more Masculine Spirit than to acquiesce in the forementioned dishonorable Conditions and because it was a Crown that the Duke of York chiefly affected She caused his Head to be cut off set upon a Pole and Crowned with Paper but the death and disgrace of the Father Edward Earl of March his Eldest Son doth speedily revenge to the utter ruine of the Lancastrian party Nor will this Edward as did his Father await anothers leasure and prove expectant of a Crown in reversion but immediately assumes it by the actual deposing of King Henry whom he takes Prisoner and commits to safe custody in the Tower of London But there was an accident which had well-nigh nipped the white Rose in the bud and restored the red Rose to its pristine vigour Edward the fourth late Earl of March now King of England sends his great General the Earl of Warwick to treat a Match between him and the Lady Bona Sister to the Queen of France But our youthful King in the mean time consulting only his own affections takes to Wife the fair Lady Gray Widdow of Sir Iohn Gray of Groby which so inceses warwick that he Rebels against his Master beats him not only out of the Field but also out of the Kingdom delivers King Henry from his Prison and reseats him in his Throne but all this is but as Lightning before Death Edward returns from beyond Seas fights with defeats and kills the Earl of warwick routs also Queen Margaret newly landed and the relicts of her Lancastrian Associates takes her and her Son Edward Prisoners which last is stabbed by Richard Duke of Glocester King Edwards Brother and not long it is but the Father Henry is dispatched by the same hand in the Tower of London whither he was remanded by King Edward after this fortunate and victorious successe The cruelty of Richard Duke of Glocester whose nature was more crooked than his body did not terminate in the blood of the Enemies but begins to practise on his Friends and nearest Relations For perceiving that King Edward by reason of his incontinency whereunto no English Prince was ever more subject was not long liv'd he secretly plots the attaining of the Crown for himself And for the more expedite compassing this ambitious design he first incenses King Edward against their common Brother George Duke of Clarence not only exaggerating the hainousaesse of his former disobedience which had been pardoned but insinuating a blind Prophecy that one whose name began with the letter G. should prove fatal to Edwards posterity Hereupon the Duke of Clarence is committed to the Tower and there by Richard drowned in a Butt of Malmsey however it was given out that he dyed of a discontented passion But the Ominous G. which the King so much dreaded was found in the sequele to appertain to Glocester himself who was the Contriver of this mischief and Butcher of Edwards innocent Sons of whom after the Kings decease he was made Protector The young Prince Edward the fifth was at Ludlow when his Father Edward the fourth dyed from whence his Mother was over desirous to have him forthwith conveyed to London But his Unkle the Duke of Glocester meets him by the way at Stony-Stratford and having secured all his faithful Attendants and Kindred by the Mothers side takes into custody the person of the young King which was the game that this mighty hunter did mainly intend Yet was there one obstacle to his aspiring ends still behind to wit Richard Duke of York the Kings Brother in Sanctuary with his Mother at Westminster whom to allure thence for to do it by Violence was accounted Religion in those days he imploys the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to perswade the Mother and in case she proves obstinate to interpose his Authority to part with her Son under colour that he might be a companion and great lenitive of the Melancholy disposition of his disconsolate Brother Glocester having thus compassed the Wardship of both his Nephews makes shew as if he would proceed to the Coronation of the Elder but whilst the Lords of the Councel are debaring of the time and manner of it he arrests and on a sudden makes shorter by the Head the Lord Chamberla in Hastings whom though he had used as a forward Coadjuter in depressing of the Queens Relations yet knew him to be altogether averse from yielding any Countenance to the disinheriting of his Masters King Edwards Children Hastings thus removed the Duke of Buckingham who had received several disgusts from his Brother-in-law Edward the fourth is pitched upon as the fittest agent to carry on this Devilish attempt who having prepared the Mayor and Citizens of London comes in their name pretending Bastardy and insufficiency of Edwards race to make a tender of the Crown to Protector Richard and in case of refusal with threats to elect some other worthy and deserving Person Richard in seeming amazednesse makes strange at first of this by himself-devised proposal but after some importunity grants his forfooth unwilling consent not without a dissembled regret of his Nephews condition whose murder in the Tower doth immediately ensue Buckingham supposed not privy to the making away of the harmlesse Princes upon this and other distasts retires from Court to his Castle of Brecknock where with his prisoner Morton Bishop of Ely he contrives the Match between Henry Earl of Richmond and Elizabeth Daughter of Edward the fourth which proves Richards downfall and the union of the Yorkish and Lancastrian line Henry Earl of Rickmond was the Son of Margaret Daughter of Iohn Duke of Somerset Son of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster by Katherine Swineford relict of Sir Ores Swineford and though this Iohn and other Children were born before espousals yet was the issue made legitimate by Act of Parliament and confirmed by a Bull from Rome Of this Henry there goes a tradition for current that in the heat of the Civil Wars between the House of York and Lancaster Henry the sixth having espied him in the presence laid his hand upon his head and in a Prophetick manner said Behold this youth who is to enjoy that for which we now contend Which his Mother observing and treasuring up in her heart sent him into Britany in France as into a safe Harbour to be there educated and preserved till the sury of the tempest were over which then did so terribly rage throughout the Land Richard the third earnestly Solicites the Duke of Britany to deliver up Richmonds person to him which was well-nigh effected by the treachery of Peter Landoys the Dakes especial Favourite But Richmond having timely notice of this Clandestine negotiation flyes to the French Kings Court for at that time the Dukedom of 〈◊〉 was a distinct Principality from whence having sworn to consummate the projected marriage with the Lady Elizabeth he hastens to redeem poor England from the jaws of an usurping Tyrant Richmond Lands at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire where he was heartily
his Mothers claim who was the true descendent of the long-rejected but now restored Saxon linage He took to wise Elenor the repudiate of Lewis the seventh King of France by whom he had large Dominions in that Kingdom but notwithstanding it augmented his estate yet was it the occasion of much trouble and vexation to him For the French King jealous of his growing fortunes and his own Queen of his fidelity to his marriage-bed incited his Sons Herry Richard Jeffrey and John to frequent rebellions to whom neverthelesse upon their submissions he was entirely reconciled Henry Sans issue departed this life before his Father Richard succeeded in the Throne but dyed childlesse also Jeffrey though extinct himself before it came to his turn had yet left a Son in being Arthur Duke of Britany who ought to have been considered of but him John prevented more too by power favour of the Nobles than by any colour of Justice â—ad whilst the young Prince endeavours the recovery of his right he is taken prisoner as he besieged the Castle of Mirabell in France conveyed to the Tower of Roan and there killed if not by the hands yet at least by the command of his inhumane Uncle However the course taken to be thus rid of a Competitor was utterly unlawfull yet being gon Iohn becomes the lawful proprietor of the Crown but pays dear for the manner of this his amisse procured purchase For the Pope excommunicates him his Subjects for sake him the French King invades him and bereavs him not only of his large Territories in France but also of the greatest part of his Kingdome of England and he dyes miserably not without suspicion of Poyson a just judgment upon him for his enormous Acts especialy the murder of his innocent Nephew Now though God shewed himself a severe inquisitor for blood yet did he seem appeased with the punishment of the person that was guilty of it For he so disposed the hearts of the English Nation that they generally withdrew themselves from the French party and notwithstanding the iniquity of the Father most willingly embrace the Son then a minor as naturally inclined says my Author to love and obey their Princes Such this Prince Henry the third found his Subjects at his first admission whilst he was governed by a wise and faithfull Councel but afterwards suffering himself to be ruled by strangers that more intended their own than the publick good he so alienated the English affections as they were earnest at first to promote his interest To the former he adds new grievances to wit reiterated breach of Charters granted by his Predecessors and himself whence such discontents are engendred that at length there is begotten between the King and his people an actual commonly known by the name of the Barons war Hereof Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester on the Barons side was head who in a set Battail takes King Henry and his Son Edward prisoners but Edward escapes collects an Army defeats and kills Leicester and redeems his Father the beginning of whose reign was overcast with a French mist the middle was very tempestous by reason of the Barons commotions but the Catastrophe or latter part was serence and concluded in a perfect Calm Edward the first of that name since the Norman conquest having proved the deliverer of his Father from captivity makes an expedition into the Holy-land to perform the like office to the Christians there that were grievously afflicted under the Turkish servitude but the news of his Fathers death quickly recalls him from further prosecution of that honourable enterprize wherein he had no lesse honourably demeaned himself And as he had encreased his own and Countries reputation abroad so doth he likewise enlarge their power and jurisdiction at home by subduing most of Scotland and totally reducing of Wales of which last because it was then first annexed to this Crown it will not be impertinent to afford the Reader a brief and summary relation Wales the small remnant of this Island that was left to the Britains the antient possessors of the whole had hitherto though not without much difficulty and struggling continned under their own proper Princes But the fatal period of their liberty which they had so long so stoutly maintained against so potent a Kingdome as this is now arrived Llewellin the then Prince of that Cnutry being summoned to our Kings Coronation refused to appear saying He too well remembers the end of his Father Gryffin who came in safety to London but never returned thence This neglect Edward makes the ground of a quarrel enters into hostility against Llewellin forces him to a submission whereof he soon repents flyes out again is overcome and slain in fight his head cut off and that Merlins Prophecy might be fulfilled or eluded which as he interpreted had promised him the Diadem of Brute it is Crowned with Ivy and set upon the Tower of London After the death of Llewellin and his brother David whose head was shortly sent to accompany the others in the same place Edward contrives the perpetual union of these two too long divided Nations And though he found the Welsh Nobles very cautious how they brought their necks under a Forein yoke yet doth he accomplish his ends by this neat and Artificial devise He conveys secretly into the Castle of Carnarvon his Queen great with Child whom when he understood to be delivered of a boy he Assembles the Welsh Nobles and proposeth to them whether they would accept of a Prince of his Nomination that was born in their own Country could speak nere a word of English and against whom for Life or Conversation no objection could be made Whereunto when they had assented he produces his own little Son Edward to whom the aforesaid qualifications did exactly agree Hence the custom took its original of investing our Kings eldest Sons in the Principality of Wales but because there may here seem to have been a mixture of force and fraud we shall indeavour when order brings us to it to find out a more unexceptionable Title whereby our Kings lay claim to that Dominion Edward the second called Edward of Carnarvon for the cause but even now rehearsed much degenerated from his Fathers Noblenesse and lost not only Scotland which his Father had well-nigh gained but ever England it self being deposed by his own Wife Isabel having only this comfort left him that his Son Edward was to succeed in the Throne Edward the third of that name Son of the late deposed and shortly after murdered King was when he came to years of Discretion Gods Instrument to revenge his Fathers death even upon his own Mother the Queen and her Minion Mortymer who was the Author and Procurer of the same But the chiefeft passage of this Princes Reign and that of nearest Alliance to our Subject in hand which is to declare the Titles our Kings have to the Kingdoms they possesse or challenge was his
had took upon him the Crosse and according to the Custom of those days warred in the Holyland Thus appears the invalidity of Henryes claim whether from the Father as unsound or the Mother as suspitious and deceitful or from King Richard receding as extorted by force in restraint and so of no force or of consent of the many there being no Custom in the English Nation for popular elections or by Conquest which in a Subject against his Soveraign is Insurrection and Victory high Treason as was well observed by the Bishop of Carlile in his speech in that very Parliament where this business was agitated and transacted Nay further there is a tradition that Iohn of Gaunt Father of this Henry was not at all the Son of King Edward but that the Queen being deliver'd of a female child knowing how unacceptable it would be to her Husband exchanged it for a boy with a Dutch woman who had been brought to bed about the same hour This the Queen at her death confessed to William of Wickman Bishop of Winchester who acquainted none with it but Iohn of Gaunt himself and that when he perceived Iohn to affect the Crown in which case the Mother had left the Bishop free But this being but a report and grounded on uncertainties would have been no bar to Henry's title had it been clear in all other respects Henry as he had injuriously obtained a Kingdom so doth he laboriously preserve the same for the manifold conspiracies against him testifie that quiet is not a Concomitant of usurped greatnesse and was in a manner bereaved of his Crown before he was of his life For he being seized upon by a deep fit of the Apoplexy his Son Henry seized upon the Crown whereof when the Father reviving demanded the reason his answer was That in his and all mens judgement there present he was dead and then says he I being next Heir apparent to the same took it as my indubitat right Well said the King and sighed Son what right I had to it God knoweth but saith the Prince If you dye King I doubt not to hold it as you have done against all opposers Which expression this incomparable King Henry the fifth did make good even to supererogation for abandoning his youthfull extravagancies whereof he is severely taxed he embraces more solid courses and to vent any discontented humours at home which by standing still might corrupt and gather putrefaction he meditates a war with France and awakens the English title to it which had lyen dormant ever since his great Grand-Fathers days But whilst he is in preparation for this great affair he either makes or discovers a plot against his life by Richard Earl of Cambridge who had married Anne Sister and Heir of Edmond Mortimer Earl of March before remembred who was the true heir of the Crown and was the true cause of Earl Richards execution for it cannot be imagined that money alone would induce so noble a person to so foul an undertaking And the event shews that there was somwhat more than Bribery in this attempt when we shall find the Son of this late executed Earl dispossessing his Son who was the Author of his Fathers Tragedy Henry having thus eased himself of a great Pretender proceeds to his intended design on France where he so prosperously speeds that he is constituted Regent declared Heir apparent of the doting French King whose Daughter Katherine he marries by her hath a Son named Henry of whom the King is said to have thus prophesyed I Henry born at Monmouth shall small time reign and much get and Henry born at Windsor shall long reign and lose all And so indeed it came to passe through the secret operation of all-disposing Providence which is seldome propitious to the owners how good in themselves soever they be of ill gained inheritances beyond the third succession And hereof our present Henry the sixth is a great example who was the meekest and most religious of all our Kings that had been before and yet for no other transgression that we know of than the original Sin of his Grand-Father Henry the fourth medling with the forbidden fruit of a Crown his ere it was ripe for him is he chased out of the terrestial Paradise of all his Kingdoms and sent to be a partaker of a Celestial one somwhat more early than the due course of nature had designed him for it For that covert fire which had a long time burned in the breasts of many to see the Lancastrian race enioy anothers right doth now break forth into open combustion of which Richard Duke of York is the prime incendiary the Son of Richard Earl of Cambridge who was beheaded in King Henry the fifths reign for supposed Treason the Son of Edmond Duke of York the fifth Son of King Edward the third But Duke Richard waves all pretensions by the Fathers side as not being ignorant that Iohn of Gaunt from whom our present Henry is directly descended was elder brother to his Grandsire Edmond and therefore in Parliament only produceth his title by the Mother as being the Son and Heir of Anne Sister and Heir of Edmond Son and Heir of Roger Mortymer Earl of March Son and Heir of Philippa the sole Daughter and Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of Edward the third and elder Brother of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Father of the Usurper Henry the fourth Grand-Father of Henry the fifth who was Father to him who now says Richard untruly stileth himself King Henry the fixth Besides his holding forth his claim to the Crown in this demonstrative and undeniable manner which yet the judicious could only penetrate the Duke addeth many Rhetorical aggravations which were more suitable and intelligible to vulgar ears As that the King was simple and of weak capacity that he was Governed by the Queen a stranger and Woman of an unsufferable ambition that the Privy Counsellors were naught and corrupt through whose faithlessenesse and inabilities France was lost and England disquieted and that greater judgements were to be expected if the true Heir were any longer debarred from his lawful right The Duke by these plausible arguments had so engaged the multitude unto him that he is able to dispute his Title in the Field with the King whom he takes Prisoner and calling in his name a Parliament it is there concluded that King Henry during his life should retain the name and Honour of a King that the Duke of York should be Proclaimed Heir apparent to the Crown and Protector of the Kings Person and Dominions that if at any time King Henries Friends Allies or Favorites in his behalf should attempt the disannulling of this Act that then the Duke should have present possession of the Crowu But this was more than what his destiny had allotted for him for he was shortly after slain at the Battail of War field by Queen Margaret who was of a
welcomed and readily assisted by the Welsh from whose Princes he was descened as being the Son of Edmond of Haddam the Son of Owen Ap Teudor who could in a direct line derive his pedigree from the Noble Race of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severne as hath been before touched though a modern Writer more for the jest sake than out of reality sayes he was a Gentleman of no extraordinary lineage but lineaments which he makes to be the motive that induced Katherine of France Dowager of England after the death of Henry the fifth to take him for her second Husband Richmond having much increased his Army among his Country-men marches forward as far as Bosworth in Leicestershire where King Richard meets him and there the great controversy is finally decided in Battail Richard is slain and Richmond by a kind of military election saluted and in a manner Crowned King in the Field Henry the seventh for so must we now call him that was but lately Earl of Richmond sensible that the tumultuary approbation of Souldiers did of it self give him neither just or durable possession knowing likewise the weaknesse of the Lancastrian plea in opposition to that of York maries according to his solemn preingagement Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the fourth which brought security to his estate and happinesse to the Kingdom the two Roses whose divisions had put the English to much expence of blood being thereby concorporated and for ever after linked in a most firm and indissolvable knot But as in a body that hath been troubled with a Cronique Disease though recovered yet are there still some peccant humours to be purged out so notwithstanding this Union and Recorciliation there remains dregs of discontents whereof the Queen Mother was the supposed Parent and Margaret Dutchess of Burgundy the known Nurse the first because she thought her Daughter not sufficiently respected for King Henry is not accused to have been over uxorious or indulgent to his wife the other being Sister of Edward the fourth bore an endlesse hatred to any of the Lancastrian Race The first Spirit they raised to disturb King Henryes quiet was one Lambert Symnell a stripling but so instructed by Simon a Priest who had higher directors that he could well personate the young Earl of Warwick Son of George Duke of Clarence whom the credulous Irish greedily entertain and acknowledge for their King And when Henry to detect the forgery had publickly shown in London the very Earl of Warwick whom he kept his Prisoner they retort the fiction upon himself and give out he had suborned a counterfeit on purpose to delude the simple multitude But this Pageantry quickly vanished the Conspirators are dispersed and Lambert taken who had the honour to be first made a Turn-spit in the Kings Kitchen but was afterwards preferred to be one of the Kings Falconers This was but the Prologue as it were to a more deep contrived Comi-Tragaedy that was to follow whereof the restlessâ— Dutchesse of Burgundy was the Inventer and one Perkin Wâ—rbeke the principal Actor But the Name and Scene is somewhat altered His Cue assigned him is to play the part of Richard Duke of York second Son of Edward the fourth who is feigned to have miraculously escaped the hands of his bloody Unckle Perkin was so good a proficient and had learned and could repeat his lesson so exactly that not the silly Iriâ—h alone but the French and Scotish Kings with many of the Nobility and Gentry of England were or would be deceived Nay Sir William Stanly himself Lord Chamberlain the Kings especial favorite is so far trâ—panned as to utter this improvident Speech which was construed high Treason that if he certainly knew that the young man was the undoubted Son and Heir of King Edward the fourth he would never fight or bear Arms against him for which he became headlesse though he had been the chief help and setter of the Crown upon King Henryes head Perkin at length is taken and committed to the Tower where soliciting the Earl of Warwick to make an escape he hastens both his own merited and that poor Earls undeserved execution Henry having thus composed his affairs at home seeks honourable matches for his children abâ—oad and marries his eldest Daughter Margaret to the Scotish King providently foreseeing that in case his issue Male failed this conjunction might be a means to associate the separated Kingdoms as his own had the Roses and so remedy the inconveniences of two distinct estates in one single Island Arthur his eldest Son Prince of Wales was espoused to Katherine Infanta of Spain but he dying before consummation we mean as to conjugal duty his brother Henry by dispensation from the Pope takes her to wife who on the wedding day was aâ—tired all in white in token that she was a pure and spotlesse Virgin It is conceived that the young Prince who henceforward is to be styled Henry the eighth had never any great fancy to the Lady as somwhat his Superiour in years but did raâ—â—â—r comply with his Fathers will than his own iâ—clinations However for a long time he lived with her in an outward loving seeming respectful manner But at length satiated with her company whom from the beginning he had not truly affected he meditates a divorce and hopes by money and Cardinal Woolseys interest in the Court of Rome with speed to effect the same Woolsey who by his obsequiousnesse to the Kings pleasure in all things had from a mean condition mounted to the highest degree of favour and power that a Subject is capable of is reported to be the first that injected the scruple into the Kings head touching the unlawfullnesse of his marriage with his Brothers Wife which once in could not in haste be put out again But in the prosecution the King and Woolsey had different ends Woolsey to revenge himself of Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany and Nephew to Katherine who had been a back-Friend to Woolsey in his attempted advancement to the Popedom and by proposing a match to the King out of France he thought to ingratiate with that Crown which might be more auspitious in promoting his towring designs But the King had another though not so deep a reach which more concerned his own private satisfaction than policy or reason of State For he desired to be unyoked from his old Queen that he might make a new one of one of her maids of honour Anne of Bolen with whom he was desperately in love which the Cardinal smelling out proves cold in the businesse delays to exercise his legantine power instigates the Pope to recall the cause to himself and proceeds slowly therein all which is performed accordingly but it concludes with the ruine of Woolsey's and the Popes Authority For impatient of these procrastinations Henry discards the one and renounces the other rejects Katherine marries Anne grows weary of her of incest with her own Brother cuts off
any Prince besides this day in the Christian world For proof whereof we appea I to such of our Chronicles only as are undoubted and beyond exception Passing by therefore the Catalogue of British Kings from Brute to Cassibeline not as altogether untrue but as very uncertain passing by those likewise we find mentioned during the Romans abode here whose custom it was to permit native Kings indeed in their Conquer'd Provinces but only as instruments of Tyranny and wholsy depending on the authority of the Empire and its Prefers We shall take our rise from the Saxons rule and especially at that time when from a multiplyed Estate it grew towards an Union And yet we cannot omit one passage we find Recorded of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severn who at his death prophesied that his Race should recover the Dominion of this Isle again which was fulfilled in the dayes of King Henry the seventh and more compleatly of King James as will appear when the series and progresse of the Story doth bring us thereunto The Saxons as hath been already hinted made a sevenfold partition of the Land they had wrested from the Britains but the Kingdom of the West-Saxons whose first stone was laid by Cerdic did so increase in superstructure that in the end it overtopped all the rest Ina the fifth descendent of Cerdic was the first advancer of it to this prel emenency but he dyed without issue and the due order of the succession was somewhat disturbed by the intrusion of four or five one after another of the Blood-Royal indeed but not in such a propinquity as was Egbert Nephew but once removed from Ina of whose right and promising forwardnesse Britric the last of the Usurpers had so quick a sense that he contrived the destruction of young Egbert Which to avoid he was enforced to retire unto the Court of Offa King of Mercia Or Middle England but finding small security there in regard his Enemy had married Offas daughter he escapes thence into France whence after the Tyrants death he returns to the enjoyment of that Kingdome which had been so long and so unjustly detained from him This Prince which we the rather note because of the affinity he hath with the Condition of our Sovereign that now is had by an exiles experience attained such a measure of prudence and all other perfections that he much improved the West-Saxon Empire which was now well near arrived to its Meridian and heighth when it suffered a most terrible Ecclipse by the interposition of the Danes who made their first irruption in his predecessors dayes and though they were valiantly resisted and frequently repulsed by him and his Successors yet did they never after cease from afflicting one part or other till they had reduced the whole to their subjection in which posture they held it but a little while as hath before been intimated and shall be more amply shewed in its due and proper place Egbert being dead Aethewolph his Son of a Bishop became a Prince and though his Education and Profession had rendred him a greater Votary than Warriour yet did he give the Danes a most memorable overthrow He had four Sons who were all Kings in their turns but the glory of the rest was Alfred the youngest no lesse famous for Arts than Armes in the first his Son Edward surnamed the Elder is reported to have been inferiour but in the last did equal if not exceed his renowned Father This Edward often worsted but could not totally extirpate the Danes who rcruited with fresh supplies from their own Comntry made daily more and more encroachments upon the already-tired English Nation whose case at that time especialy required some strong prop or stay to sustain and keep up its declining and tottering estate And upon this account it was that Athelftane Edwards bastard Son being at full maturity and ripenesse was preferred before his legitimate one Edmond then in minority the reason also that some succeeding Princes were for some time laid aside but Edmond being now come to Age after his Brother Athelstanes death the noblenesse of whose life recompenced the blemish of his birth was admitted to his Fathers Throne which he did wisely and couragiously manage but was too soon deprived of it and his life together by a villanous Affassinate in his own house at a festival whilst he went about to rescue his Sewer from the violence of that barbarous hand The more than ordinary hopes conceived of this brave Prince being thus untimely nipped in the bud his no-lesse-deserving Brother Eldred was elected King notwithstanding Edmond had left two Sons behind whose tender years in those troublesome times were thought uncapable of so weighty an imployment But upon the death of Eldred the Scepter which is a thing to be taken notice of in precedent and subseqent ruptures of this nature reverted to the right Heirs viz. the Sons of Edmond And first to Edwin the eldest whose dissolute and degenerate courses made sudden room for Edgar the youngest who matched any of his Predecessors in worth and excelled them all in power for he quieted and kept under Danes Welsh Scots insomuch as he is accounted at least from the Saxons entrance the first absolute Monarch of this entire Island In a word he was happy in his life and Reign but most unhappy in his Issue for having two Sons Edward and Ethelred by several venters the Step-mother Elfred made Edward a Saint to make her own Son Etheldred a King and though now by this removal of his Brother whereunto possibly he might not be privy none had any nearer title to the Crown than himself yet did that innocent blood lye heavy upon him and his seed nor could it according to St. Dunstans predictions be expiated but by a long avengement In promoting of which divine justice the Danes were the principal instruments who had layn still under Edgar but taking advantage of Ethelreds unsettled condition who by reason of this fore-stalling the Crown was termed the unready forced him first to purchase an ill-kept peace and then to relinquish his ill-gotten Kingdom of which death only prevented Swayn his expeller to take actual possession and accumulate this to the Danish Crown But Cnute the Son of Swayn perfected his Fathers design and afforded Ethelred now returned out of Normandy whither to avoid the storm he had betook himself so sharp an entertainment that oppressed with grief for his bad successe he quitted this and made another world his second place of refuge leaving his Son Edmond Inheritor of little else but the miseries of an unfortunate house Yet did Edmond for his valour and hardinesse in War surnamed Ironside hew himself out with his Sword the moiety of a Kingdom For after the effusion of much blood on both sides and to stop the shedding of more it was agreed between the two Competitors Cnute and Edmond to try their right by single combate in proper person and the