up in his room Lambert ful of indignation and ambition awaited but his first opportunity to pul downe this painted and Counterfeit Idol which opportunity soon offered it self in a Parliament of Richards calling where the Elections having been somewhat freer than formerly much more of the old English courage was to be discovered than in any of Olivers Juntos that is they would not suffer themselves to be over-ruled by the dictates of an Imperious Army whereat the Great Officers took much offence first Remonstrating against and then compelling Richard to dismiss that comparatively honourable Assembly But Richard's own Obsequies as to his mock-dignity immediately attended this their funeral Pile and the Relicts of the long and long forgotten Parliament were conjured out of the Grave whither Oliver had sent them packing to be as it were his Administrators whom all thought so surely dead and safely buried that there had been no danger of this no less unlooked for than unwelcome Resurrection This Skeleton or Carcase of a rotten Parliament did so stink in the nostrils of all people that there was a general inclination to be rid of it but the good intentions for that purpose were in most Counties blasted before they were ripe for execution onely in Cheshire as hath been hinted a competent Party embodied themselves against whom Lambert was sent with treble their force whose puny Conquest over a few forlorn Gentlemen disheartened through the disappointment of Friends in other places was termed by one of Lambert's Parasiticall Officers in his own presence A Crowning Mercy alluding to Cromwel's expression which he used in his letter to the Speaker after Worcester business This being passed over by Lambert with a kind of an assenting silence compared with antecedent and ensuing Actions did clearely evidence that he had the like aspiring project in his pate and that he accounted not the thousand pound bestowed on him to by him a jewel by his Masters in which capacity he was resolved they should not long abide a sufficient reward for the great paines he had taken in gaining this in it self little and abating the consequences inconsiderable victory But General Monck Commander in cheif of Scotland had far other and more generous Resolutions which found a success answerable to the prudence wherewithall they were managed for making it the Ground of his proceedings to restore the now a second time ejected Rump-Parliament and afterwards to complete their imperfect number by re-admitting the long ago secluded members he doth first by Independent assistance dissipate the Anabaptisticall and fanaticall Crew and then by Presbyterian concurrence overthrow the Independents themselvs dexteriously applying the several factions in their order to one anothers ruine till at last by an inverted Method as it were he reduces us to that most happy posture we were in before the begining of this causeless and unnaturall Rebellion And now this Hydra-Parliament which had been once before legally by the King's death and twice violently by tumultuous Souldiery is now at last finally dissolved by themselves a priviledge they had long before extorted though till now unwilling to make use thereof and a better chosen in their stead who at the time appointed notwithstanding Lamberts flash in the interval which proved but as lightning before death convened and according to their duty did forthwith proclaim their undoubted Sovereign and sent Commissioners to invite him home to the Exercise of his Regal Government which hath filled our mouths with laughter and our hearts with mirth and occasioned the composing of this little Treatise the Author having no other mite whereby he might testifie his particular contentment in the midst of so publick and universal rejoycing But the Reader is to be advertised that this unfortunate Embrio conceived between His Majesty's being voted and coming in laboured far longer under the Press than under the Pen and when with much a do it had been produced it was so deformed and mis-shapen that a resolution was once taken to have stifled it in the birth and never to have permitted such a disfigured brat to have seen the light but upon second thoughts it hath liberty to wander abroad not out of any follish fancy that it will finde acceptance but out of a consideration that it will be no greater cruelty to expose it to the wide world than to suffer it to perish in a private Study And yet to make some satisfaction for former errors and delay we shall now add what hath hitherto been wholly omitted or but superficially glanced at to wit His Majesty's extraction from the Scotish and what is chiefest from the Brittish Race that of the Saxon and Norman having been the principal if not sole subject of the precedent discourse The Scots according to their best Historians came originally out of Ireland about 300 years before the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour under the conduct of Fergus the first who was also King there which if so then hath our King lineally descended from that Fergus a better Title than that of bare modern Conquest even unto that Kingdome and possessed themselves of the North-western parts of Brittany And it is remarkable that notwithstanding a Custome begun in the very Infancy of their State and continued about a thousand years that if the Son which frequently happened were under age at the Fathers death the next of the blood-Royal should be not Guardian but King not only during the minority of the Orphan but even during his own natural life whereby these Tenants pur vie had too fair or rather too foul opportunities to change their manner of hold into fee-simple yet did the true Proprietor though for a while disseised still recover his patrimonial right as may be made evident out of Buchanan himself who was yet a greater friend to an Elective than Hereditary succession Kenneth the third and Malcolm the second were the first Alterers of this suspicious Custome Ordaining that from thence-forward Children should succeed their Parents immediately and have only Governors such as the Parents in their life time should appoint to oversee them and their Kingdome until they attained their maturity whence it came to pass that for the future interruptions were much rarer the regular course of Nature more duly observed and a greater restraint put into the Practisers of aspiring and ambitious kindred Nevertheless Machbeth Grandson to Malcolme the second though but by his youngest Daughter invaded the Sovereignty and having murthered the lawful King Donald related to the said Malcolm in an equal propinquity and that by the eldest Daughter Beatrice did for a while usurp but he was expelled and slain by Macduffe Thane or Earl of Fife and Malcolm the third Son of Donald installed in his Fathers Throne This is that Malcolm who as he found refuge in the English Court under the Protection of Edward the Confessor when he was forced to withdraw himself from Macbeth's persecution so did he afford the like succour in the Scotish to the
now possessed of the Throne in processe of time adding the Lordship of Ireland to it and that upon a treble account First by vertue of the late Treaty with King Stephen Secondly by title of conquest as being great Grand-Child to William the Norman but Thirdly and chiefly by the equity of 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 Henry 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 nad 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 forsake 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 that they are as ready now to revolt from him 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 serene 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 continued 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 Cnuntry 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
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 impeaches her of incest with her own Brother cuts off her head in whose room the very next day succeeds Jane Seymour who dies in Child-birth And so he continues shifting and putting away or to death his Wives as well as other Subjects till his own appointed time came a little before which it is recorded that in great Agony he should say unto Arch-Bishop Cranmer Is there any mercy for him who never spared man in his wrath nor woman in his lust In his life he little regarded but rather endeavoured to defeat by Parliament the titles of his Daughters Mary by Katherine of Spain and Elizabeth by Anne of Bolen with both whose Mothers he had been grievously displeased and seemed more inclinable to the off-spring of his youngest Sister Mary Dowager of France by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk but at his death by his last Will and Testament he constituted his Son Edward by Jane Seymour his next immediate heir and then in case they dyed issulesse the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to succeed in their order Henry the eighth being dead Edward the 6th of that name his Son is at nine years of age proclaimed King and Edward Duke of Sommerset by the Mothers side ordained his Protector whose candid nature exposed him to the cunning wiles of Dudley Duke of Northumberland which at last brought Sommerset his Brother Thomas Marquesse of Hertford Admiral of England and even the King himself to their untimely ends The Fox Northumberland observing the difference between the Protector and the Admiral begun by the womanish emulation of their Wives doth underhand so foment it that the Admiral is brought to the block and the Protector not long after follows ' which renders the Pupill King more obnoxious to Northumberlands ambitious practices now that his two faithfull Uncles who should have supported him are removed out of the way Northumberland taking advantage of the Kings weaknesse of mind and body whereunto he is shrewdly suspected to have contributed advises him to make a Will wherein the King declaring that he was past his minority thoughot above sixteen years of age and that it appertained to him to dispose of the Kingdome as he pleased doth disinherit his Sisters Mary and Elizabeth as Persons of whose legitimation there was a question as likewise the issue of his eldest Aunt Sister Margaret married to the Scotish King as foreiners and aliens bequeathing the Crown to his Cousen Jane Grand-daughter to the Dutchesse of Suffolk the youngest Sister of his Father King Henry the eighth Guilford Duke Dudleys Son was husband to this Lady Jane who upon the death of Edward was proclaimed Queen but Mary the eldest Daughter of King Henry by the assistance of the Norfolk and Suffolk Gentry recovered that which both by birth and her Fathers appointment was her undoubted though for a small time detained right Notwithstanding Mary by the Protestants aid attained the Crown yet her Education in the contrary profession and the memory that for her Mothers sake it suffered its first detriment obliged her to recall the Catholick Religion that had been banished in her Predecessors days keeping as one wittily observes the Kingdom by Pater noster which she had gained by Our Father which art in Heaven Her zeal and over-ardent desire to extinguish that which she thought Heresy kindled many fires in this land for which she hears ill among the vulgar to this day and bears the brand of tyranny though of her self she was of a mild and merciful disposition Among other passages her severity to her Sister Elizabeth is much taxed of whose sincere devotion though outwardly conformable to the Romish Church the Queen much doubted and fearing a relapse of things after her own death could have been content that her Sister Elizabeth though the youngest had had the Precedency therein But Philip King of Spain Queen Maryes husband had other thoughts of and intentions towards Elizabeth whom he preserved from her Sisters violence and designed for his second we would say third wife for he was a Widdower when he married Mary by whom he now begins to despair of issue and by reason of her Dropsy perceives she was in no wise immortal here Queen Elizabeth at her first entrance makes shew as if she would tread in her Sister Maryes steps whereby she so charmed the Catholick Clergy and Nobility that they created her no disturbance And she did further so temporize with King Philip that he was a great favourer of her admission hoping shortly to be a Copartner with her both in Bed and Kingdom But the fancy which Philip though no Babe had builded in his brain quickly appears to be but an aerial Castle for Elizabeth soon undeceives him and other Romanists who had promised themselves other matters by declining Marriage disowing the Popes Jurisdiction and reducing Ecclesiastical Affairs to the same state and condition her Father and Brother had left them in The aversenesse of this Queen to Matrimonial Bondage as she accounted it gave occasion to that great and by her alwayes disliked dispute about the Succession That it belonged of right to Mary Queen of Scots Daughter of James the fifth Son of Margaret eldest Daughter to King Henry the seventh none could reasonably deny but Mary say the State Politicians of those times will ptove another Mary and our Religion will be depressed if she be advanced to the English Throne Her own Subjects have expelled her upon that account and shall we accept of her for our Princesse whom we have so much disobliged by detaining so long a Prisoner For this unfortunate Queen having been educated in France did after the decease of her first Husband the Dolphin return into Scotland of whose fashions by reason of her forein breeding being somewhat ignorant she could not consequently but be guilty of some miscarriages which her Enemies so aggravate that they stir up the people to a sedition seize upon her Person force her to resign to her Son James by Henry Lord Darly Son of the Duke of Lenox not full eighteen Months old of whom Earl Murray her Bastard Brother is made Regent who was the beginning and continuer of all her troubles Mary late and by right still Queen of Scots after this extorted and therefore invalid resignation fearing further attempts against her life escapes out of the loathsom Gaol where she was secured and betakes her self into England for succour sending news to her Cozen Queen Elizabeth imploring not only present protection but also such convenient aides as might restore her to her Kingdom of which she had been forceably deprived by her Mutinous and Rebellious Subjects Elizabeth at first gives good words and sends her large attendance
of the aforesaid Robert the second c. but that it is demurred by some First Whether Nest Walter 's Mother were an Heir or no 2. Admitting that she were whether her Ancestor Cadelh were the eldest Son of Rodri Mawr who being King of all Wales was the first that did make a partition thereof George Owen Harry in a Book entituled The Genealogy of the high and mighty Monarch James by the Grace of God King of Great Brittaine c. Printed 1604. favours Cadelh with the first Colume among Rodri's Sons but D. Powel in his Chronicle written before and taken out of most Authentick Records is peremptory in vindicating the Birth-right to Anarawd Prince of Northwales and maintaining that though his two Brothers Cadelh Prince of Southwales and Mervyn Prince of Powis were sharers in the Inheritance yet did they hold from him and his Children or ought so to have done as from Lords Paramount and therefore we must only adhere to Anarawd's line and wave his Majesties descent from all other Princes of Wales which were either but Usurpers or at the best but of the youngest House and Vassals and Homagers to the Princes of Northwales In doing this we shall begin before the Fraction even with Cadwallader himself and so by Anarawd come down to his Majesty not meddling with Intruders upon any other score than as we have hitherto done to wit to shew that sometimes such there were by God's permission but never intended for perpetuity the succession always in the end these Imposters notwithstanding revolving to the genuine and legittimate Heir Cadwallader then surnamed Bendigaid or the Blessed having lost the greatest part of his Kingdome to the Saxons did by the perswasion of his Cousin Alan King of Little Brittain betake himself to Rome and there lived and died in God's Service bequeathing to his Posterity the fore-recited Prophecy That they should one day be Masters of his whole Isle again But Ivor the Son of Alan governed next after him his own Son Edwall Ywrch that is the Roe being unable or unwilling to divert the Helm in such turbulent and tempestuous weather Yet did his Son Rodri-Moel-Wynog undertake it and left it to his Son Conan Tyndaithwy whose Daughter Esylht was his Heir but she knowing how unfit feminine shoulders were to sustain so great a burthen in those Martial times took to Husband a Noble Prince Mervyn Vrych by whom she had Rodri Mawr or Roderick the Great who more consulting private affection than Reason of State made that unpollitick Division of Wales which being united was scarceable to defend it self against the Invasions of the Saxons their implacable and continually encroaching Neighbors Now though much of the Demean were defalcated from Anarawd by his Father Rodri yet did the Fee and Chiefeship remain to him and his which his Brother Cadelh did sparingly enough acknowledge and his Son Howel less for he not onely withdraws his Allegiance for Southwales but after the death of Edwal Voel the son of Anarawd seizes upon Northwales it self yet is he commonly stiled Dha or the Good not certainly for such undue acquisitions and unjust detentions but for the excellent Laws he made a thing not unusually practised by those who have less of equity on their side to warrant their ill-gotten and unlawfull Possessions Howel Dha being dead the Principality returned to Jevaf and Jago the Sons indeed but yet but the yongest Sons of Edwal Voel no respect being had by them of their elder Brother Meyric whose Son Edwall nevertheless obtained it having waited the leisure not only of Howel and Cadwalhan the sons of Jago but also of Meredith ap Owen ap Howel Dha who followed his Grandfathers steps and committed a second Rape upon Northwales herein the more excusable that he took it from one who had himself no other plea than that of force and extortion thereunto But Edwall ap Meyric having after the exercise of some patience gained what his Father was injuriously deprived of left both his bad and good Fortune to his son Jago or James viz. to the defrauded for a while by an Abator or two Aedan ap Blegared and Llewelyn ap Sitsylht but afterwards to recover his Paternal Right which yet he doth not long enjoy but loses it with his life to Gryffith ap Lewelyn ap Sitsylht and his Son Conan to preserve his life is forced to flee into Ireland where marrying with Ranulht Daughter of Alfred King of Dublyn he had by her a Son called Gryffith who will be found another Medium besides that of Fergus whereby more of the Irish Bloud-Royal is transmitted into His Majesty's most Princely veins And if as doubtless it will be it be objected that neither of these foundations are of sufficient strength to build a claim to a Kingdome upon it not appearing that Fergus or Alfred were Kings of Ireland entirely but supposed to be of parcels only or that Ranulht Alfred's Daughter was also his Heir Our Answer is that we do not lay the whole stress of our King's Interest to that Kingdom upon such weak and infirm undersetters but affirm that the most considerable part of the Inhabitants as English Scotch Welsh are undoubtedly His Majesty's natural Leiges and as for the original Natives whom Conquest hath made Subjects this however seemingly imperfect Title joyned with that obliges them to continue so especially seeing it is such a Conquest as hath been confirmed by more Centuries of years than those within the compass of which Jephtha demanded of the Ammonitish King why he had not all that while recovered his now too late challenged Land And as concerning the Title it self as bad as it is a better it is presumed cannot be produced by any pretender whatsoever But to return from our digression Ireland lying somewhat out of our Road which is principally confined to Great Brittain Prince Gryffith ap Conan ap Jago with the assistance of the Irish reprieves that Countrey which properly belonged to him out of the Talons of Trahern ap Caradoc the last of the Usurpers there having been since Jago's death no fewer than four to wit Gryffith ap Llewelyn ap Sitsylht he that ejected and killed Jago Blethyn ap Convyn his Brother Rywalhan and this Trahern whom Gryffith the lawfull Heir slew at the battel of Carnarvan and after a long and prosperous Reign had this felicity superadded to his former that his eldest Son Owen was his Successor which happened not to Owen himself but his first-born Jorwerth Drwyndwn upon a pitiful Cavil that he had a deformity in his nose which his surname doth import was laid aside and his younger Brother David preferred before him Yet did that most noble and valiant Prince Llewelyn the Son of Jorwerth Drwyndwn dispossess his usurping Uncle David and not content to have repaired late losses proceeds to resume former alienations by reannexing to his Territories those several fragments of Wales which the weakness or improvidence of his Predecessors had suffered to be pared away from their already too slender and scanty Dominions And here two waies offering themselves to bring us to our journeys end we are at a stand which to elect that of Mortimer's or of Owen Tudyr's Race We have indeed engaged in the beginning of the progress to prosecute that of Sir Owen Tudyr's but an unexpected rub hath fallen out in our passage which we did not fore-see when we made that promise viz. that Gryffith ap Llewelyn the Father of Elewelyn ap Gryffith the last Prince of Wales the Father of Catherine the Mother of Eleanor the Mother of Margaret the Mother of Meredith the Father of Sir Owen was but the base Son of Llewelyn ap Jorwerth ap Drwyndwn and therefore his attempt to drive out his lawfully begotten Brother David was altogether lawless as likewise was his son Llewelyn's keeping out Gulladys Dhy or the Black the Sister and Heir of David because she was married to an English man namely Sir Ralph Mortimer Lord of Wigmor by whom he had Roger Mortimer the Father of Edmond the Father of Roger the Father of Edmond the Father of Roger the Father of that Edmond who married Philippa the Daughter and sole Heir of Lionell Duke of Clarence third Son of King Edward the third and by her had that Roger from whom to make another deduction to His Majesty would be but an idle repetition of what hath been already declared and is obvious to every one that hath but heard of the great Controversie between the Yorkish and Lancastrian House But be it how it will whether Mortimer or Tudyr's Right be the firmest certain it is that both these different lines do centre in the same point wherein the Roses met and from thence like Rivolets that have formerly been divided do unitedly flow unto His Majesty so that he need not as the French do sodder up a broken Title with a devised Law salique repugnant to the Law of Nature or use so poor an evasion as the King of Spain is said to do when the Duke of Medina Sidonia once in a generation tenders a Customary Petition to have the Kingdom delivered up unto him as his due the Answer is that the place is already full but may dare the whole World to shew a more unexceptionable claim than his unto the Imperial Crown he now wears And long may it flowrish upon his head and the head of his Posterity even unto the end of the World And let all the People say Amen FINIS
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 chiefest 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 claiming and almost obteining the Crown of France The occasion and State of the difference was briefly thus Phillip de Valois the then King of France had with somewhat too much rigour demanded and with too much Imperiousnesse received the Homage of our Edward for some pieces which he held in that Kingdom But Edwards high Stomach could not digest the indignity as he conceived of this humiliation considering but somewhat of the latest that he had a better right not to fragments only but to the whole than the person to whom he had so lowly abased himself For Edward was the Son of Isabell Daughter of Philiple bell or the fair formerly King of France whereas Philip the present injoyer was Son to Charls of Valois but younger Brother to the foresaid le bell only there is one frivolous impediment in Edwards way to wit the French Law Salique which debars Females their Descendents from the Crown but this entail Edward is resolved to cut off with a good Sword And to this purpose he enters France with a strong Army and gave the French two such famous overthrows at Cressy and Poictiers that they put that State into a dangerous Consumption which without all doubt would have turned to an Hectick Feavour had the War been prosecuted with the same heat wherewithall it was begun A great allay to these prosperous proceedings was the untimely death of Edwards eldest Son Edward Prince of Wales but better known by the name of the Black Prince to whose prowesse the former Atchievments in France were chiefly owing who having made an inroad into Spain to rein throne their K. Peter brought thence Victory and a mortal Disease which quickly made an end of him leaving behind him a young Son Richard of Bourdeux to whom Edward the Grand-Father yet living confirmed the succession by Parliament lest his aspiring Son Iohn Duke of Lancaster Richards Uncle should as one observs have supplanted him as King Iohn did his Nephew Arthur in the like case But what Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster failed in his Son Henry of Bullingbrook Duke of Hereford effected By deposing his Cosen German Richard the second who is rather noted to be an unfortunate than vitious a seduced than of himself Tyrannical Prince It will be no deviation from the matter but rather requisite in regard of the light it yields to the clearer and more distinct knowledge of the following confusions to speak somewhat more particularly of the manner of this Henryes compassing the Crown the claim he laid to it and the course he took to settle the succession in his own house this being the Fountain from which flowed the most bloody and most tedious Civil Wars that ever England endured this being the great ball of contention between the White Rose and the Red between the Yorkish and Lancastrian Family Henry the fourth of that name among the English Kings was as hath been noted before the Son of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster fourth Son of King Edward the third His Father was suspected but he is detected of higher thoughts than it became a Subject he being then but Duke of Hereford to entertain For justification of himself Hereford appeals to his Sword and offers combat to Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk his Accuser who couragiously accepts thereof But as they were about to joyn issue King Richard interposes and banished them both out of the Realm Norfolk for ever Hereford for ten years four of which the King struck off as of special favour when he came to take his solemne leave of him But Hereford himself doth much more abbreviate the time and doth long anticipates even the last indulged date of his return For he re-lands the very same day twelve-month he departed and found many Abettors of his quarrel which at first he only pretends to be the recovery of his Dukedom especially the Earl of Northumberland whom King Richard at his late going into Ireland where now he is because the Earl demurred to accompany him in the Voyage had caused to be proclaimed Traytor and so made him that which otherwise perhaps he would not have been But Henries Power more and more increasing and Richards dayly decreasing till at length it languished into nothing Henry discovers that it was somwhat more than a bare Dukedom that he aimed at A Parliament is called in which King Richard as is pretended not only voluntarily surrenders but is also violently degraded and Henry both by his and the peoples appointment installed in his Room who upon the day of his Coronation caused it to be proclaimed that he claimed the Crown of England First by right of Conquest Secondly because King Richard had resigned his Estate and designed him his Successor Lastly because he was of the Blood Royal and next Heir Male to King Richard Heir Male rather Haeres Malus sayes Edmond Mortimer Earl of March to some of his Familiars as knowing the lawful right to be inherent in himself though for the present it must give place to a stronger possessor For this Edmond was the Son of Roger the Son of Edmond Earl of March by Philip Daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence who was elder Brother to Iohn Duke of Lancaster King Henryes Father Hereof Henry is very apprehensive and having dispatched Richard to Heaven before his time wished Mortimer there also and in order to his hastening thither refused to procure his liberty and enlargement but suffered him to continue in a loathsome Dungeon though he had been taken Prisoner in defence of his Country against Owen ap Glendower the famous Revolter of Wales who therefore the more hardly used him that thereby his Kinsman King Henry might be moved to redeem him but therefore King Henry would not redeem him because he well hoped by this hard usage to be rid of him who was like to prove the greatest prejudice to his crazy and counterfeit Title For it was obvious to all however for fear dissembled by most that the issue of Lionel Elder Son of King Edward the third ought to have preceded Iohn of Gaunts the younger Son of the foresaid Edward And hence it was that Henry doth not solely rely upon his Fathers right which he knew to be infirm as long as any of Lionels off-spring remained but joyns to it that of his Mother Blanch Daughter and Heir to Henry Duke of Lancaster Son of Edmond nick-named Crook-back eldest Son as was alleged of King Henry the third but by reason of his deformity put by the succession which was for that cause conferred upon King Edward the first though but the younger Brother But the truth is