of which were more desperately bent against each other then either Picts or Britains against both The whole Continent of their Dominions took up six Counties as we now reckon them viz. Northumberland properly so call'd Westmerland Cumberland Yorkshire Lancashire and Durham These falling to the Charge of Otho and Ebusa they made an equal Dividend betwixt them taking three to each the first had all betwixt Humber and Tine and call'd it the Dukedom of Deira The second had all from Tine to the Frith of Edinburgh which was entituled the Dukedom of Bernicia Ninety nine years it continued under the distinct Government of their Posterity each independent of other and each as often as the Common Enemy gave them any rest pecking at the other with equal Enmity and not unequal Fortune till the time of Ella and Ida two famous Captains the one descended from Wealdeag fourth Son of Woden t'other from Bealdeag his fifth Son who thinking themselves less in Title then in Power urged by a mutual Emulation elevated their Dignity to the height of their Fortunes and stil'd themselves as all the rest of their Country-men Kings the last was the first Monarch the first the last King One getting the Start of Priority in Degree the other the advantage of Survivorship by which means it happened that the Government which hitherto had been as it were Party per Pale not long after became Checquy Fortune according to her Constant Inconstancy alternately deposing sometimes one sometimes the other disposing the Diadem like a Ball toss'd from one Hazzard to another so that the Spectators knew not which side to beat on till those of the House of Ella making a Fault Ethelrick won the Sett having got the honour to be the first absolute Lord of the whole which he united under the Title of the Kingdom of Northumberland banishing the other Names of Distinction This Malmesbury ascribes more to his Fortune then his Merit making him beholding to the bravery of his sprightly Son Ethelfrid the Wild for the continuance of any Memory of his Name which shews us the Founders themselves are oftentimes as the Foundations they lay under Ground unknown and obscure taking their Honour from the Superstructure that they rear not from themselves But as those of Bernicia claim'd the honour of building the House so those of Deira boasted they were the first took the Possession their Dignity becoming them so much the better in that they made their Power known where their Title was not by the Courage of their Magnanimous King Edwin who inlarged his Dominions as far as the Mavian Isles but by that Prosperity of his render'd himself rather Glorious then Great drawing himself out of his proper Strength by an Extent that weakned him and drew on him a more powerful Enemy then that he had subdued to wit the Neighbouring Mercian who by his death and his Sons made way to let in the Bernician Line again which continued uninterrupted ten Descents after which follow'd a Succession of Six Usurpers out of distinct Stocks who wasted near Thirty years with so little advantage to themselves or their Country that at length it became a Prey to several petty Tyrants of so low Rank that only One of Ten had the Confidence to stile himself a King which confusion tempted the Dane to fall in upon them with so resistless fury that they were fain to crave Protection of the West-Saxon who made them a Province unto him after they had stood the shock of Two hundred thirty five years with repute of being an absolute and intire Kingdom THE ORDER OF THE English Kings AFTER THE HEPTARCHY Was reduc'd into an Absolute Monarchy VIII I. date of accession 800 EGBERT was the first gave himself the Imperial Stile of King of England differing therein from his Predecessors who stiled themselves Kings of the Englishmen having reduc'd the Heptarchy into a Monarchy he gave Kent and Sussex to his younger Son Athelstan the rest descending on his eldest Son II. date of accession 837 ETHELWOLPH who put off a Myter to put on a Crown being Bishop of Winchester at the time of his Fathers death and being fitter to be a Monk then a Monarch he was accordingâ—y justled out of his Right by his ungracious Son III. date of accession 857 ETHELBALD whose ill got Glory pâ—ov'd so transitory that â—t serv'd him only to perform an act of Infamy outlasted it possessing himself of his Fathers Bed as well as of his Throne which prov'd his Grave so that his Brother VI. date of accession 858 ETHELBERT before Lord of a part as Heir to his Uncle Athelstan became now Lord of the whole and by managing that he learn'd how to manage this the number of his troubles exceeded that of the Months of his reign so that not able to bear up under the weight of the burthen of the Government he died and left his Brother V. date of accession 863 ETHELRED to succeed him as Heir both to his happiness and unhappiness who being likewise wearied rather then vanquish'd hy the continual Assaults of the Danes left the glory with the danger to his Brother VI. date of accession 873 ELFRID a Prince that in despight of War perform'd all the noblest Acts of Peace making as good use of his Pen as of his Sword at the same time securing and civilizing his People His Son VII date of accession 900 EDWARD surnam'd the Elder enjoy'd thereby such a happiness as was only worthy the Son of such a Father as St. Elfrid and the Father of such a Son as VIII date of accession 924 ATHELSTAN who knew no Peace but what he purchas'd with his Sword being more Forward then Fortunate and therein like his Brother IX date of accession 940 EDMOND who escaping all the Storm perished in a Calm being kill'd after he had escaped so many Battels in a private Fray betwixt two of his own Servants in his own House X. date of accession 946 EADRED succeeded who gave himself the stile of King of Great Britain a Title too great it seems for his Successor XI date of accession 955 EDWIN who discontinued it shewing thereby that Nature was mistaken in bringing him into the World before his Brother XII date of accession 959 EDGAR who reassum'd that Title again yet not before he had made himself Lord of the whole Continent but as one surfeited with Glory he dyed as we may so say before he began to live leaving his Son XIII date of accession 975 EDWARD surnam'd the Martyr to support his memory who fell as a Sacrifice to the Inhumane Ambition of a Step-mother who murther'd him to prefer his younger Brother but her eldest Son XIV date of accession 978 ETHELRED an excellent Prince had he not been blasted by the Curse of his Mothers Guilt who as an ill-set Plant wither'd before he could take firm Root being wind-shaken with continual storms all his reign which his Son XV. date of accession 1016 EDMOND from his
universal darkness (t) Tertullian Tertullian that liv'd not long after taking thence occasion to upbraid the unbelieving Jews by telling them that the Britains whom the Romans could not conquer were yet subject unto Christ and to say truth their obedience to the Cross was the chief cause of humbling themselves under the Fasces Lucius being the first King that stipulated for the enjoyment of his own Laws at the price of a Tribute which if it were some diminution of his Majesty was made up with advantage by his Successour Constantine the Great whom therefore the (u) In M. Ant. In Arc. Cott. Panegyrist not unfitly stiles Divus Orbis Britanniae Liberator 7. However in respect the Romans had some hold-fast here for near a hundred years after Constantine's death it may be by some perhaps thought more reasonable to begin our Computation from Vortigern who having neither Competitor nor Compartner in the Government there being not one Roman left in the whole Isle to controul or contend with him was without doubt the first that as Tacitus speaks of Augustus Nomine Principis sub Imperium accepit circa An. Chr. 440. At what time all the Neighbour Princes round about him were under the common yoak of Servitude The French themselves who stand so much upon the Antiquity of their Monarchy falling short of this Account near four hundred years who being govern'd by Dukes till the year 420 had not in almost thirty years after any more of France in their Intire possession then that Canton which the Romans call'd Belgicum which was the more inconsiderable by being parcel'd out into many Petty (w) As were Burgundy Lorrain Guien Aquitain Normandy Champagne Fâ—ix Orange c. Royalties that could not unite till the time of Charlemaine who liv'd about the latter end of our Heptarchy after whose death the whole fell into five pieces again four whereof ceas'd to be French which gave so great disturbance to all their Kings of the Second and third Race that they were so far from being Masters of that little that they had that they were scarce (x) Vide Du Serres in Proem Hist Lords of themselves being forc'd to pawn the best part of their Inheritance to enable them to keep the rest none of their Successors being in condition to redeem any considerable part till Lewis the Eleventh who happily having recovered the Earldom of Provence and Dutchy of Burgundy made his boast that he had brought his Kingdom Hors de Page Much more distorted was the Empire of the Spaniards if so be we may allow them to have any thing like absolute Soveraignty till this very last Age when Ferdinand the Second worthily reputed their first Monarch happily united Castile and Aragon with their Appendixes their Predecessors till then being so inconsiderable that the Kings of Scotland took place of them In how obscure a condition all the Northern Kings were for by that common appellation those of Muscovy Sweadland Denmark and Norway past undistinguish'd till about the year 800 I need not say Since by being thought not worth the conquering there was not much more notice taken of them than of the rest of the barbarous Nations their Neighbours who may be rather said to be antient then honourable the Germans only excepted of whom to speak slightly were to defile our own nest since by them we derive our selves from Kings as great before the Flood as since The Precedence of the Kings of This Isle 8. Now as the Monarchy of this Isle is as Lanquet the Chronologer expresses it antienter then the Records of any time so the Kings thereof having held out a Succession of an hundred thirty nine Kings where as France reckons but sixty four taking in First Second and third Race have by the right of Custom as our particular Law expresses it Du temps dont memorie ne cúrt a le contrarie and by the consent of all Nations which is the Law universal to Ratifie and Regulate all respects taken and been allow'd the (y) As appears by the old Roman provincial second place inter Super Illustres for by that term Civilians make a great distinction and difference in point of Majesty even amongst Kings themselves A term which who so understands not may see the difference plainly in that old Formular printed at Strasburgh Anno 1519 where there is set down a Quadrupartite Division of Supream Principality the first place allow'd by them as reasonably they ought to their own Soveraign Kesar i. e. the German Emperour the Second to Romischin Koning i. e. the King of the Romans his Successor and their Countryman too The third place they gave to the Vier Gesalbt Koning i. e. the four anointed Kings In the last place came the Mein Koning or Ordinary Kings The difference betwixt these last and the Quatuor Vncti which were the (z) Javin Theatramundi Kings of France England Jerusalem and Sicily was this that with the holy oyl they receiv'd the Title and Adjunct of (a) Rhivallus ap Tooke in Carism Sanct. Cap. 6. Sacred being therefore anointed In Capite to signifie their glory above the other Princes of the same Rank In Pectore to denote their Sanctity In Brachiis to Emblematize their power this appears by the Styles of the Literae Formatae the antient forms of Addresses and the Frontispicians to the antient Councels where we find the various Styles of Sanctio Sacrietas and Divinitas apply'd to these to those were given only that of Dominatio and sometimes Celsitudo Regia conformable to this were all the phrases of the antient Laws of this Realm which Style the Crown-Lands (b) Cook sur Littleton Sect. 4. Sacra Patrimonia the Prerogative Royal Sacra Sacrorum the Laws themselves in respect they take their life and being from the King (c) Fortescu Leg. Aug. fol. 8. Sanctae Sanctiones The Kings presence was held so Sacred that if a (d) Plowd Com. 322. Villain heretofore cast himself ad Sacra Vestigia as they phras'd it his Lord could no more seize him than if he had been in the Sanctuary before the Altar it being upon the same Ground as great a crime to strike in the Court as in the Church and as if this were not enough they ascribe unto the King as unto God Infallibility (e) Edw. 4. 25. 24. Rex non potest errare Immortality (f) Crompton Jurisaic fol. 134. Plowd 177. B. 1 Ed. 5. Rex non potest mori for in all Pleadings they never mention the death of the King but call it the Demise Justice in perfection Rex non quam injuriam fecit Omnipresence in so much that he cannot be non-suited in any of his Courts because he is suppos'd to be always present and for the same reason all Persons are sorbid to be cover'd in his Chambers of presence though he be not there Lastly they give to him as to God the Issues of Life and
and grew burthensome to its self languishing so fast that it was much it could hold out after so many Convulsion fits as it had unto to Augustulus in whose time it may be said to give up the Ghost and 7 Dissolve Thus liv'd and died this mighty State that once was Empress of the World having brought under its obedience most of the Great and known Nations forcing them to write the Indentures of their Vassalage in their own Blood amongst the many whereof that were so unfortunately fortunate as to be at the same time subdu'd and Civiliz'd was this of Britain if so be it may not rather be said to be won than overcome neither submitting to the Roman People nor their Laws as other Provinces that fell under the superintendency of the Senate which being taken by particular Capitulation Inter sacra Patrimonia to be under the dictation of the Emperour himself they sent for the most part none but Caesars to keep the Possession of it which Possession was yet very uncertain from the time of the Death of Lucius till the Birth of Constantine therefore surnam'd the Great because the Britains Voluntarily submitted to him as their Native Prince whose Father by his gentle carriage prevail'd with the People to stand still like beasts stroak'd till he put that Yoak about their necks which kept them down without any possibility of Resistance after before whose time the Government was rudely divided into (s) Dion Cass lib. 55. two parts i. e. Partem Maritimam discover'd by Caesar and Partem Interiorem subdued by Claudius these two Constantine divided into (t) Vt pat notitia three parts or as (u) Burt. Ant. Iâ—â—n Brit. pag. 11. Burton who affirms Cambden to be mistaken by a false Copy of Sextus Rufus would have us to believe into four contrary to the Constat of the Notitia which reckons but three to each of which he appointed a Rector under the Superintendency of one Vicar General which was the (w) Marcelin lib. 28. Provost of Gaul two of these Rectors were Consular the third Presidial to whom was committed the care of Civil affairs the Martial were manag'd by three (x) Vt Pat. per breviar Theodos Lieutenants Generals the one entituled Comes Britannicus who had the Guard of the Northern part of the Isle against the Picts the second was Comes Maritimi Tractus he had the charge of the Sea Ports and Stores not much unlike Our Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports or rather as some think Lord Admiral against the Northern Rovers that began to be very troublesome about that time The middle and Western parts were under the Command of one that was stil'd Dux Britanniae being indeed Generalissimo over the whole The Ecclesiastical Politie was suited to that of the Civil and Military there being as many Arch-Bishops as Consular Deputies each having under his Jurisdiction a Competent number of Suffragans or Provincials and for the better order the Lawyers were under one President the Souldiers under one Provost the Clergy under one Patriarch this form held near a hundred and fifty years till the Dukes of Britain who as I observ'd before had the General Charge of the whole under the Emperour casting off their Allegiance provok'd Flav. Valentinian who by the care and diligence of his Lieutenant Flav. Theodotius had got the Reins into his own hands to make some Alteration suitable to his own humour who cutting one part into two made five parts of the whole and new nam'd them 1 Britannia prima 2 Britannia secunda 3 Max. Caesariensis 4 Valentia and 5 Flavia. This divident continued as long as the Romans had any thing to do here whose Domination holding not above thirty years after we may account the whole date of their Government to have lasted about four hundred sixty two years reckoning from the time of J. Cesar's first landing to the time Honorius by his mandatory letters clear'd the land In which tract of time 't is incredible how much they beautified this little spot of Earth with rare Structures and buildings not inferiour saith Cambden to any of those in Italy France or Spain (y) Bede lib. 1 Cap. 1. Decorata bis denis bisque quaternis Civitatibus by which must be understood (z) Gildas so calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cities of principal note praeter Castella innumera quae ipsa muris turribus portis ac Seris erant instructa firmissimis saith Bede Add to this that they repair'd those ruinate Causeys built by the Antient Britains cross the whole Isle laying the Lines of new Roads in other places through the most fruitful and habitable part of the Country to all the great Towns of Trade and Cities avoiding such places as were pester'd with savage beasts or men more dangerous than they neither spared they any cost in wanton as well as necessary works building magnificent Thermes pleasant Aquaducts Grotts Tesselated pavements entire Columns hierogliphical Obelisks Pyramids and structures of all Sorts that might conduce to ease ornamenâ— greaâ—ness or pleasure witness the stupendious Ruines of many of those monuments of theirs not less the wonder than the delight of the beholders to this day by all which it appears to have been both the Glory and Security of the Britains to have had so many Roman Colonies planted amongst them not only in that 't is more than probable by what follow'd after that they had been wholly unpeopâ—ed had a ruder and less noble Enemy broke in upon them but in respect to the advantage of being brought into the Society of a Civil Conversation by nearer ways and such as had been impossible for them to have found out whereby they were led to an affectaâ—ion of glory the natural incentive to all virtue which however some that would be thought Polititians interpret an Effect of their Bondage and Servitude was so much the more grateful a loss by how much the Liberty they exchang'd for it was the worst sort of Licentiousness but that which Counterpoizes the parting from Life Liberty Estate Reputation or what ever else might be dear or desirable was that inestimable Treasure of Christianity for which they principally if not only stood indebted to the Romans which singly and alone weighs down the consideration of any natural civil or moâ—al sufferings and that which gives us cause to believe that they themselves who liv'd at that time were of this opâ—nion is the reciprocality of affection betwixt the Conquerours and the Conquered being such that they who had but a little before mingled blood in the Field did not long after do the same in their Families mixing names almost as soon as they had mixt Natâ—ons the Romans glorying more in their British Cognomens then in those more glorious ones of their own some being pleas'd to denominate themselves from the places where they liv'd others from the places where they had fought most from the Charges they had born
third Monarch of the English II. date of accession 534 KENRICK his Son succeeded him both in the Kingdom and Monarchy III. date of accession 561 CHEVLIN his Son was the fifth Monarch but his Power being not adaequate to his Fame he in 33 years time could not so settle himself but that he was dispossest by his Brother IV. date of accession 592 CEARLICK who being not so good at keeping as in getting the Kingdom into his hands was himself depos'd in like manner by V. date of accession 598 CHELWOLPH Son of Cuth fifth Son of Kenrick a Prince worthy the Greatness he inherited who notwithstanding he was assaulted by the Picts and Scots and East-Angles all at once kept his Ground and left it to his Successor VI. date of accession 622 KINGILLS a Prince famous for his piety and courage who left his Son VII date of accession 643 KENWALD to succeed him whose beginning may be compar'd to the worst his ending to the best of Kings renouncing first his Faith after his Wife both which though he afterwards retain'd yet the sin stuck so close to him that the first left him without a Kingdom the last without a Son whereby VIII date of accession 675 ESWIN of the Line of Chelwolph took place who for six years kept out the right Heir IX date of accession 677 KENWIN younger Son of Ringills who utterly expuls'd all the Briâ—ains and forc'd them to seek their safety in those inaccessable Mountains of Wales whereby his Successor X. date of accession 686 CEADWALD had so much leisure as to fall upon his nearest Neighbours the South-Sexe and weaken them so far that they were forc'd to yield to his Successor XI INE worthily esteem'd the greatest Prince of his time and the most magnificent yet withal the most humble he dyed in a Pilgrimage to Rome nominating XII date of accession 762 ETHELWARD the Son of Oswald the Son of Ethelbald descended from Kenwaâ—d his Successor who reign'd fourteen years and left the Scepter to his Brother XIII date of accession 740 CUTHRED whose heart being broken by seeing his Son murther'd the Crown came to XIV SIGEBERT one whose vices were less obscure than his Parentage who murthering one of the best of his Friends was himself slain by one of the basest of his Enemies a Swineherd whereby XV. date of accession 755 KENWOLFE succeeded a person worthy of better sate than he met with being slain by the hand of an Outlaw at a time when he did not expect and consequently was not prepar'd for death and so XVI date of accession 784 BITHRICK succeeded the last King of this House lineally descended from Cerdick who being poyson'd by his own Queen this Kingdom came to Egbert the Son of Ingils and Brother of Ine who reduc'd the whole Heptarchy into a Monarchy and therefore worthily led the Van to the absolute Monarchs of England THIS was the third Kingdom of the Heptarchy and deservedly so call'd if we consider the largeness of its extent which measur'd by the Line of Circumvallation reach't if some of our modern Geographers say true above 700 miles in compass being commonly call'd the Kingdom of the West-Sexe by Bede the Kingdom of the Genevises by Cambrensis from Genesius Grandfather to Cerdick who had the honour to be esteem'd the first Founder of it although in truth he rear'd but a small part of this stately Fabrick the rest being the work of Time and Fortune and came not to perfection in almost 500 years He was for his fierceness sirnam'd the Dragon possibly in imitation of the British Kings who had that title and having beaten * The Britaine call'd him Mâ—â—ge Coâ—â—â—â—â— Natanleod the Dragon of the Western Britains forc'd him to retreat and leave 5000 of his people behind him in possession of no more of their own ground than serv'd to make them one common Grave from whom 't is thought he took this Shield of the Dragon He was thereupon declar'd the third Monarch of the English men his Son Kenrick was the fourth and his Grandson Cheulin the fifth Each of these shar'd with him in the honour of being the first raisers of this Kingdom the establisher of it was King Kenwin the ninth Monarch who expuls'd all the Britains the first that enlarg'd it was Ceadwald the tenth King who having made his way to the Conquest of Kent by that of the South-Sexe left his Successor Ine worthily therefore sirnam'd the Great to give his Neighbours a true estimate of his power by that of his wealth and a measure of his wealth by that of his munificence whereof there needs no other instances than in the Foundation of the Abbey of Glastenbury the Furniture of whose Chappel only took up 2835 pound weight of Silver and 337 pound weight of Gold a vast sum for those days which being for the ornamental part only could not be comparable to that which was left for the endowment He Founded also the Cathedral Church of Wells the West part whereof is perhaps one of the most stately Fabricks in the known World Yet neither of these are more lasting Monuments than those of his Laws translated for their excellency by the learned Lambert into Latin as being the Foundation of what we are govern'd by so long since This was he that gave the first Eleemosinary Dole of Peter-pence to the Church of Rome which was exacted in the next Age as a Tribute In this mans Reign this Kingdom was at its heighth declining after his death insensibly till the time of Egbert who being the Darling of Fortune as well as of his own Subjects and a Prince of great towardliness after he had corrected his youth by the experience he had in the Wars under Charles the Great being the first of all the Saxon Princes that were educated abroad he got so far the advantage of all his home-bred Contemporaries that he easily soar'd above the common height of Majesty and beat up the seven Crowns into one which placing on his own head he not only gave those Laws but that Name to the whole Isle which continued till King James his Reign who uniting Scotland to the rest of the Terra firma not reduc'd altered the style of King of England into that which only could make it greater writing himself King of Great Britain to which August and most Imperial Title we now pay homage and may we ever do so THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF EAST-SEXE IV. I. date of accession 527 ERCHENWIN the Son of Offa Great-Grandson of Sneppa third in descent from Seaxnod third Son of Woden the common Progenitor of the Saxons began this Kingdom with the happiness of a long Reign which however it be seldome desir'd was certainly very advantagious to his Successor II. date of accession 587 SLEDDA who thought the readiest way to keep what his Predecessor got was to add to it what his Successors were not like to keep a Peace with the Kings of Kent his next Neighbours
continual being in arms surnam'd Iron-sides was so sensible of that he was forc'd to compound with an Enemy that afterwards took from him the whole by the same Power he compell'd him to let go the half however in two Descents after the English Line took place again in the Person of XVI date of accession 1042 EDWARD surnam'd the Confessor who proving regardless of Posterity tempted Providence to take no care of him whereby his Steward thought himself obliged amongst other things committed to his Charge to take that of the Crown which was the famous XVII date of accession 1065 HAROLD Son of Godwyn Earl of Kent who putting the undoubted Heir besides his Right taught the Norman how to disseize him who with his death put the period to the English Monarchy that reckoning from Engist by all Historians accompted the first King had lasted Six hundred and twenty years EGBERT date of accession 800 THIS was he that may be said to be the first of all the English whom Fortune declar'd to be her Heir having beaten up the Seven Crowns of his Predecessors into one Diadem to fit his Head To them she gave only Title to part but to him the Dominion of the whole Isle Nature agreeing to fit his Parts to the proportion of his Preferment For as he was young and hardy so he was temperate and discreet noble by Birth descended from Ingill Brother to Ine the Magnificent but nobler by his Bounty which had purchas'd him so universal an Affection that his Predecessor Bithrick suspecting the danger of his Vertues made them so far his Crimes as to give him a fair pretense to banish him by which means all his good Qualities came to be so refin'd breathing in a purer Air then that of his native Soil as leaves it yet in doubt Whether he were any whit less beholding to Providence then Nature his Afflictions contributing so much to his Experience his Experience to his Wisdom and his Wisdom to his Fame that they seem'd like so many steps fitly plac'd together by which he might ascend the Throne He serv'd the Emperour Charles the Great in that great Expedition of his into Italy which took up all the time of his banishment and there he so well govern'd himself that he return'd with a Testimonial of his fitness to govern others The Tyrant Bithrick who had expuls'd him finding when it was too late that by driving him further from his Country he had brought him nearer to the Affections of his Country-men especially those of the Vulgar sort who first pity then praise men in distress and not seldom by their Opinion make up the want in Merit and where there is no want add so great a Weight that 't is not in the power of Humane Policy to turn the Scale Yet he did not think fit to return till after Bithrick's death as judging it more danger then honor to serve one under whom 't was a Crime to be Victorious and Capital to be otherwise Besides he thought it greater to let Honour seek him then for him to seek it knowing that Necessity if not Choice would move his Country-men to call him home being begirt with potent Neighbours that wanted nothing but a Circulation of Intelligence to subvert them totally So much were they discouraged by their Fears from without and their Discontents within Neither miss'd he of the Invitation he look'd for being receiv'd with so universal Satisfaction that it appear'd he was their Lord before he became their Soveraign In this confidence he took up the Sword before the Scepter to the end his Title might be written in the blood of his Enemies the number whereof were more then those of his Subjects The first that wrestled with him were the sturdy Cornish who being laid on their backs by a trick they understood not The next that came on were the Welch their Allies who though they rather gave him Trouble then War yet he thought it worth the going in Person against them and pâ—rsu'd them so faâ— as made it appear it was more their dishonour then his that they were not totally subdued by him The next that fell under the power of his Arms was the haughty Northumber for both he and the disdainful Mercian dreading his growing Greatness burst with swelling This gave him leisure to look towards Kent the only considerable Foe left whose King flying into Essex like a spark of Fire into another mans House ruin'd that by the same way he had undone his own Kingdom That Prince taking a pattern of Cowardize from him to quit that as t'other had done his Kingdom so that Egbert whilst he pursued one conquer'd two of the Heptarchs This success inlarg'd his Dominions so wide that he began to bear himself up with an universal Obedience being no less Elevated with the prospect of his Power then Hercules after he had subdued the many headed Monster with the contemplation of his Fortune to manifest which he turn'd the Name of BRITAIN so venerable for its Age having been the only Appellation of this Isle for near 1800 years before into that of ENGLAND the Country from whence his Ancestors came A Vanity so displeasing to Providence that it set up the same Nemesis which had been so Instrumental to his Country-men in the destruction of the Britains to face about upon him and his Successors whose Necks it broke down the same Stairs by which they ascended setting up a People to be the dire Executioners of her Justice that were of their own Lineage spoke the same Language and had drove them our once before from those Possessions to which they had much better right then to any thing here This was the Dane which though they got not much in this Kings reign yet they so nipt the glory of his Conquest by beating down the Blossoms of his Reputation that he liv'd not to see the Fruit he expected being forc'd to divide before he had firmly united and cut his own Kingdom into two again Giving that of Kent to his younger Son Ethelbert not without a seeming Injury to his elder Son Ethelwolph that being the most fertile though the lesser this the most incumbred though the greater yet herein his Wisdom appears to have equall'd his Power in that he made both Kings but left but one Soveraign ETHELWOLPH date of accession 837 THIS St. Ethelwolph or as he is vulgarly call'd St. Adulph was at the time of his Fathers death a Deacon Hoveden says a Bishop and so much addicted to Devotion more then Action that he accepted the Government rather out of necessity then choice refusing to be crown'd as long as he could resist the importunity of his Friends or suffer the Insolence of his Enemies being at last made a King as it were in his own defence as well as the Kingdoms But no sooner had the loud Acclamations of his over joy'd People awaken'd his Lyon-like Dulness but rouzing up himself he confronted the Common Foe with
wherein his Clemency so interpos'd betwixt his Wisdom and his Power that it is hard to judge whether he rul'd more by Awe Art or Affection tying them to no Rule or Order which he did not with more severity impose upon himself So that what Martiaâ— sayes of Fronto may be applyed to him That he was Clarum Militiae Togâ—que decus there being that harmony in his natural Constitution as inclined him to that gentle Science of Musick which as it served him to good purpose in his utmost extremity so it brought him to such a strict habit in keeping of Time that to make himself sure of every moment of his whole life he divided the Day into three equal spaces allowing the first to the business of Devotion the second to the care of Nature and the third to that of his State of each of which he was so excellent a manager that he is not undeservedly placed in the first rank of the Conditores of this Nation And if he were not the first Founder of Oxford which cannot be conceiv'd without apparent injury to the memory of his Grandfather whom the Annals of Winchester commemorate as the greatest Patron that ever the Muses had there yet we cannot deny him the glory of being one of those great Patrons or Foster-fathers whereof there were many almost in all Ages from the very time of the Britains whose beneficence Alexander Necam celebrates with much gratitude who nourisht up Learning and learned Men and gave Incouragement to all those who studied knowledge And this he did in such unsetled and disorderly Times when he had much ado to bear up himself with all the helps he had from the Wisdom and Courage of all about him the Troubles of his Reign being so incessant like one continued Storm that he was as is said before once forc'd to quit the Stearn another time to cut the Cable and never enjoy'd so much tranquillity as to be able to put out all his Sayls so that it was esteem'd a great good luck that he was not wreckt since he could not reach his Port which doubtless he owed to the Faith of his People the universality of whose Affections supply'd the defects of his Power being as superstitious in the confidence of his good Fortunes as Caesars Souldiers are said to have been of his who never thought themselves in danger while he was safe nor ever thought him the less safe for being in the midst of danger Who would not follow him into the Field Who cannot chuse but conquer though he yield Whose Sword cut deep yet was his wit more keen Some Fence ' gainst that but this did wound unseen To thee is due great Elfrid double praise To thee we bring the Laurel and the Bays Master of Arts and Arms. Apollo so Sometimes did use his Harp sometimes his Bow And from the other Gods got this Renown To reconcile the Gauntlet to the Gown But who did e're with the same Sword like thee Execute Justice and the Enemy Keep up at once the Law of Arms and Peace And from the Camp issue out Writs of Ease EDWARD THE ELDER date of accession 900 AS Elfrid was thought to be dead long after he was living so long after he was dead he seem'd to live still in the Person of this his Son Edward who was so like him that he might rather have been call'd Elfrid the Younger then Edward the Elder being so immediate a Successor to his Vertues as well as his Titles that 't was not discernable whether the Peoples grief or joy was greater out of the apprehensions they had of the loss of the one or the hopes conceived by the fruition of the other In Learning he was his Fathers Inferiour in Courage his Equal but in Fortune his Superiour For however he was attach'd on all sides by tumultuary Troops of Danes who by this time were grown very numerous and were a People of that stomach and patience that they grew greater by being lessned and which is strange to tell prosper'd by being beaten yet he acquitted himself so well of them that they got no more Ground from him than what might be allowed them for their Graves which they purchas'd at the price of their blood and measur'd out by the length of their Swords However the first provocation he had to arm was from his own flesh and blood an Enemy so much more dangerous for that he had something of his own Nature in him this was Ethelward the Son of Ethelbert his Fathers second Brother who having been declar'd Clyto which amongst the Saxons was as much as Caesar amongst the Romans that is to say the Heir Apparent he thought it not so much an Injury to be put besides the Right of Succession by his two Uncles as an Indignity to be disappointed by a Cosin who however surnam'd the Elder was in truth the Younger of the two aâ—d perhaps according to the Rule of those times had the weaker-Title This spark of Indignation being kindled in his Breast was quickly blown into a Flame and wanting not matter to nourish it was easily kept up at its height by other mens discontents as well as his own who urging him to arm without due consideration of King Edwards Possession Power and Reputation all great Check-mates to Rebellion brought him and themselves under a necessity of craving help from the common Enemy who having no other way but by this division to preserve themselves intire readily accorded to acknowledge him King Upon this the two Rivals meeting at a place call'd St. Edmunds-Ditch gave Battel to each other where King Edward got the Victory but lost the day the Battel being so equally poys'd that it not being known which had the better either side was suppos'd to have the worst of it King Edward lost the greater number of men King Ethelward the most considerable for both himself and the Danish General his Colleague were slain their Bodies lying conceal'd under such vast heaps of the English that their dishonour seems to be cancell'd by those that conquer'd them Upon this there was a Truce concluded with the Dane I cannot call it a Peace since the shortness of it made it seem no more then a Repose to take breath to fight again during this Cessation Fame partial to the English had so divuâ—g'd the loss of the Enemy that the Countess of Mercia Sister to King Edward and as nearly related to him in Fortune as in Blood arm'd her self like another Zenobia and fell upon those that were nearest her Country who by the death of two great Princes Cowilph and Healidine gave her Brother time to refresh his tired Forces But he as doubting his Sword might rust if it were put up into the Sheath bloody pursu'd his Successes with so indefatigable a Rage that all those of East-Anglia dreading the Consequences of being conquer'd compounded for their own Lives by giving up that of their King chusing rather to be disloyal than
of Baptism and new promises given at the taking their new Names to be true to the old League of their Predecessors they obtain'd a Truce so like a Peace that it wanted only age to make it so and therewithal an opportunity of recovering fresh strength as well as malice after which like Snakes that had felt the heat of the Sun they began to hiss and shew that the Water pour'd out upon their heads had not power to quench the Fire in their hearts which breach of Faith urg'd the young King to take a voyage into the North where finding that they had fortifi'd themselves with the Alliance of the Prince of Cumberland he prepar'd to give them Pattle upon the Forder of Northumberland in which dispute having got the better of them he pursu'd his Victory till he overtook the two treacherous Sons of Dunmale their Confederate to whom he cruelly gave their lives but on such a condition as was worse than death it self for at the same time he took from them both their Eyes and their Inheritance the first never to be recover'd the last almost as desperate for he bestow'd it on Milcolmb King of Scots to be held of him in grand Serjeanty by the service of bearing the Sword before him as oft as he came into those parts the two Renegado's Anlaff and Reignold made their escape into the Isles and thence into Ireland thinking themselves scarce secure at that distance Thus satiated with Victory and Triumph the fruits of vigilance and fortitude he return'd back to fortifie himself by the most noble actions of Peace binding his Subjects to him by the Ponds of so good Laws that the memory of some of them are continued to this day savouring of a wisdom rarely to be found in so green years which as it made him revear'd in his life-time so much more pity'd in his death when he fell by the hands of an Out-Law who thrust him through the Body as he was endeavouring to part two of his domestick Servants that were so insolent to begin a Fray in his own house and presence which fatal Accident was not more unlucky to himself than to his Children the eldest whereof being but four the youngest scarcely two years old at his death were without any great difficulty put besides the Succession by their Uncle Eadred EADRED date of accession 946 THE Activity of the Danes after they came to get Footing enforc'd the English to make many Ruptures out of course in the Succession of their Kings breaking off their Lines where at any time it seem'd weak and uniting it together again in the strongest place doubting lest the Imbecility of one that had been either a Fool or a Child might be an occasion of letting the common Enemy in upon them Upon which account this King was preferr'd before his Nephews the right Heirs he being of age and they not his Title of Election out-weighing theirs of Succession as being more agreeable to the necessity of those rough and boysterous Times however there were always some found that durst oppose the common Choice mov'd by particular Interests giving their Kings so continued Alarums that they were not seldom forc'd to lay aside their Royal Robes and cloath themselves in Steel And this I take to be the Case of this particular King who was put to a greater expence of Treasure than Blood by the frequent Revolts for they were not worthy the name of Rebellions of such who upon the account of discontent and faction gave him more trouble than danger baffling his Courage by long Marches to reduce them when indeed they were subdued by their own fears before he could reach them Now as that which yields deads the force of violent motions and causes them to lose their execution so he by not being resisted return'd still a Conquerour without a Conquest till involv'd in the common Fate of all Victors who weakned by often overcoming are at last overcome by themselves his Fury spent it self like Thunder after much Lightning without any great harm done all his Glory being by this means turn'd into a kind of Mockery the Danes as well as the Rebels playing fast and loose with him at that rate that betwixt War and Peace he was neither safe nor quiet finding continual matter of Indignation or Scorn till Fortune by bringing him so often on to fight with Air made him secure and by that means left the Enemy an opportunity to steal a Victory that they durst not try to force from him After which death stole behind him and broke the Glass of his Soveraignty before it had run out full ten years too short a space to secure the Liberties of his People much less to allay their Fears who terrifi'd with the various Ensigns of an Implacable Enemy basely declin'd all noble Occasions of Revenge and shamefully lost all that they possess'd by the same way they first got it EDWIN date of accession 955 IT hath been observ'd that the self-same Weapons Time uses to overcome the Body are by the Understanding us'd to subdue Time And by this means it prevails with Fame to allow that Glory to Patience which Fortune not seldome denies to Fortitude but this seems to be a secret which this young King either did not know or not regard by which Animadversion his Memory became obnoxious to much Obloquy and Scandal which his Youth might otherwise have excus'd or the Age he liv'd in pardon'd For not caring to humour those that then would be esteem'd the best of men I mean the Clergy for that Cause only he fell under the Reproach of being himself one of the worst of Kings The truth is he was very severe toward the Priesthood upon account of their Laziness which provok'd them by way of Recrimination to declaim as much against him for his Lasciviousness their Revenge appearing to be like themselves truly Spiritual in that it surviv'd the Occasion and proved so immortal a Defamation as is like to continue as long as there is any mention made of him in any Story his Vices being represented in such a Magnifying Glass as dilated them to a degree of Deformity more suitable to a Monster then a Man For they accus'd him to have ravish'd a Young Lady the same hour that he was anointed King and to make it yet more horrid avow'd that he did it in the sight of all the People and particularly of her own Husband whom after he had tortur'd with the shame of so unparallel'd an indignity he afterward murther'd But how improbable this is each Reader may judge And those that consider how Venial a sin Venery was in those times will conclude his greatest Crime to be the taking of Abbot Dunstan by the Nose in like manner as it is said he did the Devil who having cheated his Predecessor of a vast Treasure deliver'd to him under secret Trust to which he had most meritoâ—iously entituled the Church he not only compell'd him to vomit
himself of Northumberland Godfrid his younger Brother held Mercia but King Athelstan fell upon both and took from the last his Life from the first his Kingdom which was recovered again not long after by his Son VI. date of accession 946 ANLAFF the Second thereupon esteem'd the third King of the Northumbers His reign was not long for his Subjects weary of continual wars set him besides the Saddle to make way for VII date of accession 950 ERIC the Third or as some call him IRING Son of Harold the Grandson of Gurmo King of Denmark recommended to them by Milcolmb King of Scots but he being elected King of Sweden the Northumbers submitted to Edgar the younger Brother or next in succession to Edwyn and from that time it continued a Member of the English Crown till about the year 980 when VIII date of accession 980 ANLAFF the Third understanding they were affected to his Nation arriv'd with a fresh Supply and making his Claim was admitted King but being over prest the Title came to IX date of accession 1013 SWAIN King of Denmark who made this his first step to the Engâ—ish Throne into which as he was mounting death seiz'd on him and kept the Room empty for his Son Knute DANES Absolute Kings OF ENGLAND I. date of accession 1017 KNUTE was deservedly surnam'd the Great as being the very greatest and most absolute King that ever England or Denmark knew those of the Roman Line only excepted for he was King of England Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Sweden and Lord of a great part of Poland all Saxony some part and not a little of Brandenburgh Bremen Pomerania and the adjacent Countries most of them not to say all besides Denmark and Norway reduc'd under his Obedience by the valour of the English only upon his death Denmark and Norway fell to his Son Hardycanute the rest as Sweden c. devolv'd upon the right Heirs whilst England was usurp'd by his Natural Son II. date of accession 1036 HAROLD surnam'd Harfager or Golden Locks who being the Elder and having the advantage to be upon the place entred as the first Occupant thereby disappointing his legitimate Brother III. date of accession 1041 KNUTE surnam'd the Hardy design'd by his Father to be the next Successor to him as bearing his Name though upon tryal it appear'd he had the least part of his Nature for he had not the Courage to come over and make any claim as long as Harold liv'd and after his death he drown'd himself in a Land-flood of Wine losing all the Glory his Predecessors had gotten by wading through a sea of blood which made the way to his Throne so slippery that those English that came after him could never find firm footing But upon the very first Encounter with the Norman caught such a Fall that could never recover themselves again This Gurmo came out of Ireland I take it in the second year of King Elfrid not without a confident hope of making good his Predecessors Conquest which had cost already so much blood as made his desire of Rule look like a necessity of Revenge the Monarchy of Denmark it self being put if I may so say into a Palsie or trembling Fit by the loss of the Spirits it had wasted here So that he came with this advantage which those before him had not That the Cause seem'd now to be his Countries more then his own who therefore bore him up with two notable props Esketel and Amon men of great Conduct and known Courage the one of which he plac'd as Vice-Roy in Northumberland t'other in Mercia And having before expelled Burthred the Saxon he fixed himself in East-Anglia as being nearer to correspond with Denmark and most commodious to receive Reâ—ruits Upon his first advance against King Elfrid Fortune appear'd so much a Neuter that either seem'd afraid of other and striking under line preferr'd a dissembled Friendship before down-right Hostility And to shew how much the edge of their Courage was rebated they mutually accorded to divide the Land betwixt them Gurmo was to be Lord of the North and East Elfrid to hold the South and West part of the Isle The politick Dane after this suffered himself to become what the English would have him to be a Christian to the intent that he might be what he would have himself to be absolute changing his Pagan name of Gurmo into that of Athelstan which being of all others the most grateful to the Saxons he render'd himself by that Condescension so acceptable to the whole Nation that they consented to his Marriage with the fam'd Princess Thyra King Elfrids vertuous Sister by whom he had Issue Harold Blaatand that liv'd to be King of Denmark after himself and another Knute whom he left in Ireland to make good the Acquests of the first Gurmo there a Prince of so great hopes and so belov'd by him that the knowledge of his death being slain at the Siege of Dublin gave him his own for he no sooner apprehended the tidings thereof by the sight of his Queens being in mourning but he fell into such a violent fit of Grief as left him not till he left the World whereby the Crown of Denmark fell to his Son Harold the Title and Possession of East-Anglia with its Appurtenances he bequeath'd to his Brother Eric who having perform'd the first Act of Security to himself in having taken an Oath of Allegiance of all his Subjects suffer'd them to perform the last Act of Piety towards him in giving him all the Rites of an honourable Interment at Haddon in Suffolk which place it seems he purposed to make the Burial place of all the East-Anglian Kings But this Ambition of his beginning where it should have ended with a design of assuring to himself more honour after he was dead then he was able to make good whiles he was living ended as soon as it began as will appear by his Story following Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Upon which his Queen frighted with the horrour of their Inhumanity fled back to her Brother Athelstan to seek from his Power Justice Protection and Revenge whiles Anlaff took upon him to be King The Equality of Power as well as of Ambition ripen'd the Factions on both sides very fast by the heat of their Contest But before they came to Maturity there was a Parliament conven'd at Oxford that took the matter into consideration where the Lords fearing that the Question if delay'd might be decided by Swords and not by Words out of a deep sence of the lingring Calamities of a new War all the wounds of the old being not yet cured or at least not so well but that the Scars were yet fresh in many of their Faces they declar'd for the King in possession but with such a wary form of Submission as shew'd they did it rather out of regard to themselves then him whereupon Goodwin produced the deceased Kings Will in opposition to theirs but the
the Earl of Bolloigne the Kings Brother in law whose Harbingers being kill'd in the Scuffle the King commanded Goodwin as Lord Lieutenant of that County to do Justice on the Offenders but he deny'd returning this popular Answer That it was against his Conscience to execute his Country-men unheard upon the complaint of Strangers This coldness of his rais'd such a sudden heat in the Common People that there wanted nothing to set the whole Kingdom in a Flame but to tell them their Liberties were in danger and that there was no body durst assert them but the Earl Goodwin King Edward perceiving his design and doubting least it might bring him himself into suspition with his People being upon the matter a Stranger as having been alwayes brought up in Normandy he resolv'd to question him in open Parliament and accordingly he summon'd him and his Sons to give their attendance but they refusing to appear both sides armed London was divided in the Quarrel for the King possessed all on this side the Thames the Earl all on the other side next Kent But such is the terrour of Guilt that the Night before the Battel was to be fought the Rebels quit their General and by that commendable Treachery forc'd him to quit the Realm who taking shipping at Greenwich fled away as fast by water as his Complices did by Land The King upon this turn was so changed in his humour incensed at this their gross contumacy that he grew extreamly cholerick and peevish discharging his Anger with that violence upon all the Earls Friends that it recoil'd back upon the spotless Queen her self whom in the transport of his Passion he accus'd of a * Incontinency Crime which if she had been guilty of himself could not have been Innocent having as he was not ashamed afterwards to confess never perform'd the Duty of a Husband to her under which pretended Jealousie she was forced to suffer a years Imprisonment in a Cloyster partaking patiently the Pennance of those who were under a Vow never to know any man only to satisfie him who had before vowed never to know any woman This Indignity offer'd to the Innocent Daughter in whom saith Ingulphus there was no fault but that she was a Rose of that prickly stock did so stimulate the guilty Father for whose sake she suffer'd that he meditated nothing but the extreamest Revenge and by frequent Piracies so disturb'd all Trade that the King finding that the popular were on his side was glad to compound with him for his quiet upon his own tearms yielding to the banishment of all Strangers which Concession did his business but undid the Kingdoms For as it made way for his Son to be as he design'd him a King so it was the fatal occasion of that unexpected Invasion of the Normans abetted by the Earl of Bolloigne that had the first affront given him which not long after not only overwhelm'd the particular honour of his own Family but the glory of the whole English Nation by a Conquest so universal and sudden as if the Strangers they banish'd had gone out of the Country for no other end but to fetch in more However Heaven suffered not him to see either the fruit or punishment of his dark purposes it so falling out that whilst he design'd to have devour'd the whole Kingdom he was himself choak'd with a small morsel of Bread that went the wrong way down and by his death put such a full point to all great Actions as shews that either he did all that was done then or the King did not long survive him whose Reign being nothing else but a Commentary upon that Earl's Ambition 't is no marvel that his Fame began where t'others ended being sounded upon Opinion rather then Action whilst his Magnanimity was interpreted Patience and his Patience judg'd the Effect of Wisdom But they that duly examine the whole course of his life will find that the active part of it declar'd him scarce a good man the passive certainly not a good King and however the Clergy who were well brib'd extoll'd his Chastity and Piety yet 't is evident that the first was not without manifest wrong to his Wife whom not to use was the highest abuse the last with no less Ingratitude towards his Mother whom upon like suspicion he put to such a kind of Purgation as might have condemn'd the greatest Innocence causing her to pass the * To go over 9 red hot Houghshares bare-footed blinded laid at uncertain distances either of which if she touch'd she was hold guilty Ordeale or Fiery Tryal then in fashion But this unkindness to them is the less when compar'd with that to himself in the total disregard of all Posterity affecting more to be a Benefactor to then a Father of his Country as believing Religious Houses more lasting Monuments then Religious Children whereby it came to pass that for want of Issue of his own Body he was fain to leave the Succession to one that was both a Child and a Stranger little knowing and less known to the English as not having so much of the Language as might serve to demand or declare his Right when he was to recover it nor so much Spirit or Judgment as to shew himself sensible of the Injury when he was afterwards put besides it A fit adopted Successor for such a Sacerdoting King of whom if I should give an impartial Character I must say that he was rather cold then chast rather superstitious then religious fitter to be a Monk then a Monarch indeed so sottish that as 't is reported of Vitellius he would have forgotten he was born a Prince if others had not put him in mind of it So that 't is no marvel considering either his own weakness or his that was to have come after him that his Steward Harold by having only the rule of his Houshold should take upon him as he did to rule the Kingdom and he thought the fittest man however half a Dane to support the English Monarchy HAROLD date of accession 1065 AS there is no temptation so powerful as that which arises from the knowledge of a mans Power so there is no Consideration of that force as to make a man quit his Ambition that thinks he hath merited a Crown Harold having resolv'd to be a King tarries not till the People made him so but to take the charge of Injustice off from them boldly steps into the Throne the better to out-face his Rivals from thence who being no less then three two on a pretended and one with a real Right he conceiv'd they must justle one another before they could come at him The pretenders were Swain King of Denmark whose claim was as the undoubted Heir of the last Knute and William Duke of Normandy that set up a Title by Gift and Conveyance from the last King Edward But of these the first was ingaged in a War with the Swede the last imbroyl'd in
great men of Poictou Britain and Normandy being offended that the Regency of the young King should be committed to a Woman and a Spaniard But this design ending with like precipitation as it was begun after the Expence of some Blood and more Treasure neither of which he could well spare he return'd home attended with a petty Army of those Poictovins and Britains who by taking his part had forfeited their own Estates at home These therefore he conceiv'd himself obliged in point of honour to provide for and which way to do it but by displacing such of his principal Officers who were in places of greatest benefit he knew not These were his Cheif-Justiciary his High Treasurer and the Marshal of his Houshold upon whom therefore he permitted the envious Rabble to discharge a volly of accusations to the end that driving them out with shame and loss he might fill up their places with those strangers These great Pillars for they were men whose wisdom he had more need of then they of his favour being thus thrown down and broken to peices by their fall so shook the whole frame of his Throne that every body expected when he would have fallen himself too divers of the Nobility that were nearest to him removing themselves for fear of the worst Amongst the rest was that famous Richard who after the death of his brother William was Earl Marshal a man questionless of great honour and Probity who finding his violences to increase being heightned by the ill advice of the two Peters De Rupibus and De Rivallis the one a Britain t'other a Poictovin now become the two great Ministers of State combined with the rest of the English Nobility to fetch him off from these Rocks first intreating and after threatning him that unless he would put these and all other strangers from him they would remove both him and them and chuse another King Upon this bold menace the plainest and boldest that Subjects could give a Prince De Rupibus advised him to require pledges for their Allegiance which they refusing to give without any Process of Law he causes them to be Proclaym'd Out-laws and Seizes on all their Lands with the profits whereof he rewards the Poictovins This brought both Parties to Arm again with like animosity but more Cruelty then in his Fathers time So that for two years together there was no cessation from all the violences and depredations that usually attend a civil War till the Bishops finding by the much blood had been shed that the heat on either side was much abated interpos'd with the King to do the Barons reason and forc'd him to yeild though he could not consent to a restoration of their Lands and Liberties and to the banishment of all strangers This however proved to be but a temporary shift which the present necessity of his affaires drove him to for not long after the two great Incendiaries were admitted again to Grace and so near came he to the example of his Father as to endeavour a revocation of his Grants by the Popes Authority being done as he alleadged beyond his Power and without consent of the Church by which harsh Intention though it took not effect it is scarce imaginable how much he added to the conceiv'd displeasure of the People to whom however he had no regard till he had wasted himself so far by his profusion and supine Stupidity that he was reduc'd through extremity of want to truckle under his Parliaments who knowing their own Power and his dependence on them for money for as a modern * Sir R. Bakeâ— Vit. H. 3. writer observes his taxations were so many they may be reckon'd amongst his annual revenues scarce any year passing without a Parliament but no Parliament breaking up without a Tax as so many Tyrants press'd no less upon him one way then he upon them the other till at last he became as weary of asking as they of giving him supplies and having no other means to maintain his Riot after he had canvass'd his Officers by chopping and changing of places and rais'd what he could without right or reason he fell to selling his Lands mortgaged Gascoin pawn'd his Jewels and after his Crown and when he had neither Credit nor pawns of his own left he expos'd the Jewels and Ornaments of Saint Edwards Shrine to whoever would lay down most for them After this he preyd upon the Jews the People that always felt the weight of his necessities Neither were his Christian Subjects so free but that he found means to squeeze them by Loans Benevolences and New-years gifts all which not sufficing he fell at last to down-right Beggery and sent to the Clergy men for several Summes to be given him as Alms. And being reduc'd to this incredible lowness when he found he could not prevail upon their Charity he try'd how far he could work upon their piety by pretending to undertake the Cross but that Project failing him too the last and most fatal shift he had was to resign to the King of France whatever right he had in the Dutchy of Normandy the Earldoms of Anjou Poictou Tourene and Main and all for no more then three hundred Crowns and that of Anjovin money too a pitiful Summ to redeem a half lost Crown The Prince likewise unfortunately participating in the wants of his Father was driven to Mortgage several pieces of his Lands too to supply his Particular Necessities And now all things being gone that were valuable or vendible the Barons finding him naked and disarm'd thought not fit to delay the matter longer but being call'd to that fatal Parliament at Oxford in a hot season of the year when all their bloods were boyling and out of temper without more debate they first secur'd London the onely Magazine to begin a Rebellion by shutting up the Gates and after secur'd the Kingdom by shutting up the Ports to prevent the inlet of Strangers appointing twenty four Conservators as they call'd them to manage the Government whereof twelve were to be nam'd by the King twelve by themselves But he thinking it too great a Diminution of his Majesty to consent to any nomination of his own left their twelve call'd the Douze Peers to take the Reâ—ormation into their hands who displacing aâ—l whom they pleas'd to call Evil Counsellors left none about him that were able or perhaps willing to give him advice and grew so insolent at last as to banish amongst other Strangers some of his nearest Relations Out of these as it happens upon all Changes where the People are to be amus'd with Novelty there was chosen afterwards a Triumvirate to be Super-intendent over the Twelve These were the Earl of Leicester the Earl of Gloucester and the Lord Spencer to whom the three great Ministers of State the Chancellor the High-Treasurer and the Chief Justiciar were appointed humble assistants And because 't was believ'd that the Liberty of the People depended on the
maintenance of their Authority the King himself was compell'd by Oath as he was a Man a Christian a Knight a King Crown'd and anointed to uphold them and acquit them of their Legal Obedience whensoever he went about to infringe the great Charter by which they held this Prerogative Here they had him bound up hand and foot with that Curse upon him which his Father of all others most dreaded and with which his Flatterers most terrified him whenever the Dispute of Liberty came in question of being a King without a Kingdom a Lord without a Dominion a Subject to his Subjects for they had invaded his Majesty usurp'd his Authority and made themselves so far Masters of his Person that they might seize it whenever they pleas'd to declare for a Common-wealth And now to make the Affront more notable as if they had forgotten what was the Fundamental Grievance on which their Usurpation was grounded the Entertainment of Strangers they take a Stranger to head them making Monford who was a French man by Birth and Descent their Chief who having designs of his own different from theirs as the Earl of Gloucester his Compeer found when 't was too late indeavour'd so to widen all Differences betwixt King and People that if possible there might never be a right Understanding betwixt them The King therefore well knowing his Malice and not being ignorant of his Ambition fell first upon him causing the Lord Mortimer to break in amongst his Tenants who quickly righted himself upon those of Mortimer's with whom the Prince thereupon took part as Llewellin Prince of Wales with t'other The Prince takes Brecknock-Castle Monford that of Gloucester and after that those of Worcester and Shrewsbury from whence he marched directly to the Isle of Ely without Resistance The King fearing his approach to London like those who to save their Lives in a Storm are content to sling their Goods overboard demanded a Peace and willingly yielded up all his Castles into the hands of the Barons to the intent they might be as a publick Security for the inviolable Observation of the Provisions of Oxford conceding to the banishment of all the Strangers that were left This Condescention of his however occasion'd rather a Truce then a Peace of which he had this benefit to gain time till he could be better provided A Parliament being hereupon call'd at London the freedom of Debate there renew'd the Quarrel and each side confident of the Justice of their Arms at Northampton they came to Battel which however it was well fought yet the worst Cause had the worst Success The Barons were beaten and amongst other Prisoners of note that were then taken was the young Monford the Heir and Hope of his Father Leicester and Fortune thus uniting with Authority made the Barons stoop though they could not submit to beg the Peace they had before refus'd wherein being rejected with scorn they became desperate who were before but doubtful which Leicester perceiving and being a man skilful in such advantages took that opportunity to bring them to a second Battel in which he supply'd his want of Hands with a Stratagem that shew'd he had no want of Wit placing certain Ensigns without Men on the side of a Hill not far from the place where he gave the onset whereby he so fortunately amuz'd the Enemy that he easily obtain'd a Victory and such an one as seem'd to turn the Scale beyond all possibility of Recovery For in it were taken the King himself his Brother the late King of the Romans the Prince and most of the principal Lords and by killing Five thousand of the common People on the place he so terrified all the rest of the Royal Party that for a year and an half afterwards no body durst look him in the Face all which time he spent in reducing the Kingdom under his own dispose putting in and out whom he pleas'd and filling up all places Military and Civil with Creatures of his own carrying the King about with him as a skilful Rebel to countenance the Surrender of Towns and Castles to him continuing thus the insolence of his Triumph till it swell'd to that disproportionate Greatness that his Confederate Gloucester began to be jealous if not afraid of it and out of that Distrust quarrel'd with him upon pretence of not having made equal distribution of the Spoil nor Prisoners charging him to have releas'd whom he pleas'd and at what rate without the consent of the rest of the Confederacy urging further that he did not suffer a Parliament to be conven'd as was agreed betwixt them to the end himself might be Arbitrary Lastly objected that his Sons were grown Insolent by his Example and had affronted several of the adhering Barons who would have satisfaction of him During this Dispute the Prince by connivance of some of the discontented Faction broke Prison to whom Gloucester joyn'd himself and rallying together the scatter'd Parties that had long attended the advantage of such a turn they made themselves so considerable that in short time they were able to bring the business to a poise Leicester put it to the Decision of another Battel but not without apparent dispondency as appears by what he said when they were going to give the first Charge for he told those Lords that were nearest him That they would do well to commit their Souls to God for that their Bodies were the Enemies However he omitted nothing that might speak him as he was a brave and valiant General till his Son first and after himself were slain at the instant of whose fall there happen'd such a Clap of Thunder as if Heaven it self had fought against him and that none could have given him his death but that power to which he owed his life And so the King was rid of him whom he once declar'd to have been more affraid of then of Lightning and Thunder a Person too great for a Subject and something too little to be a King But had he as he was descended from the stock of * His Father was Simon youngest Son of Simon Earl of Fureux descended from Almerick base Son of Robert sirnam'd the Holy King of France Kings master'd the Fate of this day he had undoubtedly made himself one and broke off the Norman Line to begin a new Race not less noble This happy Victory gave the King some ease but 't was not in the power of any Force to give him perfect rest whilst the distemperature of the Time was such that the Wound which seem'd perfectly heal'd broke out afresh Gloucester himself though he had deserted his old Competitor Leicester would not yet quit the good old Cause but imbracing the very first Occasion of Discontent he met with retired three years after from Court and having got new Forces sinds out new Evil Counsellors to remove Mortimer the great Man of merit with the King is now become the Object of his Envy and rather then not have
his Head he resolves once more to venture his own In the mean time those of the Isle of Ely the remainder of Leicester's Party that had held out from the time of his death with incredible courage and patience taking new life and hope from this Revolt make many excursions and spoils to the great charge and vexation of the King and the Publick Neither could the Pope 's Legate prevail with him to come in though upon tearms safe and honourable tendering the Publick Faith of the Kingdom and which was then thought greater that of the Church to them So much were they transported with the Opinion of their Cause or by the falshood of their hopes till this stubbornness of theirs provok'd the King to raise a new Army the Command whereof was given to his Son Edward that prosperous Prince whose Fortune then being not able to resist he had the honour to conclude that War and consequently to put a Period to all his Fathers turmoâ—ls who being shaken at the Root did not long survive the happiness of that tranquillity the end of whose Troubles were the beginning of his own ingaging upon the conclusion of that in a War so much more dangerous by how much more distant the benefit whereof was to be expected only in the other World this was that Undertaking in the Holy Land which separating him from his Father beyond all hope of ever seeing him again gave some occasion to question the old Kings Understanding others his good Nature But as the great concerns of Religion are as much above Reason as that is beyond Sense so we must impute that to the resolute Zeal of the Son which we cannot allow for Devotion in the Father who had he had any thoughts of going into the other World as his great Age might have prompted him to would rather have taken care for a Grave for himself then for so hopeful a Successor who only by seeking Death escap'd it Now whether the ingratitude of the Clergy or the Ambition of the temporal Lords were a greater tryal of his wisdom or Power I know not but the course he took to reduce either to terms of modesty and submission shows the world he had no want of understanding however he was forc't to put up the front of his Lay-peers in order to the facillitating his Revenge upon the other whom he mortified by a strain of State which none of his Ancestors durst venture upon Whilst he not only put them out of his Protection but all men out of theirs denying them not only his favour but his Justice not only the benefit of his ordinary Courts but the priviledg of sitting in that higher Court of Parliament A severity not to give any worse name to it of so acrimonious a nature that it not only expos'd them to all the injuries and affronts triumphant malice and scorn could put upon them but was made more intollerable and grievous by his docking their Revenues as after he did by several * Stat. 3 Edw. 1. cap. 19.33 Stat. cont formum collation Statute Laws amongst which I cannot but take notice though by the By of the particular contempt express'd in that odd Statute aginst †Stat. de Asportatis Religiosorum c. An. 3 cap. 34. ravishment where it is declared Felony to use force to any Lay-Woman and only a trespass to ravish a Nun. Neither was it thought enough to make what abscission he thought fit without their greatness were rendred incapable of any further growth to which intent he cauteriz'd if I may so say the wounds he had given them by that Statute of ‖ An. 3. C. 32. Mort-main which as it was the most fatal of all others to them so it might have prov'd so to himself had he not at the same time he thus disoblig'd them oblig'd the Laity by another suppos'd to be the wisest Law that ever was made to wit that of Westminster the second entituled De Donis Conditionalibus which tending so much to the preservation of particular Families and adding to their greatness no less then their continuance is by some Historians call'd Gentilitium Municipale and had this good effect that it brought the temporal Nobility firmly to adhere to him against the Pope when amongst many others that intituled themselves to the Soveraignty of Scotland a Kingdom too near to be lost for want of putting a claim his Holiness became his Rival and thought to carry it as part of St. Peter's Patrimony This Victory at home which brought the proud Prelates to purchase his Justice at a dearer rate then probably they might have paid for his mercy had their submission been as early as it was afterwards earnest I take to be much greater then all those he had got abroad by how much fortune had no share in it and fame was the least part of his gains extending to give him not long after as great an advantage over the Lay Nobility whom having first discern'd of their Patronage wholly and of their other priviledges in a very great part he did as it were cudgel them into Submission by the authority of his * vid. lib. Assis fol. 141.57 Trail Baston a commission which however it were directed to the Majors Sheriffs Bayliffs Escheators c. and so seem'd to have been aim'd at those of the lower rank onely which were guilty of those Enormities of Champorty Extortion Bribery and intrusion crimes much in fashion in those days yet by a back blow it knockt down several of the great Men who either countenanc'd or comply'd with the offenders and which was more terrible this writ was kept as a Weapon in the Kings hands to use as he saw occasion And to say truth he was so expert at it and indeed at all other points of skill that brought him in any profit that he was too hard at last for the Lawyers themselves those great masters of defence Canvasing his Judges as well as his Bishops when he found both alike rich both alike corrupt Beyond these he could not descend to the consideration of any Criminal save the Jews only for whom perhaps it had been no great Injustice to have taken their Estates if at least he could have been prevail'd with to have spar'd their Lives but as so great Courage as he had would not be without some mixture of Cruelty so 't is the less wonder to see that Cruelty heightened by Covetousness as that Avarice by Ambition the adding to his Treasure by these Exactions being in order to the adding to his Dominions which were not yet so entire as consistent with his safety much less the Glory he aim'd at Wales being then as a Canton of the same Piece divided by a small seam which yet had a Prince of their own blood descended from the antient Stock of the Unconquer'd Britains who it seems had so little sense of the inequality of Power betwixt them that he had given this King great provocations
dispend a thousand Marks a day which I have the rather noted to shew how the Kingdom flourish'd as well as the King gaining as all wise States do by their layings out for the whole Revenues of the Crown in his Grand-fathers days were esteem'd to be not much above a hundred thousand Marks a year Five years the French King continued Prisoner here in England time enough to have determin'd the Fortune of that great Kingdom and dissolv'd their Canton'd Government into parts had it not been a Body consisting of so many strong Limbs and so abounding with Spirits that it never fainted notwithstanding all its loss of Blood but scorn'd to yield though King Edward came very near their heart having wounded them in the most mortal part their Head The Scotch King could not recover his Liberty in double the time being the less able to redeem himself for that he was upon the matter but half a King the other half being in the possession of Baliol who to secure a Moyety to himself surrendred the whole to King Edward whose Magnificence vying with his Justice he gave it back again upon Terms more befitting a Brother then a Conqueror shewing therein a Wantonness that no King perhaps besides himself would have been guilty of nor probably he neither had either his People been less bountiful to him or Fortune less constant which to say truth never forsook him till he like his Father forsook himself leaving all Action and bidding adieu to the World ten years before he went out of it declining so fast from the fortieth year of his Government that it may rather be said his famous Son Prince Edward commonly call'd the Black Prince reign'd then he and happy 't was for him that when his own Understanding fail'd him he had so good a Supporter who having it in his power to dispose of Kingdoms whilst he liv'd ought not to be denyed after he dyed the honour of being esteem'd equal to Kings in the Prerogative of a distinct Character Begin we then the Date of his Government from the Battel of Crassy which happening in the Sixteenth year of his Age makes the Computation of his Glory to commence near about the same time his Fathers did who however he was King at fourteen rul'd not till after Mortimer's death by which Battel he so topt the Fortune of France as his Father had that of England that he may be said to have taken thereby Livery in order to the Seisin of that Kingdom And after the Recovery of Calais it may be said the Keys of the Kingdom rather then of that Town were deliver'd into his hand for that he therewith open'd all the Gates of almost every Town he came to till the King of France incompassed him like a Lion in a Toil with no less then 60000 of the best Men of France and brought him to that streight that it seem'd alike disadvantageous to sight or yield and which made the danger more considerable as things then stood England it self was in some hazard of being lost with him here he seem'd to have been as well accomptable to his Country as to his Father for his Courage and Discretion and how well he acquitted himself appears by the Sequel when forcing Hope out of Despair like fire out of a Flint he necessitated his Men to try for Conquest by shewing them how impossible 't was for him to yield and by that incomparable Obstinacy of his made Fortune so enamour'd of his Courage that she follow'd him wherever he went while his Sword made its way to Victory and his Courtesie to the Affections of the Conquer'd whom he treated with that regard and generosity that many of them were gainers by the loss being dismiss'd with honourable Presents that made his second Conquest over them greater then the first the King of France himself being so well pleas'd with his Bondage that he return'd voluntarily into England after he was redeem'd to meet two Kings more that might be Witness of his Respect and Gratitude In short he was as King of England on the other side the Water as his Father was on this side keeping so splendid a Court in Acquitaine that no less then three Kings came to visit him too all at once these were the King of Majorque Navar and Castile the last of which craving Aid of him against an Usurper who was back'd by an Army consisting of no less then One hundred thousand men if the Writers of those times say true was re-instated accordingly by his single power to shew the World that he could as well make Kings as unmake them His second Brother who had the Title of King by marrying with the King of Castile's Daughter and Heir being principally indebted to him for the honour of that Title and it prov'd a fatal Debt both to him and his Son Richard the Second costing the one his Life the other both Life and Kingdom too for as himself never recover'd the health he lost in undertaking that Expedition so his Son never recover'd the disadvantage put upon him afterward by his Uncle Lancaster who by that means having got the Regency of his drooping Father King Edward who tyred with Action rather then Age fatally submitted to the loss of more years of his Government then he got by his unnatural Anticipation from his own Father and suffer'd himself to be buried alive as we may say under his Cradle put fair for setting his Nephew aside but wanting a Colour for so apparent an Injustice his jealous Father the Black Prince having declar'd him his Successor in his life time to prevent all tricks he thought it enough to make way for his Son to do it and accordingly put such an impression of dislike upon the innocent Youth at his very first Edition as prov'd Indelible in his riper years for the very same day he was presented to take his Grandfathers Seat in Parliament as Heir apparent to the Crown being then but eleven years old he taught him to demand a Subsidy purposely to turn the Peoples blood who were then big with their Complaint of Taxes But possibly he is made more splenetick as well as more politick then he was for it was scarce possible to make the Youth more odious then he had made himself before by disgusting those two potent Factions of the Church and the City of London who to shew how weary they were of his governing the old Child his Father would not after his Death let him longer Rule the young Child his Nephew but purposely depos'd him to the end as they said that he might not depose the other Thus this great King ended as ingloriously as he began who having stept into the Throne a little before he should 't is the less wonder he left it a little before it was expected he would especially if we consider that in out-living the best Wife and the best Son in the World he had a little out-liv'd himself being so unfortunate
France set forth his own Eloquence and the Kings Title so well deducing his Descent in a direct Line from the Lady Isabel Daughter to Philip the Fourth and Wife to his Grandfather Edward the Second and refuting all the old beaten Arguments brought from the Salique Law to oppose it as being neither consistent with Divinity Reason or Example he at once pleas'd and convinced all his Hearers but most especially the King himself who seem'd to be inspired with a Prophetick confidence of that success which after he had but scorning to steal any Advantage or wrong the Justice of his Title somuch as to seem to doubt 't would be denied before he would make any kind of preparation for the Conquest he sent Ambassadors to Charles the Sixth to demand a peaceable surrender of the Crown to him offering to accept his Daughter with the Kingdom and to expect no other pawn for his Possession till after his death This Message as it was the highest that ever was sent to any free Prince so he intrusted it to those of highest Credit and Trust about him these were his Uncle the Duke of Exeter a man of great esteem as well as of great Name the Arch-bishop of Dublin a very politick Prelate the Lord Gray a man at Arms the Lord High Admiral and the Bishop of Norwich the first as much renown'd for his Courage as the last for his Contrivances to whom for the greater state there was appointed a Guard of five hundred Horse to attend them The Report of this great Embassy as it arriv'd before them so it made such a Report throughout all this side of the World that all the Neighbour Princes like lissening Deer when they hear the noyse of Huntsmen in the Woods began to take the Alarm and consider which side to sly to it being so that England and France never made any long War upon one another but they ingaged all Christendom with them However the Court of France pretending themselves ignorant of the Occasion of their coming dissembled their disdain and treated them with that magnificence as if they had design'd to Complement them out of their business but after the Message was delivered with that faithful boldness that became so great an Affair they were all in that confusion that it was hard to judge whether they were more ashamed incensed or afraid giving such a return as seem'd neither compatible with the honour wisdom or courage of so renown'd a People as they are For first as they did neither deny nor allow the Kings Title but said they would make Answer by Ambassadours of their own So in the next place they were so hasty in their Counsels and the dispatch of their Ambassadors hither that they arriv'd in England almost as soon as those sent hence And lastly at the same time they desired Peace and offer'd to buy it with the tender of some Towns they gave the King an Affront which was a greater Provocation then the denyal of ten such Kingdoms for the Daulphin who in respect of the King his Fathers sickness I might rather say weakness managed the State affecting the honour to give the first Box or perhaps desiring to make any other Quarrel the ground of the approaching War which he foresaw was not to be prevented rather then that of the Title which had been already so fatally bandi'd scornfully sent the King a Present of Tenis-balls which being of no value nor reckoning worthy so great a Princes acceptance or his recommendation could have no other meaning or interpretation but as one should say he knew better how to use them then Bullets The King whose Wit was as keen as t'others Sword return'd him this Answer That in requital of his fine Present of Tenis-balls he would send him such Balls as he should not dare to hold up his Racket against them Neither was he worse then his word however his preparations seem'd very disproportionable for so great a Work For the Army he landed was no more but six thousand Horse and twenty four thousand Foot a Train so inconsiderable and by the Daulphin judg'd to be so despicable that he thought not fit to come down himself in Person to take any view of them for fear he should fright them out of the Country too soon but sent some rude Peasants to attend their Motion who incouraged by some of the Troops of the nearest Garrisons as little understanding the danger they were ingaged in as they did the language of the Enemy they were ingaged with fell in upon the Rear of his Camp but as Village Curs which fiercely set upon all Strangers having the least Rebuke with a Stone or a Cudgel retreat home whining with their Tails betwixt their Legs so they having a Repulse given them ran away and made such Out-cries as dishearten'd the Souldiers that were to second them so much that after that he marched without any Resistance as far as Callice Neither indeed saw he any Enemy till he came to give Battel to the united Forces of France at that famous Field of Agencourt where notwithstanding he was out-numbred by the French above five for one he fought them with that Resolution as made himself Master of more Prisoners then he had men in his Camp to keep them an Occasion Fortune gave him to shew at once her Cruelty and his Mercy who whilst he might have kill'd did not but when he should not was forc'd to be cruel beyond almost all Example for as he gave Quarter in the beginning of the Battel to all that ask'd it his Clemency and Gentleness being such that as he was then pleas'd to declare he consider'd them as his Subjects not as his Captives So being over-charged with their Prisoners Numbers upon a sudden and unexpected accident however of no great Consequence if it had been rightfully understood he was forc'd to write the dismal Fate of France in cold Blood and in order to the saving life destroy it For as he was seeing his wounded men drest having gotten an intire Victory as he thought and as afterward it proved a sudden out-cry alarm'd his Camp occasion'd by a new Assault of some French Troops who being the first had quit the Field were the first return'd into it again in hopes by fighting with Boyes to regain the honour they lost in refusing to fight with men these under the Leading of the Captain of Agencourt set upon the Pages Sutlers and Laundresses following the pursuit with that wonted noyse as if they would have the English think the whole Army was rally'd again and chasing them Upon this the King caus'd all the scatter'd Arms and Arrows to be recollected and his stakes to be new pitch'd and put himself into a posture of Defence neither were the English only deceived by the Shreiks and Cries of those miserable People that fell into these mens hands but all those of the French likewise that were within hearing insomuch that the Earls of Marle and
next Parliament declared Protector only and so moderate as to permit his two great Supporters the Earl of Salisbury then Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Warwick Captain of Callice to share with him for a while in the power who making up a kind of Triumvirate for the time being placed and displaced whom they pleased Upon which the King foreseeing the evil Consequences was moved with a condescention beneath his Majesty to offer an Accommodation which not taking effect both sides prepared to begin the War afresh which ended not with themselves The principal Persons for Quality Power and Interest that stuck to the King were the young Duke of Somerset the Dukes of Exeter and Buckingham the Earls of Oxford Northumberland Shrewsbury Pembroke Ormond and Wiltshire the Lords Clifford Gray Egremount Dacres Beaumont Scales Awdley Wells c. who having muster'd all the Forces they could make incamped near Northampton Thither came the Earl of March Son and Heir to the Duke of York his Father being then in Ireland to give them Battel assisted by the Duke of Norfolk the Earls of Warwick Salisbury Huntington Devon Essex Kent Lincoln c. all men of great Name and Power with whom were the Lords Faulconbridge Scroop Stamford Stanley c. and so fierce was the Encounter betwixt them that in less then two hours above ten thousand men lost their Lives amongst whom the principal on the Kings side were the Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Shrewsbury the Lords Egremount and Beaumont the unfortunate King being made Prisoner the second time who by the Earl of Warwick was conveighed to the Tower Upon which the Queen taking with her the Prince and the young Duke of Somerset fled The rumour of which Victory brought the Duke of York over who laying aside all disguises in the next Parliament call'd for that purpose pâ—aced himself on the Throne and with great Assurance laid open his claim to the Crown as Son and Heir to the Lady Anne Daughter and Heir to Roger Mortimer Earl of March Son and Heir of Philippa sole Daughter and Heir of Lyonel Duke of Clarence third Son of Edward the Third and elder Brother to John of Gaunt Father of Henry the Fourth who was Grandfather to him that as he said now untruly stiled himself King by the Name of Henry the Sixth This though it was no feign'd Title but known to all the Lords yet such was their prudence that they left the King de facto to enjoy his Royalty during his Life and declar'd t'other only Heir apparent with this Caution for the Peace of the Kingdom That if King Henry 's Friends should attempt the disanulling of that that then the Duke should have the present Possession But this nothing daunted the Queen who having raised eighteen thousand men in Scotland resolv'd to urge Fortune once more and accordingly they met the Yorkists at Wakefield where to mock her with a present Victory Fortune gave her the Duke of York's Life who vainly had stil'd himself Protector of the Kingdom being not able it seems to protect himself but pity it was he could not save his innocent Son the Earl of Rutland a hopeful Youth of not above Twelve years old who being brought into the Army only to see fashions was inhumanly murther'd by the Lord Clifford kneeling upon his knees and begging for his life that angry Lord making him a Sacrifice as he said to appease the injured Ghost of his Father murther'd by t'others Father which Cruelty was fully and suddenly repaid by the Earl of March who in the Battel at Mortimer's Cross slew three thousand eight hundred of the Lancastrian Forces and having put the Earl of Ormond to slight cut off the head of Owen Tuthor who had married King Henry's Mother which it seems did not so weaken or dishearten them but that they recover'd themselves and took their full revenge at the Battel of Barnet-heath where the Queen was again Victorious But such was the activity of the Earl of March that before she could recover London he came up to her and passing by entred the City in Triumph before her whereby he had so far the Start in point of Opinion that he was forthwith elected King by the Name of Edward the Fourth leaving King Henry so much more miserable in that he lost not his Life with his Majesty But herein consisted his happiness That he was the only Prince perhaps of the World that never distinguish'd betwixt Adversity and Prosperity being so intent upon his Devotion as to think nothing Adversity that did not interrupt that Nature having rather fitted him for a Priest then a King and perhaps rather for a Sacrifice then a Priest that he might not otherwise dye then as a Martyr that had lived all his time so like a Confessor HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE The sudden end of these his Competitors gave K. Edward as sudden an end to all his Troubles though not to his Wars For having setled peace at home he was provok'd to take Revenge upon his Enemies abroad falling first upon the King of France after upon the King of Scots but they thinking themselves as unable to grapple with him as two Foxes with the Lion bought their Peace and avoided the ill Consequences of his Fury till Death the common Foe of Mankind made him turn another way forcing him to end the Race of his Fortune as he began it like the Great Augustus Caesar who at the same Age succeeded his slaughter'd Predecessor and by a like Fate was disappointed of his intended Successor HON · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE This was as much as Humane Policy could do but in vain doth he strive to preserve what Heaven had decreed to overthrow Having by his Will declar'd his ambitious Brother Gloucester Protector of both the Children he was resolv'd to let this act the part of King and no King no longer then till his Tyranny could support it self by its own Authority who having to do with the Mother a weak Woman for to her from whom they received their Lives was these helpless Princes to owe their Deaths he had that respect to her Frailty as to keep time with her slow pac'd fears in deferring his intended Paracide till she that was their Nurse thought it fit time to bring them to bed Unhappy Youths to whom the Tenderness of their Mother must prove no less fatal than the Cruelty of their Uncle Had she in the first place Insisted upon the keeping them herself as what fitter Guardian then their own Mother or had she not in the last place Rashly consented to the taking off that Guard which her Husband had so providently placed about them or had at least suffer'd the King to have continued for a while longer at that distance he was when his Father dyed where by his Education and Acquaintance he might have as well secured the Peoples Faith as he was secur'd by
Learned Bishop of Rochester and the Judicious Chancellor Sir Thomas Moore whose Contradiction could no way determine the Point though it was the occasion of determining their Lives their Cases being made worse by the same way they thought to have made their Causes better The first being found Guilty of saying too much for himself t'other of saying too little The Bishop desiring to add to his Oath those words by way of Explanation Quantum per Christi Legem liceret had this interpretation by the Lawyers upon his Interpretation that the addition amounted to a flat denial and depriving the King of his Title and Dignity within the Statute of 26. being in effect that per Christi Legem non liceret The wise Chancellor admonish'd as he thought sufficiently by the Bishops error to avoid the danger of any Interpretation ran into a worse for answering nothing when the Kings Councel ask'd his Opinion of the Supremacy his Silence was interpreted Misprision of Treason within the Statute aforesaid for that as the Indictment run Malitiosè Silebat Paul the third being in the Chair at the time when these two eminent men suffered hearing the King had seal'd his new Title in Blood thought it in vain to expect longer his Return to the Apostolick Obedience as he call'd it and therefore peremptorily summon'd him by a terrible Bull to appear within Ninety dayes and make his submission otherwise he and all that assisted him should be given up to utter Damnation as judged Hereticks The King depriv'd of his Realm the Realm depriv'd of his Benediction all the Issue by the last Match declar'd Illegitimate all Ties of Allegiance discharged all Commerce with other States forbidden the Leagues made by other Princes with him nullified the Nobility commanded to take up Arms against him and the Clergy to depart the Kingdom Now because this last seem'd to be the greatest Menace at least the Pope would have it thought so both in respect of his power over them and theirs over the Conscience the King took the first advantage of it and sent away many of them against their wills dissolving no less then Six hundred forty five of their Societies which much forwarded his Designs with the Confederate Princes of Germany whose Friendship now he seem'd to have some need of they believing by this he would wholly renounce all Papistry to which his late Queen was highly disaffected and against which his great Minister Cromwell was deeply ingaged and from which himself was sufficiently discharged by the Popes declaring him as he did a Heretick for now could he be no further bound to Paul the Third then his Ancestor Henry the Second was to Alexander the Third the first Pope that was ever acknowledged here to whom he made only a Conditional Oath Quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis ejus Successoribus non recederet quamdiu ipsum sicut Regem Catholicum habuerint Gern Dowbern Col. 1422. 18. then thereupon dispatch'd an Ambassador to him to desire him to accept the Title of Patron and Defender of their League But the News of Queen Anne's Execution which for the suddenness and severity of it not to say any thing of the Injustice because some were of Opinion that the least Cause of Jealousie in Queens is equivalent to guilt in private Women begat such an abhorrence of his dire Inconstancy for she was flourishing accused condemned beheaded and another placed in her room at Bed and Board and all within a Months space that they fell off again from the Treaty they had entertain'd almost as soon as they began it believing it a Scandal to their Cause as some of them said to need the protection of the Devil However the great Ministers here gave it out that the Discrepancy of Interest was the only cause of the Breach they requiring Money of him without being able to answer the Reciproc on their part But the true State-Reason was that some of the wiser sort conceiv'd they could not safely admit his Supremacy for fear they should be oblig'd by the same rule to set up a Title for their own Soveraign the Emperor in his Dominions which would be more inconvenient then to leave it where it was in the Pope who being at further distance could not so easily reach them But long it was not ere the unexpected cause of that Innocent Queens sufferings was made manifest by the unexpected Labour of Queen Jane her Successor who made so good speed to bring the King a Son and Heir which was the thing he desired above all things in the World that being married on the Twentieth of May she fell in Labour the Twelfth of October following But Providence that had decreed she should only Conceive but not bring forth to signalize the Revenge of Queen Anne's Death by that of hers put it into the Kings heart to turn himself Man-Midwife rather then lose the hopes of a Kingdom who accordingly commanded the Child to be rip'd untimely out of her Womb an act of great horrour and so much more unwillingly perform'd for that he was unprovided of another Wife for the present In this Condition Bishop Gardner found him at his Return out of Germany who putting him out of all hopes of any Closure with the Protestant Princes unless he would come under the Standard of their Faith and allow of the Augustan Confession easily perswaded him to purge himself of the scandal of Heresie by shewing the World he had only shook off the Pope but not the Religion Here the Scene chang'd again and the first thing appear'd was that bloody Statute containing the Six Articles which being discharg'd as a Murthering Piece amongst the new Reformists cut off most of those who stood in its way the Report whereof was so loud and terrible that the two great Prelates Latimer Bishop of Worcester and Shaxston Bishop of Salisbury were frightned out of their Bishopricks who not being willing to have any hand in the approbation or execution of them suffer'd as patiently under his Title of Defender of the Faith as the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moore had before under that of his Supremacy And now Conscience being revolted from its ancient way of resolving Doubts to an abrupt Decision of the Common Law that did not instruct but force the Offender◠'t is not so much a wonder how so many came to suffer death under his Reign as how so many surviv'd it all Papists being in danger to be hang'd and all Anti-papists to be burn'd Yet in this great Storm Cromwell behav'd himself like a wise Pilot who finding he could not prevent the running of the Vessel in a contrary Course to his mind thought it enough that he kept it from being quite over-set and accordingly with great dexterity he brought on the Treaty once more with the Confederate Princes who were it seems alarum'd by the Counter-League which the Roman Catholicks set up under the Title of The Holy League the
as his Reason and the Greatness of his Mind much more impregnable then that of his Power wherein though his Patience came not so near to that of our Saviours as his Passion did or as their barbarity rather did to that of those Souldiers imploy'd in that accursed drudgery of his Execution yet it appears to have been such as was as much above their Expectation as himself was above their Malice Witness his Exit not like a Lyon but a Lamb For notwithstanding the sight of those Ropes and Rings which they had provided in case he had strugled with them to bind him down to the Scaffold as a Sacrifice to the Altar had been enough to have disorder'd the Passions of any man much more a King yet having a firm belief that his honor should not suffer with him but as his own words are * In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rise again like the Sun after Owls and Batts had had their freedom in the night to recover such lustre as should dazle the eyes of those feral Birds and make them unable to behold him he was so well fortified with that assurance that he despised the shame and endured the fatal stroak with alike Magnanimity as that Great †Galbaâ— Emperor who stretch'd forth his neck and bid the Souldiers strike boldly if it were for their Countries good Here seem'd to be the Consummatum est of all the happiness of this Kingdom as well as of the Life of this King For upon his Death the Vail of the Temple rent and the Church was overthrown An universal Darkness overspread the State which lasted not for twelve hours only but twelve years The two great Luminaries of Law and Gospel were put out Such as could not write supply'd the place of Judges such as could not read of Bishops Peace was maintain'd by War Licentiousness by Fasting and Prayer The Commonalty lost their Propriety the Gentry their Liberty the Nobility their Honour the Clergy their Authority and Reverence The Stream of Government ran down in new-cut Chanels whose Waters were alwayes shallow and troubled And new Engines were invented by the new Statesmen that had the stâ—erage to catch all sorts of Fish that came to their Nets some were undone by Sequestration others by Composition some by Decimation or Proscription In sine it appear'd when too late that the whole Kingdom suffer'd more by his suffering then he himself who being so humbled as he was even unto death falling beneath the scorn mounted above the Envy of his Adversaries and had this advantage by their Malice to gain a better Crown then they took from him whiles not induring that he should be their King they consider'd not that they made him their Martyr Quando ullum invenient parem Horat. Ode 24. lib. 1. Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT Now whether the Plot of this imaginary Structure came first from Hell or Holland matters not much but so it was that like the New-buildings there it cost more to make good the Ground it stood on then the Superstructure was worth which made the People in a very little time so weary both of the Projection and the Projectors that it was not long ere it fell into visible decay Now as ill-built Houses whose Foundations fail do not suddenly fall but cracking sink by degrees so the wiser Brethren the Scots foreseeing what the end would be withdrew themselves betimes whereby they not only avoided the danger of being crush'd under the ruins of so ill-grounded a Democracy but did themselves that right to be theÌ„ first return'd to as they were the first went from their Allegiance and however many then thought they did but like Foxes who having once slipt Collar are hardly ever to be chain'd up so fast but that they will one time or another get loose again yet this honest Apostacy of theirs made such a Schism for the present in the Brotherhood that had not Cromwell very opportunely stept into the Gap to stay them the whole Flock like frighted Sheep had then broke out to follow the right Shepheard Non aliud discordantis Patria remedium est quam ut ab uno regeretur Tacit. Annal. This he very well knew and resolving to make the advantage to himself like a second Antipater that would not wear the Purple outwardly but was all Purple within under an humble habit of Meekness he so deluded them that they chose him for their Supream Magistrate under the Title of Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland Now least they should discover his Ambition before he could master their affection he began his Government not much unlike Tiberius who saith Tacitus would have all things continue at the manner was in the ancient * Meaning under their Consuls Free State for as he was willing to be thought irresolv'd whether to accept of the Empire or not and thereupon would not permit any Edict though it were but to call the Lords of the Senate to Councel to be proclaimed by the Vertue and Authority of any other but a Tribune himself being one so Cromwell retaining still the name of Common-wealth that his Tyranny might seem to differ from the former no otherwise then a Wolf doth from a Dogg submitted all to the Authority of the Parliament whereof himself was a Member And to assure the faithful of the Land that the Rule over them however it were by a single Person disser'd much from Antichristian Monarchy he did so far adventure to deny himself as to admit of those Popular Votes which every Body thought were so incompatible with all Kingly Principles that it was impossible for any one ever to cheat them into Allegiance again As 1. That the People under God are the Original of all just Power 2. That the Commons of England in Parliament assembled being chosen by and representing the People have the Supream Authority of this Nation 3. That whatsoever is enacted by them and declar'd for Law hath the force of Law 4. That all the People of this Nation were concluded thereby although the consent and concurrence of the King and House of Peers were not had thereto But long it was not ere he extracted out of the dreggs of these Votes certain Spirits that made those about him so drunk with Ambition and Courage that they forgat all their Republican Resolves and as 't is said that Caesar incouraged the fearful Pilot that was to waft him over Sea in a Storm by only telling him he carried Caesar and his Fortunes so they were animated by the confidence they observ'd in him who on the sudden was exalted to that wonderful pitch of boldness as altered his very Countenance made it not much unlike that of * Sutton Vit. Neron Lucius Domitius the great Ancestor of the Aenobarbi whose face being stroked by two Cluii or familiar Damons
unknown danger attended that unknown Chance he retreated into his first disguise acting over the dissembling part of * Who so reads Cromwell's Speech at dissolving the Convention Jan. 1657 will find this parallel of Tiberius very properly apply'd to him Tiberius boggling with the Convention as t'other with the Senate and telling them that from the Experience he had in matters of State he had by good proof learn'd the ill of Soveraignty how hard and difficult a thing it was how subject to change and clamor and seeing there were so many famous and worthy Personages able and confiding men as he call'd them to bear the burthen better it were and more easie that many joyning their cases and studies together should undertake the Charge then cast all on one mans shoulders These words as the †See Tiberius his Speech in Tacitus Suspensa semper obscura verba 1 An. Author hath it carried greater Majesty then Truth For Tiberius saith he and Cromwell say we either by nature or by custom spake those things which he would have known darkly and doubtfully but of set purpose indeavouring to hide his drifts wrapt himself then more then ever in dark Clouds of Incertainty and Ambiguity and canted as our Phrase is more skilfully then ever Our Senate as theirs having in the mean time that awe upon their Spirits that as he sayes by them that they thought it great peril if the Emperor I may say by these that they thought it no less dangerous if the Protector should doubt they perceiv'd his Dissimulation and so they acquiesced in the final Answer he gave them that he accepted the Government but not by the Title of KING To say truth he was afraid of those only by whom only he us'd to make others afraid his emulous Bashaws those mighty men of War before mention'd who wheeling about declar'd against all Monarchy on Earth but that of Jesus Christ under whom they thought themselves as well entituled to be Major Generals as under him Amongst whom not to mention the rest I take Lambert Desborow Whaley Goffe Harrison and Pride to be six more unruly Beasts then those six Oldenburgh Horses which but a little before disdaining his lash however three Nations lay patiently under it had ominously flung him from his Seat when in a frolick he took upon him to drive his own Chariot and having got him under their feet so bruis'd and batter'd him that he was taken up for dead which being the only fatal Accident that ever lighted on his Body by doing him that hurt did him this good to teach him that it was no jesting matter to take the Reins into his hands For in case these head strong Beasts should have taken the Bitt between their Teeth too as those other did they would certainly have flung him down beyond all Recovery having before that so far derided and scorn'd his mimical Majesty that they would by no means admit of his new House of Lords or vouchsafe them any other name then that of The * Yet after his death they got to be call'd The Vpper House other House whereby he found himself if not only uneasie but so unfixed in his Greatness that the apprehensions thereof put him into such a kind of a Frenzy for the time being that he could not forbear in great passion to †See his Speech at the breaking of the Convention 1657. tax them with having betray'd him into that great Charge he had which as he said could not be made secure but by making it greater and it troubled him the more for that it look'd like a Judgment to have his Ambition so stifled in the very birth after his having indured the Throws and Pangs of so many anxious thoughts and sharp contradictions and the convulsions of a more then a common guilt but that which came yet nearer the quick was that as he was dash't out of all hopes of being a King so he began to lose his confidence of continuing a Tyrant perceiving a daily defection of many of those in whose firm disloyalty he most confided This turn'd all his Blood into Choler and that became more adust by the grief conceived for the death of his second and most beloved Daughter who expiring under the apprehensions of being tormented for his sins made it seems that impression upon him by her Sentiments of his Cruelty and Injustice that the disturbance of hers brought such a distraction into his mind as meeting with a suitable Distemper of Body left him not till he left the World out of which he departed with no less blustering and noise then he continued in it his Exit being attended with as dreadful a Storm as that which hapned at the departure of Romulus to whom therefore a witty Flatterer of those times took the confidence to compare him though without any Testimony given of his as there was of t'others going to Heaven his Death suggesting no less matter of shame then grief to the inspired Party that depended on him whilst one of their Seers assured them that God had given him his life His Son Richard succeeded him but was so daunted with the horror of that unexpected height he arriv'd at that not being able to keep the Reins long in his hands he fell like another Phacton leaving all in Flames about him Then began that Chaos of The Committee of Safety out of which Fleetwood started up like the Beast in the * Cap. 13. Revelations that rose out of the Sea with (a) Thâ— seven Commissioners for Government of the Army made by Act of Parliament who were to execute the Office and Power of Lievtenants Geneal from 11 Oct. 59. to 22 Fâ—lâ— following seven Heads (b) Lambert who was restor'd after his Commission was taken away one whereof was wounded to death and heal'd again and (c) The ten Persons chose by the Chief Officers of the Army at Whitehall to act as the Supream Councel for the Commonwealth ten Horns to whom saith the Text was given a Mouth speaking great things and Blasphemies till God as himself express'd it spitting in his face blasted him This many headed Monster receiving its power from the Dragon by which we may either understand the Devil in a mystical or the Army in a literal sense had Instruction 1. To bring all Delinquents to Justice that was to murther whom they pleas'd 2. To prevent and suppress all Insurrections and Rebellions that was to rob rifie and imprison whom they thought fit 3. To treat with Forreign States that was to sell the whole Nation whensoever they could find a fit Chapman for it 4 To raise the Militia in every County that was to make the People Instruments of their own Servitude 5. To fill up all places of Trust that were void and to remove such as were scandalous in order to the making void of more 6. To make sale of all Delinquents Estates and as an Appendix to that Power they
Yellow King so call'd from the Emication of that Golden Age he liv'd in to wit at the time of the birth of that beautiful (a) Christ Jesus Child which Tully dream'd he saw let down from Heaven in a golden Chain which was verifi'd in the 18th Year or as some think in the 23 Year of this Kings Reign at which time the Temple of Janus being shut up in Rome in token of an universal Peace throughout the World Some have supposed and not improbably that be took thence occasion to make use of this Device which we find on his Money and elsewhere But some others that have lately div'd deeper into the Mysteries of Antiquity conjecture that he did hereby rather denote a farewel to Barbarity Janus being the Person that is said to have first civiliz'd the World as this King did the Britains and therefore painted with two Faces as bringing one shape out of another a conceipt tolerable enough and to me so much the more acceptable by how much the same (b) Canden Author whose Authority may bear it ot admits Cunobelin to be as Critical as himself most certain it is that mov'd by an Emulation of the Roman Majesty whereof he had been an eye witness when his Father under pretence of sending him to congratulate Augustus his success against M. Anthony left him an Hostage at Rome he did indeavour by his own Example to bring his Country-men into the Roman fashion of living imitating them in the manner of their Houses eating drinking and cloaths Coyning money in (c) In Aâ—chiv Londin Gold and Silver instead of their rusty Iron and Copper Ringâ— valued by weight making their Money More Romano in Medals or Plates in the one side whereof was some device queint enough for the invention of those Times on the other the face of the King some whereof have been preserv'd to the glory of this Kings memory to this day which being under a form so rarely found amongst those of any other Nation to wit the device of the (d) Jun. Nomensi Toruma ingrav'd in the Concavity of the Reverse intitles the Nation to a distinct Epoche more renown'd then most other States in the World can pretend to We find many different devices of this King but this of Janus I take to be the principal and without doubt had some signal meaning which the Criticks have not yet light upon possibly to denote the Isle under two Heads at that time Caesar and himself who rul'd as we may say with a kind of double fac'd Supremacy Cunobeline whilst thou desir'st to be Fam'd for a double fac'd Supremacy Bringing the Britains into th' Roman fashion By eivilizing thou undo'st thy Nation They 're Caesars Subjects now who erst were thine Ere long their Virtue will become their Crime For being true to both th' are true to none Two Heads may thus prove not so good as one GUITHBELIN 'T IS a question Whether the last King were more happy in Himself An. Ch. 17. or in his Children whereof he left no less then five Sons to succeed him of which only (e) Adminius the Eldest Guiderius the Second Tâ—godomous the Third Carastâ—â—us the Fourth Arviragus the Fifth One miscarried who indeavouring to betray his Country in the life time of his Father was after his death put besides the Succession and this King his second Brother set up in his room to whom there are so many different Names given in different Transcripts both British and Latin as hath occasion'd many doubts of his Person His right Name was Caradec which being too rough for the Roman pronunciation their Historians call him Caradocus The Britains in respect of his being Prince of the Isle of Wight which they call'd in their Language Guith styl'd him after he came to be King Guithbelin as much as to say the King that came out of that Island and the Romans thereupon Guiderius So that â—t is no marvel if those that had no other Guides but Names only have found themselves misled in the dark places of the British Annals He began his Reign in the time of Tiberius Nero for his sottishness nicknam'd by his Country-men Biberius Mero who leaving every Province to the protection of its proper Strength occasion'd so many disorders as begot at last a Civil war in his own Breast as well as his Empire his Covetousness striving in vain with his Cowardise to recover the benefit at least if not the honour he had lost Britain was the place he alwayes threatned but with so palpable Irresolution that taking occasion from every little accident to alter his purpose of Invasion the Souldiers in scorn call'd him (b) As much as to say in English Short Leggs meaning he had alwayes one Legg in the Stirrup but never got up Callipedes this added to the Fortune more then the same of this King who all the time of his Government had no occasion given him of Glory but found the opportunity to learn by observing that of his Neighbours how to encounter the dangers which afterwards approach'd towards him when his Brother Adminius brought on Caligula to give him that false Allarum from the Holland Coast Nine years he rul'd in peace till the Ambition of Claudius which transported him as much beyond the bounds of his Reason as those of his Empire broke in like the Ocean with a resistless Torrent and bore away all before it The Britains who could not withstand their own Fears being less able to resist his Forces flying at the first sight of his Elephants as if they had believ'd there could have been no greater a Beast in the World then himself upon which advantage he made himself Master of the Pass over the Thames which yet he dreaded more then that over the Sea and so march'd up to London where the two brave Brothers Caradocus and Togodomnus gave him Battel in which the last scorning to outlive the Liberty of his Country fell a Sacrifice to the Incensed Gods of the Isle His Royal Brother retiring as a wounded Deer forsaken by the Heard to seek some shelter in the Neighbouring Woods resolv'd to make head against those pursu'd him as often as he reflected on his lost greatness but the danger approaching nearer his Wisdom prevail'd with him to retreat till he might fight with more advantage So the stall Stagg upon the brink Of some smooth Stream about to drink Waller Surveying there his armed head With shame remembers that be fled The scorned Doggs resolves to try The Combat next But if their cry Invade again his trembling Ear He straight resumes his wonted fear Leaves the untasted Spring behind And wing'd with fear out-flies the wind BELIN ARVIRAG date of accession 0050 FROM the beginning of this Kings Reign if so be we may not rather call it Rebellion we date the Dominion of the Romans in this Isle Julius Caesar had the honour of being the first Aggressor Claudius laid the
Superstructure upon his Foundation Domitian had the good hap I cannot say (c) Being more beholden to the Virtue of his Lieutenants then his own honour to perfect the Work The death of the last King as it was no small discouragement to the Britains the brave Caractacus being at the same time taken Prisoner so it render'd the Romans so insolent that all the Time of (d) Who succeeded Claudius Nero's Government the Story is fill'd with nothing but Relations of Murthers Rapes and Rapines wherein the Virtue of his Lieutenant Suetonius seems to have contested with his Masters Vices for the Soveraignty in suppressing by his Wisdom or qualifying by his Courage their Outrage whom he had commission'd to perpretate all manner of Villanies being a Person of that excellent temper in War and Peace that it could not have been expected the (e) Having lost in one single Battel with him 80000 men by common compute Britains could long have resisted had not the flattery of his Country-men prevail'd as much over him at home as he did over those here Representing the state of things to that effeminate Tyrant not according to the Truth but as they thought most agreeable to his humour Whereupon he and the Consul Petronius Turpilianus that succeeded him being both remov'd that base Fellow Tribellius Maximus took place whose unworthiness was such that it provok'd his own Country-men to rebel as well as the Britains but his Reign ending with his Masters during all the time of Otho Galba and Vitellius his Government whereof he that held longest continu'd not above Eighth Months the Roman State was as busily imploy'd in conquering it self as before in conquering others so that they wholly pretermitted the thoughts of all Foreign Attempts till the entrance of Vespatian who having laid the Foundation of his Greatness here resolv'd to give the Britains the first taste of his Power by sending over those three excellent Generals Petilius Cerealis Julius Frontinus and Julius Agricola against whom there appear'd for the Britains mov'd by the Example of their Neighbours no less then by their own desire of Liberty three men of as great repute that is to say Arviragus whom the Natives after the manner of the Romans had saluted Imperator Britannorum the only Son of Cunobelin left alive Venutius Prince of the Brigantes and Galgacus Prince of the Caledonii These three divided the Forces of the whole Isle betwixt them thinking to have singled out the Roman Generals but they uniting whilst the other fought by Parties I cannot call them Armies routed them as fast as they met with them upon which Arviragus after the end of that sharp War strangely begun and maintain'd by his Sister Voadicia which cost near 100000 Roman lives retir'd into the North where some say he dyed others that he submitted to a Tribute perswaded by his Wife Genissa a Roman Lady and near Kinswoman to Claudius MERIOBELIN date of accession 98 AGRICOLA having by the death or recess rather of the last King as appears by that piece of Flattery of the (f) Juvenal Regem aliquem Capies aut I le Temone Britannorum excidet Arviragus Poet to Domitian his Master clear'd his way over the body of the Isle as far as Sterling in Scotland the non ultra of those days and planted Garrisons in the most convenient places betwixt Glota and Bodotria i. e. the two Arms of the two contrary Seas that run up into the Land there now call'd the Frith of Dunbritton and the Frith of Edenburgh the utmost Limits then design'd having neither desire nor provocation to pursue the Britains any further he resolv'd to crown his Victory with subduing the perversness of those that were already in his power whereby whiles he aspir'd to no less advantage over his Predecessors in point of Glory then he had over his Enemies in point of Power he shew'd the World that they only knew how to Conquer but he how to make good a Conquest The way he took to do this was by permitting the People their own Laws and their own Princes allowing their Kings the Stile State and Complements of Majesty after the rude manner their Ancestors had been serv'd in himself in the mean time using the Roman fashions so as he seem'd rather to tempt them by his Example then compel them by any Law to do the like The King that then rul'd was this Meriadoc whom the Romans call'd Marius suppos'd to be the Son of the last King whom to caress they call'd Muegan as much as to say the Freeman which Complement so irritated those under his Fathers Colleague Galgacus who were driven into the inaccessable parts of Scotland and forc'd to endure all the miseries incident to a barren Soyl and unwholsome Air whilst t'other enjoy'd all blessings but that of Liberty that their Envy turn'd to as great an Animosity against him and his people as against the Romans themselves and from that very time they wasted one another with alternate Incursions till an Enemy that neither of them dream'd of broke in upon them and did them more mischief then the Romans The only Action we find this Marius ingag'd in was that Expedition against the Picts for by that Name continued the custom of going naked and painting their body like their Ancestors the Romans distinguish'd them from the civiliz'd i. e. the subjugated Britains wherein he prov'd so successful in several Battles that the Romans to incourage him and all his Successors whom they design'd as Tacitus tells us to be Servitutis Instrumenta erected a Stone as a Trophy of his victorious memory by the Inscription of Marti Victoria that hath lasted till of late years the Glory whereof is deny'd him by some of our Modern Antiquaries who with more Envy perhaps then Ignorance ascribe it to Marius the Roman Consul with as much reason as Lloyd the British Historian would have him to be that Murigus on whom he fastens so many wonders both he and they being confident that in Relations at this distance no man is of sufficient Authority to suppress any mans fancy much less condemn it COELIBELIN date of accession 129 THE good Fortune of Agricola in reducing the Britains prov'd most unfortunate to himself while the jealous Tyrant his Master thinking the mock Triumph he had made but a little before in Germany was upbraided by the Fame of his real conquest here recall'd him out of ours to send him of an Errand into another World whereby the Britains being left to themselves to contest with the Picts who had chang'd their Natures from the time they chang'd their Names and become of Friends the most mortal Enemies knew not how to resist the approaching storm but were forc'd to give place whiles they made themselves Masters of all the Country about Edenburgh the news whereof being afterward brought to Adrian when he was Emperour he sent over Julius Severus and purpos'd to follow himself in Person to chastize the