enemies ruinated Robert FITZ-HAIMON the Norman Lord of Corboile and Thorigny in Normandie reedified translating monks from Cranborn in Dorsetshire hither upon a devout mind verily and a religious that he might make some amends to the Church for the losse that the Church of Baieux in Normandie had sustained which K. Henry the first for to free him from his enemies had set on fire and burned and afterwards repenting that which he had done built againe It cannot writeth William of Malmesbury be easily reported how highly Robert Fitz-hamon exalted this Monastery wherin the beauty of the buildings ravished the eies and the charity of the Monks allured the hearts of such folke as used to come thither Within this both himselfe and his successours Earles of Glocester were buried who had a Castle of their owne called Holmes hard by which now is almost vanished out of sight Neither is this towne lesse memorable for that battell whereby the house of Lancaster received a mortal wound as wherein very many of their side in the yeere 1471. were slaine more taken prisoners and divers beheaded their power so weakened and their hopes abated especially because young Prince Edward the only sonne of King Henry the sixt a very child was there put to death and in most shamefull and villanous manner his braines dashed out as that never after they came unto the field against King Edward the Fourth In which respect Iohn Leland wrote of this towne in this wise Ampla foro partis spoliis praeclara Theoci Curia sabrinae quà se committit Avona Fulget nobilium sacrÃsque recondit in antris Multorum cineres quondam inclyta corpora bello Where Av'n and Severn meete in one there stands a goodly towne For mercat great and pillage rich there wonne of much renowne Hight Tewkesburie where noble men entombed many are Now gone to mould who sometimes were redoubted Knights in warre From thence we come to Deorhirst which Bede speaketh of scituate somewhat low upon the banke of Severn wherby it hath great losses many times when he over-floweth his bounds It had in it sometimes a little Monasterie which being by the Danes overthrowne flourished againe at length under Edward the Confessor who as we read in his Testament assigned The religious place at Deorhirst and the government thereof to Saint Denis neere unto Paris Yet a little while after as William of Malmesbury saith It was but a vaine and void representation of antiquitie Over against it lieth a place halfe incompassed in with Severne called in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Alney now the Eight that is The Iland Famous by the reason of this occurrence that when both the Englishmen and the Danes were much weakened with continuall encounters to make a finall dispatch at once of all quarrels the Fortune and destinie of both nations was committed to Edmund King of the English and to Canutus King of the Danes who in this Iland by a single combate tried it out unto whether of them the right of this Realme should belong But after they had fought and given over on even hand a peace was concluded and the kingdome divided betweene them But when streight upon it Edmund was dispatched out of the way not without suspicion of poison Canutus seized into his owne hands all England From Deorhirst Severne runneth downe by Haesfield which King Henry the Third gave to Rich. Pauncefote whose successours built a faire house heere and whose predecessours were possessed of faire lands in this Countrey before and in the Conquerours time in Wiltshire making many reaches winding in and out and forthwith dividing himselfe to make a river Iland most rich and beautifull in greene meddowes he passeth along by the head Citie of this Shire which Antonine the Emperour called CLEVVM and GLEVVM the Britans terme Caer Gloviè the English Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we Glocester the Vulgar sort of Latinists Glovernia others Claudiocestria of the Emperour Claudius as they imagine who forsooth should give it this name when hee had bestowed heere his daughter Genissa in marriage upon Arviragus the Britan. Touching whom Iuvenall writeth thus Regem aliquem capies vel de temone Britanno Excidet Arviragus Some King sure thou shalt prisoner take in chase or battaile heat Or else Arviragus shall loose his British royall seate As though hee had begat any other daughters of his three wives besides Claudia Antonia and Octavia or as if Arviragus had beene knowne in that age whose name was never heard of before Domitians time and scarce then But let them goe that seeke to build antiquitie upon a frame grounded on lies Rather yet would I
William who enjoyed it a short time dying also without issue So by Amice the second daughter of the forenamed Earle William married to Richard de Clare Earle of Hertford this Earledome descended to Gilbert her sonne who was stiled Earle of Glocester and Hertford and mightily enriched his house by marrying one of the heires of William Marshall Earle of Pembroch His sonne and successour Richard in the beginning of the Barons warres against king Henry the Third ended his life leaving Gilbert his sonne to succeed him who powerfully and prudently swaied much in the said wars as he inclined to them or the king He obnoxious to King Edward the First surrendred his lands unto him and received them againe by marrying Joane the Kings Daughter sirnamed of Acres in the Holy-land because shee was there borne to his second Wife who bare unto him Gilbert Clare last Earle of Glocester of this sirname slaine in the flower of his youth in Scotland at the battaile of Sterling in the 6. yeare of K. Edward the second Howbeit while this Gilbert the third was in minority Sir Ralph de Mont-hermer who by a secret contract had espoused his mother the Kings daughter for which he incurred the kings high displeasure and a short imprisonment but after reconciled was summoned to Parliaments by the name of Earle of Glocester and Hertford But when Gilbert was out of his minority he was summoned amongst the Barons by the name of Sir Ralph de Mont-hermer as long as he lived which I note more willingly for the rarenesse of the example After the death of Gilbert the third without children Sir Hugh Le De-Spenser commonly named Spenser the younger was by writers called Earle of Glocester because he had married the eldest sister of the said Gilbert the third But after that he was by the Queene and Nobles of the Realme hanged for hatred they bare to K. Edward the 2. whose minion he was Sir Hugh Audley who had matched in marriage with the second sister through the favour of King Edward the Third received this honour After his death King Richard the Second erected this Earledome into a Dukedome and so it had three Dukes and one Earle betweene and unto them all it prooved Equus Sejanus that is Fatall to give them their fall Thomas of Woodstocke youngest sonne to King Edward the Third was the first Duke of Glocester advanced to that high honour by the said King Richard the Second and shortly after by him subverted For when he busily plotted great matters the King tooke order that he should be conveyed secretly in all haste to Calis where with a featherbed cast upon him he was smouthered having before under his owne band confessed as it stands upon Record in the Parliament Rols that he by vertue of a Patent which hee had wrested from the King tooke upon him the Kings regall authority that he came armed into the Kings presence reviled him consulted with learned about renouncing his allegiance and devised to depose the King for which being now dead he was by authority of Parliament attainted and condemned of high Treason When hee was thus dispatched the same King conferred the Title of Earle of Glocester upon Thomas Le De-Spenser in the right of his Great Grand-mother who within a while after sped no better than his great Grand-father Sir Hugh For by King Henry the fourth he was violently displaced shamefully degraded and at Briston by the peoples fury beheaded After some yeares King Henry the Fifth created his brother Humfrey the second Duke of Glocester who stiled himselfe the first yeare of King Henry the Sixth as I have seene in an Instrument of his Humfrey by the Grace of God sonne brother and Uncle to Kings Duke of Glocester Earle of Henault Holland Zeland and Penbroch Lord of Friesland Great Chamberlaine of the Kingdome of England Protector and Defender of the same Kingdome and Church of England A man that had right well deserved of the common wealth and of learning but through the fraudulent practise and malignant envie of the Queene brought to his end at Saint Edmunds Bury The third and last Duke was Richard brother to King Edward the Fourth who afterwards having most wickedly murdred his Nephewes usurped the Kingdome by the name of King Richard the third and after two yeares lost both it and his life in a pitched field finding by experience that power gotten by wicked meanes is never long lasting Concerning this last Duke of Glocester and his first entry to the Crowne give me leave for a while to play the part of an Historiographer which I will speedily give over againe as not well able to act it When this Richard Duke of Glocester being now proclaimed Protector of the Kingdome had under his command his tender two Nephewes Edward the Fifth King of England and Richard Duke of Yorke he retriving after the Kingdome for himselfe by profuse liberality and bounty to very many by passing great gravitie tempered with singular affabilitie by deepe wisdome by ministring justice indifferently and by close devises wonne wholly to him all mens hearts but the Lawyers especially to serve his turne So shortly he effected that in the name of all the States of the Realme there should be exhibited unto him a supplication wherein they most earnestly besought him for the publike Weale of the Kingdome to take upon him the Crowne to uphold his Countrey and the common-weale now shrinking and downe falling not to suffer it to runne headlong into utter desolation by reason that both lawes of nature and the authority of positive lawes and the laudable customes and liberties of England wherein every Englishman is an inheritor were subverted and trampled under foote through civill wars rapines murthers extortions oppressions and all sorts of misery But especially ever since that King Edward the fourth his brother bewitched by sorcerie and amorous potions fell in fancie with Dame Elizabeth Greie widdow whom he married without the assent of his Nobles without solemne publication of Banes secretly in a profane place and not in the face of the Church contrary to the law of Gods Church and commendable custome of the Church of England and which was worse having before time by a precontract espoused Dame Aeleanor Butler daughter to the old Earle of Shrewsburie whereby most sure and certaine it was that the foresaid matrimony was unlawfull and therewith the children of them begotten illegitimate and so unable to inherite or claime the Crowne Moreover considering that George Duke of Clarence the second brother of King Edward the Fourth was by authority of Parliament convicted and attainted of high treason thereupon his children disabled and debarred from all right succession evident it was to every man that Richard himselfe remained the sole and undoubted heire to the Crowne Of whom they assured themselves that being borne in England he would seriously provide for the good of England neither could they make any doubt of his
with this Greeke Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is THE EMPEROUR CAESAR LUCIUS SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS PERTINAX And in the Reverse an Horseman with a Trophaee erected before him but the letters not legible save under him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Of the Elaians which kinde of great peeces the Italians call Medaglionj and were extraordinary coines not for common use but coined by the Emperours either to bee distributed by the way of Largesse in triumphes or to bee sent for tokens to men well deserving or else by free Cities to the glory and memory of good Princes What name this place anciently had is hard to be found but it seemeth to have beene the Port and landing place for Venta Silurum when as it is but two miles from it Then Throgoy a little River neere unto Caldecot entereth into the Severn Sea where we saw the wall of a Castle that belonged to the High Constables of England and was holden by the service of Constableship of England Hard by are seene Wondy and Penbow the seates in times past of the noble Family of Saint Maur now corruptly named Seimor For G. Mareshall Earle of Pembrock about the yeere of our Lord 1240. was bound for the winning of Wondy out of the Welsh mens hands to aide William Seimor From him descended Roger de Saint Maur Knight who married one of the heires of I. Beauchamp of Hach a very noble Baron who derived his Pedegree from Sibyl Heire unto William Mareshall that most puissant Earle of Pembrock from William Ferrars Earle of Darby from Hugh de Vivon and William Mallet men in times past most highly renowned The Nobility of all these and of others besides as may be evidently shewed hath met together in that right honourable personage Edward Saint Maur or Seimor now Earle of Hartford a singular favourer of vertue and good learning worthy in that behalfe to be honoured and commended to posterity Beneath this lyeth spred for many miles together a Mersh they call it the Moore which when I lately revised this worke suffered a lamentable losse For when the Severn Sea at a spring Tide in the change of the Moone what being driven backe for three dayes together with a South-West Winde and what with a very strong pirry from the sea troubling it swelled and raged so high that with surging billowes it came rolling and in-rushing amaine upon this Tract lying so low as also upon the like flats in Somerset-shire over against it that it overflowed all subverted houses and drowned a number of beasts and some people withall Where this Mersh Coast bearing out by little and little runneth forth into the sea in the very point thereof standeth Goldclyffe aloft that is as Giralaus saith A Golden Cliffe so called because the stones there of a golden colour by reverberation of the Sunne shining full upon them glitter with a wonderfull brightnesse neither can I bee easily perswaded saith hee that Nature hath given this brightnesse in vaine unto the stones and that there should bee a flower heere without fruite were there any man that would search into the Veines there and using the direction of Art enter in the inmost and secretest bowels of the Earth Neere to this place there remaine the Reliques of a Priory that acknowledge those of Chandos for their founders and Patron Passing thence by the Merish Country we came to the mouth of the River Isca which the Britans name Usk and Wijsk and some Writers terme it Osca This River as it runneth through the middest as I said before of this County floweth hard by three Townes of especiall antiquity The first in the limite of the Shire North-West Antonine the Emperour calleth GOBANIUM at the very meeting of Uske and Geveny whereof it had the name and even at this day keeping the ancient name as it were safe and sound is tearmed Aber-Gevenny and short Aber-genny which signifieth the confluents of Gevenny or Gobanny Fortified it is with Wals and a Castle which as saith Giraldus of all the Castles in Wales hath beene most defamed and stained with the foule note of treason First by William Earle Miles his sonne afterwards by William Breos for both of them after they had trained thither under a pretense of friendship certain of the Nobles and chiefe Gentlemen of Wales with promise of safe conduct villanously slew them But they escaped not the just judgement and vengeance of God For William Breos after he had beene stripped of all his goods and lost his wife and some of his children who were famished to death died in banishment the other William being brained with a stone whiles Breulais Castle was on fire suffered in the end due punishment for his wicked deserts The first Lord to my knowledge of Aber Gevenny was one Sir Hameline Balun who made Brien of Wallingford or Brient de L'isle called also the Fitz-Count his heire He having built heere a Lazarhouse for his two sonnes that were Lepres ordained Walter the sonne of Miles Earle of Hereford heire of the greatest part of his inheritance After him succeeded his brother Henry slaine by the Welshmen who seized upon his lands which the Kings Lieutenants and Captaines could not defend without great perill and danger By a sister of this Henry it descended to the Breoses and from them in right of marriage by the Cantelowes to the Hastings which Hastings being Earles of Pembrock enjoyed it for divers descents and John Hastings having then no childe borne devised both it and the Earledome of Pembrock as much as in him lay to his cosin Sir William Beauchamp conditionally that he should beare his Armes And when the last Hastings ended his life issuelesse Reginald Lord Grey of Ruthin being found his Heire passed over the Barony of Aber-gevenny to the said William Beauchamp who was summoned afterward to Parliament by the name of W. Beauchamp de Abergevenny Hee entailed the said Barony reserving an estate to himselfe and his wife and to the lawfull issue male of their bodies and for default of such issue to his brother Thomas Beauchamp Earle of Warwick and his heires males This William Beauchamp Lord of Abergevenny had a sonne named Richard who for his martiall valour was created Earle of Worcester and slaine in the French warres leaving one onely daughter whom Sir Edward Nevill tooke to wife Since which time the Nevils have enjoyed the honorable title of the Barons of Abergevenny howbeit the Castle was by vertue of the entaile aforesaid detained from them a long time The fourth Baron of this house dying in our remembrance left one onely daughter Mary married to Sir Thomas Fane Knight betwixt whom being the heire generall and Edward Nevill the next heire male unto whom by a will and the same ratified by authority of the Parliament the Castle of Abergevenny and the greatest part
where it passeth over Eden From thence it runneth forth and hath the river Irthing beneath it crossing over Camberke a little brooke running crooked with many turnings in and out where are great tokens to be seene of a fortification After this having cut over the rivers Irthing and Poltrosse it entreth into Northumberland and among the mountaines hudled together goeth along by the side of the river which they call South-Tine without any interruption save only that it is divided by North-Tine where in ancient time there was a bridge over it as farre as to the German Ocean as I will shew in due place when I am come once into Northumberland Yet this admirable worke could not avert and keepe out the tempestuous stormes of forraine enemies But when the Romane armies were retired out of Britaine the Picts and Scots assaulting the wall upon the sudden with their engines and hooked weapons pluckt and puld downe the garrison souldiers brake through the fence and overranne Britaine far and neere being then disarmed and shaken with civill broiles and most miserably afflicted with extreme famine But the most wofull and lamentable misery of these heavie times Gildas a Britan who lived not long after pensilleth out lively in these words As the Romans were returning homeward there appear striving who could come first out of their Caroches in which they had passed over the vale Stitica like unto duskish swarmes of wormes comming forth of their little caves with most narrow holes at noone day in summer and when the heat of he sunne is at the highest a rabble of Scots and Picts in maners partly different but in one and the same greedy designe of bloodshed And having knowledge once that our friends and associates were retired home and had denied ever to returne again they with greater confidence and boldnesse than before time attempt to possesse themselves of all the North side and the utmost part of the land from out of the Inlanders hands as far as to the very wall Against these invasions there stands placed on high in a Keepe a lasie crew unable to fight unfit God he knowes for service trembling and quaking at the heart which night and day sate still as benummed and stirred not abroad Mean while the hooked engines of their naked and bareshanked enemies cease not wherewith the most miserable inhabitants were plucked downe from the walls and dashed against the hard ground This good yet did such an untimely death unto those that thus lost their lives that by so quicke a dispatch and end they were freed from the view of most piteous paines and imminent afflictions of their brethren and children What should I say more when they had left the Cities and high wall they were againe driven to flye and hide themselves and being thus dispersed in more desperate case they were than they had been before The enemies likewise presse still sorer upon them and semblably hasten bloody carnage and slaughters one in the necke of another And even as lambs are torn in pieces by butchers so are these lamentable inhabitants by the enemies insomuch as their abode and continuance together might be well compared to wild beasts For both they preyed one upon another and by robbing also forbare not the short pittance of food that the poorer sort of the inhabitants had for their owne small sustentation also these outward calamities were encreased with domesticall commotions so that by reason of so great robbing pilling and spoiling the whole countrey wanted the stay of all kind of food save onely that which they got by hunting to comfort their poor pining bodies But this is worth the observation that as by the wisdome of the Romans this wall was so built that it had two very great rivers neere to it on the inner side as it were for another defence namely Tine and Irthing that are divided one from the other with a very narrow parcell of ground So on the other side the barbarous people were so cunning that in the same place especially they made their first entrance betwixt these rivers where they might have free passage farther into the heart of the Province without hinderance of any river according as we will shew by and by in Northumberland The fabulous tales of the common people concerning this wall I doe wittingly and willingly overpasse Yet this one thing which I was enformed of by men of good credit I will not conceale from the Reader There continueth a setled perswasion among a great part of the people thereabout and the same received by tradition That the Roman souldiers of the marches did plant here every where in old time for their use certaine medicinable hearbs for to cure wounds whence it is that some Emperick practitioners of Chirurgery in Scotland flock hither every yeere in the beginning of summer to gather such Simples and wound-herbes the vertue whereof they highly commend as found by long experience and to be of singular efficacy OTTADINI AFter the Brigantes Ptolomee placeth those who according to the divers readings in Copies are called OTTALINI OTTADENI and OTTADINI In steed of all which names I would if I durst presume so far with a very easie alteration substitute OTTATINI that it might signifie On the farther side of or above the river Tine And so verily would the name of the Inhabitants bee consonant with the position and site of the countrey For these are planted beyond Tine And the Welsh-Britans at this day call a country in Wales beyond the river Conwey Uch Conwey beyond the hils Uchmynith beyond the wood Uch-Coed beyond the river Gwyrway Uch-Gwyrway Neither can it be I assure you altogether absurd if after the same manner they tearmed this country beyond Tine Uch Tin whence the Romans may seeme to have framed this name OTTADINI by a word somewhat disjointed but more smooth and pleasanter to the eare And whereas Xiphilinus reporteth out of Dio that all the Britans that dwelt neere unto the wall which we spake of even now were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or MAEATAE good reason it is that we should thinke these our Ottadini dwelling by the said wall were among those Maeatae who in that memorable revolt and rebellion of the Britans called in the Caledonians to assist them and take armes with them At which time Severus the Emperour commanded his souldiers peremptorily to kill all the Britans using these verses of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let none scape cruell death Nor dint of sword no not the child unborne In mothers womb that lies his death is sworne But the tempestuous storme of this rebellion was calmed by the death of Severus who in his very preparation for warre died at Yorke Long after this Countrey seemeth to have beene a part of VALENTIA For so Theodosius called it in honour of Valentinian the Emperour after he had subdued the barbarous people
Kingdome The Brehons assisted by certaine Scholars who had learned many rules of the civill and Canon law rather by tradition then by reading gave judgement in all causes and had the eleventh part of the thing adjudged for their fee and the chiefe Lords Marshall did execution These are the principall rules and grounds of the Brehon law which the makers of the Statutes of Kilkenny did not without cause call a lewd custome for it was the cause of much lewdnesse and barbarisme It gave countenance and encouragement to theft rape and murther it made all possessions uncertaine whereby it came to passe that there was no building of houses and townes nor education of children in learning or civility no exercise of trades or handicrafts no improvement or manuring of lands no industry or vertue in use among them but the people were bred in loosenesse and idlenesse which hath beene the true cause of all the mischeifes and miseries in that Kingdome Now forward take with you the observations of the said Good and thus much will I speake before hand for the man that in nothing he shooteth at reproach but aimeth all at truth and speaketh onely of those uncivill and meere Irish that lie shrowded in the utmost coasts and have not as yet suited themselves with civill qualities and conditions And to speake in generall of them all this Nation is strong of bodie and passing nimble stout and haughty in heart for wit quicke martiall prodigall and carelesse of their lives enduring travell cold and hunger given to fleshly lust kind and curteous to strangers constant in love in enmitie implacable light of beliefe greedie of glorie impatient of abuse and injurie and as hee said in old time in all affections most vehement and passionate If they be bad you shall no where meet with worse if they be good you can hardly find better Generally they give unto their children when they come to holy baptisme profane names adding alwaies somewhat to the name taken either from some event or an old wife or else some colour as red white blacke or else from a disease scab and peeldnesse or from one vice or other as theefe proud c. and albeit they be of all men most impatient of reproach yet these noble men of theirs even they that have the letter O prefixed to their names disdaine not those additions The name of the Parent or any of the same kinred then living it is not lawfull to give unto children for they are perswaded that their death is hastened thereby But when the father is dead then the sonne assumeth his name left the name should be lost and if any Ancestour of that name were a redoubted warriour the like prowesse and valour is expected from him This opinion is encreased by their Poets Bardes or Rimers who keepe the exploits of those ancient Progenitours recorded in writing which they peece out with many high praises and fables devised of their owne braine whereby these Rimers or Bards grow rich For new wedded brides and women in childbed thinke themselves discredited if they bestow not upon one of these Praise-praters the best garments they have Mothers after six daies that they be brought a bed companie with their husbands afresh and put forth their young babes to nource They that be of the more noble parentage shall have a number of nources repaire unto them streight waies from far which make suit for the nourcing of the infant and of these foster children they make more account than of their own which they beare And although they are most intemperate by reason of the distemperature of the aire and the moisture both of the ground and of their meates in regard also that all law is exiled and albeit they thinke it is a shame for themselves to give their owne children the breast yet for this their nurcelings sake both man and wife abstaine from carnall company together And if they doe otherwise they entertaine another nource under them at their owne charges And nources there be among them as many well neere as there are young wenches for their servants and to have the suckling of the little child they count a sufficient reward for being naught of their bodies Now if this infant fortune to bee sicke they all to besprinckle it with the stalest urine they can get and for a preservative against all misfortunes they hang about the childrens neckes not onely the beginning of Saint Iohns Gospell but also a crooked naile taken out of an horses shooe or else a piece of a Wolves skin And for that purpose as well nources as infants weare girdles platted of womens haire To their lovers also it is knowne they send bracelets finely wrought of these haires whether their minde is herein of Venus girdle called Cestos I wote not The Foster-fathers take much more paines bestow more goods by farre and shew greater love unto their foster children than they doe to their owne children From them these children not so much by due claime of right receive as by force wrest even with taking stresses and driving away booties apparell maintenance for their pleasures mony wherwith to buy them armour yea and to spend in all kind of their lewdnesse their dowries also and stockes of cattell All those that have been nourced by the same woman love one another more deerely repose greater trust in them than if they were their naturall whole brethren and sisters insomuch as in comparison of these and for their sakes they even hate their naturall brethren and sisters Be they reproved at any time by their own parents they flie to these their foster-fathers and being heartened by them breake out oftentimes even unto open war against their said parents taking instructions from them to all lewd and villanous prankes they become most ungracious and desperate Semblably the nources traine up those maidens which they reare to all obscenity and filthinesse If any of these foster children chance to fall sicke a man would not beleeve how quickly their nources heare of it yea though they dwell many a mile off how pensively they attend and watch by the sicke body night and day To conclude the greatest corruptions of Ireland are thought to spring from these foster-fathers and nources and from nought else That these Irish people are both of an hotter and moisture nature than other nations we may well conjecture And this we gather by their wonderfull soft skin which doubtlesse commeth as well by the nature of the soile as by certaine artificiall bathings and exercise that they use By reason also of the same tendernesse of their muscles they so excell in nimblenesse and flexibility of all parts of the body as it is incredible Given they are to idlenes above all things they reckon it the greatest riches to take no paine and count it the most pleasure to enjoy liberty Delighted they are above measure in musick but especially in the harpe with wire-strings which they
f Torksey 538 a Torneaments 407 d Tosto vanquished 145 Totnes 201 e Totnesse shore 202 Touchets a family 584 b. Barons de Audeley ibid. Tovie the Kings Standard bearer 439 d Tovie the river 649 d Toure d' Ordre 345 c Tower of London 423 e Towridge river 207 f Tourington 208 b Towton battell 696 d Trabucks 400 Tracies 36â— d Traiford a place and family 747 Traith Maur 666 a Traith Bichan ibid. Traith Taff 642 c Trebellius Max. Propretor in Britaine 52 Treboeth 605 f Trederman 783 b Trâ—es under ground 745 d. 607 Tregaron 657 d Tregonie 190 Tregian ibid. Tregoz Barons 617 d Trelawnies 192 Trematon 193 Trenewith 661 e Trent a riveret 213 Trent a river 547 Treutham a Monastery 583 Treshams a family 509 c Trevilions 196 b Triadum a British booke 33 Tribet 29 Tribunals or Courts of Iustice in England 177 Tribunitian auctority 101 Trihine what it was 159 Trimarcia 18 Tripetia 20 Trophee in Cornwall 188 Trubridge 244 e True-place 802 a Trusbut 540 e Tuddington 401 f Tufa a Banner 195 Tuisco the Saxons stock-father 135 Tuisday ibid. Tunbridge why so called 330 a Tunstall a worthy Prelate 744 d Turbervelis or de Turbida villa 213 e Turbevils a family 643 e Turkil a Coward 464 e Turkils of Arden 565 d Turkil the Dane 500 b Tirold Abbot of Peterborough 513 a Turton Chappell and tower 745 Turpins Knights 517 Turets a family 594 e Turvy 399 b Tuscets or Touchets Barons Audeley 609 a Tutbury Castle 587 f Twede the river 814 e Twifford 813 c Twinamburue 259 c Tyrants in Britain 23 Tzetzes a fabulous Greeke writer 32 V VAle a river 189 Vale 393 b Vale of Ailesbury 395 c Vale Roiall 608 d Vallachians why so called 11 Valle Crucis 677 a Valect what hee is 663. a worshipfull title 713 c Valoinois a family 465 f Valtorts 193 Valvasores 168 Vandals and Burgundians in Britaine 114 Vandals brought into Britaine by Probus 71 Vandelberia 489 d Vargae 19 Varia what it signifieth 679 c Vaulx Barons 786 b. 510 Ubbanford 816 b Uchel 21.190 Vectius Bolanus 53 Venables Barons of Kindreton 609 b Vandraeth Vehan a river 649 Venedocia 659 f Venutius a Potentate of Britain 48 Venutius warreth upon his wife Cartismandua 53 Verannius Propretor in Britaine 49 Verbeia the river Wherfe and a Goddesse 697 Veres Earles of Oxford 389 d Vere the good Earle 390 b Vere Earle of Oxford became a Monke 450 d Vere 202 f Vere Earle of Oxford and Marquesse of Dublin Verdons a family 517 f. 620 b Veriad 19 Vernaies Knights 565 a Vernons a family 567 a Verulam or Verlam Citie in old time 408 f Vesey Barons 722 c. neere to Saint Albons Verulam Tribute 409 c Vespasian his acts in Britaine 41 42 Uffa 458 a Ufkins ibid. Ufford a towne 465 c Valentinian an Arrian 83 Valentine a rebell in Britaine suppressed 80 Ufford Earle of Suffolke 465 c Uffords 813 b Vicarius or Vicegerent in Britan 76 Vicounts what title of Honour 167 Vicount of Honour who was first in England 521 e Victor the sonne of Maximus slaine 83 Victorina 271 b Victorinus a commendable governour under Honorius in Britaine 85 Victorie what names it hath in divers languages 457 e Vecturiones who so called 117 Vellocatus Costrell to Venutius marieth his wife 53 Victrix a Legion 604 c Vies 244 a Villa forinseca what it is 391 e Villiers a family 523 a Vineyards in Britaine 71 The Vine 269 d Vines in England ibid. e Vinyards in Glocestershire 357 f Vincents Rocke 239 a Virius Lupus Propretor 69 Virgins eleven thousand Martyrs 197 a. 286 c Visigothi 294 c Visi Saxones ibid. Viscounts a family Vitsan 347 d Vitrum 19 Viterinus 691 d Ulpius Marcellus a brave warriour 66. his vigilancy and temperance ibid. Ulphus his horne 704 e Ulse a lake 776 c Ulstley 773 a Ulysses whether ever in Britaine 32 Ulyssippo that is Lisbon whence it tooke name 32 Ulverston 755 c Umfranvils a family 806 b. 535 University Colledge in Oxford 381 c University a publicke schoole 381 b Unstrote a river 138 Voisy Bishop of Excester 567 Vortigern the last Monarch of British blood and the bane of his country 624 b. burnt with Lightning ibid. Vortigerne alias Gourtigern sendeth for Saxons 128 Vortimer a valiant Britaine where buried 538 e Uppingham 525 e Upton 577 Vortiporius a Tyrant of the Dimetae 113 Ursula an holy Virgin 197 Ursus de Abtot 570. Sheriffe of Worcestershire 578 e Usa or Isa that is Ouse a river 296 Usipians their venturous and memorable fact 57 Uske a river 628 a Uske a towne 636 c Utcester 587 e Uther Pendragon 195. why so called 410 Uxbridge 419 â— W WAda a Saxon Duke 719 b Wadensbourg 241 d Wadham 382 a Wahul Woodhil or Odill 399 c Barons de Wahul ibid. Wakes Barons Wake and Estotevill 202 d. 407 533 a Wakes of Blisworth 533 b Wakefield 693 d Wakeman of Rippon 700 d Wainfleete in Lincolne-shire 542 b Wales 615 c d. 22. annexed and united to the Crowne of England 114 Walch 22 Walcher Bishop of Durham slain in a Commotion 743 d Wall by Lichfield 582 e Wall of Turfe betweene Edenburgh Frith and Cluid 86 Walls end 811 b Wall of stone built in Britaine 86 Wallbery 453 d Walbrooke in London 423 a Walbeofs a family 628 e Walden 452 b Walde of Earle of Northampton and of Huntingdon 502 c 515 c. his disloyall treachery ibid. Walleran Earle of Mellent and first Earle of Worcester 579 a Wallers 330 e Wallerond 618 a Walfleot Oisters 444 d Walli Wallon 22.113 Wallingford 281 d Wallop or Welhope a place 262 Wallops a family ibid. b Wallot Isle 443 c Walmesford bridge 511 d Walnut-tree at Glastenburie 227 Walney an Island 755 c Walpole 481 b Walshal 581 f Walsh a family 364 Walsh what it signifieth 113 Walsingham 470 c Walsingham a towne 479 c Walsingham Knights ibid. Walter de Hemingford 721 Walter 752 f Walter Espec 709 d Waltham Crosse 437 d Waltham Forest 439 c Waltham Abbey or Waltham Crosse a towne 439 c Walton in Darbyshire 556 b Walton a place and familie 572 Walwick 802 a Walwort a herbe called Danes-blood 452 b Wandlesworth 303 a Wandle a river 287 f Wansdike 241 d Wantage 281 a Wantsum or Wentfar a riveret 473 c. see stour in kent Ware a towne 407 c Wapentakes what they bee 159 Ware a Priest and Baron of the Parliament 746 a Wests Barons de la Ware 312 Warburgton a place and familie 610 b Wards 179 Wardens of the Marches 799 b Warden of the Cinque ports 325 b Wardon 401 c Wardon Hundred in Northamptonshire 507 b Wardour a Castle 246 a Ward-staff 440 c Warham towne 213 c Warkworth 813 a Warington 748 b Warnford 269 a Warre civill betweene Yorke and Lancaster determined in the death of Edward the young Earle of Warwicke 570 Warwast 201 c Warwick-shire 561 Warwick towne 562 f Warwick Earles 569 f Warwicke in Cumberland 778 a Wash a